Thursday, November 21, 2019

Marketing Consultant San Antonio Texas

Lorenzo Gutierrez is a marketing consultant servicing the San Antonio Texas area. Lorenzo is a 2x certified Google partner and industry expert in digital marketing.

https://www.lorenzogutierrez.net/locations/marketing-consultant-san-antonio-texas/

Seattle Marketing Consultant Lorenzo Gutierrez


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Digital Marketing Consultant Seattle - Lorenzo Gutierrez

I'm a Seattle marketing consultant ready to help jumstart your business with leads and sales. Click  through to get started with a true marketing partner.



https://www.lorenzogutierrez.net/locations/digital-marketing-consultant-seattle/

Digital Marketing Consultant Seattle - Lorenzo Gutierrez

I'm a Seattle marketing consultant ready to help jumstart your business with leads and sales. Click  through to get started with a true marketing partner.



https://www.lorenzogutierrez.net/locations/digital-marketing-consultant-seattle/

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

10 B2B Demand Generation Strategies

For B2B companies, enticing new clients is crucial for success and growth. However, maintaining a steady stream of new businesses can be quite challenging.

This is where B2B demand generation becomes important. Demand generation strategies can help your B2B company create demand for your services and products, which in turn earn more clients and leads.

What Exactly is Demand Generation?

In its simplest form, demand generation is the process of creating awareness for your services orproducts to drive revenue.

Before a potential customer can want what you are offering, they first need to know that you exist and can offer the value that they seek. Demand generation is a multi-step process that targets a pre-defined audience in order to introduce your brand as the perfect solution for their problems.

Demand generation initiates the very first step in building customer relationships and should not be confused with lead generation.

Demand Generation VS. Lead Generation: What Makes Them Different?

Marketing teams become more complicated recently. With innovative technologies recently hitting the market, new roles also start to emerge. And the line between who does what starts to get even more blurry with a lot of us having little to no understanding what our marketing teammates do.

And if there’s a marketing role that confuses people the most, it is most likely the definition between lead generation and demand generation. Not only are they broad, but most people refer to them as the same thing.

And while these roles are usually overseen by the same individual and most of the times overlap, they are different, fundamentally speaking.

As mentioned earlier, demand generation is the “what” a brand makes to drive awareness and capture interest and attention. This is what makes a consumer engaged with a brand without even having tried a service or a product.

Primarily taking the top funnel approach, demand generation is the initial touchpointand education which positions your business for future engagements with your prospects. It tells people who you are and what you can do in order to help them.

In addition, demand generation usually gives away content freely to drive brand awareness.

Lead generation, on the other hand, is the “how” a brand turns the awareness created by the demand generation process into conversions and sales. This process focuses more on driving inquiry and interest in particular services or products. It takes the lower to mid-funnel nurturing strategies and prioritizes collecting customer data as well as building trust and loyalty over time.

Picking up where demand generation leaves off, lead generation delivers a consistent relevant message to identified prospects. The aim here is to cultivate a customer relationship and continuing to qualify leads for a sale all through the later stages of the customer’s journey.

10 B2B Demand Generation Strategies That Drive Results 

  1. Partnering With Industry Superstars on Webinars

Specific brands, such as startups and tech companies, phone it in when it comes to doing B2B conferences and webinars. And while they are relatively easy to produce and do not need much of a production overhead, but if you don’t give it your all, why would people pay attention to them?

b2b demand generation tactics

If webinars are honing to be a part of your strategy, then you need to do it your best and only partner with the “celebrities” of your industry. Doing so can increase your standing in your line of business, boost brand awareness and create valuable connections with key influencers.

  1. Develop Free Tools, Resources or App

Everybody loves free resources that add value to their daily tasks. And developing free tools can help your customers solve a problem, complimenting your core products and increasing the demand for your services. Although it requires a lot of resources and investment, it should bring you higher ROI in the long term.

  1. Social Media Marketing

Social platforms are not just a B2C marketing tool. A survey revealed that 75% of B2B executives get more their content via peer connection or social networks now than they in the past few years. In addition, 100 percent of business decision-makers also use social media platforms for work purposes.

The most important part of your social strategy is that you need to build a relationship with your audience so that they see you as a problem solver and a thought leader in order to really build trust and increase demand.

  1. Giveaways

Whether it is a free offer, a content download or other promotional campaign, make sure to give only the very best stuff Even though this might seem counterintuitive, offering giveaways of real values consistently has several benefits.

First, it creates a sense of trust, so your audience is more likely to come back to your website or content. Second, it reflects well on your brand that enthusiastic prospects can take things further and advocate for your brand, becoming your own “brand ambassadors”. Finally, by giving them something of value, your audience is more willing to give you whatever info you need to start qualifying them as a potential lead.

  1. Invest in Content Creation

Quality content plays a crucial role in the success of your demand generation strategy. This is because it helps potential customers to learn more about your business as well as positioning you as an authority in your line of business.

Your content can include anything from press releases, blog posts, eBooks, case studies, infographics, and so much more.

demand generation trends

If you are already publishing content on a regular basis, then you need to make think of how you can make it more valuable to your audience. To set your business apart, you can try adding original research and data while providing timely insights on the latest industry trends and news can help attract traffic to your site.

The most important piece of content marketing strategy is matching the content with your prospect’s pain points, content preferences, readiness to buy and where they are at in their buying journey.

You will have to ask yourself or your sales team questions like:

  • What are some of the common objections of my prospects?
  • What are their pain points and questions?
  • How do they make buying decisions?
  • Who are my ideal customers and prospects?

Use the answers to such questions to guide the contents you create, making it more relevant and attracting more suitable and higher quality leads.

  1. Share Informative Videos

Video is considered to be one of the most effective ways to engage and attract internet users. As a result, developing and sharing videos that demonstrate your services and products can help you reach potential clients and increasing the demand for your business.

In addition, videos do not require expensive equipment or actors. With some basic video editing skills and a camera, you can start including video marketing to your demand generation strategy now!

  1. Align Marketing and Sales

Marketing and sales are teams that work better together, especially with demand generation.

