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What to Expect Working with an Outsourced Digital Marketing Agency

Outsourced Marketing

When it comes to marketing your business, there are a lot of options available to you. Not all marketing efforts, however, are created equal.

Do you know what outsourced digital marketing is? How much does it cost to outsource marketing? How exactly does it work? Here’s what to expect working with an outsourced digital marketing agency.

What Does It Mean to Outsource Your Marketing?

The word ‘outsource,’ by definition, means to “obtain (goods or a service) from an outside or foreign supplier, especially in place of an internal source,” according to Google.

Therefore, as Precision Marketing Group puts it, outsourced marketing is “the engagement of a professional marketing firm to serve as your own firm’s marketing department.” Simply put, outsourced marketing means letting a third party take care of your marketing efforts. You then have more time to do what you do best—which is run your business.

Who Can You Expect on an Outsourced Marketing Team?

Well, depending on the outsourced marketing agency’s specialties, you could work in close contact with a variety of different marketers. At Digital Storyteller, for example, our team is made up of:

  • A Creative Director
  • Social Media Manager
  • Social Media Coordinator
  • Social Media Specialist
  • A Client Success Manager
  • SEO Manager
  • Graphic & Web Design Manager
  • Junior Graphic Designer
  • And numerous content specialists!

Why Would You Hire an Outsourced Marketing Team?

By hiring an outsourced marketing team, you allow your team to place focus on running your business.

An outsourced digital marketing agency covers every aspect of marketing so you don’t have to worry about:

  • Posting creative, consistent content
  • SEO optimization
  • Managing your online reputation
  • Website design and branding
  • Staying up to date with social media updates and algorithms 

The list goes on…

As we mentioned previously, by hiring an outsourced digital marketing team, you gain access to creative directors, social media experts, content specialists, and more, at a fraction of the cost it would take to hire an in-house team.

All the support you need is wrapped up into one flat monthly rate.

How Much Does It Cost to Outsource My Marketing?

Now, as a business owner, one of the first things you’re wondering when you hear about the benefits of outsourced marketing is: How much is this going to cost me? The short answer? It’s cheaper than doing it yourself. 

Let’s talk numbers. Our most popular package at Digital Storyteller sits at $5K a month, which totals $60k for the year. Sound like a lot? Let’s consider the cost breakdown of hiring a team of four marketers in-house instead:

Hiring four marketing experts in-house, after salaries and benefits will cost your company $260,000 annually, plus some $16,000 for new hire costs. In just one year, your company has racked up $276,000. That’s only with four experts. The cost grows as you continue building your own team. 

We know it’s not spooky season anymore, but for more frightening math, visit this blog post where we break down the cost-benefit of outsourced digital marketing.

At Digital Storyteller, we try to make things less frightening, which is why our most popular digital marketing package is $60K annually as opposed to $276,000.

Our rate gives you access to an entire team that’s also dedicated to building your business. Outsourced marketing is a great, cost-effective way to invest in your company’s marketing efforts.

How Do You Know if You’re a Good Fit to Outsource Your Marketing?

There are many reasons why outsourcing your marketing is a great option. Here are some signs you’re a good fit.

  • Your current marketing efforts are not consistent
  • The world of digital marketing is overwhelming to you — so many changes are constantly taking place!
  • You want to focus on what’s most important: running your business
  • You don’t have a marketing “strategy”
  • You want to take your marketing to the next level, but aren’t sure how to
  • The idea of hiring someone in-house worries you — how could a single person have all of the marketing skills I need?
  • You are ready to trust an agency to get to know your business and market for you

How Effective Marketing Can Be When You Let Your Outsourced Agency Do Their Job

The last bullet above is SO important: “You are ready to trust an agency to get to know your business and market for you.”

When companies bring in outsourced digital marketing agencies but don’t let them do their job (i.e. hold off on pushing content, stay inside their comfort zone), the results of outsourced marketing are poor. 

Part of our job is to challenge you! We get that it can be hard to let someone take the reins and run a big piece of your company. But that’s what we know and do best. You’re juggling a million things when running your own business, let us take a large chunk off of your plate so you can focus on what you love to do.

