August 2017 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Inbound Marketing Works. Politics Proves It.

August 17, 2017/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Mark Beebe

We can all agree that politics in America right now is messy. To be honest it’s beyond messy. That’s no secret. So I won’t be writing about how divided we are today, rather, I’m going to be discussing how inbound marketing benefits organizations that operate in the political realm.

So what does inbound marketing have to do with politics?

Absolutely everything.

Think about where most people get their news from today. Is it the “failing” New York Times? What about CNN? Fox News? No, the answer is social media: Facebook, Twitter, etc. For traditional news organizations, this is devastating. But for inbound marketing news websites? It’s a cash cow.

What’s inbound marketing news? We’ll get to that. First I want to talk about how social media works. I’ll keep it brief because I’m sure you already know. Social media tracks your interests through likes, shares, and retweets. Based on your interests, the social media service you’re using is more likely to put content in front of you that you will react to. It’s human nature to want to see the things you like.

Considering The Source

Okay, back to news. News isn’t supposed to be all good or all bad. News is, or rather should be, a collection of facts that are communicated to its audience regardless of their feelings and personal opinions. Good things happen, and bad things happen. Your favorite politician may betray you with certain legislation, or maybe someone you detest says something you agree with. These are hard realities to grapple with for anyone. But social media doesn’t want to give you difficult feelings to grapple with; it wants to make you happy. Always happy.

[Read About Creating A Brand To Become President]

So is Facebook going to let you see a CNN article about how the president isn’t living up to his promises to you? Of course not. But what if a website were to take the same information and deliver it in a way that makes you happy? That’s what inbound marketing news is. These websites make their fortunes by taking anything that happens in the world and delivering it in a nice, easy to digest fluff piece that puts its audience’s mind at ease.

Now, I’m not making a political statement with this article. I’m pointing out how inbound marketing works and I want to use the best example. For that reason I am going to focus on conservative media. Head on over to the “Being Conservative” Facebook page.

The Echo Chamber

First of all, this is one of the most followed political pages on Facebook right now with almost 3 million followers at the time this article is being written. Take a look at all the posts on this page. They are ALL from The DailyWire.com. Almost 3 million followers seeing multiple posts every single day from a single news source translates into an astounding amount of views for that website. This fact isn’t lost on advertisers who pay to have their products and companies advertised on the website. This alone generates an impressive amount of income for the website. The fact that The DailyWire also charges to remove ads creates another revenue stream for the company.

Once visitors click on a headline and are brought to the website they are shown other articles that may interest them based on the tags and keywords in the original article. While exploring The DailyWire, visitors increase the website’s SEO ranking and credibility with Google, meaning DailyWire articles are more likely to appear in search results. Now that The DailyWire has millions of daily visitors they can generate money by publishing books, scheduling speaking events, and a number of other things, all of which helps their SEO and Facebook following grow.

This level of online engagement should be the envy of every business owner hoping to grow their company. Think about this; in a time where print media and local newspapers are struggling to survive, The DailyWire has been growing steadily since its founding in 2015. Without inbound marketing benefits continuing to improve the company’s marketing efforts the website would probably find itself struggling to stay online. But with new and relevant content, active engagement on social media, and the support of millions of viewers, The DailyWire will most likely continue to defy the odds and succeed in today’s digital economy.

Essential Website Optimization Techniques To Increase Visitors

August 15, 2017/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Directors, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

Does it seem like the number of page views on your company website just won’t increase? A simple and efficient solution to this problem is to optimize the blogs on your website. Essentially, optimization means making your resources as efficient and accessible as possible. Even the best quality content that is posted regularly will not be read by internet users if you don’t use website optimization techniques. Stop wasting time waiting for users to come to you and cater to their needs instead. Website optimization is a part of attraction marketing.

