Image use can be tricky. Check out this quick read to better understand how to proactively safeguard your business and your marketing assets.
Are you using images legally online? Learn how to avoid copyright infringement and protect yourself from legal consequences with this guide. Images are an essential component of online content – and it’s obvious why. Images aren’t just pretty—they’re powerful marketing tools that help you stand out. They pique your audience’s attention, enhance your messaging, and significantly enhance the appeal and effectiveness of your content. Whether you’re creating a social media post, a webpage, an ebook, a blog post, or something else, adding visuals goes a long way in improving the overall user experience. However, you can’t just pull images off the internet and use them – and it’s your responsibility to determine if and how you can use the image without breaking the law. If you violate copyright law – even accidentally – you can face serious consequences. Many online platforms, such as Google and YouTube, have copyright policies that streamline copyright claims and enforcement actions. Often, a minor violation will result in receiving a DMCA notice and the content being removed or demonetized. However, if a violation is egregious or impactful enough, you could face heavier consequences such as hefty fines, court trials, and, in extreme cases, even jail time. In this article from our friends at Search Engine Journal, you can learn how to navigate these murky waters to ensure that you’re using images ethically and legally online.
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Marketing to customers via email is an art, but it’s one any small business can master and use to grow and retain customers. All businesses need to grow but small businesses struggle to afford traditional marketing channels. Direct mailers can cost up to $1 per target, while billboards could run you $14,000 apiece in major cities. And television commercials can run into the millions, once you include the cost of production and placement.
What if I told you there was a way to grow and retain customers for much less? It’s not magic, you just need to harness the power of email marketing. Why Use Email Marketing For Your Small Business? When it comes to reaching new audiences, heating up cold leads, or staying top of mind with existing customers, there’s nothing quite like email marketing – and not just because it’s cost-effective. The main reason you need to be using email campaigns is that they’re extremely effective. The average open rate for marketing emails in 2023 was a whopping 21.5%. That makes it by far one of the most effective ways to advertise. Professional marketers know it works – that’s why 41.5% consider it a very critical factor in their company’s success. In 2023, email marketing provided a return on investment (ROI) of an unbelievable $52 for every dollar spent. That means you can’t afford not to use it. While price and effectiveness are two key selling points for running email marketing campaigns, one that tends to appeal to busy small business owners is that it’s something you can do in-house. You don’t have to outsource your email campaigns to an agency or hire more staff. With a little elbow grease and the information you gain here, you’ll be able to create and launch your own effective campaign in no time. How To Start Email Marketing For Your Small Business1. Choose The Right Email Marketing Platform For YouHaving the right tools is an essential part of any job, whether it’s carpentry or marketing. And for business marketing, that means selecting the right email marketing software. You could forgo this step and build all of your lists and campaigns manually in Gmail, Outlook, or whatever other email service provider you’re using, but you have a business to run. Manual list building is a tedious, time-consuming process that takes your attention and energy away from other areas. Plus, an email platform gives you the opportunity to personalize your messages while collecting performance metrics. These things alone make it worth the investment. When deciding between the dozens of programs available, you need to find one that has the right functionality for you. Some features you should consider are:
Some of the most popular email marketing platforms include: Over the past decade we’ve found that most email service providers (ESP’s) give you similar functionality. The real difference comes down to ease-of-use, support and price. And, ESP’s tend to raise their prices and limit support in line with their growth. No surprise that newer, hungrier ESP’s provide greater value. Right now we’re recommending Mailerlite to most of our small business clients. All of the four listed are excellent email service providers however, Mailerlite offers a fantastic balance of functionality, ease-of-use, support and price. 