October 2024 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Do You Know Your AIQ? Key AI Marketing Strategy Insights for Every Marketer

October 17, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Trending /by Dan Gartlan

AI is no longer an emerging trend—it’s a core component of advanced AI marketing strategy. But how familiar are you with leveraging AI to optimize your campaigns? Think of your AIQ (Artificial Intelligence Quotient) as a measure of how effectively you incorporate AI into your marketing efforts.

In this article, we’ll explore how you can boost your AIQ by understanding six of the most powerful applications of AI:

Ready to explore your AIQ? These strategies will guide you on your journey!

Key AI Marketing Strategies

1. AI-Powered Personalization: Tailoring Experiences for Every Customer

AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data in real-time is revolutionizing how brands personalize customer experiences. Particularly, you can leverage AI to analyze user behaviors and preferences, allowing your brand to deliver content that truly resonates with your audience—think of how Spotify curates your music playlists or how Netflix recommends movies. But today’s AI goes further than just product suggestions; it focuses on crafting a unique journey for each customer. Whether you’re sending personalized emails, tailoring website content, or providing individualized offers, AI helps ensure that the right message reaches the right person at just the right time. Have you explored how AI might enhance your personalization strategy and foster stronger connections with your audience?

2. Predictive Analytics: Data That Drives Actionable Insights

AI doesn’t just analyze past behavior—it takes things a step further by predicting future trends and customer actions. With predictive analytics, AI digs into historical data, identifying patterns that help marketers anticipate customer behaviors, like churn rates, buying habits, and product demand. You might think, “Well, predictive analytics has been around for years.” That’s true. What AI does differently is that it really supercharges the process, analyzing millions of data points in just minutes. This leads to faster, more accurate decision-making, giving marketers an edge in optimizing campaigns and strategies. For example, tools like HubSpot’s predictive lead scoring help prioritize high-potential leads, streamlining efforts to focus where it matters most. In this way, instead of relying on manual data analysis, AI now does the heavy lifting for you, making decision-making more efficient.

3. Sentiment Analysis: Measuring Customer Emotions at Scale

To maintain a strong reputation and build lasting trust, understanding how your audience feels about your brand is crucial. That’s where AI-powered sentiment analysis steps in. What is sentiment analysis? It’s the process of using AI to analyze customer feedback, social media activity, reviews, and other textual data to determine the emotional tone behind the words. This gives you actionable insights, allowing you to adjust your messaging and offerings in real-time. For instance, if customers start expressing dissatisfaction with a product or service, AI can flag the trend early, giving your team the opportunity to address issues before they escalate. Ultimately, this ability to read customer emotions on a large scale enables marketers to create a more authentic, customer-first strategy.

When it comes to optimizing your ad campaigns, it’s no longer just about trial and error. Instead, AI takes the guesswork out of ad targeting and budgeting by making real-time adjustments based on performance data. More specifically, AI-driven platforms tap into data like user behavior, engagement metrics, and demographic information to determine where and when your ads will hit the mark. On top of that, these platforms are always fine-tuning things—adjusting bids, placements, and creative elements—to help you get the most value from your investment. The end result? Smarter spending, higher engagement, and better overall ad performance!

Businesses of all sizes can leverage AI as a supportive tool to enhance content creation—whether it’s generating ideas, producing drafts, spotting trends, or improving SEO strategies. As a result, marketers can shift their focus toward high-level strategies like creative development. However, it’s important to note that while AI streamlines these processes, it’s not without its limitations. For instance, AI can sometimes miss the mark on tone, making content sound impersonal or robotic. Issues like content quality or accuracy can also arise. To avoid these pitfalls and ensure the content feels genuine and aligns with your brand’s voice, human oversight is still crucial. After all, it’s about finding that sweet spot where technology and creativity work hand in hand!

