Marketing Automation for K12 Communicators: It Just Makes Sense Posted on March 11, 2021March 11, 2021 by Jess Lunk Marketing has a lot of value for K12 organizations — and automated marketing doubly so. Engaging with parents, students, donors, and community members is an essential part of building a strong educational institution. It also makes your job a lot easier, allowing you to disseminate information with more efficiency and on a much larger scale. Below, we’re delving into the benefits of marketing automation in the K12 world, plus the specific types of marketing emails that you can automate to make your job — and your life — run smoother. Why Marketing Automation Makes Sense for K12 Educators Wouldn’t it be great if you had an assistant who could handle the ins-and-outs of your email marketing campaigns? A marketing automation platform is pretty much just that, offering tools that can help ensure your emails go to the right people at the right times — and that you get better data reporting in the aftermath. By automating specific emails, you can ultimately save yourself a ton of time while still providing appropriate follow-ups with valuable contacts. Some of the more direct benefits include the ability to segment your contact lists so that you can quickly shoot off messages to certain groups without a lot of work on the backend, as well as the ability to pre-schedule drip campaigns that align with certain projects, protocols, or times of the year. Since you don’t have an agency or enterprise brand’s marketing needs, you can also likely get away with using free or low-cost automation platforms that don’t bog you down with lots of unnecessary bells and whistles. The result is efficiencies without the cost or time burden that people often expect out of these types of tools. 3 Kinds of Emails You Should Definitely Automate The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with K12 email marketing. But to give you an idea of where automation can really help you out, here are four types of emails that lend themselves especially well to educational organizations. 1. Welcome Emails to New Students Being new in school is a daunting experience, so why not use welcome emails to fill new students in on what they can expect? Not only will it make their lives easier, but it will also get them onto the same page as their classmates for a more seamless transition to the school. Use your automation platform to set up one email, or a series of emails, that cover topics like: The basics they need to know to start on the right foot Highlights about school culture and dynamics An overview of their curriculum and day-to-day schedule, A blueprint of the campus grounds Important contact information Since it’s all automated, you’ll be able to write up this information once and effortlessly send it out as needed to additional incoming new students, with a little bit of personalization as needed. 2. Welcome Emails to New Staff Members It’s not just students who have difficulties adapting to a new school. Sending an automated welcome email to new staff members is a great way to get them acquainted with the team and help them feel more at home. Some of what you can share includes: Necessary protocols, items, and features they should start to get familiar with Tours of the school (including the location of specific key resources) Links to other faculty schedules and curriculums Use these emails as a way to not just get new faculty members up to speed but to let them know that you’re here for them as they make the transition. 3. Prospect Outreach and Drip Campaigns One of the best ways to put automated marketing to use in schools is to use it as a tool for engaging with potential new students and their parents. When prospective students and/or their parents download a form on your website, sign up for emails, or show interest in some other fundamental way, use automation to add them to a drip campaign that provides them with relevant information over time. You can send an invitation for a campus visit, allow them to connect with a campus liaison, or guide them through the steps of enrollment — whatever makes the most sense at the time. Doing this in a drip campaign format is particularly beneficial since it gives prospects time to get more familiar with your institution and seriously consider enrollment. It will also help keep your school top of mind as they continue with their search. 4. School Newsletters Keeping constituents informed on the day-to-day activities, special events, and announcements related to your educational institution is vital. This is why having a K12 newsletter is extremely beneficial. You can choose to send these newsletters weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on what yields the best results. K12 newsletters are also a great way to keep in touch with donors, letting them know what exciting happenings they’re ultimately contributing to and increasing future support. If you’re not automating your K12 emails, you’re likely wasting both time and effort on rote tasks that could be done more effectively and with more productive outcomes. The question then isn’t so much why incorporate automation into your marketing strategy, but why not?
The Qualitative and Quantitative Metrics You Should Measure for Your Inbound Marketing Strategy Posted on March 10, 2021October 21, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Just as important as having a great inbound marketing strategy is knowing what metrics you need to be tracking to tell if it’s effective. Inbound marketing (i.e., emails, blog content, social media, ads, and everything else you do to attract customers to your brand) is critical to success. However, it’s not enough to just put these tactics in place and hope for the best. You need to use qualitative and quantitative metrics to attach value to each of your efforts and determine whether they’re pulling their weight. From there, you can decide what’s making the most significant impact with your audience and what might be eating up more resources than it’s producing. Below, we’re looking at the benefits of using qualitative and quantitative metrics for your inbound marketing strategy, including some examples of what you might want to start tracking if you’re not already. Why Measuring More Than Just ROI is Important for Your Inbound Marketing Strategy Around the globe, 41 percent of marketers report that inbound marketing produces measurable ROI for their brand. But is ROI really the only metric that matters? Well, yes — and no. Your return on investment is a top concern with any marketing endeavor, but it’s not as easy as just calculating money in versus money out. ROI can be calculated in both qualitative and quantitative ways. So while you’ll want to know how much a certain tactic upped your profits, you’ll also want to know how it impacted things like web traffic, brand awareness, and integrity, and search visibility — among many others. By breaking up your metrics into qualitative and quantitative measurements — instead of just focusing on pure financial ROI — you gain way more insight into the things that matter for running a successful and sustainable business. And since neither on their own is enough to give you the full picture, you’ll want to make sure that you measure both. Doing so is a great way to create the best inbound marketing strategy possible, particularly when it comes to figuring out what’s worth your time and budget