A Business Blog Should Be 20% Of Your Marketing Strategy

/in , , /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | A Business Blog Should Be 20% Of Your Marketing Strategy | Business Blog

If you aren’t interesting as a business you’re not an entity that is going to hold the attention of the masses. They want businesses and business leaders that speak to them, share ideas they feel passionate about too and also, just be fun to be around and interact with. Businesses have got to stop being so rigid and focuses on their corporate images. But how do you do this day in and day out? What is the outlet which can give you this space? Your own business website of course. Your business blog is where your personality has to shine through. In the content you must be able to explain your ideas well but also use it as a platform to build links, create new followers and be able to spread your word around the search engines that people use. Just how big a proportion do blogs take up when it comes to marketing?

Make the news before the news

Social media is like a forest sometimes. It’s so full of content, videos, links and viral adverts that you can be intimidated. However, know that the media companies of the world are dying to hear about you. To become viral you don’t need their own platforms and say so. Your business can make the news before the news even knows. This is why business blogs are so powerful. You can release exclusive information on your blog and watch the media report on it in a heartbeat. But you give your customers and interested potential consumers vital information about an update, a patch, a new product a totally new and improved service etc. The blog is therefore used as a news website for customers to come visit and read what you have to say. It’s a phenomenal tool to communicate with the world in this way.

Almost a quarter

Perhaps the best reason for a business blog to exist is that it’s almost one quarter of the SEO world for businesses. Content and a blog for a business amounts to around 19% of the overall SEO duties and marketing strategy aspects. That is huge. It’s about 1/5 of your overall SEO management requirements. The other aspects are link building, Google plus, social media, on page and off page links, keywords, Google AdWords, YouTube etc. A blog is worth so much to a business because it’s the space where all other marketing aspects can exist together. You can add a YouTube video to your blog, create off page links whereby you use evidence by another media or well respect news company to back up your claims.

Active and fresh

A business that doesn’t publish blogs can seem kind of dormant. Unless someone is actually following your business on social media, they won’t be seeing you anywhere else other than the search engine results page. Your blog can appear in the search results with great SEO techniques employed so you cover that base as well.

Content isn’t just about getting material out there, it’s about sharing your personality as a business with the consumer. It’s also a great way to make news before the news reports on you.

5 Easy Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Company’s Brand Awareness

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Brand Awareness|5 Easy Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Company's Brand AwarenessBrand awareness is critical for any business considering that it impacts the number of people that know about your company. This will then affect the likelihood that your products and services will be used in the first place, and this is hence something that must be prioritized.

The good news is that there are a few easy steps that you can take to improve your organization’s marketing tactics. First, however, you must determine what goals you want to meet. You need something to work towards, after all. Once you have dealt with this, you will need to ensure that you have a strong online presence, tailor your content to your target audience, and get assistance from a team of professionals that know exactly how to achieve all of this.

Set business goals you want to meet

Every single business must have a number of goals that they are working towards. When you are devising your marketing strategy, these must be kept top of mind at all times. Ask yourself; how much profit are you expecting to make within the following year? Do you want to improve your relationship with your customers?

Ensure you have a strong online presence

Having a strong online presence is important for improving your brand awareness. This includes having a website as well as a social media presence where your audience can learn more about you and where they can interact with your content. In order to have a strong presence, you also must make sure that the content you post in the first place is high quality in nature, including both the copy and imagery.

Importance of your target audience

It is thanks to your target audience that you can improve your profitability as a company, and that is why you need to identify who they are. Everything that you post on any one of your social media platforms must be tailored to your audience. Think about what their likes and dislikes are and how they would benefit from using your company’s ideas and products.

Get assistance

It’s always important to get the experts assistance on matters of marketing. There are so many marketing agencies that specialize in improving your brand’s presence, why wouldn’t you make use of them?

One such example is DigitalCoast Marketing, and they are both a web design and online marketing agency that specializes in SEO, pay per click advertising, social media marketing, video marketing, and much more. While your in-office team dedicates their time and effort to other company matters, the marketing professionals can improve your strategy and boost your brand awareness. It’s a win-win situation.