2. Build Your ListThis is the most challenging barrier to overcome for most clients. Why, because you must grow your list organically. In most cases this takes significant time and effort. To build your list: First add a signup form to your website and connect it to your ESP. This makes it quick and easy for interested visitors (who are hopefully hot leads) to subscribe and automatically be opt-in to your mailing list. Second, add an interstitial or pop-up to your site with an incentive to subscribe. You’ll be shocked by how many new emails you can generate just by adding an interstitial to your site offering a 10% discount in exchange for an email address. Third, add your current contacts and existing customers to an email list and offer them an incentive to subscribe. Go through your contacts, pull out the business cards you gathered at industry conferences, and comb the internet for the contact information of the people you want to reach. While time-consuming, this is an invaluable investment because these are the people most likely to subscribe, share and help you reach new customers. When they subscribe, send them a substantial reward of at least 20% on their next purchase. Fourth, leverage the power of your social media accounts to generate subscribers. Offer them incentives for subscribing. Never buy a list. Sending people emails without their consent is SPAM and it’s illegal. Yes, lists are for sale and unethical organizations deploy them. Beyond the ethical question of sending SPAM, there is additional risk that your sending domain will be ‘blacklisted’ by the major email service providers. So if you send SPAM from an email with your organizations primary domain, you run the risk of all email being identified as SPAM and blocked from delivery. 3. Plan Your CampaignNow that you have your targets assembled, it’s time to start figuring out what you want your email campaign to achieve. What are your goals? Do you want to send promotional emails promoting sales and special offers? Do you want to send transactional emails like abandoned cart messages or upsells? Are you soliciting referrals or reviews from existing customers? Once you have decided what you hope to accomplish, it’s time to create your campaign. There are five common types of emails that will suit most of your needs: Blast emails – used for general announcements to a large audience. Monthly newsletters – to keep your business top of mind and update your audience about new developments. Welcome emails – For new subscribers or customers. Promotional emails – offering sales, benefits, or incentives to encourage transactions. Reminder emails – encourage targets to complete purchases or make another. One of the more common sequences consists of a welcome email after initial signup, one or several promotional emails enticing sales, followed by promotional emails or reminder emails. Create interesting, relevant content that will attract the right type of people. Include a link to subscribe. Communicate value with content that’s valuable from their perspective. Re-engage past customers or warm up leads who have gone cold with email marketing. A typical sequence for this consists of a reintroduction email, reminding them of your brand, followed by a “we miss you” message that offers a discount or other incentive to use your business again. There are many other uses for emails, too. Perhaps you’re hosting an open house and want to invite the recipients. Maybe you have a monthly newsletter that helps establish your credibility and authority. The beauty of this medium is its versatility. All you need to do is customize your messaging to your goals. 4. Create Your EmailsThis is where your emails become reality. Keep it simple and straightforward. A common mistake many inexperienced marketers make is wanting to add too many bells and whistles. Not only does an overly elaborate design distract from your key message, but it also confuses customers. Keep your design clean and simple. Some businesses opt for plain text emails, which contain no graphics aside from maybe a logo in the signature. This may be too extreme for you, however. It’s okay to brand your emails, just make sure you keep them simple. Once you have settled on a design, it’s time to focus on messaging. Again, keep it simple. Communicate one idea only. The first battle is getting your message opened, and that means a compelling subject line. Try to inspire curiosity or offer some other motivation, e.g., “You won’t believe this deal,” “25% off sitewide,” or “Mistakes that can cost you.” Now that you have your reader’s attention, it’s time to make your case. Avoid overwriting and keep it simple. Explain what you’re offering or hoping to achieve, then include a call to action (CTA). Any salesperson worth their salt will tell you, you have to ask for the sale. CTAs in emails and other collateral are the marketing equivalent. Some people find it helpful to imagine writing to a specific customer they know well. Avoid jargon and colloquialisms – what may be obvious to you can be confusing or make them feel ignorant. Use simple, common language to get your message across. 5. Send The Campaign And Analyze The ResultsThe email platform you selected back in step one should provide you with all the information you want about how your messages are performing – and this should give you an idea of where you can improve them in the future. Are you not getting enough opens? You could have a bad list or maybe you need to try a different subject line. Are you getting opens, but no conversions? Try changing your content. Are you seeing a lot of unsubscribes? You could be sending too many emails that lack value from the readers perspective. Avoid being a pest. If your results are poor, don’t worry. Email marketing is an art and no one gets it right the first (or second, or third) time. That’s why you want to take advantage of A/B testing. But if you put in the work, you’ll get a feel for what does and doesn’t work in no time and start generating the results you want. Bonus Tips Here are some additional ideas to help you maximize your email campaigns:
