5 Ways to Optimize Your Site’s SEO
The digital landscape is always changing, driven in large part by search engines. There are approximately 3.5 billion searches a day on Google and 100 million searches a day each on DuckDuckGo and Bing. In other words, your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts have never been more critical. And while it would be easy to spend a vast amount of time on every bit of SEO minutiae (that's part of our job!), we've identified five essential steps that can go a long way toward making your site as attractive to the search engines as possible.
1. Optimize Keywords
The first piece of the puzzle for optimizing your website is to determine the right keywords to use in your page titles and content. If the process feels daunting, let AdWords Keywords Planner or Keyword Tool help you out.
Page Titles
Using keywords in your page titles and headings will help Google (and other search engines) understand what the page is about. It also helps search engines determine page rankings. If your page is about Corporate Branding, but you title the page Employers in the Workplace, even a “smart” search engine may not recognize the connection. Your page title can have a huge impact on your rankings, so make sure it’s optimized accordingly.
Content
Search engines don’t stop with your page titles. Your body text will drive higher page rankings with better use of keywords throughout your content. This includes using keywords in your headings, body text and alt text for images. However, it’s important not to overuse keywords. You don’t have to use your keywords 20 times for it to rank. You just need to ensure it’s appropriately used throughout the content.
2. Improve Your Page Speed
If your web pages don’t feel like they’re loading instantaneously, many people (especially millennials) won’t wait. People are impatient. They want what they want when they want it, and they want it now.
So, how slow is too slow? HubSpot recommends an ideal page load time of less than 1.5 seconds. Likewise, Google found that 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load. But the same study found that it takes an average of 22 seconds to fully load a mobile landing page! Which means that a lot of sites aren’t getting the traffic they could because visitors leave (or bounce) before the page loads.
So, what does this have to do with SEO? For search engines, a better bounce rate translates to a healthy website that is appealing to customers. This is why it’s so important to maintain a speedy site.
Check your site’s speed with PageSpeed Insights. It will tell you how quickly (or slowly) your pages are loading – as well as what you need to improve to get your pages loading faster.
3. Three Words: Content. Content. Content.
A strong content strategy should be the core of your website development. Search engines favor high-quality content. So, gone are the days of posting meaningless fluff that simply takes up space. Use your blog -- after all, companies that blog produce an average of 67% more leads per month than companies that don't. Keep highlighting relevant keywords, but also seek to reinforce your expertise and brand authority. Make time to regularly review your audience so you can meet them with the fresh, meaningful information and insights they want and need.
Search engines also favor fresh posts over dated information. Before you panic over being in a constant state of creation, however, keep in mind that you don't have to reinvent the wheel (or your blog). You can - and should - update older posts containing content that's still relevant with updated stats, fresh framing, and new graphics. This is efficient, since it's easier to edit than to start from scratch. It's also effective, because you'll augment your previous links and SEO work with your updates. In fact, refreshing older blog posts can increase organic search traffic to your site by more than 110%.
4. Use Headings
Headings are a critical component of your SEO strategy. There are six heading tags ranging from the largest, <h1>, to the smallest, <h6>. They tell search engines the importance of different titles on your blog page, which Google uses to index each page. Use a logical hierarchy and don’t make the mistake of thinking that “more <h1> is better.” There should only be one <h1> tag – the page header or blog title.
5. Link Building
As Moz puts it, “link building is an art.” Internal links and backlinks are both important in your site’s SEO strategy. Keep in mind that the type of solution that works best for you will depend on the type of website you’re running, but generally speaking, the following strategies can help you create links that make a difference to your SEO.
Backlinks
Backlinks are created when one website links to another. The link between the two websites is the backlink. Backlinks work as a way to validate your content. One of the easiest ways to generate backlinks is by guest posting – especially because it benefits both parties. It provides fresh and valuable content to their audience, while also giving you the opportunity to get your brand out there by including a backlink to your website. Think about your own expertise as it relates to your own website and reach out to like-minded businesses, blogs, or even clients that could benefit from a ‘guest post’ written by you.
Link Reclamation
Link reclamation is the process of finding sites that have mentioned you but haven’t linked to you, and requesting or suggesting a link. After all, if someone has written a great article about you or your business but hasn’t linked to your site, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to improve your SEO. In some cases, sites may have tried linking to you but the link is broken because of a misspelled domain or obsolete page. Search for your business online and you may be surprised with how many link reclamation opportunities you have.
