The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

Strategy

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How to Use Photography and Visuals to Illustrate Corporate Sustainability Efforts

Corporate sustainability reports have evolved into one of the most impactful branding assets for marketers. As stakeholders increasingly scrutinize how companies invest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, these reports offer a powerful platform to share your story, earn trust and strengthen relationships with both consumers and investors.

When done well, visual storytelling can bring your ESG initiatives to life in a way that data and text alone never could. Here are some ways to use photography and other visuals to communicate your corporate sustainability efforts authentically and effectively—and help you shape the future of sustainability report design in your industry.

Show, Don’t Just Tell

Sustainability efforts often involve more abstract concepts like carbon offsets, ethical sourcing and community impact. Using photography and other visual elements to demonstrate such impact can give these ideas real-world grounding. For example, instead of writing a paragraph about your recycled packaging process, show it. Instead of describing your volunteer day, include candid images of employees in action.

Leverage Infographics for Data-Heavy Content

Turning sustainability metrics (e.g., energy savings, water usage, waste diversion rates, etc.) into clear and compelling visuals with infographics and charts can help stakeholders quickly grasp the scale and significance of your work without getting lost in the details. For the best design, keep charts simple and clean, use brand colors for consistency and pair each graphic with a brief caption or insight to add context.

Use Before-and-After Shots for Impact

If your company has undergone a sustainability transformation, before-and-after visuals can show your progress more powerfully than words. Be sure to also include text-based descriptions or tags for every graphic, chart or photo you use in the report to ensure optimal AI and human readability.

Make It Personal

Sustainability is a human initiative, and your story should also be humanized. Photos and visual elements that connect employees, community members or customers to the impacts of your ESG initiatives is an authentic way to create emotional connection and boost credibility.

Don’t Overlook the Role of Design in Sustainability Reports

In competitive markets, showcasing ESG efforts can set a brand apart as innovative, responsible and forward-thinking. For marketers, the design of a sustainability report is just as critical as its content.

Professional designers and marketing agencies that specialize in sustainability report design understand how to blend data, visuals and storytelling to create a report that resonates with your stakeholders. By outsourcing these efforts, not only are you tapping into experienced professionals who can create a customized report that reflects your company’s unique identity and priorities, but they can also save you time. Outsourcing ESG design lets your internal team focus on strategy and execution while experts handle the heavy lifting.

If you’re ready to elevate your sustainability report design and turn your ESG initiatives into compelling narratives that resonate with readers, call us at The Found Gen today. We’ve partnered with globally ranked corporations to transform their sustainability reports into effective marketing tools and are ready to help you with yours.

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How to Measure Your SEO Success: Signs Your Marketing is Driving Organic Growth

A good SEO (a.k.a. search engine optimization) is a long game marketing strategy, yet even if we know this deep down in our core, it’s hard not to get impatient and want our results now!

Fortunately, good things come to those who wait (and the good keeps getting better the longer you wait) because when the pieces of your SEO efforts fall into place, the momentum builds exponentially. 

Still, when you’re investing time, money and resources into an SEO strategy, it’s fair to ask: “Is this actually working?” and you want to ask this question before you are years down a content roadmap. The good news is that yes, there are clear and tangible ways to measure SEO performance in the near-term and assess whether your marketing efforts are paying off. Here are three things to look for.

Are You Climbing the Search Ladder?

One of the first and most obvious ways to gauge SEO success is by tracking your search rankings. These are the long-tail search terms or topics you’ve strategically targeted in your content and on your website. 

You can measure SEO success by monitoring your keywords for consistent upward mobility on search engine results pages (SERP). Ideally, you should see your content and web pages gradually moving toward a top 10 position, which means you’ve landed on the coveted Page One). Various data analytics tools can also help you track and evaluate which pages on your site are pulling the most search visibility.

Are People Actually Finding You?

As you know, it’s awfully hard for people to find you if you’re not on or near page one of a search result. So, improving your SERP ranking is imperative to improving organic traffic. Organic growth happens when people find your site through a search engine, not an ad, and this takes patience to achieve. 

Monitor your month-over-month and year-over-year growth and look for gradual increases in SERP and organic traffic growth. Also important is to ensure the visitors who do land on your site organically are staying put, maybe even clicking through to a few other pages. 

Are Other Sites Vouching for You?

Lastly, another way to gauge marketing success is to look for backlinks. Backlinks are links from other reputable websites that point to your content, and they are a major signal of authority in the eyes of search engines like Google. The more credible sites you have linking to your content, the better your chances are of climbing the rankings.