and what isn’t. Qualitative vs. Quantitative: What’s the Difference? Okay, so you know that you need to be tracking both types of marketing metrics, but do you know what they are? Qualitative metrics – These are metrics that look at value beyond clear-cut numbers. For that reason, they’re slightly more difficult to measure — but definitely not less critical. Ultimately, these are in the intangibles, the subjective value drivers that sit at the foundation of successful brands but might not be as glamorous or catchy as their quantitative counterparts. Quantitative metrics – These are the types of metrics you probably focus on the most since they’re direct indicators of growth represented in numerical (and thus easy to understand) figures. Quantitative metrics jump out on the page, but relying on them alone leaves gaps that might cause you to abandon an effort too early — something you might not have done if you were also looking at qualitative value. What Metrics to Measure A lot goes into implementing an inbound marketing strategy. You have to create content that applies to each stage of the buyer’s journey, and you have to ensure you’re creating a trail from your earned media and offsite content to your onsite content where new visitors can convert to leads. From there, you have to set up effective nurture campaigns that educate prospects on your business and product so they can start to consider you as a solution and eventually convert to a customer. With that said, the metrics you use to measure results from these efforts are somewhat endless. Consider your specific short and long-term goals so you can zero in on the ones that matter for your business. That being said, it helps to have a good idea of what metrics are out there so that you can narrow in on the ones that make the most sense for your business. So, here are some of the most common qualitative and quantitative metrics to consider as you define your efforts, as well as examples of metrics that pertain to them. Examples of Qualitative Metrics: Brand credibility – Are industry peers and influencers are reaching out to you for your input in their articles. Brand awareness – Are you gaining new clients from word of mouth or third-party recommendations? Brand trust – Are customers fully trusting you with their strategies? Sales enablement – Is the content your sales reps use in their conversations leading to more sales? Consumer education – Are new leads coming in with a better understanding of what your company does and offers? Industry influence – Are industry influencers reaching out to you to speak at their events? Consumer feedback and engagement – Are you receiving positive reviews and feedback from new customers regarding your sales and onboarding process? Examples of Quantitative Metrics: Revenue generated – Are your inbound marketing efforts, like your drip campaigns or paid ads, effectively leading to new customers converting every month? Number of leads – Are you seeing more people sign up for your emails when they reach your site by way of offsite content? Web traffic – Are one of your pillar posts effectively bringing in new site visitors each month? Bounce rates – Are people spending more time on your site, looking at various pages? Social media followers – Is your social media promo email campaign leading to more followers? Search visibility – When you search a certain keyword or phrase, are you seeing your content climb in search results? Gated content downloads – Are the email and paid ad promo campaigns for your new white paper leading to more people downloading it? Email conversation rates – Are your click-through-rates, subscribe and unsubscribe rates, etc., all moving in a positive direction? After looking at these metrics, it might be more clear why neither qualitative nor quantitative metrics on their own can tell you the whole story about how well you’re performing. Is an increase in social media followers a definite win if the quality of engagement has decreased? Is bringing on more leads a true indicator of long-term success if your industry influence and brand trust are subsequently decreasing? Marketing metrics are most useful when they’re put into context, which means expanding the scope of what you’re looking at and why. There’s no such thing as set-it-and-forget-it marketing. Always use data to drive your decision-making and next steps, especially when it comes to resource allocation. By putting qualitative and quantitative metrics front and center, you’ll be able to design a strategy that’s completely in tune with your business and your on-the-ground impact.
Is It Luck or Is It Strategy? The Key to Marketing Automation Posted on March 9, 2021December 15, 2022 by Allie Wolff Have you ever wondered how some brands manage to accomplish so much when it comes to their sales and marketing strategies? Well, let you in on a secret: they have some help. Sales and marketing automation tools are like having a personal assistant handle the tasks related to growing and sustaining your business. And with 75 percent of marketers using at least one type of automation tool, it’s a safe bet that companies killing it with their marketing and sales performance owe a big thank you to automation (rather than luck or endless budgets). The beauty of marketing automation comes from both its simplicity and utility. Used wisely, it can take a ton of work off your hands, all while enabling you to make a bigger impact with your audience. With many free and low-cost marketing automation tools available, it should be easy enough to fit one into a small business budget. It might sound too good to be true, and it’s important to note that the magic of marketing automation doesn’t happen overnight — or without some effort on your part. Very little is left up to luck. There’s a lot of strategy involved, especially if you want to go beyond the basics of what an automated tool can do for you. Below, we’re diving into what those strategies are, with a look at the various tactics your business can employ in order to ramp up your marketing — and your sales. The Benefits of Marketing Automation Well-planned and well-executed strategies can do wonders for your business’s overall success. Among marketing agencies, a whopping 90 percent say that their marketing automation strategy is successful —with specific, measurable benefits that include: Improved marketing and sales efficiency Increased lead generation capabilities Increased scalability Increased revenue More accurate reporting and better data management Better allocation of marketing budget Add in time savings and improved collaboration between sales and marketing departments, and it becomes difficult to see why any marketing department or agency wouldn’t want to utilize automation in their operations. Marketing Automation Strategies Your Business Needs Ready to put in the work? Here are some performance-driven marketing automation strategies that your business can use to do everything from sending out more ample and effective emails to channeling additional leads down the funnel. 