Category: blog

How marketing can grow your business

Do you know what it takes to grow your business? At a recent program hosted by The Alternative Board, speaker, Pete Hayes of Chief Outsiders, spoke about how the right “Insight, Strategy and Execution” can drive business growth. (more…)

Content strategy tips for small firms

Content marketing is a proven way to attract and retain clients. However, producing high-quality effective content is a struggle for small firms. (more…)

7 tips for effectively marketing your niche

Developing a niche is a great way to attract clients and build a distinctive brand for your firm. It differentiates you and your marketing will be more successful and effective because you are focused on your unique expertise and who you want to attract. (more…)

Top 10 Marketing Tips for 2017

Successful marketing is tough. There isn’t a magic bullet, but there are tactics that can help you succeed. We’ve created a list of some of our favorite tips to take you into the new year (more…)

How to build an online presence

Are you concerned about your online presence? Earlier this month I spoke on a panel about Building an Online Presence, hosted by the Organizational Development (more…)

7 tips for more effective blog writing for your business

Are you a good writer? Even if you’re not the best, you can still write an effective blog post. In fact, blogs are a more forgiving format than most other writing. You set the length, tone and style. But there are best practices you should follow to improve your blog writing in order to better market your business.

1. Start strong. Your first paragraph should clearly and concisely tell readers what you are going to talk about and why it’s important (i.e. how it benefits them). You want to give them a reason to keep reading so don’t bury the lead. Sadly people’s attention spans keep getting shorter. According to Microsoft we’re now at 8 seconds so you have to get to the point quickly if you want to get them to continue reading.

2. Use the same terminology as your target audience. Speak to them in their own language. Generally you shouldn’t talk to potential clients the way you would talk to your colleagues or referral sources. Using the right tone and wording not only will make your content more readable and interesting, but you will be proving that you can relate to your audience.

3. Break up the text. A big block of text can be harder to write and put off readers. Lists, bullets, headings and other strategies can help you organize and discuss your topic in a more readable and compelling way. And dividing the text visually enables readers to more easily scan and understand the points you’re making.

4. Incorporate stories. This is a great way to demonstrate how you help people solve their problems. Provide case studies and examples to let your audience see that you are dealing with others like them. They also personalize your work as well as your content. It’s more interesting to read a story, than a bunch of facts. And you can omit confidential/identifying facts without sacrificing the value of your story.

5. Keep it simple. Yes you’re an expert and have lots of amazing information to share, but you will confuse and overwhelm readers with too much information. You want to help readers spot the important issues and gain some understanding, not provide a step by step guide to solving their problems. If you have that much to say, then write multiple blog posts and link them to each other so readers who are interested in more information can keep reading.

6. Write it and then put it aside. It’s very hard to look at your work objectively right after you’ve completed a draft. I build into my writing schedule extra time to review what I wrote the next day so I can edit and proof more effectively.

7. Include a call to action. What do you want readers to do after reading your blog? Contact you? Sign up for something? Make sure to have a clear next step for the reader. You’re using the blog to help your marketing so you want to encourage people to continue to engage with you in some way.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you’re writing a blog post. To read more writing tips, see 5 dos to help you create content that your audience wants to read and 5 things not to do if you want people to read your content.

Need help with your marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.

Content marketing best practices

According to the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America study of 3700 companies, 88% of organizations are using content marketing. And 76% expect to increase the amount of content they are producing over the prior year. With so much emphasis on content marketing, what can firms do to help make their initiatives as successful as possible?

1. Document your content marketing strategy. The CMI study emphasized that “B2B marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy get better results from their content marketing tactics, social media platforms, and paid methods of content distribution compared to those without a written strategy.” A documented strategy keeps you focused on what you want to achieve and helps you design a plan for how to get there.

2. Create buyer personas. One of the keys to successful content marketing is understanding your target audience or buyer. Develop a profile (buyer persona) of that ideal buyer, client, or referral source, including their key demographics and behaviors. The more you know about your buyer’s needs, the better you can tailor the substance of your message as well as how you promote it to them.

3. Choose a well-defined niche. We’re all suffering from information overload and there is so much content available that it’s overwhelming to look at it all. One of the ways to stand out is to promote a narrow expertise.

You may find yourself with fewer leads, but better quality ones because you better match what the prospect is looking for and there are fewer obvious competitors.

4. Develop an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar helps you create and manage your content workflow. Use it to plan out content topics or themes in advance, establish deadlines and assign responsibilities for each step in the process. Think about the format for your content, your message and audience, where and how will it be marketed and distributed and what resources are needed.

5. Reuse content. Coming up with new content on a regular basis is challenging so look for ways to repurpose your existing content. For example, create longer and shorter versions of everything you do as well as think of different formats such as writing, audio, video, and presentations. Content curation is another method of reusing content, but you are selecting and sharing useful information created by others. Ideally add some of your own thoughts and commentary when sharing other people’s content.

6. Track results using appropriate metrics. The end game for any marketing is to bring in revenue, but there are other goals to keep in mind, such as; lead generation, lead nurturing, brand awareness, customer retention, and engagement.

Determining the appropriate metrics depends on your specific goals. However, some of the more common ones include: website/blog traffic and engagement metrics (unique and repeat visitors, page views, time spent on site, etc.); social media interest (followers, connections, sharing, etc.); quality and quantity of leads generated; and other ones.

Once you have established your metrics, start testing your tactics and revise and hone your strategies accordingly.