Boosting brand awareness is not as hard as you may think, but it will take some time until you notice all of the results that you were expecting. If you give it time, persevere, and change strategies if something is not producing results, then you will notice a huge improvement to your company’s online traffic and engagement.

7 Ways To Attract Attendees To Your Corporate Event

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Corporate Events|7 Ways To Attract Attendees To Your Corporate EventCorporate events are important to anyone running a business of their own. This is especially true when you’re hosting such an event yourself. They are the perfect opportunity to find and impress new customers and clients, get your name out there, and make a little money while doing so. To achieve any of this, however, you will first need to get attendees buying tickets and through the door. This can be a difficult task, but, luckily, there are plenty of tactics that you can try. With that in mind, here are seven effective ways to attract attendees to your corporate event.

1. Invite Last Year’s Attendees

Like returning customers, those who previously attended an event of yours will require less time, money, and effort to get them back through your doors. For this reason, you must ensure that you invite back anyone who has attended one of your corporate events in the past. You might even want to offer them a discount for their loyalty. When sending these invitations, make sure that you highlight the areas of your event that are the same, as well as any exciting changes.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Corporate Events|7 Ways To Attract Attendees To Your Corporate Event2. Turn To Social Media

Nearly everyone is on social media these days, making it an incredibly useful marketing tool for businesses like yours. Just like you promote your product launches or promotions, you should speak about your event across all of your social media platforms. You might also want to message those most likely to attend your event directly to ensure that they are aware of it. Encouraging sharing and working with social media influencers will widen your reach further.

3. Send A Text Message

Although most of us have a page on one social media platform or another, not all of us check those sites regularly. Some people like to limit their social media use, and others are so busy that they ignore their notifications. Texts, on the other hand, are much more likely to be read. Because of this, you should consider informing people about your event using online SMS messages. You could even have those people RSVP by sending you a text message back.

4. Network At Similar Events

Yours isn’t and won’t be the only event of its kind in the world. There will be plenty of others out there, many of which are sure to have attendees that might like to come to your event too. With that in mind, you should consider booking a booth at an event with the same demographics. As long as you’re not direct competitors, you could even team up with that event to promote your own. This allows you access to a pool of people that you might not otherwise have reached.

5. Give Out Free Tickets

As great as your event may be, if the price isn’t right, some people aren’t going to be able to come. To remedy this, you should give out free tickets or allow complimentary access to some of those would-be attendees. This won’t boost ticket sales, but it will increase the number of potential attendees for events that you host in the future. Once people have experienced an event of yours, they’ll know what they’re missing and will ensure that they can attend next year.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Corporate Events|7 Ways To Attract Attendees To Your Corporate Event6. Take Advantage Of YouTube

Aside from Google, YouTube is the largest search engine in the entire world. It also happens to be one of the biggest media platforms too. For this reason, it’s vital that you use this platform to your advantage. You could introduce sponsors and speakers, give sneak peeks, and offer practical advice through a series of promotional videos. You could then share those across your social media. You might also want to live stream parts of your event on your channel.

7. Promote The Local Area

Attendees want to know what is in store when they arrive at your event, but, if they’re traveling from out of town, the local area might be of interest to them too. Because of this, your marketing should extend beyond the event itself and promote the city surrounding it. You should let people know what attractions are nearby, which restaurants to eat at, and where to sleep. If anyone is on the fence as to whether or not to buy a ticket, learning all of this might be the push they need.

A corporate event can only be a success if people attend it. Hopefully, with the tips above, you will have no trouble getting people through the doors.

What You Need to Know About Trade Show Marketing

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | What You Need to Know About Trade Show MarketingThe First Impression

In a world of e-commerce and online activities, trade shows can be overlooked; however, this offline alternative is far from being unimportant. Contemporary trade shows offer the opportunity for an entire industry to put their best foot forward, attracting potential investors and customers. A myriad of competitors shall be vying for trade show revenue, and the first impression of a trade show stand can make or break a sale. Naturally, the first step in creating an engaging and approachable stall is to have sturdy pop up stands; nothing is more uninviting than a collapsed stand.