Here’s an example of a client who lets us do just that, take the reins.

SBMA is an Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliant Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) benefits provider that provides affordable coverage for thousands of employers. We’ve been working with SBMA for nearly two years. Here’s what we’ve done for them during our partnership.

When we first started working with SBMA, they had very few keywords. What are keywords, you might ask? Check out this article for everything you need to know. 

Anyway, all of the keywords that SBMA was ranking for on Google were branded keywords (think names of specific employees and the literal name of their company ‘SBMA).

Long story short, if you only rank for branded keywords, you won’t come up on Google very often, unless someone is searching that exact, specific keyword. You really want to rank for more than just branded keywords.  

SBMA, as a benefits provider, would also want to rank for things like ‘MEC plan,’ ‘Health Plan Administrators,’ and ‘Worksite Benefits,’ to name a few.

With our ongoing content marketing strategy, we’ve been able to work wonders for them. Here are some numbers to prove it.

Currently, 80% of SBMA’s site traffic comes from organic search. Last October 2020, SBMA had 2,155 site users in a month. This October, in 2021, SBMA had 3,566.

Additionally, they had a 60% increase in their authority score. Last October, they had a domain authority score of 16 whereas this October they have grown to 23.

Authority score is based on a number of various factors including site health, organic keyword growth, backlinks, and more. It takes time, research, and consistent effort to grow an authority score, so a seven-figure jump in authority score is incredible.

When we first began working with SBMA, they let us know that they wanted to rank for ‘MEC.’ Now, SBMA dominates the organic search engine results page (SERP) when it comes to the ‘MEC’ space.

Lastly, SBMA currently ranks for 965 keywords whereas last October they ranked for 408. The graph below shows SBMA’s organic keyword growth over time.

SBMA Organic Keywords

Marketing: It’s What We Do Best

The goal of an outsourced digital marketing agency is to understand your business and your brand voice to then let the world know how awesome you are.

We start every engagement with a Brand Storytelling Session where we identify your unique brand voice. Then, our team uses bi-weekly client calls, Monday emails, and content calendars to make sure you know what’s happening, always.

We have monthly reporting where we let you know what the return on investment that you’re getting is from your relationship with us.

Of course, there’s always a team member available to you just a call, email, or even text away. Not to toot our own horn, but we’ve been told on multiple occasions that our bi-weekly calls are their favorite calls!

Happy with the direction we’re headed in? We’ll keep running that way. Want to tweak something? More than happy to adjust.

We’ll bring you fresh ideas from our kick*** creative team from a relationship built on trust. Because that’s the beauty of digital marketing.

For those who are interested in learning more about the difference between outsourced marketing and in-house marketing, read on here.

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Top Five Mistakes You’re Making with Your Content

Content Marketing Mistakes

Hungry for some truth? Today’s your lucky day!

“Content marketing may be a relatively simple strategy,” says CEO and Founder of Marketing Insider Group. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy.” These are the wise words of Michael Brenner. (Psst… For those who don’t know Brenner, he’s a content marketing pro!)

Brenner’s words considered, it’s likely that your business is making some mistakes when it comes to content and your marketing strategy. Here are the top five mistakes you’re making with your content!

Not Using Keywords

Keywords? SEO? What does it all mean!? Don’t worry. Let’s start at the beginning.

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is a way that marketers tailor their content to appeal to search engines. Popular examples of search engines include Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search. In today’s world, search engines rule the scene!

SEO keywords, also known as keywords or keyphrases, are “terms added to online content in order to improve search engine rankings,” according to Backlinko. Having a set of target keywords for your business is crucial because they are the bridge between what people search for and the services or products you provide.

To build this list, you must complete thorough and frequent keyword research. Keyword research is “the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines like Google.” Then, using said research, you strategize how to include these keywords in your content. Thus, placing you higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

A higher ranking can improve your chances at business, deem you as an authority in the market, and increase a client’s likelihood of trusting or choosing to do business with you. 

