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The Slow Death of Inbound Marketing

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By Tobin Lehman    

Economists talk about markets being oversaturated when too many product or concept variations are competing in the same space. Over-saturation leads to products being devalued.

That’s what’s happening to inbound marketing. The buzzword has been on the forefront of the digital space for the past decade, and now it seems to have crossed a critical threshold into decline.

Inbound marketing is really just hyper-effective SEO combined with conversion optimization techniques to drive leads. It’s not a revolution, it’s simply good branding. And it’s mostly thanks to Hubspot.

Marketing agencies, like the children behind the Pied Piper, fell in line, and pushed this “inbound” craze for far longer than it should have been pushed.

But, if it hasn’t already, it’s all about to slowly fade into the sunset for your organization. Why are the tides changing? Here are our observations.

Everyone’s on Board

One of the most important factors in the decline of inbound is that everyone is on board now. It’s hard to find an industry where inbound isn’t being implemented. Just when we think we’ve found an industry, there is a leader in the space who seems to be 12-18 months ahead of the curve and dominating the space.

So the simple truth is that “inbound,” in some form or another (even if just via good SEO practices), is now the cost of entry for many businesses that use digital marketing. When companies start marketing, then, this fact requires them to build above existing marketing. They might try using paid media or other “outbound” means to gain attention. So, “inbound” as a strategy is DOA.

Fake News and Content Overload

This point is more of a cultural note. Thanks to a growing and seething distrust of media in our culture, we now have the new oxymoron of “fake news”. Couple this mentality with the sheer volume of articles and content produced online, and many people just want to turn the whole thing off.

In business terms, there is just too much competition in the market for attention. Attention is really the asset we are after, and it’s in decreasing supply.

For instance: how much attention do you give to news sites? If you’re smart, not much, as you see that no matter what’s really happening in the world, those sites still produce (or, better, manufacture) content for your viewing attention – whether it has value or not.

What are we to do? Well, there is a subset of content that is still really relevant, and that’s content that’s based on expertise. True expertise will always be in high demand and low supply. Consequently, companies that can produce content that is rich in expertise will win the day and cut through the clutter.

Life After Inbound Marketing

I don’t think that inbound marketing will really ever die. As a concept, it’s valid, and it’s truly one of the best campaign types for organic growth. Instead, here is what I think will happen as we move into the next iteration of it.

  1. Hubspot has already admitted by their own actions (the inclusion of Hubspot Ads) that organic SEO can’t be the only source of traffic. Paid will be a larger part of the traffic mixture, as digital attention becomes harder to acquire via organic means.
  2. This includes paid social media marketing. As organic reach continues to fade, social media will become more complex and serve almost as an internet OS in itself for most Americans.
  3. Marketing technology has blurred the line between macro and micro user tracking, allowing for increased personalization.
  4. Along the same lines, AI is beginning to learn how to create content. My bet is that we’ll see an epic explosion of content creation by bots and AI, which will start producing content at volumes and specifications that were previously impossible. This event will be the death blow to the entire inbound market. It’s coming (in fact, it’s almost here).

Yet, as all of these developments take place, some fundamentals will always remain true. People will need to be sold on good messaging and positioning. Sales teams will still need to be competitive and intelligent in how they approach prospects.

Life after inbound will be full of similar challenges, but it’ll be set in a vastly different landscape and managed via a different toolbox.

What Should We Do Now?

In preparation, it’s best to think about sticking to our guns. Develop the sales team to use the best tools in the industry to do their work well. Then equip the marketing team with budgets to try experimental channels of attention. Where can we gain attention of the market in big and small ways to get the edge over pure paid or organic traffic online?

There is a world of opportunity out there, we just need to turn our eyes to the horizon and move forward.

Feature Image Credit: Campaign_Creators / Pixabay

By Tobin Lehman    

Sourced from Business 2 Community

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Creative, quick-fire and sassy conversations – a new way to drive sales for Happy Socks

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From one-to-many to one-to-one

“The immediacy of digital communications means we have to be really short, snappy and engaging in what we say to customers. We only have seconds to grab and hold their attention.” says Marc Verschueren, Online Marketing Director at Happy Socks.

Happy Socks is not alone in facing this challenge, and companies in today’s digital era must forge personal connections in tight timeframes, if they want to drive customer engagement.

To achieve this, brands in almost every sector are moving beyond one-to-many marketing strategies and expanding their one-to-one capabilities. Customers don’t want to be spoken to en masse, any more. When they interact with a brand, they want that same level of personal commitment back.

“We’re a very creative company and we try to spread happiness. Messenger offers so many opportunities to engage in a fun way”

Technology is developing quickly and giving brands the tools to design one-to-one customer experiences that are informal, conversational, realistic and highly effective. These technologies can be adapted to individual needs and deployed faster than many think.

Bringing the brand personality to life

Happy Socks recently took a closer look at Messenger, and how it could use the platform to speak directly to individual customers and show off its fun-loving and slightly zany personality.

Lots of customers were using Messenger to ask questions, and Verschueren wondered whether Happy Socks could make the customer experience more sophisticated and use the platform to strike up engaging, two-way conversations.

The path to purchase for Happy Socks’ customers is short, because its products are relatively inexpensive. This means the brand must make the most of every customer interaction to drive sales.

A lot of sales are campaign driven and Happy Socks initially used Messenger in one of its first campaigns of the year.

Verschueren explains: “This year we started with a New Year’s Resolution Campaign, so for people that wanted to eat more healthily, we presented them the different fruit or vegetable socks that we have. If someone else wanted to be more active and sporty, we showed them our athletics socks. We started with a relatively simple bot and a straightforward Messenger flow.”

