How to Quickly Energize Your Inbound Strategy with Video Marketing

As video consumption continues to rise year after year, getting your brand on board to using this medium as a viable marketing strategy will prove to be a winning move for your business.

You see, video is one of the most powerful tools to fostering engagement and building a true connection with your audience. Brands who successfully implement video experience traffic to their websites, improved lead conversions, better follower engagement on social media, and increased sales. It’s simply a win-win!

Executing a video strategy for your brand can position you to accomplish these coveted goals for your business. Here are 4 unique ways on how you can energize your inbound marketing using video!

 

#1 Repurpose Popular Blog Posts

An underused content strategy but incredibly effective, repurposing your blog articles allows you to work smarter in your marketing. It offers your audience different ways to indulge in your content to expand your reach and influence. With repurposing, you’re simply taking one content piece and converting it into multiple forms to market on various platforms.

In this case, you’re converting your content into video. Visit your website analytics to find out which blog posts are generating the most traffic. Create a video for each, highlighting your major key points and expanding a bit on the topic. Include any recent information that applies to your content. End your video with a call-to-action sharing the blog link where viewers can check out the original post.

 

#2 Publish Social Videos

Social media videos are a big hit. In fact, social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and image posts combined! With these videos auto-playing right into newsfeeds, followers are compelled to stop and stare to see what interesting things you have to say.

Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and Periscope are driving tons of engagement as well. People are spending more time watching these videos than ones that have already been recorded. Videos simply create that impact!

Optimize your social media marketing by publishing videos on your pages. Use the following tips to get started or to improve your current strategy:

  • Upload videos directly to your social media page from your mobile or camera device especially on Facebook. This network tends to favor organic videos and will give you greater exposure
  • Report breaking news or host live Q&A sessions using live streaming video. Get your followers involved by encouraging them to ask you questions in the comments for quick responses
  • Add value to your follower's timelines by sharing product demo and informational videos (more on this later)
  • Take your audience behind the scenes to give them an inside peek at how you do business
  • Curate video content particularly ones that are trending or relate to your industry

 

#3 In-Depth Product Tutorials

A huge advantage to inbound marketing is the ultimate focus of converting your customers into loyal raving fans of your brand. Happy consumers share their positive experiences with others. They will promote your brand sending new referrals your way.

One way to delight your customers is by offering video tutorials that show them how to achieve the best results from your product. Videos are easier for users to understand versus text instructions. People can grasp the concept quickly and move forward to accomplishing that said goal.

Create a video tutorial for each of your products highlighting the benefits and giving clear directions on its use. Include the video in your email strategy by sending it to new customers who’ve recently purchased your product. Helping your customers get results fast increases your chance of keeping them around for the long run!

 

#4 Advertise Your Content

Including a video on your landing page can significantly boost lead conversions. Landing pages are vital content marketing tools that focus on one goal: capturing your visitor’s contact information for the opt-in. Your landing page highlights a content offer (i.e. eBook, free template, coupon discount, checklist, free workshop event, etc.) that aligns with the ad users clicked on to get to your page.

The beauty of using a video to advertise your content is that it gives you a chance to build a relationship with those just getting to know your brand. With no previous connection established, a video can bridge the gap of being unknown to now being a trusted brand.

Simply put, people love videos. Use them to your advantage to improve conversions and grow your list.

 

Conclusion

Videos add zest to your inbound strategy. The benefits you gain from using them are too compelling to ignore. Incorporate a few of the suggested tips to see improved results in engagement, conversions, and retention. Leverage an editorial or content calendar to help you maintain consistency with your video strategy. You’ll stay current with today’s consumers as more begin to use video to engage with brands online.

Are you ready to amplify your video marketing? We're equipped to help you get in front of your audience and create results in your digital marketing with video. Reach out to us here and let's chat!


best digital marketing tools

Got the Tools For the Job? 5 of the Best Digital Marketing Tools to Use in 2020

Whether you're operating entirely online or you have a physical store (or stores), it's impossible to ignore the massive reach of digital marketing, as 87% of people research a business or product before making a purchasing decision.

At the same time, it's all too easy to spend a small fortune on your digital marketing campaign only to see less than stellar results. If that sounds familiar, it might be time to reassess your resources.

