increase SEO

Digital Marketing Trends To Watch For in 2018

/in , /by

Leads, conversions, connections and engagement. Those are some of the things you want to accomplish with your 2018 digital marketing. The challenge is using the marketing techniques that have the most impact on your target audience. Here are five trends you can integrate into your 2018 marketing.

Think Micro Moments

How many times a day do you reach for your mobile phone to buy, do, research, watch or discover something? On average, consumers are making these momentary decisions well over 100 times a day. Those decisions are known as micro moments. They represent an opportunity to make your brand standout.

This means providing the right information to the right consumer at the right time. A brand does it by offering one-button access to needed information.

Visual Media

Video remains one of the strongest forms of content in digital marketing today. In fact, YouTube attracts more adult viewers during prime TV viewing hours than any cable channel. And in 2016, Facebook reported over 1.5 billion users view over 8 billion videos every day.

The visual elements of a video have more impact on viewers. The viewers attach deeper meaning to video messages and they are more likely to take action based on the video’s call to action.

Three Videos Every B2B Website Should Have

Native Advertising

Native advertising has been around for a long time. But, it has emerged as a growing trend in the digital marketplace. It offers a seamless way to market a product or service in an almost non-disruptive manner.

The goal of native ads is to present the right information in front of the viewer when its needed. And to do it seamlessly. Viewers often don’t spot the native ad, assuming its a part of the web page’s content. And that is powerful.

Personalized Client-Centric Content

The content you present to a returning visitor needs to be different from that presented to a brand new viewer. You can do that with personalized client-centric content, also known as smart content.

It all starts with tracking what interests a particular visitor. You track this information using a marketing automation system, which tracks the web pages that a visitor looks at. That information lets you present content and ads personalized to what the visitors has an interest in.

Create Your Own Band of Influencers

An influencer is simply someone who recommends your product or service to other people. The more influencers you have talking your brand, the more people will start to pay attention. Creating a band of influencers can take your brand, product and service to the next level.

It starts with understanding what your customers need and solving their problems. This builds brand loyalty. These customers will start telling their friends. Add in a few known influencer names and your brand is on its way.

These digital marketing trends can take your business in new directions next year. If you haven’t already started your plan, now is the time. You want it in place and ready to go with the New Year.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

media mix

How To Use Media Mix When Marketing To Your Audience’s Buyer’s Journeys

/in , , /by

Some marketers make the mistake of trying to reach as many people as possible with their content. The problem with this is that your pushing information to people who are either not ready to receive it or not interested all together. Without tailoring your content to your specific audience at their buying stage and delivering it to the platforms where they actually consume messages you’re missing out on a huge conversion opportunity.

Why Use Mix Media Marketing

Mix media marketing is the process of utilizing niche marketing to get granular with your messaging. Depending on your audience and their buying stage different platforms and messages will reach better than others. Email typically converts those at the middle or bottom of the funnel while social media is great to reach those at the top of the funnel. Let’s take a closer look at the different stages in the buyer’s journey and which mix media marketing strategies work best.

[Read About Using the Buyer’s Journey to Create Great Content]

Awareness Stage

The awareness stage is at the very top of the funnel and is a great time to just put your brand out there. At this point the buyer has a problem that needs to be solved but they might not even be fully aware of the problem or that there is a solution. During this stage educational content and strong SEO is key. You want to be found when users are searching and use keywords that resonate with their pain points.

Best types of mix media marketing at this stage:

  • Blogs- with keywords focused on relevant topics to your audience
  • PPC and SEO to drive traffic to your site
  • Mass Media- TV, Radio, to get your brand name out there

Consideration

During this stage the buyer is aware they have a problem and is actively looking for a solution. You need to show your target audience that you can deliver the solutions they need and are a trusted source. You’ll want to get more granular at this stage and really tailor your messages to their needs. You can use segmented email messages that push buyers through the funnel.

Best types of mix media marketing at this stage:

  • Targeted emails that trigger actions such as signing up for a webinar, downloading content, or reading a case study

Decision Making Stage

If your audience has made it this far in the buyers journey than you are one of the companies they are considering. Now is the time to really drive home why you’re better than the competition and develop an emotional connection.

