Author Archives: Hitchner

The percentage discount from the mobile phone. Content marketing ROI

Measuring ROI for Content Marketing

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You’ve heard a lot about the importance of content marketing. You know that it’s critical to the success of your marketing plan and that it can help move your customers through the sales funnel, often with little to no active support from your sales team. You may even know that today’s customers develop relationships with the brands they support based on high-level content marketing.

Many CMOs and CEOs, however, get stuck on one key point: how are they supposed to measure the success of their content marketing efforts? 52% of B2B marketers find measuring content marketing ROI to be one of the most difficult facets of their job. Measuring ROI is a complicated process, but with a few simple steps, you can improve your understanding of what your content marketing efforts are accomplishing for your business, putting you in a better position to focus on the strategies that will create the highest return on your investment.

How Far Does Your Reach Expand?

Don’t let the naysayers fool you. Keywords are just as important as they ever were.

–Ramona Sukhraj

While the face of content search is changing quickly, keywords–including long-tail keywords–remain highly important to your industry. Not only are those the words and phrases your customers will use to find you, they’re the key pieces of content that will determine how many customers you’re able to reach. Those same search terms can also help you better understand exactly how much of the market you’re able to reach. Examine the important keywords in your industry. How many of those keywords do you have a high search rank for? As your content marketing improves, you’ll also improve your ability to rank for those important keywords.

Tracking the Value in Sales

Content revenue – content cost = content ROI.

–Jayson DeMers

When you create a new content marketing strategy or plan, one of the fastest ways to determine your ROI is to take a look at the sales that it generates. Obviously, this isn’t a great strategy for a company that specializes in a wide range of small items, which can quickly generate more headaches than practical numbers when you’re looking at the return on your investment! On the other hand, if your company sells high-ticket items, it’s fairly easy to take a look at how your latest campaign is contributing to your sales. The simple equation offered by DeMers above–content revenue minus content cost–will give you a quick look at the overall return on your investment. How many sales were you able to bring in due to your latest campaign? What were they worth? Once you subtract the cost of that content, you’ll have a solid look at what return was generated on that investment.

Social Media

Social media deserves its own category. It is practically another world, after all.

–Emily Culclasure

Cropped shot of a group of colleagues using their smart phones in synchronicity Content engagement concept

Your social media marketing efforts are a critical part of your content marketing success–but how are you supposed to determine whether or not they’re actually accomplishing your overall goals? Are your posts, contests, and interactions with your customers really accomplishing anything, or are they simply another time-consuming task for your marketing team? If you want to check your social media marketing success, make sure you’re measuring these key elements.

Your follower growth: How many followers did you have in the early days of your social media account? Check those followers again, especially after a big social media campaign. Are your numbers increasing? Fast growth can be a sign of a highly successful campaign. On the other hand, if your follower numbers are dropping, chances are, you’re no longer providing the types of content that your customers want to see. Make sure you’re getting followers who are genuinely interested in your business: you might, for example, see a strong jump in followers as you’re conducting a contest that requires liking your business in order to participate, but many of those followers will jump ship once the contest is over. Keep in mind that followers who don’t like, share, or comment on your content won’t view the content you’re posting for long–and false likes, or likes that come from overseas accounts, can ultimately harm your social credibility.

Post-interaction: When you create a new post, how much do your followers interact with it? Are they diving in, commenting, liking, and sharing your content? If your social media followers are content to leave your posts alone, you likely aren’t creating the types of content they want to see. On the other hand, if you’re seeing lots of shares, you’re expanding your reach substantially: every share puts your content in front of users that you might not be able to reach on your own.

The Worth of Organic Traffic

Content marketing is a lot like working out. You’re not going to see a payoff in a week, but if you commit to doing it regularly over time, you’ll see amazing results.

–Scott Severson

There are plenty of ways to measure the site traffic you receive from, for example, a single new blog or video post. If you’re looking to simply better understand the return on your overall investment, however, Scott Severson posits a method that will allow you to more easily put an actual number to what your content has earned: measure your organic traffic over what you would have paid for the same traffic via a paid ad. Severson’s method involves several key steps:

  • Check the organic traffic for your post and determine how many visits it’s brought to your site over a specific time frame
  • Run a Google AdWords Keyword Planner estimate to determine the approximate cost of a PPC campaign over that same time frame
  • Multiply your organic visits by the amount of that estimate.

While this isn’t a perfect view of what your content is worth, it’s a solid number to start with. Severson is careful to note that the value of your content isn’t just about site traffic. It’s also about increased time on your website, better lead nurturing, and more. However, if you want a quick number that you can throw out for how much your content is worth, this is one great strategy for finding it.

Checking AdWords ROI

One problem many marketers face is the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma of content marketing: You know you need a strong content marketing strategy, but you can’t get the budget to support the strategy until you’ve proven it works — the ROI.

–Ben Beck

Google AdWords is a solid way to increase the reach of your campaign. It will help raise your search engine presence and ensure that you’re on that important first page of Google’s results, even if it’s just for the customers that your campaign is able to reach. It’s also one of the strategies that’s hardest to get many companies to fund since it’s difficult to offer a projection for what that ad will accomplish. Often, it’s necessary to take a leap of faith in order to get a better look at what Google Adwords will be able to accomplish for you. Once you’ve run that first campaign, calculate:

The cost of the campaign. This is an easy, up-front number.

The traffic generated by the campaign. How many clicks did the campaign bring to your website?

The worth of those clicks. How many of those clicks went on to become customers? What was the worth of their purchases? While this won’t tell you the lifetime value of your new customers, it will give you a good look at the immediate results of your campaign.