The bot engaged with customers, found out about their resolutions and budgets, and then suggested appropriate products.

The informality of Messenger allows Happy Socks to really express its brand personality

Test, learn, improve, repeat

Happy Socks went from campaign concept to delivery within five weeks. In that time it designed the customer flow and developed the required wording, tone of voice and creatives. It aligned the campaign to existing business and marketing strategies and benchmarked performance against detailed KPIs.

The speed of implementation minimised the time and resource Happy Socks had to use in testing Messenger and assessing its impact on customer experience and commercial results. Verschueren says the return on advertising spend was immediate and commensurate to that achieved by Happy Socks’ regular Facebook adverts.

His team are now building on that initial success and using the rich customer data generated by Messenger to sharpen future campaigns. They can measure the flow of customers and identify exactly where they engage, how they engage, and when they drop off.

This high-resolution picture pinpoints where tweaks are needed to optimise the overall flow. It also means companies can analyse the impact of each change, validate their strategy at every step, and quickly expand on successful activity.

“We’re very metric-driven,” says Verschueren. “Whatever we do, we look at the metrics and how can we improve on them. What’s working and what’s not? If something is performing well we try to iterate on that strategy and build out from there.”

The perfect fit

Happy Socks has discovered the informality of Messenger allows it to really express its brand personality, to provide a wittier and more tongue-in-cheek experience, and to engage with customers in highly personalised, one-to-one conversations.

The platform also lets Happy Socks speak to its customers at any point in their purchase journey, and it is exploring what types of conversation are most effective at each stage.

Drawing to a close, Verschueren comments: “We’re a very creative company and we try to spread happiness. Messenger offers so many opportunities to suggest products, engage in a fun way, and show off the lighter side of our brand. I think it’s a great opportunity.”

The Reuters editorial and news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, part of the commercial advertising group. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.

Sourced from Reuters

Brought to you by Messenger Business
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Are terms like ‘millennial’ actually useful?

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Terms like millennial, Gen Z and Gen X are frequently bandied about, but are these demographic groupings actually meaningful to marketers?

Just 7% of marketers believe terms like Gen X, Gen Z and millennial are a very effective means of segmentation, according to an exclusive Marketing Week. In fact, 55% say such demographic groupings are not very effective or not effective at all.

Vodafone head of youth and mass segments Daniel Lambrou explains he would not use such terms to define behaviours or people.

“I wouldn’t use them as part of my marketing strategy, but I would use the generic terms in conversation if I’m trying to articulate a particular point about an age group,” he states.

Similarly, MoneySuperMarket’s head of customer insight, Jonathan Wood, disagrees with “stereotyping” people into a certain group based on the year they were born.

“Attitudes, needs, behaviours and motivations – not to mention life stages – are all very diverse and so, for us, it does not make sense to group people into a collective, just because they happen to be born within a few years of each other,” he adds.

Marketing and insight director at Digital Cinema Media (DCM) Zoe Jones explains that her team avoids what she sees as overly broad labels such as Gen Z or millennial. When researching the 16- to 34-year-old audience, her team was careful to acknowledge the significant differences between someone born in 1984 and 2002.

“There were some interesting differences within the 16 to 34 audience when we looked specifically at the younger end of the spectrum – those aged 16 to 24,” says Jones.

“Social video becomes more ‘binge-watching’ than just something spontaneous; live TV at a broad, non-programme-specific level, is more frequently associated as ‘low attention’; and perceptions of YouTube were more positive.”

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Sourced from MW Marketing Week

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Is the B-Word Killing Your Business?

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By Lauren Sindel,

But relax … it’s nothing a good old copywriter can’t solve.

You know how to write. Maybe it isn’t Hemingway quality, but you can string a few sentences together and make your point. Now that your website’s up and running, you can quickly draft up some nice little promotional sayings that you’ve seen somewhere before like, “We offer the best services around.” Because that’s original.

No, but seriously, that teeny tiny little ‘B’ word is killing your business.

You don’t need to be the best, you need to show your target clients that you’re the best choice for them.

How?

By displaying high quality, client-focused copy on your website.

That is the most essential part of marketing: knowing how to speak to your audience and connect with them.

If you can do that, don’t even bother reading the rest of this article.

If you think it’s something you’d like to know more about, read on. It’s going to make your marketing strategy so much easier!

Writing good, effective copy isn’t just about sounding poetic. In fact, very few professional copywriters write poetically – unless it’s appropriate of course.

To write memorable copy, you need to get inside the mind of your target client and craft your copy around that profile. Let me give you an example.

A beauty supply store owner hires a copywriter to write all their web content. The target client is a 20-something year-old middle-class female who obviously loves beauty. This isn’t a highly detailed client profile, but it gives a general idea of what kind of client the copywriter needs to target. Now the copywriter knows the copy needs to comprise of the following elements to engage with the target audience:

  • Down-to-earth, casual writing style
  • Friendly, positive tone
  • Include some Millennial vocab i.e. JOMO
  • Reference celebrities who use similar products

When you consider your customer, you can make copy engage with them and trigger a reaction of curiosity so they’ll want to know more about you and your services.

A professional copywriter always has a few tricks up their sleeve for charming potential clients. They have the experience to analyse your audience, create content that addresses their needs, and encourage them to use your services.

Some start-ups don’t even consider hiring an experienced copywriter because they do not understand the value of their service.

I once had a client who was apprehensive at first, but when he read the web copy I’d created, he replied to my email with one simple sentence:

“So that’s why companies hire copywriters.”

Connect with me here to talk more about your business and copywriting questions.

