Create A Winning Content Strategy For Your Business
In an era of never-ending content, it’s hard for companies to compete without numerous audience touch points to help generate interest in their business. However, some of the top businesses have learned to navigate this digital terrain effectively by emphasizing content. Think of sites as varied as LinkedIn, BuzzFeed and Moz. The marketers at each of these sites have learned to leverage content in order to become leaders in their respective fields. At our advertising agency, we believe that well-developed content strategy is one of the most effective ways to improve your business’s reach. Even better, according to 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North America from the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of businesses with effective content marketing strategies claim that having someone who oversees those strategies is one of the best ways to help produce relevant content. [quote]If you are thinking of developing a content strategy, doing your homework is a great place to start.[/quote] Once you identify the best channels, you can then create an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar helps you keep track of big promotions and the types of content you want to create. Vertical Horizons offers an excellent free content calendar template to help you develop your strategy. In planning your content calendar, it’s important to take in holidays, seasons and events. Historic dates are also fun ways to generate content, and being flexible in terms of what that means can help open doors to a ton of fun content ideas. For inspiration, think about the way Google does doodles on its homepage for interesting historical dates. Lists, current events topics, tutorials and expert interviews tend to be popular content formats. Videos are also consistently gaining popularity, and how-to videos and tutorials tend to be easy for people to consume information, plus they are more sharable. Assess each of these types of content and think about how they might impact your content goals. For companies that decide social media should be part of the content strategy, it’s important to understand the social media landscape. Many businesses begin Tweeting and Facebooking without a real strategy, and as such, they may fail to see the value in investing in content creation and curation. On Twitter, tweets with images tend to get the best responses as measured by engagement. Additionally, asking for retweets by offering a catchy hook works due to the clear call to action. Links should appear 25% of the way through a post, and links should be shared slowly on Twitter so people don’t get the sense that you’re spamming their feeds. Tools like HootSuite and Klout can help you schedule and manage these tweets. If Facebook is part of your content strategy, short videos do well. Brands using Pinterest to help promote their brands can use images, but can also allow visual tutorials. Some companies have created really interesting Pinterest campaigns, such as this Procter and Gamble campaign which features content from athletes thanking their mothers. Instagram, Vine and Snapchat may also be great networks for heavily visual brands. LinkedIn is best for B2B content, as nearly half of all B2B companies use LinkedIn. As part of your social media strategy, you can spend some time answering questions in LinkedIn groups. As far as blogging, blogs that post multiple posts per day get the most success across the board; however, it is very hard to sustain that momentum, as it typically takes a team of writers. If you want to invest in a good blog strategy but do not have the resources to hire someone full-time, consider hiring a freelancer. You can find numerous people looking for writing work at eLance and Odesk. Some of these freelancers may be qualified to help you in creating the strategy and in publishing content for social media as well. If you need help with developing a content strategy for your brand, let the team at BIGEYE assist you. We want to lend our expertise to make your content more effective!
Venturing Beyond the Fold in Web Design, Exploring New Designs
It’s time to have the talk- yes, the talk about scrolling. Everyone does it. You do it. We do it. Your grandmother does it. We all scroll through web pages- especially if we love the content. One of the biggest concerns brands have regarding their website is content exposure. The big question is, “Are visitors scrolling through my website or just glancing above the fold?” Scrolling is Habitual Today, scrolling down web pages is second nature to many computer users. [quote] Apple felt so confident in this statement that they removed the scrollbar from their recent Mac OSX update.