Best types of mix media marketing at this stage:

  • Retargeting- reconnect with those who have visited your site to keep your brand fresh in their mind using retargeting ads or email
  • One to one connections- this is the why us part. Demos, personal emails, phone calls, and other follow-ups that show your audience you’re there for them will go far to push your buyers through the last step before converting

Download Our White Paper Guide To Learn How To Perfect Buyer Personas For Your Business

inbound marketing benefits

Top 3 Ways to Maximize Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

/in , , , /by

Do you have a favorite sport? Maybe it’s something popular like football or hockey. Perhaps a more dignified pastime such as golf or horseracing better suits your style. Whatever your preference may be, do you ever wonder how your favorite athletes (hopefully!) win more than they lose? Most likely they are playing with a strategy. It may seem obvious, but strategy – even in a sport like racing – is essential to victory.

The same is true for your business website. Without a strategy, your website will fall behind the competition. Don’t let this happen! Many companies fall into the trap of creating a website for nothing more than an “online presence.” With inbound marketing, websites can do so much more than they could 20 years ago. With inbound marketing, businesses are seeing more online traffic that results in more customers and sales. But without a strategy, even inbound marketing has its limits.

Inbound marketing benefits from a well-developed strategy. There are three aspects to creating a well-developed inbound marketing strategy.

1. Create website goals

What do you want your website to do for your customer? That’s the main question that should be asked before a website is developed. Without a clear goal, a website could be published without having any significant benefit to the owner or the visitor. If a website generates most of its sales after visitors view a product information page, the goal of the website should be to create more product information pages, increase traffic to these pages, and streamline the ability to go from product information to product purchase. Inbound marketing benefits from having a website with clearly defined goals. If you are wondering about your website, try having a friend or colleague take a look at it. Ask them if they felt your website had clearly defined goals. Once you’ve determined you have the right goals in mind, it’s time you ask yourself if you have the right person in mind.

2. Create a Persona

Creating a persona is a powerful way for a business to better understand its customers. Without a persona, businesses have an incomplete idea of who to market to. So what is a persona? A Persona is the ‘ideal’ customer that a business wants to reach out to. Personas are defined by many things – ethnicity, location, motivation – but what they all have in common is that they help shape the strategy used by a company to achieve its goal.

Read more on Why Buyer Personas Are So Important

By creating a strategy with a specific end-user in mind, we are better able to understand what their problems are and how we can help make their lives easier. Don’t get too attached to your persona though! You will likely find that you may need to update them as you gain more insights on your customers. You may even considering adding an additional persona. Once you have your persona or personas created, you can move on to the next step.

 3. Get to know your persona

Now that you have a persona, ask yourself, how well do you know him or her? It may seem like knowing a pretend person’s upbringing and background is a little silly, but it can go a long way with customer satisfaction. By constructing your persona’s life story, you are better able to understand their motivation, needs, and desired outcome in life. If your persona is looking for a product that satisfies a long-term need but your business only sells products for immediate use, you’ve just gained valuable insight. You’ve recognized a need your typical customer has as well as an opportunity for your company to grow. By using information gathered from our personas, we can update and adapt our company strategy to best fit our customer needs.

Download A Free Template For Developing Personas

Just like in all sports, strategies continue to adapt as they encounter new problems and opportunities. You will likely find that a strategy created today might not work for you a year from now. That’s okay! Revisiting your goals, updating your persona’s attributes, changing their background and desired outcomes; these are all essential to a successful business. Just remember, inbound marketing benefits strongly from a well thought out strategy. How do you think your company’s online strategy is? If you’d like a free consultation, please check out the link below.

Want more resources on how to redesign your website? Click here!

Download Our White Paper Guide To Learn How To Perfect Buyer Personas For Your Business

creative marketing solutions

4 Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking for Creative Marketing Solutions

/in , , /by

Imagine yourself coming home after a long day of work only to find your kitchen completely flooded. You run to the sink and quickly realize that you have no idea what the problem is. Time to call the plumber! Now, imagine that plumber shows up and the only thing in his tool bag is a screwdriver. You’d probably be pretty upset, right? That’s because you know that a screwdriver isn’t the right tool for a leaky pipe. Digital marketing is no different; without the right tool for the job you will not be able to accomplish your goals.

