Articles Archives - Page 28 of 55 - Stevens & Tate Marketing

Village Green Real Estate and Development hires Stevens and Tate Marketing to Help Meet Expansion Goals

March 15, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Press Releases /by Nicole Wagner

Village Green Real Estate and Development has added Stevens & Tate Marketing to its team, handing over the advertising reigns for its senior living properties. The agency is tasked with developing a strong marketing program to meet expansion goals for The Carolina Highlands and The Carolina Inn. Marketing both together, Stevens & Tate is repositioning them as one all-inclusive senior living environment in the Village Green neighborhood of Fayetteville, North Carolina. During its Competitive Advantages Discovery process, Stevens & Tate found each property has a unique selling proposition yet both share several reasons to buy. New messaging combines both to create an overarching brand with the ability to promote properties individually. Stevens & Tate is mixing traditional media such as newspapers, direct mail, and directories with digital and social media campaigns plus outreach emails to communicate with seniors as well as their adult children. Google Ads are a key component to reaching all audiences who are actively seeking more information on independent and assisted living. Complementary designs visually tell the all-inclusive story in new brochures and on all-new websites.

The Carolina Highlands and The Carolina Inn are operated by Village Green Real Estate and Development. As part of the Village Green neighborhood—Fayetteville’s senior living destination—they offer access to a continuum of care with independent living in The Carolina Highlands, assisted living at The Carolina Inn, and skilled nursing and rehab.

4 Tips to Lead An Agency Review to Find New Marketing Agency

March 15, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Debbie Szwast

Do you know if it’s time to start looking for a new marketing agency? These three questions will help you understand if your team is working for you; and if not, how to look for a new agency partner.

Are you getting the results you need? Most clients and agencies set goals at the beginning of their relationship or at the start of a new campaign. For example, you may agree that success is measured by an increase in website visits and conversions, a certain number of on-site traffic or customers per store, more social media interactions and engagement, or incremental sales. If your goals are not being achieved and your marketing agency is not proactively seeking new ways to help you reach them, it may be time for a change. Read more

How Marketing Automation Can Improve Lead Nurturing Process

March 12, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Lead Nuturing /by Nicole Wagner

One of the most important aspects of successfully nurturing your leads through the buyer’s cycle is understanding that each lead is different and that your marketing efforts need to be tailored to the needs of each lead. This can be quite difficult to do manually, which is why most businesses are turning to marketing automation.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is an automated process that allows you to target leads based on their behaviors at different points in the buyer’s journey. It allows you to make your marketing more personal by delivering content to your leads that suits their needs or interests. This, in turn, makes it easier to build a real relationship with them, helping to drive them towards the conversion and closure stages of the buying cycle.

Not only does marketing automation help free up resources, it makes your marketing efforts much more effective. How effective? According to one study, businesses that use marketing automation increase their qualified leads more than fourfold.

So how exactly does it work? Take for example a lead that has just submitted a form from one of your landing pages opting into your email list. Using marketing automation software, this action can trigger an automatic email sent to them thanking them for signing up. It can be automatically personalized based on what landing page they converted from.

In fact, you’ll be able to personalize your content to your email list by using the information that they submitted on the opt-in form. Using this information, you can segment your email list to automatically send content at specific times that’s relevant to their interests and needs. For example, if you’re a pet food company and a lead lets you know that they own a dog on their form, then you won’t want to send them content you’ve written about cats. Using automation, you can make sure they get the right content, which will not only help build your relationship, it will reduce opt-outs.

If you’re uncertain as to the difference between marketing automation and CRM, be sure to read through our detailed article on the subject.

The Benefits of Marketing Automation

The following are some of the benefits that you’ll be able to take advantage of when implementing marketing automation software:

1. Improve productivity

Instead of sending emails out on scheduled dates to your entire email list by hand, you can schedule emails to be set out automatically by certain times on certain dates to certain segments of your email list, thereby improving your productivity significantly.

2. Increase revenue

Studies have proven that marketing automation does increase revenue if used properly. In fact, B2B marketers have reported an average of 20 percent increase in their sales opportunities as a result of using marketing automation to nurture their leads.