Ready to Climb? Call us at The Found Gen.

If you need help assessing your website’s performance or improving metrics in any of these areas, call us at The Found Gen today. We’re here to make your website work better for your growing business. 

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Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How to Use It to Gauge Your Marketing Effectiveness

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is exactly what it sounds like: the total cost incurred by a business to acquire a new customer. This includes all marketing and sales expenses—we’re talking ad spend, software, subscription services, salaries, content and design creation, web hosting expenses, etc.—divided by the number of new customers gained in a given time period. 

This metric is important to keep tabs on because when you can keep your CAC number low, it means you’re getting a solid return on your marketing investment. Here’s what else to know about customer acquisition costs and why it’s a data point you want to monitor.

Why Customer Acquisition Cost Matters

CAC is more than just a number—it’s a direct window into how cost-effective your marketing efforts are. A high CAC might mean your campaigns are inefficient or you’re targeting the wrong audience. A low CAC suggests you’re hitting the mark and may want to double-down on these efforts.

The formula for measuring cost per customer acquisition is:

CAC = Total Marketing and Sales Expenses / Number of New Customers Acquired. 

You can choose a period of time to measure, say per month or per quarter, and start tracking your acquisitions. For example, if you spend $10,000 on marketing in a given month and acquire 50 new customers, your CAC is $200.

Understanding your CAC helps you:

  • Measure marketing ROI
  • Determine budget allocation
  • Evaluate channel performance
  • Forecast profitability
  • Optimize your strategy

If you aren’t happy with the numbers you’re seeing, you could consider refining your target audience (maybe the right people aren’t seeing your message?), seek ways to improve your conversion rates with optimized content, or invest in greater content marketing efforts overall to boost leads on a budget.

Need Help with Your Content Strategy? Call us at The Found Gen.

The price you pay to acquire customers is not something to ignore. When you understand your CAC and use it to guide decisions, you can grow smarter, more efficiently and maintain sustainable growth.

If you need help making sure your marketing strategy stays on course, call us at The Found Gen today. We can take a fresh look at your marketing data to see how we can help you grow effectively.

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From Branding to Budgeting: The Essential Elements of a Comprehensive Marketing Strategy

A well-executed marketing strategy is the backbone of any successful business. It’s not just about running ads or posting on social media – it’s about crafting a cohesive plan that aligns with your business goals and resonates with your audience. 

From defining your brand identity to setting a realistic budget, every element plays a crucial role. Here’s how to build a comprehensive marketing strategy that sets your business up for success.

Step 1: Defining Who You Are

Before launching any marketing campaign, you need to establish your brand identity. Ask yourself:

  • What are your core values?
  • How do you differentiate from competitors?
  • What message do you want to convey to your audience?

Your brand positioning influences everything from your visual identity to the tone of your messaging. While colors can create the feeling of trust and confidence, tone can build familiarity and experience. A strong brand foundation defines your identity and ensures consistency across all marketing channels.

Step 2: Understanding Your Audience

In addition to knowing who you are, you also need to know who your target audience is. Without a clear understanding of who your customers are and what they need, your marketing efforts will fall flat. Conduct market research to determine your audience’s demographics, psychographics and buying behavior/preferences. Once you understand your audience, you can then tailor your messaging and content to speak directly to their needs.

Step 3: Developing Your Content Strategy

Content is at the heart of any great marketing strategy. Your content should educate, entertain or inspire your audience. It should also align with your brand voice and be optimized for search engines (SEO). A well-planned content calendar can help you stay consistent and relevant.

Another part of developing your content strategy is deciding which marketing channels will work for your business. While we always advocate for blogs, newsletters and social media, you need to tune into your audience to assess where they spend their time. Reach your readers where they’re at.

Step 4: Setting Realistic Marketing Budgets

A solid budget ensures that you divvy up resources effectively without overspending. Keep your goals and priorities in mind as you assess how to best allocate your funds. Common marketing expenses include:

  • Fixed costs (website, tools, software, etc.)
  • Paid advertising costs, if any
  • Content creation expenses
  • Hiring and outsourcing needs

Step 5: Measuring Success with Data and Analytics

No marketing strategy is complete without tracking performance. Analyzing your data allows you to refine your approach, focus on what works and adjust what doesn’t.

