16 Must-Follow Marketing Thought Leaders Posted on July 20, 2022August 25, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick In a time when everyone is a self-proclaimed influencer, it can be hard to spot the real deal. And when it comes to the marketing industry, thought leaders are a dime a dozen, each claiming they know what the next marketing trends and tools are. Knowing who’s actually got the goods to share and is worth following isn’t always easy. And with the time constraints of running a business and all of the content out there, it can be tough to read every blog and social channel to find the best guidance. That’s why we’ve assembled 16 real-deal thought leaders that are great resources. Check them out and make sure you follow them on social media for the latest tips. 16 Marketing Thought Leaders to Follow To put you on the path to success, we’ve created a list of the nine marketing thought leaders you must follow: 1. Bryan Kramer Bryan Kramer believes that “social media is so popular because it allows us to control our personal brand: aligning the perceptions others have of us with our perception of ourselves.” He is the CEO of one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing companies, PureMatter, a TedTalk, and keynote speaker, and a bestselling author. He focuses on the value of human-to-human interaction through sharing stories on social media and is shedding new light on innovative ways to connect with your audience. As you build your small business social media strategy, Bryan Kramer is one to watch. 2. Adam Grant Adam Grant is the author of two bestselling books, including “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.” He proposes that the purpose of thought leadership is to craft and distribute content that improves others’ lives. When you focus on promoting yourself, you don’t gain influence or trust. As content marketing becomes a foundational part of an effective marketing strategy, keep in mind that sending your customers self-promotional content is not the best way to serve them. 3. Dorie Clark As a regular Forbes and Harvard Business Review contributor, Dorie Clark has become an authority on building a community centered on thought leadership. Her strategies for building a following and creating thought leadership content are a great resource for any small business owner. If you’re looking to be an influencer within your niche, Dorie Clark is the perfect example to emulate. 4. Ross Simmonds Ross Simmonds is a renowned digital marketing strategist, keynote speaker, and author. He’s the CEO and founder of Foundation Marketing and Hustle and Grind eCommerce store. Ross mostly tweets about marketing and SaaS. 5. Gary Vaynerchuk As a serial entrepreneur and early backer of Twitter, Gary Vaynerchuk knows what’s up when it comes to building a business. As a strong proponent of the value of content marketing, Gary hosts an extremely useful podcast alongside inspirational (and educational) posts and Q&As on all of his popular social accounts. Building and running a business isn’t easy work. Give him a follow if you’re looking for a daily boost. 6. Carson Tate Carson Tate is a renowned business coach who prides herself on the expertise to deliver the best productivity training. Carson is also the founder of Working Simply, a consultancy agency that serves executives at Fortune 500 companies. If you want to learn new productivity hacks, you should follow her on Twitter, where she posts bite-sized productivity tips. 7. Jay Baer Jay Baer’s claim to fame (besides his successful online publication, Convince & Convert) is being “the most retweeted person in the world among digital marketers.” He’s a well-known speaker, marketer, and customer service guru and could teach you a thing or two about building a blog. If you’re interested in learning more about creating thoughtful content that will connect with your audience and build a following, Jay’s your guy. 8. Flavilla Fongang Flavilla Fongang is an award-winning brand strategist, honored as one of the top two most influential women in tech by Tech Brians Talk. She is a keynote speaker and brand advisor for BBC — that’s a hallmark of a true thought leader. Moreover, Flavilla is the founder of 3 Colours Rule — a branding agency that serves reputable brands such as Meta, Vodafone, and Toyota. She shares nuggets of wisdom on advertising, and you should follow her if you want to learn how to get the most out of targeted online ads. 9. Larry Kim As founder & CTO of WordStream, a pay-per-click (PPC) management and services company, Larry Kim’s knowledge of PPC, Adwords, and digital marketing run deep. Larry is also the CEO of MobileMonkey, a Facebook Messenger marketing solutions provider. One of the industry’s brightest minds, Larry is regarded as the most influential PPC experts and has the most socially shared PPC article ever. So, if you are looking for marketing thought leadership and helpful advice on how to drive more online traffic and convert more customers, his blog is a great place to bookmark. 10. Anthony Johndrow Anthony Johndrow is the reputation management king. He worked at the Reputation Institute for years and has drawn a clear connection between thought leadership and reputation management. As a small business, your reputation will make or break you. Anthony Johndrow’s site provides insights for small businesses on building a reputation roadmap and leveraging technology to make your brand stronger. 11. Dave Kerpen Dave Kerpen is the founder of Likeable, a social media content agency. His goal is to help small companies transform into #LikeableBusinesses by automating their social accounts and saving time to be put toward making sales and growing businesses. Social media is a must for small businesses these days, so check out Likable if you’re strapped for time! 12. Patrick Ambron Patrick Ambron is the founder of BrandYourself, a reputation management tool that allows “you to control what people find when they Google your name.” When it comes to personal branding, he’s ahead of the curve. If you’re looking to improve your search results (or your branding overall), check out BrandYourself as a starting point. 