Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

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Strong Case Studies Help B2B Clients With Decision Making 

Case studies are an engaging way to tell your potential customers how you can help them resolve their problems. It can be engaging end-of-funnel content if appropriately executed. They allow the readers to put themselves into the shoes of your successful customers and how they can achieve their goals.

It is a crucial element in the decision-making process for B2B companies. So, if your business caters to the needs of B2B companies, the case studies will allow them to learn how you can resolve the particular issues they are facing. Consequently, it will lead to a higher conversion rate as you can have more prospects for your business. 

The Importance of Case Studies in the Decision-Making Process

The primary objective of using case studies is to present social proof to prospects with the idea of whether they are taking the right decisions. It is an effective marketing tool that can persuade the B2B decision-maker that choosing your business can help resolve their issues.

As a result, it would give confidence to customers that you have delivered the same results in the past. You can add the quantitative and qualitative outcomes to depict your efforts.

Since B2B decision makers have shorter attention spans and little margin for mistakes, they want to ensure that the service they choose is right for them. Therefore, they want to look at the case studies to ensure that they are about to partner with the right vendor. 

What Makes a Good Case Study

You’ll only harness the potential of case studies and reap benefits through them if you write them correctly. Writing case studies requires you to follow a proper strategic plan. Here are the critical elements to keep in mind for writing a good case study.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Follow the SOAR Approach

The ideal way to write a good and practical case study is by following the SOAR approach. It stands for the following:

Situation – The issue or circumstance that your client was facing

Opportunity – What were the chances available that you could leverage for your client

Action Taken – The plan, strategies, and actions you took to help your client with their situation

Results – The outcome of your overall efforts

 This will help you present a clear idea to your prospects of how you helped a client facing a peculiar issue. It will help them gain confidence in your services and persuade their decision-making process in your favor.

The Length

As mentioned earlier, B2B decision-makers have shorter periods. So, they might want to avoid reading through an extended case study. It is best to cover your point concisely, but you can go for long case studies depending on the audience.

Visuals

You can choose a stock photo to make the case study more engaging and compelling. Ideally, you should try to add visuals that give weight to your case study. For instance, you can add graphs or tables to show the client’s growth.

Customer Testimonials

Although adding a customer’s quote or testimonial isn’t necessary, it can give an excellent touch to your case study. They are a powerful tool to show first-hand how your product helped the users. Nevertheless, you can add or remove it according to your target audience’s preference.

Writing Case Studies for Your Business

Most business owners and entrepreneurs believe that writing case studies by themselves will help add more depth to them. However, not everyone has a flair for writing to deliver the message in the right tone and professional manner.

So, although you might have a better idea about the case, you wouldn’t be able to piece it correctly, which could lead to practical results. That is why hiring a professional writer with experience crafting such documents is vital for your business.

A professional can help tell your story in the proper context to persuade B2B decision-makers to choose your services. You can partner with a reliable agency for your case study to tell about how the company has helped customers previously and can do the same for the reader.

Most importantly, experienced writers know how imperative case studies are for your marketing strategy. Therefore, they would carefully choose their words to persuade the B2B decision-makers with a compelling CTA (Call-to-action).

Your Next Steps

Writing case studies requires you to follow an extensive plan for your business. You must use the SOAR approach to tell B2B decision markets about your client’s success. Also, ensure you vary the length according to your target audience and use visuals effectively.

While it might sound like an easy task, you must pay special attention to all the aspects of the case study. So, it is best to choose a professional writer that can help you persuade your target audience.

We hope the tips above are helpful in improving your campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read  More Articles.

Read  More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

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7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

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Don’t Let These Challenges Interfere with Growing Your Company

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function.

But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand. One of the keys to successfully marketing a company is consistency along with a clearly defined strategy.

Marketing is often bumped in priority when client or personnel issues arise. Over the years, we’ve witnessed a handful of challenges again and again. These challenges are common in organizations of all sizes and in different stages of the business lifecycle. By building and an awareness and understanding of these issues, you’ll be better equipped to solve these challenges when they arise.

Biggest Marketing Challenges

The challenges listed below are the most frequently encountered by small businesses, no matter the industry or offering.

Budget

Many small businesses feel the size of their budgets will restrict their marketing efforts. So why try? Big brands usually have larger budgets with more online marketing resources, making smaller companies feel like their efforts will get lost in the shuffle. Despite being a common misconception, budget size doesn’t equate to the outcome of marketing efforts. Larger budgets bring more marketing opportunities to explore, however, the execution is far more important than the budget.

Small businesses may lack the budget, but a solid marketing strategy and execution will still yield excellent results. There is plenty of room on the internet for small businesses and large corporations to co-exist and succeed no matter their budgets.   

Lack of Systems and Processes

No matter the size of the business, finding new ways to organize and streamline operations is key to successful marketing. Marketing in the digital world requires managing multiple channels where you can interact with audiences. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Developing specific systems and processes will save precious time and ensure brand continuity along the way.

