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05 Feb 2018
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Stay Ahead of the Curve with Marketing Automation

Sticky Post By On February 5, 2018

The needs and desires of potential prospects are constantly changing in today’s market. Marketing automation allows you to keep up with these changes by automating many of the critical pieces of your campaigns.

This includes emails, social media posts, web content and much more. In addition, marketing automation measures the success rate of this content, which helps you better understand your target audience. Through this learning process, you can create more effective and targeted content.

Marketing automation streamlines your campaigns, providing your team with more time and control over all marketing efforts. Both big and small companies alike can benefit from a streamlined process.

Read the full blog post at GreenFig University to learn the best practices and platforms to use.

12 Jan 2018
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Lead Management: Maximize Your ROI

Sticky Post By On January 12, 2018

If you want to see a drastic improvement in the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns this year, lead management might be your answer.

Every good lead management process begins by determining the makeup of the potential customer (known as the lead) and taking them on a concise and nurturing journey. The layout of this journey is based around certain trends, such as their buying habits. A successful journey ends with them being passed on to the sales team.

In addition, the lead management process produces reports on this customer journey, from the time a lead enters the funnel to their purchase. It is essential that the sales and marketing team work in tandem in order to increase conversion rates while shortening the duration of the process. (Here’s a checklist to help you understand what it takes to get sales and marketing aligned.)

Despite the importance of lead management, many marketers struggle to obtain high-quality leads. What are some ways you can incorporate an effective lead management process into your marketing strategy?

BeWhys’s Sue Hay and Jerine Erice have partnered up to teach a class on lead management for GreenFig University. Read the full blog post at GreenFig’s blog.

01 Oct 2017
Sticky Post By Posted in Social Media Permalink

Is Marketing On Snapchat Worth It?

Sticky Post By On October 1, 2017

Technology is ever-changing. A golden rule in marketing is to stay up to date with these changing trends to maximize ROI. A large portion of this technology phenomenon is social marketing. This includes the major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. There are newer platforms, however, and one in particular that marketers are often curious about: Snapchat.

Released in September 2011, Snapchat offered features the world had not yet seen: photos and messages that are only accessible for a short period of time. With the primary purpose of sending multimedia messages, or “snaps,” it played on the consumer’s new obsession with sharing images. These snaps have a fun twist and consist of photos or short videos that are often edited with various filters and effects, text captions and drawings. Snapchat is a widely popular social media platform for consumers, but is it worth it for marketers? In this post, we’ll uncover the value of Snapchat for marketing in 2017 to help determine whether it is worth it to spend valuable time and money on the platform.

Growth Rates

Both Facebook and Instagram are growing at rapid paces and continue to dominate the social scene. In April 2017, Instagram announced it has 700 million active users – four months after reaching 600 million. Facebook continues to increase 17 percent year-over-year, with 1.32 billion daily active users in June 2017.

In contrast, Snapchat has seen some disappointing growth rates. The launch of Instagram Stories (a clone of Snapchat) is not helping speed up the platform’s user rates. In fact, Instagram Stories now has 200 million daily active users which still beats Snapchat’s 173 million daily active users.

Analytics companies and social media celebrities told TechCrunch they had seen Snapchat view counts drop between 15 percent and 40 percent thanks to Instagram Stories. More and more users and companies are beginning to share and watch stories on Instagram. Instagram has had such an impact on Snapchat’s growth, that in February 2017 it was reported that Snap’s growth fell almost 82 percent. This is a probably a good warning sign that it is in most companies’ best interest to advertise on the other platforms that have more reach and potential.

Who should use Snapchat?

Typically, most brands that advertise on Snapchat are in the B2C space and are producing a lot of fresh content (Daily Mail, for example) or a CPG (consumer product goods) company. These brands need advertising platforms that reach a wider audience. Typically, the wider the audience, the more money required to get the best social marketing ROI. Brands such as Gatorade, Dominos and Under Armour have the budget to reach this wider audience and have seen success. Brands like these are also targeting a young demographic, tailoring their Snapchat content to meet the specific needs.