[/quote] Scrolling plays a key role across all social media platforms. The 1.82 billion social users prefer to expose themselves to more and more content by scrolling through feeds. Sites that have parallax scrolling features have the cleanest conversions in terms of usability across desktop and mobile platforms. Exploring Below the Fold Back in the golden age of print media, newspapers would be folded in half on newsstands, and the top half was designated for the juiciest news to a grab reader’s attention and the same goes for websites. The information you want your audience to see should be placed at the top of the page, but it is important to follow certain design principles to keep visitors intrigued to keep scrolling for more. Major brand website’s like that of Burberry have less content above the fold to encourage users to venture beyond the fold by use of its alluring hero image. CX Parners notes: “ The screens show two different design treatments for the hero slot on the homepage. The surprising thing we have learnt was that actually having less above the fold (one large content block as opposed to 2 smaller ones) encouraged exploration below the fold.” Less is More Adopting a cleaner and simpler style, such as parallax scrolling, will not only make your website better-looking, but it will also assist in positioning your brand as modern, up-to-date, and innovative. If users visit your site and are curious in the content you have above the fold, they will scroll away. However, to ensure website visitors are doing what you want them to do, be sure to follow design principles including less is more, avoid horizontal lines, and avoid in-page scroll bars. [featured] Looking to optimize your site layout? Let BIGEYE improve your website to be even more user friendly! Contact us today, and we can guide your vision toward success! [/featured]
Know the Difference, Content Creation vs Content Curation
At our Orlando marketing agency, we know we live in an era where content is key. Good content can help engage your community, keep your business relevant in the eyes of your audience and can even impact your business’s ranking in search. But, good content doesn’t come without a cost, and even within that framework, different types of content generate different types of results. However, one of the questions we come across most frequently in talking about content is whether it’s more efficient to create content, or to curate it. First, let’s discuss the difference between content creation vs content curation. Content Creation Content created by your marketing team or business helps you get your own perspectives into the hands of your audience. This is typically comprised of things like original tweets, blogs, Facebook posts, infographics and all other content that someone creates on behalf of your business that you could potentially share via social media, website or email marketing. The benefit of this type of content is that if it’s shared, it’ll directly point others back to your business. Some studies show that original content is more helpful in creating conversions. This may be because original content about your area of expertise helps to build trust with the audience who will ultimately purchase from your company. [featured] Don’t have the time to create your own content? Let BIGEYE‘s copywriters handle it. Contact us today, and we will set up your business for success! [/featured] However, content creation can take significant effort to maintain. Many people start businesses and plan to incorporate blogs, only to find that blogging takes a lot of time and resources, resources you may not have if your business is working with a small staff. Still, these businesses seek to continue to create content in order to help maintain visibility and establish trust with their audience. Content Curation Content curation is the act of sharing content created by others. This might mean an interesting article, a great visual, an interesting tweet or even just a funny gif. Sites like Twitter make it extremely easy to share others’ content, but even sites like LinkedIn fill their content base by relying mostly on content created by others. For companies that primarily curate content, people can come to rely on your business as a great way to seek content on a variety of relevant topics that reach your target audience. Content curation typically takes less effort than content creation, but it’s still important to take the time to read each piece of content to make sure it’s completely on brand, and proposes an opinion you’re willing to support. Posts linking to third-party content tend to get more clicks. Realistically, the best content on the web probably comes from large media organizations with high brand recognition, so it makes sense that links from smaller sites might not have as many clicks. Content Creation and Content Curation: The Sweet Spot Many effective strategies apply a mix of each of these. Businesses can supplement some original content with content from third parties in order to help keep the original content flowing. This is a solid balance between the struggles of maintaining original content and the more passive engagement of curating content. In terms of conversions, companies that balance both types of content seem to generate the most conversions, according to Convince and Convert.[quote]Simply curating content doesn’t do enough to generate interest in your own brand, while creating all your own content comes across as self-promotion.[/quote] Companies should aim to link to others’content 50-75% of the time. This means that in additional to posting original content on your feeds, you should also be following your favorite companies, brands and influencers, and be willing to share their ideas in order to help your business become a go-to spot for the most current and up-to-date content in your industry. The team at our Orlando ad agency can show you numerous ways to use content to help generate conversions for your business. Contact us, and let us show help show you the sweet spot for content creation and curation that will help generate the most conversions.