The worth of your clicks and the traffic generated by your campaign, minus the cost of the campaign, will give you the immediate return on your investment for the AdWords campaign as a whole. In many cases, that amount can be substantially higher than you thought it would be, making AdWords a highly worthwhile investment–especially for businesses that are struggling to raise their search engine rankings and increase their organic reach.

Measuring the return on your investment for content marketing is a complicated process–and in many cases, it’s impossible to fully understand the worth of those campaigns. You might not, for example, be able to see the long-term value of customers who have been brought into your company through your content marketing efforts or to estimate the full value of things like the time your sales team will save in customer interactions by making that information readily available to your customers instead. You can, however, use these equations to better understand the worth of your content marketing efforts, making it easier to assign the budget that those efforts truly deserve.

Need more help with your marketing efforts? Ready to take your social media or content strategy to the next level? Contact me today to learn more about how I can help generate higher returns on your content marketing investments.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

Business figurines standing in front of Apple iPad monitor displaying LinkedIn logo. LinkedIn is a social networking service for people in professional occupations. Ways to Generate Sales Leads With LinkedIn concept

Top 7 Ways to Generate Sales Leads With LinkedIn

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LinkedIn is one of the best online platforms for generating sales leads—B2B sales leads especially. It makes sense because LinkedIn is a social media platform for business-related purposes and it’s a very successful one. Forty-four percent of its members have an income of more than $75,000 and 50 percent of users turn to LinkedIn when making their purchasing decisions.

If you aren’t using LinkedIn to build your sales pipeline, then you are missing out on a lot of potential customers, but don’t jump in without a plan. When using LinkedIn to generate sales leads, you should do so strategically—from developing a targeted profile to building successful advertising campaigns. Follow these seven steps to make the most of your LinkedIn account and increase your sales numbers dramatically.

Perfect Your Profile

“Your LinkedIn summary (all 2,000 or fewer characters) will likely be read by more people than any other version of your bio.” – William Aruda, Forbes

Your LinkedIn profile is your first impression to most leads, so you should spend time making sure that it’s a good one.

Choose the Right Picture. Choose a professional image for your profile picture. Wear clothing that is appropriate to your job—for most that will be a suit, but if you belong to a more casual industry, be sure to wear an elevated version of your usual attire. You don’t need to go to a studio to get a picture taken, but don’t use a selfie. Instead, ask a colleague or friend to take a few pictures of you against a nice backdrop, even outside in natural light.

Customize Your Headline. Most people use the default headline of their current job title, but that’s a wasted opportunity. You should be using it to hook potential clients. How will you help potential leads? Include your title, company, and how your product helps clients. For instance, “Sales Representative at [company] helping companies increase sales by [percent] with [product name].” Stay away from jargon as much as possible. Instead, use easily understood terms that potential clients will be using in their searches.

Create a Stellar Summary. Since you’re using LinkedIn as a lead-generation tool, direct your summary to your potential clients. Tell your audience how passionate you are about setting companies up with the amazing products you sell because of the ways those products change their lives. Make your summary easy to digest by adding bulleted lists to summarize key points and including media to enhance your message like links to videos explaining your products.

Use a Custom URL. When you join LinkedIn, they assign you a generic URL, so make sure you’ve changed it to something more personal and easy to remember. Most people use their name, but if you have a common name, you may need to add another identifying detail like the company you work for or use a well-known nickname. You can change your URL up to five times in six months, so don’t worry if use job-related terms and then change jobs. As long as you haven’t used up all five edits, you can easily update your URL.

Add Current Contacts

“There is no overstating the value of happy customers who become advocates for your brand.” – Alex Rynne, LinkedIn

Yes, you already know your clients, but LinkedIn is an elaborate web of “who knows who,” so be sure to connect with all of your current and past clients once your profile is set up. Send them a nice note with your invitation, letting them know how much they mean to you. Cultivation doesn’t end with the sale or even after a client leaves. One day, they might come back to your product or transfer to a different company that can benefit from your product.

Don’t forget that many of the companies you’ve worked with (or want to work with) also have a presence on LinkedIn. Spend some time finding and following their pages to stay up-to-date on their latest news.

Add New Contacts

Everyone you talk to about business or meet during the course of the business day is a potential LinkedIn connection. – Jeff Haden, Inc.

From now on, every person you meet is a potential LinkedIn connection. If you meet someone at a party or standing in line at the store, and the conversation turns to work, consider connecting with them on LinkedIn. If they aren’t a potential client, they might know someone who is.

When sending them a connection invite, take the time to write a personal note that references your conversation and sends them something useful—like a link to a relevant article or an offer to refer them to one of your other connections. Unless your in-person conversation quickly turned to their interest in the product or service you’re selling, stay away from overly sales-like messages. Instead, connect with them with the purpose of being helpful to their job. They’ll take note and look for ways to return the favor.

Customer review rating business concept, Woman hand using mobile phone

Ask for and Write Recommendations

“A glowing recommendation from an existing customer provides social proof that can put new prospects’ minds at ease.” – Emma Brudner, Hubspot

Recommendations can act as powerful customer reviews for you and the products you sell, but recommendations that you write for others are an overlooked way to get your name and profile in front people who aren’t a part of your network.

Asking others to write recommendations for you is a great way to build your profile. Good reviews are a guaranteed way to improve sales records for products. In fact, having at least five reviews can increase the likelihood of purchase by 270 percent compared to having no reviews. When it comes to gaining leads on LinkedIn, both you and what you’re selling are under review, so when asking for recommendations, request that customers include a reference to the product as well.

You should also write recommendations for others. This way anyone looking at their profile (to hire them, connect with them, etc.) will see your recommendation as well as your headline and a link to your profile. If your review and headline are memorable enough, they may click through to learn more about you.