Get Started Email marketing provides the opportunity for a massive ROI, without a lot of upfront costs. But it takes focused effort to drive consistent results. Plan your strategy, do the work, track your results and tweak your messages (in other words, follow the tips provided here), and you’ll find your campaigns getting great responses in no time. Hopefully this guide armed you with all you need to get started. If you find yourself struggling, reach out. The Grey Partners team is ready to help you build your brand and grow your business. About Grey PartnersBe found fast & impress. At Grey Partners, our objective is simple: grow your business. We are your force multiplier delivering website design, search optimization and lead generation solutions for small to medium businesses. We help you reveal your most critical opportunities, focus with purpose and achieve extraordinary growth outcomes. Learn more at GreyPartners.com 6/5/2023 0 Comments 10 Reasons Why B2B Marketers Should Invest in Digital Marketing During an Economic DownturnDigital marketing is crucial during an economic downturn because it allows you to more quickly assess what's working and what's not so that you can optimize effectiveness, minimize waste and maximize effectiveness. But what's involved, what are the best practices, and what results can a growing business expect? First, understand that B2B buyers will complete 57% - 70% of their buying research before contacting sales. Nine out of ten B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on purchasing decisions. One study found that 59% of B2B buyers would rather do research online instead of interacting with a sales rep because they think reps push their own agendas instead of actually trying to solve the customer's problem. Digital marketing means using digital channels such as your website, search engine optimization, paid search marketing and programmatic marketing to market your products and services. There are several types of digital marketing. Using them in combination is wise, but even adding one will increase your digital reach. Decide which ones make sense for your business and what you’ll be able to accomplish with your available resources. Key Digital Marketing ToolsYour Website Your website is foundational. Research confirms that 99.8% of all first customer interactions begin on a businesses website. You must know your target audience. It's vital that your site can be found fast and impress visitors with fast load times, intuitive navigation, smooth functionality and by being instantly informative. People want what they want instantly - they don't want to have to figure out your website. Make sure it loads quickly and works on both desktop and mobile. Customers skip websites that look unprofessional or make it difficult to find what they want. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a crucial component of digital marketing. Good SEO focuses on improving a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Great SEO makes a website more appealing to search engines and users. The SEO process involves optimizing various aspects of a website, including its content, structure, and back-links. Job 1 is aligning your website structure and content with Google guidelines so that your site engages your best customers who want, need and buy from you." Chris Lowers, president of Grey Partners said it best, "SEO is pivotal for small businesses. Through well-maintained SEO small-to-medium businesses can compete and win, increasing their organic search visibility, attracting more targeted and highly qualified customers, and ultimately grow faster than their competition." Email Marketing Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach people interested in your business. Give customers a simple way to sign up for emails, and you can use it as a funnel for future sales. It’s a great way to communicate relevant information to those who care. Like your website, your emails should be as clean and professional-looking as possible. Email marketing is a more efficient replacement for traditional direct mail. Mailers cant be tracked and are mostly seen as spam now. Even consumers interested in your business would probably throw out your “junk” mail. Paid Search Marketing Paid advertisements are a popular way to reach customers. Typically, a company distributes your ads to the internet, and you pay them for each click they receive. This