Here are the Four Fun Content Ideas to Boost Engagement
Ever notice how the ads that people like best during the Superbowl are the funny ones? This shouldn’t be a surprise, because people love to be entertained (and if you don’t believe me, just take a look at how many movies you’ve watched on Netflix in the last month!). At our Florida advertising agency, we know companies don’t have to be super serious to also be perceived as professional. Take, for example, Geico, which deals with heavy insurance matters on a daily basis, many of which involve injury or even death. The brand could have taken an approach that touted the seriousness of the business and its commitment to all things insurance, but can you deny that would have been slightly, well…boring? Instead, it opted to give in to the creative impulse, generating an Australian talking lizard that is now etched into the mind of every person in America (whether we want him to be or not). My point is that your content doesn’t have to be stuffy, even if your industry isn’t all that laid back. As such, we’ve developed 4 fun content ideas that can help break your brand from the strongholds of thinking everything has to be all business, all the time. In looking at this list and generating your own creative content ideas, remember that people are most likely to share funny posts and uplifting content (hence, the success of sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy). [quote]By generating your own content in this capacity, you’ll be giving your followers plenty to talk about.[/quote] 1. Stop-motion Vines: Who’d have thought a company like Lowes would have been a pioneer in the land of 6-second videos? Lowes’s series of Vines give you practical home tips with a DIY aura…all in six seconds! Check out this screwdriver/rubber band tip and tell me you’re not impressed. 2. Throwback Thursdays: What started out a few young people posting photos from their childhood on Instagram and Facebook is now a full-on trend. People love to see these photos from the times when you actually had to walk two miles in the snow uphill both ways to get to a place that would print out your photos. Even if your business isn’t necessarily trendy or cool, you can still tap into this trend by showing old photos of your founders or your first brick-and-mortar location, or even a photo of an old newspaper clipping about your business that you have hanging around. Just don’t forget to tag them “#tbt.” 3. One-Second-a-Day Videos: These types of videos can be extremely fun and inspiring, and take literally, one second a day to create (plus perhaps a little bit of time at the end to edit). Try showing one second a day from your work or your office to capture just a slice of your daily work. For a slightly different variation on this, make a one-minute video featuring exactly one second at 60 of your favorite local landmarks. And, the 1 Second Everyday app makes it super simple to record. 4. Awards and Recognition: People love to be recognized, and when you offer them some form of recognition, they’ll typically share that with their social circles. Recently, a friend of mine was recognized by a small women’s group. The company wrote a blog about her and invited her to speak at a free monthly panel discussion. The cost? Perhaps a couple of hours to write the blog and plan the event, and a few dollars to provide food and beverages at the panel. However, when the recipient shared her blog, the blog post generated thousands of page views, hundreds of likes, several shares on Facebook and tons of goodwill in the community. Recognizing a strong employee, young leader or a powerful member of your community is a great way to build visibility. Ready to chat about a few more ideas to get your fans talkin’? Contact our team at BIGEYE today to take your brand from bo-ring to bazinga!
The Importance of the Role of Design in Marketing
I recently subscribed to an email list for a friend’s business. But, when I saw the first email newsletter, I found myself very uneasy. The business deals with photography and design, and yet the email that landed in my inbox was a bare-bones, plain text email. You’d think someone like that would put more care into the message he’s trying to convey — maybe I need to tell him that the team at our Orlando marketing agency has a few ideas to help him understand the role of design in marketing. Now, in marketing, each of us has our strengths. I understand that a copywriter at our Orlando advertising agency shouldn’t necessarily be counted on to design a document, or a strategist doesn’t need to know a ton about website development. But I do think design should permeate through all areas of business. It’s important to have consistency in all brand assets. This doesn’t just mean print ads, but applies to internal and external marketing tools including sales decks, memos, website design, social media and, as you saw above, the email experience. The goal here is to make sure you’re telling the same story across all platforms. This will make it easier for people to identify your brand, and they can then follow along for the ride when they see your emails or your Facebook posts. And, it just looks nice! Thinking about my friend’s photography business, he probably has a number of excellent assets to help sell the story of his business. He’s asking people to spend a lot of money to use his services, and while having an email signup list is a great first step, that list also needs to reflect the essence of the brand he wants to create. A plain text email? I see plain text emails all the time. What I want is for you to really wow me! Use these visual techniques to help entice me to choose you over competitors. [quote]BIGEYE created a responsive web design for Arsenal Venture Partners that produced the ideal interaction they were hoping for. Check it out![/quote] Your website should be a reflection of your business. The assets you put on your site and photos that you choose are all ways you market yourself, so it’s important to take care in what you’re presenting to the world. This even goes into the user experience of the site – you need to make sure that if you have a shopping cart feature, it’s easy to use, and that if you have a ton of content on the site, it’s easy to navigate. For some reason, people tend to overlook these essential aspects in trying to design websites —but these days, you can’t afford not to think about them because they translate to real ROI. Recently, I heard about the Barbarian Group, an innovation agency in New York highly focused on design. True to the brand, when they moved to a new office, they emphasized the importance of design. As such, they created a massive single sharable desk as a place for people to keep ideas flowing. It’s a testament to the fact that design truly permeates every aspect of the business – even in the workplace setup. The team at our Orlando marketing firm knows the value of design, and would love to help you create and execute design-oriented marketing strategies. Contact us to set up an appointment to learn about how we can help you!
