Marketing Archives - Page 36 of 53 - Creative Agency Secrets

From attraction to traction: build your list with Unbounce landing pages

23 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Lead Generation, Marketing, Sales /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

Landing pages are important to drive valuable conversions for your business as we wrote before, whether from current customers or new prospects. But designing the perfect landing page can take several weeks to accomplish.

Well, at least, it used to.

Enter Unbounce, a tool we are using to create beautifully designed landing pages, built to deliver easily measurable outcomes.

Yes, we know: there’s a ton of groundbreaking offers popping around on the internet every day, promising to be the Holy Grail of marketing. Luckily you have us to filter the noise and point you in the right direction! 🙂

Why we chose Unbounce Pages

This complete add-on tool has the advantage of offering quick creation and editing, cutting a lot of time from the development stage of the landing page strategy for our clients. Unbounce delivers agile results, not neglecting the “best practices” learned by the developers with intense market research. Every Unbounce landing page is completely mobile responsive, which means extra points for you in Google’s eyes.

Having a successful business on the internet is a tricky thing if you don’t focus on driving results with the right strategy. Among lots of features, Unbounce offers A/B tests and Google Analytics tracking that are amazing at collecting data and eliminating doubts in the decision-making process. It can all be integrated seamlessly into WordPress, Joomla and other CMS platforms, so the landing page doesn’t feel disconnected from the rest of your website. When a visitor gives you their e-mail address, it can automatically go to your new MailChimp highly-focused list for future prospects. Simple as that. Check out all the Unbounce integrations.

Build your mailing list

Do you feel like building a highly-focused list of contacts is what’s missing from your digital marketing strategy? Contact us right away.

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.

creative agency secrets new landing pages

The Landing Page: Is Yours Performing?

11 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Case Studies, Marketing, Sales /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

Landing pages are undoubtedly one of the most powerful features of your entire website. We’re willing to bet that, regardless of the purpose of your website, you have at least one landing page to filter your web traffic towards a purchase decision or other desired action. You don’t want to let your prospective customers slip away because your landing pages are ineffective, do you?

This got us thinking, “How effective are our own landing pages at driving action?” Further exploration of this question revealed our landing pages could, indeed, be better.

What makes an effective landing page?

Each landing page only serves a single purpose.

It should be stripped of the full range of information available on the rest of the website in order to focus the visitor. Having additional content on the page only distracts the visitor from the reason they arrived there and, thus, decreases the likelihood of a successful conversion.

Your landing page should also be able to accurately measure where your traffic is coming from and where they go next. Having too many variables on the page creates unnecessary complications in your analytics and reduces the effectiveness of the page.

Our old landing pages were visually outdated and cluttered with a stack of information that did not show clear actions.

How did we improve them?

The solution came in the form of Unbounce, a tool that specifically builds quality landing pages which drive results. We have dedicated an entire blog post to explaining the advantages of Unbounce – subscribe to our blog to catch future posts and to stay up to date on other marketing tips for business.

We redesigned the landing pages for our 3 core offerings as a business – Marketing Services, Training and Free Marketing Advice.

Aside from an enhanced aesthetic make-over, which fits in perfectly with our branding and design, the pages now have a much clearer and appealing interface, outline the purpose of the page and make it even easier for visitors to find exactly what they need to take further action.

We compare the old and new versions of the same page:

Old vs. New Landing Page Designs

Marketing Advice

OLD

NEW

Marketing Training

OLD

NEW

Marketing Services

OLD

NEW

Which looks more appealing to you?

Do you need help improving your landing pages?

Get in touch!

My Internship at CAS- James Halpin

11 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets Team

James Halpin marketing intern

Hi, I’m James Halpin and I’ve been lucky to have an internship at CAS over the past month and boy, has it been a crash course. Being at CAS was my first exposure to the professional working world and it is certainly different to my previous work experience. I’ve had to adapt my skill set to this environment and learn brand new skills. Here are a few of the things I’ve had to improve on.

Independence

There is far less micro-managing in the professional environment which was different to previous jobs I had had. I’ve had to import my independence skills that I had learnt at university and apply them to the real world. Figuring out stuff on my own is difficult but rewarding. It is tempting to take the easy route and do a cheap job of something, but doing something properly with quality is far more rewarding.