Marketing kick starts the demand generation process with top of the funnel campaigns with Sales following up with sales-ready prospects in order to close the deal.

So, when launching demand generation campaigns, make sure that your efforts are communicated and well-coordinated across marketing and sales.

  1. Optimize Your Email Marketing

Still a powerful medium, email marketing is an incredible component of your demand generation campaigns.

In terms of email marketing, understand that A/B testing is essentials and that the saying “less is more” applies. Instead of blasting your email lists all the time, you need to work smarter and not harder.

Everything in your email campaigns needs to be A/B tested to make sure that your emails are performing as strongly as they can. Also, from the headline length and subject line copy to the linking strategies and offering placements need to be tested in order to make informed decisions about your email marketing campaigns based on hard data instead of assumptions.

  1. Influencer Marketing

Related Post: How to Grow Your Brand With Influencer Marketing in 2020

What famous people use instantly becomes desirable.

In fact, a recent survey revealed that 94 percent of marketers found influencer marketing to be effective, especially in creating authentic content around your business. By partnering with an influencer, you gain exposure and increase the demand for your serviceor products.

For the best results, you can also join and partner influencers who share your attitude, similar values, and complimentary market.

  1. Launch Online Ads

Online advertising has grown by at least $1B every year since 2017 in the B2B space.

b2b demand generation

In an ideal world, you can focus all your demand generation strategies on organic channels, however with the industry trends of today, online advertising is definitely an effective way for you to quickly meet your marketing KPIs.

Consider launching ads on the topmost preferred online ad platforms for B2B customers— Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Final Thoughts

If you build it, people will likely not come. However, if you generate demand utilizing the above strategies and place your products or services as the best possible solution to a particular problem, then you will keep your sales team busy, very busy.



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Saturday, November 16, 2019

Video Marketing Infographic: The Next Big Trends Are Here!

The primary goal of every business brand, be it large or small, is to grow and expand. So, marketers are constantly on the lookout for the strategic tool that will help them achieve their ultimate goal. And in this digital era that we live in, the solution could be far simpler than we imagined.

With the rise of the internet as the fastest tool for spreading information around the world in a matter of seconds, countless opportunities knocked on the doors of marketers to take their business online and effortlessly reach their target audiences. And video marketing is here to help!

In this article, we are going to look at the roots of video marketing and the remarkable results it produces. We’ll also cover the latest trends in the industry, which can help your business stand out from the competition.

Let’s dive right in.

Brief History

The first appearance of video marketing was back in 1941. That year the famous American watchmaker company Bulova aired a short video advertisement on TV during a sports match. Word of the results they received in return, the number of increased sales, and many other benefits quickly spread. As a result, it wasn’t long before other brands started catching up to the idea of video commercials.

Even so, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that video marketing got its name and was increasingly being adopted by business worldwide. At this point, this marketing tool’s popularity exploded thanks to the advent of the internet.

Businesses with a sharp eye for new trends saw the potential video marketing had and seized the opportunity. And they were right – according to the latest studies, video marketing is exceeding the results of the picture and word-type content combined by a country mile.

Which begs the question:

What Makes it so Much Better?

If you are just starting out in the world of video marketing or are looking to learn the key elements that make this tool stand out from other marketing methods, we have the answer.

The first and most obvious reason why video marketing is simply better is that it is everywhere. Literally. It’s all over the internet and social media, and statistics show that more than 75% of users watch online videos every week, while 55% of users watch videos every day.

What’s more:

A study revealed that as many as 80% of users were able to recall a video they watched in the past 30 days but failed to recall a picture or word-type content they came across. This goes on to show that videos leave a lasting impression.

Bearing all this in mind, we can only expect that videos grow sales and audience. In fact, to back this up, video marketing stats reveal that more than a billion hours of videos are consumed on YouTube on a daily basis. This information goes on to show that videos alone generate 1,200 times more visits and shares than text and images combined.

And that’s not all:

The web browsers also favor websites whose landing pages contain a video. This helps increase website conversions by a whopping 80%. And by the time the year 2020 rolls around, it is estimated that video content will make up as much as 82% of all consumer web traffic.

Video Marketing Trends in 2020

2020 is just around the corner, and it promises to be yet another year full of ruthless competition in the world of video marketing. Now, we know staying ahead of everyone else is hard. That’s why we have the latest trends and tips that will definitely help you stand out from the crowd.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the video marketing trends that will mark the future.

1. How-To Videos

Definitely not a new trend – but an evergreen one, that’s for certain. And evergreen content, as the name suggests, is always relevant. Statistics show that viewers from all types of audiences enjoy watching explanatory videos that describe how to use a product or service. These videos also include sharing tips and tricks about our everyday lives. And thanks to the fact that they’re so incredibly relatable, they help build a strong connection between the business and the target audience.

2. Short Videos

Holding the attention of the viewer for a long period of time is not an easy task. But as we all know, short is sweet, so we suggest you make your videos just that. There is no point in making a long video. Let’s face it, regardless of how much context or depth you put in it,  people will have a hard time watching a short-movie that promotes a brand.

Key takeaway:

Videos which are short, have a nice product description, and aren’t assertive, promise the best results.

3. Engage With Your Audience

If there is another fan-favorite we have to mention when it comes to video marketing, it is undoubtedly engagement. Studies reveal that viewers are 1.8 times more likely to make a purchase when watching a video that has someone explain the product to them. Additionally, they are even more likely to recognize and trust the brand if their opinions about the product or service are taken into account. So, you can benefit from engaging with your audience, as you can listen to the thoughts and suggestions people have to improve every little aspect of your business.

4. Follow Trends

Last but certainly not least on our list of video marketing trends is to do just that – follow trends! Associating your brand with the latest and most popular things happening around the world is a key method of keeping your business fresh, updated, and on the right track.

Bottom line:

Video marketing has a tremendously high return on investment, and these hot video marketing trends are the way to go in 2020.

We hope this article helped you learn some valuable information that you can use to your advantage and help your business reach new heights. Good luck!

