15 Small Business Marketing Strategies to Help With Growth Posted on April 15, 2021November 3, 2022 by Guest Author There’s no getting around it: A killer marketing strategy is essential for business growth. Sure, you need a valuable product or service to offer your customers. That goes without saying. But, if you aren’t able to attract your target audience — and keep them engaged for the long haul — the quality of your product won’t mean much. Of course, “what works” in terms of attracting and engaging your audience is always changing. Technology continues to evolve, and consumer expectations continue to shift. It’s your job, then, to stay ahead of the curve in order to deliver exactly what your audience is looking to get from your brand. That said, let’s take a look at fifteen small business marketing strategies that businesses like yours are using to expand their reach today. 1. Focus on First- and Zero-Party Data Customer data should be the driving factor behind your marketing efforts. After all, the more you know about your customers, the more value you’ll be able to deliver to them. While there’s no shortage of customer data “out there” today, putting it to good use can be a bit challenging for many reasons. What’s more, the death of third-party cookies means collecting customer data from outside sources will become even more difficult in the near future. So, your best bet is to look inward, focusing on the data your team collects on your audience members. Your first-party data — that is, information you’ve solicited and collected directly from your customer — can provide valuable insight into their experiences with and perception of your brand. Surveys, product reviews, and case study interviews are some effective ways to collect first-party data. You also want to dig into your zero-party data: information that your customers provide freely as they engage with your brand. If your customers are willing to speak up to voice their preferences, expectations, or concerns, you absolutely need to be listening. Since this data is owned by your company and yours alone, it will put you at a distinct advantage over your competitors — if you take full advantage of it. 2. Hyper Personalize Your Customer Experience Personalization is nothing new…but it’s come a long way from simply offering basic product recommendations and the like. With hyper-personalization, the goal is to contextualize every touchpoint within the customer experience. This means using a customer’s persona data, engagement and purchase history, and real-time info (such as their current browsing behavior, the time of day, the device they’re using, and more) to deliver exactly what they’re looking for at that given moment. This may mean: Delivering dynamically-created content Providing a tailored offer Recommending a specialized product or service made just for them Stitch Fix, for example, has built its entire brand around hyper-personalization: It’s a no-brainer: If your customers are always able to get exactly what they need from your brand, they’ll have every reason to keep coming back for more. 3. Create Contextual Landing Pages and Popups Landing pages and popups are two effective ways to collect new leads and to move current customers closer to conversion. And they’re even more effective when they deliver relevant content and offers to your individual customers. When creating a given landing page, you should have a number of factors in mind, such as: The channel and content used to point the customer to the page The persona being targeted The stage of the buyer’s journey the customer is currently in This will allow you to match the message and overall feel of your landing page to the individual’s journey with your brand thus far. The same goes for the popups and forms as presented throughout your site. Source The popups you create should take into consideration: The page you’re presenting it on The content or offer you intend to present The customer’s on-site actions (and any other data you have on them) BenchmarkONE can help you put together your next landing page or popup campaign with ease. Sign up for free to learn more! 4. Adopt Lifecycle Marketing Strategies More than just hyper-personalizing your customer’s experience when they engage with your brand, you also want to proactively engage with them over time. Enter lifecycle marketing. Here, you’ll be reaching out at critical moments along their journey with your brand to nurture them toward the “next step” — whatever it may be. Of course, you’ll need to deliver something of value during these engagements. A few examples: A welcome email for new mailing list subscribers to get them acclimated with your brand Push notifications delivering promotional offers to first-time buyers Upsell or cross-sell offers delivered to returning customers based on buying habits and patterns Abandoned cart emails for those who failed to go through with a purchase after showing clear intent to buy Source / Again, Stitch Fix knows how to deliver relevant value at all stages of the customer journey. Lifecycle marketing and marketing automation go hand-in-hand. Learn more about how BenchmarkONE can help you get started! 5. Dive Into Relationship Marketing While lifecycle marketing and hyper-personalization focus on keeping your customers engaged and heading toward a purchase, it’s also important to focus on building an actual relationship with your audience members. “Building meaningful relationships with our audience has helped us achieve our business goals. By segmenting our customers, we’ve been able to better adapt our services to our various customer groups. In turn, this has allowed us to deliver unique value to our customers as well as better support them.” – Dorota Lysienia, Community Manager, LiveCareer You want to use every touchpoint to strengthen the connection between the customer and your brand. More than just “delivering value,” you need to show your individual customers how much you appreciate their business and them as a person. Some key ways to build this relationship: Deliver timely, relevant, “just because” offers Go above and beyond to provide tailored customer service Ask for — and immediately act on — in-depth customer feedback To make all this happen, you need to have a clear idea of where your customers stand with your company at all times. This is one of the main reasons your business needs a CRM by today’s standards. 6. Create a Breadth of Content When it comes to content marketing, you have a ton of options to choose from. You definitely want to spread your wings here. If you’re focused on just one or two types of content, your audience is going to get bored pretty quickly. But, this doesn’t mean you need to create everything under the sun, either. Rather, you need to create the type of content that engages and provides value to your audience. (This, again, is why first- and zero-party data is so important.) By presenting (and repurposing) valuable content in the right format and on the right channels, you’ll maximize the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts across the board. On that note, it’s also crucial to experiment with new content formats and channels as they emerge — but to do so strategically. Instead of just diving into the latest content marketing trends, your focus should always be on using content to deliver valuable information and experiences to your audience. 7. Take Advantage of Social Commerce Selling directly via social media is becoming an increasingly popular option for small and large businesses alike. In fact, eMarketer found that the number of consumers making purchases through social media increased by 25.2% in 2020 — and expected to increase by over 12% in 2021, as well. Source As things stand, the current champions of social commerce are Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest (respectively). Snapchat and TikTok are also investing more into their social commerce initiatives, making each a potential goldmine for companies with a solid following on said platforms. Again, though: You need to be intentional with your social commerce efforts, focusing on the channel that’s right for your brand and your audience. Overall, your goal should be to meet your customers where they are and streamline their path to purchase from there. 8. Consider Marketplace Commerce and Advertising Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy all provide major opportunities for small businesses looking to generate brand awareness and create a following. In addition to becoming active on these channels, you might also consider advertising on them, as well. Again, eMarketer reports a huge shift here: In 2020, marketplace advertising increased 38.8% from 2019 — and now represents over 12% of all US ad spend. Creating display and video ads on these platforms can allow you to gain visibility in front of an existing audience that’s primed for purchase. Ideally, you’ll attract consumers who are ready to skip right from Awareness to Conversion with the click of a button. As we discussed, the death of third-party cookies will make it difficult to collect customer data from outside sources. Businesses that operate on Amazon and the like can at least take advantage of the customer data provided on these platforms — allowing for somewhat of a workaround to this newfound “cookie problem.” 