Consider this: If you were searching for a new veterinarian for your dog, would you scroll to the fifth page of results on Google to the vet with a bleak social presence? Or, would you be more likely to trust a business that popped up on page one with hundreds of positive reviews and photos?

For this reason, it’s important that all of your content is optimized with relevant, targeted keywords. You want to rank higher on Google, don’t you!?

For more on why SEO is important for a financial services company (or any company for that matter!), visit this article. We promise you’ll walk away having learned something new.

An additional mistake to be wary of, (and often a byproduct of having a list of relevant keywords that you’re using on a consistent basis!), however, is keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing, as defined by Google, is “the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results.” In short, you’ve gone too far! You know… there is such a thing as over-optimizing, and keyword stuffing is exactly that.

It’s a fine line to walk for sure. Our SEO team at Digital Storyteller can help you there.

Failing to Cater to Your Audience

Hooray! You’ve launched your business. Now, who should you market to? Some people might think, “If we market to everyone, we’ll

The truth of the matter is that your business, product, or services might not appeal to everyone. As Chris Do, Emmy award-winning designer, director, and CEO and founder of The Futur, once said, “If we cater to everyone, we’ll stand for no one.”

So, get eerily specific about who your audience is.

Learn who they are, what makes them tick, what they need and want. Who is benefitting from your business? What motivates them? Who holds influence over them?

Then, use this information to inform your branding, brand voice, and brand archetypes. These three elements are what help your brand become uniquely recognizable.

Narrowing down a specific target audience and catering to them specifically makes what you offer more memorable. Plus, when you cater to your audience and consider what they might want first, your chances of winning over their trust are higher. It’s a win-win!

As a business owner, when you only write content that you want to write, instead of what your prospects are searching for or need, you set yourself up for failure in an instant. (Just think how different your target audience is from you!)

Instead of writing whatever the heck you want, we’d recommend writing what’s trending. And no… we don’t mean “trending” in the sense of what’s currently trending on TikTok or Instagram. When we say “what’s trending,” we’re talking about what your prospects or target audience is currently searching for.

In other words, there’s a difference between what you want to talk about and what your prospects want to talk about. As Regina George from Mean Girls would say, “Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s never going to happen.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the 2004 American teen comedy film, stop trying to make prospects interested in what you are interested in. You’re there to serve them.

At Digital Storyteller, we use SEMRush—an all-in-one tool suite that helps improve our clients’ online visibility. We use tools like SEMRush to conduct topic research. (Yes, you should be researching what to write about! Not just writing anything and everything you find interesting.)

SEMRush provides a ton of information on keywords and topic research including keyword difficulty % and search volume. 

Keyword difficulty shows you how hard it is “to rank in Google’s organic search results for a specific term” whereas search volume measures how many people are searching for a particular topic, keyword, or question.

Simply put, to be on top of your content marketing game, you need to answer relevant questions that are being asked frequently. After all, you don’t want to write content that no one is searching for in the first place!

Writing Too Much or Not Enough Content

This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you’re writing too much, your content will get swept under the rug. Longer doesn’t always mean better! Remember, it’s not the 1800s anymore, aka you’re not the author who is getting paid per page that they write.

Moreover, attention spans are shrinking. In fact, a recent study by Microsoft concluded that the human attention span has shrunk nearly 25% in just a few years. Search engines are getting smarter every day.

Even if you write the longest article ever, filled to the brim with what you think is juicy information, Google will not rank you well if your content fails to meet the needs of that target audience we chatted about earlier on in this article.

Finding the sweet spot between too much content or not enough is a tightrope, but with our help, we know you can do it! Think Goldilocks…

And of course, it’s equally important that prospects and existing clients are engaging with your brand. This might look like likes, comments, clicks, shares, and so on. When you have high levels of engagement in today’s day and age, algorithms reward you by pushing your content to more people (which leads to brand awareness aka exactly what you want!)

Your Content is a Walking Sales Pitch

Let’s face it. You’re not Jordan Belfort. Today, people look for more than just a sales pitch. People are drawn to stories.

