Articles Archives - Page 27 of 55 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Types Of Marketing Videos You Should Use

April 11, 2021/in Articles, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Video Marketing /by Terry Becker

Year after year, video marketing grows in importance. Video has never been easier to consume for Americans, especially when considering the increasing quality of smartphones and tablets. Video is also the easiest way for people to absorb information. Additionally, according to a prediction by Zenith Media, the average person will spend around 100 minutes a day watching videos in 2021. The pandemic certainly had an impact on these numbers as well. People have more time on their hands to watch video content, especially those who have switched to a work-at-home environment. Because of this increase in video consumption, a video marketing strategy is an absolute must. The following are some of the different types of marketing videos that you should consider producing this year.

1. Educational videos

Educational videos should be used to help inform your audience about a particular subject. No video marketing strategy will be successful without them. This is because the more informed your audience is, the more confident they will be in making a purchasing decision down the road. Educational videos provide them with the knowledge they need to understand your business and the solutions you offer. There are several types of educational videos, including:

Demo videos – Videos that demonstrate how your product or service is used.
Explainer videos – Videos that showcase why your product or service is needed.
How-to videos – Videos that provide step-by-step instructions on how to do a specific task.
Animated videos – Animated videos are a fantastic way to deliver information in an entertaining way, whether they’re explainer videos or how-to videos.

2. Interview videos

Interviews are an excellent way to provide detailed information about certain subjects to your audience while also providing a personality to engage with. You can film interviews with both employees and upper management as well as experts that are relevant to your industry. What’s great about interview videos is that they are incredibly easy to produce.

3. Event videos

Certain events, like industry tradeshows, conferences, fundraisers, and round table discussions, can reveal a wealth of information. Film these events and edit them into event videos for your audience to enjoy.

Leveraging Video Marketing During COVID-19

4. Case study and testimonial videos

These types of videos focus on customers and their experiences using your product or service. Not only can you use them as social proof that your products or services work, but they make it easier to build trust with your audience. Potential customers are much more likely to relate to and believe what previous customers have said, after all. Using case studies and testimonial videos, you give customers the chance to explain what their challenges were and how your product or service solved those challenges.

5. Behind-the-scenes videos

A big part of creating a successful brand identity is presenting your company as being relatable. You don’t want your audience to think of you as a big faceless corporation, after all. Creating videos that depict your company behind the scenes is a great way to do this. It shows that there’s a human element behind the business. There are tons of ways to go about creating behind-the-scenes videos. A video of the day-in-the-life of the typical employee or a video of the manufacturing process of a product are great examples.

These are five different types of marketing videos you should consider creating in 2021. As you develop your video marketing strategy, remember that the quality of your content matters — and so does the audience that you’re creating it for. Always keep viewers in mind to ensure that your video marketing efforts are relevant.

Integrating Story Branding With Your B2B Marketing Strategy

April 11, 2021/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, B2B Marketing, Brand Development, Brand Story Telling, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Storybranding /by Dan Gartlan

Marketers have realized that their audiences’ attention spans are getting shorter by the day. In an effort to get it back, they resort to anything to engage them: humor, sex, etc. However, it is one thing to get involved in a commercial and another to get involved in a brand. Successful brands market by forging a deeper emotional connection using story branding which is a part of attraction marketing.

In a technique called The Hero’s Quest, they create a story with a hero, a conflict, and a resolution. The hero has a certain drive like love that leads him to action past certain barriers and eventual conquest. Generating emotional connection with the story is what sells. To be successful in B2B marketing strategy, make your brand the hero of your own story.

Where story branding and marketing integrate:

Distinction

Consumers have vast amounts of choice today but are drawn to the one they can relate to. Distinction is vital in any marketing strategy. A good, realistic brand story enhances a brand’s overall presence regardless of its competitive position in the industry. The right perception hits the audiences’ emotional quotient, tipping it in your favor. Wrapping up your brand in a more meaningful story context further adds value to it. To fellow businesses, buying your product will mean getting higher utility compared to the others in the competition.