is known as pay-per-click advertising. It can quickly scale up or down for businesses of all sizes. Ad campaigns can target consumers based on demographics and interests, ensuring that the right audience sees your brand. Content Marketing Content marketing is a way to reach your audience with original media. Rather than being a direct advertisement, it focuses on related topics that draw users in. For example, it’s now commonplace for a business’s website to have a blog. Content marketing is a great way to maximize search engine optimization (SEO). Your content can be optimized to rank higher in search results, making it more likely to be clicked on. Social Media Marketing Social media has exploded over the last decade with billions of people worldwide addicted social media. It's easy for B2B advertisers to consider social media a viable marketing tool but, smart B2B marketers know that while they may receive a large volume of traffic, converting that traffic to paying customers is often challenging. Yes, a business presence on these social platforms gives you access to billions of users but what percentage will actually buy your goods or services? Well-planned social media campaigns can expose your business to mass amounts of people and are often a wonderful marketing tool for retail goods, entertainment and services but often under perform for B2B marketers. 10 Reasons to Invest in Digital Marketing1. Reach a Broader Audience. Traditional marketing has limits. Digital marketing offers the opportunity to reach more of the right audience. You can serve your advertising to potential customers with the need and desire to purchase your goods or services at the exact moment they are searching for those products. 2. Reach a More Qualified Audience. Digital marketing lets you focus on the people most likely to buy when they are shopping or researching the goods or services you offer. It's a much more efficient and effective advertising because you know your budget is being spent marketing to those who need your goods or services. Those that are interested in your business, products, or services can choose to follow your content greatly improving your marketing ROI. People also share content with others with similar interests, giving you further reach without extra digital marketing effort. 3. Increase Brand Awareness. Digital marketing offers excellent opportunities for organic brand awareness. One of the best tools is your content. Blog posts, online courses, webinars, and podcasts are a few examples. Anyone searching for suitable topics or consuming related content could organically find yours. That will expose them to your brand and reach even more people if they share it. 4. Measure Results to Focus Your Efforts. Digital marketing channels give you access to important analytics. You can see the number of clicks on your ads, how long people watched your video, where your blog post ranks in search and more. Each piece of your marketing strategy can be analyzed in-depth. This will show you how effective your methods are and allow you to weigh their benefit and cost. 5. Compete with Competitors. Keeping up with your competitors has always been important, but digital media has ramped up the race. Businesses that don’t keep track of technology or follow their analytics will quickly be left behind. Technology can change in days, opening a new marketing path or even closing one you used. 7. Cost-effective & responsive. Digital marketing is has a much lower entry cost and you can instantly tune you campaign at eny time to optimize your response. That's a huge advantage over traditioanl advertising which requires a large up-front commitment without the opportunity to optimize - if you're not getting results that's wasted money with traditional advertising. One of the significant benefits of digital marketing is its flexibility. Changing some of your content or advertising only takes a few clicks and, you're in control of all the details. 8. Scalability. Businesses of all sizes can utilize digital marketing. Some aspects will grow organically through SEO, email subscriptions and social media. You can scale the rest yourself. Some small businesses start by doing all their marketing and then hiring it out once they’ve outgrown that. 9. Establishes a Roadmap for Your Business. Planning your digital marketing will also help you plan a roadmap for your business. You’ll be able to analyze where current customers come from and where you can find new ones. It also allows you to map out your growth and create marketing targets. 10. You Can Do It Yourself. Because the barriers to entry are low with digital marketing, small and medium businesses are able to market themselves without an ad agency or hiring a marketing team. Build Your Business Through Digital MarketingDigital marketing is more than beneficial — it’s a necessity. Customers research products online. Research indicates that website visitors determine the quality of service within 2-seconds of visiting your website. Without a engaging digital marketing presence, customers won’t find you and those that do will leave and go to your competitor.
