Content Strategy Tips - Owned vs Rented Land
On our brand new YouTube Channel, Jeanne shares her thoughts on Joe Pulizzi's famous quote, "Don't build your content house on rented land" - as well as why you should actually have a strategy for sharing content on 'rented land'.
What Is "Owned" and "Rented" Land in Content Marketing?
In content marketing, we talk about owned vs. rented digital land. This is an analogy to building a house. When you build a house, you must own the land you build it on - or else the owner of the land can kick you out of the house at any time.
If you build your digital version of a house, that central place where you direct your customers, clients, and readers to, on a website you neither own nor control, you are at risk of the site owner cutting off access at any time - the digital version of a landowner kicking you out of the rented land!
I've seen this a lot with small business owners who build their 'house' or digital business presence on a Facebook page. They even go so far as to put the page URL on their signage or business cards. That's not bad, per se, but using only Facebook as your online presence is very dangerous. Facebook can at any time cut off your access to the page, shut your page down, or decide to charge high fees. If you build your online or digital presence on a website that you own or control, you're assured it will be there as long as you want it to be there.
The Cost of Poor Business Writing
Poor business writing is an often overlooked problem. Most business leaders will agree that effective communication is a key driver of success. But budget constraints can be a stumbling block in improving communications within the organization.
A study by Grammarly revealed that poor communication costs U.S. companies an estimated $1.2 trillion in annual losses, or about $12,506 per employee each year. Workers spend more than 20 hours a week on business writing, so the ability to get their point across clearly and succinctly has become an essential skill.
What Is Effective Business Writing?
Good business writing follows correct sentence structure, grammar rules, and punctuation. A haphazardly written piece riddled with errors lacks professionalism and risks sending the wrong message.
Isn’t it infuriating to wade through rambling business emails? How about long winding reports that don’t connect the dots? Meandering sentences are a surefire way to lose your audience. Keep your messaging focused on one main idea instead of several competing ones.
A good rule of thumb is to write the way you speak. Use active voice to make your written communication more precise and direct. The passive voice sounds stiff and makes sentences wordier. Make you written materials easy to read. Aim for a readability score that meets the average reader's needs.
Do away with filler words. For example, instead of ‘due to the fact that,’ say ‘because.’ Make every word count. Ditch unnecessary jargon unless you are writing a technical document. Big fancy words impress no one. Consider the purpose of your content and what you want your audience to gain from it. It will determine the appropriate style and tone.
Poor Business Writing Hurts Your Business
Here are a few examples of how substandard writing can impact your organization:
- Low productivity and disengaged teams
- Poor customer retention and tarnished reputation
- Marketing campaigns that don’t convert to sales
Low Productivity and Disengaged Teams
As more companies shift to remote and hybrid work environments, teams rely more on collaborative software tools. Writing with clarity and brevity is more important than ever. The Holmes Report shows that companies with effective communication enjoy as much as 47% higher returns, more engaged employees, and lower attrition rates.
Workers are overwhelmed by the volume of information they digest daily. Leaders who can’t express themselves effectively won’t get desired outcomes. It results in confusion, wasted resources, and productivity loss.
Writing is a core skill not just for higher-ups but is essential for most white-collar employees. If business writing skills are lacking, team members will struggle to decode information. It can cause delays, increased costs, and lost opportunities.
Take the case of FedEx. The company wanted to assess how well employees understood their ground operations manuals. After hiring a consultant, they discovered that readability was low. On average, it took five minutes to find the correct information, and errors were spotted 50% of the time. Revamping their collaterals increased productivity and resulted in a savings of $400,000 in the first year.
Poor Customer Retention and Tarnished Reputation
High customer retention rates are a boon for businesses and are crucial for sustained revenue. Acquiring a new client costs more than keeping an existing one. According to Forbes, the probability of selling to new clients is only between 5% to 20% compared to 60% to 70% for current customers.
Loyalty rides on excellent after-sales support. Customer service agents who lack business writing training will negatively affect your brand. Problems arise when technical personnel hired for their knowledge take on customer-facing roles. They might have the expertise, but without business writing skills, they will struggle to communicate effectively, leading to a poor customer experience.
Marketing Campaigns that Don’t Convert to Sales
It only takes a few seconds for visitors to scan your website or collaterals and immediately form an impression about your brand. A typo or grammatical error can instantly kill your credibility.
Place your audience front and center, and the rest will follow. Aim for clarity and truth when building a company website, creating blogs, or sending out newsletters. False claims and misinformation can erode trust and even lead to lawsuits.
It’s tempting to hire content farms or depend on article spinners as part of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. The new Google updates can quickly recognize auto-generated or unhelpful content. Your website will be penalized, and your page ranking will suffer.
Develop a Culture of Clarity in Writing Communication
It is not always easy to measure the negative impact of poor business writing. But imagine the time saved from wading through fuzzy and confusing text or spending fewer marketing dollars on campaigns that deliver better ROI.
It’s time to cut through the noise and champion a culture of clarity. Invest in training and tools that can improve business writing. The productivity gains will be well worth it. Vague, incomplete, and stuffy communication is frustrating and will cost your business big time.
Seven Oaks Consulting is a unique content marketing agency that can help. We have a team of talented writers that produce quality SEO articles. The more content you have, the more internal links you can build! Visit our website to discover how our services can bring your business to the next level.
Marketing Agency Vanity Awards
(And Actual Awards You Can Win)
I had no idea that marketing agency vanity awards existed until this year when I almost fell prey to an award scam. They're out there - beware.
