220 Marketing Group » General Marketing Tips

5 Ways to Simplify Marketing for Small Businesses

220 — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 11:10:52 +0000

by Novi S.

A phrase we hear occasionally from our clients is, “I’m not a marketing person”. We often hear this when discussing the more technical side of marketing – using terms like SEO, PPC, bounce rate, click rate, open rate, etc. This jargon probably sounds like a foreign language, so it’s no surprise that someone who is not familiar with marketing may become frustrated at the thought of maintaining a website.

Fortunately, there are very simple things you can do to ensure that your marketing efforts are not done in vain. The foundation of marketing is telling people about your business, one way or another, and your website can be an excellent tool to reach a broader audience. By using these five simple tactics, you can build your web presence without the need for a translating guide:

Create & Sync Your Brand

Your brand is your identity. Without your identity, it will be difficult for anyone to recognize your business. So even before your website, you must ensure that your branding is easy to understand. Luckily, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to obtain a nice logo, nor do you need to be a brand specialist to create a unique business name. Just follow this general rule: If you respond well to your branding, others will likely also respond well. You are a consumer too, after all.

We also recommend a special rule for those who work for a larger company and are not able to create their business name (whether that’s due to compliance or any other reason). Make sure you are branding yourself first (i.e. Bob Smith – Mortgage Company, Inc.). This is very important if you change companies so your clients, social media followers, and anyone else who has been exposed to your business will remember you first.

The next step is to ensure that your brand is consistent throughout all your online profiles. We frequently see business owners catering to keywords instead of brand consistency. However, consumers may become confused if they see different business names, phone numbers, URLs, etc. from one profile to the next. Also, the keyword tactic often has an adverse effect since search engines will not be able to establish a strong relationship with your profiles. Using one identity across the board will help instill brand confidence in your clientele and help search engines recognize your business more easily.

PRO TIP: Create custom URLs for your social profiles whenever possible.

Set up the basic social media profiles

While we will always advocate for syncing the 70+ directories available (especially since this is the easiest way to ensure brand consistency), we understand that not everyone has the time or money to invest in that right away. However, there are three profiles you must have if you want to start building a solid web presence: Facebook, Yelp, and Google My Business. These profiles allow your business to gather reviews and therefore increase your ranking. Google itself states, “more reviews and positive ratings will probably improve a business’s local ranking.”

Additionally, not only are these platforms commonly used as search engines themselves, they also have the chance of displaying in search results on Google or Bing, ultimately giving you a greater chance of being found.

Use your website as an extension of your contact information

When a potential client asks you how they can contact you, what do you tell them? Your phone number? Your email? What if we asked you what is easier to remember: 619-758-9696 x2 or 220marketing.com?

This should be the same thought process you go through the next time someone asks how to contact you. As long as your phone number and email are easy to find on your website, your domain may be the only piece of information that potential client needs.

Even if the client has already contacted you via phone or email, you’ll want to make your website URL easily available to them. You should include your URL in:

Your outgoing voicemail message
Your email signature
Your other online profiles (Facebook, Yelp, Google, etc.)
Your business cards, brochures/pamphlets, and any other print media

If you are unable to speak with someone or respond to their email right away, they can always visit your website. Perhaps a nurse gets home at 2:00 a.m. and knows you wouldn’t answer the phone, that person can still visit your website. Maybe you have a client in your office so you can’t take a call at that moment, the caller can be redirected to your website. See the pattern?

Create a Promotion Plan

You may or may not have heard “The 7 Ps of Marketing”. This theory covers the principles followed to successfully start a business. However, arguably the most important P is Promotion.

To implement promotion effectively, create a feasible plan that starts slowly and progresses to include more and more promotional activities. For example, your plan could start with emailing your current clients about your new website, then build to running Social Media Advertisements.

The hardest part is building the momentum. Once the ball starts rolling, you’ll be able to spend less time on the setup and shift your focus to maintenance and/or incorporating new activities. It’s also important to understand that you may need to adjust as you go and that you do not need to have firm dates set for when new promotions can begin. Some promotions may be dependent upon hitting milestones, whenever those may happen.

So, make a plan that works for you & your business and stick to it! The worst thing you can do is give up instead of adjusting the plan to make it work.

TELL PEOPLE

Most importantly, tell people! We have been discussing ways to do this throughout this post, but we should never forget good old-fashioned “word-of-mouth”. At first, if you don’t tell anyone about your website, no one will know about it. Gone are the days of setting up a website and everyone flocking to it simply because it’s online.

