Interview: The Importance of Branding For Small Businesses Posted on January 3, 2017June 20, 2018 by Guest Author Dorie Clark is the author of Stand Out and Reinventing You, and is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. We had a chance to speak with Dorie about branding, content creation, and reinventing businesses (and people). Tell us a bit about your background. Why are you so passionate about branding? I started my marketing strategy consulting business 10 years ago, and I quickly realized that if I were going to be successful, I’d need to differentiate myself in the marketplace. That’s increasingly becoming a challenge as the number of social channels proliferates and we’re all inundated with information. In learning how to build my brand and set myself apart, I realized this was a common challenge many entrepreneurs and executives face these days. I believe it’s important for the best ideas to be heard, so I want to help talented professionals get recognized for their true talents. If someone were to say to you, “Branding is important for large companies; but since I’m a small business owner, I don’t need to worry about it very much,” how would you respond? We live in an increasingly competitive marketplace. People aren’t just choosing their graphic designer or marketing consultant from down the street; they’re often doing business with people around the world. You have to provide your customers with a compelling reason to choose to do business with you specifically. Otherwise, it’s a race to the bottom and your business likely won’t last. Since change can be scary for some people, do you have any advice for someone working in a traditional occupation who is thinking about reinventing himself/herself as a small business owner or solopreneur? Don’t feel like you have to leap suddenly and quit your job. In fact, that’s usually a bad idea. As I describe in my book Reinventing You, it’s possible to work to develop your new project or side business for months or even years while you’re working your full-time job. This allows you to be strategic, develop the skills and connections you need, and feel confident you can replace your income once you decide to pursue your new venture full time. For someone who is trying to reinvent himself/herself, can you name one effective marketing tactic or technique that you feel is significantly underutilized? I’m very bullish on content marketing – i.e., establishing your expertise by creating content such as writing blogs or launching a podcast. Many people dabble in this, but few do it well and use it to its full potential. If you’re working to reinvent yourself, content creation serves two important purposes. First, it shows people you’re serious about your new field and demonstrates your knowledge of it. Second, if you interview people you’d like to meet or connect with, it can serve as an important networking tool. If a company or small business is looking to reinvent itself, what are some of the initial steps that it should take? I’m a big fan of doing small tests, evaluating the results, and then iterating. You may not have the vision of where you want to go entirely right at the beginning, and that’s OK. Instead, try a small, low-risk pilot and see how your customers respond. If they like it, double down; and if not, try something else. This methodology is discussed to great effect in The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Little Bets by Peter Sims, and Getting to Plan B by Randy Komisar and John Mullins. Since your book Stand Out touches on the importance of becoming a “thought leader,” could you offer any suggestions on how to become a thought leader in a particular field or area? Becoming a thought leader involves three key activities. The first, as I mentioned before, is content creation, because you can’t be recognized for your ideas if no one knows what they are. The second is developing social proof (i.e., associations that give you credibility, such as being the head of your professional association or writing for high profile publications) so people will trust what you say. And the third is building a strong network, so you have a group of people who can help you refine and improve your ideas and who will be able to serve as ambassadors to help spread them when the time is right. For a small business, is there value in obtaining an automated marketing or sales platform in order to allocate more time and energy toward branding? Investing in an automated sales or marketing platform may be a good idea for your business. But I’d caution business owners to learn how the process works manually first (in other words, do it yourself initially). It’s easy to invest in software and assume it will solve all your problems, but you need to understand the mechanism at a deep level first so you’ll be able to evaluate its effectiveness and make intelligent decisions about how to deploy it. What do you foresee for the future of branding, especially for small businesses and solopreneurs? There’s no turning back from information overload; it will likely only continue to get worse. But high-quality content will always have a place. If you can create amazing content that others truly want, that will differentiate you and your company from everyone else that is just adding to the “noise” out there. Also, it’s never too early to focus on building your email list, which remains the most important and direct way to communicate with your customers.