Choosing the right tool is essential for a company’s approach to creative marketing solutions. Without the right tools, you may overlook valuable information, miss out on new customers, or fail to recognize a new opportunity in your industry or business. So how do we choose the right tool for the job? Here are four things to consider when you ask yourself that question. 

1. What are my goals?

Goal creation is often the first step in any business decision. Why should choosing your tools be any different? Lets take a look at the plumber again. If his goal was to fix a pipe then he should have known that a screwdriver is not the best tool to achieve this goal. We know that a wrench is much more useful for this kind of problem. Obviously, we are not saying that screwdrivers are a useless tool. Our point is that different tools should be used for different tasks. If instead the goal were to install a door into a doorframe then a screwdriver would be the perfect tool to use. By laying out your goals, you are better able to decide which tool fits best.

2. Will these tools accomplish those goals?

Lets say the problem with the plumber wasn’t that he had one tool, but far too many! You watch him fix the sink, but feel frustrated as he wastes time digging into his bag, leaves tools all over your floor, and goes back and forth from your kitchen to his truck outside as he tries to find what he’s looking for. You feel upset because, though job gets done, the amount of time it took was much longer than what you were anticipating. The problem of having too many tools for a task is problematic in two ways.

First, having too many tools can make even simple tasks complicated. By having multiple software applications that have overlapping features, your employees may become overwhelmed with how much they are expected to understand. Software should be easy for your employees to learn, whether they’ve been with you for 20 years or 20 days. This will minimize the number of hours it takes to learn how to use the tools and maximize the number of hours they spend actually using them.

Second, any money that is used to buy tools for your company is money that could be used in areas that have a proven ROI. If you buy tools that are unneeded or overprice, you are essentially wasting money for your business. By buying tools only when you need them, you are ensuring that your company uses its resources efficiently.

By making sure you have the right number of tools you minimize your company’s spending and maximize its growth!

[Read About 8 Great Case Study Questions To Ask Yourself When Attracting Prospects]

3. How much is too much?

Do you know someone who has to have everything brand new? They buy the newest smartphone and the fastest computer only to play Angry Birds and browse the internet. If you’re anything like me, you probably get frustrated with this person. You might think to yourself, “why are you spending so much money when you don’t need to?” Some businesses are the same way. They spend too much money on the best software when they really don’t need to. We see the same two problems here as we did in the example above – unneeded upfront costs and wasted hours of employee training. Make sure the tools you’re considering will accomplish your goals, but won’t do more than you need them to. 

4. Do my tools work together?

One of the most frustrating things in business can be working on a team project. Maybe there is someone who works remotely and everything has to be accomplished online. For others, it may be that their available hours don’t mesh well with your schedule. Every company has a vested interest in minimizing the number of obstacles their employees encounter on a daily basis. By using software that integrates between users, a company is better able to track of the progress of their employees and employees are better able to focus on their work. GoogleDocs is a great example of integrated technology.

For many years, even just changing a text document could be very frustrating. One of the main ways people would update documents was through email. A frustrating experience when working with multiple people who make multiple revisions. Who’s changes do you go with? Did they change the most recent version of the document or do you need to backtrack to an earlier copy? Who’s revisions does your team ultimately to go with?

This was one of the main problems Google aimed to address with their release of GoogleDocs. By using GoogleDocs, we are now able to collaborate and make changes to the document in real time. Coworkers can track who made revisions to the document, at what time, and leave comments to one another. And the best part? No endless chain of emails filling your inbox! Finding the best software for your company may take time, but truly integrated technologies can make a significant difference to your everyday workload.

Creative marketing solutions can be complex, but they don’t have to be difficult. By optimizing the tools you and your company uses, you will find that working together will become much easier. Remember, you can’t fix a sink with a screwdriver. Go out and find the tools you need! If you’d like some advice on where to start, please follow the link below for more information

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Inbound Marketing Benefits

Inbound Marketing Works. Politics Proves It.

