Marketing

Why Your Online Dispensary Needs a Marketing Strategy

Do you have the right marketing strategy for your online dispensary?

It’s tempting to think that you don’t need marketing for some products. After all, marijuana is a desirable product that many people need for medical reasons. Why would you need marketing to get them to buy it, especially when they can easily buy it online?

However, the reality is that every business needs a marketing strategy, even an online dispensary. If you don’t nail down your marketing techniques, your competition will quickly take over.

In this guide, we’ll show you exactly why your marketing strategy is so important to the success of your online dispensary. Keep reading to learn more!

1. Save Time

One of the main reasons to have a strategy is to save time down the road. If you plan ahead now, you won’t waste time fumbling through your marketing later on.

Marketing strategies are complicated. If you don’t think ahead, you won’t be able to make the organized moves that will allow you to succeed.

With a strategy, you’ll ensure that your efforts can really work, so you won’t have to backtrack later on. It’s a “work smarter, not harder” approach. Don’t waste time on a marketing campaign that doesn’t have a strategy. Instead, plan ahead to save your precious time.

2. Stay Focused

There are so many different ways to do marketing for an online dispensary. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t be able to keep your focus throughout the process. You might even feel overwhelmed or lost if you don’t start by narrowing down your options.

When you make a marketing plan, you can choose the strategies that will work best for your business, and leave the rest behind. This helps you focus your efforts on the areas where you’ll see the most success.

You need to break down your strategy into the individual parts so you can see how they’ll all work together in the end. This focus allows you to fine-tune your work and concentrate on the right steps at the right time.

3. Beat the Competition

If you don’t have a strategy to use, you’ll quickly lose your customers to the competition that does. Marketing is how your online dispensary attracts the customers it needs to thrive.

Make sure you have a plan, so you don’t let the competitors get ahead.

4. Help Customers Find You

You already know that customers are looking for the product you’re selling. However, if you don’t have a marketing plan, they’ll find your competition instead of your company.

For example, if a customer types “Ventura mmj delivery” into Google, they’re looking for medical marijuana delivery in the Ventura area. The companies that come up first in the search results will be those companies that have a marketing plan.

Your business might have exactly what they need, but if you haven’t focused your marketing efforts, they might not even find your company’s name in the search results.

5. Target Search Engines

This leads to the next important point: a marketing plan is essential for SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is what allows customers to find your company in situations like the one above. When a customer does a Google search, Google selects which websites to show based on how well that site does SEO.

With SEO, you’ll use things like keywords, blog posts, images, and links to make your site show up above your competitors’. However, if you don’t have a marketing strategy that involves SEO in place, your site won’t show up in your client’s searches.

SEO isn’t just something you can throw together at the last minute – you need a strategy to really make it work.

6. Produce Great Content

Content, such as videos and blog posts, is an important part of SEO and marketing overall. Without a strategy, you won’t be able to produce excellent content that gets the attention of your customers.

People are exposed to tons of online content every day. To make yours stand out, you need to plan ahead. This means keeping up with trends, making a content calendar, and covering the topics that your customers are most interested in.

A strategy gives you the time to research and develop this great content for your customers.

7. Use Social Media Effectively

It’s tempting to think that social media will be an easy part of marketing. After all, many people use social media recreationally. However, when it comes to using it for business purposes, you’ll need a strategy.

Social media posts need to be strategized to best reach your customers. You’ll need to know exactly what kinds of things they want to see. For example, does your clientele respond best to text posts, or videos?

A good social media strategy also involves lots of research. You’ll need to find out when your customers spend the most time online, so you can post at those times for the most engagement. You’ll need to review your approach from time to time and use analytics to see how well it’s working.

With a solid marketing strategy, you can seamlessly integrate social media into your overall business approach.

8. Predict Challenges

All businesses have challenges. If you have a marketing strategy in place, you can anticipate some of the marketing challenges you’re likely to face, which will make them much easier to overcome.

In fact, if you know your challenges ahead of time, you might even be able to turn them into strong points for your company.

9. Prioritize Tasks

Some marketing tasks are more important for your business than others. Use a strategy to help you prioritize the tasks that will get you the most results first.

This makes your efforts more effective, by breaking down the time you spend on marketing in the most strategic way. You don’t want to spend more time on tasks that will get minimal results while neglecting the tasks that would get major results.

Does Your Online Dispensary Have a Strategy?

If you don’t have a marketing strategy yet, it’s time to change that. Don’t wait – every day you work without a marketing strategy is a day your competitors can get ahead.

For more on marketing, check out our guide to content marketing here.

Why Brands Are Switching to Narrative Marketing

Generic Burger Joint sells about 20% of the burgers in Anytown, USA.

Andrew Nemo started a tiny burger shack at 18 with a loan from his dad, George. Andrew claimed that a great burger is an art that you can’t automate. His burger chain now sells 50,000 burgers a day.