How to Maximize Budgets with Website Testing Tools
If you’ve been working in marketing for a while, you probably understand the importance of testing, at least on a theoretical level. When it comes to all things digital, website testing can help you optimize all your processes. But in the real world, when is there ever time to test? Unfortunately, failing to test means you’re relying on blind chance that your marketing plan will work. By failing to take the time to test your strategy in order to improve it, you could be costing your company tons of time and resources. At our Orlando marketing agency, we believe testing is one of the most important aspects of marketing, yet I see many marketers that allocate only a fraction of their budgeted resources to testing. If you’re not testing your marketing strategies, then you are missing out on chances to greatly optimize and improve your marketing and advertising activities. If you haven’t already, I implore you to sign your business up for Google Analytics. It is incredibly easy to sign up for Google Analytics, and companies that have not already implemented this data are at a disadvantage in understanding their audiences, user activities and the effectiveness of their marketing strategy. Then, start changing things on your websites to see if you can notice improvements. Does simply changing the verbiage of a call to action increase your site’s conversion rate? You’ll never know unless you test! Engagement metrics such as pages-per-visit, time on page and micro-conversions are great for measuring your whether people are investing their time and energy into your content strategy. Setting up goals is a great way to help track what you’re doing. This can be an email metric, an actual financial conversion or filling out a lead form. And, if you aren’t seeing results, then try making minor adjustments to the site content to see what helps.[quote]Sometimes something as simple as changing the color of a call to action button on a landing page can help to increase clicks.[/quote] Facebook also shares data about the demographics of your users, and by pulling out the demographic data from Facebook it becomes easier to design a comprehensive content strategy. Sharing metrics can also help gage the effectiveness of individual pieces of content. Compare something humorous to something simply informative. Do you see a difference in response? If so, then perhaps you’re learning that your readers’tastes, and knowing what resonates with your audience can help improve your conversions over time. You can also help boost the reach of your content by investing in your content marketing. Promoted tweets and sponsored stories are great ways to amplify your efforts. Extremely focused keywords can be very cheap, leading to a very cheep per-visit rate. These stories should be interesting, rather than self-promotional. As much as possible, it should seem thoughtful and organic. Test these by trying variations of different posts, and see which ones maximize results. Most platforms that offer promoted options also offer analytics to help review the effectiveness of your paid media. In testing the effectiveness of your marketing, marketers should also plan to invest in A/B testing. A/B testing involves replicating the exact same test, with a single variable that looks different to different audiences. Ideally, it works best to try only one variable at a time, but we know that in the fast-paced world of marketing, that’s not always possible. Still, any insights you glean from A/B testing can help validate ideas about how your audience reacts to different messaging and imagery. One of the easiest places to start A/B testing is with email marketing. MailChimp.com and ConstantContact.com both make A/B testing easy. Failure to test can cost companies thousands of dollars per year. By making sure you content is optimized for your audience, you can persuade even more people to use your product or invest in your service. At our averting agency in Orlando, we believe that if you want to be the best, you have to test! The resources it takes to test early on can help save your company money in the long-term. BIGEYE offers a plethora of website testing services including website conversion optimization where we can help you to establish goals, launch A/B testing, deliver monthly reporting and analysis and more. Contact us today to get started!
