Category: Marketing

Digital Marketing in Web 3.0: It’s Coming

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I can’t be the only one who remembers waiting for a website to load for 5+ minutes, and when it finally did, the only way you could interact with the site is by scrolling and ingesting all of its content.

The web has come a long way. Now, all the focus is on Web 3.0, a way to decentralize the web, increase privacy for users, and AI-driven services.

As the tech world inches closer to Web 3.0, the digital marketing industry will need to shift along with it. The user experience will become more personalized, and user data more private, so marketing will need to develop more creative strategies to find leads.

What To Expect from Web 3.0

The third phase of the web is focused on three primary components:

It allows users more control over their own experience on the web. They will be able to ensure their usage is more private. The experience will become much more secure for the individual. This is because of the decentralization of the web, meaning no central authority is controlling the web.

In order to create this more personalized experience, there will be an increase in the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to communicate with users. AI will be more able to decipher human data in a usable way.

Blockchain technology will change how transactions over the web work. It uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to ensure transparent and secure transactions without the use of a third party.

Web 3.0 has a lot of exciting and ground-breaking prospects. You, as the user, will no longer face any restrictions based on income, location, gender, and a slew of other factors when performing transactions. Your identity will be more secure and there will be less server failure, making the web a more comfortable experience overall.

How It Will Impact Your Digital Marketing Strategy

For business owners and digital marketing strategists, this absolutely will force you to change the way you conduct business. No need to worry though – Web 3.0 is still a little ways down the road, so you have time to figure out and develop new strategies.

1. You will need more creative ways to gather user data.

Web 3.0 allows prospective clients to be more protective and private regarding their data. Third-party cookies will no longer be available, so companies will have to get a little more creative when working to determine a target audience and obtaining buyer data to inform decisions.

Instead, companies will need to utilize AI and various other sources to drive decision-making regarding audience and content creation. AI will help businesses to gather data focused on user behavior, and the data that is found from multiple sources will tend to lead to giving the users more personalized experiences.

What you can do now: use multiple metrics to gather user data and become familiar with any helpful AI that comes out.

2. Your content will be more personalized for your customers.

The decentralization of the web will result in more customized and individual user experiences. That means the importance of making engagement with your business a more personal experience will increase. Web 3.0’s use of virtual reality will enable you to give your customers a customized interactive experience.

What you can do now: continue to focus on building strong relationships with your clientele and any potential customers. Make these relationships authentic and genuine in nature. When building content, focus on using what you’ve learned through those relationships to create a personalized experience.

3. You will access a more global client base.

Finances might have kept your business in the past from reaching a more global market. The decentralization of Web 3.0 will make it much easier to connect with customers from all over the world. Your business will have the potential to expand exponentially.

What you can do now: identify potential markets for your business worldwide and the product trends in those locations.

Right now, we are seeing the metaverse expanding and cryptocurrency a regular topic of conversation. Though Web 3.0 is still not there yet, businesses are beginning to prepare for the shift in how they target customers and find quality leads.

Our Predictable Leads System has been proven time and again to help businesses like yours define a target audience using multiple data points, and build an effective digital sales funnel. We are redefining how we do business every day to stay up-to-date with trends and developments in the digital environment. Don’t hesitate to reach out for a free strategy session.

Tags digital marketing, marketing, marketing strategy, small business marketing, web 3.0

Blog Law Firm Marketing Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing

Choosing the Best Social Media Platform for Your Law Firm

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Determining the best platforms to establish your firm’s social media presence and establishing an effective social media presence may seem overwhelming at first. Here are some effective tips to consider as you begin to develop your firm’s strategy.

Evaluating which platforms are right for your firm follows a process of gathering data, and beginning with 1 or 2 platforms best suited to your defined goals for content delivery and marketing results. Measure your results against stated goals and course correct as you learn what efforts are most effective for your firm.

Gather Industry Data

Learn what works and what doesn’t by conducting competitor research. While evaluating reports and data on highly performing networks, identify similar firms that are successfully using social media strategies and learn from how they use their platforms.

What type of content investments are they making: blogs, legal podcasts, videos, webinars, eBooks?
How are they engaging with users?
What are they doing well?
How would you improve on their efforts?

According to the American Bar Association, law firms continue year after year to prefer LinkedIn as a social media marketing platform. This is because LinkedIn allows lawyers to promote themselves professionally, and because of its popularity within the legal profession.

