How AI Is Impacting Content Generation Posted on June 16, 2022June 24, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Content creation is important for any business in the digital space. When so many brands are fighting for online real estate, with the intention of ranking highest for their most important search terms, the way they go about creating that content matters greatly. It’s a process that takes time. Luckily, the digital landscape is continuing to grow, making room for tools and software that can turn a detailed and lengthy process, like content creation, into one that is much simpler (and results-driven). Marketers can use AI tools to optimize the content generation process, from brainstorming ideas and content planning to content creation, publishing, and distribution. AI helps reduce the amount of time spent on the entire content creation process, as well as improve the quality of content generated. Let’s take a look at the various areas AI assists with content creation, as well as some AI tools you should consider using. How AI Enables Content Generation 1. Copywriting AI copywriting tools help generate different types of content using provided information and other required data. These can range from social media captions to product descriptions. Content writers and copywriters spend the bulk of their time researching, developing outlines, and eventually crafting copy. With an AI copywriting tool, the amount of time spent on the process is drastically cut. The tool provides content writers and copywriters with paragraphs they can build on and refine to achieve accurate and compelling copy. Examples of such tools today include: Jasper Copy.AI Hypotenuse.AI Copysmith It’s still important that someone on your team reviews the content and edits it for flow. Having your brand voice present will ensure that while the bulk of your content is created by AI, it won’t read like it is. 2. Grammar When it comes to content generation, grasping correct grammar is an important skill in delivering clear, clean copy. It’s also crucial if you want your brand to appear polished to your audience. Traditionally, people resort to dictionaries, spend extensive time reading style books, or hire an editor to go through their work with a fine-tooth comb. AI grammar checkers take away this extensive time and effort by using machine learning to spot basic grammatical errors in written pieces. Nowadays, AI grammar checkers can also use the context of your writings to determine if certain words are overused, used incorrectly, or misspelled, if there are any run-on sentences or improper sentence formations, as well as suggest synonyms that better fit the context. Examples are: Grammarly ProWritingAid While AI grammar checkers could help to cut your editing time in half, they may not be able to completely replace human editors. Grammar checkers cannot carry out contextual edits and developmental edits, especially for highly specialized industries and topics. 3. SEO A successful SEO strategy helps you rank higher in search engines, ultimately getting your brand in front of your audience online and improving your credibility. It’s an important piece of your content marketing strategy as it helps get more visits to your website and presents you with more opportunities to convert site visitors to leads. SEO is not a one-and-done campaign. To get the most from it, you’ll need to put in a lot of time and effort and make sure that your approach is consistent. It can take months to see results, and it sometimes take a bit of trial and error to determine what is working and what is not. SEO tools analyze your website and other touchpoints for crucial areas that can be improved. They can help you get better results, taking away some of the time associated with the guesswork. Examples include: SEOScout SEMRush Rankmath Yoast With an SEO strategy, consistency is key. Make sure you do keyword research to identify the terms you want to rank for and then build enough content around those terms. Continuing to link to that content using the same keywords will ensure you climb the rankings. 4. Headlines Blog post titles and article headlines can be a deciding factor when your subscribers are considering whether to spend time reading your content or not. For this reason, writers who spend much time coming up with valuable content may spend even more time brainstorming the right headlines for their pieces. Headline generating tools can help cut some of the painstaking time spent on coming up with headlines by suggesting topics using context from the content and key terms. They also provide inspiration which can spur writers to come up with better and more exciting headlines. Examples of headline generators are: CoSchedule Headline Analyzer HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator AnswerThePublic Some of these tools still require you to be creative. So think of what would inspire you to click on an article. Use exciting, action-based terms that bring to life what your article is about. Today’s content creation landscape is exciting but also crowded and competitive. AI can streamline the content generation process from start to finish, making it less repetitive, less time-consuming, and more effective.
6 Small Business Lead Generation Tools to Use in 2022 Posted on June 15, 2022June 24, 2022 by Tricia O'Donnell In theory, lead generation is a cinch: add contact forms to your web pages, drive traffic to these pages, and boom — leads begin to trickle in. However, it doesn’t always work like that in the competitive marketing world. In fact, 61% of marketers consider lead generation their biggest challenge. And for small businesses, lead generation can be even harder than it is for most. With a smaller team and potentially smaller budget, testing out various software and tools until finding the right one just isn’t an option. In this article, we’ll dissect six lead generation tools and share what we think is best about each of them so you can make the most informed decision when selecting the right software. 6 Lead Generation Tools for Small Businesses 1. BenchmarkONE Highlights Built-in CRM and sales automation Easy-to-use landing page and pop-up form builder Enables tagging and list segmentation for personalized, automated email campaigns BenchmarkONE is an all-in-one CRM and marketing automation platform for small businesses. It allows users to add pop-up forms and landing pages to their site so they can access the contact information of site visitors, enroll them in their email marketing, and convert them to leads for their business. BenchmarkONE offers multiple customizable templates and a drag-and-drop designer to easily build forms that match your branding. Beyond that, BenchmarkONE allows you to automate tagging and lead scoring. Users can set up a system so that each lead accumulates points based on how they interact with site content and email campaigns. Leads are also tagged with various identifiers, so you can segment them into lists and send them personalized emails that address their specific needs. You can get a first-hand feel for the various lead generation features risk-free, thanks to the free forever plan. Get a quick tour of the software and sign up for free here. 2. Leadfeeder Highlights: Easy to track companies visiting your website Simple contact segmentation based on region and industry Ability to customize your ideal site visitor profile Let’s say you add BenchmarkONE’s pop-up forms to your website. Some web visitors will willingly fill out the form and sign up for your email marketing. However, some will exit without converting. Previously, these leads were considered lost forever, but with Leadfeeder, you can track these visitors, see if they’re qualified leads, and access contact information so you can reach out to them. Leadfeeder has a free forever plan, but you’ll need a paid plan to unlock advanced lead generation tools. 3. Hunter Highlights: Supports automated cold email campaigns Offers fast email verification Has an excellent Google Chrome extension Hunter has a lead contact look-up feature that works for small, medium, and large businesses. With this feature, all you have to do is enter the domain of a company, and it will serve up a list of email addresses for various employees. There’s a lot to like about this lead generation tool, and the email verification feature is the cream of the crop. Hunter assigns a confidence score to each email address based on how verifiable they are, making it easier to decide which leads are worth pursuing. Hunter offers a free forever plan. However, you’ll need a paid plan to unlock premium features, such as accessing all email addresses available in the domain search results. 4. Overloop Highlights: Great Google Chrome extension Integrates seamlessly with CRM software Easy to set up drip campaigns Overloop (formerly Prospect.io) is an all-in-one CRM, sales engagement, and sales automation software. As a lead generation tool, it offers an effective email finder to locate your lead’s email address online. There’s an option to search a specific person’s email or use the CSV search tool to find emails in bulk. You can also use the Chrome extension to find email addresses with a single click. Once you find the email address, you can start conversations or launch cold email campaigns right from the Chrome browser. Overloop has a 14-day free trial that enables you to take the email finder for a spin worry-free. 5. Reply.io Highlights: Locates email addresses on LinkedIn Validates emails in bulk Offers email warm-up, so your sender reputation doesn’t suffer. Like Overloop, Reply.io comes with an excellent Chrome extension. The difference is that Reply’s Chrome extension doesn’t search the lead contact all over the web. Rather, it finds the email addresses on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator. Another great feature is that Reply.io lets you instantly add verified emails to multichannel sequences. Multichannel sequences are automated campaigns that let you engage with prospects via various channels like LinkedIn, SMS, email marketing, and WhatsApp messages. With Reply.io’s free plan, you can search up to 200 business email addresses and export them via CSV file. If you need to look up more than 200 emails each month, you have to subscribe to a paid plan. 6. Snov.io Highlights: Helps users easily find and collect leads Easily organizes and prioritizes leads Broad integration so you can use it alongside various other tools Snov.io is another reliable lead generation tool that lets you find prospects’ emails online. What sets it apart from other tools is that it offers a host of search options. You can do a single email search, bulk email search, domain search, bulk domain search, or social URL search. Moreover, Snov.io labels emails as valid, unverifiable, or invalid, so you don’t waste efforts pursuing leads that will never reply. This also helps to ensure you’re not emailing spam accounts and hurting your sender reputation in the process. You can get started with Snov.io free plan or subscribe to a paid plan to unlock all search and verification options. Lead generation is one of the most important strategies for long-term success. It’s not easy to keep your inbound funnel flowing, but by using any of these tools or pairing some together, you’ll be able to easily fill your funnel with high-quality leads. And the more leads you have, the more potential customers you’ll have to share your brand with.
