Content Tips from the Three Most Popular Blogs

Blogs come in all different shapes and sizes and can range from a personal web page updated by one person to a website updated by multiple authors. The key? Blogs are written in an “informal or conversational style.”  To learn from the best, we’ve selected eBiz’s Top 15 Most Popular Blogs for July 2015: The Huffington Post, TMZ, and Business Insider.

So what are their secrets?

Find and publish the best content.

Take The Huffington Post for example – they post viral articles, but not all of these articles are their own. Sure, The Huffington Post has plenty of people writing content for them, but they also have employees who look for content that other people write online. By publishing both types of content, The Huffington Post is able to achieve massive amounts of shares, which increases their popularity.

While this technique may not work for your blog, you can apply similar tactics. For example, you can promote your content to third-party websites, or even invite guests to write for your blog. These tactics will increase your blog’s visibility, while simultaneously generating more traffic.

Keep them curious.

TMZ’s celebrity news output generates more than 30 million visitors monthly. But why? We like to watch celebrities, and we’re generally curious about their lavish and often scandalous lifestyles. TMZ is known for their compelling headlines that generate clicks by leaving readers wanting more detail.

You can apply this to your blog as well – get your readers engaged by piquing their interest with a headline that leaves them dying to know more. Providing exclusive or inside information is an easy way to feed into this curiosity and generate more interaction.

Know your audience inside and out.

Business Insider has a thorough understanding of their target audience; most of their readers are young, business-focused men who consume content during the workday. Knowing this, Business Insider is able to generate content that is specifically tailored to their audience, and keep them coming back for more.

The style in which you write, the content you produce, and the amount of promotion you do is all dependent on your audience. Defining your target market is an important step for planning your blog’s content – you can’t be successful without doing so.

For content marketing and other integrated marketing services, please contact Sagefrog Marketing Group at 215.230.9024 or visit www.sagefrog.com.

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Tips for Gaining a Large and Loyal Twitter Following

Twitter can be extremely effective tool for promoting your brand and generating leads. How can you maximize your content exposure and increase your following? There isn’t one simple answer, but there are several changes you can implement to help you reach your goals.

First and foremost, make sure you’re setting realistic expectations. Aiming for 50,000 new followers in 3 months may be a bit of a stretch, so be reasonable and start small. Think about who you want to reach and how you plan on doing so. Segmenting your market is the best way to reach people who will follow you long-term, not just for a few days. 

Secondly, you need to engage with followers, hashtags, and trending topics. You can’t expect to increase your following without tweeting, or interacting with anyone. Posting regularly and responding to retweets and mentions are the easiest ways to stay active on Twitter, and the more active you are, the better!

Managing your followers and the accounts you follow is also a must. Using follower trackers such as Crowdfire or Followerwonk enable you to easily view new followers and followers you’ve lost. This technique helps you build a follower / following base that is long-term; you’re able to “weed out” spam accounts while focusing on users within your target market.

Scheduling tweets is a great way to remain consistent. Using auto-scheduling tools such as Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts for specific dates and times, which takes the pressure off of remembering to post regularly. Utilizing these tools keeps your account active even if you’re unable to live tweet.

If you choose to pay for Twitter’s “Promote” option, you can increase your account exposure to reach more potential followers. Tell users exactly why they should follow you, and what you have to offer.

Lastly, be sure you’re using tracking and analytics tools to measure your successes and failures. You don’t want your hard work to go to waste, so measure what worked, what didn’t, and adjust your strategies accordingly to optimize performance.

For social media and other integrated marketing services, please contact Sagefrog Marketing Group at 215.230.9024 or visit www.sagefrog.com.

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Five Tips for Building Customer Relationships

“The customer is always right.”

This cliché has been preached to business owners for years, but is it true? Sure, building meaningful relationships with your customers is important, but how can you build these relationships to benefit both parties? Take a step back and put yourself in their shoes, and then adjust accordingly.

Differentiate and specialize. What makes your business better than your competitors? If you’re able to offer a unique product or service, you are given more power within your field. Customers will also have more of an incentive to go to you for what they need, simply because not many other people are providing it. This makes the customer feel as if you’re more attentive to their specific needs, which is a huge plus.

Give the people what they want. Customers want to see results. If you make a promise, they expect just that. Your customers have a certain expectation of your product or service, so you want to make sure you live up to that expectation and if possible, surpass it.