3. Improve customer retention

By being able to target your leads more effectively with personalized content, you’ll reduce the number of leads that you lose.

4. Improve customer relationships

By being able to personalize your interactions with leads, you’ll improve customer relationships. Not only does this help with customer retention, it will help with building your brand reputation. Building good customer relationships can help to improve repeat business and can also generate positive word-of-mouth.

5. Collect better data

Marketing automation software can help you monitor responses to your various marketing campaigns based on the specific parameters you’ve established for success or failure. This data can then be leveraged to improve future marketing campaigns.

For more in-depth information, check out our post on the benefits of marketing automation.

Marketing Automation has more benefits! Check out this article to learn more.

How to Use Marketing Automation

There are many ways that you can use marketing automation. Besides using it to segment your email lists, it can also be used to provide data on what types of content helps move leads from one stage of the buying cycle to the next, which allows you to create higher quality content to attract higher quality leads. In fact, you can also use marketing automation to score your leads based on their behaviors on your site. Scoring leads lets you identify what leads have the best chance of converting, allowing you to more effectively use your resources to target those leads.

One thing to keep in mind is that marketing automation isn’t just limited to your email campaigns or to your website — it’s channel-agnostic, meaning that it can be used on any platform. Read through our article on B2B vs. B2C marketing automation for more in-depth advice.

Marketing automation is proven to be successful, which is why businesses of all sizes have started implementing it into their online marketing strategies. There’s no reason not to use it, all it will do is make your marketing efforts more effective and more efficient, thereby allowing you to capture more leads and close more sales.

Top 5 Reasons of Proof That Brand Marketing Works

March 5, 2021/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

I hear these three words every month, DOES MARKETING WORK? I can give you five reasons that support the answer of “absolutely”. Brand Marketing is as powerful as being number one or number three.

Reason 1) If you are a woman, what lipstick do you wear? What Shampoo do you use? What brand Jeans do you own? Women spend an average of $15,000 on makeup in their lifetimes. Beauty manufacturers spent $2.2 billion on advertising last year. Marketers allocated most of their ad spend to TV (42%) and print (54%). So what makes you buy the brand you purchased? Whatever your answer, it stems from marketing. The formula to penetrate into your mind is a complex one. But you have been brainwashed whether you accept it or not.

Reason 2) Typically, if you are of age, you are driving your car. Why are you a BMW or Volkswagen driver? Does not every brand have some sort of emotional and intellectual connection with you? What are your thoughts on a Mercedes Benz driver? The reason you have these thoughts are because of this fact:

General Motors spent 3.5 billion on advertising last year
Ford Motors spent 2.7 billion on advertising last year
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spent 2.2 billion on advertising last year

Automakers sold almost 18 million vehicles. Do you think they would do all this advertising if it didn’t work? Marketing is the driving force to give you a lasting impression when it comes time to purchase your next car. You probably already know what vehicle represents who you are. Brand loyalty is also a big piece of the advertising puzzle and they spend millions to keep you coming back.

Reason 3) You’re hooked on some television shows? Why is that? How did you find out about them? The advertising to capture an audience of a certain demographics has become easier with all the analytical data thats accessible. You may of picked a show just because you liked that actor or actress. They too are a brand. I want to focus on one show and one show only, NFL Programming. NFL are branding machines. They encourage Fantasy Football, they can charge up to $600,000 for a .30 spot on Sunday Night Football, they have begun to market to women and they have the best branded show in the history of shows, the Super Bowl. Why then are they losing shares at the end of 2016?

Factors for decline:

The Chicago Cubs win
Donald Trumps Election (this took shares away from everyone)
Deflate-gate debacle
Stand on Domestic Violence
The respect of the American Flag

Americans are standing up for what they believe in. Colin Kaepernicks kneeling at the American Flag has still left Colin a free agent who is not signed. He is not liked and this is linked to the NFL. The NFL needed to take a stance and speak out on the issues pertaining to this behavior. They remained quiet and seeing how that impacted them must be painful. How smart proof is your company? New factors always pop up and how you address them might mean your brand lives on, or dies over time. Don’t get me wrong, the NFL will bounce back since they have a great cash surplus. They just signed a deal with Amazon for the rights to Thursday Night Football. Now that is re-inventing yourself while keeping your brand.