You've got the market research, now get the tools needed to get the job done. Here are five of the best digital marketing tools that your business won't be able to live without.

1. Google Analytics

Google owns over 3/4 of all search engine traffic. Moreover, they own YouTube as well, which is often regarded as the world's second-largest search engine.

As a result, making sure you're doing everything in your power to stay at the top of Google should be a priority.

Google Analytics makes that easy, delivering in-depth analytics to your account. It even features Adwords integration!

2. MailChimp

The majority of email ads go unopened. To make your email marketing stand out, you'll want to sign up for MailChimp.

MailChimp is easy to use, allows you to test emails before sending them out, and features templates so you can make the process faster and easier.

Plus, it's free for those with up to 2,000 contacts which is great for smaller businesses looking to save a bit of money.

3. Hootsuite

Your social outreach can make a world of difference, especially if you're using multiple platforms. However, keeping up with multiple social media accounts can be a chore.

That's where Hootsuite comes in!

Hootsuite collects all of your social channels in one easy to digest dashboard. Create, manage, and publish posts to all of your platforms with a simple system!

You can even designate tasks to certain team members, giving you further control of your social strategy.

4. Slack

Speaking of delegation, Slack is one of the most accessible and helpful tools for business owners, merging instant messaging with digital meeting spaces. Creating a Slack channel for your business lets you easily communicate with your team 24/7 so you can ensure that everyone is in the loop.

Slack is particularly useful for companies that utilize remote teams or lack a reliable meeting space.

5. WeVideo

Video marketing is a great way to bring your content to life, as people spend an average of six hours per day watching videos online.

WeVideo allows you to collaborate with your video marketing team, quickly and easily making edits, leaving notes, or publishing videos. This helpful app even features optimization for Facebook and YouTube.

Check out the Best Digital Marketing Tools and Help Your Business Succeed

For our money, these are the best digital marketing tools out there. Make sure to check them out to give your business a leg up on the competition.

Speaking of which, did you know that we offer extensive marketing services? To learn more about how we can help your business grow, get in touch today!


outline of a blog

The Anatomy of the Post [Ideal Outline of a Blog]

You may have heard that blogging is essential for content marketing success, but did you know that blogging helps to position you as an expert in your field, presents a valuable resource for your site visitors, and creates new opportunities for your site to rank on Google results? So what is the ideal outline of a blog for SEO?

Businesses that blog acquire 126% more leads than those who do not.

Do I really need a blog?

It’s critical to have a blog on your site so that you can help answer your visitors’ questions. Sharing your expertise, assisting the visitors to solve issues that they are encountering, and improving your overall site experience with your blog is what helps to get your rankings on Google up.

Don’t be confused, though. Blogging for SEO requires more than simply stuffing keywords into your posts and waiting for traffic to pour in. Bloggers should focus on writing content about subjects surrounding target keywords so that they can provide a breadth of knowledge on a given topic with the intent to help visitors rather than merely trying to drive traffic to sell more stuff.

Blogging on topics is great for user experience, helps people answer their questions, and will keep people returning to Google (and hopefully your blog) to solve future issues, the reason Google created the ranking algorithm after all.

However, there is a formula that works for creating individual blogs well for SEO. And, yes, it does involve ensuring that your target keywords are included in specific sections in the post to squeeze the most out of each article.

Blogging for SEO

So how can you ensure that people see your posts and that you blog yields traffic? We encourage our clients to use this method:

Keyword Research

Use multiple tools such as SEMRush, Keywordtool.io, and Answerthepublic.com to find long-tail keywords that surround your area of expertise and your industry.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that are more specific to your niche. They will usually have a lower number of monthly searches, but also fewer people competing for top results.

Look for words that have high traffic with relatively low competition.

Let’s consider one of HARNESS’s areas of expertise: video marketing.

video marketing outline of a blog
The search term “video marketing” has 4400 searches per month, which is relatively high.

However, it also has a keyword difficulty (a score between 0-100 rating how difficult it is to rank on the first page for that keyword) score of around 68.58.

That search volume means it’s a popular keyword and one for which we want to rank. On the other hand, it has a high keyword difficulty (KD), so it will likely require many blog posts to hit that front page with this search.

What if we modified that keyword to find a long-tail search on the same topic?