Facebook follows closely behind, with 62 percent of firms holding a social media presence. This platform allows you to share related trends and articles, advertise to a targeted audience, and engage with followers.

Different platforms offer unique advantages in achieving specific goals. If your primary goal is professional development and networking with other attorneys, LinkedIn is the platform of choice. However, if your goal is community engagement, consider a more personalized network like Instagram or Facebook.

Setting Clear Goals for Social Media Efforts

Setting clear realistic goals around your social media efforts is critical to guiding your strategy and achieving success on your terms. Social media is about cultivating an audience and creating conversation. If your main goal is quick conversions, you will likely be disappointed. Some goals other law firms have in their marketing strategies are:

Professional development and networking (66%)
Maintaining client pipeline (51%)
Education and awareness (49%)
Community engagement (43%)
Case investigation (21%)

Content Delivery

Successful social media presence requires a sustained commitment to consistently create and publish timely, new, relevant content that caters to the interests of your target audiences. Different platforms require various levels of commitment to new content. Some platforms like LinkedIn can yield positive results with only a few short posts a week while others like Instagram require a steady flow of relevant high-quality content to capture users’ attention.

Next, carefully consider your ability to respond quickly to users who engage with your content. This is how you build your audience, network, and increase brand awareness. Responding to comments from two LinkedIn posts a week is a smaller time commitment than remaining in continuous conversation with users on other platforms.

In the beginning, set yourself up for success on one or two platforms and track your results. Gain a solid understanding of how much time you can dedicate to social media content creation, publishing schedules, and user engagement, and then adjust your strategy accordingly. Establishing and managing six different social media accounts on separate platforms is not likely to be successful right out of the gate.

Track Your Results

It is crucial to track and measure your results to learn what is working and what needs course correction. Add your social media accounts to your Google Analytics goals and review the data after your first 3 months. The data will help you discover what type of content is most relevant to users, will cultivate your target audience, and create brand-building conversations.

Firms with clear goals, a steady content flow, and an established presence on at least one platform need to periodically evaluate performance and adjust to maximize success against stated goals.

Use Available Reporting to Increase Investments in Your Highest-Performing Networks

Data will help you discover which platforms and activities deliver tangible results and which ones are a waste of your time. Google Analytics has several reports to help you evaluate the success of your networks and content:

Overview reports – Identifies how many users are converting from social networks
Network referrals – Measures engagement generated by each social platform
Landing pages – Tracks engagement for URLs by platform driving traffic
Conversions – Identifies total conversions by social platform
Plugins – Details how many users clicked your share buttons by platform
Users flow – Maps the path users take through your website by social network

Maximizing Social Media Success

Is your google profile set up to attract your ideal clients? Is your firm’s visibility maximized in search results? Optimize your google profile to bring in more cases with this helpful checklist.

GoBeyond, a full-service marketing agency, is ready to support your practice whether you are new to using social media or an expert practitioner. Contact us to discuss your needs or visit us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Tags law firm marketing, marketing, marketing strategy, social media engagement, social media marketing, social media marketing plan

Blog General Marketing

Track Your Trends to Optimize Your Marketing

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Your customers change their behavior depending on the season, which impacts the content they interact with and the keywords they use for search. (Hint: this also means how, when, and what they decide to buy will change.)

Before you click away thinking that seasonality doesn’t apply to your business, stick with us. You may think you don’t have a season. Although buying trends can be harder to see when your business isn’t centered around a commonly recognized season (such as the holidays), the truth is that every industry has some version of a season.

However, business owners are often at a loss when it comes to adapting their marketing strategy to the seasonal shifts in buying behavior. Which is why it’s crucial to track your trends for more insight.

Yes, You Have a Busy Season–Trust Us

At this point, you may be thinking that you’re in an industry where people will always need what you do with some minor peaks and valleys. It’s true that you may not get all of your business exclusively during your busy season, but you definitely have one.

Here are a few examples of businesses that you would not traditionally associate with seasonality:

Divorce lawyers. More people file for divorce right after the holidays. Why? They didn’t want to ruin the holidays with divorce discussion or the holidays confirmed their decision to end the marriage.
Emergency vets. Emergency vets will see more dogs the first week of July. Why? It’s super hot, fireworks scare pets into unsafe behavior–including running away–and big parties are an opportunity for pets to eat dangerous foods and objects.
Plumbing companies. The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. Why? Food scraps and turkey grease can clog sinks. In addition, several guests staying at a home can overwhelm the plumbing system, leading to problems.