These strategies are just a part of how our work connects our clients to their audiences. And they can be a great way to kickstart your SEO efforts, as well.
At Relish Marketing, our fusion of creative and strategy unlocks your brand and propels it forward.
Savor your brand. View our client work. Work with us! Contact here.
3 Things Most Businesses Get Wrong About Video Marketing
If your business provides accounting, architecture, communications, consulting, engineering, law, IT, or any other professional services, your success depends on the quality of your services – and the people who provide them. In fact, your clients and customers count on the people who do important work for them. Your people understand your clients, building and enhancing the relationships that are the lifeblood of your success. That's why professional services videos are such a major component of many top marketing strategies. Unfortunately, however, many of those video marketing strategies can be undercut by three myths, which we'd like to dispel for you right now:
MYTH 1: You can make great videos on your mobile phone – practically for free!
Some commercials make it look like if you just hit record on your phone, you’ll get broadcast-quality video. But it doesn’t take much web surfing to discover that many different kinds of videos are out there. Specifically, there are many different kinds of bad videos. They're blurry, over- or under-exposed, difficult to hear properly, shot from unflattering angles, or edited awkwardly. And most of the time, these flaws are enough to make viewers stop watching.
Now, it's true that many current model phones can record video at definitions as high as 4K. But that alone isn't enough to make great video. Here are a few things that top professional videographers do as a matter of course (and you should too):
- Light your subjects appropriately – and test that lighting with your recording device. Lighting that looks perfect in person might look too bright or dim on video (and vice-versa).
- Frame your shots well. You don’t want to cut the tops off of your talent’s heads or record them from too far away. Flatter your talent and show what needs to be seen.
- Pay attention to acoustics and sound design. Choose microphones and sound designs that will help voices sound clear and natural, without echoes or distracting noises.
- Choose editing effects carefully. Video production apps contain myriad effects and options. That doesn’t mean you should use them all. Make editing choices that support your story.
The point is that it's easy to make mistakes – and it's hard to overestimate how much expertise and experience you’ll need to get the nuances of video production right.
MYTH 2: A massive investment in broadcast video production is always the best choice.
This is only a partial myth. The truth is that working with a broadcast video producer can take your video to an entirely new and professional level. The video production tips above are baseline expectations – but there is so much more that professionals will bring to the table. For instance, if you’re doing a scripted video, they’ll give your talent the guidance and support they need to feel at ease and convey information the way you want them to. Especially if you're employing a creative approach, they'll design each shot to support video flow and keep viewers' attention.
That said, professional video expertise can be very expensive. Even if you don’t spend the millions that TV networks, Netflix, or AppleTV+ do, broadcast quality isn’t cheap. Pro-grade cameras, sound, and editing equipment cost a lot of money. And there are good reasons why experienced broadcast video producers, directors, designers, editors, and other talent charge high hourly rates. They can make your video look and sound like an Oscar- or Emmy-worthy documentary, drama, comedy, or whatever you want. And, to be fair, some marketing initiatives demand that level of quality. But not every video marketing project has to look and feel deserving of a red-carpet nomination. Which brings us to Myth #3.
MYTH 3: There is no affordable sweet spot between self-made video and professional production
Of course, there is. You can save a lot of money by shooting much of your footage on mobile phones and tablets. However, if you want those videos to look and sound professional, communicate powerfully, and reinforce your branding and messaging, you'll want some assistance.
The creativity and guidance of an experienced video production partner can help you dramatically raise the quality of your videos. In addition to the tips in Myth #1 above, a smart video production partner should give you a full set of detailed guidelines to help make the videos you shoot as consistently great looking as possible. They may bring in a scriptwriter and editor to keep your video content clear, easy to follow, and authentically on brand. The right video production partner can also enhance your videos with professional intros and outros, including graphics, animation, and music – all of which can come together to elevate the tone, feel and consistency of your videos. Full disclosure: Relish Marketing often provides this kind of support to our clients, delivering excellent results while saving time and money.
Bottom line: When people drive your business success, great video content can help you elevate perceptions about your company, reinforce your brand, and stand out in a competitive market.
If you’ve been wondering about the best way to bring quality video to your marketing, we’d love to hear all about it. The right partner can help you achieve tremendous results with high levels of creativity and quality – without breaking the bank.
