Digital Marketing

While the need for digital marketing may seem obvious in 2014, there are still clients who remain reluctant to dive in. Here are 4 steps to lead them to water:

Show them how active their target really is online.

We worked with a senior marketing team who was unconvinced that digital marketing was right for their target. We created a consumer profile that showed who our consumer was, from demographics to psychographics, and included media consumption information that was already familiar to them (TV watching, etc). Once they were nodding along, we layered in digital consumption information, such as the multiscreen effect of the target watching TV with a tablet/phone in their hands. We further showed how media (magazine) properties had augmented their traditional offering with digital, and were enjoying stronger consumer engagement as a result. Show them how their competition is succeeding in digital marketing. Following up on the consumer discussion, we presented some key examples of the competition’s digital marketing activity that showed resulting deep consumer engagement with the brand, including a study in which digital activity could be tracked to sales. In addition, we demonstrated live how targeted advertising works, doing a Google search for a competitor’s brand, and then watching the brand pop up and follow us during our subsequent web browsing. Show them what gold standard digital marketing is from companies/brands they respect. We took a break from being followed by the competition to review work from brands like P&G’s Always (“Like A Girl”), to show how digital marketing has become a central part of brand-building rather than an add-on. Test and Learn: Give them something bite-sized to try. While our client was reluctant to green light a large portion of spend in the digital space, they were newly intrigued by and open to exploring digital marketing. We proposed several projects with varying degrees of commitment and complexity, from a standalone iAd effort that could be tracked and benchmarked against all other iAds for engagement, to a fuller social media effort around education in their industry. They chose the former, and we delivered a campaign that exceeded Apple’s engagement benchmark by 140% and resulted in 50,000 location searches for product availability. And now the question isn’t IF they are going to do digital marketing, but what the scope will be. Give these 4 steps a try, and get your clients excited about digital marketing! Feel free to share out if you find this valuable, and let me know how it goes– I’m eager to hear about your experience.

An introduction to A/B testing

What’s better? Thoughtful, researched decision making or decision making based on a hunch? The answer is obvious but unfortunately many companies take the later approach and then are left wondering why they aren’t getting the results they want. There are simple ways to take the first approach and one of those ways is A/B testing, especially when it comes to your digital marketing strategy. According to Optimizely, a company that offers software for A/B testing, A/B testing is defined as, “A simple way to test changes to your page against the current design and determine which ones produce positive results. It is a method to validate that any new design or change to an element on your webpage is improving your conversion rate before you make that change to your site code.” Simple is really the key word here. A/B testing can be simple and require only minimal resources. A/B testing is not just for your website. A/B testing can apply to multiple marketing channels including email, website, social media, and blogs. A/B testing is simply a split testing method that compares marketing variables to identify the one that brings a better response rate. Here are a few website components I encourage you to test:

• Placement of Call to Action button- try placing the call to action button on a different location on your page and see if placement matters and which placement gets the most clicks.

• Headline- switch up the headline on your home page and compare which headline produces the most website traffic

• Copy length- try shortening or lengthening text and compare results

• Navigation Bar- determine which pages on your website bring in the most traffic. Then, switch the order of your site navigation bar and measure which order brings in the highest number of clicks for the pages that are most important for converting leads to customers

• Test images- try switching up the images on your website to see if it increases engagement

A/B testing can be fun. I encourage you to experiment, look at results, make adjustments, and keep at it! From my experience, A/B testing can make a difference on your bottom line.

What I say about my business may not be the keywords my clients are searching for …

Why do I care about keywords? My interest in digital marketing is personal. It is about my business. I hadn’t thought that I would need to know as much about keyword gap analysis as I apparently need to! As a “solopreneur” I have built my business of seven years entirely as a result of relationships and word of mouth. My questions for digital marketing were: How can digital marketing impact/grow my business? What is different about it than what I have already done and continue to do, build relationships by doing good work? What I learned almost immediately is the power of keywords. I thought I knew about keywords. I have used them in my own Google searches. What I had not understood was keyword gap – the difference between what I am saying about my business and what my clients and potential clients are looking for when they are looking for me. The difference between these two is the keyword gap. A short analysis with the keyword planner on Google for my website (www.mapthemind.org) revealed a huge gap! I thought I was differentiating and clarifying my work by calling myself a visual facilitator. I was, within my community of practice, which largely referred to themselves as graphic facilitators. I started using “visual facilitator” five years ago, and in that time, this term has been more widely adopted among my colleagues, however, when I do a keyword analysis, it is clear that “graphic facilitator” is the keyword that my clients and potential clients are using far more. So my decision to commit to visual facilitator as my title, is fine, but the result of not using “graphic facilitator” on my website is one that is keeping me from being found by the majority of people looking for someone like me. The plan? For starters, based on the recommendations from Krista LaRiviere, I should put a strategy in place to address this keyword gap. First of all I need to start using “graphic facilitation” at least one to three times per page on my website. Second, I need to be more intentional about building up my unbranded keyword – visual facilitation. In addition I need to do a competitive analysis to see how my colleagues are doing in their use of keywords for our profession. After the analysis, the keyword gap should begin to close once I build a bridge between myself and my clients that is beyond word of mouth. This is my hope … Will this help?  

Celebrate National Cheesecake Day at Buttercup Grill & Bar

If you dine often at Buttercup I’m sure you have heard me constantly recommending our cheesecake, my favorite dessert.  Great news! Cheesecake day is approaching! July 30 marks the annual holiday celebrating CHEESECAKE. As food holidays go, Cheesecake Day is one of my favorites! At Buttercup Grill & Bar we serve a creamy New York style cheesecake served with blueberry sauce year round. This cheesecake recipe has been developed and perfected by my mom, original owner of Buttercup Grill & Bar. We sell this cheesecake by the slice or you can purchase a whole cheesecake. Please call your nearest Buttercup 24 hours prior to pick-up so we can have it ready to go for you! In honor of this fabulous cheesecake holiday, Buttercup is sharing its top secret recipe! INGREDIENTS:

15 graham crackers, crushed 2 tablespoons butter, melted 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese 1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup milk 4 eggs 1 cup sour cream 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
2.	In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.
3.	In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

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