Design affects everything we do, from how we communicate to how we work. Great design unites a company and sets it apart from others. It can make the difference between a company that thrives and one that struggles.
Great design helps people, not just machines. It impacts their emotions, their empathy, their understanding of the world. It is important for your business too.
Design matters for your business in many ways. It is not just about look and feel, but how it makes people feel, what it does to their emotions, empathy, and understanding of the world.
What is Good Design?
Good design is a process. It’s a way of looking at the world that shapes how we see, understand, and interact with it.
Designer Stefan Sagmeister says “It’s not just about look and feel. It’s about empathy. It’s about understanding people, not just computers. “Great design matters for your business it doesn’t just affect how something looks; it affects how people feel.”
To make sure you have great design, you first need to understand what great design really is. That means defining what good design is for your company and why it matters to you.
It’s important to not let your brand look dated. It needs a refresh once in a while.
You need to figure out what your company stands for and what values it embodies in order to shape those values into good design principles. It’ll make a big difference for the long term success of your business.
Quality design is priceless. Every business should care about it.
First Impressions Matter
People form opinions about your company in about 50 milliseconds, based on visual signals. The visual identity of your company includes all the elements that make up your branded products and their packaging.
Good design is about more than just making a good first impression. It’s about taking into consideration the needs of your customers, and creating products, services and experiences that are relevant to them. It’s about getting to know your customers better, in order to give them what they really need now and in the future.
Branding is not a one time project. It needs to grow and evolve over time to stay relevant.
Design matters for consumers because their preferences affect the brands they buy, how long they stay loyal to a brand, what products they demand in the future and how much money they are willing to spend on these products.
The number one reason consumers choose a product or service is based on its quality.
Good design makes it possible for you not only to create eye-catching visual elements but also to improve user experience. That’s why having great design in your marketing collateral matters so much for any campaigns or communications that you publish.
Great design provides a quick and effortless way for customers to recognize your products, evaluate them and decide whether or not they really want them.
The visual identity of a product adds value to it by creating a more appealing appearance, increasing its perceived quality and even making it more functional.
An attractive package is one that attracts potential buyers because it shows the value of the product, its richness in content, or because it forms an emotional connection to the buyer’s desires.
Design Thinking
In Design Thinking, the approach is to understand the problem(s) before looking for solutions.
This is especially important in sales and marketing, where many professionals rely on their instincts, or their past experience, or even on the latest trend to build their sales and marketing strategies. There’s nothing wrong with that, as it sometimes works; but there’s a better way.
That way is design thinking.
Thinking as a designer involves asking a lot of questions and looking at things from the customer’s point of view. It may sound like common sense but it’s not common practice.
It’s easier to start with your company goals and set a sales and marketing strategy from there, but consumers today want organizations to relate to them in a personalized way — they want to have more choices, they want to have control.
Well designed branding can increase customer satisfaction in many ways:
Unlike traditional advertising strategies, good design is a part of every aspect of your brand communication with customers and prospects including packaging, infrastructure, web pages, marketing materials and any other place where you communicate with them. Design thinking is more likely than advertising & marketing to generate repeat customers.
How to Achieve Good Design
Achieving good design is not about trying to be a designer. It’s about understanding the principles of good design and applying them to your business. It’s about understanding and appreciating the value of well-executed design.
The key to achieving good design comes from three sources: empathy, simplification, and storytelling. You need to empathize with your customer, simplify their lives, and tell them a story that connects with them on an emotional level.
Good design is intuitive and thoughtful. It helps people, not just computers understand the world around them. Great designs are those that make people feel something or care about what they see before them. The best designs are those that make you feel like the designer understood you before you even knew you needed anything designed!
Good Design Is Simple
Great design should be simple, clear, and functional. It’s not about decoration, it’s about communication. A good designer is a thoughtful collaborator who will ask the right questions to help you achieve your goals.
Emotional Design
Great design will create an emotional connection between the business and its customers.
Design connects with emotions, which helps people feel more connected to your company. For example, Starbucks cups are a big part of the company’s identity. The design of the cups evoke feelings in people—ones that they connect with Starbucks because of. We can see this as one way that great design matters for your business.
Designers have a lot of power in a company, and that power should be respected and taken seriously. Often companies think design is just something on the side or something extra to do if they have time or money left over at the end of a project.