Since responding to the first group, I've been targeted by two others. Here is my story. Don't fall prey to the marketing agency vanity award scam!
Note: This is a true story. I have redacted the name of the "conference" and the dates, along with individuals names, but the facts are accurate.
At the end of this article, I include a link to download a free copy of an ebook we published with legitimate marketing awards and conferences you can enter. I hope you download it.
The Marketing Agency Award That Isn’t
My scam radar is pretty good. I’ve got that cynical edge that looks at every opportunity from two lenses: what’s in it for me and what are you trying to get from me. So, when the following in-mail appeared in my LinkedIn account, my scam radar was on high.
“Hey Jeanne, I'm glad to inform you that you have been shortlisted for the 'Outstanding Leadership Award', set to be conferred at the [Redacted] Conference in (City and date redacted) 2022).” The note included a link to a video of a past conference.
I fired back a response:
“Seriously? Where is this listed? And can I promote this? Quite a lovely surprise.”
And then…crickets. Nothing. Days passed, and the woman who had contacted me never responded.
Now, if you were hosting an awards competition, and you’ve just notified the winner, and they responded like this, wouldn’t you respond quickly? I would think so. My scam radar was on high once again.
However, the LinkedIn profile of the woman who had contacted me checked out. She was indeed affiliated with the conference mentioned and received excellent LinkedIn recommendations from previous companies who had hired her to coordinate conferences and events. I assumed she was on the conference marketing team and had been hired to reach out to people to get them to attend the conference. How, or why, the conference organizers thought I was nominated for a Marketing Leadership award was beyond me, so I wanted to know more.
I cautiously made an appointment to speak with the woman who had contacted me. She let me know that a colleague from the nominations committee would join the video call. Fair enough.
“Thanks for booking the calendar for Monday.
Also, apologies for the delay in response as I was not active here due to some reasons.
You have been invited to participate in the nomination process for the "Outstanding Leadership Award" by our research team on the basis of 5 below-mentioned criteria: 1. Leader’s Reputation 2. Educational Background 3. Professional Experience 4. Creative Thinking 5. Decisive Leadership
We have a procedure which we follow for selecting our awardees, for that we have an application form.”
However, she still hadn’t answered some of my questions about how my name had come up, who had nominated me, etc.
“Meanwhile, please refer to the deck attached.”
The attached deck was nothing more than a glossy promotional piece, mostly filled with images from their previous event, which looked good but could easily be stock images of a conference. Who knows?
Remember, I’m from New York City. Home of street cons and a thousand get rich quick schemes.
I decided to attend the video call to see what this was all about.
The Committee Meeting and the Sales Pitch
We met on July 11. The half-hour video conference was bizarre. I immediately told the two people from the conference award committee that I needed to know this was not a scam. I must have asked a dozen times if this was a sales pitch. They assured me that it was not – that it was a genuine award.
They then proceeded to weave a compelling sales pitch, alternately hyping the award and the resulting promotion for a small marketing agency like mine and the potential for reaching hundreds of other marketing leaders by accepting the award at their conference and paying the additional fees for their marketing package, which include press releases, badges, and the ability to conduct a session at the conference.
The catch? I was expected, as an award winner, to pay $2,000 for my conference ticket. I would also have to pay for my own airfare and hotel.
The conference dates backed right into Christmas. I was already reluctant to commit, given how close these dates are to both Christmas and a close family member’s birthday. The thought of missing both events due to canceled flights or weather delays, both real possibilities at that time of year, troubled me. Additionally, as I mentioned to the committee, I wasn’t keen on attending in-person events due to the potential for COVID. They said it wasn’t an option; I must attend in person to receive the award.
But how, I asked, had they found me in the first place? Who had nominated me?
After much discussion, they admitted that a “computer algorithm” had selected my profile as a nominee for the “marketing leadership award” based on “criteria outlined” in their deck, which they could only cite but not explain.
Throughout the call, the pair stressed “mandatory attendance” at the conference in order to ‘receive the award.’
I’ve won several marketing awards, including the New York University Award of Excellence and the Lester Wunderman Award for direct marketing excellence, and in both cases, if I wasn’t able to attend the award ceremony, no one threatened to take back the award.
Both previous awards also came with prizes. The award committees didn’t ask me to pay for my promotions; they promoted the event themselves, only asking for my permission to use my photograph and name in their publicity, which I gave them.
In the case of this award, however, the committee stressed that purchasing a $2,000 ticket to the conference was mandatory to receive the award. I balked at the price. I pushed back on the other expenses: airfare and hotel fees. They said they would give me the ticket for $1,500 and reduce the hotel fee to $65 per night. I began to feel a surreal sense that I was haggling over the price of a flea market find.
Again and again, the duo stressed that attendance at the event was mandatory to receive the award. If I wanted to publicize my award, I’d have to fork over more money for a press release, “award badges” to put on my social media profile, and other fees to leverage the award.
Still skeptical, I heard out their pitch to the end. The call ended with them urging me to pay a $50 entry fee and complete an application. It wasn’t much money to see what would happen next, so I completed the application, paid my fee, and shrugged. It was a long shot anyway since the pair assured me that from 1,000 shortlisted names, only 500 would make it to the nomination round, with 60 in the final round for the single award.
