Tag: communication

  • 4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns to Maximize Revenue

    4 Proven Marketing Campaigns for 2023

    The new year ushered in a new era for businesses. 2023 is marked with the likes of brutal inflation, energy costs at an all-time high, and mass layoffs happening frequently. It’s frightening for small business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s time to double down on some foundational marketing campaigns that will keep a steady stream of clients coming through your doors.

    In this article, we will expand on the following core marketing strategies:

    Video Content

    Written Content

    Email Marketing

    Social Media Ads

    Build your marketing strategy around these 4 marketing campaigns and execute them well to maximize your revenue even in an economic lull.

    Video Marketing

    You need to double down on your video content this year. If you haven’t started using video, it’s time to start now. Most marketers will agree that video is one of their highest ROI. Not sure how to start? Check out these 3 must-have videos for every business.

    Graph showing 88% of consumers prefer brand to be authentic and 66% of consumers prefer brands to be transparent.

    Why video?

    54% of consumers say they would prefer to view videos from businesses rather than other forms of content. And why wouldn’t they?

    Video is unlike text because it conveys emotion. This is how you humanize your marketing message. People prefer to know the brands they buy from on a personal and emotional level. Video will help you achieve that.

    66% of consumers say a transparent brand is an attractive brand.
    88% of consumers say authenticity is a major factor in purchasing from a brand.

    HubSpot

    What better way to convey transparency and authenticity than by speaking in your voice, using your personality, to introduce your brand?

    What should your video strategy include?

    When creating videos, storytelling is the most important technique. Think less about selling and more about your potential customer getting to know you. You may run a massive company, you may own a small business, but either way, you are people. People relate to people.

    Your message needs to answer questions and solve problems. If you’re empathetic to customer pains, it will resonate with your audience. Tell a story that highlights the fact that you understand their struggles. And then show them how you can help.

    As with all content, create your videos in a way that makes it easy to slice them into shorter videos for different platforms. Video takes time, but when done correctly it has incredible staying power.

    Content distribution

    More important than creating the video is your plan for distributing it. Consider these questions:

    • Where does my potential client hang out online?
    • What are their communication preferences?

    Decide where you will post your videos. How will you repurpose the long form video into multiple short form videos?

    As you prepare and plan for each video, be thinking about all the places it can be seen:

    • Website
    • YouTube
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • TikTok
    • Email

    There are different length and style recommendations for each platform. Creating a plan for how you will use each video with regards to the above list will save time and give your campaign a clear direction.

    Once your video is completed in long-form, optimize it for distribution on social media.

    Finally, the look and feel of your videos should match your brand. This also means that the quality needs to be high. If you can’t do this yourself, schedule a call with me to see how I can create and implement your video marketing strategy.

    Written Content

    You will want a strategic mix for your written content campaign. Consider the following:

    • Blog
    • Website pages
    • Landing pages
    • Guest articles on other blogs
    • Print media

    Blog

    Blogging has stood the test of time and remains one of the best methods of reaching your audience.

    Your content strategy doesn’t have to be all about creating new content unless you’re starting from scratch. If you already have a blog full of content, go back through it and find old articles you can update and repurpose.

    Consider how you can take your long form content and pull out main points for shorter pieces like tweets and LinkedIn posts.

    Do you have posts that are out of date? Do some keyword research, refresh them, and make them relevant again.

    Your content should demonstrate your knowledge and build relationships.

    Follow these people for brilliant advice about blogging, copywriting, and SEO:

    If you haven’t started yet, check out this Ultimate Guide to Start a WordPress Website.

    Website Refresh

    Refreshing your website is something that needs to happen frequently. Google always gives credit to fresh copy and optimization that’s in line with their updates.

    Have a look at your pages. Can you add valuable content? Can you consolidate pages? Is there anything that needs to be removed?

    Web ranking algorithms are constantly evolving. Google search changes 12 times in a day. Make sure you’re following the latest advice from them regarding the changes they make.

    Here’s our advice on finding and fixing issues with your website.

    Guest Blogging

    A great way to build some backlinks to your website and boost your content is guest blogging. Backlinks will build domain authority and increase traffic on your site.

    Do some research on the products and services you use. Do they have a blog? Do they have guest posts? If so, reach out to them and ask if you can write a guest post telling your story about how you use their products and services to streamline your business.

    This is a win-win. You get a guest article, they get a testimonial.

    Email Marketing

    Your contact database is your entire business. It may contain former clients, current clients, and people who have expressed interest in your products and services but haven’t made a purchase yet. All of these people are potential clients.

    Systematic communication with your contacts through email is a great way to stay top of mind. If you’ve neglected your database for a while, use these database clean-up tips to get organized.

    Provide Value

    Sending email for the sake of action will cause a mass exodus. People are guaranteed to unsubscribe quickly if they don’t see the purpose in your emails. If you’re not sure how to do this, seek out people who are doing it at a high level. Subscribe to newsletters and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

    Here are some of my favorite newsletter creators:

    Study how these people are giving you valuable info. Be intentional about your message. Prove your worth by adding value to your readers’ day. When you give your audience something that helps them, they will remember you when it’s time to buy.