9. Forge Meaningful Branded Partnerships In today’s ever-connected world, it’s become fairly easy for brands to partner up in order to spread awareness and deliver value to a shared audience. A few examples: Uber and Spotify partnered up to allow users to sync accounts and develop specialized playlists for their rideshare experiences More recently, Uber and Dettol got together to ensure drivers and passengers stayed safe and healthy throughout the coronavirus pandemic Target and New Voices created a virtual event aimed at celebrating and rewarding Black female entrepreneurs When forging partnerships with other brands, practicality and a shared audience should be your top concerns. The idea is to create something that’s not just new but that’s innovative and meaningful to your target audience; that combines each brand’s strengths to create a product, service, or experience that simply can’t be found elsewhere. 10. Work With Micro- and Nano-Influencers Influencer marketing continues to prove effective as the years go by — and it continues to evolve, as well. For small businesses on a tight budget, micro-and nano-influencers have become the go-to solution here. Typically, micro-and nano-influencers are those who have a small but tightly-knit and highly engaged following on social media and elsewhere. That said, partnering with these individuals is more about driving brand engagement than casting a wide net. Similarly, it’s about forging authentic partnerships — which, in turn, will lead to more authentic engagements and relationships with your new audience members. On the note of authenticity: “It’s crucial to work with influencers who truly believe in your brand — not just in terms of the products and services you offer, but in your overall mission. This is what will help attract the right audience to your company — and what will keep them onboard well into the future.” – Darren Clay, Co-Owner, Lifted Edibles 11. Focus on Voice SEO Use of voice search absolutely exploded in 2020 (due in large part to the pandemic and ensuing shutdown): One-third of US consumers use voice-powered smart devices 34.7 million people use smart devices for consumer-related purposes More than half of US consumers use smart devices to conduct product research With this in mind, it’s vital that you focus on optimizing your online presence for voice search. Creating content around conversational long-tail keywords is essential. One effective strategy here is to ask and answer questions directly in your text-based content. You should also provide a high level of detail in your product descriptions and other on-site content. Similarly, your website should include comprehensive information regarding your store’s location, contact details, hours of operation, and more. There are also technical aspects to voice SEO, such as reducing site load time and optimizing structured data markup. For a closer look at all this, check out our guide to voice search optimization. 12. Dive Into AR/VR Marketing Augmented and virtual reality marketing have been around for some time but have recently become much more mainstream. For one thing, the technology has evolved — making it a more viable and practical option for small businesses. As the AR/VR experience becomes more common, it’s become more accepted by modern consumers, as well. Finally, the coronavirus shutdown all but made AR/VR a necessity for engagement in many cases. At any rate, AR and VR marketing allows you to provide immersive and engaging experiences to your customers — whether they’re at home or in your brick-and-mortar stores. IKEA, for example, allows mobile users to visualize how a piece of furniture will look in their homes without even stepping outside. Source Similarly, Sephora’s augmented reality experience provides users with a digital makeover before making a purchase. Source Finally, Timberland allows passersby to play digital dress-up, simulating their look while wearing a whole new wardrobe: Source While there’s certainly a novelty and newness to these experiences, the focus is always on practicality — and moving the customer closer toward making a purchase. As the technology becomes more commonplace, it will become even more important to be purposeful with how you use it. 13. Provide Streamlined and Automated Customer Support The ability to deliver laser-fast, comprehensive customer service, and support has become an absolute necessity for companies looking to gain a competitive edge against their competitors. Just consider the following data: 84% of consumers say quality of customer service is a determining factor in their purchasing decision 95% of consumers will or will not remain loyal to a brand based on their customer service experiences 68% of consumers will pay more for products or services from brands that provide superb customer service While providing hands-on support is still a necessity, nearly 90% of consumers expect brands to also offer self-service options. There are a number of ways you can do this, such as: Developing a comprehensive knowledge base full of vital information surrounding your products and services Creating a chatbot that can facilitate engagement and point your customers toward the solutions they’re looking for Offering live-chat options for those who are unable to find the info they need on their own 14. Develop Your Brand’s Community Growing your small business isn’t just about making more sales. It’s about bringing your audience together to form a tightly-knit community of like-minded people, all aiming to accomplish a common goal. There are a number of benefits to building a branded community: You’ll develop an authentic image for your brand You’ll facilitate increased engagement from die-hard fans You’ll empower your audience to accomplish great things You’ll generate referrals and recommendations from your loyal fanbase Overall, you want to constantly be growing your community in some way or another. Whether through simple conversations on social media, live/digital events, or other such branded engagements, you should always be looking for ways to bring your audience together as one. “We’ve recently made huge progress in developing our brand image with our customers through video. We’ve begun highlighting members of our customer-facing teams in short product-related videos. This has been extremely effective in humanizing our software and providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how we operate.” – Kelly Peters, Manager, Communications & Content, JazzHR You also want to think of more intentional ways to grow your community too. Creating a community forum as well as loyalty or referral programs can bring together your high-value customers in a more intentional manner — and allow you to deliver additional value to them along the way. Source In creating a strong community, you allow your customers to become part of something bigger than themselves and give them more and more reasons to stick with your brand for a long time to come. 15. Create an Omnichannel Experience Throughout this article, we’ve talked about using a variety of channels, platforms, and devices to engage your audience. It’s also extremely important that you connect these channels and the experiences you provide on them, to create a cohesive overall journey for your customers. An omnichannel approach to marketing requires that you: Integrate your CRM, email, and marketing automation software, helpdesk software, and any other tools in your tech stack Sync your customer data between platforms Create content and experiences that span multiple channels (or that don’t relegate the customer to a single channel) “Going omnichannel ensures your customers can always pick up where they last left off with your brand, regardless of the channel being used. Moreover, it ensures they won’t have to backtrack, complete redundant tasks, or otherwise waste time playing catch-up.” – Rachel Esco, Marketing, CustomerICare Overall, it means they’ll always be able to take the next step in their journey with your brand on their path toward success. Wrapping Up Your ability to grow your small business depends on your ability to stay on top of emerging marketing trends and best practices. More importantly, you need to know which marketing strategies will work best to keep your audience engaged with your brand. BenchmarkONE’s marketing software helps you keep track of your customer data and engagement history — and can allow you to streamline and automate audience interactions to perfection. Check out the solutions we offer to learn about which tool best suits your needs — and get started for free! Author Bio Josh is the Marketing Manager at Helpjuice. Helpjuice enables you to easily create a comprehensive knowledge base that can help you streamline and scale your customer support efforts.
