What Should My 2021 Small Business Marketing Goals Be? Posted on January 5, 2021August 25, 2022 by Jess Lunk Most people start a small business because they have a great idea or a passion for a certain product or service. But that alone isn’t enough to run a successful company. You have to wear a lot of hats as a small business owner, including some that you might not have anticipated. And like it or not, that includes being a marketing strategist. With all the curve balls 2020 threw at us, it’s understandable to want to turn things around this year. Whatever marketing and sales setbacks you experienced or small business mistakes you made, you’re ready to wipe the slate clean and focus on bigger and better goals to follow through with. There’s nothing like making up for lost time, and in 2020, a lot of us lost a lot of time. Here’s the good news: you can absolutely turn things around this year. Let’s address the overarching marketing goals that you should be aiming for and some specific tactics to implement that will help you meet them. Are you ready to crush it this year? Goal #1: Increase Sales Okay, this one is probably pretty obvious, right? But setting your sights on increasing sales isn’t just about doing better than last quarter or last year. Instead, you should be quantifying an actual percent increase that you want to achieve based on past performance and market conditions. It’s completely fine to aim big (and you should!), but make sure that it’s a goal you think you can actually hit. This way, you’ll be able to take deliberate action to get there, rather than just crossing your fingers and hoping that a windfall comes your way. Start by putting together a sales forecast that is built on data. Examine your small business’s sales performance each month of 2020, and indicate any patterns that might help you predict what the upcoming months may look like. Next, you’ll want to look at your sales process for areas of improvement. What strategies were successful? Are outbound efforts lagging behind inbound efforts? Did most of your sales come from word of mouth? Or, did you send an email campaign that yielded a high conversion rate? These are the kinds of methods you’ll want to dive into so you can either refine and improve or double down on. Don’t neglect tools! A well-armed sales team is a successful sales team. Using tools that enable the sales process, like a CRM and marketing automation, will create efficiencies in your sales process that can ultimately lead to increased return. A CRM helps you better identify your customer and learn things like what industry they’re in and their pain points. You can keep better track of them so you can send personalized drip campaigns that offer helpful resources to ease them through the funnel. And with marketing automation, you won’t have to spend hours crafting and sending emails. You can easily create messages and follow-up that are prompted based on specific actions your leads take. So, while you’re busy checking other items off your to-do list, your leads are being nurtured, and your business is staying at the top of minds. Goal #2: Generate Valuable Leads Valuable leads and increased sales go hand-in-hand. A better, more qualified lead pool increases your chances of converting those leads to actual customers. Why? Well, the more qualified a lead is, the more likely they are to need your services or want your product. However, great leads aren’t just waiting for you to find them. They can be hard to track down, but they’re priceless once you do. When it comes to lead generation, the big objective isn’t necessarily getting as many new leads as you can, rather get as many quality leads as possible. There are two basic factors for determining the value of a lead: how likely they are to convert into an actual customer and how much revenue they might be able to generate for your business. Figuring out who fits the bill isn’t an exact science, but putting your marketing time and money toward getting more of the leads with high-value potential is always the way to go. Some methods for getting qualified leads are: Host webinars or digital events – Partner with brands that have a similar audience as yours to host webinars or digital events and tap into each others’ networks. Digital advertising – Look into PPC tools and placing ads on social sites and other websites that your audience frequents so you can tap into places they’re already engaged. Create landing pages – Landing pages that are optimized for conversions are essential for your website. Make sure you link to these landing pages in your digital ads and promotions and share them out on your social channels to direct leads back to your site to convert. Become a guest contributor – Create and publish content on high authority online publications that your audience reads. Make sure you include a link in your content back to your site or landing page so you can create a path to conversion. Utilize pop-up forms – When people land on your site, what is their call to action? Adding pop-up forms to your website’s high-traffic pages is a great way to encourage a lead to sign up for your emails or download a piece of high-quality content. Once they fill out the form, you can enroll them into your inbound marketing and begin nurturing them. Goal #3: Have an Effective Inbound Marketing Strategy Generating all those valuable, qualified leads means nothing if you don’t have an effective inbound marketing strategy in place. Your inbound strategy is all about leading prospects to your site, converting them to leads, enrolling them in email nurture, then eventually converting them into a customer. So, with that said, employing some of the tactics mentioned in goal number two will help you also achieve this goal. It’s a win-win! There are multiple prongs to inbound marketing, including SEO-driven content, social media, and branding. And while outbound marketing is important, too, it’s these inbound methods that will really help you expand your lead pool and get in front of more prospects. Make sure you use tactics like webinars, guest-content, digital advertising, social media, and SEO-driven content to get your brand in front of a new audience. Then, ensure your site is set up to convert those new visitors to leads by implementing forms and gated content. Once a visitor converts to a lead, use your marketing automation tool to enroll them in the right nurture campaign based on how you segment your contacts. Goal #4: Create More Content Content is necessary for every area of your business. You need content to fuel your email marketing strategy, your blog, and your social media presence. Content also helps in your recruitment efforts and your sales enablement. It’s no wonder one of your goals is to create more content! To make it work for you, though, you have to consult your marketing plan to put together a content strategy document. Start by outlining the journey that your leads take to discover and engage with your brand. Consider breaking it down by customer type if you have a variety of buyer personas you’re trying to connect with. Use these details to inform the kind of content you already have and the kinds you need to create to appease specific touchpoints and needs. Create a process for creating content and designate specific team members to own parts of the process so that nothing gets neglected. Factor in an SEO strategy and internal link-building so you can encourage traffic to other high-priority content. And make sure you have a distribution plan in mind so you can get your content out there in front of more eyes. Goal #5: Improve Customer Retention There is much more revenue potential in keeping existing customers happy than maintaining a constant flow of new customers. Brainstorm what you need to be doing to retain your current customers, particularly things you can do to offer them an experience they won’t get elsewhere. It’s a lot more productive in the long term than focusing on customer acquisition and will help you build up your brand’s reputation along the way. Include your customer support and sales team in these conversations. These departments know first-hand the struggles your current and potential customers experience and, therefore, can offer you key insights into what you can enact that will create a better customer experience. Your CRM is also an invaluable asset when it comes to customer satisfaction. Since it tracks all your customer data and interactions, you can use it to pick up any patterns relating to unhappy customers or inactivity. Perhaps after six months, your CRM shows you that a lot of your customers drop off in engagement. That might be a good time to send your