Four Content Marketing Predictions for 2017 Posted on January 2, 2017July 12, 2018 by Allie Wolff There’s been a paradigm shift in the past several years away from noisy, distracting ads. A shift towards content. Customers want value and engagement before they give you their trust. Likewise, Google has made it clear that content is pretty much the only thing that matters when it comes to SEO. This means, whether it’s organic or direct traffic, content plays a key role in driving prospects and customers to your website. Smart marketers know that. In fact, we’ll see a huge increase in content marketing budgets and content production next year. Content dominates but like any good marketing tactic, it also has to evolve. So, let’s have a look at what we can expect in the coming year. #1. Niche Topics and Personalization In email marketing, personalization is key. However, it hasn’t been applied to content marketing on a large scale yet. With data about your audience being so easily accessible today, content marketing will trend towards a more customized approach. According to a recent study by Forrester, senior marketing executives agree that content creation must be personalized and contextually relevant in order to truly succeed with consumers. In fact, 67% said they used behavior-based data to develop content-based insights and emotions. Content marketing is a pretty crowded space and will be even more so in 2017. Content personalization, as well as niche, highly targeted topics is a way to stand out in the crowd. #2. Interactive Content There’s so much noise out there and, as a result, our brains are rewired for constant distraction. That poses a huge challenge for content marketing. A recent study by TrackMaven found that, while the output of content per brand increased 35% per channel across 2015, content engagement decreased by 17%. That’s very bad news. Content that’s not engaging is basically useless. We’ve already seen the rise of interactive chat bots last year and this rise in interactive content is going to continue next year. There will be more quizzes, calculators, polls, flowcharts, and so on. Our friends at The Starr Conspiracy have absolutely mastered the art of interactive content with their Lightpaper. #3. Better Written Content There will be more content produced next year, both in the B2B and B2C markets. While there are some hot types of content that will define 2017, such as interactive content and video, writing is still dominant. In fact, content creation is the number one skill that marketing departments currently lack, according to a joint survey by Curata and LinkedIn. With so much content out there, the sad reality is that most of it is pretty mediocre, if not outright useless. Companies that stand out are the ones that deliver way more value through their content than anyone else. There are a plethora of sites such as WriterAccess and Upwork that source freelance writers for all types of niche writing. Contracting a professional rather than always trying to tackle content in-house may lead to better quality in greater quantities for your small business. Next year, we’ll (hopefully) see better writing that’s captivating, value rich, easy to read, and highly engaging. There will be a big shift towards trends like 10x content and episodic content too. #4. More Video Video growth is skyrocketing. Snapchat has reached 100 million daily active users, Periscope has reached over 200 million broadcasts, and Facebook’s CEO just made a decision to put live video first. Facebook-owned Instagram, an app with 300 million Daily Active Users, recently introduced ‘Stories,’ and has now launched a live video feature. Video has been growing quickly for a while. There’s a good reason; it delivers results such as reach, engagement, and sales. This year, marketers will invest more time and money into creating video content; not only across social media like Snapchat and Instagram, but webinars and live video events too.
6 Ways to Recharge Your Leadership Skills for the New Year Posted on December 30, 2016September 8, 2022 by Erin Posey To make the most of whatever changes are in store for 2017, small business owners will need to bring their “A game” as leaders. Here are six ways to sharpen your leadership skills before the new year. Find innovative ways of thinking. Even the world’s most successful businesses have to start somewhere – like in a garage. Now is a great time to study what makes great businesses tick. Learn the benefits of going lean in Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup. Or peek into how a radical approach to customer service launched a company’s success and check out Zappo’s culture book. Wondering what happens when a company takes transparency to heart and makes everyone’s salaries public knowledge? Catch up on Buffer’s Open blog. Get social. If you spend all of your working hours at your own business, it’s easy to get into a leadership rut. Freshen your perspective by making time to see other entrepreneurs at least once a month. Entrepreneurs’ Organization (or EO) is a perfect example of an organization that brings business owners together to support and advise one another. Consider joining a peer group for entrepreneurs where you can learn from others who are running businesses, too. Here is a list of groups active in the U.S. and Canada. There are many excellent local organizations as well. Take a new class. If it’s been awhile since you set foot in a classroom—whether in-person or virtually—consider going back for a refresher. Sign up for a management class on a topic that will help you add to your leadership arsenal. The world of business is changing faster than ever thanks to the digital revolution, and many universities run entrepreneurship programs that keep students on the cutting edge. If your business offers a tuition reimbursement program—or sets one up—you may be able to cover part of the cost as a business expense without paying personal taxes on the reimbursement you received. Even very small businesses have the ability to offer tuition reimbursement. Explore your passions. Running a small business can be so all-consuming that it’s easy to let your other interests fall by the wayside. If there are any dormant hobbies, sports or passions you’ve been yearning to get back into—or new ones you’d love to explore—give yourself permission. If you need some extra motivation or prefer diving into new activities in a group setting, check out sites like Dabble that allow you to try new things at a low cost. Whether you love running, modern art, playing piano or woodworking, allowing yourself to dive into that interest for an hour or two every week, or more, will help you see life through a different lens than that of the business world and will help you view leadership challenges at your business through a fresh perspective. Plus, taking the time to