5 LinkedIn Ad Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make Posted on April 14, 2021April 9, 2021 by Jess Lunk LinkedIn can be a risky place to test new ideas since it’s hyper-focused on your professional network, while other forms of social media are more blended. On LinkedIn, your business’s reputation is on the line, and mistakes can be a waste of time and money. Here are five common LinkedIn advertising pitfalls and our best advice for how to avoid them: 1. Pinning All Your Conversion Hopes on One Ad Type With a $10 per day minimum ad spend, LinkedIn is one of the more expensive options for advertising on social media. But responding to the expense by creating just one kind of ad is a mistake. You don’t need to limit your creative team or audience reach just because you’re limiting your spending to one campaign. Multiple ads per campaign are allowable within the structure of LinkedIn advertising. You can – and should – create at least four or five ads with different content, images, and designs, both to attract different potential customers and to test out a variety of ideas for your next campaign (more on that in number five, below). 2. Targeting Your Ads Too Tightly (Without Even Knowing It) Targeting is where LinkedIn ads shine – between detailed, constantly updated user data and tons of categories to choose from, you can focus your ads to as specific of an audience as you want. But that can be a dangerous temptation since a too-tight target can shut out potential engagement. As of 2020, LinkedIn had over 700 million users, which might seem like enough to eliminate the risk of over-targeting. But you might be surprised at how easy it is to shrink your audience down to a few hundred by specifying too many targets at once. Like anything else, the key here is balance – and understanding your tools. Selecting more than one target audience expands your reach, but adding the second category of attributes can then contract it. Play around with the options, keeping an eye on the ‘estimated audience’ number at the top right. When you’ve targeted the audience you want, and your count is appropriate to the campaign, you’re ready for the next step. 3. Neglecting the Matched Audiences Feature Another targeting benefit of LinkedIn ads is the Matched Audiences feature, which enables you to target email contacts, employees of your target accounts, and previous visitors to your company’s website. This lets you home in on potential customers who’ve already shown interest in your organization, as well as those who are likely to be interested based on their industry. Because the targeting options mentioned in the section above are so extensive, many users skip over the Matched Audiences option altogether, which is poor judgment. The reciprocity of this feature – you provide the data you already have to LinkedIn, which then allows them to target more effectively on your behalf – can get you better results with little added effort. 4. Not Taking Into Account the Customer Journey Different kinds of ads are appropriate for different parts of the customer journey. Sponsored InMail, for example, can be off-putting to brand new customers, while people who know your organization a little better won’t be so startled to see you in their inbox. It’s important to consider the goals of your campaign and adjust your ads to meet customers at their location in the marketing funnel. 5. Forgetting to Track Conversions As mentioned above, you should create various ads for your LinkedIn campaign, and then you should track the data on engagement and conversions from each type of ad. This may seem obvious – marketing is all about data tracking – but it’s a surprisingly easy mistake to make. LinkedIn requires an opt-in for conversion tracking during the setup stage, with conversion name, settings, and tracking method options. Make sure you don’t miss your chance to track this data since you’ll want to refer to it when you design your next campaign. LinkedIn ads are more complicated than ads on other platforms, with more options for ad type and audience targeting. This makes them a great tool for marketing campaigns, but it also makes the learning curve steeper. And because they’re pricey, there’s a higher cost associated with mistakes. Once you learn the platform and take our tips into consideration, you’ll be ready to launch a great campaign!
9 Influencer Marketing Pitfalls That Cost Time And Money Posted on April 8, 2021April 1, 2021 by Guest Author With the rise of influencer culture in the digital era, social media has become a staple of mobile marketing. As a result, user-generated content has never been more relevant. Nowadays, any influencer with a large enough following can successfully launch a brand to superstardom with a well-planned influencer marketing strategy. Even though influencer marketing is a very useful tool, this strategy can cost time and money when it is poorly implemented, dragging any company’s advertising to the ground. Luckily, we have compiled the most common mistakes companies make regarding influencer marketing just so that you can avoid making them in the future. Thinking it Doesn’t Work Although it may be difficult to believe, some companies simply refuse to think of this strategy as a viable option. Fashion, video games, and the fitness industry are the markets commonly associated with influencer marketing. However, it can be implemented in any sector and by any company. Take a page out of Apple’s marketing strategy and let others market for you. Companies like Apple have used social media and influencer marketing to build a strong culture around their brand image. Consumer reviews by technology pundits usually work as their main advertising strategy when they launch a new product. This approach to marketing offers many advantages. For starters, it significantly reduces the costs of hiring marketers and advertisers, and it helps brands get in touch with their customers directly, establishing an interactive marketing touchpoint. Not Choosing the Correct Platform Nowadays, influencers are everywhere. In a world dominated by Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Twitter, it’s nearly impossible to know what social media platform best fits your brand and product. Although sources like Statista can tell you which are the most used apps, that data is merely referential and too generic. Companies looking to venture into influencer marketing should thus check where their followers are the most active in order to pave the way for a prospective influencer who can successfully interact with their audience and followers. Lack of Transparency Let’s be very clear about this point: intentionally hiding information from potential buyers doesn’t benefit anyone. It can hurt both the brand’s public image and the influencer’s reputation, and it can also mislead the audience. Regarding the latter, more extreme cases (like ungenuine reviews) can be used in court as deceptive or false advertising. In general, it’s strongly recommended to ask influencers to clearly state that their content is sponsored. In recent years, with the rapid rise of influencer marketing, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has started to impose stricter surveillance and more rigid guidelines regarding sponsored social media posts on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. As a result, the FTC has called for tougher penalties in cases where endorsement guidelines aren’t properly followed. Reach is Not the Only Metric When trying to develop the perfect influencer marketing campaign, it’s important to understand what social media metrics matter the most. Usually, companies fall into the trap of only looking at reach, thinking that influencers with the largest following will be the most beneficial to them. However, no matter how big an influencer’s audience is, if their content or posts generate large bounce rates, then the campaign will be pointless. It’s far more important to prioritize engagement, i.e., to see just how much an influencer’s opinion matters. Different measuring ratios like CTR or lead conversion rates are also extremely helpful when trying to identify how to approach an influencer’s work during a marketing campaign. Not Being Consistent Throughout a Campaign Many businesses make the mistake of approaching influencer marketing as a one-off thing, expecting immediate results and an instant growth in sales. However, influencer marketing is no different from any other marketing campaign. In reality, it usually takes influencers a while to gain the trust of their audience when introducing them to a new brand or product. Remember, when planning and executing a marketing campaign, patience is a virtue. Not Matching the Right Influencer with the Right Product As mentioned before, going for the most popular influencer and just looking at the number of followers they have is simply not good enough. Choosing a big name instead of opting for a more specific or niche influencer that understands