6. Dynamic Pricing: Staying Competitive with AI-Driven Flexibility

AI’s ability to process data in real-time is a game-changer for dynamic pricing strategies that can adapt on the spot. Whether it’s shifts in supply and demand, changes in competitor pricing, or customer buying patterns, AI helps keep your prices competitive while maximizing profits. This is especially useful in e-commerce and retail. For example, if an item isn’t selling well, AI can lower the price in real-time to stimulate sales. This way, you can quickly respond to market trends and optimize your revenue. While AI dynamic pricing offers immense benefits, it’s important to also consider the ethical implications involved. To successfully navigate this future, businesses must prioritize transparency, fairness, and consumer trust. In this way, you can harness AI’s power to not only drive sales but also build lasting customer relationships and achieve long-term brand success!

Boosting Your AIQ for Marketing Success!

AI is fundamentally reshaping marketing, making processes more data-driven, precise, and efficient. By embracing AI marketing strategy—like personalized customer experiences, predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and dynamic pricing—you can elevate your AIQ and keep your brand ahead of the competition. So, what role does AI play in your current marketing strategy, and what additional steps can you take to amplify its effectiveness?

Also Read Considering The Pros and Cons of Using Artificial Intelligence In Marketing

How a Strong Public Relations (PR) Strategy Can Benefit Your Inbound Marketing Efforts

October 16, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing, Public Relations /by Dan Gartlan

Inbound marketing focuses heavily on increasing brand awareness and building brand trust. As such, people sometimes confuse inbound marketing strategies with public relations (PR) strategies. After all, public relations is about maintaining the integrity of your brand. However, they are actually different from one another — although they do depend heavily on each other for success. The following is a breakdown of the differences between inbound marketing and PR and how they can work together.

The Difference Between Inbound Marketing And Public Relations

Inbound marketing is a multi-faceted strategy that consists of a range of tactics for promoting products and services as well as for educating consumers. The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to attract and convert more leads in order to generate more customers. The goal of PR isn’t to generate and convert leads and customers. The goal of PR is to maintain and improve the public perception of your brand. Basically, a good PR strategy will help you build a favorable reputation. Unlike inbound, PR focuses as much on targeting shareholders and employees as it does on potential and existing consumers or clients.

Also Read: Your Brand Reputation and Public Relations

How Good PR Can Benefit Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

Trust is vital to your ability to convert new leads. The more brand trust you generate, the easier it becomes to close new sales. As such, a good PR strategy can supplement your inbound strategy. When it comes to PR, it’s not just about putting out good publicity and improving your brand reputation — it’s also about preventing a bad reputation.

PR requires that you get on top of situations that can damage your rep. For instance, if customers are leaving bad feedback on your social media pages, you can’t just ignore it or it will hurt your public perception. As part of a successful PR strategy, you would address poor feedback. Show that your brand cares about the experience of its customers. In fact, if you handle such feedback effectively, you could even turn it into a win that actually boosts your brand trust.

PR also includes publishing notices about new products and services, or about upcoming events. These announcements double as promotional content for your business. This can pique the interest of your target audience, thereby bolstering your inbound marketing capabilities.

Public Relations (PR) Strategies That Can Boost Your Inbound Marketing Success

The following are a few of the public relations (PR) strategies that can go a long way towards improving your inbound marketing efforts:

Publish high-quality content – PR is a form of content creation. As such, you’ll want to make sure that whenever you release a press release. Make sure it is well written, properly optimized, and targeting a specific audience. Your PR content can double as inbound content, after all.
Focus on executives – Putting a face on your brand can help improve brand trust. As such, use your executives for interviews and quotes when releasing new PR content. Doing so can also help establish the people behind your brand as thought leaders, thereby increasing brand authority.
Promote award wins – When your company or the people in your company win industry awards, be sure to announce those wins. Such content will showcase your company’s expertise, which will improve your reputation as well as your authority and trust.
Publish press releases – Your press releases can help drive new leads to your inbound marketing or sales assets (as long as those press releases are of high quality).

