First things first: taking on a company rebrand is not a small endeavor. If your rebrand is going to be successful, then it’s going to require a significant investment of your time and resources—money, brainpower, and everything in between.

If you speed through the rebranding process or cut corners, you run the very real risk of damaging your brand image and reputation, rather than improving it. That is exactly the opposite of what you want to achieve. So, it makes sense to arm yourself with as much information as possible before starting down the path of rebranding.

Let’s make sure you’re fully informed on the rebranding process, and what it will all mean, so you’ll know you’re doing it for the right reasons—as well as putting your time, resources, and money to their best use throughout the project. If you’re fully committed to getting it right, a successful rebrand will give you a high return on investment and a boost to your company image and reputation.

What Exactly Is A Business Rebrand?

Rebranding can be defined as “the process of giving a product or organization a new image or look in order to make it more successful or attractive to prospective customers.”

And while that is all significant to the process (and a super technical definition), rebranding isn’t just about changing the logo, the color scheme, or the visual identity of a business. That is all part of the process, and there is so much more. This is a unique opportunity to re-evaluate (or newly establish) a company’s values and ethos. Then that understanding can be applied to develop an entire story and create a cohesive brand that works in harmony with everything a business is and stands for.

Considering where a business has come from, where it is currently, where it is headed, and where it has the potential to go, and then applying all of that to a new brand identity, provides an authentic picture of the company to customers, employees, and stakeholders.

Why Would You Rebrand Your Business?

There are many reasons for taking on a rebranding effort for your business. Some main reasons include:

• Your business has changed focus or direction
• Your business’s existing brand looks outdated or unprofessional
• You need to differentiate your business from the competition
• You need to appeal to a new or different customer demographic or audience
• You need to rebuild a reputation or create distance from past issues
• You want to remarket your business by showcasing a new ethos or new set of values
• Your business has experienced rapid expansion or undergone mergers

There are two types of rebranding. The first is proactive branding. This is where a company recognizes that rebranding will create an opportunity for growth or the ability to tap into new markets or niches.

Reactive branding is where the existing brand is redundant and needs to be updated and changed. This could be for a number of reasons; mergers and acquisitions, new or updated products or services, or the need to rebuild a damaged reputation.

Rebranding vs. Brand Refresh

First, you’ll need to decide whether your business needs a complete rebrand, or if you can get by with a brand refresh. Rebranding is a significant investment, so take the time upfront to consider which would work best for you, and which will have the best long-term results.

A brand refresh is just a polishing that updates, or refreshes, your existing brand elements. This is building on the foundation of what you already have established, so you’ll need to be confident that your existing brand resonates with your audiences, portrays an accurate representation of your business, and is strong enough to withstand the refresh.

A complete rebrand is much more involved. In this case, while you don’t want to lose sight of your entire brand identity or completely rid yourself of what keeps your customers coming back, it’s a serious upgrade and a major change to your company’s status quo. This is an opportunity for a fresh start that reinvigorates your business, establishes a new, fresh, and modern direction, and lets new and existing target audiences know that you care about what motivates them, and the images and messages your company is sharing.

Which one do you need? To read more about both and determine the best fit for your business, Read Rebrand or Brand Refresh? Which is Better for Your Business?

When Is Rebranding A Good Idea?

If you find yourself frequently thinking about rebranding, and considering all of the advantages it can bring, let us be the ones to tell you that it might be time to just go for it.

Consider This:

• Are you embarrassed by your company’s current branding or imagery? Do you hesitate to hand out business cards or refer people to your company’s website?
• When you look at your current branding, do you feel like it’s out of touch and outdated? If you’re still using Comic Sans on any marketing materials, deploy the branding experts ASAP.
• Are you looking to attract new customers and ensure your business stands out from the competition
• Do you want to attract fresh, dynamic talent to work for your business?
• If your answer to any or all of these questions is “yes,” it’s probably time to upgrade your business’s brand.

To understand more about the right time to rebrand, read When is the Best Time to Rebrand Your Business?

How Much Will Rebranding Cost?

Rebranding is an investment. This is not a bottom-of-the-barrel solution to your business’s problems, so it’s important that you’re mindful of this when you’re deciding how much time, money, and resources to put into a rebrand.

If you get a rebrand wrong, fixing it will cost much more in the long run than ensuring you are devoting the right amount of resources to get it right the first time.

A Solid Rebranding Strategy Will Always Contain The Following:

• Deep-dive – Researching everything about your business’s history.
• Ideation and brainstorming – Big concepts and big ideas.
• Brand strategy and roadmap creation – Cultivating messaging, positioning, and campaign objectives.
• Creative work – Turning ideas into reality.
• Copywriting – Putting the high-level messaging into carefully crafted content.

Now you can see there is a high level of work and detail that is required to carry out a rebrand successfully. The size and scope of your business will also impact your budget, as well as your reach.

Keep in mind that you are expecting a high-quality outcome as a result of this process, so the investment you put in will greatly increase the returns.

How To Successfully Rebrand

Rebranding is a journey toward discovering the meaning behind your business, and how to accurately portray that to your audiences. There are many factors you’ll need to consider when carrying out a successful rebranding. Missing one of them out could mean that the process doesn’t go as planned or doesn’t have as big of an impact as you desired.

What To Consider Before Rebranding

• A successful rebrand will resonate with and reflect your customers. It is essential to consider their needs and what they are looking for.
• Take a deep look at your reasoning for rebranding, then consider the risks and how you will minimize them.
• Everyone needs to be on board with the rebrand. Ensure you have essential buy-in from your staff and stakeholders.
• Be open to new ideas. A fresh perspective from someone else can help you see things in a new light.
• Scrutinize your existing brand and decide what works and what doesn’t.
• Decide your expected outcome and what the roadmap looks to get to that point.
• Find the right partner to enhance and expand on your creativity and execute the mission.

For more things to consider before rebranding, read 3 Important Things to Consider Before Rebranding Your Business.

Where To Start – Step-By-Step Rebranding Strategy

Now that you have laid the foundation for your rebrand, it’s time to start the process.

• Audit – Review your current brand performance. This includes marketing, positioning, perception, and business goals.
• Research – This is an in-depth analysis of the industry landscape, including competitors and consumer research.
• Ideation – Generating ideas for brand messages, visual symbolism, and business collateral.
• Strategy – Aligning marketing channels, technology, and collateral alongside your business objectives to create a cohesive strategy.
• Creative – Design and development of brand collateral, digital platforms.
• Deploy – Delivery and launch of your new brand.

To read more on starting your rebrand, read How to Kickoff Your Rebrand on the Right Foot.

Rebranding Research

You need to perform comprehensive research, otherwise, you’re just shooting in the dark. Your research will underline all of your reasons for rebranding, and will help you form the strategy you need to carry it all out.

By gathering intel on your customer base and their needs, you can easily identify your ideal customers and retain your existing ones. And getting the low-down on your competitors lets you understand why people choose them over you.

Some good ways to carry out the necessary research include:

• Gather internal data from your own business
• Carry out customer surveys
• Hold workshops and focus groups
• Obtain social media intelligence

Detailed research will help you build your brand strategy and execute it successfully.

For more information on researching, read Rebranding Research: Explore the Landscape and Develop a Strategy

Give Your Brand A Story

Storytelling is called an art for a reason. A great story captivates and inspires people, especially if it is told with authenticity and passion.

Stories surround us, from books and movies, or conversation we have with friends and family members. Stories bring ideas to life and have a lasting impact.

Your brand story sends a powerful message to your audience. It needs to be genuine and authentic, to convey and inspire emotion, and it needs to reflect the heart of your business.