They do have the strictest guidelines when it comes to using their brand. I respect them for protecting their assets, for making counterfeiters go to jail, and great product placement with partnerships. Who else could have every football team on a BudLight can? But always remember your demographics. NFL might just have lost that reality when they don’t take a stand on players actions. Never take your eye off the ball.

Learn more on Defining Your True Brand Story and Bringing it to Life Online.

Reason 4) The grocery store is a subject of brands. I want to focus on just beer. How is it that Bud Light leads the beer division. If you drink beer, you have a favorite. The reason might be image or taste. But you tried other beers because of marketing. If you say no to this idea, how did you hear about the other beers in the first place? If your answer is friends, that is also marketing. Word of mouth marketing is still the most powerful marketing this century. And your friends received the marketing somehow. Alcohol ads have increased 400% over the last 40 years. The industry spends around 89% of its advertising dollars on television, according to research done by Citigroup. Bud Light spent 85 million dollars on TV ad placements in 2014. Today Anheuser-Busch spends 1.68 billion in all advertising spends. They have averaged 1.4 billion over the last decade. It’s the reason they have 48% of the beer market. How else would a company stay above the rest in the highly competitive beer category?

Reason 5) Fast Food. McDonalds has a value of 88 billion and next on the list is Starbucks with 43 billion. To understand this slightly better, Burger King has a value of 3.6 billion. A huge wide difference. So why the separation you may ask? McDonalds spent 5.9 billion on advertising in the United States alone. Burger King spent 255 million on advertising, which has contributed to the separation of these two brands. Marketing obviously works or McDonalds would not continue this spending trend for over a decade. I do wonder, if Burger King had good marketing and spent what McDonalds spends, if they would jump over Starbucks? Product is still king. There is a connection of why Coca-Cola and Bud Light are both the most valuable soft drink and beer brands in the World. Marketing, and marketing dollars allocated.

Those are five samples of how creative marketing builds brands to lead a nation. Marketing + Strategy + Creative + Execution = A powerful formula for elevating your product or brand. I will agree that all samples above have unlimited budgets. My point to this blog was to simply support the concept that you are a victim of marketing and strong marketers seem to rise above the competition. What is your company doing to rise above?

How to Have a Successful Blog (Expert Tips)

March 1, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

You might be wondering, how can my company have a successful blog? Blogging has become a great way for companies to write about content that relates to their company. Content can include tips and advice on any topic that relates back to what the company knows. Topics for blogging can range from “What a Good Landing Page Looks Like” to “How to Start Your Own Business in 10 Easy Steps”.

How do you make sure that your company has a successful blog? Here are 6 expert tips to help your company with a successful blog.

Make Your Topic Something People Care About

The first step in having a successful blog is to have a topic that people are going to want to read about. Find a topic that you find will be useful, and then research your topic to make sure you are providing reliable information to your readers, and then you can write about your topic. Make the topic interesting, and something worth reading.

Make the Formatting Easy To Read

When you are formatting your blog, it is ok to have multiple paragraphs. These paragraphs can be small. It is better to have many small paragraphs, instead of a few really lone paragraphs. A blog is something that people are going to want to be able to read easily. When writing a blog for your company, include offers and promote other blog posts as well.

Have an Attention Grabbing Title

As you are reviewing your blog, go back to the title. This title is important and needs to be clear, specific, and most importantly, attention grabbing. Titles should also be between 50 and 60 characters. If it goes over 60, the end of the title will be cut off in the search engine.

Pictures Are Fun to Look At

A blog without pictures can be boring. Add a picture or two to your blog. These pictures can be relevant to your topic, and they can also just be a part of a blog as long as they fit. For example, if your blog is directed towards an audience of readers who are business people, you could include a picture of someone wearing a suit. Pictures are a nice addition to the blog. Do not forget to cite pictures if they are not yours.

Links and CTA’s

A successful blog includes links to other relevant articles, as well as a CTA (call-to-action). A CTA is an eBook or guidebook that people can download. It is additional information on the topic that the customer is looking for.