Customer Data Privacy In Digital Marketing: What You Need to Know Posted on June 10, 2022March 21, 2025 by Guest Author The internet gave birth to an exciting new field – digital marketing. Businesses can reach thousands of potential customers worldwide without spending thousands on elaborate marketing campaigns. When using digital tools to spread your message, there’s one important thing to keep in mind: data privacy. This article will explain everything digital marketers need to know about data privacy as it relates to digital marketing. What is Data Privacy? In an age where almost all human data is available and shared online, it’s unsurprising that questions about data privacy and security have come up. Data privacy is particularly relevant in digital marketing since consumer data is crucial in: Developing personalized customer experiences Delivering marketing campaigns Gathering insights on consumer behavior Data privacy can be defined as the ability to determine how data is distributed, used, and shared online. In some jurisdictions, data privacy is regarded as a human right. In others, businesses are allowed to use data as they please. Here are some ways personal data can be misused: Gathered without the user’s consent Sold to third parties for a profit Tracking and monitoring user behavior Why Data Privacy is Important Regardless of jurisdiction, data privacy is always important. To engage with companies, people want reassurance that the data they provide will be handled with care. That’s why many organizations have implemented data protection practices that show their dedication to keeping and handling user-provided data with care. Companies that engage in shady customer data management practices, or experience data breaches due to a lack of security measures, run the risk of ruining their reputation and losing a ton of money. Data Privacy Laws Over the past decade, data privacy laws have become stricter. Companies that don’t comply risk receiving hefty fines and public slander. Some world regions take data privacy a bit more seriously than others, but the overall direction is towards stricter data control and regulations. Perhaps the most popular and influential privacy law is the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR came into effect in May 2018 and kickstarted a wave of privacy laws that transformed how businesses were allowed to interact with consumers on the internet. The GDPR advocates for “Privacy by Design.” This approach to data management limits data collection and involves creating security measures to prevent data breaches and leaks. The GDPR also requires consent and complete transparency throughout the data gathering process. All companies doing business in the EU must abide by these rules, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure your business complies regardless of where you’re located. Data Privacy Tips for Digital Marketers Digital marketers have to adapt to the changing laws and user expectations. That means implementing changes in how they execute their campaigns and gather insights. Here are five best practices on data privacy in digital marketing: 1. Transparency Being transparent with your data-handling practices isn’t just ethical. It’s also required by law in many places. Website visitors or campaign targets should know how their data is being used and for what purposes. If your site uses cookies, ask for permission to use them. Some sites block content if people don’t accept cookies. You should avoid that because it sends the message that your main goal is to exploit users instead of providing value. Digital marketing is all about connecting your excellent product or service to people that need it, not squeezing every possible dollar out of a customer. 2. Offer Something in Return Private data is valuable. It’s rather selfish of you to ask for it without giving anything in return. Create exciting campaigns involving promo codes or discounts in exchange for a user’s personal information. Gating your content by requesting contact information is another option. But make sure the content you’re gating is high-quality, unique, and offers value. This practice is becoming increasingly popular. If you’re creative, you can come up with many interesting ways to “trade” with your customers. 3. Make It Easy to Opt-Out If a user agrees to share their data, that doesn’t mean you get to keep it and use it forever. Many people unknowingly agree to have their data shared online. After receiving a few promotional emails or text messages, they may wish to opt-out. Make it easy for people to opt-out. You should add an “unsubscribe” link at the end of your promotional emails. A good rule to follow is making sure that opting out of sharing data isn’t more difficult than opting in. 4. Control Customer Data Visibility Utilizing an access control model is a crucial part of data privacy and marketing. While consumer data is valuable, not everyone in the organization needs it to do their job. Limit the people who have access to consumer data to only those that need it. Not even everyone in the marketing department should be able to access information that users are sharing with the organization. The people who have access should be trained in how to handle it. Data leaks or breaches can have serious consequences. The more people have access to consumer data, the higher the chances of a data leak. To make sure your data is safe from external threats as well, you should keep your customer data encrypted at all times. For this, you can use a VPN. 5. Use New Metrics to Measure Success As data privacy regulations become stricter, it becomes more difficult to measure the success of your campaigns due to the less precise landscape. But, you can still track engagement, which may be all you need to see what works and what doesn’t. Some examples of engagement are: Clicks Conversions Unsubscribers Click-through rate Other valuable metrics that don’t infringe on customer data are the CPL (Cost Per Lead) and CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). Knowing how much money you spend on acquiring new clients can help you determine whether you need to adjust your approach. These can all be useful metrics. You may need to adjust your marketing content to align with the new way of measuring success. Data privacy concerns and regulations are changing the ways digital marketing works. Advanced tracking and cookies are discouraged as users become more aware of the dangers of sharing their data. This calls for digital marketers to find creative solutions to remain effective while abiding by changing expectations and regulatory standards. Are you up to the challenge?