Humanizing your brand

A successful B2B marketing strategy is one that humanizes your brand. A brand story cannot be underestimated in doing the job. Individual experiences like those of Steve Jobs, when fed into a company message, go a long way in personalizing and even achieving celebrity like status for your brand. You can use employee or your founder experience for this. Although you cannot have complete control of your story, a little positive twist helps to strengthen it by making it more interesting. Your marketing strategy is even boosted further as a result. A story should be a corporate persuasion tool that leads your audience to you.

Read more on 4 Strategies For Improving Your B2B Customer Experience.

Emotion is more compelling than a straight fact

In spoken word, good oratory skills are regarded highly and can be more compelling when they involve more emotion than fact. Arousing an audiences’ emotion can create big turnaround in your brand path. The Royal navy for example, uses stories to boost confidence and productivity where it is expected of the military to have a tough, factual approach to communication. That B2B cannot use warm and emotive storytelling is not a true rationale. Make your story more willingly received and memorable to achieve greater marketing success.

Interplay

There is a two way exchange between telling a story and marketing success. Story branding strengthens your business whereas a good, stronger business performance reinforces your story. Similarly, poor performance becomes part of your brand story just as easily. A B2B marketing strategy can be shaped but success will always depended on perception. Story branding is one way of building this perception.

Brand Storytelling Examples to Learn From

April 7, 2021/in Articles, Brand Development, Brand Positioning, Content Marketing /by Stevens and Tate

Your brand identity goes beyond your name, logo, and the products or services you provide. A brand identity is all-encompassing: it also includes your goals, your beliefs, and the feelings you elicit from your audience. To create a strong brand identity, you need to create a narrative that’s consistent across all channels. This is where brand storytelling comes in. Brand storytelling involves using storytelling techniques that bring together both facts and emotions to create your brand identity. The following are five brand storytelling examples that you should use as inspiration to help create and drive your own brand story:

1. Apple

Apple is arguably one of the greatest examples of successful marketing in the history of marketing. They were able to capture a small corner of a market dominated by Microsoft and, through the use of incredibly effective brand storytelling, turn themselves into a behemoth. Knowing that they were up against Microsoft, Apple decided that their message would be to go against the grain. They would position themselves as a revolutionary innovator. Their “think different” tagline showcases this, as does all of their other advertising. Their most famous ad is the most obvious example: the 1984 ad in which a woman defiantly smashes the screen with a sledgehammer.

2. Ikea

Ikea has built its brand on the functionality and simplicity of its products, which they showcase using lighthearted humor. Their most famous commercial “Lamp” highlights this. It’s a commercial showing an old lamp being replaced and being thrown away. It’s a sob story until a narrator shows up to exclaim that the viewer is crazy to feel bad about the old lamp since it doesn’t have feelings, and the new one is much better. It gets a great laugh and emphasizes the need to update old products with newer, higher-quality versions.

3. Old Spice

Old Spice used to be a brand associated with older men. The word “old” certainly didn’t help. They altered their brand storytelling to emphasize that the scent of old spice was how men should smell. They used humor and great writing to convey this, but what made the storytelling particularly effective was that they didn’t target men — they targeted women. Old Spice essentially focused on delivering a message to women about how their men should smell, so that they could influence men on Old Spice’s behalf.

How to build your own brand story

4. SoulCycle

What’s interesting about SoulCycle is that it basically consists of a class full of people riding exercise bikes. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it. But their brand storytelling has lifted this simple service into something much greater. They have positioned themselves as a high-end fitness service that’s not just a service, but a lifestyle. This lifestyle includes the use of teachers who are essentially fitness influencers and classes that are almost club-like in their atmosphere. Members feel like they belong to a community, not a gym. Without their incredibly effective brand storytelling, you could argue that they would be a glorified gym with limited equipment.

5. Warby Parker

Warby Parker is a glasses frame manufacturer that has positioned itself as a company that sells fashionable frames at reasonable prices. Their storytelling focuses on how they build their frames and on the customers that buy them. In fact, much of their content is user-generated, which helps emphasize that they are frames built for everyone. Their message gets across because they keep their brand storytelling simple and focused.

