7 Rules For B2B Lead Generation Success

29Apr

I was recently speaking to a prospect on a phone consultation and I was trying to get to the bottom of what their problem was. When I’m on calls like this, honestly this is my favorite part. I’m trying to see what they might not be seeing which could be hindering their success.

This company was a Business to Business (B2B) service company who was desperate to make sales. So far, this tracks right?

So I wanted to dive deeper.

“How many leads are you generating and fielding in a month?”

Silence.

“How much does the average client net you once they come on?”

Uhh… more silence.

The person was beginning to get a little defensive at this point – and I wanted to make them feel more at ease. The truth is, that I have been on hundreds (or more) of calls with business owners, marketers, sales managers, and everyone in between, and this call was not unlike its predecessors.

The issue was that they were missing some of the basic rules of B2B marketing.

I’ve said this before recently, and I will say it again, I never look down on people not having the correct data to track and execute marketing strategies. I read the marketing and sales press, I see the number of gurus popping up every two seconds with a new funnel that is the magic answer to your nagging ROI problem. And you know what, I think that a lot of those magic solutions DO work. The systems are well-built and the strategies are sound.

So what’s the issue?

You need to follow these rules for B2B Lead Generation first, before you start making major moves with these “perfect sales systems.”

Rule #1: Know Thy Audience.
If you do not know who you are trying to target, you will never be able to target them. Write down a DETAILED demographic makeup of your target audience. Then look at your customer/client records. Your sales to the target audience that you defined better be reflected in at least 80% of those sales. If they are not? Back to the drawing board.

Rule #2: Know Thy Decision Maker.
If you have ever had to cold call or execute a multichannel (or multilevel) marketing campaign, it will come as no surprise to you that there are a lot of time wasters out there. People that tell you they love your service, your product is the best, or that you are really changing the way they think would love to work with you! But guess what? They don’t have the pull to make the decision. They don’t control the money. They just wasted a lot of time and (emotional) energy by taking you no closer to the end game. Knowing your decision-makers titles will help you narrow your opportunities and reduce the time of your sales cycle.

Rule #3: Know Thy Price Point.
It is important to understand how much your target decision-maker is willing to pay for your service AND what monetary benefit it will bring them. Not sure how to find it? Figure it out. Ask your peers, do secret shopping, just flat out ask them on the call. Price is everything to many, so if you are not aware of how to present your value proposition with conviction that lands, bye-bye lead.

Rule #4: Know Thy Services Inside and Out.
When you are doing a sale (technical or more straight-forward), understand your services/products AND target decision-maker enough to be able to develop a custom solution that will delight and excite. Creating excitement with a lead, as well as offering something that makes them feel special is beyond perfect.

Rule #5: One Shall Not Bark Up the Wrong Tree.
Target audiences are made to be edited. Just because you only did business with one audience for 10 years does not mean you should continue for the next 10 years. Businesses and corporate roles are changing – and you need to be malleable. Have you ever looked at who is visiting your website? Probably not. This is exactly why my team at The Go! Agency developed a tool call Web Wisdom AI – which identifies every visitor to your website and sends you a detailed report. Based on data like that, you could see that your top industries could be something you never considered.

Rule #6: It Is Not All About You.
Ask questions. Be sociable. Listen. Just because you got this call (or are on this call) doesn’t mean that it can’t end soon or go downhill fast. People do business with people they like. Truth.

Rule #7: Thou Shalt Want to Prospect.
Nothing will kill a B2B salesperson or process more than one who is sitting at their desk, waiting by the computer or phone for a “hot lead” to be delivered. In fast-growing companies, intelligent prospecting has been proven to be a major growth stimulant, taking business through a tough time while competitors that rest on their laurels become stagnant. Get off your butt and get to action. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great tool here!

I’ve seen so many clients break these rules, and hurt their sales numbers in the process, which is why I wanted to share my rules with you. That being said, if you want to learn about which companies are visiting your website or if you want help executing outreach to your target audience on Linkedin, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my team of sales and marketing professionals at The Go! Agency. We’re happy to help!

How to Attract More Visitors to Your Website

By Christopher Tompkins

28Apr

Marketing, SEO

Two of the things that I am constantly asked during prospective client calls is how to create more conversions on their company website, and how to retarget the visitors who are currently visiting their website. Both of these are definitely doable things…but what happens when you find out that you don’t have enough traffic to create a meaningful result? You work on increasing that traffic!

In this article, I am going to share some tips on how to drive more traffic to your website (and keep them engaged). But, what I first think we need to talk about is the actual traffic you’re getting to your website today.

Do you know how many daily and monthly visitors you have?

Do you know where your traffic is being generated from?

Do you know what pages people are visiting and the time they spend on each page?

Do you know your current bounce rate?

Finding and tracking the answers to these questions is the first thing that you need to do before you try to execute any inbound marketing strategy. Why? Without this first step, how are you going to know how to effect change and drive success, if you are not sure how your website is performing?

Google Analytics (a free website tracking tool) will have all of these details for you – so make sure that you have this installed into your website, and you are reviewing the data often. Creating an inbound marketing campaign without having any idea as to how much traffic your site is even getting is not putting your best foot forward.

After you take a look through your website data, it is now time to start building those inbound visitors. Here are some of the best ways to drive traffic and start building the power of your website today:

Consistently Blog: having a blog posted on your website and regularly linking to each article from outside your website is a powerful tool to drive meaningful traffic. If you’re stuck on what blog you should write next, think about the questions you hear from your clients (or potential clients) and work backward. Make your blog a resource for them to utilize!