customers an email check-in to make sure everything is going well. Goal #6: Create More Upsell Opportunities We know it can seem like an awkward conversation, but there’s almost always an opportunity to sweeten the deal with your customers. Work on marketing and sales strategies geared toward upselling, with an eye toward providing your customers with extras they really need, not just extras that pad your profits. This goes hand in hand with customer retention since you’re showing that you can anticipate your customers’ needs and provide them with solutions they weren’t even aware they needed. Again, your CRM and marketing automation tool can come in handy with this. Create a task for yourself to touch base with your customers about six months or so into your relationship. This gives you a chance to see how things are going with them, and if there is anything they aren’t loving or could use more assistance with. Be open to adjusting their service offerings or packages if it means they’ll be happier and see better results. You could even enroll them into an upsell campaign that shares other products or tools your company offers that may be of interest to them. And make sure that when you roll out a new product, they’re the first to know about it. Goal #7: Get More Site Traffic Finally, aim big with your website traffic. Brand awareness is a critical part of growing a small business, and it requires a concentrated effort to drive more eyes to what you’re doing. Things like SEO, accessible web design, and cross-channel marketing are all part of bringing more people to your site, and each in its own way will help you establish yourself within your industry. Luckily, if you’re planning on implementing some of the tactics already mentioned (like webinars, guest content, and digital advertising), then you’re pretty much nailing two (or more) birds with one stone. However, make sure that SEO is a part of your content creation process, which will Factor in voice search with your SEO strategy, as well as mobile SEO. Both are increasingly popular methods for searching online, and you’ll want to make sure your small business has some skin in the game. The best way to get back at 2020 is to have a successful and prosperous 2021. Structure your marketing strategy around these goals that are directly tied to overall success, and as you grow, you’ll be able to get more specific and more impactful with the marketing decisions that you make.
How to Prioritize Email Newsletters and Send Them Consistently Posted on December 30, 2020December 23, 2020 by Natalie Slyman With so many things to do in a day, it can be easy to lose sight of the value of creating and sending email newsletters. But newsletters have a ton of utility, especially for small businesses looking to make a big impact without the advantages of a big budget. Among B2B marketers, 40 percent say that email newsletters are critical to their success, and a whopping 79 percent find newsletters to be the most successful channel for distributing content. When used consistently, newsletters can serve as an essential tool for lead nurturing, moving prospects through the inbound funnel and closer to a sale. They can also help you stay top of mind with your audience so that when they’re ready to make a decision, your company is the first one they think of. There are so many reasons to make email newsletters a priority. So while they might seem like just one more thing on an ever-growing task list, they’re an essential tool that can lead to business growth and an increase in revenue. Here’s how to get the ball rolling — and keep momentum going — with your company’s newsletters. Establish How Often You Want to Send Newsletters There’s no secret formula for deciding how often you should send your newsletters. Instead, the trick is to find the cadence that works best for your unique audience — and what garners the best results. Maybe that’s once a month or once a week. A good place to start is to look at your competitors and see how often they send their newsletters. You can also play around with a couple of different frequencies and then compare outcomes to see what’s working. Make sure you track the following metrics for each frequency you’re testing: Open rate Click-through rate Unsubscribe rate And, send your newsletters at the same frequency for at least three months. Compare those metrics to determine which frequency saw the highest open and click-through rates and the lowest unsubscribe rate. Use a Tool to Help You Prioritize and Manage Newsletters A marketing automation tool will be essential in creating and sending out your emails. Use it to segment your lists based on various demographics like region, industry, and where particular leads are in the buyer’s journey. You can also use it to create personalized emails for each of your lists so that you can be absolutely sure you’re sending the right types of content to the right people. Aside from taking the guesswork out of creating your newsletters, a marketing automation tool has a lot of purpose when it comes to keeping you on track. Use it to set repeating tasks so you’ll get reminders when it’s time to start working on your next newsletter. Create an Editorial Calendar You may have an editorial calendar already, but if you don’t, email newsletters are a great excuse to put one together. Editorial calendars give you a big picture overview of what content you need to create (and have already created), as well as how it all fits together toward your bigger objectives. For the purpose of newsletters, you can use this calendar to easily pull relevant content to fuel your emails, as well as to hone in on the major topics and themes that matter to your audience. Meet with your marketing team before each quarter to discuss any big events or promotions you’ll be running. Use these events to inform your topic ideas, and hold a brainstorm session to map out specific blog posts or other marketing material you want to create. Take those ideas and put them into a calendar, assigning each a publication date. And make sure there’s a point person to help drive next steps so you can deliver on your plan. Once you’re consistently using your editorial calendar to aid in your content creation process, you’ll accumulate a bank of helpful, purposeful content to share in your email newsletters. Reserve Time and Make Deadlines Time is a valuable resource, but so is newsletter engagement. And to capitalize on the latter, you have to put in plenty of the former. Carve out dedicated time every week or month (depending on how frequently you plan to send your newsletters) to put your emails together. Work off of a set template within your marketing automation platform so you don’t have to start from scratch with every edition. Populate it as needed with the most relevant, timely, and conversion-driven content you’ve got. Giving yourself enough time here is key. In addition to not having to rush with putting together your newsletter, you’ll always want to be sure you have ample time to play around and get creative with email subject lines and personalization. Additionally, you’ll want enough time to test your email newsletters to ensure that all your links are working and that the content is free of typos and other errors. Plan to pass a test on to at least one other person on your team to get additional input. Track and Analyze It’s a lot easier to keep up your newsletters when you can see first-hand how they’re benefitting your business. Use your marketing automation tool’s analytic dashboard to track things like your open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate, and unsubscribe rate. Pay attention to the direct impact that your newsletters have on things like lead nurturing and sales. Are any of your newsletters leading to demo requests or requests to speak to a sales rep? Are any leads making a purchase from your newsletters or after opening one of your newsletters? Even if these are one-offs, keep track of them so you can pick up on any patterns that can be duplicated. The more you can see your success in action, the more incentivized you’ll be to keep going. Likewise, you’ll also be able to identify anything that’s not working in your emails — and take steps toward resolution. Tracking analytics may be the last step, but it’s the most important for ensuring you’re doing everything right to engage, nurture, and convert your leads. Email newsletters are a crucial marketing tool that will contribute to your business’s success. You just have to find a way to factor them into your daily tasks. Follow the steps listed above, and you’ll be sending email newsletters with ease and seeing the benefits in no time.