Video Marketing Statistics



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Law Firm Digital Marketing Strategies to Acquire New Clients Online

Internet marketing is crucial for any business today being that we are all a part of a large, global and saturated market. Everyone has some form of a digital marketing campaign going on for them, so by not participating in those endeavors, you are behind big time. Law firms are no different and have a great need for their own footprint in the digital, online world. To successfully market a law firm online, one has to meet a number of factors. Most of them rely on the more generic ones that apply to most of the other businesses in the common, global market. But some are industry and niche specific. Most people find law firms like any other thing, through a search query in their favorite search engine, usually Google. In order to remain competitive in the online market, let’s go over the most effective marketing strategies that will yield the best results. 

1.      A solid online presence

 

digital marketing for law firms

Law firms, like all other businesses, have their work cut out for them by building a strong landing page and website in general. When it comes to the law, most clients come from within a certain jurisdiction, that is to say, most clients are local. This website will serve as the anchor point of your online marketing strategy where everything can start around. It must contain all the basic information about the products and services you are offering, along with high-quality content for both future and current clients. More on why that is important later. The website needs to be a sincere representation of your law business, practices conducted and values being upheld. It also needs to contain other information like answers to the most simple legal questions that every client should know beforehand. Be sure not to go too far and offer free legal consultations, that is where the business part comes in. All of this will greatly help build a reputation as a reliable entity on legal issues and will lead potential clients to your law firm for further collaboration.

2.      SEO

 Search engine optimization is the second ingredient when talking about a relevant online presence. In short, it is a process of using the right words and online strategies dictated by the different search engine algorithms in order to rank higher in the search results. The better the ranking, the closer to the top of the first results page your law firm will appear. Proper SEO strategies work wonders for any business, law firms are not excluded from this rule. However, there are certain practices that need to be followed to make your SEO strategy adequate. Firstly, you need to target local, relevant keywords. These are an essential part of showing up in relevant searches made by people in your area of influence. This will increase visibility and the chances of attracting clients. Putting your website in an appropriate category is the next step. This way, visitors will find it easy to navigate through the pages in order to find content relevant to them. As a law firm, you will be offering different services for different clients, custom-tailored to their individual needs and of course, in accordance with the laws. Page optimization is the next step. Optimization is a very wide term and can mean plenty of things. It comes down to adapting your website pages so that the search engine algorithms can get a better understanding of your website. This, in turn, makes you more competitive in the search results page. Optimization is referred to as the content you put for everyone to see and hear. Images, text, video, other multimedia content, but it goes deeper than that. HTML tags are better left to the developers in charge of the creation of your website and are really important. The content itself, especially realtime type like streaming video needs to be carefully curated for optimal results.  That is where companies like Redback Connect come into play and facilitate content that leaves very little time for a correction after the fact.

3.      Social media

 Social media platforms re all the rage these days and rightfully so. Everyone has their platform of choice and they facilitate the best forms of advertising, word-of-mouth, and trust-based ones. Maintaining authoritative and professional profiles, groups and pages on these platforms are essential for a good business and brand image. Convenience is the main asset here as you can reach and build relationships with potential clients without them even going through the hassle of walking through your door. Most of these platforms offer instant messaging and chat services so you can answer any and all questions your potential clients might have with accuracy and speed. Posts, comments and rating systems such as likes offer you and clients a transparent and public way of interaction.

 4.      Client reviews

law firm digital marketing strategy (1)Consumers are influenced greatly by online reviews. This is especially important in this industry, as your reputation is the most important aspect of it. It can make or break a law firm. No matter the legal conundrum a potential client may have, the reviews they read pertaining to your business will help them make their decision on hiring your services or not. Needless to say, bad reviews will bode negatively and good ones will prove to be invaluable. No one expects the reviews to be perfect and every single one to be positive, but a healthy ratio is what you should really be going for. The more positive ones compared to negative ones there is, the better you stand for gaining new clients. Reviews do completely rely on your performance in the field. The happier your current clients are, the greater the chances of acquiring new ones.

5.      Clients on the move

Your site needs to be adapted for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The world is becoming increasingly mobile and the number of mobile users has surpassed workstation search queries a few years back. And search engine algorithms check and adjust their rankings for that. If the site is not responsive to a very large number of different browsers and physical devices, it can tank your visibility and therefore traffic. Online visitors have a very short attention span, usually a few seconds at best. If they cannot get the necessary information because your content is not being displayed properly on their screens or fast enough, they will move on and never look back. There is always a bunch of other law firms that have this covered and by doing so have an advantage over yours.

6.      Offering value

There is a thing called a bounce rate when talking about your website. It is a number of people that have seen what you are offering and never come back again. If people are bouncing regularly from your website, the search engines will notice and factor that in their rankings of you. So what needs to be done is to entice visitors to click further into your site once they arrive. How does one achieve that? Through content that adds value to their lives and it can be done in many ways. Quality content can come in many shapes and sizes. The more senses you can engage in your viewers the better, so employ audio and video queues whenever possible. Videos result in much lower bounce rates than other forms of content. That is not to say you should neglect textual and audio-based content. Client testimonials are a great example of the type of content that be most beneficial for a law firm. Seeing your former client’s positive experiences and solved problems is what puts a human face on an otherwise faceless company. Explainer content is also very beneficial to a potential client and therefore brings value to them. This way you will bring value to potential clients incentivizing them to return for more and hire your services.

7.      Blogging

online marketing for law firmsBlogs can operate as a PR platform where all current events can be discussed. Any business today needs to maintain an active presence in their area of expertise. That goes for law firms too. Legal issues are not the only thing that should be covered in your blogs but also other industry-specific news. This shows your current and future clients that you are keeping up with the relevant subjects. Touching upon our previous subject, blogs are a great medium where you can incorporate all forms of content such as video and audio. The F.A.Q. section is one of the most important sections of any site that deals with complicated and sensitive subjects. Make sure that these are robust and offer as much content as possible. If people are looking for answers on your Frequently Asked Questions page instead of their search engine of choice, you are on the right path and you should capitalize on that.