Social Media Marketing: utilize your website content when developing your social media posts and try to get out links to your website in nearly every post (where it is meaningful). You can include links to your blogs, specific service or product pages, and share fun facts about your team or company while linking back to your website.

Email Marketing: create a regular email marketing strategy that is developed to drive traffic to your website and stay on top of these! A consistent approach will drive consistent traffic. One thing you may consider is purchasing an email list to send your blasts or offers to. These emails would link to your website, and provide you a way of gaining new eyes on your site.

Choose a Landing Page That Converts: don’t just send traffic to the main homepage of your website, send new visitors to specific pages that you feel will convert them into a lead. Figure out some enticing incentives that your target audience would enjoy. Hide these incentives behind forms to capture their information for outreach at a later date. Having lots of incentives on your website is one way to establish yourself as a thought leader and increase your credibility. Not to mention – these incentives are great things to advertise across your other marketing channels.

Online Advertising: paid advertising is a great way to drive traffic. You can try Google Pay-Per-Click, Geo-Targeting, Geo-Fencing, and even social media advertising to get new visitors that may have never heard about your business to visit you online.

Link Building: a little bit more on the lengthy end of things, getting your posts shared on popular blogs and websites as guest posts (with those all-important links back to your website) will help you gain more traffic with little to no cost.

These are just a few of the quick ideas that you can incorporate to drive traffic. But a few last pieces of advice. Keep in mind the following if you are driving people to your website:

Advice #1: Make sure that your website is free of errors. Make sure that there are no typos. Make sure that the links/buttons work on your website. If you’ve written the content for the site yourself, take the time to copy the paragraphs on your site and run them through a spell checker and grammar checker. If a potential customer is comparing your site to a competitor – and yours has typos, and theirs doesn’t – I hate to tell you they’re probably not going to work with you. The same thing goes for broken links: go page by page through your website to make sure that the links you’re including work! (And do this often, as platforms change, updates are made, links that work one day, may end up broken the next).

Advice #2: Make sure that your website is responsive on mobile devices. There is absolutely nothing worse than a site that’s not responsive on a mobile device – it’s 2020 you must ensure that this is happening on your site. Read your blog; try clicking on your links. Remind yourself that this is how the majority of people will be viewing your site. If it’s tricky to navigate you need to get with a web designer pronto.

Advice #3: Take an audit to see how long it takes for your website to load – if it’s too long, your visitors will bounce. As a society, people have less and less patience these days. If someone has found you through social media, or Google, and have clicked on a link to your website, statistics say that they’re not going to wait very long for your site to load.

Making a good first impression is definitely one of the most valuable pieces when it comes to conversion, so if you want to drive traffic to your online point of sale – make sure it is conversion ready!

Should you need any help reviewing your site, or if you realize you need an entire web design overall, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team of talented sales and marketing professionals at The Go! Agency.

What is the ROI of Online Advertising?

By Christopher Tompkins

13Apr

Advertising

This is a subject that I cover on a nearly daily basis with prospective clients, consulting clients, and even sometimes our current clients at The Go! Agency: what is the ROI of online advertising?

Usually, when I hear questioning of the value of online advertising, I have an exact idea as to why it is coming up: ROI has not been proven.

Online advertising can be the one marketing activity that you execute online that you CAN track and provide ROI data. In fact – the whole process thrives on data. If your tracking methods are in place, not only will it be easy to prove the worth of your online advertising campaign, but you can also provide an equation that will allow you to scale it and change focus, as needed, to enhance results.

To help you understand the elements that go into this equation, I want to explain each of the key areas you need to consider prior to executing an online advertising campaign. This is due to the fact that these components will help you track, report, measure, and decide on campaign, audience and, most importantly, budget.

1. Google Analytics

By far the most powerful thing that you will need to track the ROI of online advertising will be Google Analytics. This is a tool, installed to your website, that measures all of your website traffic, tells you where they came from, what visitors are viewing, and will help track sales conversion. Many companies believe that this tool is only useful if you are doing a specific SEO (search engine optimization) or Google Ads (PPC or pay-per-click) campaign. This is incorrect.

The holy grail of online marketing is to organically show up on the first page of Google search results for your keywords…which means that you get on the first page of Google without having to pay for it. So Google is an important tool for tracking the importance and effectiveness of your campaign.

This free tool is easy for your website designer to install and begins tracking immediately. Note: it does not track retrospectively….so install it ASAP to begin tracking.

Want to use something easier with a friendlier interface? Go for it – but install Google Analytics anyway. Like I said above, you can’t recreate the traffic, so have it running in the background in case you change your mind.

2. Your Online Sales Figures

Whether you are using a shopping cart service like Shopify or WooCommerce, or another plugin to a WordPress site that your designer has touted as the next best thing since sliced bread – you need to have a realistic view of your sales.

Many times, since online sales can be automated (for product-focused companies), your team may not be paying close attention to where the sales are actually coming from. Many will rely on the customer choosing the right “Where Did You Hear About Us” option from a multiple-choice dropdown. This is not always the best place to hang your hat, more data is needed.

You need to know how many sales of what product you are receiving and at what rate. You need to see (using data gathered from your website or shopping cart analytics) as to where these people are coming from. How many people are using your coupon codes, and what are they? Did you know that nearly 100% of clients think that their sales are coming from a different channel than they actually are?

So why do you need to have all of this information? So that when you begin to jump into online advertising you know where to focus first. You can look at your sales trends, look at your popular traffic sources, and then “throw gasoline on them” as they say.

I’ve had clients tell us that Facebook Ads were not working for them. But after a bit of digging into their sales figures, we saw that we got nearly a 500% (yes, that much) return on their ad investment. But they told us $0. Obviously, a client would not be motivated to lie in this case so it was obvious, they just did not fully understand their sales figures. Talk about leaving money on the table.