Here’s How You Can Start Building Your Brand Story:

• Get to know your target audience. What are their values? What attracts them to a product or service? You should be able to visualize and describe them clearly.
• Define your core message. What overall message are you trying to convey through your story?
• Inspire emotion. What verbal and visual elements will you use to inspire the desired reaction from your audience?
• Reveal your personality. Your story needs to be personable and relatable to drive authenticity.
• Keep it simple. Try not to bombard the audience with mixed messages or an overly complicated narrative. Keep it concise and straightforward.

For more on how to tell a great brand story, read How to Give Your Brand a Powerful Story

Rebranding Tip — Involve Your Employees And Customers

Involve your employees and customers in the rebranding process, sooner rather than later.

No one knows your company better than you do but your employees are there for a reason, and they have valuable insight that can help guide the rebrand. Find out why they love to work for you, what they love about the company, and what could use improvement. They are the best way to gain a comprehensive insight on how your company values are perceived internally and how they might be getting pushed out externally.

Gather employees from all areas of the business and assign them to be your “brand champions.” Their job is to help you maintain brand consistency and relevance as well as getting buy-in from their colleagues.

Customers are your company’s life-blood, so find out what makes them loyal to you instead of your competitors. Discover what aspects of your existing brand resonate with them and use that information to improve.

Talk to them about how they feel your products or services can be improved and build those improvements into your brand strategy.

For more great tips, read Best Practices for a Successful Rebranding Campaign

Assess The Risks

No investment is completely without risk and of course, rebranding does carry a few risks of its own. But you can take steps to mitigate them or eliminate them entirely.

Some Of The Main Risks Associated With A Rebrand Are:

• Losing or alienating existing customers: By engaging your customers during the rebranding process, you can understand what they need and want from it. Listen to them and act on their feedback to ensure you maintain their loyalty. Many of us remember the unfortunate situation Weight Watchers found itself in a few years back when the brand changed its name to “WW.” None of us want to put our businesses in a similar situation with the customers we’ve worked so hard to win.
• Lacking transferability: Your rebrand might look great on paper but how does it transfer to other mediums? Television, social media, websites, video, and national advertisement campaigns all need to carry the new brand look, so you need to consider how it will transfer to these other areas.
• Breaking your web assets: We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s really important, so we’re going over it again. Moving over to a new domain and website is a big job, but customers still need to be able to find you. Ensure that all re-direct links work and take people to the right area. It’s also worth having a web page explaining your rebrand and why you did it.
• Forgetting about marketing: You’ve invested in the rebrand but have you thought about how you’re going to launch or market it? Set aside a budget for marketing your exciting new brand or it may not make the impact you want.

To read more about rebranding risk assessment, read Avoid These Common Rebranding Risks.

Potential ROI

When you rebrand, you can reap rewards that will give you a major return on investment. By getting it right the first time, there are many things you can look forward to including:

• Increased brand awareness (or brand recognition)
• Increased sales
• Increased loyalty
• Increased market share
• Lower expenses
• Higher staff retention

With all that in mind, you can’t afford not to rebrand.

To read more about the ROI of rebranding, read Rebranding ROI: Why It’s Worth the Investment.

Rebranding And SEO

SEO (search engine optimization services) is a big beast to tackle and very easy to get wrong, so it’s worth taking the time to learn how it works.

Even if you plan on hiring an SEO expert to do it all for you, it’s still important for you to understand SEO at a basic level. This will enable you to perform a few checks, maintain your website, and keep it running at an optimum level of visibility in internet searches.

Some Tasks To Help You Achieve Great SEO Are:

• Look at your website structure and simplify it. The more complex the layout, the harder it is for SEO to work.
• Keep your hierarchy (how a person moves through your website) simple and plan it early on.
• Invest in great content that keeps people engaged.
• Speed up your page loading times.
• Optimize your website for mobile phone browsers.
• Frequently review and update your site.

If you’re changing your domain name as part of the rebrand, ensure your mapping and re-routing is completed fully. If it isn’t, it will result in broken links and dead pages, which will frustrate your customers, and possibly cause you to lose them.

To read more about rebranding SEO, read How to Improve Your Website’s SEO During Rebranding.

How To Ensure Longevity

Taking the rebranding plunge is a big step. But now you know the resources and investment required to carry it out. Before you go, make sure you note one more vital aspect of a rebrand that must not be overlooked: ensuring your brand has longevity.

• Get it right: You need to craft a brand identity that stands the test of time. That’s why it’s so important to get this right the first time around. Too many changes or constantly going through the rebranding process will confuse your customers and make them question your authenticity.
• Forecast changes: Your business plans will always take forecasts into account, so it’s crucial that your brand does too. How is your business projected to change in the future? Will your brand stay true to these changes?
• Stakeholder input: Your stakeholders and customers are at the heart of what you do. It is important to take their ideas and feedback to heart while ensure you are able to differentiate between what is and is not helpful feedback.
• Brand consistency: Make sure you have a process to ensure branding is consistent across all aspects and areas of your business. Over time, staff and plans change. An established process will enable your brand strategy to stay on track and maintain consistency.

How To Choose A Rebranding Agency

Not all rebranding agencies are created equal. Choosing the right one can seem like a daunting process. Finding an agency that ticks all the boxes can be a project in itself.

You’re going to be working closely with your rebranding partner, so it’s absolutely essential that you pick one that you’re 100% comfortable with.

Here Are A Few Ways To Help The Process Along:

• Research the options and make a shortlist. Agency websites will be a great place to start.
• Review an agency’s case studies for quality of work, such as the successful rebrands we’ve carried out here at C-leveled.
• Don’t be driven only by price.
• After making contact, think about the rapport and ease of conversation. Do you feel you’re being listened to and respected? Do you like the agency’s attitude and approach to work?
• Keep a close eye on response times to calls and emails.
• Ask relevant and meaningful questions that allow you to gain a full insight into their working practices and ethos.

For more on choosing the right agency, read How to Choose the Right Rebranding Partner.

Conclusion

By now, you should have a solid overview of what a rebrand is and what it entails. By diving deeper and learning more about each area of rebranding, you can build a comprehensive strategy that will help you carry out a successful project.

Rebranding is a big decision, but this should also be an exciting time for your business. It’s your chance to take what you, your customers, and your stakeholders love about your company and transform it into an authentic and powerful message for a brighter future. Perhaps the biggest piece of advice we can give you is to enjoy and relish the process. Make this a labor of love. That way, your brand will become an accurate reflection of what you and your business stand for.

Interesting in having a conversation with an agency based in the United States so you can navigate your rebranding process with confidence? Contact us to schedule a consultation.

The post Rebranding Guide: How to Navigate the Rebranding Process appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Marketing masters leverage blogging, SEO, branding, and design to captivate their audience and put themselves miles ahead of the competition. But harnessing the many hands of marketing takes a little time and a lot of support. Chances are, you do everything you can to magnify your marketing and stretch its positive effects on your business. However, if your company isn’t in the business of marketing, you might not have the luxury of having a full-fledged marketing team in-house.

Your Marketing Manager might be killing it with your social media strategy, SEO, and keeping up with the company blog, but what happens when you’re ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level? This talented employee is already doing the job of three people! So it might be a bit of a stretch to assume they have the bandwidth and skills to build a new website, shoot and edit a new promo video, design an updated company logo, and so on, so forth.

When you’re daydreaming of keeping up the marketing momentum and continuing to soar in your brand awareness efforts, that dream can suddenly lead to a rude awakening when you realize the lack of marketing bandwidth available within your organization.