How To Perform Website Maintenance: A Small Business Guide Posted on December 29, 2020December 23, 2020 by Allie Wolff As a business owner, maintaining your website is just as important as maintaining your books. That’s because a well-functioning website is essential to the customer experience — and to securing new leads and customers. Website maintenance serves a number of key purposes. For starters, it helps ensure that your site is safe and secure and that you’re not accidentally leaving the door open for data breaches or hackers. It’s also critical to how your site operates, with regular updates and audits necessary for making sure that you’re running at full speed and with optimal protocols. Slow, buggy, and non-secure websites are hugely detrimental to your SEO and your ability to grow as a business. Your website is an extension of your small business brand. It can take years for a small business to build adequate brand awareness, and the last thing you want is a slow loading or poorly constructed website setting you back. Performing regular maintenance will allow you to identify any problems in their earliest stages, as well as avoid some of the common website pitfalls that can hold back your brand’s success. So how do you do it? Here are the five steps to follow when you want to perform routine website maintenance. 1. Backup Your Site Before you start tweaking your site, make a backup of it in its current condition so that if you inadvertently make a mistake, you’ll have a reliable copy to fall back on. This often-overlooked step is key to performing any sort of website maintenance and is good practice for any business that can’t afford any major site-based hiccups (so: everyone). The general rule of thumb is to keep at least three backups of your site in three different places. You can store your backups on CDs/DVDs or drives. Having your website backed up in three different places saves you when one or two of your backups get corrupted. No need to Google “How to backup my website.” Whatever content management system or website builder you’re using should provide you with an option to easily backup your site before doing any routine maintenance. 2. Check for Updates Website hosting services regularly put out updates, but it’s easy to miss them when you’re trying to juggle an already overcrowded inbox and to-do list. These updates can be crucial for things like site security and function, so it’s important to be on the lookout for them and not get too far behind. After installing each update, play around on your site for a couple of minutes to make sure nothing has been disrupted. And if it has, return to your back up — and be thankful you have it. It’s also important to note if any of your web hosting updates could potentially affect your customers. If you operate a SaaS site or an eCommerce site, make sure you look into these updates for any potential hurdles they could create for your users or customers and alert them ahead of time. Or, run these updates at times when your site has the most downtime. 3. Dig Into the Analytics Great design and punchy content don’t count for much if your website fails to help you achieve your core KPIs. That’s why we recommend taking a deep dive into your analytics page to examine various engagement metrics. If you’re noticing any negative patterns, like certain pages are seeing a decent amount of traffic, but there are no conversions, or the average time on page is low, it could mean that something is wrong with your site. Or, it could indicate that there’s something wrong with the user experience you’re offering. Checking your analytics is a good initial step to take when figuring out which pages need to be optimized. We don’t recommend updating your pages based on your analytics results alone. However, looking at how your pages are performing on the back-end can help you identify which pages to look into more closely. If you’re using Google Analytics, make sure you set up views and filters to help you prioritize what to track so you can take in this information in a more digestible way. You can also customize your reports, so they track exactly what you are looking for based on your goals. 4. Don’t Neglect Your Content When you’re looking into your site for areas that need updating, make sure you also look into your content. If you’ve been creating blog content for a while, there’s a pretty good chance you have outdated articles that need to be tweaked. You may also have some redundancies, which could be causing internal content competition and negatively affecting your SEO. It’s not enough to be creating content that feeds your audience’s needs; you have to be looking at all your previously published content to ensure it’s still valuable. Performing a routine content refresh will help you maintain high-quality, helpful content on your website, which will in-turn feed your nurture campaigns and can ultimately improve your conversions. Doing a content audit can be overwhelming. But, it helps to draw out a plan so you and your team can easily stick to a process and see results. Prioritize. Identify your high-traffic and high-priority pages first. Use tools. We use Content King because it lists out each page, along with its level of importance, overall health, and specific errors that need correcting. We also recommend checking out ClickFlow. They have a content decay feature so you can address pages on your site that used to experience high-traffic but have since decreased. Keep, combine, kill. Identify which pages make sense to delete all together (make sure you’re not linking to them in other pieces of content), keep as-is, or which should be combined into one post. The latter will help reduce any internal competition as well as ensure stale content is updated. 5. Use Your Site as a Customer Would This step is the crux of what website maintenance is all about. Since you want to optimize the user experience as much as possible, you have to think and behave like a user, navigating your site as a customer would so that you can identify any hurdles that may be standing in the way of a sale. Test out any forms that live on your site, and check every single internal and external link to make sure you’re not leading your users to the dreaded “404 Not Found” page. Once you’ve done this cursory audit, revisit your homepage and test drive the start-to-finish experience for your main conversion metrics, whether that’s sales, demo requests, or some other distinct action. Is the process intuitive? Is it too complicated? Are you failing to provide the right type or amount of information? By looking at your website from a user’s perspective, you allow yourself to identify problems that might be otherwise invisible — and give yourself a leg-up in getting ahead of them. 6. Perform Formal Usability Testing You won’t need to do this as part of your monthly or quarterly maintenance schedule, but do make sure that you perform complete usability testing once a year. This should preferably be overseen by people who are unaffiliated with your brand, as there’s nothing like a second set of eyes for catching glaring issues that you may have overlooked. By bringing in real users and having them navigate your site, you open yourself up to gathering a ton of data on what’s working and what’s not. In addition to testing for general usability, make sure that you also test for accessibility. One in four U.S. adults has a disability, and you want to make sure that your site is as usable for them as it is for the other 75 percent. Website maintenance takes work, and it can feel like one of those tasks that are out of your wheelhouse. But putting in the effort and getting up to speed on how to perform website maintenance results in a more visible site to potential customers and an overall elevated brand message. Prioritize website maintenance, and you’ll guarantee you have a site that not only performs better but that offers a fully optimized experience for users.