3. Tracking Pixels

When I am on a sales call with a prospect, retargeting is a request that I hear again and again. In order to properly retarget you need to know two things: how many people go to your website (is it enough to warrant a retargeting campaign) and where are they mostly coming from (acquisition).

If you have a low number of website visitors, retargeting is going to be challenging unless you have a strong traffic-driving marketing focus that will get people to your website. Once people are there, THEN they can be retargeted to, but not before. Second, when I mentioned where they are coming from – sometimes this is a good indicator of where you can start your traffic driving focus.

So now that you know, what do you do? Each site or advertising service that you use will most likely have a corresponding tracking pixel that you can install into your website that will not only help you capture the audience that is visiting your website, but also will help you retarget this traffic via online advertising campaigns.

Tracking pixels look complicated but are straightforward. As a rule, what I always suggest is listing the main marketing channels that you would like to utilize to drive traffic to your website (maybe Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube) and get the associated tracking pixels installed onto your website.

If you are looking to generate new traffic outside of the trappings of social, you may also choose to do a Geo-Targeting, Geo-Fencing, or even IP Retargeting campaign. All of these can be tracked via Pixels too.

Above are my three key areas to focus on prior to executing your online advertising campaign. Depending on how you categorize ROI, you will need to find the way that works best for you to track it. Is your ROI based on the number of email addresses you will obtain? Then you need to know the numbers in your email database or email marketing program.

Is your ROI based on the number of form completions requesting a consultation or quote? It is crucial that you understand the level of inquiries your website is currently generating and how you will track this on a daily basis.

This goes back to the question: what is the actual ROI of online advertising? The answer is simple: it is up for you to define as a business. The issue: you need to know how you are going to track it prior to launching it. If you do not have a clear measurement strategy at hand, you will never truly know what is becoming of your investment and how you can maximize it.

Not tracking online advertising ROI adequately can result in overspending and a campaign that never reaches its full potential.

Crisis Communications 101: How to Let Your Customers Know and Keep Them Informed

By Christopher Tompkins

18Mar

Business

In light of the recent Coronavirus pandemic, the team and I have been increasingly approached by many of our friends, clients, and business associates as to how to best communicate how they are dealing with the situation. So, in other words, crisis public relations or crisis PR.

What you may be surprised to hear is that there are still countless numbers of companies who are still taking their time to put together their official statement!

In situations like this, swift, informative action is an absolute must – no matter how light or severe the situation actually is. But why don’t people act fast?

The reason is, quite frankly, because they are in the middle of a crisis, and in times of crisis it is challenging to pull together your team, thoughts, and create a solid plan of action when the environment you are working within could be compromised, high stress, or in a state of panic.

If this has happened to you (or if it has not), I have some solid tips for how to deal with crisis communications in order to inform your customers, clients, as well as the community that surrounds them. These tips will help you manage your reputation, avoid costly PR crises, and enable you to respond quickly when a potential crisis occurs.

Tip 1: Circle Your Wagons Immediately

When a negative situation arises that needs immediate attention, call a crisis meeting immediately. If you are able to have this meeting pre-crisis that is ideal. The goal of this meeting is to go over the full story of what is going on and what the phases of the communications should be.

The key players who will be in charge of delivering this message must be in attendance (you can pull people in through video conferencing if you need to). In this meeting you will discuss:

The full situation and the factual state of affairs
What key elements need to be addressed first
Who will be delivering the messages
How will they be distributed
What is the internal messaging strategy
What is the external messaging strategy

Having these pieces of information immediately will help you divide and conquer the messaging strategy and keeping everything as consistent as possible when the crisis hits.

Tip 2: It’s Not About You, It’s About Me

When you are deciding what key elements need to be addressed publicly first, take a step back and consider the standpoint of the people you will be distributing the messages to. Even though the situation may be dangerous or dire, you want to ensure your clients, shareholders, and community that your organization is on top of everything and will ensure that the situation will be handled swiftly and with great care and attention.

Businesses sometimes will go into defense mode in their crisis communication strategies, but this is the wrong approach. Take accountability and reveal actionable steps to rectify the situation to ensure business continuity.

Tip 3: Get Your Story Straight

Whether you have 20 locations or just one virtual location, having everyone on the same page is an absolute must. In order to do this, you will have to make sure that you draft a message that covers all of the questions and concerns that your clients, shareholders, and the community will have.

In crisis situations, it is imperative that you communicate with your internal team FIRST. Empower them to have all of the details that they may be called on to share in the event of being questioned by anyone, including the media. Empower them also to have all of the pertinent details, and have a person they can refer questions out of their realm of expertise to.

If you have a large company, an internal email with a followup by each fo the department heads with their teams is a must. If you have a small company, direct communication is important. Never simply send a canned statement without having any followup. By having solid communication lines open you will create a united front that will benefit your public image and put peoples’ minds to rest.

Tip 4: Start Spreading the News

You should always know all of your main communication channels that you can shoot a message out electronically in order to do a blanketing of the messaging to your audience. Even better? Know how to access them!

Some of the main deterrents for sending out messages I have heard in the past from clients is: I can’t find the login details, I don’t know if we use that account, do we have an account on Facebook, etc. Yes, these are real responses.

So maybe create a crisis response list, including login details, so that if you need to move fast anyone can step up to the plate and get the message out there. Here are some of the most important channels that you should consider:

Email: send out a blast addressing the matter to your email lists
Press Release: distribute an electronic press release utilizing your preferred service
Website: post your statement on your website somewhere prominent (as a pop-up or as a spot on your homepage)
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram): create statements that are specifically designed for each social channel and make sure that you have the full coverage needed

Internally you can also create posters or flyers to keep clients and staff updated on the process.

