Ensure 2018 Measures Up: What to watch, do and look for in your marketing
Ensure 2018 Measures Up: What to Watch, Do, and Look for in Your Marketing
With all the time, energy and money that goes into marketing, itâs critical you know what you are getting out of it. The team at @revenue put together our top tips and notes to ensure your 2018 marketing plan is measuring up.
Social Media
Successful social media is so much more than how many people like or follow you. The success is in building a community who interacts, shares and ultimately, buys. How do you know you're building a community?
- Go beyond vanity metrics (page views, number of followers). They may feel great, but the point of social media is to be SOCIAL!
- Carve out time in your calendar to engage and connect with those in your community. The more you engage, the more engagement you can expect from them.
- Monitor the actions people take on your content and the conversations people are having with you and one another. Leverage free tools like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, Instagram for Business and LinkedIn post analytics to find more meaning in your measurement.
You can't just post articles and content, you have to connect and engage to be the most effective on social media. Connect with Sue Koch to identify the best ways to build your audience, respect your tribe and make sure to have fun with it for your needs!
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Email metrics are widely available through your email service provider, but there are a couple of key things to keep your eye on. Ensure your email is as effective as possible by measuring, optimizing and improving key elements.
- Make sure your emails are getting read by monitoring your open rate. Try testing subject lines and your from line to optimize visibility. It doesnât hurt to throw in an emoji here and there! ????
- Your next level of engagement are your clickers. All of your emails should have very specific calls to action that will engage your audience brings them that much closer to a sale. Be sure to make your email clickable by linking images, headlines and large buttons. The more options they have to click, the more clicks you get.
- Less common than clicking, some recipients will actually reply to your marketing email! This is much less frequent than just clicking but provides the highest level of engagement. Be sure to respond quickly and take advantage of the outreach.
You don't need the fanciest, most advanced email servicer to make a big impact in your marketing campaign. Talk with Megan Robinson today to effectively engage, connect, and rank your email list!
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Search Engine Optimization Â
Getting on Google search's first page is the name of the game. We measure SEO success by our keyword rankings (the higher the better), volume of targeted traffic (the more the better), and the number of conversions on the site. Â
- SEO success is ultimately measured by how well your website ranks for specific keywords. Make sure you are looking for consistent improvement month over month and maintain your position.
- Although ranking well is important, we do it to get more website traffic. Be sure to monitor the traffic you receive and the quality of it. Is your bounce rate increasing? Is your time on the site getting shorter? Make sure that the traffic you are getting is of high quality.
- We not only want to rank well and get quality traffic to the site, but we also want to make sure that traffic is converting. Whether making a purchase, filling out a contact form or picking up the phone and making a call, visitor conversion is the ultimate goal and indicator of SEO success.
Networking
Effective networking is every bit as critical to your success as a solid digital presence. If you are sitting in your office relying solely on your website to fill your pipeline you will have a lot of really good opportunities to organize your office supplies! But how do you quantify effective networking? It takes some elbow grease but when you have an additional 30-50% of your leads coming from the relationships that you've built, you will be singing a different tune!
- Identify organizations that cater to your specific verticals or sizes of business. Associations should be a part of your research, not just Chambers of Commerce or high priced networking opportunities.
- Try it, track it, change it. You must have a system (CRM, spreadsheet or other) that allows you to track what your investment in the networking is. This includes travel time, time at events, follow up time, etc. Use your hourly rate to calculate your total investment and after 6 months compare that to the anticipated value of leads received. Check this number every six months.
- Keep in mind that Strategic Partners (those that can refer you LOTS of business) are often as valuable if not more than just one lead. These are the folks that you build deeper, long-term relationships with, invest your time and track the results. You will get a stronger ROI and create a more significant network than just hoping to get leads from events.
If you aren't tracking your results from networking, you are simply socializing. Make sure that you give your effort the proper value!
Oh you don't do 'business cards'? Greeeeat.
