Best of Growth Spurts – Our Favorite Posts from October
Our readers know they can find a lot of actionable marketing & technology advice in the Growth Spurts blog, since we update the content several times a week. And each month, we offer a roundup of the most popular posts of the month, just in case you’ve missed them. We’ve extracted the most useful information into tips you can use, and in many cases have provided a link to additional information in case you’d like to learn more.
Here, then, are our 5 favorite posts for the month:
In-Person Marketing
- It’s Showtime – Some practical advice on how to use trade shows and conferences as a way to gather useful competitive intelligence, including listening to what those who visit your booth have to say about competitive vendors, and directly visiting those competitive vendors’ booths.
- How to Pick the Best Booth Location at Exhibitions – Not all trade shows and exhibitions offer the opportunity to select your location, but if you are provided that option, take advantage of it, since the location of your booth is the most important way to drive traffic to your booth. Things to look for include: choosing the right section; choosing a large alley; and choosing a booth at the end of an alley or on a corner.
Web Marketing
- 6 Design Trends Taking Over the Web – While it’s always worth paying attention to design trends, always remember that “trend” can often be a synonym for “fad” – unless something significantly improves your customer’s experience, it’s usually best to wait before jumping on every design bandwagon. Continue reading to find out what’s on our watchlist for the months ahead.
SEO
- Internal Linking for SEO: Examples and Best Practices – Internal linking, or linking from one page or blog post to another, is one of the easiest SEO tactics to incorporate into your SOP. Yet it is quite often one of the most overlooked. Whether you write your own blog posts and website pages or work with writers and contributors to generate content, don’t let any piece or page go live until it includes at least one internal link. Read more about the importance of this tactic in this article.
Content Marketing
- Do’s and Don’ts of Top of Funnel Marketing – This article makes some key points about top-of-the-funnel (or “V1”) prospects, including the most important fact about this group: they don’t even know they need your product or service. Therefore, the focus has to be on education. Do you have a different strategy for reaching prospects at different stages in the buying cycle? If not, here’s some information as to why it’s important.
Stay up-to-date with marketing news and advice for your business – Subscribe to our Best of Monthly Digest here.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Our readers know they can find a lot of actionable marketing & technology advice each month in the Growth Spurts blog. And each month, we’re offering a roundup of the most popular posts of the month, just in case you’ve missed them. We’ve extracted the most useful information into tips you can use, and in many cases have provided a link to additional information in case you’d like to learn more.
Read on for this month’s top posts covering SEO, Trade Shows, Content Marketing and more.
Sharing the Rewards & Risks in JointSourcing Works: Client Revenue Goes Up and Costs Go Down
Given that Sales Renewal’s JointSourcing is truly one-of-a-kind-there are no other Marketing General Contractors that shares the risk and reward-it is not surprising that it requires a bit more explanation than the familiar, fee-for-service, single-marketing-strategy (like PR, inbound marketing, advertising, direct mail, tradeshows, …) approach every other agency takes.
But numbers have a way at cutting to the heart of a matter, so here are three simple charts that show that JointSourcing increases leads and revenue (bar graphs in the charts below) while decreasing the per lead or sale cost (line graphs below). Note: To ensure client confidentiality, all chart data is expressed as relative to their initial period.
Manufacturer Client Performance Over 2.5 Years
During the 2.5 years from 1Q13 through 2Q15, JointSourcing increased qualified leads by 380%, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87% per year.
Because of JointSourcing’s increased productivity, while the client’s marketing budget did grow somewhat, it grew far, far slower than their leads did. As a result, JointSourcing decreased cost-per-lead by 74% (-42% CAGR).
Our strong, long-term relationship with Sales Renewal has been critical to Metro Sign & Awnings’ accelerating growth.
Because I wasn’t familiar with it when we first began almost 4 years ago, I was a little unsure of the JointSourcing “partnership, ” but I’m a big believer now.
Sales Renewal really treats the marketing of my business as if it were theirs – whether it’s going to bat for us with a vendor on their own or how proactive they are in analyzing and continuously optimizing our marketing.