It is at this very moment you might consider investigating outsourced marketing services. As you should! No matter which business function or department you’re looking to outsource (marketing, IT, accounting, etc.), getting more hands-on-deck allows your internal employees to continue focusing on what they do best. All the while avoiding the pressure of being stretched too thin. You can also leverage a wider pool of incredible talent and skillsets when it comes to:

• Social Media
• Content Marketing
• Advertising
• Email Marketing
• Paid Ads
• Messaging/Branding
• Graphic Design
• Web Design
• UI/UX Design
• SEO
• Web Development
• HubSpot
• Business Strategy

Let Us Get To Work For You

What Is Outsourced Marketing?

Our workloads are ever-evolving, and there are times when we can barely keep our heads above water. Outsourced marketing is one of the smartest ways companies can expand the temporary marketing power they have under the hood. For instance, if your company only has two graphic designers working on multiple projects that require a hefty illustration workload, you could take on outside help without having to hire another permanent graphic designer. Additionally, outsourced marketing can add some much-needed skills to your teams. None of us are good at everything. So, hiring an outside agency to provide expertise in a particular marketing niche is one of the best ways to get stellar deliverables in front of your clients or customers. Outsourced marketing broadens your horizons. And it allows you to seek more opportunities with a greater project scope. Companies today are adapting to new workflows and a unique talent pool. Luckily our new ways of working have made it easier than ever to hire outside of our companies in a growing pool of freelance, contract, and agency talent. Most simply put, outsourced marketing provides the advantage of temporary and expert help when it comes to working on a variety of difficult marketing tasks.

Why Consider Outsourced Marketing?

Outsourcing marketing efforts is one of the best ways to reduce burnout while helping to maintain an intensely focused workforce. It can bring in knowledgeable new talent to provide fresh insight into your marketing efforts with more specialized experience. If your staff is struggling to service accounts during high-volume seasons, it may be the best idea to start looking for partnerships with marketing agencies that specialize in providing top-notch overflow help. This could be a much more cost-efficient option than taking on more permanent salaried positions.

In-house vs. Outsourced Marketing: Pros and Cons

What are some of the benefits and disadvantages of outsourced marketing? We’ve highlighted some of the main advantages and pain points we’ve experienced ourselves and have heard from our clients over the years.

Pros:

• Can provide specialized and dedicated relief to certain areas of your marketing plan
• Less overhead expenses and baggage than hiring more full-time employees
• Offers the increased flexibility of by-project personnel with fresh insights
• Provides calculated, expert help when you need it, with no strings attached

Cons:

• The marketing agency doesn’t understand your culture or brand as well as a full-time employee. However, with branding guides and project briefs, you can communicate your company message well.
• It can be expensive to hire a reputable marketing agency — expert help comes at a premium. But it is much less expensive than burning out your existing teams and hiring new talent on staff.

Is Outsourcing Just Working with an Advertising Agency?

Outsourced marketing isn’t just a fancy term for hiring an ad agency to take care of the creative customer-facing workload. Although marketing and advertising share a few services like graphic design and copywriting, they are different in a few major ways. Advertising agencies are very good at creating advertisements, jingles, copy, and other creative deliverables. However, they can’t provide the same benefits as a full-service marketing agency. Marketing agencies specializing in outsourced work, like Direct Online Marketing, can deploy specialists to work on email campaigns, paid ads, SEO strategy, web design, and the nitty-gritty details that advertising pros won’t touch. Marketing agencies go beyond providing the loose assets that are a part of marketing campaigns. They build strategies, monitor data, code websites, manage outcomes, and much more.

When is the Best Time to Outsource Your Marketing?

The answer to this question will be different for every company. If your teams have too much on their plates and are struggling to meet project deadlines, it could be time to consider outsourcing a particular task to a marketing agency. Here are some other key indicators that could mean it’s time to hire some outside marketing muscle:

• Your in-house marketing team doesn’t have experience in a niche specialty such as web development or email marketing.

• Your marketing team isn’t able to keep up with the workflow during a particularly busy season.

• You want to hire on a contract basis for projects to keep your company as lean as possible.

However, outsourced marketing can also help keep a consistent marketing effort year-round for companies with smaller in-house teams. The flexibility of outsourcing is one of its key benefits.

What Projects Call for Outsourced Marketing?

When your marketing team has too much work to handle reasonably, it’s time to seek out targeted relief. If you have team members working long hours on SEO and content marketing, but they don’t have the bandwidth to write a series of blogs, it’s time to outsource a content team. The same could be said for website design, UX overhauls, or almost any other time and labor-intensive project. If you aren’t seeing the kind of results you like from a project, it could also be time to hire expert marketing help from the outside. Maybe your staff doesn’t have a decade of SEO experience, and that’s okay. You can hire an outside SEO master that can show them a thing or two while boosting ROI for your business.

Is Outsourcing Cost-Effective?

Outsourcing is not only a smart play when your teams are backed up — it’s a cost-effective solution that you can use to free up your MVPs. Often, marketing agencies will package services in a way that will reduce your costs and provide a more holistic solution. This is a great way to avoid charges for any add-on items that quickly stack up. Of course, you will have a variety of cost options when it comes to choosing a marketing service. You will want to choose a company that provides quality results at the lowest possible price point, but this can be tricky. Not every outfit will be able to handle your project. Chances are, if you are the marketing department for a high-profile tech company, a small-time agency won’t cut it—as much as they would love the opportunity. It’s all about the balance of marketing aptitude and cost savings. Direct Online Marketing has some of the brightest minds in marketing working to bring you marketing solutions. We have competitive pricing for any project and work with you to provide the best mix of time and budget.

Doing Your Research on Outsourced Marketing Providers

It’s important to do your research on outsourced marketing providers to find the best fit. It’s ideal to find an agency that has worked with similar companies in your industry as they will understand some of your unique problems. Perhaps the biggest drawback to outsourced marketing is a lack of product or service understanding. You will want to make sure that if they don’t already have a rock-solid understanding of what you do, they will study up on what your company offers.

• Online searches will be able to tell you a lot about an agency. Their website should be clean, modern, and most importantly, it should include case studies and a portfolio of past experience that should impress you. However, if you are looking for a quick project fix, you might just need an individual freelance marketer.
• Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing tools there is. When marketing agencies do a good (or bad) job, word gets out. Ask around for recommendations from your peers. Chances are they will be able to provide you with help they’ve used in a pinch when it comes to copywriting, graphic and web design, or any other services.
• Social media and review sites like Clutch will sometimes give you a great lead on an outsourced marketing agency. Also, it’s possible someone has already tried to reach out to you via LinkedIn or email with their services! Now could be the time to revisit your inbox to take an agency up on an offer.

Don’t make the mistake of going with the first outfit you find, unless they really are the best fit. The only way to be sure is to consult with a few companies and ensure you get the best deal when it comes to a balance of price, time commitment, and experience.

How Will You Know Good Marketing Help When You See It?

When you know, you know. Good marketing help will fight for your business and show you all the ways that they align with your project. They have all the credentials, experience, and knowledge to run with a briefing and provide excellent deliverables. A good marketing agency will have a portfolio handy of case studies that show how they helped companies like yours in the past, the end results and ROI.

What Should You Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Agency?

You should look for a marketing agency that can provide specialized services that will help you finish marketing projects as soon as possible. Often, marketing departments will come to an agency with a tight deadline. A good agency will be able to take on the project quickly and get deliverables to you as soon as possible. Turnaround times are a big part of projects. There are always drafts and redrafts and edits that need to take place to ensure a finely finished product. You should ensure that the agency you are looking at can work within your time constraints. Of course, you may need to pay a premium for a bump up on their priority list, but that can be expected.

Keeping An Eye On ROI

ROI is one of the biggest terms in marketing. Word coming from above always wants to hear about return on investment. Outsourced marketing teams can provide a better ROI while keeping costs low and providing more insight and expertise than your in-house teams originally had. An outsourced marketing team shouldn’t only be able to provide you with the results you need, they should be able to measure them and give you numbers that reflect the value of your decision. At Direct Online Marketing, we carefully measure project ROI so you can see your results in hard data and plain English. Once you find the stellar ROIs that we offer our clients, we are certain you will come to us again when your projects demand it.

