b2b marketing trends 2020

Guide to B2B Marketing During Covid-19

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Companies around the country are affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, even if business is slower than normal, it does not mean that you should stop your marketing efforts. While you may not see short-term results during this pandemic, your marketing strategy can put you in the position to see results over the long-term. This is especially true once things get back to normal. With that in mind, the following are the steps you should take to improve your B2B digital marketing efforts during COVID-19.

1. Use The Time You Have To Your Advantage

One of the everyday challenges in business is to reach potential clients at the right time. During the pandemic, prospects and clients alike are going to have more free time on their hands. They may have had to shut up shop temporarily and are just waiting to open back up. Others may be working from home, which means that they may be working sporadically throughout the day. You can take advantage of the time your audience has by hosting webinars or producing more long-form content.

2. Re-Evaluate Your Audience’s Perception Of Value

As you know, the pandemic has changed the way we look at a lot of things. Many companies are re-evaluating what is important to them. They are also re-evaluating their budgets and their perception of value. You need to make sure that you stay on the same page as your prospects and clients. This means that you should re-evaluate what your audience’s perception of value is.

Identifying your customers’ current needs

Understanding that customers may not be purchasing products or services from you in the short-term doesn’t mean that you can’t offer value. Put yourself in their shoes. What kind of content will they find helpful during this time? How can you help them? Of course, not all of your clients’ companies may be suffering. Some may be thriving at the moment. Identifying these businesses is essential as you may be able to target them more effectively.

3. Engage Your Audience In A More Personal Way

Most businesses aren’t doing exceptionally well at the moment. Not to mention that people are, in general, somewhat on edge. There are countless reasons for this. People are worried about their companies. They are worried about their health. They are stuck at home under stay-at-home orders. With that in mind, generic sales pitches aren’t exactly going to win them over. Instead, you should focus on hyper-personalization across all channels.

Using hyper-personalization

Hyper-personalization is the use of behavioral and real-time data across multiple channels to personalize the prospect’s or customer’s experience. It’s different than traditional personalization in that you also use purchasing, browsing, and other real-time data. The result? First of all, you’ll get to know what your audience’s current needs are better. Secondly, you’ll create a unique experience tailored to those needs. Such an experience helps you build longer-lasting relationships.

4. Have A Plan For The Future

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t predict the future. Anything can happen, which is why you should make sure that you’re prepared. This means that you should have a plan in place in the event that it lasts longer than you expect. On the other hand, you should also plan for the end of the pandemic. When it does end, you will likely need to make more adjustments to your marketing strategy. Just keep in mind that an effective marketing strategy is one that can adapt to various situations. Using this guide should help you do just that.

Follow these steps to make sure that your digital marketing strategy is effective during the pandemic. It might not be apparent right away, but there are still marketing opportunities that you can take advantage of despite COVID-19.

 

soft sell

Soft Sell Advertising: What it is, Why it works, and How to Execute

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When it comes to advertising, businesses as a whole tend to be aggressive. They let you know exactly who they are, what they do, and why you should buy from them. Even in inbound marketing, companies will try to tie the topic of conversation in with their products or services in some way. However, this isn’t the only course of action. You can also reach your target audience and successfully engage them by advertising in a more subtle manner. Such a strategy is known as soft-sell advertising.

What Is Soft-Sell Advertising?

Soft-sell advertising is a more subtle form of advertising. The goal behind soft-sell advertising is to evoke a positive emotional response. The idea is that the customer will then subconsciously connect the response they had to the brand that invoked it. Businesses that implement soft-selling marketing will often create ads that are warm or humorous, as these tend to be the ads that invoke the most positive feelings.

The History of Soft-Selling

The idea of soft-selling first emerged in 1914, when Theodore MacManus published an ad that would become the model for the soft-sell. The ad was essentially an essay on the burden of being the best in one’s field. The ad was for Cadillac, yet Cadillac wasn’t mentioned a single time. Nor was there an illustration that ran with the ad. Yet the ad was incredibly successful.

The Benefits Of Soft-Sell Advertising

The following are some of the reasons why you should incorporate soft-selling advertising into your marketing strategy:

  • Less pressure on customers – Because soft-sell ads don’t push products or services, customers will feel less pressure to buy. The pressure is apparent in hard-sell ads, and it’s often off-putting. Using soft-selling ads, you give your audience the ability to discover your brand and make a purchasing decision on their own time.
  • Increase brand awareness – Even though you’re not pushing your brand into their faces, audiences will be more likely to share your content. The reason? People don’t share ads, they share content. When you create a soft-sell ad, you have to focus on the quality of the content and not on the sale. If you are able to create high-quality content that invokes a positive emotion, your audience will share that content. People will share content that elicits a positive reaction to their friends, thereby increasing your brand awareness.
  • Build more trust – Another result of having to focus on content quality is that you’ll build more trust. You’re basically offering your audience something of quality without asking for something in return. This shows them that you care about more than just sales. As a result, they’ll be more likely to explore your brand further. Not to mention that building trust is essential to building long-lasting relationships.

