The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

blog

by

Quick & Easy Marketing Tips

You’re full of good ideas, and this time you’re sure you’ve captured lightning in a bottle. Only problem is you don’t have an effective way to engage your audience and let them know about it. What’s the next big thing if you can’t share it with anybody?

Getting the word out about your product or service takes both time and a plan, and the goal is ultimately not just to reach your target audience but to grow it. With that in mind, here are a few marketing tips so that you can connect with and engage your prospects and take your business to the next level.

Marketing Tip #1: Get Social

Social media isn’t going anywhere, so your marketing efforts need to meet people where they are. If you haven’t already, create business accounts for your brand on all the popular social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Then get active.

Post articles, tweet links and pin boards relevant to your brand to get the conversation started, which will in turn establish you as an industry expert and attract potential clients. It’s also a good idea to post FAQs and How-To guides. Providing this level of customer service online will improve your business’s reputation and ultimately increase sales.

Marketing Tip # 2: Giveaways and Contests

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Whether you’re planning special event or promoting a new product or service, if there is something that can be gotten for free, we guarantee people will flock to it. Giveaways and contests are excellent marketing opportunities for many reasons. You reach a wider audience by word of mouth and sharing online. That larger audience gets to try out the product or service risk-free. And, if all goes well, you build relationships through the promotion you otherwise wouldn’t have and create customers for life. That brand loyalty is the holy grail of marketing.

That being said, let’s get our TFG warning out of the way now. Contests also run the risk of being ‘overdone,’ not creative enough, or even not lining up well with your brand’s overall message. It’s important to ensure that any contest you run has a point (and one beyond just sending more likes to your Facebook page). Consumers know when they’re being hustled. And these days, the goal is to build a bond–not tear one down. So, just be sure that your contests are engaging and worthwhile.

Marketing Tip #3: Keep It Simple

Though it may seem scientific and multifaceted, marketing does not have to be complicated to be effective. Your customers will appreciate a simpler approach as well, for the fewer decisions they have to make when encountering your product or service, the fewer interruptions they have to the buying process. Keep your message short and sweet, and after the sale make sure you follow up. An email newsletter is an excellent way to touch base with customers to both show your appreciation for their patronage and deliver useful information about upcoming events.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to succeed at marketing your business. The wheels are already there. You just need to use them effectively to drive your business to the next level. If you need any help reaching your goals, or just want to follow up on some of these marketing tips, feel free to contact us here at The Found Gen.

by

Facebook, Twitter and the Ongoing Battle for Attention

It’s 10 a.m. Do you know how your social media marketing is going? You’ve scheduled your posts for the next day, responded to comments and are filtering through your feeds. Social media marketing consumes more and more of our time, so how do you prioritize?

In many cases, a company’s presence on Facebook and Twitter is of the utmost importance. It connects a brand or message with users in the digital realm. The value of using Facebook or Twitter, though, relies solely on how well you take advantage of each platform.

Let’s break it down:

  • Facebook allows you to access a social network. You get information about your Facebook audience and followers—see demographics. With Facebook, you can see what they like, who they are and what they’re passionate about. You see user habits—when they’re online and what they’re doing. Connections are made. Communication is shared. Facebook is great for learning more about your fans and measuring actions.
  • Twitter is about sharing information. This stream-of-consciousness platform shares breaking and real-time news. See how well your campaigns worked. View your followers’ level of engagement with your posts. Overall, Twitter allows you to see the effectiveness of your work.

Engagement Over Activity

Facebook and Twitter should be used for measuring engagement — any social media marketing campaign worth the time focuses on engaging people and not just churning out posts. Analytics tools give business owners a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not working…on social media.

Here’s the bad news—Facebook and Twitter, while still boasting millions of active users and businesses, are moving targets, much like SEO or any online marketing. Evolving algorithms dictate how easy (or hard) it is to get in front of your customers. As these social media platforms change to a pay-to-play structure, it’s easier to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts, but it’s more challenging to boost your organic, unpaid reach.