Okay, now count to ten in your head.

Done? Good.

What do you remember about Generic Burger Joint? Probably nothing.

How about Andrew Nemo? Odds are good you can tell a fairly accurate version of his story.

That difference is a part of why brands are switching to narrative marketing. So let’s dig a little deeper.

Millenials Reject Traditional Marketing

Millenials are on their way to becoming a major power buying group. They also reject traditional marketing like ads.

If traditional approaches don’t work, brands need a new approach to capture millennial attention. Enter the value-added content, which is one angle on narrative marketing.

The idea behind value added content is that it’s inherently valuable. So let’s say a dish soap brand makes some value-added content in the form of a YouTube series.

Instead of making ads, the brand develops scripts and builds a legitimate story. People watch for the story and the brand can place its products in scenes. Alternately, they can front load the branding by saying, “Presented by AmazoClean Dish Soap,” at the beginning of each episode.

Narratives Create Emotional Responses

People invest emotionally in stories and stories can even shape emotional responses.

Say you own pest control websites. A traditional ad would show your product killing the pests. There’s one minor problem.

Pests revolt people and dead things revolt people. So showing people dead pests is probably going to overwhelm them with disgust.

What if you give people a story about how these pests showed up out of the blue and how much it disturbs Jenny, the devoted mom? Suddenly, people care about Jenny and her plight. If your product helps her resolve the infestation, we’re happy for her.

Those good feelings carry over to the brand.

It Humanizes Endorsement

Let’s say you talk someone famous into endorsing your brand. It can help sales.

Now let’s say your famous person endorses it by talking about how they use the product to improve their life. You get an instant two-for-one.

You get the power of the endorsement itself, but you also get the benefits of the story too. That combo becomes a permanent feature of your brand.

Parting Thoughts on Narrative Marketing

Brands have several good reasons for adopting narrative marketing.

Millenials dismiss traditional forms of marketing, so brands need new inroads with that buying group.

Stories evoke emotional responses from listeners or viewers. We invest in characters and stories. Brands can turn the investment into good feelings about the brand with the right story.

Stories can add a humanizing layer to celebrity endorsements. The brand gets the celeb boost and the emotional bonuses of a story.

If you’re struggling with how you might employ narrative marketing, there are other approaches. Take a look at this post on making data-driven content for some ideas.

CBD Marketing Restrictions that Affect Your Business

CBD marketing has emerged in several states making claims that the compound can treat specific illnesses and is backed by scientific research. But are these claims true, or even legal?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a component of marijuana that is non-psychoactive. Products containing CBD have made it onto the shelves in many states, but they have a very thin line to walk.

Companies that market products that contain cannabidiol need to have a thorough understanding of both the federal and state regulations that apply to them. Here is a guide to knowing how CBD restrictions affect your business and how you can legally market your products.

FDA Regulations

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requires that companies have scientific information that demonstrates that their product is safe for consumers. The FDA has been clear about the fact that CDB marketing can’t claim that the product is a dietary supplement.

But the reason the FDA has this rule is not that the products aren’t effective. Cannabidiol is under investigation by the FDA to be regulated as a “new drug”. When products have that classification, companies who make the product cannot market them as dietary supplements.

“The FD&C Act defines a dietary ingredient as a vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances.”

Unlike new drugs, dietary supplements are not meant to treat, diagnose, or prevent any condition or disease.

Clinical trials for new drugs generally last several years. It could be awhile before we see the classification of cannabidiol as a “new drug”. As a result, the substance is prohibited in food products at the current time.

FDA Labeling Requirements

The FDA has very stringent requirements for how products should be labeled. For example, it prohibits the listing of a “safe and effective” drug unless the FDA has already recognized it as such. Up until that point, the drugs can simply be referred to as “new drugs”.

The FDA also has requirements on including directions in your packaging. In order for a product to contain instructions for treating a condition, you must be able to self-diagnosis it. If a medical practitioner would be needed to detect the condition, then they have to let the doctor instruct the use of the drug.

If you are a CBD oil company, then you may be tempted to try to circumvent these rules by going to scientific publications with your own research and evidence proving the validity of your product’s use for treating a specific condition. But unfortunately, that is against the law, you’re just going to have to wait it out. (See: Section 101.93(g)(2)(iv)(C).

One of the contradictory requirements by the FDA is that any products on the market should come with directions for use that a layperson would be able to follow so that they could use the product the way it was intended.

This rule is contradictory when it comes to CBD marketing because the manufacturers are not allowed to claim that their products are treating anything specific.

Additional Labeling Requirements for CBD Marketing

In states where it is now legal to purchase CBD products that have been derived from cannabis, the packaging for all products containing CBD as an active ingredient must be labeled as such.

They also must state how much CBD the product contains. These regulations are valid for Washington, California, Illinois, Connecticut, and New York.