Find Leads

“80 percent of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn.” – The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn

When looking for leads, you should use the advanced search feature. The advanced search feature allows you to filter LinkedIn members with information like their location, company, industry and how closely you are connected to them. If you upgrade to the LinkedIn Premium, you have access to additional filters like function and years of experience to target more specific leads.

After the initial search, narrow your results down to the best leads by finding 2nd-degree connections. Depending on how well you know the 1st-degree connection that links you to your lead, you can ask for an introduction. To make the introduction easier, include a draft email that your contact can use when connecting you to your lead.

For some leads, you won’t have a 1st-degree connection. You can still use LinkedIn to make the cold call warmer. Look through their profile information and find things you have in common. Did you go to the same school? Are you members of the same organization? You can, of course, immediately contact leads using the commonalities you find, but you’ll get a better reaction if you first cultivate a relationship with them. Join the same LinkedIn groups and enter into non-sales related conversations about shared hobbies or career topics. Be genuine and try to help them by referring them to others or vice versa. They’ll find ways to pay it forward to you as well.

Engage in Groups

“Offer massive value to every member. Connect anytime that they reach out to you. Try and genuinely solve their problems.” – Neil Patel, Forbes

Groups on LinkedIn are a place where like-minded individuals share information with each other—usually with articles and blog posts or by answering questions posed by other group members. Starting your own group isn’t usually the best method of gaining leads unless there is a specific topic you want to discuss, but no group in which to do so.

Starting a group is easy in theory, but it takes a lot of work. If you choose to start your own group, have a backlog of articles, blog posts and conversation topics to share on a daily basis and populate the group with several posts before you invite connections to join. Starting your own group is one of the best ways to cultivate connections on LinkedIn, but don’t go in blindly. Be prepared to spend a good amount of time managing the group.

Whether or not you create your own group, you should join any groups in which your potential clients participate. If your product or service targets marketers, join all marketing-related groups. If you want to target managers, join groups that are management-related and so on. Once a member of the group, you should share blog posts and articles that are relevant to that group. If an article about your product or service is relevant, share it, but balance it by mostly sharing and participating in non-sales posts and conversations. To make a lasting impression, share blog posts that you’ve written showcasing your knowledge on the topic at hand.

In addition to adding your blog posts and articles to relevant groups, you can also post them as status updates in LinkedIn to let your connections know what you’ve been up to as well. It may lead to fruitful conversations with leads among your own connections.

Advertise through LinkedIn

“In the history of my marketing experience at this school, I’ve never seen us convert that quickly.” – Elizabeth Hogan, Duke University, on Sponsored InMail

LinkedIn advertising is more costly than other forms of social media advertising, but for B2B companies, the access to a highly targeted professional audience is without compare. LinkedIn understands the value of marketing to their members and has invested a lot of time in developing their advertising features. They are constantly rolling out new features like carousel advertising and matched audiences which allows you to upload your internal database data to target leads better, so stay updated on what new offerings they have available.

Currently, LinkedIn has five ad types to choose from.

Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is much like ads on other social networks, where you are pushing a “status update” of a popular blog post, a video featuring your product, or a thought-provoking question to an audience beyond your immediate connections. Much like Facebook advertising, you get a headline, intro copy, and an image or carousel of images like any status update, though you should keep the copy short and to the point for an 18 percent increase in engagement.

Sponsored InMail

The most unique form of advertising available, sponsored InMail, allows you to create an email to send to your target audience via InMail. As with standard emails, you create a subject line, body copy and include a CTA button and image. Use a personal profile to send the InMail to increase open rates and keep the body copy short with a strong call to action to get the most response from viewers.

InMail is one of the most effective ways to market to your target audience because LinkedIn only sends the message to people when they are active on the network. It also limits the number of sponsored messages a user sees, so they don’t feel inundated with advertising emails. This ensures your audience is more receptive to the sponsored InMail messages they do receive.

Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are another high-performing LinkedIn advertising option. Dynamic ads work well when you want people to follow your page, join your group, visit your website or download your content. The system will pull in the targeted audience’s username and profile picture to create ad copy that specifically addresses them. The copy is very short and should explain how the user can benefit from clicking the CTA button.

Programmatic Display Ads

Display ads are image- or video-based ads that appear in users’ sidebar when they are using the platform on their desktop. Use eye-catching media and messaging to grab the users’ attention. To get the most out of your video-based ad, keep the video under 30 seconds, but get to the main message within the first 10 seconds.

Text Ads

Text ads on LinkedIn are much like Google AdWords, where you choose between PPC and CPI ads, set a bid for the audience you want to reach and set a budget to ensure you don’t overspend to reach that audience. You can choose our targets based on demographics like age and gender, career details like industry and position, and LinkedIn activities like to which groups they belong. Because you don’t have as much real estate as other advertising options, focus on your strongest CTAs.

 

LinkedIn is one of the best ways to generate new leads, especially for those in the B2B marketing industry, but it must be used strategically. Develop a presence as a thought-leader through your profile and in groups, and maintain continuous touchpoints with your contacts, whether it’s congratulating them on a promotion or referring them to another connection.

Add a few minutes to your calendar every day to check and update content on the platform. The key is to keep it slow and steady, and after a few weeks, you’ll begin seeing all of your hard work beginning pay off!

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit that put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

using computer for HARO

How To Score More Earned Media With HARO

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There’s no way around it. Google’s algorithm demands excellence. If you want to be a top ranking website, you need to prioritize search engine optimization. And one of the keys to getting SEO right is backlinks (i.e. other websites posting a link to your website). The more reputable the website, the more impact the backlink will have on how Google ranks you.