6 things to Look For When Selecting Email Marketing Services
Recently, a entrepreneur reached out to me, seeking my opinion on the best email marketing services for his business. It would have been easy to offer up a few answers and tell him to just choose the cheapest option —but at our Florida advertising agency, we’re also strategists, and we know there’s much more to it then choosing the company that’s offering the cheapest deal right off the bat. In this case, this business owner was in need of advice to assist his startup with a small email list. His plan: to generate messaging via a weekly or monthly email newsletter. Sounds simple enough, right? Many people would have directed him immediately to MailChimp, an email marketing service that offers its services for free for up to 2,000 subscribers and up to 12,000 emails a month. And, indeed, MailChimp would be the best service had he been looking to never grow beyond 2,000 subscribers. But we’re marketers, and we know that one of the goals of initiating an email marketing plan is to gain quality new subscribers. There’s a reason MailChimp operates under a freemium business model —its team knows that once you’ve put in the work to build your email list up to more than 2,000 people, you aren’t likely to swap email marketing services because you’ve already taken so much time to learn all of MailChimp’s features. [quote]When deciding which email marketing service works for your business, it’s important to think long-term.[/quote]Where do you expect your business to be in a year? In five years? If you’re a growing commerce business with a popular product, it’s likely that you’ll have well over 2,000 subscribers within the year. So, which email marketing service is best for your business? Well, it depends on your business needs. Many of the email marketing services offer free trials, so it’s worth it to sign up with those and do some investigating on your own. That said, we understand it isn’t always realistic to do months of testing to choose an email marketing service. Here are 6 essentials to look for when investigating the most appropriate email marketing service: 1. Templates: How easy is it to build a sleek, well-designed email? And, once you have that template, how difficult is it to optimize it? If you find yourself wasting valuable time trying to work out the kinks, then you might need to go with a different provider. 2. Analytics: What kinds of analytic data can the service give you about your customers? And, how easy it is to navigate the numbers? Does the tool offer suggestions to help you improve those metrics? Be sure to have a baseline familiarity with the service provider’s analytic features before you commit to the provider. 3. Mobile Optimization: How do your emails look when someone opens them on mobile or tablet? In some industries, more than 50% of email opens are on mobile or tablet (and that number is growing every day). 4. Service: How does the email marketing service support its customers? Even as a marketing pro, you probably still don’t know as much about email marketing than the team that handles your business’s email marketing. That’s why customer service is essential —an email marketing service with pro coaching can help you optimize your emails to get optimal conversion rates. 5. Pricing Plans: Which service provider can give you the most bang for your buck? Because there are so many variances in features and capabilities, it’s important to think long-term rather than going with the cheapest option. Figure out your goals, and then choose the best solution to help you reach them. 6. Ability to Grow: As your business continues to grow and evolve, you’ll become aware of the need for more and more features. Some email marketing service providers remain in close contact with their clients, adding new features regularly to keep up with changes in the email marketing landscape. While we don’t want to advocate for any email marketing service that may not be right for your business needs, here are a few worth checking out. Constant Contact Boomerang MailChimp iContact Aweber Campaign Monitor Are there other things you look for when selecting an email marketing service? The team at our Orlando marketing agency wants to know! Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
4 Ways to Perfect Your Content Strategy From BIGEYE
Each day, when I log on to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I see dozens of people trying to feed me content. Many of these people are talented, intelligent and hardworking, but at the end of the day there’s just not enough time for everything.[quote]Rather than trying to read it all, most of us pick out the things that seem most interesting to us, if it’s really good, we decide to share.[/quote] The act of sharing is much more likely if the writers have first thought of a content strategy when posting. Some marketers are missing the mark in terms of what audiences are looking for in terms of content. Many times, this is because these marketers haven’t done their homework. Unfortunately, instead of being like the old Field of Dreams adage, “If you build it, they will come,” it works much better to think in terms of “If they like it, they will click.” At our Orlando branding agency, we’ve noticed that many businesses develop their content strategy without doing their homework. They know they need a blog, but instead of trying to hone in on their audiences and what’s important to them, these marketers think about what’s best for them. 1. Identify the best channels When assessing your brand’s content strategy, it is important to identify the proper channels for your brand. Many people immediately log on to Twitter and Facebook, thinking those are their ideal audiences because they are the most popular. Therefore, they neglect growing networks such as Snapchat and Pinterest, which actually might be best for highly visual brands. Consider which networks might be best for your brand by examining each network’s user demographics, and, if you are already producing content on those networks, by assessing follower engagement. If you feel stretched for resources in trying to maintain profiles across all social media platforms, choose one or two that work best for your brand, and focus on those. 