What the GIF?! How to Use Visual Content In Your Marketing Campaigns Posted on February 17, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Today we live in a visual culture – screens are everywhere, ranging from smartphones, tablets, laptops, computer monitors, to gigantic home televisions. Wherever we go, there is an image or video close by to snag our attention. This makes visual content one of the most important marketing techniques for small businesses. The Graphics Interchange Format AKA the GIF was developed in 1987 and in the past couple years, the internet has waged a full on love affair with these animated images. Some say it with a soft G, others a hard G but we’ve all noticed them on social media, emails, blog posts, websites… pretty much everywhere! So why should you bring them into your campaigns? GIFs get noticed Sites with GIFs look better than those without; people stay on your page longer and are more likely to browse your site. A site that is noteworthy impresses potential customers and clients so they are more likely to buy In the past companies in business for long periods of time were seen as safe and trustworthy – today they are seen as antiquated and out of touch – sites with eye-popping images are seen as modern and trendy. And today modern and trendy are seen as more trustworthy, giving you more sales. People love GIFs You don’t need to know how to make a GIF to use them. Sites like Giphy or Reddit provide a platform to search and browse through GIFs from all over the internet. Here are some best practices to consider before you start bringing them into your marketing messages: Use your own voice. GIFs help you connect with your audience. When you get on the phone with them after they see a GIF in your marketing campaign, don’t leave them confused if you come across completely different. Be relevant. Make sure your GIFs match the message. If you have to explain it, it’s not funny. I love telling jokes, but when I miss the mark, I’m delivering a joke to the wrong audience. Knowing your audience is key. Keep copy short and sweet. Let the GIF speak for you, so keep your copy down to one or two short sentences for the most impact. Find inspiration in your favorites. Let your audience know what you are into – your favorite TV shows, movies, music, sports, etc. Or better yet, find out what your audience is into to find inspiration! Giphy has it all. Everybody loves pizza. Everybody. Get noticed, make someone laugh, and create a meaningful connection with the simplicity of a GIF. Showing your authentic personality is what will strengthen the approachability of your brand, no matter what industry you are in.
20½ Small Business Tips For Blogging Posted on February 12, 2016June 20, 2018 by Jessica Lunk Content is the driving force behind your marketing strategies. You want something to send your potential customers in an email. You want to connect and reach more people on social media. You want a way to communicate the value you provide as a business owner in a conversational way. Blogging is a great way to expand your reach, build a relationship with your audience, and start converting more website visitors. Starting a blog is the easy part. Creating a place where potential customers return for valuable content is where there hard work comes in. Here are 20.5 tips for blogging we put together to keep in mind as you start building up your blog content: Know your audience. Create personas. Write to that one person. Your blog posts will resonate more when you know who you want to reach, their motivations, and how to speak to them. Set a goal for your blog and create your strategy. Start with picking the right platform for your blog. There are so many platforms out there for you to use depending on the personas you create. Just make sure it’s mobile-responsive! Make a big list of topics you want to blog about. Then start writing potential headlines for each topic. These lists are great to have when you hit a block and are not sure what to write about next. Decide if you or someone on your team will write for the blog. We encourage having more than one person on your team write for the blog to cover all aspects of your business. If you are looking to increase your content strategy, think about hiring a freelancer to cover a couple posts a month. Your headline is just as important as the content within. Make sure it is enticing enough for your reader to click through. Shoot for 500-750 words. Throwing long-form content (1000+ words) into the mix is great for SEO. Experiment by patching together multiple blog posts or writing on a topic that you have a lot to say about. Collect emails. Adding a form with a clear call to action to subscribe on your blog will help you start building an engaged list. Write seasonal and timely content. These are good on social media so you can expand your reach using trending hashtags. Write evergreen content. You will build SEO points so your blog post will strengthen in rank as time goes on. These blog posts have a longer lifespan and enhance your email marketing campaigns. Include guest authors. Current customers, influencers, or partners help you get another perspective on your blog and builds your audience up. Tell a story and get personal. You audience will feel connected to you with a funny, touching, or passionate story. Bring in research and stats but make sure to always link to the source. Lists are still hot on social. Create a list with images, gifs, etc… The more creative and relevant you can get with your lists, the more it will stick out. Include great photos as a featured image or in the post. If you can, take your own photos. If not, find free photos using the Creative Commons or The Stocks. Call out influencer and companies with similar audiences. They will be more willing to share your blog post and start building a working relationship. Just start! Once you start blogging more and more, you will begin to develop your voice and your style. It will change as you learn how you want to write for your blog. Be consistent. When you start your blog, write a few blog posts and determine how often you will be able to publish a post. Then set your goal! Be your authentic self. You can try to be someone else, you can try to be something else, but nothing will resonate more than just being yourself. Create a distribution strategy and process for all your new content. It will vary by how often you post but it will ensure your content is getting in the right places! Great, valuable blogging is not an overnight strategy. When you ramp up your blogging and content strategy, it will take a few weeks and even months to start seeing progress. Don’t get discouraged! Some days you will feel like you are the first person at the party, but then your audience will slowly start to trickle in. Have any questions about blogging or content strategy? Send the Hatchbuck Marketing team your question on Twitter. We are always happy to help!