End of the Year Data Refresh: How to Get Ready for the Next School Year With BenchmarkONE’s K12 Edition Posted on June 9, 2022June 24, 2022 by Jess Lunk As a school communicator, your interactions with families are crucial to your school community. Handling a database of contacts and multiple communication channels can become difficult, but thanks to the advent of school CRMs, you can now keep parents updated with required information while easily managing your other day-to-day responsibilities. The BenchmarkONE K12 Edition does this using a simple strategy – empowering you to create attractive, on-brand school newsletters seamlessly and manage your important list of contacts all in one platform. But leveraging the software effectively is also crucial to get the most from the CRM and streamline your workflow. Now that it’s the end of the school year, it’s a great time for some maintenance to ensure your school CRM is up to date and ready for the year to come. Let’s dive into the importance of managing your school’s email list and how you can do it for more effective outreach next year and beyond. Why Is End-of-Year Email List Management Important? It never hurts to do a refresh, be it for your school’s website, your home decor, or, in this case, your K12 email list. A lot of things happen in one year – children graduate, move to another grade, and your donor list and school community grows. A yearly data refresh ensures you’re able to continue to reach out to the right contacts and send them the type of messages they are likely to interact with. But the thought of going through your entire database, contact by contact, to make sure each one is up to date would cost you precious hours you could be spending getting other things done. This is where a K12 CRM can come in handy. BenchmarkONE’s K12 Edition helps you effortlessly organize your contact list so you can: Easily track information on each of your contacts so you can identify when and where updates should be made Email the right people and send them the right content Improve deliverability and increase your email engagement and ROI Reduce manual tasks so you can avoid errors, save time and get more done Facilitate relationships with your existing community and attract the interest of new community members How To Ensure Your School’s Email Contact List is Updated List management is crucial to ensure that your email marketing is effective and that every email you send ends up in the right person’s inbox. Here are some tips for an effective end-of-year data refresh, so your email list stays up to speed. 1. Use Surveys Surveys are a great way to understand your audience better. Use the BenchmarkONE K12 Edition to create and share email surveys with your contact list to gain insight into their experiences. Ask them for updated information, or simply ask them questions that will help you understand their needs better. Be specific, but don’t make your email survey too long. Also, be selective with how often you send these out. One at the end of the year is a great way to get updated information and use the feedback to refine your procedures and protocols. 2. Use Tags and Segmentation Once you gather your survey information, you can use it to refine your email lists, grouping people with similar interests, needs, and preferences. This will allow you to send each email list personalized messages that they’ll be more inclined to find valuable. Dealing with different subscriber segments, including students, teachers, faculty, or other community members, is a big part of your job. Segmenting your email list ensures you are sending accurate messages to the right people. Using the tagging functionality, you can keep your groups organized and separated for more relevant messaging. BenchmarkONE’s K12 Edition allows you to automate this process. All you have to do is set up your emails and prompts on the front end. 3. Regularly Prune Your List Cleaning your email list regularly is a good practice to remove duplicate, uninterested, or invalid contacts from the list. But how do you do it without missing out on future opportunities? The answer to this is to “prune” your list — use deliverability methods to filter your active subscribers from the inactive ones. This tactic, along with a few others, such as A/B testing or using different times to send your emails, can increase engagement and create better deliverability. 4. Sync SIS with Your CRM Sync your newly added recipients with your student information system (SIS) and then integrate it with your CRM. Having all the contacts in a centralized, automated system ensures that no enrollment data is lost. Simplify Your Sign-Up Process to Attract New Subscribers Your CRM has the potential to not just manage existing contacts but also add new subscribers. Landing pages, pop-ups, and signup forms are some great ways to automatically add contacts to your list directly from your school’s website. By utilizing BenchmarkONE’s K12 Edition, you can create on-site forms that automatically add anyone who fills them out to your CRM. You can then add tags to these new subscribers based on their website activity and how they engage with your emails, ensuring their data is as up-to-date as possible. There’s a lot going on at the end of the school year. But the last thing you need is to start off the following year with stale contact data. Make sure you find time to give your data a refresh, and if you need some help, use BenchmarkONE’s K12 Edition to do most of the heavy lifting for you.
Steps for a Collaborative and Seamless Sales and Marketing Process Posted on June 2, 2022June 24, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Think of your sales and marketing teams as midfielders and attackers in a soccer team. For the team to score goals, two things must happen. First, players have to perform to the best of their ability, and second, they have to work as a unit. Disjointed team play ruins team performance. The story is the same with your company. If your sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned, you will not hit sales and revenue targets. However, aligning sales and marketing is easier said than done. It’s the third-biggest challenge; after lead generation and conversion. In this article, we’ll show you how to establish a collaborative sales and marketing process. Why Sales and Marketing Should Work Closely Together Aligning sales and marketing teams should be a no-brainer for any forward-thinking company. Think of it this way: The marketing team generates demand for your product. The sales team converts that demand into business. By working closely together, both teams streamline the whole sales process, eliminating hurdles that lead to deal loss. According to statistics, companies with highly-aligned sales and marketing teams grow 19% faster and are 15% more profitable. How Sales and Marketing Teams Simplify Each Other’s Work The sales team is in direct contact with your customers and prospects. They have first-hand information about your archetypal customer’s needs, pain points, interests, and preferences. Moreover, your sales team knows the solutions that customers expect. Imagine if the marketing team had this information. Marketing could create content and targeted campaigns that better resonated with the customers. The result? Increased lead generation. That’s not all: the sales team has all of the nitty-gritty details on what happens prior to deal closing that marketing teams aren’t privy to. For example, they have insights into which sources deliver higher close rates. Some of this information can help marketers improve lead qualification. Beyond attracting leads, the marketing team ought to educate and nurture the leads before passing them on to sales. Besides that, they publish content that sales can refer to and share when converting leads. Moreover, marketing continuously engages customers to learn more about them. They know when customer preferences, interests, and needs change. This information, together with competitive intel from the marketing team, helps sales suggest the most appropriate solutions to customers. Steps to a Collaborative Sales and Marketing Process One of the biggest mistakes your company can make is neglecting to bring these two crucial departments together in some way. Here are the steps to take that will align your sales and marketing teams: 1. Define Your Target Audience Sales and marketing teams define their target audience on different levels. Your marketing teams likely develop personas — fictional profiles of your ideal customers based on research data. The sales team defines your customers based on real-world experiences. The first thing when building a collaborative process is for the two teams to settle for one definition of your target audience. Get the point of view of each department and harmonize the details to get a holistic view of the customer. 