Marketing

5 Innovative Promotional Products for Marketing

The right promotional products marketing strategy can increase the effectiveness of your brand by up to 44%. It increases your brand recognition while it excites your customer base because who doesn’t like to receive things for free?

With that said, not every product is going to be a winner with your customers. If you want to learn which products are going to appeal the most, you’re in the right place.

Just continue reading for our tips.

Promotional Products Marketing Ideas

Are you interested in product marketing, but don’t know which products to use? Here are 5 powerful product marketing ideas!

1. Fancy Pens

Promotional pens will always be one of the most tangible marketing products out there. Not only that, they are extremely cheap to buy in bulk.

With that said, you can take this classic piece of marketing material up a notch.

Using promotional pens that write from one end and have a stylist on the other makes this simple product twice as useful. This almost guarantees that potential customers aren’t going to lose yours like they do others because the stylist tool makes using phones and tablets even easier.

2. Apparel

Give out t-shirts or sweatshirts at your next promotional event. Make sure your company information is clearly displayed on them along with an interesting, eye-catching image.

Not only will the people wearing the shirts have all your details on hand, the people who see them wearing it will begin to recognize as well.

3. Promotional Umbrellas

Promotional materials are most effective when they are useful items that appeal to the masses. This is where promotional umbrellas come in. Everybody needs an umbrella at some point and they are large enough to act as a nice, clear display of your brand.

4. Beer Koozies

Beer koozies make it easy for you to hold cold beverages at events like concerts and barbeques without feeling like your hand is going to freeze. And because of that usefulness and their ability to travel well, people are obsessed with them.

If your brand is young and fun, koozies will help show your customer base that side of your brand’s personality.

5. Pop Sockets

Pop sockets are applied to the back of a cell phone and are used for multiple reasons. They act as a stand that holds the phone up while you watch videos, they include grips so that you can better hold your phone, you can even wrap your earbuds around them to keep both of your favorite things together.

So, why are they a good marketing tool? People always have their phones out. In fact, the average person checks it every 12 minutes.

If your business is displayed on this device, your brand will always be within customers’ reach, increasing their chances of contacting you when they have a need.

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The way you market your business tells customers a lot about your values, views and brand’s personality. This is the way you go about your promotional products marketing strategy should be personalized based on the customer base you are reaching out to.

Follow us for more marketing trends and strategies.

6 Innovative Examples of Technology in Marketing You Should Be Aware Of

Small businesses spend almost 700 billion dollars on new technology every single year.

Why?

Because a business’ willingness to invest in technology today will have a profound impact on the success they experience in tomorrow’s outrageously impacted marketplace. This is particularly true when it comes to marketing efforts.

Over the last two decades, we’ve seen first hand how tech has revolutionized the way we draw consumers to our products, track their behaviors, and how new tools have leveled the playing field for businesses of all sizes. To celebrate the impact technology in marketing has had on the business landscape, our team has put together this article.

In it, we outline 7 of the most impactful examples of technology in marketing.

1. Big Data

Big data is perhaps the biggest innovation in marketing we’ve seen technology bring us.

Data powers Internet of things companies. It lets us get in-depth information about our customers in a variety of facets. It ultimately allows us to create products and experiences that connect with our market on unprecedented levels.

Small companies have benefited particularly from big data in that the insight they can now use allows them to create more effective products without guesswork. This reduces the volume of failed attempts at penetrating a market which is imperative to organizations with low cash flow.

Look no further than the customized ads that pop up in your web browser to see an example of big data at work.

2. API’s That are Customizable

API’s (application programming interfaces) are what let brands visualize and analyze marketing data across all of their acquisition channels. The recent customization of API’s and their ability to now service data from anywhere you are has leveled the playing field for small teams who were previously only able to market across a limited number of channels due to personnel issues.

Now, no matter how small a team is, they can tailor API’s to their ambitious marketing strategies. This allows them to maximize multiple avenues of marketing effectively.

3. Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Allowing a consumer to experience a product from the comfort of their home used to be a technology in marketing pipe dream only seen in the movies.

Gone are those days.

Now through virtual reality available on headsets like Oculus or HTC’s Vive or through augmented reality available on most cell phones, customers can get up close and personal with many products prior to purchase.

This innovation has led to more buyer satisfaction. It has also created more mobility for new products to make an impression on customers who otherwise wouldn’t have given such products a second look.

4. Bots

There is always a sale to be made, always a customer question to be answered, and always an opportunity to do business. In order to take advantage of “always” however, you always need somebody on your team working.

That is until bots revolutionized the way we operate.

Through bots, users can now have somebody to chat with on your website and ask questions to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These questions are often answered in full with personalized responses. If they can’t be answered, questions get directed to customer support without any effort on the part of users.

Beyond answering questions, bots have helped direct our customer’s experience on our websites. Bots guide customers to content they appreciate and nudge them towards purchases without the need of a salesman.

5. Mobile Devices

Mobile devices have taken eCommerce to levels that were formerly thought impossible. While eCommerce had been relegated to people sitting at home on their computer’s, now, the world has a market in their pocket thanks to mobile.

Given that reality, marketers can take advantage of unique tactics like SMS and MMS marketing. They can also track a customer’s location and push them offers that are of high value to them based on purchase opportunities in their vicinity.

Mobile device marketing is a technology in marketing example that has created a more intimate relationship between businesses and consumers. The value of that relationship cannot be understated.

6. Voice Computing

The next frontier in how users interact with businesses seems to be voice. Look no further than Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Home as proof of that statement.