    Clean and Organize

    Go through your database and make sure it is full of relevant people with correct contact information.

    To organize your database, break it into segments according to your relationship and their interests. That way you can tailor your messages to each segment of your audience and guarantee your contacts are getting the right email for them.

    Use a CRM to stay organized and systematize your email campaigns.

    Social Media Marketing

    Last but certainly not least, your business needs a clear social media strategy. I’m not sure who needs to hear this, but you don’t need to be on every social media channel available. Your social media presence should be strategic and sustainable.

    Choose your channels according to your audience. If your client demographic is mainly men and women over 45, you can probably skip the TikTok account.

    A smartphone has social media icons hovering above it demonstrating the importance of social media for businesses.

    Planning

    Now you need a content strategy. Set goals for engagement and post frequency.

    Creating and planning the content in advance will streamline distribution and save time. Use your blog articles and videos as a way to deploy content on social media. Create a framework around what you will post.

    Example:

    • Monday – Post a video
    • Tuesday – Share a blog article
    • Wednesday – Post 3 main points from that article
    • Thursday – Post an offer
    • Friday – Post a testimonial
    • Comment on something every day

    Tweak this to make sense for the content you have and the customer you serve. Either way, stay on top of it. Consistency is the most important part of maintaining your social media profile.

    Paid Ads

    Paid ads can give you a greater reach, but it’s important to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Increasing your audience size won’t matter if your ads are going to the wrong people.

    There are very specific ways to target interests and behaviors using social media paid ads. If you’re not familiar with how this works you will end up spending money for nothing.

    Social media is a powerful tool. Your business will benefit from a proper strategy and strict implementation.

    Track Your Results

    It’s important to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and make adjustments to maximize ROI.

    • Analyze traffic statistics on your blog. If you’re using WordPress, the built-in analytics are great.
    • Analyze keyword rankings and search engine rankings in Google Search Console.
    • YouTube has brilliant viewer statistics for your videos. Pay attention to average watch time on your channel. If people are watching almost the whole video, it’s a keeper.
    • Paid social media ads will provide analytics as well. Engagement is better than “reach” or “views”. You can use this to adjust your ad creative. If it gets a lot of views with few clicks, there’s something wrong.
    • The Facebook pixel is a magical tool for tracking activity also.

    Leverage Technology

    Using tech tools can make your campaigns efficient and effective. From automation to AI, your marketing will benefit from implementing certain technology.

    • AI writing tools can
      • Give you ideas for new articles
      • Rearrange your thoughts and give you a fresh perspective
      • Organize your research
      • Write rough outlines for your blog articles.
    • Zapier is brilliant for automating redundant tasks.
    • Hootsuite helps you plan and schedule your social media posts.
    • Canva is a graphic design software that is perfect for designing your social media posts, arranging Instagram reels, and sprucing up your profiles.
    • Futurepedia is an incredible list of AI tools that is updated daily.

    Pick and choose tools that make sense for your specific business. You don’t have to use everything. Watch out for shiny object syndrome.

    2023 doesn’t have to be a scary year. With a solid marketing strategy using these foundational campaigns, you will stay ahead of the competition. Stay consistent and you’ll maximize your revenue.

    Ready to see how I can help you? Schedule a call. No strings attached.

  • 5 ways you can improve your client database right now

    5 ways you can improve your client database right now

    5 Ways You Can Improve Your Client Database Right Now

    Your client contact database is the most important thing in your business. Whether you use a CRM or a notebook, consistent and systematized communication with your past clients, potential clients, and allied resources is paramount for building lasting relationships and creating repeat business. This can be difficult without a properly maintained database. In this article we will look at 5 things you can do right now to improve your client contact database and start communicating effectively.

    DEFINITIONS

    Database – Your list of clients, potential clients, former clients, friends, family, acquaintances, businesses you support, people whose services you use.

    CRM – Client Relationship Manager. Software that keeps your database organized, and can automate some communications with the contacts in your database.

    Met – A person in your database that you have met personally. This doesn’t indicate a level of relationship only that you’ve met them.

    Haven’t met – This is a person in your database that you have not personally met. It could be someone who signed up on your website, or landed in the top level of your sales funnel.

    Allied Resource – This is someone who you do business with. It could be your dentist, your mechanic, or a company that your company works directly with. They are in a unique position to refer business to you.

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • Your database IS your business. It is the keeper of the most important information about people who could be doing business with you and/or referring business to you.
    • Unnecessary clutter and disorganization ruins your communication. Not all the people in your database need to be receiving the same communications. Organize and segregate your contacts to communicate effectively.
    • Your database is not simply a place to keep phone numbers and email addresses. It is a place to keep all sorts of data about people that could be creating revenue for your business. The more you know about people, the better you will communicate with them.
    • Your database is a living thing. You need to feed it every day. You should always be looking for ways to add to your database.