relax will make you calmer—giving you some mental and emotional distance from any issues in your business that are keeping you up at night. Find a coach. The beauty of running your own business is you aren’t accountable to a boss—but that lack of accountability can sometimes be a trap. If you feel you need a little push to achieve more in your business, consider hiring a business coach to help you advance. Many coaches will allow you to try a few sessions before you sign up for a longer-term program. To find a good coach, ask other business owners you respect for recommendations on mentors in your area. Some coaches also offer “virtual” mentoring by video conference, so if you can’t find someone qualified in your community, don’t be afraid to look outside of it as well. The best coach may be an entrepreneur you admire who does not see himself or herself as a coach but may be willing to meet with you for a minimal consulting fee or for free. Many coaches will help you set goals and, if you are struggling with habits like not delegating enough, can offer you fresh techniques to break out of them. Even the CEOs of some of the biggest multinational companies in the world use coaches, so why not follow their lead—and take your leadership to a new level? Unlock classic advice. There’s a reason books like Good to Great by Jim Collins and Daniel Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People have become classics. They have helped countless business leaders to grow and maximize their employees’ potential. If you haven’t read these favorites or others leadership books you’ve heard about, now is a great time to check them out of your local library or order a copy online. Don’t have time to read? Order the audiobook versions and expand your knowledge while you exercise or drive in your car. If you like what you are reading, order copies for your leadership team. Your job as a leader will be easier if everyone on your team is in sync.
5 Email Marketing Trends for 2017 Posted on December 29, 2016July 12, 2018 by Jessica Lunk 2016 has been the year of marketing fads. From Vine (RIP) to Snapchat and everything in between, businesses have done everything possible to get the attention of consumers. Some platforms have worked in driving actual leads, but most have not. So what happened to our old friend email while the young whippersnappers got all of the marketing love? It got bigger, better, more efficient, and more profitable. Email generates an ROI like no other digital channel. From its humble beginnings as a strictly promotional tool, it has become a driving force behind content marketing – the hottest topic in the sales and marketing world today. Not only is email the most efficient digital channel, it’s becoming a primary source of customer data and the best way to reach customers on mobile. In fact, for quite a while, reading email has been the number one activity on smartphones. As a marketing channel, it’s growing and evolving. So let’s take a look at what’s likely to happen in the email marketing industry next year. Trend #1: Personalization Personalization is a powerful tool. With vast amounts of customer data easily accessible today, it’s something every marketer should use in his or her campaigns. Yet, according to DMA’s recent Email Tracking Report, 63% of people agree there’s a lack of valuable, personalized emails in their inbox. Valuable is the key word here. Make sure you’re not blasting out cheesy, personalized emails. Personalization goes beyond the subject line. Recipients that receive emails that are personalized and relevant to them are going to be more engaged. If you’re sending the right email to the right potential customer, your engagement metrics will skyrocket. Reaching new levels of relevance (and engagement) will be the only way to compete in a growing marketplace in 2017. Trend #2: Going Mobile-Centric As we mentioned yesterday, there will be a quick and important shift from being mobile-friendly to being mobile-focused. Mobile now represents 65% of digital media time, while the desktop is becoming a “secondary touch point,” according to a new study by comScore. In fact, mobile users already outnumbered desktop users several years ago. If you’re banking on the fact that users are using a desktop or wide-screen tablet when opening your emails, you could be making a huge mistake. In the age of the smartphone, it’s important that your emails are effective on mobile first and foremost. Trend #3: Interactive Content As marketers are looking for more engagement, email content will evolve beyond simple newsletters. They’re also looking to stand out and interactive content will deliver this. According to a recent survey by Demand Metric, data has shown that interactive content marketing helps businesses to get distinction in the market, especially among immediate competitors. Likewise, marketers are finding out that simply by adding a video to their content, their click rates can get a boost of up to 300%. Adding dynamic content can increase click-to-open rates by 73%. You don’t need to blow your marketing budget on feature films in every email. Start small. Consider a quick iPhone-made video message or GIF in your next email. Test engagement with short videos and interactive elements before taking the plunge on a full-blown video strategy. Trend #4: Shorter Email Copy As you’re probably aware, the average office worker gets more than 120 emails per day. We’re all constantly bombarded by ads, messages, notifications, and click-bait subject lines. Naturally, our attention spans are much shorter today. Considering the quick rise in popularity of mobile email, attention-grabbing subject lines and straightforward email content with a clear and compelling call-to-action will be more important than ever in 2017. Source: Boomerang App In fact, according to data from Boomerang, the ideal email length is between 50-125 words. That generated response rates of above 50%. Short (very short) subject lines of between 3-4 words also proved to deliver the highest response rate of 48%. Trend #5: User-Generated Content According to a study by Nielsen, 84% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers compared to 15% who trust brand recommendations. With the growing popularity of Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms, marketers now have unprecedented access to consumers’ real-life product experiences. Smart email marketers will spend more time integrating user-generated content, such as photos of customers wearing and enjoying their products in email campaigns or customer reviews, in order to grab the attention of prospects and subscribers. While email has remained the most effective digital channel through all of 2016’s new marketing trends, it’s important that you continue to optimize your email marketing strategies to remain competitive in the overcrowded inbox.