Since the FDA has not yet classified CBD as a “new drug”, you should probably avoid labeling your packaging with any specific medical claims about the product. Several companies have already been issued warnings for their labeling violations.

Many CBD oil companies are also breaking the law by publishing CBD marketing materials that claim it is a dietary supplement in states where the product is more legal. This classification was not awarded by the FDA.

That means that although your state may allow you to make certain claims about the effectiveness of your product, the federal government still has a say. They set forth their own regulations that take precedence over the laws of the state.

Other Considerations When CBD Marketing

Since there are so many different regulations on CBD products at both a state and federal level, you should take extreme care when CBD marketing. One good idea is to mention on your product’s packaging that the FDA has not yet approved it. This will cover you in the event someone tries to say you made a false claim.

Another great idea for CBD marketing is that the products should not be labeled in conjunction with any medical conditions. This is both to meet the FDA regulations as well as protect yourself against any labeling laws your state might have.

The FDA maintains that it is the responsibility of companies marketing CBD oil to comply with the regulations that have been published. While you may get a phone call from the FDA giving you a warning that you are toeing the line, that call most likely will never come.

Instead, you will receive a letter in the mail notifying you of your reckless labeling practices and have to face the facts and resolve any violation issues.

Online CBD Retailers

If you are an online seller of CBD oil products, you will need to take some special precautions to market your products online. You must be aware that under federal law, cannabis remains illegal.

Even for states that have legalized cannabis products, it is illegal to ship them interstate or to leave the state with the product.

The exclusion to this rule is CBD oil products that are derived from hemp. Under federal law, as long as the hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, it can be used for industrial purposes.

For that reason, it is important that you let your buyers know if your product is derived from hemp, not marijuana. In any case, as an online seller, you should be careful not to make any claims about the effectiveness of your products.

Digital Marketing Regulations

If you are looking for a new place to market your CBD, you shouldn’t waste your time with digital marketing platforms like Google, Bing or Facebook. All of these companies have put policies in place that guard against the promotion of marijuana and the paraphernalia related to it.

This poses a challenge to many producers, who don’t know how to get their product noticed. But don’t worry, there are some good options out there.

E-Newsletters

No matter what regulations are in place, you can put whatever you want in your newsletter. Many companies like to maintain two separate newsletters, one for medical updates, and another for investor updates.

Branding

From your press releases to your product shoots, proper branding is essential for boosting sales. By having a unified brand, you will be recognizable to consumers. HempLucid has done a great job with their branding for CBD products, click here for more info.

Social Platforms

While you can’t buy an ad on Facebook, there is nothing saying you can’t make a fan page and push your products. If you produce shareable content, then this can be a very successful CBD marketing route.

Investment Boards

Some online communities allow CBD marketing. They include Reddit, Stockhouse, and Stocktwits, among others. This can be a great way to find potential investors for your business.

Third-Party Advertisers

Outside of traditional digital platforms like Facebook and Google, there are third-party advertising platforms that actually allow marijuana-related advertising content. For example, Outbrain allows for advertisements related to investing in medical marijuana and CBD oil companies.

Unfortunately, however, they don’t allow the advertising of illegal drugs so they do not run advertisements for products derived from marijuana.

Traditional Advertising

There are a lot of relevant magazines that are all for CBD marketing. Magazines like High Times can be a great place to post ads about your products.

Direct mail campaigns are also a good option if you have a prior-customer list or some other way of singling out potential buyers. You don’t want to waste your money sending advertisements to people who have no interest in your products.

Press Releases

Press releases are a great way to inform your current and potential investors of what is going on inside your company whether you are running a high-quality dispensary or a small mom and pop shop.

Sponsorships

Getting exposure in your community can also be a great way to attract new buyers. By going to a farmers market, parade, or local sporting event with a booth, you will have a chance to connect with the locals and tell them about your products.

More Helpful Articles

There is a lot to know about CBD marketing and the laws are changing all the time. It is important that you stay up to date with any changes in your state and on a federal level.

If you are looking for more helpful articles to get your business running, then check out these tips.

How To Create A Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign For Your Antique Business

Are you looking for a way to get more customers through the door of your antique business?

Running an antique business can be difficult, especially if you’re just starting out.

Statistics show that the antique industry isn’t enjoying the boom it’s had in the past, so it can be tough to attract a steady flow of customers.

Luckily, a social media marketing campaign can go a long way in promoting your business.

Read on to learn more about how to create a successful social media campaign.

1. Know Your Market

Posting ads for your antique business on Facebook are definitely worth the effort. But posting ads without a target market or niche isn’t so helpful.

Begin by identifying your market for a specific campaign. Are you targeting college students hungry for vintage furniture? Retirees nostalgic about their past?

Choose a specific market and then identify a need or struggle these individuals may have. For example, those college students may be looking for an affordable way to furnish their new apartment and look classy.