Through voice, users can seamlessly place product orders and inquire about daily deals. All of that ultimately allows products to further integrate into a household’s routine.

The value of that integration is immense.

Imagine being the product that the head of a household knows to ask for by name. That action, having your product’s name requested verbally over the course of years, would be a continuous reminder to everyone in earshot of what your product is and it’s importance to the family.

Wrapping Up Examples of Technology in Marketing

Technology in Marketing has revolutionized the way that many businesses engage with consumers. Beyond that, it has given smaller companies ways to simulate the productivity and visibility that formally only large companies were able to achieve.

Look no further than the examples above, from custom API’s to Voice Computing to see the present value technology in marketing has brought to organizations and draw inferences on where we’re headed in the future.

Are you looking to leverage today’s technology to take your business’ marketing efforts to the next level? If so, our team can help.

At Article City, our team focuses on leveraging search engine behemoth Google’s data and crafting outstanding content for your company’s website with it. This content targets keywords and phrases that will help push your business towards the top of search engine results.

Our inbound marketing content is well-researched. It’s written by English speaking professionals. It will not only help you boost your Google ranking but will also help you become a source of qualified information your customers’ trust.

To get started learning more about the value inbound marketing and our team can bring to your bottom-line, sign-up with Article City for free today!

How to Create Great Writing for Social Media Marketing Posts

Social media marketing is more important than ever. Chances are that social media is where your audience is — around 56% of adults use more than one social media platform. That number climbs when you only look at adults ages 18-34.

Despite this, some businesses still don’t put a lot of thought into how they create posts for social media. Posting without a strategy is a good way to leave money on the table and miss out on potential business.

Check out these tips on writing for social media to make sure that your business is up to speed.

Understand Your Audience

Who are you trying to reach, anyway?

Deciding who you’re “talking to” is one of the most important parts of writing for social media. You can determine this by looking at your current customers or what problems your products or services solve.

Figuring out your audience will help you decide what kind of voice and tone you should use in your posts. If you don’t have time to do this, companies like Reliant Social can help you do the research.

Keep Your Voice Consistent

Once you’ve decided on your voice, stay consistent! You don’t want to adopt a professional tone one week and then switch to a conversational one the next.

That gets confusing to your audience and makes your brand inconsistent.

Even though your social media account represents a business, people still expect it to have some kind of personality. Remembering this will help you create better content.

Use Active Voice

Whatever tone you choose to use, you should always use active voice instead of passive voice. You might need to think way back to English class for this one.

This is a basic grammar rule. Passive voice doesn’t grab the attention of your audience. Active voice, on the other hand, helps to give off a confident and decisive tone.

Look at the difference between these two sentences:

1. Ten thousand units were sold by our company this year.
2. Our company sold ten thousand units this year.

The second sentence is the active voice you should aim for.

Put Your Audience First

It can be tempting to only talk about your business on social media. After all, that’s the point of social media marketing, right?

Not quite. If you only talk about your business online, you’re setting yourself up to fail. You need to center your audience in each post you make.

What’s in it for them? How does your business benefit the people scrolling through your social media? These are the questions your audience is probably asking.

Make sure that your posts answer them.

Learn More About Writing For Social Media

These are just a few of our favorite tips for writing for social media. If you keep this advice in mind, you’ll create a strategy that puts your audience first and sees higher engagement rates.

Still want more advice about social media marketing? You’ve come to the right place. Check out the rest of our digital marketing articles to help you take your strategy to the next level.

10 Marketing Tools and Supplies You Need to Boost Business

As we are fast approaching sci-fi world standards with things like virtual-reality, smart homes, and digital currencies, there are still some constants. For one, offline marketing tools are still necessary. The standard is now a 50/50 share of digital and offline advertising and marketing investment.

That means that your business needs to incorporate a strong offline and online strategy to succeed. Neglect either one and you could get left behind. Startup or established, your business stands to gain a lot from a variety of marketing tools.

You don’t need a lot of money to acquire a strong marketing suite of tools. A lot of what’s out there can be done with free apps or minimal investment. Most of the offline marketing investment will come from pure hustle.

Are you ready to take your marketing strategy to the next level?

Online Marketing Tools

For the first half of our marketing strategy, we’re going to focus on digital marketing. While there are comprehensive online marketing services, you can automate a lot of it. These are just a few examples.

Buffer for Social Media

Social media marketing is a huge time-sink. Even with a dedicated social media manager, you may not be reaching your full potential. That’s because it’s a delicate balance between too much activity and not enough.

You want to be on multiple social media platforms, but you also want to take advantage of each one’s potential. Duplicating content sharing on each platform isn’t inherently bad, but you definitely want to mix it up. This is where Buffer can help.

All your accounts can be connected into one dashboard. There, you can schedule a balanced ‘drip feed’ of content for each account. This lets you be able to queue up a month’s worth of content in one evening and then just focus on engagement.

Buffer is also great for studying which types of posts work and how frequently you should be posting it.

Growth Hacking

If you’ve never heard of the term “growth hacking” before, don’t worry, it’s perfectly legal. This is just a cool phrase to describe the online version of networking up. Normally, making connections online with experts, industry leaders, and B2B deals happens very slowly.

With tools like Sniply, you can start forming strong bonds with other influencers and industry experts. This platform lets you share content to and from influencers, building rapport, feedback, and trust. Sniply is a two-way street, allowing you to tap into bigger audiences while aligning yourself with interests for long-term benefits.

