Join Sagefrog Marketing Group at Rock ‘N’ Rescue to Support Big Dog Rescue

Sagefrog Marketing Group invites you to attend the 4^th annual Rock ‘N’ Rescue event to benefit the Emily Ayre Fund for Big Dog Rescue. Founding sponsor, Sagefrog helped establish the benefit and is proud to support this event for the fourth year in a row.

When:
Friday, November 6^th, 2015

7:00PM

Where:

“The Barn”

3168 N Sugan Road

Solebury, PA 18938

Join us for a fun-filled evening including food, raffles and silent auctions, live music by Grammy-nominated and winner of The Voice, Jermaine Paul, and don’t forget to BYOB!

About the Emily Ayre FundEmily Ayre was a middle school guidance counselor, a great friend, and above all else an avid dog lover. She rescued a giant mix breed dog named Dover, who became a major part of Emily’s life. Dover remained by Emily’s side when she passed away at the young age of 27.

The Animal Alliance has created the Emily Ayre Fund for Big Dog Rescue in memory of Emily and the bond she shared with her beloved dog, Dover. All of the proceeds donated to this rescue are used for veterinary care related to illness or injury in dogs over 35 pounds associated with the Animal Alliance. All contributions are tax deductible.

For more information, please call 215-601-3534.

Join Sagefrog in helping to care for big dogs in need. We hope to see you there!

Turn Social Media Likes and Follows into Leads and Customers

Establishing your brand’s online presence is imperative, but encouraging people to engage with your brand is also vital. Creating an alluring brand image is the first step for getting noticed, but engaging with your audience through content on social media is essential.

So how do you get people to engage with your brand online? And how do you convert these engagements such as “likes” and “follows” into leads, and ultimately customers?

Use these tips to help transform the likes and follows you receive on social media into leads and customers:

Be Inviting: Your customers need a reason to follow you.  The content you share on social media should be on topics your audience is interested in.  Content that keeps your audience interested is more likely to be shared, which results in higher visibility.  Also, when posting content, make sure to mix it up.  Posting different types of content such as articles, industry news, and photos, will keep your audience entertained. 

Find your Audience: When planning your social media, make sure you understand the different platforms and know which ones your audience is active on.  Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are each unique.  Twitter is great for quick updates and interesting articles.  LinkedIn is primarily used for sharing industry news.  Facebook allows for longer updates so companies can stay connected with their customers. 

Create a Call to Action: When you run promotions on social media, make sure to use a Call-to-Action (CTA). A clear CTA is crucial (“Learn More.”, “Click Here”). Once the visitor clicks on the CTA, make sure they are directed to a clear and easy to understand landing page. Entice visitors to learn more or download information when they register, enabling you to capture qualified leads and nurture them into customers.

Social media is a powerful tool to connect with your current customers and attract new ones. Follow these tips to help create a successful social media strategy.

Interested in learning more? 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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Tips for Using Email Marketing to Generate Leads

The way marketers use email can make or break effectiveness for generating leads. 

Avoid mistakes by utilizing these tips:

Think about frequency. “Overmailing” can come off as too aggressive, but “undermailing” can lead to missed opportunities, so you need to find a balance. Be consistent enough to hold the interest of your audience, but don’t overwhelm them. Make sure your messages are useful for your recipients - if they aren’t, you may experience complaints and unsubscribes.

Consider timing. Know your audience and when they’re most engaged. Then, plan your emails accordingly. Response rates will vary daily and hourly, so be sure to do your research before sending out your message.

Personalize. People like to feel important, and there’s no easier way to make your customers feel valued than by personalizing their email messages. Use the recipients’ names and cater your message to their specific demographic.

Optimize. The amount of mobile email clicks are quickly surpassing desktop clicks, so it’s important that your emails are optimized accordingly. If an email doesn’t display properly on mobile, people most likely won’t click through.

Think about what you’re trying to promote. The product or service you’re offering itself can influence how you market it. Always keep your end goal in mind, and think about when your audience is most likely to take the step and complete it. This will help ensure your email’s message and timing are effective.

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

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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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Modernize Your Company’s PR Strategy

Media itself has changed drastically in the past few years, so it comes as no surprise that the way we consume it has changed as well.  In the past, media was predictive; people read newspapers, listened to the radio, and tuned into the news at specified times. Today, the internet makes these lines a bit more blurry.

Since the way we consume media has transformed from word-of-mouth to 24/7 live feeds, PR has taken on a whole new meaning. If your PR strategy is stuck in the ways of the past, you may be falling behind when it comes to driving awareness, and ultimately delivering results.

Don’t worry – we’ve got a few suggestions to revamp your outdated PR strategy.

Share your own news. Don’t rely entirely on journalists. They may take a different approach to your press release than you anticipated, or may not get to your press release at all. However, if and when you do use a journalist, be sure to create a draft press release for them to work off of. Taking matters into your own hands mitigates these issues and allows you to create your own narrative.

Create a press page. Journalists are busy people, so do them a favor and make their job a bit easier by creating a press page on your website with your media relations contact info, company statistics, and recent news coverage. Having an “About Us” page and including profiles of your top executives are also helpful since reporters will most likely need this information from you anyway. Additionally, do your best to stay relevant – journalists are more likely to pursue companies that they’ve heard of, or that are newsworthy.

Build relationships with the media. In order to do this, you need to understand that journalists are NOT intended to sell your product or promote your brand; their job is to report relevant news in a factual and unbiased manner. Monitor how and when reporters are talking about topics relevant to your industry, and respond with your own helpful content. Demonstrate genuine interest and personalize all interactions you have with journalists.

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

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