Designers have the power to create a great experience for customers; they have responsibility to do their best work to make sure their vision is executed well and creates an emotional connection with customers. Great designers are passionate and driven; they want their designs to be successful so that people will use them and love them. They care deeply about their work and want it to be great.
User-Centered Design (UCD)
User-centered design (UCD) is the process of designing products with users in mind. UCD has been a huge success because it is a UX methodology that provides insight into what customers want, need, and expect. It helps companies understand how to build products that people value and love.
Moreover, UCD gives you a competitive edge in differentiating your products from others. It focuses on empathy, the user’s emotions, their understanding of the world, which all help businesses grow. The bottom line is that if you have a better understanding of your customer’s needs, you can create better products for them.
The Importance of Clear Communication
Communicating well is a complex process. You need to be clear and concise in your messaging, but also manage to show personality at the same time. A lot of this is based on how you design your message and how you present it.
You may want to consider hiring a professional designer who understands the nuances of communication. Professionals understand typography, color theory, aesthetics, layout, and more. They can help you craft messaging that effectively communicates your message without being overdone or cluttered.
Designers can help with everything from logos and layouts to infographics, websites, and social media graphics. They can advise on what language is most appropriate for your audience or suggest new ways for you to communicate better with customers as trends change.
Conclusion
With a clear sense of what is good design, you can create a design strategy that will help you achieve your marketing goals and reflect your brand.
Good design is anything that solves the problem that it was intended to solve.
People are more likely to be interested in a product if it looks aesthetically pleasing.
The best design results are achieved by understanding the user and designing accordingly.
Good design is simple because simplicity is elegant and timeless.
Emotional design is based on the idea of creating an emotional response in the user through visual and interactive design elements.
UCD is a user-centered approach to design, where insights from the users themselves guide the design process.
Clear communication is important in effective design because it helps people understand the message with minimal effort.
Interested in having us build a customized marketing strategy for your company?
The process of hiring new employees can be exhausting. In effect, having several interviews in a day and not finding the right employee can be torture. In like manner, when we talk about tech professionals, it is important to realize they are in high demand these days.
For that reason, as employers are continually looking for tech talent, tech professionals have set higher standards. For tech professionals, good compensation is not enough. For that reason, companies have made changes in their job offers in order to make them more attractive for tech talent.
On the other hand, hiring executives is not an easy task. It is because you have to be aware that you will be interviewing experienced candidates. Consequently, you’ll recruit an individual that will fit a top-level position in your company. As a result, they will have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders. For that reason, different methods are required in order to make your job offer more attractive and secure a candidate who fills your needs.
Given these points, here are five crazy tactics that work when hiring tech executive employees.
Define Job Specifications
The first thing you should do when hiring executives is research. Doing research will allow you to know the nature of the job and prepare you to hire the candidate that best fits your company’s needs.
In like manner, defining the job specifications will allow aspirants to understand what you expect from them. On the other hand, when posting job vacancies, you should provide a detailed job description. In that case, you will be able to find the right candidate not only for your executive position but also for your company culture. In other words, if you need to hire tech professionals like senior software engineers it would help if you let them know what your specific requirements are for the position. In that case, you will need to let them know not only your technical requirements but also personal behavioral expectations.
Take Advantage of Employee Referrals
When recruiting executives, you can’t leave aside networks. You can use connections and relations in your existing executive team to find the right candidate. Try to find employees that can suggest a few candidates that are able to fill your position requirements. In like manner, when it’s about referrals, candidates will feel more confident and will be able to perform better during the interview. In addition to that, it is vital to be transparent during the hiring process.
Apart from that, you probably will need to go beyond to leverage social media connections. For example, when you are trying to hire proficient and experienced web developers, posting a job vacancy won’t be enough. With this in mind, it is crucial to emphasize that tech talent standards are higher these days. For that reason, sometimes you will need to be more personal.
Demonstrate Professionalism
Executive-level tech candidates know that their abilities are valuable. In that case, they like to be discrete and expect professionalism from employers. Most of the executive candidates would instead be contacted through online networks or a private email address than any other channel. However, these days social networks are popular, and tech professionals, like mobile developers, like to show their skills through social media. With this in mind, you can also contact potential executive candidates through their personal social media profiles. Under those circumstances, you’ll still need to let them know that discretion and confidentiality will be maintained during the process.