Suppose your business establishes a new location, would you open it without telling anyone? Of course not! You’d likely have big signs, “Grand Opening” promotions, and your employees telling everyone they know. This same methodology should apply to your website:

If your client didn’t find you online, mention your website to them: “If you have any questions you can call, email, or go to our website at myinsurancecompany.com”
When you ask for referrals, have the referrer send them to your website for more information.
Share your URL on your personal social media profiles. You may find someone who needs your services whom you already know!

The most important thing for any business to have is the right foundation. These basic tactics provide the building blocks to ensure you are heading in the right direction.

Want more tips? Contact us today to schedule an appointment with an Advanced Marketing Consultant or read some of the other articles from our blog that cover topics such as Local SEO and Social Media.

The post 5 Ways to Simplify Marketing for Small Businesses appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Critical Checklist for Integrated Marketing

220 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:11:29 +0000

Having a successful inbound marketing strategy requires having many different avenues out there to get peoples information. From Blogging to social media and email campaigns, there is so much to keep track of that most people don’t have a cohesive plan that fits all aspects together into one place. Because there is so much going on, it would be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy to integrate all of your campaigns into one place.
Publicizing the same campaign through several different channels will not only give you exposure to more potential clients, it will provide a way for you to give a boost to the powerful promotion you already have going. Here are 8 tips to give your marketing campaigns the enhancement it needs while integrating tactics you are already using

1. Email and Social Media

Because most lead generation campaigns collect email addresses, email campaigns are one of the strongest tools available to any person running a marketing campaign. With new developments, it is now

possible to build upon the already powerful database with email addresses, and reach even more potential clients than those on your list. This can be done through Social Media.

Adding Social Media share icons to the emails that you are already sending out will help promote the work you are doing on your social media sites with minimal effort. Adding icons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc to your email footer will provide a way for people to join your networks with the click of the button. Additionally, it’s crucial to make sure you are advertising all of your social media sites on anything that contains your business name. Add a “join our community” bar on your website or other social media sites.

2. Email and Blogging/Social Media/PPC

All of the time that you spent writing that amazing new eBook will go to waste if no one reads it. Posting an excerpt from the book with a call to action to download the full book on the same day you are

Creating a dedicated PPC campaign promoting your new product or offer will help drive traffic and increase the number of people who respond to your offer. emailing the book will make sure the eBook is shared. Including links to download the book on your social media sites will also make your information more accessible.

3. Email…and Other Email
Many people combine all of their email efforts into one category even though the objective is very different. Some people you are in contact with are on weekly or monthly schedules to receive the same email as several others, while some people receive targeted emails from you about specific information you know is relevant to them. Most of the time, several different people may be managing each of these campaigns which means there is no common thread and your email tactics may be a big mess.

Integrating your email efforts will result in a well-oiled machine. Creating a master email campaign tracker will ease the headache you may face when trying to combine everything. If multiple people are sending out emails, you can share this spreadsheet as a Google document to make sure everyone is on the same page and schedule. This will help ensure the same clients aren’t getting bombarded with multiple emails in a short period of time.

Taking this a step further, you can separate your databases based on demographics and behaviors so that you can send the most relevant emails to each client.

4. Social Media and Blogging

Social Media and Blogging are a match made in heaven. Social media icons are a great way to share the information you are putting on your blog with others in your social media family. Blog posts also make it easier to post unique content on your social media sites every day as you can post a preview of your blog, and link users to go check out the full article.

Adding “share” or “+1” codes on each blog post will make it easier for your readers to share your information. It’s also worth looking into automated applications that will automatically post your blog posts to your social media sites.

5. SEO and Blogging

Blogging is a great way to fuel your Search Engine Optimization results, but just blogging isn’t going to cut it.

Matching your blogging content to the keywords your website is ranking high for will help push you up even further. If you are trying to gain rank with a certain term, make sure your blog content reflects the terms you are trying to improve upon. For example, if you are a real estate agent and all of your SEO focus on your site is going towards “first-time homebuyers” you should have phrases in your blog that target this as well. Offering a series of tips for first-time homebuyers with a new blog to cover each bullet point will help you accomplish this.

6. Online and Offline Events and Social Media

Using social media during live online and offline events can make any meeting more enjoyable. If you are hosting an online webinar or in office conference, integrating social media into the meeting can create buzz before and after your meeting.