Tip 5: Keep the Communication Coming

Just because you sent out your initial crisis communication, doesn’t mean that you are done. Any serious situation that may cause concern or scrutiny of your practices needs to have additional communications as new developments occur. If the situation gets more serious – draft a message that reflects that. If the situation gets better – communicate that through another communication.

The level of how many of these that you would want to be sending out is really determined by the seriousness of the crisis event and the intensity of your audience in terms of how they are scrutinizing your every move. Just know that one communication never cuts it with an engaged audience.

There are still more elements and tips that can be added to this list:

Creating FAQs about the situation for staff to reference
Video communications or a live statement
Press conference
Reaching out to local media

In times of crisis, the biggest takeaway here is that swift action is the best action. The longer you leave items unaddressed, the more serious the repercussions will be. Bouncing back from backlash for some businesses can be impossible, so focusing on a proactive approach is the way forward.

Successful Professional Social Distancing: The Five Point Work from Home Answer to COVID-19

By Christopher Tompkins

17Mar

Business

With the Coronavirus pandemic reaching new heights, social distancing is something that is being suggested to contain the spread of the disease. If this is being suggested now, it could become one of the new norms for the months ahead. What this means for businesses is that employee travel into the office may be something of the past very soon. But if you have never worked from home, how can you successfully comply professionally with the social distancing due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) without hurting your work output?

At The Go! Agency our employees are on a rotating schedule which allows them to work remotely on a regular basis. It is a great way to motivate as well as mix things up to keep our approach fresh and the flow of ideas consistent. This usually happens after 3 months of work, and when we switch an employee to an in-office and remote schedule, we empower our employees and set them up for success.

Over the past 10 years we have seen what works and what doesn’t and see many of the same pitfalls hit again and again. So, in the times of social distancing, Coronavirus, and working from your home office, my team urged me to share the 5 Point System that we use internally in order for you to be successful in your remote work from your home office for the days and weeks ahead.

Point #1. Make Sure You Have the Right Tools

Take a look around your office and desk. What items do you use every day? What items do you never need? This can be everything from obvious items (computer, keyboard, mouse, reference files) to items you may forget (mousepad, back support pillow, stress ball, books you refer to).

To ensure you are able to jump right in, make sure that your home office has all of the comforts of your actual office.

Also, don’t forget the basics: pads, pencils, pens, post-it-notes, or any other normal office supplies that you may not have access to at home. Finally – don’t forget those physical client files (or important files) that you may need. Anything that is important and not available digitally should be taken with you.

Point #2. Make Sure You Have the Right Setting

Now we need to move over to your home office. In the best-case scenario you will have a room that you can dedicate to your office preferably with a door. This is important if you need privacy (odds are that you won’t be the only one at home with social distancing hitting schools and many workplaces at once). This will help you keep distractions at bay and enable you to have phone and video calls (which will probably increase during this time) uninterrupted.

You may also want to get a sign or a symbol to put on the closed door when on an important call so that your family or housemates don’t barge in. While your home office doesn’t need to be dedicated to a full room (if you are trapped for space), make sure that you are somewhere that keeps you out of the main traffic flow and keeps distractions at a minimum.

What I always tell my staff is that you should NEVER work on the couch, sitting with a laptop resting on your thighs. You should create a work environment that mirrors your current one. If you are sitting at a desk, make sure that you have a desk and chair friendly environment at home.

This will help you easily stay focused. Key words of wisdom: working from bed or couch (both places your mind associates with rest) and you will struggle to stay focused.

Point #3. Make Sure You Have the Right Access

As The Go! Agency is a marketing and sales agency, we need to have login access to hundreds of different accounts and services. My guess is that you probably do as well. What you may not think about when you are scrambling to prepare is that like many professionals, you may have saved your passwords (to Google Chrome or the browser you are using) so that when you go to a particular site, you are already logged in. This will not be the case at home.

Also, for some sites (especially Google or social media related services) if you are logging in from a different location (which they pick up using your IP address) you may get locked out of your account as a security precaution. So before you work from home officially for an extended period, try logging into all of the sites that you use from home to make sure you have the ability – and if you can’t log in, troubleshoot them from the office as soon as you can.

I also like to have a printed list of passwords as well, just in case. If you do decide to do this – make sure that you are truly careful with this precious info! And don’t forget your wi-fi! You need to ensure that you have the right bandwidth to handle your daily tasks.

Point #4. Make Sure You Limit Distractions

Are you watching Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ at work? Listening to music on blast? Then don’t do it at home when you are social distancing. Again, try to mimic the environment that you have at the office. Do you have a good view of the pool?

Sounds like a serene place to set your desk…if your family is not playing in the pool and making a ruckus. Do you work with your dog on your lap at the office?

Then don’t do it at home to start off. This is where really sticking to a solid routine comes in.

Point #5. Make Sure You Are Working From Work, Not On Your Home

When you are in the office you have a very specific routine, right? You get in, power on your computer, go make yourself a cup of coffee, chat with employees about a project, and strategize. So when working from home during this time of social distancing, you should not start your day by having a conference call while making your breakfast and folding laundry.

Do not alter your routine too much, and keep to your normal schedule. The beauty here is that you will have extra time in the morning, evening, and your lunch hour.

This is where you can be productive and start executing work-life balance. Grab a workout. Clean up the kitchen. Play with your pet. Just make sure that you are still clocking in and clocking out when you are puttering around the house.

Distractions to routine can really hurt your effectiveness at the task at hand and sometimes make your work hours a bit skewed.