Website SEO

The tried and true formula of gaining more traffic to all of your accounts is strong SEO. Your website should be checking all of the boxes off for organic SEO:

• Balanced keyword density
• Strong meta-description
• Web page speed optimization
• Daily content updates
• Responsive webpage design

Your website’s SEO is important for keeping and retaining the attention of your visitors. It should contain a cohesive theme of branding, promotional materials, unique content, and business information. First-impressions are very important for any long-term marketing strategy.

All potential customers and curious minds should find it easy to navigate your website. Draw them in with your story, make it memorable and relatable. This is an opportunity to create value that goes beyond expensive PPC campaigns.

PR Management

“Big data” is a marketing tool that is actually very accessible to the average business. All you need to do is plug in keywords related to your business (name, products, niche, etc.) and you’ll see in real time how successful your marketing is.

With Google Alerts, you can get email updates for every mention of your brand on the internet. This might be useful for sharing bragging rights on your social media or responding to complaints online.

Social Mention is another powerful tool that does alerts, plus things like Sentiment Analysis. This lets you know off the bat whether there’s positive or negative publicity brewing. It won’t completely replace a PR manager, but it will make the growing pains much easier.

Autoresponders

The most important link in the automated online marketing chain: automated messaging. Email marketing tools are necessary if you want to build a massive following that isn’t tied to just one platform. Email isn’t going to lose relevancy anytime soon.

In order to get a large, active email list, you need an autoresponder. MailChimp is a good one, of course, but we’re going to go with GetResponse. It does everything MailChimp does, including email marketing tools, advanced analytics, surveys, and segmentation.

Add this onto webinar and landing page management, plus web event tracking. It’s just a much bigger ecosystem with a ton of growth potential. GetResponse is like having a team of virtual assistants at your beck and call.

Offline Marketing Tools

The bread and butter of marketing strategies that work. These traditional forms of getting your name into the mouths of others require dedication. The biggest obstacle to making these methods work is ambition.

Cold Calling

Why would someone want to speak with a stranger about products or services they never asked about? Well, people have conversations about things they never considered buying all the time. Cold calling gets a bad rep, mainly due to transparent marketing strategies.

Cold calls can be highly personalized and tailored to never feel predatory. Besides, you know your brand is honest and authentic, it’s just about conveying it to potential customers. Cold calling is also a great opportunity to make strong industry connections.

Use exploratory questioning, respect the recipient’s time, demonstrate value, and don’t ask for the sale. You want the person on the other line to feel in control and voluntarily commit.

Flyers, Posters, and Ads

Traditional advertising is all about getting your brand in front of the most eyeballs as possible. The volume of printing isn’t necessarily what’s most important. Start with a good printing service like New Era Print Solutions, then figure out where you’ll get the most receptive audience.

You can hire a few kids to distribute flyers in public spaces, put up posters in high-trafficked areas, or on windshields (strategically!). Share your ads with various print publications, don’t waste a good ad. We recommend community papers and college papers for the budget-minded.

You can run ads for much longer on the same budget as a single ad in a major newspaper.

Guerilla Marketing

This is probably one of the more precarious forms of marketing. It’s a bit of a gamble, but the payoff can be life-changing. You’ll need to brainstorm a really solid and cohesive strategy here. A publicity stunt needs to be more than just naked advertising, for example.

Do something thematic, engaging, and please incorporate it into some sort of social media activity. A simple hashtag is fine, just make sure you push to get it trending.

Some safe forms of guerilla marketing include theater and dance, pranks, stunts, political satire, and creative graffiti.

Business Cards

Don’t underestimate the power of a good business card. There is some solid science behind the effectiveness of a business card. Making a good first impression starts with being accessible.

By not opting for your standard black and white card with flimsy card stock, you’re telling that person that you value your longevity. You don’t want your business card being filed away with the other dozen or so cards at a convention, for example.

A sturdy, textural, and eye-catching card will stand out. Men who carry wallets will also likely “make room” for your card in their wallet. Survival of the fittest (or the thickest in the case), as they say! New Era Print Solutions has some great designs with high-quality printing that will feel like a piece of art.

Seminars, Events, and Activism

This last category of marketing tools comes in the form of classic networking. Face-to-face connections with real people is how you succeed in life. No matter how great your business plan may be, if you aren’t meeting the right people, it could fade into obscurity.

Seminars are great for obvious reasons: you get to hear pitches or give your own and see real feedback. Expos, conventions, and other related events are just giant punchbowl situations where you can connect with potential partners and clients.

The last category of face-to-face networking is more of a recent trend. By getting involved politically, you can position yourself as more than a business. You don’t even need to be in the midst of the most controversial topics and risk alienating your base.

Just put your name on a few universally-good initiatives and be a brand that is more than business.

Diversify and Grow

We hope this article inspired you to try out a few new marketing tools and strategies. Nothing is worse than that ‘stuck’ feeling of being unable to invest financially in more marketing, yet seeing that flat line of growth. You can work smarter, not harder, by incorporating an array of marketing tactics.

You’ll find more business tips like these on Article City, as well as content opportunities for your brand. Remember to keep adapting and moving, so that your brand never feels stale or outdated.

Tips for Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

Accountability has become an essential part of marketing. But not all marketing teams use the right KPIs for measuring marketing effectiveness. If you aren’t aligning marketing with business growth, you’re wasting time and resources.

Companies invest millions in modern marketing technologies. They see expanding marketing capabilities as a means to deliver greater business results. These marketing programs need more complex measurements than most companies can deliver.