Examples Successful Soft Sell Advertising

Soft sell advertising has grown in popularity, both in regards to inbound marketing and outbound marketing. The following are a few examples of effective soft-selling ads:

  • Yeti – Yeti is a company that sells coolers and outdoor accessories. They filmed an entire series of videos called Hungry Life showing a well-known chef spending time in nature, where he picks plants, goes fishing, and prepares his meals outdoors. Although Yeti’s coolers do make an appearance, they are never showcased or talked about. Yeti is obviously targeting a specific audience by showcasing a specific lifestyle. That audience will then make an emotional connection between that lifestyle and the Yeti brand.
  • Burt’s Bees – Burt’s Bees uses their founder as the spokesperson. This is perfect because he essentially represents their main buyer persona. The Nature of Burt video introduces Burt, who explains who he is. He’s likable and funny, and their target audience can relate to him. What makes the video so effective is that it builds an emotional connection between the viewer and Burt, all without ever promoting the brand or its products.

Implement a Soft-Sell Advertising Strategy Today

Because many companies focus many of their marketing efforts on generating brand awareness, they tend to be overly aggressive. However, soft-sell marketing can be incredibly effective in terms of engaging your audience and building trust. As such, you should be sure to include soft-sell marketing tactics in your inbound marketing strategy.

user generated content

Sourcing User Generated Content

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One source of content generation you may not have tapped into yet is user-generated content. Content marketing is a critical component of any successful marketing strategy. However, it can take a lot of resources to produce your own content on a regular basis. Even if you’ve managed to regularly generate high-quality content, you should look for other ways to create new content for variety’s sake, such as high quality user generated content.

What Is User-Generated Content?

User-generated content refers to content created by consumers and not brands. Such content includes videos, pictures, reviews, articles, and more. For instance, if a consumer takes a picture of themselves using your product and posts it on Instagram, that’s user-generated content. The following are just a few of the benefits of user-generated content:

  • Free publicity

Your audience is essentially promoting your brand on your behalf. As a result, user-generated content can help increase brand awareness.

  • Free content

Creating your own content requires a lot of resources. User-generated content requires none — your audience is creating the content for you. While you don’t own it, you can share it and reap the benefits of it.

  • Positive word of mouth

Customers trust other customers more than they trust brands. Positive user-generated content can, therefore, help to boost your brand reputation by creating trust.

How To Source Usable Generated-Content

Considering how beneficial this free content can be, you’ll want to do everything you can to encourage it. However, the biggest challenge lies in the lack of control you have over the content. You can’t control the message, format, or quality, after all. But there are a few ways that you can guide your audience to create the content that will benefit you most. The following are a few tips on how to source high-quality user-generated content:

  • Encourage 

Don’t just wait for your audience to create content relevant to your brand. You need to encourage it. For instance, hold a contest on social media in which users vote on the best submission. You can then give the winner a prize. There are many ways that you can encourage content generation.

Utilize Marketing Audiences on Pinterest Today

  • Provide clear guidelines

If you’re looking for a specific type of content, then you need to provide guidelines. For example, if you want user reviews, consider providing a basic review format. Such a format could list three broad questions that users can answer in order to generate a review.

  • Provide content creation tips

Your audience does not consist of professional content creators. As such, provide tips that they can use to create higher quality content. For instance, if you’re holding a video creation contest on YouTube or on Instagram, provide your users with a list of basic filming tips. Such tips can help cut down on the amount of poor quality content that you might receive.

  • Offer an example

If you’re looking for a specific type of content, then provide an example. When users see what you’re looking for, it will help them create the kind of content you want. For instance, if you’re hosting a picture taking contest, upload a few pictures of your own that would be considered exceptional examples. By providing an example, you also make sure that users understand your instructions more clearly.

  • Identify the channel

Make sure that your audience knows where to send it. The last thing you want is users posting their content on different platforms or sending it to you via different channels. If you’re promoting a contest, specify what platform they should post to or what hashtag they should use. Provide detailed instructions on how to submit content. By making it clear what channel you’re using, it will be easier for you to track and organize user-generated content.

  • Open a line of communication

Provide a channel through which your audience can contact you. This channel should be specifically for users who are creating content. You can do this by providing a specific support email address, a phone number, or a page they can DM on social media.