After filling out the application, I dug deeper into the conference through my old friend Google Search, but still couldn’t turn up any dirt. I could find no evidence online that either the two people I met with were scammers or that the conference was anything but a legitimate professional development event. The only catch was the odd emphasis on me, the award winner, paying the fees to attend, speak, and promote my award. The hard emphasis on conference attendance was also still nagging at me as a catch that seemed out of sync with an actual award, but I couldn’t see how it was either illegal or a scam, just an oddity that I disliked.
You’ve Won a Major Award!
(Is it "frageeli"? Bonus points if you get the Christmas Story reference)
In less than one week from meeting with the pair and completing my application form, the following appeared in my email in-box on July 19.
“Hey Jeanne Grunert,
Hope this email finds you in the best of health and spirit.
The [Marketing Conference Name] primarily comprises achievers from the industry whom we recognize for their contributions while providing a platform for networking and knowledge sharing amongst this elite group of high-performing individuals and companies.
We received a lot of incredible applications this year and choosing the Honorees for the category "Outstanding Leadership Award" was a very tough job for our Assessment Committee (chair and management). All nominees were adjudged on 5 parameters, namely:
- Leader's Reputation
- Educational Background
- Professional Experience
- Creative Thinking
- Decisive Leadership
After careful consideration and research, our Assessment Committee (chair and management) rated each applicant on every criterion to reach the final list of honorees.
We are happy to let you know that you have been selected for the Outstanding Leadership Award recognition, to be conferred at the [Name Redacted for this article] in [Name redacted for this article]. Please find attached with this email your Assessment Report for your perusal.
Please pick a convenient date and time using the following calendar link, for our team to get in touch with you and confirm your participation at the event.
We congratulate you on your wonderful achievement and look forward to seeing you at the event!
Best Wishes,
Assessment Committee”
Whoa! How did go from one of 1,000 shortlisted nominees on July 7 to the winner by July 19?
It made absolutely no sense. Why did I have to meet with them to “confirm my attendance”? Why the rush to confirm my attendance for a conference occurring five months in the future?
The “Assessment Report”
The so-called “report” attached to the email also made no sense and read like a form letter. The criteria listed each had a ranking factor next to it and a brief paragraph about my so-called skills in the respective area.
But what had the committee looked at to rank each factor? I checked with the three people I had listed on my references to see if the committee had contacted them , and not a single person had been contacted.
The ranking factors included things that could only be determined and evaluated by looking at my agency’s actual client work: marketing plans, content marketing campaigns, and results achieved. But this information is not available outside of my agency. Only I could submit this information to them, as is typical of marketing awards where the participants must submit campaign examples and results as part of the application process. But I hadn’t submitted anything.
Now I was seriously concerned. What was this award? Why did the entire approach feel like a scam but the conference seem like a legitimate event?
I tried calling the previous award winner to ask her about her experience with the conference. I found her name in press releases mentioning the award and found her company online, where she had shared another press release citing this conference and the award. I left a voice mail saying I received notification that I’d won the upcoming award and wanted to hear about her experiences with the conference and award.
She never returned my call.
More suspicious than ever, I returned to searching online. Something was seriously wrong with this picture, with pressure mounting from the nomination committee to confirm my attendance at the event. I didn’t return their emails or LinkedIn messages.
Marketing Agency Vanity Awards
It took me a while to uncover two articles online – just two – explaining why I felt this was a scam of some sort. While not technically a scam, the award process itself is fraught with problems, and provides a meaningless vanity award to the winner while ensuring the conference has attendees eager to be there.
In his article The Agency Award Scam and How It Works, Jason Yormark explains how other conferences and industry magazines prey upon small marketing agency owners’ natural desire to grow their agencies through publicity.
While not an outright scam (agencies are certainly receiving something for the money they pay) the award itself is based on useless, made up criteria.
Yormark delineates a process that is the mirror image of the process the “nominations committee” used to solicit my response. He ends his article by wondering why no one is unmasking these awards for what they are. I know why.
People like me who almost fall for them, or who do fall for them, are too embarrassed to admit it. I’m not. I want you to know this, and I want every marketing agency owner to know this so they don’t waste their time on bogus awards.
The growing realization that I almost fell victim to a vanity award made me very angry. What made me angrier, however, is the fact that very few people online were calling out these companies for the shady business practices they employ.
The Conference Is Legitimate – But the Award Is Meaningless
Is it a scam? Is the conference real?
The conference people I spoke with did indeed offer me an award with the condition that receiving the award was dependent upon attending the conference. That isn’t illegal, as far as I can tell. Any award committee can set whatever criteria they want upon an award. It’s their award. And the conference itself appears to be a genuine professional development event, a typical marketing conference with speaker sessions, workshops, and so on.
However, the value of the award itself, the nomination process, the evaluation process, and the “pay to play” mentality surely puts this award and others of its kind into a gray area that taints it.
I never returned the committee’s more urgent messages, choosing instead to wait to see what would unfold.
I’m Shortlisted – Again!
Then – surprise! – on July 27, I was contacted via email by someone claiming to be from “The Advertising And Marketing Forum” with a Virginia address stating that I was nominated for an award for Outstanding Marketing Leadership!
There was a disclaimer and a huge copyright notice at the end of the email, with no link to the disclaimer, no link to their website, and no more information about this magical award – just a demanding tone to make an appointment now or lose the award. No mention of where the magic award would be given, either.
Not surprisingly, the pressure began just a day later. On July 28, the piece de resistance – an email from the same award conference that had contact me via LinkedIn but from a different person, following up on the July 27 email, to tell me I was shortlisted for the award.