If all this sounds too overwhelming and you’re struggling with where to start, just ask for help. Building out a comprehensive marketing strategy is not for the faint of heart. Turning to pros who know will not only get you where you want to go faster, but they can also save you money along the way. To learn more about developing marketing that works, contact us at The Found Gen today.

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The Role of Data in Building a Successful Marketing Strategy: How to Use Analytics to Your Advantage

Data makes the world go round. Without it, your marketing strategy is, well, not a strategy at all. It’s more of a “throw things on the wall and see what sticks” kind of approach. Seeing what sticks is not a sustainable way to build your business. 

If you want to develop a successful marketing program, you need data. There’s just no way around it. The good thing is that data doesn’t have to be scary, and you don’t have to be a “numbers person” to understand what it means. Data is for everyone, and everyone needs data if they want to build a marketing strategy that truly delivers results. 

Understanding the Power of Data in Marketing

Data has never been more accessible. You no longer have to guess what your audience wants; you can knowby looking at what your data tells you about customer behaviors, preferences and trends. This not only allows you to target your messaging to match your readers’ interests, but it also eliminates wasted spending by directing resources toward strategies that yield measurable results.

How to Identify Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Not all data is created equally. To make data work for you, you need to determine which metrics matter most for your business. The KPIs you choose to track will be tailored to your goals, but below are several general metrics many marketing pros find helpful:

  • Website traffic – How many people are visiting your site? Where are they coming from, and which pages are they landing on?
  • Conversion rates – How many of these visitors are turning into leads or customers?
  • Engagement metrics – How are people interacting with your content? How much time are they spending on your site?
  • Cost per lead (CPL) – How much are you spending to acquire a new customer? On the whole, you want to keep your CPL low. That means a lot of leads for not a lot of money.

By tracking these and other KPIs, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

One of the biggest advantages of marketing analytics is the ability to make informed decisions. Instead of relying on gut feelings, data allows you to identify which channels are driving the most engagement and adjust content strategies based on audience behavior. Data also gives you quick answers when testing different approaches – for example, when running an A/B test on your newsletter.

By continuously analyzing data and adjusting your strategy, you can ensure your marketing efforts align with what actually works. If you need help interpreting your data or are unsure whether what you’re doing is working, give us a call at The Found Gen. We can take a fresh look at your data and help you develop an effective marketing strategy going forward. 

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Making Your Blogs Match Your Readers’ Interests

The fact of the matter is when you’re writing blogs (or doing any kind of marketing), it’s not about you – it’s about them. So, no matter how beautifully written your content is, if it’s not relevant to your readers, it’s not going to get read. Period.

And that’s a problem for a whole lot of reasons. 

A, it’s a waste of time and effort. B, it’s not going to lead to conversations. And C, it’s not going to do a thing for your SEO efforts. If no one clicks on your content or engages with your website, you’ll only continue to slip farther in the rankings. 

If you want to develop a successful blog and grow your pipeline, you need to craft blogs that truly engage your audience. This requires an understanding of what they care about and then tailoring your content to meet their needs. Here’s how to do it.

Know Your Audience Inside and Out

Before you even start brainstorming topics, you need a clear understanding of who your audience is. What are their pain points? What solutions are they looking for? What topics do they engage with the most? Use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights and customer feedback to gather data on what your audience is interested in. Many marketers also find it helpful to develop personas that represent their ideal customer. These fictional profiles can help you more successfully understand who you’re trying to reach and what messaging will resonate with them. 

Speak Their Language

Marketing is all about connection, not confusion. Yet, so many businesses fill their messaging with jargon, acronyms and trendy buzzwords that ultimately mean nothing to their audience. Instead of stuffing your blogs with buzzwords, write in a conversational way that’s relatable to your audience. 

Solve Their Problems

People read blogs because they’re looking for answers. Make sure your content provides value by addressing common pain points and offering actionable solutions. Your content should leave readers feeling informed and empowered.

Format for Easy Reading

Readers are giving you mere seconds before they decide if your message is worth their time, so you need to make sure your blogs are also easy to digest. Use subheadings, bullet points and short paragraphs to break up your text. Including visuals can also enhance readability and engagement.

Contact Us at The Found Gen for Help with Your Blog

Matching your blog content to your readers’ interests isn’t about guessing what they want – it’s about actively listening, analyzing data and creating valuable content they can relate to. When you prioritize your audience’s needs, your blog becomes a trusted resource. If you’re struggling to produce content your readers actually want to read, give us a call at The Found Gen. Our team of writers is here to help.