Mobile SEO and 6 Things You Need to Know Posted on December 23, 2020April 9, 2025 by Jess Lunk Did you know that there are more searches performed every day on mobile devices than desktop computers? You don’t have to look around for very long to notice that people spend quite a bit of time on their phones. And if that’s where your customers are, then you need to be sure that’s where you are. You need to optimize your site from the ground up so they can find you easier and navigate your website with more efficiency. Failure to do so is a huge missed opportunity, one that can end up costing you a lot in both money and growth potential. You may think this is a difficult undertaking, however there’s no need to outsource your SEO. In this post, we’re looking at the building blocks behind mobile SEO, including why it’s so important and the steps you need to take to ensure your site is optimized for mobile search. Here’s what you should know. What is Mobile SEO? Mobile SEO refers to a marketing strategy dedicated to optimizing your site for mobile search and navigation. There are a few things that set mobile SEO apart from traditional SEO, including: Ranking factors – Search engines want to know that your site is built to function properly on a mobile device, with ranking factors that include mobile-specific loading speed and page format. Search language – Voice search is the second most popular form of searching on mobile devices, and it comes with its own cadence and best practices. Local search – Mobile search and local search are closely tied, with 88 percent of mobile searches for local businesses resulting in a call or visit to the business within 24 hours. The better you can optimize your site for mobile use, the higher you’ll rank when people search relevant keywords on their phones. Since many of your target users are likely searching on mobile, this has become an increasingly important strategy to get ahead of. Mobile SEO Statistics You Need to Know Mobile website performance is no longer just an afterthought, and sites that perform poorly on mobile will not rank as well on desktop either. Here are six mobile SEO statistics that help further explain just how crucial mobile optimization is for your brand: Over 52 percent of all search traffic around the world can be traced to mobile phones. Sixty percent of all online searches are done on a mobile device. Nearly 50 percent of all online shopping experiences happen on a mobile device. Sixty-two percent of shoppers who report dissatisfaction with the mobile experience of a website say they’re less likely to shop from the same site again. Fifty-one percent of customers have discovered a new product or company through a mobile search. Forty-eight percent of consumers use voice search for general search queries. What does it all mean? It means that simply having a site optimized for mobile isn’t enough. If you’re not optimizing for mobile search, you’re not capturing the full attention of your online audience, and that’s a loss most brands can’t afford to take. How to See if Your Site is Mobile Friendly It’s easy to see where your site currently stands in terms of mobile-friendliness. Just visit Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, enter your URL, and see what the report says. You’ll get a blanket diagnosis of whether your site is mobile-friendly or not, as well as a screenshot of what the page looks like on a mobile device. You’ll also be alerted to any big issues, such as certain features on your site not properly translating to a mobile screen. Note that this test only focuses on one URL at a time. It won’t tell you if your entire site is mobile-optimized, only the URL you input. If you want a site-wide mobile usability report, visit Google’s Search Console. How to Create a Mobile-Friendly Website If your site isn’t optimized for mobile SEO, don’t panic. There are a lot of things, both big and small, that you can (and should) do for mobile SEO, and we’ve outlined them below. Step 1: Run a mobile test. Before you optimize for mobile search, you want to make sure your site is optimized for mobile viewing. Use the Google tools mentioned above to see whether your site gets a passing or a failing grade for mobile-friendliness. Step 2: Make your website more responsive. Read up on responsive web design and what features you should include to ensure your site shows up correctly on a smartphone. Make sure you take into consideration page length, as viewers on mobile don’t want to do a ton of scrolling, space usage, and what on the page is most important to the user. The simplest option is to use a website builder that optimizes for mobile for you. There are tons of resources available that will take your website design and provide a mobile version. Here are some to look into: Squarespace Wix WordPress NetworkSolutions Step 3: Optimize your keyword strategy. You’ll need to make sure you’re meeting the mark in terms of voice and local search. Take a look at your keyword strategy, or if you don’t have one, start putting together some keyword research. This step is very important. You’ll want to have an understanding of what your customers are searching for online, so you can use those search words and phrases to inform your content and site pages. Create pillar pages that are built around your keywords and link internally to other high-quality, related content. If you already have pillar posts, make sure you check them regularly, so you spot any opportunities for necessary updates. Use a tool like SEMRush to determine how well your priority pages are ranking and keyword trends. ClickFlow is a great tool that breaks down how well specific pages are optimized for certain keywords and offers suggestions for improvement. Step 4: Get rid of pop-ups and big ads. It’s super frustrating for your mobile visitors to try and navigate your page when there’s an ad taking up most of the space or a pop-up with a super small “X” in the corner. Ditch these features and try some mobile-friendly digital ads instead. As a general rule, the less busy the page is, the more satisfying the user experience will be. Again, consider the buyer’s journey and what they may be visiting the page for. A pop-up is great if it converts, but if it’s an annoying box they are going to want to get rid of, consider only having it appear on certain mobile pages more geared towards conversions. Step 5: Speed it up. Loading speed is a huge factor in mobile SEO. Follow best practices for increasing site speed on mobile: Minimize redirects Keep your design simple Steer clear of custom fonts Don’t use large images These are all great tips to follow that will keep visitors on your mobile site. Follow the tips above, but also peruse your site on your mobile device to spot any slow loading issues, obscured information, or annoying pop-ups. Try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes to determine what they care about most on each page so you can eliminate any barriers and make the experience more enjoyable. Optimizing your site for mobile is half the battle. Once you achieve that, implementing a solid SEO strategy will ensure your content ranks on mobile so you can get to your customers faster.