1. Email Marketing Stay top of mind with email newsletters. Email newsletters are key to staying connected with your audience. Additionally, they can be instrumental in increasing traffic to your website, driving more sales, building your digital community, and managing your business’s online reputation. Automation helps you make email newsletters happen in more ways than one. For starters, an email marketing automation tool will have an array of pre-built templates ready for use — which is enormously helpful if you don’t have a dedicated graphic designer on staff. Also, utilizing automation means you can set reminders to prioritize, schedule, and send newsletters so they never get forgotten. Busy schedules mean it can be easy to forget some things. But with marketing automation, your email newsletters will be sent out consistently, creating touchpoints with your audience that build trust over time. Send out email drip campaigns. Drip campaigns are automated emails sent out according to specific user behaviors — and they’re a lot more effective than going the batch-and-blast route. Since automation tools help you segment your audience, you can send the right content to the leads it will help the most. It’ll also track and store all of your analytics in one place, so you have a one-stop-shop for determining what tactics are working and which need to be tweaked. Use marketing automation to set up drip campaigns geared toward targeted audience groups, such as new subscribers or existing subscribers who you’re trying to re-target, upsell, or retain. Emails will “drip” out on a steady, pre-set basis for set-it-and-forget-it lead nurturing that helps take each prospect to the finish line. 2. Social Media Marketing Automate your social media posting. Staying on top of social media is pretty much a full-time job in itself. If you’re struggling to juggle multiple posts per week on multiple channels, you’re not alone — or out of luck. With a social media publishing tool, you can schedule a week’s (or even a month’s) worth of content at a time — factoring in campaigns, product and service launches, promotions, and anything else that you need to be sure to hit on. There are other benefits, too, including the ability to cross-post and monitor all of your social engagement in one place, so you can save time while evaluating success. See what’s engaging your followers. Feeling the strain of constantly needing to come up with new and unique social media content? Let marketing automation do it for you. Instead of trying out various strategies and hoping for the best, your social media automation tool provides you with robust analytics to determine which of your posts are resonating the most. You can track various engagement metrics, like likes, comments, follows, and reshares, and track your most popular posts across channels. This can inform your future approach, so you focus on ideas that are sure to engage instead of wasting time scheduling posts that fall flat. 3. Sales Automation Schedule automatic follow-ups. On average, it takes 18 calls to connect with a buyer, and 60 percent of buyers say “no” four times before they say “yes.” So why do 48 percent of sales reps never make a single follow-up attempt? Because salespeople are busy, and tracking contact communications is a massive, tricky job. Here’s where sales automation software can help. Sales automation can send reminders to reps and even automated follow-ups to prospects, ensuring all of those crucial touchpoints are hit so that no one gets neglected. The result is that sales team members can nurture leads quicker and more efficiently, with fewer potential buyers falling through the cracks. Keep customers coming back. A satisfied customer is a horrible thing to waste. Most businesses find more value in retaining existing customers than acquiring new ones, but doing so requires a post-purchase strategy that can be laborious to implement on a customer-by-customer basis. Maintain customer relationships and satisfaction over time by using automation to periodically check-in, ensure that all of the customer’s current needs are being met, and introduce them to new products and/or services that may be of value to them. You can also use automation to run a referral program and send out promotions, deals, and incentives that are specifically created for your existing customer base. 4. General Operations Engage in more collaboration. Nothing good comes out of having all your departments operate in silos. Every employee in your business is working toward the same overarching goals, and they must have an easy way to collaborate. Use automation to share data on customers and processes between your various departments to close the communication gaps that can breed inefficiencies in the workplace. This also ensures that all information is available to all parties and that nobody is without data that could lead to better ideas for improving experiences with your brand. Centralize all of your data. Speaking of data, today’s businesses generate a lot of it. But data is only useful if you can extract meaningful insights out of it. And that can be hard to do when your data exists in multiple dashboards across multiple platforms. If you’re struggling to keep all of your data in check and put it to use to drive next steps, then look into an all-in-one CRM and marketing automation platform. This kind of tool will aggregate your sales, marketing, and customer info in one place for increased utility. You can also use separate dashboards (one for marketing and one for sales) to gather useful data and regularly audit performance across the board. Is Marketing Automation Right for Your Business? Every business is unique, but they all need tools to help them work smarter and spend less time and money doing so. If you’re not one of the companies that have already put marketing automation to work, now is the time to get started. Automation allows you to utilize your time and your staff better, handing off rote processes to the robots so that you can amplify the benefits of those things that an automated platform can’t do. The earlier you adopt marketing automation, the more competitive your business will be. Start researching now and find a platform (or platforms) that aligns with your goals and your budget. There are a multitude of options out there, and you should have no trouble finding one that fits your unique business needs.
How Small Businesses Can Generate Leads with LinkedIn Posted on March 4, 2021September 18, 2024 by Tricia O'Donnell We generally think about LinkedIn as a hub for networking and sharing industry information. And while it certainly is that, it’s also a place that offers a ton of additional utility for the small business owner — including lots of opportunities for generating more leads. When you’re running a small business, you need to be trying various new sales tactics and generating leads in as many places as possible. And with 675 million monthly users and 50 percent engagement growth year after year, LinkedIn has the potential to open a lot of doors for you when used wisely. So instead of just looking at LinkedIn as one of many basic social media tools, take advantage of all that it can do for you in other areas as well. Here are some tried and true ways to generate more leads more consistently with LinkedIn. 1. Treat Your Profile Like a Marketing Landing Page — Because That’s What It Is You optimize your website to appeal to potential leads, so why not your LinkedIn profile? While you don’t want your profile page to appear like an ad (that might read a little too inauthentic to your prospects), you should be taking subtle steps to design it for lead appeal. This includes putting your value proposition front and center, and yes, even some light keyword optimization. Make sure your company information is easily accessible so that when people check out your profile, they know exactly what it is you do and what company you represent. Transparency is key, and you want leads to get as much information as possible from your profile. Another essential profile feature: a call to action. Let people know that you’re open to connecting, and share your contact information so that it’s easy for them to get in touch. 