2017 Marketing Trends for Small Business Posted on December 28, 2016June 20, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick If you’re a small business owner, you’re in luck. Not only is your business about to get a fresh start with the new year right around the corner, but right now is probably the best time for you to be a small business owner. With the rise in online marketing tactics such as SEO, social and video, there’s never been more avenues to promote your business. And marketing tech tools like advanced customer analytics tracking and marketing automation software, previously only available to large, wealthy corporations, are now easily accessible and extremely affordable for pretty much anyone willing to take advantage of them. To help you stay ahead of the curve and max out the opportunities available to you, here are the top marketing trends in 2017 to keep an eye on. Trend #1: More, Relevant Content With its most recent updates, Google has made it very clear that unique, quality content is the only thing that matters when it comes to SEO. Over the past year more and more small businesses embraced this. In fact, 62% of B2B marketers and 63% of B2C marketers were more successful with their content marketing efforts than the year before, according to a study by CMI and MarketingProfs. Relevancy is key to getting your content read and shared. Same goes for ads. Over 25% of desktop users now use ad blocking tools to block unwanted, irrelevant ads. The exciting part is that content marketing works. A study by CMI shows that while content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, it generates more than three times as many leads. Clearly, content marketing is here to stay…in 2017 and beyond. Trend #2: Going Mobile If your website hasn’t been mobile-optimized, you’re already falling behind. Make sure that your site and offerings are easily available to online customers. Once you’ve accomplished that, a mobile app might be a valuable addition to your small business presence. With 4.8 billion people using mobile phone, mobile payments are expected to reach transaction volumes of $503 billion by 2020. (Image: London Underground) Take mobile payments for example. More and more consumers are feeling comfortable with paying for products and services via their mobile device and even demand the service. The same goes for apps. According to a recent poll by Gallup, 75% of Americans check their mobile devices at least once per hour and 90% of that time is spent using apps. With all of this in mind, it’s just about the right time for small businesses to shift their marketing strategy from mobile-friendly to mobile-centric. Trend #3: Influencer Marketing Word-of-mouth generates double the amount of sales than paid advertising, according to a study by McKinsey & Company. Small businesses can boost referrals by using influencer marketing strategies. With the rise in popularity of influencer Instagram and Snapchat accounts, small businesses can more easily connect with popular social media personalities within their niche without stretching their bank accounts thin. This may be something as simple as getting a popular blogger to feature your brand in a styled photo shoot or inviting a fitness personality to lead a workout in your gym or promote a service your company offers. Trend #4: Live Video and Video Marketing We’ve seen huge growth in video content over the last few years, but in 2017 it’s likely to explode. From live video streaming to the rising popularity of apps like Snapchat among marketers, the landscape is changing dramatically. The great thing about it? It’s easily accessible to anyone — from small business to big corporations — and marketing platforms like Facebook realize that. Source: Statista According to Mark Zuckerberg, live videos on Facebook have seen a 4x increase in use since May 2016. For that reason, he’s determined to put live video first. Likewise, there are some big changes taking place on Facebook-owned Instagram. First there was an introduction of ‘Stories,’ a Snapchat-like feature, and just a month ago, there’s been an addition of a live video feature, which represents the huge shift toward not just video but live video. Let’s not forget that Snapchat has now reached over 100 million daily active users and Periscope over 200 million broadcasts in total. Trend #5: Email Marketing I know what you’re thinking, email marketing has been around for awhile, is it really a hot trend for 2017? Of course it is. Not only does it remain the best performing marketing channel in terms of ROI, the results it delivers are actually on the rise. The reason? Small businesses have become more personalized with their email strategy. Traditional batch and blast tactics will continue to be replaced for more personalized, finely targeted communications that drive higher open, engagement and conversion rates. Which means tools like stand alone newsletter systems will be traded in for marketing automation tools that send the right message at exactly the right time. At the same time, solid marketing tactics such as building an email marketing list, becomes increasingly important. Today, the market realities change faster than ever before. As Derek Halpern of Social Triggers points out: “If you’re not building an email list, you’re an idiot. I know that’s harsh, but when companies can destroy your entire business in one fell swoop, you should rely on things you can control.” -Derek Halpern, CEO of Social Triggers It is an exciting time to own a small business with all of the changes in the marketing landscape. Solid, tried and true marketing strategies are becoming more personalized and relevant. Influencer marketing is now within reach for every small business and video is poised to propel your brand to a new level, making 2017 your best year yet.
