Archive for Marketing – Page 6

Posted by Greg Sherwood on
 April 12, 2016

3 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

Social media tips

3 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

If you’ve struggled to gain any traction on social media, you might feel like a wallflower at a school dance. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. It’s as true in the virtual world as it is in the physical world– social skills can be learned. In fact, one of the most important things to remember is that “online charisma” isn’t that different than offline charisma. Becoming less awkward, making yourself more attractive to your audience, and asking for what you want are all learned skills.

With that in mind, here are three tips that can help you improve your social media engagement.

  1. Avoid Awkward Moments by Knowing What People Are Saying About Your Brand

It’s smart to keep track of your brand’s mentions. You won’t have to spend a lot of time lurking on popular social sites or industry blogs if you use the right tools to send yourself automatic alerts whenever you or your company gets mentioned. Some good tools to consider are Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Social Mention. With these alerts in place, you’ll have a chance to jump in when the conversation’s about you and your company.

  1. Increase Your “Attractiveness” by Experimenting With Graphics and Video

According to research on social media engagement, photos are most likely to get shared on social media. However, marketers are beginning to see great results using short videos too. Consider experimenting with using your longer “conversations” (i.e. text articles and long videos) for your website and crafting different kinds of media to attract attention on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites.

  1. Ask for Attention

Sometimes you need to ask for what you want. This is as true online as it is offline. Some ways to do this without seeming like you’re begging for attention are to ask for feedback about a product, service, or about recent changes or improvements you have made. See our recent post on using surveys to help you with this.

Another great tip is to hold a social media contest. Giveaways do work, and in return for an entry, you can ask people to fill out an entry (lead) form or to simply share your post. There are a number of apps that you can use to make running contests easy. For example, look at WooBox to test a number of different types of contests that can help you grow your social media engagement and your list of leads.

Engage With DBC Digital

In the last 10 years, we’ve helped hundreds of companies engage with customers online. We’d love to learn more about your unique brand and talk about how to make it more popular at the dance too. Contact us here at DBC Digital, and you won’t have to dance alone.

Greg Sherwood-DBC Digital Marketing

 

Categories : Marketing, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
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Posted by Greg Sherwood on
 April 6, 2016

How Marketers Use Newsjacking

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 How to Use Newsjacking in Marketing

 “Newsjacking” combines “news” + “hijacking” into a new marketing term. Newsjacking means leveraging the power of a breaking news story to gain attention for your company or your brand. The term received a lot of attention in 2011 with the publication of David Meerman Scott’s book, “Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage” but the practice has been around for years.  While it’s associated primarily with digital marketing today, it’s not hard to find examples on TV and other media.

Does Newsjacking Work?

There’s little doubt that newsjacking works for a lot of marketers. MarketingLand interviewed Chris Kerns, author of Trendology, who provides data that proves that newsjacking can be an effective way to get attention from the media, online publishers, and of course, the public.

In fact, here are some stats that support the idea of newsjacking using Twitter:

  • Brands that tweeted about unexpected news events saw an average 1,200 percent increase in retweets from their Twitter followers.
  • Brands that tweeted about major and expected events still saw an average of a 400 percent increase in retweets.

The above numbers show that an opportunistic use of dramatic and breaking news can be effective. But even newsjacking of planned events like the Superbowl or the Academy Awards works well and is certainly a safer bet for most marketers.  By using relevant news about your own industry, you can build credibility by demonstrating that you stay on top of events that are likely to interest your customers and prospects.

When Newsjacking Backfires

While it’s exciting to benefit from powerful news stories, marketers need to be aware of companies that earned negative attention for unintentionally offending their customers and prospects. A good example is SpaghettiOs attempt to newsjack attention on Pearl Harbor Day, usually considered a tragic event in American history.  You really need to think about how people perceive the topic you are newsjacking.  The company did gain attention, but most of it was negative.

How Does Newsjacking Work?

Most marketers only use stories that are obviously relevant to their own business. Even the marketing software company, HubSpot admits to using recent Google algorithm updates as content for their blog posts because they know their audience has an interest in why their website’s rankings go up or down overnight when Google makes changes. This approach helps maintain HubSpot as a credible source for industry news.

Some marketers can creatively weave seemingly unrelated news stories into their own social posts and content. For example, Ben & Jerry’s capitalized on marijuana legalization in Colorado by posting a tweet that humorously asked if supplies of their ice cream were running low here. This is risky, and the company’s marketers really know their audience. Still, these quick piggybacks of trending and sometimes controversial topics can offer great returns when they work.

Get Help to Newsjack Right

Marketers use a variety of tools and services to help them catch news stories that they can use for their content and social posts. You might consider using HubSpot’s social monitoring app for alerts about news within certain topics. Google and Twitter also offer lots of information about trending topics and hashtags.