Keywords are key

The strategic sharing of the blogs on your website is just as important as the content they contain. Optimization requires that you include keywords and long-tail keywords, or phrases, in your blog. Keywords are topics and phrases of significance that users type into the search engine when seeking solutions to their problems. For example, I might type the key words “best Chicago summer wines” into Google to find answers on the Internet.

Popularity contest

Another aspect of keywords is that they are widely searched, yet specific at the same time. For instance, the words “wine” or “best wines” would not be optimal keywords since they are too general. By contrast, “best Chicago summer wines” are much better long-tail keyword because they specific, including details like region and season.

In order to determine the popularity of certain keywords, check your website’s keyword analytics. If the visits are too high, you should write about something more specific. If the visits are too low, you may not decide not use that keyword. However, if you’re feeling determined, you can write content containing that keyword with hopes of boosting the page views associated with it. Another technique you can use to find popular keywords if by typing certain words into search engines such as Google or Yahoo and seeing how many results come up. Be sure to base your keyword searches off of your buyer personas and they language they might use.

[Read here to learn about essential website optimization techniques to increase visitors]

The more the merrier

As much as the presence of the keywords is important, so is the strategic placement of keywords in your content. If you insert too many uses of the keywords, you are likely to be flagged as spam. On the other hand, if you don’t insert enough keywords, users may have a harder time discovering your content through given search engines.

The two most crucial places to insert your keywords are in the page and post title. An example of a title for the keywords “best Chicago summer wines” could be “Top 5 Summer Wines to Buy in Chicago This Summer.” Other important places to put your keywords are the blog’s URL, image alt-text, headers, and external links in the article. I also encourage you to include 1-2 uses of long-tail keywords in the body of the blog post, but making sure they don’t seem forced. The key to the insertion of key words is to make them seem natural, because bombarding a reader with them will seem like a marketing ploy.

8 Great Case Study Questions To Ask Yourself When Attracting Prospects

August 3, 2017/in Articles, Directors, Lead Nuturing /by Nicole Wagner

Case studies and customer testimonials are incredibly effective ways to convert leads into customers. They give leads a taste of how your company successfully worked with other clients. There are several important case study questions to ask yourself as you prepare to publish a compelling case study for potential clients.

Below are 8 case study questions you can ask yourself as well as those who worked on the project.

1. What compelled the client to seek out your services?

This is a great way to find out how the services of your company are resonating with potential clients. It allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing message and how attractive it is to customers.

2. What initial challenges did you experience while working with the client, and how did you solve them?

Working with each client is a unique process. Reflecting on the challenges your company has faced with this client can provide unique insights and areas to improve upon when working with future clients. If your company is able to portray a good working relationship with its clients, the potential customer will know they can trust you to accommodate their future needs.

3. What process did you follow to develop and implement these services?

It’s vital to consider how your company implemented and catered your services specifically to the client’s needs. This insight can help you provide valuable details to potential clients when presenting the case study.

4. How did the client respond to your suggestions during the process?

Potential clients seek information about how the process is conducted and how your company will help them achieve their goals. You can use this opportunity to reflect upon your client’s responses to your feedback during the process and to adjust your working relationship with your potential customers accordingly.

[Read about the importance of lead generation content marketing here]

5. How did your ability to provide these solutions improve during the process?

How was your company was able to grow the client’s business and improve it as a result of a particular project? Answering this question is a great way for your case study to communicate a message of continuous growth in your ability to provide services.

6. What were the results of the process?

Find out if your customer was able to achieve his/her goals as a result of the process. You can then present these end results in your case study.

7. How has the relationship with the client been since completion of the project?

Maintaining a strong business relationship with the customer even after provision of the service shows that your company takes customer satisfaction seriously and cares for the needs of its clients.

8. Did anything that you did not expect happen during the process?

This question seeks to uncover any unique interactions that your company had with the client. There may be experiences your staff gained that can be crucial when presenting your case study in a compelling manner to potential clients. Reflecting on unforeseen events can also improve the level of services your company provides.