Share on Social Media

Once you have written your story, it is time to share it. You can share your blog through a multitude of social media platforms including LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Read more on 8 Tips on Social Media Best Practices For your Business

Be Consistent and Frequent

The most important thing to remember is consistency and frequency. Blogging is more than one post. It is multiple posts. When you are in charge of blogging for your company, it is best to post a minimum of two blogs a week.

Blogging can be fun. Follow these steps to ensure that your company has a great blog.

5 Examples To Improve Brand Marketing Strategy Using Amazon Alexa

February 25, 2021/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Terry Becker

Amazon’s Echo is a voice-controlled home device that uses Alexa technology. Such devices are providing marketers new and exciting platforms to improve brand marketing strategy by better connecting with their customers and fans. Companies are using the voice-enabled platform to offer more creative and frequently updated content to their users. Learn from these brands that have timely adopted the new concepts of digital marketing and integrated artificial intelligence into their brand marketing strategy to listen to your customers’ needs and generate audio content that develops and fosters effective relationships.

1. Digiday

You must be familiar with Digiday, a renowned portal for information on digital marketing industry. In just ninety seconds you can know the top marketing news while drinking your morning coffee, and through a human voice not a robotic one. Moreover, users can request Alexa to stream music through Spotify or order a ride through Uber.

2. Giant Spoon

As a leading communications and market strategy agency, Giant Spoon distributes its personal content in innovative ways. It is fun and lighthearted and tends to capture the overall feel of this company.For instance, if you ask the company for brainstorming help, you may get a snarky response like: We are currently low on ideas, hire an influencer. This could be a good ice breaker before you start a meeting.

As voice has become the new frontier for many interactive experiences, a platform like Alexa provides brands a big opportunity to play differently in a new and exciting environment on a revolutionary canvas to enhance their brand marketing strategy.

3. Web Analytics

If you want to evaluate your brand marketing strategy, analytics is must. If you want to know how your new marketing campaign is going,rather than accessing and going through Google Analytics reports, simply ask Alexa and it will pull the numbers and details for you. You can use both granular and broad queries to stay updated on real-time traffic data.

Are you a marketer? Here is an article with some helpful tips for Google Analytics

4. The American Heart Association

Using Alexa you can ask AHA how you can perform CPR to get a step-by-stepwalkthrough, or know the important warning signs of a heart attack or stroke. This is another example of how you can provide value or benefits to your audience through a voice-enabled platform.

5. GoodNes

Nestlé has introduced Amazon Alexa customers to a unique and convenient visual and voice browsing experience with the launch of its GoodNes skill for Alexa. With an Alexa device, consumers can now improve their cooking experience using voice instructions as well as a visual guide that lets users see and hear recipe steps in the paired web browser. It also provides them access to valuable nutritional information, fun facts, ingredients, and useful how-to videos especially designed to help them learn new cooking recipes and techniques.

You can find the GoodNes voice-assisted skill in the Alexa store. Once you enable the skill, you can link your account with your email to get a link to the unique visual guide. This visual guide is fully compatible with Safari and Chrome web browsers on laptops, tablets, and desktop computers.

Developing A Brand Marketing Strategy By Determining Your Company’s Make Or Break

February 22, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Lead Nuturing, Marketing Strategy /by Debbie Szwast

In today’s improving business environment, company leaders need to focus on their big picture “make or break” to grow topline revenue. Marketing once again has emerged as an essential tool to distinguish a brand—staying top of mind with consumers is critical to success. And leaders who recognize the benefits of marketing are poised to grow their companies.

As a CEO or CMO, one of the most valuable things you, along with your leadership team, can do is determine your company’s marketing make or break. A make or break is the one thing that must be done extraordinarily well to achieve your company’s vision.

The marketing makes or break for a senior living or retirement community, for example, could be to communicate to the adult children of the elderly to ensure high engagement with the decision makers and bolster referrals. For a resort, it might be to market to corporate and event planners to drive meetings and weekday bookings to decrease vacancy. A manufacturer may want to target its messaging to appeal to C-level finance personnel, while a hospital’s marketing make or break could be to attract top doctors.

