The Found Gen

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Kanopi House

The Right Messaging Captured This Boutique Hotel’s Unique Value, Engaged the Ideal Audience, and Increased Bookings

An eco-chic treehouse resort hidden deep in a Jamaican forest, far from the rum-running, sunbathe-all-day-and-dance-all-night Bacchanal vibe deserves an equally unique and accurate message. In order to retain reservations, increase bookings, and ensure their marketing matched the resort’s branding, Kanopi House needed to find their target audience. And then woo them.

The property is an adventurer’s dream. Add a backpack filled with a bather, water shoes, and enough layers to protect you from the jungle mosquitos on your way to the famous Blue Lagoon – yes, that Blue Lagoon – and maybe a GoPro and some books that have been on your must-read list for the past year, and you’re in paradise. But for those expecting an air-conditioned, five-star resort with white tablecloth service and unfailing WiFi, their sister site, Kamalame Cay, might be a better fit.

Messaging matters, especially when you’re selling an unparalleled experience like the one at Kanopi House. When you get it wrong and customers feel misled, unfavorable reviews abound and the property’s reputation takes a direct and financially painful hit.

Our goals were to rebrand, discover their target audience, and double the resort’s bookings. So, we got to work crafting Kanopi House’s messaging, including:

  • designing marketing strategies to target their desired customer base
  • building an honest and highly engaging social media stream
  • developing a tight email list
  • marketing excursions with local adventure and experiential providers

In just eight months, Kanopi House doubled its bookings. The substantial increase in revenue allowed them to build three more treehouses, doubling their occupancy potential, too. Rave reviews of the resort abound online, and their reputation is fixed and true. Kanopi House was recently named to Condé Nast’s Best Of 2018 list, further solidifying their unique presence in their niche hotel market.

Every brand needs a voice. Messaging articulates a brand’s promise and stimulates desire for its offerings. The best messaging, in our experience, is persuasive yet truthful.

So, ask yourself: Does my brand messaging reflect reality? Is it a believable, truthful blend of reality and aspiration? Are my messages resonating with my target audience and are they interesting?

Anything less just won’t work for us.

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How to Triple Your Subscriber List in 3 Easy Steps

Email. It runs our lives more than any of us would care to admit. From business to personal, we treat email as if it were part a life-support mechanism. So, why is it when it comes to business that building a healthy, and hefty, subscriber list is pushed to the back-burner?

One thing we tend to remind our clients of daily, here at The Found Gen, is that there are only TWO things you can control these days when it comes to your business’s marketing tools: your blog and your subscriber list.

Social media is constantly in flux, with new algorithms and pushes for ad buys changing the game before you can even blink. SEO tactics are at the beck-and-call of Matt Cutts. And practically every other marketing strategy needs to be ready to pivot at the drop of a hat.

But, email…that’s something you can control. So, why aren’t you? A sturdy subscriber list helps you stay in contact with your current, potential and even previous clients. A well-maintained list can act as your arsenal for generating sales, boosting brand notoriety and even opening doors that may have been shut ages ago.

We went ahead and compiled a few easy steps to grow your subscriber list quick.

1. Go Ahead & Ask For Emails

Sounds so easy, right? Well, it is. Every time you go out to a meeting or a networking event, you are collecting business cards. Why not spend a few extra seconds and simply ask if you can send them some information that you think will be of use. Always bring it into your conversation and what you’re talking about. We don’t recommend simply shouting it out after an 10 second introduction. That will never end in anything other than an “unsubscribe.” But offer to stay in touch, bring something back into conversation that they mentioned. For instance, if you’re a divorce lawyer and they mentioned their friend has a concern about alimony payments post-retirement–ask if you can send them some useful material on the subject. They won’t say no.

And for the online request, make a subscribe option prominent on both your homepage and your blog page. Provide incentives for guests to sign up. For instance a free Ebook or White Paper. Content is king. Give something to get something.

2 . Offer an Online Course

More often than not, an interesting webinar catches the attention of a lot of folk. Webinars have the added bonus of not limiting you to a specific location.

A client of ours once offered a webinar, offering a free online assessment along with it. All it took was one quick offer, that resulted in 7,000 sign-ups and a suddenly robust email list. Not too shabby, right?

In order to be successful at an online course or seminar, you need to narrow down your topic, create a sense of urgency that will in turn drive action, and keep it short and sweet. It’s easy for people to spare an hour or an hour a week for 4 weeks, but beyond that–things get tricky. So keep that in mind when planning.

3. Guest Post on High Value Sites

Blogging is one of the strongest ways to drive consistent traffic to your site. When you guest blog you open the door to reach a larger audience and get them interested in wanting to hear more about what you have to say.  So, it’s important to leverage your guest posting opportunities to drive traffic to your site up and subsequently your subscriptions too.

A few quick tips? Do some quick research and nominate a selection of sites where you feel your voice will be most compatible. Then take a deeper look into the overall style of the posts they share (read: titles, messaging, layout and calls-to-action). Seamlessly melding to another site’s style gives you a higher chance of being selected and asked back. But don’t forget to offer that bonus material that will drive attention back to your site and your subscription list.