Achieve Work-Life Balance with a CRM and Sales Automation Posted on December 22, 2020February 9, 2021 by Tricia O'Donnell Is the idea of work-life balance as mythical sounding to you as Santa Claus and unicorns? It’s no secret that the pandemic and the realities that come with Covid-19 have left all of us feeling drained. If you’re working from home with children, you’re probably laughing at the idea of being able to “do it all” (or crying, which is equally understandable). Even if you don’t have little ones at home, the hurdle of mental exhaustion can still seem difficult to overcome. Pre-pandemic, at least two-thirds of Americans lacked work-life balance. Now that our personal lives are blending into our work lives, I’m sure that number has gone up, especially for small business owners. But hitting the elusive goal of achieving work-life balance is necessary now more than ever. So is finding creative ways to work less and live more, regardless of whether your home is also your office. So, as someone who manages your small business’s email campaigns, social media, sales efforts, and customer support, what do you do when the work still needs to get done, but you need more balance? You turn to an automation and CRM tool, along with all of the benefits they can afford you. Let’s break down those benefits so you can see what you may be missing out on. Five Benefits of a CRM and Sales Automation Tool Tracks and organizes customer data The work activities that cut so deeply into our “me” time aren’t necessarily the big projects and to-dos. More often, they’re the little things — the rote tasks that aren’t high priority enough to schedule during the main hours of your day, but that still need to get done. For example: tracking and organizing customer data in order to create personalized email campaigns, provide better nurture, and improve customer satisfaction down the line. With sales automation and a CRM, you can manage all of this data on the back-end, without the need for regular, manual input, and organization. Your CRM automatically tracks the activity of each prospect so you can see which emails they’re engaging with the most, what pages they’re visiting, and which landing pages and CTAs they’re clicking through on. It can also track previous interactions you and your team have had with any particular customer, storing information in one place for easy access. The result of all this compelling customer data? Well, for one, it’s tracking information that you would have never had access to otherwise. And second, it means less time you have to spend on this rote task so you can create more time for everything else – even if that “everything else” is a bubble bath and a glass of wine. Does your vetting Sales automation and CRM tools are sort of like robot assistants, particularly when it comes to vetting your contacts. You can use tagging capabilities to label your leads based on various actions they’ve taken, like: Downloading a whitepaper Filled out a particular form Opened an email Clicked on a CTA within an email Say someone visited your site and downloaded a guide for creating soy candles. You can use your CRM and automation tool to tag that contact with an applicable identifier that also enrolls them in a soy candle nurture campaign. You can save yourself a ton of time by relying on these platforms to tag contacts based on their qualifications. This leads to better list segmenting so you can send them more personalized outreach. The hard part of selling will still be on you, but by knowing what your leads are interested in and at what stage of the buyer’s journey they’re at, you won’t have to waste nearly as much effort on those unlikely to convert into customers. Creates tons of efficiencies There’s no denying the utility of automation when it comes to taking over the big work of all the little stuff that eats up your day. Both a sales automation tool and a CRM create tons of efficiencies throughout each step of the sales process — many of which you might not even notice. From simple things like pre-built email templates to not-so-simple things like communication tracking and analysis, you’ll free up plenty of time for putting your focus elsewhere so you can actually log off at 5 p.m. Oh, and you won’t have to worry about keeping track of your follow-up either. Your CRM allows you to create tasks for yourself and set reminders so that nothing falls through the cracks after you incorporate more balance into your day. Sends emails I mentioned personalization earlier, but it really is one of the biggest perks associated with a CRM and automation, so let’s dive in deeper, shall we? Personalization is an extremely effective sales tactic, and with the right tool, it doesn’t require the painstaking process of starting every new email from scratch. Being super busy all the time means that certain strategies just take a backseat. A lot of our customers tell us that without a tool that integrates and sends emails for them, they probably wouldn’t be sending emails to their leads at all. They love that they don’t have to spend a ton of time on personalized, individual outreach. All the work is upfront – selecting a template and setting up the general text and body of your emails. But, there’s no need to worry about timing, sending, or maintaining manually. You can set up your campaigns based on particular actions, schedule them, and then track the results while they’re being implemented. Makes work life easier At the end of the day, sales automation and CRM are all about making your day-to-day work efforts more manageable and more efficient. Small businesses use every inch of their resources, so tools that can help them do the things they know they should be doing but don’t have time for, is priceless. With CRM and sales automation, small business owners are able to not only employ tactics that give them a competitive edge and improve their sales, but they are also able to make their work duties much easier. You can’t create more time in the day, but you can create efficiencies that make every minute you have more productive. How you spend those minutes is up to you, but if work-life balance is what you’re after (and it should be), then make it a priority just as much as you make doing your job a priority. Never feel guilty about putting yourself first some of the time. And if you’re using productivity tools like sales automation and a CRM, never make sacrifices in terms of what you can accomplish. Look into tools that offer just the right features for what you’re trying to achieve each day. And, in addition to considering your budget and your big picture objectives, make sure to factor work-life balance into your decision — your future self will thank you.
How to Use Content In Your Recruitment Strategy Posted on December 17, 2020December 16, 2020 by Allie Wolff It’s the end of the year, which means it’s time to evaluate how your company fared and what you’ll need to adjust to increase performance next year. It’s a necessary evil if you want to make 2021 more prosperous. The upside? You’re eliminating failed or less-than-impressive tactics to create room in your marketing budget for new approaches that may be more promising. The first underperformers to go are the ones that you’re paying out-of-pocket for. You take a gamble when you outsource strategies. You run the chance of not getting what you paid for, which isn’t something you realize until after you’ve committed. If you find yourself in this position, then you’re probably considering hiring someone so you can bring those efforts in-house. Finding a candidate who has the skills to focus on whatever strategy you need could be a better route to take and provide the results you’re after. Before you make any decisions, though, it’s important to understand that finding the right person to fill a job opening is harder than it sounds. On top of securing a candidate with the right amount of experience, you have to make sure they’re knowledgeable about your company, the problem it solves, and that they’re a solid fit culturally. But, how can you ensure your relationship with your new hire is more successful than the one with the outsourced agency they’re replacing? By incorporating content into your recruitment process! Why Content? Content, by nature, is meant to educate. Whether it’s your blog content, whitepapers, or website, the content you create should offer information that helps your target audience make an educated decision. Along with creating content that helps make decisions regarding your services or product, you should be creating content that helps sell your company to potential new hires. It’s all selling, just to different audiences. Recruitment content can help manage expectations around job openings, and it can help reduce the amount of time needed to get a new candidate up to speed. It can be very beneficial when used appropriately. Here’s how to use content to attract more qualified candidates who are primed on what to expect before they walk in your door. 1. Incorporate The Right Content Into Your Strategy Your first step in this process is to start creating content related to your recruitment efforts, or that will be useful for people who want to get familiar with your brand and what it is you do. It’s never fun to have to create content on the fly, so it’s best to take a look at your content marketing strategy and incorporate these topics so you can plan ahead and have content ready when you need it. If you’re already using the marketing funnel to inform your content, then you’re already halfway there. The top-of-the-funnel focuses on awareness and making your company known to others. Content at this stage can take many forms, but it typically focuses on the basics of your industry and what your company does. It’s meant to lead to brand awareness so people can become more familiar with you. We suggest creating some blog content that discusses your company’s mission statement, culture, product, or basic industry practices. This kind of content helps show prospects what it’s like within the company walls, the types of people behind the brand, and the basics of what your company and industry are all about. Also, work with your in-house recruiter or HR rep to come up with topics that they think can help serve these efforts. Since they spend most of their time searching for and vetting candidates, they’re a great resource to tap into. They should be able to let you know areas within your industry or service offering that potential candidates are confused about or have the most questions around. 