Articles Archives - Stevens & Tate Marketing

How To Use Social Media To Drive B2B Sales

November 15, 2024/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, B2B Marketing, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

In spite of the enormous success of social media marketing, many B2B companies still haven’t successfully jumped on the social train. This because many B2B companies are unsure how to utilize their social media platforms to the best of their advantage. Sharing will help alot, when it comes to attraction marketing.

Social media channels enable you to reach a wide net of potential customers and connect with individuals on a more personal level. More people are using these platforms to research potential purchasing decisions. Therefore, your posts should be educating potential buyers about what you have to offer and showcasing why you’re an authoritative source. Despite what you may have heard, you don’t have to post memes or funny videos to stand out.

If you’ve put your social media strategies on the back burner, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Here are some ways to improve B2B sales via social media:

How to reach your target audience:

The first step in developing your social media strategy should be to develop a roadmap of whom you want to send your social media messages to. This outline will help you reach the right people at the right time and ensure your messages won’t be lost in all of the noise. Your outline should include the messages you wish to send to your target audience. You’ll want to ask yourself the following:

Who is your audience?
What social media platforms do they use?
What is the end goal of your social media posts?

Once you’ve developed your plan, it’s time to set your posts into action.

Read More: B2B Branding Tips For The New Buyer

How to target businesses on social media:

When most people think B2B sales and social media, they think of Linkedin. While LinkedIn is known as the top social platform for businesses, this doesn’t mean other platforms should be ignored. Social media isn’t solely about generating B2B sales leads; it’s also about strengthening your brand awareness.

With social media, you’re able to humanize your brand by personally engaging with your audience. Since most people are turning to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, to look for solutions to their problems, your company should be visible on these platforms and ready to assist them.

How to cater your message to businesses:

Social media is a great place to showcase your brand’s level of expertise and gain trusted adviser status. Since most buyers are 60% into the buying decision before they even reach out to a sales representative, your posts should reach them early on in their journey. You can do this by posting helpful and educational content that will nudge potential customers along the sales cycle without seeming “pushy”. Case studies, blogs, product demos, and videos are great ways to initially convey your messages to your audience.

Read More: Customer Engagement Strategy

How to turn interest into a lead:

Like all marketing, social media marketing’s end goal is to generate qualified leads. All of your posts should have a content offer or call-to-action in order to urge your visitors to take steps toward purchasing. Make sure all of your social media platforms redirect to your website, and vice versa. Easy navigation is key to successful online marketing.

Your company’s social media marketing will be successful if you create personal relationships with your customers and provide them with valuable and educational content. Social media gives you the opportunity to reach a larger audience than ever before. Take this opportunity and run with it!

8 Important Questions To Ask When Hiring Inbound Marketing Agencies

November 13, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Inbound marketing is a force to be reckoned with. For businesses, that lack the time or adequate resources to take care of their own inbound marketing, these agencies offer a solution. Inbound marketing agencies work on search engine optimization, social media campaigns, and all-around content marketing. They do all the heavy lifting so that your business can focus on important details.

There are many agencies on the market that can offer you with professional inbound marketing solutions. Selecting the best agency to provide these services can be quite confusing. Below are some of the questions you can use. These questions can help you identify if an inbound agency is right for your business. You can use these questions to determine if an inbound agency aligns with your business direction.

Questions To Ask When Hiring Inbound Marketing Agency

1. Areas of expertise and experience?

Your prospective inbound marketing agency should be able to work with different types of businesses. Take time to understand the scope of their services. Most agencies should be able to handle B2B or B2C solutions with ease.

2. What service packages are available?

When looking for an agency to fill your marketing solution shoes, you need to take wholesome packages into account. These packages usually cover the basics. If you want more specialized solutions, you need to be sure the agency can satisfy your order. The prospective inbound marketing agency should take care of lead generation systems and SEO optimization among other things in the package.

Read More – Benefits of Inbound Marketing

3. What are your performance benchmarks?

For you to understand and analyze the process that the agency will take, you have to understand how their scoring system works. How do they actually measure the performance of their marketing strategies? What scale do they use? Feel free to ask more case study questions or make recommendations so the agency can provide tailor-made solutions.

4. What strategies seem fit for my business and do you have the required resources?

An agency’s influence is tied to its power in resources. Your inbound marketing agency must have the ability to come up with marketing strategies and follow through with them. It is retardant to deal with an agency that always needs your financial backing. Cost should be mentioned upfront.

Read Read: Why Inbound Marketing Solutions Are Integral To Your Success

5. How much time will it take?

Depending on the agency you want to work with, the completion time for projects will vary. Look for those who will work within the time frame you have provided.

6. What is your client retention status?

You can tell a lot from a business and the amount of clients they retain. High retention rates indicate high turnover. You want to work with a business that is trusted and supported with a number of people.