7. Start small and scale up. You don’t have to do everything at once. Instead start with a pilot project that you can scale up over time. You can focus on 1 or 2 priorities or tactics. Or look at how your existing content marketing can be improved keeping in mind some of the best practices mentioned in this article. Consider what you are already doing as well as how adding resources could improve your results.

Once you start to see successes, you can build on them.

Content marketing is a great investment when done right. Hopefully these  best practices will help make your initiatives more successful.

Need help with your marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.

How to create an effective marketing plan

A marketing plan is essential to successful marketing. You set goals, define your audience, determine priorities and look at where and how you should focus your resources for the most impact. As part of the planning process you also analyze your business and financial situation so you can make informed decisions about your needs and resources.

Without a plan, you run the risk of spending time and money on an assortment of different tactics without a clearly defined purpose. Maybe some of those efforts will work. But what about the things that don’t work, or more likely, you’re not really sure what is working or could be working better. When you act without a marketing plan, you’re more likely to engage in random acts of marketing, which wastes precious resources.

An effective marketing plan needs all of these

1. Define your strategy(ies) first. Successful marketing requires that you have a strategy and a plan. The strategy defines your goals – what do you want to achieve and why. The plan is about how you’re going to do it – what steps do you need to take to implement your strategy.

2. Put it in writing. According to the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America study of 3700 companies, “B2B marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy get better results from their content marketing tactics, social media platforms, and paid methods of content distribution compared to those without a written strategy.” The study focused on content marketing, but its good business practice to put your plans in writing.

3. Allocate appropriate resources. Once you know what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to get there, you have to put aside enough time, money and bodies. The Ascend 2016 State of Digital Marketing Survey found that the most significant barrier to success in digital marketing was an inadequate marketing budget. Lack of internal skills/training was number 2 on the list. Think about who can handle what tasks, both in terms of time and ability. Outsource if necessary. If you don’t have the funds or the staff to do everything you want to do, then start with a small, simple project. Be realistic about your needs and resources otherwise your plan will go nowhere fast.

4. Measure results. The metrics you choose will vary depending on your goals. Think in terms of short-, mid- and long-term goals. The ultimate goal for firms is usually to grow revenue, but that takes a long time. You want some interim measurements in order to gauge your progress. For example, new business starts with new leads, which may start with increasing visibility. If you’re looking at website metrics, do you want to measure growth in new visitors to your website or look at repeat visits or how much time someone spent on the site? Make sure your metrics are appropriate and you use them properly. Marketing is a process of testing, measuring and revising.

5. Revisit your plan regularly. It’s a good practice to look at your plan annually or more often if your business has changed in some way. Consider your financial and competitive situation as well as your results to date.

Invest in creating a solid marketing plan for your business. It will be worth it.

For help in creating your marketing plan, contact us for a consultation.

 

8 marketing musts for your firm

Everyone wants tips to help market themselves. We’re all hoping to hear the one thing that we can do to magically bring in business. Unfortunately there is no one thing, but there are lots of little things that can help. I work a lot with lawyers and was recently on a radio show to talk about Marketing Tips for Attorneys. To prepare, the host, Ken Landau, asked me to come in with 30 tips. I’m not sure how many we actually got to, but here’s a sampling to get you started whether you are a lawyer or other kind of professional:

1. Have a strong LinkedIn profile. When someone googles your name, your LinkedIn bio is usually one of the top results. What do you want people to see there? It’s your opportunity to impress them and stand out from the competition. Don’t waste it. And don’t rely on people going to your website to read your bio there. Some may only look at your LinkedIn profile.

2. Share content regularly on social media– both your content and other people’s. Social media is like networking. You have to be out there consistently, get involved, follow up with people you meet and stay in touch. Every time you share something on social media your network will see it. Post your own stuff, but also like and comment on other people’s posts, ask questions, and start a discussion. It will build your credibility and a lot of people will reciprocate, which will expand your reach to everyone in their network. And remember to join and share posts within groups. That gets you in front of members of the group even if they aren’t part of your direct network.

3. Focus on a niche. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Focus on a specific area, type of client, business model, etc. It’s better to focus limited marketing resources on a niche area rather than spreading them all over multiple areas. Ultimately it will bring you better leads and more money. (Check out Inc.’s, How to Narrow your Target Market for more tips.)

4. Position yourself as an expert. This goes along with focusing on a niche. Identify a topic, issue, specialty, etc. where you have experience and you can speak with authority. Get known for that by speaking and writing about that area consistently. Make sure your marketing message highlights that expertise. Again focusing on a narrow area brings better results than saying that you can help anyone with any problem.

5. Blog regularly. In determining how to rank a website, search engines look for sites with high-quality relevant information. They also look for websites that are updated frequently and have lots of pages. Blogging helps with all of these. It boosts a firm’s organic search results when prospects are searching online. And it also makes firms more credible (because they have lots of great content) for prospects who are now on the website and evaluating their services.

6. Involve employees. A recurring problem professionals have is coming up with good topics to write and speak about. Employees can help you create content that is interesting to your readers since they are often dealing with day to day issues with your clients. You want your blog posts, newsletters, presentations, etc. to address the real questions that your prospects have about their problems. Employees can also help promote your content by sharing it via their own social media channels.

7. Seek out relationships with other experts, organizations, and media. Get to know others who speak to the same market you are targeting and are well-known. They can help you build your own credibility and spread your message. But remember you have to help them first.

8. Have a marketing plan. Random acts of marketing are not effective. Create a written plan outlining who you want to specifically target with your marketing and how you’re going to do it. Then make sure you allocate resources (time and money) to getting it done.

For more tips, listen to the radio program.