2. Create Recruitment Collateral We live in a digital-forward world, so hearing the word “collateral” can seem a bit daunting. However, when looking for new prospects, career fairs, or recruitment meet-ups can be extremely valuable, and you’ll want to have tangible content to give prospects at these events. Create brochures and one-sheeters that you can take with you. Make them eye-catching and creative. Since the goal is to appeal to candidates, be sure your brand identity shines through, and highlight your company’s culture, what it is you do for your clients, and any benefits you offer employees. 3. Take it to Social Media Your social media channels provide an excellent platform for recruiting new talent. In addition to actively sharing all of the recruitment content that you’re publishing on your blog, beef up your social media strategy by creating an independent recruitment-focused social series. You can use hashtags and visual branding elements to show off what’s so great about being part of your company, and make the content interactive using Twitter or Instagram polls and other platform features. Because there’s an air of authenticity to your social presence, it’s a great way to let your team’s personality shine. Consider doing account takeovers where people from various departments show what a day in their life is like. This can also showcase the daily expectations for various roles and provide education on company operations. 4. Create Video Content People love video content. Create a video or series of videos for the “About” section of your website. Interview various team members so they can discuss what it’s like to work for your company. People love firsthand experiences, and this will give prospective hires a chance to see what your employees have gained during their professional growth with your company. These videos don’t have to be just for recruitment purposes. We recommend also creating videos that highlight how you work with your clients and how your product operates. Create demo videos and step-by-step guides, as these can educate potential new hires as well as your leads. Measuring the Success of Your Recruiting Content As you bring on new hires, consider surveying them on whether they engaged with your recruiting content and, if so, what they found to be most helpful. This can guide your future recruitment practices, assist you in creating content that’s optimized for impact, and even ensure you’re onboarding them effectively. While you’re at it, look at the data around your published recruitment content — including traffic sources, engagement, and conversions. All of this information will be useful to your company moving forward, and it might even illuminate some patterns in how and where you can secure the best candidates. By actively endeavoring to build up a foundation of recruiting materials, you make it possible for more candidates to find you and for more qualified resumes to end up on your desk. Good luck with your next hire, and we hope you use these tips to find the right candidate for your needs.
6 Tips For Actually Unplugging This Holiday Season Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by Jonathan Herrick This past year has felt like it’s been ten years. As the world continues to persevere through one of the scariest and most troublesome times, a lot of us are looking for a much-needed break. For small business owners, however, the idea of a break is a myth. There’s never a shortage of things to do, and with a pandemic, the to-do list is much longer and more pressing. The stress and demands associated with paying bills, keeping staff employed, and focusing on tactics to increase sales and revenue aren’t going anywhere. But, finding a way to unwind, be with our bubble, and preserve our mental and physical health should be our top priority. Giving ourselves the time we need to detach will help us recharge our batteries and hit the ground running in 2021. It’s true that this holiday season will be very different from those in the past, for various reasons. But my hope is that one of those reasons is because we all truly unplug and focus on just how important the present is. Here are some tips that will help you take a break from work this holiday and get that necessary breather. 1. Check Off the Low Hanging Fruit Segment your to-do list by creating two columns – one for things that are more long-term and one for items that can be accomplished quickly. If there is anything pressing and will get in the way of relaxation time, plan to complete it before you clock out. If there are tasks you know you can’t wrap up, save them for after the holidays. I know it’s hard for business leaders to create stopping points for themselves, but this is the year to figure out how to do so. Promise yourself that you won’t think about the things you’ve decided to handle post-holiday, and put that list out of sight for the time being so you aren’t tempted to look at it. 2. Don’t Be Accessible I’m sure this one scares you to read, but being less accessible isn’t a terrible thing. Obviously, you should craft an “out-of-office” email so that if anyone does email you, they’re made aware that you’ve logged off for the time being. Make sure that you clearly state how long you’ll be unavailable in your OOO email and when you’ll return their inquiry. Do NOT feel obligated to respond to these while you’re out. Whatever it is can wait till you’re back in the office, and if you respond, you’re just telling that person that you have no boundaries. Is that the kind of message you want to send? Also, eliminate work notifications by disabling your Slack and work email from your phone. It’s so easy to grab our phones and look for things out of habit, but if you’re really going to unplug, it’s a habit you need to break. 3. Make Plans I have yet to meet a small business owner who enjoys total spontaneity, but I’m sure they exist. While some folks prefer seeing how each day pans out, others find comfort in a loose plan, or at least some ideas, of how they’ll spend their time off. Not fully knowing how you’ll be spending your time off can create blocks of free time that just end up tempting you to check in with work. Instead, plan activities with your family, as well as some time to spend alone, doing whatever it is you always want to do but have no time for. You can work on puzzles, watch movies with the family, bake cookies, or make forts with your kids. Take a bubble bath, start that book you’ve been meaning to read or get back into a hobby you’ve neglected. Immerse yourself in the things that used to bring you joy when you had more time on your hands. 4. Neglect Your Devices We live in a world consumed by technology and most of our jobs require that we use technology in some way. If a phone or laptop is nearby, it’s a constant reminder that work is just a click away. While taking time off, be conscious about how you use your phone or laptop. Once they’re on, it’s tempting to read emails or respond to texts or calls. Refrain from checking in with your colleagues on social media, and as mentioned earlier, disable notifications. 5. Give Yourself a Buffer Day A buffer day is a wonderful way to combat the freak out most of us are having over the thought of not working for a few days. Just assuming that you’ll hit the ground running your first day back, without missing a beat, isn’t realistic. Plus, it sets you up for a ton of stress and anxiety that you just don’t need. Before you put up your out-of-office email, block out the morning on your first day back to answer emails, and have catch-up meetings with colleagues. Knowing you have this time blocked out will allow you to enjoy every last minute of your break. 6. Commit! None of these tips will work at all unless you’re truly committed to unplugging. It’s key that you make a promise to yourself that you’re going to follow through on this. If it helps, think about your family and those that you love more than anything but aren’t able to spend as much time with because of your business. Think about how happy they’ll be to see you more and have your undivided attention. The time you spend with them, undistracted, creates memories that will stay with you your entire life. If that’s not reason enough to take this break seriously, then nothing is. I genuinely hope these six tips help you create new patterns this holiday season that put your health and well-being first. Remember, you, your business, and your family, need you to be rested and rejuvenated. Give yourself what you deserve this year and truly unplug.