13. Seth Godin Seth Godin is often referred to as the “godfather of modern marketing” for his extensive work in the industry. Inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013, Seth Godin has been the shining light for many in the marketing sector. Follow Seth if you’re looking for a resource to help you learn to market your business effectively. His blog — Seth’s.blog — imparts great marketing insights that help individuals hone their marketing skills. In addition, he has authored 19 books — including best sellers “Tribes” and “Purple Cow.” 14. Mel Carson If you’re looking for a thought leader to help you improve your personal branding, look no further than Mel Carson. Mel began his career as an editor for LookSmart — a U.S. search engine, and has gone on to play instrumental roles in digital advertising. He’s the founder and CEO of Delightful Communications — an award-winning B2B technology marketing agency. Mel is a renowned expert in the personal branding realms, and he’s one of the most sought-after speakers at digital PR, personal branding, and digital marketing conferences and events. Follow Mel if you want to broaden your understanding of digital PR and personal branding. 15. Dana DiTomaso Dana DiTomaso is an award-winning speaker and digital marketing expert who teaches brands to prioritize online engagement over offline ads. She’s the president and partner at Kick Point — an agency that helps businesses do better digital marketing. Follow Dana if you’re getting started with digital marketing, as she shares actionable advice to help brands smoothly transition from offline to digital. She’s also a valuable resource for brands that are looking to build personas for targeted campaigns. 16. Mari Smith Mari Smith is often known as the “queen of Facebook” for good reasons. She’s a premier Facebook marketing expert who has made a name as a social media thought leader. She’s also a keynote speaker and a live video host. If you’re looking to produce quality social media content that followers can’t resist reading and clicking on, you need to follow Mari. She imparts evergreen advice on how to improve social media outreach and engagement. If you want to unlock your content’s potential through distribution, follow Ross Simmonds. He’s a great advocate for proper content distribution and often shares effective content distribution hacks on Twitter.
Marketing and Sales Funnels: What’s the Difference? Posted on July 14, 2022July 7, 2022 by Tricia O'Donnell As a business owner or marketer, you spend a lot of time promoting your products and services to get the attention of prospects, generate leads, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business. So how can you identify what matters most to your prospects in each stage of their buyer journey? Marketing funnels make it easy for you to prioritize and implement your marketing strategy. Let’s look at what marketing funnels are and the types to consider for your business. What is a Marketing Funnel? The marketing funnel comprises all the inbound marketing touchpoints that a prospect interacts with in a specific sequence. These touchpoints may be an email, paid advertisement, podcast, video, eBook, whitepaper, blog post, and other forms of communication that lead them through a journey to make them take action (such as buying something). What is a Sales Funnel? A sales funnel is a type of marketing funnel. It refers to the journey prospects go through with the sole aim of purchasing a product or service from you. It takes the prospect from the top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) to the bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) to make them paying customers. Why are Sales Funnels Important? Not every prospect that comes into contact with your brand or business will make it from the TOFU to BOFU. A sales funnel helps you identify the different touchpoints working with prospects, what marketing activities to improve on, and other marketing funnels to include in the journey to facilitate a purchase. The Different Stages of the Sales Funnel Prospects who move into your funnel will go from one stage of your funnel to another even if they don’t end up making a purchase. The stages of the buyer’s journey through the funnel are classified based on interest. The stages are: 1. The Awareness Stage This is the primary stage where the prospect first contacts your brand, product, or service. TOFU activities in this stage may include clicking an ad on social media and clicking onto your website after a Google search. Whether the prospect moves from the awareness stage to the next stage could well depend on the way that you present your brand/business. 2. The Interest Stage The awareness stage arouses the prospect’s interest in your business, product, or service. Prospects will weigh the problems they are trying to solve with your offerings and value proposition. If they consider your offering as the best solution, they will move on to the next stage of the funnel. If not, the prospect falls out of the funnel at this point. 3. The Decision Stage The prospect, at this point, begins to dig deep into the middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) activities. This could involve consuming blog posts, reviewing case studies and whitepapers, looking at product comparisons, etc. Their goal is to gather as much information as possible to decide on the product offering or packages to opt for. 4. The Action Stage The action stage is where the sales conversion happens and where prospects become paying customers (or not). BOFU content that can help prospects take quick actions includes use cases, testimonials/reviews, live demos, a detailed pricing page, etc. Even if prospects do not convert into paying customers at this point, other types of marketing funnels can be developed to nurture the interest they have in your product/service, with the goal of making them paying customers in the near future. Other Types of Marketing Funnels The following types of marketing funnels can be developed as touchpoints in the buyers’ journeys to drive prospects to take different actions. Email funnels/nurture campaigns/drip campaigns Video marketing funnels Webinar funnels Lead magnet funnels Home page/landing page funnels Live Demo Funnel Marketing funnels are essential for any inbound marketing strategy. They help bring prospective customers to your brand, educate them on what you have to offer, and convert them to new customers. The sales funnel is just one example, and it’s probably one you’re most familiar with. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into some of the other marketing funnels your small business should explore using.