2. Publish Original Content Lots of small businesses use LinkedIn to share curated industry news, but in addition to that, you should also be creating and sharing original content. The former tells your prospects that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of what’s important, and the latter tells them that you have enough authority to contribute to the dialogue. By utilizing LinkedIn’s article publishing tool, you can reshare articles you’re writing for your company blog, or you can create new articles from scratch. This publishing tool helps you build your personal brand and enables you to tap into LinkedIn’s algorithm so your articles will distribute into the feeds of those who may find them most useful. Don’t forget to share your company’s blog content in your feed, too. Pairing traditional social sharing on LinkedIn for your company’s content while also taking advantage of the publishing tool for content you author is a great way to cover your brand awareness bases. Aim to keep up with a consistent posting schedule, alternating between self-created content and shared content from other sources, and be sure to use relevant hashtags so you can expand your reach. 3. Join Groups Much like Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups serve to bring together individuals who are interested in similar things. Though in this case, groups are more aligned with industries, careers, and professional services than, say, gardening and slow cooker tips. The big benefit of LinkedIn groups for lead generation is that it opens up your network to people who you might not have otherwise come into contact with – who could have prospect potential. Don’t just message every member with a pitch. Instead, maintain regular engagement in the group, share insight, respond to other members, and “connect” with other members when it makes sense to do so. It may take time to generate leads this way, but those you do generate will likely be high quality — and already somewhat familiar with what you have to offer. 4. Narrow In On Your Search Targets A common way to source leads on LinkedIn is through the search bar. However, suppose you’re just searching by one broad term (for example: “hospital administrators”). In that case, the ensuing list of names you get isn’t going to necessarily have a lot of value for you. Fortunately, LinkedIn lets you use additional filters to narrow your search and target leads who are more qualified. Using the example above, you may choose to search hospital administrators who are first or second connections, who are located in your region, and who have a specialization or interest in a particular clinical area. Use your customer personas to highlight which search-related features your leads tend to possess, then use those as guidelines. The difference between these two approaches is that the more you narrow down your search, the higher the quality of your leads becomes. You’ll end up with fewer results overall, but you won’t waste quite so much time on prospects who aren’t the right fit for you. 5. Send a Personalized Message to Each New Connection You only have one chance to make a strong first impression. So when you connect with a new lead, be sure you include a personalized note in the message that introduces you and your business – and that lays the groundwork for further engagement. Just as crucial: follow up if your initial outreach fizzles out. People are busy, and it’s easy to get lost in the fold (especially if their LinkedIn messages aren’t forwarded to their standard email). Do learn to tell when someone just isn’t interested, but don’t take a bout of radio silence as proof that a lead is dead in the water. Put LinkedIn’s lead generation functions to work when you’re trying to grow your small business. Even without investing in some of their heartier (and high-priced) tools, you can get a ton of utility — and new leads — out of the site.
Social Media Tips to Help You Strike Gold Posted on March 3, 2021September 19, 2024 by Natalie Slyman Why do some companies seem to thrive on social media while others don’t? There’s a little bit of luck involved, of course, but social media magic is also something that you have to make happen on your own. As of the first quarter of 2020, there were more than 4.2 billion active social media users — a growth of 490 million users from twelve months prior. That’s 53 percent of the world’s population — and as of 2019, that number included: 90.4 percent of Millennials 77.5 percent of Generation X 48.2 percent of Baby Boomers With so much of your audience likely engaging on social media, you can see just how big the potential pot of gold is. While there are plenty of significant things you should be doing to get your audience to engage (i.e., regular postings, original content sharing, strategic paid ads, etc.), there are also small things you can do to get more from your strategy. In this article, we’ll examine those small things and offer simple tips for creating more magic across your brand’s social media channels. Helpful Social Media Tips X (Formerly Twitter) Tweet at other brands. To get them to engage, try tweeting at a company about an article they wrote. Be specific and focus on building a friendly rapport. It could lead to useful cross-promotion or even a webinar or co-branding opportunity. Post a weekly poll. Utilize X’s built-in poll feature regularly for a super quick and easy way to garner audience engagement. It’s also a great way to have fun on the platform and get to know the people who follow you more. You could even use a poll question to inspire a blog post or inform some aspects of your email marketing strategy. Add images and videos to your tweets. Images are key to consistent branding and help your tweet stand out from the pack. Instead of pulling images from stock sites, design something eye-catching. Take a stat from a report and create an image to share on X. Adding videos to your X posts is also a great way to engage your audience. Utilize tools to help, like a free video maker. Images and videos allow you to inform your followers about something quickly; just make sure you tag the source for some added exposure. Minimize hashtag use. Hashtags are important, but too many are a turn-off. Stick to just one or two to broaden your reach without overdoing it. Look for hashtags that are popular on X, and start following some that are related to your industry. Test a few out to see if any lead to more likes, reshares, or comments. Engage in Real-Time Conversations. Respond quickly to mentions, retweets, and trending topics. X is about being in the moment, so timely responses drive engagement. Short, Concise Tweets. With character limits in mind, keep your messaging clear and impactful. Add visuals (images, videos, GIFs) to grab attention. Instagram Host a giveaway. Think of something you can offer — such as a free product or a free 30-minute consultation — and build a campaign around it that requires users to “follow,” “like,” “comment,” and “tag a friend” in exchange for an entry. Share user-generated content. Users trust their peers when it comes to reviews. First, encourage your customers to share their experience with your brand in their Instagram stories or a post. Then, share that positive user-generated content on your account and be sure to tag the original poster for further engagement. Add a CTA to every caption. Your Instagram captions are just as important as the pictures you post. Drive action beyond general engagement by always making sure to include a CTA. Examples include: “Visit link in bio for more information” or “Tag someone who needs this!”