digital marketing

The Difference between Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing

September 30, 2020 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing are the same things, right? It’s a question that I often receive from business owners, marketers, and sales executives. Content marketing is associated with being an approach while Inbound marketing is identified as a way of doing business.

Content is an important part of inbound marketing but that doesn’t mean that content always equals content marketing. There are tactics that exist outside of the scope of content marketing that are specific to inbound marketing such as SEO, social posting, etc.. Limiting your approach will limit the potential impact your marketing efforts will have on revenue growth. Your approach will also have an impact on the skills, talents, and tools needed to execute.

What is Content Marketing?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience to drive profitable customer action.

70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. (HubSpot, 2020)

Source: Content Marketing Institute

This approach takes into account creating and distributing content. It focuses on telling the story, the most effective channel to deliver the story, and engaging in conversations. Often people think of it as brand awareness and good content is the foundation of any marketing campaign.

Types of Content Marketing

Content marketing is presented in several types of or formats such as:

Blogs
Video Content
Ebooks
Guides
Case Studies
Resources
Newsletters
Podcasts

What is Inbound Marketing?

HubSpot defines inbound marketing as a business methodology that attracts customers by
creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t always want, inbound marketing forms connections they are looking for and solves problems they already have.

This approach takes into account the buyer journey and the overall user experience. It’s not so much about the products or services, rather, it is about solving the challenges potential customers are facing at every stage.

Source: HubSpot

Types of Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing often consists of the following:

Blogging
Search Engine Optimization
Social Media Management (Posting)
Video Marketing
Ad Development & Landing Pages
Content Creation
Email Marketing

Does the Approach Really Matter?

It’s about creating pieces of content that delivers results for your target audience. Determine your approach and start with a content marketing strategy or inbound marketing strategy. All of your content should conclude with a “call to action”. A call to action is an invitation for the users to take the desired action. For example, “Subscribe to our blog to get the latest in your inbox weekly!”

How to measure the success of the content and inbound marketing?

Before you start with the content or inbound, evaluate your ability to measure the results. For example, if your content or landing page says “Call Now!”, I recommend that you:

Have a method to measure the number of telephone calls received as a result (call tracking).
Determine the goals and objectives for each piece of content associated with your approach.
Create a list of key metrics that you’ll track and record periodically.

In our experience, keep it simple with engagement metrics and expand from there. Don’t be afraid to test new ideas and delivery methods.

3 Ways Businesses Are Changing Their Marketing Due To COVID-19

September 8, 2020 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Everyone has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we know that many small and medium sized businesses are feeling particularly vulnerable right now. Brick-and-mortar retailers are looking for new ways to sell amidst a number of physical challenges; doctor’s offices are looking to assuage doubts about in-person visits; and online businesses want to attract new customers.

Whatever your situation, a half-year of varied customer responses to COVID-19 have given us some insights into the marketing trends that are working and what to expect in 2020 — and beyond. While we all know consumers have shifted more online, businesses need to structure their marketing teams to best tap into that traffic, communicate more effectively, and ensure that social media gets increased attention.

Marketing Goes Digital

The most obvious marketing response prompted by COVID-19 has been the acceleration of digital. Stay-at-home orders, physical distancing, and remote work & school have changed the way consumers shop and interact. Naturally, businesses are shifting how they attract new clients and retain long-time ones. Deloitte outlines four marketing keys for organizations to make the shift a smooth transition:

Keep Your Team Connected – Ensure your team has the resources needed to effectively communicate and coordinate with each other and customers
Engage Customers with Unified Empathy – Listen to your customer and ensure the interactions they are having with your brand are consistent across channels
Personalize Digital Experiences – Now is the time shift resources into digital techniques such as remarketing ads to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time
Optimize Marketing Resources – Now more than ever, you need analytics experts in your corner to ensure you’re leveraging the wealth of information at your fingertips

Especially when engaging with potential clients, you need to create personalized journeys across the channels and in the settings that they are now using. For example, in recent months, we have seen a sharp reversal in the trend away from mobile devices as at-home users move back to desktop. Without a careful adjustment to your SEO strategy, your website might have the wrong focus, leading to lost customers. You also need to carefully consider how your customers can and will interact with your business. As customers expect a seamless experience, your service channels must deliver a consistent message to maintain loyalty.