7. How do you integrate your team?

As a business looking for a marketing agency, you want to be sure that everyone involved understands your goal. Work with agencies that are open to taking direction and involving you in major/minor decisions.

8. How is ROI measured?

There are agencies that do not provide these services or only provide these services in limited function. It is better to work with agencies that do detailed ROI measurements. This way you can easily track how your investment is progressing.

With these questions, we are confident you will be able to select the right agency for your company. Look for an agency that gives you a creative edge and allows you to focus on your sales. We wish you all the best!

Five Inbound Marketing Resources Every Marketer Should Know About

November 7, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

If you’re tuned in to inbound, you’ve surely found some valuable resources on the internet. There are some failsafe, go-to websites out there that can help you hone your marketing skills. They can also help you develop better content, and drive traffic more effectively. Here are some of our favorite top 5 inbound marketing resources:

5 Inbound Marketing Resources

1. HubSpot

Arguably the world’s leader in inbound marketing software, HubSpot has more than changed the game of online marketing. As a matter of fact, they practically wrote, broke, and authored the rules of inbound as we know it.

From HubSpot’s comprehensive blog covering everything from marketing to sales and everything in between to the highly lauded HubSpot Academy, there’s something for every marketer. For instance, HubSpot has an interactive course dedicated to content marketing that can provide you with a big picture view of everything you need for a successful content marketing strategy. Subscribe to their updates, and you’ll have access to free webinars, marketing kits, and endless tools as they evolve.

One of HubSpot’s most valuable tools is it’s Website Grader. Enter your website and email, and the Grader will score your website in four categories: performance, mobile, SEO, and security. Use this as a starting point to improve your site’s visitor experience.

Also Read: Hubspot vs Mailchimp Differences

2. Content Marketing Institute

Great content is the cornerstone to any inbound marketing strategy, and the Content Marketing Institute is a must-visit for any inbound marketer looking to pump out quality work. The CMI has pooled together many industry experts to create a comprehensive white paper and ebook library. These are full of techniques for how to engage readers, keep them connected, and tell better stories.

Read More: 8 Important Questions To Ask When Hiring Inbound Marketing Agencies

3. Moz

Creating excellent content is a great start to establishing expertise in your field and against your competition; however, attracting folks to your page is a whole different idea all together. Moz is the go-to expert for all things SEO. Their endless SEO learning library offers invaluable insights and data. Elevate your SEO game with Moz’s comprehensive resources.

Also Read: The Secret to SEO and 5 Tips on Optimizing Your Results

4. Canva

Canva is a free website which allows you to design visually appealing cover photos, social media posts, and presentations. It is used throughout the industry by some of the biggest names in inbound. Canvas also holds a complete library of how-to’s for all things Canva and design related.

The resources available through Canva can help you generate infographics, Facebook cover photos, posters, and more without guessing what dimensions you should work with. Canva’s pre-sized canvases optimize your content for the end digital user without skewing graphics or pixelating fonts.

Once you’ve published your content, created some stylish Canva graphics, and SEO’d your blog posts, turn to Social Media Examiner for helpful tips on how to get your content in front of your social media followers.

As SEO trends and Google’s algorithms constantly change, social media has updated its algorithms. If you’re doing it alone, you’re taking shots in the dark, but thanks to Social Media Examiner, you can stay ahead of the constantly changing world of social media.

The Power of an Influencer Marketing Strategy: How and Why It Works

October 25, 2024/in Articles, Digital Media, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Social Media /by Terry Becker

We’ve all been through it—you’re scrolling through your social media feed when suddenly you come across an individual passionately endorsing a product or service. What’s more? They have a massive following. You notice this is different from the typical celebrity endorsements. That is because the individual you are seeing is a social media influencer, which makes the premise of an influencer marketing strategy so much more unique.

As a true millennial who’s seen its effects, I can attest to how important it is to be leveraging social media to enhance your marketing efforts. The following is an outline of everything you need to know about Influencer Marketing. This includes how much it costs to hire an influencer, the top social media platforms to run an influencer campaign, how to measure the success of this marketing strategy, and examples of how it’s been done successfully.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is somebody who has the ability to “influence” potential buyers by endorsing the offerings on social media. There are several factors that indicate whether or not someone is an influencer. However, the most telling one could be that the individual’s followers fit into a particular niche, and there is active engagement between them and the actual influencer.

Rather than just being “marketing tools”, influencers are assets to a company’s social relationships with whom they can collaborate to accomplish their Marketing goals. This is what makes a social media influencer entirely different from a celebrity endorsement, and perhaps, more successful.

In celebrity product endorsements, there is less of an emphasis on engagement and more on capitalizing on the person’s fame and name recognition to benefit a brand. In short, the objective is to capture the attention of a broader audience, unlike the niche audience of the influencer.