Express the Value of the Position
As the demand for tech talent has increased, tech professionals have started to be concerned with more than just a salary. In like manner, when professionals reach an executive level, their expectations are even higher. For this reason, they will demand what kind of benefits they will receive apart from their salary.
Under those circumstances, you will need to increase your benefits package and provide an attractive job offer. To put it differently, Google provides its employees with excellent benefits such as free on-site gym classes, massage therapists, medical benefits and paid paternity/maternity leave benefits. In that case, if you are looking to hire tech professionals like data scientists, for example, you will need to let them know how great their benefits are. Data Scientists have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. For that reason, they won’t accept only monetary benefits.
Go the Extra Mile
When it’s about recruiting executive tech talent, you will need to break the ice. In effect, you won’t follow the conventional hiring process. This is because you will need to make changes in order to engage them. Since tech talent is in high demand, it’s probable that they have already received other job offers.
In that case, you need to make a difference and demonstrate how committed the company is to hire them. Try different methods, allow them to spend face-to-face time with other executive team members. In like manner, implement a personalized hiring experience, make them feel at home. Showing genuine interest in candidates will allow them to feel special. For that reason, you should demonstrate that getting to know them will be meaningful for you.
The concept of cold email is incorrectly referred to as spam. In our experience, building an effective cold email strategy takes an in-depth understanding of the benefits of your product or service and knowing how to communicate the message so that it connects with the needs of your potential customers. Rather than merely sending hundreds of emails, set up a system that will allow you to customize the content. Here’s our top 10 tips for effective B2B cold email campaigns.
1. Personalize your emails
Your success rate will be much higher if you personalize the emails. Personalize the emails to your prospects by reading and understanding their preferences. Starting your email with their name, ie. “Dear Paul”, will grab the reader’s attention more often than “Dear Business Owner”. This will ensure that your emails get the attention of your potential customers. It will also show that you are interested in your prospects’ needs and can be of great help in generating higher open and click-through rates. By using this technique, you can increase your open and click-through rates by up to 50%.
While this may sound like an obvious tip, cold emails often feel unprofessional and are still considered taboo in today’s marketplace. In addition to addressing your recipient by their first name, your email should also include your contact details, including your name, website, and telephone number. Providing contact information is the first step in a cold email campaign. By adding your name, you can create a personal connection with your recipients.
2. Grab Their Attention
Write an attention-grabbing subject line. This is crucial because it is the first impression that will determine whether or not your prospect reads your email or not. It is also the best way to avoid being marked as spam if your email is too long. Moreover, a CTA is essential in cold emails because it tells the reader that you have done your research and follow industry trends. It is important to use a personalized subject line and close the message with a compelling call to action.
To increase your open rates, you should focus on the subject line. A good subject line should include the name of the person to whom you are sending the email. It will be more likely to generate a response from the recipient if they know the person. This will improve the chances of your email being opened. This is the reason why A/B testing is so important. If you want to improve your open rates, you must test your message against each other.
3. Strong Cold Email Copy
Besides a well-written subject line, the content in your email must be relevant to the audience. Your emails copy must be of high quality. Good email copy increases open rates, click-through rates and generates leads or sales. Moreover, it should be short and simple. Moreover, it should not be rambling and confusing. Unless you’ve written a good subject line, you’ll lose the interest of the recipient. If you’re targeting a B2B audience, personalizing your email campaign will make you stand out from the crowd. Here are some proven cold email templates to help write effective emails that get results.
It is important to keep in mind that the best emails are those that are targeted and that are tailored to the subscriber. By segmenting your subscribers, you can increase your revenue significantly! If you’re trying to boost your sales through email, you’ll need to create a campaign that focuses on the interests of your readers.
4. Implement A/B Testing
Effective email copy that boosts conversions is what email lead generation specialists strive for and A/B testing is always an important part of the process. Test different subject lines, different versions of the main message etc.
Choose the right software to make this process as easy as possible. Some of the best apps we recommend for cold email are: Hunter Campaigns, SmartReach, Woodpecker, Reply, and Snov. At Oceanone we have our own proprietary software that is no extra cost when you hire us to create an manage your campaigns. Lear more about our email marketing services.
