STAR Power and How to Get It

Everyone knows that reviews are important for businesses, but a lot of people don’t realize just HOW important they are. Positive reviews can influence purchase decisions by allowing potential customers to read feedback during their research phase. People are more likely to trust a brand with comments from previous customers that have had pleasant experiences than a brand without. Why? Credibility. A business with positive reviews increases credibility, and at the end of the day, consumers want to trust the businesses they are engaging with. Valued high-star ratings build trust with potential clients prior to even having a conversation with them. In addition:

Reviews also build a business’ reputation and increase visibility on the web, which in turn, helps in SEO and ranking efforts. Particularly with Google reviews, a business’ search ranking improves when Google sees engagement, relevance, and consumer confidence.
Responding to reviews in a timely manner is important. Clients appreciate the effort made in personal and thoughtful responses to each review that is left. It is especially important to respond to negative reviews. Potential customers want to see how a business addresses a negative experience, and since the occasional negative review is inevitable, remember to respond promptly and professionally.
There is value in a positive review regardless if it is on Google, Facebook, or any other social media platform. Online reviews are the easiest and most authentic promotion for your brand because it is coming directly from the mouths of people who have worked with you – a third-party endorsement, if you will.
Always take a negative review response offline by replying with a request to have the person contact you via phone or email. Never engage in an online argument as you will never get the last word, and it doesn’t sit well with people evaluating your business – you’ll likely come across as difficult to deal with. By simply requesting that the person contact you, any rational consumer will view this as you taking action to rectify a poor experience. No response looks like your company doesn’t care – a big turnoff to those perusing your reviews.
While most review platforms discourage soliciting reviews, Google embraces it and will typically post straight to your Google My Business location page. Talk with us about a service we offer to streamline this process.

Due to all of the benefits of positive reviews for your business, remember to ask your clients if they would leave a comment and/or rating describing their experience with your brand. There are platforms and processes that can help with measuring, building, and managing your company’s overall online reputation. We have a powerful solution that can help make review harvesting CIMple. Call us or email me, and we’ll be happy to help.

Quote of the week:

My advice is to answer every customer, in every channel, every time. This is different from how most businesses interact with customers, especially online, which is to answer some complaints, in some channels, some of the time.
Jay Baer

Key Lesson from Marketing 101

There’s a wonderful book from the late 1990s, Who Moved My Cheese? Cheese is used as a metaphor for something related to our livelihoods – our jobs, our relationships, our industries, for example. It tells an interesting story of dealing with change, how change can be embraced or shunned. In the end, change is generally unavoidable. Lesson learned? Expect change and adapt, or one day you’ll find yourself (or your company) left in the dust.

A Marketing 101 course covers a lot of ground, running through theory and strategy, research, analytics, marketing platforms, and dozens of tactics to consider for a given company to use. As marketers in the day-to-day for our clients every day, we know that what works today will change. Yellow Pages, anyone? That was the top tactic, consuming a large chunk of a diversified marketing budget, for some of our clients in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Why? It’s the tactic that caused their phones to ring and brought in 50+% of their business.

One key lesson from a Marketing 101 course withstands the test of time, and simply does not change: A business succeeds only when it has something to sell that people want or need, and are willing and able to buy. You can have the greatest employees in the business, the best website, the lowest prices, the greatest value, the highest ratings, and reviews, and the happiest customers…but if you don’t have a product or service people need and want to purchase, your business won’t be viable for long.

So, while you’re keeping an eye on the many, many facets of running your business (operations, marketing, sales, HR, etc.), never lose sight of what you’re offering, and make sure you continue to align your offerings with what consumers demand, or will be demanding as time goes on. Take the time for ongoing reviews of where you are, and where you need to be, so you won’t wake up one day to find that your “cheese” has been moved.

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Quote of the week:

Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision, and change.
Richard Branson

Don't Rule Out DM!

By DM, I mean direct mail. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your email inbox? Maybe you’re thinking, when don’t I feel that way? If we thought we were receiving more than enough emails before the pandemic, you’re not imagining that it’s increased significantly since then.

At CIM, we’ve been following another tactic, one that’s had its own trend for decades: Direct mail. Peaking in the 1990s, direct mail filled physical mailboxes, and people tired of “junk mail” at home and work. With online communications taking off, many predicted that direct mail would be on a downswing, and it did decline. It has since increased and declined based on the economy and postage rates.

But something else happened. As people grew tired of their overloaded email inboxes, many rediscovered enjoying receiving physical mail to go through – actually paying attention to what they receive in the mailbox.