2. Establish relationships with key influencers Grow your audience by seeking out influencers in your space. If you can get the attention of the influencer, then that relationship can create numerous ways to connect with your audience. You can often find these influencers through blogs and Google searches, as well as tools like FollowerWonk.com, which gives information about individual Twitter accounts, the people who follow them, and the people they follow. Follow and engage with leaders in your space, and also follow the people they follow in order to help facilitate growth. 3. Rethink your email strategy Then, see how your audience is responding to your email strategy. If you don’t have a strategy for your email list, then start collecting emails and create a strategy right now! Not only can you share your own content, but you can also share others’content, which people tend to appreciate if they find it useful. A digest of your brand’s content can be a great way to offer additional audience touch points to information you’ve already published on your blog or social media. There are numerous email platforms out there, but MailChimp and Constant Contact are two of the most affordable email platforms that also offer email analytics and guides. 4. Cover relevant topics on your blog Blogs are great tools for giving your audience interesting information within your space. Readers come to rely on and trust the blogs they love, which helps solidify the relationship between the creator and the audience. They’re also great for SEO purposes. Make sure your blog is covering relevant topics by staying on top of current events, looking at what interests your influencers and showing that your business is keeping its finger on the pulse of what’s changing in the industry. These ideas can then help your marketing team generate a content strategy focused on the most relevant content portals. Once you start seeing success with this strategy, you can then expand to other outlets or start A/B testing in order to optimize the strategy. You can experiment with messaging, headlines, email lengths and more, in order to help create the optimal experience for the user. For more suggestions on how to conduct research to help improve your business’s content strategy, contact our Orlando marketing agency for a consultation.
Six of the Best Copywriting Tips From Our BIGEYE Team
It’s springtime again, and even if you haven’t gotten around to doing much spring cleaning yet, there’s one thing we can suggest you clean up: your business’s copywriting strategies. Good copy can sell a product. Great copy, on the other hand, can sell a way of living. Think of Nike’s “Just do it,” or Apple’s “Think different.” Both are powerful slogans that also give immediate insight into how the brand is trying to improve your life. Copywriting is as much of a skill as it is an art. Ask a copywriter where her most brilliant ideas come from, and many times she’ll tell you it was simply a moment of inspiration, or an experience that excited her and got her thinking. That’s something you can’t necessarily learn in an ad agency. However, we can certainly try to achieve those effects in more structured environments. Here now are some copywriting strategies from the pros at our Orlando marketing agency to help your business bloom faster than an orchard full of orange blossoms. A quick note: the word “copywriting” can mean lots of things, but in this instance, let’s say that the term “copy” means any words that we’re using to market a business or brand, in whichever capacity you need them. Most people tend to think of this in terms of marketing copy on websites, blog and in print, but for our purposes, we’ll say copy can extend to presentations and social media as well. Here, BIGEYE presents 6 of the best copywriting tips to assist you in your efforts: 1. It’s About the Audience Marketing copy should always be about your audience. It’s easy as a marketer to think about your business in terms of what you’re selling, but it is important to remember that you must have the audience’s interests in mind at all times. Writing with this in the back of your mind will help you come up with powerful copy that genuinely speaks to the reader. 2. Focus on the Words As most writers know, it’s important to parlay information, often in just a few short words. However, in this cluttered world, it is exceedingly important to stand out in terms of voice, mission and vision. Stay away from buzzwords, overused phrases or cliches. Discard tired words and figure out ways to replace them, and try to find ways to make your business’s copy fun and interesting.[quote]Don’t be afraid to use a curse word or inject a bit of humor, as long as it matches your brand’s voice.[/quote] Also, avoid ambiguous language. 