- July 7: Contacted on LinkedIn about being shortlisted for the Outstanding Leadership Award
- July 11: Met with Award Committee, told I could apply for nomination.
- July 19: Received email with report saying I was the winner but must confirm my attendance at the event to receive the award.
- July 27: Received another email sequence from a different person (but this time in the state of Virginia, where my agency is located) saying I was shortlisted for the Outstanding Leadership Award…for the same conference, the same award..
- July 28: Received a second email encouraging me to meet with them to continue the nomination process.
It was, almost word for word, the same pitch.
“Hey Jeanne,
Greetings from [Conference Name redacted]!
I hope you are doing well. This is regarding your reply to my colleague Eliza about the upcoming conference.
The Winter Edition of our [Name Redacted] is taking place at [Name Redacted] on December X. We'll be hosting insightful panel discussions for marketing professionals and showcase some exciting innovations from exhibitors and speakers alike.
We are delighted to inform you that you have been shortlisted as a potential nominee for the 'Outstanding Leadership Award', I would be delighted to discuss further the opportunity if we can connect for a brief call at your convenience.”
Well, isn’t that special! It was, word for word, point for point, the exact same pitch and details as the person had sent me via LinkedIn, except this time it was via email.
Here's my response. This person never pestered me again.
“According to what was already sent to me by someone else, I've already won. So, which is it?”
Follow Up: September 2022
These people don't get the message. Through August, the original duo continued to demand a response from me and my payment to attend the conference. Additionally, despite numerous requests to be removed from their mailing list, they continued to email me.
Follow Up: October 2022
Since the original approach in July, I’ve now received two other approaches for various “awards”.
Here’s one example. They never stop.
Hi Jeanne,
Trust this mail finds you well.
We have an excellent opportunity we would like to share with you– a prestigious felicitation program (A “felicitation program” What is that?) is confirmed to be a part of our marketing event’s schedule (What marketing event? They never cite it by name) in the USA later this winter.
As we went through your portfolio (What portfolio? My marketing work is done under tight NDAs for clients and it never listed in a portfolio online) we recommend that you show your earliest interest (What the heck is “show earliest interest"?) in the program as you have a high chance of getting an accolade (getting an accolade” - again what accolade, why, and from whom?) owing to your unparalleled contributions to the marketing sector.
If you think you might be interested in going forward (If it is a legitimate award, you win it - you don't have to "go forward" with anything. You are told you are the winner and if you accept, they give the award), let us know so we can schedule a call as soon as possible to discuss the opportunities this two-day marketing summit beholds for experts like you.
While on call (grammar mistake), our experts will also guide you through the application process step-by-step.
Let’s connect this week?
Best,
B (name redacted)
(and sent from a gmail address with no signature line - no organization, no conference listed, no name)
Legitimate Marketing Agency Awards
We've put together a free ebook of LEGITIMATE marketing awards you can win. Just sign up for our newsletter and you can download your very own copy. Plus, we'll throw in our free content marketing playbook, too.
13 Social Media KPIs to Measure For Business Growth In 2022
If you use social media for business, you need a plan in place to assess and evaluate your social media KPIs. Having a digital content strategy is great, but tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) allows your social media team to understand if the content connects with the audience and helps achieve business goals.
What Are Social Media KPIs?
KPI means key performance indicators.
Businesses use KPIs to assess and evaluate a company's performance over time. This assessment helps marketers understand which goals are met and the strategies that need to be tweaked to improve business performance.
In a similar vein, social media KPIs measure the effectiveness of a social strategy or campaign on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, where you share the brand's content.
There are several key performance indicators when it comes to social media marketing. The goal is to choose the metrics that align with your marketing campaigns and outcomes.
In this post, we list down crucial social media metrics that you can track and measure to improve engagement:
Important Social Media Metrics To Track For Your Business In 2022
Reach
Reach is the number of unique visitors who saw your post when it went live. When trying to increase the reach of your posts, it’s crucial to target the right audience
interested in your products and services. Once you have determined your target audience and the posts they like, you can create content that is engaging and meaningful to them.
What To Measure
Impressions
Impressions are the number of times your post appeared on someone’s timeline or newsfeed. This doesn’t mean the person has engaged with the post. It’s possible they scrolled past it, but it counts as an impression.
Follower Count
This KPI measures the number of followers on your social media channel at a specific point in time. When tracking the follower count, looking at the engagement rate is crucial.
Suppose you have 1000 followers on Instagram, but only one or two people engage with the post through likes, comments, or shares. This can either mean the account has bots/fake followers or the content doesn’t connect with the intended audience. Either way, you need to take a hard look at your content strategy and understand what needs to be fixed.
Website Traffic
This is one of the most important KPIs that tell you how much website traffic your social media posts generate. It’s how you move the users down the funnel and convert them into paying customers.
Engagement
Social media engagement is the quality of interactions with your followers. This measures how the target audience responds and reacts to your content and how effective your brand campaigns are.
What To Measure
Likes
This KPI measures the number of times your social followers interacted with the brand by liking a post on social media. Though many see this as a vanity metric, it can boost engagement as more people are likely to interact with a post when they see others like it.
Shares
Social shares tell you how popular your content is with the target audience and help drive visibility to your brand. This is a great metric to understand the content formats that work for your brand and how you can double down on those to improve engagement.
Mentions
This social media metric keeps you up-to-date with what people say about the brand on different social media channels. It’s a great way to tap into users' thoughts about the brand, content, and products/services. You can use this data to know more about their preferences and create content best suited to their interests.