Why you need Digital Marketing for Your Law Firm 

Your digital presence is the most important asset you have when it comes to exposure and getting your message across. It will bring in new leads, showcase capabilities and give the opportunity to build relationships and credibility in the field of law. With these basic principles, make sure you are with the times and update your marketing strategies, today.



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Friday, November 15, 2019

What to Expect When Hiring a Marketing Consultant

Businesses large and small can benefit greatly from hiring a marketing consultant. An expert in marketing (especially digital marketing) can help a firm in multiple ways by executing a strategy, performing research, analyzing best practices and staying on top of the developments in the field. 

In order for a marketing campaign to be successful, it needs to take into account multiple layers of action, targeting the exact audience and addressing its needs in an optimum manner.

With digital marketing campaigns getting more sophisticated and expanding to include interactive content, live streams and other new trends, there are multiple approaches to animating your audience.

It takes a lot of knowledge, expertise and skills to develop the best campaign in a cost-efficient manner, using demographic insights and other advanced marketing methodologies. That’s where a marketing consultant steps in.

Here are some highlights on how a skilled marketing consultant can help grow your business in the long run.

what to expect when hiring a marketing consultantCreating an Optimum Marketing Strategy

A digital marketing consultant will develop a sustainable marketing strategy based on facts and insights rather than on observations (which is what the majority of new businesses do). The latter usually comprises vague ideas on social media posts, blogging and some paid form of advertisement (Google or Facebook, for example).

This is not a good start! It is more likely to develop into you spending money randomly on vague strategies you don’t know how to track or capitalize on.

An expert will apply a completely different approach, usually comprising a market analysis and a SWOT analysis, coupled with sales projections and applicable adjustments.  

In this way, you will get a good idea on the budget your marketing campaign calls for and a palpable and a detailed action plan on how to go about our campaign. The finest of marketing plans include specific goals and an analysis plan to track results

SEO Boost

SEO is the key to any successful strategy. Put simply, no matter how much quality content you provide, if your target audience can’t find it, it’s all in vain.

An expert marketing consultant will perform keyword research and optimize the existing content by adding tags, keywords and optimizing images.

Note that this is a continual process as the rules of the game change from time to time, and your website will need new posts on a regular basis for best results.

Creating Optimized Content and a Posting Calendar

As mentioned above, adding new pieces to your website is of extreme importance. It is paramount that all content be well-written, in line with your brand’s tone of voice, SEO-optimized and posted in accordance with your marketing plan. 

As regards a posting calendar, it depends on the number of posts published weekly and is best left to your marketing consultant to plan. Some foals that a good calendar should take into account are monthly planning of new posts in advance, making certain that new pieces suit the goals defined by your marketing strategy, and taking into account special events and promotions (e.g., holiday sales).

The easiest way to keep track of the content is by having your marketing consultant create a calendar with post titles, topics, keywords, calls to action and dates of posting. If you run a large business with multiple content writers, this plan can be shared across the board.

No matter what you do, don’t post random posts for the sole sake of posting. All new pieces should be in line with your marketing strategy.

reasons to hire a marketing consultantFinally, there is a whole separate strategy dealing with guest posts, which is where splendid marketing consultants truly shine. Guest post are important as the help your strategy with backlinks and better search engine ranking and are adequately time-consuming to plan and write.

A marketing consultant can take care of this exquisite process step-by-step, by sending pitches, delegating specific writing tasks and arranging guest posts and ghost writing for best results.

Social Media Marketing

No marketing campaign is considered a stellar campaign if it doesn’t account for a well-planned social media strategy. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t know how to use this channel for best results, rather posting random content to increase the brand visibility. Not good! 

A marketing consultant will plan a successful social media campaign based on the insights, which may include: the best channels to drive the most engagement, types of content per channel and multiple account management.

I.e., Pinterest and Instagram should present your brand visually, Twitter intellectually and Facebook interactively by encouraging communication.

Establishing Strong Brand Presence

All these bits and pieces of a bigger marketing strategy serve the main purpose of establishing a strong brand presence and authority. That’s why every step counts: content must be reliable, informative and trusted, images – targeted, and ads – delivering on their promise. 

Establishing a brand logo, guidelines, voice and social media presence is an integral strategy aiming at the main goal.

These are only some of the tasks performed by marketing consultants. Given that every brand has its unique strategy, marketing consultants may also deal with performing surveys, creating interactive content and, overall, keeping all the tasks in sync at all times. So, keeping in mind all these fine stratagems,

Looking to hire a marketing consultant?

If you need an experienced marketing consultant to grow your brand an online revenue then reach out to us through our contact form to see how we can help!



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How to Grow Your Brand With Influencer Marketing in 2020

In order to build your business you need to have proper marketing. No matter how good your business is, you won’t really be able to get any results if your marketing efforts are subpar. And this doesn’t just mean one aspect – you can’t just rely on your website, or on physical ads, the radio, or even TV (If you can afford it). Covering every aspect means getting in line with the times understanding what is popular today, what gives you the best results and options. One of these important aspects is influencer marketing.

Namely, influencer marketing is vital nowadays. Social media is now an everyday part of life, not just something “those young people” did. No, it’s much more ever-present, and ubiquitous. What you want to see, what you want to accomplish, is getting a right influencer on board and having him or her promote your business.

What is an influencer marketing?

infleuncer marketing examples

Now, the term influencer has been thrown around a lot nowadays. However, it has in one form or another existed for decades, if not more. Only today has it been tied directly to social media, has it received the name it has.

To put it simply, an influencer is a person who has influence in your field. This definition can be expanded a bit more, in the sense that this person has, specifically, influencer over a wide consumer audience. These people have broken through in their field, or something relating to your field, and made a name for themselves. Perhaps they have done so through raw knowledge and success, or perhaps they simply have a great deal of charisma (but still better than average knowledge of the relevant area). Fitness experts and gurus promoting your health drink, gearheads saying how good your tools are, fashionistas wearing your new line of streetwear…

Now, this is how it all looks like. Les say you have an influencer who has proven himself as very knowledge and successful in the coffee machine industry. We know, a very niche subject, but the primary point here is focusing on niche subjects – better to have 1000 dedicated followers online than 10000 people who will just hike up your bounce rates.