If you create a hashtag for your event, you can have people send in questions or feedback via Twitter while your conference is in progress. Make sure people know about the hashtag so they can participate in the meeting and during a post-event meeting.

7. Mobile and Everything

People rely on their phone so much right now, every business needs to adapt to this in order to be successful. Making sure your site is mobile friendly is one very important marketing aspect so that you can ensure your site is accessible to everyone who wants to see it.

If your website is already mobile friendly, it is really easy to take your mobile marketing to the next level. Creating QR codes that go to a dedicated landing page for your campaign is a great idea. You can put these codes on flyers or other marketing pieces to send people to a place where they can access your promotion. You can also offer incentives through Foursquare and Facebook for clients who check in at your place of business.

8. Analytics and Everything

Analytics isn’t its own stand-alone campaign that you have to put out there, but it is a very important aspect of your marketing campaign. Analytics should be integrated into every marketing avenue you have going because it can give you a good read on what sites are giving you the most traffic. This information can tell you how certain campaigns are doing and how each campaign is helping each other.

When integrating a tracking device, you should find a product that tracts all aspects and gives you a clear idea of what is driving traffic to your site and providing your customers. It’s very important to regularly track the information and pay attention to what is providing you the best results so that you can focus your energy on the most successful campaigns.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

The post Critical Checklist for Integrated Marketing appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Determining a Buyer’s Persona

220 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:28:18 +0000

Determining a buyer’s persona is a crucial element for successful inbound marketing, particularly for sales. It is important to know who you are marketing and selling to. Ask yourself these simple questions about your target audience to determine how to go about your personas.

1. What is their demographic information?

To perform more targeted offline and online marketing, collect demographic information about your personas. It also helps to paint the whole picture of who your personas are. For instance, are they married? Are they male or female? What’s their household income? How old are they? Where do they currently live? Do they have children? This is a great place to begin sketching your personas to be able to formulate a clearer definition of your customer type.

2. What is their job and level of seniority?

The level of importance you assign to your persona’s career and seniority level does depend on the product or service you’re selling. If you’re a B2B, this information becomes crucial. If your persona is at a senior management level, they are the ultimate decision-makers. This is where you need to really ‘WOW’ them, as opposed to someone at an introductory level that might not be able to make those purchasing decisions. Determining their goals is important to be able to cater the conversation to where it will appeal them. Communication is key in sales and marketing, therefore researching your persona’s career will direct you on how to approach the conversation to appeal to them.

3. What does a day in their life look like?

After gathering information about your persona’s characteristics, you can put together how a typical day in their life would run. Define the difference between where they are and where they would rather be. What their hobbies are, what kind of car they drive. Going through this exercise will help paint the picture of what your target audience. Therefore, you can keep the message you’re sending across consistent.

4. What are their pain points?

Think about it. You are in business because you’re solving a problem for your target audience. Go into detail, and focus on the clues that will tell you how the problem makes them feel. For example, imagine your product is a Real Estate software system. You might have a persona who just got their Real Estate license. They probably are a little intimated by the prospects of finding the right homes for their clients. They will have a need for your product, however, you need to hit their pain points to make them realize that they need you. These pain points are going to differ from a more advanced agent who has years of experience under their belt. They still are in need of your product, however, the points you want to hit on will differ

5. Determine what their values and goals are:

What is it that they do and don’t care about? Ask yourself what would make your persona get excited about your product. For example, that fresh new Real Estate agent probably values a product that makes searching for homes easier and user-friendly. Address these pain points to paint the picture for your prospects.

What are their expectations? If a persona is looking for a product like the one you are offering, make it clear the expectations they should receive from using your product. Don’t oversell here, or build false expectations. A persona will appreciate honesty and a plain and simple explanation of the product.

8. What common objections are you getting?

If you anticipate the objections your persona might have, you will have the advantage of pre-empting them. Educate them on what you have to offer, and how it will better help their lives, and take away any fears right away. What would make them hesitant to buy your product from you or any competitors? What might be their fear of switching over to using your product from what they are currently using?

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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17 Missed Lead Generation Opportunities

220 — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:17:28 +0000

It takes a lot of time and effort to create promotions and the tools that will let customers access those incentives. From meetings to think of new promotions to meeting with your developers to let them know what information you want to collect, a lot of time is put into creating landing pages from start to finish. With so much work being put into the creation of incentives, why would you pass up simple opportunities to drive people to that landing page after it is online and generate more leads?