the industry you work in is another common mistake. In order to pick the ideal influencer to represent your brand, it is important to develop robust influencer personas. Much like buyer personas, these profiles help you find the perfect match for your campaign and product. How about a hypothetical example? Let’s say your company sells telecommunications products and services. Who would you ask to post a tutorial explaining how to fax a document online? Here are two influencer personas to choose from: John, 24. He has over a million followers on Instagram and is a hugely popular fitness influencer. David, 35. He runs a YouTube channel with a little over 50 thousand subscribers and mostly uploads vlogs, reviews, and tutorials regarding gadgets and technology. If the company in question in this example was looking for the perfect influencer to explain how to receive a fax without a fax machine, David would be the better choice. However, if the company venturing into influencer marketing was a growing fitness apparel brand, John would be the perfect ambassador for them. Creating Unoriginal Content Coming up with eye-catching and original marketing messages is an essential part of advertising, and influencer marketing is no different. Influencers and brands should try to design and post memorable content that turns leads into buyers. So how can a company accomplish this? The real-life example of Sony and the launching of the PlayStation 5 comes to mind. Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos (a Twitch superstar with five million subscribers on the aforementioned streaming platform and 7 million followers on Instagram and Twitter combined) partnered with Sony to promote the launching of their new console. Ibai promoted the unboxing of Sony’s new product, as many other influencers did. However, in an unexpected turn of events, the live streaming turned out to be a horror short film directed by award-winning filmmaker Jaume Balaguero. The viral marketing video reached over 30 million views in a week. The result was the most unique advertising campaign the company has ever launched. Obsessing Over Selling a Product As mentioned before, building a strong brand image and grabbing your lead’s attention are as important as seeing those sales rates go up. Companies that put out overly promotional marketing regarding a product tend to do worse than those that work on reinforcing their brand image or simply create eye-catching content. Influencers that post overly corporate ads usually turn audiences away since their followers feel like both the content creator and the brand in question are trying to desperately sell a product. Lack of Collaboration Between Companies and Influencers Not fully integrating influencers during the development of marketing strategies is another mistake that usually ends up in unsuccessful partnerships. Neglecting to fill influencers in about your brand’s image or what products you want them to promote can lead to embarrassing and very public mix-ups, as well as miscommunication and misrepresentation of your business. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, most marketing teams have been forced to work from home. Luckily, these departments can carry on developing advertising strategies remotely, as well as implementing hybrid working, shifting between occasional office hours and telecommuting. You should do the same with influencers. Implementing collaboration tools that allow influencers and advertisers to work together remotely can help keep everybody in the loop. To do so, you should scout the growing market of apps dedicated to file sharing for small businesses. Author Bio Victorio is the Associate SEO Director at RingCentral, a global leader in cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions. He has over 13 years of extensive involvement on web and digital operations with diverse experience as web engineer, product manager, and digital marketing strategist.
9 K12 Email Marketing Tips To Ensure Your Emails Get Read Posted on April 7, 2021February 8, 2023 by Natalie Slyman You write a lot of emails as a K12 communicator, but are you effectively reaching your audience with all that need-to-know information? Most people don’t get into K12 education thinking that they need to have expertise in email marketing. However, email is one of your best tools for sharing important information on school policies, events, and updates, so you must have a few tools in your back pocket to make your emails as engaging — and as likely to get read — as possible. To help you out, we’ve compiled nine of our very best tips that will help any K12 email marketing strategy. Keep reading to learn all of the basics of what you need to know to send emails that serve their purpose every time. 1. Keep Subject Lines Simple and Concise If you want someone to read your email, you need them to open it first. And for that, you need an effective email subject line. Your subject line should accurately describe the content within your email. It should also be short and sweet, with limited punctuation, since too much could make it look like spam (though feel free to use emojis when appropriate). 2. Establish Relevance from the Get-Go Most K12 email communications are going out to a very narrowly defined audience, but it’s still key that you make it clear right away why this information should matter to your reader. Get to the point in the first paragraph, then delve into more specific details below. To ensure that your message reaches its audience, you need to take the necessary steps to guarantee email security. In this stage, set up a DMARC policy to avoid phishing and spamming 3. Don’t be Overly Wordy The content of your email should be brief and actionable. Write with the assumption that your readers are busy and might be skimming your email to gather the salient points as quickly as they can. If you have a lot of in-depth information to share, post it on your site and link to it in your email instead of trying to fit it all in there. 4. Play Around with Format It’s totally fine to go simple when it comes to the design of your emails, but you still want to have some visual excitement going on. Your format — which includes everything from how you arrange your content to the color and image choices you make — should be appealing without being too busy. It should also serve to direct attention where you want it to go, especially if you need your readers to take some sort of specific action. 5. Include a Call-to-Action Speaking of action, a call to action (CTA) button is an impactful way to direct your readers to exactly what you want them to do — whether that’s clicking through for more information, signing a permission slip, or donating to a school fundraiser. Make sure it’s clear as day what action you want your readers to take, and make your CTA button obvious on the page through the creative use of color, size, and placement. 6. Add in Images A well-placed image (or images) can make your email a lot more engaging. For them to be most effective, though, images should be relevant to what the content is about and be high-resolution, so they won’t appear grainy on the screen. Images should also be sized appropriately so that they fit in well with the rest of your format without completely taking over all of your readers’ attention. 7. Make use of Whitespace Sometimes it’s what your emails don’t include that really makes all the difference. Whitespace (a.k.a. the blank spaces between text, images, and content blocks) serves as a visual marker for how you want your audience to read your email. It also keeps the page from looking overly crowded, which can make it a lot more palatable for readers to get through. 8. Optimize Emails for Mobile If your K12 school is struggling to go digital, this tip may seem a bit lofty to implement. However, being mobile-optimized is crucial if you want to see more engagement and interaction from your subscribers. Many of your readers are likely going to be opening your email on a mobile device. As such, you’ll want to make sure that your emails are mobile-friendly in addition to desktop-friendly — a feature that you can achieve quite easily with your marketing automation platform. 9. A/B Test Main Features A/B testing is another benefit that comes with most marketing automation tools that can help to improve your email marketing efforts. Also referred to as split testing, A/B testing compares the performance outcomes of two different design or content decisions: decision A and decision B. Use it to test out what sorts of subject lines and CTAs get you the best results, making sure to only test one difference per email so that you can be sure you know what’s responsible for your better or worse outcome. Remember: you don’t need a marketing degree in order to send effective K12 communications. But you should follow the tips above, all of which are cornerstones of sending out emails that get opened, get read, and get the results you’re looking for.