Now, back to the coffee machines. You yourself are creating coffee products – perhaps growing and importing beans, or maybe selling some espresso makers. You come in contact with this person, they like your products, and then they promote it on their social media. Boom, you just got his or her entire audience looking at your website, your goods. You essentially opened yourself up to a huge audience with one simple gesture. Any good marketing strategy and budget needs to have some room for influencer marketing.

Now, putting all this into practice, getting the best for your brand thorough influencer marketing, can all be found below.

Instagram is still vital

When people think of influencers, they think of Instagram. Now, they have good reason to do so – this platform does serve as a home for many influencers out there. We need to point out, though you are probably aware of this fact, that many people call themselves influencers, while just feeding their narcissism on this platform, all the while not contributing to anything, not even knowing anything about their chosen field. These are not the influencers we are talking about.

Now, as always, social media is king when it comes to online marketing. For example, in 2017 there have been around 1.5 million influencer related posts on Instagram. Instagram related, in that they promoted a product, a service, or a company. This is an amazing and intense source of advertising, a platform you should not miss out on.

In fact, Instagram is so strong that it reached one billion active users on a monthly level in 2018. These numbers are astonishing, they represents a global market that never existed before. And this is all with good reason. It’s simple, it’s direct, and it gives you clear visual content. And of course, it has the insane popularity that we mentioned above.

These reasons make it amazing for growth, as well as making it very useful, and sought after, platform for influencers and marketers – it’s what makes it a magnet for influencers, both relevant and not.

Stick to your field, strike a deal

influencer marketing strategiesGrowing your brand through influencer marketing means sticking to your field, and getting a good deal. It means you need to get the right influencer with you. We consider this as relevant both in terms of exposure, and in terms of gaining actual success with their audience.

Namely, the entire goal of influencer marketing is you gaining some traction and influencer with their audience. You want to get some of their people to also be interested in you. And you can’t just accomplish this by having this person say “this is a trusted brand, I like them”. The audience of this influencer might hang on every word he or she says when it comes to their field of expertise, but there is no reason they would listen to what they have to say when it comes to something entirely unrelated.

So, you need to stick to an influencer that know what he or she is talking about. Of course, this also means that your product or services need to be up to par. You can always sweeten the deal, offer some free merch, or get them on your marketing team. But at the end of the day, they need to honestly believe that what you offer is good.

Broader promotion

Your marketing efforts with influencers don’t just have to centre on the influencers themselves. Rather, you can have them spearhead a larger, broader marketing strategy that include multiple things. Set up a marketing campaign that lasts for several months. It can include everything from a slew of online ads that make up a story, to guerrilla street marketing where you offer free goods, custom t-shirt printing, scavenger hunts…

Furthermore, promote your work through various mediums and contents. When you build said content regularly and continually, you can expect greater reach. Now, to come back to video – video is far reaching content that has something rather special – authenticity. Simply put, people believe that video content is more authentic, that it gives a different, more real and specific view of your company and of the influencers. Indeed, it’s much harder to mess with and to modify video when compared to other forms.

Now of course video is nothing new for influencers – just look at the success Instagram has with videos. But harnessing it properly, not just going in blindly, is what you want to focus on. Have your influencer tell several stories, put them on your website, let people see and hear this person say what her or she thinks, don’t just leave it at writing.

Broader content

influencer marketing instagramIn line with the previous point, you want varied content. Video is of course great, but you can also get great results with gifs or webms. Short bouts of content, a burst of information provided by an influencer can serve as a nice boost to your sales and your efforts.

Of course, images themselves also matter. Content wise, you should experiment with infographics. Memes are tricky territory – if done right (look at the success of Wendy’s twitter account) you can get amazing results. However, if done poorly (which happens 99.9% of the time), you will throw off a great deal of your younger audience and, simply put, embarrass yourself.

Spread out to other platforms

Instagram is the kind of this type of content, you can’t really do much about that. However, that doesn’t mean that you should just stick to this platform, and be done with it. Spread out your marketing budget, don’t just invest all your money and time into one field. Rather, try out other platforms. Facebook is a must, as is twitter. See if your influencer can promote you here.

Next, Tik Tok is here to stay, and tapping into this market will give you access to a much younger, fresher audience.  You might find influencers here as well.

Then there is YouTube. While this platform has gone through some trouble in the last couple of years due to monetization issues, it’s still a valuable platform. Often you can find influencers and YouTube personalities reviews certain products and services, giving genuine assessments and valuations of what certain brands have to offer. Unlike Instagram, where the videos don’t last that long, YouTube offers the opportunity to place much longer formats, and much more detailed troves of info.

Conclusion on Influencer Marketing 

A good influencer can help your brand gain a much broader audience, help you get found out by people who never knew you existed. People with the right amount of clout, individuals who can promote your work quickly and easily, influencers are a godsend for any company, young and old. However, do think about the type of influencer you should get.

Stick to someone relevant in your field. Also, Instagram is king, but don’t just stick to this platform – branch out, both in terms of content and platforms. Video, audio, infographics, Tik Tok, twitter, Facebook – all mediums and platforms that allow you to reach success and conversions with an influencer by your side.



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How to Create a Marketing Funnel

If you own an online store, your main goal is obviously to get people to buy your stuff. The number one way to do this is to draw people into your website by creating a marketing funnel. This might sound complex from a distance, but when you get into it, it’s actually pretty simple. In case you’re looking to boost the sales of your online store, let’s get into how you can successfully build a marketing funnel which helps you do just that.

A Marketing Funnel Has Three Stages

Any successful marketing funnel can be broken down into three stages. Much like how an actual funnel works, a marketing funnel works by drawing in a lot of visitors who will then be trimmed and filtered out into customers that come out the bottom. 

The top of your funnel will be designed to gain as much visibility as possible. It will include marketing efforts on channels like email, social media, blogs, and if you can manage it, big media. Sending out emails to names you already have on your list should be one of your first steps. Posting content on social media like videos, infographics, comments on other influencer’s posts, and more should also be another one of the first things you do when trying to build a marketing funnel. 