Promoting your incentive after it is online is just as important as creating an offer people will respond to. Here are 17 opportunities to promote your hard work that you are probably missing out on.

1. On every website page:

Link to the promotional landing page with call-to-action buttons on every page of your website. Tailor each button with the content on the page and only place relevant promotions for visitors to get the best results. The only place that it is not a good idea to have call-to-action buttons is on the landing page itself as it will distract people and take them away from the form you are trying to get them to fill out.

2. In a website content library:

If you have a few offers going on at the same time (special holiday promotions?) create a page dedicated to all of your offers on your website. This will allow people to browse through and choose an offer that fits them best and exposes them to other offers they may not have been looking for.

3. On your blog:

Post a call-to-action on your blog. Be sure that the offer is relevant to the content of the blog, and let them know what they will be able to get even more information by visiting that link. Adding banners to the sidebar of your blog advertising your best offers will also gain exposure for your promotions.

4. Within other offers:

While it may seem like information overload to provide an offer within another offer, this may help clients make that final step of doing business with you. If you provide other offers within information you have given out to prod them along and keep them moving, this will help encourage them to finally commit to doing business with you.

5. In anchor text:

Don’t limit your promotion to call to action buttons. Add anchor texts that link to your offers to provide as many opportunities possible for them to visit your offer page. This can be done by linking appropriate keywords within your website, blog posts, and eBooks that are relevant to your promotion.

6. Within news releases:

If your company uses press releases to promote your business, follow the same practice you would with anchor texts. This will not only help promote your special offers, but will also help make your release more SEO friendly!

7. In guest blog posts:

If you use guest blogging to build links to your site on the internet, adding links to your landing pages will not only help you generate inbound links, it will also funnel more traffic to your promotions page.

8. In dedicated email sends:

Because you have already spent so much time building and organizing your database, it will benefit you to use this information to send dedicated emails with your offers. Be sure to make the email match the promotion content, and include plenty of links to your landing page as well as encourage your clients to share the information with those who may find it useful.

9. In lead nurturing campaigns:

Lead nurturing campaigns driven by user behavior draw attention to your offers and prevent potential customers from leaving your site. Have an email auto response that goes out to new users who registered with your site? Include a link to your special promotion to encourage them to take advantage of it. Once again, make sure the promotion matches the information that client was looking for to generate the most response.

10. In your email signature:

This will highly benefit your sales team and is very simple! Have everyone include a text-based call to action with a link to your promotions landing page. This will let prospective clients know about offers you have and will provide additional information that may just give them that little push they needed to sign on.

11. In social media updates:

Offering links to your offer landing pages is a big way that you can utilize social media to generate leads. Provide a description of what the customer/client will get from clicking on that link. Be sure to space out the timing of posting on different sites so people following you on multiple platforms won’t get bombarded with the same offer from more than one place.

12. On social media profiles:

Provide links to your top offers within your social media profiles in the info section and profile images. Be sure to only link to the best offers as this space is limited and precious.

13. In LinkedIn answers:

It is beneficial to make browsing the LinkedIn answers section to look for opportunities to share your expertise. If you have an offer that will help answer the question, let the poster know that you can help them out and include a link to your landing page.

14. On targeted LinkedIn company product tabs:

Adding your promotion on your LinkedIn page’s Products tab will gain exposure to your offer and let people know what services you provide. You can also create targeted Products posts that will change based on specific demographics so you can have a more focused approach. You can add promotions by going to your Products tab while logged in as the administrator on your company page and clicking “Add Product”. You can also modify the settings in this section to create targeted products.

15. On custom Facebook tabs:

Create custom tabs on Facebook that promote your best offers. You can also use custom welcome pages that will help send people to your offers page and help generate leads.

16. In PPC campaigns:

If you are already using PPC, you can customize your campaigns to promote your offers. You can use your PPC ads as a call to action to get people to sign up for your offer.

17. In QR codes:

Generate QR codes that link to your promotions landing page. You can put the QR codes on print marketing material, free giveaways you use at trade shows, or other marketing materials you already have out there. QR codes are a free and easy way to send people directly to your landing pages.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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Internet Marketing Statistics Forecast for 2012

220 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:48:45 +0000

With every New Year come new forecasts. The most recent US Digital Media Usage report by eMarketer estimates how digital media usage will grow in 2012. These estimates will surely help to justify your inbound marketing-centric strategies.

Check out these mind-boggling marketing stats that highlight the probable growth of digital media in 2012.

