Marketing Automation Archives - Page 8 of 10

9 June 2015

Get Notified With Inbound Marketing

Knowledge is power. This phrase speaks of knowledge as an opportunity to improves one’s potential, reputation and influence. This holds true in the marketing world where the more current and accurate the information we have about our prospects, the higher likelihood we have in conducting some business.

Notification Horn — Valery_Plotnikov/iStock/Thinkstock

Get Notified

At the core of inbound marketing is the knowledge of your online contact/visitor’s behavior.

This behavior can be as basic as when emails are opened or as exotic as when a visitor returns to your website. The idea here is to respond to these events with immediate efforts to help your contacts advance further with their interest in your company and your products/services. Timing is everything. With the right tools, you can be notified in real-time.

Software tools from SharpSpring do this.

SharpSpring Auto-Notify

Our friends at SharpSpring offer great functionality with their auto-notify features. Identifying return visitors to your website is a foundation feature within SharpSpring and enabling auto-notify will let you know in real-time when this happens.

You can set this up in a number of configurations. Notify when any visitor returns to your website at whatever frequency you specify — be it twice, thrice, or whatever you choose. You can also receive notifications for returns to any specific pages on your website, such as a pricing or promotions page. Perhaps there are specific visitors that you want to be notified about. No problem. The possibilities are limited only by how much info you want in real time to help advance your business online.

Knowledge is Power

Being notified in real-time is an important piece in an inbound marketing strategy, but with what you do with this knowledge comes the real power. A well-timed phone call can extend your contact/visitor’s interest, giving you an opportunity to garner some further engagement with your business. If your contact is already and established client a well-timed email might be perfect (keeping CASL compliant and not spammy).

A prospect’s interest is gold in the sales process. Timing has always been critical in capitalizing on a prospect’s interest. Don’t leave it to chance. Instead of waiting for the orders to come floating in, power-up your online marketing by being proactive with your contact’s positive behavior.

2 June 2015

3 Marketing Lessons I Learned on Stage

With dance recital season upon us, and my free time about to be sucked up by the theatre, I thought I’d pick apart all the marketing skills acquired from over a decade of dancing. While the skills appear worlds apart, they share many of the same principles. Marketing is, at the end of the day, performing for an audience. You have a company vying for the attention of customers, and you want everybody’s eyes on you. Your marketing is how you generate that attention.

Guillermo Lobo / iStock / ThinkStock

1- Everything Builds

Starting off in beginner classes can be slow, frustrating, and not all that impressive. However, as you stick with it, the movements get more complex. You start to use the technique you’ve built into your body and mind. While all the endless practice seemed pointless at first, now that you’re leagues ahead you can see where all your practice was important.

In marketing, you’re often starting from 0, or close to it. You’re learning basic principles that sound like you can do in your sleep— like S.M.A.R.T. marketing goals— and you often feel like you’re going at a snail’s pace. You want to do the skills you see larger companies implementing.

However, until you learn the basic skills, and practice them until they’re second nature, you won’t be able to perform at the same level as more advanced marketers.

2- You Get What You Give

Dance requires a certain amount of commitment, and not just time wise. Mentally and emotionally, the best dancers lay their heart out on stage. If you start to resent the time commitment and physical toll, then your performances suffer. People who skip practice or only give half of what they’ve got don’t do as well. They get passed up for roles, don’t advance past mediocrity, and generally stay in the shadow of more passionate dancers.

Marketing requires similar commitment. If you don’t put your time into really utilizing the tools to their best advantages, developing a strategy, and generating prime content, then you lose out. Readers can tell when your heart’s not in it. And when they start to notice that, they will simply pass you by.

3- Be a Performer

There is a large debate in dance: is it better to be a performer or technician?

Ideally, you want to be both. The best of the best blend technical perfection with an emotive performance, rendering the audience enthralled because both their hearts and minds are captured. However, most people lean one or the other. A technician will create a masterful display of skill, but will almost always be passed up for the much more emotionally enchanting performer. Somebody who neglects the actual performance will end up with a soulless piece.

Marketing is the same. People are more likely to forgive improper technique than they are to forgive not connecting with the company. Maybe you didn’t hit the suggested practices every time, but you believed in what you produced and it showed. That will get you much farther winning the crowd than forgetting the bottom line of marketing: you want to connect with your audience.