However, keep in mind that seasons are not limited to holidays. For example, spring can bring hail storms, leading to a surge in calls to windshield repair companies, roofers, and exterior contractors. When these businesses run ads around this time, they can optimize their busy season.

How to Adjust Your Game Plan for Your Season

Once you’ve taken the time to track your trends and identify your busy season, here are some ways to adjust your game plan to fit your season and make it convenient for your customers to hire you or purchase from you.

Busy Season

Google Ads. Ads show up when someone searches for what you offer. They are looking for you. Don’t hide from them!
Facebook Ads. Ads show up based on demographics and self-proclaimed interests. They told you they love animals. Show them your animal-related services or products!
Email marketing. Give them a reason to choose you over your competition by being visible, available, and easy to buy from. Touching on their most important reasons to buy in your email will encourage them to buy from you.
Direct mail. Depending on your industry, this can be one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience during your busy season.

Slow Season

Upsell and cross-sell existing clients. Slow season is a great time to upsell or cross-sell your current clients to help maintain your revenue.
Work on getting referrals. Contact satisfied clients and ask them to refer you to someone else who might want your services. You can offer a reward for referrals, such as a gift card.
Grow your online reviews. Ask past clients to review your business online. Make it easy by emailing them a link so all they have to do is click and type. Then, be sure to pay attention to your reviews and deal with any negative or fake ones.
Promote early payment specials. To keep cash coming in, try offering discounts for early payments for next season.
Educate your clients. Teach clients how to make the most of your products or services. Focus on low-cost marketing methods like in-person networking, email, and social media. Stay in front of them even when they’re not ready to buy. They will be soon enough. Create the association with your brand, even if they aren’t looking for you right now.

Learning when to mitigate expenses and maximize ROI can vary, even for businesses within the same industry. For example, some companies use Google Ads during their busy season so they are visible when people search for them, but use Facebook Ads as more of an awareness or educational tactic when people are not yet in need.

Get More Insight Into Your Long-Term Marketing Strategy

Following the trends within your industry and examining your own peaks and valleys are the best ways to know when and how to adjust your marketing efforts. If you’re ready to take a more advanced approach to your long-term marketing, set up a strategy session with GoBeyond SEO. It’s free, customized, and informative.

Tags content marketing, marketing, marketing strategy

Content Marketing Marketing

Achieve These 6 Marketing Goals With Video Client Case Stories

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Everyone has a story. Actually, everyone has several stories. Stories of triumph and success and stories of failure and regret. We lead complex and layered lives.

Your clients, just like you, have stories to tell. If they are your client, you are a part of their story. It sounds hyperbolic, but it isn’t. Your clients will be talking about their experiences, including the one they’ve had with you, as part of their story.

Wouldn’t it be so cool if your clients could share their success story and, by proxy, your role in that success, with other potential clients?

Hell yes it would be. Here’s how you can transform your marketing with client case stories: all on video.

The Move Away From Business-Centric Reviews

People are moving beyond 5-star reviews on Google and collecting testimonials that are focused solely on their business. Companies are moving toward client case stories: letting their case study be expressed as a case story.

The narrative focuses on their clients and how their lives have changed and less on what the company offers. What’s more? It’s all on video. Video is

Easy to digest
Easy to understand
Easy to share
A powerful tool for building trust and engaging new clients

Video isn’t the cheapest form of marketing content. But when you invest the time and money necessary to develop a strong video marketing plan, a plan that doesn’t pitch but actually shares stories, your results will reflect that effort.

Think about it: why do people love movies so much? They don’t. They love stories. A movie that is just a sales pitch will not be watched over and over again–but a story will be.

6 Powerful Goals You Can Achieve With Video Stories

Video stories shared by your happy clients nearly guarantees you’ll accomplish these six goals.

1. Increase Conversions and Sales

84% of people say they have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video (Wyzowl survey).

2. Track Your ROI

HubSpot conducted a recent survey that found more than 93% of video marketers say it’s an important part of their marketing strategy and you can measure the results from your video campaign, including tracking impressions, play rate, viewer engagement, lead generation, and click-through rate.

3. Build Multi-Purpose Content

You can use your videos on your website, social media, newsletters, and ad campaigns. Multiple videos, multiple iterations, multiple applications.