By Lauren Sindel,

Founder of BestMeBrand | Copywriter | Reporter |

Lauren Sindel is a copywriter, content manager, and founder of BestMeBrand, a branding-focused copywriting company for small businesses and startups. “I help put people’s thoughts and ideas into words.”

Sourced from Thrive Global

 

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7 Marketing Myths Debunked

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Facts are funny things. Myths go hand in hand with them. It is deciphering what is which that is sometimes the hard part. But, their separation is necessary to understand how to market at an optimal level.

Myth Busting

  1. More content, more traffic! False – Content creation is a requirement for success, but quality outweighs quantity. Speaking in an expert voice is a better draw than words for word’s sake. The inbound framework consists of web design, SEO contextual keywords of value, social media, email marketing, and building trust with an audience.
  2. Thinking the inbound traffic framework is merely a fad. False – Internet fads do exist. However, many people do not like change in marketing and believe inbound strategies will fade away like most Internet trends. Business coaching and mentoring are available for people who find the changes startling.
  3. Return of Investment, or ROI, cannot be deciphered using the inbound traffic strategy. False – The myth about ROI’s has existed since the beginning of inbound Internet marketing. Automated Marketing Platforms began its existence so that businesses could track the ROI easier than ever.
  4. Digital Media costs too much and get nothing in return. False – The particular myth is entirely backward. Digital Marketing creates revenue, not the other way around. Online digital content has no expiration date. Eyes over a never-ending expanse of time mean more for the buck in the long run.
  5. Having only a website is enough! It does not have to be cellphone accessible. False & False – People are not going to visit a website randomly. Thousands of companies are competing with each other at any given moment, regardless of industry. And without a mobile accessible site, the chances of inbound traffic is even lower.
  6. Word of mouth is magic and will do all the work. False – Entire industries continue to *only* use word of mouth. The old school approach is a habit hard to break because there was a time when it was all a business had to gain new patrons. The method integration into a marketing strategy framework is available, but no one should rely on referrals and word of mouth even if it were the most gainful means. Facebook advertising is proof that word of mouth and social media methods go hand in hand.
  7. In the about section of the website, a simple paragraph and photograph are fine. False – The first giveaway that it is a myth is the fact no SEO exists when throwing a call to action paragraph on a website. The simplicity of the approach does not draw search engine attention through Google, or any other search engine. Quality content is indispensable.

Food for Thought

Over eighty percent of online marketing are small businesses using the Internet Marketing strategies. The decision to change methods of marketing is huge, but the integration is a requirement in the era of online marketing.

Businesses that utilize inbound marketing see their ROI triple compared to outbound marketing. Workshops are available to even those who work from home.

Inbound marketing strategies are here to stay. It is better for consumers and companies alike to deploy a modern marketing plan.

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Melissa is a mother of 2, lives in Utah, and writes for a multitude of sites. She is currently the EIC of HarcourtHealth.com and writes about health, wellness, and business topics.

Sourced from Axcess News

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5 Steps to Help You Find Inbound Marketing Happiness

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How can inbound marketing impact your customer’s happiness level? The answer might be in the reviews. The growth of social media has led to the growth of consumer power. If a customer loves a product, they have the power to recommend it to friends and family. If a customer felt like they didn’t receive a five-star experience, they have the power to let you know.

Due to the pressure of maintaining a positive online reputation, many brands are beginning to dedicate a customer service specialist to manage and monitor their online reputation. In fact, in 2018, 78 percent of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour. If the customer holds the power to your online reputation, then shouldn’t they be the focus of your marketing strategy?

Out(bound) with the old, In(bound) with the new!

The way we communicate is evolving, and so is the way marketing operates. Traditional outbound marketing meant fighting for your potential customer’s attention. Inbound marketing differs because it is customer-centric. By generating content curated to tackle the needs and problems of your ideal customers, you appeal to qualified prospects and build confidence for your business.

Why is this important? Because “customer success is your success!” Reviews and customer opinions matter.

Eighty-one percent of people trust advice from friends and family over advice from a business. 69 percent do not trust advertisements.

Customers are your greatest marketers!

Funnel vs. Flywheel

The inbound marketing process is known as a flywheel, while traditional outbound marketing is thought of as a funnel. This funnel starts with marketing, then trickles down to sales and ends with customers as an afterthought. The issue with the funnel is that the only way to grow is at the top because growth is confined to what you can put in for marketing efforts, which are becoming increasingly expensive.

Meanwhile, the flywheel places customers at the center. The customers are the driving force. The basic definition of a flywheel is a mechanism that stores energy and releases it. In a car, a flywheel is designed to keep an engine running even when you aren’t “pressing the gas pedal,” which is what your content is doing online. The flywheel concept forces you to really take stock and invest in your customers in order to achieve growth.

Flywheel Elements: Attract, Engage, Delight

The flywheel puts the customer at the center with three elements based around the customer’s experience with your brand. The goal is for your content to keep attracting, engaging and delighting customers. There are three parts that make up the flywheel components:

Attract

In this stage, through relevant and helpful content you attract potential customers, they “enter your flywheel” and interact with your company for the first time.

Engage

In this stage, through conversational tools like chat and email, you engage with potential customers to promise continued value. In return, this influences the decision-making and purchasing process as early as possible.

Delight

In the final stage, you delight customers by continuing to act as an understanding guide and expert in your field. In return, it gives customers the potential to become advocates for your company.

Inbound Marketing Content Ideas

The content necessary for creating a successful inbound marketing approach needs to pull rather than push. It needs to educate rather than interrupt, and it needs to provide value rather than to sell or persuade. Below are five unique ways to stand out while providing inbound content.