Let’s try this one: video marketing services.

blogging for seo
The term “video marketing services” has 480 searches per month with a keyword difficulty score of 41.01. The search volume level is lower compared to “video marketing,” but we can rank for this keyword with only a few blog posts.

Further, even if the 480 people are searching for this term, we want to talk to all of them as they are likely to be qualified traffic to our website. Heck, if only one person is searching for one of our high-value keywords, I want them to hit my site rather than my competition’s page.

We consider these low-competition keywords the low-hanging fruit, so we advise clients to start there. Higher difficulty keywords will have more traffic but require more work. Those are long-term goals, so work on those over time.

Titles - Use Your Keywords

Use your keyword to create a title that makes sense to your reader. Note: you must use the exact phrasing of the keyword in the title; otherwise, the keyword difficulty and volume will be different.

Your title should read naturally and help to start the process of the blog to educate, solve a problem, answer a question, and/or entertain. Creating titles can be one of the most challenging parts of the process.

You want a title that will grab attention and make people want to jump in. However, do not use clickbait titles unless you want to aggravate your readers. While clickbait titles will generate more traffic on the front end, if it’s all flashy title and no substance, you will send your readers to the next site looking for better, more informative content.

Title Generators

There are many title generators out there that can help with ideas. Hubspot offers one, but it tends to be pretty superficial in the ideas it generates. Portents is another option.

Let’s use our example of “video marketing services” in these title generators.

First, let’s plug it into the Hubspot Blog Idea Generator:

  1. Video Marketing Services: Expectations vs. Reality
  2. Will Video Marketing Services Ever Rule the World?\
  3. The Next Big Thing in Video Marketing Services
  4. Video Marketing Services Explained in 140 Characters or Less
  5. This Week’s Top Stories About Video Marketing Services

Mostly garbage, right? It does, however, illustrate the way we work to include the phrase in the title.

Next, let’s try the Portent title generator:

  1. The Hunger Games Guide to Video Marketing Services
  2. 8 Freaky Reasons Video Marketing Services Could Get You Fired
  3. How Video Marketing Services Aren’t as Bad as You Think
  4. True Facts About Justin Bieber’s Love of Video Marketing Services
  5. Where Video Marketing Services are Headed in the Next Five Years

These are also pretty rough, but they are unique at the very least. Number five is not terrible, but will this compel our users to click? That’s the question you have to ask yourself.

Do you need a title generator? No, not at all. You can quickly brainstorm 50 ideas with your keywords. Answer the Public (referenced above) provides some great ways to phrase questions around your keywords.

Some of your phrases will require more creativity than others to arrive at a compelling, natural sounding title, but that’s part of the fun.

A Note on Title Length

Let me make it slightly more complicated :)

  1. The perfect blog post title is 60 characters
  2. Titles with 8 to 12 words are shared more often on Twitter
  3. Titles with 12 to 14 words are shared and liked most often on Facebook

Keep those additional thoughts in mind as you work on your list of title ideas.

The Outline

Note: there are many ways to write a blog. The following is just one example format, but it tends to be very successful because it is the same format that many successful public speakers use to present information on a massive scale. It also brings the keyword in at appropriate times for SEO.

Check out our other posts for other templates such as the How To Post, the List-based Post, and Curated Content.

Now onto the layout -

    1. Killer Title (H1 Tag)

      • Use your keyword as discussed above
      • Beautiful Picture or Graphic
      • Ensure that your keyword is in the title of your photo and your alt text in a natural way
    2. Introduction

      • Keep it concise and punchy. Perhaps you can present a common opinion or idea and then disagree or agree with it. Ask a question. Tell them what you are going to say. Anything that will help to excite the reader and warm them up for the main content.
      • Important: Be sure to use your keyword in the first sentence of your first body paragraph.
    3. Main Content

      • The main body is where you support your thesis from your intro. Why do you disagree with the argument? What is the answer to the question? What are the top five reasons that dogs can’t drive? Present the meat of your article here.
      • Use synonyms of your keyword in these supporting paragraphs. You can reuse your keyword if it reads naturally. Don’t force it.
      • Use subheaders to divide up content into easily scannable heading
    4. Conclusion

      • Don’t write your conclusion like an essay in high school but do bring it all together for the reader. Summarize what you said in a clear, concise way and present your commentary as needed.
    5. Feedback/CTA

      • Invite interaction and engagement by providing a space to comment or create a call to action to take users to the next stage of your sales funnel. You can link to a content offer here as well.
    6. Meta Description

      • The meta tag is not part of the post that your users will see, but will be the text that will display on Google search results. This description should be helpful to users in deciding whether or not it solves their query. Include your keyword in the meta info.

