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Marketing Strategy

Ensure Success by Creating a Marketing Calendar

marketing calendar

The new year is fast approaching and you’ve decided this will be your best year ever. A well-planned marketing calendar will be key in making that a reality.

Keep reading for tips on creating one that works for you.

What Is a Marketing Calendar and Why Do You Need One?

If you don’t write a goal down it’s only a wish. Creating a plan of action for your marketing strategy can be pivotal to your success.

There are many benefits to creating a visual marketing calendar.

It ensures everyone is on the same page. There is no question about what is being done and when target dates are.

It also gets the creative juices flowing. If your team knows you are starting a social media campaign next week, they are thinking about it this week.

Your team will be more cohesive and everyone will know week to week what the focus will be.

Having weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly goals written out will help. It will be a benefit with brainstorming, troubleshooting, and success of your goals.

A marketing calendar will also help with knowing your marketing budget needs. Detailed plans will help you see costs, expenses, and concerns well in advance. An overwhelming aspect of your business seems manageable with a workable plan.

An excel spreadsheet or software for marketing can record your goals and initiatives.

So What’s The Plan?

Creating a marketing plan can be a daunting task when you don’t know where to start.

A marketing coach is one solution to your anxiety about how to do this. They will help you develop a well-thought-out, effective marketing plan and calendar. An expert can give perspectives and answers your team may not think of.

Whether you’re hiring a coach to walk you through your marketing plan or doing it in-house you need ideas.

Researching marketing trends, brainstorming and developing a program will help accomplish your goals.

As you plug these goals into your marketing calendar you can create a plan to meet each target. This will help you think outside the box and come up with initiatives you hadn’t thought of before.

Don’t Skimp on the Details

The most successful marketing calendars aren’t vague ideas and numbers. They contain details for each idea and how you are going to accomplish it.

It’s not enough to say “we’ll start a social media campaign” as your goal for February. Break down each task and when they’ll be done.It’s important to remember marketing is, especially in the cyber world, 24 hours a day.

What worked last year may not be the best option this year. You need an evolving, fresh take on attracting clients as the world wide web continues to change.

Keep It Fresh

Your online content needs to be fresh and interesting. Clients want entertaining, informative customer experiences every time they interact with you.

If you want their business you must cater to their needs.

As the internet offers more payment and convenience options to consumers, so must you.

It’s not enough to reach your potential customer. You have to hook them in and entice them to stay.

Personal Experience

When creating a marketing calendar make it personal. Every business is different. They may use the same principles and strategies but make yours stand out.

Play to your strengths and think of what you can offer that no one else does.

Check out our blog for more marketing tips to make this your best year yet!

Categories
Marketing Strategy

5 Current Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Know About

digital marketing trends
Business, Technology, Internet and network concept. Young businessman working in virtual reality glasses sees the inscription: trends

Are you looking for insights on the current digital marketing trends?

Every serious business and brand has to apply the best marketing practices in order to grow and develop. If you don’t market your business online, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers and opportunities.

Digital marketing is changing every day and what was groundbreaking yesterday can be a complete waste of time tomorrow.

This is why your business has to follow the trends and try new things rather than settle for a single strategy.

Keep reading to discover the top 5 digital marketing topics to keep an eye on at the moment.

1. Boosting Visual Content

Digital marketing trends encourage using visual content to increase your online visibility.

People are more likely to follow instructions if there are images, videos or infographics rather than just plain text.

Through visuals like web design, logos, colors, and animations, you can strengthen your brand presence and make it more memorable to people.

2. Using Video as a Marketing Method

People watch videos for two main purposes: for entertainment or to get useful information.

To use videos as a marketing tactic, you need to know what your audience wants.

According to Forbes, up to 90% of customers have reported that watching product videos has helped them make a purchasing decision.

Quality videos with valuable content can help you present your products to a much wider audience.

3. Audience-Customized Content

Focus your digital marketing strategy on your audience and its needs. Better yet, customize your content to specific customers and offer them something unique.

