Marketing Archives - Page 7 of 53 - Creative Agency Secrets

Effective social media tips for B2B

28 October, 2020/1 Comment/in B2B, Social Media /by Rebecca Caroe

Business to Business marketing is my specialism. The key to robust B2B social media marketing return on investment is persistence, diligence and flashes of genius!

Having said that, you need more that just posting regularly to enable social media ROI. Allow me to explain.

Your customer pipeline

Building authority and demonstrating empathy are the messaging goals that will start prospects moving up the sales pipeline.

LinkedIn updates need to have a balance of product/service information combined with industry discussions.

I set up Google Alerts for key words which are triggers for my client’s industry. One is “Tax” and so we can track that against mainstream news. Here in New Zealand we just had an election and so adding “Tax + election” we can either start discussion threads about this OR answer other people’s questions.

Another is “Health & Safety” and we can look at newsworthy situations where failures happened and start a discussion about lessons and learnings.

Following hashtags can also be beneficial for niche industries.

What B2B marketers get wrong on social

The key for businesses who sell advice is not to give advice on social media.

They should ONLY demonstrate expertise.

The key for businesses who sell products is not to push their products – only to demonstrate the key features of good products (which of course they supply).

The inference is that you are experts and prospective customers should seek you out if they see relevance in what you write and it aligns with their immediate area of interest.

Is this a selling opportunity? Case Study

I posed a question on LinkedIn and garnered a lot of views and comments.

Electricity tariffs for electric cars in NZ

Is this a selling opportunity? Yes for sure.

I got responses in public from Mercury, Meridian Energy and Our Energy Limited and in private I messaged Electric Kiwi, Power Compare and ChargeNet. So about one sixth of the local retail electricity supply industry brands.

The discussion was really interesting and a mix of industry insiders and consumer remarks, including this gem from the CEO of Our Energy Ltd – a disruptor startup in the energy supply industry.

Comparing tariffs is only one part of the EV power story

So electricity companies are all watching, tracking and listening to customer conversations.

And you should be too.

Social selling is not a silver bullet

Many advisers will counsel using “social selling” an irritating phrase meaning sell your services on social media. This is such a problematic term for B2B because when on social, most people do not want to be sold to. They aren’t in “buying” mode on social.

Creating negative brand perceptions is to be avoided.

Having a robust, well-rounded tactical marketing and brand building programme will give you ample opportunity to sell. But only after you have built brand credibility and trust. Therefore multi-touch and multi-channel campaigns are the best route forward for B2B brands. Use with care, is my advise. Oh, yes and do ask an expert what they think about “social selling” BEFORE you hire them.

4 Accounting Techniques That Benefit Your Business Productivity

7 October, 2020/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Sudip Mutt

You’ll have a lot of things on your plate once you decide to start a business. For starters, you need to hire the right employees for the right positions to ensure that every facet of your business functions perfectly. However, if you want your business to be productive, it’s not enough that you only focus on your manpower. You should also implement the right accounting techniques.

Accounting is vital in every business because this allows you to maintain a systematic and accurate record of your financial transactions. Accounting will make it very easy for you to make data-driven decisions and assess whether your business is earning or losing money.

For your business to remain productive, make sure to implement the following accounting techniques:

business chart showing financial success at the stock market

1. Start By Learning The Basics

Accounting is generally a complex topic as you’ll be dealing with numbers and many other financial transactions. Keeping track of your business’s accounting can also mean complying with the necessary paperwork requirements and submitting them to several government agencies.

If you want your business to effectively implement several accounting techniques, it’s best if you start by learning the basics first. If you’re still a novice in accounting, spend some time to know how accounting works and the processes involved in accounting. You should also educate yourself about what 3-way matching is, how a ledger is used, and what you should prepare during the tax season. The more adept you are in the basics of accounting, the easier it’ll be for you to make the most out of different accounting techniques.

2. Separate Personal And Business Finances

As an entrepreneur, you should prioritize setting up different bank accounts for your personal and business finances. This is one of the simplest accounting techniques you should implement the moment your business starts operating.

Having separate personal and business finances will make it very easy for you to assess the progress of your business, without compromising your personal finances along the way. You won’t have any problems assessing if your business is earning or losing money if you have another bank account solely for this purpose. Moreover, having a separate bank account will also help you come up with better business decisions as you’ll know how much your business can afford to spend.