Comments
Comments are not only a great engagement metric but also tell you how a user perceives your product or post. All comments may not always be positive, but even the negative ones can help improve your product or marketing strategy. A high number of comments indicate users like your content and are willing to engage with the brand.
Clicks
This is the most effective metric to measure the success of your social media strategy. Most businesses use social media to divert traffic to an external website to facilitate the sale of a product or service. If a user clicks on the website link, they are interested in the product/service and want to know more about it. This means your content marketing strategy is effective in bringing qualified leads, which is ultimately the goal of social media marketing.
Conversions
This KPI measures how many social interactions with the followers or visitors convert into product/service sales, newsletter sign-ups, product demo sign-ups, etc. The conversion could be monetary or non-monetary, depending on the brand’s goals, but it can establish the effectiveness of a social media strategy in leading users to take the final step.
What To Measure
Leads Generated
Generating leads is crucial for business. Not every lead will convert, but it’s worth considering how many people are visiting the website through social media channels, downloading e-books, and signing up for newsletters and product demos to refine the social media strategy that suits the interests of the target audience.
Social Media Conversion Rates
You are posting on social media, and people are liking or commenting on the post, but how many users convert into customers? A straightforward way to determine this is by dividing the total social traffic from the number of social media conversions. You can also track these numbers using Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Salesforce.
Sales Revenue
This refers to the revenue generated from social media conversions. Once you know the number of people who visit your site through social media and the total revenue generated, you can assign a number or value to a prospect. This allows you to set a budget for social media campaigns and anticipate ROI from the efforts.
Measure Social Media KPIs To Drive Business Performance
Tracking social media metrics isn’t easy, but it’s worth the time and money. It helps to improve marketing strategy, calculate ROI from social media efforts, and improve long-term customer standing. Not all businesses need to track all KPIs. Depending on the campaign goals, social media managers can choose to follow some metrics and ignore others. Measuring the correct KPIs can help you understand the best way to communicate with your target audience and the strategies to help you achieve business growth in 2022.
Average Social Media Marketing Costs in 2022
Social media marketing costs depend on several factors across platforms and industries.
According to the Search Engine Journal, 84% of the US population use at least one social media channel. The active number of users worldwide stands at 57.6%, which means at least half of the population uses one social media channel a month.
Brands are monetizing social media more than ever, making it an essential part of their content marketing strategy. As a result, companies are spending more on social media ads, with a projected ad spending of US $0.23 M in 2022.
This leads to the question: How much should you expect to spend on social media marketing?
This guide will help you uncover the typical social media marketing costs, the amount organizations spend on it, and the factors that can affect the spending.
What are the Average Social Media Marketing Costs?
Social media marketing costs vary based on what services you need and how frequently you need them. Here's what you can expect to pay local US professionals:
- Average cost (per month): $400 - $650
- Minimum cost (per month): $295
- Maximum cost (per month): $1000+
- How Much Do Organizations Spend On Social Media Marketing?
The marketing spend is influenced by several factors such as the company size, the industry, the services offered, and the total revenue.
On average, businesses invest $4000 to $7000 per month on social media marketing, which includes advertising on one or more channels. If outsourcing, the social media cost ranges from $900 to $20,000 per month and $75 to $500 per hour for a consultant or freelancer's services.
What Changes The Cost Of Social Media Marketing?
The amount you'll pay for social media marketing depends on the following factors:
1: Taking It In-House
Average cost: $30 - $100 per month
If you're planning to create and manage everything yourself, set aside a minimum amount to get started. You can use this to build knowledge or purchase tools to help you get started.
As a one-person team, you must create content, keep up with posting on social media, respond to mentions and comments, and track the critical KPIs.
There are affordable subscription-based services that can help to automate social media marketing. Tools such as Buffer have a scheduler to create and schedule posts in advance. Hootsuite tracks all the social feeds together, so you don't have to open activities in different tabs.
If you're looking to take your social media in-house, consider investing in free or paid tools to help you ideate, plan, and manage content marketing, so you have time to look into other business areas.
2: Outsourcing on a Smaller Budget
Average cost: $500 - $1000 per month
Small businesses have tight budgets, but it's possible to outsource social media marketing to an agency on a limited budget.
Agencies have different packages and pricing models that you can choose from depending on your budget. In addition, each agency charges differently depending on expertise since there is no standard industry pricing for social media marketing.
Seven Oaks Consulting offers outsourced social media post creation and adding posts to scheduling tools at prices within this monthly range.
3: Outsourcing on a Larger Budget
Average cost: $1500 to $5000 per month
If you have a larger budget, the world is your oyster. You can opt for a superior, more expensive agency with a faster turnaround and more resources dedicated to your account.
But hiring an expensive agency might not always translate into results. You want to hire an agency that is credible and has significant achievements to show. A good marketing agency will ask you about your niche, industry, current marketing strategy, and previous marketing failures. Make sure the agency you choose can deliver consistent results while staying true to the brand vision.
Hiring a Social Media Expert — Is It Worth The Investment?
If you lack the resources and expertise to manage social media channels, getting an expert on board is worth the investment. They can plan the content for social media channels, schedule them, and monitor the performance.
Maintaining an edge via social media can be tricky, but experts can help to streamline content based on the target audience to get the most from your buck. A dedicated social media expert can help you determine what works for your brand on different platforms and how you can maximize the revenue with current strategies.