Sometimes this can be tricky if you have a big target audience and can’t track the engagement in real time. You can always hire an expert or a marketing coach to help you do that.

4. Interactive Content

The current digital marketing trends show that interactive content is popular because not only is it fun, but it’s also highly engaging.

Polls, interactive infographics, quizzes, contests, and giveaways are all great ways to connect with your audience and create buzz around your brand.

Interactive content is a great way to make your audience feel directly involved with your brand. If you provide a unique and pleasant user experience for them, you’ll gain many new and returning loyal customers.

5. Influencer Outreach

If you want to position your business as a serious brand, you need the eyes of a bigger audience. To get to these new target customers, you need people who have already established a connection with them — influencers.

You can find them on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest or their personal blogs.

Apply These Digital Marketing Trends to Your Business Today

Keeping up with the trends in digital marketing is key to growing your brand online. Find ways to adapt them to your marketing strategy and get rid of anything that doesn’t add to your brand’s visibility.

Ready to apply these marketing tactics to your business?

Check out our blog for more useful tips or contact us today to connect with our business growth consultants.

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Email Marketing

The 5 Most Important Email Marketing Ideas of 2017

Online marketing is not the same as it used to be. What was once as simple as having a website with a few ads is now a wide world of opportunities and tactics.

Although PPC and SEO have entered the market, there is a tool practically as old as the internet still making waves – email marketing.

Using the right email marketing ideas can increase your brand loyalty and overall online sales.

It doesn’t matter if you are just getting the hang of using email strategies or if you’ve been at it for a while, you need to know what’s working in 2017 and where the trends are headed.

Here are the top five email marketing tricks to use in your campaign.

1. Make the Call-to-Action Loud and Clear

This is the number one rule for all companies across all industries.

Do not waste your time – or your readers’ time – if you don’t have a clear point in mind. The call to action should be simple to understand, and there should only be one per email.

This makes it as effective as possible. It allows you to have a direct method of reaching your goals, because you aren’t busy trying to campaign multiple things at once.

Keep one call-to-action simple and engaging. Your readers will get the hint.

2. Use a Responsive Template

As the internet has improved, so have the devices by which we access it.

Make sure your email template can automatically adapt between desktops, smartphones, and tablets. This ensures everything looks as intended, no matter how your consumer is reading an email.

Do not underestimate the power of design. A well-organized template speaks volumes to your professionalism and how much you care about the consumer.

Put your best design foot forward. Think of a responsive template as the visual insurance for your email marketing ideas.

3. Add an Emoji

One of the best ways to make sure your email gets attention out of everything else in someone’s inbox is to add an emoji.

Using the right emoji adds character to your email.

It makes the subject line more appealing and feels genuine as well. The value of this is worth noting because a misleading subject line can actually negatively affect your bounce rates.

Thus, adding an emoji as a visual to your subject gains interest and trust. It’s a win-win, wink-wink.

4. Go Through Your List on a Regular Basis

Do you know who your email marketing audience really is?

Not just your target audience, but the people who are already signed up.

Do an audit of your email list regularly. This can help you weed out the people who used a fake email or stopped using what they now consider an old address.

It can also give you an idea of consumer segments.

Segmenting your email marketing ideas to different groups makes your campaigns much more powerful. It allows you to make everything as relevant as possible, whether for the people who want coupons or those who like reading about company news and special events.

Divide and conquer your list and watch as open and click-through rates improve.

5. Personalize and Test Every Email

Personalizing is a must when it comes to email marketing.

Even something as simple as adding the recipient’s first name can be the hook that keeps them reading. It shows you aren’t just another promotion or spam email, and that you care to provide quality service.

To ensure the best service possible, test your emails.

Testing is the checkpoint to make sure your personalization efforts are working, and everything else looks in order, too.

Also, test for sending at different times of day and different days of the week. This will offer more specific insights on the best opportunities to reach your audience.

Start Using 2017’s Best Email Marketing Ideas

Stop waiting to connect with your consumers and start reaching them with the best email marketing ideas of the year.