5 Ways a CRM Brings Sales and Marketing Together Posted on July 13, 2022September 14, 2022 by Jess Lunk Sales and marketing alignment is the third biggest priority for marketers today, after lead generation and conversion. It’s easy to understand why businesses are prioritizing alignment. Companies with highly aligned sales and marketing processes grow 19% faster and are 15% more profitable. If you’re struggling to align sales and marketing, you’re probably already aware you’re leaving a lot on the table. In this article, we’ll show you how client relationship management (CRM) software can be just what you need to bring these two departments together. How Does CRM Help Sales and Marketing? Sales teams often spend their days talking to prospects over the phone, in person, via email marketing, or other digital communication tools, steering them towards making a purchase. The process can be short or long (depending on your industry, product, and customer journey), and it entails learning about the customer’s pain points to better understand how your product or service can solve them. Here are some ways a CRM tool helps the sales process: Maintains personalized interactions with prospects and customers. Allows sales teams to score leads, assisting with targeted lead nurturing. Tags leads with certain indicators and classifications, so sales teams can send better, more personalized offers and messages. Streamlines the sales process to save time and money. Marketing, on the other hand, is a more holistic process that involves creating brand and product awareness to generate demand. Using a CRM tool can help marketing teams: Track and organize prospects and customer details to send targeted campaigns and promotions Derive actionable insights from marketing reports on campaigns, preferences, purchases, and much more. By gleaning these insights, marketing teams can segment lists more effectively and initiate targeted follow-up campaigns. Run more effective A/B testing to hone in on personalized messaging that’s successful. How a CRM Aligns Sales and Marketing Teams 1. Communication via Unified Dashboards Sales and marketing teams play different roles yet share very similar goals and objectives. If the sales team logs into one system and marketing into another, chances are they will lose visibility of progress and veer off the team’s common goals. Using a CRM system enables both teams to work off the same data and metrics. It helps them get a better understanding of what’s paying off and what’s not. Moreover, using the same tools and dashboards aligns communication and fosters a better working relationship. 2. Shared Goals and Objectives The success of your sales and marketing tactics comes down to effective orchestration via integrated plays. In other words, both teams have to work together as a single unit, with clear expectations of one another. A CRM can help create a bridge between the two departments, allowing them to stipulate goals that demand joint efforts. For example, the teams can define lead generation, lead scoring, and lead nurturing goals and agree on the best metrics to track. Moreover, each team will be clear on their roles in achieving the agreed targets. During team standup meetings, teams can track progress and decide how to tweak their integrated plays to remain on course. 3. Reduce Duplicate Efforts When sales and marketing teams use the same CRM system, they see the same picture of the revenue generation process. They can tell where each web visitor, lead, and customers stand in the buyer’s journey. It becomes easier to join forces and act as a unit rather than a disjointed function. For example, you won’t have a case where the sales department sends a message to a prospect right after the marketing team shared the same message. 4. Deeper Insights for Better Decision Making As mentioned earlier, using the same CRM system enables sales and marketing teams to share the same data. For example, both teams have access to the available lead’s contact information, and the data is updated in real-time. If the marketing department hands a lead over to the sales team manually, there may be little information about the prospect’s interests, needs, and preferences. However, a CRM populates the lead contact’s profile with this information instantly. When the sales team receives a lead through a CRM, they’re armed with fresh and accurate data. By constantly improving the contact’s profile, the sales team will be in a better position to nurture more leads into customers. 5. Activation Through Proactive Notifications As much as sales and marketing teams work towards a common goal, their roles differ. Your marketing team generates leads, whereas the sales team nurtures those leads to turn them into customers. A CRM system can help the marketing department send proactive alerts to nudge the sales team to take action. For example, you can set up a notification to alert the sales team to instantly follow up with a new lead or remind them to call prospects at the right time. The sales team can then include a comment that is sent back to the CRM to loop in the marketing team on the progress. This keeps both departments in perfect sync. Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams It’s never been easier to align your sales and marketing teams, especially with the use of a reliable CRM tool such as BenchmarkONE. Sign up free and learn first-hand how businesses are improving lead generation, enhancing lead quality, and increasing overall deal size.