The Cost of Influence

As you may assume, influencers can be costly and there is no set rate for incorporating them into your campaign. It’s a common practice for digital marketers to follow the “one cent per follower rule”. Some marketers know this as the $100 per 10,000 followers rule. Factors to consider include engagement rate, client budget, and campaign lengths. However, according to Instagram Influencer, Matt Crump (who has composed his own rates), creative mandates, production costs, timeline, and rights affect the cost of hiring him for your campaign. Crump explained that the price range per sponsored post varies based on the number of followers he has during that time period. The price can be as low as $100-$500 for 5-10k followers, and as high as $10,000 for over 1,000,000 followers.

It’s important for marketers to identify which platform will bring the greatest Return on Investment for their influencer marketing campaign. According to Linqia, over 68% of marketers recognize Instagram as the most effective social network for an influencer strategy in 2019. Coming in second was Facebook with 51% with YouTube, Blogs, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat following behind. The takeaway is simple: If you’re considering an Influencer Marketing strategy, Instagram is the place to start!

Similar Article: 5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media

How to Measure Success

Although over 60% of marketers are primarily focused on driving brand awareness, engagement, and impressions (Linqia), it’s still important to track sales generation from such campaigns as well as conversions, audience sentiment, and clicks. Since influencer marketing is an ever-evolving industry. Marketers need to consistently evaluate their measurement practices to ensure they’re held to the same standards as other media investments.

Similar Article: Effective Inbound Marketing Strategies

3 Examples of Successful Influencer Marketing

Now that you have an understanding of what an influencer is, how much they cost, the top social media platforms to use for your influencer marketing campaign, and how to measure its success, it’s time to take a look at influencer marketing strategies in action. The following are four examples of successful influencer marketing:

Naked Juice –

When seeking to raise their brand awareness, even more, Naked Juice decided to collaborate with Instagram influencers, Beth Norton and Kate La Vie, through sponsored Instagram posts. Kate La Vie features images of her outfits and beauty essentials. This made it easy for the brand to strategically collaborate with her snapshots. The campaign saw much success. According to Social Bond, within 24 hours the Instagram post generated more than 2,000 likes and comments combined. Additionally, this campaign enabled Naked Juice to position itself as more of a “premium juice” brand. Following the success of the campaign, the company made $57.4 million in revenue by the end of 2017.

Sperry Boat Shoes –At the end of 2016, the popular boat shoe brand, “Sperry” collaborated with more than 100 Instagram “micro-influencers”. The key influencers here were “Sperry Enthusiasts”. To create engaging content with its audience, Sperry identified fans on Instagram who were already sharing pictures of their shoes. Subsequently, the brand invited these users to develop content for its Instagram account. The strategy worked. According to Curalate, Sperry’s most engaged photo of 2016 got 8,278 likes. How did they do this? The photo was taken by influencer Slava Daniliuk who had 4,500 Instagram followers at the time. Additionally, Daniliuk posted with the brand’s trademark hashtag, #OdysseysAwait which increased engagement even more.

Walmart –

As proven by a successful retail company, influencer marketing can also be highly effective when promoting philanthropic incentives as well. Walmart took a “Cause Marketing” approach when embarking on its “Feeding America” mission with several influencers on Instagram. The strategy was simple: For each like, #FightHunger comment, or post share, 0.90 cents would be donated to the organization. Logan Paul’s most-liked post from the campaign generated over one million likes. Due to the success of these influencers in the #FightHunger campaign, Walmart raised close to $1.65 million in addition to boosting positive sentiment for their brand.

Similar Article: Social Media Campaigns for Attracting Prospects and Generating Leads

With the numerous advantages that influencer marketing provides, it’s no secret why so many brands are going with this strategy. As soon as you scroll through your social media feed once again, you’ll come across one of these campaigns. However, you’ll now have a better understanding of what an influencer marketer is and all of the marketing elements involved.

Why Inbound Marketing Solutions Are Integral To Your Success

October 22, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Dan Gartlan

Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers using valuable content instead of traditional advertising methods (such as cold calling). Successful inbound marketing solutions help make your company easier to find online and nurture potential leads through the buyer’s journey. Inbound marketing is incredibly effective because it’s a long-term strategy that allows leads to be nurtured at their own pace.

The Difference Between Inbound Marketing And Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is a strategy that relies on interrupting potential customers with advertising messages. Outbound methods include cold calling, TV commercials, and direct mail. These tactics are often intrusive and can be easily ignored or blocked by consumers.

Inbound marketing is the exact opposite of outbound marketing. Rather than bombarding potential customers with ads, inbound marketing relies on providing valuable content that draws customers in. Inbound methods include creating blog posts, articles, ebooks, white papers, social media posts, and podcasts. These tactics are designed to help potential customers learn about your company and the solutions you provide.