Final Thoughts

Outsourced marketing can be the perfect way to free up your in-house marketing teams to perform at their peak. It is a cost-effective strategy to improve your workload while bringing extra expertise onboard to provide their secret sauce. There are a huge number of projects that are ideal for seeking outsourced marketing. If you have a large marketing department or a small in-house team, outsourced marketing can help you deliver better results faster and more cheaply than hiring on more permanent staff.

Everything You Need To Know About Strategic Marketing

Download Direct Online Marketing’s free guide full of expert, insider advice on everything you need to know about strategic marketing. Use our insight to plan for success and create a lasting impression on your audience.

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The post Your Guide To Outsourced Marketing appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

The Consumer Experience Will Continue Rising in Importance

As consumers continue to grow more aware (and tired!) of traditional marketing tactics, their experience has surpassed price and product as the key brand differentiators. They are now focused on the experience a brand offers. This growing emphasis on consumer experience means that buyers are willing to pay more for a better and customized buying journey. Research shows that an overwhelming majority (86%) of consumers would pay more for a brand that offers them an engaging, quality experience.

Ignoring a more personalized user experience can lead to increased consumer frustration and an overall decrease in brand reputation. 92% of consumers are only willing to give two to three chances to a brand before they completely abandon it because of poor customer experience.

Brands need to invest in enhancing the level of consumer experience they offer if they expect to succeed in their objectives.

Purpose Driven Brands Will Remain Popular

Brands that exist for the sole purpose of maximizing their profits are not going to be successful in convincing customers to keep buying from them. Modern-day consumers want to buy from brands that resonate with the same values they stand for.

For instance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown to be an important buying factor; according to a recent study, 65% of consumers want to buy from brands that promote sustainability.

Consumers feel strong emotional connections with and are proud to be associated with purpose-driven brands. That’s why 88% of consumers are willing to buy a new product when launched by a purpose-driven brand.

To connect with consumers, you must define and align your purpose with your target audiences’ values.

Enhanced Customer Service Will Become the Expectation

With companies becoming more customer-centric, they are expected to continue improving their services in the future as well. This includes improving customer response times, considering users prefer instant answers.

Nearly 78% of customers buy from companies that are quick to respond to their queries and concerns, and that are authentic in their approach. This not only shows that your brand is eager to help your customers but also helps build trust and loyalty.

Additionally, studies have found out that it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it costs to keep an existing one. And so, tactics such as chatbot greetings on your website or social channels is an excellent opportunity to connect with your customers, engage with them, and keep them happy.

Creating a responsive, genuine customer experience through efficient customer service is a key approach to connecting with and keeping your consumers.

Artificial Intelligence Will Gain Momentum

A 2018 Salesforce Marketing Report predicted that 79% of marketers would prefer using AI by 2020.

AI-based software provides a competitive edge in many ways; it reduces costs, saves time, generates higher ROI, and personalizes the consumer experience.

Since AI can analyze vast amounts of data and find correlation amongst a diverse group of audiences, businesses can reach their target audience more effectively. Predictive analysis is another way marketers can benefit from AI. It helps make sense of past trends, such as the purchase history of your customers and enables you to design your future marketing strategy based on that data.

Building Communities Through Social Media Marketing

There are about 3.4 billion social media users around the world – that equals about 45% of the world’s population. Brands have a tremendous opportunity to engage with consumers and build real communities through social media.

Using influencers is one way to help your brand marketing. Statistics show that Instagram has the highest engagement rate with influencer profiles. Capitalizing on the popularity of micro-influencers, instead of celebrity endorsements, can help you gain a cost-effective and more genuine connection with consumers.  Ready to put these trends into action? At Direct Online Marketing, we help businesses create comprehensive strategic marketing plans that help guide better business decisions, and just plain better business. Let’s talk.

The post Your 2023 Approach to Strategic Marketing appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

First think about email. It has not disappeared. It has become an ingrained part of almost everyone’s life. This is not anecdotal data. It is tracked by independent statisticians, data aggregators as well as marketing managers and digital marketing agencies that have skin in the game.

Digital marketing agencies keep their pulse on the use and receptivity of email. It is important for the digital marketing agencies to be able to show their clients a return on investment that exceeds their ability to market themselves. If the digital marketing agencies did not have numbers to back up their policies of keeping email as part of the marketing mix their ROI reports to clients would be dim.

The Use of Email is Alive and Well

It’s easy to see if email alive or is a thing of the past by looking at data. Statista.com is an independent data aggregator, tracker and analytics firm that bills themselves as the Global No. 1 Business Data Platform. They supply insights and facts across 170 industries and 150 plus countries.

In a recent examination of active global email accounts published on March 19,2021, the Statista.com Research Department said “In 2020, approximately 306 billion e-mails were sent and received every day worldwide. This figure is projected to increase to over 376 billion daily e-mails in 2025. “Clearly email is not dead even in the age of social media.

Email received a blackeye from the Blackhat tactics of maverick SEO “specialists” who became practiced at spam in the early days of digital marketing. This turned users as well as marketers away from email. Long before the advent of social media, marketing specialists solved the negative for email with the opt-in solution. Lobbying for laws to be changed and educating the consumer directly on the opt-in option for email from companies made it a favorable means of communication with customers and clients once again.

The Past is Gone

Email users today might not recall the time when email had to invent spam filters to control the influx of hundreds of “junk” emails a day. Those that do remember those days learned to be wary of unsolicited emails and fear opening them or clicking on links. Like their younger counterparts, they do however welcome the opt-in email.

In talking about malicious email in the March 19, 2021, report the Statistia.com Research Team said, “Overall, consumers are pretty aware of the dangers of unknown e-mails and according to a global survey in February 2019, 45 percent of internet users reported that they avoided opening e-mails from unknown e-mail addresses.”

Rumors of the Death of Email Marketing Are Greatly Exaggerated

Fortune 100 companies know that email provides an excellent ROI. They employ analytic firms to track their ROI across all marketing outlets. This data shows them that email marketing is a performer based on ROI. Litmus, a premium email analytics firm employed by 80% of the Fortune 100 companies reported in 2019, “Brands that always include an A/B test in their emails generate an ROI of 48:1.”

Fortune 100 companies who have marketing budgets in the hundreds of billions of dollars are still willing to commit to email marketing as a major mix in expenditure distribution. This is living proof that the rumors of the death of email marketing are greatly exaggerated.

Direct Online Marketing offers a strategic approach to email as part of an overall marketing effort for companies of all sizes.

The post Email Marketing is Alive and Well for 2023 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

That’s why brands must invest considerable time, effort, and resources into creating a solid marketing plan that employs leading tactics to boost business. Strategic marketing can help enterprises of all sizes, and across industries, differentiate themselves from the competition and provide value to their audiences and stakeholders.

Let’s dive into what strategic marketing is, why it’s essential, what trends you need to incorporate, and how strategic marketing benefits businesses (when its executed in the right way!).

CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN

An effective strategic marketing plan will create brand awareness, generate leads, and ultimately convert qualified leads into customers. But without the right components, your attempts to boost your business could go bust. That’s why you need to understand and incorporate the essential parts of a practical strategic marketing blueprint. 