How to Tackle Imposter Syndrome as an Agency Owner Posted on July 7, 2022June 30, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick If you have ever felt incompetent in your work life, you’re not alone. Most working professionals admit to having experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. Imposter syndrome can give rise to feelings like: “I’m not good enough at my job.” “I’m only here because of luck/good timing.” “I’m not as qualified as they think.” These are just a few examples of the types of insecurities and self-doubts that professionals can face. And it can happen to anyone. Imposter syndrome doesn’t discriminate, and even business owners and leaders can have these thoughts and feelings. Over time, imposter syndrome can lead you to undervalue yourself and could eventually hold you back from shining in your work life. But there’s a way to turn this around. You can leverage these feelings of inadequacy and use them to fuel growth as an agency owner. Here’s how: 1. View Imposter Syndrome as a Sign of Growth If you’re feeling like an imposter, you’re likely in a situation outside your comfort zone. Maybe you’re growing your agency at a rapid pace, maybe you’re expanding your team, or maybe you’re trying a new way of running your company. Either way, you’re taking a risk that might lead you to betterment, and that’s a win! Once you start viewing imposter syndrome as a sign that you’re progressing, the self-doubts start turning into affirmations. So the next time you feel like you’re not qualified to take on this new project/role/method of working, just remind yourself that you’re pushing your own limits and moving towards succeeding as an agency owner. 2. Find Ways to Improve Sometimes feeling like an imposter can be helpful in understanding where you lack the precise skills that you desire to have. If you feel imposter syndrome cropping up in a particular part of your role as an agency owner, take note. Observe how you feel. Where do you feel the lack? Is it your ability to manage your company’s finances? Do you think you’re not good at marketing your services? Are you not getting enough clients? Are you taking your hand at digital marketing, and you feel like it isn’t landing? Hone in on the aspects you think could be improved and make a plan to work on them. Start small. Just acknowledging the gaps is a big first step. 3. Look Up Resources Once you’ve made a plan to overcome what you think you lack, it’s time to put your ideas into action. Start finding resources that’ll help you grow. These could be books, videos, online articles, or even sessions with a professional business coach. For example, if you feel like you’re offering a great service but feel like an imposter because you’re not getting high-paying clients, you can look up resources on lead generation, finding and retaining clients, or even take a course on marketing yourself better. If your imposter syndrome stems from having too much on your plate, find tools that can help you get things done and reduce your workload. Maybe it’s a social media publishing tool, a content creation app, or marketing automation and CRM software. Once you have a few options lined up, you’ll begin to feel more in control of your professional life. It may not fix your imposter syndrome overnight, but it can be comforting to know that you’re working on improving yourself rather than simply living with the nagging thoughts that you’re not doing enough. 4. Maintain an Accomplishment Journal Sometimes it can be hard to recognize and honor our own accomplishments. That’s one of the biggest reasons why working professionals feel inadequate: they simply don’t observe and celebrate their wins. There’s an easy, low-cost, and super-effective way to change this: maintain an accomplishment journal. This can be a simple notebook or a fancy digital tool, whatever you prefer. Write down all your accomplishments as and when they happen or schedule a day in the week or month to note down all the milestones that you’ve achieved in the last few days or weeks. This will be your victory record. Every time you feel like an imposter, just whip open your notebook/digital file and bask in all the wins you’ve been scoring. Imposter Syndrome Can Help You Grow While feeling like an imposter can make you feel stuck at times, there are ways to manage those feelings, and having these tools at your disposal can help you get out of a rut. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to managing your feelings, but keep in mind that leveraging your imposter syndrome can actually become the fuel to succeeding as an agency owner if you let it.
The Art of Using Instagram Stories for Brand Awareness Posted on July 6, 2022July 6, 2022 by Amilcar Cruz Instagram Stories started as the company’s way of competing with Snapchat by introducing a similar feature on their platform. Now, with over 500 million active Stories users daily, brands are starting to explore the feature as a means for building brand awareness. Instagram Stories are bite-sized content pieces that do not appear on the feed and usually disappear after 24 hours, except when they are saved and featured using highlights. Thanks to many users, Stories give brands of all sizes increased visibility and a new way to engage with their audience and followers. If you’re looking to up your brand’s social media engagement, it’s time to implement an Instagram content strategy that includes an active approach to Instagram Stories. Here are five tips for using Instagram Stories to increase brand awareness. Five Ways to Take Advantage of Instagram Stories for Brand Awareness 1. Show, Don’t Tell Instagram Stories is like your business’s mini television channel, and that’s what you should use it for – to show what your products, services, and brand is all about. After all, people love visual content, and Instagram makes engaging with visual content super easy, making this channel perfect for reaching your audience with your offerings. Some of the content you can use to showcase your brand or business is to post: Sneak peeks- tease a product, service, or rollout. Behind the scenes- pull back the curtain and show your customers how your team operates. Product launches- when a new product is being released, the first place to take it to the masses could be on your Instagram Stories. Events- live blog events that your brand or business is organizing so followers can see the excitement. Q&A- Use the “Questions” feature in Stories to open up a Q&A with followers. image source With these types of content on your Stories, you’re doing more than just posting content. You’re bringing your audience in and showing them the stuff your business is made of. 2. Save Stories as Highlights One limitation of Instagram Stories is that they are time-restricted – each story post will disappear after 24 hours. However, highlights present a way for your followers or new audiences to have access to important Stories you shared in the past. image source With highlights, you can create collections with saved Stories that talk about the same topic or are part of a theme. That way, after 24 hours, followers and new audiences who come across your profile can browse through past Stories to learn more about who you are and what you do. Some things to save in Highlights could be new products, team bonding activities, product updates, or recipes. 