Regardless of how taxing it can be to comply with requirements to open another bank account for your business finances, you should still do it. You’ll be able to reap the rewards of your efforts once your business starts operating.

3.Keep Accurate Records

In order for your business to grow, it’s important to keep track of all business receipts and payments. Regardless of how small the amount is or how minor the transaction is, if it involves your business’s finances, you should keep records of it.

Keeping records will also help business owners like you to easily review your expenses. Doing this will enable you to identify areas that are costing your business too much money, and come up with solutions on how you can cut down expenses.

It’s also a good idea to create a ledger for you to easily keep track of all business income and expenses. The ledger can be used to provide a more in-depth overview of the expenses incurred, as well as the amount of revenue generated by your business during a certain period.

4.Use Accounting Software

As a business owner, you’ll have many things to juggle at the same time, too many that you won’t have the time and energy to handle all these things altogether. From developing new ideas, to executing them, to attending meetings, and to managing to keep track of all the activities in your company, there are too many things to consider. If you can’t do them all by yourself, then, it’s time to turn to accounting software to help you out.

With an accounting software at your disposal, you’ll be able to manage all of your accounts in one place. Moreover, an accounting software will also enable you to check on all of your books, find errors in any of your financial data, and make changes right away.

Since everything is automated, an accounting software will also provide data that you can easily print out, so you’re always aware of where your business stands financially. Furthermore, you can schedule time to sit down, analyze your finances, and decide on what changes you ought to make in your business.

Be Committed To Learn

There are many accounting techniques you can use for your business today. You just have to implement ones that suit the size and nature of your business, and spend time to master these techniques. Accounting can’t be learned overnight, so make sure that you’re willing to exert effort to learn these techniques and implement them consistently in your business.

Using Wikipedia and Quora for marketing

18 September, 2020/0 Comments/in Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing ideas, SEO /by Rebecca Caroe

I recently got asked about whether Wikipedia is good for marketing. It’s a high traffic website from where backlinks could be valuable.

If you do create Wikipedia entries be aware that there are rules about businesses on the platform.

The recent history of Marketing on Wikipedia

A lot of PR agencies got publicly burned while trying to promote their clients there.
Which led to Wikipedia publishing this.
And check out the PR institute rules in the UK which followed.

Basically, don’t expect this to be an amazing source of new business.

However, I have an other option to offer you which may work.

Quora expert profile

5 Quora tips for marketing

Answering questions around your topic of expertise and interest and inspiration is definitely somewhere you can shine. It’s not open source, so nobody can edit your submissions and you can get upvoted and become an “expert” on the platform quite quickly.

The key is to start in an established niche where you are confident.
Here are 5 easy tips on writing Quora replies with a marketing slant.

Read all the other answers first and upvote / or reference good parts which you agree with
Then add your own slant which is hopefully something not already mentioned
Find something in your own published content which could be linked from your answer and which adds more detail. This is key because a skim reader won’t follow the link, but someone who is really interested will click to follow and land on your site. So you filter out the tyre kickers quickly.
If you haven’t already got something you can use from your own content write it now. Write it on your website / blog, publish it, and link it inside your Quora answer before you hit save in Quora.
Use the GA campaign link tool so you can identify traffic from that article link.
All Quora links are nofollow but real people will click on them – so they give you customers instead of immediate SERP rank juice.
Tick the box to follow the answers and get alerted when someone else joins the thread so you can come back in later if you need.

Now what’s stopping you?

Oh, and if you came here from Manaaki – welcome. You’re following exactly the technique I recommend for use on Quora.

And you can use this technique on other forums relevant to your niche. I have three which send me traffic and build my profile as an expert in new business development.

5 Tips for Managing a Company With Remote Employees

15 September, 2020/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

With the availability of the internet and technology that we have today, more and more companies are operating remotely. There are plenty of advantages for employees working remotely. They can work from home and care for their family. They don’t have to deal with rush hour traffic during their daily commute. The organization also thrives from a remote work setting because they can generate more revenue without the costly overhead for brick and mortar. There can be a bit of a learning curve for businesses that are making the transition from an office setting to a fully remote environment.