By following this 5 point system, as well as having a talk with your loved ones to create boundaries, you will be able to mirror your office success at home so that you can continue to get your work done while practicing social distancing. If you have any questions about anything above or would like more tips, please reach out. During this sensitive time, we all need to help one another not only survive, but thrive in the face of adversity.

The Importance of Online Reviews: The Secret to Google SEO Success

By Christopher Tompkins

16Mar

Reviews & Reputation Management, SEO

It should come as no surprise that client reviews are crucial to building your credibility with prospective clients and consumers. Let’s not forget that they also are a major help in converting those prospects into paying customers. These first-person accounts speak volumes as to the quality and value of your products and/or services.

For over 10 years, clients have been asking me about what the best ways are to maximize the exposure of their reviews and how to apply them in their marketing campaigns – both offline and online. During this time we have helped our clients feature these in television advertisements, radio advertisements, billboards, vehicle wraps, signs, printed materials (brochures, flyers, booklets, folders, business cards), online advertisements, email marketing, social media marketing, press releases, and blogs.

But one thing many of these clients were not focused on was something that could take their entire online marketing campaign to the next level: online reviews!

Online reviews, that have been earned and posted on Google, Facebook, Yelp and countless other review sites, have secret search engine optimization (SEO) power that many companies overlook.

Whether you are a local roofing business or an international financial conglomerate – SEO is something that is crucial to your success in this search-driven world. Coming up on the first page of Google is something nearly all marketers are striving for (or should be striving for) on an ongoing basis.

What many marketers have to do to gain that top spot on Google is to pay for a sponsored listing via Google Ads (previously Google AdWords). While it may seem like an easy option, it can prove to be costly. We have worked with clients before that were spending in excess of $10K to $45K+ per month to land that top spot. If you have the right budget, this is a definite win, but if not, enhanced SEO through online reviews is a route that you should be exploring.

Proper SEO campaign implementation focuses on organic SEO – which are the results that turn up that are NOT clickable ads when you search on Google. There are many ways to build your organic search engine ranking (link building, on-website optimization, keyword embedding). One of the forgotten pieces is an online review campaign built on requesting and earning positive online third-party reviews.

Why? The short answer is that there are many reasons why online reviews are good for your Google search engine ranking. Google is the largest and most-used search engine out there, so having your listing be result number 1 will increase your website traffic drastically, thus increasing conversions.

Think about a typical search that you would perform on Google for a business. Depending on the category of the business, you may notice that the top Google search results would be from Facebook reviews, Google reviews, TripAdvisor reviews, Yelp reviews, and more. The more sites you cover and the more quality reviews that you get – you could cover that first full page of Google with just glowing customer or client reviews. This would result in not only SEO success, but also increases in onsite conversions.

Now let’s go into some more specific benefits of executing an Online Review campaign:

1. Proves Your Worth
Having online reviews for your business tells Google that they can trust you. Meaning these positive reviews will contribute to your domain authority. Third-party endorsements help Google realize that your website claims are valuable, real, credible and, as a result, your content deserves higher rankings within the Google search algorithm.

2. Enhances Google My Business Listing Conversions
If you have four- or five-star reviews on your Google My Business account, studies prove that you will get more clickthroughs from your GMB listing to your website. This will increases the opportunity for you to convert that website traffic into sales.

3. Hack Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Ranking Listing:
If you are able to consistently gain quality online reviews (more than four stars and above with comments) Google will use this to determine where your business shows up on SERP. Lots of positive reviews could lead to higher ranking above and beyond your direct competitors, who may be missing this approach altogether.

4. Want More Conversions? You Need More Traffic!
By showing up higher in the organic results, you will gain more clicks to your website. This additional traffic will enable you to increase the amount of opportunities you have to convert this traffic to sales. Also, this traffic can easily be tied to your top or mid-funnel activities (email drips, IP retargeting, online advertising).

5. Consistent Quality Reviews = More Website Updates = More Trust From Google
Having your reviews posted to your website (either automatically or manually) will place new content on your website. The more you add new content, the more that Google will come back to check on your content. It will also let Google know they need to come back often to reindex your page. This will help Google better understand your credibility and award you with higher search engine rankings.

6. Respond and Reap SEO Rewards
Receiving online reviews is definitely a positive result (as you can see from above), but if you want to build even more SEO power simply respond to them! Whether they are good or bad, every review (no matter if it has a comment or not) should get a thoughtful response from your organization or company. You have the ability to amp up your SEO rankings by keeping the communication stream going as it builds trust with not only your customers, but also trust with Google itself.

7. The Long-Tail Effect
Imagine that you begin to have multiple clients writing reviews about your amazing “social media marketing services.” By a few clients writing “social media marketing services” in their review, it draws the attention of Google. Google sees this as an important and weighted long-tail keyword. So when a new prospect searches for the phrase “social media marketing services” on Google, your listing is more likely to be be shown towards the top of the organic search results.

These types of results are ones that those companies pay a lot of money for. Remember that $45K per month budget to be number 1 in the Google search results that I mentioned before?

8. Local Business? Can’t Miss Opportunity
According to research, review ratings are the biggest driver of clicks in local Google search engine ranking pages. This means that those professionals with local brick and mortar locations, by gaining reviews online you can expect higher rankings and more clicks through to your website.

9. Grab Over 91% of Online Traffic
Having a higher organic listing based on the boost from online reviews will increase the odds that your website will be on the first page of the Google search results. Anyone that lives on that first page of Google search results will be gaining over 91% of the web traffic for the search query that generated the page.