Important SEO Areas

These are the areas to ensure you use your keyword to maximize your chances of ranking.*

    1. Title (H1 tag)
    2. First Paragraph
    3. Image Alt Text
    4. URL
    5. Meta Description

*Remember that your main goal should be to create content that is inherently valuable to readers and then focus on SEO and rankings.

Just creating content based on keywords and stuffing them in as many places as possible can get you penalized by Google. The intent of your content should be to present information with practical value.

Avoid fluff content. Don’t waste your users’ time by presenting superficial garbage. Your blog must be high quality, comprehensively answer questions with relevant info, and it must be easy to read across devices.

Conclusion

So is blogging for SEO easy? Yes, once you get the hang of it, but it takes some planning and practice just like most things worth doing. This type of formatting becomes second nature after you write a few posts.

Does this seem like too much trouble?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. HARNESS is an inbound marketing agency that specializes in creating content for each stage of your unique sales funnel. We can help to get you in front of your target customers, taking them from a new visitor to brand evangelist.

LEARN MORE

Why Small Businesses Need to Embrace Digital Marketing

Almost half of all businesses don't have a digital marketing plan in place. Is your company among them?

If so, you need to make some moves. Small business digital marketing is essential for scaling your business in 2018. Advertising is on its way out, and digital marketing is taking the world by storm.

Want to learn more about digital marketing for small businesses, and how to create an effective online marketing plan? Read on to learn more about the importance of digital marketing strategies for small businesses.

It's the Way of the Future

83% of businesses report that their digital marketing tactics are working to grow their business. There's no denying that we live in a digital economy today. Smartphones are so pervasive that people spend 24 hours per week staring at their phone.

In the twenty-first century, you'll find people on digital outlets more than anywhere else. In the past, car passengers would certainly read bus stop benches as they zoomed past on the highway. Now, they stay occupied by the phones in their pockets.

Same goes for other popular forms of advertising, like newspapers, for instance. Every major news outlet has an app now, so people turn to their phones to get the latest news. It's easy, digestible, and usually free.

Even magazines are turning more and more toward digital publication. You'll find fewer places to place print ads in 2018. Those ads won't get beneath nearly as many people's eyes as digital strategies, either.

Connect with Your Ideal Client

One of the most potent uses of digital marketing strategies is to connect you to your ideal client. Digital marketing offers ways to market directly toward the exact demographic you're trying to target. Traditional advertising methods don't allow this direct targeting method.

Here's a social media marketing example. On Instagram, you can find hashtags that your ideal clients are searching on the app. Once you see these hashtags, you can begin to use them on your posts to reach that demographic.

Here's another example relevant to content marketing. By writing a blog and hosting it on your website, you can attract organic leads that are interested in what you have to say.

With some light research, you'll be able to find the questions your client base is asking online. From there, you can even tailor your blog topics to answer those questions directly. With some search engine optimization, this can land your potential clients right onto your website.

Your Small Business Digital Marketing Plan

Digital marketing is the only way to scale your business in 2018. As old traditional advertising methods die out, small business digital marketing has become a much stronger alternative. It's also the best way to reach your target demographic directly.

Want to learn more about how to dive into online marketing for small businesses? We can help there.

We specialize in inbound and video marketing, two of the most significant branch of digital marketing today. Get in touch to find out how we can help you scale your business!


Why Videos Are the Best Tools in Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Why Videos Are the Best Tools in Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Did you know that consumers prefer videos over text when discovering more about brands and products? In fact, four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than to read about it (Source: Hubspot).

Marketers have noticed a surge in engagement, conversions, brand loyalty, and customer experience when leveraging videos in their inbound marketing strategy. Videos have a fantastic way of capturing attention and drawing your audience into your message. It’s one of the best tools to humanizing your brand and getting people to take action.