1. Facebook Live

With Facebook Live the possibilities to offer inbound content are endless from expert interviews to meet the team specials and more! Customers watching also have the ability to comment and hit reaction buttons to what is happening during the live video. Through this tool you can provide customers with helpful knowledge in a creative and interactive way.

2. Blog-Like Posts on Instagram

Instagram is a visually driven platform, but when helpful information is turned into a post it can be a game changer. Simply feature creative graphics, created on a program like Canva, which contain blog-like information in either a carousel or single image that provides customers with tips, knowledge, or tools. It’s a growing way to grab a potential customer’s attention.

3. Free Trials

Who doesn’t like FREE? By offering a free trial of an online service or e-book, you have a chance to catch your potential customer’s attention with a more in-depth story than a short social media blurb, and the customer feels they are getting something of value in return. The most efficient way to offer a free trial is to have potential customers enter their contact information in a form. That way you have the ability to engage with them in the near future.

4. Templates

People love content that is ready-to-use and a  template can really appeal to a customer. For example, a social media manager can offer a free calendar template for planning posts. An accountant can offer a simple excel template for formulas. The most efficient way to offer a free template is to offer the download after a potential customer enters their email in a form. That way you have their contact information to engage with them in the future.

5. Podcasts

Podcasts are becoming extremely popular as many people are on the go! Fifty one percent (144 million) of the US population has listened to a podcast – up from 44 percent in 2018. Potential customers can listen to podcasts while commuting, working or just on their own time. A podcast gives you a unique chance to humanize your brand through your voice and stories. According to Podcast Insights, Podcast listeners are much more active on every social media channel (94 percent are active on at least one – vs 81 percent for the entire population). This is important to note for the delight stage of the flywheel.

The Best Marketers Use Flywheel

We are entering into the review revolution where customers have more power than brands do. Your best marketers are your customers.

By building a flywheel, you can take advantage of the power of your customers’ influence through inbound marketing. Using a flywheel strategy you can transform your company by doubling down on customer success. It’s not easy and it can be costly to make this change in your organization, but it’s an important one to get right.

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Sourced from Social #PR Chat

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What Social Media Can Do For Your Business

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By  Desiree Yazdan

Are you on social media, or do you use social media? There’s a difference. In today’s world, it seems like everything is online. Printed media, it seems, is becoming less relevant, which makes advertising in it less powerful. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I picked up a magazine and read it. In the past few years, I’ve really discovered what social media can do for my business, and I’ve cracked the code on how to make the most of it.

When I first began my career, I relied heavily on Google Adwords, local magazine spreads and a few other forms of paid advertisement in order to get the word out about my business. It was extremely expensive and, as the years went on, I realized that the print ads weren’t feeding my business at all. I began realizing that more of the world was on the internet and I could start connecting with other people on social media about my business. When I realized that I could actually advertise my business for free, I stopped using Google and magazine spreads immediately.

It took a few years of dedicated work on sites including Facebook and Instagram, but I figured out how to use these platforms to transform my business. That was a big deal. When I first started using the platforms, I wasn’t sure it would work — especially Instagram. It seemed like these platforms worked better for people in the fashion and beauty industries (I’m a cosmetic dentist). But where there’s a will there’s a way, and once I realized how to utilize the platforms correctly, my business grew exponentially and I started getting patients directly from Instagram and Facebook. Those patients referred family and friends, and the growth continued. One of the best parts was that I cut out almost all of my advertising expenses. I believe that if this can work for a small business like mine, it can work for any business.

The reason it took so long was that in the beginning, I was simply on social media — I wasn’t actually using social media. What’s the difference? Think of being on social media as having a “to-do” list and marking “post on Facebook/Instagram” as one of the tasks that you simply check off once it’s completed. When you are using social media, on the other hand, it means that you are posting with a strategy and you are creating content that is intentional and will serve your business. You use the platform(s) to showcase yourself and your company. See the difference?

If you’re reading this and you’re wondering how to get started, let me help you understand how social media works. All social platforms are different, but let’s use Instagram as an example. Instagram is a very visual platform, so you should think of your feed like a magazine for your business. When someone lands on your page, what do you want them to see? How do you want them to feel?

Now that you have those two questions answered, the next thing you’re going to want to do is to create content. Since I’m a cosmetic dentist, I was selling a high-ticket item on my page — not a $15 lip gloss or a $10 shirt. I was selling procedures that range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Learning how to sell my services on social media really became an art.

Here’s the general rule: No one wants to be sold to over and over again. You must create your content as if you were sitting around a campfire with your audience. If you were to talk strictly about business, you would get kicked out of the campfire. but if you connect with people emotionally about your business, that’s when you start grabbing people’s attention. Create your content in a way that will connect you with your followers and your potential clients. This is what’s going to help you turn those followers into customers.

Keep in mind, social media is all about the long game. It’s about building a community and helping people get to know you and trust you. Once that happens, they will turn from a follower to a customer. Use social media to showcase personal aspects of your professional business and create experiences for your tribe. Don’t be overly focused on sales. You’ve got to work hard at being consistent and showing up. Remember that social media is a long-term strategy. Dedicate yourself to one platform for a period of time and see how your business can flourish.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By  Desiree Yazdan

Expert in reconstructive & cosmetic dentistry and social media growth. www.DrYazdan.com. Find me online @DrYazdan.

Sourced from Forbes

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Get Your New Small Business Noticed With These 13 Marketing Tips

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By Matt Reinstetle

So you’re in the early stages of launching a small business. You’ve got a great product or service and obtained funding to get the company off the ground, but what about marketing? Do people know your business will be opening soon?

Getting noticed is one of the biggest challenges facing new small business owners. There are many different ways to market your business, such as using internet ads, social media pages, content marketing, in-person networking and more.