Done right, newsjacking can rapidly help marketers and their brands gain attention, website traffic, and even leads and sales. However, the practice of newsjacking isn’t without some risk. Contact us here at DBC Digital for digital marketing guidance, so all of your news is good news.

Greg Sherwood-DBC Digital Marketing

 

Categories : Marketing, SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
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Posted by Greg Sherwood on
 March 29, 2016

How to Use Surveys to Fuel Business Growth

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Even though most marketers know surveys can be a powerful way to engage and inform their customers and prospects, surveys are often overlooked in a content marketer’s toolbox. The right type of survey can spark ideas for new content, help companies fine-tune their marketing message, and iron out businesses processes that might be frustrating their customers. According to Harvard Business Review, surveys even offer the possibility to influence customer behavior.

Can Surveys Influence Customer Behavior?

A few years ago, two researchers published an article in Harvard Business Review where they conducted a survey on behalf of a large U. S.-based financial services company. They used a control group that wasn’t surveyed and another group that was. Neither group received any direct marketing from the financial services company for a year after the survey, and the surveyed group was only contacted with this 10-minute survey one time.

Here is what happened with the surveyed group vs. the control group:

  • Surveyed customers were three times more likely to open up a new account.
  • The surveyed group was 50 percent less likely to defect to a competitor.
  • The surveyed group was more profitable over the long term for the financial services company.
  • The positive results from the surveyed group peaked immediately after the survey, but the surveyed group continued to be more profitable than the control group even after the year-long test ended.

It’s reasonable to assume that the surveyed group became more engaged with the company because they were asked for their opinions which were clearly valued. However, by asking about specific products during the survey, it’s also possible that customers learned more about how the company might serve them. The conclusion is that well-crafted surveys can not only help companies gain information about customers; they can also be a great way to provide information to customers and potential customers.

Ways to Use Surveys to Market to Prospects and Customers

Here are some ways you can use surveys in your marketing:

  • Generate content ideas: Use the information gathered from surveys to create effective articles, videos, or infographics.
  • Find out what consumers like or don’t like about your company: Learn which processes you need to improve to increase satisfaction.
  • Learn what else customers want to see from your brand: Learn new ideas about additional products or services or if your customers have any interest in a new idea.
  • Improve marketing tools: Fine tune your content by learning what your prospects find most valuable.

Digital Survey Tools

You can find plenty of helpful online survey tools. If you want to run a survey on your website, for example, look for plugins that work with your content management system.  You can also find survey tools that interface with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

PC Magazine has a list of their top picks for the best online survey tools for 2016. For example, two favorite tools are SurveyGizmo for small and medium businesses and WorldApp for enterprise-size companies.

Grow Your Business With Surveys Done Right

Surveys provide you with a way to learn more about your customers and prospects. Crafted correctly, they can help customers and prospects learn more about your company too. At DBC Digital, we help small and large companies grow their businesses with inbound digital marketing. Contact us today, so we can learn more about each other.

Greg-Sherwood-DBC Digital-Marketing

 

Categories : Content Creation, Marketing
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Posted by Greg Sherwood on
 March 22, 2016

7 Ways to Increase Your Content Marketing ROI

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Smart marketers know they can achieve a positive ROI from investing in quality content. The problem is that content production can get expensive (copywriting, videos, editing, etc.) and it’s not always possible to predict which content will give you the best returns, especially for marketers who are just beginning new campaigns or are new to content marketing in general.

These seven tips will help you maximize the return on your investment in content marketing.