Let’s review what video and inbound marketing are and why it’s essential today

What is Video and Inbound Marketing?

Let’s begin with inbound marketing. This strategy focuses on attracting ideal prospects and customers to your brand through valuable content that solves problems, educates and informs. Rather than using traditional outbound marketing like cold calling, buying email lists (spam), and ads, inbound embraces sharing content that your audience will find useful and relevant.

As a result, you’ll be viewed as an expert and valuable resource. In a digital era where a search is a top source for finding information, inbound marketing positions you to show up when your audience is looking for you. Therefore, you’re utilizing platforms like your business blog, social media pages, video and podcast channels to share your expertise and give value.

This is a much better approach than chasing prospects…you’re drawing them in, making them more qualified and receptive to your content.

Now, video marketing is a part of your content marketing strategy which is a subset of inbound marketing. You see, your content includes blog articles, images, infographics, email messages, eBooks, checklists, videos and much more. A video is a tool leveraged with the intention of either increasing brand awareness, capturing leads, or generating sales.

Why Videos Are More Effective in an Inbound Marketing Strategy

The benefits of using videos in your inbound marketing strategy abound when you consider the impact and influence it has on moving viewers to action. Videos give your audience a chance to experience your brand’s culture, making you relatable and trustworthy. It significantly bolsters the know, like and trust factor which are key ingredients to getting people to do business with you.

Here are several top reasons why videos are incredibly useful in an inbound marketing strategy:

  • It dramatically improves lead conversions. Including one on a landing page can improve opt-ins by a whopping 80% (Source: Hubspot)
  • Creates more opportunities for customers to find you on Google and YouTube, boosting brand visibility
  • 62% of B2B marketers rated videos as an effective content marketing tactic in 2016
  • Adding video to an email accelerates engagement, leading to a 200-300% increase in click-throughs
  • Allows you to build genuine relationships with your social followers, email list, and potential customers
  • Video appeals to mobile users, a significant benefit since more people use their smartphones than desktops
  • Videos can help explain everything. Whether you’re launching a new product or idea, attempting to explain a difficult concept or need to dive deep into a topic, you can be as creative as you want to help viewers understand

How to Implement Videos in Your Inbound Marketing

With a clear understanding of what video marketing is and how it can positively impact your numbers, the following provides a step-by-step blueprint on how to incorporate it into your inbound marketing strategy:

#1 Be Clear On Your Audience

Having clarity on your target audience and knowing their pains, problems and challenges is the prerequisite to a solid content marketing strategy. One of the best ways to understanding your market is by developing buyer personas. This process will help you to create winning topic ideas that you can share in your videos that appeal to your audience.

#2 Brainstorm Content that Aligns with the Buyer’s Journey

Your viewers will each be at different junctures in the buyer’s journey. This is important to recognize as you want to create videos that target each stage to increase your reach. These include the Awareness, Consideration, and the Decision stage. Think of video content ideas for each stage to have a well-rounded video marketing approach.

#3 Use an Editorial Calendar

Plan, organize and schedule your video content by utilizing an editorial calendar for consistency. By mapping out your topics, you’ll get a holistic view of when your content will publish, so you’re constantly feeding your audience with quality-rich content. Google Calendar is an excellent tool to schedule your videos.

#4 Create and Publish Your Videos

Videos can take on many forms such as YouTube videos, webinars, social videos, and live-streaming video. Decide on the types of videos you will use for your topics and begin publishing.

To create stunning videos that capture attention and exudes your brand personality, leverage a team of experts that can help you stand out in the crowd!

#5 Promote Your Videos

Get more eyeballs on your content by promoting your videos. Synchronize them in your social media, email and blogging strategy for maximum impact. Effectively promoting your videos improves its viewership, SEO ranking (if on YouTube) and brings more significant exposure to your brand.

Conclusion

Videos are one of the best tools you can implement in your inbound marketing strategy. Adding them today can catapult your business goals, increasing brand awareness and generating engagement from your audience. Given the way people consume content online, amplifying your video marketing will position you to reach more of your audience.