Thanks to Roberto Nickson for sharing their work on Unsplash

1. Logistics

There are several factors to understand when working out the logistics of creating a remote working environment for your employees. You should structure your business by keeping in mind the current market conditions. Create an operations plan for your organization including how many employees you need. You should do payroll calculations to know how much compensation the company can afford for each employee.

2. Training

Remote working is a different experience than working in an office setting. Many people have not experienced working from home and may need training in various programs and software that your business uses daily. Provide online training to your remote workers so they know what is expected. This helps to better equip them to provide their best work. By helping to improve your employees’ skills, you are also helping your business grow.

Remember that remote working also involves remote communication. Staff can talk to each other but group messages may get overlooked with email. A better solution is a desktop system like SnapComms which enables a diverse range of getting employee attention when everyone is busy.

SnapComms features include alerts, desktop tickers, wallpaper, lock screens and the important panic button.

SnapComms features for employee comms and remote working effectiveness

3. Team Building

It is beneficial to the company to develop a team mentality among coworkers. Businesses that have a cohesive attitude tend to become more successful in meeting their objectives. It can be more difficult to build strong bonds among online personnel because they lack the one-on-one in-person face time that people have in a traditional office setting. It is helpful to provide online team-building exercises to help create a stronger bond among your personnel. A cohesive team works effectively and efficiently.

4. Communication

Good communication is key to a successful organization. Be sure that every employee you hire has exceptional communication skills. An online business needs to run their operations in a way that is conducive to good communication channels. Provide communication tools that provide an interactive platform for employees to easily correspond. Make a clear structure for the chain of command so that everyone knows how to properly escalate items as they arise.

5. Efficiency

A strong work-life balance provides employees with peace of mind which helps them to work more efficiently. Remote workers do their best work when they can work a flexible schedule that enables them to meets personal needs. Keep your employees’ mental and emotional health in mind, as people that work from home often have less personal interaction in general which can cause stress. Implement an environment that is conducive to the mental and emotional health of your staff.

It is important for workers to feel valued for their hard work. This is particularly true for remote workers since they do not have the same interaction with employers as office workers. Show gratitude towards your employees for their hard work frequently by rewarding them with recognition.

Getting linkbacks for SEO

10 September, 2020/0 Comments/in SEO /by Rebecca Caroe

Do you regularly check your website links?

I found comments in my site back end today which made me spit tacks.

And so I wrote to the business who was linked from the commenter.

Do you know your SEO agency are making spammy comments on blogs in order to get you linkbacks? It doesn’t work and gives you a bad name.

So don’t do it.

Using bots for marketing

And another thing – using AI to write comments creates inhuman weirdness.

Read the text in the image above. This is clearly not written by a human; not written by a human who speaks English as a second language.

This is a bot.

Writing comments on blogs can be a nice way to get linkbacks – but most popular sites now set all comments to be [nofollow] links and so it’s not very beneficial. Clearly some agencies have decided that cutting costs by using artificial intelligence tools is worthwhile.

I am not against experimentation. BUT check the outputs match your expectations.

The comments on my site just scream LOW QUALITY SPAM.

Who seriously thinks that bots can make good marketers for B2B is just plain WRONG.

Slideshare got sold

5 September, 2020/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Social Media /by Rebecca Caroe

Today’s discovery. Slideshare got sold.

Slideshare header about Scribd

I was a very early Scribd user…. now I find they’ve bought Slideshare from LinkedIn.

This will change things for many of us who love Slideshare.

What happens to my slide decks shared into LinkedIn? [they stay]
Who still uses Slideshare [me and my clients]
Why is Scribd such a great platform? [sharing document images – especially long ones.]

Why I loved Slideshare

It was the first and most easy way to share decks – create embeddable and downloadable links and also do lead generation from a single place. For folks in professional services this was great if you were using education as a B2B marketing tool. I frequently recommended this strategy for my clients and it remains very effective.

What changes now?

Well, tools come and go all the time. I spend a lot of time cataloguing new marketing software and services which could be useful for me or my clients, That’s one of the reasons why I’m often such an early adopter of these services [checkout when I joined Twitter for example].

Slides featured on my LinkedIn Profile

The functionality for slide embeds will continue to rest with Slideshare for the time being. But its utility is now altered.