Don’t be a Content Marketing Fool: 20 Articles to Help You Create Better Content Posted on April 1, 2021March 25, 2021 by Natalie Slyman This April Fool’s Day, the trick’s on someone else. We’ve all been there. We plan out a strategy or initiate some sort of content tactic, and it falls totally flat. A lot of content marketing is taking a shot and seeing what lands. And when things don’t totally go as planned, we forget that the industry is all about trying new things, measuring results, and then making improvements. No matter how you deal with content defeat, the feeling of foolishness can be very real. Luckily, there’s always room for improvement and growth and to get it right the next time around. In an effort to help you feel less foolish and create better content, we’re sharing with you some of our greatest blog posts on content marketing. No more content foolery for you! 1. Where to Look When Your Creative Blog Ideas Dry Up It’s crucial to keep your blog going, even if your creativity is on the fritz. Get some tips on how to maintain creativity and find those content gems to fill your blog editorial calendar with. 2. How to Write a Marketing Blog that Ranks on Google Not optimizing your blog for SEO is one of the most foolish things you can do. With so many customers relying on search engines to find solutions for them, it’s crucial for your content to rank. 3. Content Marketing Ideas for Each Stage of the Sales Funnel Ah, the sales funnel. Getting your customers to come to you, then nurturing them once they do, requires a lot of different kinds of content. In this blog post, we break down each stage of the funnel and the types of content you can be creating and using for each. 4. The Key to Updating Evergreen Content Have you ever looked back at content you created and thought, “What was I thinking?” Some content just doesn’t age well, which can result in the biggest facepalm moment. Keep the embarrassment to a minimum with these tips for long-lasting, valuable content. 5. 6 of the Best Ways to Source Blog Topic Ideas Keep your content timely and aligned with the needs of your key audience members by diving into various ways to generate high-quality topics. You may want to bookmark these tips, as they’re sure to be useful time and time again. 6. Why You Should Do a Content Refresh Right Now Don’t let dated content go unnoticed. Performing regular content refreshes will keep the quality up and your audience engaged. 7. 3 Types of Content People Want to Consume What’s the best way to avoid being foolish with your content creation? Tap into the types of content that you know your audience is looking for. 8. Are You Using the Right Content for Lead Generation? Generating leads is an ongoing struggle and necessity. Content can help ensure leads keep coming in, but you have to make sure you’re using the right kinds of content. 9. Are You Making These 5 Blogging Mistakes? Here are five things that will get you on the fast track to tomfoolery town. 10. The Ultimate Guide to Writing Killer Headlines Headlines matter big time for your content. They’re very similar to email subject lines in that they are the first impression readers get from your content. Make sure you craft headlines that are memorable and inspire clicks. 11. Embrace Your Niche for More Impactful Content Marketing There may be nothing worse than generic content. Writing about stuff that others have already done time and time again won’t get your content read, and it won’t make your leads want to learn more about your business. This article shares tips on how to embrace your niche, which can result in more unique and compelling content. 12. 8 Elements of a Stellar Blog Post If you want your blog content to hit it out of the park, there are eight components you need to keep a careful eye on. 13. The Value of Writing for Humans in an SEO-Driven World Yes, you want to make sure you’re considering SEO when you’re putting your content together. However, if it results in content that completely lacks the human element, then no one will relate or engage with it. It’s all about balance! 14. How To Make Sure Your Content Stays Compelling If your content has lost its luster, don’t fret. Here are some helpful tips for keeping it compelling so you can get use out of it time and time again. 15. How to Become a Guest-Contributor It would be foolish not to prioritize guest content. Getting your name and links on outside sites helps promote brand awareness and can get some more traffic back to your site. Here are some actionable tips on how to become a guest contributor. 16. 5 Reasons Clickbait Is The Worst (And How It Will Negatively Impact Your Business) Have you ever been taken for a ride? Swindled? Bamboozled? If you have, you probably don’t ever want to feel that way again. So, don’t make your audience feel that way by creating content that’s purely clickbait. 17. 4 Tricks For Creating More Shareable Content Getting your content on more peoples’ radars means more brand awareness and more potential prospects to engage with. Here’s how to make your content shareable, so more people spread the word and get your brand out there. 18. 5 Ways To Guarantee Your Readers Trust Your Content Trust is at the foundation of solid, successful marketing. If your readers don’t believe what you’re putting out there, then there’s no way they’re going to trust your business. 19. 10 Tools to Help Content Marketers Publish and Promote More Content We love a good tool roundup. Here are some that will make creating, publishing, and promoting your content a breeze. 20. 5 Tips for Combating Declining SEO Rankings Are you seeing your content fall lower and lower down the results page? All is not lost! You can combat declining SEO rankings with these five helpful tips. Success with your content isn’t always a straight and narrow path. You may be flying high one minute and feeling foolish and down in the dumps the next. But, how you move forward and use what you learned with your future content will make all the difference. We hope these 20 articles help you out!