Designing the top of your funnel gives you the chance to showcase your expertise or knowledge in the field. Remember that the people who are drawn into the top of your funnel are not yet ready to buy products from you, they are simply just learning who you are. This is why certain tactics like creating quizzes, videos, and contests, are so important during this stage. 

By disguising your marketing as a value-providing piece of content, you can get potential customers familiar with your brand without making them feel like you just want to sell yourself to them. 

Starting an informative, entertaining blog that is SEO optimized would be another smart move. SEO can eventually help you draw in tons of new visitors once you’ve built up a nice cache of content. Done correctly, it can help you get a reliable source of steady traffic to your site as well if you can get your pages ranked highly enough.

There are a few different ways you can measure the success of the top of your marketing funnel. Sessions, % new sessions, bounce rate, and traffic per channel are all metrics you can use to determine how successful your marketing efforts are in this phase of the funnel. 

Sessions is another word for views or visits. This is your website traffic and is a very useful metric for determining success. Your % of new sessions shows you how many of your visitors are first-timers, allowing you to measure how much NEW traffic you’re bringing in. The bounce rate of these sessions is a metric that tells you how many of your visitors left without taking any type of action on your website. You’ll want this number to be as low as possible. If it’s high, it could mean your content isn’t engaging enough. 

And finally, your traffic per channel will tell you how much traffic you’re getting on each individual marketing channel. This includes social media, organic traffic, email, direct, and more. This is one of the most important metrics to use because it shows you where your efforts are working and where they aren’t. Assuming your process is solid, you can then extrapolate which channels you should spend less time and energy on, and which channels you should double down on and invest more resources into. 

Paid advertising is another crucial variable in your marketing efforts at the top of your funnel. This is a great place to invest in big, right away. Paid advertising guarantees your ad will be placed in front of as many faces as you’re willing to pay for. You can pay for advertising on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets like YouTube, Stitcher, and more. Picture ads, video ads, and audio ads on podcasts are excellent places to begin, and are one of the most surefire ways to generate visibility among your target audience. 

Moving Down the Funnel

Once you’ve got all these channels covered for bringing in new traffic to your site, you need a way to get people to give you a piece of information you can contact them with. Email addresses are the most common thing that people shoot for here. This is the second stage of the funnel and it’s designed to build leads. 

In order to get leads, you’ve got to offer exclusive content that only “subscribers” can get. This includes things like downloadable PDFs, eBooks, free mini-courses, webinars, free trials, demos, private communities, and more. Pop-ups on your site are the best way to deliver these offers, but it can also be done through email marketing, remarketing, and other methods.

As with the top of your funnel, there are certain metrics you can use to track success in the middle as well. These include your visitor-to-lead conversion rate, your overall number of leads and the growth of your email list, and your click rates and email open rates. 

The visitor-to-lead conversion rate is a metric that tells you how many visitors that came to your website actually provided you with their email address or another contactable piece of information. This can be tracked by viewing your popup form tracker, if that’s what you’re using to capture leads. If not, it can be tracked by using Google analytics goals. 

Your overall number of leads can be tracked in various ways, the most common being your email list. Any tool you use for capturing leads, however, should be able to provide you with this information. 

Your email open rates and click rates will help you see how engaging or relevant the content you’re sending to your leads is. Email marketing is the easiest and most effective way to nurture your leads. By looking at the metrics that every email marketing service provides, you can easily determine how much success you’re having on this front. 

Remember, your funnel should be customized to your specific needs and marketing strategy, but you need success in all three phases if you want to see real success. Unless the products you sell are extremely expensive, then, much like a real estate agent or a car salesman, you only need a handful of sales per year to be wildly successful. 

The bottom of your funnel is designed to get your leads to become customers by purchasing products. Testimonials, sales pages, and launch emails are common examples of what you’ll find at the bottom of a marketing funnel. Bundling products, upselling the customer, and feigning scarcity are tactics you can use to maximize your profits at this stage.

As you probably guessed, there are a variety of ways to determine your success at the bottom of your marketing funnel. The most obvious of these is your overall revenue. If business is good, chances are you’re performing up to snuff. This can be deceiving, however. Oftentimes you might be making a decent profit off of your business, but you could be making much more, so other metrics are also needed to provide you with a complete picture of how you’re doing at the bottom of your funnel. The number of NEW customers, is one of these. 

Another metric to look at is the total lifetime revenue per customer. This metric will help you average out how much money you make from each new customer, on average. Higher numbers here might compel you to focus more on retargeting and upselling to your existing leads, while lower numbers might spur you to focus more effort on drawing in new customers. This metric is a good one to check every once in a while, but don’t check it daily, as there will be a lot of variance. 

Your conversion rate is the most important metric to check because it shows you how successful you are at turning warm leads into customers. The way you keep track of this number will depend solely on what you use to convert your leads. If it’s an email sequence, check your conversions during the period in which the emails are sent out and opened. If it’s a sales page, google analytics goals is the place to go and see how many of the people who made it to your sales page ended up buying from you. 

Try Everything to See What Works

In general, you’ll want to use all of the channels and tactics we’ve covered to start with. But, as you go, look for what is having the most success and what isn’t. This way you can customize and perfect your marketing funnel by putting less energy or money towards areas that aren’t performing as well as others. 

If done correctly, you’ll be extremely successful before long. Make sure to check all the relevant metrics for determining success, and remember to adjust your marketing efforts in each phase of the funnel as you see what works and what doesn’t. 

Marla DiCarlo is an accomplished business consultant with more than 28 years of professional accounting experience. As co-owner and CEO of Raincatcher, she helps business owners learn how to sell a business fast so they can get paid the maximum value for their company. 



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Best Digital Marketing Companies in USA

As I was growing up, my father always said, “Learn from the best. Identify what makes them successful. More importantly, highlight their shortcomings. This is how you can excel.”

Little did I know that my father was teaching me the basics of running a business. But what truly makes a brand prosperous is its marketing campaign.