5. Cold Email Lists
Generate mailing lists of contacts within your target audience and communicate with them in a strategic way. Try to get mailing lists that include the recipient’s name.
6. Monitoring
Monitor the progress of your cold email campaign and analyze the results weekly once it has been launched.
7. Do it Right and Cold Email Really Works
One cold email campaign can generate more leads than any other form of lead generation when implemented properly.
8. Write Engaging Emails
Write cold emails that will engage your prospects without irritating them in any way. Ask questions, provide statistics, give them useful information, links to tools and offer solutions to their problems. There are a lot of possibilities. You need to spend some time brainstorming and get to the core of what information your audience will appreciate.
9. Follow up
In most cases we stop sending to the same cold email recipient if they haven’t responded after 4 emails.
The most effective email campaigns can make your business stand out from the rest. For example, a social media discussion can be useful for creating a sense of community among your subscribers. Providing your email with information is one of the best ways to stay on top of your competition and gain market share. As the world of commerce continues to evolve, you must also keep your customers’ attention by providing them with useful information. An effective email campaign will provide more value to your company.
10. Use a Single Call-To-Action (CTA)
A well-crafted email has a single goal: to engage the reader. A CTA can be as simple as an offer, or as complex as a customized form. The most effective emails will have a single action. This should be the same for all recipients. If you’re selling to a B2B audience, a CTA will vary depending on the buyer’s journey stage. Regardless of the goal, email should always contain a clear instruction for your audience.
To ensure the success of your email marketing efforts, keep these things in mind.
Expert Cold Email Services
As one of the top digital strategy agencies we have mastered the art of cold emailing by developing a variety of lead generation techniques with cold email marketing strategies. Contact us for a free consultation.
Website conversion rate is a challenge that most website owners struggle with. This length of this most may seem contrary to the the title that promises to explain how to “Easily Boost Website Conversion Rate.”
However, I promise that despite the length of the post, the actual implementation of the suggested methods are very quick and simple to do. Most of the content goes into depth explaining why it works.
Are you getting enough visitors to your website, but not enough leads?
If you are getting leads, are you having trouble with converting them to actual sales?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, then the problem is “Conversions” an in particular, the Website Conversion Rate.
On Average, 98% of the visitors to a website don’t contact the business and the visitor moves on and never returns.
When your website is getting good traffic volume but visitors are leaving without a trace it can be quite frustrating and baffling.
Attracting website visitors is one thing but convincing them to convert to a lead or sale is a much different challenge.
Many marketers and business owners are puzzled by the disparity between the number of visitors they managed to drive to the website and how many converted to leads or sales.
You have to figure out why your traffic is not converting
It’s possible you’re not providing them with the offers they really want, or perhaps you’re overloading them with too much information all at once. Your lead generation efforts can be thwarted by annoying popups, distracting visuals, unclear calls to action, and weak value propositions.
In this post, we’ll explore why your lead generation efforts are failing – and ways to regain some of the 98% of visitors who don’t convert.
There are many things you can do to improve your Website Conversion Rate but this article is focused on easy ways to boost your Website Conversion Rate and trying out a few small changes can make a big difference and that’s what this post is all about.
What do you consider a conversion?
Before you can improve your conversions of course you need to decide what a conversion is for you and then measure it. Use Google Analytics to track conversions. In most case a conversion is a lead or a sale and tracking the thank you page for the either of those is the most common transactions to measure.
Think like a customer
You need to step back and visit your website from your visitors perspective. First think about what your ideal customer would be looking for. Does your site easily provide the information they would want? Do you have too many distractions or elements that could cause confusion? These are just a few of the many questions you might ask.
Look for bottlenecks in the User Experience
One way to find out how your visitors are interacting with your website is to install Hotjar which will provide you with video captures of the activity from each visitor. It will show you if visitors are experiencing confusion or decision making problems and at what point they just leave the site. It can be quite enlightening.
Why are your visitors leaving without converting?
Optimizing a user’s experience (UX) is at the heart of lead generation. Your website should immerse people from the moment they arrive, keep them browsing for as long as possible, and convert them with a compelling offer.
Don’t be greedy.
They will get annoyed if you constantly flash popups at them. Just because someone stumbled across your site by chance does not mean they’re ready to convert.
You may know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen a site that appears like this:
Multiple pop-ups will confuse the customer, and they aren’t sure where to look.