4. Build Consumer Trust

Consumers evaluate your website and marketing content with a highly skeptical eye, and possibly a predetermined reason NOT to spend money on your product or service. You have to work to gain your customer’s trust, especially if you’re handling sensitive matters or if you’re in an industry that many people are unfamiliar with (like SEO). People want to see and hear other people. Humanize your business and you’ll gain their trust.

5. Boost Your SEO Efforts

As video is becoming an increasingly popular way to create content, Google gives ranking priority to pages that have videos. So not only is video a good marketing tool, but it’s a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy as well.

6. Engage Mobile Users

Not only does Google prefer online video content, but so do most mobile users.

Pew Research Center found that 85% of Americans currently own a smartphone, and what are people doing on their smartphones? Watching videos. According to eMarketer, 75% of all videos are played on mobile devices.

Are You Harnessing the Power of Video Yet?

Your competitors are already harnessing the power of video stories as a humanized alternative to business. It’s fierce out there, and video case stories from your happy clients are a tool you definitely want in your arsenal.
GoBeyond SEO has partnered with a company that does exactly this kind of work and they are awesome. Because of this partnership, GoBeyond clients are offered a discount on this work. Find out more by clicking the link or contacting us today.

Tags content marketing, lead generation, marketing

General Leadership Marketing Small Business Marketing

4 Signs It’s Time for a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

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$signs-you-need-a-fractional-chief-marketing-officer$

Many small business owners, this year especially, are still trying to get a grip on what works and what doesn’t. All the marketing goals in the world are only as good as the direction and leadership of the marketing efforts coming from the top.

Did your marketing efforts pay off during the first quarter of this year? Are you woefully unsure and wildly self-conscious about it? You’re not alone.

Whether your marketing is directionless or you need more financial resources to invest in a solid strategy, here are four signs it’s time to consider a fractional chief marketing officer (CMO).

1. You Have a Marketing Plan, but No One Is Available to Be in Charge of It

This is a common trap when the marketing direction is steered by multiple people or by someone who is not solely focused on marketing.

Your company brand and success may have been built long before the days of complex marketing channels and automation. In order to prepare for the future (or present), businesses are tasked with adapting at lightning speed, to keep pace with contemporary strategies, tools, and tactics.

Oftentimes, especially in small and growing businesses, marketing initiatives are scattershot and lack a cohesive plan. An experienced marketing strategist can help right the proverbial ship for a strong and successful future.

2. Your Sales Team Is Creating Their Own Marketing Materials

Your sales team may be great or your sales team may be YOU. Either way, if your sales team is creating their own presentations, one sheets, and PDFs, it’s very likely that those materials are unfocused and weak.

A fractional CMO can develop a unified message that creates an exceptional customer experience, makes you and your team feel more confident in presenting your offerings, and improves conversions – all for a more cost-effective approach.

3. You Have Lots of Pricey Marketing Tactics Without a Supporting Strategy

It’s an easy trap to fall into. Someone says you need a new website, so you get one. You sponsor events and buy branded swag. You create a Google Ads campaign and get swallowed by the ad costs. You hire an intern to manage your social media because young people know social media, right?

You did all the things and yet, not a penny of ROI to be found. The absence of strategy will leave you frustrated and broke. You need marketing insights that help inform executive decisions, build the reporting you need to make smart business decisions, and then closely track revenue and growth. That will give you ROI for miles.

4. You Need More Financial and Organizational Flexibility

The very first ingredient needed for continued success is flexibility. You need to be agile so you’re available to capitalize on shifting situations or unforeseen challenges.

Locking your business into a yearly salary commitment for a CMO, Marketing Strategist, or even a social media coordinator is antithetical to the needs of many small businesses. Why? Hiring staff is a big commitment. What’s more? So is firing them.

If the relationship doesn’t work out with someone closely involved in your marketing efforts, separating from them can be an arduous and costly process.

Conversely, if your fractional CMO or outsourced marketing team isn’t working out, it’s much easier to end the relationship and find another fractional CMO or team.

How Is Your Marketing Going?

As your business grows and your needs shift, a fresh perspective with more experience may be needed. While reviewing your first quarter sales this year, ask yourself this: Do I have the time necessary to devote to marketing and sales?

If you’re not sure, feel free to score a free strategy session with GoBeyond SEO. ROI is within reach, we promise.