Marketing has always been about connecting with the audience, in the right way, and at the right time. More and more brands are transferring to the digital medium because that’s where the customers are. Since competition is getting stiffer, businesses can no longer survive without adept digital marketing skills.

Questioning the importance of digital marketing?

Here are some reasons why you can no longer ignore it:

  • You can focus your marketing efforts on exactly where your customers are.
  • Target a wider audience.
  • You have a better chance of competing against other brands
  • Marketing campaigns are more personalized.
  • Automated processes facilitate marketing practices.
  • Choose the right campaigns according to customer preferences.
  • Monitor the success of your marketing efforts through analytics tools.
  • Cheaper than traditional marketing.
  • An effective way to increase ROI.
  • Easy to implement, scale, and adapt according to budget constraints.
  • Aligns with current trends.
  • Promotes marketing through mobile devices.

How can you get ahead?

If you’re aiming to take your brand to higher levels of recognition, then you’ll need to implement various digital marketing strategies. Now, this is not something that you can do on your own. So it’s best to get in touch with a digital marketing agency. They have the necessary experience to create the best campaign suitable for your business.

Here are 15 of the best digital marketing companies in the USA that you should consider:

 

lorenzo gutierrez digital marketing

1. Lorenzo Gutierrez

This agency is as classy as its name. It’s a multifaceted agency that has experience in creating the best digital marketing campaigns. The team here works with conviction so you can outshine your competitors.

Lorenzo Gutierrez is a marketing agency with a passion for success that matches yours. Depending on your needs, they have the resources to incorporate various techniques, such as SEO, PPC, content writing, conversion optimization, and much more. With over a decade of experience, they know how to increase sales, generate leads, and boost revenue.


thrive agency review
2. Thrive

Thrive provides both digital marketing consulting and management services. It knows how to use the power of the internet to help your business grow.

A company established in 2005, it has years of experience under its belt. Thrive understands the needs of your business better than anyone else. It’s an agency that thrives on effectiveness.

killian branding review

3. Killian Branding

With former clients such as AT&T, McDonald’s, Dell, and Aldi Foods, there is very little left to say. Killian Branding is a marketing agency with a broad marketing approach to match just about anything.

Founded in Chicago since 1987, it’s a veteran in the industry. Services include branding, mobile and app marketing, and multiple digital marketing strategies.

seobrand review

4. SEObrand

SEObrand is an agency offering a holistic, data-driven digital marketing campaign. They know exactly how to drive traffic to your brand and connect with your customers.

With over a decade’s worth of experience, this interactive marketing company knows how to effectively merge trends with practices to create the right results. This marketing firm stands at the forefront of others in the industry. With a degree of expertise in internet marketing, SEObrand will lead you to where your customers are.

sensis review

5. Sensis

With offices across the US, this marketing agency can be anywhere you want them to be in the digital space. Expounding services inclusive of branding, advertising, mobile and web marketing, public relations, and market research, Sensis is a name that’s hard to ignore. It has the energy and commitment to drive your business to success.

lyfe marketing review6. LYFE Marketing

This firm is acclaimed as one of the best social media companies in the US. LYFE believes in innovative services that will help you engage with your audience and build a strong relationship with them.

Their solution encompasses SEO, PPC, SMA, etc. They have the appropriate tools to track and analyze the metrics linked to your success.

Social Fulcrum review7. Social Fulcrum

An innovative company that strives to grow brand awareness and boost your follower base. It provides exceptional SMM by focusing on relevant targets.

Social Fulcrum invests a great deal of energy in testing and analyzing digital marketing campaigns. They can highlight what strategies will create the best results.

Disruptive Advertising review8. Disruptive Advertising

Here’s your chance to work with a company you can trust. This agency knows how to reap the rewards of your hard work.

Disruptive Advertising builds on results-based relationships, pay-per-click campaigns, data analytics, website testing, and any strategy that will real in your customers. Let’s make the numbers matter.

digital success review

9. Digital Success

The name says it all!

Want to be found on the internet? This company ensures you’re taking advantage of every opportunity to dominate the digital world.

With multiple practices in play, Digital Success knows how to reach your customer base and beyond.

straight north review

10. Straight North

Straight North. Yep, that’s exactly where you’re headed. This marketing agency was founded in 1997. Now, with years of experience in the industry, it has an array of services that will set you in the right direction. Their digital marketing campaign includes professional website design, SEO, display advertising, PPC, and email marketing.

Straight North extends its professional services through multiple offices spread out over the mainland.

smartsites review

11. SmartSites

Established in 2011, this agency now stands strong with nearly 100 designers, writers, developers, and marketers. SmartSites offers creative strategies to develop, build, and promote your brand.

From web design to PPC marketing to organic SEO, they’ve got all your bases covered.

3 media web review12. 3 Media Web

This digital firm will help you incorporate the best marketing practices there are. With nearly two decades of experience, they extend services beyond your expectations. Services include web development and design, SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing.

directive consulting review13. Directive Consulting

This agency just entered the market in 2014. But don’t let that make you shy away from them. With impressive clients such as Cisco, Samsung, and Allstate Insurance Company, this company definitely has something great to offer. Directive Consulting specializes in PPC, SEO, content marketing, social media, and much more.

Final Thoughts

There are a number of endless possibilities when it comes to digital marketing.

But when it comes to choosing the right digital marketing agency, don’t partner up with just anyone.

Select the one that’s best for you.



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Reasons to Engage in Social Media Marketing For Your Business

The advent of social media has definitely changed the world in more ways than one. In its first few years of existence, social media mostly served as a way for friends, family, and strangers alike to connect. Judging by the billions of people who use it for that purpose to this very day, social media is, indeed, hugely successful in bringing people together, wherever they may be in the world.

Eventually, however, social media evolved into something more than a means for socializing. Over the last few years, social media has asserted itself as very important for doing business online. Yes, a platform initially meant to get people to communicate has become a potent, and in many cases indispensable, business tool.

A lot of Internet-savvy entrepreneurs have been engaging in Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram marketing for some time now. If you haven’t done any sort of social media marketing before, then you need to follow in their footsteps, because you’re missing out on a lot of things.