2. Map the Entire Customer Journey Once the teams are on the same page, the next step is to map out the customer journey together. Begin with what each team knows. The marketing team has insights into the buyer’s journey from first contact to the moment they enter the leads funnel. The sales team has details about the journey from nurturing to deal closing. Combine this information and refine the process where necessary to come up with a unique customer lifecycle. Keep in mind that the customer journey doesn’t stop with customer purchases. Rather, it should be a continuous process that keeps customers coming back. 3. Delegate Duties and Set Goals Now, you have an outlined customer lifecycle; but how do you get the ball moving? The answer is to delegate roles and duties. Break the customer journey into stages such as awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Define which team is in charge of what stage and how to do things at each of the stages. Assign the tasks to respective team members to get the best all-hands-on-deck model. You’ll need to measure performance, and that means setting goals and stipulating the key performance indicators (KPIs). Since you want the teams to work collaboratively, it’s prudent to set shared goals — such as growing deal size, or increasing the number of sales, for instance. Some KPIs to track include: Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) Sales qualified leads (SQLs) Cost per lead Cost per customer acquisition Opportunity-to-win ratio Marketing ROI Sales revenue 4. Develop an Integrated Action Plan Let’s take our previous example and pretend the shared team goal is to increase deal size. The next step is to figure out how both teams will work together to achieve that goal. As you know, to grow deal size, you have to sell value and articulate your competitive advantage. This theme should permeate through the entire customer journey. The marketing team will have this in mind when creating content and demonstrating how your product solves customers’ problems. The sales teams will also need to come up with a value-based negotiation strategy. The strategy should refer back to the value already established by the marketing team at the beginning of the customer journey. True cross-functional collaboration exists where both teams work perfectly in sync. Like a sports team, the teams should run integrated plays and coordinate the process with regular standups. To ensure this process moves as smoothly as possible, document it in an official marketing plan document. This will give your team something to refer to, and you can update it as necessary. 5. Measure Performance and Optimize Along the Way Once the integrated process is up and running, you’ll need to measure progress. If you want to grow the deal size to $25k in one year, take time after three months to measure where you are. Note what’s working and what’s not to determine where to double down your efforts. Moreover, encourage feedback and set up closed-loop reporting. For example, when you hit your deal size goal, it’s time for both teams to share their results. What did each team do that led to the achievement? Where did the teams stumble? Sharing results helps teams learn from each other and is critical when optimizing your collaboration strategy. 6. Utilize Marketing Automation Software Having marketing automation software that both teams use to help you track the progress your leads are making is invaluable for team alignment. Marketing automation software can help you keep track of a lead’s on-site activity, as well as create ways for you to capture their information so your marketing team can enroll them in drip campaigns that make the most sense for them. Get an automation software with a built-in CRM so your sales team can get to know each lead better and identify opportunities to convert them. Check out BenchmarkONE’s software plans (we even have a free plan) and get started today!
Increase Your Conversion Using Personalized Marketing Posted on May 25, 2022November 22, 2023 by Guest Author Photo by João Jesus Customers expect businesses to understand their every need. That’s why marketers take advantage of personalized marketing to communicate better with individual customers and create unique experiences. Properly implementing it into your marketing efforts will grant outstanding results. You can send the most relevant content at the ideal time per customer (prospect, new, and existing). Also, no more unwanted ads reaching uninterested customers. If you want to learn more about achieving the highest website conversion rates using personalized marketing, this article is right for you. What Is Personalized Marketing? 6+ Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Personalized Marketing 1 Create different types of personalized marketing campaigns by channel I. Email II. Social Media III. eCommerce Sites IV. Website 2 Personalize content based on customers’ preferences A. Based on device type B. Based on the time of visit C. Based on first-time visitors D. Based on the referral source 3. Personalize text content with dynamic keywords 4. Add Personalized Call-To-Actions (CTA) 5. Personalize loyalty programs 6. Communicate in real-time Bonus: Anticipate the customers’ future needs Conclusion What Is Personalized Marketing? Marketing personalization is a strategy to create an engaging interaction between your brand and target customers. Its implementation success relies heavily on the power of data. It’s closely related to eCommerce personalization where a shopper’s experience is tailor-fitted to his needs and preferences. All data you gather is used to create compelling content and user experience. That’s why its process uses a combination of extensive data collection (including heatmaps), analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Together with SEO training, they can uncover the individual customer’s behavior, interests, habits, and more. Of course, not all data you collect is worth using or actionable. To give you a clear picture, here are the key data types you should collect and use: Behavioral data: Information about the prospects and customers’ actions, preferences, and habits Contextual data: Information regarding the customers/prospects’ behavior on the brand’s website, email campaign, or app that provides context Demographic data: Information about a person (name, profession, location, etc.) Firmographic data: Information about the business operations (name, industry, annual revenue, etc.) Taking all the right data into account, you are ready to use them to enhance experiences across all devices. 6+ Ways to Increase Your Conversions Using Personalized Marketing People are exposed to 10,000 brand messages every day. If you are wondering how your campaign can stand out, here are effective ways you can deliver conversion rate optimization (CRO). 1 Create different types of personalized marketing campaigns by channel Customers are all over the internet. So, it’s essential to identify first the marketing channels where your target customers are spending the most time. Once you have identified the channels, you can determine what type of personalized campaigns to run. Here are the popular types of marketing channels you can target, including the campaigns that work: I. Email Source: Snov Email remains the primary communication tool used by everyone on the internet. That’s why it’s not surprising that it can drive more traffic and direct conversions compared to other modes of online platforms. But of course, its success (low bounce rates) will only be delivered once the prospects find the value of your email marketing efforts. Personalizing email campaigns can undoubtedly do wonders because they allow marketers to create and send relevant content based on their customer’s unique needs and interests. You can gather all the information you need through sign-up forms. The sign-up forms are usually embedded into your website, but you can also include them on your blog posts, landing pages, and social media campaigns. Once you have gathered all data, you may select the type of campaign to use. A few of the popular campaigns available are listed as follows: Newsletter Seasonal campaign Cart abandonment campaign Transactional email Sponsorship email Follow-up to a purchase email series Re-engagement campaign (dedicated for inactive subscribers) Promotional copy Infographics You can also personalize your email campaign to announce your new product offer formally. You can present the services offered with their details or showcase their benefits. Voices, an audio creative talent platform is an excellent example of the latter option. Source: Voices Make the most of your personalized email campaigns by adding stylized visuals like images, videos, colors, and fonts. II. Social Media Another platform where people spend the most time is social media sites. As of writing, there are 4.62 billion users and growing. Source: Hootsuite Social media marketing campaigns are ideal if your main objective is to gather customers’ responses or answer their questions fast and effectively. Like email campaigns, personalized social media campaigns require you to create valuable content to drive engagement and increase conversion rates. You can get all the data you need through social analytics and KPIs (key performance indicators). Social analytics provide insights into the platform’s content that creates the most buzz. On the other hand, the social media KPIs allow you to analyze better and understand how well content performs on each platform. Since social media platforms have different purposes, you also need to understand how people interact with each platform. Let’s take media sharing sites, for example. Users engage with these sites through high-quality images and videos. Therefore, it’s recommended to equip your social media campaigns with amazing videos or images relevant to your brand. Creating original images and videos is essential. But if you don’t have ample time to build from scratch, you can use royalty-free image/video. Don’t forget to include custom and relatable messages so your prospects can easily understand your intention. I will take Preset Love, an image enhancement provider as an example. All videos and images they share focus on their mission to speed up editing and make every photo picture perfect. You can also run polls, surveys, or contests to make the campaign interactive. Other types of social media content you can create that guarantee to receive the most social shares are educational and inspirational content. III. eCommerce Sites eCommerce personalization is crucial in keeping your customers loyal and happy to your brand and products. Truth be told, 45% of online shoppers state that they are more likely to engage on eCommerce sites that implement personalization. So, how can you optimize your customers’ personalized shopping experience? There are multiple ways to do it, and as always, it starts with data collection. Compared to the last two personalized marketing campaigns, there are more data points you need to gather and consider. Here are a few of the critical data points you should look out for: On-site interactions (product, checkout, and category page visits) Personal information (name, gender, and location) Paid media Pricing Purchases Site search Traffic (new and returning) Traffic sources (email, referral