A Guide to Marketing Genius:  Content Marketing 

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So what makes sense for your business: to hire outside support, or do it yourself? Here’s a guide to help you figure it out.

Hire Marketing Support If:

• Your time is already consumed by your core priorities.
• You are a primary salesperson, manager, or spokesperson for your organization.
• It would take you more than a few hours to learn how to perform the task better than the service provider.
• You would bring in more revenue, provide better service to your customers, or otherwise improve your organization by focusing on your core priorities.
• The success of this particular project could help your company achieve an important goal, grow in revenue, or stand out in the marketplace.

Do It Yourself If:

• You, or someone else on your team, is highly skilled in this area, and has time available to take on new projects.
• You do not participate in sales or management at your organization, and have a strong background in the online marketing technique required.
• The success of this particular project will not have a significant effect on your organization’s growth or standing in the marketplace.
• The project can be easily completed by you or someone on your team, and will not take time away from more important priorities.

Still wondering if it makes sense to take your project in-house or hire an expert? Request a consultation from one or two marketing consultants that specialize in the service you’re considering, and be sure to let them know that you’re considering taking the project in-house. They can help you review the pros and cons to make your final decision.

If you’d like our help in making that decision, please contact our team. 

Collaboration

First on the list is the ability for the organization’s culture to collaborate. Not just talk, but rather action oriented conversation that creates excitement and arm waving. If you know Errik, Matt and Jamie, this is how they communicate, with enthusiasm!

Competition

Equally important is healthy competition. Not the "you against me" kind of energy, but the "we are in this together to win" kind of energy. The need to reach a goal is a critical ingredient of human motivation, and when we have partners in that, we become powerful.

Mindfulness

Third on the list is mindfulness.  That’s being able to notice what is going on around you and within you, which includes your peers, customers and greater environment.  The cultivation of mindfulness carries you to more deeply experience your opportunities and challenges.  As a higher order of being, it allows you to stand outside your self as an observer and manager of your world. This is when breakthroughs occur.

Passion

Connecting to your passion and remembering it allows you to run the triathlon after the innovation begins to solidify. Innovation does not end, it evolves with you over time, and if you can stay in touch with the original excitement you held when you first created an idea, you will not be distracted. The important point here is that passion has to be real, and it is real when you feel it.

Willingness to Fail

Finally, and perhaps most important, is that you have to be willing and able to fail. Necessity is the mother of invention, and failure is the father of innovation. Failure not only eliminates one wrong option, it informs you about what to do next. If safety and security around failure is missing, you will just do what you have always done.

What is most important about these points is that they were developed by 60 people in 2 hours. Pure innovation.  

Dr. Russ Ouellette, managing partner of Sojourn Partners, a Bedford, NH-based executive leadership strategy and coaching firm, can be reached at 603-472-8103 or russ@sojournpartners.com.

We all see what we want to see; and that means that sometimes we can miss some huge, glaring issues that customers will spot immediately. Often, those same customers will choose not to work with you based on this first impression, but may never tell you the reason. And that's where things can get scary.

Here are the 5 most important first impressions to get right. If you can nail these, we guarantee you'll see improvement in sales and referral business.

Physical Location

• How does your office/store/salon/restaurant look to prospective customers?
• Is your signage visible from the street? Is it modern? Does it attract attention? Does it match your brand?
• Is your reception area welcoming? Really? What kind of impression do you make to prospects with your furniture, interior signage, magazines, brochures, etc? Do you offer coffee and water to visitors?
• Do you have a comfortable meeting and/or waiting area for visitors?
• Is your location easy to find? Is the neighborhood representative of your brand image? Ie: a high-end restaurant will likely not perform well in a downtrodden neighborhood, and vice versa. A modern, high-tech business doesn't fit well in a strip mall space.

Printed Marketing Materials

• When is the last time you REALLY looked at your business cards? Are you cutting costs on paper & printing? Your prospects can instantly identify this, and it immediately downgrades your business.
• Is your logo eye-catching? Is it easily recognizable? Does it convey exactly the message you want it to?
• Are your brochures and folders representative of your brand? Do they make people want to pick them up from a table or booth?
• If you're exhibiting at an event, does your booth stand out from the crowd? Is it clean, organized, and does it attract attention?