Is Your Content Marketing On The Right Track? Posted on December 27, 2016July 12, 2018 by Allie Wolff If you put a lot of time and energy into your content marketing and aren’t sure it’s working—or worse, you’re pretty sure it’s not working—you’re not alone. The 2016 Content Marketing Institute’s survey found that only 6% of B2B marketers think their organization’s use of content marketing is effective and only 32% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. These challenges may be especially true for small businesses that may be creating and pushing out content, but don’t have the resources to put together a cohesive content marketing strategy. Is your content marketing setup for success? Let’s find out. 1. Do you have a documented content marketing strategy that is directly tied to your business’ values, mission and goals? If your content marketing plan isn’t clearly outlined, written down and documented, it’s not a legitimate strategy. If it is documented, it also needs to correspond with your business’ mission or it’s unlikely to succeed. Without a clear strategy your content marketing team—even if it’s one person—might be pushing out content that isn’t necessarily reaching your target audience in a meaningful way. The goal is to connect with potential customers, so make sure that your communication strategy is aligned with the overall goals of the business. Pro Tip: Have you nailed down your company’s mission? Learn how to create a killer mission and use it to grow your company. 2. Is your message consistent and seamless across all written content? Content marketing doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s a part of your business’ overall messaging and communications, from blog posts to brochures to descriptions of services to the business logo. You want your customer to have a singular brand experience, which means that in the same way your logo reflects your brand, the content reflects the brand. The goal is to have a message that is clearly articulated regardless of how a consumers interact with your brand. Pro Tip: Check out our helpful tips for branding your small business. 3. Do you know who you’re talking to? It’s really important—crucial—to know exactly to whom your content is speaking. If you feel you have a general idea of your target audience, that’s not enough. You need to know a lot about them, and not just demographics. What are the problems they face, both as it relates to what your business offers and generally? You should have identified their aspirations, their fears, where they are in their customer journey, the ways they consume content. This combination of demographics plus psychographics will give you a far more complete picture of your target consumer and that can inform the content your team creates. Pro Tip: If you don’t know what makes your customers tick, check out our Buyer Persona Workbook to help flesh out your ideal customer. 4. Is your content integrated with your sales process? At different points along a customer’s journey toward making a purchase, their questions and needs will vary. By knowing both to whom you are speaking—and at what point in their journey you’re reaching them– you can craft content that anticipates and answers those questions, pushing them toward a sale. Your content should be closely tied to your small business CRM – targeted email marketing campaigns with the right content will push your prospects even further down your sales funnel. Your customers will only contact a sales rep when they have done the research they need to do online, so your content should be tailored for each stage in the sales process. Pro Tip: Wondering how to pair your content with your sales process? Check out our helpful content marketing infographic. 5. Is your content offering anything new? If you send into cyberspace content that is trite, dated or just subject matter that feels (or genuinely is) regurgitated information easily found in a million other places, it won’t be effective. People are already overwhelmed with information so if your business is going to add to it, add something your audience needs or wants to read. As Nancy Duarte, author of the “HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations” wrote in an article for the Harvard Business Review, “Your audience will value your brand and engage with it if you create content … that’s worthy of publication in its own right.” Your content should not only be well-written but factually accurate, with current links, new information or insights and an implicit value to your audience. The best way to do this is to put yourself in your target customer’s shoes. What are their problems and pain points? What are they interested in learning about at the point where they are reading your blog or brochure? Your website information? A white paper? Then generate content that is relevant to them—and that is backed up with research and intelligent insights Pro Tip: Need help finding the perfect intersection of the content that relevant to your business and the content your audience needs? Download our content marketing workbook. 6. Do you have a strategy for nurturing leads that come from content marketing? Companies that focus their content marketing on increasing and strengthening their brand’s presence–through things like blog posts, infographics and email newsletters—are off to a good start. But B2B sales needs more than an increase in inbound traffic; making a sale requires a strategy for turning those leads and into customers. Your content will attract potential buyers to your website but from there, your sales team should have a clear strategy for keeping those leads engaged until they reach the point where a conversation makes sense. Content marketing alone will not necessarily close all of your deals, but if it’s part of a comprehensive marketing plan, it’s sure to help. Pro Tip: Learn more about nurturing new leads into customers with our guide to marketing automation.