But backlinks do more than just aid your search ranking. They also enhance your reputation. When a customer or client sees the New York Times or Washington Post link to your website, their level of trust in you and your product or service skyrockets. Plus it’s a great way to reach new potential customers.

So how do you get backlinked? You can wait around for another company or organization to see your content and mention it to their audience. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a pipe dream. A much more proactive approach is to use HARO or helpareporter.com.

This website is a resource for reporters, as well as brands. They allow journalists and bloggers to post queries about a story they are covering. Experts on the specific topic can respond and provide valuable tips and quotes that the writer can then use in their piece. The expert’s or brand’s website is then backlinked in the published story.

Competing For Earned Media On HARO

HARO is an unparalleled resource. Nearly 55,000 journalists and bloggers use it and tens of thousands of queries are posted on the platform every single year. Writers who are on a tight deadline rely on HARO to get them the information and experts they need. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that all a brand has to do is respond to a query in order to get a great backlink. The platform boasts about 800,000 sources, which means that brands have some competition.

The good news is that not all 800,000 sources are regularly active and of the sources that are actively answering queries, many only target specific queries—after all, the sources should be experts and no one and no brand can be an expert in everything. In the end, this means that you will likely be competing with fewer than 100 other sources. So while it is likely that your query response will be read, you need to approach the query in the right way in order to stand out and increase your chances of being the chosen source.

Tips For Scoring HARO’s Earned Media

1. Be Prompt

Source requests are posted on HARO continuously. These are then emailed to sources three times every day—at 5:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m. and 5:35 p.m. eastern standard time. It is essential to not let these sit in your inbox for too long. The fact is, many of the journalists that use HARO are on a tight deadline. They will likely opt for the first great source that they get instead of waiting around for a day or two for more entries to come through. The higher in their response queue that you are, the more likely they are to see and use you as a source.

2. Know Your Goal

Getting backlinked through HARO can do wonders for a brand. The key, though, is to know why you want to get backlinked. If your main goal is SEO and to raise your ranking status with Google, you should aim to answer as many HARO queries as possible. If you, your coworkers, or your brand has knowledge about any topic, even if it doesn’t directly relate to your products or services, answering a query about it could help. In other words, the more backlinks the better—it doesn’t matter whether they are bringing valuable leads to your site, it only matters that Google’s algorithm is seeing trusted sources linking to your brand.

On the other hand, if your main goal is to attract new leads, it will do you no good to spread yourself thin and reply to as many source requests as possible. When you are chosen for these random queries, the backlinks will be clicked on by leads that you simply can’t convert. Instead, all effort should be put towards replying to source requests that apply to your products, services, brand, or possibly geographic location. It is these backlinks that will attract valuable leads.

3. Make The Reporter’s Job Easy

Journalists are in a hurry. They need their questions answered and quality quotes from valuable sources. If you want them to choose you as a source, you need to make it an easy choice. This means giving them exactly what they want upfront. Don’t just send them your credentials and contact information, offering an interview if they are interested. They can’t be sure that the interview will lead to anything valuable and they simply don’t have the time to waste.

Extra tip: Even if the query states that they are looking to interview an expert on x, y or z, still refrain from simply putting your contact details in the response. Instead, try and answer their question in the response, as well as putting in your contact information. If the response is of high quality, they’ll rather take it than spend time calling someone else.

There are two steps to crafting the perfect query response:

Step one is to showcase your credentials. State why you’re an expert on the topic. This could include your educational background or your experience in the industry. You might also point to the brand, the strong customer base it has, or any other strengths that point to it being an industry leader or innovator. And while it is important to flesh out why you should be the source and the brand should be backlinked to, it is even more important to compile this information in the most succinct way possible.

Step two is where you need to get creative. Everyone who replies to the query will likely have the most basic knowledge of the field. They will be able to offer a general tip or some decent information. Therefore, to stand out, you need to be different and provide something more substantial or less commonly known. It should impress the journalist and blogger and stay in their mind, even if they do go on to review some of the other submissions. Remember, a writer has a goal of making their piece interesting and drawing the reader in. You need to help them do this with the quote you provide.

Extra tips: Make sure you answer their query and not simply give general industry information. Also, write a professional, edited quote. This helps to minimize the amount of work the writer has to do. They can simply copy and paste your response. Sometimes your answer might be a 10-word answer, other times it will be a 10-paragraph essay. If it is the latter, provide a very brief summary that should be placed above your longer response.

4. Tell The Writer What You Want

Journalists are not mind readers. This is especially true if they are newer to HARO. They do not necessarily know that you would like a backlink. You need to ask for one. You should provide a ‘copy and paste’ example of how you would prefer to be quoted. This includes your name, job title and the link that you would like to be placed in the backlink.

Additionally, you should always include contact options. Journalists are thorough. Oftentimes they may want your quote explained further. Or they may just want to get extra information about you. You will have a much higher chance of getting backlinked if you offer up several contact options (i.e. a phone number and email address). These details should be accompanied with the best times to reach out over the next 48 hours. This ensures that they will get a hold of you when they call, making it convenient for both parties.

5. Get The HARO Subscription That Is Right For You

Free is great, but is it right? HARO has a freeium model. In other words, once you have subscribed to the HARO email list you don’t have to pay. You can still get all of the queries every weekday. However, to get additional benefits, you can pay a monthly fee. And for some businesses and individuals, this extra few dollars could be well worth it. The added benefits range from keyword and text alerts to search options to getting the HARO email an hour earlier than all free and base level subscribers.