AI for Professional Services Marketing
The explosion of artificial intelligence make it easy to see – AI is here to stay, and it will play a major role in just about everything. But the real question is how to take it from a fascinating experiment to a meaningful, profitable business tool. This is especially true for marketers at professional services businesses like consulting, financial, law, architectural, engineering, accounting and talent firms – not to mention marketing organizations like Relish. After all, people are at the heart of all professional services success. But, people have human limitations. We get distracted, catch colds, go to our kids' sports matches and take vacations. AI doesn’t. But before you race to argue that AI will or won’t replace your people, it’s essential to understand AI's capabilities, limitations and ultimate potential at every level of the marketing lifecycle or funnel.
Personalize exploration
Let's say I'm thinking about purchasing a service from one of the companies in your field. That puts me at the top of the marketing funnel, which means I'm posing questions and visiting websites to get a general idea of the kinds of professional services firms that might be a good fit for my business challenges. It’s why your website's home page probably has a general statement about what you do. But now, imagine having a range of home page content that makes it clear what you do and what you do for me.
One way to do that is with AI-based website personalization, a capability enabled by tools like those offered by Clearbit and Persado. Think of it as "AI meets the idea of portals." When I click through a search result, ad, or social media post, a combination of information from my search terms and IP address (including where it's been), tells the systems behind your website a lot about me and my business. So, it shows me a homepage containing dynamic messaging related to how I'm most likely to benefit from your services. I might even find a chatbot on your website, which will enable me to ask specific questions and guide me to the areas of your site that should best suit my needs. In other words, it speeds my path from exploration to evaluation.
Fuel evaluation
All this time, you’re collecting information about my exploration patterns and questions to inform your sales team – likely through a sales execution intelligence technology that leverages AI, such as the one offered by Outreach.io. This kind of sales engagement and enablement system will automatically support my progress through the evaluation process. It will send emails or texts with customized messaging about the information I want and need – much sooner than if I were exploring a non-AI-enhanced site. It will guide me to whitepapers and ebooks, fortifying my assessment work with the information you wish more prospects knew. And, of course, it will make it as easy as possible for me to reach out to you or your live sales reps.
The system is also informing you and your sales team so you can better understand me as a lead. When we connect, you'll be able to ask the kind of questions that show a genuine appreciation for me and my business. From there, the path from evaluation to conversion is swift and smooth.
Achieve conversion (and see why AI can be your team’s best friend)
This last stage through the funnel is critical – and it's the answer to the question everyone is asking about AI and whether it will undermine the work of real people. The ability of your people to engage with prospects and customers is ultimately what builds relationships that yield continued business success for you and your customers. And the right AI-driven platforms, systems, and technology can lead prospects through the marketing funnel to where live, human engagement will be most meaningful and effective.
It is important to note that leveraging AI to deliver website personalization, sales enablement and sales engagement is highly complex. The right tools have to be part of a larger up-front strategy that includes establishing the right cadence for individual tactics, ongoing management, monitoring and tracking, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and metrics for success. In other words, you’ll want to work with a knowledgeable, experienced partner to select, implement and manage your AI in ways that deliver on sales, customer experience, branding, and budgetary goals. Full disclosure: this is part of how we at Relish Marketing support clients.
Bottom line: AI is here to stay. But it won't replace the people who are the lifeblood of your business. On the contrary, it can create better-informed prospects. It can speed the way to the deeper conversations you want to have with prospects and customers. And, working with the right partner, AI-enabled technology can make your sales process smoother and faster than ever, enabling you to do great work for more of the clients who will appreciate it most.
Working on Your Marketing Budget? Here’s Some Help
What do you plan to spend on next year’s marketing?
If your answer is something like, “As little as we can get away with,” it’s probably going to cost you much more than it should. That’s because when companies don’t develop a realistic budget, one of two things tend to happen:
- Marketing efforts aren’t complete or consistent enough to generate results. So, not only are you out whatever money you do spend, you also lose revenues and results that could have been generated through a better focused marketing program.
- A flurry of last-minute marketing activity ensues, involving more outside assistance than would have been necessary with a realistic budget and plan, developed before the start of the year. Not to mention plenty of rush charges.
Sometimes, both things happen. And, we don’t like it any more than our clients do. Rushed, chaotic marketing projects are high stress, no fun, and much more expensive than they would have been with more proactive planning.
So, what should you plan to spend on next year’s marketing?