The right email marketing campaign can be the difference between meeting your margins and making impressive sales leaps.

Your performance opportunities are on the other end of the screen. Meet your consumers where they are to get to where you want your company to be.

Contact us today to get started.

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Uncategorized

5 Ways a Virtual Marketing Director Can Boost Your ROI

You want your marketing investment to deliver results. But what do you do when you’re short on time? Here are 5 ways a virtual marketing director could help.

What is a Virtual Marketing Director?

A virtual marketing director is a term that refers to hiring an outsourced marketing agency. This agency would do your company’s marketing for you.

There are many reasons why businesses consider outsourcing their marketing efforts. Some small businesses don’t have the resources to implement large-scale marketing efforts; larger businesses may be short on time and need results as soon as possible.

Whatever the reason may be, hiring an outside marketing director can deliver big results. Here are five ways they can boost your return on investment:

1.They Have a Great Network

When you hire an outside advertising agency, you’re not only hiring someone to do your marketing efforts for you; you’re hiring an entire team with amazing connections to help get the job done.

If you’re looking for a beautiful plan done in a short amount of time, opening up to a whole new network can benefit you greatly.

2. They Have a Known Track Record

When you’re in the market to hire an outside marketing agency, you have access to a wide range of data about each one. By looking at their past marketing efforts and seeing each one’s success, you know exactly what you’ll be paying for when you hire them.

Reputability goes a long way. Knowing a company’s track record right off the bat will help you make an informed decision when hiring them — and their end success will be worth your initial investment.

3. They Know the Latest Trends

Marketing agencies are always up to date with the latest marketing trends. Considering their entire business is built off of them, it makes sense!

If you’re looking for a marketing plan that has a chance at competing in the digital world, a marketing agency can provide just that.

4. No Failed Strategies

If you’re hoping to cut down on costs by hiring an entry-level employee to do your marketing plan for your business, you may be making a huge mistake. Someone who is inexperienced has a greater chance at failing to implement the right strategy, simply due to the fact that they aren’t familiar with what works and what doesn’t.

A virtual marketing director will be someone with experience who has already learned from past failures. Your money will be well spent on someone who knows what they’re doing right from the start.

5. They Bring an Outside Perspective

Oftentimes, it can be hard to spot potential problems while working on your own marketing plan. After a while, it can all start to blur into one huge mess! Or, your employees may be reluctant to share their ideas or concerns.

One of the most valuable parts of hiring an outside marketing director is the fact that they’ll bring a fresh perspective to your marketing strategy. Their outside perspective, combined with your current ideas, can be fused together to create amazing results.

Conclusion

Overall, investing in a virtual marketing director can be a smart move. Not only will you be hiring an agency with a proven track record, but you’ll be able to combine your own ideas with theirs to yield amazing results.

We know what it takes to be a contender in the marketing world. If you’re looking for more information on the latest marketing trends, check out our blog here.

Categories
Branding

5 Golden Rules For Positive Brand Positioning

Strong branding in the digital age can lead a business to lots of love and even more bucks.

Most companies have caught on to the fact that branding has a huge impact on building a large audience. Unfortunately, most of those companies don’t actually know how to go about this in a practical way.

Check out these 5 valuable tips if you’ve hit a rough patch with your brand positioning.

Be Clear on Your Mission

Would you like and trust a company with no clue of what they actually do?

We didn’t think so.

This means that you can’t expect your audience to jump on the band wagon if they don’t even know where the wagon is going. Clarifying your brand’s mission is important for many reasons.

  • It allows you to become noticeable by target audience
  • Others are able to immediately connect with your company
  • You distinguish yourself from competition
  • People automatically know you put thought into your company

Don’t miss out on setting the record straight on who you are, what you are about and who you’re here to help.

Learn Your Audience

The whole art of building a brand comes down to one thing: People.

If you want to get lots of people to love and follow you, you have to know exactly what they want. This will require a bit of market research. Get intimate with your potential buyers by figuring out if they want your product or service. And, if so, what specifically are they looking for in what you’re offering.