Communicate Availability

According to McKinsey, the availability of products and services is the number one reason customers are switching their brand allegiance. For marketers, this means a number of things. The most obvious (if most difficult) tactic is to increase the days of inventory on-hand of products or the availability of time slots for services. With more people working from home and many kids learning remotely, some physicians and doctors offices with whom we work have reconsidered staffing toward more daytime slots and fewer night and weekend hours.

But what if the overseas lead time for your products precludes increasing stock levels? This is where timely communication is paramount. Depending on industry, we’ve seen returning traffic increases of up to 1200% in the months following the COVID-19 pandemic, as users return again and again to a website. For high-volume items, consider placing a banner on your cite to indicate when the product will be in-stock. If you aren’t collecting customer emails, now is the perfect time to create a subscriber list so that you can be proactive with notifying customers of availability.

Social Holds The Key To 2021

Organizations should be prepared to dedicate more resources to social media marketing in 2020 and beyond. Social media budgets accounted for almost one-quarter of total US marketing budgets this summer, up from 13% this winter. During the pandemic, marketers are increasingly making customer retention a priority. Presented with a list of 5 objectives and asked to choose their primary one, more than twice as many marketing leaders pointed to customer retention (32.6%) as acquisition (14%).

And the primary method businesses are using to engage and retain is social media. Your customers are looking for ways to interact with others in a social-distanced world; to connect with others and even to be distracted from everything that’s going on. Social media is the perfect platform for brands to engage with customers in this way and create opportunities for now and into the future. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn can help you start and maintain meaningful conversations with your most important assets.

Toward Marketing In 2021

Being prepared for the post-COVID world means setting up your marketing and customer service teams for success, communicating more effectively, and ensuring that you’re having good conversations with your clients and leads. Stop wasting valuable resources on pre-pandemic tactics — re-allocate your marketing spend to attract and engage the right customers, in the right place, at the right time. If you still have questions, contact DaBrian Marketing Group today.

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How to Transition Marketing Staff and Hand Over the Reins

August 19, 2020 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

In the COVID-19 world, we’re all just trying to survive. That includes navigating remote work, medical leave, layoffs, and co-workers leaving their existing jobs for opportunities that are better for their families. Keeping all of it organized and everyone on the same page is more important than ever. That’s why we’ve put together a marketing checklist of things that businesses should do while in the transition to better position their employees and marketing departments for success.

Ensure You Know What Marketing Projects are In Progress

There is always work to be done so make sure that you know what projects are in progress so you can plan accordingly and assign responsibilities to existing employees or a new hire. Look to understand the role, deadlines, and the employee’s involvement in all projects. I recommend that you gather a list of projects, the employees, the deadlines, and specific responsibilities all in writing so you have a reference document. Depending on the complexity, consider project management software that includes a marketing project template, such as Asana.

Obtain Marketing Plans, Strategies, Goals & Objectives

Collect all existing versions of marketing plans, strategies, goals, and objectives for your existing employees. These documents should have insights that will help the next employee or marketing agency hit the ground running! Find out how you are tracking progress against annual and quarterly goals and objectives. This should save you time, money, and the effort of creating marketing plans or strategy from start to finish. New to marketing strategy? Start by getting your digital marketing priorities in order.

Get Key Contact Information for Marketing, Sales, and IT

Collect the contact information of key players in marketing, sales, and IT. This list of key contacts should include internal and external stakeholders. These contacts will be able to provide historical information and insight into existing marketing projects and marketing plans. Make sure key information is shared with your team.

Gather all of the information about the marketing department so that the next person has an idea of how things work. For example, you should have organizational charts, product/service information, process guides, manuals, etc. These documents will provide your people with a sense of direction, knowledge of processes, and points of contact that will make it easier to get work done.

Examine Marketing Vendor & Partnership Agreements

In most cases, you will have multiple vendors or partners to help with different aspects of your marketing. For example, who do you use for print materials, hosting, and digital marketing solutions? It’s also important to understand what you own versus what you rent. Some web design agencies will say that you own your website but you cannot move it to another web host or agency. Considering company downsizing and the amount of remote work currently being done, it’s key that you examine your agreements to ensure you’re still getting the services that you were promised. Acquire all agreements and make sure you understand the scope of work.