5 Things Your Marketing Campaign Could Be Missing if Engagement is Low Posted on December 15, 2020December 11, 2020 by Guest Author A lot goes into creating an effective marketing strategy. Whether you work in-house or hire an outside firm, companies need to hire specialists to conduct research, profile customers, set goals, create content, and analyze data — all in the hopes that they will be able to generate leads and, ultimately, increase sales. According to a recent study, companies invest between 10–14 percent of their total annual budget in marketing alone, so it’s important that their marketing campaigns are effective. Engagement is a useful metric for companies looking to ensure that their strategy aligns with their audience’s interest. On top of that, engagement is related to profitability. It helps companies broaden their audience, build trust and loyalty, inspire action, increase brand awareness, and stay in touch with customers. Low engagement could be a sign that you need to improve your digital marketing strategy. If you’re worried about it, here are a few things you could be missing from your marketing campaign: Attention-Grabbing Content Easy-to-Share Features Targeted Audiences Timing A Well-Designed Website 1. Attention-Grabbing Content It’s undeniable — quality content can have a huge impact on your business because it increases brand awareness, boosts site traffic, drives engagement, grows leads, and ultimately, helps you make sales. However, it can be very difficult to create content that your audience wants to engage with. As companies continue to turn out massive amounts of content every day, it’s easy for your work to get lost in the fold. On top of that, most people spend less than 15 seconds on a given web page. For your content to really make a difference in your campaign, it needs to stand out from your competitors and be compelling enough that your audience will want to like and share it. The first step in creating engaging and sticky content is coming up with topics that your audience would be interested in. Above all, your content needs to be newsworthy. You can grab your audience’s attention by covering trending topics, which you can find on Twitter, Google Trends, and Exploding Topics. As your brainstorm ideas, you need to focus on creating content that: Tells a story Appeals to your audience’s values and interests Is useful Is relatable Is Inspiring As you release new marketing content, you need to analyze the results to determine what works. From there, you can make adjustments to the marketing campaign to ensure that each ad, post, and article aligns with campaign goals. 2. Easy-to-Share Features Finding an interesting topic is only half the battle. Keep in mind that you want to continue to grow, and for that to happen, you need people to engage with your content by liking and sharing it. While likes show what your audience is interested in, shares can help your company broaden its reach. People tend to spend more time thinking about the content they’re sharing, making a share a stronger and more valuable endorsement than a like. In fact, according to The New York Times study on the psychology of content sharing, 49 percent of people say that sharing allows them to inform others of things they care about and potentially change opinions or encourage action. On top of that, consumers are more likely to take product and service recommendations from friends and family, making shares even more valuable. It’s estimated that reviews from trusted sources are 12.85 times more influential in establishing your reputation than advertising. People are more likely to share visual content, so you can boost engagement by including original videos, pictures, and infographics in your campaign. Buffer reported that Tweets with images earn 150 percent more retweets than those without. You can also make your content easier to share by adding social share buttons to all your pages. You should include call to actions throughout your website to encourage them to spread the word. Source: sharethis This site chose to include their share buttons on the left-hand side of the page so readers can easily click on the platform they want to share their content on. As readers scroll down the page, the social share buttons remain in the same spot, so they’re easy to access. 3. Targeted Audiences You might think that by casting a broad net, you’ll catch the most fish — or in this case, customers. The truth is that this method means you’ll attract some attention and brand awareness, but your conversion rate is likely very low. Rather than prioritizing reach, you can reduce your cost per acquisition by targeting the right people. To do so, you need to create buyer personas. To create profiles that accurately reflect your customer base, you need to analyze past interactions to determine what compels your customers to buy your products or service. Here are a few methods that can help you gather data on your customers: Interview old buyers and current clients Analyze buyer data Study social media engagement Conduct a market survey As you go through all the information, consider repeat buyers, people who left positive reviews, and even customer complaints. If your company is B2B, you can track similarities between your top 10 partners— are they in the same industry? How does their spending compare to the rest of your clients? As you go through the data, you might start to recognize patterns about your customer demographics. From there, you can start to group your audience into segments based on age, gender, occupation, income, etc. As you create your descriptions, consider these questions: Who is likely to use your services or buy your products? What defines them? What interests them about your products/services? Why do they work with you? Where do they live and work? How did they find you? By identifying various types of customers, you’ll be able to create targeted content and messaging. Once you determine what content will engage each group, you need to figure out how to reach them. For example, an online retail store can target young moms by creating copy that highlights the practicality of their clothing and delivery options and advertising on Instagram. However, if they wanted to reach teenagers, a TikTok ad might be the way to go. Small adjustments like when your ads are posted and what platforms they’re posted on can make a big difference. 4. Timing Consumers engage the most with topical, trending, and relevant content, which is why timing is everything. Many companies choose to market year-round and stick to their predetermined editorial calendar, and as a result, lose out on increased engagement, leads, and sales. However, there are plenty of opportunities to make your content more relevant, like seasonal holidays, industry-specific events, and even pop culture moments. For example, ad campaigns for the next up and coming toy do better right before Christmas, compared to other times of year. Marketers can take advantage of these moments by creating a content calendar that gives them a broad overview of what’s coming up and can help them plan ahead. Source: Amy Wright Content Marketing This template includes the date the content will be published, when the content should be completed, the topic that will be covered, and even the keywords they plan to target. This can also encourage team-wide communication and prevent similar content from being released at the same time. While planning ahead can ensure that you take advantage of yearly milestones, content teams need to stay flexible in case something comes up that could spike your audience’s interest. A year ago, who would have predicted that we would be in a global pandemic? As we went into lockdown worldwide, marketers, advertisers, and content creators needed to come up with new content that reflected what we were all searching: Coors Light released their America #CouldUseABeer campaign. Domino’s promised contactless delivery. Uber, strangely, thanked customers for staying home and not using their ridesharing app. Advertising teams had to think quickly to ensure their content reflected the unique time we’re in. While a pandemic is a unique situation, trends continue to change, so it’s important to always make adjustments when needed. 5. A Well-Designed Website All digital marketing traffic leads back to your website, so it’s extremely important that you provide the best user experience. Slow loading speeds, outdated pages, and convoluted interfaces will increase your bounce rate and lower your conversion rate. All the marketing in the world is going to be ineffective if your site is difficult to use or is unappealing. To improve your digital marketing campaign’s success, you should invest in creating intuitive landing pages that will engage leads. You can drastically improve your site’s UX with a quick redesign that: Is mobile-friendly Highlights images Uses appealing CTAs Optimizes page speed Uses white space Is consistent Companies can also grow their subscriber list by featuring pop-ups, scroll boxes, and embedded forms. Grow Engagement with Your Digital Marketing Campaign Your audience is more likely to engage with content that grabs their attention — and holds it. As you brainstorm ideas, you need to come up with concepts that appeal to readers, tell a story, and are inspiring. Of course, the same content won’t work every time. Your audience might have different views or be interested in different things, depending on what’s going on in the world. So it’s important that you target different segments by creating unique and timely content and posting it on platforms where they’ll be likely to find it. If you do that, your audience will be more likely to share and like your content, which will help you reach a larger audience. You can boost the chances that they will share it by including pictures, videos, infographics, or even share buttons. You can also include these features on your website to improve UI/UX. If you apply these tactics to your marketing strategy, you’ll increase engagement, boost sales, and lower your cost per acquisition. Author Bio Hannah Hicklen is a content writer & editor for Clutch — an Inc 1000 company that provides B2B research, ratings, and reviews.