Consider: how do you feel receiving constant ads or pitches? At Digital Storyteller, we think it’s pretty annoying, and would recommend that instead, you try your hand at telling a story.

Why? “Storytelling enables marketers to develop a deeper connection with the audience,” according to Forbes. “[It] is a fundamental human experience that unites people and drives stronger, deeper connections.” (Well, duh! Storytelling even goes back as far as the cavemen days.)

National Geographic is a top-notch example of a brand that implements great storytelling.

Their awe-inspiring images paired with their captivating stories keep people coming back for more. Check out this example from their Instagram!

By crafting a story, you provide value.

It can be used to educate, share, communicate, and connect.

Instead of overselling your content, focus on a call to action (CTA) instead. CTAs with strong action words that evoke emotion.Feeling overwhelmed? Here is all you need to know about crafting organic content creation to grab your prospects’ attention plus four tips on how to organize content!

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What is User-Generated Content and Why You Should Use It

User Generated Content

From IG stories to reviews, there are endless ways to demonstrate client satisfaction! Are you taking advantage of User-Generated Content?

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How to Effectively Combine SEO and Content Marketing

SEO and Content Marketing

Today, there is no excuse to not be using SEO and content marketing to your advantage. But how can you effectively combine the two?

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Organic Content Creation to Grab Your Prospects’ Attention

Organic Content Creation

To succeed as a business today, you need to engage your clients and prospects by creating quality, organic content.

Read more
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What Is Web Accessibility and Why Is It Important?

What Is Web Accessibility and Why Is It Important?

We are not a one-size-fits-all society, nor are our websites. As our physical world becomes more aware of creating physical accessibility, we should also understand the importance of facilitating web accessibility as well.

As we spend more time surfing the web, learn more about how to increase inclusivity for people with disabilities. It’s just good practice, and it also benefits your company.

Read more
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How to Organize Content

girl sitting in front of digital marketing sticky notes

We’ve talked time and time again about the importance of content marketing and why consistently producing strong content is an ideal marketing strategy. That being said, we know it can be easier said than done.

Here are all our best tips on how to organize content.

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Let’s get REEL! How Instagram Reels Support Your Social Strategy

Let's get REEL! How Instagram Reels Support Your Social Strategy

In a world where we have varying options on how to engage with potential clients, reels open the door to adding your personal flair. From informational how-to videos like how to make your grandma’s top-secret cookie recipe to a silly clip on your opinion of this week’s Bachelor rose ceremony, the possibilities are endless.

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Want to Connect with Your Prospects? Use Video.

Want to Connect with Your Prospects? Use Video.

Content marketing includes a variety of mediums. Some content sources may include blogging, social media posting, ebooks, and infographics. But this doesn’t include one of the most successful storytelling content mediums — video.

Read more
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Creating Content That’s Not a Sales Pitch

Creating Content That's Not a Sales Pitch

Yes, we agree, the overarching goal of effective marketing is to help increase sales. Whether it be through customer awareness, gaining market share, driving site traffic, or increasing followers, at the end of the day, most clients have dollar signs in their eyes.

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Five Reasons to Outsource Marketing

man on computer looking at presentation that says "outsourcing"

We know. In many cases, making the decision to outsource any aspect of your business is a scary one. It might feel like losing control and not being able to make your business exactly what you want it to be. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Outsourcing your brand’s marketing efforts allows you to hand over the reins to the pros to ensure that your efforts are as successful as possible. The goal of an outsourced marketing team is to combine our knowledge and expertise with the goals and wishes you have for your brand.

Think: As a B2B financial services company, your focus is on exactly that, financial services. Allow us, an outsourced digital marketing agency, to be the marketing experts so you can focus on your own unique expertise.

You bring the charcuterie board and we’ll bring the wine, we’ll create the perfect pair.

At Digital Storyteller, we start every partnership with a one-of-a-kind brand storytelling session to understand who you are and what you want for your business. We discuss what your brand voice is to nail down our language and design practices to appear as if they were coming directly from you. 

Still need further convincing? Here are our top five reasons to outsource your business’s marketing.