If you need help with social media marketing, Seven Oaks Consulting can help. We are a full-service marketing agency specializing in social media marketing and content creation. Contact Jeanne at (434) 574-6253 or email jeanne@sevenoaksconsulting.com for more information on our social media post creation and scheduling services.
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Where Should You Focus Your Social Media Campaign - and Why?
Running a social media campaign is one of the best ways to reach new customers and grow your brand. But it is easy to waste time and energy if you do not know where to focus. In addition, you are likely spreading yourself too thin by establishing a presence everywhere you can think of. As a result, you have less time to engage with followers or post consistent updates. Instead, by identifying exactly which platform is best for your audience, offerings, and budget, you can use social media to skyrocket your business.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Don't Blindly Choose a Social Media Platform
Social media is a crowded space. Avoid getting lost in the noise by learning where your audience hangs out. Focus your efforts there.
Do not choose a social media platform simply because it is popular. Instead, consider which platforms would be best for reaching your audience and growing your business. Having a plan in place will make you successful with social media marketing.
Do Determine Which Platform Is Best for Your Business
The power of social media is impressive, especially given that it is free to use! You can reach a large audience of potential customers with the right strategy.
Common social media platforms that businesses use for content marketing include:
- YouTube
- TikTok
While each platform has something unique to offer, not all businesses benefit from each one. For example, if you are a fashion brand trying to sell trendy clothes and accessories, you may have better luck on Instagram than on LinkedIn. This is because Instagram has built-in shopping features that make it easy for consumers to buy items as they see them on their newsfeeds. On the other hand, LinkedIn may be more suitable for freelance writers looking to connect with businesses that may need their service. At the end of the day, we are all selling something, but where we focus our social media campaign matters.
When determining which platform is best for your social media campaign, ask yourself:
- What are you selling?
- Who is my target audience? Where do they like to get information?
- What kind of content does my audience prefer? Short-form or long-form videos? Infographics or blog posts?
- How often do I need to post content?
- How does this content fit with my overall content marketing strategy for reaching customers?
- What is my budget? Is there one platform that may be more budget-friendly? (i.e., Let's say you feel video content is best for reaching new customers. But you don't have the skill set to create quality videos efficiently. You may need to spend extra money to outsource the work.)
- What are my long and short-term marketing goals and social media KPIs?
Be a Master of One... Or a Master of None
Having a presence on all popular mediums is great for letting people know you exist. But maintaining quality content on every platform is not sustainable for most businesses. If you spread yourself too thin, it will show in the quality of the work you put out. Your scattered efforts will be ineffective in delivering results.
Want to get people talking about your product or service? Don't try to be everywhere at once. Instead, focus on mastering one primary platform. Once you decide which to move forward with, think of creative ways to encourage discussion around your brand.
Reach New Heights With the Right Social Media Campaign Strategy
Social media is an excellent way to reach new customers. You can get your brand in front of them without investing a ton of money. But it is crucial not to jump on the latest social media bandwagon just because everyone is doing it. Every social media campaign needs a thoughtful strategy behind it to be effective.
Still not sure which platform is best for your business? Seven Oaks Consulting helps small and large companies execute successful social media campaigns. Contact us at 434-574-6253 - we would love to help get you on the right track.
How to Improve Email Metrics
Understanding email marketing metrics is more important than ever before, given that the email marketing industry is growing at a rapid pace. Today, around 90% of all adults have an email account. As a result, businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to reach this massive audience!
As you continue to learn more about content marketing KPIs, consider these email marketing metrics as part of your overall program to measure and monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns.
What Are Email Marketing Metrics?
So you’ve grown your email list and sent out emails as part of your business marketing efforts. But do you know how well they are performing?
Email marketing metrics help businesses understand how effective their email marketing is. Email opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and bounces are all examples of email metrics. Businesses use these metrics in Google Analytics (GA) or other analytics software packages to better understand how well your emails performed over time.
How to Elevate Your Emails
Here are some sure-fire ways to take your email marketing up a notch… or two.
Personalize Your Message
Personalization is a must in email marketing, and it’s an easy way to stand out. You can gain trust, get your message read and opened, and create positive experiences for your customers.
Provide Value to Your Potential Customers
The best way to improve email marketing metrics is to provide value for your potential customers. If you can present something helpful, entertaining, and informative, you will skyrocket your open and click-through rates!
Produce Compelling Copy
It would help if you made your audience feel something while telling a story with your landing pages and emails. Be mindful of your target audience’s tone, word choice, and headlines. This is crucial because different audiences prefer different things. For example, young adults will likely respond better to conversational language than senior citizens.
Write a Catchy Subject Line
When it comes to successful email marketing, the subject line is the first thing that people see, and it is what draws people in, so you want it to make an impression.
You need a good subject line that:
- Is relevant to the content of your email
- Is short and concise (no longer than 15 words)
- Personalizes each message sent for maximum engagement
- Factors in when your customer sees their email (e.g., don’t send emails during peak hours if possible)
Craft a Well-Designed Email
Your email should look good no matter the width of the screen. People viewing it on mobile or desktop should be able to enjoy the same aesthetic. Use a responsive design that works across all devices and browsers. This way, the email will resize according to its available space. If you use a service like MailChimp, you won’t have to worry about this—the platform does it for you!
Use Striking Images & Colors that Complement the Text
Images and colors can highlight important information, illustrate your message and break up the text. They also create a sense of urgency and add charisma to your email.
Images should have a purpose in helping you to deliver a point. If an image does not match the topic of your email, it will distract subscribers from what is most important.