. Get personal. Instagram is a great place to show off the human side of your brand, so make a point of sharing images of your team, your workplace, and other behind-the-scenes goodies. Show them the faces of the people who build your brand, offer them customer service, and think of creative ways to reach them. Do an influencer “take over.” Influencer marketing isn’t just for big brands and enterprise operations. Hand over the reins to your Instagram account to an influencer for 24 hours to tap into their audience and freshen up your feed. If you’re a small business owner, look to your community and see who has a solid following and makes sense for your brand. You can have them do a walk-through of your store and call out some of their favorite products, or they could use your product or service and provide a real-time account of the experience. Use Instagram Stories & Reels. Stories and Reels are great for sharing behind-the-scenes content, quick updates, or user-generated content. Reels, in particular, increase organic reach. Maintain Aesthetic Consistency. Ensure your posts align with your brand’s visual identity. A consistent color palette and theme help with brand recognition. Engage Through Comments. Reply to comments on your posts, comment on your audience’s content, and engage with relevant hashtags. The Instagram algorithm favors active engagement. LinkedIn Post Industry Insights. Share thought leadership, articles, and news relevant to your industry. LinkedIn is more about professional growth and industry expertise. Utilize LinkedIn Live. Host webinars, Q&A sessions, or company announcements on LinkedIn Live to build engagement and share knowledge in real-time. Employee Advocacy. Encourage employees to share company updates or their professional stories. It humanizes the brand and extends reach to their networks. Join Industry-Specific Groups. Participate in relevant LinkedIn groups. Contribute meaningfully to discussions to build your brand as an authority in the industry. Facebook Start a conversation. Back and forth engagement will keep your post in news feeds. Start a dialogue by asking your audience a question and engage with the responses that you get. Be encouraging and share your question with an image so people will be more inclined to spot it and engage. Ask a question that involves tagging other brands. When you loop in other brands, you get their attention and encourage them to share or respond. An example of this would be “What are your favorite SEO tools? Tag them in the comments!” Create a series. Instead of one and done posts, create a themed series that runs for a set period of time, or that occurs periodically, such as once a week or once a month. Use a hashtag for the series, which will help brand it and encourage others to participate in something similar. Series are a great way to fill your social media calendar with something consistent that followers can engage with long-term. Repurpose content. Just sharing a blog article might not lead to much engagement. Get more momentum by creating additional posts around certain article elements, such as key quotes or images. Each piece of content you create can be broken down into ideas for Facebook; you just have to get creative. Targeted Ads. Facebook’s ad platform allows for highly targeted campaigns. Use audience segmentation based on demographics, interests, or past behavior to refine your reach. Create and promote Events. Facebook Events are great for promoting webinars, sales, or in-person events. Invite your followers, send reminders, and provide updates directly during the event. Engage with Facebook Groups. Participate or create niche groups around your brand or industry. Groups are becoming more popular as they offer community-driven discussions. Use Videos & Live Streaming. Facebook prioritizes video content in its algorithm, so use videos or go live to connect with your audience in a more personal, interactive way. TikTok Leverage Trends and Challenges. TikTok thrives on trends. Participate in viral challenges or create branded challenges to increase visibility and user-generated content. Short, Engaging Content. Keep videos fun, dynamic, and concise (15-30 seconds). Use eye-catching visuals and catchy music to hook viewers in the first few seconds. Influencer Marketing. Collaborate with TikTok influencers who align with your brand to create authentic, engaging content that resonates with their followers. Use Hashtags & Sounds. TikTok’s algorithm heavily favors hashtags and trending sounds. Use popular ones that fit your brand to increase discoverability. General Tips Define clear goals. Set specific objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales. Your content and strategy should align with these goals. Know your audience. Understand your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Tailor your content, tone, and posting schedule to what resonates with them. Cross-promote. Link up your different social media pages as much as you can, particularly through buttons and targeted cross-promotions. Keep it consistent. Your brand identity — including voice and imagery — should remain consistent from channel to channel, even if the content itself varies. Maintaining consistency will help you establish expectations and make it so people will easily identify your social content. Don’t try to do too much. Unless you have a team of pros working on your behalf, you’re going to be limited in what you can do on social media. Be strategic in choosing your channels, basing decisions on where your audience is rather than trying to be everywhere at once. Quality over quantity. Keep your social media presence authentic by focusing on quality posts over just posting for the sake of it. You will not get quality engagement from just checking a box. Engage with your audience. Audience engagement is a terrible thing to waste. When you get comments, “like” and respond to them instead of just letting them sit there. Diversify your content. Mix up content types such as articles, images, videos, polls, and stories. This keeps your feed fresh and engages different segments of your audience. Optimize post timing. Analyze your audience’s activity to determine the best times to post. Posting when your audience is most active increases the likelihood of higher engagement. Cross-promote your social media channels. Promote your social media accounts across other channels, such as your website, email newsletters, or even physical materials, to increase your following across platforms. You have more control over how well your social media channels perform than you might think. Make your own luck by following smart practices and keeping up with new trends and features. There’s big payoff potential for getting it right, especially when it comes to your ability to build a large, organic, and involved audience — and what brand doesn’t want that?