Do not hesitate to contact these vendors and providers to assure yourself of these services and promises. In the post-COVID world, it is imperative to be sure you are receiving what you are paying for. Six months into this new environment, your business partners, by this time, should have their feet on the ground and operating efficiently and effectively to serve you. If not, perhaps reexamine your partnership.

Inventory Your Marketing Tools

Depending on the complexity of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, it could cost your business anywhere between $12 to $300 per month for each user. Build a list of all of your marketing and sales tools. This list of marketing tools will give you information to show you where you are overspending or have redundant tools. Understanding what tools you have will help you to transition duties to another employee and obtain support to get the most out of your tools. In my experience, it would be wise to start your marketing and sales list with your CRM, email marketing platform, social media publishing tool, etc. because these are commonly used among businesses no matter the industry.

Know What Reports the Employee is Accountable For

The marketing department usually has daily, weekly, and monthly reporting which funnel into executive reporting. Request an example of these reports for your reference. Our clients have had success in having discussions about who is responsible, what and where are the data sources, what is the process, and who needs to receive these reports and by what date.

Schedule an Exit Interview & Revisit the Job Description

If an employee is leaving the marketing department voluntarily, you need to gain insight into why. According to Harvard Business Review, exit interviews are key to long-term business success as they help you to keep a pulse on functional units, improve processes, and increase retention. The employee’s feedback can help you to improve the job description for future candidates or uncover issues that need to be addressed. It will also help you in the decision-making process when determining if you will choose your internal employees or outsource some of your marketing efforts.

Create an Onboarding Plan for Staff

Develop an onboarding plan for new employees, transitions in responsibilities for staff, or your new marketing partners. This plan should include obtaining access to marketing tools and internal resources, documentation, training materials, and meetings to confirm or validate their learning as well as capabilities. You’ll see better results by scheduling recurring meetings to measure progress for the first 90 days and throughout the year.

Moving On From Marketing Staff or Ad Agency

According to Spencer Stuart’s 16th annual CMO Tenure Study, the average tenure for Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) decreased from 43 months to 41 months in 2018. You have to weigh the pros and cons of internal staff versus a strategic marketing partner. Going through these steps that we’ve outlined here, give you the information to change processes and procedures, identify talent, and position your business for success with internal, external, or a combination of all marketing resources.

Like what you’ve read? Have we inspired you and given you a springboard for moving your marketing department and business into the post-COVID business arena? Access more valuable information regularly by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media.

Drive Web Traffic With Paid Digital Advertising

February 28, 2020 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

You have a great looking website, but this is not Field Of Dreams. Just because you built it does NOT mean people will come. So, how do you increase traffic to your website? Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, etc… Where should you start???

Here are a few questions to consider:

Is your website mobile-friendly?
Is your content clear and concise?
Is it easy to achieve the end goal on your website?
Do you have a budget to acquire more traffic?
Do you need web traffic immediately?

While all of the above listed options are valid methods to increase traffic, some take time (SEO), or require an existing audience (Email and Social Media.) However, if you answered “Yes” to all the above questions, then you are ready to run Paid Digital Advertising. Running Paid Ads isn’t quite that simple. What kind of ads – Search, Display, Video or Shopping? Where will these Ads be shown – Search Engines, across the internet, on Social Media? And very possibly the most important how will you reach your desired audience (targeting settings)?

While this blog will never answer all your possible questions about Paid Digital Advertising, let’s at least tackle some of the big ones.

1. Type of Paid Digital Ads

Search Ads – Context based ads that appear above and below Search Results. These ads consist of Headlines, Body Copy, URL and often various Extensions (ie. location, phone numbers and other additional information.)

Display Ads – Image ads that show on various sites above, below, next to, and among a websites content. Since these ads are not the primary reason a person comes to the given website, they need to grab their attention and give them a reason to click.

Video Ads – Often shown before, after or during a desired video similar to a tv commercial. Again, this ad needs to distract a person from their desired video and give them a reason to click.

Shopping Ads – Product focused with the goal for selling typically via an ecommerce site.

2. Placement of Paid Digital Ads

Search Engines – Seems obvious, but Search Ads are shown on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP.)

Display Network – Display Ads can show almost anywhere on the web. There are several Display Networks with the most popular being the Google Display Network (GDN) which boasts to include over 2 million websites,videos and mobile apps. Since videos are included in the Display Network, your video ads will show on this network along with your display ads

Shopping Ads – These ads mostly shown on Search Engine Shopping sections (Google and Bing). However, depending on targeting setting your shopping ads could also be Display ads and therefore be shown across the Display Network.