Online Marketing Materials

• When is the last time you REALLY looked at your website? Is it up to date? Do you have calls to action on all important pages?
• Are your Social Media Channels branded to match the rest of your organization? Each Social Media Channel (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc.) allows you some flexibility in customizing page design, so be sure to take advantage of these free opportunities.
• A visitor's first experience with your brand, wherever it happens to occur, will help them decide whether to continue pursuing you. Make sure all of those potential 'first entrances' to your business are good ones.

Reviews & Testimonials

• If you haven't 'Googled' your company in a while, now is the time. Check out your online reviews and social media mentions. If no one is talking about you, that's nearly as bad as having negative reviews.

And all those things your 3rd grade English teacher warned you about.

• Typos! Grammatical Errors! Misspellings!
• I am AMAZED at how often I see simple mistakes on company websites, blog posts, press releases, email newsletters, and social media updates. If this isn't your strongest area, then PLEASE enlist a trusted colleague to review your work for you. Your prospects will pick up on this, and it could cost you thousands of dollars in lost business.

We've all heard the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover', and it's message is a valuable one in life. But realistically, you can be assured that prospective customers will judge your business by its cover every single time they come in contact with you.

In fact, if you think about the last time you purchased a book; you likely judged it by its ACTUAL cover: the title and cover artwork, whether it had made a bestseller's list, and/or where it was positioned in a physical store or how many stars it had in online reviews. If you're taking all of these factors into consideration just to make a $15 decision about a book, don't you think your prospective customers are considering the same factors when choosing whether to do business with you?

Want some help taking these steps to improve those all-important first impressions? We'd be happy to offer you a complimentary analysis of your marketing materials and/or website.  Contact us today for an intial consultation.

Sharon Bailly

Under the pressure and excitement of bringing a new technology product or service to the marketplace, it’s easy to forget that:

(a)    Your customer understands the field but has no knowledge about this particular product or service. Marketing materials that jump right in with new acronyms and concepts leave even the best-educated and most experienced customer baffled.

(b)   Your customer has heard it before (“user friendly, affordable, state-of-the-art”). To differentiate your product or service from the competition’s, provide those details that show user friendliness, affordability and innovation. Instead of vague adjectives and adverbs, give specific answers to the questions customers ask most often: How much training is involved? What savings does the technology achieve? What benchmarks does it meet?

(c)    Your customer’s goals differ from yours. You are celebrating an advance in technology (“our new robotic packaging system includes a PC-based control system, barcode printer, grippers, fixtures…”). Customers want to know what your technology will do for them (“maintain zero tolerance for error and keep up with stringent government regulations”). Focus on your customer’s goals first.

(d)   Even high-tech customers appreciate a good story. Make your point through a success story, testimonial or photograph and you’ll keep the customer’s attention longer.

(e)   Your customer has to fit your technology into an existing context, including limitations in space, resources and time. Acknowledge that context (“a closet-like room is not the ideal data center but for some companies that’s the best available”). Provide information that helps the customer see your product in the customer’s world.

(f)     Customers suffer information overload. Be careful before you spend limited marketing space on an aspect of the technology that is invisible to your customer—even if that aspect is amazing—and avoid dividing one marketing message between a dozen products and services the customer might (or might not) be interested in. Too much information will overwhelm your customer and delay a decision.

When you are marketing a new technology, it might help to think of yourself as a teacher. A great teacher builds slowly on what students already know, gives them information they cannot find elsewhere, shows them how a new concept works, keeps them engaged, gives them hands-on experience and paces lessons carefully. Enthusiasm is wonderful in a teacher, but not if it leaves the students struggling alone with material they haven’t yet mastered.

Sharon Bailly, founder of TWP Marketing & Technical Communications (www.twriteplus.com), has helped high-tech companies communicate with customers in the software, computer, oil & gas, medical products, pharmaceutical, healthcare and construction industries. For more technical writing information, visit her blog at www.nhbusinessblog.com. 

If there’s one thing that search engines reward with higher ranking more than most others, it’s a website page that matches the exact search a person conducts. For attorneys looking to improve their chances of being found online by a prospective client with a need to fill, there is a very simple way to make this happen: just answer your own questions.

We find that one of the most difficult issues most professionals face when writing for an online audience is speaking the reader’s language. Often, professionals get too caught up in industry jargon and terminology far above the understanding of their readers, and they have a very difficult time connecting to the reader in the place where he/she is at.

One of the best ways to achieve both a level of writing that speaks directly to your reader in the place where they are currently at, as well as prove to search engines that your content MOST CLOSELY matches the queries posed in an online search, is to ask and answer the questions that relate to your target audience.