Some methods may be more effective than others, depending on your industry. But two areas all businesses need to excel in are internet-based marketing and in-person networking.

We’ve compiled a list of small business marketing tips, strategies and ideas that will help get your business noticed before, during and after opening.

13 Small Business Marketing Tips, Ideas and Strategies

Below is a breakdown of different tips, strategies and approaches on small business marketing. These tips and ideas are ranked based on when you should consider implementing them during pre-launch or in the early days of your business.

1. Create a Marketing Budget

For small businesses operating on a shoestring budget, it can be tempting to save money by not setting aside funds for marketing. But if your marketing strategy is to rely on word of mouth to promote your business, you’re in for a rude awakening.

Josh Rubin, CEO of Post Modern Marketing, tells small business owners they have to create a marketing budget, and the value of that budget can’t be an amount that will break the company if it doesn’t produce immediate results.

In the early days, you’re going to be spending time determining your company’s identity and figuring out what messaging connects with new customers. Be prepared for a lot of trial and error. “So set a budget that you’re willing to lose,” Rubin says.

2. Secure Your Company Name

You have an idea of what to name your small business and think it will connect with your target audience, but is that name available online?

“I see a lot of business owners that think of the name of their company but then don’t think about reserving a URL with [that name],” says Sherry Bonelli, owner of Early Bird Digital Marketing. She is also a small business mentor with Score, a volunteer group supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration that connects business owners with mentors from similar fields.

Having a website address that matches your company name is important, as people are doing more business online. It might be difficult for potential customers to find your website if they don’t match.

Once you have a business name in mind, go to a domain registrar, such as GoDaddy or Google Domains, to see if the web address is available. Prices start at $12 per year to reserve a domain name using Google Domains.

3. Create a Logo and Brand

If you want to be taken seriously as a business, you’re going to need to look the part. It might be tempting to create a generic logo and use a website template or stock photos when launching, but that isn’t necessarily good in the long run.

“I think many small business owners skimp on this step, and that’s a big mistake because if you don’t look like a real company, customers and clients are not going to trust you,” Bonelli says. Freelance websites such as Fiverr, Upwork and 99designs connect business owners with graphic designers who can create a custom logo, color palette, business cards and overall design for your business. This can cost anywhere between $300 and $500.

4. Build a User-Friendly Website

Once you have your logo ready, it’s time to build your website.

The way people search online has created many changes to website design. Having a site that looks good on smartphones and tablets is more vital than ever.

Website builders like WordPress.com, Squarespace and Wix, come with mobile-friendly features. They offer multiple templates, customization options and support for a monthly fee. Think like a potential consumer when building your site and make sure it has all the features and information you’d want to see.

5. Make Your Website SEO Friendly

Now that you’ve built your website, you should make it as easy as possible for people to find it when searching the web. Search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, is the process of getting web traffic from search engine results. SEO plays a crucial role in helping local and small businesses get discovered online.

Several factors determine a website’s search engine ranking. These include posting well-written blog pages that establish your topic credibility on a regular basis and using correct keywords associated with your business. To learn more about best SEO practices, check out free resources on sites such as Moz, Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal.

If you’re planning on opening a physical location such as a restaurant, store or office, don’t forget to create a business profile on Google My Business, a free business listing service, that provides your essential info,such as a street address, phone number, hours of operation and business description.

One of the primary benefits of Google My Business is that it drives the “Map Pack” on Google search results, which may increase your visibility, in-store visits or calls This service is only available for local businesses with a physical address, not internet-only companies.

6. Create Social Media Pages

A woman with curly hair and glasses types on a computer in her office.Save
When owning a company, you should watch what your competitors are doing with their social media platforms. “If a competitor is using Pinterest and it seems like they’re gaining a lot of engagement, then Pinterest might be a place you want to go,” says Kim Randall, owner of KiMedia Strategies. Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder

Now it’s time to create social media pages on platforms your audience uses.  You can count on using the major platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn — to promote business news and engage with your customer base.

At all stages of your company’s life, you should also keep an eye on what your competitors are doing with their social media platforms. “If a competitor is using Pinterest and it seems like they’re gaining a lot of engagement, then Pinterest might be a place you want to go,” says Kim Randall, owner of KiMedia Strategies, a small business marketing firm.

7. Find Free or Low-Cost Business Services

Money is going to be tight in the early days of starting your small business, so it helps to use free or low-cost services to help your marketing. Below is a list of programs that can help you save money running your business.

  • Buffer is a social media tool that allows users to schedule posts in advance or post the same content to different platforms at once. It has free and paid versions, starting at $15 per month.
  • Google Alerts are free and will help you keep up with what people are saying online about your business or keep up with specific keywords.
  • KeywordTool.io is a free service that allows business owners to do keyword research for their website and ads.
  • Apps such as Grammarly and the Hemingway Editor can be useful when writing blogs or content on your website. These will help you write more succinctly and catch grammatical errors. Grammarly has a free version and a premium version that includes features such as a plagiarism detector, vocabulary enhancement and genre-specific writing-style suggestions. The premium versions costs $29.95 per month (or a discounted rate of $139.95 when paid annually).

8. Buy Online Ads

Once your business has opened, it’s time to start advertising. Google Ads, which appear when you search on Google, is an obvious place to start because of the search engine’s popularity. According to Google, businesses generally make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads.

Bonelli says the problem with Google Ads for new small-business owners is that it can be expensive. To make it effective, she says to include your ad the information that users seek when they search on Google.

For example, if someone is searching for “wedding gown alterations,” the web page your ad sends users to must emphasize that your business specializes in wedding gown alterations.