Betting Big: 3 Keys To Employee Retention in Times of COVID-19 Posted on March 2, 2021March 9, 2021 by Guest Author The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a record-breaking rate of unemployment. This, in turn, has created something of a buyer’s market where power has shifted from workers to employers. Companies had to lay off workers, cut salaries, and reduce benefits to keep their operations running. This trend has had an enormous knock-on effect on the economy, which had only recently begun to bounce back. KPMG recently conducted a survey to demonstrate how many businesses are battling with employee retention during the pandemic. The company surveyed CEOs to identify their top priorities at the time. Just one percent of those surveyed dubbed ‘talent risk’ as the largest risk on their minds pre-COVID. It’s now the largest risk overall, however, with a whopping 21 percent of CEOs agreeing. Businesses that aim to retain their talented staff are being urged to supply new and innovative tools to keep workers connected, up-skilled, and engaged during COVID-19 and beyond. The Influences of Remote Work With so many organizations embracing remote work, new employees no longer need to relocate to assume a role. Geographical location is no longer a hindrance, and businesses are competing for talent from across the globe. Likewise, talented job seekers have more opportunities available, as they can remotely work online. Employers may hold more power right now due to high unemployment rates, but workers who have far more choice over who they work for counterbalances this. Additionally, workers’ expectations have shifted dramatically amidst the pandemic. Professionals expect more from their employers than ever before. Companies that prioritize transparency, flexibility, safety, mental health support, and technological progress are now far more adept at retaining their workforce. On the other hand, those who try to force their workers to work in unsafe or stressful environments face high staff turnovers and significant recruitment issues. The Link Between Employee Engagement and Retention There can be no denying it—employee engagement and retention go hand-in-hand. The more engaged a staff member is, the longer they’ll be willing to stay with their employer. Engagement is also directly linked to productivity. By engaging your workers, you’ll encourage them to stay longer and work harder. This will positively impact your organization on every level. Disengaged workers are far more likely to start searching for greener pastures. One poll from Gallup found that more than half of disengaged and unmotivated employees will hunt for another job, and almost three-quarters aim to quit. This is especially true for workers who work in environments that lack supportive managers. Ultimately, creating a healthy, motivating work culture is the key to employee retention. Even if your workforce is remote at the moment, you can still develop a supportive and nurturing culture for employees. This process starts with implementing leadership that values workers as human beings. Workers who feel like they belong and are being valued will naturally work harder and be willing to stay with your organization for the long haul. Hiring the assistance of a professional employer organization (PEO) can help in this regard. PEOs have gone through training to better handle your admin, payroll, recruitment, employee benefits, and other important processes to help you find and retain talented workers. The best PEO companies offer the ideal solution for small businesses that don’t necessarily have the time, resources, or scope to focus on HR. By outsourcing to a PEO, you can reduce the HR load, create a better working environment, boost employee satisfaction, and increase retention. The 3 Keys to Employee Retention During COVID Times 1. Engagement and Support Your workers are undoubtedly hoping you’ll care for them during this crisis, especially since their lives are significantly more complicated and challenging to navigate now. They want to work for a company that communicates honestly and effectively—one that offers them benefits that’ll help lighten their personal and professional loads. Offering employees access to comprehensive benefits and programs during these trying times is the key to retaining talent. When your workers don’t need to worry about money, healthcare, mental health, safety, and childcare, they will be able to focus more on being productive. The most vital employee benefits to offer during COVID are: Flexibility Paid leave Employee assistance programs Healthcare coverage Extensive childcare support Mental health services and paid sick time are exceptionally important now, too. You can support your workers by engaging in one-on-one check-ins and discussions. Encourage your managers to engage workers in personal meetings, even if they’re held remotely. Ask them to gauge if workers are coping and making progress with their current projects. Your company should act as a support system, providing empathy, guidance and assistance. After all, employees must have what they need to safely and securely perform to the best of their abilities. 2. Clear, Transparent Communication Your company’s managers, executives, and HR professionals need to communicate regularly with empathy, transparency, and honesty. Everyone is stressed and under pressure due to the uncertainty and strain caused by the pandemic. Others are facing devastating losses or fearing that their jobs may no longer be secure. You can address some of that anxiety by taking a position of leadership. Address these difficult emotions and worries, and communicate with your employees using compassion and care. Acknowledge what your dedicated workers are going through. This way, they’ll feel safe about speaking openly about their challenges, both with management and their colleagues. Workers whose employers care for them feel more included in their organizations. They’d recommend their employers to their friends and are more likely to remain loyal for years at a stretch. 3. Continuous Flexibility The term ‘flexibility’ has stepped into the spotlight during COVID-19. Managers need to have conversations with their team members to identify the type of flexibility most important to them. As an example, parents home-schooling their children in the afternoons may not be able to have meetings during that time. A manager should acknowledge this need and give their employees the flexibility to perform their responsibilities earlier in the day. This reduces stress and ensures employees can meet their professional and family obligations. You can promote a flexible workplace by making it easier for your workers to set their own schedules. At the same time, you can still set boundaries, guidelines, and flexibility engagement rules, so they always know where they stand. The Bottom Line Talented employees are one of the most essential factors in your business’s ability to operate effectively. You can retain them by offering authentic support during COVID-19. Communicate clearly and effectively, grant them the tools they need to perform, as well as the benefits they need to feel secure and valued. Above all, be flexible in your approach, but be clear about what’s expected. A valued, cared-for employee will be far more willing to work harder and more diligently to meet your business’ goals and ambitions. Author Bio Kelly Lowe is a passionate writer and editor with a penchant for topics covering business and entrepreneurship. When she’s not tapping away at her keyboard writing articles, she spends her free time either trying out different no-bake recipes or immersing herself in a good book.