3. Create Templates and Style Guides Stories are great but getting creative, being unique, and committing consistently to a chosen theme and style will quickly set your brand apart from the rest. To do this, Identify the type of content you want to create consistency for your brand and develop templates that you will always use for these. Choose a font type to be used on all of your Stories or different content types. Define brand colors or choose specific colors you want your brand to be associated with. Define the style for different content types. Redesign your highlight covers and instead use custom-designed icons as cover images for your highlight collections. image source The other benefit of having preset templates and a style guide is that anyone on your team, internal or external, can create Stories for the brand without breaking consistency. 4. Interact with Followers and Customers Instagram Stories aims to increase awareness and visibility. One way to speed that up is to involve your followers and customers in your Stories. Original content is excellent, but user-generated content will score you higher relationship points with your target audience as well as increase trust and credibility in your brand. And for anyone who’s ever experienced burnout, this is a great way to avoid running out of fresh content to use for your Instagram Stories. image source To interact with your followers/customers via Stories: Feature posts about your brand or products made by customers or followers Ask your customers for video testimonials that can be repurposed for use on Instagram Stories Give a shoutout to loyal customers and followers (make sure you tag them) Use the “Polls” feature so your followers can respond and use their responses or questions as content for new posts Run takeovers if you have an influencer associated with your brand or a super customer who would be willing to create content solely for your business 5. Employ a People-First Approach It’s easy to get caught up in creating content that promotes your brand with your Stories, but you should stick to the people-first approach to increase brand awareness. The people-first approach keeps you focused on content that helps and seeks to educate your followers/customers about your brand, products, and services. As a result, your content will be more of product education and customer engagement. image source Use Stories to post tutorials about your products, address some frequently asked questions by your customers, and appreciate your followers and customers for sticking with your brand and engaging. Creating people-first content will keep your followers coming back to your Stories because they get value from the content that you put up. Use the steps above to skyrocket your brand awareness, visibility, and engagement with Instagram Stories. Be consistent with the quality and volume of your content, and watch the magic happen.
It’s Time to Get Familiar With Lead Attribution Posted on June 30, 2022June 24, 2022 by Jess Lunk When it comes to lead generation, you need to avoid targeting the wrong channels and instead double down your effort (and marketing budget) on channels that are driving sales for your business. But how do you know which lead generation channels are driving great results? Enter lead attribution — a way to know which channels provide the best lead generation rates. In this guide, we’ll discuss the fundamentals of lead attribution, from what it is to how to measure it. What is Lead Attribution? Lead attribution is the process of giving a score or credit to each touchpoint for a customer’s interaction that results in conversion. This helps determine each touchpoint’s return on investment (ROI) or contribution to the overall lead generation strategy. Knowing the attribution score for each touchpoint helps you to make informed marketing investment decisions. You can also determine the channels that bring in the most qualified leads and optimize your marketing efforts to get the most out of that channel. In addition, lead attribution provides insights into the customer journey, enabling you to create effective lead nurturing campaigns. Types of Lead Attribution Lead attribution is broken down into two primary models: single-touch and multi-touch attribution. There are two single-touch attributions: First-touch attribution where the lead is attributed to the first recorded interaction with the brand. For example, if a prospect subscribes to your email newsletter, clicks a link in the email, and ends up buying, then credit for the lead is attributed to the email newsletter subscription. Last-touch attribution where the credit is to the action right before the purchase or conversion. In our previous example, the credit would be attributed to the email (link). In a multi-touch attribution model, the lead is attributed to multiple interactions along the customer journey. For example, in our previous example, the email newsletter may get 30% of the sales, and the email link may get 70%. This model is ideal for brands with longer sales cycles or multi-channel marketing strategies. Multi-touch attribution is arguably the most accurate attribution model as it takes into account more of the customer interactions before a conversion. Even so, it overlooks some vital activities such as reading a blog post or a print ad that may have influenced the buyer’s actions. The following are some multi-touch attribution models to know about: Linear attribution is when equal credit for lead attribution is given to each touchpoint. U-shaped attribution is when more weight is given to the first and last touchpoints. Time decay attribution is when touchpoints are organized based on which offers the most influence, with the least influential touchpoint happening first. What is a Lookback Window? A lookback window is a time period, after an interaction on a touchpoint, within which conversion can be attributed to that interaction. Marketers and advertisers use lookback windows to determine if an interaction led to a user’s buying decision. The default lookback window is seven days, but you can also use the 24-hour probabilistic model. Besides that, Facebook and Google use 28 and 30-day fixed lookback windows, respectively. Twitter, on the other hand, gives advertisers a choice of five lookback windows: 1, 7, 14, 30, 60, and 90 days. How Can You Measure Lead Attribution? As you can see, there’s a lot to consider with lead attribution. Here’s a simple guide to help you best measure lead attribution: 1. Set Revenue Generation Goals While it’s okay to focus on lead generation goals like newsletter signups, ad clicks, and demo registration, they don’t take you closer to your overarching business goals. Turn your attention away from these goals and instead focus on what really matters: revenue. Set revenue goals that enable you to match leads with revenue. 2. Create a Customer Journey Map Once you set the goals, map out your customer journey. Create a visual representation of the steps your customers go through, from the first interaction and purchase to loyalty and retention. Doing so helps you to identify potential leaks in your sales pipeline so leads don’t slip through the cracks. 