• Market Analysis – Collect and analyze data on your previous inbound and outbound (or more conventional) marketing efforts to determine the successes and failures of those strategies.
• Organizational Marketing Goals – Make sure that your strategic marketing plan aligns with your organization’s values so that you can promote a more consistent brand image and voice.
• Target Audience – Your strategy should cater to your exact target audience. Research and create buyer personas to target appropriately, gather feedback, address your ideal customers’ wants, needs, and pain points.
• Advertising Strategy – Understand the right platforms and methods to market your products or services to ensure the maximum effectiveness of your plan.
• Monitoring and Measuring – You have to know if your strategic marketing plan is working. That happens by measuring the results. Monitor KPIs and adjust your approaches when efforts aren’t quite hitting the mark.

INBOUND MARKETING VS. OUTBOUND MARKETING: DETERMINING WHAT WORKS WITH YOUR BRAND

There’s intense competition in the marketplace, and your prospects see thousands of advertising messages every day. It can be difficult for businesses to stand out and get the attention of their target audience – but it isn’t impossible.

Marketers have two distinct pathways through which they can communicate their brand’s message: inbound marketing and outbound marketing.

Outbound marketing is a traditional approach to pushing out your product’s information to prospects, hoping that it will reach the right audience and result in sales. It does not necessarily involve technology, but it strives to create brand awareness in very little time. This might happen through conventional advertising, such as print ads or billboards.

On the other hand, inbound marketing works subtly to gain the interest of a prospect. It educates buyers and provides them value–instead of blatantly promoting products in a sea of messages. This approach prioritizes the customer’s best interests, and businesses use it to build stronger relationships with their existing and prospective customers.

Both approaches have their benefits, but ultimately, you’ll need to choose the best marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING OF YOUR STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN

A successful strategic marketing plan includes an effective advertising strategy.

Whether you choose to use digital advertising approaches or more conventional advertising, or a blend of both, what matters most is how audiences are most likely to respond.

When creating your brand’s advertising strategy, your company’s values must be kept in mind. If it’s not on brand, your audiences definitely won’t respond. After that, determine your advertising campaign budget, since that directly influences the channels you’ll use to promote your brand.

Additionally, your budget will also determine the frequency of your ads to extract maximum ROI.

The main goal of your advertising strategy should be to gain as much exposure as possible to your target audience. The more potential customers who see your brand’s message, the more leads you will generate.

SHOULD YOU DIY INBOUND MARKETING OF HIRE AN AGENCY?

Businesses are increasingly adopting inbound marketing strategies. But it can be difficult for managers to decide if they should have an in-house inbound marketing team or hire an agency to execute their campaigns.

Our take: You specialize in what you do for a reason. Keep doing what you’re great at and leave your marketing to the experts!

GAME-CHANGING STRATEGIES FOR CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing no longer remains an option for businesses. High-quality, original content has become a necessity for brands that want to thrive in the digital space. Content marketing has the power to increase brand awareness, attract organic traffic to your websites, and generate more leads.

The formula for a successful content marketing campaign is to post quality, consistent content through blogs, articles, social media posts, and videos or podcasts that are niche-specific and targets a distinct audience. Then, your content should be promoted through social media channels, digital advertising, and e-newsletters to make sure it’s being read and seen.

HOW TO CALCULATE THE ROI OF YOUR STRATEGIC MARKETING CAMPAIGN

If you do not measure your ROI, you don’t have a good sense of whether your strategic marketing is working. Start the process by clarifying your goals and streamlining your processes; then ensure a successful implementation and execution of your strategic marketing plan. This process is crucial to evaluate its effectiveness through campaign ROI.

Then, you can evaluate your strategic marketing campaign ROI through a simple formula.

(Sales Growth – Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost = ROI

Add up all the expenditures and revenues for the marketing team, internal expenses, fees, and any other expenses incurred during marketing. Now subtract this number from the sales that occurred due to these marketing efforts.

There are other formulas to calculate marketing ROI. Still, those depend on specific strategic aims of the marketing campaign, such as calculating the increase in sales or determining the value of each customer’s relationship with your business.

GIVE INBOUND MARKETING A CHANCE – HERE’S WHY!

Inbound marketing helps brands enhance their digital footprint by presenting products and services to customers who are already looking for similar offers.

Inbound marketing matters for businesses. Here’s why.

• Inbound Marketing is Cost-Effective. Writing and promoting several SEO-optimized blog posts can be comparatively cheaper than a billboard ad. Research suggests that inbound marketing costs 60% less than outbound marketing methods!
• Inbound Marketing enhances your company’s reputation. Inbound marketing leverages different mediums to educate new and existing customers on why they need your particular product or service.
• Inbound Marketing guides leads through the sales funnel. Inbound marketing can help expedite and simplify the decision-making process for a potential customer, making it easier for them to ‘buy now’ or for you to follow up.
• Inbound Marketing is relevant. Inbound marketing attracts customers by providing them appropriate, timely, relevant, and informative content–rather than bombarding them with unsolicited advertisements.
• Inbound marketing offers better analytics. You can effectively analyze the results of your inbound marketing campaigns and apply that data to help you determine your next strategy.

THE ELEMENTS OF DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing is a form of strategic marketing that helps businesses reach their target audience through mediums that are more effective and impactful than traditional marketing. If your company does not have a digital marketing strategy in place, you are missing out on a broad audience base.

You can take advantage of digital marketing to maximize marketing efforts through the following approaches:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Social media marketing (SMM)
• Mobile marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising

A digital marketing strategy that encompasses some or all of these tactics all is the ultimate way to effectively promote your brand’s products and services to a wide range of audiences.

6 TYPES OF CONTENT TO DRIVE CONVERSIONS

Content marketing is possibly the most effective digital marketing strategy for businesses. There are six main types of content marketing that you can use to engage your targeted audience and boost your brand’s image:

• Blogs
• Videos
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Checklists
• Podcasts (and then consider breaking up podcasts into a series of written articles!)

By using each of these formats, or by repurposing content across these formats in different ways, you can engage leads and boost online activity or sales for your business.

Why SEO and Content Marketing are a Perfect Match

No matter how informative and engaging your blogs are, new customers won’t be able to find you unless your content is ranking on Google. That’s why it is crucial to optimize your content for search engines with appropriate SEO tactics. The only way to attract leads is by leveraging the power of SEO for your website.

SEO and content marketing work hand-in-hand to enhance the effectiveness of your digital market campaigns. Here’s what you can expect.

• Improved user experience – Content that is easy to understand, organized, and SEO-optimized assists in converting quality leads.
• A better understanding of the audience – When you optimize your content for search engines, you are also inevitably understanding how your audience searches for you online. Figure out what pain points you need to target, and you’ll have an extremely effective content marketing campaign.
• Quality content – The combination of powerfully written content and proper SEO can help your audience access content they will appreciate.

While there is no denying the benefits, it is also important to remember that you won’t see the results of your SEO and content integration strategy overnight. Be consistent, continually refine your SEO tactics and content creation, and also keep up-to-date with the latest trends to get the most from this strategy.

HOW CAN INBOUND MARKETING HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

Businesses are deviating from traditional marketing tactics to inbound marketing since it helps them form long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships with their prospects.

But that’s not all–there are numerous benefits of inbound marketing, including:

• Value for money – It is less expensive than other outbound strategies since it requires fewer resources to execute a marketing strategy.
• Better customer relationships – By providing quality content, inbound marketing helps to generate leads that convert to brand advocates.
• Efficient analytics – It helps businesses track their marketing efforts so that they can devise an even better strategy in the future.

Traditional approaches would at-best get them one-off sales, but inbound has the power to deliver loyal, repeat customers.

DIGITAL MARKETING TIPS, TRICKS, AND TRENDS

Digital marketing can be overwhelming for businesses that are turning to it now, after working with more traditional methods for decades. Better late than never, because it is essential to embrace these new tools and strategies if you want to gain an advantage over your competitors.

These are the top digital marketing trends that you can incorporate in your company’s marketing mix.

• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – Enable customers to inspect and ‘test-drive’ the product before the actual purchase.
• Voice search optimization – Allow customers user-friendly access to products, services, and your website by speaking into their voice devices.
• Shoppable posts – Help your customers buy a product directly through social media posts featuring the product’s picture, price tag, and a click-through button.

Streamline your digital marketing processes with these tips:

• Produce personalized advertisements – Tailor your ads to align with a defined geographical area, age, sex, and other demographics. Remember, people like to buy when ads are targeted to their specific personality traits or preferences.
• Target Gen Z – Gen Z has the purchasing power and the ability to make your business a success. Show them how your brand aligns with their values!
• Video Integration – Videos relay your brand messages, and they also help you highlight the most promising features in a way that remains etched into the mind of your target consumer.

HOW TO CREATE A BUDGET PLAN FOR STRATEGIC MARKETING

To budget for your strategic marketing efforts, you need to consider all the costs for every marketing effort you plan on implementing. Here are some ways to maximize the budget for your strategic marketing efforts.

• Use social media to streamline your budget – Social media is a cost-effective method of marketing that can add real value to your campaigns, all the while maximizing your budget.
• Recycle your marketing campaigns – Instead of spending money on creating new promotions, you can repurpose your previous successful strategic marketing campaigns. Reuse what worked and add to it for maximum success.
• Use email marketing – Email marketing is more cost-effective and helps generates more ROI than direct mail.
• Encourage word-of-mouth marketing – Encourage your customers to share their love for your brand on social media to create engagement, which attracts new leads.
• Create quality content – To increase your brand’s visibility, you need to create high-quality content through blogs and social media, which costs less than traditional marketing.

TELLING YOUR BRAND STORY THROUGH CONTENT MARKETING

Stories help customers to relate to a brand, and when it comes to strategic marketing, businesses are maximizing on this opportunity to create content marketing campaigns that, ultimately, convert customers.

Content marketing is, by far, the best opportunity to write a captivating brand story that aligns with your customers’ values and touches their lives in meaningful ways.

Leverage different content marketing platforms and keep the following elements in mind when creating an engaging brand story.

• Prioritize audience preferences – Research what your target audience wants to read, and then convey your brand message to solve their problems effectively.
• Purposeful messaging – Your story must have a purpose behind it to show your audience that you value their time and attention.
• Include visual content – People process images faster than text, so by incorporating visual aids in your content marketing strategy, you can increase customer interaction with your brand.
• Incorporate videos – Use videos to tell your brand story and show your customers that are more than a business.
• Deliver authentic content – The digital marketplace is saturated with so many brands, so your business must create trustworthy and reliable marketing messages to reach out to your target audiences.

THE MOST COMMON STRATEGIC MARKETING PROBLEMS–AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

The road to an effective strategic marketing strategy is full of challenges that can derail your efforts if ignored. These marketing problems include generating new leads, limitations of a marketing budget, attracting the wrong customer base, intense competition, or mixing your marketing approach.

But these difficulties can be diminished by precise strategic marketing solutions that involve improving the quality and reach of your content to grow and nurture leads.

It’s also a good idea to use a combination of outbound and inbound marketing campaigns to balance the budget. Creating a specific buyer persona and appealing to the individual needs of a customer will also help you solve these marketing problems.

CREATING A STRATEGIC MARKETING APPROACH FOR 2023

Here are some of the leading strategic marketing trends for 2023!

• Improved customer experiences – Buyers are tired of traditional marketing tactics, which is why they have learned to ignore the never-ending messaging. To gain their attention this year, create more personalized campaigns that deliver high-quality experiences.
• Creating purpose-driven brands – Customers prefer brands that create an emotional connection with them–instead of bombarding them with promotional offers.
• Enhanced customer service – Responsive and efficient customer service will help in attracting and retaining your customers.
• AI integration – Artificial Intelligence provides a competitive edge. It saves costs, time, and generates higher ROI to create better customer experiences.
• Social media communities – Get micro-influencers to work with your brand instead of celebrity endorsements to build a more relatable connection with your customers.

CONVERTING LEADS WITH STRATEGIC MARKETING

Strategic marketing plays a vital role in lead generation and conversions. Getting this right means leveraging social media marketing platforms to engage customers and build your brand’s credibility.

Google Ads is also an excellent way to re-engage visitors by introducing your product ads whenever they search online.

And, another useful tool is email marketing. Email marketing plays a vital role in lead generation and conversion. Send promotional emails with a call-to-action button that appeals to the customer to take immediate action.

KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN CHOOSING THE BEST STRATEGIC MARKETING AGENCY

Many brands are confused about how to choose the best strategic marketing agency. It is essential to understand that the right agency perfectly aligns with the values and culture of your company, and that is crucial for your brand’s success.

Before signing a contract, make sure that you can communicate your goals with them. Furthermore, you must check references provided by other clients they have worked with and assess if they are the right fit for your business and marketing goals.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN YOUR STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN

Social media offers an effective platform for brands to build long-term relationships with their customers, enhance their brand’s image, and increase their credibility.

Social media marketing can also increase customer interaction, augmenting the effectiveness of business marketing strategies and boosting sales for a brand.

STRATEGIC MARKETING TRENDS – THE NEXT BIG THING

When it comes to strategic marketing trends, the future belongs to businesses that are invested in creating more personalized and enhanced customer experiences. This should help them establish a genuine connection and reduces client acquisition costs.

Moreover, AI and automation technology will continue to further enhance the marketing tactics this year with increased improvements in customer retention strategy.

CREATING A BALANCE BETWEEN STORY-TELLING AND SEO IN CONTENT MARKETING

By integrating SEO tactics in your content marketing strategy, you get to tell an engaging brand story that is visible to the customers who search for you online. It is imperative to strike a balance between the two to produce an effective and comprehensive content marketing strategy.

Avoid generating content that is keyword-loaded and bland. Instead, tell your brand story in a way that creates an emotional appeal with your customers to give you a competitive edge. Then, your content should reflect the values of the company and leave a lasting impact on customers’ minds.

To make these strategies work, you need to analyze and understand your audience and encourage them to engage with the brand.

DETERMINING YOUR STRATEGIC MARKETING GOALS

The success of a strategic marketing campaign requires achieving essential objectives. Here are some of the top strategic marketing goals to keep in mind.

• Increase in sales – Start working toward an increase in sales by increasing your brand’s credibility.
• Brand awareness – Promote your products and services to create awareness, which will drive more purchases and an increase in sales.
• Customer retention – A loyal customer base buys more from your business than new customers. To expand your business, you must deploy strategies to retain them.
• Web traffic – Increased traffic leads to the increased conversion rate of new leads.
• Conversion rate optimization – Improving the conversion rate through CRO programs help in enhancing a business’s revenue

COMPANIES EXECUTING STRATEGIC MARKETING TRENDS THE RIGHT WAY

Successful businesses utilize multiple marketing platforms to create a solid strategic marketing plan that actually works. Here are some brands that got it right:

• Evernote, by leveraging customer stories as a content marketing strategy to engage with their audiences.
• Nike, by producing motivational videos as part of its strategic marketing plan.
• Ford, by creating opportunities for customer engagement through mobile marketing to increase their conversion rate.
• Pampers, by creating an emotional appeal for its consumer base through social media marketing.

EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITIES IN STRATEGIC MARKETING

Businesses need to realize that not every strategy works for everyone.

Most businesses expect to come up with innovative ideas quickly – they also believe that lead generation can happen automatically when they spread awareness about their products.

What they fail to realize is that no one can reap overnight results with an out-of-the-box idea or by generating vast amounts of content on all marketing platforms. It takes a strategy to ensure the success of a brand or business.