Inbound Marketing Strategy - Turning Leads into Customers

Use Inbound Marketing to Turn Leads into Customers

How to Use Inbound Marketing to Turning Leads into Customers

Inbound marketing has revolutionized the industry of marketing through the ease of turning leads into customers. Partnering with outbound marketing, customers and clients are more receptive to the information that pertains specifically to their interests.

 

Customer Relationship Management

Hubspot offers a free CRM software which tracks contact and company information in detail and with ease. If kayaking is your business, then utilizing the inbound technology to send outbound information will have your prospects paddling their way to your company because of your marketing efforts.

 

Email Marketing

Once the CRM is in effect, emailing those who inquired about your outdoor products or services is one of the most useful tools used in obtaining leads. According to Hubspot, "A good email is valuable, relevant, expected and integrated." Customize your email to express your business' unique personality and design while appealing to your customer's specific desires.

 

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring is a fantastic tool that helps to differentiate contacts that are mildly curious from contacts that want your products or services today. It takes the responses and ranks the potential of which connections to follow-up with first.

 

Automation

Marketing automation is a mass of information to reach out to potential prospects. When used with the other inbound marketing tools, it can boost the efforts of encouraging candidates to inquire more about the product or service offered. Utilizing the tools of inbound marketing in conjunction with some outbound is a more effective method of turning leads into customers. Prospects won't feel as invaded and welcome the information that is pertinent to them. Market your company with the proper tools toward its highest potential. Contact Harness today for obtaining more information toward your success.

 

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Hubspot (2016). Free CRM Software for Small Business. Retrieved from http://www.hubspot.com/products/crm

Hubspot (2016). What makes good email marketing. Retrieved from http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-resources/email-marketing

Hubspot (2016). Lead Scoring 101: How to Use Data to Calculate a Basic Lead Score. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-scoring-instructions#sm.000018pfw5o23zelspsh7jp8mi1lq

Hubspot (2016). What is Marketing Automation? Retrieved from http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-automation-information


What Should You Look For in a Digital Marketing Agency

2 Men with laptop facing each other in marketing agency

You've tried juggling your marketing. Either you're doing what you do best—focusing on your core business needs—or you're losing hours on social media and trying to figure out why your website won't work right on mobile. Let's face it. You need a digital marketing agency.

A quick web search gives you plenty of company names. But how do you pick one? How do you differentiate between sizzle and substance? High bills and high conversion?

Here are a few things to look for when selecting the digital marketing agency that's right for you.

Social Media Experts

Content is king. You want a digital marketing agency that has tapped into where your audience gets their media. They should be able to formulate a strategy to put your company on the lips of your target audience. Engagement is key to social media. Will the agency craft a plan that tells your brand story in a way that relates to the audience? Look at how they handle their presence? Has their blog been updated recently? Marketing is ever-evolving. If there hasn't been a blog update in months or if their Twitter feed is empty, it's not the marketing company you should hire.

Adaptable and Innovative

You can't afford to be a step behind. You need to keep up with the competition, or better yet, stay a step ahead. Marketing is always changing. Radio was big. Television was huge. Now, social media is the current forefront of marketing, and the most consumed content is video. Social media platforms are adapting to the content their users want, and that means video. It will be the next cornerstone of inbound marketing.

Strong Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing means motivated customers come to you and want you to market to them. Rather than inundating people with expensive hit-or-miss ads, you generate content and capture an audience. They follow you because you talk to them, you interest them, you engage them. This is less intrusive, often less expensive, and establishes more than leads; it creates repeat conversions.

Flexible and Scalable

Would you wear a one-size-fits-all suit to a meeting with your biggest client? What would you think if a vendor came to meet with you? When choosing a digital marketing agency, why would you choose one that wants to sell your company cookie-cutter solutions? Look for a digital marketing agency that will tailor their services to your business needs. They should respect your firm as the unique entity you've worked so hard to create.

Real Data Analytics

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Data tells you about your buyers and how they are interacting with your company. They can tell you how you're perceived, what campaigns are generating leads, and, more importantly, what strategies are converting leads. Without sufficient data, an agency is fumbling in the dark. Sure, they might have an occasional hit, but they won't know why or how to duplicate their former.

Take your time and evaluate your options. At HARNESS, we tailor our services towards your company's needs to give you the best results. Whether you need us to complement your existing traditional marketing efforts or we're your first foray into working with an agency, our focus is you.