7 Ways to Maximize the ROI of Content Marketing

  1. Stack content to save money. Recycling your existing content can help you squeeze more profits out of your investment. For example, you can combine a handful of similar blog posts into an eBook and use that as an offer or call-to-action. Conversely, you can take sections of a previously written white paper and create individual posts or graphics as well as create calls-to-action for visitors to exchange their email address to receive the complete white paper.
  2. Use analytics to learn what works. The more you know, the better you’ll do. Use tools like Facebook Insights and Google Analytics to learn what content is performing the best (clicks, page views, etc.) and create more of that.
  3. “News-Jacking.”Some businesses can hitch a ride on trending news articles and popular content to gain more exposure with search engines and on their social media sites. For example, a lawyer might discuss a trending personal injury topic on his or her blog and talk about it in their social media feeds. An SEO company can provide insights into a recent algorithm change that is causing search rankings for businesses to change. Trendsmap is a useful tool that can help you find popular Twitter hashtags by location.  Also, Google Trends is a good source to see what is catching the public’s attention.
  4. Publish a survey to gain feedback and find topics for future content. Surveys are great tools for a lot of reasons. They make getting feedback easy so marketers can serve their customers better. They also provide great information to base your future content creation on. PC Magazine published a recent review of the best online survey tools that make this two-way communication easy.
  5. Test different types of content to learn what works best. Each type of content you create (articles, videos, and graphics) will all appeal to different kinds of people.  Different content work best for different topics, and each will open up different distribution channels for you. You can stack your content to produce a variety of content types and then watch what mix works best for your type of customers.
  6. Test distribution channels to learn where your potential customers hang out. One of the most challenging parts of inbound marketing is finding the right places to distribute content. If you have gone through the process of creating “personas” for your best prospects, you probably have a general idea of where your customers and prospects are going to check out new ideas or new products and services. Some examples may be blogs, video sites, social networking websites (LinkedIn, etc.) video sites, and so on. See our previous article on Content Mapping for some additional tips on where to post your content.
  7. Stay the course to enjoy the best results. It’s intuitively obvious that a consistent stream of content will perform better than irregular and infrequent content. This is also backed up by statistics, such as a Hubspot report that bloggers that post frequently tend to see much more site traffic than infrequent bloggers do. Of course, with the avalanche of low-quality content being published daily, customers and prospects only pay attention to content they find valuable.  In the long run, it’s better to take your time to build high-quality content rather than post mediocre content more often.

Our Clients Love Content Marketing

When it’s done right, content marketing becomes the type of marketing that both customers and marketers love. At DBC Digital, we begin with a proprietary assessment and plan to help our clients build a more successful strategy in the marketing and digital worlds. Let us help you enjoy a better inbound marketing ROI by contacting us today.

Greg Sherwood DBC Digital Marketing

 

Categories : Content Creation, Marketing
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Posted by Greg Sherwood on
 March 15, 2016

The A, B, C and D’s of Inbound Marketing

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The Best of Both Worlds

While Inbound Marketing has been around for a few years now, the concept is constantly being refined.  Because of this, we still get questions from some pretty smart people about what exactly “Inbound Marketing” means and how they can benefit from it.  Of course, without a clear understanding of this key approach, it’s impossible to benefit from it.

According to Hubspot, a large provider of tools for marketers, companies that understand and use inbound marketing enjoy what is called “…the proven marketing methodology for the digital age.”

In other words, Inbound Marketing leverages the best of traditional marketing with the benefits of digital.

The Four Basic Steps of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing can be easily described in four straightforward steps that help coax your prospects and customers through the buying process.

Here’s how companies use inbound marketing to improve sales, brand reputation, and ROI:

A. Attract and convert strangers into online visitors: Marketers can use the content of their own websites, their blogs, social networking sites, and other content to attract new, potential customers.

Marketers then use these different online platforms to distribute their important information (tips, product reviews, etc.)  which in turn helps attract prospects that are doing research to buy a product or service similar to yours. The object is to help these prospects become aware of your brand, product, or service so you are at least included in the decision-making mix.

The difference is that this step not meant to find customers,  it is to make sure that customers find you.

B. Convert website visitors into prospects: Once your marketing content has been found by the right people (people that are interested in your product or service), the next step is to turn them into actual prospects.

Successful marketers use a number of tools to accomplish this.  These tools include lead forms, landing pages, calls-to-action, and other tools that encourage your visitors to either connect with you directly or to have them give you their contact information. Your job is to build lists out of these leads so you can nurture and stay connected while they are in the decision-making process.

C. Turn prospects into customers: This is the time when sales actually get closed. Marketing tools here include emails, sales pages, promotional offers, and phone calls as appropriate. Pro Tip: The more personalized your message to specific customers, the more effective the conversion from prospect to buyer.

D. Delight customers: The real potential of inbound marketing is when first-time customers become loyal customers who then make repeat purchases and even let their own social circles know how happy they are with your brand.

During this step, marketing automation tools, referral programs, social media, and customer surveys help marketers stay connected with their customers in order to increase loyalty and repeat business.

Why Inbound Marketing Works Online

While the traditional approach to marketing (direct mail, etc.) still plays a vital role in helping to grow your company, these approaches are much more effective when you combine them with inbound marketing.

As your prospects have learned to use online tools to research their purchase decisions, using these strategies is more essential to helping you continue to grow your business.  In this digital age, inbound marketing helps you get found by your prospects who are looking for solutions.

Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how good you are if your prospects don’t even  know you exist.

More on Inbound Marketing

Check out some of our earlier  DBC Digital blogs  here and here for more information and some suggested analytics tools to use in building your inbound marketing strategy.

To learn more about Inbound Marketing or to discuss a new marketing project with us, give us a call at (303) 357-5757 or drop us a line at dbc@dbcdigital.com

Greg Sherwood DBC Digital Marketing, inbound marketing

 

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