URL, etc.) Conversion funnel The next stage is organizing the data points and grouping them into smaller segments. You can use Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and other audience segmentation tools to do the job right. I will take personal data points as an example to give you a clear picture. You can create data segments for names, genders, and locations. Successfully doing so will help you personalize campaigns for the following: Welcome and Thank You messages for every purchase or sign up On-site popups On-site and email product recommendations You can also personalize push notifications, so every user group will receive announcements that suit their interests. Creating customer personas can help you pinpoint who and where your target audience is plus what value propositions to leverage. The persona represents a specific audience segment that shares similar shopping behavior. You can create one based on the data gathered from your site analytics and actual conversation with your customers. If these data aren’t enough, you can conduct surveys and interviews to gather deeper insights. Aside from the campaign’s content, you should also personalize pricing. There are two options available: customize by traffic segments or use an automated pricing tool. IV. Website There are 1.18+ billion websites available on the world wide web today. Therefore, the competition gets tighter as time passes. Personalization helps optimize your website (most especially the homepage) to pique the potential customers’ interest instantly. You can use personalization to localize the content and user interface to match the website visitors’ preferences. Implementing a multilingual eCommerce platform further enhances personalization by breaking down language barriers and catering to a global customer base. Other ways you can use website personalization will depend on the data types you have gathered. There are eight essential data types you should consider: Location Technology (mobile, desktop, tablet, and screen resolution) Traffic sources Third-party data (comes from data management platform) User behavior (clicks, page views, etc.) CRM data Time Web page users often land on These data help you create dynamic content and build a practical layout. Source: Clearbit Unlike the previous, website personalization focuses solely on user experience and relies heavily on custom web developers. The marketing campaigns you can run will vary on the intended digital marketing goal – acquisition, monetization, or engagement. 2 Personalize content based on customers’ preferences High-quality and compelling content is the heart of your marketing campaigns. Personalizing each content can build more trust and develop strong relationships. The good news is content personalization isn’t limited to the type of marketing campaign you run and channels you manage. You can also tailor them using various actionable customer data that your analytics detected like: A. Based on device type Today’s advanced technology allows users to access and engage content on different devices (mobile, desktop, and tablet). Therefore, you need to create content that suits all devices’ unique screen resolution and overall user experience. The slow loading speed can adversely impact users’ engagement with your content. It’s recommended to optimize your images and videos, minimize redirects, and eliminate unnecessary plugins. B. Based on the time of visit Identifying the exact time of audience visits provides many opportunities for your content. One good example is when you’re running limited-time offers. As your audience accesses the content, you can detect if their exact time setting is close to the time of your offer. If so, you can increase the sense of urgency to engage them to participate. You can even add discounts and other forms of incentives to increase the conversion. C. Based on first-time visitors Making a first impression that lasts is achievable but challenging. One effective way to do it is personalizing the content in a way you can educate first-time visitors about the business and brand. You can use the standard text form or video popups to make it more appealing. Source: Poptin Banners are ideal for highlighting your best-selling products. If you want to know more about first-time visitors, you can conduct surveys to understand their interests and intent. Also, you can collect their email addresses through an online form. D. Based on the referral source People discover a brand in different ways. They may encounter it on ads, recommendations of social influencers, case studies, or testimonials and social proof from other websites. If you’re thinking of creating one content for all, I suggest you stop. You must personalize your content and campaign based on the referral source for consistency. Let’s say someone clicks the link for letterpress stamp fonts on an influencer’s social media. The content on the landing page should be designed solely for the said influencer’s audience. 3. Personalize text content with dynamic keywords The dynamic keyword is the element you can add to your text content to address users individually. It’s in the form of a code where you must include a specific user’s attribute. The code will automatically be replaced with the most appropriate value when the condition is met. A few of the attributes you can add are listed as follows: Personal information Geolocation In-site, email, and shopping activities details Both Google and Bing offer dynamic keyword insertion (DKI). But I will focus more on Google DKI to show how it works. The snippet of code you need to insert looks like this: {KeyWord:Chocolate}. When the customers look for a search term relevant to your dynamic keyword (milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, etc.), Google Ads will instantly replace the code into your content. You can use marketing automation tools to save time in implementation. It’s also recommended to create a unique landing page for each rather than giving a generic page. 4. Add Personalized Call-To-Actions (CTA) CTAs are made to do one job – keep visitors engaged in your brand or website. It’s usually in the form of a hyperlink or button and contains an action phrase to lead the visitor to take the next step. You can add it to online channels, marketing campaigns, and content. The action phrase is the key to its success. Ensure to create short, precise, and actionable text with a sense of urgency. The acceptable length is between five to seven words. Placement also holds a vital role in its efficacy. It would be best if you placed it to a section with high visibility, such as: Top portion of the webpage End of the blog post (middle section for a long-formed blog post) Sidebar Above the fold Welcome popup message You can use A/B testing to test CTA buttons before publishing them live. You can also measure its performance using analytics. The data points you should look at are click-through rate, clicks to submission, and views to submission. 5. Personalize loyalty programs A customer loyalty program is another marketing strategy that you can personalize to encourage customers to return. It’s usually offered to customers so they will feel comfortable sharing their purchasing habits. Some of the perks you can provide are coupons, discounts, and other limited-time promotions. You can apply personalization in the registration process. Save your visitors’ time by replacing lengthy processes with a one-page signup form. You should also personalize a centralized page to track their rewards history quickly. 6. Communicate in real-time Human interaction is the most effective way to convince a prospect to convert into a customer. That’s why most consumers stay loyal to brands that offer reliable live chat and phone support. You can apply personalization by popping a welcoming message when the visitor has landed on your website. Provide them with recommendations on topics and product offers that they can access inside the site. You can also push an online form to let them join as a subscriber or ask for feedback to improve your content. Offering multilingual support is well-appreciated to ensure that all visitors (no matter what language they speak) can understand your content. Bonus: Anticipate the customers’ future needs Personalized marketing doesn’t stop when you finally satisfy your customers’ expectations and needs. It’s continuous work to ensure your campaigns quickly adapt to the ever-changing customers’ needs. Now that you know and understand all customers’ vital information, habits, and behavior, you have the advantage of predicting what’s next to come. Let’s take customers who purchased a car, for example. You can create various campaigns to offer them insurances, maintenance services, add-ons (accessories), and other products/services that they find valuable. Conclusion Conversion rate optimization for more sales is only a few of the many benefits of well-implemented marketing personalization. It isn’t to achieve, so creating an effective personalized marketing strategy is necessary to streamline the process. Since personalization’s success relies heavily on good data, you need to use robust analytics tools (web and social) to reveal crucial metrics and trends. It’s ideal to choose tools with advanced algorithms to refine your personalization. You can collect and track as much customer information as you need, but make sure to respect their privacy. The moment you show how much you care about their privacy especially due care of their contact information, the more you will build trust. Continuous optimization and testing of your campaigns are also vital. Here, you can identify all areas that can help you build more interest, engagement, and loyalty. Other tools you can use to maximize your marketing personalization are data management platforms (DPM) and customer relationship management software (CRM). Author Bio Burkhard Berger is the founder of Novum™. Follow Burkhard on his journey from $0 to $100,000 per month. He’s sharing everything he learned in his income reports on Novum™ so you can pick up on his mistakes and wins.