Implement A PR Strategy As A Part Of Your Inbound Marketing Efforts Today

A good PR strategy can help you control the public perception of your brand, thereby ensuring that you maintain a good reputation. Such a reputation is vital to building brand trust and, as such, can help to bolster your inbound marketing efforts.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers

6 Tips For Improving Copy

October 15, 2024/in Articles, Content Marketing, Directors /by Terry Becker

Good copy is crucial for many reasons. Its importance spans a wide range of mediums, from social media posts and blog articles to advertising materials and email campaigns. Good copy allows you to communicate with your audience more effectively and foster a deeper connection with them. Additionally, good copy aids in promoting your services and/or products. Therefore, good copy drives sales. Your copy’s topic and the copy itself both have to be quality to achieve these results. Here are 6 tips you should use to improve your copy overall:

Know your audience:

Understanding your audience is important when crafting effective copy. It’s crucial that your topic is not just relevant, but also resonates with your target audience. To achieve this, you need to know who you are writing for and what they care about. In order to do that, you should conduct research to build a profile of your target audience. You can analyze existing customer data, conduct surveys, and engage in conversations with current and potential customers. The insights you gain from this research will help you better understand your audience, and therefore help you understand what is relevant to them.

Edit Your Work:

Good copy reflects professionalism. Additionally, it enhances coherence, clarity, and overall impact. Therefore, it’s important to notice and fix any mistakes in your copy before your readers do. To do this you must proofread and edit your copy. Unfortunately, these two important elements in crafting good copy are often overlooked. After writing your copy, you have to proofread it to check for errors, but it is best to take a short break before doing so. This way, when you come back to your copy, it will be easier to find errors since you will have a fresh perspective. Once you return from your break to start proofreading, try reading your copy out loud. This will allow you to hear how the text flows, which can help you find grammatical errors in your writing. You can also have another person read the copy, since a fresh pair of eyes can catch errors that you might have missed.

Strategically choose your wording:

Using adverbs can make your writing too wordy. If your message is still clear and impactful without the adverb, it is usually best to strike it from the copy. You should avoid using exaggeratory words, as it often comes across as trying too hard or disingenuous. This can diminish your credibility. You should also strategically choose your wording based on your audience. Remember that different audiences require different approaches. While a creative audience might respond better to a conversational writing style, a business audience will likely respond better to precise and straightforward language.

Keep sentences short:

Get rid of unnecessary words. Shorter sentences are easier to read and understand. They allow readers to quickly understand your message. In digital content, where people’s attention spans are shorter, this is especially important. Remember, clear and concise writing is best.

Use active voice:

When the subject of a sentence performs the action, that means that the sentence is written using active voice. Using active voice keeps sentences from being too wordy. It also makes sentences easier to understand.

Use a compelling headline:

The headline is the first thing your audience will read, and if it’s not well written, it might be the last. A well-written headline is engaging and persuasive. It needs to grab the reader’s attention immediately, enticing them to keep reading. A headline can do different things to achieve this, like promising value or piquing curiosity. Generally, the shorter your headline is, the better. Shorter headlines are often more effective because they can be absorbed and understood by readers more quickly. This is important in catching a reader’s attention. However, you shouldn’t sacrifice clarity to achieve a shorter headline length. Make sure that your headline conveys the main idea of your writing while being clear and concise.

Use the above 6 tips to improve your copy’s topic and your copy itself to communicate more effectively in addition to selling more services and/or products. When your copy’s topic and the copy itself are both of good quality, you have an ultimate combination that can significantly enhance your communication efforts and help you achieve your business goals.

5 Free Graphic Design Tools For Real Estate Agents

October 10, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Real Estate Advertising /by Terry Becker

As a real estate agent, you know how important marketing is. After all, marketing is a prominent aspect of selling homes. Competition amongst real estate agents and firms is fierce, which means effective real estate marketing is critical to not only your success but your survival. Graphic design is an important part of a good marketing campaign.