In your campaign, you’ll play up this need or struggle and show how you can satisfy it.

2. Do Your Research

No matter how large your marketing and development team is–it may just be you–it’s important to research the field before plunging in.

Research competition in your area. What are other antique stores doing for marketing, and how can you be better? How is Westland Antiques doing?

What ads do you see for antiques on social media? Are there any in your area currently?

Assess the competition but also consider demographics in your area.

3. Establish Goals

Before you start posting wildly on Facebook, set up some clear goals. What outcome do you want to have with your social media marketing campaign?

Be as specific as possible. If you want to attract more customers, put a number on it. If you want to boost sales, also put a number on it. Maybe you just want to acquire emails to build a list of leads.

Establish clear and actionable goals directly related to your needs as a business.

4. Pair It With Email

Social media campaigns aren’t just about making Instagram posts. Start by sending an email to current subscribers to give them a heads-up about your social media campaign.

Then, make sure that your campaign gets you new email addresses. You’ll want to send follow-up emails after you obtain these to stay with these leads and turn them into recurring customers.

5. Write Relevant Content

The key to successful social media campaigns lies in the content. It’s important to generate fresh, intriguing, and useful copy for your customers.

Yes, customers will perk up when they see discounts or special offers. But don’t forget about the power of video, for example, or images of your current antique inventory.

A top-notch content strategy will keep your customers coming back for more and get more email addresses on your list.

Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social media is a powerful tool, and it’s important to leverage it as you’re establishing your customer base in the antique industry.

Make sure you do your research and identify your market before launching your social media marketing campaign. Have clear goals that go along with your strategy and always follow up marketing efforts with email.

Want to learn more about what inbound marketing can do for your antique business? Sign up for free advice today at Article City!

7 Tips for Marketing Your Travel Agency

What is the point of a travel agency?

This is the important question that you have to answer with your travel agency marketing.

Many people are surprised to find out that travel agencies still exist. After all, with the internet, many vacations, hotels, and flights are booked online. Where would anyone need a travel agency?

However, the truth is that there are many reasons why travel agencies continue to be an essential part of the travel and vacation industry.

How do you arrange a trip to South East Asia, with a tour guide, a driver, all-inclusive catering, accommodation and travel insurance without the help of an agency?

With these 7 travel agency marketing tips you can demonstrate to the media and vacation-goers the crucial role you have to play in making travel an incredible experience.

1. Establish Who is Your Customer

You can’t design a marketing strategy without establishing who your customers are. This needs to go beyond simply demographic information, such as; male, young and high-earning. You need to consider what motivates your customers when they’re searching and planning travel.

Once you’ve determined who’s your customer, you can start to design your overall travel agency marketing strategy around this type of customer. This means everything from the design of your website, to how you develop your marketing campaigns.

2. Re-think the Design of Your Website

Let’s talk some more about website design. Your website is likely to be the first impression customers have with your travel agency, so make it count. Make sure your website is user-friendly with an appropriate design that appeals to your target customer.

It’s important to make sure your website can be accessed by smartphones and tablets, as well as, laptops and computers. If a user is unable to browse your site with ease, they probably won’t give you another chance.

Track the visits to your site using Google Analytics. This way you can monitor visitors number and how users interact with your site. This information is valuable for your travel agency, and you should adapt your marketing strategy in response to the data.

The final tip when it comes to your company website is to always remember to keep your website information and news up to date. There’s nothing worse than finding a company website with out of date information.

3. Use Social Media Effectively

Social media is an inexpensive way for travel agency marketing. You need to consider which social media platforms you’re going to use, and also, establish a strategy for targeting your potential customers.

There are many social media platforms to choose from, such as; Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. However, the most effective is probably Facebook.

Facebook is a great network for promoting your travel agency because so many travelers use it to share photos and videos of their experiences. Tag travelers in your posts and comment on their photos to drive traffic to your site. You can also create events to get users interested in your company.

4. Make use of Email Marketing

One of the smartest things you can do as a company is to develop a database of emails from potential customers.

All you have to do is include a “signing up” subscription form on your website to get the emails flowing in. You can further tempt visitors by offering an opportunity to subscribe to an email newsletter, this way you can communicate directly with your target customer.

A great newsletter means thinking carefully about how often you send out the email, what content to include and what to leave out, as well as, the overall tone. If you produce a good newsletter, you’ll have users sharing it on their social media accounts. This generates more leads and drives traffic to your site.

5. Profit From Online Advertising

Have you tried out Google Adwords and Retargeting?

While banner advertisements and pay-per-click advertisements have significant disadvantages, there is much to be gained from online advertising.

In contrast to promoting content and products that have no relation to your visitors, you can promote products that your visitors are actually interested in. This includes products related to travel such as design a postcard.

The only downside is that Google Adwords is complicated, you may require professional assistance to carry it out successfully.