Research

Surprisingly to me research was a large part of my internship. Not only from within the company (looking at previous work to decide what to do) but also for software and companies that were new to me. Fortunately for me, there was a wealth of material already on the internet that I was able to call upon when I didn’t understand something. Rebecca also sent me a textbook, Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Sharma. This book tied all the method to the madness. I also could rely on the team here at CAS to explain something if I couldn’t solve it.

Writing Skills

My writing style over the past month has had to change. University is very formal and stringent about their writing criteria, no personal pronouns and certainly no language that could be considered colloquial. The internship has taught me to be more flexible and put a little flare into my writing. This is a list that I’ve added to every time I have received consistent criticism of my writing:

Make it more personal.
Give sufficient context.
Think about your SEO from the start. Pick a keyword and build the article or blog post around that. It’s all about that SEO life.
Be more assertive, fewer ‘if’s’ and more ‘you can’. Make my call to actions stronger.

Software

Before I started at CAS I had never used any marketing software. On my first day here I was given the task of learning how to use Google Analytics which is the foundation of CAS and their client Rowperfect. I’ve discovered not using GA or another equivalent would be suicide for an online business. WordPress has also been a revelation to me. Seeing the backend of a website has given me insight into the online world. I’m now able to criticise websites where I know people have been lazy. Equally however, that means for the websites I work on – everything must be on purpose. Formatting is essential, spelling and grammar, even more so.

I would like to thank the all the team at CAS; Rebecca, Jeremy and Laura. Working here has been a complete learning curve and I couldn’t have developed without your guidance. I wish you all luck for 2016! A special thanks to Rebecca for giving me this opportunity and I know it will propel me forward on my career path.

FAIL Ontraport subscribes complainers

9 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca Caroe

Following up on my post, here’s the latest…. I get an email from Ontraport promoting their WordPress plugin.

I definitely did not subscribe to this. If you read the earlier post, you’ll see I was complaining about their service as I suspect they support spammers.

So I click through to unsubscribe from this newsletter and see that they’ve subscribed me to their weekly newsletter BECAUSE I clicked on their Spam / Abuse complaint website link.

Do not do business with these guys.

Ontraport confirms Abuse website sign up

Does Ontraport allow a spam by-pass?

8 February, 2016/0 Comments/in Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca Caroe

I just tried to unsubscribe from an email list. It was sent to my personal (non-work) account and I don’t remember subscribing – not to say I didn’t o it sometime.

But click the unsubscribe link and something went a bit wacky.

Take a look at this – no data in my subscribe forms, plus it thinks I subscribed at a date before email was invented!

Ontraport unsubscribe form #fail

So I’m asking for your help

Is this a spammers work-around? Use someone’s email but fail to allow them to unsubscribe? Is it a genuine Ontraport web page?

The URL string seems to have genuine subscriber data but it implies I clicked “abuse” but actually I clicked “Unsubscribe”.

http://REMOVEURL.ontraport.com/u/MjU4MDYvMC80MDc3OS8wLzI4OC8wL2Y5ODc5Y2M5MmViOTRhNmQ2ODhkZjQ4YjdmMzViOTcxLzQwMDY5Ng==?aid=25806&item_id=288&email=&action=abuse&cid=40779&aaid=2&drip_id=0&stn=0

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.

The best approach to get leads for a B2B solution

13 January, 2016/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

I got this question on Clarity.fm where I’m a registered consultant and so decided to share my answer here as well.

Firstly, get some testimonials and case studies for the product.
Build a website and pay to have it SEOed professionally.
Plan a blog writing year of articles.
Get public speaking opportunities to showcase your expertise and if you can, mention the B2B solution.
Buy a mailing list (or build your own) and use direct mail to educate the audience in your area of expertise. Later mention the B2B solution and build a landing page on the website to capture inbound enquiries.
Seek referrals and word of mouth from happy customers.

In order to do these things you will need the following marketing assets: Website, brochure collateral, marketing automation software, CRM database, SEO and strong copywriting.

Happy to help with more detail if you arrange a 20 minute phone call with me personally. I can either tutor you in how to do it yourself, or my team can do it with/for you.