  • Monitor performance

Track how the content users create for your brand is performing. By doing so, you can identify what types are the most effective. You can then adjust your guidelines and instructions to encourage the creation of that type of content.

Enhance your Strategy Today

User-generated content can go a long way towards boosting brand trust. Not to mention that it’s a great way to expand your content marketing strategy. As such, make sure that you encourage the creation of high-quality user content. You can do this by providing your audience with general guidance and encouragement to drive effective user-generated content creation.

25 Website Must Haves

The Value of Marketing Automation in 2020

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As your organization expands, so will your marketing needs. Trying to keep up with all of your marketing tasks can be challenging. Common tasks include emailing leads, posting content on a regular schedule, responding to questions, and more. Many of these tasks are time-consuming, which can make getting everything done in an efficient manner can be tricky. Because of this very reason, you should consider the value of marketing automation.

The Benefits of Using Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to a software solution that automatically completes certain tasks based on your instructions. One thing that’s important to understand is that the value of marketing automation goes beyond saving time. As such, the following are a few examples of why you should consider implementing marketing automation tools:

  • Improve productivity

The amount of time that automation can save will help increase productivity. For example, you can use automation tools to trigger emails based on a lead’s actions. Such actions can include downloading something from your site or filling out a form. Since your marketing team doesn’t have to do these tasks, they can use their time to address more important tasks.

  • Reduce human errors

Requiring individuals to perform repetitive tasks over and over again will increase the likelihood that they will make an error. Such errors are natural when the task is mundane and time-consuming.  Automating such tasks can help remove human error from the equation.

  • Improve scalability

If you’re using automation, then your ability to handle a larger workload won’t be affected. Without automation, your team would have trouble handling a bigger workload (which could require you to hire more personnel).

  • Nurture leads more successfully

Using automation, you can make sure that your customer profiles are kept up-to-date. Automation tools can also help you score leads, thereby improving your sales enablement. Finally, automation can help you personalize engagement more, resulting in more effective lead nurturing.

  • Measure success more effectively

Measuring success is important to ensuring that your marketing efforts result in a high ROI. Automation allows you to monitor important KPIs in real-time. As a result, you can make adjustments to your strategy whenever you need to.

Marketing Automation and Trigger Words

Marketing Automation Tools You Should Use

There are many types of marketing automation solutions that are available.  The best way to choose an automation tool is to identify what your automation needs are. With that in mind, the following are some of the most popular automation tools currently on the market:

  • HubSpot

HubSpot is a CRM platform that you can leverage for its content marketing automation tools. For example, HubSpot has a workflow tool that lets you create highly customizable conditional workflows. Using HubSpot, you can set up automated email drip campaigns, segment your contact lists, score leads, and more.

  • Marketo

Marketo uses a Lifecycle Modeler tool that lets you automatically source and organize your leads. If you integrate Marketo with your existing CRM, it will use all of your contact data to automatically move your leads through the sales funnel. Additional features include precision targeting with smart campaigns, streamlined lead nurturing, and email marketing automation capabilities.

  • Customer.io

Customer.io is an email automation solution that you can use to create targeted messages based on how your customers interact with your business. The tool also lets you set up trigger actions using a set of predefined rules. Additional features include conversion tracking, customer profiles, in-context conversations, and A/B testing.

  • Userfox

Owned by AdRoll, Userfox is a SaaS automation solution focusing on email automation. The tool lets users set up triggers based on certain events to automatically send emails to their leads. It’s worth noting that the tool is primarily for tech companies.

  • Pardot

Pardot is a B2B marketing automation solution that belongs to the Salesforce ecosystem. Some of its many automation features include progressive profiling, email marketing, lead assignment, lead scoring, and more.

  • Ontraport

Ontraport is an all-in-one marketing and sales automation platform. The solution provides in-depth insight through its Campaign Performance Mode. Additional automation features include email automation, list segmentation, SMS messaging automation, appointment scheduling, trigger campaigns, and more.

  • InfusionSoft

InfusionSoft is a small business automation tool offered by Keap. It allows you to automatically capture and tag new leads, score leads, assign tasks, invoice clients, set up recurring payments, and schedule appointments.

Implement Marketing Automation Tools to Improve Your Marketing Success

Marketing automation tools not only help to improve the productivity of your marketing efforts, but they can also significantly improve their effectiveness. The value of marketing automation simply cannot be overstated. Because of this, you should strongly consider adopting one or more automation tools if you haven’t done so already.