27 May 2015

5 Reasons to Choose Marketing Automation for Your Inbound Marketing Business Solution

There are many reasons to use automated marketing to improve the power of your inbound marketing. Automated marketing is proven to help you attract more potential customers, convert them to leads, close sales, and delight customers into repeat customers. Here are 5 reasons to invest in automated marketing today.

arrow cutting through maze diagonally — eabff / iStock / ThinkStock

1) Marketing Automation Will Allow You to Automatically Measure ROI

One of the greatest things about marketing automation is that it allows you to track ROI through analytics and reports, so you can easily and clearly prove its value. Analytics can include everything from tracking the results of email campaigns (opens, click-throughs, etc.), website and page visits, digital ad campaigns, eCommerce analytics, forms (new leads, new subscriptions, etc.) and more. Not only can you track results, you can take this data and act on it to improve results and move leads closer to a sale.

2) View and Act on Real-time Results

There is no need to wait for results. Marketing automation will automatically collect data and act on it according to workflows and automation tasks you set-up in advance.

It is exciting to deploy an email campaign and watch the email opens and click-through rate update in real-time and to see your automated workflows fire and do the work for you. It is even more so when you check back just hours later and the numbers have increased again. Finally, it is important to know that if you choose to, you have the power, to act on the intel you get immediately, at any time, in any way you wish and to change your course of action to optimize results.

3) Marketing Automation is Accessible

There are many affordable automated marketing solutions available today, offering a variety of different tools to suit any size of business, type of business, and budget.

Marketing automation is also accessible in the sense that it is user-friendly. Many automated marketing software companies offer plenty of resources and support to clients to help you learn: what the tools are for, how to use them, and how to improve results.

4) Marketing Automation is Reliable

Several automated marketing software companies have proven (and continue to prove) great strength and consistency in helping to generate results, intelligently keep track of data, and improve the marketing-to-sales process.

Because marketing automation is “smart”, as long as you pre-program the workflows, the software will “think” for you and act for you based on the behaviour of your contacts, leads, and customers (often) in real-time.

5) Marketing Automation Will Save You and Your Company Money and Time

By concentrating the efforts of your sales team on a greater number of warm leads acquired and nurtured through marketing automation, you’re likely to see a much greater number of sales. Your sales team will have to spend less time cold-calling and sending bulk emails to unqualified leads, and instead will have more time to invest in leads who are most likely to result in sales.

Marketing automation allows you to get a lot more business while having to invest a fraction of the money and time involved in the traditional marketing-to-sales process.

In addition, many affordable eCommerce-compatible solutions are available to optimize your online sales, such as SharpSpring’s eCommerce integrations, which will help you gather analytics and act on data to increase sales.

BONUS: Blend Traditional Media and Marketing Automation to Optimize Both

Traditional media isn’t dead. In fact, with marketing automation you can mix traditional marketing with automated marketing in order to optimize the effects of traditional media. For example, (1) create a landing page on your website with a promotion and a form that must be filled out to access the promotion, (2) send a piece of direct mail to a qualified list with a clear call-to-action to the landing page, (3) monitor results, collect a list, send personalized emails to the list.

In short, there are many reasons to choose automated marketing for your inbound marketing business solution. It is reliable, accessible, measurable, and can work together with traditional media to generate impressive results.

21 May 2015

Is Your Brand Relevant?

Many years ago, we dealt with a local retail clothing chain that catered to a young demographic. They were very aware of their market’s needs and wants, and the importance of how well their brand reflected that market. The owner was relatively young himself, but a very intelligent fellow with valuable experience and good business instincts. Often, when we presented a campaign, he would stare at it for a while and muse over the creative or messaging. He would say something along the lines of “This isn’t anything like I had in mind… but let’s consider how it might play out and what it can do for our brand.” Nine times out of ten he endorsed the campaign. Only part of the credit goes to our team. A large part of the credit goes to the client: first of all for providing us with the insight to fully appreciate his market; and then to remove any ego from his decision and apply his business and market knowledge to best support his brand.

He understood that his brand wasn’t about him or what he thought was cool. He fully realized that his store’s brand needed to be relevant to his market. And he understood his audience well enough to consider each campaign from their perspective. He figuratively walked a mile in their shoes before deciding whether he felt the campaign was a hit or miss. (Check out Marketing and Sales Strategy: The Need For Focus.)

Regardless of whether you produce a product or provide a service, and whether your focus is B2C or B2B — you have a target market that must somehow connect with you in order to choose to deal with you. In order to resonate with your market, they need to be aware of you and feel inclined to learn more. Branding achieves this by grabbing their interest and effectively communicating that you are relevant to them.