Include a Call-to-Action
You should always include a call-to-action (CTA) and conversion triggers in your email marketing campaigns. A CTA is a request for action from the reader, while conversion triggers are actions the reader takes after reading your email. These can be as simple as clicking a link or as complicated as filling out a form. It can also be a purchase if you sell things online.
Clever Email Campaigns Get More Conversions
We have all seen generic email blasts go out to a large group of people, hoping that a few customers will respond. Unfortunately, this strategy is ineffective and can result in lost money and wasted marketing efforts. So, create personalized emails that are more likely to yield positive customer responses.
The first step in personalizing your email campaign is understanding your customer base and what makes them tick. Once you know their preferences, it’s time to create an email campaign with those preferences in mind.
The second step is making sure the content speaks directly to each recipient as if they were having an actual conversation with you. For example, use text like “Hi [name],” rather than “Hey there.” Studies and tests have shown that personalized emails can increase email open rates by 23% and click rates by 57%!
Measure Email Performance to Meet Your Business Goals
Email marketing is a strategic and effective way to reach customers, build relationships, and get people to buy more. Businesses that can effectively leverage email marketing find it easier to close deals with new customers while maintaining their existing base.
Today, many companies still struggle with getting the most out of their emails. They do not know what metrics are important or how to use them to measure their success. If this sounds like you, get in touch with Seven Oaks Consulting to discuss your business objectives and how we can help elevate your email marketing!
How To Use LinkedIn For Business Development
LinkedIn for business development is currently one of the most effective ways to stand out in your industry. Here’s why business owners should pay attention to using LinkedIn for business development and learn how to use LinkedIn to get clients.
LinkedIn Marketing Trends
LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing and most trusted social media platforms for the global business community. Between 2019 and 2021 alone, the number of business organizations on LinkedIn almost doubled, growing from 30 million to 57 million. Here are some other compelling statistics for business owners to consider:
- LinkedIn accounts for over 50% of all social media traffic to B2B websites. Keep in mind that the platform has over 822 million registered members across more than 200 countries worldwide – helping to expand your reach and visibility.
- 6 out of 10 users seek industry insights on LinkedIn – allowing you to stand out amongst other business owners by posting relevant and educational content. Doing this will help drive user engagement, increase lead generation, and build trust in your brand.
- 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members help drive business decisions, including 65 million decision-makers and 61 million senior-level influencers on the platform. Engaging with LinkedIn decision-makers and influencers will help you establish your online presence.
Establishing and maintaining an online presence is one of the most effective marketing strategies in today’s global business market. These statistics also suggest LinkedIn’s considerable growth is not losing momentum anytime soon. Now that we’ve established why LinkedIn for business development is so important – how do you get started?
HOw to Use LinkedIn for Business Development
Getting started on LinkedIn can seem overwhelming, especially if you are not social media savvy. It is not as intuitive as Facebook Business Pages, for example. Fortunately, the platform is very user-friendly and allows you to develop your business’s online presence in a way that works best for you.
Let’s start by looking at how you can use LinkedIn for business development.
- Company Pages – A company page will help increase visibility, generate leads, and provide a home base to advertise your products and services. Before officially making your page live on the platform, check out HubSpot’s free guide to help maximize your results.
- LinkedIn Pulse – This allows you to create original content on LinkedIn and is helpful for people who are inexperienced with blogging. As with any aspect of content marketing, there are best practices you should follow to help you reach your target audience.
- Showcase Pages – These are extensions of your main business page and can be used to highlight promotions, initiatives, and achievements. Not sure what aspects you should be showcasing? Hootsuite offers examples and advice to help you use this feature effectively.
Now that you have created your Company Page and have become familiar with posting content on the platform, the next step is creating your LinkedIn marketing strategy. As with any social media platform, self-proclaimed gurus will often try to promote a “guaranteed formula,” so be sure to do what makes sense for your business.
LinkedIn advertising can provide an extra edge to your marketing strategy and help you achieve your goals, although this platform feature is fee-based. To create LinkedIn ads, you must set up a Campaign Manager account. Creating this account will allow you to choose your campaign objectives and help you manage your advertising budget.
Getting The Most Out of LinkedIn
Like any other social media network or website, your LinkedIn Company Page will have a search engine result page – or SERP – ranking. Incorporating SEO best practices such as posting original content, engaging with followers, and using keywords will help you to rank higher for online inquiries.
LinkedIn analytics is another powerful feature for monitoring the results of your business marketing strategy. Hootsuite offers a free, comprehensive guide to LinkedIn analytics for marketers. In a nutshell, LinkedIn analytics allows you to track and monitor data metrics, including:
- Follower analytics – Who is interacting with your content and updates.
- Visitor analytics – Who is coming to your page but hasn’t started engaging yet.
- Update analytics – How much user engagement your posts are receiving.
Data insights such as these help you gauge your marketing strategy’s effectiveness and identify areas that need improvement. Seven Oaks Consulting offers even more digital content strategy hacks to help you critique or create your marketing plan.
Besides providing a platform to engage with others, LinkedIn for business owners offers multiple services and tools to generate more leads by helping you connect with your target audience. Some helpful LinkedIn resources include The Business Owner’s Guide To LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s own Big Thinking digital magazine.
LinkedIn continues to evolve, and some may assert that it is becoming synonymous with social media marketing. How to use LinkedIn for business development may evolve over time.
With various free LinkedIn marketing and automation tools available, it is now easier and more cost-effective than ever to reap the platform’s benefits. Don’t wait to jump on the proverbial bandwagon as millions of business organizations around the globe are discovering the power of LinkedIn marketing. Knowing how to use LinkedIn for business development should be part of your skill set.