Tags brand marketing, marketing, marketing strategy, smb marketing

Local SEO Marketing Small Business Marketing Small Business SEO

Word of Mouth Has Gone Digital

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Word of mouth (WoM) has gone digital. It’s no longer good enough to hear from one or two people that a movie is good or entertaining. We won’t consider a hotel that doesn’t meet our own health and safety standards. We now rely upon a consensus of reviews before we make our decisions, even if it is something as simple as choosing a movie from our couch.

In 2022, this kind of feedback crowd-sourcing is ubiquitous. From restaurants to law firms, or from pet groomers to industrial cleaning companies, reviews are (or should be) a big part of the marketing strategy for businesses, large or small.

Many business owners feel that their best clients come from word of mouth. And they’re probably right.

If only there was a way to have those sweet, positive, and wildly influential words used to describe their business immortalized in some way so that future prospects and potential clients could hear them–oh wait, there is! It’s called Google reviews. And if you’re not prioritizing Google reviews, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

3 Ways Google Reviews Affect Your Business

Online reviews are the closest thing we have to WoM in the digital realm, and they absolutely matter for your business. Here are three ways Google reviews can impact your online visibility and reputation.

Reviews impact SEO. You read that right. Getting more of them, especially positive ones, improves your digital visibility and conversion rate. That means more clients for you. (Psst: Dealing with a fake or negative review? We’ve got you.)
Google trusts the power of WoM marketing. It factors in the quantity and quality of reviews to evaluate where and when your business should show up in search engine results. Just as customers use online reviews to validate their purchase decisions, Google and other search engines take a similar stance when showing results.
Users and search engines have a similar objective. Google wants to weed through the vast web to deliver the right information, service, or product to you in the fastest way possible, and this aligns with our goals as searchers. In fact, reviews pretty much work as crowd-sourced WoM recommendations.

If you’re already prioritizing Google reviews and reviews from other sites, good for you. If you have a system or process in place already, even better.

However, if you haven’t been able to net enough positive Google review to impact your business, it may be time to consider setting up an automated process to make getting reviews simple, painless, and effective.

GoBeyond SEO works with business owners to implement an automated process to make it easy for customers to write and submit reviews and to give businesses a cringe-free way to ask for them. Find out more by booking a free discovery call with us.

Tags google ranking factors, search engine optimization, seo, word of mouth

Marketing

Make Your Marketing Like a Capsule Wardrobe (Hear Us Out)

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Do you find picking out clothes to wear an exhausting process? If so, you’re not alone. Other people find the process of shopping and picking out clothes for the day as exhausting as you do. Barack Obama, Ariana Grande, Michael Kors, Ellen DeGeneres, Richard Branson, Hillary Clinton, Steve Jobs…just to name a few.

What you wear says a lot about you, so you want to make the right decision, but this is also why it can be so time-consuming and tiring. This is why many wealthy and successful people use what’s called a capsule wardrobe.

A capsule wardrobe is a foundational array of key clothing pieces that you wear nearly every day. It mitigates decision fatigue, you’ll know that it fits you, and you can get on with your day.

Fun fact: This is exactly what happens with small business owners and their marketing. They want to put their best foot forward, but the process of dressing their business up is exhausting and expensive.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. You can create your marketing message as you would a capsule wardrobe.

Create a Foundational Message for Your Business

But wait, you’re asking—wouldn’t creating and delivering a message with a few key pieces just be repeating the same marketing techniques over and over?

Repeating a message is the cornerstone of marketing. This seems obvious enough and yet, many business professionals wonder if they need to be saying the same thing all the time.

So to be clear: yes, you need to repeat your message, but how do you keep people from tuning it out? Won’t people get bored or even resentful hearing the same thing over and over again?

Not necessarily. Here’s how you can dress up that foundational marketing message to help people remember who you are and what you do without being that annoying company that says the same thing every time you hear from them.

3 Ways to Dress Up Your Core Message

Much like creating a capsule wardrobe, coming up with your singular foundational message can be broken down like this:

Speak in a way that resonates with your PERFECT client. Are they cavalier or more buttoned-up? Are they creative or analytical? Are they more conservative or cheeky? Pro Tip: Talk to them in their language, not yours.
Explain your value clearly. In other words, what are you going to do for them? What problem do you solve for them? Be plain. Be clear. Leave no room for interpretation. Pro Tip: Adding a clever or sexy message is much easier with clear language.
Highlight what you do differently. You have the same core message, but you can play it up by highlighting what makes your business unique. Pro Tip: Highlighting what you do differently is a great way to distinguish yourself from the competition.