Direct mail has remained a successful tactic for a number of our clients for multiple reasons:

Direct mail serves as a physical touchpoint with clients.
Very targeted lists can be secured or purchased, sending your message to specific neighborhoods or ZIP codes.
There are creative options to make a mailpiece stand out: Special postcard shapes and sizes, for example. In addition, pieces can be printed using variable data to personalize a mailer per recipient.
Surveys show that people like to have a choice in how they receive communications from a company. We often send printed and email newsletters to the same recipient audiences, letting them choose how they wish to read the message. Some will delete the email as they clear out their inboxes, but may glance the hard copy.
With less mail in mailboxes, what is there has a better chance of standing out, and being read and acted upon.
Direct mail is now trackable using tracking phone numbers or unique web page URLs, so you can maintain lead tracking.

For many companies, direct mail remains a marketing tactic that has a place in a diversified marketing approach. If you’d like assistance in evaluating options to reach and capture your market, that’s what the CIM team does every day.

I hope you enjoy the July Fourth weekend by celebrating our freedom and independence.

Quote of the week:

Freedom lies in being bold.
Robert Frost

Importance of SEO vs. PPC/SEM

Again last week, I had a conversation that reminded me that there’s ongoing confusion about two marketing tactics: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC)/Search Engine Marketing (SEM). That’s not surprising for several reasons:

The marketing landscape continues to evolve at an incredible pace. Tools, platforms, tactics, and options are introduced or changed at every turn. Just keeping up requires our team to divide and conquer by specializing and focusing on different areas so we can stay abreast of the latest trends and identify true opportunities.
Operationalizing SEO and PPC/SEM have changed, both in their complexities and the required ability to properly employ and manage them.

At the very least, I recommend you be aware of the two tactics. Both are important tools in our marketing toolbox, and we use them for certain clients when they are the right fit given particular business goals. Here’s a one-page summary to review.

If you do implement either or both of these tactics, remember, they can be an effective addition for general brand building. Should you like to discuss your marketing tactics, please reach out.

Quote of the week:

Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes, it’s an ad.
Howard Gossage

Perception vs. Reality – What do your clients think?

So, you think you know your buyers, customers, or clients. But do you?

Perhaps you and your company have done what you do for many years, and you’ve surely gotten a lot right to have been this successful. Let’s take a peek at a handful of ways to truly get to know your buyers, from simple and fast, to more extensive, but very important:

Satisfaction surveys: These can be simple to orchestrate and will provide feedback quickly. You can create printed surveys to hand out or mail with a postage-paid return envelope. Alternatively or in addition to that, you can create an online survey (think SurveyMonkey). Offering a range of options to provide feedback will be most effective. Don’t have too many questions, and include a question mix that allows various types of responses – yes/no/1-10 scale and open-ended where answers are typed in.
Focus groups: This is formal research where about 10-12 people are recruited to physically go to a location for a 90-minute conference table discussion about a company, product, service, or concept. Focus groups can also be held virtually. The participants usually do not know the company behind the event, so the open discussion can be encouraged. Specific, non-leading questions are gone through to pull information, viewpoints, and competitor insights from the group. We’ve seen the results of what was learned during a focus group literally save our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Buyer personas: Simply put, these are detailed profiles of your ideal buyers. The process is to interview several actual clients and others whom you think are your ideal target buyers to dive deep into their psyches to find out what is most important to them when seeking your products or services. This involves scheduling and having a detailed, one-on-one conversation/interview with them to ask a series of questions to get at the root of what they want and need, and why. After the interviews are completed, profiles are created outlining what these individuals look like (demographics) and details about their key decision factors, concerns, likes, dislikes, and priorities.

The insight gleaned from any type of marketing research can yield a treasure trove of information that can be incorporated into your business development and client care initiatives: Website content, marketing collateral, digital outreach (email campaigns, newsletter content, online advertising), etc.

Invest in the time to truly know and understand your customers and prospects so you can “speak” to them in the most effective way possible. If you need any help with marketing research, please reach out to me.

Quote of the week:

Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.
Dan Zarella

Chaos Resets the Playing Field

We’ve all been experiencing a world of chaos over the past few months, and in a recent peer group, we discussed how chaos resets the playing field. It reminded me of a tool we use at CIM to work through problems and frustrations, whether at home and/or work. Wouldn’t it be nice to take control and bring back some stability? It’s time for a reset.

When we aim to solve a problem, it’s most effective to first well-define the problem so we can start to outline a path to solving it. We created a tool, Frustration 2 Success, to help identify and work through frustrations you may be experiencing. As you’ll see, it’s pretty straightforward... and that simplicity can help you more easily take charge of resolving problems and minimizing frustrations you experience.