6. Create Engaging Video Content

While reading content about travel and vacations can get you excited for your upcoming break, there’s nothing as effective as a video to really get you hooked.

Inspire your customers to explore new destinations by creating videos. Creating travel videos is an inexpensive way to engage your visitors in what your travel agency has to offer.

All you have to do is set up a Youtube channel and start to video. You can include anything from how-to-guides, customer reviews and examples of tours.

Make sure you keep them short and sweet. Plus, include subtitles so that users can view them on their smartphone whenever they want.

7. Start a Blog

People love reading blogs about travel. If you can create a blog that offers visitors valuable and unique information communicated in an interesting and engaging manner you can drive further traffic to your site.

Your blog can include guest posts by customers who have recently experienced one of your once in a lifetime tours, or vacation reps who have expert knowledge about a particular destination or activity.

Your blog should become a key part of your travel agency marketing strategy. And always end with a “call to action” to get your readers to research, plan or book with you.

Tips for Travel Agency Marketing

With these 7 travel agency marketing tips you can take the first step towards building your company’s marketing strategy. The competition in the travel industry is fierce, but with a smart and effective marketing strategy, you can make sure you pull in customers.

To learn more about how to run a travel-related website, check out our blog on writing for a travel adventure blog.

The Top Content Marketing Trends Going Into 2018

Content marketing has evolved from a disruptive model to one of value. Content marketing trends in 2018 will become more inspiring and complex. Your success depends on a content marketing strategy that exceeds your customers’ expectations.

Companies are riding a content marketing wave to success. Content formats and channels have evolved to become more engaging for customers. This has led to worldwide growth in revenue generation.

In 2018, content marketing trends will continue their evolution. The world’s biggest companies plan to spend billions on original content. Their efforts are setting new standards for how customer experiences reach beyond their brands.

Your competitors won’t be far behind. That means using content to build a loyal following begins now. But choosing your strategy moving forward needn’t be a hassle.

Content Marketing Trends and Your Business

86% of B2C marketers are using content marketing to drive their brands forward. And content marketing trends are evolving with changing technologies. That means more access to videos, virtual reality, and new social media capabilities.

It’s difficult to understand what that will mean for your business. You can’t adopt all these trending technologies and formats. But you can identify the most effective and choose from those results.

Don’t overlook your existing successes either. Continuity is important for your existing customers. Don’t be afraid to expand on them even as you adopt new ones.

7 Techniques for Successful Content Marketing in 2018

Content marketing trends aren’t limited to either formats or technologies. You will need a well-assembled arsenal of each. Above every trend is a well-developed content marketing strategy.

As you think about your strategy, consider where the following techniques fit in. You may already use some and need only expand upon them. But keep an eye out for successful new adoptions as well.

1. Increased Content Marketing Prioritization

Companies are investing heavily in content marketing in 2018. Expect greater skills and capabilities among your competitors’ marketing teams. Companies will increase budgets for content marketing as well.

That’s because content marketing is becoming more and more unique. Companies need to adopt more platforms and channels as well. Content teams will resemble media companies more than the teams of previous years.

Companies will increase content presence on their websites. Companies like Ronald Joyce make stunning photographs the first thing visitors see. Companies can leverage video in this way as well.

As consumers expand the way they engage content, your competitors will try to respond. As we will find, content strategies are more sophisticated than ever. Your business will depend on a content team that grows with those needs.

2. More Sophisticated Video

Video was a growing trend in 2017. By 2019, it will capture more than 80% of all web traffic. But most video capabilities were only available to larger brands.

Now, new video tools make sophisticated video more opportune than ever. Content teams don’t need specialized skills to make a professional film.

Smartphone recorders are now on par with professional cameras. With the proper direction, small teams can make professional-looking films this way. Smartphones enable companies to host live streaming videos as well.

Video editing tools powered by AI now help produce and market videos. This can take only minutes to develop. It’s easy to integrate these videos into your social media channels.

Your team must develop a video marketing strategy. Carrying this out takes little time and investment. But determining types of content is its own strategy as well.

3. Original Value-Added Content

‘Original content’ is marketing content companies produce as a value-add to customer experiences. That means the content has value in and of itself. This is in stark contrast to branded content that functions as ads.

Customers are increasingly turning down advertisements and branded posts that ‘sell.’ They want to associated brands with styles, moods, and values. Original content offers these things to customers with no request to buy.

Original content can be as simple as how-to articles and eBooks. They can be as advanced as video series with detailed plots and characters. Their authenticity and value are what they have in common.

You can leverage video tools to create a storyline for filmed content. In this way, your team will function like a media company. You can employ internal or third-party writers as well.

4. Social Media and Channel Diversification

Social media has fallen in its appeal as an engagement platform. Facebook has seen a recent decline in organic reach. It’s volatile to host content there as they make updates as well.

Social media is still essential to content marketing. You need to make social media one branch of your overall marketing strategy.