Do you have an onboarding process for new clients or new employees? Utilizing a similar approach to your marketing will ensure you have clear documentation and the foundation for scaling your marketing over time.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Content for Sales Teams

Is your sales team fully leveraging the content you produce? Many organizations create valuable content for their audiences but fail to use it in the best manner possible. Sales teams can use content as part of the lead nurturing process to help inform prospects about the business. Not many small businesses think about repurposing their content for this purpose, but it is a great way to boost ROI on content creation.

Every great organization requires effective communication to be successful. For sales reps to start utilizing the appropriate content during their pitches, the marketing department should educate them to ensure they are aware of what’s available. Organizing content according to type, audience, and objectives will help sales teams find what they need to bolster their sales

Technology

We are surrounded by endless options for software and hardware to support our companies. There is quite literally an application or technological solution for every aspect of digital marketing. The sheer number of options can lead to paralysis by analysis. And after choosing a specific solution, integrating the technology takes time and expertise to ensure it is implemented properly.

This challenge (and the next three) requires you to either commit to building in-house expertise, or to finding a trustworthy partner who can supplement your team. If these tasks aren’t in your wheelhouse, you should strongly consider partnering with an agency who can build and execute a successful strategy. Having experts in your corner will support online visibility and will naturally assist with lead acquisition.

Ongoing Education

Trying to keep up with the latest trends in marketing is a full-time job. The internet moves quickly, and marketing is constantly evolving. Just as small businesses catch up, the industry evolves again. Remaining on top of the best marketing techniques requires ongoing education that many small businesses simply can’t handle.

Lack of Time

Is there ever enough time in the day? Most organizations are stretched thin on time and resources, which leaves little time to invest in marketing and to further grow the business. If you consistently push-off your marketing, then you should consider an agency partner that can do the time-intensive work on your behalf.  

Lack of Consistency

Every marketer will tell you consistency is the key to success. Unfortunately, consistency is also one of the problematic elements of marketing for small businesses. Small businesses often are forced to sideline marketing for other priorities.

Your Next Steps

Small businesses are constantly facing new challenges when trying to market their products and services. The lack of expertise can result in many missed opportunities for growth. To keep up with the ongoing marketing trends, small businesses can significantly benefit by partnering with an agency with the right resources and expertise. 

For additional insight, check out our articles about what to look for in an outsourced marketing team and what to look for in an SEO agency.

We hope the tips above are helpful in improving your campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

5-easy-ways-to-generate-website-traffic

An Outsourced Marketing Team can be a Smart Investment

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employ experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department. Unfortunately, small businesses face a shortage of time and staffing that often places marketing on the back burner.

An outsourced marketing team delivers many benefits.

Save Time: The most restrictive resource every business has is time. There’s never enough time in a day to handle all your business’s needs and still effectively market your services. With an outsourced team, you can focus on the best and highest use of your time as the business owner.

Reduce Costs: To make money, you have to spend, but how much you should spend is the real question. Marketing can become a costly endeavor depending on your industry and strategy, and the cost of hiring employees only adds to the monthly and annual expenditures. Outsourced teams typically cost half the amount of an in-house marketing team and can often produce better results.

Growth Management: Your marketing team needs to be able to drive and manage sustainable growth for your business. Outsourced marketing teams have more resources to dedicate to your marketing growth since in-house teams are limited to the resources provided.

Outside Perspective: It’s easy for business owners and in-house marketing teams to get stuck in a certain way of thinking and doing things. Working with an external team gives you a fresh perspective on your company, product offerings and branding. This will help create more robust marketing initiatives along with an ability to see aspects of your marketing that can be improved.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

What to Look for When Hiring a Marketing Agency

Anyone who begins looking for an outsourced marketing team will quickly become overwhelmed with the thousands of agencies available. Finding the right team for your business is challenging, but knowing what to look for will help you quickly narrow down the top choices. Here are some helpful indicators to look for when you’re ready to find the right outsourced marketing agency.

No. 1 – Reviews, Testimonials, and Case Studies

One of the quickest ways to determine how well an agency will fulfill expectations is through reviews, testimonials, and case studies. These types of feedback and proof will give you a good idea of what a prospective agency can do for your business.

There’s no better way to know if an agency will follow through on its word than by reading and hearing about the experiences of current and former clients. Understanding what an agency has done for businesses similar to yours will help narrow your search. 

No. 2 – Staff Expertise

When looking for the right agency for your business, it’s important to understand who will be directly involved with working on your account. You want to know that the staff members who will be in charge of your company’s marketing campaigns have the experience, professionalism and skills to ensure that your business is taken care of effectively.

Many agencies make big promises but don’t actually have staff with the right expertise to follow through on those promises. Vetting an agency’s team will give you additional insight to determine if they are going to be the right fit for your business or not.