All in all it’s not difficult to grow your subscriber list–it just takes a bit of effort. If you’re interested in growing your list but aren’t sure you have the time to dedicate to it, go ahead and give us a call. We’re happy to help get your subscriber list where you want it to be.

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Your Marketing To-Do List

Every small business owner has it: a to-do list of improvements that are “next up”—when there are extra funds in the marketing budget, when there’s time to find a good web designer or a mobile app developer…. trust us, we get it —  we’re in the same boat.

Keeping up with digital marketing trends can be overwhelming. Best practices evolve at breakneck speed, and you might feel like all you can manage is to keep your e-commerce channels running smoothly. But certain basics of online marketing are crucial to having a successful, effective web presence. Without them, your business will be lost in the dark corners of the Internet.

Whether you just got off the ground, or you just haven’t paid proper attention to your marketing strategies, here are three essential tactics you need to put top of your marketing to-do list.

Build a Subscriber email List and Get in Touch—Regularly

The first thing on your marketing to-do list should be improving your email campaigns.

Research verifies what many business owners have experienced: Email is one of the most effective marketing channels based on ROI. Email is a powerful, and relatively easily implemented, communication tool, no matter your industry.

Start simple: If you sell goods, you can use email to announce sales, promotions, brick-and-mortar openings and product launches. If you’re a service provider, use email newsletters to provide valuable information in the form of how-tos, regulatory updates, loyalty programs, reminders and news-related sales pushes.

And don’t be shy about asking people to subscribe. The more points of sign-up you have—homepage, slide-up banner, sidebar, checkout, Facebook, in store—the better your rate of acquisition (Just don’t make it a free-for-all).

Optimize Your Website for Your Audience

If you’ve done any digging into digital marketing, you’ve probably come across Search Engine Optimization. It’s a great way to increase business leads and a necessity for being competitive online today. Search engines each have their own formulas, called algorithms, for determining which web pages best match any given search.

By optimizing your content, you can make your site appear higher in search results. You could use free analytics tools, but this is a complex, constantly evolving area of digital marketing that has a bit of a learning curve. If you have the budget, consider hiring an online marketing agency to handle this part of your marketing to-do list.

Devise a Strategy for Driving Traffic

Beyond SEO, you should choose at least one of method of attracting people to your site. If your customer base includes younger generations, Instagram might be a natural fit. The free, photo-based social media platform is rapidly growing and the perfect way to build brand awareness among influential consumers.

If your business doesn’t lend itself to photography, consider blogging or videos. High-quality blog and video content related to your products, service or industry can help organically boost your site’s search engine ranking. Plus, they add a layer of depth to your site to engage potential customers.

 

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Bad Grammar and Your Business

It’s the new year.  Last year might have brought a bumper crop for your business, or it might have been a year of slow growth. Regardless, here you are staring down the face of the future with a resolution to better market your business.

Last year saw a massive rise in the value placed on content marketing. Businesses have been turning over a new leaf in their marketing strategies to find ways to directly connect with their consumers — and often at a lower cost. And Content Marketing is the best way to personalize the face of your business while also keeping your finger directly on the pulse of your industry.

Today, you can more effectively engage, connect and inspire potential clients than ever before. And to make matters even better, content marketing tools enable you to reach potential customers in ways they actually appreciate.

Awesome? Yes! Easy? No!

The Gift & Curse of Content Marketing

Look, content marketing is fantastic. When done right, people want to read your blog. People will follow you on Twitter without incentive simply because they find your feed interesting and useful. People will appreciate the advice they receive in your monthly email newsletter. The tables, however, will turn in an instant if you aren’t careful. The gift and the curse of content marketing tools like social media is that it takes the same amount of time to follow someone as it does to unfollow them; seconds – at best.

Content marketing allows you to foster a personal and helpful community with your customers and potential customers in a way previously unknown, but it’s not an excuse to sacrifice professionalism. We all want to be down-to-earth, hip and “with-it” but sometimes businesses have a knack for taking it a bit too far. It’s a tricky balance, but it is one you must strike.

One Grammar Mishap Can Bring Down The Party

Countless blog posts across the content-marketing universe will give you multiple-point reasons why bad grammar is ruining your marketing efforts, but what it boils down to is this: professionalism. Despite the fact that Webster’s is allowing fun new words like “defriending” to line the same sheets as “antidisestablishmentarianism,” some grammar faux pas should just be left out of your business’s content marketing campaigns entirely.

Busy minds can lead to cluttered tweets and typo-riddled emails. It’s important that your business be protected from small mishaps that can turn off readers. Your brand needs to be dressed up properly–in the right copy. Think James Bond–a killer tux and great smile.

Your options are clear. You can plan well, painstakingly create and proof your work in order to execute an effective content marketing campaign on your own. Or you can enlist the help of marketing nerds like us.  We’re grammar freaks and we’re not embarrassed to say it.

If you’re doing it on your own, we wish you well and still want to help where we can.  Check back here every Friday for some simple grammar tips. But if you’re looking for a 007 content team to take over, well, you know where to find us.