While this may feel like an oversimplification to some, that’s exactly the point. If you take the time and energy to hammer out your core message, getting creative with your marketing becomes infinitely easier.

Think of the Geico commercials. They repeat their core message over and over. They’ll save you 15% or more on car insurance. Insurance is boring; they make it funny. They come up with off-the-wall ways to demonstrate their message, but at its core, it’s exactly the same.

Not Sure What to Do Next?

Schedule a complimentary strategy session with our marketing professionals at GoBeyond SEO. We can help you define your target audience, create your foundational message, and help you drive that message home to your customers.

Tags content marketing, marketing, marketing strategy, target audience

Marketing

How to Add Users to Google My Business, Google Analytics & Google Ads

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How to Add Users to Google My Business

To invite someone to manage your Google My Business account, you must be the owner of the account. You can simply add a new manager by signing in to your account, then selecting the location or location group you’d like to add the manager to from the menu on the top left.

For location groups, open your group, then go to “group settings”:

For single listings, open your listing and navigate to “users”:

Click on “Manage Users” and then “Add Users”. Next, enter the email address of the person you’d like to invite to manage your account.

Once that person accepts the invitation, they will have managing capabilities, including being able to add and remove users and locations in the group you selected.

How to Add a User to Google Analytics

To invite someone to your Google Analytics account, you must be the Administrator of the account, whether at the account, property, or view level.

If you’re an administrator, you can add or change users on the level where you have that role. To delete users, you must at least be an administrator on the account level.

When you want to invite someone into Google Analytics, begin by signing in to your account. Next, click on Admin, and then on the Account, Property, or View permissions you’d like to access.

Once you’re in your desired column, click on “Access Management”. There will be an Account Permissions list, where you can then click “Add Users”. Enter the person’s email associated with their Google account, then invite them by selecting the “Notify new users by email” check box.

Here, you can also select which permissions you want the user to have, and finish up by clicking “Add” when you’re done. The user will then be able to access your Google Analytics account and utilize it based on the permissions you selected.

How to Add a User to Google Ads

To invite someone to access your Google Ads account, sign in to your Google account. In the upper right-hand corner, there will be a tools icon (a wrench). Click on this, and then click on “Setup”, then “Access and Security”.

There will be a “+” button for you to click on. Once you click on this, you can select the level you want the new person to access, then, when prompted, enter the person’s email address. Once you’re done, click “Send Invitation”.

Tags google ads, google analytics, google my business

Marketing

How to Prioritize Your Marketing Needs for the Better

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Oftentimes we hear a marketing term, particularly those in the digital arena, see that it’s working for our competitors, and decide that we must do the same.

But are your marketing efforts costing you more than they should?

If you decided to go to the grocery store for some wine, would you take a plane? Of course not! If you wanted to get to Tokyo from London, would a car suffice? Probably not.

How can you avoid spending extra on marketing efforts that’ll eventually get you to where you want to be? The answer is simple: define your marketing goal, then pick your medium.

For example, if you’re sure your website needs SEO, but your primary goal is to make more sales right now, then doing SEO to your website shouldn’t necessarily be your first investment in marketing. Will you need SEO eventually? Yes, but SEO takes time, and if you’ve determined that your priority is to increase sales right now, then your money would be best spent elsewhere.

So how can you prioritize what you need so you pick the right place to start and don’t waste money on your marketing?

How to Prioritize Marketing Needs in Five Steps

This simple five-step process will help you narrow down your choices and determine where your budget is best spent at the moment. However, these tips will also help set you up for future digital marketing success!

Step 1: Determine the true goal of your marketing campaign.

If there’s more than one, list them in order of priority. Examples of marketing goals can be: increase online sales, increase brand awareness, grow your audience, increase brick and mortar traffic, increase phone calls, increase appointments.

Step 2: Determine your budget.

You may only have room in your budget for one priority at a time, and that’s ok. (See Pro Tip #1 below.)

Step 3: Determine your timeline to hit this goal.

If you need online sales right now, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing may be a better option than SEO in the short term.

Step 4: Determine which mediums are designed to hit your goal.