The classic rule says that everyone wants their marketing to be good, fast and inexpensive – pick any two of the three. Beyond that, we’d like to offer a few more substantial tips that have helped our clients:
Money: The amount of money you should spend on marketing depends on multiple factors, including your industry, the size of your business and what phase of growth you’re in. According to Gartner Research, most companies spend an average of 12 percent of their annual revenues on marketing (larger companies spend a little more, smaller businesses spend a little less). But this is hardly a number set in stone; companies engaged in active customer-facing and employer branding efforts often spend significantly more. So, how much should your business spend? If you followed the recommendations we outlined in the third post in this series, you’ve already identified specific goals that you want to achieve – as well as tactics to achieve them. Is this the year when you’ll update or launch a new website? Launch a new product? Hire 20 new executives? Whatever your goals, use them to measure the cost of developing materials and the support you’ll need to achieve them.
Time: How much time should it take to develop a brand update? A new website? Sales support for that new product? Employer branding activity to attract the right new talent? Clearly, these things don’t happen overnight. That said, arbitrary, long-term deadlines can be equally problematic if marketing program components can get put off while seemingly “more urgent” projects get attention – until suddenly, “plenty of time” becomes the 11th hour. Set realistic deadlines based on specific needs, then define milestones and tasks to achieve them. Likewise, do your homework to determine how long it should take to get the quality you want. A magic wand that can instantly turn ideas in your head into tangible, measurable marketing does not exist (although, if you happen to have such a thing, we need to talk right away).
Resources: Do your internal staff members have the time and ability to develop and execute every component of next year’s marketing plan without any outside help? Probably not. But many of our clients have excellent project management skills as well as the ability to supervise a budget and work with an outside creative team. Some of our clients have internal content development or graphics expertise. Ask yourself: How much of what needs to be accomplished falls within your team members’ existing responsibilities, and how much bandwidth do your people have to handle it? Determine where your in-house capabilities will be most effective and what skill sets and services can be best handled by an outside expert.
Don’t be afraid to ask for some advice from a marketing expert, either. Most of us are pleased to offer a general sense of what you can expect to allocate for specific types of initiatives. More granular numbers usually require deeper research — but may be worth the cost of a few hours of a marketing consultant’s time. Either way, we encourage you to read our entire end-of-year Jumpstart series – including posts about brand planning, brand execution and maximizing your digital presence.
We wish you a new year full of health and prosperity – for you, as well as for your business.
At Relish Marketing, our fusion of creative and strategy unlocks your brand and propels it forward.
Savor your brand. View our client work. Work with us! Contact here.
These Changes will Impact your Marketing Agency in 2023
Over the past year, companies have been learning to thrive in a world that is, in many ways, remarkably different than one from two years ago. The ways we conduct business is changing and becoming more virtual. The brands of today are not the ones of yesterday, and few organizations have survived the past few years without changing their marketing operations and strategies. While the pace of change shows no sign of slowing, we’re taking this opportunity to pinpoint a few of the more impactful developments we’ve seen over the past year which we’re confident will continue to remain relevant in 2023.
Urgent Deadlines
In 2022, deadlines shortened–considerably. You’ve felt it yourself: the overwhelming urgency from clients who need their work now. In the wake of technological advancements and a global pandemic, many companies have found the need to pivot or modify their business and branding in a timely manner. This requires marketers–especially inhouse marketing departments and their agencies–to adapt with more intentional workflows that enable quicker and more efficient response to client needs. Project management tools like Teamwork can help swamped agencies stay ahead of deadlines, and we highly recommend daily communication and task reporting, so team members stay up to date on deliverables.
Video Ads Continue to Dominate Social Media
Across all social media platforms, we’ve seen consistent data confirming that video ads hold interest for longer and generate more clicks than static ads. If you’re looking to communicate to a customer base in 2023, the shift to incorporate more video content is essential to remaining relevant in the market. Video content creation tools like Canva, and the advanced Adobe Premiere, can help create and edit high quality videos. Today’s consumers are also more comfortable than ever before with user generated content like product reviews and unboxing videos featured on Instagram and Tik-Tok and other social media platforms.
Authentic Communications
We’ve spoken before about the growing importance of authenticity in marketing. More and more, consumers want to interact with like-minded people and brands. It’s vital that agencies learn to communicate to their target audience in a way that feels real and authentic. Influencer and consumer-generated marketing continues to pay dividends, and cultural savvy is a must-have for brands looking to generate a buzz with the customers of today.
Disruptive Branding and Anti-Branding
Many consumers have grown tired of flat corporate art styles and branding that feels overly glossy and salesy. We’ve seen companies switch from overly produced marketing emails to simple communications that feel minimally designed. In other sectors, some companies have embraced asymmetrical lettering and packaging, such as Absolut Vodka bottles intentionally spattered with paint.