As such, establishing your online presence and creating marketing materials is an essential part of any real estate marketing strategy. While writing content will help you to express your unique value proposition, potential clients will also be looking for visuals that support your brand. After all, human beings are visual creatures and often make decisions based on what they see.

This is where graphic design comes in.

The Importance of Graphic Design For Real Estate

As a real estate agent, you need to stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed. After all, there are plenty of other agents out there vying for the same clients. One way to make sure you stand out is to have an online presence that is professional and eye-catching. As such, good graphic design is essential.

Graphic design can help you build a brand identity, create a website and social media pages, and develop marketing materials that are visually appealing and will help you attract the attention of potential clients. Not to mention, using high-quality visuals can also make your brand appear more trustworthy and credible.

While hiring a professional graphic designer can be costly, there are plenty of great tools out there that you can use to create stunning visuals on your own.

Free Graphic Design Tools For Real Estate Agents

There are countless graphic design tools available that you can use; fortunately, not all of them are expensive. In fact, many of them are free. The following are the five of the best free graphic design tools available:

1. Canva

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design tool that is perfect for beginners. With this tool, you can easily create beautiful visuals without any prior experience or design skills. Canva provides you with everything you need to get started, including templates, images, and fonts. You can even upload your own images to use.

As such, Canva is great for creating blog graphics and eBook covers, preparing real estate presentations, and even for adding text (such as quotes) to your blog posts or social media updates. Plus, it’s extremely easy to use; simply drag and drop your way to a stunning design. Although available for free, there are premium add-ons available for an additional cost.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Photoshop is known as one of the premier graphic design tools; however, it can be quite expensive. Fortunately, they have an Adobe Photoshop Express tool that is available for free.

While it doesn’t offer as many features as the full version of Photoshop, it’s still a powerful tool that can help you create stunning designs. You can use Adobe Photoshop Express to edit photos, create collages, and design logos. You can also upload and enhance your own JPEG, JPG, and JPE files that are 16 megapixels or smaller. Their photo editing feature lets you adjust the brightness and saturation of your images, do touch-ups, and save high-quality versions of the images for free.

What You Should Know Before Hiring a Package Design Company

3. Free Logo Design

Creating a logo is vital to creating a recognizable brand identity. As its name suggests, Free Logo Design is a tool that you can use to create free logos. This is perfect if you’re just starting out and don’t have the budget to hire a professional logo designer.

To get started, simply enter your business name and industry, and then browse through their library of stock logo icons. Once you find one you like, you can customize it by changing the colors, fonts, and layouts. You can also upload your own images to use. You can download your logo for free in either PNG or JPG format.

4. Piktochart

With Piktochart, you can turn boring data into visually appealing and easy-to-understand visuals. This is a great way to make complex information more digestible for your readers or viewers. Plus, infographics are highly shareable on social media, which means they can help you attract new leads and grow your online presence. Piktochart offers both free and premium plans; however, their free plan still provides you with plenty of features and templates to work with.

5. Skitch

Skitch is a unique tool that lets you add annotations, shapes, and arrows to your images. This is perfect for highlighting specific features of a property or drawing attention to a particular area in an image. As such, Skitch is useful for highlighting information on images to share on social media and can help make important text jump out at your followers.

Good graphic design is essential to building your real estate business. While these are just a few of the many great free graphic design tools that are available, they should give you a good starting point for creating visuals that will help you market your real estate business effectively.

Struggling with low website traffic? Get practical tips to boost your online presence and attract new leads.

digital cotent marketing for manufacturer

Boost Your Manufacturing Growth with Digital Content Marketing

October 8, 2024/in Articles, B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

Have you read tons of digital content marketing advice, only to find that most of it doesn’t quite fit your industry?