Modern trade show stall formats tend to utilise open curved fabric stands as they are approachable from the front, right, and left, rather than the conventional booth or cubical format. The open format permits the engagement of more potential customers, because it’s generally more inviting and interpersonal, as customers are free to come as they please without the barrier of a booth between the salesman and the customer.

The Display

The fascination with a stall begins with what observers can passively see before they decide whether or not to further engage with the stall. Images and brand names are conventional passive marketing materials. A projected video or slideshow, however, tends to generate more interest as it allows observers to passively view a demonstration of a product or service. Passive marketing materials are designed to generate interest and proffer brand awareness, comparable to a giant advertisement.

Gimmick style materials, such as pens and caps, are popular and can be used to promote brand awareness outside of the trade show; however, these should only be handed out after a customer engagement as a reminder of the brand.

Active marketing materials then advance the cause of passive materials and commonly constitute leaflets, business cards, brochures, booklets, and even interactive displays. These materials are designed to engage potential customers on a deeper level by:

  • Building customer relationships,
  • Establishing the expertise of a company or business, and
  • Delving into the question of ‘why’ a company or business is better than its’ competition.

Active marketing materials contain the information a potential customer needs. Interactive kiosk displays and tablet devices generally have higher levels of engagement; however, leaflets and booklets can be taken home for consideration in an environment outside the exhilaration of a trade show.

The Continuation

Trade Shows are merely an entry-point for customers and the attained sales leads must be developed into business. A resourceful method is to categorise sales leads into different priority groups, for example:

  • Group 1 – Very Interested
  • Group 2 – Somewhat Intrigued
  • Group 3 – Hesitant

Each group must be treated differently as resources ought not to be wasted by attempting to convince hesitant customers and allowing interested customers to slip away. Naturally, very interested clients ought to be contacted first for any follow-up processes, followed by group 2 and then group 3.

The Strategy

Prior to committing to a presence at a trade show, a marketing strategy must be created. While potential customers are seeking business, a stall must still outrank its’ competition, and the mere presence at a trade show does not guarantee engagement, nor does it guarantee sales.

What are the primary and secondary goals of attending the trade show?

The objectives of trade show marketing can differ, for example, a business may wish to:

  • Generate sales or leads
  • Build business relationships
  • Build brand awareness
  • Reinforce existing leads
  • Promote recent developments for training opportunities

Attaining a sale or leads is generally the primary objective; however, during a trade show, this may encounter some resistance. As a secondary objective, for group 2 and 3 leads, consider promoting other avenues of engagement, such as email / social media subscriptions, or proffering brand awareness to increase direct engagement with the company when they are considering a business proposal.

Trade show stalls ought to create a lasting impression and a memorable experience.

This is commonly assessed within the first few seconds of an engagement, which is why the first impression is crucial. Sales scripts and pitches must reflect this objective and the different avenues a potential customer could be taken down should be mapped out. This will proffer a smooth experience and when combined with active marketing materials, shall greatly assist in achieving the stall’s predetermined goals.

Trade show events differ; choose one which matches the goals of the business.

Trade shows can be in the form of:

  • Networking events,
  • Industry events,
  • Seminars,
  • Conferences,
  • Sponsored events, and
  • Webinars, amongst others.

If the primary objective of the business is to increase brand awareness or build business relationships, then a networking event may be the most suitable.

Finally, assess the results.

Consider what factors constitute a successful campaign, what was popular and what was not.

  • Were the primary and secondary objectives achieved?
  • Did leads materialise?
  • Are people talking about the brand?
  • How many people subscribed?
  • How many are actively engaging with the company?

Let the numbers do the talking and assess the results. This shall determine whether another trade show should be attended, or whether other marketing avenues ought to be considered.

Are Trade Shows Still Worth Your Time?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Trade Shows|Are Trade Shows Still Worth Your Time?Most small businesses today focus their marketing and networking online. They sell themselves online with a website and social media profiles. But they also find new suppliers and connections online. This has countless advantages, mainly that it makes launching a business a much more accessible prospect and it allows you to reach a wide audience quickly. But, with so much of today’s business done from behind a computer screen, face to face contact is limited.