These are a few brand storytelling examples to keep in mind when crafting your brand story strategy. Successful brand storytelling will strengthen your company’s identity, thereby making it easier to evoke an emotional response from your audience and to build long-lasting connections with them. By implementing an effective brand storytelling strategy, you’ll be more likely to increase your company’s visibility, impact, and — eventually — profit.

Crescent Cardboard retains Stevens and Tate to Revamp Marketing Efforts

April 5, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Press Releases /by Debbie Szwast

Crescent Cardboard, the recognized leader in manufacturing and marketing of paper and mat board products for the custom framing and art materials markets, has retained Stevens & Tate Marketing to revamp its marketing efforts to frame shops. The agency was brought on board to define Crescent’s unique selling proposition, create specific messaging for this select audience, and push that message out to frame shop owners and employees across North America. Through its Competitive Advantages Workshop, Stevens & Tate is narrowing down Crescent’s reasons to buy and making them easily understandable and memorable. The agency is developing a comprehensive outreach strategy that includes public relations along with partnering with trade media outlets to advertise to their captive audience both digitally and in print. To strengthen Crescent’s relationship with current customers and keep the company top of mind with prospects, Stevens & Tate is creating and implementing a lead nurturing program, as well. An ongoing inbound marketing program is being established that positions Crescent as a thought leader through blog posts, social media, and web content. In addition to adding resources to the website, Stevens & Tate is making the site more searchable through search engine optimization.

An industry leader for more than 100 years, Crescent offers a vast selection of museum-quality, conservation, and decorative matboards along with a variety of framing products and art supplies. The private and family-owned company maintains a global market presence responding to the needs of its customers wherever they may be.

3 Ways To Use Targeted Marketing To Reach Qualified Prospects

April 1, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Homebuilder Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Media /by Debbie Szwast

Imagine, if you will, walking out of a model home and before you know it…you see an ad for a builder just down the street appear on your cell phone. You think to yourself, “Hmmm…coincidence?” It’s not. With targeted marketing, you can pinpoint potential customers down to an address where they have visited.

Targeted marketing is nothing new. Agencies and companies have been doing it for years. First through direct mail, then via email, using data points such as zip code, gender, household income, marital status, and age. But now, we have the ability to narrow our scope even more to truly reach those most qualified to purchase.

Recently, a new client came to Stevens & Tate needing to attract more students to its private school. We discovered several factors that determined whether parents chose to send their children to this school. They could afford it. It was close to their home or work. And it provided the type of education they wanted for their child. To reach this very specific audience, we advertised on social media. Social media sites such as Facebook gather a great deal of information about their users from information the users provide themselves. These sites also monitor behavior patterns. As a result, we were able to do niche marketing, advertising to select neighborhoods around the school and in local employment corridors. And we focused our message on the benefits this private education offered. After the first month, the school recorded an increase in attendees to the parent information sessions.

Learn more about Effective Marketing Strategies For A Changing Economy.

Targeted Marketing On Radio? Yes.

One of Stevens & Tate’s clients needed to build ticket sales for its classical music concerts. After researching the prior season’s data, we discovered that the majority of concertgoers came from a 20-minute or less drive of the venue. So we incorporated online radio into the media mix to aim our message at those who would have an affinity for the brand. The beauty of this targeted marketing plan was that we could reach listeners with a preference for classical music. We were able to narrow down our audience not only to those who lived in a specified geographic area but also to those who exhibited classical music listening habits. The result was a 25 percent increase in year-over-year show attendance.

Hyperlocal Marketing Pinpoints Your Audience

For a Chicagoland homebuilder with a new property in the city, we wanted to reach home shoppers living near the neighborhood as well as those holding certain job titles. Rather than choose a medium to advertise on, we chose a very small group of people to reach out to. Using a digital hyperlocal marketing campaign, we were able to serve ads to a very niche market segment—including those who had recently used a home finder app. We served ads to these individuals multiple times via multiple vehicles including desktop, mobile and in-app ads; emails; social media newsfeeds; and native content based on online search history. Since launching the program, sales at the community have increased 50 percent.