5 Habits Every Project Manager Should Develop
Successful project managers work hard to develop habits that will make them successful. They learn these habits and action steps through education and experience. Good work habits are important because they make projects run smoother and more efficiently. The following five habits will help project managers lead their teams by example.
Habits for Being a Successful Project Manager
1. Share project data with the client regularly.
Give the client access to your project management software through a personal dashboard login. You will still want to schedule regular meetings by phone or text with the client to advise them about the project’s progress.
These steps will help build a positive rapport with the client and build trust. They also keep you on top of any questions or concerns the client may have. With regular communication, you will be able to take action quickly if the client requests changes that require the team to pivot after the project has been launched. Make an appointment with yourself in your calendar for one hour every week for the review. Analyze spending on the project to date compared to the budget. You will also want to look at the work in progress to see any places where team members have become bogged down in their work.
2. Set aside time each week to review all open projects.
Make an appointment with yourself in your calendar for one hour every week for the review. Analyze spending on the project to date compared to the budget. You will also want to look at the work in progress to see any places where team members have become bogged down in their work.
3. Reach out to team members proactively.
Instead of asking team members, “Is everything all right?” (A Yes/No - type of question), you might get a better response by asking, “What can I do to help you?” (stay on track/complete your tasks, etc.). If a team member feels overwhelmed by their task, show them how to break it down into more manageable chunks. If they find that working in a room with several other people is too distracting while trying to focus on their task, try to find a quieter space for them to work or let them wear noise-canceling headphones. Remind your team members that they can always ask for advice and get support if they get stuck. Let them know that everyone is working together to complete the project on time, and no one will get called out because they need help. As their project manager, you are there to assist.
4. Dedicate some time to managing deadlines weekly.
Stay on top of deadlines by looking at messages and feedback received from your team weekly. Pay extra attention to anything that is causing task delays. Ask the team members involved what they need to get back on track to deal with the issue promptly and proactively.
Remind your team members that they can always ask for advice and get support if they get stuck. Let them know that everyone is working together to complete the project on time, and no one will get called out because they need help. As their project manager, you are there to assist.
5. Take time to do something new that will improve the quality of your work.
There is always something new to learn in the field of project management. Take time to invest in yourself by reading a book or taking a project management course. You will reap the benefit of encouraging higher productivity among your teams and become an even better project manager.
Outsource your Project Management Needs to Seven Oaks Consulting
Many successful companies prefer to hire the project management services they need on a contract basis. Our team will manage your editorial calendar, create custom style guides, edit your documents, and develop editorial processes for quality control of your written materials. You can count on the experts at Seven Oaks Consulting for all your content needs too. We will create original content to educate and motivate your readers to take action. Contact us today to learn more about our services or request a custom quote.
The Way We Think About Customer Relationships Is Broken
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) dates back to the 1980s when the business and marketing industries shifted their focus from being "product empathetic" to "customer empathetic." The technological age has made CRM more comprehensive by introducing data-driven, automated software systems, but are we taking the right approach?
Understanding the pros and cons of using software-based CRM can help identify and fill the gaps in understanding consumer demands and strengthening customer relationships.
The Pros of Software-based CRM
Technology has proven to be an indispensable tool for improving customer relationships. Data is now considered the globe's most valuable resource as technology evolves. The aim of software-based CRM is to collect and analyze consumer-based data to gain better insight and implement better business practices. This approach has proven to be quite successful for businesses in various ways, including:
- Streamlined communication and engagement with customers
- Better knowledge of demographics and target-audiences
- Higher customer acquisition and retention
- Automation of essential, everyday tasks
Having access to real-time data allows companies to anticipate shifting trends in consumer demand, such as the increasing demand for socially-conscious and sustainable business practices. To meet your customers' needs and expectations, you first have to know what they are, both short-term and long-term.
The Cons of Software-based CRM
As data mining becomes more pervasive, the sheer amount collected can be overwhelming and rendered useless from a customer relationship and marketing standpoint. It is essential to remember that effective customer relationship management is not only based on software and data-driven approaches.
Although data-driven software may be an integral aspect of modern-day CRM, much more is involved. When implementing a software-based strategy, it is vital to be aware of common pitfalls:
- Over collection of data leading to a lack of focus or a defined set of goals
- Break down in company leadership due to overreliance on software automation
- Loss of the "human element" when it comes to marketing and customer relations
- Overhead costs and the risk of working with the wrong vendor for your company
As any futuristic, dystopian novel would tell us - it is critical never to lose touch with the human aspect of our existence. Automation is no match for critical analysis and human insight to meet customer needs and surpass expectations.
A More Human Approach to Customer Relationships
As with any useful tool, the key lies in understanding how and when to use software-based CRM effectively. Before implementing any business strategy, including customer relationship management, you need to have a clear and well-defined set of goals. To begin, ask yourself some basic questions:
- Who is your target audience, and what are their needs as consumers?
- Where do you fit-in in the business sector, and what kind of impact do you wish to have?
- What is the best way to deliver your message and expand your customer base?
- How do you intend to ensure transparency and respond to customers' concerns?
Numbers and statistics can be helpful tools for developing marketing strategies. Remember, data is merely a reflection of consumer trends, and human behavior is dictated by more than numbers on a spreadsheet. When it comes to customer relationships, you should take a more human-based approach than relying on software systems alone.