No. 3 – Specialties and Focus

Just as there are different types of marketing campaigns, there are also different types of marketing agencies that specialize in working with certain types of businesses or marketing campaigns. Do you need a pay-per-click campaign or a perhaps a content-heavy thought leadership campaign? An honest agency will be upfront about what’s in their wheelhouse and when they’ll make an introduction or bring in a strategic partner to ensure that the right minds are at the table.

No. 4 – Systems and Processes

There will always be more than one way to approach marketing for any business. Your prospective agency needs to have clearly defined systems and processes to execute a strategy that will get results. A scattershot approach is never effective. Agencies are responsible for attracting and helping retain customers through streamlined processes that allow the customer to move seamlessly through the buyer’s journey.

Thousands of different marketing-related cloud software solutions are currently available to help businesses streamline their processes. Researching the technologies an agency uses for managing their projects will help you better determine whether an agency’s processes will blend well with your own.

No. 5 – Communication and Availability

Marketing and business are non-stop, around-the-clock operations that can drastically shift directions at any given moment. How available will a prospective agency be for you when you need them most? Will they require you to schedule a meeting or will they provide a direct line of communication for you? Understanding the agency’s communication protocols and the accessibility of your marketing team is key to ensuring that you won’t be caught surprised in a critical moment.

No. 6 – Reports and Analyses

With the oversaturation of the marketplace with content and advertising of all kinds, basic or routine participation is not enough anymore. To see the fruits of your marketing labor pay off, you must consistently analyze your campaign performance to see what’s working, what’s not and make continuous improvements. Will your prospective agency show you monthly reports and analysis on their progress, or will you remain in the dark?

It’s imperative to know how well your marketing team’s efforts are performing, so you can see the direct return on your investment. A good agency is transparent about results and will show you that they’re serious about holding themselves accountable.

No. 7 – Access to Assets

When you start working with a digital marketing agency, it’s important to clarify which assets are already in place and which ones need to be built. Every activity generates data, graphics, content and more, and it’s important for you to maintain access to all your assets and channels. Access to historical data and insights can also help improve your business over time, no matter who you choose to work with. Be sure that provisions are made to give you access to all your social channels, website, graphics, content, data, analytics and so on.

No. 8 – Compatibility (Bonus!)

Do you enjoy conversations with a prospective agency team? Do you feel confident they’ll produce the results your business needs to grow? An important factor in choosing an agency is having a good rapport and to feel like you can effectively communicate with your marketing team. Outsourcing marketing will undoubtedly take an enormous responsibility off your shoulders, but it still requires collaboration and commitment from both parties to work.

Your Next Steps

Delegating your business’s marketing to an outsourced team will take a significant burden off your shoulders. You’ll enjoy the benefits of being able to save time and energy while experiencing growth from the results your marketing team will produce. Starting the search for an outsourced marketing team can be intimidating, but empowering yourself with relevant background information will make your choice easier.

We hope the tips above are helpful in improving your campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

Local vs. National SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

Local vs. National SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

Local vs. National SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

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Discover the Right Approach for Your SEO Strategy

Local businesses and nationwide companies have a few things in common regarding SEO. They both want to rank on the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for specific keywords.

No matter who you target, SEO principles are relatively the same across the board—keyword research, relevant content creation with organic keyword integration and consistent execution of your strategy.

However, when it comes to targeting locally or nationally, the execution tends to differ slightly. It can become tiresome for a small business in Cleveland to target keywords that have no relevance to audiences in Nashville. A large corporation with a national footprint will likely want to target such keywords, which is where audience and keyword relevancy come into play.

Understanding where your business should focus its effort will yield results that place your website high on search rankings and achieve a better ROI.

Similarities Between Local and National SEO

When comparing a local and national SEO approach, the goal remains the same: Rank First!

Whether you’re a locally owned small business or a national brand serving customers across the country, the steps you take are still the same.

You still need to conduct keyword research and create relevant, optimized content that integrates the keywords organically. It would be best if you obtained credible backlinks from authoritative sources and continually updated on-page elements and image alt tags.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

When Does Local SEO Come Into Play?

Knowing when to focus on local or national SEO tactics depends solely on your business and who you serve. There’s no advantage to targeting potential customers in a state next to you if your business cannot serve those people.

If your target audience is in the same city or metropolitan area as your business, that’s an excellent indication to shift your efforts to local SEO. Typically these businesses include local service providers like contractors and tradesmen, restaurants and brick-and-mortar retail stores.

Local SEO best serves small to medium-size companies that only reach a specific physical area. While there are many similarities between the two approaches, your audience and their search intent will determine how you implement your strategy. Make sure you have a solid understanding of your audience with detailed client personas that can help guide your strategy. 

How Does a Google Business Profile fit Into This?

Did you know that 46% of searches on Google are seeking local information? This is why Google Business listings are prominently featured in SERPs, giving users quick access to the most relevant information.

No one wants a bad dining experience, so what do we do? Turn to Google and search for restaurants in our area. Google Business Profiles help identify local businesses in your area that provide whatever you may be searching for — information such as location, operating hours, Google reviews, a website and services offer almost everything users need to know to decide.