Design your website in a way that is neither distracting nor annoying. Think about the kind of offer that will persuade users to convert.
It’s possible that the lead magnets you’re offering such as an ebook or audio file are not desired by your users. Perhaps a discount code or free toolkit would be more appealing to them. Conduct A/B tests to see which causes more visitors to convert.
Keep in mind other aspects of the user experience, too:
Make visitors fill out as few form fields as possible.
Make sure you don’t use more than one call-to-action on the same page.
Landing pages should be free of distracting elements, such as navigation bars.
Don’t ask for anything in return until you’ve provided value.
It may help you avoid mistakes if you know what to avoid, but what can you do?
Focus on providing an amazing user experience
A lot of people misunderstand user experience (UX).
Creating a website that looks good is often all marketers think about. That’s part of it, but a visually appealing screen won’t make any significant impact on lead generation.
In UX, you should take into account the whole flow of your website. When visitors arrive at your site, what does the journey look like? Where are they looking for information? Which information do they expect to find?
You need to think about your conversion funnel. When a visitor lands on a blog post about how to choose a vacuum cleaner, they’re not ready to buy a vacuum cleaner yet – they’re at the top of the funnel.
A detailed comparison checklist might make a good lead magnet. Your blog post should contain the CTA, as well as an exit intent popup with the same offer.
You are dealing with someone at the bottom of the funnel if you receive a visitor from a Facebook post about a vacuum cleaner discount. Streamline the checkout process to ensure that they convert. Using exit popups as they leave is another way to steer them back.
Exit popups can grow your lead generation 5x
Pop-up exits are extremely useful, but they can also backfire horribly. If a pop-up isn’t timed right, it won’t help generate leads.
This is why targeting pop-ups on specific pages on your website is so important. Consider your conversion funnel again.
Typically, exit popups look like this:
Visitors to your website will see an exit popup when they attempt to click away and leave. You’re saying, “Wait a minute!”. Before you leave…
You must complete that sentence.
If your most popular product is on sale, you could offer a discount, or perhaps you could offer a free download that offers some benefit to the visitor.
Ideas for brainstorming:
Hold on! This $10 off coupon is available before you leave.
Just a moment! You might want to check out our free guide on [topic] before you go.
Hold on a second! Get monthly discounts by joining our email list before you leave!
It isn’t necessary to say, “Hold on!” idea. Just make sure the visitor knows you are offering something of value if they want to stay.
As long as the user experience is enhanced with genuine value, exit popups can increase your lead generation by five times or more.
Yet, exit popups frequently fail due to their lack of visual appeal and genuine value.
Take a moment to consider this. You’re shopping at a retail store, yes a real store. There may be something specific you are looking for, or you may just be browsing.
However many things you see, nothing stands out enough for you to want to stay, so you leave.
There’s a sales associate who flags you down and asks, “Hey, wanna look around for a bit?” You might find something you like!
That’s probably going to make you walk a little faster to the exit
How about if that same sales associate got your attention and said, “Hey, we’re running a half-off sale on [what you want/need].” “I can show you if you’re interested.”
In that case, you might respond differently.
In the digital world you have a visitor who has glanced around your website and decided to leave. This is your opportunity to pique their attention.
Maybe your offer looks like this:
It’s not bad at all, is it? Your prospect may go back and purchase that product with those shiny new discounts if they were considering your product but found it too expensive.
Furthermore, you’ll gain a valuable new subscriber to whom you can send other offers. That visitor that almost left without ever being seen again could turn into a repeat customer for years to come. You can show personalized messages to repeat visitors if you use a targeting feature like the pop-up software Hello Bar.
Increase immersion by using interaction
The importance of your website conversion rate in marketing cannot be overstated.
Imagine the activity you engage in on social media, for example. You know you can build relationships and trust by replying to a comment someone leaves on your Facebook post.
Visitors to your site may not always be willing to take the first step – and you can’t have hour-long conversations with everyone. Therefore, if you want to increase leads on your website, you should simulate conversations.
Returning to the exit intent popup, let’s take a look. Visitor email addresses were exchanged for a 20% discount.
Maybe it would be better to start the conversation with something a little friendlier. You can add questions to an exit intent using lead generation software like Hello Bar, for example, to warm up a visitor.