As the business world transforms around us, these marketing trends are signposts for the new era. While surprises no doubt live on our collective horizon, we are transitioning into 2023 excited for change and prepared to thrive.
Rethink, Refresh, Revitalize: The Trend Sweeping Senior Care Organizations
A trend has pulsed through senior care communities over the past few years: More and more of these organizations are refreshing their brands. Of course, brand refreshes and rebranding efforts are typical across all industries, but specific circumstances affecting the senior care industry are driving communities to revisit their brands. Over the past two years, the industry has had to adapt to rapid changes, and those organizations who are able to respond quickly with strategic brand updates have seen the rewards.
The senior population of the United States is growing and is projected to continue to do so. Simply put, demand is on the rise. This creates an opportunity that can be seized by those willing to pivot their marketing.
The pandemic also forced senior care organizations to adjust their marketing campaigns. Atlanta’s Lenbrook community, for instance, shifted many marketing events from in-person to virtual. Relish worked with the Lenbrook team to enhance their digital marketing efforts by incorporating virtual events and webinars.
Additionally, the pause in activity over the past two years provided the opportunity for forward-thinking communities to update and expand. In that time, Lenbrook completed a new expansion and recognized that the fresh look of its newer marketing materials presented an opportunity for broader-scale updates. The result was a fresh approach to everything from key brochures to mailers and signage, all of which reflect a contemporary look and feel and reinforce the community’s commitment to truly engaged senior living.
Many other factors can lead an organization to benefit from a rebrand. Sometimes, organizations have grown quickly and have outpaced their former branding. Perhaps a company was set up to service a niche market but has found success outside of its niche. In other instances, the culture around a business has changed, and it becomes necessary to refresh one’s messaging to better meet the needs of the day.
As Sharon Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer at 2Life Communities notes in iAdvance Senior Care:
“If you find that you have a brand that’s no longer authentic to who you are, or you’ve outgrown a brand, or it’s no longer resonating with the market, it’s time to take a look at how you want to rebrand.”
A successful brand update can enable an organization to resonate anew with everyone who interacts with it - from the prospective move-in receiving their first marketing email to the resident who has lived in the community for the past ten years. If you’re wondering how refreshing your organization's marketing can evolve its strategy and energize its place in the market, you should give us a call. It’s something we’re passionate about and are always down to chat.
Time for a Website Refresh? 9 Smart Questions to Ask.
Website technology and trends change constantly, and consumer expectations are rising at an even faster pace. So, it’s a common question – how often should we refresh our company’s website? Some in the industry will say anywhere between two to five years.
Rather than answer the question with an arbitrary date, you should evaluate whether your website is performing well, delivering on your business objectives and meeting the needs of its users (including your sales and marketing teams). If it isn’t, there’s no time like the present for a refresh.
The answers to these 9 questions can help you decide if now is the right time to redesign your website.
- Are you making the best first impression?
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and in today’s digital world, that’s often your website. Outdated and unappealing designs or difficult, clunky navigation will leave customers confused or turned off – and some will never come back.
One common mistake is to jam-pack everything on to the home page. Today’s digital trends lean toward a minimalistic style with a simple, clean design and short copy blocks with limited text. Consider the home page as the cover of a book. It should be visually appealing and say just enough to motivate someone to open the book and read more. Even better, they should want to buy it.
- Is your site responsive and optimized for desktop, mobile and tablet?
In 2015, Google determined that for the first time, more searches in the U.S. were being done on mobile devices than on desktops. And that trend hasn’t slowed down. Smartphones and tablets have changed when and where people consume information. A responsive website design will allow visitors to experience your website intuitively and easily, no matter what device they are using, with layout, content, imagery and other design assets appearing and functioning in ways that make sense for each device.
Many designers design for mobile first. Designing for a small screen format will force you to focus on what’s most important and the easiest ways for users to access it (think like a minimalist!). Once you’ve prioritized these key elements, the desktop design will come naturally.
- Is your site’s design and messaging consistent with your brand?
If you’ve recently gone through a rebrand, you’ll want to make sure you’ve scrubbed your website thoroughly to ensure it reflects your new brand. Likewise, your business strategies may have shifted since the last update. Have these updates been incorporated throughout your website?
Make sure your online presence fully represents who you are as a company and what you want to be known for – including your business strategies, product offerings and key messaging. Not only will it help you convert more visitors into customers, it also will ensure that you’re attracting the right customers and setting the right expectations about what they can expect from your business and your products or services.