This saves me time and allows me and my team to focus on sales. In fact, we have been getting so many leads that we are hiring more sales people to close all the new business.”
— Tom Dunn, Owner and VP of Sales & Marketing
eCommerce Client Performance Over 4 Years
During the 4 years 2010 to 2014, JointSourcing increased e-commerce sales by 170% (28% CAGR)
At the same time, JointSourcing decreased cost-per-sale by 33% (-7% CAGR).
Working with Sales Renewal is a real partnership, I know the floral business and Sales Renewal knows technology, marketing and sales.
I’ve been a small business owner for 26 years and I appreciate having someone who, thanks to its financial interest in my success, is almost as motivated as I am to grow my business.
— Helen Halloran, Owner
Different Levels of Marketing Investment Lead to Different Levels of Revenue Growth & Cost Savings
While from the accounting perspective marketing costs are considered an expense, an equally important way to view them is an investment: if you want your business to grow you have to invest in growing it. While the Concord Flower Shop has grown its web sales 28% per year while lowering its cost per sale 7% per year, Metro Sign & Awning has blown past even those impressive numbers, increasing its leads 87% per year and decreasing its cost per lead 42% per year.
These differences arise from the growth vs cost goals each business had which during the JointSourcing Blueprint, translated into the breadth and depth of their JointSourcing Solutions. Metro’s is more comprehensive and includes all of the important digital and real-world strategies for their business with each strategy nicely elaborated. The Concord Flower Shop’s JointSourcing Solution is focused just on online marketing and as you can see from the figure, invests about ¼ of what Metro does in marketing. It is this difference in budget, scope, resources and strategies that leads to their different growth & savings rates.
For a more detailed understanding of Sales Renewal’s unique JointSourcing Solution, please see these JointSourcing™ in Action case studies:
- JointSourcing: a Breakthrough Solution with Stellar Client Results – a more detailed explanation of JointSourcing’s results
- Collaboration Leads to New Strategies, Brand, Site, Marketing Programs and … a Blue Ribbon
- Sales Renewal Corp. Wins Battle Against Google Adwords on Behalf of Its Client Metro Sign & Awning
- How the Concord Flower Shop More Than Double Its Online Sales and was Ranked in the Top 1% of Local Businesses by Google
Find out if JointSourcing is right for your business
Name:
Email:
Phone:
Company:
Please also subscribe me to Sales Renewal’s email publications
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Given that Sales Renewal’s JointSourcing is truly one-of-a-kind-there are no other Marketing General Contractors that shares the risk and reward-it is not surprising that it requires a bit more explanation than the familiar, fee-for-service, single-marketing-strategy approach every other agency takes.
But numbers have a way at cutting to the heart of a matter, so here are three simple charts that show that JointSourcing increases leads and revenue (bar graphs in the charts below) while decreasing the per lead or sale cost (line graphs below). Note: To ensure client confidentiality, all chart data is expressed as relative to their initial period.
7 Ways to Localize Your Blog – And Never Run Out of Things to Write About Again
Any local business owner knows how important building connections in their community with prospects, customers and other local businesses. And it’s just as important online as it is in person. In our 5 Easy Ways to Make Local Marketing Matter, we show you how to your in-person activities have digital parallels. In this post, we continue our focus on local marketing with 7 ways to start – and maintain – a blog that can go a long way towards building your positive, local reputation.
1. Start an Events Calendar feature
Create a bulleted list of monthly events in your community. Publish your post at the beginning of the month, and use the events as social media content throughout the month. Think street festivals, charity events, town-sponsored events, sports, even in-store sales and other activities.