Successful businesses know that investing in digital marketing is no longer an option, it's a necessity. If your business needs help taking your digital marketing to the next level, Grey Partners is here to help. Our team will accelerate your growth by helping you attract, engage and convert more of your best customers. We are your force multiplier delivering website design, search optimization and lead generation solutions for small to medium businesses. 5/31/2023 3 Comments How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Your Small or Medium Business.What questions should I ask before hiring a digital marketing company?The first step in choosing the right agency for you is identifying your specific marketing needs. It’s important to understand that different agencies may offer different services. Some focus on foundational tools such as websites, SEO and SEM, others may favor social media and content marketing while larger firms may offer full-stack services. Businesses should evaluate their marketing goals, review agencies that can deliver results in the areas that matter most and then choose a firm that will truly value your business rather than treat you like a number. Dr. Michael Perusich, CEO of Kats Consultants remarked, “we often think about marketing as a mechanism to accomplish a task. But, just like the need to create great relationships with your customers, the same is true when choosing your digital marketing partner. I advise my clients to avoid firms with ‘thousands of clients’. Yes, that can be reassuring to hear but, that also indicates a high-volume, cookie-cutter approach where you are just a number. Choosing a strategic partner that truly values your business will bear much more fruit for your business in the long run.” It’s difficult to be confident about what services are offered and needed, how pricing and terms are structured and most of all, what results should be expected. And with so many choices, how do you select the right professional marketing team? In this blog post we will explore the critical questions you should ask and considerations you should evaluate before selecting a digital marketing agency for your small or medium-sized business, discuss what services marketing agencies do for you, review the elements that make up an effective digital marketing strategy and, reveal standard costs and compensation structures. Understanding these points better ensures that you’re more likely to select the right partner and create a successful relationship that generates the consistent growth outcomes you’re looking for. Let's get started! When looking to hire a digital marketing company there are several things to evaluate. Look for an agency with experience in your industry, ask for examples of past work, what tools they use to track success, how often they can meet with you, the size of the agency, how they are compensated, what specifically is included and what terms are required.
What does a digital marketing agency do?Digital marketing agencies typically provide a variety of services such as website design, search optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and SEO. Niche firms specialize in providing one or several services. Full-funnel digital marketing firms will typically offer all digital services plus graphic design, copywriting, video/audio production, branding, advertising, media planning/buying as well as public relations services.
What is an effective digital marketing strategy?An effective digital marketing strategy requires careful planning, research, monitoring and goal-based adjustment. You need to define your target audience, establish your goals, choose the right channels, plan and implement your strategy, monitor and measure your results then adjust for improvement. Effective digital marketing strategies are comprised of foundational elements no matter a business’s size, target audience or industry segment. By following these steps, you will be able to create a successful digital marketing strategy that delivers results for your small or medium business. Ask agency candidates for example digital marketing plans and look for these elements:
What does it cost to hire a digital marketing agency?Digital marketing agencies typically offer two types of compensation structures: project-based & retainer-based. Project-based compensation is charged by the hour for one-time projects such as website design, branding, or social media setup. Retainer-based compensation is charged monthly for services such as content creation, social media management, and email marketing. When asked about why they chose a retainer through a full-funnel firm, Eric Johnson of CJ Real Estate said, “We struggled to realize how our website, SEO, email, events and social media - all our marketing - works together and needs to be managed as a whole. We wasted so much time and money with one-off projects and short-term focus. I’m so glad we listened to Chris Lowers and let his team get us marketing strategically. Grey Partners is a remarkable digital marketing agency – they have us off the sales roller-coaster and enjoying steady business growth. And, we’re spending about half of what we did on project work. Go figure!” Service costs are often substantially reduced by entering into a monthly retainer agreement because it offers the same benefit for both the client and agency – consistent success. Agencies know that your success is their success. One-time projects typically won’t be good for them or their clients over the long term because websites and SEO must be continuously nurtured to be consistently successful. Check out these FAQ’s to learn more about digital marketing agency pricing:
The takeaway
Before hiring a digital marketing firm, it’s crucial to do your research and ask critical questions to ensure that you end up with a firm that complements your business needs. Ask about the firm’s services, previous success stories, industry expertise, who will be managing your account, and their pricing structure. Ensure significant experience, an understanding of your goals and objectives, a commitment to be ahead of the latest trends and technology, transparency, and the ability and desire to measure success. With a clear understanding of the digital marketing firm, you’ll be more comfortable working together toward the common goal of building your brand and achieving consistent growth outcomes. Is direct mail an old-school relic, or a powerful tool that helps you bypass digital clutter? It pays to look at the whole package. There's more to direct mail than you might think. Integrating your inbound and outbound funnels with sequenced direct mail can help you reach the right person at the right time through cohesive campaigns can fuel impressive gains. Learn more in this article from our friends at Adweek. 4/21/2023 0 Comments SEO? What's the Big Deal?SEO is the primary driver of brands, businesses and organizations of all types and sizes. Customer journeys beging with search. And, organic search delivers 53% of all website traffic.
