The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

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A Gentler, Kinder 2018: Three Ways to Add Charm to Your Content

Our clients always ask us the secret to social media success, and we just shrug. The secret may be that there’s really no one secret.

But if we look at the most successful campaigns we’ve created at The Found Gen, there’s often one key ingredient we’ve added to the mix that makes them uniquely effective: kindness.

The secret always seems to be rooted in the idea to persuade people to like you and your brand more than they like someone else.

We’ve revamped more than a few accounts where the content managers wondered why more conversations weren’t happening on their feeds. We found most of them to be perfectly informative and generous with their expertise. But they were missing the personal element of basic kindness.

Now, more than ever, your audience wants to be part of an intimate conversation. They want to be charmed. They want to belong.

There are three ways to make sure that happens:

  • Be contagious. Kindness inspires more kindness. In fact, researchers found that the ripple effect of one act of kindness is at least three degrees. Think about your content as a conversation, and a nice one at that. Give away insider information, and also ask questions of your customers. “What are your concerns? How can we help?” Those questions are a fantastic start to approaching fresh content.
  • Be specific. If you value kindness in your content, what does that look like in terms of daily output? Create a list of actions, big and small, that you can implement immediately. And not just for yourself: Create calls-to-action for your customers, too: Share this information with your friend, get more information here, and sign up now are all workable directives.
  • Your metrics, if you pay attention, will tell you exactly how your audience responds to your content. We’re guessing they’re most responsive to your most authentic, compassionate content, right? (You can get back to us later, but we’re pretty sure we’re right on this one.)

Most importantly, be kind even when it’s difficult. One of life’s most important skills is writing a nasty, angry email, letting it sit for a minute, then deleting it and moving on.

Kind content marketing is not a one-hit wonder or a viral hit-or-miss. It’s a daily habit that involves building excellent, share-worthy content, tweaking, optimizing, and trying like crazy to help your customer base in whatever way you can.

At The Found Gen, we know the best ways to achieve this kind of content. And we also know your customers are just waiting for you to go there.

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2018 Social Media and Content Trends to Know

SEO is so 2017. Today, our attention is being pulled in a million directions, and no amount of brilliant blog writing can fight for attention with video, micro influencers…and personalized content.

Want to stay ahead of the curve so your content gets the attention it deserves? Then we should really look at the trends coming fast at us in 2018.

  • Brand engagement. How many times do you see brands mentioned on social media in unsponsored posts? A lot, right? That’s because customers are craving relationships, authentic conversations, and ways to send their thanks. It’s more essential than ever to create a network where customers can reach you, and you can reach them.
  • Okay, maybe you’re not ready to incorporate chatbots into your marketing strategy. (If you are, we can help you get started. The amount of workload it decreases for your social media team is kind of staggering.) But understanding that instant engagement, 24-7 is an expectation should bolster your commitment to connectivity.
  • Use Instagram. The ephemeralness of Instagram stories has amped up direct messaging between consumer and brand, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s far more intimate – and visual – than Twitter, and more professional yet creative than Facebook.
  • Be accountable. Social media has increased accountability for businesses. In today’s instant gratification world, it’s difficult for even your most loyal followers to stay silent if your message sours. Some brands think it’s too risky to address major issues – politics, discrimination, and other social topics – but just a bit more than 10% of consumers turn on brands for being too political.

Content marketing still remains on top of all activities that will make the largest commercial impact for brands and their clients, ahead of Big Data and far surpassing SEO. It remains the engagement fuel that powers all communications from search to social to email marketing to creating websites experiences that convert.

Times are changing on the hour, and it’s crucial for your social media to keep up. If you sign on with us, you might find yourself far ahead of the pack. At The Found Gen, we like being ahead of the pack.

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Why Content Marketing is a Worthy Investment: The ROI is Unbeatable

Running a business can be costly, and too often, business owners don’t set aside a marketing budget. But, really, marketing is the only way you can grow your business.

Specifically, content marketing—creating content for your website or social media channels—is a powerful strategy for attracting new traffic and building your brand’s reputation. If done incorrectly or carelessly, it can cost your business many potential customers. When it comes to content marketing, it’s important to work with a professional team that has experience creating valuable content.

So, what can a good content marketing team do for your business?

Every investment in your business should focus on its future growth. Content creation can be time consuming, and not all businesses have the time to devote to doing it well. Investing in content marketing and hiring someone to help you can offer major returns:

Brand visibility and reputation

A social media presence exposes more people to your brand than the nice sign outside of your office ever will. Once people continue to see your content, they’ll start to turn to your business first, recognizing you as an authority in your industry. Brand recognition can help you acquire more loyal customers by increasing the amount of trust customers have in your business.

Attract inbound traffic

 If you don’t have a web presence in today’s digital world, you’re going to quickly fall behind your competitors. SEO, inbound links, social media, and email marketing are all great ways to attract new traffic and keep your web presence up. Most people check the web for information on companies before looking anywhere else. If customers can find helpful content on your website, they’ll be more likely to invest in your product.

Customer retention

If your customers like the content you post, they’ll stay on your site longer and visit more frequently. It’s cheaper to keep the interest of your current customers than it is to acquire new customers, and content marketing is a great way to make sure your customers stick around.

Quality content

You’ve most likely heard the expression, “quality over quantity.” Well, it’s extremely true in content marketing. Invaluable content acts as a filler and won’t give you the results you were hoping for. But, valuable content that your clients see as helpful and smart will create a good reputation for your brand.

Content marketing takes time, but if you stay with it and offer good quality content to your readers, you’ll eventually see the payoff. Need some help with your content? Let’s talk.