The Small Business Guide to Paid Advertising Posted on February 25, 2021August 25, 2022 by Jess Lunk As a small business owner, you’re managing operations, customer service, account management, and not to mention everything regarding sales and marketing. Are you sure you’re not a superhero? Small business owners are doing it all. Even with the assistance of an in-house advisor or an outsourced marketing team, it’s still ultimately your responsibility to know what’s going on and why, especially when it comes to your marketing strategies and paid advertising. A strategy like paid advertising can be overwhelming, confusing, and challenging to manage — particularly if it’s not your area of expertise. This quick guide to paid advertising includes the essentials you need to know to ensure you’re not wasting your time or money. Why You Should Consider Paid Ads At face value, it might seem like you can opt-out of paid ads entirely. After all, you can obtain massive reach with organic content marketing and SEO. With all the free SEO tools out there and cost-efficient content creation, these efforts aren’t going to empty your pockets. But paid ads have a lot to offer, too, and most marketers are already on board. In fact, 80 percent of marketers are making room in their budgets for various paid advertisements. There’s good reason for this. For starters, paid ads are great for brand awareness, and the traffic that they bring your way is more likely to lead to conversions than those from organic advertising. Then there’s the fact that while content and SEO marketing have huge potential, it’s also hugely competitive. The internet is packed with businesses of all sizes that are striving to rank for the same keywords. To get to the top of the pack, you’re almost always going to need existing domain authority — a fact that overwhelmingly favors big companies who have already had a long time to establish their digital presence. When it comes to small business ads, it’s never a one-or-the-other type of thing. Your strategy should include both organic and paid advertising, with complementary campaigns that help you find your audience online (and help them find you in return). To put your best foot forward with paid advertising, let’s take a look at the types of paid ads and explain how they’re used. The 5 Most Common Types of Paid Ads Most paid ads are designed as PPC ads, meaning that instead of paying outright for ad placement, you pay a set fee every time someone interacts with your ad — about $1 to $2 per click. Within this designation, there are various types of paid ads that you can employ. Here are some of the most common: Search ads – These ads appear at the top of a search results page, above the organic rankings. They look pretty similar to standard search results but have a small box that says “Ad” next to the URL. Social media ads – These advertisements appear on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These generally appear right in users’ feeds and are noted as being sponsored posts. They are also highly targeted based on pages and brands users prefer, like, and follow. Display ads – These are banner ads that appear on websites that display ads to visitors and usually include a photo, brief text, and a link. Google shopping ads – If you own an eCommerce small business, you may benefit from eCommerce platforms like Google shopping ads. These appear in a carousel on the results page when people search for a certain item. They include basic details like an image, price, and website link. Retargeted ads – These are ads specifically placed in front of users who have previously checked out your website but did not convert. They can be any format, such as display ads, search ads or social ads. This isn’t an exhaustive list, and you’ve probably seen all of these ads before during your own internet perusing and searching. But, this should give you a good idea of the various types of PPC ads that are available and how you can use them to target specific subsets of your target audience. Tips for Paid Advertising Success Running a small business means that you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget to throw at paid ads. Instead, you need to be smart with how and where you allocate your funds, and we’ve got some tips on how to do that. Tip #1: Filter Your Audience You obviously want as many people as possible to see your ads, but what’s even more important is making sure the right people see them. Focus on members of your core audience when putting together your paid ads. Luckily, you can use filters to narrow down who your ads target. Use your buyer personas and get as specific as you can in terms of audience demographics, geographical location, interests, needs, etc. Use more granular keywords and avoid broad terms to get the most out of your budget. Also be sure to tailor the content of your ads – from design to copy – to your audience. This ensures that the right type of buyer clicks on your ad instead of wasting spend on buyers who are not the right fit. Tip #2: Don’t Try to Be Everywhere In a similar vein, you also need to be strategic with where your ads appear. For instance, if you’re mainly targeting older Millennials, your social media ad dollars are probably better spent on sites like Instagram and Pinterest versus platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, which cater to a younger audience. You can survey your customers to see what social platforms they like the most. Get creative on social media by creating Instagram or Twitter polls, or send out a yearly survey to your subscribers that asks them various questions, including which channels they’re most active on. Tip #3: Track Your KPIs This one is crucial. The only way to know what’s working and what’s not is to dig into the data. PPC hosts like Google and social media platforms make it easy to track your key metrics, and you should keep a close eye on performance. Make tweaks here and there to make sure your budget is being spent wisely. If you have to pull ads entirely, that’s fine. The last thing you want to be doing is throwing more and more money at a strategy that isn’t giving you anything in return. You’re also not going to hit a home run on your first try. Give your social ads some time to perform before you make any significant adjustments. Final Thoughts While organic marketing and SEO will reach a wide audience, you’re not likely to always reach your ideal target customer this way. Remember, you’re competing against every big business within your industry out there. Opting for paid ads in conjunction with those efforts will strengthen your position in the market, increase awareness for your brand and put your company in front of the right customers.
Fall in Love with Marketing All Over Again With These Fresh Strategies Posted on February 24, 2021September 29, 2022 by Allie Wolff Have you found that your passion for marketing has fizzled recently? We’ve got just the thing to re-ignite your marketing love affair! It’s totally normal to get bored of doing the same old, same old with your marketing campaigns. But if you’re getting bored, imagine how your audience feels. Mixing things up is a great way to make things exciting again, but it’s also the key to more engagement from your key audience. We’re sharing some creative spins on tried and true marketing tactics to help you fall in love with your marketing efforts all over again — and to help you generate, nurture, and convert more leads. Grab a box of chocolates (heart-shaped preferred) and dig into these crafty ideas for kicking your emails, social media, and content marketing up a notch. How to Keep the Marketing Spark Alive Email Marketing Ideas Done well, email marketing can have a major impact on the success of your overall marketing plan. Done poorly, it can be a waste of time for you and your leads and negatively impact your email deliverability. Perk up your performance with these email marketing tactics designed to keep the clicks coming. Progress updates. Raising funds for a good cause? Getting ready to launch a new product? Keep your audience informed with newsworthy progress emails. These will continually renew interest in what you’re doing while making subscribers feel personally invested in the outcome. They’re a great way to incorporate fun copy and visuals and showing the exciting things happening with your brand. Easy setups. Integrate new customers into your existing community by sending a follow-up email that walks them through how to get the most out of their new product or service. It’s at this stage of the relationship that your audience is the most engaged, so double down on that piece of knowledge with informative content and great graphics, making your installation directions fun and appealing. Acknowledge anniversaries and birthdays. Set up automated campaigns that reach out to subscribers when they’ve been with you for a year, two years, and so on, or