Think about it, whenever you want to go somewhere, do something, find information, research or buy goods/services – what's the first thing that you do? It's probably involves a click. How people search is fragmented and businesses are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. While Google may represent over 84% of all searches most business leaders aren't aware that 61% of Americans start their product search on Amazon verses the 39% who begin on a search engine like Google. Unlike other marketing channels, SEO work is sustainable. Think of SEO like an ecosystem. As long as you care for the individual parts the system sustains itself with minor maintenance requiired from you. However, when a paid marketing campaign ends, so does the traffic. f The bottom line is that SEO is foundational to your business. Yes, it's a marketing channel but the most successful businesses budget SEO as a capital expense because they understand that SEO is elemental to consistent market share. Without a strong SEO plan your business simple can't compete. Start-up AI search-bot companies seek to one day carve out a slice of the massive web search market that Google has so thoroughly dominated for 30 years.
Large Language Model (LLM) AI search-bots represent a fundamentally different approach to retrieving content from the web. Google works by matching search queries with relevant sites that its web crawlers have found and indexed, then ranking those content sources based on their popularity and other factors. AI “answer engines” (as one start-up, Perplexity, terms them) leverage the language skill of LLMs to understand queries, then assemble customized, conversational answers based on content from millions of web pages. Learn more in this 4-minute read from contributor Mark Sullivan's article in Fast Company. 4/17/2023 0 Comments Measuring E-A-TIf you’re serious about vying for top search engine results, then you know you that brand crediblity is a critical component. But Google has been ambiguous about what E-A-T (expertise-authoritativeness-trustworthiness) actually is, and how it plays into your SERP rankings. So how do you prove your E-A-T your success? Learn more in this video from our friends at Moz where Lily Ray discusses the ways in which you can prove that all important “E” – expertise – and measure your success. E-A-T, Google's acronym for EXPERTISE, AUTHORITATIVENESS & TRUSTWORTHINESS — isn't a new topic, Google has been evaluating EAT signals for years. What's vital to your business is boosting those signals through content that's strongly inline with Google's 2023 Helpful Content Update. For years search engines have demoted sites deemed to have “unhelpful” content, giving them less visibility in search results. Google’s internal communication revealed: “Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display.” Yikes! The bottom line is that you can have a great mobile site experience, create engaging video content, and optimize for voice search. But, if your content doesn’t align with Google's definition of 'helpful', your business will suffer. That's where GP Coaching can help. Our experts provide the strategic architecture that gives your marketing team the ability to build 'helpful', engaging content that puts you on top of search rankings to keep your business relevant and leads flowing. 11/26/2022 0 Comments 10 Keys to Elegant Website DesignStriking the perfect balance between aesthetics and usability is key to crafting great user experiences. So how will your website give every visitor a great experience? 4-minute read. A well-designed site builds trust and guides visitors to take action, all the while creating an enjoyable user experience. So how will your website give every visitor a great experience? Read on to learn 10 keys to great site design:
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