As an example, you could ask a question about your particular niche or industry:
Do you love dogs? YES / NO
This gives the visitor every chance to respond, “Yes.” Subsequently, it will be easier to receive the same response when you ask the next question.
What works as an offer?
As we mentioned, 98% of your visitors leave your site without engaging. That’s a huge number.
This statistic was used with an exit popup on the Hello Bar website to encourage people to sign up for our email list. The number of signups increased by 450 in just one week.
Using numbers allows you to show what your product is capable of, target your prospective clients’ pain points, and build trust with them.
Consider the case of someone who sells weight loss products. Not only do you want to establish credibility, you also want to remind your site visitors of their goals.
In an exit pop-up, you can use the following statistic:
This statistic will capture your visitor’s attention and spark their curiosity to know more..
Many test have proven that the number of emails collected per day had increases greatly after deploying an exit intent popup.
Using exit popups isn’t the only way to snag leads who would otherwise bounce. Visitors won’t lose the signup page because the top bars stay on top of their screen.
Put it to the test. A landing page catches your attention, then something else catches your eye. Then it is suddenly gone – and you are not going to waste time looking for it again.
Consumers think that way, so make it easier for them to sign up.
You can invite visitors to become leads by including a handy top bar to help the website conversion rate.
Regardless of how many internal links your visitors follow, they can still sign up for your e-mail list without having to search for a signup form.
Provide Multiple Communication Channels
Many visitors want to contact businesses, but in their preferred way and time.
Every user who visits your website is your potential customer, interested in your offer.
By providing your website visitors an easy way to contact you either via phone call, SMS message, Appointment, Email, or other means, a lead can be converted into a sale.
For this we have a great solution called “Lead Widget“. It’s a multi-choice contact widget that can go on every page of you website allowing visitors to reach you on their preferred platform. They can choose SMS, Email, Phone, Appointment Booking of Live Chat. For some businesses having that immediate contact is vital. In fact there is one right here in the bottom right corner of this page that says “Click to Connect” Learn more about Lead Widget!
Boost Your Website Conversion Rate
You can’t just build a landing page and cross your fingers for lead generation. You must use tools and strategies to convince people to take action.
Top bars and exit popups are ideal strategies. Communicate with your consumers whether you’re online or not. Give discounts or give incentives to gain an edge.
Interested in trying these strategies yourself?
You can try Lead Widget for 30 days for free. You can easily place it on your website and try it Free for 30 Days to see if it helps you get more leads on your website.
There is never a single solution that works for everyone so you need to be prepared to test, test some more and test again. It’s what every successful marketer does. Be sure to track your results to determine what is working and what is not.
When you find something that works, know that it won’t work forever. Website Conversion Rate Optimization is an ongoing process that needs fine tuning and adjustments along the way.
Today’s digitally oriented age can present many marketing challenges for Online Lead Generation. It will take time and input from your side, but with effort and a little bit of know-how, you can achieve the Lead Generation results you are looking for.
All the concepts of digital marketing are at your fingertips and by following these simple and easy ideas, you’ll be generating genuine, quality leads in no time.
Online Lead Generation and the Importance of Digital Marketing
The relevance of digital marketing in today’s global economy is becoming an undeniably powerful tool to promote your business and build your company’s following.
Statistics from various institutions all point towards the same thing: by increasing your contact list and heightening your online presence, your company will grow steadily.
The strategies are really all built around for methods. Visitors to your website, downloading your free products in exchange for their email, clicking on your ads and reading your newsletter or blog post.
The fundamental thing that is happening with these processes is that you were building a relationship and build trust from this potential customer. Once you have shared your knowledge and expertise on the subject they’re interested in there’s a much higher likelihood that they will buy your product or service.
When it’s done right, digital marketing is the way to online lead generation, and lead generation converts to company profits.
How the current digital market is changing
You don’t have to spend a ton of money but be prepared to invest some time to develop a good lead generation process. Many options exist outside of spending your entire marketing expenses or even your business’s whole budget.
Statistics indicate that 18.5 per cent of leads are generated through online lead, while around 40% is generated directly. These statistics are changing, however, with a proven increase in digital attention from both a company-to-company industry as well as company-to-buyer.
Implementing your best strategy for online lead generation in a competitive world
The current fast-paced marketing industry with their low attention span doesn’t allow any company or business entity much time to make an impact on the minds of readers or potential future buyers.
