What was that thing your competitor said on Facebook the other day? The comment that had everybody in your industry talking for days?
Customer service seems like something any company should be able to do, right? If that were true, the internet would be full of people lauding companies for the outstanding service they provide—rather than the customer support nightmares covering review sites from every continent. With the bar for switching providers dropping lower and lower with each passing technological advancement, effective customer service is absolutely imperative, no matter the size of your company or the number of customers you have.
You know that ad you keep seeing while you browse news sites? The one for the accessory for the kitchen widget you bought online last week? Well, that’s one simple example of what we’re talking about today—personalized marketing.
Startups have more challenges than just getting their product in front of potential customers. When you consider that the vast majority of startups fail and the vast majority of funded startups also fail, it's understandable that launching a startup (and succeeding!) is not for the faint of heart. This discussion will set forth some of the challenges facing startups and some thoughts on addressing them.
As your startup’s CEO and chief bottle washer, you’ve undoubtedly spent a fair bit of time compiling your ideal buyer persona. There’s so much to know about who you’re targeting your widget at, demographics, psychographics, geographics, et al, right? And once you have all of that data sorted, sifted, and parsed, the last thing you want to do is more sorting, sifting, and parsing.
Facebook is refocusing itself on connecting people with content from friends and family. So Instagram is the new home for brands. Engagement is high, followers are brand-loyal, and you can achieve tangible business goals.
Real sustained growth isn't about getting lucky. Even a perfect product or service needs a well-executed marketing plan. Good ideas catch on in the market when they're supported by a good strategy.
Niche marketing is growing in popularity, and for good reason. When done right, it’s a fantastic way to get your message in front of the right people, in the right place, and at the right time. Notice how we said, “when done right?” Yeah, that’s because you’ll often find it much easier to do wrong than right. But never fear, we’re here to help.
To generate leads and customers from your startup's Facebook page requires that you create your page with a comprehensive strategy that will get you noticed. For example, you can't just choose a picture, you have to pick one that's the right dimensions, is high-resolution, and that represents your brand.
It’s estimated that on average, 8 out of 10 people will only read your headline. The other 2 will actually scroll through and read the article. Seems insane, right? The take away here is not how short humankind’s attention span has gotten (that’s for another piece), rather it’s how important the headline is for read rates.
It doesn't take long to find lists of blogging mistakes or lists of blogging tips and tricks. Honestly, when somebody offers me 101 Ways to Fix Your Blog, I tend to stay away. I mean, how can you absorb 101 things to do or not do? And how credible can 101 points on any single topic be at a point in time?
You want your brand to be credible. This credibility can be gained in many ways, and while the foundation of credibility is knowing your stuff and being a knowledgeable resource for prospects, the good news is that you don't need to present immense amounts of details and information to be considered credible. Credibility is more about the clarity, enthusiasm, and consistency of information presented.
Marketing via email gained traction around the turn of the 21st century as personal email accounts became common. Email marketing remains a solid way to generate leads and convert prospects for your business, as long as you do it correctly.
What comprises effective marketing has changed substantially over the past few years. There's increased consumer skepticism and plenty of new technology. As you develop your brand's marketing strategy you need to note what the current effective marketing tactics are and what impacts consumer buying habits. Clever brands, business owners, and startup entrepreneurs realize that social proof offers vast potential for growth, and they're using positive social proof to influence purchasing behavior.
Over time, the blogosphere has become a huge, congested, and noisy space where hordes of blogs are all fighting to get noticed. Readers have adapted to this environment by learning to be expert scanners, and they quickly grew weary of clicking on a compelling headline only to find mediocre content. Most, maybe even 90%, bounce within 10-20 seconds.
If you were to ask any number of companies about their content strategy, most of them would tell you about continuing content creation. Maybe they'd mention monitoring performance of their content for insights about what their editorial calendar for future months should include. The best online marketers know better. They understand the importance of looking at past content with an eye toward adjusting pieces to improve results into the future.
Traditional marketing, inbound marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, online marketing, outbound marketing, “push” marketing? Sometimes it seems like the marketing world has gotten a bit overly complex in recent years, doesn’t it? So what ARE the differences between all those seemingly different niches listed above? We’ll admit, we cheated a bit on that list, as several of those are actually synonyms for the same set of tactics.
In the marketing and startup worlds, "inbound" has become such a buzzword that we may not even remember a time when we weren't talking about it. But where did inbound marketing as we know it come from? And why is it here to stay?