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Marketing Trends 2

What’s Trending in Marketing for August 2020

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Staying current on marketing trends is especially important to assess whether your marketing efforts are harmonious with today’s evolving world. We know the difficulty of keeping up with these trends given the abundance of information thrown at us every day. The following articles highlight current August 2020 marketing trends that we think are worth paying attention to:

Noteworthy Marketing News

Hulu Launches Beta for Self-Serve Advertising Platform

In effort to combat the negative economic backlash of Covid-19, Hulu has created an opportunity for small businesses to use its platform. Hulu has recently launched a self-service advertisement program eligible for any company with a minimum ad budget as low as $500. The process is simple: a company creates and submits a 15-30 second creative video along with details on budget, date range, and an area to upload the ad to Hulu Ad Manager. Hulu approves or denies within 3 days. Brands also have the option to specify their target market by age, gender, genre and location. Hulu provides approved brands with a simple walk-through of set-up and launch. For this program, Hulu permits a maximum of one version of a creative video per campaign.

As part of its recent Enabling Dishonest Behavior Policy, Google Ads is banning any advertising for “spyware and surveillance technology” in both search and shopping starting August 11. Examples of services include fake passports, fake degrees or diplomas, drug test aids, exam or paper writing services, invalid reviews and clicks, and fake social media endorsements. Examples of unauthorized access includes hacking, cable-stealing, radar jamming technology, traffic signal changers, and phone/wiretapping. Google explains that its list is not exhaustive and only mentioned for example. Google exemplifies spyware as GPS trackers, cameras/recorders marketed for spying purposes, and software that monitors someone else’s texts and phone calls, with the exception of parents tracking underage children. Violators on Google Ads will receive a 7-day warning.

Social Short: Twitter Ad Engagement Drops, Snap Minis Launch, more brands pause Facebook Ads

Twitter’s ad revenues have fallen in the past years though daily active user rates have increased. However, Twitter’s CFO Ned Segal is confident in the rebuilding process of Twitter’s ad server. He expresses optimism for the future of advertisements on Twitter through the advantage the platform has for live events.  Snapchat reports a 17% increase in revenues. Though its audience is largely younger, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel found that the average number of users on the Discover page are in their thirties. Additionally, the platform has benefited from the increasing Facebook ad withdrawals. Twitter has also taken action against QAnon content, suspending thousands of accounts for sharing or associating with any “conspiracy theory-ridden content”.

Improving your Marketing Program

Lessons Learned: Buyer Persona Gone Wrong

Before a company can establish a solid marketing plan, it must be aware of the specific target markets or customer profiles it has the best chance to attract to its product or service. Creating a buyer persona is essential to effective attraction marketing. In order to perfect your approach in buyer persona launch, here are some common mistakes to avoid.

30 Ways to Boost Instagram Engagement & Following

Looking for ways to boost your social media brand presence? Knowing how to increase brand engagement on Instagram, the latest and hippest social media platform app, is a great start. People are online all day due to working from home. Virtual shopping has risen due to restrictions and pandemic fears. As we have geared toward a more online world, your brand’s presence on the web is more important now than ever. According to Forbes, 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business or brand, and 200 million users on Instagram visit business profiles daily. 70% of users turn to Instagram to look up a brand, and 60% learn about new products using Instagram. Now is the time to catch up with the competition that is already using these trends to their advantage.

Istanbul, Turkey – December 15, 2018: Person holding a brand new Apple iPhone X with Instagram profile on the screen. Instagram is an online mobile social networking service, launched in October 2010.

5 Ways to Improve Your B2B Marketing Strategy

B2B marketing can be a challenging endeavor, especially if you don’t have a clear cut marketing strategy in place. To have any hope of running a successful B2B marketing campaign, you’ll need to establish what your goals are. Once you’ve done so, you should implement marketing strategies that will support those goals and help you achieve them. The following are five B2B marketing tips that you should use to help improve your marketing efforts.

Free Digital Marketing Tools To Cope With COVID-19

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

No in-person events until 2nd half of 2021, marketers say

According to a recent Marketing Land survey of 300 people, 3 out of 10 people responded that they anticipate attending in-person events in the first half of 2021. In another survey, 70% of respondents plan to attend solely online events until a Covid-19 vaccine emerges.

U.S. Mobile Ad Spending Update

In March, E Marketer’s Mobile Ad Spending Report forecasted that the pandemic would cause a 20% increase in mobile ad spending, but they have now updated this expectancy and reduced it to 4.8% growth. Among mobile advertising results, location-based advertising has suffered, and gaming and streaming video apps have done well. This year’s lost growth in mobile ad spending will affect overall spending through at least 2024.