Target audience matters, since 71 percent of Snapchat users are under 34 years old. This makes Snapchat a potentially great tool for reaching a younger demographic. If your company has an older demographic or broader target audience, other social media platforms may prove more effective.

It is important to know that Snapchat is generally a more expensive advertising platform than both Facebook and Instagram, and that tends to keep marketers away. Both Instagram and Facebook use a cost-per-click model. Depending on the ad type, the minimum daily budget is between $1 and $5. However, Snapchat’s regular ad model consists of cost-per-impression. Their minimum spending requirement is a whopping $40,000 per month. Marketers also have the option of a cost-per-swipe model for ad units such as sponsored geofilters, which can also add up. However, smaller business do have options for local geofilters with a smaller reach, which can cost as low as $5.

Due to the nature of the platform, Snapchat ads disappear after a few seconds, increasing the difficulty of a potential customer remembering the ad. This also provides the advertiser with less ROI, as Snapchat ads with a broader reach are much more expensive. If you want to optimize your budget while still reaching a broader audience, Facebook and Instagram are the better choices. Not only are these ads more affordable, but they are longer lasting as well.

The Consensus

The narrow scope of businesses that Snapchat works for and the impeding growth next to Facebook and Instagram Stories are all signs that social media marketing should be centered around the powerhouse platforms. Yes, as marketers, it is important to stay up to date on the latest technology and to find your audience where they are. But, Snapchat may not effectively optimize your budget and help you reach your desired target market. As shown in this blog, Snapchat reaches a limited audience (unless you have a massive social marketing budget) and has seen plummeting growth rates. Facebook and Instagram, on the other hand, are dominating the social space right now and are worth your marketing efforts. Our consensus is to stick to social platforms that deliver ROI and give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Do you need additional help or have any questions? BeWhys Marketing can help you stay on track for a successful social marketing campaign. Contact us today!

 

01 Sep 2017
Sticky Post By Posted in Social Media Permalink

Beyond LinkedIn: Marketing in the Social Media Age

Sticky Post By On September 1, 2017

Social media has changed the structure and layout of traditional marketing campaigns. With so many options at our disposable, marketers face a constant battle of capturing and holding the attention of potential customers. Proper social marketing can positively increase sales. According to a report by Converto and AOL Platforms, social media is proven to be essential to the lead conversion process, adding a high level of brand awareness that bridges the gap between the initial interaction with a lead and the point of conversion.

It’s essential that marketers know how to use social media platforms to their advantage and properly develop campaigns that maximize the success of their strategy.

Marketing on LinkedIn

With an array of tools at our disposal, LinkedIn no longer provides the same value it used to. Once known as the professional medium of social marketing, its more user-centric applications now present some limitations. This includes a more challenging approval process, which determines what content will be featured on the platform. The new specifications impact the type of content that is created and the approach tactic for lead generation and advertising.

Even though there are new API-restricting limitations on LinkedIn, the user interface has recently become much more aesthetically appealing. Pulse (LinkedIn’s publishing platform) and sponsored content are still viable ways to reach your audience and promote top-of-funnel marketing content. Just remember to consider all social media platforms when developing your marketing strategy, not just LinkedIn.

Social Tools for Marketers

Other social media platforms allow marketers to have more flexibility in terms of content, lead approach and advertising. In contrast with LinkedIn, these other platforms reach a broader audience (not just professional contacts, but other potential consumers as well). The value of social media in establishing a loyal customer base is immense. According to Ambassador, 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others.