When the Hersh PR team implements a local SEO campaign, we place an emphasis on Google Business Profiles. Giving Google and its properties consistent attention is critical to a successful Local SEO campaign. When your local business is up to date with the freshest information, you empower potential customers with the information they need to make the right decisions to visit your business over everyone else.

How Does Keyword Research fit Into This?

Aside from knowing your target audience, how you approach your keyword research is the deciding variable between taking a Local or National SEO approach.

The keywords you target are determined by where your audience is located and what keywords will help target those areas. It doesn’t serve your local business well if you constantly target keywords that national brands target.

National brands will have the means to reach a larger audience based on various geographic locations. Local SEO keyword research will include more geographic-based keywords, and those keywords will be incorporated through the website. 

Here are some best practices when it comes to keyword research:

Understand User Intent:  Consider your customer’s intent when shopping for a service or product you offer. Evaluate different high-level topics that could shape your strategy. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and understand their journey from start to finish. These understandings will build a more solid SEO foundation.

Use Professional Keyword Tools: Use the right tools to help you research your keywords. There’s no need to bootstrap your keyword research when there are tools designed specifically for this task. Having an agency who knows how to use these tools properly for keyword research is going to yield the best possible results.

Implement and Test Your Strategy: Mapping keywords to specific pages and creating a detailed content calendar will help ensure success. Remember that SEO is not a one-shot effort; you must continuously try different keywords to get the most out of your campaigns.

Bringing It Together

Climbing to the top of a SERP won’t occur overnight given the intense competition online. But with the right strategy and an SEO expert in your corner, you’ll be well positioned for boosting website traffic and ranking.

The best place to start is by determining whether or not you should take a local or national SEO approach. The steps you take to execute local and national SEO campaigns remain relatively the same.

The most significant difference between the two depends on the type of business you have and your customers’ location. Small to medium-size businesses don’t get as much out of their SEO campaigns if they target nationwide keywords.

Constantly updating your Google Business Profile, re-optimizing old content, testing keywords and content, conducting new keyword research, and creating unique content requires significant bandwidth that you may not have in-house. Partnering with an agency gives your business the advantage it deserves while allowing you to focus on running and managing the growth of your business.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your local or national SEO campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

Best Practices to Maximize Your Content’s Impact

Best Practices to Maximize Your Content’s Impact

Best Practices to Maximize Your Content’s Impact

5-easy-ways-to-generate-website-traffic

Content is a Fundamental Part of Your Digital Strategy

How much are you prioritizing content creation and promotion for your organization? Creating strong content is a staple in digital marketing and savvy brands continue to make it a priority. Today’s modern buyers quickly turn to websites or social media channels to gain better insight into a business’s purpose, ethics, and social approval — so it’s imperative that brands showcase fresh and relevant content.

Gone are the days of creating generic content merely to show participation. Content creation is an opportunity for businesses to show off industry expertise, improve search engine ranking and even increase their overall online presence. But, how can you create content that pushes the bounds of regular vanity key performance indicators? This article will break down the best practices to get the most out of your content.

Creating Content

When it comes to creating high-quality content, you must take into account two factors: intent and planning. As the old saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail,” and it’s never been more true than when it comes to content creation.

Disregarding a content strategy will strip you from a better understanding of your purpose for creating each piece of content and how you will share it with the world. Take the time to understand why each part of the content you want to create is important and how you plan on distributing it to your audience.

When developing a content strategy, consider the following factors to get the best results possible for your business:

 

  • Consider your target market and the issues they face. Your organization solves a problem. This is your opportunity to provide a solution that your target market needs help overcoming.
  • Next, you’ll want to consider your customer’s journey and how each piece of content will fit accordingly.
  • Finally, the numbers don’t lie! Analyze current content’s performance data to determine the message and create a well-rounded strategy.

Pro Tip: Consider the Pareto Principle for your content strategy. Spend 20 percent of your effort creating content and 80 percent promoting it.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Publishing Content

When it comes to publishing content, you don’t want to take the shoot-in-the-dark approach for many reasons. Always strive to put as much thought behind your content distribution as you do into your content creation.

Here are a few quick reminders when trying to publish content optimally:

 

  • Save the stress, and don’t publish your content on every possible platform. This is overwhelming and will undoubtedly lead to burnout. Instead, focus on a few of the most relevant platforms for your content and let yourself grow.
  • Another frequently overlooked consideration is leveraging third-party channels like guest posting and user-generated content. These are great ways to gain social credibility and get your name and content out in front of other relevant audiences.
  • When you’re first starting, your content will take time to gain traction, but don’t let this get you down. Find a frequent publishing schedule that you can keep because consistency is the overall key, especially at the beginning of your content creation journey.
  • Be strategic about which platforms you publish content on, and don’t be afraid to move on if needed. Understanding which platforms are best for your business starts with knowing where your target audience hangs out online. If you find your content isn’t performing well no matter how many changes you make, then it might be time to try publishing elsewhere.