What is Inbound Marketing? More Importantly, Is It Better? Posted on January 12, 2016October 21, 2022 by Katie Culp What if instead of a marketing campaign that you hope finds new prospects and customers or clients, your online marketing campaign is designed to have them find you? Inbound marketing is just that, marketing focused on being discovered by customers! Marketing used by most startups and small or medium-sized business is the more traditional, outbound marketing. However, expert internet marketers understand the limitations of outbound marketing, as reflected by these stats from Voltier Digital: 86% of people skip through television commercials 44% of direct mail is never opened 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call List” The outbound marketing methods used to work when marketers controlled the conversation, market, message, and channels. Now, there are infinite channels through which we get our information. Though outbound marketing still is in use and still has its place, it is more expensive than an inbound marketing program and less effective. Why Inbound Marketing Works Most people hate sales calls, do not open emails from people or businesses they do not know, block phone calls from anonymous callers or blacklisted marketers, do not read printed newspapers, and record TV shows to avoid commercials. In other words, consumers really don’t appreciate aggressive advertising – and now have the technology to avoid it. It’s the consumer who’s in the driver’s seat when it comes to conversation. Inbound marketing works well as it is non-intrusive. Potential new customers and existing customers crave quality content and they choose the channels where they find what speaks to them. If you can attract your prospective customers to your website by having a strong content, SEO, and social media strategy, you have a successful inbound marketing campaign. Content Effective inbound marketing campaigns are centered around content creation that offers valuable information. The goal of content should be enticing your prospect to give their information so you can then nurture them into a customer. Either written by you or on your behalf by a professional writer, well-crafted content is the driving force behind your inbound marketing strategy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEO techniques make it easier for would-be customers to find your content on the web. SEO is key to your site’s success by building inbound links from other sites and social media. You want to build a spiderweb of links around the internet that all go back to your website. A side benefit is that as your inbound campaign takes root and you develop inbound links, your Google ranking will go up! Social Media Having a strong presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, Yelp and other social media sites helps you in getting your content distributed to new potential clients. Social media also encourages shares, feels more ‘real’ and fosters discussions about your content – a great way to draw more qualified customers to your website. DIY or Professional Help? Powerful inbound marketing does require investing time and resources into content creation and distribution. But the pay-off is huge. Instead of sinking money into futile advertising or an army of sales people, with the right inbound marketing strategy, the customers come to you! So yes, inbound marketing is better!