That’s because many resources tend to focus on sectors that target broader consumer bases. However, manufacturing is a whole different ballgame—it often serves niche markets with specific needs. That’s why a solid digital content marketing strategy for this sector should prioritize showcasing technical expertise, navigating longer sales cycles, and targeting distinct B2B audiences. And that’s where content marketing comes in—it’s a powerful way for manufacturers to offer valuable insights, educate potential buyers, and build trust.

So, if your answer to the opening question is yes, this blog might just hold the solutions you’ve been searching for.

In this post, we’ll cover four key content marketing strategies:

Blog Posts & Educational Content
Video Marketing
Case Studies & White Papers
Social Media Presence

And, we’ll explore three major benefits:

Lead Generation
Better Customer Insights
Cost-Effective & Measurable

Ready to unlock new growth? These strategies will get you there!

Key Digital Content Marketing Strategies

First, let’s explore the types of content strategies manufacturers can leverage to boost brand growth:

1. Blog Posts & Educational Content

If your business doesn’t have a blog, it’s definitely worth considering. In fact, B2B companies that use blogs often generate more leads than those that don’t. It provides a great platform for explaining complex processes and technical products in a way that’s easy to grasp. For instance, in the manufacturing sector, a company could publish a series of blog posts on best practices for maintenance or the latest technology trends. Not only can these blogs help develop an online presence, but they can also establish expertise and attract more qualified leads! Just remember, it’s important to target these posts to the key stages of the buyer’s journey. By doing so, you can ensure that the right content reaches the right audience at the right time.

Also Read Marketing Blog tips to Supplement your Digital Strategy

2. Video Marketing

For the most part, people are visual learners; we love pictures, graphics, and videos. That’s where video marketing comes into play! If your content efforts include videos, chances are some customers will click on them. It’s a fantastic way to highlight a company’s expertise and products. For example, a manufacturer of industrial robots could create video demonstrations showing how their robots operate on an assembly line. Additionally, these videos could highlight customer testimonials, showcasing how the product has improved efficiency in real-world applications.

Also Read Three Videos Every B2B Website Should Have

3. Case Studies & White Papers

There’s nothing quite as persuasive as a well-researched white paper or an in-depth case study. You can use them to highlight how your manufacturer’s products or services have successfully addressed challenges for other clients. For instance, an eco-friendly packaging supplier might create a case study that highlights how a customer reduced plastic waste by making the switch to their products. Meanwhile, the long-form format of a white paper allows for detailed technical specifications and quantifiable results. This makes them invaluable resources for decision-makers during the research and consideration stages.

Also Read Top Benefits of Using Case Studies For Your Business

Many brands are using social media to engage their audiences, grow their market share, and boost sales—so why not let manufacturing join in on the fun? While your company may already be leveraging platforms like LinkedIn to share industrial articles, there’s so much more social media can offer. A company specializing in renewable energy components could engage with followers by sharing industry insights, participating in discussions about sustainability, and posting videos from trade shows. This approach fosters real-time feedback and builds stronger relationships with both prospects and existing clients.

Also Read 5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media

What Are the Benefits?

How does digital content marketing translate into growth for manufacturers? It boils down to three main advantages:

1. Lead Generation

When potential customers come across articles, videos, or case studies that resonate with their needs and pain points, they’re more inclined to engage with your brand. This not only helps build trust but also transforms them into more qualified leads, encouraging them to progress further along their customer journey.

Also Read Perfect Your Inbound Marketing Strategy With Lead Nurturing

2. Better Customer Insights

By analyzing metrics such as views, shares, and comments, you can see what topics resonate most and what challenges your customers are facing. This information allows you to refine your content strategy, making it more relevant and tailored to your audience’s needs. Ultimately, understanding your customers better helps you create content that truly speaks to them, fostering stronger relationships and improving their overall experience with your brand.