- Is your website generating revenue, converting sales or attracting leads?
Conversions are the actions you want your website visitors to take, whether that’s making a purchase, filling out a contact form, or anything in between. If you haven’t looked at your website’s analytics lately (or if you haven’t set up analytics yet), do this now. If people are finding your site but quickly leaving (high bounce rate and low average time-on-site) or not visiting many of your pages (low pages-per-visit), your visitors either aren’t finding your website useful or are unable to locate what they want or need.
- Does your site rank high on search engine results?
Gone are the days where simply loading your site with keywords would improve your search ratings. Google algorithms are constantly changing and they reward websites that keep up. If you haven’t touched your site in a few years, you may not be showing up high enough in search results, which can keep people from finding you online.
Keep an eye on the most up-to-date SEO best practices to optimize your site structure while delivering fresh, quality content that’s easy to find. And, if it gets too technical or you need some additional help developing or implementing a more sophisticated digital strategy, enlist the help of a partner with SEO optimization expertise. They’ll know the latest trends and will have experience with what works and what’s a waste of time.
- Is your site loading quickly?
And by quickly, we mean less than one second. If your site is slow, visitors won’t wait, and your first impression will be blown. Some quick troubleshooting can pinpoint where the problems are – and whether they warrant an immediate redesign or can be managed with some quick fixes until you’re ready.
- Does your website stand apart from your competitors?
How often are you perusing your competitors’ sites? Once a year? Less? Things move quickly in the digital world, and those who stay “on-trend” will stay ahead in the market.
Does your website design stand out from competitors or does it look outdated or cluttered? How do competitor’s sites appear on mobile devices? Where are they showing up in search results? Understanding your competitors’ digital presence and where you stack up against them should be major drivers of your own site design.
You can easily set up ongoing alerts to help keep track of the changes your competitors are making to their websites with a service like VisualPing. Set up some dedicated time on an ongoing basis to review what your competitors are up to. And (hint) do it more than once a year.
And, don’t be shy to look outside your industry. Think about what sites you absolutely love – and consider how you could incorporate their style, structure or functionality into your company’s website. You may not be an online retailer, but there is something to learn from businesses who live or die by their website.
- Are you using rich media like video and audio?
Let’s face it, our attention spans are shrinking. We want to consume as much content as we can, as quickly as we can. Not only are videos eye-catching, if done right, they can convey your messages in a more powerful and compelling way than standard text.
Think about what type of content you can provide in a non-text format. If your site doesn’t support rich media yet, a site redesign is probably in order and you’ll want to build it on a content management system (CMS) that you can easily manage. Speaking of which…
- Is your site easy to update and maintain?
If you need a developer or specialized coding expertise to make simple content changes to your website, stop. What you really need is a web design built on a user-friendly and robust CMS. The easier and user-friendly the CMS, the more likely you will be able to keep content fresh, remain consistent with your brand and support your content marketing strategy – all of which are good for SEO and good for business.
The Right Time
There’s no tried and true date for a website refresh. If you answered no to any of the questions above, you may want to consider a redesign or at least some incremental changes to tide you over until a complete overhaul is needed. If you answered no to more than four, we strongly recommend taking action sooner rather than later.
Redesigning a website is no small feat and it requires commitment and resources on your part whether you’re leading the charge or enlisting experts to help with strategy, design, content and execution. But if your website isn’t meeting the needs of your users, you’re not attracting the right customers, not achieving your business goals, or your competitors are leaving you behind in the dust, there’s no better time than now to get started.
At Relish Marketing, our fusion of creative and strategy unlocks your brand and propels it forward. Savor your brand. View our client work. Work with us! Contact here.
Brand Marketing and Messaging: Ditch Demographics and Use This Instead
Get ready to have your mind blown.
You might want to sit down for this: According to virtually every demographic measurement, Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourn are identical. They’re the same age. They have the same number of kids. Their skin color is the same. They live in the same geographic area. And, they’re both among the most affluent people in the world (Ozzy’s net worth is higher – but at their level, who’s counting?).
That little tidbit of information is part of an important concept that our account executive, Noah, took away from the Ad World digital conference he attended a few months ago. The idea is that the better we can understand how different audiences live, feel, and think, the better we can communicate with them. This audience segmentation concept wasn't news to us at Relish. We've been advocating and implementing this strategy with our clients for some time. But, it's gratifying to see our brand development and content marketing approach – which goes well beyond demographics – highlighted as a best practice for marketers.