/in , , /by

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

So what does inbound marketing have to do with politics?

Absolutely everything.

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

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

Considering The Source

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

[Read About Creating A Brand To Become President]

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

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

The Echo Chamber

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

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

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

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

website optimization techniques

Essential Website Optimization Techniques To Increase Visitors

/in , , , /by

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

Keywords are key

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

Popularity contest

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

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

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

The more the merrier

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

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

17 SEO MYTHS YOU SHOULD LEAVE BEHIND

case study questions

8 Great Case Study Questions To Ask Yourself When Attracting Prospects

/in , , /by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. What were the results of the process?

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

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

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

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

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

Download Our White Paper Guide To Learn How To Perfect Buyer Personas For Your Business
social media strategies

Attract, Convert, and Close Prospects Using Social Media Strategies and Website Conversion Techniques

/in , , , , , , /by

LOMBARD, ILL., July 12, 2017– This September, Stevens & Tate Marketing will be emphatically represented at the one of the most respected associations of providers serving Illinois older adults, LeadingAge Illinois. Internet Marketing Director Nicole Wagner will be sharing her extensive online marketing expertise. LeadingAge 2017 is being held from September 26th to the 27th at The Hilton Lisle/Naperville in Lisle, Illinois.

At the show, Nicole will carry out a 90-minute presentation on how to attract, convert, and close prospects using social media strategies and website conversion techniques. According to the agency, the Internet has become a cornerstone of our marketing efforts, and although it is now easier to reach our audience, it may be harder to stand out from the crowd. How do we get the most out of our online marketing efforts? How do we make sure our social media platforms are as effective as possible? The session will help attendees determine their top marketing strategies in order to hit their top 2017 business goals.

Wagner will present essential strategies that will teach how to use social media to communicate with an audience on a more personal level, as well as optimizing a website in order to make it easier to find. Her educational sessions continue to be well received by all types of organizations because she emphasizes providing relevant and actionable takeaways that are targeted to each audience.

From Wagner’s presentation, attendees should be able to determine what their key marketing tactics are to achieve overall business goals, be able to create buyer personas of future residents and prospects, and understand the stages of the buyer’s journey and how to communicate to prospects through each stage. In addition, attendees will walk away with defined steps to improve their website and social media platform to meet their objectives. Nicole’s presentation is a great opportunity for LeadingAge members to learn proven techniques to improve their marketing performance.

LeadingAge Illinois is one of the largest and most respected associations of providers serving Illinois older adults, and the state chapter of the significant national organization. LeadingAge Illinois serves more than 500 providers including home and community based services (HCBS), senior housing, continuing care retirement communities (CCRC), assisted living, supportive living and skilled nursing/rehabilitation centers.

Stevens & Tate Marketing is a full service advertising agency specializing in meeting the ever-changing demands of today’s consumer. As experts in all areas of Internet Marketing, we know how to navigate through evolving trends and technologies in the online space today – and have decades of experience delivering results for businesses nationwide. Through our unique combination of strategic thinking, creative execution and targeted communications, we Make Things Happen.™

Nicole Wagner, Internet Marketing Director at Stevens & Tate Marketing (stevens-tate.com), leads an enthusiastic team in strategic planning, web development, social media and search engine marketing as well as Internet and mobile marketing. She can be reached directly by calling (630) 627-5200 or via email at [email protected].

Learn more about Stevens & Tate’s speaking experience.

# # #

SUMMARY: Stevens & Tate Marketing Internet Marketing Director Nicole Wagner has been selected as a featured speaker for the LeadingAge Illinois 2017 Conference in Lisle, Illinois. As a repeat speaker for this prominent national event, Nicole will provide key insight into proven strategies on how to attract, convert, and close prospects using social media strategies and website conversion techniques.

 

social media marketing goals

How To Use ROI To Reach Your Social Media Marketing Goals

/in , , , /by

Is the time and money you’re putting into your company’s social media marketing paying off? You might think you can only really guess as to the success of your social media accounts, but there are ways to measure how “worth it” your social media efforts really are. To accurately calculate your ROI, which stands for Return On Investment, you must take into account all resources. Measure efforts and interactions that go into your company’s attempts to reach their social media marketing goals. Return On Investment also helps when it comes to attraction marketing.