3 Ways Agencies Can Help Small Business Clients Establish Marketing Goals and Find Ideal Customers Posted on December 26, 2016 by Jeanna Barrett When a business invests in your agency to help them grow, you want them to feel like they’ve received great value. This means you’ve got to communicate and plan with your client from the beginning to determine the focus of their campaign, target their ideal customer and measure specific outcomes. Here’s how to establish and achieve marketing goals that make a positive impact on your client (and keep them coming back to you for more): 1. Establish The Type of Marketing Campaign. When establishing goals for a marketing campaign, you first want to establish what type of campaign you’re building. There are two main types of campaigns to focus on, brand awareness and acquisition. Brand Awareness Brand awareness campaigns primarily spread the word about your client’s brand, get more attention, and increase recognition. While increasing awareness isn’t directly tied to revenue and sales goals, it still impacts business growth. After all, the more people who know about your client, the more chances they have to sell. However, it’s difficult to tie brand awareness activities to sales. For instance, it’s hard to say how many people saw a billboard, or heard a radio ad then made a purchase. Instead, metrics are tied to awareness goals such as: Website traffic Social media community growth Social shares and or engagement Acquisition If your campaign is acquisition focused, then there is a dollar sign associated with the campaign. While both brand awareness campaigns and acquisition campaigns can grow your client’s business, an acquisition-focused campaign will directly impact sales. Common metrics for acquisition campaigns are: New account sign-ups Number of new subscribers Growth of customer base Increase of revenue per customer 2. Identify the Ideal Customer. When working with your client, building a profile for their ideal customer can ensure that your campaign is targeted to the appropriate audience. It’s vital to pinpoint your client’s target customer so you can answer questions like answer marketing campaign questions like: what type of content should we create? Where will we find this customer online? Through a series of conversations and/or meetings, you can help your client build a profile for their ideal customer(s). You’ll want to talk through specifics such as: Background: What is their career path? Their job? Their family? Demographics: Are they male or female? What is their age? Income? Education? Identifiers: What is their demeanor? What are their communication preferences? Goals: What is their ideal customers primary goal? Their secondary goal? Challenges: Much like the goals, what are the primary and secondary challenges? Once you lay out all of the key elements of their ideal customer, you have enough information to create a buyer persona for your client. This buyer persona not only helps drive your current campaign, but can also guide any of your client’s future marketing efforts – an instant value-add for your client. 3. Build Clear, Actionable and Measurable Goals. Now that you’ve helped your client establish what type of campaign they want (brand awareness or acquisition) and who their ideal customer is, it’s time to build clear, actionable and achievable goals for their marketing campaign. To set everyone up for success, focus on goals that you feel like your agency can achieve as well as goals that make an impact on your client. A great format to use when establish client goals is to use the OKR method. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. And objective is what you hope the marketing campaign will accomplish. This is usually a broad goal that is not measureable. Underneath the objective are specific key results that are tied to a measurable achievement (usually a number). Here are some examples of OKRs for marketing campaigns: Objective: Grow website traffic Key Results: Post 10 blogs focused on keywords and establishing increased organic traffic Write four new landing pages focused on the top keyword Increase organic traffic by 20 percent Increase new visitors by 30 percent Objective: Grow brand awareness Key Results: Launch a holiday social media campaign Grow Facebook community by 20 percent Increase traffic from Facebook to website by 5 percent Post three Tweets a day, one Facebook post a day, and two LinkedIn posts a day Mapping out and planning all of your client work around these three important first steps will help avoid any miscommunication around campaign goals, increase client satisfaction and ensure your clients stick with your agency for all of their marketing needs.