Sounds easy, but it’s anything but. And, like anything somewhat complex, it is a process. It’s not simply a matter of creating a cool logo and tantalizing tagline… not that they are typically simple to do. (Check out The Four Pillars to Building a Brand that Builds Your Company.) Without an actual brand strategy and ongoing stewardship, even well-crafted components are only a façade which your market will quickly see through. In my example above, the clothing store hired carefully and trained their staff extensively so that the in-store experience was the essence of their brand. All material, from promotional signage to applications to staff memos were written and designed to reflect the store’s tone and raison d’être. All staff understood the mission and bought into the vison. They had a comprehensive strategy that considered all the touch points for staff and customers. Do you?

To help your organization in putting together such a strategy, consider:

who is your target market
what are their wants, needs, and problems
why do you care
what do you want your message to be
why should they care
how can you reach your target market
what are the touch points to reinforce your brand

This list is not comprehensive, nor should it trivialize the process of establishing a strategic branding plan. It may require a lot of research and planning and writing, and then even more work to implement, monitor and maintain. But it is well worth the investment, for a strong brand is one of the most valuable assets an organization can attain.

What would you add to the list of considerations above?

13 May 2015

S.M.A.R.T Marketing Goals

It should come as no surprise that goals are important for your business and marketing strategy. They drive you forward and act as the X on the proverbial map to the buried treasure of success. However, it’s never quite so easy to stick to that advice. Day to day operations shorten your vision, making it hard to keep goals in mind. If you’re not constantly engaging with your goals, then the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” applies — and your business suffers.

That’s why S.M.A.R.T. goals are so important. By breaking them down into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely steps, you’re more likely to keep them in mind and put them on place when looking at your business processes. As a result, you make strides towards them and reap the rewards.

Specific

Relate it to directly something in particular that you want to achieve. A website goal could be specific in terms of visits or conversions. Try to be as small as possible for each goal, so they don’t get overwhelming. If you want to focus on both visits and conversions, write a separate goal for each.

Measurable

Make sure it has a number. You can’t tell how well you’re reaching your goal if you don’t have a yardstick for what “reaching the goal” looks like. It also should tie into metrics you can gather on your site; if you’re not gathering metrics on your online properties, you have no way of knowing if you’re succeeding or not.

Attainable

If your goal is more ambitious than the top 25% of companies can attain, or even more than your direct competition is doing, then you may never reach it. While there are some people who change the game and break all barriers, those are the anomalies. You’re better off starting realistic and working your way up to game breaking strategy.

Relevant

It should relate to what you do. If your business goals are about sales, you want goals that measure how many sales you make. Social engagement is nice to know about, but unless social engagement ties directly into your sales funnel, a goal focusing on it is irrelevant. That being said, don’t ignore something that is genuinely relevant.

Timely

As the old saying goes, “a goal without a deadline is just a wish.” If you don’t set a time limit for when the goal should be reached, and don’t hold yourself to that deadline, then your goals will continue slipping out of reach.

Takeaway

Breaking down a goal along the S.M.A.R.T. checklist creates more manageable steps that you can actually achieve. If success is the buried treasure, S.M.A.R.T. goals are the instructions on how to get there.

6 May 2015

The New Mobile-Friendly Website Imperative: What All Top Businesses Already Know

A mobile-friendly website is more important for businesses now than ever. To be mobile-friendly, a website must be designed with Responsive Web Design (RWD) in mind – meaning the content is designed to automatically adapt and restructure itself to work on smaller mobile screens.

Until a couple weeks ago, it was simply considered good business practice to become mobile-friendly, but Google has officially made it an online imperative. A couple weeks ago, Google’s search engine made a change that strongly and automatically prioritizes mobile-friendly sites over those that are not. This means that those without a mobile-friendly site will be pushed down the search results pages, making them not only harder to find, but also potentially landing them beneath their mobile-friendly competitors. This change can result in less web traffic to non-mobile-friendly sites, potentially resulting in lost sales.

A non-mobile-friendly site now says one of a few things about a company, either: it cannot or will not spend the money to go mobile, it doesn’t care, or that it is completely oblivious to the needs of its market. The future is changing and its time to adapt or face losing out on missed opportunities.

If this hasn’t convinced the undecided, here are a few more of the many other reasons to become (and suggestions for becoming) mobile-friendly.

1) Make it easy and straightforward.