Use social media as an effective customer service tool to increase brand engagement and win new customers. With the right tools, marketers have found ways to find success with more flexibility and control of their campaigns, which can ultimately result in higher conversion rates. It is crucial to analyze the success rate of your campaigns in order to optimize your budget and create more effective content that speaks to your target market. There are services out there that provide top-notch analytics for you. Are you ready to take your social media campaigns to the next level? Here are some favorite tools used by marketers to optimize and manage their social media campaigns:

  1. Sprout Social is a one-stop social marketing tool to help manage campaigns on any social media platform. It assists with the delegation of tasks and communication amongst team members. In addition to this organizational factor, Sprout Social allows you to schedule posts and analyze the success of your campaign.
  2. Buffer is known amongst marketers as one of the top social marketing tools. Not only does it allow you to schedule posts on any social media platform, but it also offers an analysis of each post so that you can determine the success rate of your strategy.
  3. BuzzSumo helps you stay up-to-date on relevant, trending content. Learn about content that can help shape your campaigns as well as discover relevant influencers who can help you gain visibility and following on your social platform.
  4. Tagboard helps you keep track of trends. Stay up-to-date on current hashtags and topics that are relevant to your industry. This will prove to be valuable information when creating content that speaks to your target audience.
  5. Everypost simplifies your research process by pulling together multimedia from YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, etc. This information allows you to create relevant and specific content, optimizing your posts.
  6. Social media is very image-focused. Visage helps you design social media graphics that are in line with the brand style. Consistency across your platforms helps make your brand recognizable to your audience.
  7. It is very important to remain customer-focused in your social media campaigns. Audisense assists with your audience management, and allows you to discover new leads and understand the needs of your current audience through tracking and analytics.
  8. Socialbakers provides overall insight and recommendations that help optimize your budget and improve your content.

Social marketing can help you reach an untapped market. So why waste the opportunity? Collaborate with your team to create viable and targeted social marketing campaigns. It is also important to seek help from professionals who are experienced in content strategy and lead management. With the right content and strategy, your company could use social marketing to generate awareness, generate leads and convert customers.

Have questions? BeWhys Marketing can help you stay on track for a successful social media marketing campaign. Contact us today!

01 Aug 2017
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How to Build a Cost-Effective Website

Sticky Post By On August 1, 2017

To build a successful website for your business, there are certain steps you should follow. The purpose of a website is to support your business and engage your audience where they are (which, today, is online). It’s critical to have a professional, functional online presence that’s actually working for you rather than against you. Here’s how to do it cost-effectively.

 

Choose a domain name

Choose something that’s easy—easy to say and easy to type. You want people to commit your site to memory as much as possible, so making it your business name (or a very simple version of that) is typically best. Use “.com” whenever possible and try to avoid symbols. Think about when you need to tell someone about your site over the phone. You want it to rattle off the tongue; you don’t want to have to do any spelling.

Sites like GoDaddy and instantdomainsearch.com are great places to start. Type in the domain you want and it will tell you if it’s available. You can purchase the domain right from here—usually it’s a one-time fee to secure the domain for 4 or 5 years.

 

Select a web host

Hosting is arguably the most important part of building a successful business website. It comes down to security and backups. Choose a reliable, tried and true website host and you can save money and headaches that come from a compromised site.

WPEngine is a recommended host that works seamlessly with WP-designed sites and has various tiers of hosting service, depending on your traffic or the size of your site.

You’ll select your domain and then your host. This is where your website files will live, and should your web designer ever need to access them, this is where he or she will look.

 

Create a content map

At this point, it’s important to make a map of what you want your website to include and how you want to organize everything. Start with listing everything you want your website to do: Do you want to convert sales? Drive people to your store or to make an appointment? Educate and drive your brand? This is how you will determine the different pieces of your site and its purpose.

Once you’ve determined what you want your site to do, now it’s time to think about all the information you want to include. What do customers need to know about you? What do they want to know? Make sure you include who you are and what you do as clearly as possible to keep people on the site as long as possible. The more clear and engaging the better!

It’s important to organize your site’s content into a map so you can visualize the basic structure and make sure nothing is left out once you get started building.