Struggling with Content Marketing Strategy? Nail it with these 5 Tips. Posted on November 5, 2015November 11, 2022 by Jessica Lunk You want to be seen. So, do something. Something big. If you want to catch people’s eye in your content marketing endeavors, you have to do three things: Be bold, be relevant, and be impressive. If you want to make an impact and get your business noticed you have to go the extra mile. To reach and engage your audience use these 5 tips to nail your content strategy: 1. Know Who You Are Knowing who you are takes a deep understanding of the product or services you offer, why you offer them, and a bit of the roadmap that lies ahead of you. Once you understand your business, you have to create a brand around it – and this is the tough part. You know who you are, but does your audience? Branding is how you communicate; it’s your face to the world and while it may change over the years, it should remain a version of itself. Think of Q-Tips, Kleenex, Xerox. These companies are so inextricably linked to their product that most time people don’t know whether you are talking about the company of the item. That’s what you want for your business. 2. Know Your Audience Knowing who you are also means knowing your audience. Successful businesses don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, they are super intentional about putting their stake in the ground and defining their audience. Herb Kelleher, co-founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines, took this exact approach. He decided that his audience wasn’t everyone. It wasn’t even the business-class flyer. Instead, he set his sights on the family flyer. He appealed to them by offer low fares, painting his planes like whales, and implementing a hiring strategy that focused on hiring attitude before skills. And this targeted approach paid off. Today, Southwest Airlines is the nation’s largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded. When your demographic is defined, you can get to know your audience intimately. What are they interested in? How are they finding information? What are their pain points? Knowing your audience allows you to tailor your message, taking a personal approach to your marketing to stay super relevant to your audience, and create raving fans of your business. 3. Be Where They Are After you’ve defined your niche, go find them. Does your ideal buyer hang out in specific geo locations? Do they participate in certain communities online? Are they urban or suburbanites? Are they looking for a specific resource that you can provide for free? Take a multi-level approach to meeting your ideal buyers where they are by: Driving top-of-mind awareness with ads. Delivering value through helpful resources. Nurturing with personal email marketing. Especially for smaller businesses that have to do more with less, being targeted with your audience means that you can allocate resources efficiently and effectively. 4. Use Technology Marketing technology used to be reserved for big businesses with big budgets and lots of technical know-how. But today, there are a ton of free or budget-friendly resources that are easy for small businesses to implement and use. Try these examples on for size: Create a blog on your company site. Share your expertise, show off your company culture and feature guest posts from others in your niche. Blogging displays your authority, builds up a reserve of content you can share, and helps your ideal buyer find your business online through search. Leverage Youtube to connect with your audience. Produce your own video, or better yet, leverage your customers’ video testimonials to share with your audience. In fact, Offerpop revealed in a recent report that brand engagement rises by 28% when consumers are exposed to professional content along with user-generated product videos. Create buzz on social media sites. With social media, you can take word-of-mouth marketing one step further and get your audience talking about your brand. Focus your efforts on the channels that your ideal buyer engages with the most. 5. Make Sure They Can Find You with SEO Creating useful, relevant content for your audience is the first step to getting found online. Then, reach out to your partners, influencers in your space, and your customers to share and exchange content, helping boost your reach. As you build content on your site, you may also want to hire a SEO consultant to help make sure your website is structured properly for ultimate optimization. For a few more ideas on how to get found online, check out our Small Business Guide to Online Marketing. You want to make a big splash, right? Try these ideas and watch as you reach grows exponentially.
Social Gone Small Part 2: Social Media Content Hacks Posted on September 22, 2015August 26, 2016 by Jessica Lunk In Part 1 of Social Gone Small, we explored the different social media platforms and the popular demographics found on each. Now, we’re going to dive into they type of content that will get your audience engaged with your brand. In Part 3, we’ll look at how you can grow a following of avid fans. Social media is different than other types of marketing in that you are promoting to a social channel. The keyword there is social, and you need to keep in mind that people are on each site to interact with their friends and acquaintances. The best way to get your audience to engage is to be genuinely social with them. Here are 8 social media content hacks to show your personality and get to know your followers: 1. The Rule of Thumb This rule of thumb hack is true of most social media sites. People will follow you if they are interested, and stop following if you are not sending them what entertains or educates them in some way. Therefore, you have to mix up your content. For every marketing-focused piece, you should post a few personal pieces. They can be about your employees. They can be about the current news. They can be funny videos that you find online. You can’t bombard followers with advertising. If you do, you will lose them. 2. Visual Content Is King Images are extremely important on all social media sites with added importance on sites such as Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram. Creating original images is an easy way to stand out from your competitors. Make sure you are posting the recommended sized image for each site. There are many great online photo editing tools out there such as Canva and PicMonkey that are affordable and easy to use. 3. Call-to-Action For most social media sites, you have the ability to add a call-to-action in the text area for each post. You can ask your followers to bookmark a post, save it for later or read the rest on your blog. 4. Post With Goals In Mind Make sure you have a strategy for each post. Most social media posts have one of three goals: Click to go to your site Share this item with your friends Respond with a like or comment You can survey followers, have them take a quiz or show them a video. Make it short and simple and know why you are posting. 5. Stand Out With Videos Videos are extremely popular and they don’t have to be long or professionally produced. A minute or less will get you the most views. You can post videos almost everywhere including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The best videos are recorded with a smartphone and posted online. Instead of worrying about production, get your video out there fast. The more you do it, the easier it will get as you develop your voice. 6. Share with Friends Ask your followers to share. Social media channels are all about sharing with other people. That is how they grow. If you are engaging the right audience for your products or services, you can ask your followers to share with their friends. If they like what you are posting, then their friends will too. 7. Shorten Those Links If you are not already using a link shortener, you should be. When you shorten links, you annoy people less AND you can track them. While you shouldn’t want to annoy your followers, tracking their behavior is something that can help you learn what is successful so you can repeat it. While some social media sites do provide analytics, most do not give you comprehensive information. 8. Be Picky Do not try to jump on every social media site that comes out. Do your research and work with two or three to start that have the right audience for your company. You need to be consistent or there is no point to being on a site at all. Want more insight into how to grow your social media strategy? Check back to learn how to grow an engaged following.