These features are invaluable to certain brands, especially those that are in the more competitive niches. They allow you to more efficiently scan through the queries and submit responses. And for those who have used the free model successfully and are looking for a bump in submission acceptances, one of the paid subscriptions could offer just that. For everyone else, though, the free model is tried and tested. It works and will provide results as long as your query submissions follow the above guidelines.

Final tip: Put effort into the subject line of your submission. Add part of your response in the subject or at least make it clear that your quote provides a unique and interesting take.

HARO offers PR opportunities that many companies have never had access to before, or at least not for free. If you approach queries in a smart, consistent and calculated way, you will start to see results, enabling you to score plenty of earned media opportunities.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

Businessman and businesswoman discuss their PR campaign and marketing strategy.

7 Ways to Bolster Your PR Results

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A successful PR campaign does not evolve on its own.

You need to develop a proactive mindset and a strategic plan that will help you earn the media coverage that will propel your organization to the next level of success. By focusing on developing relationships with customers, influencers, and suppliers, you can establish a solid foundation for a productive PR campaign. Below are seven ways to bolster your PR results.

 

1) Become a regular exhibitor at industry trade shows

Trade shows provide excellent forums for networking and showcasing your new products. If you are new to the trade show arena, make sure that you use discretion and maximize your resources. Here are a few tips to help you generate PR from your trade show participation:

  • Select your trade shows carefully. Avoid shows in their infancy in favor of established shows with a large number of attendees. Also, consider the location where the show will be held. Larger cities with easy airport access are typically better venues for trade shows.
  • Choose your booth location wisely. Booth location is often the key to a successful trade show. Corner booths and locations near the front expo entrance are good choices while locations at the back of the expo hall are less ideal. Exhibitors who register early typically have better access to the most desirable booth locations.
  • Invest in an eye-catching booth display. Creating a captivating, inviting ambiance will help drive traffic to your booth. And an inviting booth begins with an eye-catching display. Make sure that your display is clearly visible from afar and make sure that your booth is neat and free of clutter.
  • Explore speaking or sponsorship opportunities. Most trade shows offer exhibitors the opportunity to advertise in the exhibitor manual, sponsor a trade show event, or serve as a speaker on an exhibition topic. While exhibitors can usually expect to pay for these opportunities, they are a great means of fostering PR results.

 

2) Enlist the support of influencers

“…Collaborations with social media stars and celebrities can help to build your credibility among consumers, but that’s not the only benefit. Influencer marketing also gives you the ability to enhance your public relations efforts by filling engagement and trust building “holes” that traditional media can’t always deliver.”

 

– Rebekah Iliff, Chief strategy officer, AirPR

Influencers are outstanding brand ambassadors. Consumers are more apt to trust people than businesses, highlighting the key role that influencers now play in advertising and PR. As contrived marketing messages increasingly fail to engage audiences, social media influencers will continue to grow in popularity.

 

3) Focus on building key relationships

Relationships often serve as the building blocks of fruitful PR campaigns. Maintaining relationships with the individuals who helped your company succeed as well as those who can take your company to the next level of success is essential. In general, you should focus on establishing and maintaining relationships with four categories of people:

  • Customers: Happy customers are outstanding brand ambassadors, especially those who are active on social media. You can build strong relationships with customers by delivering products and services on time and by offering an unparalleled level of responsiveness.
  • Suppliers and vendors: Paying your vendors on time and treating them in a pleasant, respectful manner are two ways to earn rave reviews from suppliers and vendors. Also, make sure that your purchase orders are clear and organized, and try to provide an accurate forecast of upcoming needs.
  • Employees: Satisfied employees are more likely to provide favorable online reviews of your company as an employer. You can keep your employees engaged and satisfied by establishing a positive work culture and recognizing them for their accomplishments.
  • Business partners: Strive to work well with your business partners to ensure that you do not become one of the 70 percent of business partnerships that fail. You can improve your relationship with your business partners by communicating openly and honestly.

 

4) Zero in on millennials

“Millennials have incredible passion and a strong desire to make the world a better place…They want to create meaningful experiences with brand managers. Companies such as Toms, Starbucks and Chipotle have managed to attract and retain their attention. Those brand managers aren’t just speaking to people; they’re speaking with them.”

 

– Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications 

With millennials possessing $44 billion in annual spending power, connecting with millennials is essential to bolstering your PR results. In contrast to baby boomers and Generation X, millennials are more experience-driven consumers. Reaching millennials, therefore, requires a different approach that involves the following elements:

  • Increase your focus on creativity when branding your products and campaigns
  • Offer free events, activities, and trials to enable millennials to experience your products
  • Make sure that your website and social media sites are responsive and easy to navigate
  • Encourage millennials in your workforce to weigh in on your marketing campaigns

 

5) Engage with your audience

Engaging with your audience gives people a reason to return to your website, blog and social media pages. You build customer retention while elevating your PR results. Here are a few specific ways to engage with your audience:

  • Respond to blog post comments from your audience: Responding to audience comments regarding your blog posts enhances the quality of your blog and also helps you build your brand’s presence. Most importantly, it shows your audience that you value their feedback and are interested in engaging with them.
  • Use social media to showcase your customers and their accomplishments: Recognizing your customers’ recent awards and achievements will delight your clients and help you create a positive company culture. Additionally, you solidify your relationship with key clients while also showing prospective customers that you are a trusted resource for the products and services you provide.
  • Share content that will be useful to your audience: There is little doubt that sharing content is an effective PR strategy to employ. However, with millions of videos and blog posts published every month, you need to employ content intelligence to ensure that you systematically sort through the clutter and choose the most compelling content.
  • Introduce digital storytelling: If you are not already using digital storytelling to augment your PR strategy, then it is time to start. Storytelling’s use of narrative and local flavor to engage with customers makes it a powerful PR tool. The keys to success when introducing storytelling are to start small and make sure you link your storytelling to your company’s goals and missions.