You have more opportunities to automate content marketing. If you want to distribute content across channels, automate the social media component. You can leverage that channel effectively without burdening your team.

5. Transparency

What’s more important than authority in your space? The transparency you offer customers. For Millennials, it has become an expectation.

Your promises to customers are just as reliable as your competitors’. You distinguish yourself by sharing the true values of your company. You need to ensure those values hold up to those of your customers.

You should demonstrate your true values in your content. That might involve live footage of company altruism. It could involve prioritizing green sourcing or reducing your carbon footprint.

6. Next-Generation Technologies

Content has transitioned from physical to digital in the last 20 years. Now it will transition to next-generation technologies.

Creative teams are adapting content for Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). Leveraging these platforms can distinguish you from your competitors. They are opportunities for great original content as well.

Be sure you know what you’re doing with these investments. It’s common for content efforts here to have limited impact. Be sure there are opportunities for publicity or revenue before you invest.

7. Creative Talent is a Foundation

Your team needn’t consist of technology experts to succeed. The accessibility of technologies is changing those standards. The new measure of success is your creative capacity.

Invest in creative people and help develop creative competencies. Your content is only as compelling as the team that develops them. As they adapt to new strategies and technologies, creativity will determine your level of success.

Get the Most Out of Your Content Strategy

You need the best resources to build a successful content strategy. Finding them 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.

7 Amazing Healthcare Content Marketing Tips Professionals Use

80% of Internet users search for health information online. As a healthcare company generating and distributing useful health content should be a top priority.

But getting your content in front of potential customers to build this trust takes strategy.

Let’s explore what you need to know to build an effective one in healthcare content marketing the way professionals do.

1) Get a Written Plan

Studies show that nearly 40% of companies try to implement content marketing without any written plan.

They end up picking random topics. They don’t have clear objectives or goals. They think they’re just going to publish a blog or two a week and see them “take off”. They share them on FaceBook. They don’t consistently measure results.

Then they wonder why “content marketing doesn’t work”.

Get a plan and get ready to execute a healthcare content marketing strategy that gets results.

2) Follow the Plan

The great thing about a plan is that it has clear benchmarks, methods, who’s responsible for what, etc.

You can look back to see what’s working and where you need to make changes. You can identify if things are going as expected and if everyone’s on task.

Follow the plan that you have established for your healthcare content marketing.

Through this, you can answer the question: Is it the plan that needs to adapt? Or is the team simply not staying on task to execute your healthcare marketing strategy.

3) Be Clear on Your Target Audience

If you’re in private practice, you want more patients. We get it. But who are your ideal patients? Some healthcare companies market too broad. They don’t want to exclude anyone. This seems like the right and ethical thing to do.

But the success of any healthcare content marketing strategy is dependent on its ability to connect with people. You can’t connect if you don’t have a clear vision of who you’re trying to connect with.

In content marketing, you may have 5+ distinct targets. But each piece of content that you create and distribute should have a single target in mind.

4) Do a Competitive Analysis

On average, search results account for 51% of a website’s traffic. One of the goals of content marketing is to increase your ranking in searches so that you earn more of this organic traffic through SEO.

92% of traffic goes to page one results so this is where you need to be.

Evaluate who’s appearing on page one in your local market for key phrases people would use to find your website.

Take a close look at their sites. What kind of content are they creating? Where are they focusing their social media efforts? What is their domain authority?

How many links do they have from other sites? You can invest in tools that will help you gain a clearer understanding of what the competition is doing to earn page one spots.

5) Generate Shareable Content Topics

An effective strategy needs two primary types of content topics — evergreen and trending. They serve different purposes and work together to help you achieve your goals.

Evergreen Topics

A portion of your topics should be evergreen. They should be timeless topics that people are always looking for. They may be the answers to common healthcare questions in your niche or other tips and tricks that your target finds helpful.

You can keep the ideas flowing by listening to your industry. Stay active on social media sites to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.

Talk to your sales department and patient support services teams. Find out about commonly asked questions and concerns. Address them in evergreen content.

You can actually cut patient support costs by making these resources available online.

Mayo Clinic is an example of healthcare company that produces great evergreen content. They address everything health and are one of the top resources that people turn to when they have a health question.

Trending Topics

And some of your content should be on trending topics likes relevant news stories. Whenever you can find a way to integrate a trending topic into your specific healthcare content marketing niche do so.

Not only does this demonstrate that you’re current, it helps drive traffic because you have a topic that people are very actively looking for.

Get creative. The news doesn’t have to be exactly in your niche. In fact, the more you can bend the content to fit into your niche, the more original piece of content you’ll create.

Whether you’re creating content for addiction recovery or a power wheelchair company, you can find trending stories to fit into your niche.

6) Get a Personality

People don’t get behind a business. They get behind the people behind that brand. The more you can humanize your brand, the more easily you’ll connect with people.