Promoting Your Content

If no one knows you’re posting, then does it count? Of course, it does! However, promoting your content is equally important as creating content. Promotion doesn’t stop after one post; there should be a thoughtful strategy for optimally promoting content after publishing.

To get the best promotion for your content, consider the following:

 

  • Re-purposing content will help you gain the most mileage from one source of content. This method will save you time and stress when looking at a barren content calendar. You can re-optimize or reformat content for different platforms and mediums. For example, if you publish a video, turning the same messaging into a blog post will provide you additional content without too much extra effort.
  • Re-marketing is often a dreaded yet highly effective method of promoting content. Be open to spending a little money to stretch the potential of your content.
  • Finally, getting your content out to the most people is nowhere near as effective as getting the most relevant people. This is where leveraging influencers who speak and already have credibility with your target audience will give you the results you need!

Bringing It Together

Bringing together a solid content strategy will help your business get the notoriety and publicity it deserves. A catered plan will carefully detail the intention of each piece of content that speaks to your target audience versus just anyone who happens to scroll by. Only focusing on these few platforms will help you get the best results instead of spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms. Finally, focusing on strategic promotion will be the ultimate deciding factor on how far your content goes in the digital ecosystem.

Repurposing old content for other platforms where you find your target audience will help you get the most out of your content. Maintaining a consistent flow of high-quality content will be the best step to take when starting or reconsidering your strategy. Maximizing your content’s impact will help grow your company’s brand and leave you feeling happy as you see a positive return on your content investment.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your content marketing campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read  More Articles.

Read  More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

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Creating High-Value Content for Your Sales Team

Creating High-Value Content for Your Sales Team

Creating High-Value Content for Your Sales Team

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Content Marketing Can Fill Gaps in Your Sales Cycle

The digital marketing landscape is ever-changing, constantly challenging marketers to learn new ways to reach their audiences. Most businesses that are determined to succeed incorporate some form of content marketing. An often overlooked benefit to creating compelling content is equipping your sales team with the right resources to fill gaps in the sales cycle and increase their close rate.

Your Content Must Be Worthwhile

Getting the most out of your content means not only is your target audience able to find value, but so is your sales team. The relationship between sales and content is so closely interlinked that 95 percent of buyers choose a service provider who delivers the content to help them navigate through each stage of the buying process. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that just any piece of content will work; the content needs to provide genuine value to the audience otherwise, it may have damaging effects.

Most of your content marketing strategy should focus on client-facing content such as blogs, videos, podcasts and webinars. Internal content such as pre-call sales checklists and sales manuals have their place in a content strategy, but this article focuses on client-facing content.

Why Don’t Sales Reps Use Content?

In a perfect world, sales reps can use provided content during outreach, lead qualification and to help support proposals. Perspective clients can walk away well-informed and ready to make the right decision. However, this isn’t necessarily the reality because sales teams repeatedly miss the opportunity to provide prospects with the valuable content your marketing team has created.

Some reasons that sales reps don’t use content are:

  • They don’t know if the content is up to date
  • Finding the right content among the waves of existing content is time-consuming and daunting
  • They’re unsure what content is best for the specific stage of the sales process (in some cases, the content could be too “high-level” for initial discovery meetings.)

Pro Tip: As of 2020, 70 percent of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, which means it might be time you did the same to stay competitive.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

How Can Sales Teams Start to Incorporate Content?

Every great organization requires effective communication to be successful. For sales reps to start utilizing the appropriate content during their pitches, the marketing department should educate them to ensure they are aware of what’s available. Organizing content according to type, audience, and objectives will help sales teams find what they need to bolster their sales. In addition to better organization, consider the steps below to help facilitate good communication and collaboration among internal teams.  

Meet with Your Sales Team

They are on the front lines, fielding common concerns and questions which means they have a slew of pain points your clients are constantly facing. Frequently connecting with your sales team will enable your marketing department to better understand what content can help increase overall sales. 

You’ll also better understand:

  • Prospect feedback on your products/services
  • Common objections sales reps face
  • Find gaps in sales strategies that you can fill with helpful content

Audit Existing Content

After meeting with your sales team, you should have a better idea of what is working well, and where your content can be improved. As marketers, we also have access to massive amounts of data. Have you tracked the metrics on the content your team has already created? The internet is constantly moving, which means the shelf life for pre-existing content doesn’t last long and may need to be re-optimized. Additionally, sales teams can’t use out-of-date content during their sales calls, so it’s equally important to create content and revitalize old content.

Set Clear Goals

Working with your sales team, you can establish clear goals that promote a harmonious relationship between the marketing and sales departments. While you might have an overall sales goal that’s driving your plan, also consider smaller KPIs related to engagement that can indicate if a piece of content is in fact helping prospects through the buyer’s journey.