COVID-19 Is the Asteroid That Struck American Small Business

Positive news regarding the virus is 78% of small businesses report being able to survive 7 to 12 months or more with existing cash on hand, and 57% could last over a year. Restaurants suffered primarily, as there were over 133,000 business closures total and of the 26,000 Yelp restaurants that have been closed since March, 60% were now permanently closed. A majority of 92% of businesses report pivoting strategy in at least one way form the pandemic. The most common change was a creation of delivery channel, and 96% of businesses reported planning to keep some new services and channels post-pandemic, while 43% will maintain all changes. Find out more on Search Engine Land.

 

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Why Hiring a Marketing Agency Would Benefit your Company

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Marketing your business is critical to not just achieving growth, but to simply surviving. If you’re a small to mid-sized company, then marketing is absolutely essential to generating awareness of your business. However, effective marketing can be very challenging without experience, not to mention that it can be very time consuming as well. Businesses that attempt to develop marketing strategies on their own often find themselves stretched thin. As a result, they have little time to focus on their core business. Because of this, you should strongly consider hiring a marketing agency.

Reasons To Hire A Marketing Agency

For many, hiring a marketing agency requires some convincing. After all, some businesses believe that paying for marketing services is an unnecessary expenditure. However, working with a marketing agency can be incredibly beneficial. The following are a few key reasons that a reputable marketing agency is worth the cost:

  • Cheaper than an in-house team

Marketing a business not only takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of specializedwork. Marketing teams typically consist of a marketing coordinator, a marketing director, a social media manager, a content strategist, a marketing manager, and more. The cost of hiring these positions full-time is rarely something that smaller businesses can afford. When you hire a marketing agency, you pay a set fee. This set fee provides you with access to all of the marketing specialists you need.

  • Scale as your company grows

As your company grows, it will become increasingly difficult to scale your marketing efforts. The bigger your company gets, the more time and effort you will need to dedicate to your marketing. A marketing agency will be able to keep up with your growing marketing needs.

  • Take advantage of marketing expertise

When you work with a marketing agency, you’ll have access to a team of experts with vast experience. They will know what works and what doesn’t. They will also work closely with you to tailor a marketing strategy that suits your needs. Inexperienced companies that don’t use an agency often end up developing a marketing strategy through trial and error. Relying on trial and error to improve your marketing efforts is not cost-effective.

  • Have access to the latest marketing tools

Marketing agencies invest in all of the latest marketing tools and technology. Smaller companies can rarely afford these tools on their own. Fortunately, marketing agencies will use all of their high-end marketing tools when working with you.

How To Choose The Right Marketing Agency

Not all marketing agencies are of the same quality. Nor do they all offer the same services or charge the same fees. As such, hiring the right marketing agency can be difficult. The following are some tips to help you choose a marketing agency that will fit your unique needs:

  • Have a goal

You’re not going to know if the agency can offer what you need if you don’t have a marketing goal in mind. You need to figure out exactly what you’re trying to achieve. For example, maybe you want to build a successful website or you’re trying to increase your leads. Ask the agency how they’ll go about helping you achieve your specific goal.

  • Find out about their services

Some marketing agencies specialize in specific services, such as SEO. Others offer more broad services, such as digital marketing. Find out what services they offer to determine if they are a good fit for your company’s needs.

  • Ask for references

Speak with the agency’s current clients. A reputable marketing agency should have no trouble providing you with references. You should also ask how many existing clients they currently have and for how long they’ve had them. The longer the clients have been with them, the more you can assume that they must be doing a good job. High client turnover is usually a bad sign.

  • Look at previous work

Good references don’t always indicate good work. Take a look at the marketing strategies that were implemented for previous clients. Look at their websites, their social presence, their content, and more. If you don’t think they’re of high quality, then that’s a big red flag.

  • Look for a good cultural fit

You need a marketing agency that’s willing to work with you to tailor a strategy to meet your needs. To achieve this, your team has to get along with their team. A good cultural fit is essential. When speaking with an agency, pay attention to how well they communicate with you. You should also get along well with them. Finally, try to find an agency that shares the same values as your company.

6 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

Begin Working With A Marketing Agency Today

At first glance, handling your own marketing efforts might seem more cost-effective. However, that’s simply not the case. Not only are you likely to save money long-term, but your marketing strategy is more likely to succeed if you work with a reputable marketing agency. With that in mind, you should strongly consider hiring a marketing agency to oversee your company’s marketing strategy.