Here are a few examples:

Title of Post: “My ex is remarrying and moving out of state. What steps do we need to take to make sure our agreements are upheld before he/she moves?”

Title of Post: “My siblings and I will be inheriting a family business soon. Who should we speak to about transitioning the business and making sure we are all covered?”

Title of Post: “Mom may need to go to a nursing home soon. How do we pay for it and protect our family’s home?”

In each of the situations above, the body of the blog post or article would address (in general terms) common next steps and issues associated with each of these questions. While you would not be advising this particular person with their situation; by addressing the questions that are commonly asked by your target audience(s), you will not only position yourself well into the search engine responses to these questions, you will also position yourself as the expert in this practice area to the person reading your article.

Ready to learn how to find your firm’s next client online? Want to position yourself as the Authority in your practice area, so that potential clients will come to you for help? Register here for our upcoming FREE virtual seminar on April 19th. 

The call sounded something like this:

Salesperson: "Hello I'm calling about the survey you completed online".

Me: “I don't know what you're talking about; I didn't fill out a survey".

Him: "Well that's good to hear. I represent blah blah blah and we can help you find a new job".

Me: “I'm not looking for a job, I own my own business".

Him: "Well even if you're not looking for a job right now, we'll send you listings so you can find one".

Me: "I don't want a job; please take me off your list".

Him: Silence. Click.

I’m not saying that all sales calls don’t work. In many cases, with warm leads, a minimum level of interest on the part of the prospect, and a salesperson that understands how to build rapport and develop a conversation, sales calls can be incredibly effective.

The one in this post, however, is an example of basically everything that could be done wrong. It was a straight-up cold call, there was no interest on my side, and I wasn’t targeted for any particular reason. Not only had I not completed any survey (he’s lying); I had no interest in finding a job ( I wasn’t targeted effectively); and my argument wasn’t responded to (he didn’t listen to a word I said; he just continued his own ineffective script).

On the bright side, there ARE effective ways to do this right. You CAN get targeted prospects on the phone who have already been ‘warmed up’ online, and who have an interest in your products or services. You CAN gather enough information about them, before dialing the phone, to give you background on their needs, goals, or aspirations; and you can use this information to develop the rapport that will help you close more business, and attract better clients, during those conversations.

The key is to learn how to funnel those prospects into the initial stages of your sales cycle before they ever reach you. It’s not rocket science, but it does require a level of strategic planning for every aspect of your online presence (website, landing pages, forms, incentives, social media, public relations, etc.).

Want to learn how to do it?

Want to be sure your sales calls NEVER go in the direction of the one above?

Want to pick up the phone already knowing key information about the prospect on the other end that will help you close more business?

We’re teaching this strategy and more at our April 23^rd workshop: ‘From Visitors to Leads – Turn Your Website into a Lead Generator’. Register at: http://www.culturalchemistry.com/Training/leads-generator/

Save 10% with code: Grapevinemkt

There is, however, a pretty simple strategy that will help you break through that clutter, get your audience to pay attention to you, and even persuade them to share your message with their own communities.

That strategy involves using visual content and images to tell your story. Sounds simple enough, right? But aside from including a photo in their blog posts or Facebook updates, we've noticed that many businesses never get beyond this first step to develop the visual content that will push them to the next level. So we've developed this simple plan to start you off on the path to inbound marketing success.

Images to Include in Online Marketing:

• Call to Action buttons - Rather than including a simple "contact us" link in the text of your page; a "Sign Me Up" button in a bold color will lift your conversion rates and get your audience to take action.
• Memes - As shown in this blog post, a descriptive image with an intriguing message will garner far more attention in cluttered social media news feeds and online publications than even the most compelling text headline.
• Infographics - These in-depth visual graphs and charts offer a simple way to provide a large amount of complex information to your audience. And they are very quick to read and easy to share, which will do wonders for your inbound links and brand awareness.

How to Promote your Images:

• Publishing: The first, and generally most important, place to include your visual content is on your website and/or blog. Be sure to include social media buttons so that your readers can easily share your images and content with their own networks.
• Promoting: Second to hosting images on your site, you would then want to push them out through your social media channels (primarily Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter; though you may have others in the mix as well). This will allow prospective readers to stumble on your content within their own channels; and makes it easy for them to help you spread the word.

There are far too opportunities for marketing images to include in this post, but we'd love to hear how you integrate images in your own marketing programs. Please post your creative ideas and uses in the comments below.

Would you be happy to have a business similar to any of the above, even if it meant that a similarly-savvy behemoth always kept you on your toes? We bet you would. We would too.