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Build a Following: How Content Leads to Loyal Customers

It’s more cost effective to hold on to existing customers

It’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of making new sales and adding new customers, but in the long run, long-lasting relationships are much more beneficial.

Hanging on to repeat customers is actually less costly for your business that constantly trying to acquire new ones. Believe it or not, loyal customers will end up bringing in those new customers for you. Word of mouth and good online reviews from customers that love your brand go a long way when it comes growing your business.

Valuable and intelligent content can really help drive this effort. But, how does it work?

Exclusive updates

Good content starts with making your customers feel like they’re getting something secretive and exclusive. Let your returning customers be the first ones to know about a product or service they loved that’s back on offer or a brand-new product or service you’re launching. Adding personal touches to these messages and emails is also a great way to make your customers really feel appreciated.

Build a strong sense of community around your brand

 Brands that create a sense of community are able to create long-lasting relationships with customers. This is a lot easier to pull off nowadays with Facebook and other social media platforms that can provide real-time data. Great content allows your customers to feel involved in your business and brand.

Personalize your customers’ messages by geo-targeting info 

Content that lacks personalization can be pointless. Customers don’t want to receive information that’s not specifically tailored to them. When you send customers irrelevant information, it can seem careless. Show your customers that you’re paying attention to where they’re located and what each time you send out content.

Pay attention to their purchases

By sending customers content that’s based on their recent purchases, you show them that you’re aware of the information they need. This kind of content comes across as more informational and less promotional. By helping customers use your products and services after they’ve already made the purchase, you can build loyalty and show off your expertise.

We know the importance of sharing valuable and intelligent content. If you need help creating content that builds a following around your brand, give us a call.

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Are You Sharing Content? Or Selling It? Your Customers Know the Difference. Do You?

If you own a company, make a product, or perform a service, you know it takes more than hanging up a “Hello! We’re Open!” sign to be successful.

(If it were only that easy, right?)

One of our favorite ways to develop a brand and start selling your wares is by creating an atmosphere of sharing. Basically, anything you write, speak, email, publish, print, and post is a gift to your potential customers and loyal fan base. You can inform and inspire others by sharing the information and expertise that makes you the one to watch in your field.

“Wow,” your customers marvel. “She shares so much with us…for FREE! Imagine the service once we actually hire her.”

(If it were only that easy, right?)

But there’s sharing content, and then there’s selling content. They’re both perfectly acceptable and useful tactics when managed well.

Here’s the difference:

Sharing content is, actually, free. Sharing content takes the form of blog posts, email campaigns, social media feeds, and regular newsletters. It’s advice you’ve learned along the way, real mistakes you’ve made, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and ideas you freely pass along. Sharing content adds value to the services or products you sell.

Selling content is a bit different. At its most authentic, selling content is your website content, potential client emails and presentations, and even testimonials from other customers. Selling content is wholly connected to the services or products you sell.

The confusion occurs when the sharing and selling are blended without informing the customer. Imagine sending out a blog post, sponsored by a company whose product you generally use in your line of work, wholeheartedly extolling the benefits of using this company. That’s not a bad thing, right?

Well, it might be. If your usual method is to use your blog to share information freely, but you sneakily slip in a sponsored post or five into the mix without informing your customers that this is a paid advertisement, your content validity suffers.

We’ve seen some other content producers write the very best sponsored posts. They seem so believable that even we have a difficult time telling whether they’re paid advertisements or simple content shares.

This content secrecy weakens your brand.

Listen. We love helping you sell your product or service. It’s what we do best at The Found Gen, through transparency and honesty.

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The Art of Brand Loyalty: Three Ways to Build a Brand Customers Love

It’s been said that respect is earned, honesty is appreciated, trust is gained, and loyalty is returned. We think about that concept a lot here at The Found Gen.

In fact, we spend much of our time considering how the content we create will transform our clients from just another brand…to the only brand their customers choose to choose.

Here are a three ways we make this happen:

  1. We realize that the content we write is a lot like a conversation. Not like the conversation you have at awful cocktail parties where the marketing expert with canape breath has cornered you for a never-ending conversation about MailChimp. Not like that at all. Our team isn’t into one-sided diatribes; we prefer a natural exchange we all enjoy.
  2. We understand the values our clients share with their customers. A lot of brands make the mistake of only caring about moving their products. They would generate more loyalty – and sales – if they cared about moving people. At The Found Gen, we’ve proven time and time again that brand loyalty is impossible to create without a constant focus on shared values. Customers want to connect to ideologies, and strive to find and feel that commonality between them and their favorite brands. Knowing this, we encourage our clients to get personal and share their stories. There’s an entire loyal customer base just waiting to hear them.
  3. We answer the questions. At The Found Gen, we believe in information. It’s why we craft effective blog posts, social media streams, and any other means to get our clients’ information into the hands of their customers. Some clients think they don’t need blog posts, and maybe they’ll skip their tweets this month, thanks very much. We strongly advise against this, though, because those posts are there when the business is closed for the day. Those posts invoke trust in the absence of referrals, they relieve buyers’ remorse in the middle of the night, and they respond better than any pleasant voicemail message.

Above all other tips we can offer is our encouragement for a brand’s fervent attention to customer service. We write effective content, but content alone can’t create a loyal base.

Statistics show that building loyalty and retaining current customers is almost ten times cheaper than acquiring new customers. So never take existing customers for granted, value them, and reward them with content that will improve your relationship no matter what other brands pop up to compete.

If you’d like to learn more about how we help our clients become brands their customers choose to choose, give us a call. If we’re not in the office, we’ve got a lot of lovely content to keep you busy until we get back.