10. Genuine Reviews Reduce Website Bounce Rate
One thing not favored by Google: a website that has a high bounce rate. A bounce rate is calculated as the time when someone goes to visit your website and “bounces” away from it after a mere few seconds. Google understands this “bounce” as the user indicating that where they originally clicked through from may have had a message that was not continued when they visited your site.

This is akin to “bait and switch” techniques that have been around for many years.

By having online reviews that are prominently featured online in Google searches you will benefit from the potential customer or client reviewing these before visiting your site. This will lead to the user gaining a better understanding of your company and services/products. So if they choose to click through to your website – they know what to expect and will not immediately “bounce” off your site. This will help you keep and enhance your search engine rankings on a regular basis.

Still on the fence about the power of online reviews to enhance SEO? There are hundreds of articles out there with more information that you can peruse that not only mirror my story, but shout the benefits even more aggressively.

From my perspective, this tends to be the one secret SEO trick that many people overlook. Because of this, it can provide lots of competitive advantage to your company. Online reviews are a crucial piece of your overall online marketing campaign that could be the tipping point of your appearing on page 1 of Google searches or page 10.

Want to get started without having to do any of the setup, execution, and management? We have developed a Reputation Management and Online Review Service that will have you harnessing the SEO power of everything listed above without you having to do any of the setup, execution, or management. Our service starts from as low as $199 per month (not including setup). If you would like to get started today or see a demo of our service, please call or email our team.

How to Maximize ROI With Online Reviews: A Quick Start Guide

By Christopher Tompkins

16Mar

Reviews & Reputation Management

Working with tight marketing budgets is not a new trend: it is something that business professionals have been dealing with forever. No matter if you have an endless marketing budget or a tight marketing budget, ROI is something that must be consistently monitored based on key performance indicators (KPIs).

One of the tricks of the trade in marketing is trying to grease the ROI wheel with low-cost items that will garner a high, meaningful benefit. Whether it be clout, credibility, exposure, sales, leads, or engagement: the more of these that we can get for less the better.

Enter Online Reviews.

For example, have you ever had a prospect request a reference who they could reach out to and discuss their experience working with your company? I would venture a guess that whatever your past client/customer will say to this prospect will do more for moving the sale closer to conversion than anything else. This third-party endorsement will position you as an authority more so than 20 presentation decks, videos, or hour-long sales calls combined.

This is where the importance of online reviews become relevant. In my previous blog (Online Reviews: Your Secret to SEO Success – click here to read), I went through all of the SEO power that you will gain from online reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and others. To save you time, here are the top benefits that you will reap:

More traffic to your website,
Rank higher in Google searches,
Increase onsite (your website) conversions,
Be more trusted by Google above your competition.

Now that we are clear on the benefits, I would like to show you the exact steps that you can take to get started on the journey to creating your own Online Review campaign.

To get started, you will need to compile your customer and evangelist data. This data will be in spreadsheet format (CSV file) and will contain a full list of all of the clients or customers that you have worked with. When choosing your contacts you want to use, ensure that your focus is on individuals who would be more apt to provide favorable reviews of your company.

While all reviews deliver great ROI, ensure that a majority of them are positive. This is the best-case scenario. If not, please note that both positive and negative reviews present salient opportunities.

A negative review presents to your team the opportunity to win a soured customer back. To go one step further, perhaps you didn’t even realize that this client was upset in the first place.

Now let’s move onto evangelists who are your business associates, networking community, and referral sources. Any professionals who can vouch for your company or organization’s value and credibility should be added to your formal list of evangelists.

Now what you will need is a CSV (comma-separated value) file with the following information in each column:

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Having the data formatted in this manner will allow you to easily manipulate it later in your email marketing system.

Below are the steps that you need to take to extract the customer data to execute your Online Review campaign:

How to Export Contacts from Hubspot: Once you are logged into your Hubspot account, navigate to Contacts on the top tab, and then click on the subpage Contacts. Once there, on the left-hand side of the page you will see All Contacts with an Options button.

Click the arrow next to options and choose Export. On the next screen click Export and you will be emailed a link once the export is complete. You will need to clean up the CSV when you get it so that it only includes the above data. If you need to separate name files – use the equation below.

How to Export Contacts from Salesforce: Once logged in, click on the “Reports” tab and select “New Report”. On the “Accounts & Contacts” submenu select “Contacts & Accounts”. Click “Create” and then choose the correct fields for export.

In the preview selection remove the following Fields: Salutations, Title, Mailing Street, Mailing City, Mailing State/Province, Mailing Zip/Postal Code, Mailing Country, Phone, Mobile, Fax, Accounting Owner, and Account Name. Click “Run Report” after deselecting the fields. Click “Export Details”.Click on the “Export” button and save CSV file on your computer.

How to Export Contact from Constant Contact: Once logged in click Contacts and then click Email Lists. You will then need to choose the name of the list that you want to export to CSV.

Now click Export and click on the information you want to include in the CSV which would be First name, Last name, and Email address. Next, click Export and then click Activity. There you will see where you can download your contact file once it is completed.

How to Export Contacts from MailChimp: Once you are in your account go to the Audience tab. Choose the Audience you would like to export.

Then, click View Contacts and then Export Audience. Once your download is complete you will receive an email or you can view it right on your account. If you need some assistance to separate the name fields, see the expert tip below.

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Expert Tip: How to Separate a Full Name in One Cell to First and Last Name in Excel Documents and Numbers Documents

A frustrating aspect of dealing with customer data is when the full name is contained in one cell. Since you want to make the outreach emails personal, ensure that you separate the first and last names into individual cells on your CSV document.