Social Media Advertising – Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and several other social media platforms have their own Advertising platform. These ads are often similar to display ads, since they are often shown along the side of the page and are not based upon a search, but rather other targeting settings (geographic, demographic and more.)

3. Target Audience

The success of your Ads ultimate starts with your targeting settings. Even with the greatest Ads (search, display or other) shown to the wrong audience will never succeed, While Search Ads are primarily targeting and shown based on what a user searches, there are several other targeting settings involved. A short list of setting that can (and should) be setup on most, if not all, Paid Digital Advertising campaigns:

Geographic Location
Day Parting/Time of Day
Demographics (Gender, Age, Parental Status, Household Income)
Interest/Topics (for Display Campaigns)
Bidding Strategy
Device Targeting/Bid Adjustments
ReMarketing/Similar Audiences/In-Market Audiences

Following this very oversimplified process to setting up your Paid Digital Advertising will help put you on the path to not only driving web traffic but also growing your business and bottom line. However this is only getting you setup, you will still need to monitor and optimize your Paid Advertising campaigns on a regular basis.

Ready to Start your Paid Digital Advertising? Want Help setting up, monitoring and optimizing your Advertising Campaigns, or just have additional questions – Contact DaBrian Marketing Today.

Need a new website? WordPress could be the answer

September 5, 2018 by Mark Mapp Leave a Comment

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular and free open source content management system (CMS) in the world. It allows WordPress developers to create websites, blogs, or apps. WordPress offers over 45,000 add-ons known as plugins. These plugins add features such as online stores, mailing lists, analytics and a lot more.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphic design of a website. The theme can change the way a website is displayed without changing the code. The theme files are sometimes called template files. There are thousands of WordPress themes available for purchase. You can also hire a WordPress developer to create or edit a theme to customize it for your business.

What is a WordPress Framework?

WordPress frameworks are used as a parent theme template with all of the functionality. WordPress developers can create a child theme to add custom styling and leave the functionality to the parent theme framework or template. The framework is used to reduce web development time and usually has additional features. Canvas, Gantry, and Genesis are common WordPress Frameworks.

What are the features & benefits of a WordPress website?

WordPress is great for businesses with simple structured websites. It has basic installation, set-up, and maintenance requirements to save businesses time and money. WordPress is a useful CMS with a simple web interface for companies that want to provide their visitors with frequently changing content in attractive layouts. WordPress has a large community of users and developers that offer a huge selection of themes, plugins, and widgets with much flexibility.

Can You Create a Mobile Responsive WordPress Website?

Yes, WordPress website can be mobile responsive! Often, outdated WordPress software and themes are the cause of poor mobile sites. Choosing the right WordPress Framework can give you a mobile responsive website and better load time to help the user navigate with ease.

We recommend focusing on mobile first and working your way up to desktop computers. Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for faster load speed, better user experience, and to lower the website bounce rate. Remember, Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content in the search engine results and ranking.

How to Improve Slow Loading Speeds for WordPress Websites?

According to a report by Microsoft Bing search team, a 2-second longer delay in page responsiveness reduces user satisfaction by 3.8%. It increases lost revenue per user by 4.3% and decreases clicks to the website by 4.3%.

I would recommend good hosting with Private or Dedicated hosting services to reduce the number of site on the server and daily backups. Implement the Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve slow loading speeds whenever offered by the hosting service. Use an established WordPress theme and framework because they are updated to improve load speed as well as security. You can have a developer optimize the website for speed by optimizing images, the database, and code.

How to Avoid Stale Content & Build a Brand?

WordPress can help you create, publish, update, and archive old content or information. You can use SEO plugins like Yoast or SmartCrawl to improve the content for search engines. Adding widgets can help to populate a page with social media posts or sales promotions. The blog functionality is simple for you to both use, and to update to avoid stale content.

Use WordPress to offer different types of content to potential customers. Reuse content in other formats such as videos, infographics, podcast and PDF downloads. You can build brand awareness and manage an online reputation, too. The reviews plugins can help manage business reviews.

How to Maintain a WordPress Website?

The average lifespan of a website is 2-5 years. The maintenance of a WordPress website is essential to maintain features, functionality, and security. Outdated WordPress website software, themes, and plugins leave sites vulnerable to hackers.

