Posts Tagged ‘content marketing’

Hiring an Online Marketing Agency Instead of Internal Marketing Employees

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Have you considered hiring an online marketing agency to help you construct the appropriate marketing strategy, and to help you execute on that strategy? More and more business owners are considering outsourcing their marketing activities to Online Marketing Agencies like Catalyst Marketers. As long as you choose a great agency to work with, the benefits of hiring an outside agency to handle your online marketing efforts far outweigh hiring a team of marketing employees.

Whether you’re a medium to large-sized business, or you’re a small business, outsourcing your online marketing activities can help reduce expenses, and increase your revenue. As we dive into the benefits to outsourcing your online marketing activities, we are following the assumption that you have already decided to use online marketing as a way of reaching more people, building relationships, and driving sales.

Outsource Online MarketingA big key to all of this is finding the right Online Marketing Agency. Many traditional agencies out there now include social media marketing or blogging in their portfolio of services. Not only that, but it seems like 35% of the unemployed are now Internet Marketing Consultants –> Buyer Beware. I’m not saying folks shouldn’t try to start their own businesses if they’ve been laid off, what I am saying is that you need to meet with a number of agencies & professionals before making any decisions. Many of these folks don’t know how to truly use online tools to help grow relationships and drive sales. Others know how to do it, but they are stuck in the old world rules of having a brick-and-mortar agency with numerous employees. This means their costs are going to be astronomically higher than an agency like ours, which is a virtual marketing agency. Hiring an Online Marketing Agency is a process, one that nobody should take lightly. Do your homework and then go with your gut. If you make a mistake, then simply move on & try again. The benefits to finding and hiring the right Online Marketing Agency far outweigh any perceived risks in doing so.

Here are a few of the benefits that we believe make outsourcing your Online Marketing activities the better option when comparing it to hiring a team a internal Marketing employees:

  • COSTS: Costs are the biggest advantage to outsourcing your Online Marketing activities. The cost of a salary PLUS benefits to bring a knowledgeable, and experienced person on full-time are in the $100k range. With that, you’ll probably need at least another individual, probably at the Marketing Coordinator level to assist the department head. For less than $35,000/year you can outsource all of your online marketing needs to an agency.

  • DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE: Even when you bring on a talented individual to head up your Marketing department, the likelihood that she will have the skills to plan & execute on ALL of your tactics herself is very slim. In most cases, you’ll end up outsourcing a lot of work regardless…which leads us to our next point…

  • ONE VENDOR: By outsourcing your Online Marketing needs, you can minimize paperwork and everything else that comes with contracting with multiple vendors + multiple employees. By selecting an Online Marketing Agency that can deliver on all of your web-based or mobile-based marketing needs, you are creating one point of contact. Pick the right agency, and then run everything through them.

The list of benefits to hiring an Online Marketing Agency instead of internal marketing employees does continue, but I think the 3 above are most critical. Some folks will tell you that you cannot find an agency that can understand your business as well as an employee would. We definitely disagree on that response. Again, it’s all about finding the right partner. Here at Catalyst, the very first thing we do when we partner with a new client is dive into all relevant aspects of their business. We also continue to learn every day that we work with our clients. Ultimately, we are able to integrate so heavily that many non-marketing employees know us by our first names. There are some agencies out there who are unable to integrate as well with their clients, but if you understand the importance of that ability, then you’ll be sure to select the right online marketing agency for your business.

What are your thoughts on outsourcing your marketing activities? Are you currently doing it? If so, how’s it working? Have you outsourced your online marketing in the past? How did it work out? We hope you’ll share your stories with our readers via the comments section below OR on our Facebook page – a place for small business owners to connect, share information & ideas, and learn about Online Marketing.

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Posted in Catalyst Marketers, Online Marketing, Small Business | 2 Comments »

Every Blog Post is an Opportunity to LOSE Followers

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Are you currently using online social tools to connect and communicate with your audience? If so, BRAVO! If you’re a Catalyst Marketers Blog subscriber, then you know we are all about using free online tools to reach more people, build relationships with those folks, and ultimately drive sales.

With that being said, this post is a cautionary tale about understanding the power of online communication and the impact it could have on your small business. This post isn’t meant to deter you from using online social tools, and specifically, blogging. It’s simply a reminder to be sure that EVERY time you produce something, you should try to make it your best work to date.