You may have noticed the recent Gillette commercials where they’re doing just that. Founded over 120 years ago, this shaving company is having to adapt to changing consumer behavior.

Instead of commercials with flashy images and slogans, they’re placing their employees prominently in the commercials. It gives the company a human face.

A 2nd example, Saint Thomas Hospital Systems in Nashville, isn’t alone in its attempt to give its impersonal hospital brand a makeover. For the past several years, they’ve been creating content that tells the stories of their patients — with permission of course.

These heartfelt pieces connect with people going through similar health struggles. You can’t do that with a how-to video or 11 quick tips article.

7) Measure Everything

You can’t optimize your healthcare content marketing if you don’t know what’s working best for you. Use free tools like Google Analytics to evaluate how people are interacting with content.

How much traffic is it getting? Do people stay on the page?

Does it encourage people to click on another page to continue to browse the site? Schedule an appointment? Or buy something?

When you know what to measure and consistently measure it, you know where to go for more info when your strategies aren’t working.

Don’t be in the dark. Leverage this data to improve your strategies.

Healthcare Content Marketing

To get results with content, you need a written plan. Lay out how you will create, curate and distribute content.

Follow your plan. Create content that people are looking for and love.

Show your human side. Measure your results.

For more tips on leveraging content in your industry, follow our blog.

How Your Business Can Develop Spanish Marketing

Studies show that not only is the Spanish speaking market growing, but marketing in Spanish isn’t as simple as hiring a translator. Your company’s Spanish marketing plan needs to be as culturally aware as it is grammatically correct.

As the Hispanic market grows in both size and spending power, it’s natural for businesses to want to expand their customer base to be more inclusive. Welcoming diversity to your customer base also shows the power of your product.

In order to develop a plan to include the growing Spanish-speaking market, follow these three tips.

1. Follow Trends

With most consumers watching nearly an hour a day of video on social media, Spanish-speaking mobile users average slightly more with over 8 hours a week. That’s a whole lot of 10 to 60-second Instagram boomerangs and Snapchats.

Finding a way to cleverly fit into that screen time will yield the results you’re looking for. Study other campaigns to strategize tactics to make your content go viral.

The top Hispanic channels on YouTube are constantly growing in subscribers and viewership. Universal has even created a Latino-centric channel on YouTube. They offer content and clips in Spanish as well as contests and promotional materials to target the Spanish-speaking audience.

Look at what products other companies are offering to download services. The design of Locopelis follows other sites but strongly asserts, in Spanish, “Locopelis descargar peliculas completas“.

2. Offer Options

Simply translating your existing campaigns into Spanish isn’t enough for a Hispanic audience. With Spanish-speakers coming from South America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and more, you can’t reach everyone with just a linguistic swap.

Google’s tracking of searches shows that Spanish-speaking users will often search in English or with a mix of Spanish and English terms. This means that your Spanish marketing needs to engage different ways that your audience consumes media.

If you can offer options on your site, app or product space to choose a language, you’ll find your audience more dedicated. Think about making every campaign bilingual and track what kinds of results you end up with.

3. Go Beyond Language

With the wide variety of Spanish speakers coming from different backgrounds, language is perhaps the only thing your markets will have in common. Think about the social or familial narratives that your customers will have.

A Puerto Rican audience is one that includes two full generations of American citizenship. The narrative of how they get to their product is different than Mexican-Americans, who tend to live more on the west coast and southwest regions.

Targeting people who come to the US from Spain is entirely different. They bring European sensibilities and will likely be from a higher income bracket.

Use actors, musicians, and artists who come from the regions you’re targeting. Don’t generalize or make assumptions and you’ll be far ahead of most companies.

Spanish Marketing Takes Time

Don’t expect your Spanish-speaking customer base to flood your site or stores because you added translation capabilities. Listen to the audience that you’re targeting. Hold some feedback sessions in exchange for your product and be willing to take criticism.

Allow this data to drive your content. For more information on how data can lead you in the right direction, read our list of helpful tips.

5 Strategies to Take Your HVAC Marketing Online

Knowing how to utilize online marketing is quite different than knowing how to fix a home’s air conditioning unit.

Your company may be the best at creating HVAC solutions, but without the HVAC marketing to back it, finding new clients can be a slow process.

However, when you combine marketing efforts with exceptional results, the growth opportunities are endless.

Although marketing may not be your expertise, don’t shy away from trying it out.

Here are five strategies to use when taking your marketing efforts online.

1. Run a Competition Analysis

Before you do anything with your online presence, research the way your competition is attempting to stand out.

What keywords does your industry see as the most valuable?

Do local competitors have a strong social media following?

Getting recent, detailed answers to these questions will point you in the right direction for your HVAC marketing strategies.

Remember, if you are just starting to use online marketing, you’re playing catch-up. Discovering your competition’s tactics can help pick up the slack.

