The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

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What Type of Content Is Best Suited for Your Business?

We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again (and probably 1,000 more times): Content is king.

Your business needs content like fish need water. Content in an essential component to business these days – any and all types of business.

But with all these forms of content, how do you know what’s going to work best for your business?

It’s a great question with no simple answer. But you can start answering this questioning by knowing your customers.

Who is your content for?

Start with the who. Who are your customers? Get to know them inside and out, not just the demographics and numbers, but the psychographics, the studies, the research, and, perhaps most important, the things you can only learn by speaking with an actual human being.

Then move on to the what. What are your customers searching for on Google? What are they interested in? What do they need to know more about? What are their pain points and what solutions can you offer?

Next, the where. Where are your customers going for information, to meet their needs or for entertainment? Are they on LinkedIn or Instagram? Are they looking local? Are they searching on Google or do they rely on referrals?

Now, the how. This may be the most important question to ask in order to determine what type of content will work for your audience. How are they accessing information – laptop, phone, tablet, word of mouth? How do they best consume information? How do they prefer to interact with brands?

Getting to know your customers is the majority of the work in determining the content that will best reach them. Without thorough and accurate knowledge of your clientele, your content marketing plan doesn’t have the bones to hold up your body of content (gross image, we know, but hopefully it sticks).

Types of content

Content is the art of communicating directly with your audience. Do it right and you get people to read and view your content, derive some kind of benefit from it, then eventually give you their business. That’s the big idea, but to do that you need great content and you need to make sure it’s the right type of content for your customers.

Here’s a breakdown of the top forms of content and how they might work for different types of customers and businesses.

Blogs

Blogs can improve your SEO, drive traffic to your site and provide useful information that speaks directly to your customers’ needs. They’re a great way to build authority and trust and you can use the content from blogs in other types of content marketing. If you had to pick one type of content for your business, blogging would probably be it.

Videos

Video is quickly overtaking other forms of content as consumers’ preferred way to learn about and engage with brands. Videos can be used across platforms so they’re an incredibly versatile form of marketing. To sweeten the deal, videos are easier to create than ever. Our phones come equipped with high quality cameras and software to create videos, plus there are tons of cheap or free apps to help you create great video.

Interactive content

Interactive content is one of the best ways to improve engagement. Try out interactive content to get your customers to respond to your posts and even gain valuable information about them. Use polls, quizzes, lists, interactive maps and more to create excitement and interaction.

Infographics

Who doesn’t love a good infographic? You get a whole boatload of information in a fun, engaging, visual representation. Infographics are great for trying to educate your audience, present a complicated subject or present statistics. Since the brain processes visual information faster than text and many people are visual learners, infographics are a great way to get your message across.

Webinars and online courses

If you have valuable information to offer your audience webinars and online courses are a great way to demonstrate your expertise and even create a new form to monetize your knowledge.

White papers

One of the best forms of B2B marketing, white papers are a great way to stand out as a thought leader in your industry, gain more respect and create a lead magnet. Since white papers tend to be more [information dense and data driven,] you need to know that this is something your customers are looking for before you invest.

Case studies

Case studies are one of the best forms of content for conversion. If you have a great product or service and a strong history of success and satisfied clients, case studies could be right for your business. Another great thing about case studies is that they can convert into other forms of content marketing too.

Once you’re making the right content – then you can move on to how to distribute that content (social, email, etc). Content marketing is one of the best ways to foster organic growth for your business. But before you go gung-ho on your content, make sure you’ve got a killer content marketing plan and a trusty content calendar.

Go forth and create content!

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What’s Your Year Look Like In Blogs?

Get much blogging done in 2020?

Sorry, we’re not trying to reopen old wounds. It’s a real question. Some businesses took the opportunities of last year as a time to focus on content creation. Other businesses were barely able to cope with the consequences of COVID and a year that felt like it was ushering in the apocalypse.

We know how difficult last year was, we’re not trying to downplay it all (trust us, we were in the thick of the nightmare too!). But our businesses must continue if we’re going to keep putting food on the table. The show must go on and your business must continue to create content to drive traffic.

There’s an old saying “When fishermen can’t go to sea, they mend their nets.” For many businesses those nets are blogs. Whether 2020 was a great year for your blogging and content creation or a year that you are actively trying to blot out of your memory, it’s worth taking a look at your year in blogs so that you can be your best blogging self in 2021.