A WordPress website should receive scheduled monthly maintenance to update the software, theme, and plugins. Whenever possible, remove all deactivated plugins from the site. Audit the website for broken links on the website with a broken link checker. Do not hurt your search engine ranking, create a bad user experience, or give the idea that your business does not exist. With proper maintenance, WordPress can provide the answer for your business website needs.

Still have questions? Contact our sales team for a free consultation or submit your questions in the comments section.

4 Steps To Find Your Brand Voice

July 19, 2018 by Michael Sanders Leave a Comment

Congratulations! You’ve just launched a new service and are eager to create a strong online presence. Or perhaps you’ve just been given the green light for your business’s first website redesign since Al Gore invented the internet. Either way, you’re ready to start the process of crafting a winning digital brand strategy. However, before you start shouting your message to anyone and everyone, there are some important things you need to consider.

The Importance of Brand Voice

First, you need to establish your brand’s voice, or how you plan to consistently express your brand through words. While images, videos, and podcasts have grown in importance, text-based communication remains critical to online marketing. Relatable language lends credibility to your message and can contain the keywords that your customers are searching for.

While you can certainly improvise and have some success, by not having a defined brand voice you risk confusing your audience with different messages. And since 83 percent of customer loyalty is driven by trust, mixing your messages makes turning first-time customers into returning customers that much harder.

Instead, consider how you’re going to communicate your value before you start a conversation with the audience. The process can be broken down into four easy steps:

1. Define Your Major Brand Traits

Think of a few words or phrases that describe your business, your product, or your culture. Are you professional or fun? A thought leader or a product innovator? Whatever words or phrases you choose, these brand traits will form the foundation of your company’s marketing efforts and the cornerstone of your brand voice.

The characteristics should reflect the value you aim to provide. Do your B2B customers want to hear that you’re adventurous? Maybe not. But if you sell gaming products, that trait might resonate with a large segment of your target audience.

2. Convey Why You’re Different

Odds are, the traits you’ve chosen to reflect your company aren’t exactly unique. We get it: here at DaBrian, we’re also quirky and authentic. Remember, you’re trying to reach the same buyers as competitors in your industry. This means there’s a good chance that you’re all defining yourselves in similar ways. However, if you can move past the “what” and the “how” to convey the “why” to your listeners, you can quickly set yourself apart from the crowd.

The WHY is about what a company believes in, not about what you make or how you make a profit. So extend each of your key defining traits so that they begin to tell a story. If one of your traits is “irreverent”, have a plan to explain why you’re irreverent. People want to hear your David vs. Goliath origin story, not the latest software features you offer. Influential companies link their purpose with their brand voice to convey why they are different.

3. Give Your Voice a Break and Listen Up

This is a key step that many companies skip in their rush to spread their messages. Don’t forget that the audience you’re trying to reach probably has its own way of communicating. Take a break from developing your own brand voice and tune in to what your peers, competitors, leads, and customers are saying.

Every industry has jargon that you need to be careful to include – or avoid – in your own messaging. Brands that fail to embrace the language of their target audiences come off as outsiders who don’t care about the people they want to work with. Companies that listen develop stronger brand voices, and come across as consultants instead of the latest in a long line of product pushers.

4. Put Brand Voice into Action

Once you’ve agreed on a few unique traits for your brand voice and confirmed that they align with your audience and industry, it’s time to put your plan into action. Extend your voice characteristics to include a few practical “do’s” and “don’ts” for your marketing team. If your brand voice includes “passion”, you might give the direction to include strong action verbs and to take a stand, even on controversial issues. You might also tell your marketers to avoid passive voice and lukewarm endorsements.

Lastly, make sure your team is on-board. Your brand voice needs to be clearly articulated to everyone in your organization as part of your overall brand guidelines. Go through examples of content that hit the mark. And show content that misses the mark, and make suggestions to fix it. Doing so will provide clarity for your content team and ensure that your brand voice is consistent across your marketing channels.

Conclusion

Developing your brand voice is crucial to conveying your brand’s personality and authenticity to potential customers. With just a few unique traits that resonate with your target audience, you’ll be on your way to digital content that builds brand awareness and customer loyalty.

For more information about brand elements to consider when designing digital content, contact us or leave us a comment below!