What are Financial Services?

Sorry, we lied… Before we jump into the top five reasons to outsource your marketing, we need to first address the question: What the heck do we mean by financial services?

According to the International Monetary Fund, the financial services sector “covers many different types of transactions in such areas as real estate, consumer finance, banking, and insurance.”

At Digital Storyteller, we have clients ranging from law firms to HR consulting firms, commercial real estate firms to wealth advisories, and commercial insurance. Geez, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?

Anyway, when we say financial services, that’s the realm we’re talking about.

Interested in learning more? Read on to find out why we focus on marketing for financial services companies.

Why Outsource Marketing?

1. Focus on Your Company

As mentioned above, outsourcing your marketing efforts allows you to focus on the core of what your company truly does rather than the marketing efforts needed to support it.

For example, if you’re a lawyer, focus on that. You went to law school for a reason, so take advantage of that and leverage your passions. Marketing is our passion, so we’ll do the same!

We understand that giving up a bit of control of your business can be scary. The most successful outsourced marketing relationships we’ve observed, however, are built on a close relationship with clients.

Developing such a relationship over time fosters a mutual level of trust and understanding of your business’s ultimate goals. 

Overall, a business owner’s duties should be focused on running the business. A successful marketing strategy demands time allocation that is likely not attainable for someone focused on running a business.

Read on for five signs you need a digital marketing agency on your team.

2. Aim for Rapid Growth 

Building a full marketing team from the ground up takes significant time, effort, and dedication, something that many businesses don’t have.

In many cases, when a business decides to begin investing in marketing efforts, they want to get started immediately.

But content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy. Read on to find out how long it takes for content marketing to work.

Whether it be building social media platforms, paid advertising, or beginning to produce other forms of content, hiring a team to facilitate these requests takes substantial time in and of itself.

By the time you’ve hired, onboarded, trained, and brought a marketing team up to speed, an outsourced team may very well have already had content flowing.

(Not to mention how much more expensive hiring in-house is! Keep reading to find out how much you’ll save when you outsource by using our in-house vs. outsourced marketing calculator).

3. Cost Management 

The question of cost differences is perhaps one of the most common at play. As can be expected, there is a significant financial difference between marketing options: in-house vs. outsourced.

At the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong answer. What’s right for your company might not be the right fit for another.

When deciding to outsource your brand’s marketing efforts versus hiring a team in-house, you should consider the following associated costs:

  • Recruiting and Hiring
  • Onboarding
  • Training
  • Salary and Benefits

While hiring an outsourced marketing team most often consists of a single recurring monthly payment, in-house marketing teams have significant additional associated costs to consider. Find out how much you’ll save when you outsource by using our in-house vs. outsourced marketing calculator or, read on for a deeper breakdown of typical marketing costs.

4. Access to Unique Perspectives and Industry Expertise 

In relation to the previously mentioned cost factor, one should consider that there are costs associated with each individual specialist hired onto an in-house team.

One single marketing manager might not be an adequate resource to facilitate a complex marketing strategy. 

For example, in comparison, our Digital Storyteller team consists of a variety of team members in varying specialties. With our outsourced team, you gain access to social media managers and coordinators, SEO experts, content specialists, graphic designers, web builders, and more (all while still paying one monthly sum).

Utilizing a pre-established outsourced marketing team gives you access to a variety of specialists without having to individually hire ten or more different people.

We already have a proven system in place and some pretty kick a** team members that know their sh*t, prepared to invest their expertise and knowledge into your business.

5. Gain a Competitive Edge

The marketing industry is a rapidly growing and evolving industry. As such, it’s often a challenge for non-experts to keep up with.

For example, let’s say your business’s expertise and specialization are within the capital lending industry. You and your team are experts within your industry and pay close attention to the ongoing changes and evolution of the industry.

You watch as rates rise and fall and observe the lending patterns of alternate lending sources. Doing so is a full-time gig in and of itself, let alone trying to keep up with how to market your business too. 