Trade shows run all over the world, all of the time. Some shows focus on different industries, products, and niches. They appeal to different people. Some attract members of the public, others industry professionals only. Unfortunately, many small business owners are neglecting these fabulous opportunities in favor of online development. This can be a massive mistake, and taking part in trade shows can still be an exceptionally valuable way to use your time.

A Chance to Make a Personal Connection

People trust people. If someone tells us something face to face, we’ll believe it more than we would if we read the same thing online, where it would be surrounded by fake news and unreliable opinion. It’s easier to trust the word of a person when you can look into their eyes and read their body language when they say it.

That’s why personal contact will always be valuable and worthwhile in business. Getting out there at trade shows gives you a chance to meet people face to face. To tell them about your business and answer their questions. It’s also a chance to provide them with materials to take away. Tangible things that they can touch, and come back to, which will make a much bigger impression than something that they can scroll past online.

A Better First Impression

It’s thought that in person we have around seven seconds to make a first impression when we meet someone for the first time. Online, it’s much less. If you don’t immediately impress someone with your social media update or advert, they will scroll right past. If your website doesn’t load instantly, they will look elsewhere.

A trade show gives you several chances to make that all important first impression. People might see your stand from across the room and walk over. Then, you get an opportunity to sell yourself in person. You even get another chance if you give them something to take home, or they see your team later in the day.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Trade Shows|Are Trade Shows Still Worth Your Time?Time to Be Bold and Stand Out

Your stand at a trade show offers you a great way to attract a crowd and bring people in. By using your space to its best, you can really draw in a crowd and get noticed in a way that you might not among millions of other websites online.

Add x-stand banners, posters and props to your stand. Make sure if you sell a product, you’ve got it with you. Make sure your visitors can see any freebies or promotional materials without having to ask or search. When it comes to getting your stand just right, it’s often a good idea to keep things quite simple, with plenty of white space so that your products or informational materials can do the talking. But, using splashes of color, making the most of the height that you’ve got to work with and adding welcoming props, like plants and flowers can all help you to get noticed.

Remember, your stand isn’t the only thing that you’ve got going for you. Choose the team members that you take very carefully. You want knowledgeable people, but also charismatic people that are happy to talk to strangers and get stuck into a crowd. You want chatty people that get the point across well. The kind of people that sell well and are remembered afterward. Then, kit them out in promotional uniforms that stand out and set them apart.

Use Digital Marketing to Boost Trade Show Performance

Of course, nothing is stopping you teaming your digital media efforts with your trade show appearance for maximum benefit. Start a countdown to your attendance online. Use a hashtag and offer freebies to anyone that can prove they follow you online. Encourage your visitors to share pictures, videos, and updates on social media throughout the day and do the same yourself. Keep things fresh and exciting by sharing as much as you can on the day, and release previews of what you’ll be offering beforehand to create a buzz and peak interest. The two can work together remarkably well if you make the most of the tools at your disposal.

The Opportunity to Offer Extra

A trade show is your chance to come up with some great freebies that will get you remembered. Stationary, badges, notepads, tote bags and other branded materials often work well. Branded sweets and other accessories can also be fun. Try to make sure whatever you offer is in keeping with your brand message, and give everyone a cool tote to carry their freebies, for a bit of easy advertising.

A Great Networking Experience

Trade shows aren’t just a way for you to meet potential customers, give them information and sell your stuff. It’s also a fantastic networking opportunity. You’ll meet other people in your industry and get a chance to see what they are doing well, and what isn’t working. You might meet new suppliers and other people that can help your business to grow. Or you might just make new friends that become part of your support network.

Fantastic Experience for Your Team

As a small business, you might have a relatively small team with little experience. They might not have been to shows before, and their experience with the public might be limited. Taking them to a trade show can give them a great experience. It can help to boost their confidence, improve their knowledge of your company and their skills at selling it, and give them a chance to see how other businesses are doing things. It can be valuable training for your team, which could help them both now and in the future.