 

Select a CMS

Once you get set up with a domain and a host and you know your basic structure, it’s time to look for a content management system. WordPress is the most flexible of all the CMSs out there, and it’s your best bet to create a customized website. Other options are Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and others, but to get the fully customized design you’re looking for, WordPress is the industry standard.

 

Decide on a theme

When you decide which CMS you want to go with, it’s time to choose a theme or template for your website. Themes are already-built site templates that have most of the features that you want. There are literally thousands of them out there, and often they’re customized for certain industries. This is the way to go in order to avoid the high costs of a completely from-scratch site. Designers have put in the coding and design time to create a template that really delivers. They typically cost anywhere from $40 to $100 and they come with most (though not all) of the features you’ll need to build the site you want.

That said, because you’re not opting for a completely customized site, the theme might not be a perfect fit to your vision, which means you may need some additional design help as the website is being built.

The trick is to choose the theme that delivers the best information possible to your audience in the most beautiful and functional way. There are certain things to look for when deciding which theme is best for your business (time to load, demo files included, mobile optimization), and every theme is not created equal.

 

Upload

Purchase and download the theme, and upload it onto your hosting platform. Once it’s up, you can begin to upload all the content from your content map onto the site. This takes a little time and may require a little design work to get it perfect, but it’s absolutely quicker and more cost effective than building a website from scratch.

BeWhys Marketing specializing on building these types of websites for clients who are looking for a cost-effective way to build a website. Contact us for more details.

 

Want more? Tips to Get the Most out of Your Business Website

01 Jul 2017
Sticky Post By Posted in content, website Permalink

Tips to Get the Most out of Your Business Website

Sticky Post By On July 1, 2017

Building a website cost-effectively is easier today than it’s been in the past. With the help of online tools that help you make gorgeous, functional websites that speak to your audience, you can have a site up in a month or less. But, do you have all the elements you need to make the most of your website? Are you squeezing all the value you can out of it? Here are some tips to make sure you’re driving maximum website engagement.

 

Develop a content strategy

Your website, once it’s built [LINK], is a living organism designed to constantly engage and convert. Entice customers and prospects back to your site with regularly updated content. And make that content educational, informative, valuable to your audience. Whether you have a regular blog, change up your special offerings frequently, or you want to develop long-form content, you should make your updates at least once monthly.
Make a 6-month content strategy to start. This should include the purpose of your content, and how you’re going to carry out that purpose. Use this to drive the content that goes up on your site. What do your customers want to know? Tell them.

Capture emails

If you have a website, you should have a place to collect email addresses from visitors who want to see more of your content. This is collected through an opt-in form on your site. If visitors can simply type their email address into a field located in a prominent place (or places) throughout your site, you can start to build an email list. The email capture form should be as brief as possible (just ask for their email; ask for more later), and it should be highly visible and appear frequently on the site.

It can also offer your visitors something in return for leaving their email address. That could be a discount on their first purchase or appointment, or it could be a free e-book or other content you’ve developed. Giving your visitors something makes it more likely that they will sign up, so don’t underestimate the power of this rule of thumb. The email capture can link right to your email marketing service so your email list is automatically generated.

 

Use Google for Work

Now that you have a website set up, hosted, and designed, you need a way to track visitors to your site. You also need a professional email address that matches your domain. You may also want to start running ads.

Luckily, services like Google for Work help make all this seamless and tie it all to one Google login. With Google Analytics, you can keep track of how many visitors your site gets, what they are like, where they’re coming from, and what they’re doing while they’re there. With Gmail, you can set up an email address that is linked to your domain name to stay consistent with the new site. With Google Adwords, you can develop and run online ad campaigns through Google. All this is available through one Google login—and it’s seamless and easy to access.

These are just some of the ways you can maximize your website’s performance. For more information and tips, contact us. We specialize in helping you get the most out of your online presence.

 

Just getting started? How to Build a Cost-Effective Website