2. Always Think About Conversions

Once you’re ready to begin picking search keywords and setting up an overall budget, remember to keep conversions as your number one goal.

Prioritizing traffic over conversions is like handing out 100 flyers and not noticing whether 10 or 80 people respond to them. Getting noticed online is great, and traffic can often boost brand recognition, but there is no greater ROI than conversion.

The better you can create a sale, the more efficient your budget is being spent. Over time, this builds more gains for less effort.

3. Focus on Your Content

One of the key ways to achieve good conversion rates is producing new content consistently.

For HVAC marketing, “consistently” means two things – often, and on-brand. You have to produce enough content to stay relevant in the minds of your consumers, but there has to be a strategy behind it.

The more aligned your messaging is, the better potential consumers will get to know you. They will become familiar with your brand’s values and personality. Over time, this can mean easily recognizing Kaiser AC over a competitor.

Plus, the information will be more accessible because consistent content boosts SEO performance.

4. Get Client Testimonials

Another way to boost conversions is building a testimonials page.

This makes your website more trustworthy and approachable. It’s like taking the old-school method of relying on word of mouth and using it in a way today’s consumers are conditioned to respond to.

Testimonials can be the deal-breaker for consumers who do their research. If your reviews are easy to find and relatable, there is a greater chance of someone choosing you over a competitor who doesn’t utilize testimonials.

5. Consult the Professionals

This is the most important tip on our list.

At the end of the day, everyone has their specialty, and it’s not expected for HVAC marketing to be a common skill. However, contacting a content marketing group is like getting insurance on your online efforts.

It connects you to a team of professionals ready to boost your business and build conversions. They will have your back and focus on the right strategies, while you focus on providing the best HVAC services possible.

Boost Your HVAC Marketing Approach

When individuals can focus on their specialties, everyone wins.

Let us grow your online marketing strategies to successful campaigns and impressive conversions. This takes the pressure off your shoulders and lets you get back to providing quality customer service in-person while we take care of it online.

Ready to build your leads and get more clients?

Sign up today to get started!

Find Out What Is Fashion Marketing So You Can Cut Out The Competition

The fashion industry is massive, bringing in $1 trillion in gross revenue per year.

Yeah, that’s “trillion” with a “t.”

So what is fashion marketing? It’s the outreach you’ll need to separate your product from the competition and succeed in the most cutthroat retail industry in the world.

Here are a few tips to help you get started and get an edge on the competition.

Have a Great Product and Know Your Niche

It all starts here, right?

A lot of people sell underwear, so if you’re selling underwear, it had better have something that sets it apart from the competition.

Better materials. A great story. An amazing fit.

Whatever the product is, you need to understand exactly what you’re selling and how it stacks up to the competition – so do your research before you develop your marketing plans.

It doesn’t matter if you’re asking folks to “Click Here” to buy grillz or selling winter parkas. All successful fashion marketing starts with knowledge of the product and research on the marketplace.

That’s the first job of your newly minted marketing team (even if it’s just you!).

Social Media Is Your Friend

When looking for sterling examples of just what is fashion marketing, look no further than social media.

Facebook. Instagram. Pinterest. Even Snapchat.

The fashion industry leads pretty much all industries when it comes to experimenting with social media.

After all, social media has become increasingly visual and fashion is nothing if not aan image-first industry. Studies have shown that fully one in three consumers have purchased an item of clothing after seeing it on Instagram.

If you hate social media, sorry – it’s critical you learn to love it or hire someone who does.

Find Great Influencers in Your Niche

Speaking of people who take to social media like proverbial fish to water, influencer marketing has become a huge part of what is fashion marketing in 2017.

What is it?

Put simply, influencer marketing is when a company or brand contracts with someone who has a huge, established social media presence in their target niche to promote a product.

It’s basically a celebrity endorsement for the 21st century.

Just how important is it? More than six in 10 fashion companies made influencers part of their marketing strategy in 2016, with another 21 percent planning on incorporating it in 2017.

Don’t Forget Your Ground Game

Social media is good to talk about because it’s accessible anywhere, but the soul of fashion marketing is still on the ground.

So go to trade shows, fashion shows, and make connections.

Showcase your collection. Do a trunk show. Co-sponsor an event.

The key is to have your digital marketing game set up so that when you do face the public with the product, the conversation can continue in the digital space with website, email, social media, and so forth.

The ground game is an opportunity for people who find you through the digital space to get a tactile experience–see the product, touch the product–and also an opportunity for those who have seen the product engage in an ongoing dialogue with the brand before they buy.

What Is Fashion Marketing? That’s up to You

With this much competition, the most important thing is to stand out. Take risks.

Some brands do their marketing through e-mail only. Some do massive stunts.

Others simply stand by their terrific product, tour the country doing shows, and rely on word of mouth.

No matter what, though, you need a good photograph.

A great picture, after all, says a thousand words. And that translates to dollars.