The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

Search Results for: email

by

15 Stats You Should Know About Content Marketing: It’s all in the data

Content marketing can help you achieve many things. It builds your brand identity. It creates brand loyalty. It educates potential customers, and lets them engage directly with you.

Content creation is an obvious (and important) piece of the strategy, but content marketing is much more. It’s about how your content gets noticed and how effective it is. But, you need the right kind of content, on the right channels, and targeted to the right groups of people. And, you need to measure its results.

We know content marketing is the best strategy to help you drive new leads. Don’t take our word for it. Here are 15 content marketing stats that you should know:

  1. Companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts.
  2. 43% of people say they skim blog posts.
  3. Only 30% of B2B marketers say their organizations are effective at content marketing.
  4. 72% of adult internet users use Facebook.
  5. Facebook sends 82% of social media traffic to longer stories on the web and 84% of social traffic to shorter news articles.
  6. 59% of Instagram users are on the platform daily, including 35% who visit several times a day.
  7. 90% of all marketers say that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses.
  8. At least 61% of businesses investing a minimum of six hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings.
  9. 54% of marketers say increasing engagement rate is their top email marketing priority.
  10. 15% of marketers say their company does not regularly review email opens and clicks; only 23% say they have integrated their website and emails to track what happens after a click.
  11. The ability to segment email lists and individualize email campaign messaging are the most effective personalization tactics for 51% and 50% of marketing influencers, respectively.
  12. Lack of resources, such as staff, funding, and time remains the biggest obstacle to successful lead generation for 61% of B2B marketers.
  13. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.
  14. 64% of B2B marketers outsource writing.
  15. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.

Let us help you create a content marketing strategy that works for you. We’ll craft your content and make sure it reaches the right people. Give us a call today.

by

Why Your Blog Shouldn’t Be Overly Promotional: It’s the best way to turn people off

Blogging gives you a platform for sharing your knowledge and educating others about your industry. When done right, it is one of the best ways to attract customers.

Your blog is a way of selling yourself and your business without actually selling—or that’s what it should be. The goal of any blog should be to inform, entertain, or educate. It should never be overly promotional. Here’s why.

You Lose Credibility

People visit your site and read your blog because they want to know about your company and what you offer. Blogging is a form of content marketing, which differs from advertising. Content marketing focuses on building trust, not selling. Sharing valuable information with potential customers helps you establish credibility because it shows that you are transparent about what you’re offering. Establishing trust and integrity will make customers think of you when they are looking for a particular product or service.

It Turns People Off

When people are looking for information about something, they want content they can use, whether it’s tips, examples, or news. Essentially, they want answers to whatever problem they have. Blogs that aggressively tout the business and are too product or service focused can be a major turn off. No one likes a sales pitch, and most people can easily spot insincerity and inauthenticity. When your blog its too promotion, you will lose potential customers, and people are unlikely to revisit your blog.

It Decreases Engagement

When people think you’re not just out to sell something to them, they are more likely to engage with your content. They will revisit your blog, sign up for your email newsletter, like or follow you on social media, and contact you for more information. If you position your content in the right light and avoid being too promotional, customers will respond—61% of customers say they have made a purchase because of a blog post. So, that’s something to keep in mind.

The best way to make sure your blog features content that can best benefit your business and attract potential customers, you should hire a professional. The Found Gen can help you develop a content plan and create your blog posts for you, ensuring maximum engagement. Give us a shout.

by

The Best Types of Lead-Generating Content and Why You Need Them: Offer something valuable to potential customers in exchange for their contact information

Drumming up new business is both a complicated and delicate task. You don’t want to be too aggressive in your approach, but you also want to reach people in a way that leads them to engage with your products or services.

Generating leads is one of the ways that content is king. You just have to create the right type of content and use it to target potential customers.

What Is Lead-Generation Content?

A lead-generation content strategy asks people for their email address or other contact information in exchange for a valuable piece of content. While your blogs may be available online for free, lead-generation content is something special that people are willing to pay for in a sense. And, it lets you create a valuable list of potential leads.

There are many types of lead-generation content, but here’s an overview of the types that are most effective and why you should be using them:

eBooks

eBooks are one of the top ways of capturing leads. Though they take time to create, eBooks let you educate potential leads, show off your expertise, gain credibility, and capture leads in the sales funnel—i.e., you can capture email addresses and other contact information while people are searching for your product or service. Always choose topics that provide valuable information and that inspire people to contact you.

Case Studies

Case studies tell stories that focus on you and how you’ve solved a problem for your customers. They effectively showcase why you’re an asset and what you can do. Case studies are highly valuable because they turn readers into customers.

Cheat Sheets and Checklists

Cheat sheets and checklists are examples of short pieces of content that provide valuable information that people can use for future reference. People can print out or save this content as a quick guide, and they are usually extremely willing to give you contact information to get them.

White Papers

White papers work because they let you expound on a topic that you know a lot about and provide useful information surrounding the subject. You can also include a call to action so that people will get in touch with you.

Creating a lead-generation strategy takes careful planning. Let The Found Gen help you create a plan and determine the type of lead-generation content that will work best for you. Get in touch today.

by

Are These Content-Creation Roadblocks Plaguing You? Here’s how to overcome them

Most businesses know they need content and a content marketing strategy. But, they have no idea how to how to take the first step. Trust us, we understand.

A lot goes into content creation. You have to know your audience and set clear goals for what you want out of your content. Then, there’s drilling down into the services or products that your business provides to develop topics for the types of content that can best reach your audience.

Getting there takes time and effort. So many businesses face roadblocks in their path to creating content. If any of these content-creation barriers are plaguing you, get in touch with us today so we can help.

You have no strategy.