4 Ways to Incorporate CRM Into Your Social Media Strategy Posted on December 23, 2016November 3, 2022 by Allie Wolff Social media is without a doubt the face of 21st-century marketing. Studies show that Americans check their various social media accounts an average of 17 times a day; factor in eight hours of sleep, and that means they’re checking more than once per waking hour of every single day. Clearly it’s important for small businesses to embrace social media as a form of both marketing and customer service. However, a robust social media presence falls completely flat without access to an equally robust collection of customer data. This is why your social media marketing needs to be complemented by effective CRM. Here are a few simple ways that CRM can enhance your social media marketing and customer service strategies: 1: Facebook Messenger Is the New Phone Call One of the interesting developments of recent years, especially among Millennials, is just how much people want to avoid calling a company directly. They find more indirect methods, such as emails and messages, much more preferable. Taking this into account, businesses such as Virgin Atlantic and Amazon have found great success in inviting customers to contact them via Messenger for inquiries or assistance. When your business does something like this, though, having a small business CRM in place is an absolute must. Your CRM allows anyone in contact with customers via a chat bot or email to have instant access to the customer’s detailed file and a record of all previous interactions with the customer. Better data and a record of past communication leaves everyone in the exchange happy. The customer walks away impressed with the speed and precision of your customer service. Meanwhile, your sales or service team is able to gather even more information about the client and effortlessly input that information into the CRM, ensuring that future interactions with that customer are just as smooth. Even better, information put into the CRM can help you track some of the emerging trends and issues of your customers so that you have a more three-dimensional view of your clientele. 2: Attract New Leads Many companies are discovering that social media campaigns are the new email campaigns. Certain customers who are likely to dismiss email marketing out of hand are likelier to respond to the vibrant images and videos of social media marketing. Of course, there is an art to getting social media campaigns just right. Part of your success is dependent upon finding the right time for customers to receive social media messages – to target people who are in the sweet spot of the sales funnel. The other important factor is creating campaigns that are customized for particular segments of customers. Customer relationship management is vital for accomplishing both of these goals, which is why it is the key to small business marketing success. Using a CRM remains the best way to create precise segments of your customers so you can understand the motivations of each client. Moreover, CRM gives you a solid visualization of each customer’s stage in the sales cycle, so when you decide to send a social media campaign to their feed, it will be timed just right. 3: Capture New Leads In addition to helping you craft social campaigns that target your ideal buyer, your small business CRM can help you capture new leads. Sharing gated content (like an ebook or guide) or presenting an irresistible offer (like a free consultation) is a great way to capture names, email addresses and other info right into your CRM through online forms. 4: Give Your Agents the Power Chances are that negative customer service experiences of the past may have given your customers a grim view of what it means to contact customer service. That is, they are accustomed to the notion that if they have a genuine problem that needs solving, the first person they speak to will not be authorized to do much of anything. This is a major contributing factor to why many customers avoid phone calls, as they imagine being placed on hold multiple times until they finally reach someone who can actually do something. A small business CRM allows you to change all of that. Once you allow customers to reach you via social media, you can start to deliberately blur the lines between sales, service, and support. Giving all employees instant access to all of the information and interaction history of the customer means that the first person they contact can, in most cases, be the last person they need to contact. This allows your customers to have a better overall experience while allowing you to streamline your teams for efficiency and speed. Social media marketing is just one of the ways to reach your clientele. Have we mentioned how much we love email marketing? The best small businesses, though, make social media marketing just one part of a diverse array of marketing and service strategies.