Step one is targeting your specific audience. Simple and understandable methods of market research can ensure that you reach the correct listeners. The ultimate goal is to achieve this through passive methods, meaning that your time, as important to you as it is, is not wasted.
You put in the work once and see it pay off without any further effort on your behalf.
How is this done?
The effects of social media
Being active on social media is the first big step. It may sound tedious, but a simple five minutes on each of your targeted platforms can make a major difference.
Always be professional in your approach but be original and have ingenuities as well.
Set aside a reasonable time to like, comment and post on each platform.
Five to ten minutes will work perfectly, depending on you or your company’s schedule. Publishing new content, doing guest posts and promoting your site through affiliate links is a very good way to monetize passively as well as gain new customers.
Professional help and consultation
Getting a marketing company involved to promote your business is a good idea if you don’t the time or enough staff to handle all the tasks.
Many professionals can give you a relevant opinion on your company’s current status and will point out where you need improvement regarding your social presence. You may gain some insight into your current marketing trends as well as your customers.
Free content and how it can bring in money
Creating an online product may take time, but in the end, its share-ability and social media impact will always exceed your expectations, if the product is relevant and well thought out.
Putting the time and effort into a “free” product is one of the best ways of generating repeat clients and, in turn, repeat revenue. Not only do you gain clients, but your analytics system, if you have one, can give you a more in-depth idea of who your target market is and how you can reach them. Apps, ebooks, videos, checklists and other digital resources all work well for this type of strategy.
Newsletters and mailing lists
Offering a way for potential customers to sign up to your newsletter is another essential way of getting them onboard. The catch is that your mailing list needs to have easy sign-up (perhaps a site pop-up) and needs to have relevant content that subscribers would want to read.
Plan your material out beforehand and make sure the quality is impeccable. With these general pointers, you should be well on your way to creating an excellent online presence and building your client base through it. Never lose faith or hope in your own amateur marketing ability; the more you implement, the more you will discover what works for your specific market.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Lead Generation
All the tactics mentioned above are long-term methods for on-going lead generation. They may not produce immediate results but they will be effective for ongoing lead generation and meeting your long-term goals.
When you need more immediate results, PPC leads are the way to go. Depending on where your audience is, this could mean Google Ads, Youtube Ads, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Pinterest and others. If people would generally search for the products or service that you offer, then Google Search ads are going to give you the best results.
Google Search ads are the most expensive leads but also the highest quality because of buyer intent. Nobody searches for “Plumber in Chicago” unless they are looking to hire one. The buyer intent is very obvious unless they are just doing research of course. If they search for “how to fix a leaking faucet” they probably want to find out how to do it themselves and so there is not implied buyer intent but you don’t have to target that keyword.
However, you might want to consider targeting a lower buyer intent keyword because they are much cheaper per click and it does provide brand exposure. These are the kind of decisions you will have to make according to your budget and overall marketing strategy.
The amazing thing about PPC ads is that they are highly targeted and you can start getting results later today.
The cost for search ads depends on your location and the amount of competition. Google ads typically cost between $1 and $2 per click, although some ads can cost over $50 if the competition is fierce. Law firms, Plastic surgeons and Roofing Contractors are among those businesses that can expect to pay a very high CPC. Their average sale is very high so it is worth it for them. Google Ads are placed based on both an advertiser’s bid and the quality of the advertisement. You’ll therefore be less likely to outbid your competition if your ad is better.
Those are some online advertising basics but there is much more complexity to it. Understanding the platform that you choose, how to get the best ROI and writing great ad copy are some key factors in achieving successful results. That’s beyond the scope of this post and we will cover it in depth in future post. Meanwhile, if you would like to learn more about online advertising, this post from Hubspot is a great place to start. Also check out out our post about creating a marketing strategy.
Branding is not a one time project. It needs to grow and evolve over time to stay relevant.
Design connects with emotions, which helps people feel more connected to your company. For example, Starbucks cups are a big part of the company’s identity. The design of the cups evoke feelings in people—ones that they connect with Starbucks because of. We can see this as one way that great design matters for your business.
You may want to consider hiring a professional designer who understands the nuances of communication. Professionals understand typography, color theory, aesthetics, layout, and more. They can help you craft messaging that effectively communicates your message without being overdone or cluttered.