These are just a few examples of the power of a targeted marketing campaign. And new digital technologies are being unveiled all the time. At Stevens & Tate, we partner with multiple media sources to devise just the right targeted marketing campaign for each of our clients. If you are looking for an agency that can help you move from a shotgun to a rifle approach to marketing, contact Stevens & Tate and see if we are a fit.

How to Use TikTok to Reach Your Engagement Group: An Insight Into the Algorithm

March 29, 2021/in Articles, Digital Media, Directors, Media, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Arguably the primary goal of social media marketing is to reach as many people in your engagement group as possible and to interact with them. As such, it’s important that you establish a presence on social channels on which this is possible. While almost all businesses use social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, there are a few others to consider as well; for example, TikTok.

What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-based social platform that has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. What makes the platform so unique is that users can only upload videos that are 15 seconds long. There is, however, an option to edit together multiple 15-second clips into a minute long video. It gained traction among teens because they could upload videos of themselves lip-syncing, doing comedy bits, and dancing. At first, the marketing opportunities on the platform seemed limited. However, the size of the audience simply cannot be ignored:

There are over one billion monthly active users worldwide.
There have been over 2.6 billion downloads of TikTok since its creation.
In January 2021, there were 62 million downloads of TikTok alone.
Users spend an average of 52 minutes on TikTok every day.
83 percent of users have posted videos to TikTok.

TikTok’s advertising strategies are becoming more common. Read more here.

Why Should You Market On TikTok?

Advertising on social media platforms can cause numerous issues for users. The user experience can often be disrupted for the sake of the ad. Users on those platforms are often less likely to engage when annoyed by a barrage of advertising. TikTok is different in that ads are almost no different than the regular content posted on the platform. They can’t be longer than 15 seconds and they’ll appear on user feeds just like regular videos do. The user experience is not hurt because of this, as they appear just like other videos.

Why Should You Consider Using TikTok for Your Engagement Group?

Many people do not even realize they’re watching ads (especially if the content created by the brand is of particularly high quality). With this in mind, the following are just a few other reasons to consider using TikTok:

Reach younger generations – Younger generations rarely want to follow in the footsteps of their parents, which is why you won’t find a lot of Generation Z users on Facebook or Twitter. Instead, you’ll find them on TikTok, which is where a lot of Millennials are fleeing to as well. If you’re looking for a younger audience, TikTok is where you’ll find them.
Multiple marketing options – Despite the platform’s limitations (which were by design), there are still a few ad types that you can choose from, including in-feed videos, branded augmented reality (such as custom filters, stickers, and more), TopView ads (which appear at the top of user feeds), branded hashtag challenges, and sponsored content.
Flexible CPM – The cost-per-thousand impressions becomes cheaper the broader your audience is. The more you target your audience, the more it will cost; however, the ads will be more effective at engaging users as a result.
A level playing field – TikTok’s algorithm is based on identifying content that’s based on each user’s location, preferences, and viewing patterns. That is why user-created content goes viral so often on TikTok and it is why marketing businesses have a better chance of going viral as well.
Better chances of engagement – Outside of the algorithm, TikTok also allows you to go live once you reach a thousand followers. What makes this option particularly effective is that you can see how many followers are currently active so that you can determine when the best time to go live is.

Tips For Using TikTok To Reach Your Engagement Group

There are some serious benefits to using TikTok; however, your success depends on your ability to leverage the platform effectively. The following are a few basic tips for using TikTok:

Know your audience – Develop your buyer personas so that you can more effectively target users that will be more likely to engage.
Identify influencers – TikTok influencers often have millions of followers. You can get them to post sponsored content that their users will see.
Create challenges – TikTok users love challenges. Branded hashtag challenges are a great way to get people to engage with your brand without being overly promotional. It’s also a great way to generate user-made content.
Go live – Going live on TikTok at the right time can make it easier to engage with followers who will drop everything to view to ensure that they don’t miss out.

