The holidays are quickly approaching, bringing a fresh start in the New Year. But before you check out of the office, why not take this opportunity to take stock of your marketing efforts in 2016. These three exercises will help you come back in January with a fresh perspective and poised for success in 2017. Look way back. Take a look at what you set out to do last January. What were your goals and did you achieve them? If you set SMART goals (Specific,…
Read MoreThe buyer’s journey – the research process potential buyers go through before making a purchase – is critical to understanding how to develop effective inbound marketing campaigns. Inbound content should be written to potential buyers at each phase of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration and decision. The consideration stage Consideration stage content provides in-depth, solution-oriented information. This is the phase where a prospect has clearly defined their problem or opportunity and is committed to researching and understanding all available approaches to solving it. That’s where…
Read MoreA strong inbound marketing campaign produces content that attracts site visitors and email contacts, converts them into leads and, ultimately customers (read: generates ROI). Writing content for each stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision) is easy in theory, but not always in practice. The Awareness Stage Also referred to as “top of the funnel,” the awareness stage begins when your audience (potential buyers) realize they have a problem. They’re online looking for solutions. This is your opportunity to position your brand as an…
Read MoreSo you’ve developed the industry’s best white paper, ran an impressive social advertising campaign and received thousands of new email contacts. Now what? An expansive contact list is great, but only if you know how to use it. Break it down. Segmenting your email list allows you to focus on certain groups based on specific traits or characteristics. Let’s say your target audience is IT managers. The IT manager at a small local company is going to have different challenges and priorities than an IT…
Read MoreWhen was the last time you had a problem and took to Google to find the answer? Given that every minute Google recieves more than 4,000,000 search queries, I bet it was fairly recent. Well, that’s what your potential customers are doing too. They’ve got a problem and they need a solution. So, give the people what they want. That’s the idea behind inbound marketing: providing informative, helpful content – blog posts, ebooks, checklists – that draws customers to your website. The first step in creating that content is…
Read MoreFacebook Admins may have noticed a new button on their timeline page, the “Create Call-to-Action.” The Create CTA button started appearing on some of our client Pages last week, but at the time of this post, not everyone has the feature, so be on the lookout. Here’s what we know so far. What is it? The CTA button allows admins to insert a CTA directly onto their timeline page (previously it was only available for status updates)at no cost. Choose from the following actions: Book…
Read MoreWorking with various clients — from banks to software companies to local RVA groups — keeps me on my toes. Admittedly, I didn’t know much about banking, software or the RVA startup scene before working at Hodges. But, having clients in these areas made me knowledgeable about their businesses, what’s going on in their spaces and what their audience’s needs are. It’s important not only to know about the companies we work with, but also to stay on top of what’s going on in their…
Read MoreI learned some interesting stuff from the folks at BuzzFeed last week, and no, not how extreme my devotion to pizza is (I hardly need a quiz to answer that), or what super power I should actually have (sidebar: I got the power to shoot lasers out of my eyes…I’m still not sure what that says about me). BuzzFeed had a webinar last week about a more serious topic: Things You Need to Know about International Social Publishing. The VP responsible for BuzzFeed’s international growth…
Read MoreI usually don’t watch much of the Winter Olympics, other than figure skating, but this year I paid much closer attention. There was a lot of hype surrounding the Olympics this winter; however, much of it wasn’t about the games themselves. Instead, headlines surrounding the Olympics focused on what was going on in Sochi: the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are some public relations lessons we can learn from the events at Sochi this year. Hotels were built, but hardly complete. Upon arriving…
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