7 Marketing Trends That Will Impact Content Strategies in 2021 Posted on March 25, 2021September 29, 2022 by Guest Author Content strategies are something every marketer in 2021 must be aware of. In short-form, content strategy is using content as the main way of achieving business objectives. In long-form, it means centering your marketing campaigns on the quality and targeted reach of the content that you produce. As content strategy and content marketing become more important, new trends will emerge. 2021 will prove this, not just because of the situation inherent in the pandemic but also because of the latest exciting technological advances that have been building up to this year. Below we are going to discuss seven new trends in marketing that are especially relevant for content marketers. These trends may well be the ones that define the next year. AI-Driven Content Creation No article about eCommerce or marketing is complete today without some reference either to AI or cloud automation – this article is no exception. Artificial Intelligence is now a trend in content marketing. This technology works by optimizing language rather than writing entire pieces of copy itself. It learns about the “voice” of a brand and can generate or improve low-level copy, liberating marketers and copywriters from the body of their work and letting them focus on content and creativity. AI-driven copywriting is already prevalent on eBay and is used to make ever more focused and brand-relevant content. Some tools that help AI copywriting have been around for a while. Those that check grammar, syntax, and spelling; even tools that help keep a piece of writing “on task.” Their integration into a marketing strategy is part of a trend in progress that is part of a broader trend; automation to relieve repetitive tasks. These tools can either be standalone software or a web application. The process of using AI in content creation. Source: Relevance Interactive Content Everyone is familiar with traditional content; pop-ups, ad banners, and so on. A trend that is becoming more common, though, is interactive content: content that a user can actually engage with rather than observe passively. A good example of interactive marketing content would be an ad that allows you to generate a quote by inputting numbers. Other examples would be dropdown boxes that tell you how much something would cost or any kind of interactive ad that would let users gain more information about the product by engaging with the ad. Community Content Creation Remote working is one of the most obvious trends in the past year. It means increasing the number of people hooked up to the digital world and spending more and more time online. One way that marketers have sought to take advantage of this is by getting the community related to their product or service involved in the content creation. In fact, entire communities have sprung up based on the content created by marketers. One example is Netflix – they have almost a million followers combined on their social media accounts, and they are using the input entered by that community to generate more marketing content. In addition to getting the community involved by creating a discourse around the product, marketers can also utilize data analytics in the community to adjust and check their work: which strategies are working, which content is good, and which content needs reworking. They can also ask users what their experiences are – for example, a LinkedIn thread discussing the process of implementing headless eCommerce by people who’ve done it recently. The days of marketers merely “delivering” content to a passive audience are probably long gone; getting the audience’s direct involvement, even if it’s just feedback, is a trend that is likely to continue well into and past 2021. Personalized Remarketed Content Personalized content is a new trend that takes advantage of advances in technology surrounding data collection and observation of how users interact with a website. It is part of remarketing, a relatively new marketing phenomenon that has become a must in all content marketing strategies. Suppose a user enters a website but doesn’t finish reading it; they leave some pages untouched or they don’t finish filling out a registration or scroll too quickly through one page, et cetera. Personalizing your content allows you to deliver ads to users based on their prior interaction with your website. That means that if someone only finished reading half of the documentation on your business VoIP solutions, you can send them emails with content summarizing those solutions to reignite their interest. Digital marketing strategies need to focus not only on attracting new customers or simply maintaining existing customers but also on regaining customers that have lost interest. Personalizing content is one of the new trends in marketing strategies that address that exact problem. Product-Based Content Recent events have caused enterprises in almost all industries to look to tighten their belts. There is less money to spend. Being cost-efficient is more important than ever. One marketing trend that reflects this is the increasing centrality of the actual product or service, whether it’s something physical or even software platforms working with PaaS. This means that rather than hyper-focusing on the customer, marketing strategies seek to create content that focuses on the benefits and features of the product or service and make those features applicable to as many potential customers as possible. Here, the emphasis is placed on the universality of products and services. Video call software is a good example because almost everyone can use it in any industry, as well as the home. And it has further obvious applications with many people switching to a work from home model. While highly targeted and focused marketing campaigns are effective, they’re also costly. One trend of 2020 that we will see in 2021 is an emphasis on reducing costs. This trend can also be described as a “bottom of the funnel” marketing focus. Source: Skyword Live Content Think about video content. It wasn’t all that long ago that videos weren’t being used for marketing on the internet because of generally low speeds. It’s only with the massive increase in internet speeds in the past decade that videos have become so common in the marketing environment. The future for video in content is going live, especially as live video is a form of interactive marketing. Webinars, FAQ-sessions, interactive and instructive sessions, and other types of live video casting have become popular in 2020 due to the pandemic. And, now that their advantages have been established, their popularity will continue. One example would be offering a question and answer session with a topic like- “Good customer service: what it actually means and how to deliver it” and letting anyone sign up. Email campaigns can help reach a larger audience, and recordings of the webinar can even be distributed. They allow the audience to interact with the content by asking questions and seeking clarification – something that we don’t traditionally see with content. Try to work live content into your marketing strategy if you want your marketing to be up to date! User-Experience Oriented Content An example of how user-experienced ranking will work for content. Source: SEO Biz World In 2015, Google introduced RankBrain, an algorithm that allows searches to be based on searcher intent rather than just pure keywords. This changed everything about using the internet. One of the main future trends is going to come from Google too. Google intends to include user experience (UX) as part of its ranking for searches. This means that content in the future will take the experience of the user further into account: Not just minimizing irritants like pop-ups but making browsing safer and more appropriate for mobile and tablet users. Up to Date on Trends A lot has changed in the last year, and a lot of that change will carry forward to next year. In this article, we looked at trends that we believe are here to stay; there are surely some unmentioned here that will die out with the pandemic. Staying on top of trends is an essential part of the intelligence behind any marketing campaign. Advertising is all around us, and we interact with and observe it every day – it’s easy to become accustomed to, and especially bored of, stale and samey marketing campaigns. But like everything, the content – the real meat of a marketing strategy – can also be the most effective way to engage an audience and bring them closer to your product. Here too, innovation is neverending, and the market adapts to present and future circumstances. It would be wise for any marketing campaign not to fall out of the loop on future trends, not just ones that we are seeing unfold now. Every organization should have some apparatus to keep up with changes in the market, whether that’s getting the best inventory management software, training staff for new practices, or here, in content creation for marketing. Author Bio Sam O’Brien is the Director of Digital and Growth for EMEA at RingCentral, a Global VoIP, video conferencing and VoIP Phone System provider. Sam has a passion for innovation and loves exploring ways to collaborate more with dispersed teams. He has written for websites such as G2 and DaVinci Virtual. Here is his LinkedIn.