3. Choose Your Technology You don’t have to track lead attribution manually. There are many reliable lead attribution software tools that can match your business goals and attribution models. These tools aggregate data from different platforms and create meaningful attribution visualizations. Some of the great attribution tools include: Impact – A partnership management platform that allows you to manage your partnerships at each stage. CallRail – Helps you match calls, forms, live chats, etc. to marketing campaigns so you can see which efforts are working. Supermetrics – Gathers your marketing data from the platforms you’re using and funnels it into your reporting so you can easily track success. Everflow – A partner management platform that tracks which channels deliver the most ROI. BencmarkONE – While we aren’t a dedicated attribution tool, it’s easy to see last-touch attribution with BenchmarkONE for the campaigns you’ve created. Use automations to set a source on a form, link or campaign and report on your best lead channels. Sign-up free to see it in action. The tools let you pick an attribution model for your business and continually evaluate data. 4. Analyze Data and Optimize your Model Once you have launched your campaigns, track the lead attribution results. The attribution tools let you track and analyze results on a single dashboard to determine which channels and activities are performing well. Divert funds away from poorly performing activities and devote more resources to top-performing channels. There you have it: a guide to lead attribution! By paying attention to the channels that are delivering the most valuable leads, you’ll be able to supercharge your marketing strategy and effectively allocate your budget.
5 Inbound Marketing Services Your Agency Should Offer Posted on June 29, 2022December 8, 2022 by Tricia O'Donnell Inbound marketing is a tactic employed by almost every business that has an online presence. It’s a form of passive selling that allows businesses to continuously generate leads and tap into the benefits that come with having a website and operating online. However, some businesses just don’t have the expertise in-house to facilitate and implement a strategy that gives them the results they need to stay competitive. If you’re an agency looking to increase your book of business, offering services that help your clients attract interest from their audience online isn’t a bad place to start. It will significantly increase your agency’s perceived value and show potential clients that you have a team of well-rounded experts ready to offer them something they’re lacking. By offering a strong marketing strategy that successfully pulls in leads, you’ll be able to keep your clients happy and work on building a retainer business for more reliable income. Below are some things your agency should consider adding to its list of services: 1. Website Strategy Website strategy is perhaps the most essential inbound marketing service because it serves as the hub for new leads and the gateway for inbound sales efforts. Your clients’ websites will be the support system for their inbound marketing efforts, so it’s an important area they’ll want some expertise facilitating. Website strategy can include a variety of things: Rebuilding an existing site on the back-end Rebranding and redesigning Optimizing for a more user-friendly and easily navigated experience Optimizing for search on multiple responsive devices Conceptualizing and creating a new website from the ground up While this can be an extremely valuable service to add to your offerings, it will require the skills of certain professionals, like developers, digital marketers, web designers, and copywriters. If you’re serious about offering website strategy, make sure you have the team members you need to pull it off. 2. Content Marketing Content marketing is at the heart of inbound marketing. It serves as the reel that brings customers to your client’s websites. It’s also what keeps them there and engages them long after they’ve converted. Content is essential in making the inbound marketing machine operate. Before adding content marketing to your arsenal, you need to be aware of the types of content out and where they work within the inbound funnel. Top of Funnel Guest contributed articles Press releases Paid ads Webinars Press mentions Middle of Funnel Whitepapers Blog posts Webinars Email newsletters Bottom of Funnel Email campaigns Testimonials Case studies Each level of the funnel is crucial. The top helps spread awareness, which is great for getting in front of more potential customers. The middle is where your clients’ customers convert on-site to leads, so offering gated content, like downloadable whitepapers, guides, or eBooks, is crucial. And the bottom of the funnel is focused on converting leads to customers. 3. SEO Google has continued to change its algorithm, making a successful SEO strategy all the more important. If you’re able to help your clients by getting them in front of their audience faster, it can go a long way toward increasing their leads. This includes improving their search engine positioning and gradually getting their content to appear near the top of search results. It is not always enough to offer great content that appeals to the right audience, however. You need to provide up-to-date SEO practices so that the content you develop for your clients gains visibility. It is essential to stay updated with the latest SEO myths and trends in optimizing content using internal links, backlinks, local optimization tactics, and keywords. Make an effort to help your clients with detailed keyword reports that accurately identify the best keywords to improve rankings and keywords with high search volume and low competition, then use the chosen keywords when creating content. 4. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Almost everyone is on at least one social media platform, be it LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. Since these sites have millions of active users, it makes them a perfect hub for businesses looking to engage with specific demographics. You can easily tap into social media to promote your clients’ products or services and make sure that you’re getting their brand in front of people that align with their target audience. Help your clients with strategies such as creating detailed and optimized official pages on relevant platforms, maintaining a posting schedule, and continually identifying other ways that they can engage with their target markets on social media. Make sure you focus on the channels that make the most sense for them based on where their audience is most present. 5. Detailed Analytics and Reporting It’s good to tell your clients that you are working hard to help their businesses grow, but your case will be even more compelling with the numbers to back it up. Show your clients how much work goes into each project and how your efforts pull in the numbers for their businesses with detailed figures, reports, and analytics. Ensure the information is presented in an easy-to-digest format so that your clients can get the critical details at first glance, as this will ensure they actually see and understand the value you bring to their business. These core services will help you to raise your value with your clients, making your agency indispensable. Offer these inbound marketing services today and watch how it improves your clients’ businesses.