Step 1: Quantify Your Objectives

The first step in determining your company’s marketing make or break is to understand your marketing vision and objectives. It essential they be believable, measurable and obtainable. Look at what you want, what your product is, and what category you fall under. Then set quantifiable goals, describe exactly what you want, and put value to it.

Step 2: Commit To The Process

The most successful leaders drive their marketing make or break at the detail level. As a CEO or CMO, you must commit to leading and coaching; however, the best ROI comes with cooperation from all staff members, so empower them. Hold the team accountable and set clear expectations. Move forward daily, not quarterly, so that everyone can react and adjust as needed.

Your entire team must believe in the benefits of marketing and commit to the process, as well. One of the most important assignments you can give your staff is to establish future indicators—trackable results that indicate efforts are moving forward toward a goal. P&Ls look back. Actions create results. Measure activities that lead to revenue and growth. Activities, future indicators and results all funnel down to achieve your goals.

[Read About How The Right Lead Nurturing Strategy Can Help You Stay Top Of Mind]

Step 3: Get Engaged

Lead your sales and marketing efforts by strengthening your knowledge in these areas—attend sales meetings and actively coach through storytelling. Outline the benefits of marketing specifically for your organization. Do not delegate leadership in this area to a direct report, even at the highest level.

At the same time, you must be able to make decisions and have control with little time invested. Others must be inspired to take ownership of the various strategies. Streamline the process and provide incentives to keep your team engaged and on track.

Step 4: Update Your Competitive Advantages

Marketing messages have evolved as more and more companies invest in understanding their brand’s position in the marketplace today. Challenge yourself and examine your competitive advantages. If they are out of date, address it, develop new language and test them on loyal customers.

One way to uncover powerful insights about your unique selling propositions is through a Competitive Advantages Discovery. This agency-led collaborative workshop engages a core group within an organization for a deep dive into each participant’s view of the company—both strengths and weaknesses. As a team, agency and client gain perspective on what sets the company and its products apart from the competition.

What Every Creative Advertising Agency Needs To Know To Endure The Digital Transformation

February 8, 2021/in Advertising Agency, Articles, Blog, Directors /by Terry Becker

Let’s face it: the transformations that are taking place in the digital world have altered the definition of being a creative. Understanding the impact these changes have on creatives and figuring out how to navigate them can be an overwhelming task. Here is what every creative advertising agency needs to know in order to endure the digital transformation today:

Big Ideas Can Arise From Anyone Or Anywhere

Everyone from creative technologists to consultants are constantly challenging themselves to think of new ways to stay innovative in the rapidly changing digital world. Because of this, we have to recognize that people all around us, regardless of title or industry, are pitching ideas that could be the next big thing. To avoid missing out on those big ideas, I encourage you to keep your door and your mind open when conversing with co-workers.

Learn Through Collaboration

Technology alone is no longer the single center of digital transformation—it’s people. I learn new things, and processes in the digital scape, by discussing projects and goals with others. Can you remember a time you were working with someone and they showed you something new in a program you have been using for years? It’s easy to think that because you have been around a technology, you are familiar with every aspect of it, but you might be surprised by what you learn from the people around you. Acknowledging the wide range of abilities our fellow creative partners possess can inspire us to go further and elevate what we are capable of.

Make Learning A Constant

If you are seeking to improve your craft and entice your clients, continue to expand your field of knowledge and gain perspective on the world around you. There are several different ways to do this. For example, I have an Alexa in my home and I like to develop skills for it, as well as listen to podcasts and audio books in the car. Learning can feel like a chore, so do it where you are most comfortable and really dial in to how you learn best. For me, it’s audio and visual.

You should even Consider using down time to learn. Yeah, we all like to recoup during less busier times, but why not take advantage of your free time to bolster your skills? Remember when you used to love to create? It could have been when you were a kid coloring in a coloring book, or when you were in college creating projects where you had all the authority and made all the creative decisions. Think of digital the same way.

Read our article: 4 Questions To Ask Yourself When Looking For Creative Marketing Solutions

Work Backwards If You Have To

Discover what else you can learn from a familiar program or subject by working backwards. I recently re-upped certification by Google in Analytics and filled in some of the holes in my knowledge base. I use Google Analytics just about every day, but never knew all the things it could do. Just because you do something all the time OR because you are supposed to be a professional, doesn’t mean you can’t keep working on your skills.