The Best Untapped Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses Posted on March 24, 2021December 1, 2022 by Natalie Slyman A limited marketing budget doesn’t have to mean limited marketing potential. When it comes to product research, 60 percent of all consumers start the process on a search engine rather than on a specific website. This means that you can’t opt out of digital marketing entirely, nor can you expect to get very far without a concerted effort that’s geared toward getting your name — and your website — in front of the right people. If you’re running a small business, however, then you probably don’t have an endless pool of money to throw at your marketing budget — and that’s totally okay! There are simple, cost-effective, and untapped marketing tactics that can help you build brand awareness and nurture more leads; no arm-and-a-leg payment required. Here are some ideas for funneling your marketing dollars into low-cost, high-performance marketing tactics. 10 Untapped Marketing Tactics Worth Pursuing Standing out is a good thing in marketing. Once you’ve got the basics down (including a website, social media, and emails), try out these ideas to get the most out of your marketing efforts: 1. Create Short-Form Blog Posts Short-form blogging helps you produce news-like snippets that you can then push out on a regular basis. They’re much quicker and easier to write than standard blog posts and can often be multi-purposed as social media posts. Keep ‘em short, sweet, and to the point, and use them as a way to establish thought leadership and stay top of mind with your audience. 2. Snag Some Press Mentions There’s a ton of value in attention (and backlinks) from reputable publications. Write press releases around company updates, events, and product/service launches. Then send them out to local media contacts for a possible mention. Before you start worrying about costs associated with these efforts, rest assured that there are ways you can get free press for your small business. Just put a process in place and be willing to offer an exchange, and you’ll see the opportunities roll in. 3. Share Guest Content Reach out to brands and publications that are relevant to your audience for guest posting opportunities. Some accept submissions and have guidelines outlined on their site, while others will require some back-and-forth first. In either case, guest posting is an excellent way to tap into a new audience pool and share both your expertise, and get a link or two back to your site. 4. Apply for Awards You’re doing great work, so why not be recognized for it? There are many small business awards, including several that are free or low-cost to enter. If you win, you’ll get industry recognition — and, depending on the organization, a potential prize as well. Awards are a great way to show your audience that you have authority in the space and that industry peers recognize your accomplishments. Make sure you add any badges to your site so visitors can immediately see them. 5. Engage in Social Groups If your social media presence revolves mostly around letting your audience come to you, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to engage with them on a more personal level. Join local and interest-related groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with additional prospects, lend your voice to the conversation, and share your content. Make sure you search for groups related to your industry and focus. It needs to make sense for you to be joining these groups, and that’s the best way to reach an audience that could actually use your product or services. 6. Create a Google My Business Account If you haven’t done this already, now is the time. Having a Google My Business profile — and updating it as needed — will help your business appear higher in local search results, including searches through Google Maps. The more online real estate your business can take up, the better. It puts you in front of more people and adds another level of credibility to your brand. 7. Recycle Old Content Creating new content all of the time can be costly (if you’re outsourcing content creation) and time-consuming. Scale back by investing some of that time into recycling and repurposing old content instead. Update and add to old blog posts. Then turn those posts into additional materials like images, infographics, and even video content that you can then share widely through other channels. 8. Host a Giveaway People love free stuff, and it doesn’t have to be an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas in order to get their attention. Consider running a giveaway around a free consulting session or a couple of free products — which won’t cost you much but could end up with a huge engagement and lead generation boost. 9. Engage with Other Businesses on Social Social media isn’t only good for communicating with prospects. If a relevant (but non-competing) business has a big update or posts an interesting article, start a conversation about it and tag them. If they write back, you’ve got a mention and opened the door to a potential co-branding opportunity. It’s also smart to reshare content from other brands or create content that mentions brands so you can easily tag them on social when sharing it out. Plus, it can lead to more re-shares, follows likes, and comments. 10. Start a Referral Program Customers who are referred by a friend are four times more likely to make a purchase. To encourage those all-important referrals, start a program that incentivizes your customers to share their positive experiences. For example, PandaDoc, a document signing software, offers up to $2 for an inquiry on their website and up to $5 for a confirmed application. Going above and beyond the competition with your marketing strategy doesn’t have to cost you a ton of money. The ideas above are all about acquiring more benefits from the tactics you’re already engaged in, getting more bang for your buck, or, in many cases, simply trying out free marketing methods that you might not have thought of doing before. Start by choosing a few of these ideas and track performance to see what’s working. You should have no trouble finding additional avenues for increasing your digital presence and making more of a mark with your audience.
How Small Businesses Can Collaborate to Promote Mutual Growth Posted on March 18, 2021March 17, 2021 by Guest Author It can often be challenging for small businesses or start-ups to cement themselves in their industries. They are often competing with companies that have much higher budgets and employee power. But collaboration allows smaller businesses to combine their expertise, customer reach, and technology to compete with more prominent brands. This article will explore the best techniques you can use to collaborate with other companies and grow together. Traditional Approaches Combined Marketing Strategies In the digital age that we live in, traditional methods of promotion can often be overlooked. But over half of customers still believe that traditional marketing methods, such as magazines and flyers, are the most trustworthy. Let’s say that you’re a very small business that provides cloud-based communications and services like 3cx. National television commercials and giant billboards may be a bit out of your marketing budget, but this is where collaboration comes in. Small businesses located in reasonably close proximity or local communities can benefit from combining their budgets and investing in traditional marketing strategies—for example, valuable ad space in a popular magazine. You aren’t necessarily going to show off all your products or services, but you can show off your community and the thriving businesses it has. The more publicity your community gets, the more successful local companies can become. Develop a Collaborative Culture There is always an opportunity to collaborate with other small businesses; you just need to be on the lookout. Most businesses need to outsource, which can be anything from IT support to data and competitive analysis. Choosing a local small company can help create a cooperative environment that will help your business in the long run. Not only that, customers often ask small businesses for referrals. For example, let’s say you’re a digital operations company. A client may ask you what the best inventory management system software is. Recommending a small business that you know is high-quality will improve the community’s ecosystem. Share a Space One of the most significant issues a small business can face is retail or office space, especially in high foot-traffic areas or prime locations. This problem can be mitigated with collaboration. Small businesses teaming up together in the same space doesn’t only reduce their expenses, but it introduces each of their customer bases to a new product or service. This means that both companies increase their probability of expanding their consumers. Use Media Social media Social media is one of the most essential tools of this generation. It is multi-faceted, and every different platform has its own unique voice that your business should be exploiting. But social media can also feel like a vast ocean that is difficult to maneuver. Small business social media collaboration is the process of cross-promoting content. This involves sharing, liking, retweeting, etc., each other’s posts and pictures to reach the largest audience possible. Combining each other’s fan bases increases your exposure and the likelihood of your customer base growing. Collaboration doesn’t just mean reposting the occasional Instagram picture on your business’s story. There are a variety of creative things you can do. Consider this scenario. Let’s say you’re a company specializing in call analytics software, and a customer asks you about VoIP and VoIP advantages on Facebook. Referring them to a VoIP company that you know allows you to connect your two ventures. Not only that, you can collaborate with the small