A company should make navigating their website as effortless as possible. This will allow users to have a positive experience and encourage them to more fully engage with the brand. It will also encourage them learn about the company and allow them to easily find what they are looking for. Annoyance caused by a difficult to navigate site can translate to them leaving earlier than you would have liked (or expected). Whether or not there is great content on the site, if it is difficult to find, view or interact with on mobile, it won’t matter. The great online content in the world won’t appear so wonderful if it is hard to access and difficult to read. It’s not just what you say, the method and framework you use to convey it is equally important.

2) Focus on mCommerce: Don’t limit yourself to eCommerce

If you do eCommerce, it’s become even more of an imperative to focus on improving your mCommerce (mobile online commerce). In fact, by the end of 2015, mCommerce is projected to account for 40% of all global eCommerce transactions, and 1/3 of all U.S. eCommerce transactions. The numbers are on their way there already: in Q1 2015, smartphone share of mCommerce transactions has grown more than 10% in the U.S.

Importantly, in Q1 2015 in the U.S., while the conversion rates are higher with desktop, smartphones garner much more traffic than desktop, resulting in more paid online transactions overall.

Other non-western markets see mobile mCommerce conversions accounting for as much as 4x more transactions. Improvements are being made everyday in Western markets by companies to improve the mobile shopping experience and improve their mobile conversion rates. This Q1 2015 Criteo report on the State of Mobile Commerce says a focus will be placed improving the product browsing experience and mobile payment process in Western markets.

Another insight from the report: Mobile purchases tend to happen during consumers’ leisure hours before and after work, while desktop transactions tend to happen at work. So, if you want to capture consumers outside of work hours: be sure to go mobile-friendly.

3) Heed the Rule of Thumb.

Two fingers (thumb and pointer finger) are required to expand small text and images on non-mobile-friendly sites. If people need to do this to navigate a site or consume online content on a smartphone (or tablet), then they will feel that it requires too much effort. If a company’s online content is not easy to select and use with a fat thumb (or single finger), then they should think about RWD. Today, more and more people prefer to use their thumb (sometimes thumbs) to text and to click on online content from a smartphone. (And, while a single pointer finger might be used more often on a tablet than a thumb would – a single digit doing less work is preferred).

Finally, think about how and where people use their smartphones. Many people hold their phone in one hand, and use the other hand to do other things, such as: hold onto the subway bars or carry a coffee. This makes using two fingers to expand and read text nearly impossible. It is key for companies to optimize their sites for this “in-between” time, as well – time that customers could be spending on their websites becoming more familiar with the company or making a purchase.

In short, the mobile imperative can no longer be ignored. Companies who were waiting for a time to act must do so now, in order to stay competitive in this ever-evolving online world.

30 April 2015

5 Things You Need To Know When Writing Ad Copy

With 25 years in the marketing business I’ve had the privilege to work with some very talented individuals and savvy clients. Working with truly brilliant minds can be thrilling, gratifying and humbling all at the same time. One thing that has always impressed me is a well written ad. Good ad copy, be it for print, radio, television or online, captivates and informs the audience, positions the brand, and compels the audience to react in a favourable manner. That’s asking a lot of some text — even if it is dressed up with some nice photos, videos or sound.

Here are five considerations that will help you to be a better ad writer.

1) Your audience doesn’t give a damn

It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking that your targeted demographic is just waiting for your pearls of wisdom. The reality is that you have to earn their attention. Your first task is to get their attention. If you are relying solely on text then you’ll need a captivating or perhaps controversial headline. Depending on the medium you can use photo, video or sound to get their initial attention.

2) Your audience still doesn’t give a damn

OK, so you got their attention, but why should they give you any more time? People’s interest is fleeting, so you have to move your audience along quickly from attention to interest. With interest they will read a little further, listen a little more attentively, watch with more focus or perhaps click for more information. The great David Ogilvy (no, I’m not that old, I never worked with David Ogilvy) would argue that you should provide long narratives of information and facts, building a strong case for the product. There is probably still a time and place for that kind of ad, but today’s audience typically demands quick answers in little bite size chunks (thank you Twitter!). So, once you have their attention, move quickly into the meat of your message and give your audience a reason to care.

3) Interest isn’t enough

In order for your ad to have impact, your audience needs to identify with it. This may be relatively easy if they already have a need your particular product/service. In most cases, you’ll need to help them personalize your message. To do this, rather than present a list of facts or features, involve both left and right sides of the brain by invoking a whimsical, reflective mindset. Stories or nostalgia are often used to dramatize the product features and illustrate just how good life can be. Well-crafted ad copy takes the audience on quick mind trip (no, not that kind of mind trip) that enables them to virtually experience and appreciate the benefits of owning your product.