 

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6 Tips for Choosing an Advertising Agency

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Marketing your company is a must if you have any hope for success. Unfortunately, marketing your company effectively can be very time-consuming and can require a significant amount of resources. It’s why many businesses choose to outsource to an advertising agency. There are many reputable agencies out there to choose from; however, there are also plenty of agencies that can do more harm than good. To make sure that the money you spend on an agency will actually translate to real results, use the following tips to hire the right advertising agency:

1. Find an Advertising Agency That Focuses on Cultureadvertising agency

There are a lot of different factors that you should consider when comparing advertising agencies. However, one of the most important ones is the cultural fit. Make sure that the agency you hire shares the same core values as your business. A good agency that shares your values will be more collaborative and innovative. You should be able to get some sense of their culture by observing their work environment as well. If people seem active and cheerful at the same time, it’s a good sign.

2. Consider The Agency’s Talent

Arguably as important as an agency’s culture is their talent. Without talent, their culture will only take you so far. You want to work with an agency that isn’t conservative. This means that they’re not always looking to play it safe. You want an agency that’s ambitious and that is constantly looking to improve its abilities. You’ll also want to make sure that they are technologically literate. Speak with their HR team to learn about the types of people they tend to look for and hire. You should also look at their turnover rate. A high turnover rate tends to be an issue. It means that they’re either not hiring the right type of talent or that their talent tends to look elsewhere because the agency is a bad fit.

3. Don’t Rule Out Agencies Based On Location

Don’t limit your search for an advertising agency to your location. Location no longer means that much. After all, you don’t need to have in-person meetings with your agency all that often. In today’s connected world, it’s easy to keep in touch using email, online chat, video conferencing, and by phone. Additionally, it can actually benefit your company to look for an agency that’s outside of your area as it could provide you with an outside perspective. Such a perspective can really help freshen up your marketing efforts. By limiting your search to your location, you’ll limit your access to quality agencies and unique perspectives.

4. Don’t Rely Solely on RFPs

RFPs (requests for proposals) can be quite helpful, but you shouldn’t base your decision solely on an RFP. Many agencies excel at RFPs but only because they are opportunistic. When you review an RFP, speak with the agency’s leadership to get a feel for how passionate they are about the work that they do. Ask them about some of their greatest successes as well as some of their failures. The way an agency talks about their past failures can be very enlightening. After all, you’ll want an agency that is willing to reflect on its failures and learn from them.

5. Don’t Make Low Prices Your Main Priority

If you’re working with a limited advertising budget to begin with, you might be tempted to go with the agency that offers the most affordable rates. However, keep in mind that like with most things, you get what you pay for. If you go with the cheapest agency, it may result in lower quality work. They may even cut corners, which is the last thing you want when it comes to implementing a successful long-term advertising strategy.

6. Look Into Their Track Record

Do a little research into an agency’s past and current clients to get an idea of how effective they are as an advertising agency. If the agency has been around for a while, take note of its long-term clients. Clients that have stuck with them for a long time are a good indication of the agency’s quality and commitment. If an agency has a large turnover when it comes to clients, it’s often a bad sign. Be sure to ask the agency for references that you can contact as well.

Interactive Speaking & Marketing Consulting Experiences

Outsourcing your marketing efforts is generally a good way to save money over the long run and to ensure that you have an experienced team that you can rely on. Unfortunately, not all advertising agencies are reliable or even reputable, for that matter. As such, make sure that you use these six tips to find an advertising agency that will work closely with you to help you achieve your specific marketing goals.

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Things To Consider When Partnering With A Marketing Agency

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Does your company need help from a marketing agency? If you’ve never worked with a marketing agency before, it can be overwhelming to decide which one to partner with. Before settling with one, it is important to scope out your options to figure out which one will be the best fit for you and your company.

It is crucial that you choose a marketing agency that shares the same goals as you and wants to do everything they can to help you reach them. You should choose a marketing agency that will have a clear understanding of your company’s goals and objectives. It is key that the marketing agency you partner with shares the same beliefs and values as your company. In order to get a clear understanding of how helpful a marketing agency can be for your company, you need to ask the right questions. Having important conversations early on will help you decide if a marketing agency is right for your business.

Enjoy the article: 6 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

These are a few things to consider about a marketing agency before settling with one:

Interview Your Account Managermarketing agency 2

Account managers are important because they are the go-to person the client can count on in the agency. They know everything about their account and make sure the work is being completed. Account managers keep the client’s goals and knowledge in mind. If there is no point person then the client has to educate multiple people on what they are looking for and double check work to make sure it meets their expectations and standards. It is important that you learn who will be managing your account and executing the work. You should feel confident with the experience and expertise of your account manager.