businesses on social media by organizing some sort of prize giveaway. If you set specific rules, for example, for the customer to qualify, they should like and share the post. Then you can significantly increase both of your business’s social media engagement. This is crucial for building customer relationships and increasing overall consumer loyalty. Content Collaboration Blogging An example of this is creating blogs. Collaborative blogging is the process of guest posting on another website and backlinking to your own. It is an excellent way to create informative and engaging content that audiences will benefit from. Not only that but developing high-quality blogs will also position you as a leader in your specific industry. Newsletters and Guides Another collaborative and creative idea you can participate in is making joint newsletters or taste guides. Both of these types of content allow you to promote your product in a well-produced and organized environment. They require a high level of team collaboration between the businesses to ensure the content is created on time. But, if successful, they can allow you to expand your audience and develop loyal followers that trust your opinion and, therefore, your brand. Video Production Producing a video series or video podcast is an effective way for small businesses to expand their reach. Video marketing is becoming ever more popular. In fact, over 90 percent of marketers believe it is a crucial part of their strategy, and almost 90 percent state that video production provides them with a positive ROI. The downside to video production is that it can often be expensive, which is why collaborating with another brand may be an option, or else you could outsource your development to a small media production business. Either way, podcasting or a video series provides you with the opportunity to invite guests, network, expand your following, and most importantly, collaborate. Work on a Product Together Product collaboration is one of the purest and, in some cases, most effective forms of business cooperation. Nothing shows harmony more than two businesses combining their extensive knowledge and experience to create one ultimate product that both of their audiences can enjoy. Collaborating on a product can bring a lot of positives, as mentioned above, but you need to make sure of a couple of things first: The company you have chosen to collaborate with should share the same values as you. For example, if your brand is very environmentally conscious, collaborating with an oil company may cause you to lose customers. That you have agreed on common goals. This can be anything from marketing strategies to distribution channels. Organize Shared Events Events are an excellent way for companies to increase their brand awareness, find potential leads, treat their existing loyal customers, and showcase their achievements. Let’s say that you’re a small cloud-based services business that wants to run an event about SaaS examples. If you’re just starting out, it may be challenging to acquire sponsorship and funding for this event. So, you can collaborate with other cloud-based services businesses to split the cost and increase the number of attendees. Many successful businessmen and women talk about being “self-made,” but this is rarely the case. All businesses require a leg up or some form of help to make it in their industry, and collaboration is one of the most effective techniques small businesses can use to help one another succeed. Author Bio Elea is the SEO Content Optimization manager for RingCentral, the leader in global enterprise communication and collaboration solutions on the cloud. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience in on-page optimization, editorial production, and digital publishing. She spends her free time learning new things.
How to Shorten the Lead Cycle with Marketing Automation Posted on March 17, 2021March 17, 2021 by Jess Lunk For small and lean businesses, marketing automation is a game-changer. Companies use it to automate repetitive tasks, create and schedule lead nurture campaigns, and facilitate sales follow-up, so nothing slips through the cracks. However, each marketing automation tool is not created equally. The more reliable and efficient your automation tool is, the more redundancies it eliminates, creating a well-oiled process that generates leads and converts them to customers. Let’s talk about some of the features to look for in a marketing automation tool, as well as some of the ways marketing automation shortens your lead cycle. Efficient Marketing Automation Features When you’re looking to make your routine marketing and sales tasks more structured, you need a tool that offers you features that make sense (without all the bells and whistles that don’t). Here are some marketing automation features you’ll want that will bring order to your process: The ability to tag prospects based on various lead qualifiers, like the type of industry or business they’re affiliated with. Triggers that deploy emails based on certain actions prospects take, like downloading a whitepaper or signing up for your newsletter. Automated sequences that alleviate the repetitive administrative side of lead generation and cultivation. These features save you time and cut back on the amount of basic inbound marketing activities you need to perform. The result is a shorter lead cycle, an increase in generated leads, and more prospects converting to customers. The devil is in the details. Here are some specific functions within the lead cycle that marketing automation lends a hand to. Automate Activities at the Prospecting Stage Marketing automation software that automatically logs calls and emails can save your sales team massive amounts of time. The alternatives are logging these things manually (or not at all). It’s easy to procrastinate with manual logging of calls and emails, and neglecting these tasks altogether soon results in chaos, with leads wondering if your company has its act together. Call and email tracking and automation are among the most important tasks marketing automation software accomplishes. The bulk of the work is in the setup – all you have to do is put together your email outreach ahead of time and then schedule it to deploy based on various actions and triggers your leads take. This affords your sales team the luxury of gradually selling to inbound leads while they can focus on other important tasks, like: Setting up calls with leads that are further down the funnel. Putting together contracts and agreements with leads that are ready to partner/purchase. Strategizing other tactics to increase conversions. Assembling re-engagement campaigns to breathe new life into dormant leads. Accelerate Production of Quotes and Contracts When someone expresses interest in your products or services, getting them a quote quickly and providing a contract promptly is paramount. Some marketing automation tools will assist with quote and contract production, but software that doesn’t can still alleviate enough repetitive tasks to allow sales development personnel to focus their energies on making quotes and writing contracts with fewer worries. Maintain and Strengthen Relationships with Existing Customers While client retention and customer acquisition are equally important, keeping existing customers is far less costly than finding new ones. You can use marketing automation software to maintain and strengthen existing customer relationships and find new ones. By using an all-in-one marketing automation and CRM, the activities and interactions with your current customers are logged, so referencing and tracking patterns is a breeze. You can run reports to identify your longest and most successful customer partnerships, informing which types of businesses and industries you should focus your future sales efforts on. You can also track which approaches with your customers yield the best results and which services or features of your product offerings they get the most value from. With marketing automation, upselling and cross-selling is a breeze. You can set triggers to let your customers know about other products or services they may be able to leverage, increasing customer lifetime value. With logged interactions and automated follow-ups, you can skyrocket customer satisfaction by ensuring consistent customer support and reliable touchpoints. And when your customers are satisfied, they’ll be more inclined to become repeat customers in the future. Track Progress and Fine-Tune Your Strategy Markets, customers, and technologies all change, so it only makes sense that your sales and marketing strategies will need to change as well. Marketing automation software will allow you to track progress of all your initiatives with ease, so you can gain insights early on and act on them at the right time. Analytics help you understand where you need to fine-tune your strategies and help you track future progress once you do so. With marketing automation, there’s no more shooting in the dark regarding which channel or strategy worked and which fell short. And without wasting time on guessing, you have more time to double down on the methods that work. Marketing automation software lets you build relationships with leads who aren’t yet ready to make a purchase, allowing lead behavior to determine the next right step to take. It also helps you sift and sort leads so you can prioritize them to get the highest return on your investment. The right marketing automation solution will also help you strengthen relationships with existing customers so they never feel as if they have been forgotten, and it helps you gather data that lets you understand trends, gain insights, and help your marketing and sales strategies evolve to serve you even better in the future. If you’re looking for a solution that cuts down on your lead cycle and generates more sales more quickly, take a quick tour of BenchmarkONE and sign up for our Free Forever plan.