Leverage TikTok To Reach Your Engagement Group Today

TikTok has a massive audience and is growing significantly year-by-year. Due to the algorithm’s design, companies have a level playing field against other businesses that already leverage TikTok. Just keep in mind that if you focus on creating high-quality content that engages your target audience, the chances of success on TikTok will be much greater.

How to Use Hubspot to Connect Social Media Accounts and Flourish Relationships

March 29, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Hubspot, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

HubSpot is one of the many CRM (customer relationship management) solutions that is available on the market; however, it is also considered one of the best. There are many reasons why you should consider implementing HubSpot, from the many features available to the customization options. It can even make managing your social media presence easier and more efficient than ever before. This is because HubSpot lets you connect social media accounts, thereby allowing you to access your social media pages from one centralized location.

How HubSpot Increases the Efficiency of Your Social Media Management

When it comes to social media marketing, there is a lot to do. Maintaining your social presence typically requires daily activity. Not only do you need to regularly post content to each platform, but you also have to engage with users. Whether it’s by addressing comments, answering questions, or contributing to other posts and conversations, the engagement is important. Not to mention that you’ll want to use each social media platform’s analytics to monitor your brand’s performance over time.

All of this requires that you log in to separate accounts multiple times throughout the day. By connecting your accounts to HubSpot, you can do everything you need to do while remaining on the HubSpot platform. As a result, managing your social media presence will be much more convenient. You’ll also be able to stay on top of what’s going on with your social media pages, thereby allowing you to make changes and engage with followers in a timely fashion. Instead of bouncing around from one social media account to the other, you can optimize your time better.

The following are just some of the things you can do when connecting your social media accounts to HubSpot:

Publish new content – You can easily publish or share new content on any of your accounts from HubSpot with just a click of a button. In fact, you can even schedule when you want new content to be published. This means you can set up a publishing schedule for all your social media pages for the upcoming month and not worry about it.
Monitor your social mentions – Using HubSpot, you can track engagements with your brand automatically. Simply choose what keywords you want to track so that you can monitor social mentions. Not only does this allow you to have a finger on the pulse of your brand reputation and awareness, but it gives you a chance to respond quickly if there are ever any negative mentions.
Track relevant metrics – Monitoring the performance of your social media pages and of the content you’re posting is crucial to determining how effective your marketing efforts are. You can use HubSpot’s metrics to monitor your performance on various social media platforms.

Here are five additional reasons to use HubSpot for your business.

The benefits of being able to manage your social media accounts from one location are obvious. But actually setting up your HubSpot solution to be able to do so is a different matter. Fortunately, it’s not that difficult. The following are the steps you should take to connect your social media accounts to your HubSpot account:

Go to the main settings page on HubSpot.
Navigating through the menu, select Marketing and then Social.
Click on Connect account on the top right of the page.
Choose which accounts you want to connect.

Depending on the social media account you choose, you may have to take additional steps. For Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, the process is pretty self-explanatory. For Twitter, you’ll need to authorize the app and then select whether you want all publishing data to be reported or just the data collected from posts published on Twitter through HubSpot.

Finally, if you’re connecting your YouTube account to your HubSpot account, you’ll need to make sure your account is a brand channel not set on private, and that you have at least one video uploaded.

Managing Your Social Media Accounts

Managing all of your different social media pages can be a challenge, especially if you have more than one social media account (which you should). However, maintaining your social presence is critical to your ability to keep followers engaged and to broaden your audience online. Fortunately, HubSpot makes it much easier, and therefore less time-consuming, to manage all of your social profiles from one centralized location.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

Top Key Benefits of Marketing Automation vs. Email Marketing

March 26, 2021/in Articles, Direct Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

It is a common misconception that marketing automation and email marketing are essentially the same thing. In email marketing, you build an email list and then start sending out emails to market your business. You get statistics back showing how many people opened the email and which ones clicked through to your offer. While the information that email marketing is important, it pales in comparison to the features and benefits of marketing automation.