Should we address Rockers like Royals (and vice-versa)?
For decades, conventional marketing wisdom has assumed that demographics are the ideal tool for market segmentation. Clearly, that’s not enough. Especially as the online world encourages consumers to galvanize around shared interests and perspectives, marketers have to meet people where they are, speaking to more informed, narrower audience bases.
Our brand messaging and content marketing processes often include a deep dive into our clients’ audiences. When possible, we talk directly with current, potential, and former customers – often with fascinating results. It isn't uncommon to discover that a company and its customers don't see each other the way they see themselves. While such realizations initially may be surprising, bringing those perceptions into better alignment almost always sharpens the company's branding and messages in creative new ways.
Identifying audience segments is only the first step.
No question, developing a clear understanding of a company's audiences is essential. For instance, we helped senior living leader Lenbrook identify four distinct audience segments by age, stage of life, and where they are on their buying journeys. Then, for each, we identified the motivations, thoughts, feelings, and timing of their journeys toward decisions about senior living. And, that helped our client orient its teams toward a more incisive approach to different kinds of prospects.
It's exciting to understand those individual audience segments. But, the real results happen when we use those personas as metrics against which we can measure specific marketing outreach. Back in the days before so much marketing was digital, segmenting marketing across multiple audiences could be prohibitively expensive. Now, it's not only more affordable, it's critical. Maybe it once was enough to assume that selling something people need would be enough to make them buy it. Today, the key is to understand their specific experiences and perspectives on the buying journey, then meet them where they are.
Whether you’re marketing to rock stars, royalty, technicians, or truck drivers, the days of all-purpose marketing are over. And the time to build authentic connections with them on a better-informed, more specific level is now.
IT and Consulting Services have Changed – Make Sure Your Marketing Keeps Pace
“Short and sweet.” “Keep it simple.” “Nobody has time.” “People don’t read!” These marketing maxims are so deeply ingrained that it’s easy to bristle at any other marketing direction. And yet, the big marketing shift happening today, especially for IT and consulting firms, is a move toward more content in greater depth.
Wait – what?
Orbit Media research shows that longform online content is on the rise, with stories that are at least 1000 words long growing by nearly 30% over the past five years and stories that are 500-1000 words shrinking by almost 40%. The most-read stories on LinkedIn – by a factor of three – are at least 1900 words long. A Curata study says that the most successful marketers are focusing on ensuring that their content delivers well-written quality information and insights. And, that same study says that long-form content generates nine times more leads than short-form content.
A deeper dive into these trends shows that people still don’t want to wade through long, self-involved sales messages. But they do want content that can make a difference to their businesses. In fact, they’re looking for marketplace/industry analyses, insights, and information that can both inform and confirm their own findings. The kind of content you probably have at hand if you're good at what you do.
Obviously, you don’t want to give away your “secret sauce,” But you can – and should – share content that reinforces the knowledge and thought leadership you can offer. Here’s how:
- Keep your intros in “easy-open packaging.” Entry points are where those old maxims still hold true. You wouldn’t introduce yourself to a potential new friend by launching into a deep-dive monologue about yourself (we’ve all met those people at parties – awkward, to say the least). The same goes for content-heavy outreach emails and social posts. Tease valuable content enough to make it easy for your prospects to click through to get it.
- Speak to your audience’s real-world experiences. Your business is not the center of your clients’ and potential clients’ worlds – no matter how much you wish otherwise. Put yourself in your prospects’ position. What excites them about their work? And, what stresses them out at 3:00 in the morning? That’s where you and your content need to meet them.
- Offer valuable perspectives, knowledge, and information. Again, we’re not recommending you give away all your secrets. But there is value in connecting prospects with enough compelling ideas to show them that you understand their business and, better yet, make them want to continue the conversation. (Most recently, we’ve been offering our post-COVID Guide to Professional Services Resilience).
- Keep your audience awake. Especially with in-depth content, don’t forget to keep it easy to look at and consume. Will an infographic help people who want an at-a-glance perspective? Could a video lead prospects through a complex idea? How about some old-fashioned narrative storytelling to inspire an emotional connection? Consider what creative approaches will express your messages in the most compelling ways for the people who need them.
- Answer when called. You wouldn’t ignore a direct call from someone who read an article you wrote. So, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for comments on your social posts, clicks through to your website, and downloads that deeper content, too. Respond to those messages so you can create and continue conversations that can ultimately yield genuine business relationships.