Also Read Customer Engagement Strategy

3. Cost-Effective & Measurable

Unlike traditional methods, digital content marketing provides measurable results, enabling businesses to fine-tune their strategies and allocate resources more effectively. Plus, it typically costs less than traditional advertising while delivering higher returns, making it a smart investment for companies looking to maximize their impact.

Also Read Six Cost Effective Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Brand

Embrace the Digital Shift!

Gone are the days when you could only stand behind the stage; embracing digital content lets you step into the spotlight and connect directly with your audience’s interests and challenges.

The kicker? The digital landscape is always evolving, so staying agile and on top of trends is key.

What’s the bottom line? Applying these digital content marketing strategies will transform how you navigate the manufacturing world. Don’t wait—seize the opportunity to stand out and thrive in the digital age by turning your efforts into a powerful, lasting strategy for success!

Web Design Tips to Generate More Leads Online

October 4, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Website Growth Driven Design /by Nicole Wagner

Building a website for your company is great, but building a website that doesn’t generate any leads online is, well, not so great. Fortunately designing a site that brings in leads doesn’t have to be too hard or overwhelming. Follow our web design tips below on how to design a user-friendly website that will draw people in and convert them on the spot.

Web Design Tips for More Leads

1. Know Your Audience

The first step before designing your site is to know your audience. You’ll want to create a persona that is a fictitious person that encompasses the characteristic of your typical customer. You can include demographics like age, gender, interests, purchasing habits, online behavior, job positions, hobbies or any other characteristics that you think will influence your target audience’s purchasing decisions. Once you have your personas developed you will be able to create your content based on what would be interesting to them.

This will save you a lot of time and effort that would have been wasted going after people that have little to no interest in what you have to offer. You wan to provide value with your content so it should be centered on how you solve the challenges and problems of your persona so that when they’re looking for solutions they find you.

According to HubSpot, using marketing personas can make your website 2-5 times more effective.

2. Make sure your website is well optimized

That last part brings us to our next tip – optimizing your website. Your audience is researching solutions to their challenges online way before they ever contact you. Website optimization or SEO is how they find your website when conducting their research.

To get the most out of your SEO you’ll want to design your content around your audience and not around search engines. Publishing content without value to your audience is not going to get you anywhere. Look for your target audience’s pain points, what they are searching for, and what terms or keywords are they interested then match the keywords in your content to the same terms. You’ll want to look for:

Keywords with a high number of searches
Keywords with a low competition

Download our guide for more on website optimization techniques.

3. Have compelling CTAs

Driving leads online to your site that don’t convert is essentially useless so you’ll want to capture their contact information. In order to push your website traffic to the sales funnel you’ll want to have compelling CTAs on pages that cause users to take a specific action. Your call to action must offer your user something they would want in exchange for their information. This will allow you to follow up and nurture the site traffic into customers long after they have left your site pages. The most compelling CTAs that cause users to convert include:

A visible position
A clear offering
An image or other visible component to grab attention
A link to a landing page where they will fill in their information to receive offer
A landing page that matches what the CTA had to offer
A simple form on the following landing page
A strong follow-up email

4. Add Testimonials and Case Studies To Your Website- Video is Best

Testimonials are a great way to attract and convert more leads. People love to see success stories and would be more compelled to contact you if they see that you helped solve problems for companies that were facing the same challenges they’re facing. Video testimonials are the best way to convey your success stories as they put a face and voice behind your success and instantly become more believable. Seeing the face of a happy smiling customer will make you seem trustworthy in the eyes of your potential customers compelling them to want to work with you to achieve the same results.

5. Measure and Test, Test, Test

This is a simple step but sadly often overlooked. Be sure to test everything on your site for bugs as nothing can make your audience flee faster than a broken link or bad user experience. A/b test different website page or content offers to see which one is more of interest to your visitors and consistently add new content to your site to improve your site.

Keep these tips in mind when designing your site and you’ll have an online “salesperson” that drives in qualified online leads ready to convert.