Creating High-Value Content

When it comes time to create content, pulling a topic out of a hat or an online topic generator is no longer enough. Marketing departments have many different areas of their organization they need to evaluate before deciding on content topics. Remember that creating content takes time, and unless you’re bootstrapping, it will require an investment of time and money. It can take upwards of 50 hours per month to create high-quality content, which is why many organizations opt to partner with a content agency.

Bringing It All Together

If your sales team isn’t using the content you’ve created, then both the company and the sales reps are losing out on substantial growth. Content marketing is not only meant to attract and inform prospects but also to arm sales teams with more tools to have a well-rounded sales process.

 Keeping content current and filled with value will enable sales reps to increase close rates by providing prospects with a clear picture of the products/services your organization offers. Over time as the sales and marketing departments continue to work together, they’ll learn how to maximize each other’s gains and promote overall company growth.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your content marketing campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

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How to Hire an SEO Agency

How to Hire an SEO Agency

How to Hire an SEO Agency

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Find the Right Partner for Your SEO Strategy 

Building a strong online presence is now standard practice for any organization. Internet visibility drives website traffic and can help you reach your business goals. There are many components to internet visibility including organic reach, paid placements and earned media.

Organic reach or organic SEO involves strategies to increase your website traffic and improve your site’s presence in non-paid search engine results. The world of search engine optimization is incredibly complex. Improving a website’s rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) involves technical and creative expertise, and they work in tandem to create a positive site experience and encourage repeat visits.

If SEO isn’t in your wheelhouse, you’ll likely want to partner with an SEO agency who can help you effectively navigate the search engine playing field. It could take years to acquire the internal bandwidth to build and implement successful SEO campaigns yourself. Having experts in your corner will support online visibility and will naturally assist with lead acquisition.

What Are the Goals and Outcomes of Your Organization?

To get the most out of any SEO agency, you need to determine the goals and outcomes you wish to achieve. Do you need more website traffic to help fill your sales funnel? Do you want to create more traffic-generating pages? Do you want to improve your brand’s reputation and credibility during the sales cycle?

Search engine optimization is not just about search results; it also entails how your company is detected as a whole. These campaigns are most effective when integrated into a larger marketing strategy, so you’ll need to get clear on your goals and how you are measuring success.

Think through how an SEO campaign will support content marketing, public relations and other social media marketing activities. Make sure you have the right internal team members at the table during these discussions.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

What to Look for in an SEO Agency

Although hiring an SEO agency might seem like a daunting task, you certainly don’t need to be an expert yourself to find the right partner – but you do need to ask the right questions. Here are six questions to consider when interviewing potential partners.

What is your SEO philosophy?

SEO isn’t just about keywords and content, and the best agencies know this. There are many ways to utilize search engines, algorithms, and other processes to improve visibility. There are three types of SEO you need for a well-rounded organic strategy: on-page, technical and off-page.

Ideally, you want a partner that’s well versed in all three areas. There are many consultants that only specialize in one or two, but modern SEO requires a holistic approach and experienced execution.

What SEO tools do you use?

Legitimate professionals invest in the tools required to do their work. The exact tool isn’t as important as listening for how and why various tools are used. A good partner will be able to explain why they use specific tools and the impact they can have when used properly.

What is being measured and reported?

SEO agencies who value the relationship they have with their clients know that they need to measure and report metrics that both parties find useful. They find specific details in their reports and use the data to make informed decisions. Avoid companies that cannot get specific about the metrics they used to measure success.

Who is doing the work?

When it comes to the above fundamentals, is the company you are interested in doing the work in-house, or are they outsourcing? Will you have English-speaking writers creating content? Search engine optimization is both an art and a science. You need the right minds working collaboratively if you want to move the needle.

How do you remain up to date on trends?

SEO is a constantly evolving discipline that requires education and first-hand testing. Keeping up to date on Google’s Webmaster blog is just one step to understanding the latest trends. The best SEO agencies also do their own research and testing and have a set of best practices that build on common knowledge.

Do you have sample case studies?

Case studies often tell a very clear story of how effective your potential partner will be. SEO companies who know what they are doing and want their clients to succeed use case studies to clearly demonstrate what they can deliver.

Partnering With an SEO Agency is a Smart Move

Hiring a reputable and results-driven SEO partner begins with determining the goals and outcomes of your organization. Organizing these goals and outcomes will determine what kinds of SEO services you might need. By asking the right questions, you’ll be well positioned to partner with an agency that can deliver long-term success.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your organic SEO campaigns. Have more questions about partnering with an agency? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

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goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

2022 Trends Guiding Marketing in Manufacturing

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The pace of change requires marketing teams to stay agile 

The last several years have been dynamic and disruptive for manufacturers, forcing many to embrace more digital marketing tactics to compete and survive. Yet maintaining a sense of relevance with your audience has never been more challenging. Supply chain challenges and radically shifting buying behaviors requires organizations to be agile.