How to Secure Financing for Your Small Business Posted on May 24, 2022October 16, 2024 by Tricia O'Donnell Photo by Yan Krukov The U.S Department of Labor’s JOLT January 2022 report reiterates that “The Great resignation” is not slowing down anytime soon, as almost 4.3 million people have quit their jobs. The after-effects of the pandemic and the rise of remote work have significantly impacted the labor market. Many people who quit their jobs aren’t searching for new jobs. Instead, they have ventured into businesses of their own. The U.S. Census Bureau’s data graph for business applications shows a significant jump in 2020. Importance of Finance to Small Businesses Smooth Business Operations Business Growth Profit maximization: Ways to Secure Finance for Your Small Business Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI) Crowdfunding Grants Micro-financing (MFI) Peer-to-peer lending: Importance of Finance to Small Businesses Finance keeps everything going for any small business – from purchasing raw materials to processing, production, and distribution. Business finance should be at the top of mind for any small business owners. Here is why: Smooth Business Operations With excellent staff and high-quality products, your business still needs finance to keep business operations running smoothly. Bills have to be paid, employees are entitled to remuneration, and production needs to continue to meet demands. All of this is only made possible if there is finance available to facilitate the smooth day-to-day running of your business. Business Growth Every small business owner dreams of growing at a steady pace until they hit their business expansion goal. Growth can cover increasing production capacity, increasing customer base, or expanding to other business activities, or even into new markets. Without a suitable financing structure, business growth can become nearly impossible for your small business, which could make it difficult to keep up with your competitors. Profit maximization: There’s a general saying that goes like this: “You have to spend money to make money.” This statement is very relevant for many small businesses. The amount of money you invest into your business can directly impact the profit you make. When there is little money to spend on purchasing high-quality raw materials, marketing, sales, and other business activities that affect revenue, it can be hard to hit the profit mark you desire for your business. Let’s face it: financing is the life-blood of many small businesses, especially in their early stages, and can be critical to helping newer small businesses to succeed in a crowded market. Read on to find out more about how to secure the financing that your small business needs. Ways to Secure Finance for Your Small Business Here are some alternative financing methods that you could consider: Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI) CDFIs refer to private institutions that provide affordable lending options and funds for low-income earners, small businesses, and disadvantaged communities that need capital investment. Although CDFIs also consider businesses with good credit scores before granting access to financing, they are more considerate in their approach, unlike most traditional banks that reject many startup businesses for low credit scores. Crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the process of raising funds for business ventures from people via online platforms. The benefit is that you do not need to seek out capital from a single investment source or individual, but rather, you can cast a wider net. Some common crowdfunding platforms include Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowd Supply. In January 2021, Kickstarter raised over $5.6 billion worth of business finance for 197,425 tech and creative business projects. Grants The government and institutions that support the government’s vision through grants provide funding to businesses that meet certain requirements. Grant recipients must agree to the terms and conditions to get the funds. You can find grants from the government at Grants.gov. Grants are technically free but are more competitive, usually take time, and the process can be long and slow. Remember to check the eligibility criteria for available grants to ensure your business qualifies before getting started with time-consuming applications. Micro-financing (MFI) Micro-finance institutions provide loans for individuals and small businesses with no access to traditional banks, or which otherwise do not meet the conventional bank loan requirements. It is also referred to as micro-loan or micro funds. Although MFIs mostly give out loans for productive purposes, they also sometimes provide business guidance on utilizing the loans for maximum business results. An example of a microfinance institution is Kabbage, which offers loan options of up to $50000. Peer-to-peer lending: Peer-to-peer lending, also known as P2P lending, usually happens on finance platforms that link entrepreneurs with individuals or enterprises willing to provide the financing they need. P2P lending offers funding without the need for a third party or intermediary. Lenders and the recipients transact directly. Examples of P2P lending platforms are Lendio, Lending Club, Prosper, and Funding circle. Getting a small business up and running without adequate finance is tough, and we hope that this list gives you some ideas on where you can start with looking for the funding you need. But securing funding is just one step in building a successful company. We know that running a small business can be overwhelming, and that’s why we created BenchmarkONE. Our sales and marketing software is designed for small business owners like you to run campaigns, capture leads, and measure results. Are you ready to hit the ground running? Sign up for a free BenchmarkONE account to get started.