Here is a quick tip to separate a full name field in Excel and Numbers so that you can easily fix this tricky issue:

How to Separate Name Field in Excel Documents: If the full name is in Column A, add an empty column by right-clicking on the top of the column next to the existing column of names, then select Insert. Then click the Data tab and navigate to the top of the column with your contacts’ names to highlight the entire column.

Now click Text to Columns and when the next window pops up choose “Delimited” and click Next. Then on the next pop-up deselect Tab and select Space. Next up, you will need to click Next and then Finish. Now you just have to rename the column headers to reflect your changes and you are done!

How to Separate Name Field in Numbers Documents: First make sure that the first name is in Column A (starting from cell A2). Create two new blank columns next to it (B and C). Next you will need to copy this code into B2 cell.

=LEFT(A2,(SEARCH(” “,A2)-1))

Then click on the cell (which you will see has the first name) and drag the equation down to the entire sheet and presto – first name populated!

Next paste this code into the cell C2:

=MID(A2,(SEARCH(” “,A2)+1),20)

Then click on the cell (which you will see has the last name) and drag the equation down to the entire sheet until all last names are populated!

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If you are not using any of the above and are using Gmail, Mac Mail, or Outlook – simply do a Google search for “how to export contacts in NAME” and review the results.

Now that you have your fully formatted CSV file – you are ready for the next step: deciding what websites you would like to generate reviews on. Google will be the first link you will want to choose, as this is a powerhouse when realizing a solid ROI for your efforts. You want to go through the many review sites that are relevant to your industry which could include the following:

Once you choose the sites, you need to find the URL of your review page on the corresponding site. So if you go to TripAdvisor, go to the link where people can place reviews for your business and save that URL. You will use that in your email blast to your audience so that they can simply click the URL and go to the page where the review will be placed.

Now you are ready to craft the email messages. I would suggest that you do a drip campaign consisting of at least 3 messages requesting a review, making it as personal as possible. Please note: if doing a drip, make sure that you ensure that if someone does leave a review, that they do not get the remaining email messages (if any are left to send).

Now you are ready to launch your email campaign. Do a mail merge (or if using your email program, personalizing it using the tools available on that platform) and include the links directly to your online review sites.

This is an extremely cost-effective way to gain more online reviews, bolster your SEO power on Google, increase traffic and, in effect, conversions on your website. Although if you are a busy professional this may look like a daunting time commitment.

With this in mind, The Go! Agency has developed a leading Reputation Management and Online Review service which handles the entire process for your business.

Our team handles the setup, execution, and management of all online reviews. In addition to this, we also offer a kiosk service, text back review service, and more. Call or email our team today to learn how you can get started.

Positive Influences: The 3 Types of Social Media Influencers

By Christopher Tompkins

27Jan

Instagram, Social Media

In our previous blog, we explained the basics of influencer marketing. Now that you know what it is and why you should do it, let’s discuss the kinds of influencers available. We will mostly be referencing Instagram, as that is a very popular platform for influencer marketing.

One quick note before we dive in to this topic: these definitions are somewhat flexible. Some experts swear that macro-influencers and celebrity influencers are the same, while other experts roll their eyes and patiently explain that macro-influencers are internet celebrities and celebrity influencers are famous offline as well. Another marketer might try to persuade you to believe that macro and micro should be based on reach rather than reputation–which will probably be countered by a different marketing expert shouting that such a definition would mean Doug the Pug is more influential than Grumpy Cat. (If you want to watch marketers engage in heated debates about industry lingo, simply attend any marketing meet-up and loudly declare, “As far as online influence goes, Logan Paul is pretty much on the same level as Kylie Jenner.” We recommend that you view the ensuing chaos from a safe distance, however.)

The point we’re trying to make is this: definitions can fluctuate depending on who is defining the term. Our team goes by the following standards, but you might find slightly different iterations elsewhere.

Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers are social media influencers who have massive followings. Some marketing experts advise judging macro-influencers by different metrics for each social media platform. Influencers on Instagram could be considered macro if they have over 100,000 followers each. However, these same influencers would need at least 250,000 followers on Youtube to be considered macro-influencers because YouTube is more widely used than Instagram.

Additionally, sometimes macro-influencers are grouped together with celebrity influencers. In the above example, we mentioned Kylie Jenner and Logan Paul. The former is a model and member of a famous family, while the latter is a wildly popular vlogger. However, Kylie is famous outside of the internet (modeling, being related to the Kardashians/Jenners) while Logan is known almost exclusively for his online presence. We would classify Kylie (109 million followers on Instagram) as a celebrity influencer, and Logan (who has a not-unimpressive 16.3 million followers on Instagram) would be considered a macro-influencer.

The enormous reach of the macro-influencer also leads to drawbacks in using these influencers. The larger the audience, the higher the cost: macro-influencers are just more expensive than other options. On a related if counterintuitive note, as the influencer’s following grows, the followers tend to feel more distant. Studies have shown that followers engage less often with influencers who have large followings.

Micro-influencers
Micro-influencers are niche markets. A micro-influencer has an above-average following (generally anywhere between several thousand and a few hundred thousand followers), but appeals to a very specific market. For example, Instagram has several micro-influencers who focus on yoga. Summer Perez (@summerperez) is a yoga enthusiast and mom who encourages her 192,000 followers by posting polished pics of her own yoga poses–interspersed with candid shots of her adorable children. Carling Harps (@carlingnicole) is a yoga teacher with over 54,000 followers. In addition to yoga workouts and poses, she gives her followers glimpses of her life in Northern California (often featuring Yokai, her cute Italian greyhound).

Traditional social media networks are not micro-influencers only habitat, though. Bloggers can also be considered micro-influencers. Moms and dads who blog about the trials and triumphs of modern parenting are often sought out by marketers. These parents are not traditional social media influencers, but their impact cannot be denied.

Micro-influencers have two main benefits. First, followers in small audiences tend to engage much more often than followers in large audiences. Second, micro-influencers are cheaper than macro-influencers because of their limited audience. However, this means that you will get more engagement for less money!

Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are everyday people who enjoy a specific brand. These individuals do not necessarily need to have large followings, although their savvy use of social media dictates that they probably have a decent-sized audience. While some are given free products to review (especially true with beauty products), brand ambassadors might not be paid at all. Have you ever tagged a restaurant, store, or product in a post? Have you ever been so impressed by a product or service that you tweeted about it, tagging the company? You were acting as a sort of brand ambassador! Even brick-and-mortar brands can use brand ambassadors: for example, brands that encourage customers to take pictures of themselves wearing that brand’s merch or logos and post the pics to social media.

As we mentioned earlier, some experts have different criteria for each type of influencer. Our next blog will go over some basic dos and don’ts for influencer marketing.

Do you need help with your social media marketing strategy? We have you covered! Visit our website today for a free consultation!

Want an easy reference to help you remember the different types of influencers? We’ve got you covered! (Right click to save to your computer)

The Ultimate Social Media Questionnaire

By Christopher Tompkins

13Jan

Social Media

Are you ready to market your brand on social media? Before you set up your first profile, you need to ask yourself some questions. Social media marketing is more than just spreading the word: it’s about connecting with your customers. You must carefully consider your approach We’ve gathered the top twenty questions you need to answer before your brand’s social media debut.

Part I. Your Brand
1. What is the tone of your brand?
2. What products or services are you trying to promote?
3. What products or services form the core of your brand?

Part II. Your Customers
4. Who are your ideal customers?
5. What problems do your ideal customers face?
6. How does your company help solve those problems?
7. Where are your customers geographically?

Part III. Your Social Media Presence
8. What are your ultimate goals for social media?
9. Which social media platforms work best for your company?
10. How can you incorporate compelling content into your brand’s message?
11. What are the most important keywords for your industry?
12. How does your online presence compare to that of your competitors?
13. How much time can you invest into social media?
14. How often should you post during the week? During the day?
15. Which scheduling software is right for you?

Part IV. Your Content
16. When is the best time to post your content?
17. What content do your customers find most appealing?
18. Who are your industry’s top social media and online influencers?
19. What types of original content can you create?
20. What visuals should you incorporate into your content?

Do you have all of the answers? If not, it’s time to get to work!

The Go! Agency team can help you answer these questions and get started with one of the most effective avenues of marketing available today! We are dedicated to spreading your message and have worked with clients from a wide variety of industries, customizing and optimizing hundreds of social media campaigns.

Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help your business level up!

Your Marketing Checklist for January 2020

By Christopher Tompkins

23Dec

Marketing

There’s a lot going on at the start of a new year! When January rolls around, you’ll probably still be recovering from the holidays, which puts you in a bad position for kicking off your 2020 social media marketing. That’s why I’m here!

I’m sharing my marketing checklist that’s going to get your business off to a great start in January. If you want to improve your 2020 marketing and stay ahead of your competitors, check it out!

The Checklist:

1. Evaluate your 2019 marketing results to identify areas in need of improvement.
Look back at how your social media campaigns performed in 2019. Most likely, some of them were more successful than others. If you want to improve those results in 2020, look for trends. Maybe your blog content performed well, but users weren’t as engaged with your ads. This tells you what to improve in the new year!

2. See how you compare to your competitors.
Spying on your competition is a key skill for any marketer, but it’s especially important at the start of the year. What’s working for them? What areas are they missing that you can fill? Figuring this out early is going to be a key part of creating a 2020 digital marketing strategy.

3. Create S.M.A.R.T. marketing goals that align with overall business goals.
S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. This means they’re things that you can track and check on throughout the year. Otherwise, you’d just wait until next December to find that you hadn’t reached them! They should also tie into your larger business goals. If your business goal is to increase sales, then a marketing goal could be to increase traffic to your catalogue page by February.

4. Determine if your 2019 target audience is still accurate.
Did your business undergo some changes last year? If so, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re still appealing to the right audience. Even if you just expanded your offerings, that could open you up to a new market that you should be targeting!

5. Consult with a social media expert to create a strategy for 2020.
You don’t want to take chances with next year’s marketing strategy, so talk to someone who knows what they’re doing. Once you’ve gathered all your information, talk to an industry professional who can give you real, actionable advice on how to achieve your marketing goals in 2020.

6. Create a content calendar to better plan out your strategy for the year.
After you have goals and your plan outlined, assign everything specific dates! Laying out a plan for the year is a great way to make sure that your strategy is cohesive. Each month should flow into the next. When you take the time to make a content calendar, it makes the rest of the year so much easier!

7. Double-check that you’re on the same social media platforms as your target audience.
Social media platforms come and go, and so do their audiences. Whether you didn’t check this last year or your audience could have migrated, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re still on the optimal sites. The last thing you want is to be marketing on Facebook when your audience decided they preferred Twitter!

8. Share your social media channels on your website.
This one is a no-brainer, but you wouldn’t believe how often I see people who don’t have their social media on their website! It’s not that hard, so just link to each of your channels on your “Contact” page. Otherwise, you’re making it too easy for people to ignore your social media presence!

Plan Ahead
If your social media strategy doesn’t get a great start, it’s going to be harder to see the results you want. So get moving! Use this checklist to make the most of January! By following the above steps, I’m sure you’ll be able to create a strategy that serves your business’ goals and sets you up for success in 2020.

Do you want some individualized help with your social media marketing? Just set up a free consultation with The Go! Agency!

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