to celebrate a birthday. It’s one of the easiest forms of personalized outreach — and a great way to strengthen your relationship and show your customers you care. Aside from the above-mentioned email marketing methods, try spicing up your emails by changing up your design. Look into free email templates, or switch to an email marketing tool with a strong email builder, like Benchmark Email, that provides tons of email design options. Social Media Marketing Ideas Social media is a fantastic place to put a creative marketing strategy into action. And with so much social content out there, the more you mix it up, the more likely you are to see increases in your engagement. Host a contest. Few things garner interest faster than giving away something for nothing. Though in this case, you’re not exactly getting nothing — you’re getting a huge lead generation boost. Try partnering up with other brands to increase the prize value and the size of your audience. Share user-generated content. Happy customers love to share their experiences online, and they really love when brands see those posts and share them with their own followers. Make a point to incorporate more user-generated content into your social marketing strategy. You’ll incentivize more people to share and get double the benefits out of the content. Run engaging polls. Pretty much all social media platforms allow you to put together a quick poll, and this type of content is super useful for encouraging engagement. As a bonus, they’re a way to learn more about your audience — including what they like and what they respond to — which is information you can put to use in future campaigns. Content Marketing Ideas When it comes to creative content marketing, the sky is really the limit. Think outside the blog post and wow your audience with some of these out-of-the-box ideas. Trend predictions. Trend prediction posts offer a few significant benefits: they’re timely, easy to skim, great for linking and make ideal gated assets. They’re also useful for other brands to link to in their content, which will award your content with more backlinks. Just make sure to update trend pieces when their timeliness has passed. Go behind the scenes. The best kind of brand-audience connections are personal connections — and nothing is more personal than a behind-the-scenes look at what you do and how you do it. Give a tour of your R&D department, take readers along on a promotional trip, or introduce your adorable office pets. All of these show that there are real people behind your product or service and that they’re passionate about your brand. Bring on guest bloggers. Guest bloggers bring a new voice and new ideas to your content — and they also provide you with an opportunity to tap into not just your own audience but theirs as well. Pursue guests with established followings, reputable experience, and great writing skills instead of just seeking out whoever wants to contribute. This will give you a chance to run your blog like an industry publication, earning your more credibility and high-quality content to share with your leads in the process. Revise and refresh. Creative content marketing doesn’t always have to mean new content. It’s hugely beneficial to go back through your archives and capitalize on existing pieces by updating them for a new time period (and possibly a new audience). Not only does this help you keep up with the ever-moving content mill, but it’s also great for your SEO. Just like relationships, marketing strategies need to grow and evolve. Keep the spark alive by continually looking for ways to get creative, and don’t be afraid to try new things. You won’t know what works best until you test it out, so aim big and see what happens when you think outside the box.
How to Prioritize SEO in Your Content Creation Process Posted on February 23, 2021September 2, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Sixty-eight percent of online experiences begin with a search engine. So if you want to make sure that your content is in the right place at the right time, you have to be thinking about SEO at every single stage of the content creation process. SEO — or search engine optimization, for the uninitiated — is a marketing strategy designed to increase your content’s visibility and organic reach. It also helps ensure that your content ends up in front of the right audience. Keyword and keyword research are a big part of SEO, and they’re usually what we think of first when the term comes up. But there are more ranking factors to be aware of, including the security, accessibility, and loading speed of your website, your content’s mobile-friendliness, and links, both internal and external. In terms of content creation, being aware of SEO from the start is a good idea if you want to grow your reach and tap into a bigger audience. But don’t feel like you have to outsource your SEO. Where here to help you do it with a quick step-by-step guide for ensuring your content ranks. Step 1: Ideate Your Content SEO plays a big role in what you decide to write about. Stick to topics that are relevant to your brand and that you have some presumed authority to speak on. Not only will this help your content perform better, but it will also help you connect with higher-quality prospects. Build a mind map, starting with topics that speak to your brand’s core and then branching each of them out into subtopics. From there, head to keyword research or SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Answer the Public to generate keywords based on the topics and subtopics you identified. Use these keywords, phrases, and questions to guide your content and help inform what you should write about. Step 2: Outline Your Content If you’re regularly creating content, chances are you’re already putting together outlines to guide each article. However, make sure that you’re including basic SEO components you’re looking for in your outline, which will inform the writer and keep everyone on the same page regarding focus. At BenchmarkONE, we like to include a suggested title, a couple of sentences, or a paragraph on what the content is about and any key points the article should touch on. Complete the outline with any keywords or phrases that need to be included, and if you have a focus keyword you’re trying to rank for, be sure to mention that. Step 3: Write Your Content If you’re doing the writing yourself, SEO will be integral to the process. In addition to staying on topic, you’ll want to strategically place keywords throughout your copy to optimize it for search. Put a high-priority keyword in your header, and work that keyword and any additional keywords into subheaders and the text itself. Consider not just what people search but how they search it, making your keywords more conversational than robotic to be in line with the surge in voice search. Links are important. Try to stick in at least one internal link and one link to a high-authority external site (make sure it’s non-competing). As you write more content, you can start to create pillar posts, which include a lot of internal links and are great for SEO. Make sure that your content is easy to read and actionable. This is more valuable for your readers, and search engines like it too. Step 4: Tweak Your Content Keep SEO front of mind as you edit your content before publication. Verify that the piece is well-written, original, and on topic, and check that your keywords and links are in place. Search engines love graphics, so work some original images or videos into your content if you can (or just use stock photos). Add an alt-text description to all graphics for both SEO and user accessibility, and go ahead and stick a keyword in there, too, if you can. Make sure that you have a meta description in mind or already written. Your meta description will need to be concise and use the keywords you established. Step 5: Distribute Your Content Following the steps above means that your content will be optimized for organic reach, though it might not happen right away. In the meantime, take action to distribute your content in a targeted, effective way. Use it in email marketing, sending it out to segmented contact lists depending on which leads will find it most relevant to their current needs. Share your content on your social media pages, too, paying attention to what sorts of pieces resonate most with your followers and spur on the most engagement. Content isn’t the only part of your SEO strategy, but it is a big part of it. Keep a close eye on how your content is performing and update and/or modify existing pieces as needed to improve their ranking. As your content requirements grow, go back to step one and your mind map and go through the process again. Regardless of your industry, there are always a wealth of topics, ideas, and keywords that may be relevant to your audience — you just have to figure out what they are (and utilize them correctly).