2. Create a series of evergreen list posts about your community
- Local attractions or sights worth seeing
- Pet-friendly locations
- Best restaurants, ice cream shops, coffee shops…
- Things to do in the city
3. Write an event guide for a special event
For out-of-towners coming to the event, write a blog post about what else they might like to know (5 Things to Do After You Watch the Parade; 5 Places to Grab a Quick Bite after the Parade)
4. Spotlight other businesses in your community
- Write about a new business (or businesses) in town
- Interview a long-time business owner about what makes your community so great
5. Offer a monthly giveaway
Encourage anyone who comes to the store to put their name (and email address!) in a jar, select one winner each month and announce the winner in your blog and on social media. Keep it simple or get other local merchants involved. (This month, the prize is a gift certificate to…)
6. Write a series of historical posts
- How your store came about
- Interesting facts about the founding of your town
- Historical milestones of your town
7. Write about your business in the community
- Sponsor a local event – and write a press release about it, as well as a blog post
- Describe a local award you’ve received, making sure to thank the awarding organization
- Host a workshop or in-store event – prior to the event, announce it, and use a post to encourage registrations; after the event, write a summary, and include some testimonials from attendees
- Highlight your local connection – Are your products are locally sourced? Do you work in partnership with another local business?
Local Events Appeal to People and Search Engines
The rationale for this local approach is two-fold. First, if you are truly a local business, you care about your community, are knowledgeable about it, and want to help spread the word. Therefore, the information should be useful and of interest to your readers. This reinforces your value as a local online resource which, in turn, reinforces to the search engines that you are a true local business. To that end:
- always include local keywords (Concord, MA, West Concord, MA, West Concord Business Association);
- wherever possible, link to other organizations mentioned in the post;
- let the other organizations know you’ve mentioned them, asking them to cross-promote your post via their social networks (for more exposure to people) and on their website (for the always critical, good quality in-bound link for SEO).
How to localize your blog and never run out of things to write about.https://t.co/JvUaBIEG64
– Sales Renewal (@SalesRenewal) December 1, 2015
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Any local business owner knows how important building connections in their community with prospects, customers and other local businesses. And it’s just as important online as it is in person. In our 5 Easy Ways to Make Local Marketing Matter, we show you how to your in-person activities have digital parallels. In this post, we continue our focus on local marketing with 7 ways to start – and maintain – a blog that can go a long way towards building your positive, local reputation.
5 Easy Ways to Make Local Marketing Matter
Local marketing – marketing that’s focused on reaching customers in a specific geographic area – is not for every business. But if you have a physical presence in a specific location and provide services to your community (think bank, florist, shoe store, restaurant, deli, dry cleaners, etc….), you will most likely be able to benefit by using a targeted approach to build your credibility as a local resource online as well as off.
Chances are, if you’re a local business and have done any sort of online marketing, you’ve already:
- listed your business on local resource websites and directories (Chamber of Commerce);
- set up a Facebook page;
- have a Twitter account and a Google+ Local page
But there’s plenty more you can do. And much of it is almost painless to roll in to your day-to-day plans.
Local Marketing Matters – Online and Off
The local, in-person or in-store activities you do often have “digital” parallels, and when they are managed in concert, they can have an amplifying effect. Of course, local events will bring physical traffic to your store. And promoting these events online can help confirm for the search engines that you are, indeed, a quality, local business. This in turn will help your rankings in search engine results and will help bring traffic to your website and, ultimately, your store.
Here are 5 simple ways to take “digital” advantage of your in-person activities.
1. Get involved in the community
- In person: Join a Local Chamber or Business Association
- Online: Get your business listed on the Chamber or Association website
2. Give back
- In person: Sponsor a town event
- Online: receive coverage in the local paper, by submitting a press release or inviting the local editors to the event
3. Partner with other local businesses
- In person: Co-host an event
- Online: Cross-promote the event on your and their social media sites; split the cost of advertising the event; submit a co-sponsored press release to the local papers
4. Reward loyal customers
- In person: Set up a loyalty system (like a frequent buyer punch card)
- Online: Loyal customers become your online “brand advocates”
5. Customer reviews
- In person: Ask for reviews and feedback after special events; provide an in-store comment book; save letters written by happy customers
- Online: Publish the reviews your website, etc. (with permission, of course)
Sales Renewal’s insight:
The local, in-person or in-store activities you do often have “digital” parallels, and when they are managed in concert, they can have an amplifying effect.
How Much Time Does SEO Really Take?