Contact us to harness the power of inbound digital marketing.


inbound marketing strategy

Key Elements to a Winning Inbound Marketing Strategy

inbound marketing strategyInbound marketing is the best way to promote your business online. Leveraging this strategy significantly increases brand exposure, boosts follower engagement, drives traffic to your blog and lead pages, and improves lead and sales conversions. If you want internet marketing success for your company, embracing the inbound methodology is the way to do it.

There are four essential actions in the inbound marketing strategy. Each element must be actively working to achieve the best outcomes in your marketing efforts. Here are the major components, with examples of techniques and tools, you can use to create a winning strategy:

#1 Attract Visitors

The first action is driving traffic to your site…but not just any traffic. The goal is targeted to quality visitors that are interested in your message. Having clarity of your target market is vital to creating content that solves their problems. Once you have established your buyer personas, you can align your entire content marketing strategy including social media, email messages, SEO, blogging content and videos to their interests.

#2 Convert

B2B Companies that blog only 1-2 times per month generate up to 70% more leads than those that don’t (Source: Hubspot). This stat illustrates the power behind the inbound strategy and how it dramatically impacts lead conversions. Convert website visitors into leads by using tools like landing pages, web forms, and lead offers. The key is ensuring your lead magnet is enticing and valuable enough for viewers to give their contact information in exchange.

#3 Close

The third element of an inbound marketing strategy that works is closing your leads into buying customers. It is in the nurturing process where you are grooming prospects to move them closer to a purchasing decision. Email marketing and marketing automation are excellent tools to fostering relationships with your leads that build trust. Thus, wanting to do business with you.

#4 Delight

You’ve earned a new customer…good work! But it doesn’t end there. This final step to inbound marketing is where you build loyal, raving fans who proudly promote you to their networks. How do you make this transition? By continuing to feed valuable content that resonates with your audience. Tools such as surveys and social monitoring are ways to gain feedback to improve your customer initiatives and create amazing experiences.

Ensuring that these four ingredients are working in your inbound strategy is imperative to achieving online marketing success. When executed correctly, you will maintain a steady flow of traffic, leads, sales and returning clients to your business.

For help on creating an inbound marketing strategy that increases your brand exposure and improves online conversions, contact us here for a schedule consultation. We are ready to help get you to your next level.


15 Things You Should Know About Marketing Automation

A new year is just around the corner. Many see that as the perfect time to transform their personal lives. Why not make it the perfect time to implement marketing automation as your advertising strategy? If you are not already using marketing automation, here are 15 things your boss wish you knew about it and why it should be your strategy of choice for better performance throughout 2017.

1. Productivity Increases with Marketing Automation:

Take advantage of software that automates the processes of an effective marketing campaign. Make better use of your time with automated solutions for customer segmentation, integrating customer data into a campaign strategy and managing a campaign. For example, create and schedule an entire month's worth of social media posts in a single day.

2. Workflow Efficiency:

Automate the following repetitive tasks: data processing of information collected on forms, managing calls to action (CTAs), generating conversion reports, etc. Complex tasks are smoothly delivered with accuracy through automation.

3. Channel Agnosticism:

A single platform can tie together all cyber venues for a campaign, as well as integrate multiple online tools. This increases your brand's visibility and also allows for customer interaction by the method they prefer. For example:

  • Email
  • SEO
  • Social Media
  • CRM Tools
  • Texting

4. Revenue Growth:

The numbers do not lie.

  • 78% of high-performing marketers credit marketing automation for revenue improvement.
  • 68% of companies whose growth is surpassing their competitors use automated marketing strategies.
  • 34% is the average revenue increase for businesses using marketing automation.
  • 10% revenue increases have been reported within 6-9 months of beginning a marketing automation strategy.

5. Customer Retention:

Once a company makes the sale they need to keep a client coming back. Customer insight abilities of marketing automation imbue it with the capacity to gather intelligence on customers, discover their needs and analyze their decision-making process. This information can, in turn, be used to develop methods of engagement that are more appealing to the customer, increasing the likelihood of customer retention.

6. Data, Data, Data:

If you cannot track and monitor a campaign, you cannot measure its success. Campaign managers have access to graphs, statistics and report an analysis of data that are easy to review and utilize. At a glance, you can know which strategies are working and which have bombed. Making the most of the data maximizes leads and conversion rates.