3 Quick Ways to Build Traffic to Your Next Blog Post Posted on January 16, 2015October 7, 2022 by Travis Arnold A Guest Post by Chuck Aikens, Founder & CEO of Volume Nine You already know how valuable blogging is, which is why you already have one. But if you don’t have enough people visiting your blog, the whole purpose of having a blog is lost. Ever wonder how some bloggers arrive out of nowhere and skyrocket their blog’s traffic and subscriber numbers, while some others struggle forever to move the needle? With over 164 million blogs already out there, you need to do a lot more than just write good content and present it well. You need to begin the groundwork even before you press that “Publish” button. Want to know how? Read on. You spent all week writing a great piece of content that your industry is going to love, and now you’re ready to relax. But wait a minute, this new blog post is going to get published on Tuesday morning and you have to get the word out. Don’t worry, go enjoy your weekend! Here are three things painlessly simple you can do on Monday morning to increase the traffic to your blog post. 1. Boost Your Facebook Post Facebook has an astonishing 1 billion active users, and an average user spends about 22 minutes every day on this social network. No matter who your target audience is, chances are high that they will be on Facebook, so you should try everything possible to leverage this. Facebook’s Boost Post is a good starting point. Boost post is a feature that allows a post from your business page to appear higher up on the News Feed. Facebook charges a fee for this service, depending on how many people you intend reaching out to, and the number of impressions your post gets over time. By boosting your posts on Facebook, you earn an extra degree of visibility for blog posts that you think are important. There is a much higher chance of a boosted post being seen by users who have liked your business page, that relying on organic Facebook impressions alone. To boost a post, all you need to do is click “Boost Post” button next to the post, select the target audience, set up a budget, and you are good to go. 2. Use Coschedule to Schedule Social Media Follow-ups A major mistake that many bloggers make is that they publish the blog, notify the social networks, and do nothing after that. By doing this, they lose the opportunity to get the click-throughs that the content deserves. The good news is that there are there are tools to help you promote your blog with social media in a more effective manner. Coschedule is a tool that lets you leverage the full power of social media. With Coschedule, you can implement a sharing schedule, and maintain a more consistent social presence. More than an editorial calendar, Coschedule is a Plugin that connects to your WordPress site and social media connections. Once added to WordPress, Coschedule lets you publish to your social connections, all through a calendar format. You can add as many social connections as you want, integrate with Google calendar, track analytics, interact with team members, and more. Our recommendation is to use it to schedule 5 Tweets and 2 Facebook Follow-ups – a solid game plan for your next post. 3. Write Some Teaser Articles and Send it to a Few Influencers A simple secret to rapid blog growth is blogger outreach. You can get other key bloggers in your niche, or influencers, to promote your blog for free. Just write some teaser articles and send them to a few influencers. By doing this, you can actually put your content before the movers and shakers in the niche, increasing changes that your blog is well received and highly circulated. For example, in the following snippet, an SEO influencer, references an article from another SEO website’s blog, increasing the reach and audience for the blog post: How to Create an Awesome Hashtag for Your Business https://t.co/XxpynQxmvR via @v9seo #socialmedia #marketing pic.twitter.com/zdKTZzeDjw — Chuck Aikens (@chuckaikens) September 14, 2016 With better tools and an air-tight strategy, you’re ready take your blog to new heights of success. About the Author Chuck Aikens is the CEO of Volume Nine, an SEO Agency which has been helping clients build organic traffic to their websites for over 9 years. Chuck enjoys living in Denver with his wife and 2 children where he enjoys running, skiing, and working on his golf game.