These programs often produce mixed results where marketers waste resources. You need more than the best ‘marketing mix’ to produce measurable, consistent results. You need to define metrics in advance that align with business value and cut out the exceptions.

There are dozens of ways to gather information about marketing performance. But most marketers are stuck managing information with no business value. Teams can realign their marketing programs to drive meaningful metrics from their efforts.

The Three Cardinal Rules of Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

HBR identifies three cardinal rules for choosing the right marketing success metrics. It starts with identifying goals upfront that marketers can strive to reach. And HBR’s rules apply to companies of all sizes and industries.

Use Metrics that Are Practical and Easy to Understand

Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most common marketing metrics. But Forbes reports that companies have different definitions for ROI. “This makes connecting marketing to revenue or other business outcomes even more difficult.”

Now, academics have tackled the issue of practical marketing metrics. Their approach recommends marketers define metrics in a “specific business decision-making context.” This allows them to derive ROI figures that align with business value.

Too many marketers have ROI models associated with short-term, channel-specific objects. This can involve website traffic or social activity that are small in scope. When marketers define ROI’s scope and metrics, they can translate into tangible benefits.

Metrics Should Carry Over to Existing and Future Initiatives

Stakeholders can’t interpret business value when initiatives have different metrics. They cannot compare the results of one initiative to another. This is problematic when choosing between different marketing approaches.

Email campaigns can serve as an example. Marketers measure loyalty program signups for loyalty-driven emails. The might not measure bounce rates from emails directing to program landing pages. They will succeed with one metric that reflects campaign performance.

Marketers might measure bounce rates for a product-driven email campaign. They might find bounce rates are high for those emails. But they cannot compare similar webpage elements to those of the loyalty campaign.

Now, marketers can’t compare email and landing page content performance. Despite the different programs, understanding content elements is valuable. Campaigns that share metrics provide greater business value.

Marketers must see how changes connect with specific actions, behaviors, and content. This allows them to identify high- and low-performing elements across campaigns. This could drive broader campaigns in the future.

Use Metrics to Create Actionable Information that Impacts Business Results

Metrics should align with stakeholders’ intentions for the original investment. They should align with overarching marketing goals as well. Marketers must look for ways to improve marketing strategy while delivering business results.

The two go hand in hand. For example, ROI doesn’t have to translate into profit. ROI tracking should drive insights that allow teams to optimize future campaigns. Even campaigns that struggle can drive value with the right metrics.

Assume a team launches a product-driven content campaign across several channels. The CMO invests in both targeted emails and social media. The team identifies clickthrough rates and conversions as metrics.

Both channels score similar clickthrough rates, but social media conversions suffer. Marketers can conclude their customer base has a wide interest in the product. The two metrics revealed that social channels don’t drive conversions for this product.

The two metrics provided insights that will influence future campaigns. Although conversions from social media suffered, the team will save on future investments.

Your Next Steps for Strategic Development

Again, driving revenue for every campaign isn’t your only goal. Your real goal is to identify and engage with the most profitable customers. The right metrics can serve as a control to market and business variables.

Start a conversation with your key stakeholders to begin. You need to understand your organizations’ defining values to develop value-based metrics. That means starting with the promises you make to customers.

Your next responsibility is asking the right questions. These include “Why are we tracking this?” “How do our campaigns align with our objectives?” and “What should we look at to maximize the value of our campaigns?”

Then you should identify scope. You must outline the scope for individual campaigns. But metrics for individual campaigns can also have scope.

The scope of one campaign metric might be total return on marketing spending. Another might be returns on an individual tactic. You might also have metrics for variant elements like A/B testing.

Prepare Your Team

You should now have a high-end understanding of what you want to achieve. Your top goal is helping your team identify the specific ways they can succeed. This will help with metrics and align them with stakeholders’ objectives.

You can help your team understand how metrics align with business value. Again, that doesn’t always mean driving revenue. Balancing costs means optimizing campaign efforts even while driving business growth.

Teams that understand how metrics align with business initiatives drive greater success. They will notice performance trends that contribute to improvements in efficiency and ROI. Teams that understand the bigger picture will see value in all campaign metrics.

Not all marketing teams have internal resources for these types of measurement. Third-parties provide solutions that take the work out of aligning with business success. But be sure to get more info before investing in a solution.

Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Strategy

Struggling with measuring marketing effectiveness? You need the best resources to build successful marketing strategies. Identifying the metrics you need doesn’t have to be hard.

Article City has the best content and professional writing team available. Sign up for free and get started with exclusive capabilities today.

10 Reasons All Businesses Need a Solid Social Media Marketing Campaign

If you want your business to be wildly successful, you need to have a killer social media presence.

Selling fancy socks to teenagers? You can grab their attention on Instagram.

Trying to market a new brand of medication to the elderly? A lot of older people have turned to Facebook for their social interaction.

Social media isn’t a passing fad, it’s a phenomenon that you need to master if you want your business to excel. It can be difficult, however, to know what to do if you’re inexperienced. Luckily, social media marketing isn’t an unconquerable subject.

Here’s why you need to start your campaign immediately.

Benefits of Social Media for Businesses

If you still aren’t convinced that you need to beef up your social media presence, you’ll probably change your mind after reading the rest of this post.

1. Web Traffic

Your product is wonderful. You know exactly who your audience is and what you want to say to them. There’s just one problem- how are you going to find them?

Solely relying on Google searches to find customers is risky. Yes, if you sell dog leashes and someone searches for a leash for Fido, you can buy advertising space to reach that person.