Resources

Resources include such factors as time, cost, and effort. In order to calculate how the total resources your company is funneling into your social media accounts, ask yourself the following questions: Approximately how many hours does your company spend working on social media per week? How much effort do your employees put into your social media accounts each week? How much money are you putting into each of your social media campaigns? Estimate the answers to these questions and put them in their own separate resource categories.

[Read our article about 8 tips on social media best practices for your business]

Values

Reach:

Now it’s time to calculate the value of your efforts in order to see how well your resources are paying off. The first factor you should take into account is reach, which is used to measure the size of your potential audience. Who are the people directly (and indirectly) in your social network? How many page views and click-throughs are you getting on your social media posts each week?

Engagement:

Next, to find your value, you need to consider is the engagement of your social media, or the number of interactions with your brand. For example, how many retweets are your company’s posts getting on Twitter each week? How many likes are your Instagram posts receiving? How many people are sharing your Facebook posts?

Audience Growth:

Finally, you must measure is your audience growth, or the number of new audience members that your social media accounts usually attract. Who follows you or is friends with you on your accounts, and by how much does this number increase each week? How many new visitors are visiting your website in a given week? How many visitors are subscribing to your email list? What is your lead-to-customer conversion rate?

Now you can calculate your Return on Investment by using this formula: ROI= (Value- Resources) / Resources.Is your ROI within the desired range, or does it fall short of the social media marketing goals you have for your company? Perhaps you should see which social media accounts are giving you the best results, and put concentrate your efforts towards these accounts. Maybe you need apply different strategies in order to ensure that your social media content is garnering enough attention. In conclusion, calculating our ROI will put you on the right track for improving your company’s social media presence.

social media marketing

Progressive Profiling

Using Progressive Profiling To Improve Your Lead Intel

/in , , /by

Did you know that the more information you request from a lead in one given form, the lower your chances of converting that lead to a sale? Simply put, asking for too much information at one time turns off prospective customers. That is one reason why progressive profiling needs to be in your marketing strategy.

How Do You Profile Progressively?

When you capture pertinent information from a prospect, that person turns into a lead. It can be as simple as getting their name and email address before you let them download a report from a landing page. But leads are not converted to paying customers just by getting a name and an email address. You need more information before your sales team can get to work. This is where progressive profiling comes in.

[Learn To Generate Leads Through Content Marketing]

Each time the lead wants to download information, you get a bit more data. It starts with the name and email address. Next, it might be demographic data about their company, like its location and number of employees. You can also grab the lead’s role in the company.

On the third download, you know this lead is evaluating your products or services as part of a decision-making process. This is when you ask for a phone number or the time frame to purchase. This continued quest for more details from a lead is progressive profiling.

What Makes This Type of Profiling So Powerful?

  • It increases conversion rates. People do not like filling out long forms just to download a simple whitepaper or report. On the other hand, they don’t mind giving a name and email address for that type of download.
  • It prevents repetition. You already have some information about a prospect. There is no need to ask for the same information again.
  • It offers you the ability to capture more valuable information over time. You can ask progressively more detailed questions as the lead comes closer to the sales decision time.

How Do You Automate This Process?

Now, you might be thinking that you would need to build multiple web forms based on complex logic to capture all this information. And you would be correct, if you are not using a marketing automation platform like Hubspot.

The beauty of Hubspot is that you can leverage dynamic web forms and already captured data to get the information you need, without building multiple web forms. When the lead returns for another download, Hubspot can detect what information is already provided, then create a dynamic web form asking for the next level of detail. That information is stored in Hubspot, ready for the next download or for the sales team.

Another benefit of Hubspot is the ability to customize the data captured based on the buyer persona for each lead. This allows you to capture pertinent information based on the lead’s interest in a particular product or service. This allows progressively more detailed market segmentation and sales follow-up.

Are you ready to leverage progressive profiling in your company?

17 SEO MYTHS YOU SHOULD LEAVE BEHIND