6 Tips for Increasing Engagement With Your K12 Newsletter Posted on December 10, 2020December 7, 2020 by Allie Wolff We’ve heard it before: school communications professionals are frustrated. Sending their district’s email newsletters is like posting a billboard in the middle of a vast desert. No response, no engagement. It’s almost as if they didn’t send anything at all. Concerns over email engagement are nothing new. They don’t discriminate, and they span various industries. However, for the K12 sector, email engagement struggles can be especially frustrating. K12 messaging goes beyond your average marketing email. School communicators aren’t necessarily interested in selling something or converting leads to customers. School newsletters are meant to share important, time-sensitive information. If they go unread, it could lead to more serious issues. Your K12 newsletter doesn’t have to be a lonely, unnoticed billboard in an unresponsive desert. By following these six practices, you’ll see your newsletter engagement metrics soar. 1. Use Marketing Automation Software If you had the choice to make your life easier, wouldn’t you? That’s the beauty of marketing automation software. Not only does it help you organize and segment your contacts so you can keep better track of them, but it enables you to automate your emails. You can be emailing your contacts while you perform your regular day-to-day duties. It’s a win-win for productivity. As K12 communicators, there’s tons on your plate and various initiatives to keep track of. Adding email marketing to the list typically results in something else being pushed off. Since you can’t afford to drop the ball, it’s vital to have a cost-effective email marketing solution tailored to your specific needs as a K12 communicator. 2. Dissect Your Subject Lines Email subject lines will always be a significant contributor to engagement rates. They’re the first thing your recipients see; therefore, they can determine whether or not your email even gets opened. And if your email isn’t getting opened, it’s pretty much DOA. When it comes to crafting the best subject lines, be concise, but also give a sneak peek into the good stuff within the newsletter. You want to entice readers with a bit of a tease, but you don’t want to convolute the message with too many words. It’s best to implement a/b testing to see which subject lines yield the highest open rate. To do this, test two different subject lines by sending one to a small portion of your list and the other to another small portion of your list. Measure the results and use the better-performing subject line for the email you send to the rest of the list. 3. Get Personal Another wonderful benefit of marketing automation is that it provides you with the tools to personalize your emails. This means you can segment certain contacts into the same list based on their similar interests or characteristics, like grade or district. Doing so allows you to focus your outreach according to the particular needs of the recipients within any given list. Why does personalization matter? Well, 82 percent of marketers report that email personalization leads to increased open rates. Instead of sending the same email to every contact on your list, improve your chances of getting your email opened by segmenting your list and personalizing your message with tools like Dynamic Content. Making readers slog through acres of irrelevant content before finding the information they need wastes their time and creates frustration. Instead, put the most relevant, helpful content at the top so they can easily locate it. And, if you’re sharing existing resources, be selective and go with the pieces that offer the most value. 4. Don’t Discard Preview Text Preview text, or “preheader,” as it’s sometimes referred to, is the content your recipients’ email application will display as a one or two-line preview in their inbox. Next to the subject line, your preview text is the initial bit of content your recipients see at first glance, whether or not they choose to open your email. You have a bit more room to work with here, and it’s another opportunity to further entice your readers to click on your email. Compel your recipients to read your email by expanding on your subject line and using keywords that you know will catch their attention 5. Consider Timing A marketing automation tool provides value long after you send your emails. You can access email metrics like open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, unsubscribes, and more. While having access to this information is great on its own, it’s what you do with it that makes the most difference. Look at how well your email performs on certain days and times. Learn through trial and error by testing out different send windows to see which appears most beneficial. Or, deliver the same email at two different times to two segments of your list and see if one outperforms the other. Just make sure that you aren’t testing your subject lines when you A/B test your email send window. One test at a time! 6. Personalize the Signature If you’re sending out an email from a specific leader in your district, like the principal, superintendent, or lead for a program, make the email come “from” them. You can set up your emails to include a custom signature based on who you want the email to be coming from (even if that person isn’t the one actually sending the email). People are more likely to open an email if it comes from a person they know rather than an institution (i.e., “Jefferson School District”). Seeing the name of someone they recognize or know is reassuring, and it makes them feel like your institution truly cares about keeping them informed. I recommend including both the name and the school/district if you’re making the “from” an individual (i.e., “Mark Jones – Jefferson School District”). Email marketing is an art form, and just because you don’t consider yourself an artist doesn’t mean you can’t nail the delivery. With a robust tool like marketing automation to enable you, you’ll be able to send emails that are engaging while also tackling everything else on your to-do list. So, what are you waiting for?