Why you need blogs

If you’re still on the fence about blogging, we’re just going to be point blank with you: your business needs blogs, no question, no follow-up comments.

Here are the main reasons why.

SEO: search engines are the real power brokers in business these days. If you’re not getting found on search engines, you’re not getting found. There’s still plenty of room for referrals, word of mouth and other age-old avenues for stirring up business. But without great SEO, you will struggle to keep up in 2021 and for the foreseeable future. Blogs are one of the best ways to boost your SEO.

Giving the people what they want: Consumers aren’t interested in traditional ads anymore. They’re sick and tired of being harassed and manipulated and they’re getting savvier. Consumers want to learn about brands from content. They want solid information to answer their questions. If you provide this for them, they will be more likely to trust your brand and become loyal customers.

Capturing and converting leads: 67% more leads monthly. Interested? And when those leads read your blog and begin to trust you and look to you as the expert they inherently build loyalty to your brand. Loyal consumers are ready to become converted leads.

A shareable content creation machine: Blogs are mines of information and marketing content for all of your content strategies across all platforms. You can link to blogs in posts to drive traffic to your website and you can mine your blogs for quotes, pictures, videos and other valuable content. By creating a blog you are creating content for all of your platforms.

Blogging to-dos for 2021

So, now that you’re chomping at the bit to get your blog on, make sure you’re studying up on how to write an effective blog for your audience. On that note, make sure you know who your audience is, inside and out.

Also, don’t forget to build a content calendar to make sure your blogs are consistent and quality.

Take a look at the previous year(s) in blogging and notice what got the most hits and responses. This is a good indication of how to fashion your content to meet your audience’s needs.

Lastly, make sure you’re doing your research. You need to thoroughly research your audience to know what topics they want information on, then you need to comprehensively research those topics.

Ready to blog? You got this!

And if you have any questions or are looking for some blogging savvy, you know where to find us.

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3 Things to Consider When Developing Your Content Strategy

You’ve heard it a hundred times “Content is king.”

Though we prefer the more gender-neutral term “All-powerful monarch,”

king is more catchy. You need content and you need it to be amazing. ‘Nuff said.

But what’s that content achieving without an overarching strategy to create and disseminate your message?

In addition to that fantastic content, you need the accompanying content marketing strategy to ensure that your efforts are successful.

You can look all over the internet and find long, extensive lists on what your content marketing strategy needs. We’re all about doing your research, so by all means, go forth and Google. But we’re also all about boiling things down to their simplest and most effective constituents.

Therefore… Here are 3 things to consider when developing your content marketing strategy.

  1. Your mission and your goals

Who is your target audience? What content and what platforms will you use to reach them? What problems are you solving for your target audience? These are the main questions that need to be addressed in your content strategy mission and goals. You can also focus on the more immediate and long-term goals of your business like growing awareness, supporting customers, becoming a thought leader, etc.

One of the biggest things to remember is that your mission and goals need to be customer-centric. You need to know your customers, understand them, walk a mile in their shoes and know all the data that you can find about them. Don’t even think about crafting you mission and goals without having a thorough understanding of your customers.

2. How do you measure success?

If you’re blasting out content without measuring its effects, you’re just having a one-way conversation. You need to know what’s hitting the target, what’s missing and why. Metrics will tell you how successful your strategy is and they’ll help you craft even better content for even better results. Set your key performance indicators (KPIs) to gain evaluative measurements on how your strategy is performing.

Google Analytics will be one of your best friends as you begin to measure data. This will tell you who’s reading what, when they’re reading, click rates and more. You can even incorporate Google Analytics into your social media metrics. You’ll see shares, engagements, conversions and the leads you’re receiving.  

3. Create killer content and amplify it

What’s the point of a content strategy if you’re not going to back it up with amazing content? For this you need research on both your subject and your audience. Your content needs to speak to your customers and give them what they’re looking for. People can spot sales drivel and bubble gum content within the first few seconds. Don’t create any content that doesn’t give some useful benefit.

Once that great content is created you need to know where to place it to get the best results. Find out where your customers are. Think strategically and identify the channels and resources available to you to best amplify your content.