10 Tips To Write Effective Subject Lines For Email Marketing Posted on May 19, 2022May 19, 2022 by Guest Author Photo by Christina Morillo Email marketing is one of the very few marketing trends that has been around for several years but still hasn’t lost its charm. Despite being one of the oldest, email marketing is among the most effective marketing strategies in 2022. Studies have proven that emails can get you an astonishing 42% higher ROI than other prevalent marketing channels. Indeed, this channel is impeccable for gaining maximal ROI with a minimal budget. But, what good is the power of email marketing if your emails never really reach your targeted consumers? This incredible channel can quickly turn into a loss-making marketing landscape if not utilized correctly. Hence, a well-structured layout is paramount for your email marketing to succeed. In this article, we will talk about optimizing one of the most important aspects of email marketing strategies, i.e. subject lines. Do you want to make sure that your email is clicked and read? Compelling email subject lines are the key to making that happen! Read along to understand how important email subject lines are and what are some practical ways to make them more powerful. Let us dive right in! Email Subject Lines- Why are they important? To begin with, the “email subject line” is the only thing that your recipients will see when they receive the email. Therefore, if this line is not catchy or essential enough, they will not bother opening the mail. Powerful email subject lines impact the readers and motivate them to open the mail. They play a colossal role in determining whether or not your email marketing efforts will pay off. Think about your inbox. Which emails do you prefer to open, and which ones are in the trash? By doing so, you’ll get to know that subconsciously the majority of the readers judge the mail by subject line. Research suggests that nearly 47% of the recipients open emails solely based on subject lines. That is almost half of your email list. Therefore, it is crucial to craft your subject lines mindfully to prevent your emails from ending up unread or, worse, in the spam folder. There are a plethora of practices to make your subject lines better and to ensure that your mail is opened. Let’s have a look at some of the most effective ones. 10 Actionable Tips To Craft Better Subject Lines For Email Marketing Stay Away From Spam Words Aggressive promotion and overtly sales-y subject lines can send you straight to the spam folders. One of the most common hazards of email marketing is using spamming subject matter like all caps alphabets, multiple exclamation marks, and over the top sales words like ‘buy now’ or ‘free free free. Try and focus on sharing valuable content with your target audience. You can share valuable information with them, make them aware of your products/services and offers and engage with them to build brand loyalty. Create A Sense Of Urgency The most effective way to draw someone’s immediate attention is to create a sense of urgency. If your email is regarding an offer or sale, try and mention the window of time in your subject line. This will motivate the readers to read the detailed description and take prompt action if they are interested in your products/services. This practice can also be beneficial when promoting an offer/ sale with a series of emails. However, it’s essential not to flood your readers’ inboxes with subject lines creating a false state of emergency. This will increase your chances of ending up in the spam folder. Experiment With Teaser Subject Lines Have you ever noticed that most people love movie trailers but not AD commercials? Audiences often find previews intriguing, and they create a sense of curiosity amongst them. Now apply the same concept to email subject lines. Craft teaser subject lines to spark the interest of your readers rather than giving away the punchline right at the beginning. However, you still need to ensure that your subject is not vague and doesn’t leave your readers confused. For, e.g. ‘destination weddings … read what the hype is all about. This subject line does both; it hooks the readers and informs what the email is about. However, not all individuals respond well to preview. Some prefer specific subjects, and here’s where the next tip comes into play. Be Direct As mentioned above, some individuals respond best to direct and precise subject lines. If you want your audience to take a specific action like purchasing a product or enrolling on an event with your email marketing campaign, don’t hesitate to mention that in your subject line. These straightforward subjects not only motivate readers to open the email but also inspire them to take action, pushing them forward on your sales methodology. Include numbers & Figures The majority of the businesses send an email with vague statements as their subject lines. In this scenario, you can stand apart from the crowd by using data and numbers in your subject lines. Using numbers in your subject line, like in your blog title, is an excellent email marketing best practice. You may use numbers to announce specific discounts, the numerical advantage of a resource you’re giving, or the purchase price of a product Some great examples of subject lines with numbers are as follows – “Join over 750 people at this event!” , “25% on this clothing brand”, “Buy your favorite pair of jeans now at $20”, etc. Leverage The Power Of Personalization Personalization is a powerful tool. It excites your readers and creates a sense of belonging in their minds. Data suggests that using particulars like location and name in the subject lines will increase your click-through rates significantly and helps create a rapport between your business and targeted consumers. However, it can be pretty challenging to personalize emails for a long email list. We recommend considering email marketing CRMs to make the job easier for you. Make Announcements If your company has something new coming up, channel that enthusiasm and let it reflect in your subject line. Let your readers know what your business is up to; it makes them feel like they are among the first people to know about the special offers. When you can’t utilize personalization, special announcement emails are an excellent alternative for you to build a sense of belonging and improve brand loyalty. Begin With Action-Oriented Words By adding an inspiring action verb at the beginning of your subject line, you can make your emails enticing and drastically improve your click-through rate. Practicing this approach will serve two purposes mentioned above, i.e. creating urgency and sparking enthusiasm with a teaser. E.g. using a subject line like ‘ Dine 50 meters above ground level at Sky Dining, Dubai’ rather than using generic words like ‘bringing a sky dining experience to you’. The word ‘dine’ helps users envision a dining experience and inspires them to take the necessary action. Highlight Multimedia In Your Subject Line We all know that videos are a great tool to engage with your audience. Adding a presentation, video or podcast can make your content more engaging and keep your audience hooked up with the brand. However, It is a lesser-known fact that the mere mention of words like ‘video’ or other multimedia in the email subject line can increase your click-through rate by 50%. So, if you have included media in your email, do not forget to mention that in your subject line. Analyze Your Results The tips mentioned above have proven effective for several businesses; however, not all companies are the same, nor are their email marketing plans. Therefore, every business needs to analyze which subject lines are working best for their specific audience by measuring click-through rates, responses, conversion rates etc. Try out different strategies and analyze the specifics to determine what works best for you. Some of the most important factors to consider are – Long or short subject line. Including a number or not including numbers Catchy lines or direct subject lines. Numbers or questions Signing Off With the tips mentioned above, you are all set to optimize your subject lines and bring in more business with email marketing. Crafting email subject lines by following the points in this article will help your emails get the traction they deserve and ensure that you get the most out of your money, time and resources invested in email marketing. Apart from that, we recommend putting yourself in your readers’ shoes and trying to understand which subject lines will inspire them to open the email. If you cannot get desired outcomes from your email marketing practices even after optimizing your subject line, you can invest in a professional email marketing CRM that helps you create qualified subject lines, run campaigns efficiently, measure email marketing stats and a lot more. ____________________________________________________________________________ Shraddha Patel Shraddha Patel is an ardent writer at SaaS Brothers who generates best-in-class posts on a wide range of SaaS tools & techniques. She also produces well-researched and factual posts on strategic solutions for SaaS.