Marketers who can quickly adjust strategies and tactics based on the shifting landscape can generate measurable results, remain ahead of the competition and deliver an experience that aligns with customer expectations.

With that in mind, we’re sharing three trends that marketers in manufacturing should focus on: creating an amazing customer experience, using brevity in your message and incorporating personalization.

Customer Experience

B2C industries embraced a strong customer experience (CX) years ago and manufacturing is finally catching up. Today’s business buyer wants a consumer-like experience. In fact, in a Salesforce survey, 74% of manufacturers said they believe customer experience to be a key competitive differentiator. Delivering a superior experience creates operational efficiencies and generates more revenue.

 Developing a strong CX isn’t solely the responsibility of the marketing department. But given our access to various tools and data, we play an integral part in determining the right time for engagement. We can understand when sales and marketing teams should swiftly engage qualified buyers, or when we can turn a steady customer into a true promoter of the business.

By partnering with other internal teams, manufacturers can create an amazing CX throughout the entire customer journey.

Brevity

Content marketing allows for an extensive explanation of any product or service. Most marketers want to pack as much information into their content or ad space as possible. But let’s face it, our audience doesn’t want to power through a 2,000-word white paper. According to Microsoft, human attention span has dropped 25% in the last several years. 

The more succinctly you can convey your message, the more likely your audience will engage with you. Say what you need to say but do it effectively and concisely.

Explore where you can incorporate brevity into your marketing — whether that’s simplifying your website to focus on the essentials or crafting content that hits directly on pain points and solutions without the unnecessary fluff.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Personalization

The days of relying on generic sell sheets and one-size-fits-all catalogs are over. Manufacturing companies need to adopt more B2C marketing tactics to maximize revenue growth. Today’s business buyer wants marketing and advertising that speaks directly to them.

Account based marketing, although not new, offers a chance to get closer to your prospects and customers by taking time to understand their needs, tailor the outreach and connect on a more personal level. Investing in a more personalized content strategy can lead to greater payoff.

Another trend in manufacturing is foregoing print catalogs in favor of interactive online catalogs that can simplify quoting and ordering. Sales teams can communicate with prospective customers more efficiently during the sales cycle, better understand their needs and ultimately sell more.

Your Next Steps

Marketing teams must continually remain ahead of the curve, and manufacturers still have room to engage B2B decision makers with personalized messaging and an amazing experience.  By taking a proactive approach that incorporates key trends, organizations can position themselves to meet the ever-changing needs of their buyers.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your digital marketing. Have more questions about developing and implementing an effective marketing strategy? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

Marketing During a Supply Chain Crisis: Best Practices

As supply chain issues create out-of-stock scenarios across industries, brands are missing the opportunity to better align their marketing, sales and supply chain leaders.
5-easy-ways-to-generate-website-traffic

Marketing Can Support Supply Chain Management 

As product shortages and long-lead times continue, both customers and employees are feeling the strain. Between the lack of dock space for cargo ships and a shortage of truck drivers, experts predict that we’ll continue to see shortages until 2023. So how is this affecting brand loyalty? And how can brands improve customer experience during this crisis? 

Supply Problems Affect Brand Loyalty

New research from McKinsey reveals that product availability is the single most important purchasing factor. Only 13 percent of respondents who faced out-of-stock products in the past three months say they waited for an item to come back in stock. A whopping 71 percent switched retailers or brands.

As consumers develop new shopping habits, it’s time for marketers to re-evaluate their approach:

  1. Marketers need to better familiarize themselves with their company’s distribution and supply chain.
  2. Internal teams need to work together to help alleviate this crisis.

Here are several key steps brands can take ensure brand loyalty remains strong.

Do Not Cut Ad Spend

It’s no surprise that the brands with ongoing advertising campaigns are the most successful. While some brands are cutting their spending, others are taking advantage of the opportunity to snag new customers, shift loyalty or promote other products and services. Be flexible but keep your eye on the long-term goal of building customer loyalty. Brands that continue to run campaigns can experience several benefits:

 

  • Continue to collect first-party data which will support data-drive marketing decisions.
  • Continue to test and optimize ad copy while keeping existing customers away from competitors.
  • Test new opportunities like loyalty programs or allow shoppers to pre-buy.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Maintain Open Communication

You have numerous communication channels available. Use email, SMS or even advertising to tell customers when items are back in stock. If delays occur, use these channels to provide updates. Customers won’t be thrilled about delays, but they will appreciate a thoughtful update.

Internal communication is imperative as well. By working collaboratively, you’ll avoid overpromising and under-delivering which can be a detriment to brand loyalty.

Create Contingency Plans

A crisis scenario has the potential to interrupt business and significantly damage your reputation. But crisis planning is not just for your PR team. Work together to determine a Plan B for every scenario ranging from raw materials shortages to closures due to variant outbreaks. Effective communication during a crisis can be the difference between a positive outcome and irreparable damage.