7. Relationship Marketing:

Customer satisfaction is just as important as generating sales leads. A satisfied customer will become a brand loyalist that can also do the work of a brand ambassador. Marketing automation makes it possible to personalize strategies for particular customer relationships through digital footprint analysis, lead qualification, and marketing alignment. By defining specific restrictions, a laser-focused list of customers can be generated to receive a text or email designed especially for them.

8. Consistency:

Mainly where social media and blogs are concerned, consistency matters. Users and viewers become accustomed to the content being posted on particular days, perhaps even specific times during those days. Life happens. Any number of reasons could disrupt a regular post that customers have come to rely on. Marketing automation will deliver the content consistently.

9. Value:

Maximize revenue potential through the value of automated marketing. Time is money. Manpower is money. An automated process saves both as it makes the most of your resources. Industry research reports a potential of 50% more hot leads at a third of the cost.

10. Simplicity:

You do not have to be a technology wizard to manage an automated marketing strategy. Most software solutions are designed like a template that guides the user through the process.

11. Lead Generation:

80% of businesses engaging in marketing automation enjoyed more leads. Qualified leads increased by an incredible 451%.

12. Lead Nurturing:

Marketers report that creating better leads is the number one benefit of marketing automation. On average, nurturing leads resulted in a 47% larger purchase.

13. Detailed Customer Profiles:

It is easy to create customer profiles filled with the perfect kind of data to help marketers create more effective ad campaigns. Data such as:

  • Opened email.
  • Email responses.
  • Purchases.
  • Selected preferences.

14. Conversion:

77% of businesses who employed a marketing automation campaign increased their conversions.

15. Accuracy:

A campaign is only as good as its data. By automating, you can take out the one element that contributes to error, the human element. Whether it is spelling, punctuation, or number crunching, humans get it wrong quite often. One digit or a single letter can mean a complete fail with something like email delivery. Automate and get it right.

To get started on your automated marketing campaign strategy, please contact us. Our experts are ready to help you harness the potential of data automation and put it to work so that your business can grow.

 

 


5 Important Aspects Your Video Marketing Campaign Should Include

Are you using video marketing the right way? Video Marketing is an effective way to reach out to customers while keeping them engaged and interested in your material. Customers can get all of the information they need through a video in just seconds. So how do you optimize video marketing to make your campaign even better? Here are five methods:

 

Schedule your Videos

As you may have discovered, scheduling your social media is an effective way to release posts consistently and at the optimal time for engagement. You should do the same thing with your videos. Be creative with it. Instead of releasing unrelated videos, come up with a topic and put together a series of related videos that will tell a story to you customers. Remember, you can also utilize this tactic to lead up to a big announcement, launch or event.

Take Advantage of Micro-videos

Micro-videos are all the rage right now on social media. Making small videos through apps is a smart way to promote your product on social media as customers scroll through their social media feeds. Consider using Vine or Instagram to make videos. Make them entertaining so your audience will want to watch them.

Tutorial and Tips: Implementing tutorials in your video marketing campaign is a way to keep customers coming back to your site. Some may think that providing tutorials and tips is giving away your company’s secrets, but in actuality it makes customers look for you as a point of reference. This will also keep customers coming back because they will look for more videos hoping that there are a series of tutorials.

User-generated Content: Let your customers be on camera sometimes. This allows customers to be involved with your brands and give genuine thoughts on something related to your brands. Instead of making a script, customers can come up with their material. You can even incentivize users to create content by awarding the best video. This will show people how passionate others are about your product.

Call-to-Action: Tell your users what to do after watching. Provide a description of next steps in your video. Without this, your customers will have no idea what to do after watching. An example of a call-to-action can be a coupon code, or you can even offer a discount to customers who mention your video on their social media. Another method is to utilize a “turnstile” to capture emails to view the video if the content is particularly valuable. Finally, a call-to-action button, such as a “buy now” or “learn more” button, can be utilized to drive traffic to a landing page to drive traffic and increase conversions.

Now that you’ve learned how to optimize your video marketing campaign, you can stand out from other products or marketing companies. For more information on video, marketing stays in touch with Harness on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.