Oh You Don't Do 'Business Cards'? Greeeat.
If you have been out networking lately, you may have come across a new kind of networker. The ultra-cool, tech-savvy business professional that no longer involves themselves with the incumbrances of archaic tools such as...the business card.
Typically, you will get a response like, âOh, yeah, I donât DO business cards, but I will find you on LinkedInâ or my favorite (and yes, this is a true story) âIf people want to find me, theyâll find me. Just remember who I am and search for meâ. I kid you not. Allow me to share with you why this is not only an ineffective business practice but is, for all intents and purposes, blatant poor manners.
If you are at an event where business building is the purpose, others have come with the intention of connecting with you, engaging with you, (if you are in the right group) finding ways to connect you and following up with you. Not having a business card forces that other person to either find a place to make a note on how to find you or who they wanted to connect you with. This is a person that WANTS to be of service to you, to help you, or to send you business...why make them work for it?
If you are going to connect to them via LinkedIn, that only creates more work for you. Typically, the connection starts with a connection request and then an IM and then eventually it moves into an email or phone conversation. If you have a card, that person not only has a physical representation of your brand but a way to reach out to you without having to search all over the place or wait for you to connect with them. In networking, effective follow up is the name of the game, and your lack of card starts you out with a disability. Â
In the professional networking world, brand and first impressions are EVERYTHING. They are the first step in establishing trust, integrity, and professionalism. Itâs such a small investment that has such a huge payoff. Once that card is in someone elseâs hand it also allows you to track things like:
- Do they follow up like they said that they would?
- Do they remember what I do and does my card give them enough info to remember?
- How many cards am I going through vs. how many people am I truly connecting with?
Being able to effectively measure your efforts is key to business building, and if all it takes is a solid business card, isnât it worth it?
Need help with your networking strategies, brand or a new business card? Weâd be happy to help! Â marie@atrevneue.com
3 Reasons Why That Newsletter is So Important
3 Reasons Why That Newsletter is so Important
Email marketing can do a lot for small businesses. It helps nurture new leads, drives sales, promotes products and services, and builds loyalty. Notice how I mentioned more than just sales? Thatâs because marketing isnât only about the bottom line, but contributing to the bottom line. Some email messages, such as promotions, are specifically designed to drive sales, but others, such as newsletters have other important functions.
Here are 3 things email newsletters do to help your business:
1. Â Â Â Â Keep your business top of mind. Newsletters are a great way to keep your business in the forefront of your customerâs mind by simply being there. Email is one of the most efficient and effective ways of getting your brand in front of your audience, and newsletters are a great and consistent way to get their attention.
57% of email subscribers spend
10-60 minutes browsing marketing emails during the week.
(Source: today  willChoozOn)
Yes, we get a lot of emails, but we all spend time browsing, reviewing and evaluating them. Make sure your business has visibility where your customers are spending their time.
2. Â Â Â Â Engage your audience. Newsletters are great for customer engagement when they are full of information that customers want to read. Why would you want to engage your audience? The more engagement with your business, the more customers connect. The deeper that connection, the more likely they are to purchase.
63% of people requesting information on today will not purchase
for at least three months, and 20% will take more than 12 months to buy.
(Source: Marketing Donut)
Statistics like this reminds us that the customer journey is just that â a journey. Customers need time to make purchasing decisions. By engaging your audience through the purchase decision, you have a far better chance of them ultimately buying from you.
3. Â Â Â Â Deepen your relationship with customers. Newsletters are all about providing information to your customer. In our customer-centric environment, this communication is critical to help build the relationship. Plus, they are a great way to share your business values, differentiators and personality. Allowing your customers to learn more about you and your company improves loyalty and increases sales.
When asked which medium consumers would like to receive updates from,
90% preferred an email newsletter, while only 10% chose Facebook.
(Source: Nielsen Norman Group)
If good marketing is talking to the right audience, with the right message, at the right time, why not send a newsletter? The more connected the audience is, the more they begin to view your business less as a commodity and more as a partnership.