Getting started [with seo] is relatively easy, but in order to be successful in an especially competitive environment, you need to dedicate yourself to the strategy. You’ll have to acquire new skills…
The common solution for this is to simply hire an in-house SEO expert who can handle all these tasks. If you can’t, it’s on you to handle them all yourself. Either way, the cost can be prohibitive, especially if you’re an emerging small business. Likewise, spending all those hours doing it yourself can tie you up, preventing you from pursuing more productive activities that can’t be outsourced.
Before you make a decision, you need to know one thing: how much time does SEO actually take?
Sales Renewal’s insight:
How do you look at SEO? Does it seem like a daunting process? A set-and-forget item to check off your list?
Many small business owners believe they can “do” SEO themselves. But before you make that decision, please read this article. You might just gain a new appreciation for those who do SEO full time.
Consider the (what may appear to be) straight-forward process setting up on-page optimization (10-40 hours) and monitoring and troubleshooting on an ongoing basis (3-12 hours/week). Then there is content development, which could be something you can get away with spending a couple hours a week. Or, it could turn into a nearly full-time job (3-50 hours/week).
Off-page optimization opens up an entirely new realm of responsibilities and processes, from dabbling in looking for linkbuilding opportunities to following a well-thought-out relationship building program (5-25 hours/week).
Then there’s the additional work related to SEO for local businesses, like customer reviews (up to 15 hours/week), and then measuring and analyzing all you do to be sure it’s effective (1-2 hours/week).
Putting it all together, the author’s bottom line is sobering:
“Even for the small range of organizations I examined here (small to mid-sized businesses), you can see the vast range of potential time spent on an SEO campaign. Added up, it amounts to anywhere between 12 and 104 hours per week. If you put in 12 hours a week, don’t expect to climb to a top position anytime soon. On the other end of the spectrum, if you want the best results as fast as possible, you may need to hire employees, contractors, or an agency.”
Given this cost (in time and opportunity), we believe that the most cost-effective way to “do” SEO is to work with a specialist. That’s why, whether you’re a JointSourcing or Marketing Essentials client, we will work with our SEO partners to be sure your business receives the SEO attention it deserves.
Learn more about Sales Renewal’s Search Engine Optimization services.
Read Original Article
How to Get Content into the Hands of Influencers Who Can Help Amplify It
This week we’re going to chat about a problem that many of you have mentioned .. to me and to other folks here at Moz when we talk about content marketing and specifically content amplification like, “Okay, I made some great content. But how do I actually get people to share it? In particular, how do I get content into the hands of the influencers who might amplify it?”
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Finding, following and most importantly getting influential people (aka, influencers) to quote, republish or link to your content seems like a natural way to build an audience, but it’s really quite hard. After all, by definition influencers are popular and therefore busy so getting their attention to make them aware of your content is challenging.
This MOZ Whiteboard Friday can help. Also check out Getting Started with Influencer Marketing.
Read Original Article
Google’s Local Snack Pack Shake-Up: What You Need to Know
Google recently shook up the local results in its SERPs, killing the local 7-packs in favor of a 3-pack that resembles the mobile experience. This post tells you everything you need to know about the change and what it means for your local marketing.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Did your local listing make the cut?
As you can see from the example in the image (and yes, both our local florists made the cut!), Google has made some pretty big changes to the map and listings that show up for local searches. SEO experts say this is the biggest change to SERPs (search engine results pages) since the Pigeon update in July 2014.
If you’ve ever searched for a local business, chances are you’re familiar with what is often called the “Map Pack” results, or the businesses and map results Google shows when someone does a local search – “florist mendon ma” for example. These recent “Snack Pack” changes include a reduction in the number of Map Pack results from 5-7 to 3. And, much of the previously visible information, like business address and phone number, has been removed.
As with most changes Google makes, speculation abounds as to why, but a streamlined view, better alignment between the desktop and mobile experience, and – the biggie – positioning to become a money maker are three well-founded explanations.
Staying in or Moving into the Top 3 Positions
While the impact of these changes are still unknown and a clear “how to” has yet to be determined, local businesses are advised to continue to optimize for local search as they had been doing: website optimized for search; good quality link building; citations and directories; and focusing on customer reviews.