Ask What The First Steps of Work Together Will Look Like

This is a great question to ask a potential marketing agency when deciding if they are right for your company. Asking the agency what the first couple months of working together will entail will tell you what will be done to drive early results. This can give you a deeper insight as to what working with that agency will be like. It can help you better decide if you like what their plan for your company is and if you can see it working in the future. This tactic is beneficial because it can tell you what type of partner they will be. It can show you if the marketing agency has an organized plan for your company’s goals or not.

Question How The Agency Has Helped Past Clients

It is important that you figure out if the agency you’re leaning towards can help your company get the results you want. Try not to focus so much on other companies they have worked with in your industry. This will not help you figure out if the agency has helped their clients reach their goals. You need to voice your company’s struggles and ask how they have helped their clients in the past with similar issues. This will help you get an idea for how they will help your company achieve its major goals. Asking this question helps you learn the marketing agencies track record. Asking them how they responded to other clients with similar issues will give you an idea for how they will assist your company. This can also help you decide if you like their approach.

Partner With an Agency That Shares The Same Values and Beliefs

It is important that you get along on a personal level with the people you are aligning with. Your business and the marketing agency you partner with should have shared values and beliefs. Hiring a marketing agency is like hiring another employee. Companies and employees have shared values and this should carry on into the marketing agency your company hires as well.

It is important that you educate yourself on these tactics before partnering with a marketing agency. Doing your research on your account manager’s years of experience will help you get an idea for how reliable they will be. Discussing company plans for the near future and considering the agencies track record are good to know to get a feel for how the agency will help your business and if you like their approach. Finally, having shared values and beliefs is very important because we all want to get along with our business partners. Using these tactics can give you insight as to if an agency will be beneficial for you to partner with.

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Reason To Hire A Digital Marketing Agency1

6 Reasons to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

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The reason to hire a digital marketing agency is simple; Internet has driven all kinds of innovation over the years. For example, it changed how companies both big and small can market their business. While anyone can leverage the Internet to market digitally; hiring a digital marketing agency is generally a much better idea than trying to go it alone. This is because there’s a big difference between digital marketing and effective digital marketing.

To get the most out of a digital marketing strategy, you will need to understand how to access and leverage data, trends, statistics, and more, not to mention how to identify, reach, and nurture your target audience in a cost-effective way. It’s the main reason to hire a digital marketing agency. In fact, the following are six more reasons why it’s in your best interests to hire a digital marketing agency:

1. Your Digital Marketing Costs

At first glance, hiring a digital marketing agency might seem like an added cost. However, doing so can actually save you money over the long run. This is because hiring a digital marketing agency means that an entire team of digital marketing experts will be working on your digital marketing strategy for an established fee.

If you were to attempt to develop, implement, and maintain your digital marketing strategy on your own; you would have to hire numerous full-time marketing experts in-house. Such employees can cost a significant amount of money. Especially, when you take into account that you have to pay more for those who have a lot of skills and experience. Not to mention all of the other associated costs with taking on more employees, such as insurance costs, payroll taxes, and the equipment that they need to do their jobs.

As such, if you’re planning on doing more than just setting up a Facebook page, then the most cost-effective route to take is to hire a digital marketing agency.

2. Focus On Your Core BusinessReason To Hire A Digital Marketing Agency 2

Attempting to maintain your digital marketing efforts without an agency isn’t just expensive, it’s time-consuming. Successful digital marketing strategies don’t just take a lot of time to develop and implement, they also need to be constantly monitored and adjusted. Digital marketing is a long-term strategy, after all. By allowing an agency to focus on your digital marketing efforts, you can focus the majority of your time and effort on growing your core business. Trying to handle everything yourself can result in an inability to meet the demands of your business, thereby potentially stunting your company’s growth.

3. An Agency Understands Effective Tactics And Strategies

Odds are that you don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to launching successful digital marketing campaigns. An experienced digital marketing agency will have implemented countless marketing strategies and digital marketing tactics over the years. They will know what works and, arguably more importantly, what doesn’t work. Essentially, you won’t have to worry about trial and error nearly as much when it comes to your digital marketing campaign when relying on a professional digital marketing agency.

Enjoy the Article: Types of Digital Marketing Strategies Your Business Should Use

4. An Agency Has All The Necessary Tools

In addition to all of the different special skill sets that are required to run a successful digital marketing agency (from web designers to content creators and more), you will also need access to countless tools, such analytics and dashboards. While there are some free tools out there, digital marketing agencies will have access to the very best tools, including those that are only available at an upfront cost or for a subscription-based fee. On top of that, digital marketing agencies make a concerted effort to stay up to date on all of the latest digital marketing advancements, which means that they’ll never rely on outdated technology to implement and maintain your marketing campaigns.