9. Set Up Email Marketing

People who sign up to your email marketing program tend to be the most engaged members of your audience. These members generally read more articles after opening the email and are more likely to buy your products or services. That’s why it’s important to provide content and information your audience cares about in every email blast you send.

“If you’re mailing out to a random [email subscription] list you didn’t build, that’s where you’re not going to be effective. But if you mail out information that people are interested in, that’s where it’s really effective,” Bonelli says.

Include a button on your website that allows people to sign up for your email campaigns. A free version of MailChimp can help build your email list — it allows you to send up to 12,000 emails a month to up to 2,000 subscribers. The paid version allows you to send an unlimited number of emails to an unlimited number of subscribers. The cost of the membership increases based on the number of subscribers.

10. Craft an Elevator Pitch

Before you start meeting potential customers and attending networking events, do you have your elevator pitch ready? An elevator pitch is a speech lasing 30 to 45 seconds that tells the listener who you are, what you do and how your business will be better than the competition. With some practice, it may lead to a potential customer. Learn more on how to develop a great elevator pitch.

11. Become a ‘Thought Leader” in Your Field

A woman listens as a man asks a question.Save
Randall listens as Jason Hendricks asks a question during an Operation Startup workshop where Randall led a workshop on how to grow one’s company social media presence at the Entrepreneur Collaborative Center on in Ybor City, Florida on March 15, 2019. Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder

When your business is off the ground, think about establishing yourself as a thought leader. A “thought leader” is a marketing term for a recognized authority in a field who is sought after as an expert.

Every business owner is a thought leader without knowing it yet; there is a reason you started your business, so let people know what you know. For example, if you’re a photographer, write blogs offering tips and tricks on how to take better iPhone photos or suggest “three things to look for in a wedding photographer.”

Randall used this strategy in the early days of social media marketing. “When I gave my thoughts, tips and everything else away and became a thought leader within the social media space, I gained a lot more clients,” she says.

Early on when people are not yet visiting your site, consider becoming a guest contributor on another established website in your field so you can promote your knowledge on the subject and point people in the direction of your website to learn more.

Another way to become a recognized expert is by meeting your target audience. Meetup.com is a great way to find local groups who are interested in topics related to your business. For example, if you run a knitting or sewing store, you might look to see whether any knitting or sewing events are happening in your area and offer to give a free demonstration.

12. Get Involved With Your Chamber of Commerce

Not all marketing is done online. Getting involved with your local Chamber of Commerce will enable you to meet fellow business owners during in-person networking events and other chamber functions. Over time, you’ll expand your professional network and be able to utilize their resources.

Rubin says his Chamber helped his company get featured on a local news segment. Once you start to support other businesses, they’ll do the same when you have a big event or project.

“All it takes is your time and your energy,” he says.

13. Find a Business Mentor and Continue Learning

As a new small business owner or entrepreneur, it’s never a bad thing to seek guidance from people who have been in your shoes. There are both local and national nonprofits devoted to helping business owners.

Score offers their mentoring service free of charge. Rubin, a Score volunteer, says if you want to know more about marketing, Score can connect you with retired marketing executives or other knowledgeable people who can help you grow your business.

“I’ll scream their praises from every rooftop because everyone always thinks that you have to pay for this kind of business support, and it’s out there for free,” he says.

As you progress and figure out what marketing material connects with your audience, don’t stop learning new things. Small business marketing is a topic that is difficult to master because strategies that work now will change and marketing fads come and go.

Luckily, there are a lot of free blog posts, courses and resources out there to teach business owners about SEO, social media marketing, internet advertising and more.

You can sign up for a massive open online course (MOOCs), keep up with the SEO sites listed above or follow marketing professionals you admire on LinkedIn or other social media.

“There’s so much information out there now that if business owners spend an hour a night just searching the web and teaching themselves how to do small business marketing, they’ll be successful at it,” Bonelli says.

Feature Image Credit: Kim Randall, owner of KiMedia Strategies, helps other businesses grow their social media presence. Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder 

By Matt Reinstetle

Matt Reinstetle is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

Sourced from The Penny Hoarder

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Marketing Terms & Digital Advertising Acronyms You Should Know

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Sourced from AdEspresso

When it comes to digital advertising and marketing terms, acronyms like UGC, GDN, ROAS, RTB, SOV, and even TrV are commonly tossed around when discussing campaigns.

If you’re not familiar with them, you’re not alone.

Although shorthand ways of describing concepts are nothing new, the ever-expanding laundry list of industry abbreviated terms can confuse even the most seasoned and savvy of digital marketing professionals.

The world of Web marketing and paid ads is littered with technical jargon, catchphrases, and abbreviations. And anything that can be turned into a catchy acronym often is.

While some online marketing terms have become more widely known as marketing has gone mainstream, many acronyms remain unknown outside the industry — and some are even mystery to many people inside it.

Here’s our compilation of acronyms you should know and what they all mean:

General Marketing Terms

  • B2B: Business to Business

One business making a commercial transaction with another business, from wholesale product purchases to providing services.

  • B2C: Business to Consumer

The traditional business model of businesses selling directly to consumers, including local retail business, ecommerce, online banking, insurance, residential real estate, and many other products and services.

  • CX: Customer Experience

One of two commonly used marketing terms (the other being “consumer experience”) used to describe every interaction people have with a company throughout the buying process that influences a prospect or customer’s perception of the brand.

  • CTA: Call to Action

CTA Marketing Terms

 

A hyperlink, button or image that drives the reader to take action on content or ads by downloading, calling, registering or attending an event.

 

  • DMA: Designated Market Area

A geographic location representing a neighborhood, city, county, state, region or country you choose to target.