Newsletters are just one of the many different types of email marketing messages businesses can send. If you would like to learn more about email marketing and how it can help your business, contact our team today!
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Stop relying on âRandom Acts of Sales & Marketingâ!
Stop Relying on "Random Acts of Sales & Marketing"!
Three weeks ago, Marie and I each had two prospect meetings. As we debriefed, it was as if we had the same meeting but on two different topics. Marieâs was marketing and mine was sales. In both cases what we heard was a lot of wishful thinking, and lots of money spent with virtually no real strategy, process, or plan to ensure 2017 is better than 2016. Guess what the 3 musts to success in sales and marketing are?
1. Strategy
My business partner, Marie uses the phrase ârandom acts of marketingâ. I sure know what those look like and you might be doing some of them yourself. Itâs that knee-jerk reaction to the so-called social selling craze. The MUST to be on Twitter, Periscope, Snapchat, etc. Itâs the belief of âif I only had a better website, then they would call me.â Producing videos that donât speak to the audience and futilely grasping at the latest and greatest. Or worst of all, handing over a fist full of cash to the nice guy in your networking group that convinced you he had the magic wand, but now you want to punch him every time you see him!
These investments rarely work and can almost always guarantee to be a waste of money, time, resources, emotions, and opportunity costs. Unfortunately, businesses run like this all the time and the ownership wonders why they struggle with market awareness, consistent messaging, and real Marketing Qualified Leads.
How do I fix it? Take the time to get QUALIFIED consultation and recommendations for strategy. Then, be sure to understand the strategy and make a commitment to follow through on the complete strategy. Marie has a hard and fast rule: itâs a no-go if it has to be done in under 6 weeks. That goes for a conference, an email campaign, or anything else that you want ROI from. We offer our clients strategy, implementation, ongoing execution, automation, and ultimately TRACKABLE and QUANTIFIABLE REVENUE. Isnât that what marketing should be doing?
2. Process
I take tremendous pride in doing my job to the best of my ability, both selling and teaching sales. It makes me sad when I hear my profession be diminished and criticized. Then I quickly realize that we have no one to blame but ourselves because most salespeople are ill-equipped to succeed. They are often poorly trained (if at all), poorly led, poorly coached, poorly managed, and incentivized in horribly outdated ways.
Simply ask yourself, would you go to a dentist that wasnât trained or had no plan? Send your kids to a teacher with no certificate? Trust a doctor, mechanic, jeweler, dry cleaner, or a pilot who is âwinging itâ?
Of course not! So what makes anyone think that you want to buy from an untrained and unprofessional sales person who lacked a process? What makes us think we should be selling when weâre not properly equipped with a process? Look, sales is a profession - one that should be respected and appreciated by those of us who sell (EVERYONE READING THIS) and those of us who buy (EVERYONE READING THIS). If youâre a lawyer, accountant, chiropractor, plumber, or any other professional service, stop your ârandom acts of salesâ and get trained to be the best you can at client acquisition.
3. Plan
Are you set for 2017? Do you expect 2017 to look like 2016 or does your plan insist that it will be better? Listen, donât get caught looking back at the end of Q1 and see that youâve done nothing new to ensure your success. Here are a few points to consider:
A. Is my networking really working or do I waste my time ânet-eatingâ, ânet-drinkingâ, and ânet-chattingâ? Networking needs to bring you ROI! If it doesnât then stop, re-evaluate, and realign to a new group. If you need help, let me know.
B. Set very specific goals and then set the course to achieve them. There is nothing worse than being on the hamster wheel of business only to run and run but fail to advance.
What I want you to do now is simply decide: are you going to try something new and talk to with a successful sales and marketing team or do you want to forge ahead on your own? @Revenue offers a variety of training, education, and full consulting services. So the real question is: are you failing to plan, or planning to fail?