The marketing industry is a whole new ball game when it comes to trends and observations. In the same way that your industry takes up the entirety of your time, keeping up with marketing changes can do the same.

While some may be quick to slide marketing updates right off the table, you can bet that not all of your competitors will decide to do the same. 

If your competitors are utilizing the resources to keep up with changing industry standards, they’re gaining a competitive advantage over your business.

Now, think about this in the other direction. Your business decides to hire an outsourced marketing team whose sole goal is to stay up to date on changing marketing trends and updates.

Now YOU’RE the one with the competitive advantage, and it was no sweat off your own back.

Read on to learn the top marketing trends of this year.

Overall, the decision to outsource marketing efforts or keep them in-house will vary from one company to another. That being said, there are significant benefits to choosing to outsource your marketing.

If you’re interested in learning more about what Digital Storyteller offers as an outsourced marketing partner, reach out and schedule your FREE Brand Storytelling Session today!

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What Are the Components of a Good Blog Post?

What are the components of a good blog post

A successful blog post should include certain elements to ensure that your content marketing is best optimized to draw traffic and readers.

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A Day in the Life of an Organic Marketing Team

Marketing is a complex and ever-changing industry. Trying to keep up with the times is a challenge that may not be within the capabilities of your business. So you may decide to outsource your marketing. But even then, there are multiple options available to you.

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How Long Does It Take for Content Marketing to Work?

laptop with hourglass sitting on top of it

If you’re looking for instant gratification and immediate marketing results, content marketing likely isn’t going to get you where you want to be. Well, we take that back. It’ll definitely get you results… But it’s likely to take months of consistent effort.

If you’re curious about whether or not content marketing is the right fit for your business and what the process should look like, read on.

In this article, we’re sharing the secret sauce for how to get started and what you can expect out of content marketing.

Did you know traditional marketing costs 62% more than content marketing?

How Long Does It Take for Content Marketing to Work?

Content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy.

We’re talking at least six to nine months of consistent effort.

While this is not a definite timeline for every business, this period serves as an approximation based on general industry averages.

Your business’s personal results timeline may depend on the following factors, including your:

  • Business model
  • Industry and market
  • Unique goals
  • Marketing strategies 
  • Definition of success

Did you know over 90% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing?

Now that you know how long content marketing takes on average, let’s chat about the secret sauce for how to get started and what you can expect out of content marketing.

Define What “Success” Means to Your Business

One of the first steps your business should take when pursuing content marketing is to determine how your business defines success. Consider the following questions:

  • What are your goals?
  • What steps can you achieve that will help you reach those goals?
  • Is your success based on the number of qualified leads you develop? Or, perhaps success is based on traffic to your site? Or the number of followers you have on your social media accounts?

However you decide to define the success of your content marketing efforts, it’s important to do so before jumping headfirst into a full marketing strategy. It will help you measure your efforts as you go along and adjust your strategy if need be.

Remember, success looks different for every business.

Know What Metrics to Use 

Similarly to defining your success, it’s helpful to identify which metrics you’d most like to see improvements in. Be it lead generation, site traffic, follower growth, etc., different metrics require different strategies and focus.

Some that we may suggest are the following:

Site Traffic

Driving website traffic is often at the forefront of content marketing. The goal here is to get more eyes on your site.

Within your site traffic, there are additional metrics that hold relevance, such as bounce rate and time on page. Looking at overall site traffic, however, is a good determination of ongoing growth and views of your site.

Qualified Leads

At the end of the day, the reason you want to drive traffic to your site is to identify qualified leads. Whether through calls to action (CTAs), form fills on your site, or email outreach, the number of qualified leads developed from your marketing efforts may be the most reasonable metric to maintain.

Social Following

If you’re a business startup working on building growth while still finalizing the nitty-gritty of your business, building your social media following may be a great metric to start with.

Developing a relevant following not only helps drive traffic (see above) but also helps establish your business as an expert in your field.

Think about it: If you’re a consumer searching LinkedIn for a credible lending partner and your options are a new profile with only six followers or a similar competitor with thousands of followers, you’re likely to assume the business with a larger following is more credible.