The Internet in 2012

● Internet users in the U.S will expand by 3.1% to 239 million, representing 75.6% of the total population.

Mobile in 2012

Mobile internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011.
Smartphone users will reach 106.7 million in 2012, up 18.4% from 2011.
In 2012, 94% of smartphones users will be mobile internet users.
All mobile phone users will reach 242.6 million in 2012, up 2.3% from 2011.
Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2012.
Mobile buyers will reach 37.5 million in 2012.
Smartphone shoppers will reach 68.6 million in 2012.
Smartphone buyers will reach 36.4 million in 2012.
Tablet users will reach 54.8 million in 2012, up 62.8% from 33.7 million in 2011.
iPad users will reach 41.9 million in 2012.
In 2012, 76.4% of tablet users will be iPad users.
Adult-aged eReader users will reach 45.6 million in 2012, up from 33.3 million in 2011.
Facebook will reach 143.4 million US users in 2012, up 8.2% from 132.5 million in 2011.
About 2/3 of web users will use social networks in 2012.
More than 90% of social network users will be on Facebook in 2012.
Online video viewers will reach 169.3 million in 2012.
53.5% of the population and 70.8% of internet users (up 7.1% from 2011) will watch online video in 2012.
Mobile video viewers will reach 54.6 million in 2012.
Smartphone video viewers will reach 51.2 million in 2012.
88.1% of US internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012.
83.9% of internet researchers will make at least one purchase via the web during 2012.
Online shoppers will reach 184.3 million in 2012, up 3.3% from 2011.
Online buyers will reach 154.6 million in 2012, up 4.4% from 2011.

Social Media in 2012

Facebook will reach 143.4 million US users in 2012, up 8.2% from 132.5 million in 2011.
About 2/3 of web users will use social networks in 2012.
More than 90% of social network users will be on Facebook in 2012.

Online Video in 2012

Online video viewers will reach 169.3 million in 2012.
53.5% of the population and 70.8% of internet users (up 7.1% from 2011) will watch online video in 2012.
Mobile video viewers will reach 54.6 million in 2012.
Smartphone video viewers will reach 51.2 million in 2012.

Ecommerce in 2012

88.1% of US internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012.
83.9% of internet researchers will make at least one purchase via the web during 2012.
Online shoppers will reach 184.3 million in 2012, up 3.3% from 2011.
Online buyers will reach 154.6 million in 2012, up 4.4% from 2011.

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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Incorporating QR Codes into Your Marketing Plan

220 — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:24:22 +0000

A QR code, which stands for Quick Response, is a two-dimensional code that can easily be scanned by smartphones to automatically generate text, photos, videos, music, and URLs. QR codes provide marketers an easy and mobile-friendly way to direct people to their website and other online resources.

QR codes are a way for your company to provide consumers with detailed information about your products/services without taking up a lot of space.

The following sources can be used to generate your own QR codes:

Kaywa – This website provides an easy QR code generator for a URL, text, phone number, or SMS. Select your preferences and click “Generate.” Save the code to use elsewhere or grab the HTML code to embed it online.

iCandy – This website allows you to not only generate a QR code, it allows you to track scans and look at the analytics for your QR code as well.

Stickybits – This website makes it simple to create stickers for your QR codes.

There are tons of websites out there to generate your own barcodes for free. Try doing a quick Google search for “QR code generator”

How to Incorporate QR Codes into your Marketing Plan:

Below are a few ways for you to implement QR codes into your marketing plan.

Business Cards – QR codes should be placed on business cards to help new and existing contacts to find your business faster. You can direct traffic to an online resume, Facebook business page, or your website.

Offline Marketing Materials – QR codes should be placed on any offline marketing materials provided by your business such as flyers, brochures, handouts, envelopes, bills, and countless other materials. Use QR codes on these resources to direct viewers to a particular how-to video, follow your business on Facebook or Twitter, or point them to a landing page promoting a particular campaign.

Incentives – One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your business is a giveaway. Reward those who scan a particular QR code by providing a coupon or a discount. Provide your scanners with a small reward to thank them for their patronage.

In House- Place QR codes in the waiting area of your office and in storefront windows. You can use QR codes in your office to encourage Facebook check-ins.

Although QR codes are certainly growing in popularity it is important to remember that QR codes are still foreign to some people. Never assume your customers know how to use a QR code.

Has your business started to use QR codes?

220 Marketing specializes in Online Marketing and Management for industries such as Insurance Marketing, Real Estate Marketing, and Mortgage Marketing.

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