What is Brand Awareness? Everything You Need to Know. Posted on May 10, 2022August 9, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Brand awareness. You’ve heard it, you’ve talked about it, you’ve strived for it. You may have even waxed poetic about it in an all-hands-on-deck meeting discussing new marketing initiatives. But while brand awareness is certainly one of those terms we’ve all heard and talked about, pinning down exactly what it means — and thus, how to achieve it — is often easier said than done. Here’s the thing: in order to succeed, you need people to know your brand. Among consumers, 59 percent prefer to buy new products from brands they already know. Just as important, however, is being a small business brand that people know and trust. Your brand awareness success is inherently tied to brand perception, integrity, and trustworthiness; all of these things play a key role in appealing to new customers and keeping existing ones. Brand awareness is a simple concept but a challenging task that requires more than just effective content distribution. So, we’ve put together this quick refresher on what brand awareness looks like and why it’s so beneficial — plus various ways of making it happen. What is Brand Awareness? Brand awareness refers to your brand’s familiarity among consumers and industry peers. It encompasses everything from your logo and products to your reputation and history. There are a lot of benefits to strong brand awareness. When you get a cut on your finger, for example, do you go to the store looking for adhesive bandages, or do you go to the store looking for Band-Aids? When you and a friend are trying to settle an argument, do you say, “let’s look it up online,” or do you say, “let’s Google it”? Our perception of brands and what they can do for us colors our behaviors as we make purchasing decisions and can instantly make a certain product or service more attractive than its competitors. That’s an excellent place to be in for a brand, and all companies should ultimately be striving to be the Band-Aids or Google of their respective fields when it comes to brand recognition. While we won’t all get there, making brand awareness a front-and-center concern is a good way to ensure you take action on strategies that will help you increase your ubiquity and authority among consumers. Why is Brand Awareness Important? Brand awareness is an integral part of a business that cements trust and credibility with consumers — it’s the deciding factor between why consumers will pick your business over your competitors. You build on brand recognition amongst customers and target audiences, customer loyalty, and brand credibility with brand awareness. Beyond setting yourself apart amongst customers, brand awareness helps you stay consistent in your communication with your target audience, which boosts the confidence of your brand and business. Brand Awareness and the Buyer’s Journey As marketers, we spend a lot of time and effort on our bottom-of-the-funnel strategies, creating content and campaigns driven to snag that all-important sale. But brand awareness lives primarily at the top of the funnel, and it’s just as critical to sustainable success. Every prospect needs to start somewhere. At the “awareness” stage, a prospect has a problem and needs a solution for it. Where that solution comes from depends on which brands are either already on their radar or are able to get on their radar — and both of those things require targeted brand awareness. Of course, very few brands make it into the coveted spot of household names. But getting there isn’t a necessity. Awareness exists on a spectrum, from completely unaware to very aware. Your brand awareness strategies at the top of the funnel should be based on your target audience’s general level of awareness, with various techniques to appeal to consumers on either end of the spectrum. How to Build Brand Awareness Freemium Offers Give potential customers a taste of your premium and enterprise solutions or products. Freemium offers give interested prospects a sneak peek into what your product or service is about – an opportunity for them to try it before they buy it. You can take this further by adding a credit to your brand for the freemium offer. This means that you are getting your brand in front of new audiences who may opt for your premium or enterprise offerings for every share, service, or product use. Referral programs Advancements in digital technology and advertising have changed how word-of-mouth marketing is done. However, it is still an important way of building your brand awareness. When satisfied customers spread the gospel of your good business, excellent products, and services, you have the power of social proof on your side. With referral programs, your customers pitch your products or services to those in their circle in return for a reward that you are willing to give. Referral programs increase your brand awareness credibly and get you more sales and ultimately more business revenue. Social Media Marketing Don’t ignore social media marketing in building your brand awareness. With billions of active social media users and new social media platforms springing up from time to time, it is a great channel to quickly get your brand known and in front of the right audience. It would be almost impossible to set up a presence on every social media platform. Hence, it is best to stick with one or two where a large number of your target audience converge. You can create content that speaks to your audience directly, which will help spread awareness about your brand. Podcasts Build your brand awareness while establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry with podcasts. You get to develop valuable business relationships with other experts in your field as you invite them to share their thoughts on your business podcast. Also, you open your brand to new audiences as you partner with other experts on various content. With podcasts, your audience enjoys the valuable and actionable content you provide them with, while your brand enjoys the increased brand awareness. Methods of Achieving Brand Awareness Your biggest goal with brand awareness: be the solution that your target audience turns to when they have a problem. And everything from your content strategy to your ad strategy should be focused on getting there. Here are some ways to do it. SEO & Content marketing – anticipate the intent of buyer personas and the keywords they are likely to search for when looking for your product or service. Then, create SEO-driven content targeting those keywords that help ensure you’re one of the first few results when someone searches for a relevant solution. Optimize the pages of your website with relevant keywords to ensure that it shows up in search results when potential customers conduct searches with the exact keywords or related ones. Guest-contributed content – Lend your insight to other publications to help establish thought leadership in your field. Guest contributed content introduces your brand to new audiences, which means more eyes for your business. Do not create wishy-washy guest-contributed content to have something to put up on other websites. On the contrary, the content you contribute via guest-posting should be thoughtful, valuable, and engaging to the targeted audience. First impressions are important, and you want to make a lasting one on the new set of eyes that will learn about your brand. Awards/recognition/press – Get involved in your industry and participate in platforms and events that help elevate your brand name. Sponsor events that align with your company values, industry, and business goals. Audiences that attend events are highly qualified and specialized – getting your brand in front of them is a great way to build your brand awareness. Cement this by distributing branded freebies to the attendants. Your brand benefits from brand awareness and some word-of-mouth marketing from attendants who want to associate with sponsors of the events they attend. Digital advertising – Plan an ad strategy that gets your solution in front of your target audience even before they’re ready to search for it. Social media campaigns & Contests – Amp up your social media presence to reach and engage with a larger pool of potential prospects. Organize regular social media contests to keep your brand trending and increase social mentions. Webinars – Host webinars to help boost your brand authority and partner with similar (but non-competing) brands to tap into each other’s consumer base. Review sites – Make sure you have a positive reputation online by encouraging reviews among satisfied customers and appropriately responding to (and, if possible, resolving) negative reviews when they do pop up. Tips for Measuring Success Like other marketing metrics, a great way to ensure you are going in the right direction is to measure your brand awareness. However, unlike other marketing metrics, you may not get accurate figures, but you can gauge your activities and determine if your brand is going in the right direction. Brand awareness can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative Measuring Quantitative measuring focuses on numbers that give you an idea of how well your brand is faring. The numbers to focus on are: Direct website traffic Site traffic numbers Social engagement Qualitative Measuring Qualitative measuring may not provide accurate figures but gives you an overview of your brand awareness efforts. Some activities to focus on for qualitative measuring include, Social listening Conducting surveys Setting up Google alerts for brand mentions Brand awareness isn’t a one-and-done type of strategy. You need to incorporate all of the tactics above to ensure that you’re covering all of your bases, treating each one like the thing that will make or break your efforts. From there, create surveys for existing customers to see how they came to discover your brand and use that information to bolster your efforts and bring on more brand awareness success.