How to Measure Reach on Social Media Posted on June 23, 2022June 24, 2022 by Natalie Slyman When it comes to social media marketing, tracking performance over time is the only way to know when tweaking your strategy is necessary. One study found that many brands prioritize metrics such as engagement, impressions, followers, and leads to decide if their social marketing efforts are paying off. Unfortunately, many businesses put prioritizing a social media calendar and tracking social media reach to the bottom of their list when it comes to significant key performance indicators (KPIs). But with more and more people utilizing social media, it’s definitely considered an important marketing channel for reaching and engaging with potential customers. What is Social Media Reach? Social media reach refers to the number of unique followers or fans that see the content you post on your social channels. Social reach and social impression aren’t the same things. The principal difference is that social reach indicates the number of unique viewers, whereas number of impressions refers to the number of times your social post has been viewed. So, when you share a post on social media, some people will view it multiple times. The number of times the post is viewed equates to the impression. But social reach refers to the number of people that viewed the post. For example, let’s say Amanda is one of your followers on Facebook, and when you post a video, Amanda watches the video once every day for a week. At the end of the week, you’ll have seven social impressions, but in reality, the video has a social reach of one. How to Calculate Social Reach Let’s say you have 1,000 followers on Facebook. If you share a post on Facebook and 200 followers see the content, your reach is 200. The following is a formula for calculating the percentage of that reach: (200/1000) x100 = 20% That said, a social post reach can transcend your social followers. That complicates things as far as manual calculation of social reach is concerned. The good news is that you don’t have to calculate reach manually: you can use reliable social media software to assess your hashtags, ads, events, posts, and profiles and better track reach. Tools such as Keyhole, Mention, Brand24, Hootsuite, and TweetReach automatically calculate your social reach. Even better, some tools let you determine the potential reach — the number of people who could see the post — before publishing the social content. But, you don’t have to always look for a third-party tool to track reach accurately. Most social platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, track social reach for you. Why You Should Measure Social Reach Tracking social reach helps you to better understand how effective your social strategy is at getting your message in front of potential customers. Moreover, it can reveal critical social marketing details such as: Number of active social followers Effectiveness of social campaigns on different platforms Performance of individual social campaigns Brand reach beyond social media Impact of partnership with other brands and social media influencers When most users view your posts How your brand awareness is growing How to Improve Social Media Reach Social media tools let you compute potential social reach. You can use that metric as the benchmark for your campaigns. According to Hootsuite, the potential reach is approximately 2% – 5% of the theoretical reach. If you’re hitting figures below that, time to go back to the drawing board and redefine your strategy. Some of the best practices to improve social reach includes: Sharing content at the most opportune time. Keep in mind that the best posting times vary across social media platforms. However, it’s not uncommon for the best posting time for different platforms to overlap. Note: The “When Your Fans Are Online” feature on Facebook helps you to post at the best possible time to get maximum reach. Creating content that resonates with your followers. The content should be interesting, entertaining, and of high quality. Create content that oozes so much value that your followers can’t resist sharing. Making sure your social content includes the most common search terms for the topic of discussion. Moreover, covering trending topics and using hashtags gives your post the potential for a wider reach. A lot of businesses think they just don’t have time to dedicate to a social strategy. But the truth is that your audience is using social media. It’s a no-brainer for you to be actively present where your audience is already engaged and make sure that whatever you’re putting out there is getting in front of as many people within your demographic as possible. Tap into the metrics each social platform provides you with, especially social reach, and allow that to help steer your efforts.