Blog for my small businessEach and every time you produce a new blog post, a new video, or audio program, there may be some followers who find the content so off-target that they actually stop following your business online. The other day I was on Twitter and clicked on a link that was tweeted by one of my followers. The link brought me to his blog and I read the post. The post was riddled with assumptions, had spelling and grammar mistakes, and was simply uninformative. Just like that, I stopped following this individual on Twitter. If I had been subscribed to his blog, I would have unsubscribed.

See the thing is that in an online world that is becoming saturated with content, yours has to stand out. If nothing else, it has to be mistake free and it must demonstrate that you actually took time crafting the message. Here are a few things that you may want to ask yourself as you’re crafting a new piece of online content:

  • Are there any grammatical errors in my new blog post?
  • Is the information relevant and educational for MY audience?
  • Are my stats and data accurate?
  • Have I included images and/or links to other relevant content in my blog post?

If you answer the above questions each time you create a new piece of online content, then you limit the chance that someone who you’d consider to be part of your target audience, will unsubscribe from your blog or stop following your small business online.

I hope that this post doesn’t scare people away from producing online content and writing in their business blog. Sometimes we can all get caught up and we may skip a few steps here and there. This post should remind us all that each time you create something online, it stays there forever (or at least a very long time). You want to make sure that your content stands out and continues to attract new followers, as opposed to losing current followers.

One last thing, don’t lose your personality and become too vanilla, as that’s the fastest way to lose followers. You must be confident in the content that you’re producing. If you want to be controversial, be controversial. If you want to take a stand on an issue, take a stand. With that said, be sure that you understand that every piece of content you produce online, can and will have some sort of impact on your business. Hopefully the majority of your content is sought after by your followers. You have to remember that you cannot please everyone and you should focus on pleasing and educating the individuals that make sense for your small business. Each time you go to hit that “publish” button, just be sure you re-read your content and ask yourself a few simple questions. Once you’re pleased with the answers, then go ahead and publish that great new educational blog content to the world.

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Posted in Online Marketing | 10 Comments »

What is Integrated Marketing Communications?

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

I received a LinkedIn request the other day from a good friend of mine from Bentley University, located in Waltham, MA. We graduated together and now she, Carolyn Hannus, is working at Digitas in Boston. She’s also getting her MBA at Boston University. As part of one of her classes, she told me that she needed to survey Marketing professionals with the following question, “What does integrated marketing communications mean to you?”

I felt like the question and my response was relevant for the readers of the Catalyst Marketers blog, so I posted my response below. One thing to note, if you’re a small business owner, don’t get scared off by the marketing jargon, “Integrated Marketing Communications”. I break it down below and chances are, you’re already doing it in one form or another.

For me, Integrated Marketing Communications means the all encompassing process for communicating your message, ideals, beliefs, and value proposition to your community. Your community can be filled with both customers and prospects. In order to truly make an impact with your marketing message, you must first start by outlining the goals and needs of your business. Once those have been established, you can then move on to creating strategies that align to those goals and needs. Next comes tactics. These are the vehicles by which you get your information to your community. Finally, the most critical step, one which many don’t consider, is measurement. At set periods of time throughout the year, it’s always good to take a step back and look at the numbers to see how your tactics are tracking against the goals and needs that you originally setup. If something isn’t working so well, then iterate or scrap it completely. If another tactic is truly resonating with your community, then find ways to highlight it and even enhance it. By setting up a plan, whereby you establish goals, you now have something to measure against.

A big part of my marketing efforts, and the efforts of my clients, is content marketing. Content marketing can come in many forms, like written text, video, and even audio. As part of content marketing, you want to ensure that you are educating your community and providing information that they consider valuable. That information should tie-in to your business. If you’re an organic restaurant owner, then you should be blogging about the different ingredients you use in your recipes and why they are better for your patrons. You can shoot videos of your chefs preparing different recipes in a sanitary environment. All of this information is relevant to your business, but also relevant to your target audience. By providing valuable information, you create brand loyalists who are not only going to become customers, but walking, talking, billboards for your business.

Integrated Marketing Communications is the overarching term used to describe all of the different ways you communicate with your community. Each different marketing vehicle that you use, whether it’s YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Blogs, should tie into your overall plan. If you’ve setup your plan properly, then you should have goals that you can measure against. This will let you know how effective or ineffective your programs are. Either way, you’re learning something, which gives you the ability to make necessary changes. In this economy, and probably for the foreseeable future, those organizations that don’t listen to their community and constantly evolve their offerings based on their leanrings, will not survive. To ensure you don’t end up like that, it’s important to have a plan for your integrated marketing communications, check-in occasionally to see how you’re tracking against that plan, and don’t be afraid to listen to your community and make the necessary changes to satisfy them.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Small Business | 3 Comments »

Print Ads Run for a Month, Online Content Lives Forever

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

It amazes me that there are some business owners out there who still believe in paying for high-priced print advertisements, yet don’t see the value in creating a blog for their small business. Content marketing is the present and the future (for now). Whether you’re creating written content through a blog or e-newsletter, video-based content, or even simple audio-based content, it’s critical that you produce some sort of educational information for your target audience. Here are my top 4 reasons why you need to switch from traditional advertising strategies like developing print ads to more new marketing strategies like creating content.