- Let existing clients help you out. Have you done some terrific work lately? Did the client say so? Capture those testimonials and, with your client’s permission, share them:
“What you get with Relish is a holistic approach to integrated marketing… Direct marketing, websites, PR – the integrated mix, bearing in mind budgets and such. Serving up options and having regular discussions. That’s what you get with Relish.”
Gareth Clark
Senior Advisor, Focus
- Let us help you, too. If deepening your content strategy feels like work – from strategy and media development to writing and design – here’s a reminder: it’s part of how we support our clients (see above).
That old conventional wisdom that tried to force content into 140 characters or less has its place. But, your prospects' hunger for meaningful content is an excellent opportunity for you to assert your leadership, connect with your audiences in ways that matter to them, and produce results for everyone.
The Big Shift You Didn’t See Coming for Legal and Accounting Services Marketing
“Short and sweet.” “Keep it simple.” “Nobody has time.” “People don’t read!” These marketing maxims are so deeply ingrained that it’s easy to bristle at any other marketing direction. And yet, the big marketing shift happening today, especially for accounting and law firms, is a move toward more content in greater depth.
Wait – what?
It’s true. Blog marketing and downloadable content are getting longer Orbit Media research shows stories that are at least 1000 words long have grown by nearly 30% over the past five years and stories that are 500-1000 words shrunk by almost 40%. The most-read articles on LinkedIn – by a factor of three – are at least 1900 words long. A Curata study says that the most successful marketers are focusing on ensuring that their content delivers well-written qualityinformation and insights. And, that same study says that long-form content generates nine times more leads than short-form content.
A deeper dive into these content trends shows that people still don’t want to wade through long, self-involved sales messages. But they do want content that can make a difference to their businesses. In fact, they’re looking for marketplace and industry analyses, insights, and information that can both inform and confirm their own findings. The kind of content you probably have at hand if you're good at what you do.
Obviously, you don’t want to give away your “secret sauce,” But you can – and should – share content that reinforces the knowledge and thought leadership you can offer. Here’s how:
- Keep your intros in “easy-open packaging.” Entry points are where those old maxims still hold true. You wouldn’t introduce yourself to a potential new friend by launching into a deep-dive monologue about yourself (we’ve all met those people at parties – awkward, to say the least). The same goes for content-heavy outreach emails and social posts. Tease valuable content enough to make it easy for your prospects to click through to get it.
- Speak to your audience’s real-world experiences. Your business is not the center of your clients’ and potential clients’ worlds – no matter how much you wish otherwise. Put yourself in your prospects’ position. What excites them about their work? And, what stresses them out at 3:00 in the morning? That’s where you and your content need to meet them.
- Offer valuable perspectives, knowledge, and information. Again, we’re not recommending you give away all your secrets. But there is value in connecting prospects with enough compelling ideas to show them that you understand their business and, better yet, make them want to continue the conversation. (Most recently, we’ve been offering our post-COVID Guide to Professional Services Resilience).
- Keep your audience awake. Especially with in-depth content, don’t forget to keep it easy to look at and consume. Will an infographic help people who want an at-a-glance perspective? Could a video lead prospects through a complex idea? How about some old-fashioned narrative storytelling to inspire an emotional connection? Consider what creative approaches will express your messages in the most compelling ways for the people who need them.
- Answer when called. You wouldn’t ignore a direct call from someone who read an article you wrote. So, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for comments on your social posts, clicks through to your website, and downloads to deeper content, too. Respond to those messages so you can create and continue conversations that can ultimately yield genuine business relationships.
- Let existing clients help you out. Have you done some terrific work lately? Did the client say so? Capture those testimonials and, with your client’s permission, share them:
“One of the biggest challenges we faced when updating our website was the fact that there are a lot of short attention spans out there. We had so much content to share online – and we needed to make sure that it would be enticing enough to make people want to read further. Relish gave us both structure and content we needed to grab our visitors’ attention right away. We count on Relish’s design expertise, too.”
– Nicole Kwasnik, Marketing and Recruiting Manager
Meunier Carlin & Curfman LLC
- Let us help you, too. If deepening your content strategy feels like work – from strategy and research to writing and design – here’s a reminder: it’s part of how we support our clients (see above).
That old conventional wisdom that tried to force content into 140 characters or less has its place. But, your prospects' hunger for meaningful content is an excellent opportunity for you to assert your leadership, connect with your audiences in ways that matter to them, and produce results for everyone.