  • IAB: Interactive Advertising Bureau

IAB Marketing Terms

A trade organization that sets the industry standard for digital advertising, including ad specifications, best practices and business standards for anything digital advertising related.

  • KPI: Key Performance Indicators

KPIs Marketing Terms

 

Metric used across all industries to evaluate the success of various marketing strategies and campaign goals by tracking and measuring progress in areas brand awareness, lead generation, bounce rate, and sales conversions

 

  • MAP: Marketing Automation Platform

A technology that assists marketers in converting prospects to customers by removing high-touch, manually repetitive processes with automated solutions. The email campaign service MailChimp and marketing automation software Marketo are examples of MAPs.

  • NPS: Net Promoter Score

A survey-based customer satisfaction metric that measures (on a scale of 0 to 10) how likely people are to recommend your brand or company to others.

  • ROI: Return On Investment

A ratio between the net profit earned from campaigns and the cost of investing in marketing and advertising.

  • SMB: Small and Medium Sized Businesses

Businesses with between 5 million and 200 million in annual revenues. Also refers to businesses with 100 or fewer employees (small) and from 100 to 999 employees (medium-sized).

  • SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound

The process of providing criteria for clear defining marketing or advertising goals or establishing objectives and outlining the action steps required to achieve them.

Digital Advertising & Marketing Terms

  • BM: (Facebook) Business Manager

Facebook Business Manager Marketing Terms

 

A free integrated tool used on Facebook to manage ad accounts and pages from a single location

 

  • CAN-SPAM: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing

A U.S. law passed in 2003 that prohibits businesses from sending targeted emails without permission. (Marketers must include an unsubscribe option in all emails and they should not add names to it without the express permission of the recipient.)

  • CPC: Cost Per Click

CPC Marketing Terms

An online advertising revenue model through which advertisers are charged by the publisher (typically a website owner or a network of websites) for each time a user clicks on their advertisement.

  • CPL: Cost Per Lead

All of the costs associated with generating a lead, including advertising dollars spent, collateral creation, web hosting fees and various other costs.

  • CPM: Cost Per Mille

A method publishers use to assign a cost to advertise on their platform by charging per 1000 advertisement impressions (M is the Roman numeral for 1000) through which advertisers are charged for every time their ad is seen, not how many times it’s clicked.

  • CR: Conversion Rate

The number of people who take action on an advertisement, divided by the number that could have. For example, if your email campaign reaches 100 prospects and 25 of them respond, your conversion rate would be 25%.

  • CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization

A system for increasing the percentage of visitors or prospects that convert into customers or take any desired action on websites, landing pages, social media and CTAs. A/B split testing is commonly used to determine which version of an ad or web page (version A or version B) is more successful in optimizing conversion rates.

  • CTR: Click Through Rate

A performance indicator that measures the percentage of prospects or visitors who take the next action on an advertisement, web page or email. For example, in the case of a landing page, the CTR would be the total number of people who visit the page divided by the number who click and move on to the next step.

  • DSP: Demand Side Platform

A technology that allows advertisers to efficiently purchase display ad inventory across Real Time Bidding (RTB) networks like Google.

  • eCP(x): Effective Cost Per (fill in the blank)

Average spend based on total budget and results. The “e” can be applied to all cost models (such as CPM, CPL, or CPA). With any digital advertising campaign, you may have several placements, cost models, and budgets in place, and knowing your average spend is important to determine the effectiveness of your campaign.

  • GA: Google Analytics

Google Analytics Marketing Terms

This is a data-driven Google tool that is used by marketers to track, analyze and report website, app, and ad traffic to better understand their audience, reach, activity and metrics.

  • GDN: Google Display Network

Google’s network of over 2 million websites and apps that show display ads on their web pages, reaching over 90% of people on the internet, where businesses target consumers and other businesses on the display network using strategic topical keywords , placement on specific webpages and remarketing.

  • PPC: Pay Per Click

A digital advertising method through which publishers charge advertisers for each action (click) they take on ads. See also CPC.

  • PR: Page Rank

An algorithm used by Google to rank web pages in their search engine results using a numerical weight based on a number of different, confidential and proprietary criteria.

  • QS: Quality Score

Google Ads Quality Score Marketing Terms

 

A metric used by Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Bing that determines both the rank and cost per click of digital ads.

 

  • ROAS – Return On Ad Spend

A PPC marketing metric that demonstrates the profit made as compared to the amount of money spent on the ads. Similar to ROI.

  • RON: Run of Network

A low-cost, high-reach form of online advertising delivery through which advertisers generally have no control over ad placement in return for lower rates and a broader reach on random pages of any site that is part of an ad network. Because of their low CPM, RON ads often used for testing using age or gender targeting analysis.

  • ROS: Run of Site

A form of online advertising that delivers and rotates digital ads on a specific website that advertisers use to maximize their budget without sacrificing exposure.

  • RTB: Real Time Bidding

A method of purchasing unsold ad inventory by CPM through an auction like — the now-ceased Facebook Exchange (FBX) — where the highest bid takes inventory priority.

  • SEO: Search Engine Optimization

SEO Marketing Terms

A technical and creative marketing discipline focused on growing visibility and improve rankings in organic (non-paid) results to increase awareness and drive traffic. It is based on algorithmic variables on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

  • SEM: Search Engine Marketing

The promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.

  • SERP: Search Engine Results Pages

The pages displayed by search engines in response to a keyword query made by a user.

  • SM: Social Media

Platforms that allow users to post personal and/or business text, image and video content and socially interact.
Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat and LinkedIn.

  • SMM: Social Media Marketing

The discipline of using social media platforms to promote businesses through organic and paid campaigns.