5. Access New Ideas For Your Marketing Efforts

There’s no such things as a one-size-fits-all solution to digital marketing. All the best digital marketing agencies know this, which is why they will customize your strategy to meet your needs. This also means that they will likely present new ideas for marketing your brand that can be incredibly effective. Usually, these are ideas that you would have never thought of without them.

6. Scale Your Marketing Needs As You Grow

Trying to scale your marketing needs as you grow can be a huge challenge. Even more so if you’re handling your marketing campaign in-house. You can’t just hire new employees at a moment’s notice, after all. A digital marketing agency should have the resources to be able to scale as your business grows.

These are the main reasons to hire a digital marketing agency. A good digital marketing agency can tailor your online marketing strategy to suit your specific needs in order to successfully reach your target audience and to meet your unique digital marketing goals

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Types Of Advertisement Opportunities For Popular Streaming Services

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For years, the only way to reach audiences was through traditional types of advertisement such as print, TV, and radio. While these types of advertisement methods are still available, new methods of reaching your audience have opened up online; for example, streaming platforms. If you haven’t looked into advertising on a streaming platform, then you should.

Advertising on Streaming Platforms

Streaming platforms, such as Netflix or Spotify, are like the online versions of radio and TV. The only difference being everything is available on demand. Essentially, the programming is more customizable. Which allows users to create a more personal experience in regards to what they listen to and what they watch.

Therefore, streaming platforms have more data available when it comes to the individual user and their watching or listening behaviors. While traditional TV and radio is limited to the number of people watching or listening to any given program. It means that advertisers will be able to leverage their buyer persona information to more effectively reach their target audience with different types of advertisement methods using streaming platforms.

Because of the nature of streaming, advertisers often receive more exposure as well. For example, instead of running an ad on a show that airs once a week, you can run an ad on a show that can be streamed at any time. Since many consumers binge-watch their shows, you can gain massive amounts of exposure. All the while, staying at the top of mind by advertising throughout an entire season or series of a show. You’ll also be able to target more niche shows, podcasts or musicians that you know your specific target audience is more likely to be engaged with.

Learn More:An Advertising Approach On 4 Social Media Platforms

The following are some of the different types of advertisement options available on some of the more popular streaming channels:

YouTube TV

YouTube TV is YouTube’s attempt to develop their own content streaming platform. This stream provides viewers with 50 live TV channels for a monthly fee. They’ve also made some innovations in regards to their different types of advertising options. For example, you can now target your ads to viewers that watch most of theirTV online (also known as cord-cutters). You’ll also be able to use their DoubleClick Bid Manager. DoubleClick Bid Manager specifically targets viewers who are watching YouTube TV on their TV screens. This allows you to tailor different types of advertisements based on the environment in which they will be shown.

Hulu

Hulu is a video streaming platform with over 17 million subscribers. It is unique as it offers multiple ways to target your audience, and has numerous customization options. For example, their Targeted Blitz ability allows you to target by demographics, geographic area, genre, content length and more. Whereas Splash allows you to intercept almost every unique viewer on a single day. Additionally, you can align your brand with episodes of specific shows. Hulu will even help hand-pick shows based on thematic relevance to your brand.

Spotify

Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming platforms on the planet. As of January 2018, Spotify boasted 70 million paying subscribers. However, there are more than 157 million active users since the service is free with advertising. Besides running targeted audio-only ads, there are plenty of other advertising opportunities available on the platform. These include podcast partnerships, sponsored playlists, and more.

Pandora

Pandora‘s streaming platform is based on being able to create personalized radio stations. Roughly 78 million people listen to Pandora every month. Pandora allows users to customize their listening experience, giving them access to extremely valuable data. This data can then become leverage to target your audience. Pandora also only serves one ad at a time, which means your ad won’t get buried under a sea of running advertisements.

Google Play Music

Google Play Music is another popular music streaming platform that boasts access to more than 30 million songs. Their advertising platform provides access to both Lightbox ads and TrueView video ads; both of which are mobile-optimized and easy to set up. You will be able to use keywords, remarketing, and affinity audiences in order to target your audience at the right time. Google Music Play allows the use of Google AdWords to set up marketing campaigns.

DirecTV Now

DirecTV is a streaming service that provides users access to more than 25,000 on demand shows and movies. They currently have slightly over 20 million subscribers. DirectTV allows you to run your ads on the most popular shows, and on demographically targeted networks. You can also, lock into marquee programmings (such as season premieres and finales), and reach your audience across multiple devices. You can even run ads that viewers can interact with directly on their screens.

These streaming platforms have enormous audiences and can provide you with a great chance to boost your brand awareness. Additionally, they offer a variety of different types of advertisement options to help fit your brand’s specific needs.

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