Frustration 2 Success — Click image to download worksheet

Here are a few tips as you sit down with the worksheet:

Brainstorm frustrations and write them down. Some may be minor; others may be more significant.
As you look at the “realistic strategy” column, keep in mind that you don’t have to solve the issue by yourself. Who else is involved with that frustration? Consider involving that person in solving the problem.
If the problem is significant or complicated to resolve, break down the action tactics into manageable steps. Chip away at the problem.
Best case scenario, you completely remove the frustration. On the other hand, if you can’t completely “fix” the problem, your action tactics can perhaps minimize the problem.

In a leadership program I’ve been involved with for nearly two decades, one quote I’ve never forgotten is Progress, Not Perfection. Taking action steps to improve our lives makes a huge difference in the long term. I hope this worksheet inspires you to take charge in ways that are helpful and meaningful to you.

Quote of the week:

To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.
T.F. Hodge

The Reality of Now and Later

We at CIM Marketing Partners hope this message reaches you doing as well as you can in our current challenge. Please continue to do all you can to keep your team, your family and yourself healthy and safe.

As you know and are likely experiencing yourself, businesses are scrambling to maintain operations and client services. As you’re busy doing just that, there are certain things you and your team can focus on now to ensure your business comes out as strong as possible once COVID-19 isn’t ruling our lives. Some of these are based on some reading I’ve been doing that looked at how certain companies fared better than others during our 2008-2009 economic downturn. We also saw a similar correlation with our own clients’ activities during that downturn.

Let your clients know that you are there to support them as never before, in expected and new ways, wherever needed.
Help your clients shift their focus to providing services their clients need now. To use a B2B law firm example, there’s certainly an uptick in needed landlord/tenant services and legal document creation and review. A firm offering those services should immediately communicate to clients about their ability to deliver the specific services they need.
Shorten your planning horizon. With our unprecedented situation, current planning may be day-by-day and week-by-week, not the usual months or years. This will enable you to act and react as our crisis peaks and during the anticipated recovery.
Look at your current service offerings and be innovative with altering or expanding those offerings to changing client needs.

You may find some strength and inspiration in the following fact about 2008-2009: Companies that responded to the downturn only by cutting costs lost ground after the Great Recession. Companies that prove valuable to their clients and met their needs aggressively recovered faster and stronger.

Do what you can do, and more! Focus like a laser beam on what your clients need and rally your team to deliver like never before.

What you are doing now is already playing a role in your business’ outcome after COVID-19.

Stay healthy and safe, stay strong and please reach out if the CIM team can help you in any way.

Quote of the week:

Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. When nothing is certain, anything is possible.
Mandy Hale

PPC vs. SEO: Head to Head

In today's world, you have undoubtedly heard of SEO and PPC. The terms are unavoidable in our digitally, Internet-focused world. Everywhere you turn, there's a new article detailing new SEO strategies and exploring how PPC will enhance your overall web strategy. We won't lie: it can be confusing. Step one to successfully using SEO and PPC in your marketing efforts is to understand the similarities and differences between the two.

There are strategic reasons to utilize PPC and SEO practices. Both PPC and SEO are part of SEM (search engine marketing), which is one of the tools used for online advertising. Although different methodologies, each of their goals is to generate more traffic and ultimately lead to an increase in conversions (phone call, form submission, etc.).

First, let's look at each of their definitions. PPC, meaning Pay Per Click, is a form of advertising that involves bidding on targeted keywords through an ad platform in order for your ad to show up at the top of the search engine results page. SEO, meaning Search Engine Optimization, is optimizing your website in order to make it more relevant to natural or organic search terms.

Now, let’s examine the benefits to each practice. PPC can yield instant results and connects you with people who are looking for what you are offering. PPC offers targeting to reach specific groups of people, perhaps with specific interests and/or in geographical areas -- ultimately a demographic that may be more likely to purchase. Finally, PPC guarantees a steady stream of visitors and allows you to promote a specific deal, product or service. Alternatively, SEO has multiple benefits. For example, SEO’s return on investment will continue to rise over time and is, therefore, better in the long run. SEO relies on organic searches which consumers tend to trust more than sponsored advertisements. In addition, SEO helps your website show up more often in relevant organic searches.

Knowing the benefits to both PPC and SEO, it is also important to understand the limitations to each. For example, PPC does not improve organic search rankings. PPC requires testing campaign variables to improve conversions and overall ROI. In addition, PPC requires continual monitoring to optimize performance. Some of the limitations to SEO are that it requires more time in order to generate results. SEO also requires ongoing upkeep, and a lot of factors are simply out of your control. Finally, SEO requires dedicated time to monitor through various tools and make content adjustments or add additional content.

