AUTOMATED MKTG

We are proud to announce that we are now implementing “full-blown” Automated Marketing Engines for our clients! We are seeing increasing need for the “outsourcing” of content and the “consistency” of touchpoints with clients.

WHAT IS AN AUTOMATED MARKETING ENGINE?

An automated  marketing engine is designed to automate the marketing process for your business.

A marketing engine will help you sell more to your existing clients, get new leads for you, nurture and convert those leads to clients, and then cultivate those clients for life.

If you ask business owners what they want most for their small business, the answer 99 out of 100 times is more business.  Have you ever said, “If only I had more leads then I could grow.”
A common mistake among business owners is to spend money on new leads and ignore the customers you already have.

The customers that you already have are the “low hanging fruit.”  You must market to these customers on a consistent basis in order to grow your business.

Once you have a system in place to grow your existing business, you will experience revenue growth.  Then adding new prospects into the flow will help you grow even faster.

But you need to do this with an automated marketing engine if you are going to do it with any consistency.  Automation will save you money in the long run.  The marketing engine never sleeps, never calls in sick, does not take breaks or vacations!

Automated E-mail Marketing
Being a small business owner, we can relate to a common problem that many small businesses face.

The Problem: FOLLOW UP FAILURE

See if this scenario applies to your business…
You just talk to a potential client, let’s call the client Bob.  Bob told you that his company needs your services and you told them all about your services.   Perhaps you even gave Bob a quote.  Then before you know it, the other project you are working on needs you to do something right away.

Being a great small business owner who thrives on providing the best possible service, you stop what you are doing and take care of the situation which consumes the rest of your day.  The next day you get the monthly credit card bill, and you do your accounting work for the month.

Then a family situation comes up.  Next thing you know…the weekend hits and you are back to work on Monday getting prepared for the week and working on the current design project.

What about Bob?

Did you get a chance to call him or send him an email to follow up with him?  Perhaps you got lucky and remembered Bob and tried to reach him by phone and got his voice mail.  So you decide to send Bob an email to follow up on the quote or see if he was ready to move forward with his project.   But you don’t hear anything from Bob.

Months go by and you never hear back from Bob.  Nor have you made any additional contact with him.  You just finished up with your current project and you need more work.  Now you remember Bob and send him an email and he responds telling you that he just hired someone else.  When you inquire why he did not hire you, Bob proceeds to tell you that he lost your information.
Your heart sinks.  This is not the first time this has happened to you.  But don’t feel bad.  You are not alone.  This has happened to small businesses on a regular basis.  Over 80% of small business don’t follow-up.  What is so upsetting is that the only reason the business is lost is because the business did not keep in front of Bob when he was ready to move forward.

The Solution: Automated E-mail Marketing
We created automated E-mail marketing campaigns to follow up with prospects because you don’t have time to contact everyone on a regular basis.  When you talk to a prospect, or if someone inquires about your services, or you meet someone at a networking event, or you get a lead online, we put them on an automated e-mail marketing campaign and when they are ready to move forward they will think about you because you are keeping in touch with them.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is used to achieve organic growth for search terms that are relevant to the products or services you provide.  Organic growth is the results you get when you type in a search word in Google or Yahoo that is not a paid advertisement.  The paid advertisement is known as pay-per-click.  While pay-per-click can be useful, it can be expensive as well.  Over time the best strategy is to utilize SEO.

Google, the most popular search engine, is constantly changing its algorithms for searching, always trying to enhance search techniques to give users the most relevant information possible. Part of SEO is to assure that your site can be found with the new algorithms in place.  Another item search engines look for is history with a website.  The longer a site has been giving relevant information for a search term, the more likely that site will rank high.

One of the most important things a search engine looks for…

Location, Location, Location!

When a search is performed, Google will match local searches based upon IP addresses.  So if I am based in the Chicago market, then I will rank higher for a search on small business in Chicago than a company would in San Francisco.  Likewise, someone searching for a small business in San Francisco will have a local San Fransico small business rank higher in the search results than a firm in Chicago.

Having a small business in a local market with a valid mailing address will allow for higher rankings in a given market.  However, most small businesses are not focusing on SEO as a means to gain business.