You’ll also be able to figure out more ways to differentiate yourself in the market, as well as set price points averages.

You can capture this information through surveys, questionnaires, and interviews.

Consistency Is Key…With Everything!

Large companies know that brand positioning means they have to remain recognizable to their potential customers where ever they go. They do this by using consistent colors, fonts, images and a logo.

Psychology researchers have shown us that colors can affect buyer decisions. You want to put some thought into what colors you’re actually using in your logo, on your site and images.

Try not to fill your marketing materials up with too many inconsistent colors and different fonts. You want your audience to keep up with you.

Choose a tone for your business- whether it be serious, comical or educative -and stick to this to establish a clear voice for your delivery. Remember people should know it’s you even if your ad is in an unfamiliar place. They trust and respect the comfort of familiarity.

Don’t Be Tacky

Nobody likes a rude person. And they certainly won’t like a rude company.

Make sure that your reputation is not ruined by lack of consideration for others, especially those you’re aiming to ask for money. Don’t post offense pictures and comments on your social media to get attention. And if you say that you are for a certain cause, don’t contradict this with questionable actions.

Keep your image in mind at all times. And train your employees on high quality, tasteful customer service and public relations.

Hire Some Brand Positioning Experts

Making sure everything is in order with your brand positioning can be overwhelming.

Outsource some professionals if you’ve hit a bump in the road or want them to tighten up the foundation you’ve started. Hiring a marketing coach can drastically enhance and increase your brand’s engagement, image and sales.

Don’t hesitate to call in an expert otherwise you could make matters worse for your business.

Putting It All Together

Keep your business on the right foot by putting these effective brand positioning rules into play.

You will build great connections with your audience and make yourself a lot more money in the long run. And, remember, you don’t have to do it alone. There are experts waiting to help you take your brand to the next level.

Let us know what part of branding is giving you the most issues, and we’ll gladly help you fix it.

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Uncategorized

Why You Need a Marketing Coach to Boost Your Business

marketing coach working with business ownerAs a small business owner, you are in control of everything regarding your business.

And chances are, you are in need of some help. A lot of small business owners don’t have the time nor the experience to do their own marketing.

That’s where a professional comes in.

A marketing coach will be able to take your marketing plan to the next level.

Read on to see why you need a marketing coach to boost your business.

 

A marketing coach will be able to create a plan

You may have a marketing plan already in place. Or you may be taking the “roll with the punches” type of mission.

Either way, a marketing professional will able to structure out an effective marketing plan for you to work with.

They will be able to identify the spots in your plan that may need some attention.

They’ll save you time

A marketing consultant will take the duties of marketing off your hands. This will leave you with more time to run your business.

They will also be able to identify problem areas quicker, saving you time and money.

You won’t need to spend your precious time and effort trying to solve problems you are not capable of solving on your own.

They will keep you accountable

As your own boss, you may find yourself letting other things slips that don’t seem as important.

You may not be setting the right marketing goals at the right times. Or you may not be meeting the objectives you’ve set in place.

By hiring a marketing professional, you will be held accountable for goals and objectives.

Your marketing consultant will set up coaching sessions. There you will be given things to work on within a specific timeframe.

You won’t have to make any commitments

You may have thought about hiring a marketing director to add to your staff. But along with a new employee comes extra space needed and extra salary paid.

The great thing about hiring a marketing consultant is that it’s a short-term agreement.

You are able to hire a consultant as you need them. You’ll reap the benefits of an experienced marketing consultant without spending the money it takes to hire a full-time employee.

Conclusion

As a small business owner, you may find yourself lagging on some of the tasks you have set aside.

Often times those tasks fall under the marketing category.

You may find it difficult to keep up with the demands that marketing your small business requires.

Or you may not be aware of all the knowledge it takes to set yourself up for success.

If you are having trouble delegating marketing tasks among yourself and your employees, you want to consider hiring a marketing consultant.