Read Original Article
SR EasyAuthoring Integrated Blog Tool
Sales Renewal is pleased to announce the launch of SR EasyAuthoring™, an innovative, integrated blog authoring tool. SR EasyAuthoring was designed for small businesses to help them easily offer original and “curated” content in the single blog platform they already have on their websites.
Original + Curated Content
Fresh web content in the form of a business blog can be critical for both search engine optimization and to stay engaged with prospects and clients. But creating original content that resonates with its intended audience on a regular basis can be a full time job, and one that not every business can afford. With EasyAuthoring™ installed on their website, a business can easily supplement their blog’s original content with much less expensive curated content while still supporting their SEO efforts.
“Fresh web content in the form of a business blog can be critical for both search engine optimization and to stay engaged with prospects and clients, ” says Keith Loris, Sales Renewal President and CEO. “But creating original content that resonates with its intended audience on a regular basis can be a full time job, and one that not every small business can afford. With SR EasyAuthoring™ installed in their blogging platform, the business can easily supplement their original content posts with much less expensive and time-consuming curated content. And unlike comparable solutions that can cost anywhere from $1, 000-$6, 000 per month, EasyAuthoring is available from Sales Renewal for only $99 per month (and a $99 installation fee).”
Content curation is the process of finding existing, interesting content online and putting your own spin on it. The world is overflowing with information, so sorting through this content and finding the best bits to enhance with your own take or perspective can be as useful & attractive to visitors as writing original content. Content curation has many of the same benefits as original content blogging:
- informing your audience;
- showcasing your expertise;
- keeping your website content fresh
- contributing to your SEO efforts (but only if done right)
And one major advantage: It is a lot easier to comment on other people’s ideas than it is to come up with your own and then craft it into well written blog post.
There are 3 Different Types of EasyAuthoring Posts
There are three different kinds of posts in SR EasyAuthoring, which are distinguished by the post’s border color and the text within its action button:
- Read Original Article: The basic “News” post allows authors to share their insights and commentary on content first published elsewhere. When the reader clicks the button, they are taken to the original article on its publisher’s website, and because the article is not on the business’ site, there is no possible “duplicate content” penalty from search engines.
- Read Our Insights: The Insights post allows the business to share deeper, longer insights on content first published elsewhere. When the reader clicks the button, they are taken to a blog post on this website that has an excerpt from the original article, the author’s insight and a link to the original article on its publisher’s website. This type of post has enough original commentary to be considered original content by search engines, and since the page is on the business’ site, it will be indexed by search engines like all the other pages on the site.
- Read Blog Post: The Blog post acts like a normal blog: when you click the button you’re taken to a blog post on this site. Again, this original content will be indexed by search engines like all the other pages on your site.
Contact Sales Renewal to find out how EasyAuthoring can help you with your content marketing needs.
Sales Renewal’s insight:
Sales Renewal is pleased to announce the launch of SR EasyAuthoring™, an innovative, integrated blog authoring tool. SR EasyAuthoring was designed for small businesses to help them easily offer original and “curated” content in the single blog platform they already have on their websites.
Search Ranking Studies: Trends and Important Factors
Annual search engine ranking studies have been recently released by both Moz and Searchmetrics, relying on slightly different methods to arrive at their conclusions about what’s important and what’s not. According to the reports, the impact of relevant content continues to grow…
Sales Renewal’s insight:
These two reports offer lots of good insights to the current important factors in today’s SEO rankings, but in essence, it seems to boil down to: content quality and links continue to be important factors of search rankings, though as the Searchmetrics study argues, the importance of links is declining.
Read Original Article
The Increasing Importance of Content Marketing in 2015
A new infographic from ExpressWriters nicely illustrates Content Marketing’s increasing importance to growing your sales and brand.
Some factoids we found particularly interesting:
Sales Renewal’s insight:
A new infographic from ExpressWriters nicely illustrates Content Marketing’s increasing importance to growing your sales and brand. Some factoids we found particularly interesing:
- Coca-Cola now spends more money creating content than on television advertising
- Marketers invest over 25% of their marketing budget on content
- 77% of marketers plan on increasing content production in 2015
- 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that shares custom content
- 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing