B2B Archives - Page 13 of 20 - Creative Agency Secrets

Have you forgotten about directory listings for local search?

9 March, 2016/22 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Digital media, Local Marketing, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

Yet again, Google has changed its search page layout – the right sidebar went last week…. Now, does that matter for your business or not?

The old sidebar had adverts in it and now adverts only appear at the very top of the search listings. This is a “reduced real estate” situation in the lingo. Where 8 adverts used to appear, there are now only 4. That means that competition for advertising space is doubled – prices may rise. What that means for most business owners is that if advertising gets more pricey, you can choose whether to adjust your budgets. I recommend spending on natural site search as an alternative. Every recent Google algorithm update has hit the ‘game-the-system’ players hard and rewarded websites with strong on-site content. Put your money into your own website rather than into Google’s pockets.

Local Search Matters

So first, let’s check your business and how it shows up in the Google local pack. This is the map and associated listings with pins showing locations. Google are showing a map of local businesses into your search results. This allows the physical location of a business to influence whether prospects choose you or not. So it’s important to get listed accurately. Go first to Google My Business https://business.google.com and start registering and verifying.

Local google search showing map and address

Is your information accurate?

Step one is to clean up your NAP citations. NAP is the acronym for Name, Address and Phone data. This clearly tells a visitor that a business is local. You should claim your business and get listed accurately. Be consistent, don’t shorten words like Street or use different variations of ST. St, and Street. [Did you see the comma and full stop there?]

Now, what about other citations?

Do a broad search for your business name, owners names and all possible variants as well as geographic searches. List every website where you can be found. There may be many as most directories are aggregators of others’ content and so mistakes get flicked on and on to more websites.

In the good old days every business was on Yellow Pages and I still think that’s a great place to start your directory listings. But Yelp is increasingly important.. go and search for your business on yelp.co.nz and ‘claim’ it. Then you can log in and edit the details.

Yelp claim your business

When you claim your listing, be very careful to select the correct category for your business. And please, be consistent – write down a standard short and medium length text description which you can use everywhere. Also write one about your products or services. And another about the business owner(s).

Now here’s a list of the local directory sites where it is worthwhile “claiming” your business listing and this is the process I recommend you run through for each one.

see if you are already listed
is the information NAP accurate?
edit or insert for the first time as necessary
keep a record of your logins so they aren’t lost to the business when you leave
set a future diary date every 6 months to review and update the listing.

Selected New Zealand online directories

Localist.co.nz
yellow.co.nz
hotfrog.co.nz/
Finda.co.nz
NZPages.co.nz
ZipLeaf.co.nz
Gopher.co.nz
NZS.com
Yelp.co.nz
BusinessMe (paid)
NZDirectory.co.nz
cylex.co.nz/
nz.kompass.com/
Bing.com
nz.yahoo.com/
nz.search.yahoo.com/
www.zapmeta.co.nz/
foursquare.com
NZBusinessdb.com
The Local Business Network [New 2017]

Please share your tips for other directories as we can all learn more!

This article was first published on

Improving your local SEO is an important part of your business marketing. It’s all part of Getting your website working hard for your business [there’s a free ebook telling you how].

Read more blog posts about Who You Are and Profile Raising by clicking the icons below. Each is a step in our 8 Step Methodology

Get Your Business Website Working for you – Webinar Date

3 March, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Business websites cannot be static “set-and-forget” marketing assets. Learn how to work your website so that it pays back the investment to the business. A well-run website should:

CCH Learning Webinar

Show up in natural search
Answer visitors’ questions
Bring enquiries, leads or sales to the business
Persuade visitors to reveal their identity
Showcase the expertise of the firm

This is a practical training webinar which will show you how to assess your website’s effectiveness and give you a checklist of what you can do to improve.

Included is a free eBook detailing 5 ways to improve how your website shows up in Google, what search terms your site shows up for, how to use title tags and meta descriptions.

Suitable for small and large firms.

Sign up for March 24th at 2.30 pm to 4.00pm

Creative Agency Mastermind Group for Australasia

29 February, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B /by Rebecca Caroe

Occasionally I read an article that stops me in my tracks, it’s so compelling and aligned with my own thinking that I stumble, double-take and yell Hooray!

This is one of those articles.

Before you read it, I’d like you to indulge me and hear my anecdote.

My search for a Business Peer Support Group

Creative Agency Mastermind. Image credit: TheNextWeb

Last year I joined a business owners group run locally which met monthly to “advance” your business. We sat in a conference room filling out forms about our business stats for the month, how we were progressing and then tabled issues for group discussion. In between times, we had weekly accountability partner calls. Having done 5 months of this, I realised that the process was really useful and 100% what I needed.

The other attendees were not right.

I want a group full of business innovators, folks who take action and connect with others, who find what’s new and how their business can take advantage – leading from the front.

And so I set out to find a better group to collaborate with. But I didn’t find one.

I read, I asked others and found that the market for peer-to-peer support for business owners remains under-served. There are some paid-for groups, there are industry groups, there are business groups. None seems to fit the bill perfectly.

And so I’m setting up my own Mastermind Group.

The Creative Agency Mastermind Group

The aim: To advance our businesses.

How: Meet once every month to learn, share, collaborate and problem solve. Mutual accountability. Brainstorming.

Goal: To grow, sell or exit our businesses while staying at the leading edge of innovation for good business practice.

First meeting 23rd March 2016.

Want to join us? Get in touch

What are New Business Leads?

25 February, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Lead Generation, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Leads are defined as an enquiry that brings business revenue for you.

What form it takes of course varies, it may start with a casual conversation in the pub or might be a phone call to you; it might be a business card that someone has collected from a networking event.

Many business owners find that they have a feast or famine situation and it comes to new business enquiries. Like a

Marketing rollercoaster Image credit: smallbusinessalt.co.uk

rollercoaster that either rising up and you are swamped with Leads and enquiries for new business or down low and you are desperately hoping for even one enquiry. This predictable repeating cycle is a reality for many many businesses. Yours might be like this as well.

The rollercoaster happens for one reason and one reason alone:

You do not have a reliable process for creating leads.

Many businesses will never overcome the rollercoaster because they do not have the skill to follow a process and stick to it.

If you’re reading this today and you know that you experience this rollercoaster situation, what is it worth to you to change the habits of your business?

Why would you want to get off the rollercoaster?

Look back back through your business accounts over the last three years and see if you can find a time when you had a strong revenue stream. Count up the number of new clients you started invoicing in any given quarter or three month period. And then go back to find out how this client found you. What were the circumstances that led to this good period for you? Ask your business colleagues or your partner as well. They may remember things which you have not recalled.

The good news is it is possible for you to get off the rollercoaster and to create a steady flowing river of leads that can lead to new business.

The bad news is that 90% of the people reading this will not be able to make a regular recurring stream of leads because they cannot be disciplined enough to set up the process that is needed.

Creative Agency Secrets will teach you the secret way of creating leads on a regular recurring basis.

I will tell you because we’re utterly confident that it works.

This is the number one reason and if it works for us we can make it work for you. And the second reason is perhaps a better illustration of why our process works. This is because the 10 percent of you who will interact and take our advice; from these nine people will not be able to do it on their own. They will be people like you who have busy organised business lives and love what they do. Yet if you’re being strictly honest you will say

“I am not a salesman, I am not a marketing expert, I find new business development a challenge. This is not how I prefer to spend my time.”

And so for these reasons Creative Agency Secrets is going to share with you our methodology of how to generate leads every single month of the year.

We’re hoping that you are the nine people who are going to take our advice and hire us to work with you. And if you’re the 10th person who can execute without assistance, then congratulations, you’re probably already very good at sales and this is just a top-up advisory session for you to check there are any new tricks that you don’t already know.

For everyone else, we want to be your new collaborator.

We want to show you exactly how to make this work. We know how to adapt the method to suit the needs of your business, your marketplace, and your preferred clients. Today I’m going to show you exactly how we do it for ourselves and this will give you the template that you need to do it for yourself.

First some marketing honesty

But I need you to make one thing abundantly clear to yourself. In a moment of honesty, ask yourself am I ready to make this change? Am I ready to make a commitment that is fundamentally different from anything I’ve ever done before in my business?

Because you know what the rewards could be, but until they happen I also know that you will be nervous, anxious and will feel that this is a high risk to take for your business.

I will give you reassurance and I will give you confidence that you can do this yourself. Are you are you ready to come on the journey?

Let’s begin.

Tomorrow I’ll show you what the new business process is.

Be Innovative with How You Get Testimonials

25 February, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Email, Marketing, Social Media /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

When you’re new, or growing, and need social proof to prove your worth to the world

So, you’re starting out your business and you know you’ve got a good thing going. But something you don’t have yet from your clients: their endorsement of you and your brand or your product. Sure, they’ve told you they liked working with you and, of course, that made you feel good on the inside. But, with the interwebs, you need to have hard proof that says someone used your services and liked it enough to write it down in a social internet space. Like Google Reviews. Or Facebook. Or even just in an email and with your clients’ blessing. Okay, so, how do you do it?

As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, or deduced from the title of this blog post, we’re talking about testimonials. Or reviews. Either or, they can be one in the same, if they contain ratings and words as friendly companions in whatever social app you’re using. There are multiple ways to get those testimonials so that, when a new possible client happens to Google you, lo and behold, they see other people like you and have used you and have provided their friendly feedback. Well, we rolled out with a fun and ‘give-back sort’ of way to request from our clients and those that have worked with us in the past. I think you’ll like it.

Before the holidays, our Chief in Command, Rebecca, came across a non-profit organization called StarJam. Briefly, I just want to let you know that what they do is amazing. Through music and performing arts, StarJam lifts kids with disabilities up, helps them to learn new skills, and gives them confidence. Just take a look at the photos they have on their website, every time I do I just want to be a part of that! Anyway, back to the story. Rebecca wanted Creative Agency Secrets to be able to give to StarJam. We also, you guessed it, wanted to get testimonials. Testimonials in one hand, giving to a good cause in the other… hmm. There’s got to be a good way to put these two together.

And SMASH!

It’s the holidays, right? We can send out a good will email to our clients! WE will donate money in your name to StarJam if you can write a few words on Google about your time with Creative Agency Secrets. So, we reached out to StarJam to get their permission, find out if they felt comfortable with our plan, requested a few images to use and then started crafting an email.

Key items we made sure to have in our email

Make your headline engaging
Make your text interesting to read
Tell the reader what you’re doing or what you’re asking them to do

4. Hyperlink to wherever they need to go or whatever you’re referring to

5. Use images

The main thing we wanted to make sure to do was inform our followers HOW to submit a review. Some people don’t have Gmail. I know, crazy world, but we had to come up with a foolproof way to say ‘This is easy! Here, we’ll show you’.

Voila! We created this easy to read image with everything needed to tell our audience how to do what we were asking them to do.

Then what? Well, we could wait around with baited breath. But, by this time, it was Christmas and we decided we’d come back to it in the New Year with fresh eyes and suntans.

And when we did… no reviews! We could have been sad and wallowed a bit but that’s now how you get good reviews. So we sent a follow-up email. Sort of a, “Hey, we know you were busy over the holidays, but…” reminder. Good idea, right? Of course.

But when you’ve asked the same way twice and you still get no response

You try another tactic. This time, we called, or in some cases walked over to, those who had worked with us in the past to ask them, oh so kindly, to provide us with a review while we donated to a good cause in their name. Sometimes it just takes the glimmer in your eye, the inflection in your voice, or just good ole human contact to make the connection you need.

And now we’re on the MAP!

Tips to those using Google reviews!

For one, you need 5 reviews to be able to see your star rating.
For two… even if you have 5 star ratings for all 5 of your Google reviews… somehow you still only rate 4.8 stars

Number two will remain a bit of a mystery.

I hope this helps any startup businesses out there looking to get on the map as well with testimonials and reviews. As they say, right now, the BEST way to get business is by word of mouth. And online rating systems like Google, Facebook, and others are the next best things with the worldwide web!

Crossfire Fire Engineers, Auckland, new website copy

Case Study: Website redesign for busy professional firm

17 February, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, Copywriting /by Rebecca Caroe

Crossfire Engineers are one of the leading practices in Auckland delivering advice for fire engineering in new buildings as well as refurbishments. The team is expert in fire safety advice, but not website marketing.

When they needed to edit their old website it meant paying the developer to upload content and so it was clearly time for a change to a content management system and a new web design.

Business owner, Michael Dixon, was introduced to Creative Agency Secrets by Bruce Ross the business coach, initially to write the words for the new website. Later, we also project managed the web build liaising with the developers and Steven Robinson, the photographer.

Crossfire Fire Engineers new website copy

Save time for the Client

It was clear that delivering a successful project would include keeping the client informed, but minimising the amount of time taken up by management.

And so we did most of the copywriting briefing face to face by ‘interviewing’ the key team players.

Later, testimonials were obtained from clients direct after an introduction by the Crossfire team, saving them time. We asked questions and wrote the testimonial first draft for them to edit and approve.

Key website successes

The Home page has 3 red buttons to shortcut visitors’ enquiries to the pages most relevant to different services. What an architect needs is different from a Building Owner or Manager.

Testimonials on the bottom of the home page by high profile clients and architects who collaborate with the Crossfire team.

Crossfire Fire Engineers testimonials

Team profiles not just photos but also individual contact details and a synopsis of their career and key skills allow direct contact by clients.

Work for us – one of the drivers for the new website was the need to recruit staff this page sets out more detail about how engineers can re-qualify in Fire Engineering as well as explaining how to emigrate to New Zealand.

Happy client

Jeff Parkinson did much of the day to day liaison for the website project and he has this to say at the end.

We can’t recommend Rebecca enough! She helped us through the process of designing our new website and we are really pleased with the end result.

She helped us to stay focused and used her expert knowledge to ensure our site was relevant, connected and simple to use.

We are really happy with the content she provided, her constant support throughout the project helped us complete the website for a new year launch during a time of high pressure from other project workloads.

The Art and Science of Generating Leads

4 February, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Many business owners tell us that they want more inbound leads and enquiries for new business. We know exactly how to do it AND we’ve been practicing what we preach for years. Here is the proof – our own data month by month of enquiries to buy Creative Agency Secrets’ services.

Leads tracking spreadsheet sample

Today we’re announcing a webinar that shows you exactly HOW we do it, so you can learn to do this for yourself. February 10th 2016.

The art and science of generating leads Event Sign up

The art and science of generating leads results in a new business development plan. That’s a month by month chart of activities, all oriented around starting conversations that lead to paying clients. And on this 90 minute webinar I am going to show you HOW to do it and then how to MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Creative Agency Secrets are experts in proactive execution marketing. This is the technique that builds up your business profile which creates leads which become enquiries which become sales. It’s a continuous cycle.

Sounds simple – but most business owners do not know HOW to do it.

This workshop is for business owners and managers who are responsible for finding new clients and growing revenues. It will show you the practical, tried and tested techniques that the Creative Agency Secrets team uses.

Here’s a sneak preview of what you will learn:

How to create a unique company profile.
A check list of marketing activities.
New business pipeline analysis.
What you need to do to get better known in your industry.
Learn relationship building for getting and keeping long term clients.
How to spot opportunities for new business sales.
The business process that delivers leads.
What to measure to track progress.

Don’t take our word for it…

“I thought it was great, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyed the ideas. I also appreciated all the little things that can be done and those things that don’t take money but have a big impact. It was great and I thoroughly would recommend it to all business owners looking to expand business online.”

Julie Soboil, co-owner, Hushamok

“The business sessions with you were very good – reinforced my thinking but was given expert and very helpful and thoughtful information for me to digest. Although I am very aware of the importance of social media, I also realise that I am behind in using it so need to make time to get up to speed.”