The decision to utilize PPC or SEO is contingent on your business’ goals and which practice makes the most sense to fulfill those goals. In an ideal world, the use of both marketing practices would be beneficial for accomplishing short- and long-term goals. However, each practice on its own offers respective costs and benefits for a business’ search marketing capabilities.

Why Relationship Marketing?

Have you ever considered why your customers or clients stick around or keep coming back? It’s because you’ve invested energy and time in building a relationship with them – and the personal touches you’ve added to your marketing efforts along the way have resulted in a long-term relationship.

If you haven’t begun to develop a long-term relationship, now is the time to start. There is one key element that will help you, and that’s to provide extraordinary and personalized customer service.

Once you’ve secured a relationship with a client or customer, don’t stop marketing to them. Continue to work diligently to retain them day in and day out. Actively communicate with them, and do it often. And, there are many ways you may achieve this–use social media platforms to your advantage–and gifting is a memorable, personal touch. Gifting keeps you top-of-mind and can go a long way toward building a positive relationship. And, it’s sure to make them feel important!

If you think relationship marketing has no benefit, think again. It’s a win-win for everyone. Your customers have a reliable service provider and you have a loyal client or customer who will promote your business by word-of-mouth–now that’s priceless free advertising!

The concept behind relationship marketing is to create customer loyalty. A loyal customer is one likely to stay with you and your company, and refer others to your business. The reality is that it takes time to cultivate a relationship, take the time today. Remember, your company's success is all about relationships, relationships, relationships!

So, how much have you invested in customer retention?

2018 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Increase Brand Awareness

In today’s mobile age, reaching potential clients is now easier than ever, but you’re also facing the constant challenge of excess noise with the endless amount of content being served at any given time. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and brands that don’t evolve with it will no doubt get left behind. So, how will you stand out from the crowd and do it better in 2018?

Here are three trends you should utilize to make this your best year yet:

Tell Your Brand’s Story with Video

Scroll through just about any social media feed, news article or website, and you’re sure to see video. From live streaming to how-to clips to promotional content, it’s clear video is taking over the digital landscape.

Video has been an emerging trend for the past couple of years, but it really gained momentum and took off in 2017. We live in a smartphone world, where we’re constantly being feed content, and video has become a way to stand out from the crowd to get (and hopefully keep) potential clients’ attention.

For 2018, try adding a video content strategy to your digital planning. You can share interesting facts about your brand or industry in short, sharable six-second videos. Try showing off your best services and client experiences with a 30-second testimonial. Or, if you’re hosting an event, go live and share the experience with your followers on Facebook Live, Instagram Stories or Snapchat.

The Rise of LinkedIn

Professional networking social media site, LinkedIn, is finally getting its time in the spotlight. With over 500 million users, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to connect with right-fit referral sources, express your knowledge as a thought leader in your industry through published posts and reach a targeted audience through the site’s advertising platform.

If you’re new to LinkedIn marketing, a great place to start in 2018 is with an audit of your own profile on the network. Is your profile information complete and current, including a professional headshot and captivating summary? Have you connected with colleagues and others within your industry? Have you joined LinkedIn groups where you can share your knowledge?

LinkedIn is no longer just a place for job hunting; it’s positioning itself to be a major contender within the professional community online, as a social media network and a B2B marketing channel. Establishing yourself, and your brand, on LinkedIn will take time and thoughtful effort, but with its fast-growing network, it’s definitely a platform worth having a presence on in 2018 and beyond.

Reach New Clients with Geo-fencing

Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but either way, geo-fencing is changing how marketers reach their target audiences. Geo-fencing is a form of mobile marketing that uses a location-based technology to provide brands with the opportunity to hyper-localize their target audience. This is done by setting up parameters around locations such as your business, a competitor’s location or any other places you think your ideal client might frequent.

The integration of geo-fencing into your mobile marketing plans can help you achieve a variety of goals. You can present ads, relevant content or promotional coupons to potential clients. These ads are fired off when a potential client enters your virtual parameters with a mobile device with built-in GPS. Once picked up, geo-fencing allows you to serve your ad or promotion to any specific audience(s).

So, why leverage location-based targeting in 2018? You’ll reach potential clients when they’re on the go and when they’re potentially in need of your services, keeping your brand top of mind throughout the decision-making process.

Stand out and stay ahead of your competition this year by adopting new technologies and tactics, like the three trends here, for your 2018 digital marketing strategy. Now is the time to take your brand to new heights, and CIM Marketing Partners is ready to take you there.