Be accountable. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to please everyone. If something doesn’t go as anticipated, you need to be held accountable for your actions. You want your customers to have a positive impression of your business, even if they’re thrown a curveball. Blaming the customer will only strain your relationship.

Value their input. The only way to get inside your customers’ heads is to ask. Have them fill out surveys rating their experience with your business, or ask them for testimonials. The only way to improve your relationship is to know what needs to be changed or improved upon.

Price needs to equal value. What you charge for your products or services needs to be equivalent to the value that your customers will associate it with. Keep your pricing consistent with the perceived value of your product or service to avoid over/under charging your customers.

To improve the relationships with your customers and for other integrated marketing services, please contact Sagefrog Marketing Group at 215.230.9024 or visit www.sagefrog.com.

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5 Ways to Optimize Your Content Marketing

Is your content marketing strategy falling short, or not living up to your expectations? It may be time to optimize. Creating valuable content is a good start, but there are other aspects to consider. Planning the ins and outs of both your current and future content marketing strategy is the only way to ensure success.

Sound overwhelming? Don’t panic – here are a few simple tips to consider.

Switch it up. Don’t get stuck in a rut –producing diverse content is the easiest way to keep your audience active and engaged. Exploring new ways to format and present your content also keeps you current and interesting in the eyes of your audience. Step outside of your comfort zone – don’t be afraid to try something new.

Produce quality over quantity. Mass producing content may seem like a great way to generate clicks, but in the end, people will see right through you. Practicing thought leadership and strategic planning makes your content more credible.

Put yourself in their shoes. Take a walk in the shoes of your target audience and use social listening techniques to keep current about what they are saying. The best way to understand what they’re looking for is to view your content through their eyes and have a clear understanding of their thoughts and opinions.

Take it up a notch. In the world of content marketing, you’re always competing with someone. In order to stand out, you need to make an impression on your audience – and sometimes this includes paying for a service such as paid search or advertising. Consider multiple options for promoting your content – the possibilities are endless!

Think about user experience. The format in which you present your content is just as important as the content itself. The experience users have while viewing your content is crucial – if they aren’t impressed, they may not return. Design accordingly.

For content marketing and other integrated marketing services, please contact Sagefrog Marketing Group at 215.230.9024 or visit www.sagefrog.com.

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Tips for Content Development

The hardest part about social media and blogging for most people is generating the content. It can be hard to find and tends to get redundant if you’re not constantly looking for new and clever ideas.

And viewers don’t want to visit your blog and continue to see the same types of posts. Ragan.com recently posted an article filled with some easy tips to keep your content newsworthy and exciting.

Tips from the article include

• Subscribe to SmartBrief newsletters, a company that pushes out a lot of content around one topic on a daily basis

• ·         Subscribe to Google Alerts to get emails when your selected topics are mentioned

• ·         Read comments on your blog and on other blogs – listening to feedback from people who are actively responding to blog posts may help you generate new ideas

• ·         Follow current events and comment on recent newsworthy event. Just reading the daily news may help generate content ideas

For more information, view the entire article.

For social media marketing, and all other marketing services, contact Sagefrog Marketing Group. Visit www.sagefrog.com or call 215-230-9024.

Content Marketing is a Priority for B2B Marketers

Content Marketing. Are you sick of that buzz phrase yet? Well don’t be because it’s here to stay – for now. In fact, according to this article, content marketing is a priority for marketers as we end this year and enter the next. This article says that 9 out of 10 marketers are actively using it, with B2B content marketers using an average of 12 tactics – an increase from 8 in the past couple of years.

And if you’re nervous about trying content marketing, you’re not alone. According to this report, producing enough content is the biggest challenge marketers (64%) are facing as far as content marketing. View more infographics and the link to full report here.

Jump on board with content marketing by contacting Sagefrog Marketing Group! Visit www.sagefrog.com or call 215-230-9024.