How Marketing Automation Benefits Your Business

Email marketing systems have a very limited scope when compared to marketing automation systems. The email systems allow you to send mass emails out to your marketing list. Then, you get reports on how well the emails worked. But, that’s really all there is to it.

A marketing automation system gives you those same features and so much more.

With an email marketing system, you have to build your landing pages and web forms in a completely different system. In contrast, you can build both within a marketing automation system. This built-in integration makes building your marketing campaign much simpler. Plus, it gives you automatic reporting that is not available with an email marketing system.

Automatic marketing systems allow you to directly integrate your email marketing with other types of marketing for your business such as direct mail and social media. This streamlines your marketing efforts and allows you to do much more without the need to replicate efforts in multiple systems.

Read More: The Benefits of Marketing Automation For Senior Living Communities

A powerful benefit of marketing automation is the power it gives you over your lead information. The software helps you avoid duplication of leads. It also helps normalize the data, making your marketing even easier. The software allows you to score leads based on any number of criteria. You can also recycle and nurture leads throughout the sales process.

The marketing automation software provides reporting on the impact of each marketing effort on your company’s revenue. It allows you to monitor website activity and even tracks IP addresses from anonymous website traffic. It can integrate various data directories to help fill in contact information.

With the data gathered and synthesized in the marketing automation system, you can provide your sales team with qualified leads who are ready to make the purchase decision. This will drastically reduce the amount of time spent talking to leads who are not at that critical point. It will also simultaneously focus your sales team’s efforts and improve your sales numbers.

Using the information provided by the marketing automation system, you can build multi-stage marketing campaigns across any number of channels with ease, You no longer need multiple tools to get the job done. This means you can get things done faster and make adjustments as needed.

These are not benefits you can get with limited email marketing software.

How Your Business Can Benefit from Marketing Automation

If you are ready to bring your business to the next level of marketing, you need to bring the benefits of marketing automation into your company. Give us a call here at the Stevens-Tate team.

How to Increase your Social Media Presence in 2021

March 22, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Social media usage has increased exponentially over the years, to the point where there were over 3.6 billion people using social media in 2020. This number is expected to grow by almost a billion more within the next five years. Social media has become a part of everyday life for most people, especially during the pandemic. As such, maintaining a strong social media presence has become even more essential to the success of your business than ever before. Keeping this in mind, the following are a few tips on how you can increase your social media presence in 2021:

1. Interact with your followers

The easiest way to build your audience on social is to engage with your existing followers. The more engaged they are, the more likely they are to share your content with others, thereby driving growth organically. As such, you need to interact with your followers on a daily basis, whether it’s posting new content, asking questions, responding to questions, or engaging in discussions with your followers. The moment you stop being active is the moment your followers will forget about you.

2. Host contests

Encouraging people to engage with your brand isn’t always easy. Not everyone will take the time to post replies to your questions or comments. The most you might get out some people is a like or two. However, one of the most effective ways to get people to engage is by hosting a contest on your social media platforms. For instance, a caption contest or a photo contest. You could also allow your audience to vote for the winners themselves. If there’s a prize at stake, more people will be willing to engage. You could even require them to follow you in order to participate.

3. Create video content

Humans are visual creatures, which means that their attention is easier to capture and hold using visual content, especially in the form of video content. Both long-form and short-form videos are popular, as evidenced by the success of video-based social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Even platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter, have embraced video content creation. Video content also makes it easier to deliver information as well as show off the personality of your brand, making it easier for audiences to relate on a personal level

Using Storytelling In Social Media

4. Avoid sales pitches

Social media is not the place to advertise new products and services. If you’re constantly trying to pressure followers into buying something, they will eventually unfollow you. They’re already bombarded by ads everywhere else they go (both online and offline), the last thing they want is to voluntarily subject themselves to even more of them. Use your social media presence to build relationships, not sales.

5. Build relationships with influencers

Influencers are people with massive audiences on social media. By building a relationship with a social media influencer that’s relevant to your industry, you can gain access to their audience. For example, they can post a product review or even a link to your content on their page, thereby increasing brand awareness substantially.