    1. Merge your duplicate entries

    This one kind of seems like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised at how many times you’ve taken John Smith’s information and created multiple contacts for the same person in your phone or your client database. If you have an iPhone, this is done by simply going into your contacts and looking below where it shows your information and says “My Card”, there will be a link there that says “duplicates found” if you have duplicates. Click the link and see which contacts are duplicates and which are unique. You can choose to merge contacts into one card or keep them separate. Similarly, most CRMs have a built-in function within the software that will allow you to seek out and eliminate the duplicate contacts. If you don’t have this function or your client database is in a notebook or a shoebox, you will have to go through everything manually.

    Either way you do this, a clutter-free client database will allow you to see who you’re communicating with and eliminate confusion when creating a strategic plan for delivering content.

    2. Update contacts with incomplete or incorrect information

    If your emails bounce, try to find an updated email address by finding the person on social media or by phoning the person and asking them directly. If they’re on LinkedIn, there’s a good chance you can get their most up-to-date email address. You could also use Facebook messenger. An easy script for phone, text, or messenger is this… “Hello [first name], I hope you’re doing well. I am updating my database and I want to make sure that I have your info correct, and you have my info correct. Is your email address still [email@address.com]?” That’s the gist anyway. You don’t have to sound robotic.

    Are your texts not going through? Again, try to get their new phone number. If there’s one thing social media has done for us, it’s allowed us to find people a bit easier than it used to be. You can send an email, messenger, LinkedIn, etc and double check that their phone number is the same. Here’s the thing… if you can’t do either of these, DELETE them from your database. That’s right, get rid of them. There’s no use keeping people you can’t communicate with in your database to clog it up. Don’t delete them from social media, but keep them out of your CRM.

    This process should happen on a systematic basis. Every month, 2 months, or quarter, just go through your contacts. Fire off a text to someone you haven’t heard from in a while. If it comes back undeliverable, you know you need to update their information. On the flip side, if they respond, setup a coffee or lunch with them. Stay in front of people and they won’t forget you when they need your products or services.

    3. Tag people you have communicated with in the last 6 months

    The content you create for your communication campaigns will look differently depending on how recently you’ve spoken with your contacts. It’s good to segregate contacts in a variety of different ways, but one of the best things to do is ask yourself “when was the last time I spoke with that person?”. You can create a field in your CRM or spreadsheet where you record the date of your last communication. So, every time you speak with someone, open it up and change the date. You can then filter your client database by that field to see who it is that you haven’t spoken with in a while. Come up with a special piece that is directly tailored to re-engage these people and get them back into the “recent” category.

    This is where it’s important to have a super granular content strategy. You will need a wide variety of content pieces aimed at different stages of relationships and varied interests. You need to know your client database extremely well in order to segregate it in this way. This is one reason why feeding your database new data every time you speak with some is an integral part of daily business operations.

    4. Split your client database into 2 categories

    The foundation of your client database can be broken down into 2 very generic categories:

    1. Mets – These are people you have met in person (or I suppose these days, people you have interacted with on Zoom). There is no pre-requisite for how well you know someone in your met list. It’s not an indicator of relationship status. It’s just as simple as it seems.
    2. Haven’t Mets – Ding ding ding! You’ve guessed it, these are people you have not met in person (or interacted with on Zoom). Again, not a relationship indicator, but a simple yes or no. Have you met them? Most of the time, these are people who filled in a contact form on your website or landed in the top level of a sales funnel.

    Your goal for communicating with mets is simple, keep learning about them and stay at the top of their mind as someone who knows things that can help them. Your goals for the haven’t mets is to convert them into mets. Proving your value to haven’t mets is the trick here. They will either “unsubscribe” or want more. If you give them valuable content, they will be excited to see your communication campaign in their inbox and be more likely to use your products and services. Again, the key here is making sure you know as much as you can about the people in your contact list.

    5. Add new people you have interacted with recently

    Every time you meet someone that could be a potential client or an allied resource, add them to your database. Make sure to include as much data as you know about them. Find their social profiles, input their occupation, and mention their personality type. Your database is not just a book with phone numbers and email addresses, it is full of DATA. It is a living thing and it needs to be fed. New data is gathered every single time you interact with someone, whether it’s your first meeting or your twentieth. Maybe they mention that their wife just started a new job or that their husband just celebrated his birthday. All of these data points are simple to collect and organize, but more importantly they give you a reason to follow up with that person. If someone tells you their wife is pregnant, you now have a pass to check in with them every month and ask how she’s doing. If someone mentions their vacation is coming up, set a reminder to follow up when they return and ask how it went. Other pieces of data: hobbies, civic or volunteer groups they are part of, sports teams, favorite restaurants, names of children, anniversary, and the list goes on! The more you know about people, the better your communication will be with them. But you have to have a system for this. It has to be a priority to spend time on your database every week at the very least. Create a plan for adding to and organizing your client database and you will find that it can bring you increased sales and revenue through lasting relationships.

    If you have questions about how this can look getting specific to your business niche, please message me on LinkedIn, or setup a call to chat about your challenges and how to overcome them.