What else? One final tidbit, your strategy needs organization, so don’t even think about implementing anything without a content calendar.

And there you have it. Go forth and create great content!

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How a Content Calendar Can Shape Your Approach to Business

How’s that content situation looking for your business?

Are you posting on social media haphazardly? Sending off those blogs in bulk batches or not at all? And is your monthly newsletter more like a semi-annual event?

It’s tough to keep track of all that content. You might have social media under multiple platforms, blogs, newsletters, eBlasts and more all going out on a regular basis. But if there’s no schedule and no underlying strategy to your posts then you’re essentially tossing your content into the void and hoping for the best.

Guess what we’re going to recommend, nay, we’re going to have to insist…

You need a content calendar.

A content calendar is about a long-term strategy. It’s about consistency and quality content. Most of all it’s about managing content so it does what it was intended to do: bring you more customers and more revenue. And research has proven that marketers with a content marketing plan (which includes a calendar) are 60% more effective.

If you don’t have a content calendar, you’re making your marketing strategy less of a targeted, systematic approach and more of a gamble. You’re also risking the loss of engagement and reach from your content. You spend a lot of time on your content. You need to make sure that investment pays off. And for that you need to schedule it out in congruence with your overall marketing strategy.

Here’s how a content calendar can shape your approach to business.

Organization

Just ask Marie Kondo, organization is life changing, and business changing. Calendars can give you a bird’s eye view of your marketing strategy and help you notice any gaps. This organization is going to make your team more efficient and your content more potent. Not to mention it’s going to relieve stress so that everyone knows where they’re at in the content production process.

Consistency and quality

One of biggest differences a content calendar can make in your business is by allocating time to create better content. How do those last minute blogs and social posts work for you? When you have more time to craft your message, you can speak more eloquently, more effectively and you’ll have less errors. Additionally, you’ll create the consistency that consumers crave if they’re going to engage.

Further improve strategy through metrics

When you’re following a calendar, you can look back at your engagements and other metrics to measure the effectiveness of your content and campaigns. With this information, you can then return to the calendar, reshape it, fine tune it and make it even more effective.

Seasonality and trends

A post about Christmas isn’t going to fare so well in July. One of the things a content calendar does best is to help you curate your content for the seasons, as well as the important dates in your industry. You can also follow trending topics and incorporate these into your content and your calendar to best reach your audience in the moments that matter.

Communication and strategy across departments

No matter the size of your company, if you have multiple people or multiple departments tackling tasks and projects, there needs to be strategy and communication between sales and marketing, as well as other sections that need to be in the know. A content calendar puts everyone on the same page, literally. This creates better communication, better content and ensures that the overall strategy is being implemented effectively.

Set your business up for long-term success

Looking ahead rather than at your feet as you try to keep up with daily demands is going to give your business a much better chance. As an added bonus, it might just help you keep your sanity! Every business needs to have a vision for their future if they want long-term success. A content calendar sets you up to better manage day-to-day activities as well as giving you a concrete form to plan and measure your future success.

Get that content calendar going ASAP! Don’t make us come over there and force organization upon you… Because we’ll do it. And we’ll only be sort of happy about it.

Got content questions? Don’t know where to start with your content calendar? The Found Gen’s got you, Boo.

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Cost-Per-Lead and Cost-Per-Client: What are They and How do You Calculate them?

What does it cost you to bring in new business?

This is the question that lies at the heart of cost-per-lead and cost-per-client analysis. If you’re managing your books well and tracking your leads and acquisitions, it’s not a difficult question to answer. It’s just a simple equation of dividing the cost of your marketing campaign by the amount of leads or new clients generated.

We’ll get to the details and give examples, but first, let’s get to the other question that begs to be asked: “Why does the cost-per-lead and cost-per-client matter?”

You, as a business, are trying to get maximum returns for your efforts, right? You’re trying to find the most successful and cost-effective methods to get the best ROI. How can you achieve this without a metric to measure your efforts by? Thus, you must keep track of your cost-per-lead and cost-per-client.

Cost-per-lead

A lead is a person or organization with an interest in your product or service. They’re not converted yet, but they’re in your marketing net. To analyze your cost-per-lead (CPL), all you need to know is how much your marketing campaign(s) cost and how many leads you generated.