That’s why it is crucial to invest in customer-centric strategic marketing solutions to solve the problems of their businesses.

IN A NUTSHELL

Strategic marketing helps businesses achieve their target revenues by enhancing customer experiences and ensuring consistency in their campaigns.

This definitive guide offers you in-depth guidance on how to wield the power of strategic marketing and use it to reach new audiences and boost your brand’s image.

For more advice on creating an effective strategic marketing plan that gives you a competitive edge, download our free e-book,  Everything You Need to Know About Strategic Marketing. This free resource is full of expert, insider advice on everything you need to know about strategic marketing. Use our insight to plan for success and create a lasting impression on your audience. Download it now or reach out to C-leveled today!

Everything You Need To Know About Strategic Marketing

Download C-leveled’s free guide full of expert, insider advice on everything you need to know about strategic marketing. Use our insight to plan for success and create a lasting impression on your audience.

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The post Your Complete Guide to Strategic Marketing appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Email is a fairly easy way to stay connected to your audience, but there should always be a strategy behind the content you’re putting out into the universe. Questions you should be asking as you develop this content should include: who is my audience? Why will they care about this? What’s the goal of this email? Where will the email take readers when they’ve finished reading?

And of course, you should absolutely be tracking your email marketing efforts. Metrics to consider should include open rate, meaning the percentage of people who actually opened the email (a catchy subject line can help immensely); the click-through rate (CTR) of people who actually clicked the link in the email; conversion rate, meaning the people who not only clicked the link but took a specific action afterward; and the bounce rate—the number of subscriber email addresses who didn’t receive your email (and should be taken off your list).

1. Personalize your content. Go the extra mile with your content by personalizing it for each individualized reader. This way, the content is guaranteed to be relevant to the person reading. A great example of this is Spotify’s “Year in Review” in which they send all users a breakdown of their top artists and songs for the previous year. While this takes a lot of effort, an easier way you can get more personal is to address each recipient by name in your emails.
2. Make your emails more dynamic. Think of this as giving your readers more of a visual experience vs. overwhelming this with text. Images and videos in the email are increasing in popularity. If you have a visual element, less text is more. This is especially great for industries such as travel and hospitality so that readers can actually picture where they could go. Same with retail and getting a closer look at a specific product.
3. The future is automation. More and more brands are turning to automation to stay in touch with their customers. This is typically seen in the form of a follow-up email after a user already takes action but doesn’t follow through. What may seem annoying to some can actually be just the reminder someone else needs to buy those shoes they were eyeing and forgot about. In fact, according to Omnisend, automated emails attracted 29% of email orders last year.
4. Be more meaningful. Your audience doesn’t want to be sold time and again. When developing email content, start thinking less salesy and more meaningful-y. For example, that new program you launched sounds great, but why did you create it? What good will come out of it for your community? It’s the greater meaning and the “doing good” that resonates with consumers the most.
5. Partner with email marketing experts. It is the year of email marketing, so why not move full speed ahead? Whether you choose to work with a new email marketing platform or an agency that helps you write and execute your email campaigns, it’s never a bad idea to have extra help for something that could help drive your sales immensely.

When you’re looking for the right partner or simply some guidance on your next email campaign, we’ll be around. Shoot us a note at info@c-leveled.com.

The post 5 Considerations for Your Email Marketing Strategy appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

All these questions will remain unanswered if you don’t set adequate targets that align with your business vision. Strategic marketing goals are essential to your success. Here are a few marketing objectives that you should aim to pursue across your plans. 

Increases In Sales

Marketers know that increased sales are the primary intent of their strategic marketing campaigns. This is because the ability of an organization to cover its expenses is directly dependent on sales–and a lack of sales equates to a lack of revenue, which leaves no space for growth. The proven ability to generate and close sales reflects on and ensures the overall success of your business.

Sales can increase by spreading brand awareness and trust. When people make purchases, they are more likely to go for a service or a product that they feel is reliable and relatable. 

Initial & Continuous Brand Awareness

Buyers tend to purchase from brands they are familiar with, which is why you need to spread awareness about your services or products constantly and consistently. Awareness leads to initial purchases; reinforced and continuous awareness means repeat purchases. 

Marketing strategies may vary from product to product or service to service. Still, a sharp brand image is going to be constant across all campaigns–making your brand stand out, and your audiences stand up a take notice.

Customer Retention & Relationships

Finding new buyers is excellent, but retaining old customers is also essential to the success of your business–that’s because recurring customers are more likely to buy from you.

While only 20% of new visitors convert when they visit your website, the percentage rises to 60% for recurring customers. That is why more and more companies are now recognizing how customer satisfaction impacts revenue and are focused on finding ways to keep previous buyers coming back for more.

Increases in Web Traffic

When more people visit your site, the chances are that it will translate into better sales for your business. However, it takes a lot more than just increased traffic to improve conversion rates.

Ensure that your traffic is appropriately segmented to fit in your brand’s niche and then create a solid strategy to grow your online audience. 

Optimize Your Conversion Rate

The goal for your business is to get as many prospects as possible to convert, or complete your desired action–this could mean making a purchase, watching a video, or signing up for your newsletter.

More conversions decrease customer acquisition costs by transforming already present users into buyers – in turn, a higher conversion rate generates more revenue and helps expand your horizons.

The good news is that your efforts to optimize conversion rates are almost guaranteed to yield results – stats show that 74% of CRO programs help their organizations enhance revenue.  

A business can never have enough customers or profits, and that is why there is always room for improving the conversion rate.

Pre-defining your strategic marketing goals can streamline your planning process, as you and your team clear a pathway to success. 

It isn’t easy to establish a sound brand presence, but if you set the right strategic marketing objectives, it’s possible. With appropriate planning and plenty of due diligence, you can help your business grow considerably over the present year.

Make sure that your brand’s goals are aspiration-drive and time-bound. Define the capabilities you need to achieve your strategic objectives, communicate your intentions, and then get going!

Ready for a strategic marketing partner that can help you guide your business and your brand to new levels of success? Contact us today.

The post The Strategic Marketing Goals You Need to Set Now appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

For your marketing strategy to be successful, it must also be realistic, consistent, and agile. The ever-evolving marketing landscape is a testament to the fact that change is the only constant, and those who understand and can implement what is known to work in the world of strategic marketing have a much easier road ahead.

We’ve pulled together a shortlist of who we think is doing strategic marketing right across some of the top marketing channels, so you can start incorporating what works into your strategic marketing planning. 

Content Marketing

Whether in the form of blogs, infographics, videos, or images, content educates, engages, and persuades your audiences. If your content is not top quality, it will not resonate with your customers. 

No matter how strategic marketing tactics change, content should always remain a priority. That’s because content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

A great example of content marketing success is Evernote, a popular note-taking app that engages with its audience by employing effective content marketing tactics. Using a Customer Stories feature page, Evernote displays how different people and businesses are using their platform to support them in their daily lives. 

Not only does this strategy enable the platform to benefit from user-generated content (UGC), but it provides a high-value source of customer testimonials that highlight how useful the Evernote application is and how it supports and solves customer pain points.

This combination of storytelling and UGC helps Evernote create engaging and relatable content that amplifies brand awareness and encourages users to share their stories and engage with the brand and each other.

Video Marketing

Video marketing gives brands a platform to tell stories through captivating graphics and visuals that connect to the audience emotionally, as well as increase traffic and boost sales.

Whether a business is large or small, implementing video marketing helps to reach more target audiences, create more engaging content, and will lead to greater brand awareness. 

Nike has found incredible success by making motivational, inspirational, and relatable video content a part of their strategic marketing plan. The “Unlimited” campaign of 2016 showed how average people work hard to become star athletes. This campaign paved the way for more ingenious video marketing strategies that proved to be extremely effective for the brand.