 

6) Become a master of responsiveness

“Among respondents to The Social Habit who have ever attempted to contact a brand, product, or company through social media for customer support, 32% expect a response within 30 minutes.”

 

– Reinaldo S. Prado, LinkedIn

Studies show that more than 75 percent of people who submit an online inquiry expect an email response or a social media reply in less than six hours. With a growing number of consumers opting to engage with companies through social media or live chat, it is essential for you to take measures to increase your level of responsiveness. Here are a few specific ways to become more responsive:

  • Always respond to social media inquiries, even if you must use a pre-generated response.
  • If you advertise your live chat, make sure you have staff available at all hours to respond to inquiries.
  • Strive to respond to social media inquiries and online quote requests within an hour.
  • Make sure you have an official response prepared in case a customer posts a major concern.
  • Consider hiring an intern to monitor your social media and chat inquiries to ensure timely responses.

 

7) Make it easy for your audience to contribute feedback

“…You might want to create one hashtag for a dedicated campaign where consumers can share images of themselves with your product, and then create another hashtag that’s evergreen, where buyers can share their reviews and experiences with your product or service.”

– Jose Angelo Gallegos, Social Media Today

 

Providing convenient ways for audience members to provide feedback reiterates your dedication to listening to their needs. Additionally, customer feedback can be instrumental in helping you improve your business. The key to obtaining customer feedback is to make it easy and convenient for people to convey their comments. Some fast and convenient ways to encourage customers to provide feedback include the following:

  • Feature brief popup surveys on your website.
  • Distribute short comment cards and text surveys at promotional. events.
  • Enable customers to comment on your blog posts.
  • Simply ask customers for their feedback during trade shows and professional meetings.

 

What is the single best step you can take to bolster your PR results?

As outlined above, there are many measures you can take to enhance your PR status. However, the single best step you can take to maximize your PR results is to enlist the support of an accomplished marketing expert. A professional marketing specialist can help you develop a strategic campaign that will drive audience engagement, strengthen key relationships, and win over millennials. Most importantly, you will expand your market presence and build brand loyalty.

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A Dozen Surefire Ways to Help you Create Stellar Content

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Your ability to convert prospects into loyal customers hinges in great part upon the quality of your content. If you are willing to invest time and energy in the content you produce, you will reap the rewards and grow your customer base. Whether you are the Marketing Director of a rapidly growing startup or the CMO of a well-established software company, there are some proven measures you can take to produce content that will convert prospects to sales. Below are a dozen surefire strategies to help you deliver stellar content.

1) Make award-winning content a top priority

“The demand for fresh, high-value content marketing is high. If you invest time in creating it, you’ll reap the rewards. But, the competition is strong. Most marketers are going give up, but those who learn the tricks and get customer insights will grow their businesses.”

 

– Neil Patel, Entrepreneur and Best Selling Author

The first step on the journey to outstanding content is to make a firm commitment to developing an ongoing content improvement strategy. Stellar content does not magically arise out of thin air. It requires time and an ongoing investment from a dedicated resource. If you are willing to put forth a sustained effort, you will enjoy the fruits of your labor in the form of increased conversions.

2) Know your target audience like the back of your hand

Building a strong rapport with prospective customers requires you to really get to know your target audience. Identifying your audience’s primary preferences and expectations will help you customize your content to best meet their unique needs. There are many ways that you can learn about your target audience, including the following:

  • Attend or exhibit your products at industry trade shows
  • Follow conversations on social media
  • Keep tabs on your top competitors
  • Conduct surveys of your existing customer base

3) Select content that is relevant to your target audience

Today’s consumers are inundated with content. In order to stand out from the competition, you must make sure that you are creating content that is authentic, believable, useful, and relevant to your target audience. This will help position you as a legitimate force within your industry while earning the trust of prospective customers. Most importantly, this strategy will help you develop a loyal customer base that looks forward to the valuable content that you provide.

4) Choose a captivating headline

“The headline is the most important part of any piece of writing… Without a good headline the rest will not be read. By improving your headlines you will find that your writing will no longer be ignored, dismissed or deleted as they will be hungry to find out more.”

 

– Tony Hetherington, Writer and Editor

Crafting a captivating headline is essential to capturing your audience’s attention and prompting them to want to read further. It is the first impression that your customer will have when viewing your content, which is why headlines play a key role in your content strategy. There are several key things to remember as you create your headline, including the following:

  • Keep your headlines succinct, limiting them to no more than 10-15 words
  • Make sure your headline accurately represents the content you are presenting
  • Engage the audience by asking a compelling question in your headline
  • Include a shocking number or statistic that will surprise the reader

 

5) Make sure your introduction is enticing

Now that you have successfully captivated your audience with a great headline, you now owe it to your readers to craft an intriguing introduction. Studies show that human beings have an average attention span of 8 seconds, which is even shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. This means that your introduction must be concise, clear, and direct and never dull! You

6) Use images and graphics to support key points

In addition to offering a great introduction, you will help increase conversions by featuring high-quality images and infographics. With researchers finding that color visuals increase the willingness to read by 80 percent, you should consider using a multi-media approach as you design your content. Using a multi-media approach is particularly effective if your target audience includes millennials, who tend to revisit sites that include visuals.

7) Ensure that your content is scannable and well-organized

“Your audience doesn’t come to your website to read flowery prose; they don’t have time for that. They come because they want to be able to easily get the information they need and move on to something else.”