Print Ads Run for a Month, Online Content Lives Forever

One of the biggest reasons for spending the time to develop a blog for your small business is the fact that the content you produce will live forever online. You create it once and 5 years from now someone may come across it and end up becoming a customer. Print ads usually run in the monthly flier/magazine and then they get tossed by readers. You spent time developing your ad and paid for the placement only to reap the benefits for one month. Even if you pay an agency like Catalyst Marketers to develop your blog articles, that content is yours and it lives forever. So even if the costs are the same or a little higher to create great online content, that content has the ability to educate readers and drive sales for years. Print ads are usually one and done. Where do you think you should be spending your time/money?

Print Ads Have Lost Effectiveness, Online Content is Thriving

Does this print ad entice you to buy Dunkin Donuts? For me, I breeze right by it when I see it in a newspaper that I’m reading. Even if I do take the time to read it, it doesn’t really entice me to go buy a smoothie. Does it entice you?

We have learned to ignore print ads, and many traditional forms of advertising for that matter. Now, if I’m new to an area and I’m looking for say, an organic cup of coffee, I’m probably going online to check out sites like Yelp or hit the blogs to find out if there are any great organic coffee shops in the local area. If I come across your blog where it explains where you purchase your organic coffee beans, how you make your coffee, what type of organic creams and sugars you use, then I’m probably going to swing by your store to try your product. Your blog has educated me on your process, as well as, organic coffee in general – an area I’m interested in. You have officially brought value to my life by providing me with great online content. Print ads simply cannot do that.

Print Ads Cannot Tell Your Story, Online Content Engages & Educates Customers

Print ads by nature are limited in the amount of space they offer you to tell your story. Guess what? The more room they have for you to put information into the ad, the more expensive the ad becomes. Most of the time, businesses can only include the most critical information: the offer, their tag line, and their address. That’s it, you’re done. No more space for you.

How do you expect to educate anyone about your business, your products and your services with such limited space? In today’s environment, consumers have an unlimited number of choices for almost anything you can imagine. The difference between purchasing one product over another is usually tied to some emotional reason. How can you evoke emotion from consumers through a print ad? You can’t.

Now, if you’re a salon and you produce “how to” videos for creating different hairstyles and target teenage girls, then you can really bring value to those girls lives. How often do young girls go over to their friends house to do each others hair? All the time. How about for big school dances, girls are always searching for new hairstyles. Now, through your videos, they can learn how to do it themselves. Your videos are now their go-to resources before all school dances. They now feel confident in their looks because they have professional looking hairstyles and your salon is responsible for that.

Talk about evoking an emotional attachment. Where do you think those girls are going to get their hair cut next? How about when they want to spend some big bucks on a hairstyle for prom? You better believe they are coming to your salon. All because you put your marketing budget to work on something valuable instead of wasting it on one and done print ads.

Print Ads Come with Boundaries, Online Content is Limited Only to Your Imagination

We’ve already explored some of the limitations that come with print ads, but just to get them all out in the open, let’s go through them again. Print ads are costly, they have limited reach, there is limited space available to you for telling your story, many people ignore them, and for those that do pay attention, they are only good for about a month before they are thrown away.

Online content is really only limited to your creativity. Have you ever considered running a radio show for your small business? Blog Talk Radio allows you to do that – FOR FREE. You can then archive your recordings to allow people to listen to them whenever and wherever. Those radio shows live forever online.

If you own a retail clothing boutique you can use video to broadcast your own fashion show. A fashion show that models the latest Spring clothing lines that you offer. If you own a restaurant, you can record one of your top chefs preparing one of your best dishes, just like the big guys do on TV. Through your video, people can now make these great recipes at home. You’ve brought value to their lives. Believe me, they are still going to go out to eat, but on days when they need to stay in, they can bring up your video and cook a great meal. You’re now responsible for feeding their family. Again, talk about evoking some emotions. Where do you think they are going to go out to eat the next time they want to do that? Exactly…

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Posted in Small Business | 9 Comments »