Ready for math class? The formula for the cost-per-lead is (not rocket science): the cost of your marketing campaign divided by the number of leads generated.

Let’s say, for example, that a company selling COVID-proof shoes runs a targeted ad on Instagram that cost $500. It generated 50 leads. Their CPL is $500 / 50. $10 per lead.

That’s it! Now you’re a mathematician and a business leader. Congratulations!

Cost-per-client

Cost-per-client (CPC) is known by a few different terms. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA), cost-per-customer (CPC), cost-per-sale (CPS) or cost of acquiring customer (CAC). They essentially all mean the same thing, it may just depend on your industry or school of business thought which one you are more familiar with.

The key difference here is that your lead has been converted and is now a customer or client. To calculate the CPC, it takes just a little more analysis but the equation is still the same. In simple cases, you can measure a single marketing campaign and just divide the number of clients generated. Most of the time, however, you’ll need to add up the cost of a series of advertising and marketing campaigns and then divide this by number of clients generated.

As an example for the CPC calculation, we’ll use a marketing firm as a model. This firm utilized five advertising methods – website, direct mail, Google Adwords, a newsletter and an SEO company – for a grand total of $2,500 in marketing costs.

From all of these advertising methods, they got 25 leads, but only 5 of those leads became new clients. The CPC or CPA would be $2,500 / 5, for an average cost of $500 per new client.

CPL and CPC are really this straightforward and easy to measure. It’s just a matter of keeping accurate financial books and tracking your leads and clients. Ya’ welcome! And thanks for reading.

Onward, ever onward, to more effective marketing!

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Blogging and SEO: How they go hand-in-hand

Like Abbot and Costello, pancakes and syrup, and COVID and masks, some things just go together. Now imagine Sinatra singing in your ear, “You can’t have one without the other!”

SEO and blogs are like PB&J, try to separate them and you just end up with two sticky pieces of bread.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about augmenting your content so you show up on the first page of the search engine’s results. The higher you are on that first page result list, the more traffic you can drive to your site. The more traffic, the more likely you are to convert your potential customers.

On paper, it seems like a foolproof plan. But what happens if people make it to your site and it’s just a bunch of bland, robotic SEO drivel that doesn’t offer anything of substance? Click. They’re gone! We’ll skip over the fact that search engines are not likely to put you on page one if you don’t have great content, just to harp on a key point here. Businesses cannot subsist on SEO alone. You need great content to complement great SEO.

On the other hand, if you have genius content – blogs and website copy so lyrical and eloquent that they’re just awaiting their Pulitzers – but no SEO to drive people to your site to actually read your content… Well, you’ve just written the content of the century for an audience that doesn’t exist.

Write it, optimize it, and they will come

Remember Field of Dreams? “If you build it, they will come,” the ethereal voice whispers to a young Kevin Costner. Yeah, maybe that works for baseball fields in the Midwest, but it takes more than simply building something to make the customers come these days. Blogs and SEO must work together to produce results.

What does this look like in practice? Good question.

It basically boils down to harmonizing the art of persuasive blogging and the science of SEO in a seamless union of content marketing.

Think of it like this. You want to take all the best bits from blogs – that is, relevant, authoritative, compelling, captivating content that drives readership and calls readers to action. Then you utilize the best researched and highest performing SEO models in combination with the content.

The resulting combo is a blog, or other form of content, that speaks to exactly what readers are searching for, answers their questions satisfactorily and gets them to trust your brand.

Teamwork is the dream work

So, now that you know the secret to driving traffic, it’s time to get to work. Make sure your content and SEO teams are working together, communicating and collaborating on all marketing campaigns and content creation.  

The SEO team will focus on what they do best, with their finger on the pulse of the questions and needs of the consumers that will drive traffic to the site. The content team will use these keywords and information to create trustworthy and noteworthy content to attract readers.

Hand in hand, your two teams will walk off into the sunset and your business and your customers will all mutually benefit from this beautiful coordination. It’s such a perfect picture, isn’t it? Sorry, we always get choked up thinking about harmonious marketing plans.

We’ll leave you to dry your eyes as you envision this wonderful relationship. And if, once you have managed your overwhelming emotions, you need some counseling with your new SEO and content marriage, we are here to listen.