So what do these companies, and thousands of others, understand about competition that makes them so profitable? Here’s what we think, and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below:

• They keep their egos in check (well, for the most part)
• One of the most devastating thoughts for a business owner or marketer is: “they aren’t as good as us” or “we’re the best at this and no one can touch us”. These are the famous last words of Pan Am Airways and the Roman Empire.
• Understanding that although you may be having a moment in the spotlight, there are always others out there doing everything they can to take a piece of their own, will keep you on your toes. You won’t rest on a ‘good enough’ product or service, and you’ll always be looking for new ways to innovate and compete in a changing marketplace. This will keep others in the position of always having to catch up to you.
• They put it all on the table
• This is an issue we see all the time from small businesses. They don’t want to publicly announce their competitive advantages or resources because they don’t want their competitors to either see what they’re doing, or worse, mimic it in their own programs. While we understand the reasoning behind this, the bottom line is that if your competitors don’t see your value, neither will your prospective customers. So you’ve already lost before you started.
• When promoting information, we say: “say it loud, and say it proud”. Shout your message from the rooftops and make sure everyone knows that you own it. Then if they try to copy you, they will always look like a cheap imitation.
• They have respect
• No Cheap Shots! Ever. Resorting to this level only makes you look weak.
• They know where they can win, and where they can’t, and they’re flexible to change.
• Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are a great example of this. Sure, they have some customer crossover, but for the most part, their markets are pretty well defined. By staying true to each of their core values, they’ve both developed unimaginably strong brand loyalty. You’ve seen the bumper stickers and Christmas tree ornaments, right?
• Sometimes, they can even work together. 
• This one took us a few years to really wrap our heads around. When we first began, we tried to take on everything; we hardly ever turned a project down because it was outside of our core service. And that was a big mistake; because there is just no way that a company can be the best at everything in their field. By leveraging partnerships with organizations we know, like, and trust; we are now able to open ourselves up to bigger and better jobs that allow us to excel in the areas where we specialize. Sure, we’re giving up a percentage of the revenue; but this has opened up tremendous opportunities and bigger jobs. And now we’re being offered opportunities to partner with these competitors on their own projects. It’s a Win-Win!
• They use competition to their fullest advantage. 
• The most important point we can make about competition is that it can easily be the driving force that makes your company better. By monitoring your competition and keeping tabs on what works, and what doesn’t, for them; you can make changes to improve your own organization.
• Some of the most innovative products and services have been developed as a result of competition. So pay close attention to what those companies you strive to beat are doing; it may help you to uncover your Next Big Thing.

This is costing them new business. It’s making their lead and referral generation efforts more difficult.

It’s resulting in higher advertising costs to make up for slow (or non-existent) inbound leads.

And it’s all completely avoidable.

We don’t mean that they are literally speaking another language; but that the keywords and terminology they are using does not match what their prospective clients are searching for (online and via word of mouth).

Here's an Example:

Prospective Client: “Our family needs help making medical and financial decisions for mom, and we’re concerned that she may need to go to a nursing home. My brothers and I can’t agree on whether we should sell mom’s house to pay for her care; or which of us should make medical decisions for her.”

Law Firm: “We provide comprehensive guardianship and estate planning services for clients. We are experienced with wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, including advanced directives or living wills. Our attorneys will work with you to procure an executor for your estate, and develop a revocable or irrevocable trust to protect your assets.”

Do you see the issue here?

Both of these statements refer to the same situation, and the law firm obviously would be equipped to handle the needs of the prospective client. However, because the words they use are so drastically different, it is nearly impossible for the client to even FIND this law firm in an online search; and if they do manage to find the firm, they likely still will not understand that their needs can be met here.

We understand that one of the most difficult issues for attorneys (and similar legal, medical, and financial professionals) is that they must be very cautious of the words that they use. If they are too casual, they could be deemed unprofessional or uneducated. If they use over-reaching statements (‘expertise’ and ‘specialties’ come to mind), they could be found in violation of industry standards.

However, by striking a balance to speak the language of your prospective clients, while still maintaining professional and industry standards, you will see a dramatic improvement in your lead generation results and new business.

Want to learn more?

We are hosting a FREE teleseminar on “Inbound Marketing and Lead Generation Strategies for Attorneys” on Friday, April 19th. Reserve your seat by clicking here. And don’t worry if you can’t make it to the live event; we’ll send a recorded presentation to all participants who registered.