4) They haven’t bought it yet

Let’s assume that you got their attention, then their interest and now they’re fantasizing about having your product in their hands (or something like that). How do you turn their interest into actual action? Now you need a “hook” or “call-to-action” that will compel your audience to behave accordingly. Online this may be entering a draw, or a providing a free download. Other examples are a trial offer, gift-with-purchase, or a limited quantity/special edition.

5) Most people will not buy your product

Even the best ad is not going to persuade everyone to buy. In fact, if you get a small fraction of the audience to buy you’ve done an exceptional job. However, good ad copy will get people’s attention and some interest so it should be strategically position the product as the desired solution. That’s right, branding should be an integral part of your messaging. If you brand effectively your ad will continue to sell for you long after its broadcast. Like a well planted seed it germinates in the mind, ready to sprout when the need arises.

What would you add to this list? What considerations help write a better ad.

29 April 2015

Don’t Ignore Those Smaller Conversion Steps

Conversion is an often-used sales and marketing term that can cover a lot of ground in today’s internet powered world of small and medium sized enterprises. Sales conversions are straight forward enough but marketing conversions are less direct and more subtle. Marketing conversions are the smaller conversion steps necessary to reach those bigger sales conversions.

The Classic Conversion Definition

The classic definition, the CRM definition, involves generating accounts, contacts and opportunities from those that you primarily seek and find. This is a black and white effort to generate contacts into prospects and ultimately clients. It is based on the outbound sales model of searching for those that are in the market or mood for buying what you sell. You are hunter and they are game.

The inbound model differs in that the hunting is reversed. People go online in search of something, hunting for information, – and that their effort will vary in detail and urgency. All online research begins with a mouse click. The leap from that first click to a buying customer may take require extra steps so the conversion process requires more detail to be defined. This is the need for the smaller marketing steps of a number of marketing messages.

Those Smaller Conversion Steps

If we define conversion as when the recipient of a marketing message performs a desired action, we see marketing conversions as a number of steps towards a sale. These steps follow a linear order in hopes that our online visitor follow suit. The reality is that visitors will get on and off the conversion line at various points. To have a true overview on which conversions are working (and which are not) we need to track these smaller steps.

Think of these early marketing messages more as requests for online engagement. That engagement can be subtle, especially early in the online relationship. Having someone click to your website from an email or a social media message for example. Click throughs are a positive start to online engagement with your business are products and should be considered sucessful marketing conversions.

The premise is that if enough of these small steps are taken there is a high likelihood the visitor will engage and proceed with you as a supplier (when they are ready).

Conversely, if these smaller steps are not working; visitors are not staying on your website, opening your newsletter emails, or clicking through from your blog posts the momentum never gets going and your marketing efforts stall. The marketing tactics that point to these conversion opportunities should be reassesed.

The More Leads the Better

If you are concerned only with the classical “big” CRM style conversions of contacts, opportunities, and accounts you may find less leads from your online efforts than from your face-to-face sales process. You may find yourself wondering about the effectiveness of your inbound methods. But smaller online conversion steps are numerous and an opportunity to track and tweak every component of your online offerings. The more of smaller marketing conversions the more opportunity to move visitors along your online pipeline to a point where the larger conversions to contacts and opportunities can occur.

In the online marketing world small wins lead to the larger wins of new customers and increased sales. Don’t ignore those smaller conversion steps.

10 April 2015

5 Components for a Successful Strategic Marketing Plan

A little while back, I had lunch with a couple of communication executives, each working for a different national association. One was a client. The reason for the lunch was to introduce me to the non-client and provide some insight into a PR issue they were having. Their issue concerned a lobby group that was spreading some mis-truths. The association wanted to come out heavy and refute the erroneous claims, which is an understandable reaction, but one that could well fan the flames and create a much bigger fire.

Over lunch we designed a content strategy that would not directly address the lobby group or its claims, but would produce matter-of-fact and positive messaging that presented the correct story in a substantiated and substantive fashion. We used blogs, FAQ, email campaigns, videos, social media content and paid advertising (print and online). Within six months it was a non-issue and the awareness and potency of the association had risen significantly.