  • SOV: Share of Voice

A calculation based on a percentage your ad is seen versus other advertisers. For example, if there are four advertisers rotating ads evenly on a page, each advertiser would have a 25 percent share of voice. If that same page has just one advertiser, that advertiser would have 100 percent share of voice.

  • SSP: Supply Side Platform

An automated technology also called sell-side platforms or yield optimization platforms, that allow publishers to maximize the prices at which they sell ad impressions.

  • TrV: TrueView

YouTube Marketing Terms

 

Video advertising sold by Google and run through YouTube, which includes in-stream, discovery and bumper ads.

 

  • UGC: User-generated content

Content created by users of a blog, social media network or online system or service.

  • VTR: View Through Rate

A metric used to report a ratio of the number of completed views of a skippable video ad, based on the number of impressions it received

Website Marketing Terms

  • BR: Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate Marketing Terms

A bounce rate refers to the action a user takes when they land on a page of your website, and leave to go to another site (i.e. bouncing off of your page).

It can also refer to emails that don’t reach an inbox.

  • CMS: Content Management System

An application that consolidates and facilitates the creation, editing, management, and distribution of content. Generally used to refer to a website; WordPress is an example of a popular CMS.

  • IBL: Inbound Link

A hyperlink leading back to your website from a third-party site.

  • DNS: Domain Name System

A protocol that translates website URLs (which use alphabetic characters) into IP addresses (that use numeric characters).

  • GDD: Growth Driven Design

The design or development of a website in intentional increments through making continuous data-driven adjustments.

  • HTML: Hypertext Markup Language

A set of codes that are used by programmers use to create web pages and tell web browsers how to display them. Each individual code is called an element, or a tag, which is used to make up the structure and content of websites.

  • RSS – Really Simple Syndication

RSS Marketing Terms

A way for users to keep track of updates to multiple websites (news sites, blogs, and others) in a single place and in an easily-viewable format, as opposed to having to manually check every single site individually.

  • UI: User Interface

A series of screens, pages, and visual elements and other conduits — either graphical or voice-controlled — that enable people to interact with a website, app, product or service.

  • UV: Unique Visitor

The number of individuals visiting a page on a website during a set period of time.

  • UX: User Experience

How a user interacts and engages with a website, app or platform (where they click, tap, swipe and visit), which can be shaped by testing different page designs, layouts, CTAs, colors, and content to improve conversion rates.

  • XML: Extensible Markup Language

XML Marketing Terms

A language used to define a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. For example, an XML sitemap is designed to help search engine crawler robots to easily find all of the pages for a given website.

Conclusion

Well, that’s it: a primer on acronyms for some of the more important digital marketing terms.

From basic marketing terms to more specialized ad network-specific lingo, this list will help to build your vocabulary and navigate the increasingly complicated digital marketing and advertising industry.

New acronyms regularly pop up, so continually work to learn emerging marketing terms to help you better understand every aspect of your promotional efforts.

Sourced from AdEspresso

 

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Bringing Balance to Your Print and Digital Media

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Sourced from Inc.

Mobile, social media, interactive, video—there’s no doubt that digital technologies get the lion’s share of buzz in the marketing world today. But here’s an interesting factoid revealed in FedEx Office’s Fourth Annual Signs of the Times Small Business Survey (Spring 2011): While many small business owners plan to reach existing and potential customers online and through social media, more than half (53 percent) intend to use more-traditional channels such as newsletters and direct mail.

What is the right mix of digital and print media for small and medium-sized businesses? Obviously, there’s no single right answer that covers all types of businesses in all kinds of industries, but there are strategies you can use to figure out what’s likely to work best for your company.

“Finding the right mix of print and digital is less about your business and more about your customers,” says Joellyn “Joey” Sargent, a principal in consulting firm BrandSprout. “Think about who they are, how they buy, where they go.” Understanding those things will help you determine how to reach customers with a mix of print and digital that provides the greatest visibility in the right places.

Look for the ability to create multiple impressions in a variety of venues to get the best ROI from your marketing programs, Sargent suggests. Avoid wasting money on marketing programs that won’t reach your target customers by first doing research to ensure that any opportunity you are considering will actually help you connect, online or off.

Determining value

Beyond having a solid understanding of your customer and your marketing objectives, budget and timing will quickly narrow things down to determine the best options for reach, frequency, and impact, says Robbin Block, marketing strategist at Blockbeta Marketing. The type of business and/or product is important because leveraging existing communications channels can be a key part of a marketing strategy. “The opportunity cost—the value of the other thing you could be doing—is a critical part of the trade-off decision” when choosing between media alternatives, she says.

One example of print media that is still successful in this digital age is direct mail, says Michelle Van Slyke, vice president of marketing at The UPS Store, which has been collaborating with the U.S. Postal Service on Every Door Direct Mail since last fall. “The results are trackable, and both our franchisees and their small business customers who have used it have seen results—new customers and repeat business,” she says.

Direct mail remains a go-to tactic for many SMBs because it is effective, and the rapid spread of digital marketing may be helping to keep it relevant. “People receive so many digital messages all day now, while their stack of mail is getting smaller and smaller,” Van Slyke says. “A direct mail piece stands out. It gets noticed, it gets read, and its offers and coupons get used.”

No matter what the mix, all types of media should be used together in a complementary manner in what’s come to be known as integrated marketing, says Kevin Kelly, chief creative operative at BigBuzz Marketing Group. “Digital and traditional media should be treated the same. It all comes down to reach, frequency, and engagement,” he says. “If digital and interactive aren’t part of your traditional plan by now, you should fold up your tent and go home.”

Sourced from Inc.

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