6. Use your analytics

The last thing you want to do is to pour time and effort into your social media presence only to see it have little impact. Understanding where to focus that time and effort is incredibly important. Use your analytics tools (most social platforms offer their own tools that you can use) to monitor various performance metrics. Doing so will allow you to identify what types of content appeals to your audience, which social channels your audience uses most, what time of day you should post to reach the biggest audience and more.

7. Live stream events

People love live stream content because it allows them to interact with an actual person on video in real-time. Not to mention that live content attracts more viewers due to the fear of missing out. You can also use live stream events to capture new leads (by requiring viewers to RSVP). Some events you can live stream include new product launches, interviews, Q&As, behind-the-scene tours, panels, and more.

Don’t just assume that customers and leads will find you on social media. Direct them to your pages wherever you can. You can do this by adding social buttons and links to your website, to your emails, and to local online directories. You can even advertise your social presence on your business cards, newsletters, physical media ad copy, TV commercials, and more.

These are a few tips to help you increase your social media presence this year. When it comes to maintaining an engaging presence, remember that you must stay active and consistent. Understand that when it comes to social media, the goal is to engage your audience, not to close sales. Only then will your social media presence grow.

Do You Need to Redesign Your Website?

March 18, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Website Design, Website Growth Driven Design /by Nicole Wagner

If your website has sat untouched for more than a few years, then there’s a good chance that it might be in need of an overhaul. Your website should be continually bringing in new leads, increasing your brand awareness and establishing your brand authority. If your website isn’t currently doing these things, then you’re not only limiting your ability to grow; you’re also helping your competitors as a direct result.

Signs you need a website redesign

If you’re wondering if you need a website redesign, then you’ll want to look for specific signs that show your website is in need of improvements. The following are some major signs that your website could benefit from being redesigned:

Your brand has undergone change

It’s not uncommon for a company to undergo a change in branding. This can happen if the company changes ownership or has changed direction; for example, to concentrate on a more niche market or to target a different audience. If your brand has changed, your website needs to reflect this. Keep in mind that your brand identity consists of much more than just your offerings or your logo. It’s your company’s narrative. Brand storytelling is how you get your audience to connect with you and to relate to you. Because of this, it needs to be prevalent throughout your site.

Your website ranks poorly

Every website receives rankings from Google. These rankings determine your site’s exposure on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP). Google uses its rankings to ensure that its users are provided with search results that are relevant and of high quality. The higher your ranking is, the more exposure you’ll have to people searching for topics relevant to your site. If your site ranks poorly, it means that you’re getting little exposure. This will also limit how much traffic your website will receive. Your redesign needs to implement the best practices of search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure a strong ranking.

Here are ten ways to use Google Trends to increase your SEO

Your website user-experience needs improvement

Some of the factors that influence your website’s user-experience include how long it takes your webpages to load and how easy your site is to navigate. If your pages take too long to load or your visitors don’t know how to find what they are looking for, they’re likely to leave. Additionally, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s going to affect the way that your site is displayed on mobile devices. A lack of mobile optimization makes it difficult for mobile users to browse through your site.

Your website could improve its conversion rate

If the ratio of purchases and opt-ins to your number of visitors is lower than you would like it to be, then there’s likely an issue with how your site is addressing each stage of the sales funnel. Your website should nurture visitors at every stage, whether they are looking for information about your company or product or whether they are ready to make a purchase. You should also have calls-to-action that are relevant to each page and that help drive your leads to convert.

Your website could use an updated look

Aesthetics matter. The look of your website is going to leave a big first impression on your visitors. Consider the look of some of the websites you use on a regular basis. Today’s websites have generally moved to a cleaner and more elegant look.

You don’t regularly update your website

Your website generates all kinds of useful data you can leverage to improve your website’s design and adjust your marketing strategies. By implementing a growth-driven design model, you can continually update your website based on your website data, which you can gather using analytics. This will also allow you to focus your resources on areas where it will benefit your brand the most and to adjust strategies that aren’t working.

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