Discovering Email Marketing Success

If you’re an expert in something, you should share it. So today, we’ve discovered a gem of an article by Econsultancy that reveals the three secrets of experienced email marketers. It’s no secret that email marketing can be an effective channel to reach consumers and business professionals, but here are the three tips that email marketing experts.
Here are three important things, according to this article, to remember when you’re conducting an email marketing campaign:

• Send more than one email. It’s a common misbelief that we all fall victim to – you send one email and think that the phone will ring 5 minutes later with leads. It’s not the case – the best way to reach your target is to send a few emails. Start with an HTML, follow up with a personalized email & send a reminder.
• Don’t try to be too clever with your subject line. According to the article, the strategy for email subject lines changes daily. But, most experienced email marketers stick with keeping their subject line simple and explain to the receiver the benefit of opening the email.
• Don’t give “above the fold” so much credit. This article says that placing your call to action lower within the email may actually entice viewers who are interested to click-through. By the time they’ve reached the call to action, they have the information the email was sharing and haven’t dropped off, and should be considered a more quality lead.

Read the full article here. For email marketing campaigns, and all other marketing services, contact Sagefrog Marketing Group. Visit www.sagefrog.com or call 215-230-9024.

Email Marketing Still an Effective Channel

With social media and online marketing becoming increasingly popular, marketers may start to feel like email marketing has been forgotten. However, according to this infographic, email marketing remains an active – and often successful – channel.

The infographic shows that 83% of consumers who receive email marketing spend more money when shopping. And the average ROI for email marketing is $44.25 for every dollar spent. Some other noteworthy statistics to check out – especially for b2b marketers – is how chief marketing officers rated the effectiveness of email marketing: 76% effective at nurturing new prospects, 69% effective at driving lead generation, and 75% effective at increasing customer retention.

For more insightful statistics about email marketing, check out the full article.

For effective email marketing campaigns – and all other marketing services – contact Sagefrog Marketing Group. Visit www.sagefrog.com or call 215-230-9024.

We've Released our 2012 B2B Marketing Mix Survey Results

Guess what time of year it is again! That’s right – we’ve released our 2012 B2B Marketing Mix Survey Results. We’ve conducted this annual survey for the past seven years. And each year the number of participants continues to grow – this year 160 marketing and management professional participated. 

Our survey results remain a must-have for marketers, are a great reference for your 2013 Marketing Plan and now feature Social Media Marketing results – an always evolving area of marketing.

Need help with your 2012 Marketing Plan? Contact Sagefrog Marketing Group. Visit www.sagefrog.com or call 215-230-9024.

Sagefrog Marketing Group is Now Hiring

Sagefrog Marketing Group is Now Hiring

Looking for a paid, part-time summer internship? Sagefrog is NOW HIRING!

Intern Qualifications:
- Junior, senior or graduate student from a local college or recently graduated
- Marketing or communications major preferred
- GPA of 3.0 or higher
- Commute of less than one hour (we are located near the Doylestown train station)
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
- Strong writing and communication skills
- Fast learner with the ability to take initiative and work independently
- Must be available a minimum of 20 hours per week (May - August)

Responsibilities (including but not limited to):
- Support online distribution of agency and client press releases, case studies, etc.
- Research PR and media opportunities
- Support Brand Strategy discovery and research process
- Maintain agency and client contact lists and marketing databases
- Support testing and review of client marketing materials and websites
- Participate in weekly staff meetings

If you are interested, please submit your resume and a writing sample. To learn more, please visit http://bit.ly/GH8D5F.

Download: 2008 Marketing Mix Survey Results

- must- have for smart marketers
- Reference for your 2009 Marketing Plan
- View 3 year marketing mix trends

Download the Results

Survey Profile
- Survey implemented during the summer of 2008
- Online survey with 100 respondents
- Broad industry distribution with overweighting in the health and technology markets
- Primarily marketing management professionals
- Geographically focused in greater Philadelphia and New Jersey

Research Objective
The survey was conducted to gain insight into current marketing practices and uncover what marketers are doing to implement successful marketing tactics. Data from previous years’ surveys were taken into account to identify trends in marketing from year to year.

Marketing Mix Survey

Ever wonder where companies are spending their marketing budgets and seeing results? Sagefrog Marketing Group surveyed more than 100 marketers to find out. We have had numerous requests to post the results of this survey, so here it is…

http://www.sagefrog.com/registerfordownload.asp

I hope you find this information useful. Please contact me directly if you have any questions.

Mark Schmukler
Managing Partner
Sagefrog Marketing Group, LLC
(215) 230-9024
http://www.sagefrog.com

Philadelphia Marketing Agency