Helen Mitchell, Managing Director, Anti-aging World

Register for the event by clicking any of the links to The Art and Science of Generating Leads

Tickets are Free

And we are offering two different tickets – Attend Live and Watch Later. Both require you to sign up for February 10th 2016 event.

Event timings

10th February 2016 times in different country / locations

New Zealand 10 February 12 pm midday
Australia NSW/VIC 10 February 10 am
Australia QLD10 February 9 am
United States PST 9 February 3 pm
United States EST 9 February 6 pm
United Kingdom 9 February 11 pm

Quality website developers – time to up your game

26 January, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Digital media, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

I get really mad when low quality website developers over-specify for marketing websites. Is this

Quality Website Developers

something you have seen?

Part of the expertise of a high quality web developer is to recommend the right tool for the job and I find it ridiculously easy to spot website developers who are not skilful. But it still makes me angry.

Marketing suppliers like Creative Agency Secrets lead the industry because we “decode” marketing for our clients, we find high quality suppliers and engage them for our clients as sub-contractors with us managing the job. Trust is essential to maintain reputation and high quality marketing services delivery.

I cannot hire you if you set out to exploit the ill-informed client.

Which CMS is right for you?

We are handling a small website for a client which needs to become responsive. It’s a brochure-ware site and needs to rank well in local search. That’s it.

So why, oh why does their existing developer recommend a CMS that scores highly for:

Sell E-commerce: The core installation comes with a very nice E-commerce module

Offer Exclusive Content: There is a membership module installed right out of the box

Want Flexibility and Growth: Each website is built from the ground up. Another great feature is the multiple site manager

Care About Security and Stability: there hasn’t been a major security breach in over 10 years.

I did some research comparing two CMS products and found this and Quora answers. Which confirmed my own views of mis-alignment between client need and tools proposed.

Quality website developers don’t do this

It’s lazy and over-engineered for the requirements and will be costly for the client.

Game over for that potential relationship.

I do not see it as my job to specify the website build and design – that is what an expert web developer should be doing. As marketing experts, we specify the functionality and features needed and let the experts propose appropriate solutions.

If you know a good web developer who would like to quote on this job – send them this link to the job description.

How to compare my website with a competitors’

19 January, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C /by Rebecca Caroe

Sitting with a client, he brought up a competitors website and asked me how much traffic they got in comparison to his site.

Top 3 ways to compare websites

There are several free tools you can use to compare your public website statistics with other websites. Remember things like Google Analytics only work if you are authorised to see them – so they’re no good for competitors.

Alexa

The top non-Google site for appraising the popularity of websites on a worldwide scale. I use the Chrome Alexa extension to get this screen grab for our website showing incoming links, global ranking and local country ranking. We are the 405, 597th most popular website on the planet.

Alexa rank for Creative Agency Secrets

SimilarWeb

A cute comparison for two sites that shows more information than Alexa. This gets different data from Alexa but adds in some nice additional features like traffic volumes (in thousands), bounce rate, time on site, page views, countries, traffic sources (direct, referrals, social, email, display), Audience interests and similar sites. Then you can add in a competitor site URL and get a direct comparison. Very cute.

Similarweb for Creative Agency Secrets

SEMRush

The digital marketers best friend for detailed data comparison, SEM Rush is the big daddy here. It dives deeper than the others into keywords, comparing paid and organic traffic, main competitors, branded search vs non-branded (helpful for marketing). Plus you can choose from 26 country search engines to use (Google.com or your local google.com.au for example).

SEM Rush for Creative Agency Secrets

This article first published in Marketing Online Magazine Issue 4

Doing a comparison of your website with your competitors is a useful exercise. It’s all part of Getting your website working hard for your business [there’s a free ebook telling you how].

That’s what Creative Agency Secrets specialises in. Give us a call or email for an appraisal of your site, your business marketing and how to improve.

Read more blog posts about Analysis and Profile Raising by clicking the icons below. Each is a step in our 8 Step Methodology