5 SEO Tips for Marketing Agencies Posted on December 22, 2016December 15, 2022 by Guest Author A guest post by John Jantsch, a marketing consultant, speaker and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. You’re doing your best for everyone else, but are you doing everything you can on your own behalf? Marketing has seen seismic shifts in its strategies, channels, and tactics over the last several years. Many agencies are so swept up in doing client work and keeping abreast of the constant SEO changes that they neglect to apply the new rules of marketing to their own services. But the competition is fierce. There are many more marketing agencies than ever before, and their very expertise is in getting found and hired. If you’re going to build your client base, you’re going to need to compete. But don’t just work harder; work smarter. You want to exploit every last resource you already have. You don’t need to outsource SEO. Here are 5 things you can do right now to boost your agency’s search engine optimization and attract more clients. 1. Leverage your network and client base. You’ve worked hard to build a solid network of existing clients, strategic partners, advertisers, industry associations, and colleagues, so you should be finding opportunities to connect with them online. Why is this so crucial? Because you want them to link to your site. Linkbuilding has always been one of the top SEO ranking factors. Whereas once upon a time it was just about quantity — i.e., the more links your site got, the higher it ranked — now it’s all about quality, relevance, and authority. You want to target the people and organizations with name recognition, professional credentials, and/or who are putting out strong content. It only makes sense to start with those who already know, like, and trust you. [Tweet “Once upon a time linkbuilding was about quantity. Now it’s about relevance and authority. -@ducttape”] Ask them about cross-linking opportunities on their various online platforms. For example, businesses you’ve worked with may be willing to distribute your press releases on their website, and advertising partners may have opportunities for sponsored articles. Getting these coveted, quality backlinks is a great way to boost your SEO, and sometimes all you have to do is ask for them! 2. Guest blog. Guest blog posting — writing unique, high-quality content to be published on someone else’s blog or a third-party website OR publishing the same kind of content from someone else on your website — is a powerful form of content marketing that creates a cascade of win-wins for both parties. It provides natural linkbuilding, fresh and unique content that builds your site’s on-page SEO, and the ability for both contributor and host to cross-leverage social media signals. There are many content writing services that can help you write high quality, custom blog posts that will save you both time and money. When you contribute a blog post to another site, or vice versa, both you and the publisher will promote your post in your respective social media channels. This means you’re both being introduced to new audiences. And by working together, host and contributor are essentially endorsing one another — a powerful social signal! Increased exposure combined with a positive statement equals free advertising. [Tweet “Guest #blogging: increased exposure + a powerful statement = free advertising via @ducttape”] 3. Write collaborative eBooks. EBooks are an increasingly important element in inbound marketing and SEO. They provide more detailed content to your users, establish your company as an authority, and the longer form gives you ample opportunity for including keywords in all their variations, which is great for your SEO. If you’re intimidated at the thought of producing an eBook because it sounds like too much work, here’s a great eBook hack: you can create an ebook that is essentially a mash up of blog posts from third-party websites. It takes a little research and outreach effort, but if you can find ten related and topical blog posts by authors willing to contribute them to your book, you’re more than halfway done. All that remains is to stitch them together: tweak the titles if necessary, write a brief introduction and conclusion, and, of course, be sure to include full attributions for all contributed material. The end result will be a useful compendium that the contributors will often help to promote on their website, blog, and/or social media accounts. 4. Use a review funnel. Pound-for-pound, online reviews are your most important digital asset. No other piece of content can be as persuasive in helping you close sales, and the links and actual text in customer reviews are great for SEO rankings. You need online reviews for your marketing agency, and your clients need them to grow. The problem is, it’s hard to motivate a customer who has had a good experience to take the time to write a review, but if you mess up and someone has a bad experience, they can’t wait to let everyone know. So you need to be proactive about soliciting and managing reviews. A reputation management review funnel is a mini-website that gathers and posts positive reviews to your website and targeted third-party sites, while filtering out negative ones so you can respond to them before they enter the public domain. With a review funnel in place, you can be uninhibited in your quest for reviews and don’t have to worry about constantly checking your profile on different review sites. [Tweet “You need online reviews for your marketing agency, and your clients need them to grow.”] 5. Use marketing automation. Your website is the most important SEO factor of all. Websites no longer serve as just a digital brochure; in modern marketing, they are the interactive hubs for all a company’s efforts. But you need a method for converting visitors to clients and for tracking the customer journey through the inbound sales and marketing processes. This is where marketing automation systems come in. Choosing the right marketing automation system and integrating into your website will help you communicate with prospects and clients online, educate them, and build relationships with them. When these relationships are tracked and managed by your marketing automation system, it’s easy to develop social connections and content distribution channels that are critical for ongoing SEO. And the information collected and analyzed from their communications with you and their social activity give you powerful insight for keyword optimization and content marketing. You just need to pay close attention to customer conversations and questions, and the ways in which — and the frequency with which — your prospects interact with your website. At the end of the day, all marketing agencies have networks and produce content — it’s what you do with them that matters. Make sure you are fully leveraging your existing network and finding ways to distribute and repurpose the content your team has created. Not only will it make a difference in your SEO, it will free up more of your time and energy to do all the client work that will be rolling in. About the Author John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, The Referral Engine, and SEO for Growth which he co-wrote with Phil Singleton, CEO of Kansas City SEO®. Jantsch is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network that trains and licenses small business marketing consultants around the world. Follow John on Twitter @ducttape.