 

– Kim Keller, Blogger and Journalism Professor at the University of Memphis

Creating content that is scannable and well formatted is vital to keeping your audience engaged and interested in your products or services. Achieving this goal does not require any additional time or effort, and will positively impact your conversion rate. Here are some helpful tips to improve the scannability and readability of your content:

  • Break your content up into manageable sections
  • Try to use sentences that are no longer than 8 to 15 words in length
  • Use headers and bullet points to convey points
  • Ask a colleague or trusted customer to review content before you post it

 

8) Feature relevant testimonials

“Testimonials are powerful, essential and free marketing tools that have always been important. Today they are vital…Any business that has a legion of raving fans who are prepared to come out and not only share their experience but also recommend that others use this business, has a huge competitive advantage.”

 

– Andrew Griffiths, Entrepreneur and Author

An effective testimonial is one of the most effective tools in your content arsenal. Testimonials can help you position your company as a trusted leader in your industry and can help convince prospects to try your products and services. When deciding what type of testimonial to feature, remember that options include quotes, video testimonials, and product reviews. With more than 80 percent of customers trusting online reviews as much as they would a recommendation from a personal friend or family member, you can hardly afford not to include testimonials in your content.

9) Generate positive emotions

As you review your content, stop and think about the type of emotions that your content will stir among members of your target audience. In general, you should steer clear of content that evokes fear or a negative response among prospects. However, one of the most effective ways to convert prospects to customers is to reference a problem and highlight the way(s) that your product or service will solve that problem. In this way, you succeed in reducing anxiety and generating positive enthusiasm among prospects.

10) Empower your readers with useful information

Delivering content that is useful or helpful will go a long way toward winning over prospective customers. Fortunately, you do not have to be an award-winning writer to deliver award-winning content. In fact, you can create useful content quickly by following a few key suggestions:

  • Identify key questions facing your target market and answer them clearly
  • Offer a solution to a current problem that is plaguing your target market
  • Before you post your content, ask a few members of your target audience if they find the content helpful
  • Post a case study or success story about how your product or service has positively impacted the life of a customer

 

11) Make sure your content is consistent with your headline

Content that is different from or inconsistent with your headline can cause prospects to stop reading and abandon your page. Some readers even view this type of practice as a form of deceptive advertising, which is discouraged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can avoid frustrating prospective customers by ensuring that your content features material that directly relates to your headline.

12) Feature an irresistible call to action

“There are two main purposes of a call to action…: to tell someone what they should do, and give them the motivation to do so. A lot of people remember to tell people what they should do, but they forget the why part of that equation. Without that added in, you won’t see the types of conversion rates that you should.”

 

– Ana Gotter, Content Marketing Writer

Most CMOs and Marketing Directors are surprised to learn that 70 percent of small business websites lack a call to action. Failing to include a call to action on your website, marketing materials, or e-mail campaign can dramatically hinder your conversion rate. You can avoid missed conversion opportunities by crafting an irresistible call to action that motivates your customers to take the plunge and invest in your products. To optimize your conversion rate, make sure that your call to action button is vivid and placed in a highly visible location on your page.

What is the single best way to create stellar content?

Clearly, there are many steps you can take to create content that will convert into sales. However, the single best way to develop great content is to seek the guidance of an accomplished content delivery expert. A content delivery specialist will have the tools and resources to help you develop content that will entice your target audience and dramatically elevate your conversion rate. By enlisting the support of a seasoned communications strategist, you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your content is being developed by an industry expert.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

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9 Lead Generating Tactics That Convert To Sales

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Did you know that you are probably making sales too difficult? Selling does not have to be painful. It can be easy and natural.

The key to moving from selling pains to selling pleasure, though, is in generating the right leads and enough leads. If you use strong lead generating tactics, the leads will convert to sales without you having to pull any teeth.

The trick is to work smart with the right marketing efforts. Here are nine tactics that will generate the leads you need:

Public Relations:

1. Get Featured

A sure-fire way to generate leads that will convert to sales is through editorial outreach. A few decades ago, this meant getting your business, product, or service featured in a magazine, on the radio, in the newspaper, or in the news. Unfortunately, these outlets can be very challenging to get a spot on. It was and still is, highly competitive. And while this type of coverage is still great to aim for, there are other, easier editorial outlets.

You can send your product to an Instagram, SnapChat, or YouTube celebrity. They can feature the product on their social media channel and tell their followers about it. Alternatively, you could find blogs that your target market might follow and send it to them. These platforms have thousands, if not millions of people, who closely follow them. If the product or service resonates, you will start seeing a significant increase in website traffic and phone calls.

Social Media:

2. Post Gated Content

Maybe you have a lot of followers on Facebook and Instagram. Maybe your website traffic is growing. For some reason, though, this is not translating into sales. The reason for this is that you must get these followers and visitors into the sales funnel. At the moment, they are just peeking in through the window. It’s time to open the door for them. You do this by finding a new point-of-contact: Email. You need to get emails and grow your email list.

The most effective way to do this is to create valuable content. However, you do not just give it out freely. You should allow access to it only through a landing page where visitors have to provide details, like their name and email address. Now all you have to do is write a description of the content, add the link to the landing page, and post it on your social media platforms. All of a sudden you have a mailing list that is twice as long as it used to be.

3. Customize Facebook Contests

Social media is one of the best lead generating tools available. You just need to use it wisely and harness the power of vast networks of friends. One of the best ways to do this is by paying attention to what the latest research is saying: More than a third of millennials like brands on Facebook and follow them in order to get access to competitions that they hold. If this is what consumers want, provide them with it and make it easy for them to access the competitions.