Your Next Steps

Our supply chain issues won’t disappear overnight. Now is the ideal time to update your response strategy across business units. Use this opportunity to explore how to build stronger relationships and keep loyal customers happy.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your digital marketing. Have more questions about marketing during times of crisis? Reach out to us directly.

Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

You Have More First-Party Data Than you Think: Here’s How to Use it

5-easy-ways-to-generate-website-traffic
Liz-headshot

Meet the Author

Liz Hersh is the founder of Hersh PR and Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Together with a team of marketing professionals she helps clients generate leads and increase revenue. 

Gain A Better Understanding of Your Customers 

Reaching customers without intruding on their privacy continues to be a priority for marketers in 2022. Google, Apple and Facebook have taken steps to reduce the amount of third-party tracking on their platforms, which translates into less data for marketers to leverage. This information historically has been the cornerstone of effective marketing, helping to shape marketing content, advertising strategies, and more.

A Shifting Reliance on First-Party Data

First-party data is information a company collects directly from its customers. This data is collected firsthand without an intermediary between you and the information.  First-party data can only be accessed via platforms that you own and control. As a company, you can gather information about digital interactions, purchase history, social behavior or profile preferences to create content, ads and digital experiences that cater to an individual’s interests.

Third-party data sources can be incredibly helpful, but as we’ve seen, these sources are becoming less reliable and more expensive. Which is why it’s more important than ever to focus on collecting and using data that you own.

Benefits of First-Party Data

By relying on actual interactions with your brand, you’re building a strong foundation to understand your customers. The results can translate into a superior product or service without the “creep factor” that is associated with third-party tracking. First-party data is readily available and much easier to collect than you might think.  It’s about knowing what’s available and using it to shape your business strategy.

So, how can you effectively get the most out of your data without the help of third-party tracking?

Pro Tip: Use first-party data to create highly personalized messages and increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

Ready to take action? Let’s have a conversation

Sources of First-Party Data

Website

Digital interactions via your website are a primary way to collect data. Traffic sources, visitor behavior and even names and email addresses collected through website forms are valuable data points. Consider how users respond to your website and the pages they visit the most. 

Email and SMS

Your subscriber list is another valuable data source. Open rates, click rates and bounce rates all shed light on how these individuals interact with your brand and your content. Both email and text messaging are considered intimate forms of communication and can shed light on how customers view your company.

Call Centers

If your company runs a call center, you likely have access to call records and transcripts. This information can be used to understand patterns, keywords or other quantitative data that can help shape your strategy.

 Survey Data and Customer Feedback

Simple online surveys can yield plenty of information about your customers and what they want from you. More formal surveys conducted by a third party are still considered essential if you want unbiased feedback from customers.

Common Challenges with First-Party Data

Despite access to a wealth of information, there are challenges to collecting and leveraging this data. 

Poor Strategy  

Do you know what sources you have? And are they properly configured to collect data? It might take several weeks or months to understand what information is relevant to your brand and how to go about collecting it. And don’t forget to consider how you plan to map the data to your customer journey.

Integrating Data from Multiple Platforms

It’s challenging to pull data from different sources into one cohesive system or report that will give you a true sense of the big picture. Even though you own these data sources, the technology across platforms may or may not integrate easily. Consider partnering with an agency with the technical experience to guide the strategy and implementation of this piece. 

Taking Meaningful Action in Real Time

Your data is only valuable if you use it in a timely matter. Customer behaviors are ever evolving which means companies need to move efficiently when they recognize valuable trends. And always be ready to shift your strategy as the landscape evolves.

Your Next Steps

Using first-person data to guide your marketing campaigns is no longer optional – it’s a must do for every brand. Invest the time in understanding what data sources will be valuable to you and build the necessary system to collect and distill the information in a way that’s actionable. Over time, you’ll be able understand what data points are key success metrics for your brand.

Hopefully the tips above will help improve your campaigns. Have more questions about data driven marketing? Reach out to us directly.

Read 
More Articles.

Read 
More Articles.

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Writing High-Impact B2B Case Studies

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

7 Common Marketing Challenges + How to Solve Them

Marketing as a small business presents several challenges. Between budgetary constraints and a lack of clarity about the right ways to market a business, it’s no wonder that marketing is often a small businesses least favorite business function. But it’s probably the most important. It’s crucial to maintain an ongoing marketing and lead generation strategy to yield beneficial outcomes for your brand.

read more
7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

7 Things to Look for in an Outsourced Marketing Team

Outsourcing your marketing is one of the best decisions you can make for your small business. Traditional in-house marketing teams are a great solution for larger organizations that have the resources available to employee experts in the 10+ roles that it takes to run an effective department.

read more

Subscribe to Get The Latest Insights.

What makes marketing so challenging?

Trying to keep-up with the tools, technology and the limited attention span of your target market are all challenging. Get our tips on how to grow leads and revenue, delivered directly to your inbox.

Join The List

Request a Demo.

Are you ready to take action? Let's see how we can reach your
goals with a 20-minute introductory call.

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