Blindly creating content without a purpose or plan will get you nowhere. This is why there’s so much content out there that falls into a black hole. You need a goal in mind and a clear picture of your target audience, so that you know what type of content they are most interested in.

Content needs to include solid information that answers questions for people or solves problems—and, it needs to be better than any similar content out there. And, once you have actually created the content, you need to have a plan for getting it in front of audiences, through email marketing or social media. Thinking all of this through will get you great results.

You put it off altogether.

Creating great content takes a lot of time and brainpower that you probably don’t have. Too often, companies put off content creation and marketing in general because it’s too time consuming and they don’t have anyone on staff to tackle it. But, procrastinating or neglecting your content creation can sometimes give your competitors an edge. If you don’t have time to create content, hire a professional to help.

You lack brand awareness.

Even if you are creating content, it might not be the right type of content, especially if you lack brand awareness. Truly understanding your brand and letting that drive your content is the only way to really connect with audiences. You need to offer the right information in the right way and include calls to action that get your business the outcome it’s looking for, whether it leads to a purchase or other touch point.

Don’t let these roadblocks stop you from implementing a content marketing plan. We can help. Give us a call today.

by

Five Strategies to Grow Your Business

5 Essential Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business

Remember the craziness of starting your business? The late night brainstorming sessions, deciding on a name and then a kickass logo, your inaugural client and all the lessons you learned from him, and the fear and relief you felt when you added your very first official employee?

The ups, the downs, the long nights and early mornings. But as the new normal settles in, you start to look at the big picture. Here are the key marketing strategies to grow your business over the long term.

SEO

When done right, a good technical SEO campaign will increase traffic to your website. It enables Google (and to a much lesser extent Bing) to best categorize your site so that you are showing up on the appropriate searches, and thereby attracting your target audience (here is a good primer on the three main steps to a strong SEO campaign).

A good technical SEO campaign should only take 3-6 months and only needs to be done every few years (ideally when you’re redoing your website) and is one of the essential marketing strategies to grow your business.

The rest of a good SEO campaign is just content (specifically blogs and other resources to your site) – and the more, the merrier.

Reputation Management

For some industries (notably restaurants and commoditized services like plumbers, electricians, and carpet cleaners), testimonials are a pivotal marketing strategy to grow your business. For professional services (like those provided by attorneys, CPAs, and consultants), testimonials better serve to boost your conversion rate.

Social Media

In short: social media is not right for every business. But it is an important one of the marketing strategies to grow your business available to you.

To oversimplify, social media is where people spend their time when they’re bored. It’s also where they go when they want to feel better about themselves. This creates a gigantic pool of potential customers all congregating in the same place – which is why Facebook is a close second to Google in driving online traffic. The trick is to get in front of the right people.

Blogging

Over the long run, blogging is the most important piece of digital marketing, period (read this if you want to read more as to why).  Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it accessible. So, the essence of a good SEO strategy is to create valuable information for your target audience and provide it via your site – like we do with the blog.

Email Marketing

The one thing you have the most control over in digital marketing is your email campaign. Facebook, Google, etc can change the rules whenever they want. This can cut you off from your audience and traffic to your site can plummet. But nothing can touch your email list – it’s the most direct connection you have.

What’s more – you can be a little more sales-driven over email. People come to your site for information (and then to make a decision), people use social media for entertainment. Sales pitches can anger them in both places, but they’re ok with it over email.

If you’re looking to generate leads with your marketing, you need a team to execute your strategy (and here are the questions you should ask a marketing agency before hiring them). Feel free to drop us a line if you want to learn more.

by

7 Habits of the Most Productive Content Teams: The handle the whole process

What to Look For When Hiring a Content Marketing Agency

Content marketing is a multi-step process that involves generating ideas, creating strategies, writing, publishing, and promoting. It can be overwhelming for those not accustomed to the process.

A good content marketing agency is highly productive because they have a plan for systematically moving through all the steps. And they should be more than happy to talk to you about their process. If you’re ready to embrace a content strategy and are looking for an expert team to help, there are several things to look for.

Here is what to look for when hiring a content marketing agency:

They Look for Ideas Everywhere

Topic ideas for content, whether it’s a blog, social media post, or e-book, can be found just about anywhere. Content teams examine industry trends, listen on social media, conduct research, and constantly read all kinds of information to create ideas for the best content for you.

Ask them how they come up with ideas.

They Strategize

Not only do content teams actually do the writing for you, they also create strategies for distributing and promoting the content. This includes identifying what channels are most appropriate for your content and how frequently to push out content.

Ask them how they build a comprehensive strategy.

They Know What Type of Content You Need

Along with strategizing on the distribution and frequency of content, top teams will help you determine the types of content that you need. They will examine your business and marketing needs, and identify what can best benefit you when it comes to content. They’ll help you decide if you need blogs, social media, e-blasts, or other content.

Ask them for recommendations on the spot.

They Help You Identify Your Goals

Another key aspect of content strategies are identifying goals and taking steps to meet them. Are you trying to drive more people to your website, grow your email list, or increase sales? All of these things are critical in creating a strategy and measuring results.

If they don’t ask you about your goals, be worried (and ask them why they didn’t ask it in the first place).

They Handle the Content

Professional and productive content teams create the content for you. This includes idea generation, writing, and editing everything before your final approval. They do all the work for you.

Ask them about their internal process.

They Are Organized

Organization is key to a successful content campaign. Content teams keep everything organized. They create schedules for writing and posting, and generally just keep track of everything.

If they don’t show you their organization as part of explaining their internal process, ask them about it again.

They Get Results

Content done right gets results. That’s why a productive and professional team is essential. Their organization and knowledge is essential in helping you reach your content goals. Plus, they’ll even help you measure your results.

Ask to speak with a current (or former) client.

If you have any other questions about what to look for when hiring a content marketing agency, feel free to get in touch with us today.