Through your Facebook page, you can hold competitions for a free product or a discount coupon. The requirements for entry can simply be to follow your page and tag two of their friends in the comment section below the post. More often than not, those two friends will also follow your page and tag two of their friends. This has a snowball effect, allowing you to identify countless new leads who are all interested in your product.

To create this ease of access, use custom Facebook tabs. To do this without the help of a developer, all you need is a Facebook tab app. You can use Pagemodo, Tabfoundry, or TabSite. These apps are all very easy to use and enable you to create very professional looking tabs.

Content Marketing:

4. Create A Webinar To Get More Information From Leads

Webinars generate leads and they generate the type of leads that turn into sales. They do take time and effort to develop, but if your webinar offers training, helpful information, or expertise that can not be found anywhere else on the internet, you will bring in hoards of new leads. And because Google’s algorithm does consider the value of content in its ranking, the creation of a webinar may lead to your website’s ranking going up a few spots in Google queries.

To get started, identify the main questions and problems your target market faces. Create an outline for how to help them answer and solve these. Develop a presentation, record it, post it, and put it behind a landing page. This way you can ask for visitors’ information before they view the content. You might also consider asking them a few questions about other information they would like. Based on their answers, you may even consider creating a webinar series.

5. Make Sure Your Content Converts

Why would you spend the time creating content if it does not lead anywhere? You can produce all the white papers, consumer reports, and videos that you want, but if you do not have a strong conversion path, you will just have site visitors, not leads.

This is why every piece of content you post should include a three-step conversion path. The first step is a Call-to-Action. This can be a button or link that is posted at the bottom of a blog or it can be a link that pops up mid-way through your YouTube video. All this CTA does is point the consumer to the next step. You decide what the next step is—submitting their email address, buying a product, contacting you, etc.

The second step is a thank you page. This page can pop up as soon as a visitor has downloaded a content file from your website or it can be a slide at the end of a video. It is simply a nice way to tie things up and politely suggest another piece of content or to follow your brand on social media.

The third and final step is a follow-up email. Within 24 hours of providing their email address, visitors should get an email that engages them further. It might contain similar information to the thank you page (i.e. If you like that content, you might also be interested in this content). You could also use the email to offer them a limited-time promotion.

Email Marketing:

6. Segmentation Is Your Friend

Every email address is not the same. There is a different person behind each one. They are at different places in the sales funnel. Some are active users, who open every email you send. Some are inactive users, who have not opened a single email. These email addresses represent people who have bought from you and people who have not. Not all of them are interested in the same product or service that you offer. You need to understand this and identify who falls where. Most email campaign programs provide you with some analytics–use these to segment your audience.

Have one segment of emails that is for brand new leads. Have another that is to re-engage inactive customers. For each segment design a personalized campaign that addresses exactly where the people are in the decision-making process and leads them to the next step of the sales funnel.

Web Design:

7. Your Website Is Never Finished

You need to regularly update your website. These updates might be recent news, blog posts, or new pictures and videos. It is up to you. But it should be fresh and valuable. The first reason for this is that the more content you have, the more keywords you will have. This means that your website will become more visible to a wider audience. The second reason is that when you update your website, Google takes note. They have to index the website again. In other words, with each fresh update to the website you get another opportunity to move up in Google’s search rankings.

Search Engine Optimization:

8. Keywords Keywords Keywords

SEO is all about increasing your ranking in search engines so that when people search for something that is connected to what you do or what you make, you will come up as a top result. The first place you should start is with keywords. If phrases on your website match a person’s search query, you will rank higher.

Choose the keyword that you concentrate on based on a balance. On the one hand, you need the keyword to be searched for enough. If you have a very specific product with an unusual name, you should not use this as your keyword. No one will ever search for it, therefore your site would not be ranked highly. Instead, you should choose a phrase that describes the product or what it does as the keyword. On the other hand, the balance comes from not making the keyword something too broad. If it is a single word or extremely common phrase, your site will likely get lost below Wikipedia and other information providers. A good way to check on the popularity of the keyword is through the Google Keyword Planner.

9. External Links

Another massive aspect of Google’s algorithm is external links. External links are other sources pointing to your website. Basically, it just means that others trust you–Google likes that. This will take a little bit of work. You will need to pitch yourself to bloggers and online news sources. You could also consider partnering with others in your industry that provide complementary products and services. You could post links to their website and they could do the same for you.

Accumulating strong leads can seem like an uphill battle. As soon as you find one, the last one slips through the cracks. But it does not have to be this way. And by using the above lead generating tips, it won’t be.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

Your first dose of The Daily Fix

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My name is Kenneth Hitchner. And I’m a “fixer.”

I know how to make people and their brands look good by solving their problems. While most people think PR stands for “public relations,” I know it means “problem resolution.”

You see, I don’t do things; I get things done. That’s how I make a living.

People who look good acquire more fortune and fame. More specifically, they obtain more audience, more money, more votes.

In my world, currency comes in many forms: relationships, information, eyeballs and dollar bills. When done right, you will end up richer, wealthier – or both.

So how do I do it? Let’s just say that I use many tools to accomplish the task:

  • Media relations
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Social media
  • Internet
  • Executive communications
  • Employee communications

In my trade, there are no real tricks…only tact.

So welcome to a different place on the World Wide Web, a place where you are expected to think different thoughts. (How else could we change our lives for the better?)

If you give me your attention, I will promise to share with you my communications lessons from the for-profit, non-profit, government and political spaces.

In return, I ask that you contribute your thoughts, because special people give more. (That’s why they are special!) And together, we will help everyone look good in a brand-centric world.

Now, I could just tell you. But where’s the fun in that? Instead, I will show you.

So let’s begin. After all, it’s time for your Daily Fix.

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