Where and how expertise is shared is not the same and will continue to evolve. And so, for now, I’m going to be looking closely at Scribd and its functionality.

And don’t forget LinkedIn – what will happen to future slide decks? Will there be alternative software for uploading them? What are the Slideshare alternatives and do they work on the LinkedIn platform?

What does Scribd do for me?

Scribd now also has functionality for reading magazines and books and audiobooks as well as slide decks. It’s a competitor to Audible, Google Books, Kindle, Flip, Isuue and news or magazine aggregators.

All Slideshare users are automatically given a Scribd login. Sadly they are only offering 2 months free use to Slideshare customers.

This makes me suspect that the acquisition was just to buy a user base. Sharing your slides isn’t exactly the same use case as using Scribd.

What do you think about this acquisition? Useful? Waste of Time? Who does slides today anyway?

Please NOT another covid email

12 August, 2020/2 Comments/in Email /by Rebecca Caroe

I just sent this message to my clients.

There’s an overload of businesses sending unnecessary emails about the New Zealand Covid-19 alert level change.

May I suggest we simply put something on the website home page?

And telephone anyone who’s coming in for a meeting.

And maybe the team add a note to their email signatures….

Covid Alert Email – is it necessary?

The customer is SMART

Interrupting with email is not respectful of people’s time… they will probably guess what you’ll be doing because, let’s face it, compliance has been exemplary through lockdown.

Virtue signalling emails are self-serving and easy to see through. Do you really need to send that message?

Our clients and customers aren’t stupid.

The Exception

One of my clients sells PPE gear – for them this email is useful – because they can communicate product stock levels and ordering information to bulk-buying customers who are probably already working on stocking up.

Be sensible, just think it through from the recipient’s point of view.

One thing to DO NOW

Update your Google Business Listing status. There’s already a Covid notification “post” option.

Good. Sorted in 10 minutes work.

Data – you need to understand it

4 August, 2020/0 Comments/in Data /by Rebecca Caroe

Data – love it or loathe it, we get it served up everywhere we look. But do you know enough to judge and make up your mind? What is factual, what is relevant, where are devious presenters hiding the truth?

The answers to all these questions requires modern marketers to educate themselves.

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World. By Carl Bergstrom and Jevin T West

The The Economist called this book “Dodgy Data – the sum of all fears” and opened its article with an expose of the State of Georgia’s Covid19 count – which I tweeted on 18 July. See if you can spot the deliberate mis-information as presented in their map illustration below.

State of georgia, covid 19 cases, dodgy data

July 2 on left July 18 on right. Covid 19 cases growth.

I think this book will be as influential as Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science was in 2010 – exposing what is and is not a scientific process and a robust outcome.

I’m buying this book (pre publication) if you’d like a copy pm me and I’ll add it to my order. If you’re in Auckland – I’ll hand deliver….. saving you the postage.

Oh, I’ve also reached out to one of the authors….. we will see what happens.

Hacking brand colours

31 July, 2020/0 Comments/in Email, Marketing ideas /by Rebecca Caroe

My logo has a beautiful gradient of colours in the design.

This gives me a huge number of subsidiary colour elements which I can add into customer communications and marketing.

I did an analysis of the key colours and the “colour palette” of associated shades. You can do this by uploading your logo or using a digital colour selector tool.

Creative Agency Secrets colour palette tool

Then I made a ton of work for myself

This was a mistake – certainly.

I wrote down each colour hash on a post-it note and had it above my desk. Every time I was writing or designing, I manually wrote out the colour hash. My copying skills are all right – but the potential for a single digit error was high – particularly when I was in a rush.

And so I decided that a change was needed. Electronic copying rather than visual copy-typing was needed.

But again, having a document I had to find and open and copy and paste was a bore. You get the idea. Time consuming eh?

My big insight

I realised that my emailing programme was the place where I used these colour hashes most frequently.

And so I edited the newsletter template to include a segment where each and every colour and its associated hash is listed.

Creative Agency Secrets logo hex colours

The time saving design outcome

Now whenever I need to get the colour shade I want, I can copy it from the template block into the area where it’s needed. Remove the hash text and bingo!

The only thing to remember is to remove the block from the final email design before sending.