If you need to educate your audience about a new product or service, email marketing and social media are great options. If you need to overcome a hard-to-find brick-and-mortar restaurant, a billboard on the freeway may do the trick.

Step 5: Determine what success looks like for your business.

The word “conversion” can mean a few different things in the business world. As a marketer, a conversion is a lead that your company engages with. For you, a conversion might be a sale. One company could get two new clients in one year and consider that a wild success. Others may get two new customers a day and have to shut their doors. When you want to “increase sales,” put a hard number on that. Knowing your success threshold will help you determine if you’re really making money or wasting it.

Pro Tips to Help You Even More

It’s rarely easy to define a goal, budget, and timeline for your business, as well as what your version of success is. But don’t worry, with a couple of pro tips, you’ll be on your way to a smarter marketing investment!

Pro Tip #1: If your marketing budget is tight (like most small business owners), pick a medium that will help you make sales in the shortest amount of time. Syphon off some of that money to reinvest and expand your marketing budget WITH INTENTION. No more “Gee, I hope this works”. Stick with the medium, expand that budget a bit more. This is a great way to see how much more to spend and then when you can set a cap for that medium.

Pro Tip #2: See if there’s a medium that can do double duty. For example, social media pay-per-click ads, such as Facebook ads, can both increase brand awareness and potentially make sales. This is not true for every industry, but it’s worth looking into.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having business dreams that are unachievable right now. Just remember that big dreams are achieved through a series of small goals. The amount of marketing opportunities available these days is overwhelming and can make even the most savvy and successful of business people feel lost. Keeping your efforts clear and simple is the easiest way to see if you’re on the right path.

Need help defining and prioritizing your marketing needs for the better? Schedule a free strategy session with us at GoBeyond SEO!

Tags marketing, marketing budget, marketing strategy

Marketing Small Business Marketing

Provide a First-Class Client Experience — Even on a Budget

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Are you familiar with Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If—”? This poem hits on a concept here; one so often lost in our post-pandemic digital world. What does it mean to walk with kings? What does it mean to lose the common touch, or in this case, not lose the common touch?

At its core, Kipling is talking about effective communication. Kings are faced with issues that are different from the issues faced by the common folk. Does it make sense to speak to the masses the same way you’d speak to a king? In most cases, it depends on the topic, right?

There’s a lesson to be taken from this concept when it comes to digital marketing: treat all your clients like kings, but from different kingdoms.

The concept of “the client is always right” has been lauded for decades, but to be clear, that’s NOT what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about giving your clients a first class client experience whenever they’re dealing with you and your company.

So how can you possibly give your clients first-class treatment? It’s unrealistic to make yourself available to every medium out there, and your time is limited. Here’s how you can impress your clients even on a budget!

Make Yourself Accessible to Your Clients

In keeping with the theme of kings versus the common folk, the key difference is access. The kings have access to you right away, or at least it feels that way. The common folk are those who are kept waiting on hold.

Just because we’ve all become more comfortable making purchases or buying services online doesn’t mean that your clients aren’t looking for human connections. Here are a few tools to give all of your clients, and potential prospects, the king’s treatment without costing you a king’s ransom.

Website Chat. Many have seen the website chat feature on websites, but it does seem to fall short when the chat bot is really just a robot with an auto generated message. There are several tools available to give you the ease of automated chat and give your clients/prospects the personal touch they deserve.

Virtual Receptionist. There’s an endless supply of talented people who can help you fill in the blanks. BUT, that’s not what we mean here. How cool would it be if every time you missed a call from the office, your cell phone was pinged with a message from that prospect or client? If you’re in a highly competitive field, missing out on a call could cost you.

Google Reviews. Even if no one reads your reviews, having enough reviews to prove that it’s not just your mom saying nice things about you (thanks mom) is enough to show that you’re a player in your industry. But how do you get them? Do you go crawling to your clients, hat in hand, and humbly ask for a review? Sure, that’s one way to go. But wouldn’t it be just FABULOUS to have an entire streamlined process that will not only get reviews, but manage and promote them?

When you take the time to understand your client, but also make your marketing work at its most efficient, you can easily give your clients a white-glove client experience without taking a second mortgage on your castle.

“If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

How sharp is your axe? Find out about these tools and more by scheduling a free, no-obligation call with us at GoBeyond SEO!

Tags client communication, client experience, client relationships, client services

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