When it comes down to it, outbound marketing casts a wide net, forcing your message on a large audience in the hopes of reaching potential leads. It’s a strategy that’s short-term in nature. Inbound marketing solutions focus on positioning your business to be found by your target audience on their time. Whereas outbound is considered an “interruption” strategy, inbound is a “permission” strategy that’s more long-term in nature.

The Four Stages of Inbound Marketing

A successful inbound marketing strategy should engage potential leads at every stage of the buyer’s journey. As such, you can separate inbound marketing into four distinct stages:

Stage One: Attract

The first stage is all about attracting potential leads to your brand. This stage requires various tactics to generate brand awareness and make it easy for potential leads to find your website. For this stage to be successful, you need to understand who your target audience is. It’s why many businesses will start by developing their buyer personas first.

Stage Two: Convert

Converting visitors to leads is the next step once you’ve attracted them. The idea behind this stage is to educate visitors and earn their trust using high-quality content. They will then be more willing to sign up to an email list via lead capture forms on your website or blog. Many businesses will use gated content, such as downloadable eBooks or free trials, as incentives for leads to provide their contact information.

Stage Three: Close

Once you capture your leads, you’ll need to nurture them through the sales funnel using personalized content. You can do this by sending them offers and nurturing them via an email marketing campaign.

Stage Four: Delight

The last stage focuses on delighting customers with exceptional customer service. You can do so by using follow-up emails, social media interactions, cross-selling opportunities, and more.

Also Read: What Are Marketing Qualified Leads And Why Do They Matter?

The Essential Inbound Marketing Strategies

There are a few primary inbound marketing solutions that every business should implement. However, it’s essential to understand that these strategies function best if you plan and execute them in conjunction with one another. Your best chance of success is when the following inbound marketing strategies work together.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is crucial to inbound marketing. Without content, you’ll have no way to attract potential leads or nurture them. You’ll want to create content that addresses every stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness to advocacy.

High-quality content that addresses the needs of your target audience is likely to be shared more and to rank higher on Google’s search engine. As a result, it will make it easier to be found by prospects in the awareness stage. Additionally, by creating informative and educational content, you’ll engage your leads and build trust, which will make it easier to convert them.

You can implement many inbound marketing solutions in your content marketing strategy. For example, you can blog and create downloadable content offers to encourage email sign-ups and email marketing.

There are 4.62 billion people using social media as of this year. As such, social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience and engage with your leads. By creating pages on the social channels (such as Facebook or Twitter) your audience uses, you set up another platform to help spread awareness of your brand. After all, you can post content that can be shared and drive users back to your website.

The ability to engage directly with prospects also functions as a PR strategy. As such, your social media presence can help increase your brand reputation, building trust with your audience as a result. The following are a few examples of social media inbound marketing solutions you can use:

Addressing negative comments: If a prospect has a negative experience with your product or service, addressing them on social media can help resolve the situation and improve customer loyalty.
Keeping followers engaged: Asking questions, providing valuable content, and running contests and giveaways are all great ways to keep followers engaged.
Posting website content: Simply posting new content published on your blog can help drive traffic from your social media pages to your website.
Building relationships with influencers: Social media influencers have huge followings on social media. By identifying influencers in your industry and building relationships with them, you could boost awareness of your brand (especially if they share your content with their audiences).
Live streaming: Many social channels allow live streaming, which can be a great way to connect with your audience in real-time. You can live stream all types of video content, including product launches, interviews with team members, and behind-the-scenes footage.

Also Read: The Top 10 Strategies for Mastering Inbound Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website and content so that it appears as the top result for relevant keywords in search engines. When people use Google, Bing, or other search engines to find information, products, or services, you want your website to be one of the first results they see.

SEO is an ongoing process that requires continual effort. You’ll need to research the right keywords, optimize your website using those keywords, and track your results. However, keyword usage isn’t the only SEO tactic in the book. Google takes great care to rank pages based on the quality of the content, which means that your content has to provide value.

Secondly, Google determines content quality using engagement metrics, which includes:

External backlinks you’ve earned from high-quality websites
Social engagement, such as shares and likes
Number of visits
Page load speeds
Mobile-friendliness

As such, ranking well on search engine results pages (SERP) requires a comprehensive and robust SEO strategy.

Also Read: The Importance of Earning High Quality Backlinks

Inbound Marketing is Critical to Your Success

Inbound marketing combines all the tactics previously discussed: SEO, social media marketing, and content marketing. It’s the process of attracting leads to your website through the use of relevant and helpful content. When properly implemented, inbound marketing solutions can be extremely effective in generating leads and converting customers over the long term.

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!