Mobile Marketing

More than half of smartphone users discover new companies and products while searching on their mobile phones. Search engines like Google are hyperaware of the power of the mobile user, which is why it now ranks websites by their mobile-friendliness. The growth of mobile-focused marketing has spurred companies to develop more mobile-friendly websites, with search engine optimization, as well as create integrated mobile experiences, text message marketing, and more to improve their customers’ mobile engagement and experiences.

The automobile company, Ford, used an exemplary mobile marketing strategy to promote the Ford Escape and Taurus models. People who were interested in the models were encouraged to send a text, which initiated their inquiry while registering their names and local zip codes. Local Ford dealerships received the pre-qualified leads and customer information and followed up–resulting in a 15.4% higher conversion rate.

Social Media Marketing

Social media has changed the strategic marketing landscape by consolidating the relationship between users and companies, making businesses more accessible and more inviting to the user.

Pampers has wonderfully executed social media marketing by turning a less-than-glamorous product into a catalyst for emotional moments. In their social media campaigns, the brand leverages the bond between a parent and a child, making it more natural for parents to choose their product to ensure comfort for their child. They have created a charming persona for their brand on social media that goes beyond just selling products, and instead, engages families in building a relationship with a brand that will forever be associated with the first few years of their child’s life.

Mastering the art of an effective strategic marketing plan requires an understanding of what will work and what will not. More companies are now harnessing the power of strategic marketing trends to attract more customers to their brand, boost sales, and enhance their brand image and competitive presence in the market. Ready to put some skin in the game? Contact our team of friendly experts to harness the power of strategic marketing for your business and your brand. 

The post Who Is Getting Strategic Marketing Right–and How? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

That’s all true, but the caveat is in the approach. If you’re not putting in the quality time, effort, resources, and tactics, your strategic marketing expectations will never live up to the reality of the results. 

Expectation: Innovative Ideas are Easy to Dream Up!

Reality: It can be challenging to come up with original ideas that hit it out of the park.

As much as you may want to see immediate success, it’s unlikely that your businesses will achieve overnight results–even with out-of-the-box thinking. 

Although innovative marketing solutions can and will attract new customers to your business, the reality is that there is a process to go through before you commit to a new method as your go-to. Take the time to research, test, experiment, and modify based on your audience responses across engagements and interactions, and especially when it comes to measurement in comparison to your goals. 

Too many businesses are afraid of failure. But, strategic marketing offers you room for taking chances and for taking stock of what works and what doesn’t. Just as with any other component of business: You won’t always come up with an innovative idea that will hit the mark every single time, but every flop is a learning opportunity for a better approach next time.

Expectation: Increasing Brand Awareness Leads to More Conversions!

Reality: Yes, but only if they are the right leads for your business. 

Most people believe that by increasing brand visibility through advertising and marketing, they can generate more leads. And that is true–but–that alone does not ensure that the type of traffic generated is the kind you want and need.

These leads might not be relevant to your brand, and thus the conversion rate will be meager due to the quality of traffic. This means you’ve lost out on time, money, and now have an additional marketing challenge on your hands to reroute your message to the right audiences. 

In reality, it is essential to implement a well-researched strategy that attracts relevant leads to your business, does the work of warming them up, and naturally converts them because they are the right fit. That approach will generate the expected ROI.

Expectation: Content Alone Will Convert!

Reality: It takes the right content, delivered in the right ways to reach and engage your audiences effectively.

Many companies think keyword-stuffed or bland digital content is enough on its own to attract leads, convert them, and then additionally engage, retain, and foster continuing relationships with their customers. But customers are savvier than ever and will see right through click-bait or dry content.

In reality, it’s all about high-quality content. That content needs to be presented and repurposed in unique and engaging ways, from videos, blog posts, infographics, podcasts, audio, imagery, and more. 

Expectation: If the Marketing Strategy isn’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!

Reality: Last year’s marketing strategy won’t necessarily work in this year’s marketplace.

A number of companies make the mistake of repeating their previous year’s marketing solutions because they achieved excellent results. So they follow it step by step, expecting they will continue to get good results and experience the same levels of growth. When they don’t, they’re left feeling frustrated and confused. 

Here’s the thing: While there may be parts and pieces of your old strategy that work, strategic marketing requires agility and innovation. The digital world is continuously changing, and that makes it necessary for businesses to adapt to evolving landscapes and customer preferences year after year. Keep in mind that your company is customer-centric, so focusing on their changing wants and needs along with researching upcoming marketing trends, will help your business scale the heights of success year after year.

In reality, audit your marketing strategy each year, pull in a few key pieces you want to keep and adjust from previous campaigns, and blend it all into a brand-new approach.  Strategic marketing can maximize your position over competitors, streamline operations, and create value for your key audiences. At C-leveled, we’re in the business of delivering strategic marketing approaches that earn real results. Let’s talk about your strategic marketing expectations and how our expert team can make them a reality.

The post Expectations vs. Reality in Strategic Marketing appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Balancing storytelling and SEO, and by that, we mean integrating brand stories with SEO tactics and best practices, empowers brands to give consumers exactly the kind of content they are looking for. With compelling content, you want to be able to tell a story that pulls at the heartstrings (and the wallets!) of your prospects. With SEO, you want your content to rank highly in search results so your audiences can see it. 

Why is it important to strike a balance between storytelling and SEO? Where storytelling allows you to create a connection with your audience, SEO provides you with the visibility and exposure you need to get in front of your audience.

You can’t ignore one for the other because it defeats the entire purpose of an effective, engaging, and comprehensive content marketing strategy. Here’s how you can make sure you’re not putting off your customers by putting out keyword-stuffed or bland, one-sided content. 

Content Makes Your Brand Unforgettable

You’re always fighting against your competition for a few moments of audience attention. That’s why content that evokes emotion is essential to cutting through the noise and guiding customers to your product or service organically. 

Storytelling makes your content 22 times more memorable than merely stating facts, so in a sea of repeated and SEO-loaded content, this approach enables you to make an impression and make your mark in a crowded marketplace.

Content Showcases Shared Values

Telling your story allows you to create an impression and leave a lasting impact. Much like human relationships, consumers are no longer looking to make meaningless connections with businesses. They want to know how and where your brand prioritizes and aligns their core values before they give you their money.

Your customers want an experience that has them contributing to something other than your bottom line. And this approach works– about 54% of Americans have bought products that contributed to a social cause, which is an increase of 170% from the last decade.

Content Helps You Build A Community

To build lasting connections with consumers, a quality product or a service is a great start. But you need more. Research your audience, analyze what they want and need as well as their pain points, and work on sharing solutions and building trust. Involve people in what you do, encourage their engagement, talk to them via emails, newsletters, social content, videos, and more. 

Telling stories as a business helps you convey a sense of humanity–you are no longer a faceless, lifeless entity. Content marketing that effortlessly incorporates your brand personality allows people to associate better with your organization. It gives you the ability to capture their attention, engagement, and brand loyalty. 

Creating content that tells a story and focuses on SEO can be overwhelming at times. Storytelling through content marketing does not mean that you share a story in the literal meaning. Instead, you want to use engaging narratives and human perspectives to turn bland, forgettable, and dry copy into captivating content. Using keywords that augment your content, rather than using SEO to lead your content, is the best approach. 

Anyone can write optimized blogs–but not everyone can engage customers with their content. Above all, focus on building emotional connections with prospects. Use content marketing to create a narrative around keywords that align with your brand and take into account what your audiences are searching for.  Ready to get out there and start telling your brand stories? Let’s talk about how to take your content (and your business) to new levels of success. 

The post How to Balance Storytelling & SEO in Content Marketing appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.