But what about the woman who’s casually browsing the internet, not thinking about her dog at all? Google isn’t going to be enough to open her wallet. But she might open her wallet when she sees pictures of awesome-looking leashes on Instagram.

2. Huge Conversion Rates

Traditional advertising is impersonal. Ads are targeted toward large swaths of the population and fade into the background.

Social media advertising, when done correctly, is aimed towards YOU. Your interests, your likes and dislikes are taken into account. This allows people to become more comfortable with your brand.

That familiarity with your brand can lead to impressive conversion rates.

3. Improved Customer Recognition

If you could, you would probably plaster your brand’s logo everywhere in sight. Obviously, that’s not practical in the real world.

Social media is different. Knowledge of your company can spread fast and organically. Because the posts that you share can be seen by thousands or even millions of people, you’ll be able to reach an audience that you otherwise wouldn’t.

Someone who’s just casually browsing their news feed might hear about your brand because one of their friends re-posted your ad.

4. More Authentic Customer Relationships

Social media allows you to connect with your customers directly. You can answer their questions, respond to their jokes. A lot of people love it when known brands contact them personally.

People buy more from companies that they feel a connection to. You can foster that feeling by engaging in natural social media interactions.

5. Decreased Costs

A solid social media marketing campaign is often a lot cheaper than traditional marketing efforts. The time commitment is less and even if you decide to pay for targeted advertising, the cost is usually less than, say, renting a billboard or magazine space.

You can even build a grassroots campaign and spend nothing at all first. Just devote an hour or two a day to trying to reach new customers.

6. Media Coverage

Tv networks and newspaper outlets scour social media sites to find out what’s trending. A lot of national news stories were born on sites like Twitter and Facebook. If you post the right witty response or impressive story, you might go viral.

If that happens, there’s a chance that your post will be picked up by a news organization. Your brand could blow up from a single post.

7. Better Customer Service

A disgruntled customer wants to the ability to contact you and get a response immediately. The days of waiting endlessly for a letter in the mail are over.

If you have a strong social media presence, this isn’t an issue. Make sure an employee is constantly monitoring your accounts and paying attention to alerts. A lot of unhappy customers is more likely to send you a tweet or direct message on Instagram than an email.

Your fast response can turn in an ugly situation into a happy. If your customer feels like their complaint has been heard, there’s a good chance that their anger will disappear.

8. Keep Up With Your Competition

If you’re not on social media yet, you can bet that your competition is. You really can’t afford to slack off in this direction or you’ll lose out on business.

The good news is that a lot of small businesses are butchering their social media campaigns, which gives you a lot of room to dominate your market. Many small business owners set up social media channels then barely use them.

They might post a coupon occasionally but they rarely interact with their followers and all of their posts are obviously intended to sell you something. If you can do it better, you can out-compete them.

9. Develop Brand Authority

Show off your expertise by answering questions about your industry on social media. If you sell organic cat treats and a Twitter user asks what’s the best food to feed your cats, you should answer.

This establishes your brand as a recognized authority in your field. In addition to exposure, you might even be able to snag a new customer.

10. Connect with Industry Leaders

Social media can help you reach the leading voices in your industry. You don’t need to cozy up with your competition but it might be useful to connect with important brands and individuals who are related to your business.

Your brand can develop a real presence. This will help to get the word out about your brand.

Social Media Marketing

You can’t avoid using social media marketing if you want your business to be great in 2018. There’s simply no way to get around it. So get started!

One way to boost your social media channels is to post interesting, shareable content. We can help with you that. We have countless articles designed to help you create content that people actually want to read.

5 Ways to Diversify Your Marketing Tactics

A diverse set of marketing tactics lets you cast a wide net over your target audience. This creates enough coverage to connect through their preferred channels and engagement funnels.

86% of marketers cite a customer journey is the up-most important business concept. This “journey” is the experience of an interested party to a verified customer.

Many will approach the journey only through digital marketing tactics.

But:

There’s a broad selection worth exploring if profits and ROI are your key metrics.

Let’s explore this broad selection.

A Diverse Customer Journey: 5 Harmonious Marketing Tactics

Consider the “big picture” of marketing.

There are several touch-points along the way, each building brand value and authority. This blog explains this concept in deeper detail. Let’s go beyond the concepts and focus on actions to create this customer journey.

This is how you should approach it:

Part 1: Face-to-Face and Relationship Marketing

Consider: Nielsen found 92% of people trust referrals from people they know.

Friends and family are the two largest influencers. But, imagine becoming part of the trust factor through your marketing efforts! This process begins on a local level through face-to-face interactions and relationship building.

How can you build locally and radiate your brand?

1. Get your site listed in local search platforms like Google Business or Yelp
2. Rapidly respond to reviews to show you care and display authority
3. Create localize content highlighting your expertise and community

Attending local meetups and sponsoring local events are a priority, too.

These parties funnel through a CRM creating qualified local leads and touchpoints.

What else can you do locally?

• Contribute to news articles and local industry thinktanks
• Encourage word-of-mouth marketing through incentives
• Host contests or provide tours of your facility

The point is being active in your local community. And, leveraging the connections to grow outward. This creates reviews and feedback needed to improve branding and marketing efforts.

Part 2: Print Advertising and Offline Efforts

Consider: 4/5 SBO’s find print effective with standing out.

The info gained through local efforts and existing business assets fuel your print marketing efforts. You likely have the data/materials else work with design talent to secure the following:

• Business cards
• Flyers
• Brochures
• Postcards
• Mailers

What can you do with these?

• Distribute business cards at local events, conferences, and meetings
• Place flyers at relevant business locations and bulletin boards
• Include brochures with each shipment or handed out at events
• Send postcards to new prospects or customers to retain business
• Mass distribute mailers (including coupons) to cold contact prospects

Each item should include contact details and site URL. This will funnel people through your marketing funnel. Or, drive them to targeted landing pages promoting offers and branded materials.

Part 3: Digital Assets and Distribution Channels

Much of the offline efforts and print materials morph into digital assets:

• Website
• Social Media Account
• Display and PPC Advertising
• Digital Media and Branding

There are hundreds of digital marketing strategies you could explore. Each provides unique challenges and ROI.

Where should you start?

1. Website + Content Marketing

Do this:

1. Set up a website adhering to best practices and mobile-friendliness
2. Populate the basic pages with killer content mixed with branding
3. Brainstorm ideas and create a content schedule
4. Produce amazing content based on keyword research and feedback
5. Distribute the content through social channels and email newsletter

This will boost your search listings. And, provide entry-points for those searching for your business and/or its offers.

2. Social Media + Contests

Do this:

1. Join the major social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
2. Find, follow, and start discussions with your targeted audience
3. Share your blog’s content and interesting industry-related pieces
4. Use social for customer relations and brand reputation management
5. Encourage backlinks, reviews, and mentions from passionate followers

This interaction builds trust and authority helping it reach more people. And, close more sales.

3. Display + Contextual Ads

Do this:

1. Gather your business assets including offer photos and design elements
2. Sign up, fund, and begin running Facebook and Google display ads
3. Send visitors to targeted landing pages with sales pitches or opt-in forms
4. Track and optimized campaigns through A/B testing and CRO efforts

This bypasses barriers by placing your ads and materials in-front of targeted prospects.

Part 4: Multi-Media Channels and Visual Engagement

The print materials become digital content:

• Brochures become interactive landing pages
• Business cards become microsites
• Flyers (with added data) become infographics
• Presentations become explainer videos

Consider: Cisco predicts video will be 80% of all online traffic.

How can you leverage this?

1. Pull site data to find 10 – 20 popular search queries and pages
2. Condense the page data into a script (50 words per 1-minute of video)
3. Set up a camera & mic and record yourself (or team member)
4. Edit the video while including titles and call-outs
5. Publish the video to video sites and embedded in relevant blogs

This now gives you content for:

• Social sharing
• Blog media
• Internal training
• Email newsletters
• Free or paid training
• Landing page content

This diverse marketing effort gets content shared (and reshared) on platforms and channels.

Part 5: Social Outreach and Closed-Loop Marketing

Lastly:

• Create a list of your most passionate followers
• Create a list of potential industry influencers
• Create a list of relevant industry blogs and sites

These are your three targets for social outreach.

Here’s how to work them:

• Followers — Provide incentives to encourage shares/reviews to build your reputation and reach.
• Influencers — Use their popularity to reach people while leveraging the association to build your authority.
• Blogs/Sites — Contribute to get in front of audiences while building backlinks and business relationships.

Approach these efforts with closed-loop marketing in mind. This exchanges information between the sales and marketing team. Better data for optimization is the result of this closed-loop system.

Combining the Efforts and Moving Forward

There are hundreds of marketing tactics you could explore within each of these five main categories. Each will likely improve your effectiveness. But, it’s very typical to overwhelmed yourself (and team) by taking on too much.

Instead:

1. Base your marketing strategy on top-tier, proven methods
2. Test the major offline and digital marketing tactics
3. Track data and feedback comparing them to key metrics
4. Refine and double-down on those strategies showing a positive ROI

This combined strategy will ultimately cement your sales and marketing funnel.

Excited and ready to move forward? Explore more marketing tutorials on our blog to diversify and show positive returns!

The Simple Guide to Massage Marketing

There are nearly 385,000 massage therapists and students in the U.S. The massage industry itself was worth $16 billion in 2016 alone!

If you are a massage therapist, it’s important to promote your business wisely to stay competitive in such a large market. Savvy marketing can be your secret to keeping current clients returning.

As a massage therapist, it can be difficult identifying clever and unique methods of attracting new customers. This is especially the case if you are the sole owner of your massage business and navigate numerous daily demands.

In this post, we’ll look closely at the ins and outs of effective massage marketing. All of the tips on this list are simple to implement and do not require an extensive background in advertising.

Read on for insight!

1. Create a Compelling Website

Over 3 billion people rely on the internet to find information, seek out businesses, and perform work.

As a massage therapist, it’s important to tap into this large digital market. You can do this easily by crafting a compelling website.

Your website is more powerful than you may realize. In this increasingly digital age, websites function much like business cards.

They give potential customers essential information, such as contact details and price points. But they can also give customers an insider’s look into your massage business and what kind of treatment they can expect.

Your website should be at the forefront of all your massage marketing efforts. Spend some time honing it prior to launching any other advertising campaigns.

A compelling website should first and foremost give visitors the information they need. It should not include any superfluous details or pages.

A solid massage therapy website should include contact information, booking portals, services and pricing, and a blog. We’ll talk about the importance of a blog in just a moment.

You should also include a brief page that gives details about you and your business.

When building your website, make sure the content is concise, easy to read, and free of errors. Use lots of headers and bullet points to break up paragraphs.

Also, ensure that customers can easily reach out to you through a booking portal or contact form. It should be easy to navigate your website, too, and all internal links should function well.

Don’t underestimate the power of images or video in your massage website. Integrate compelling, non-stock images that clearly demonstrate services.

Lastly, consider investing in professional web design services. Experts can help you generate a responsive web design more likely to engage users.

Check out Winks Massage for a good example of what we mean by a compelling website!

2. Use Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential digital marketing tool for all business owners. When it comes to massage marketing, it can be a fundamental aspect of attracting local clients.

A lot of customers use search engines to identify services and goods. In fact, some of your existing clients may have discovered your business via a simple Google search for “massage therapists.”

When someone performs a Google search, they are likely to click on listings at the top of the first page of results. In general, the higher a page “ranks” in this way, the greater its visibility.

You can boost your Google ranking for certain keywords by implementing SEO. This means choosing popular keywords and integrating these into your online content.

Local SEO, in particular, should be an important part of your massage marketing strategy. Local SEO means incorporating location-based keywords, such as “massage therapy in Dallas,” can help you target local audiences directly.

Learn more about local SEO here.

In addition to implementing SEO, make sure you have a host of local citations. These include listings on Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and/or Yellow Pages.

Local citations can leverage SEO efforts and enable your clients to leave online reviews.

3. Keep a Blog

Content marketing is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of digital marketing available. This is because consumers prioritize content that is original, compelling, and informative.

You can easily step up your massage marketing game by generating the right content for your customers.

One way to do this is to keep a blog on your website. Blogs give you the ability to discuss topics relevant to your clients. They can also help you educate customers and give you more material for local optimization.

What’s more, blogs can let you share more of your voice and expertise with your website visitors. You can give insight into meditation practices, ways to reduce stress in your daily life, or information for first-time massage clients.

Aim to produce one blog post a week. These posts can be as short as 500 words. Make sure you optimize these posts for keywords, too, and include images!

4. Harness Social Media

Social media can be an important tool when it comes to leveraging your massage marketing efforts.

Build business profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Make sure to include relevant and consistent contact information, especially the link to your website.

Stay active on the social media profiles, and use them as tools to share blog posts, advertise promotions, and generate virtual partnerships with other local businesses.

Generate these partnerships by following, liking, or sharing content produced by other local self-care companies. Establishing these partnerships can build credibility in your consumers’ eyes.

Social media can also enable you to instant message customers in real-time. You can also incorporate some solid content marketing via tools like Facebook Live.

5. Target the Right Audience

At the end of the day, the key to success with massage marketing is reaching the right audience. It can be easy to simply advertise to the masses, but you’ll likely have more success if you market to a target user.

Launch massage marketing campaigns aimed at specific audiences, such as “local college students” or “female retirees.” People are more likely to respond to advertising if it feels like it’s reaching them on a personal level.

Feel free to change your audience with each campaign. But don’t relinquish your marketing goals!

Your Key to Massage Marketing

As a massage therapist, it’s essential to spread the word about your healing services. Massage marketing can build your client base and keep existing clients on your list.

Make the most of digital marketing as you attempt to reach new clients. This means honing your website, spending some time with content marketing, and keeping a blog. Don’t neglect SEO!

All in all, make sure your marketing efforts are reaching a specific audience every time.

Article City is your ultimate resource for discovering marketing solutions designed to give you the visibility you need. Sign up now for your free account!

How to Create a Marketing Calendar for Your Rock Clothing Company

When you run a small fashion brand, you’re likely to invest considerable marketing dollars to stick-out as unique. That’s especially true for brands that specialize in wardrobe-choices for rebels and rockstars.

But one thing that’s not unique about your rock ‘n’ roll clothing brand is your need for a strategic marketing plan.

When things start picking-up, a calendar simplifies marketing processes and takes out the guesswork.

Here’s how to create a-rockin’ marketing calendar for your clothing brand.

Covered in This Blog

In the following article, you’ll learn:

• The do’s of topic creation
• Selecting the right tools to start an editorial calendar
• Post scheduling; and more

If the lack of a comprehensive marketing plan is holding your fashion brand back, keep reading.

How to Choose Topics for Great Content

It’s no secret anymore that content plays a big part in any good marketing plan. According to experts, your marketing calendar should be a hodge-podge of all different kinds of content and media.

When planning content, you have to make two considerations:

• Planning original content
• Planning everything else

Here’s how to navigate the decision of what kinds of posts to have:

All Content

All content should be topical and relevant. You should choose things that have mass appeal to your audience. Tools like BuzzSumo make it easy to see what articles are trending on a specific topic.

Original Content

Planning original content is a little more complicated. It involves the following:

• Look out for relevant trending topics: those you could use to reproduce a new blog with a fresh take
• Research keywords: use a wealth of free and cheap resources
• Plan content: use special events that make sense for your audience — like writing about the 40th anniversary of the Enlightened Rogues album to attract those looking for Allman Brothers t shirts
• Write it down: put your ideas into an editorial calendar.
• Schedule it: use a scheduling tool to implement.

If the last two bullet points look familiar, it’s because we’ll be flushing each of them out below.

How to Create an Editorial Calendar

There are a number of templates available for working up an editorial calendar of your own. You must choose your preferred source:

• Google Docs or other collaborative platforms: this choice is great for easy sharing
• Google calendar or preferred calendar program: some people live and die by their calendar, and their marketing schedule is no different
• Excel spreadsheet: if you’re comfortable in Excel, it’s a great place to start collecting topic ideas and making a calendar worksheet
• PDF template: PDF templates can be printed or edited in a PDF editor

A quick google search of marketing calendar templates offers a number of formats from which small business owners can choose.

How to Implement a Social Scheduler

Tools like Buffer offer free or cheap social scheduling capabilities.

In most cases, the free versions are limited and monthly subscriptions are available for those who have more than basic needs.

Using a social scheduling tool to plan your marketing simplifies the process and takes less valuable time to complete.

Start Your Marketing Calendar Today

With these trade secrets, you can start a marketing calendar today. Make it your best year for:

• Lead generations
• Conversions
• Followers
• Downloads

Whatever marketing goals you’re looking to achieve, a calendar will help your rock clothing brand get the reputation it deserves! For more information on digital marketing, return to ArticleCity.

Should You Incorporate an SMS Campaign In Your Marketing Strategy?

In the ever-changing digital landscape, attention is everything. The late 90’s was the golden age of email marketing. Companies enjoyed open rates of over 95%. That’s what you call getting the audience’s attention.

In 2018, an SMS campaign can be as effective as email marketing was back then. With nearly 90% of millennials having their smartphone to hand 24/7, and 80% of them reaching for it as the first thing they do every morning, the attention is firmly placed on smartphones.

With that in mind, businesses are awash with how they can grab the attention of the market. Many worry that emails go unopened, and Facebook is too distracting to be able to grab a users attention for any longer than a few seconds.

That’s why SMS marketing may just be the approach you should be taking in 2018. Time to flip your marketing on its head and get some attention.

How Can an SMS Campaign Improve Your Marketing Strategy

With the worldwide spend on digital marketing expected to hit 306 billion US dollars in 2020, marketing executives are getting creative in developing the best techniques to reach their desired audiences.

Content marketing has become huge in the last few years and continues to be one of the main focuses for marketing departments, but a new and emerging trend of SMS marketing campaigns has been hitting the ground in 2018.

To explore why SMS is becoming so popular for businesses, we’ve compiled seven reasons why you should be including an SMS campaign in your marketing.

Let’s jump in.

1. SMS Messages Reach Your Customers

Text messages have an open rate of 98%. With rates like that, you can see how far an SMS campaign can push you towards reaching your customers. Customers are much more likely to react and act when receiving a message that comes from an SMS message.

With more and more email marketing campaigns clogging up customers inboxes, marketers need to explore new options to reach their desired audiences. SMS messages could be a hidden gold mine.

2. Keep It Short and Sweet with SMS

Most service providers have a limit on SMS to 160 characters. What this means is much like Twitter, if you have something to say, you better keep it short.

This helps to make you get to the point with your message and really drive home a point with your audience.

Make sure to include strong call-to-action in your SMS campaign, consider using a service like Betwext texting to grab your audiences attention fast.

3. Immediate Results and Immediate Action

When you send out an SMS, you are almost guaranteed the majority of your consumers are going to read the message immediately. What that means is if you can create a strong call-to-action you can almost immediately see results.

With most people reading text messages within the first three minutes you’ll find out pretty quickly if your campaign is doing what you want it to do or not.

You could even use the SMS to drive immediate action by inviting customers to a flash sale that finishes at 5 pm that day. Companies like Dominos pizza do this constantly and it’s a very successful way to get immediate results.

4. Off the Charts Customer Satisfaction

One of the most underappreciated parts of the SMS campaign is the level of customer satisfaction it garners. In a world where paper receipts and keeping track of files has become tiresome, companies interacting with their users with text messages has revolutionized customer satisfaction.

You can see businesses from food delivery services to dentists utilizing SMS to keep their customers in the loop and to give great service.

5. SMS Campaigns Are Cost Effective

When company spending becomes a concern many companies turn to the marketing department to make cutbacks. The great news about SMS marketing is it’s a very cost-effective way to reach your audience.

For companies with tight budgets and non-profits who rely on donations, you don’t need to invest in big teams of people to craft your marketing message. An SMS campaign will allow you to send out your message to your audience by only spending a few cents per message.

ROI for SMS campaigns are usually much higher than other marketing messages, so not only do you save money by hiring no marketers, you can make money from doing an SMS blast.

6. Open and Response Rates Are High

You’ll find that many marketing channels incorporate a spray and pray strategy. The beauty of SMS marketing is that regardless of your internet connectivity or the time of day, you have much higher chances of getting your message seen.

With people checking their mobiles constantly throughout the day, text messages have a much higher chance of catching the attention of your audience. When you compare that email marketing open rates sit at on average 27-38% compared to 90%+ for SMS messages, it’s easy to see why so many people are turning to SMS.

You’ll also find that with SMS campaigns your response rates will be better. SMS response rates are far superior to alternatives like mobile advertising. Prompts to download an app, for example, are about 3X more effective via SMS compared to mobile advertising.

7. SMS Is Unobtrusive

One of the greatest strengths of SMS is that it’s unobtrusive. To opt into an SMS campaign requires you to give prior authorization.

What that means is that an SMS campaign will only target people who have a genuine interest in your product or service, making your messages less likely to annoy them.

This makes SMS a great alternative to direct calls from a call center which is widely regarded by many as a nuisance. The great thing about SMS is although many people open them straight away, they don’t demand immediate action.

So if your customer is in the middle of something, they can put it on hold till later.

Time to Make Your First SMS Campaign

With people increasingly becoming aware of businesses using SMS, the time to get started is right now for any businesses wanting to expand their marketing efforts.

For more information on how to get the best out of your businesses marketing strategies, check out our other posts.