The good news? This ain’t no fairytale, but there’s a sweet ending. Great content will outlast and outlive any social media platform, algorithm update or revolutionary change. Period. Yes, content must adhere to the latest standards of the platform. That means keeping posts fresh, relevant, interesting and rich with images or links. That means conducting honest interactions instead of leaving your account on autopilot. Where there’s interesting information, clear messaging and engaging content, users will listen.

by

How an Editor Can Help You Save Face

Editing is the art and craft of fine-tuning a piece of writing. An editor relies on tone, style, grammar, sentence structure and overall flow to deliver a clear message. For example, they whittle a 2,000-word behemoth article into a concise 450-word article. A good editor makes any writer shine.

On the other hand, a bad editor, or lack thereof, can lead readers astray.

Instead of being guided to a particular conclusion or idea, readers are left wondering, “What is really going on here?”

At least that was the case when Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and executive vice president Stephen Elop posted public memos announcing the company’s new direction…and layoffs. The latest memo from Mr. Elop, which followed a more-than 3,000-word novella from Nadella, came in at a stifling 1,100-plus words. But he only describes the layoffs in one paragraph. 40 words. Two sentences.

Without getting into too many details, it’s clear that these Microsoft execs could have benefitted from the expertise of an editor. How could an international heavy hitter deliver news that they were trimming 14% of their workforce in a tiny, hidden section of a sprawling, near-rambling message?

Editors see it all the time. Good ones, and strong content specialists, know when enough is enough. A writer shouldn’t be faulted for his or her wordiness. However, editing adds clarity and simplicity to a piece. It also increases the likelihood of the article or memo being read. In the age of GIFs and YouTube, it’s hard for most average readers to scroll “below the fold” of a website to keep reading, let alone embark on a 10,000-word article.

As you prepare your next email, company (or worldwide) manifesto, blog or letter, consider the impact of your writing. Does it achieve the intended goals? Does it communicate the message succinctly with an appropriate tone? Are the sentences and structure clear? Could it be shorter? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re already thinking like an editor.

Save yourself or your company from the next PR disaster. Let your words pack a swift knockout punch instead of a Rocky-esque 15-round match.

by

Content Marketing 101

What is content marketing? It’s a popular phrase thrown around too casually in the internet world, on flashy blogs and by consultants. Simply defined, content marketing is the careful planning, creation and implementation of great content used strategically to achieve certain marketing metrics or goals. It starts with writing, structured words, copy, whatever you want to call it. Add a splash of branding, strategy and marketability, and voila! You’ve got content marketing.

Well, it’s not quite that simple.

Content marketing takes many shapes

Blog posts, social media posts, media kits, brochures, letters, enewsletters, slogans, articles and website copy could all fall within the content marketing category. While you may immediately think just of writing and words, the strategy and positioning behind each of these pieces is what matters.

Content marketing relies on great writing and, therefore, great writers. You don’t really want your best friend’s 14-year-old son—or someone in a distant country—updating your business’ website content, do you? Your brand should tell a story. Rely on professional writers to build your company’s content marketing strategy. It really will make a difference.

Content marketing is not journalism. It’s not just straight marketing, either. Great writing is something you can believe in. Storytelling can define your company, brand or small business. It’s what differentiates you from your competitors. It’s how you gain customers, build your reputation and drive revenue. Content marketing takes regular sales and marketing and elevates it to a new level. Content marketing asks how you can educate and inform the reader or audience. How can you start building a two-way relationship with clients or customers, instead of just talking at them?

Content marketing is not just SEO. While it drives search engine optimization, they aren’t the same. There’s a technical component to SEO that goes beyond good content (want to learn more about title tags, sitemaps, and rel canonical strategies. Let’s chat).

The Found Gen can help you get started. Our team of content experts will elevate your company’s content—site, blog, brochure, you name it—to new heights.

by

What’s Up With That, “Yo”?

“Yo.”

That’s it.

If you were one of the thousands who recently downloaded this flavor of the week app, you, like the rest of us, were somewhat disappointed, and probably because you expected something more from an app that has in a very short time rocketed to the top of the download charts and raised more than $1 million in investments.

But no. All it literally lets you do is send and receive the word “Yo.” Awesome…

So where does this leave us? Are we, as some text experts describe it, witnessing the “decline of civilization” when apps this “stupid” can hijack so much of our time and attention?