A marketing consultant will have the professional know-how that you may be lacking. They will identify key gaps in your marketing plan that you may have missed.

The best part about hiring a marketing coach? They will help you set goals for your business and make sure you stay on top of them.

Have you recently hired a marketing professional? What was the main reason? Let us know in the comments.

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Email Marketing

Don’t Blast Out Emails, You’re Shoving Your Customers Away

I was reading an article on email marketing on the Aweber blog titled 6 Ways to Connect with Customers through Email. The tips were good and very foundational. If you get a second, go check them out.

The advice that stuck out to me was way #5, talk to one person instead of thousands. How many times do we receive salesy, almost generic emails and quickly delete them?

Worse yet, how many times have we sent emails like that not thinking about how we react to emails with that tone? Do we somehow think that our email is different, we’re special?

The author recommends writing the mass email as if you were writing to only one person. Think about it, are all your mass emails really for every one on your list? Probably not. Write to that one person and your message will hit your targets as the message connects with them.

If you would like to learn more about email marketing, get the free What to Write Guide on our Do It Yourself Marketing Resources page.

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Uncategorized

Are You Doing This?

F r o m  t h e  D e s k  o f  B r o c k w e l l  B o n e

Greetings:

We’ve all heard it, but few of us really do it.
We know we NEED to do this if we truly want to be successful but still we don’t do it.
What is it?  It’s working “on” your business instead of “in” your business.
That’s the only way to truly build a business instead of just having a job.  The problem is many of us don’t know where to get started or even if we know where to start, we don’t know step 2, 3, 4 etc.…
But that all changes now!
When [you click here] you can reserve a spot for the one-time only, Livecast of “Creating Your Ultimate Marketing Machine” that’s being done by my friend and marketing automation expert, Dave Dee.
On [“Creating Your Ultimate Marketing Machine”] you’ll discover the secret formula to creating a system that works 24/7/365 to get you new customers, clients or patients, convert them into sales and creates a predictable, reliable cash flow surges in your business…on Auto-Pilot!
You set this system up once, and it runs for you all day every day!
Reserve your spot for this one-time only Livecast now by [clicking here] and in just a few hours of working “on” your business you’ll eliminate hundreds of hours working “in” your business.
Your Partner in Success,
Brockwell Bone
Business Growth Consultant
p.s. This is a one-time only live event with live Q&A so you won’t want to miss out. [Click here and grab a spot!]
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Loyalty Marketing

Loyalty Marketing

beakn-coffee-punchLoyalty marketing, by definition, is a marketing technique that strategically markets to current customers using incentives and special offers. We have all seen the loyalty programs where you rack up reward points and, particularly in the restaurant industry, the buy so many sandwiches/coffees/etc., get 1 free punch cards.

It is up to business owners and their marketing teams to determine the best strategy for marketing to current customers, developing compelling offers to spur another sale, and how to keep loyal customers coming back. Every business has an opportunity to capitalize on loyal customers, no matter what industry you are in.

A great direct marketer, Dan Kennedy, wrote that businesses “are loathe to spend money and time on the people who have already proven they will patronize them and, in fact, do patronize them. But always willing to pour time and money into chasing the next new customer. They are in ardent, sweaty, drooling lust for the next new conquest, completely uninterested in the already conquered.”

Why?! Why are we focused on conquering the prospect? I feel that it is the thrill of the game and the exhilaration of “the kill”. I have a friend in insurance. For almost a year, he worked in a setting that, on the surface, seemed like a natural environment for pitching and selling insurance. But, the exact opposite happened, and after not making a sale in over 6 months – he was miserable. We desire that thrill.

Loyalty marketing can actually generate more new closings, quicker. Think about it … you have a loyal client that loves what you offer, when one of their friends asks for a solution to a problem – they will refer you (so long as they remember you). And the referral helps you pitch a warm lead opposed to a cold prospect.

What are you doing to promote loyalty to your company? What loyalty vehicles are you employing to maximize the lifetime customer value to your business?
(Comment below or on our Marketing Facebook Page)

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Uncategorized

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