Inspiring People

With creativity finding new platforms for expression, our renewed focus on humanity has played the most important role in digital transformation. Having a variety of options that work to improve our lives has never been easier due to the merging of creativity, data, and technology. Although mixing all of those elements into a stew of color, light and imagination can certainly hurt our heads, it is all worth it when something incredible arises from it that inspires people.

We Are Currently In The Second (And Maybe Third) Chapter Of Digital Innovation

Major companies like Amazon, Kickstarter, Uber, and Netflix have altered what we thought was possible in today’s world. Thanks to their innovation, we have become accustomed to a life of convenience and have higher everyday expectations. Advertising agencies play a massive role in inspiring people, so the way we use technology matters significantly for the next chapter of digital innovation.

4 Solid Tips For Marketing To Millennials

February 7, 2021/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Debbie Szwast

Millennials make up about 25% of the US population and spend around $600 billion cumulatively each year. With this tremendous spending power, this generation is worth your time and attention. It’s important to present content that is relevant, innovative, interesting, and sharable—and that is in the right environment to reach them—tailored to the location, device and time of day. Here are a few key points to consider when targeting these consumers: Read more

Google Analytics Tips For Marketers

February 5, 2021/in Articles, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

Google Analytics is a popular web analytics tool that you can utilize to analyze and track your website traffic. It is free since its release in November 2005. You can use the tool to strengthen and shape your market strategy as well. You can understand your site better with Google Analytics, improve your SEO ranking and avoid some common mistakes with the following Google Analytics tips.

Top Google Analytics Tips

Understand Your Site Better–Check Engagement Rates

Using Google Analytics, you can measure the number of hours visitors usually spend on your website and understand the type of content that keeps them engaged and captures their attention. However, it is important to bear in mind that the tool will only measure engagement when visitors move from one page to the other.

Understanding and analyzing the engagement levels is important as it allows you to determine whether your content is sufficiently engaging and compelling or it is better to dedicate your effort toward the development of streamlined and more relevant content. This can help you create an effective brand awareness strategy.

Study Your Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is defined as the number of times a visitor lands on a website, but bounces back without navigating the site. This is not necessarily a bad thing; depends on what you want them to accomplish on that page. A variety of different factors can lead to a high bounce rate. Factors such as an unappealing homepage, poor web design, confusing layout and lack of recent posts.

Any of the above factors may cause visitors to switch to another website. You can decrease your website’s bounce rate by making the homepage more attractive or appealing by using the best homepage designs, adding more engaging and topical content in the form of videos that may intrigue your visitors and lure them into checking what you have to offer.

Why HTTPS Google?

Mistakes to Avoid

In addition to following the Google Analytics tips mentioned here, it is also important to learn about the common mistakes you have to avoid.

Do Not Overlook Behavior Flow

Apart from click-rate KPIs and basic traffic, you can extrapolate valuable insights regarding visitor intent using a tool called behavior flow in Google Analytics. Behavior flow is beneficial as it takes website analysis to the next level by going beyond raw figures to render visual diagrams that may help decipher or understand the intent of your site visitors through the analysis of things like what kind of web pages they interact with and those they tend to disengage and drop off when visiting your site. This is among the most important Google Analytics tips.

Do Not Ignore Sources of Traffic

This is another common mistake that should be avoided. It is important to know where your web traffic is originating from (such as organic versus paid); this can offer detailed insights, which can help your future online marketing plans. It could reveal what ad purchases are driving more traffic to your site, what kind of organic initiatives (like blogs) are yielding better results. It may also indicate whether the dollars and time spent on social media efforts is effective. Therefore, always know what’s driving you web traffic.

Improve Your SEO Ranking

Landing Page Report

We all know the benefits of high SEO rankings. You can use the landing page report to figure out what web pages have ranked well, how many impressions they have received, their overall ranking position and how many clicks they have received. The report will show you the most popular pages with lowest click-through rates and highest impressions. This well help you determine which pages you need to improve.