Not at all. To the contrary, we can all learn a few things about reaching our goals in marketing by looking a little closer at Yo’s obscure rise to fame.

Be Self-Aware

What are your goals in marketing? As dumb as Yo seems on the surface, its co-creators, Moshe Hogeg and Or Arbel, knew exactly what they wanted from the app when they set out to make it: a simple way to get in touch with people close to them. Finally, after several weeks of Hogeg pestering Arbel–and 8 hours of coding—Yo was born.

When you know what you hope to achieve before you begin your work—an increase in sales, brand awareness, whatever—that knowledge influences how you build your product. It’s also easier to step back and analyze its results and how successful what you have created is when you have expectations for it from the start.

Know Your Audience

Yo wasn’t that much of a stretch for Hogeg and Arbel to dream up. They already regularly communicated to their colleagues using single letter texts back and forth, such as “!” or “?” So consolidating that economy of language into an app that has no icon, doesn’t require you to login and essentially just taps the recipient on the shoulder was a perfect fit for their office—and, as it turns out, offices everywhere.

The more you know about your audience, the greater the chance you can deliver a product or service that hits the target and resonates with them.

Get Social

Yo was launched on April Fool’s Day (of course it was), but its timing really couldn’t have been more perfect. No one took it seriously—partly due to the calendar and partly due to its childish functionality– which is part of the reason why it stood out in a sea of other, more serious apps. It was different, and maybe most importantly, it was built entirely around communication and socializing. The creators even tried to keep Yo from spreading outside of their office, asking employees not to share it with friends. But some fires prove impossible to put out.

In this interconnected global economy, you have to get social to give your business a fighting chance. When you market your wares via social media you give people the option to share what you have to say. Once people start sharing your information, it has the opportunity to catch a break and go viral.

Of course not all your ideas will be as inexplicably successful as Yo, but the more clearly you understand what your goals in marketing are, your audience, and the value of sharing your content across multiple platforms, the better your business’s chances are to succeed.

by

What the World Cup Can Teach Us About Marketing Strategy

As one witty person at ESPN said, ‘Every Four Years, The World Has One Time Zone.’

The kind of rapt attention the World Cup generates, where the world grinds to a halt and billions of people become glued to their phones, tablets and TVs, is a marketers dream. This is why so many of the largest companies spend millions to become corporate sponsors of the Cup to get their logo front and center. But this doesn’t mean small and medium sized businesses are relegated to the sidelines without any recourse. In fact, the World Cup has quite a few lessons it can teach even the smallest businesses about marketing strategy. Here’s where to start:

Follow the Crowd

There are few things that are like watching a game with 80,000 of your closest friends. Everyone is on the same wavelength and has the same goal in mind.

With your marketing strategy, do some research and see what your clients are paying attention to. Is it a specific website or trade publication? If so, find a way to become a guest blogger on that site. If it’s a trade show, make sure you are front and center: get involved and make sure you’re part of the executive committee to put on their next event.

Getting that exposure not only cements your status as an expert in front of your current clients, but it also puts you in front their entire industry.

Pull their heartstrings

Very few things can bring nations of grown men to tears or spark generations to remember where they were for 90 minutes decades later.

Go beyond identifying pain points and your solutions to them. Focus your marketing on getting an emotional response from your target audience.

Be Willing to Shift Your Marketing Strategy

From tough draws and injuries to missteps and howlers, there are always hiccups to the plan. To win, you have to roll with the punches and improvise on the fly.

Marketing, and online marketing in particular, is an ever-changing industry. What was a brilliant white-hat SEO strategy in 2010 will get you delisted today. To stay on top, you need to not only keep your long-term goals in mind but also be willing to change your strategy based on the data you have available. For example, if you’ve stopped getting returns on your Facebook marketing, shift your resources to another platform.

Most importantly, keep at it. The team that is going to win this cup isn’t thinking about hoisting the trophy today; they’re thinking of their next match. Marketing is the same. It can feel like a slog at times (everyone has had the thought, ‘is this blog post really going to bring someone in the door?’) but focusing on doing the best job today is the best way to ensure success over the long-term.