Brand recognition is one of the top benefits of marketing your business on social media. It’s every business’ goal to get their brand out there. With social media’s billions of users around the globe, getting your brand in front of people becomes quicker and easier.

Speaking of your brand, social media will also give you the chance to cultivate people’s trust in it. When you make regular social media posts, your audience can readily engage with them, and you should do the same.

By regularly interacting with people who comment on your posts, you get the chance to thank them for their patronage. You can also use social media to address whatever concerns they might have with your products or services. In social media, people won’t think twice saying the best things about your offerings. They also happen to have no problem criticizing them. Whatever they say, always be civil and helpful in your replies. With your sincere commitment to communicating with your audience, they will likely trust your brand more. With trust comes loyalty, and that’s always a good thing for your brand.

For the longest time, traditional media marketing has been the norm for many businesses. However, a lot of entrepreneurs saw that social media is offering a much more cost-effective way of marketing businesses. For one, you don’t have to spend anything to set up a social media profile. For another, the costs of running a social media marketing campaign, with all the tracking and monitoring software and apps you need, are still lower than marketing on traditional media outlets. Try using paid advertising on media, and you’ll see how cost-effective it is.

However, before you proceed with social media advertising, you have to do some research on your target market first. Get started by checking out the infographic below, which provides information about social media advertising user trends today. Hopefully, it would enable you to make an informed decision on which social media platform would be the best for marketing your business.



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Web Development Services List

If you are looking to take your business online, build a new website or are just looking to revamp your Content Management System, WordPress is a wonderful option. With over 27% of the internet running on WordPress and over 76% of the CMS market ruled by WordPress, it is the go-to choice of anyone in web design and development.

If you want to do your web design in WordPress, you will do well to hire a website design company, that provides WordPress web design & development. A professional can work magic to create the website of your dreams with the designs that are customized for you!

There are many WordPress web design agencies out there who provide small business web design services as well as eCommerce web design services.

List of Website Services Provided by Us

1. WordPress Website Design Services:

The types of website design services provided depend on the clients’ needs – what website types they require and the purposes of the website. We will cover the general list of services.

Customized Website Design:

All clients ask for a custom-designed website that suits their needs as well as their tastes. After all, why would you hire a designer if not to build a website that you can be proud to show off!

Writing custom code for everything is difficult for a beginner to do. But with WordPress, you’ve got it all covered.

WordPress being open source the customization options are endless. Your designer can customize everything and anything. Want to have a funky menu? You’ve got it. A designer background? You can have the look and feel you want!

2. Small Business Website Design Services:

Your Site’s Template: The template is your site is the theme that you use. It is the theme which gives your website its layout. You can have a designer build a custom theme from the ground up or choose a third party theme. WordPress Repository is full of free as well as premium themes that you only have to select the one that attracts you and change it to the way you look.

Menu & Widgets: Have you ever tried customizing a list on an HTML site? It is difficult and time consuming. With WordPress? Your designer can position the list at the place you desire and change the look and feel of your site. Most themes today are shipped with the option to customize the widgets and menus with a few tweaks to the code.

Site Header: The site header is the first thing that a visitor who lands on your website notices. With WordPress, you can make create unique site header that communicates the core of your message or business to your visitors. You can add an image, animation, video or a slideshow header. With or without text!

Page Background: Do you know with WordPress; your designer can customize the background of your website. Add an image or coloured background. How much fancier can you get?

Website URL: Did you know that WordPress supports custom URL? Yes, your developer can save you the trouble of remembering those long and complicated URL.

Colours & Fonts: What did we tell you? WordPress can customize anything and everything. From your fonts to size and the colour of your fonts to buttons colors. Hello, branding!

Mobile-Friendly Responsive Web Design

With smartphones becoming more and more popular, that half of all website traffic is from smartphone users. Imagine a customer who visits your site and has to pinch and zoom, and scroll from left to right. And now if they had to fill in a form to contact you. On a smartphone screen, the form fields and the call-to-action buttons are too small to tap accurately. Oh, the horror! He’d leave as soon as he enters.

Which is why your business needs to work with a web design agency that offers responsive design services.

But not with WordPress responsive themes, the elements of your site resize and realign themselves to fit the screen size.

3. eCommerce Website Design Services

eCommerce is booming nowadays. Won’t you like a piece of the eCommerce pie?

A simple, easy to navigate and buy eCommerce website design brings in big bucks for your business if you are looking to sell products online.

More and more brands and businesses are moving entirely or trying out the Internet business. That is why we see some impressively innovative, immersive and beautiful ecommerce website designs pop up. These sites not only provide a calm oasis to shop from the comfort of your home (or office) but also a complete brand experience.

You need a website that can handle the logistics. A WordPress designer can build a website customized for eCommerce, complete with all the necessary details.

Check out these eCommerce websites for inspiration: Leader Bag Co-Leader Bag CoAdidas Futurecraft, and Eddie Parker Flower.

Tips to Choose the Right Designer

Your website designer must keep the following points in mind while designing a rocking site for you.

Branding

If you do it. Do it right. The website you design should shout who you are and what you have to give to the world, convey your brand identity. Helping you stand out from the crowd. Your logo, the colours and font you use build recognition and trust. Familiarity will make your customers comfortable and soften them up to buy from you.

Customer Experience

You must give an exceptional customer experience. Everything about your website must be user-oriented. A lot of elements come into play when you are in the topic of customer experience.

To give an exceptional website experience, keep the following points in mind:

Don’t keep them waiting: This is the visitor on your site notices. Even before your headline appears! Your website visitor might bid adieu and may never come back to your site if it takes forever to load. Aim for a shorter span than 3 seconds. The maximum time is 3 seconds; anymore and you might have just lost a customer.

Catch their attention with your Design: Your design must be aesthetic. Remember KISS, Keep It Simple Silly.

Convey your message clearly: The attention span of humans has been dwindling since the advent of internet technology. Your website design and content must convey your message most openly and boldly as possible as soon as the visitor lands on the site.



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