Email Subscribers

You may decide that email subscribers are your most important metric to track. After all, email is one of the most direct ways to get in contact with your target audience. Perhaps investing time in research and outreach to develop email lists will be your best bet to reach your identified definition of success.

This metric is strongest tied to businesses that intend on performing significant email marketing down the road.

Identify Your Target Audience 

There’s not much use in doing much of anything until you determine who you’re doing it for. Let’s say that again…

There’s no use in doing anything until you determine who you’re doing it for.

OK, so you’re a team of loan officers partnering with banks and private investors. Are you willing to work with any client? Student loans? Mortgage loans? Business loans? You’re best suited to be as specific as possible.

While the specifics will be most helpful as you solidify your marketing strategy, keep in mind that your target market may consist of a couple of different personas. We find it most effective to identify them as exactly that: Different personas.

Think about WHO the people are that you’re marketing to. Give them a name and occupation, and ask yourself what they like to do for fun, who they hang out with, and what social platforms they’re on most often. Do they read? Who do they look up to?

Read on to find out how to attract the right client (and determine your target audience!)

Once you’ve created any number of buyer personas associated with your potential customers, you’re ready to build out your marketing strategy. Your brand voice should be identified as the correct way that you’d speak to the people that you’ve identified.

Think about it this way, you’re probably not going to talk to your 85-year-old grandmother the same way that you talk to your long-time best friend. The same goes for your marketing strategy.

Your voice should appeal to the people that you’re talking to. Read on for more information on the importance of brand voice.

Make SMART Goals

OK, we’re jumping back a couple of steps here in a sense… Bear with us.

So, you’ve identified your definition of success, but how are you going to get there? This is where SMART goals come into play.

Gone are the days of goals as vague as “I want to boost social media followers!” SMART is an acronym used to create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.

A SMART goal for wanting to boost your social media following might look something like this:

“My goal is to gain 100 new Instagram followers per month over the next five months to accumulate at least 500 new followers at the end of the five months.”

Creating SMART goals isn’t always easy, but if you do the heavy lifting at the beginning and set standards for yourself and your business, it’ll be easier to maintain accountability in the long run.

Perform Analysis Regularly

Marketing is a flexible, adaptable field. If something isn’t working, you have the luxury of being able to change it. Adjust your content marketing efforts to meet your business’s needs and suit the demands of your market and audience.

But how do you know if something isn’t working out for you? After all, your boyfriend isn’t going to sit you down to explain that ‘it’s not you, it’s him.’ 

All you need to do is pay close attention to your stats and perform regular analysis. 

No different than watching the ebbs and flows of the stock market, watch how your business metrics react to different things that you change. For example:

Does your traffic spike on days that you publish new blog posts? Does traffic fall on weekends? When are your social media followers most active? Did you get significantly more responses from one email than another?

These questions can all be answered easily by looking at the data easily available to you. Try new things and adjust based on what you’re seeing. That being said…

Be Patient and Consistent

Like we said at the beginning (yep, wayyyy back up there), content marketing takes time. It isn’t going to happen overnight. While you want to pay close attention to your metrics and analyze performance, don’t jump to conclusions too quickly.

You need a base layer of knowledge to be able to compare changes. If you start trying to make changes and adjustments to your strategy without allowing it to grow and develop fully, you might never recognize its true potential.

Should You Invest in Content Marketing for Your Business?

Content marketing may not necessarily be the right fit for every business. But for some, it may be exactly the saving grace you’ve been searching for.

If you’re willing to have the patience for a payoff, we’re here to help. If you don’t believe us, how about believing this stat: businesses that blog produce 67% more leads than those that don’t (psst… blogging is a form of content marketing!)

If you think that content marketing might be a good fit for your business, we know some people that can help. Get started today! Reach out to us directly to schedule your FREE brand storytelling session.

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How Do I Optimize Content for Search?

Content Optimization

Investing time and resources into content development is in a sense useless if not properly optimized. Content and SEO go together like wine and charcuterie boards. One without the other simply doesn’t make sense.

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