My take-away from this (other than a paid contract and a happy client) was bewilderment. I was surprised that an association wouldn’t have some contingency, or risk-management as part of its strategic marketing plan. As it turns out, this association didn’t really have a structured plan at all, and as a result it lacked the guidance it deserved. Such oversight may be more evident during an urgent situation, but any organization requires a roadmap to realize its goals. And especially associations, which typically have more stakeholders to take into consideration.

We’ve done work with many associations over the past 25 years, and in the current digitally social age, the need for a comprehensive marketing plan has never been greater. So it’s surprising to realize that many organizations are trying to navigate without one. Some of the critical components incorporated into a successful strategic marketing plan are:

1. Goals, mission and vision of the organization

Not simply listing them. Your plan should outline how it will help the organization realize its goals, mission and vision.

2. Interests of all stakeholders

First of all, acknowledge all of your stakeholders: clients/members (which may be further segmented), Boards, industry, targeted audience, public-at-large, government, etc. Then list their needs and how your plan addresses them.

3. Branding considerations

Realize that branding goes well beyond your visual identity and official communications. Branding should be considered for every touchpoint with your stakeholders and supported in a cohesive manner.

4. Incorporation of all media

You’re well aware of the influence of social media and that broadcast media alone are no longer sufficient to effectively communicate with your stakeholders. Are specific social media highlighted and incorporated in a meaningful way in your strategic plan?

5. Realistic risks

Sh!* happens, the best plans are not going to totally insulate your organization from potential harm. However, a good plan will greatly reduce the chance of problems and a great plan will include measures to quickly and efficiently deal with the situation. Obviously you can’t anticipate every and any mishap that may present itself, but a step-by-step plan on what to do when a staff or member gets into hot water with a social media post will allow your team to react immediately and decisively; mitigating the potential harm.

A strategic marketing plan should never be a dry organization document that is done out of obligation and then ignored. It is a crucial guide to help your organization grow with structure and sustain its potency. They are a lot of work to create, and require ongoing reference and review, but they pay off in building strong organizations.

What else do you feel a strategic marketing plan should incorporate?

26 March 2015

3 Ways to Spring Clean Your Blog

Content management systems such as WordPress are an asset for managing your blog. From one interface, you can do everything possible to make sure your blog is running smoothly.

Unfortunately, even a well working system has posts slip through the cracks, either from an unfocused strategy, still trying to establish what works best, or simply due to a lack of maintenance. Any well-populated blog will eventually collect issues, and if left unchecked your blog could become an impossible to navigate behemoth that leaves readers frustrated instead of seeing you as a thought leader.

With spring officially starting (even if it might not look that way outside), what better time to get your blog in tip-top shape? Here are some key areas to focus on, to get the most polish for your elbow grease.

#1- Purge Your Topics

Topics are like rabbits: they multiply. You start off small and concise, making sure all your core keywords are covered. But as you write, you realize people might not use the same terminology as your topics, so you start adding a few more topics to cover that part of your audience. And a few posts later, you’re focusing on a specific issue and you really should have a unique topic for each specialized issue you blog about, to make sure everybody can find that specific issue separately…

Next thing you know, you have an unfocused and repetitive mess.

Keeping your topics list small is important for ease of navigation and search; the fewer topics you have, the more likely readers are to find relevant posts in your archives. Create a focused list that ties directly into your content marketing strategy and put all blogs somewhere in that list. Try to stay between 25 and 50 topics to prevent readers from getting overwhelmed.

#2- Get CTAs Up-to-Date

Including Calls to Action in your blogs is a great way to encourage prospects along your pipeline, but they only work if the links do. Remember that your blogs are publicly accessible until you unpublish them; all CTAs have to be usable no matter how old the posts are.

Go through your blogs and make sure all CTAs are up-to-date and relevant both to the post and your marketing initiatives. This ensures any reader can keep interacting with your company no matter what post they come across, even if it’s deep in your archives.

#3- Link Internally

If you’ve written any best practices guides, such as whitepapers, on your website, use your blog to drive readers towards them. It helps your guides get better SEO rankings because they’re linked in multiple places, and shows your competency to those who click through. The same goes for any particularly stellar blogs: linking them in relevant areas of your website helps establish your thought leadership and boosts their SEO. The more places your pages are linked, the higher ranked you are in searches, making you easier to find in the first place.

Now, while this can be a tedious task (if you’ve employed a spring intern, assign this to them), it has a strong long term payoff: internal links drive readers to spend more time with your site — getting more information from you rather than your competitors. And more time spent with you means they’re more likely to buy from you. You’re using your content to drive traffic; make sure it supports your sales objectives by driving potential customers down your pipeline.