3. Aim for Stronger Verbs If verbs imply action, then it follows that using verbs in your copy can also inspire action. There are dozens of online thesauruses, so pick your favorite one and use it as a tool to help you think of better verbs for your marketing copy. 4. Use Similes and Metaphors Using metaphors and similes can create vivid imagery in a reader’s mind. People can find themselves swept away by powerful similes and metaphors, leading to a persuasive effect that entices people to purchase goods and services. [quote] BIGEYE created some rockin’ content for an Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children donorship event. Check it out! [/quote] 5. Understand Your Demographic A young, hip audience is going to be much more open to edgy copy than a high-end luxury retailer. To gain a deeper understanding of your audience, look through magazines to get an idea of the types of voices already out there, and let them inspire your own copy. Think about the consumer demographics as well as their interests, and try to tap into that. For instance, Seamless, a food delivery service in several big cities throughout the United States, often creates campaigns that liken its services to issues busy metropolitan adults face on a daily basis. One example: “Stilettos don’t puddle jump,” which, in four short words, explains the benefits of ordering in, as opposed to traveling out in the rain to go to a restaurant. Creating customer personas can help you better understand your audience. 6. Remember to Explain How Something Benefits Someone It’s much more compelling to explain to someone the emotional benefits of a product or service than simply the features. People want to know why these things are going to make their lives better. They don’t want to know you’re selling a “brown hat.” They want to know that the hat will make a person seem stylish and posh. Thinking from this perspective can help you sell the story that sells the brand. If you’re looking for great ways to tell your brand’s story through copywriting, the team at our Orlando ad agency can help! Reach out to us for a consultation, and get ready to spring into strategies to help your business bloom. Contact our team of copywriting experts to provide further insights to ensure that you’re making the best possible connection through your written communications!
Unleashing the Power of LinkedIn for Business Development
It’s no secret that LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable networking tool. However, like all social channels, LinkedIn isn’t simply about the number of connections. Business owners that know how to leverage LinkedIn can build it into their business development strategies, helping them to create strategic partnerships with people who have compelling experience or interesting skills to help grow the business. Business owners who want to use LinkedIn for business development efforts may accomplish this in a variety of ways. LinkedIn offers areas for sponsored content, which means that if you can provide interesting content specific to your industry, you can use paid LinkedIn marketing to grow your business and your personal brand by solidifying yourself as a thought leader in your area of expertise. However, while paid placements can be tremendously valuable, the platform is really about the engagement.[quote]It’s more than simply posting updates and interesting articles, though that’s a great starting point.[/quote] If you want to be truly effective at using LinkedIn, it’s important to incorporate it into your overall business development initiatives. [featured] Check out the ads and marketing campaigns we’ve done for our loyal clients. Get ready to have your mind blown. [/featured] One of the easiest ways to get started using LinkedIn to help grow business is to develop a strategy. This way, you can create goals and desired outcomes, and can even create a playbook of best practices. Because LinkedIn is a professional social media outlet, as opposed to Facebook or Twitter, which are designed more for general interest, it’s easy to overlook the effectiveness of creating a LinkedIn campaign the way you’d create a Facebook or Twitter campaign. But, if you’re planning to attend a conference soon, you can develop a creative LinkedIn campaign to do outreach, with an attempt to set up meetings prior to the conference or introduce yourself to noted speakers. Or, if you’re pushing out a new product, you can reach out to your network on LinkedIn for feedback and validation. Hearing from people in your related field can prove much more valuable than the feedback you might get from friends and family. Active involvement with LinkedIn groups and engagement with your favorite companies is a great way to make the most of LinkedIn. In using LinkedIn as an effective business development tool, it’s important to consider the value proposition you’re offering. You don’t want to waste anyone’s time, and this holds especially true if you’re reaching out to a person in a powerful position to help you achieve your business goals. If you’re asking someone for a meeting, think about what you can offer him or her. Is it as simple as a cup of coffee, or can you offer to introduce that person to someone else who might be in a position to help them? Having an idea in mind of how you can help them is a great way to facilitate contact, and creates a more tailored experience than just a sales pitch. Like any campaign, using LinkedIn as an outreach tool requires testing and optimization. Experiment with InMail subject lines and outreach strategies. Creating goals can help you measure the success of your campaign, and can help you revise future campaigns to make them more effective. If you’re having trouble managing your contacts due to the sheer breadth of them, look into using tools such as Contactually to help store and manage your contacts. This program provides easy ways to keep in touch, so that your contacts remain on your “hot leads” list until you close a deal. Contact our team of strategists today for more LinkedIn expertise!