Biggest Mistakes You Can Make With Your 2022 Marketing Strategy Posted on June 22, 2022September 29, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Marketing your small business is challenging. There’s no straight and narrow path to greatness, and there’s a lot of trial and error as you strive to get it right. Simon Sinek — motivational speaker and marketing consultant — once said, “ People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Besides spreading the word about your product or service, marketing plays a crucial role in letting people know the “why” behind your brand. Digital marketing trends are constantly changing, and the landscape is full of various strategies that promise results. As a result, you’re bound to encounter mistakes and challenges that hinder you from promoting your product and telling a compelling “why” story. But not if you know those mistakes ahead of time. In this article, we’ll highlight six marketing mistakes to avoid this year (and next). 1. Assuming Your Audience is Everyone Everyone starts a business hoping to woo as many customers as possible. While there’s nothing wrong with that, the innate desire to grow a huge customer base shouldn’t blind you into thinking everyone is a potential customer. Customers respond well to personalized marketing, and there are a ton of tools out there that can help you tailor each message you send to the right recipient. But if you’re too busy marketing to everyone, you’ll end up sending generic messages and campaigns, and your target audience will lose interest. Before you kick off a marketing campaign, research your target audience. Know their needs and preferences, where they hang out online, and what they like or dislike about your product or service. Know as much about them as possible, and make sure you regroup every year or so to determine if anything has changed about your target audience. It’s possible your target audience can change completely over time. This information will help you deliver personalized campaigns and tweak your product to better solve customer problems. 2. Failure to Align Brand and Service Niche While telling your “why” story is critical if it doesn’t tie into your overarching business goal, it’s worthless. Your “why” should align with your brand, industry, and audience. If the story isn’t aligned with those three components, users may struggle to understand how your product can solve their problems. Nike does a great job of tying their “why” to their marketing. Take their Equality Campaign, for example. The company highlights sports’ ability to bring people together, and as a company that outfits athletes and active lifestyles in general, this campaign ties into their “why” nicely. 3. Overlooking Email Marketing Marketing strategies such as search engine optimization, content marketing, and social media marketing are geared toward sending people to relevant pages on a website. Some marketers stop at these strategies when they see an uptick in organic traffic, thinking it’s enough to drive more sales. Sadly, only a measly 2% of first-time web visitors buy from your website. 98% never take action, and if you don’t entice them back, they may never return. Email marketing helps get these customers back to your website with attractive offers. Sometimes, sending them an email about how your products work is all it takes to convert them. Besides that, email enables you to keep your business top of customers’ minds. You send the discount to entice them to come back, influential emails to build your authority, and educational articles to help them navigate the bumpy business landscape. The good thing with email is that your strategy isn’t at the mercy of an algorithm like Google. You’re in charge of every aspect of the content you send. Even better, email has a return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every dollar spent — the best ROI in the marketing scene. For this to work, it’s important for your website to have forms that encourage people to sign up for your email marketing. Popup forms are great because they can appear at the sign of exit intent, gathering information from a site visitor before they leave your site. 4. Not Conducting Enough A/B Tests Most of the aspects of your marketing campaigns have alternatives: the email subject line, content format, CTAs, etc. The problem is that picking the right choice isn’t always straightforward. This is where A/B testing comes in handy. An A/B test enables you to determine which version of your campaign will deliver optimal results. For example, you could A/B test two email subject lines to see which one brings a higher open rate. Or, put two versions of a CTA button through the wringer to pick one that inspires customers to click. A/B test enables marketers to stick with the best strategies out of the available options. Despite the benefits, 44% of brands rarely use A/B tests for their email and other marketing campaigns. If you’re one of them, the time is ripe for adding the A/B test to your process and seeing what you uncover. 5. Not Leveraging Automation Marketing automation increases sales productivity by 14.5% and reduces overheads by 12.2%. Yet, only 20% of businesses utilize marketing automation tools to the fullest potential. Failing to leverage marketing automation denies you the cutting edge you need to compete in the digital era. Done well, marketing automation drives better segmentation and hyper-personalized email campaigns. It’s also great for your sales and marketing strategies as it allows your teams to capitalize on opportunities to convert. For example, if someone downloads a guide on your site, you can track that download and follow up by sending them blog content related to that guide. They’ll love that you provided them with needed resources and will be more inclined to take the next step with your brand. 6. Monitoring Vanity Metrics As the adage goes: You can’t improve what you can’t measure. To improve your marketing strategy and achieve the stipulated goals, you have to find a way to measure progress. However, many marketers stumble in this regard because they pursue vanity metrics. Peter Drucker has a piece of advice when it comes to tracking progress. “You must move from metrics keeping score to metrics that drive better actions.” For example, if you want to increase organic traffic on your website, don’t fixate on the traffic numbers. Instead, track metrics like social shares and the number of backlinks to your site you’re able to achieve each month. Also, keep your fingers on the pulse of industry trends to understand how the significance of key metrics is changing. For example, while open rates have been a key metric for email marketing, updates such as Apple’s Mail Protection Policy could reduce its significance. In the future, the open rate may be a vanity metric for email marketers. Make sure you keep these six mistakes in mind while you’re facilitating your marketing strategy this year. Hopefully, by having these on your radar, you can correct some wrongs or avoid them altogether.