Content Grid: What to Send and When to Send It Posted on May 8, 2014June 9, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Part of a great personalized email campaign is knowing what types of content to send throughout a campaign as your audience travels down the sales funnel. Here is a handy grid to help visualize what to send to your contacts, and when to send it. You don’t need every type of content on the grid, but working toward a good mix of content for each stage of the sales funnel will help you fuel email marketing campaigns that raise awareness of your brand, deliver resources to prospects, help opportunities evaluate your product or service, and keep customers engaged. (p.s. Don’t forget that you don’t have to create every piece of content on your own. Supplementing email campaigns with curated content can also add value to your audience.)
To Create or Curate? Content that Feeds Your Email Marketing Campaigns. Posted on May 1, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Your small but mighty business is running a tight ship. You know that content helps to entertain your audience, educate prospects, and convert opportunities into customers, but not many small businesses have resources that can be completely dedicated to creating content. When our small business customers think about sending an email marketing campaign, they often feel overwhelmed by producing enough content to power their email marketing. But feeding your email marketing engine can actually be pretty simple. Here are a few tips on what to create and what to curate: What to Create: Repurpose existing assets. Some content is evergreen and never goes out of style. Recycle your existing content to expand your content library. Combine 10 related blog posts into an ebook. Break up a guide or report into 10 new blog posts. Upload an existing presentation to SlideShare. Reimagine print material like brochures, handouts and packets into online presentations, articles, and guides. Customer stories. Your best customers are advocates of your brand who want to help you succeed. Interview your customers for powerful collateral you can share with your prospects. Ask how your business has impacted your customer for a compelling case study. Ask your customer how they have tackled a problem that your audience faces for an easy how-to article. Survey results. It’s the age of big data, and we love using data to draw conclusions and to back up opinions. Send out a quick poll to check the pulse of your audience and write up a blog post on your findings. Survey your current customers and create a sharable report. Images and Slides. While you might not be an infographic genius, tools like Canva, Powerpoint, SlideShare, and Prezi make it easy to look good. Break up an article into digestible chunks for a sharable presentation. Create a workbook using a Powerpoint template with prompting placeholder text. Use slides to highlight individual data and facts. Team Members. Often content creation falls on one person, whether it’s the marketing manager or the owner themselves. If you’re driving content creation, don’t forget to reach out to your team members for help. Interview a team member for a Q&A article. Ask a team member to write a blog post about their niche or give their view on a topic. What to Curate: Lists. Pick and topic and run with it. A top 10, the best of, the mostest – lists are like candy, they’re addictive, easily consumed and your audience loves them. Curate a list of articles. Take a page from BuzzFeed and compile a list of fun photos or gifs. List stats, facts, or data. News. Were you mentioned in an article? Is your industry in the national spotlight? Share with your audience. Set up a Google Alert or Talkwalker Alert to be notified when your business or industry makes news. Follow reputable sources in your industry on social media and share the news that’s going viral. Videos. Share informative and entertaining videos. Embed a video within a blog post. Curate videos on your YouTube channel and share the link. Infographics. Search Google images for powerful infographics that speak to your audience. Embed (and attribute) an infographic in a blog post. Send a link to a helpful infographic in an email. Industry Reports. As a smaller biz, you don’t necessarily have access to tons of customer data. Third party reports can help add credibility to your value proposition. Industry analyst reports. Reports published by non-competitors in your space. Thought Leadership. Share what thought leaders are saying about your industry or a customer pain-point. LinkedIn is a great place to start looking for thought leadership articles in your area of expertise. Photo Inspiration. A photo is worth a thousand words, but you may not be a photog or designer. Tap into others’ talents to inspire your audience. Create a Pinterest board and send it out in an email campaign. Creating your own content is extremely valuable, but can be time consuming. Don’t be afraid to supplement the content you’ve created with awesome third party resources. Not only will your audience love seeing something fresh, inspiring, entertaining or educational, but you’ll gain a bit of good karma by sharing (and attributing, of course!) in today’s social economy.