 

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3 Marketing Resolutions Your Business Should Make This Year

fat-business-man-use-scale-to-measure-his-waistline

The New Year is full of resolutions, many of which have to do with improving your personal health: get more sleep, fix your diet, renew that gym membership (and actually go this year) and so on. But what resolutions have you made to improve your business’s health this year?

While slimming your waistline might be on your yearly to-do list, you should make expanding your business’s bottom line a priority as well. One of the best ways to grow your business is by developing a focused and effective marketing plan.

Here are a few resolutions you can incorporate into this year’s growth strategy:

Planning

An effective marketing plan requires focus, and that focus comes from having a fully fleshed out marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to start at the beginning and try to get a clearer picture of the basics. Think about why potential customers would need your products or services, think about who your target customers are and consider how your business will fit into the competition. These basic insights work in concert. For example, if you know that your target customer uses your product to improve their everyday life, their demographics and can anticipate how your competition will respond to your offering, you can stay several steps ahead in developing a more effective marketing plan.

Trying New Things

If you try to put yourself in the place of your customers, it helps to take the guesswork out of marketing. What products or services do you like? What is it about them that gets you excited? Chances are—like your customers—you appreciate and respond better to change. Rather than using the same methods over and over again to sell your product or service, branch out. Bundle what you’re already offering with something new, throw in a new and improved service, whatever it takes. This sort of spontaneity helps to keep the fires of interest burning, maintaining customer loyalty while attracting new ones.

If email marketing has never worked well for you, maybe it’s time to build an effective email list.

Following Through

Execute and measure. You’ll never know if a particular marketing strategy was effective or not if you don’t first let it run its course and then take the time to assess its effect. Track your metrics. What helped generate leads? What percentage of those leads were converted to customers? Then look at each aspect of the marketing strategy and see if it needs refining or to be shelved and taken back to formula. Whatever you do, however, don’t completely trash your marketing strategies. Not only is it wasteful, but what may not have worked for one particular product or service might be the silver bullet you needed for another.

If you need help getting your marketing plan off on the right foot, feel free to give us a call today.

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5 Grammar Mistakes That Always Get Missed

As a writer you always notice the little grammar mistakes people make when they write. Someone ending a sentence with a preposition, employing a redundant modifier or using “literally” literally any chance they get. It’s enough to drive a person mad—or at least distract you from what they were actually talking about (see?).

For your business the consequences are just as real. The content you put out is an extension of your business, an undeniable representation of your company that is open for consumer judgment. “If they don’t even know the difference between it’s and its, how can I trust they will be able to deliver on their promise of ____.” The relationship between the grammar mistakes you make and the quality of your business may seem alien and unfair, but it’s a reality of the business world we live in—trust us.

They’re, Their, There

A grammar eyesore you no doubt come across on a daily basis in emails is the incorrect use of they’re, their and there. It’s pretty simple, really: One’s a contraction, one’s possessive and one has to do with place. Use they’re when you want to shorten they are. Use there if you could point to it (“over there”). Use their when you’re describing someone’s something. You know the difference between the three, but it’s a good idea to always double check your correspondence to make sure you’re using the right one in the right context — it’s way too easy to make these grammar mistakes even knowing the rules.

There, there–you’ll get the hang of it.

Me and I

You’d think that people would have a solid grasp on the proper use of two of the most selfish words in the English language. Nope. Me and I are two of the most misused words, especially when it comes to writing a sentence with yourself and another group. For instance, you may read, “Scan the documents and send them to Jennifer and I.” But take “Jennifer” out of that sentence and it sounds weird. That’s because I is the object of that sentence—and I should not be used as an object.

To help remind yourself which one is right and when, say the sentence to yourself excluding the other group (“Scan the documents and send them to me”). If it sounds right, it is.

Run-on Sentences

“Brevity is the soul of wit,” but you wouldn’t know it based on the way some people go on and on and on when they write. As the writer, it’s your responsibility to make it as easy possible on your reader, if for no other reason than to keep them reading. One way to do this is by using commas before coordinating conjunctions, such as for, and, but, or, etc. These FANBOYS are useful in separating independent clauses—complete thoughts with subjects and predicates—and commas are their companion cues that help your reader know a new idea is approaching.

Commas

If you’re thinking about using a comma to pause, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner would like to have a word with you and the rest of the writing world. Despite their disdain towards the use of commas, their use and misuse are both quite popular. Here are a couple of rules to keep in mind to make sure your commas are properly filling their role:

  • Conditional, or if-then, statements require a comma to separate the premise from the conclusion. In other words, if you are setting something up, then be sure to put a comma before the “then.”
  • Coordinating conjunctions that separate two independent clauses need a comma to come before them, and that’s all there is to say about that.

Alot and A Lot

You’ll clean up a lot of your grammar mistakes when you realize alot isn’t a word; it’s two.

There are literally an infinite number of additional grammar sins individuals and businesses alike commit every day. But it’s never too late to get back in the good graces of grammar. Feel free to reach out and let us help cleanse your writing and purify your content today.