Author: Christy Falkenberg

How To Plan Your Marketing For 2023 Now!

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date January 13, 2023

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If you’ve been avoiding taking the time to plan your marketing for 2023, then this is your sign. It’s time to take the plunge.

Studies have shown that businesses that plan their marketing strategies in advance are more likely to achieve greater success than those that do not. By taking the time to plan your marketing strategy for 2023 now, you can set yourself up for success in the coming years.

1: Identify Your Goals

As you begin planning your business’s marketing strategy for 2023, it is important to first identify your organization’s goals. Think about what you want to achieve in the upcoming year and how successful marketing can help you get there. Consider both long-term and short-term goals, and make sure they are realistic yet inspiring. Knowing the direction you want to take your business in will help you create an effective marketing plan that sets you up for success in 2023.

Don't Forget to Identify Your Target Market

Once you have identified your business’s goals, the next step is to figure out who you are targeting. This involves understanding your customer base and understanding their needs. Most small business owners feel like they don’t know how to do this, but it’s easy.

Write a list of your top 10 favourite AND most profitable existing clients. Then list what makes each one the most profitable… (their buying patterns) and what makes them your favourite. When you’re done, compile all of the traits, characteristics, and behaviours into one list and there you have it… Your “perfect client” profile and your target market!

Once you have this information, it is easier to create a marketing strategy that speaks directly to them.

2: Create a marketing strategy

Creating an effective marketing strategy for the year 2023 is essential for any business. A successful plan will involve a thorough understanding of your target audience, the market landscape, and the most effective methods of reaching your customers. It’s important to research relevant trends and technologies to ensure your strategy remains up-to-date with the times. Additionally, setting SMART goals (goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) will help you measure progress and stay organized. Finally, regularly evaluating and adjusting your plan as needed is key for achieving desired results. With a well-thought-out marketing strategy in place, businesses can set themselves up for success in 2023.

Not Sure Where to Start Planning Your Marketing for 2023?

Building the strategy is easier than you think, but it can often feel a little overwhelming. To help you get started, we’ve included an outline and included short descriptions of what should be included in each section of your strategy.

Remember, keep it simple. All you have to do is pull what you know, out of your head and into the strategy. What’s more, what you don’t know, you can Google… you’ll find another great blog like this one to help you along the way!

By taking the time to plan out these critical elements, you can ensure that you can communicate your marketing strategy and share the work with your team to make 2023 your most successful year yet.

Marketing Strategy Outline

I. Executive Summary: A brief overview of the purpose of the strategy, target audience, and expected goals.
II. Market Analysis: A comprehensive analysis of the target market and competitors, including demographics, needs and wants, and purchasing behavior.
III. Target Audience: A detailed description of the target audience, including age, gender, income, interests, and buying habits.
IV. Objectives: Clear and measurable goals of the strategy, such as increased sales or brand awareness.
V. Strategies and Tactics: A list of strategies and tactics to be used to reach the desired objectives.
VI. Budget and Timeline: A detailed budget and timeline for implementation of the strategy.
VII. Evaluation and Adjustment: A plan for monitoring and evaluating the strategy, and adjusting tactics as needed.

3: Choose the Right Business and Marketing Tools when Planning Your Marketing for 2023

When planning your marketing for 2023, it is important to choose the right business and marketing tools that will help you reach your goals. To do this, you should research and understand the various types of tools available, such as social media platforms, email marketing, SEO optimization and more. You should also consider the budget you have for these tools and what type of return on investment you expect. Taking the time to select the right tools for your business can make a big difference in your results.

4: Plan Your Marketing Activities

To ensure your marketing plan for 2023 is successful, it is important to assign tasks to yourself and your team with specific deadlines. By doing this, it will help keep you, and your team on track and motivated to reach the goals outlined in the plan.

Additionally, assigning tasks with deadlines will help hold yourself and your team accountable, as each task can be measured and tracked to determine progress. It’s essential that you set realistic timelines for each task so that you and your team can work within those parameters to reach your goals.

5: Analyze Results

Analyzing your current marketing results is an important step when planning for the future. It’s essential to review your successes, failures, and opportunities for improvement if you want to create a better plan for 2023. Examining your data from previous years can help you identify trends in customer behavior and preferences, which can inform your decisions as you move forward. Additionally, reviewing the effectiveness of different strategies, platforms, and campaigns can provide valuable insights into what works best for your organization. Don’t forget to Google it!

Ultimately, taking the time to analyze your current results can help you create a successful marketing plan for the upcoming year.

6: Adjust Strategies as Needed

Be flexible and adjust your approach as needed. Be sure to assess your goals regularly, and make adjustments if they are not being met. Additionally, you should consider any external factors that could influence your strategies, such as changes in the economy or the emergence of new technologies. By regularly assessing and adjusting your strategies, you can ensure that your 2023 marketing efforts are maximized for success.

7: Track Progress and Evaluate Results

Tracking progress and evaluating results is an important part of any successful marketing plan. Keeping track of the results of your marketing initiatives can help you to identify areas for improvement and make any necessary adjustments to ensure you are achieving the desired outcomes. Evaluating the success of your marketing campaigns can also provide valuable insights into what is working and what isn’t, allowing you to make more informed decisions as you plan your marketing for 2023. By tracking progress and evaluating results, you can ensure that your marketing strategy is on track for success.

8: Stay Focused on Long-Term Goals while Planning Your Marketing for 2023

When planning your marketing strategy for 2023, it is important to focus on the long-term goals that you have set out for your business. Long-term goals give you an idea of where you want to be in the future and allow you to plan for the necessary steps to get there. This can help you create a comprehensive marketing plan that will help your business grow and succeed in the future. By taking a long-term approach to marketing, you will be able to stay focused on achieving your goals and ensure that your business remains successful in the years to come.

Conclusion

Planning your marketing for 2023 will help you reach your goals and grow your business. By following these steps, you can ensure that you are making the most of your time and resources.

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Tags content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, marketing strategy, SEO

SEO Website Design and Development

Why is UI UX Design important?

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date May 2, 2022

You may have heard the word “UI/UX” thrown about a lot in the web development industry, but you may not know what it means other than that it’s an acronym. UI/UX is a web design style that emphasizes both the user interface and the user experience of a website or product. In other words, it’s about how something looks and feels when someone interacts with it—two factors that may make or break your site’s success.

What is UI development?

UI is the look and feel of your website. It’s what decides how easy it is to read your material, how quickly product information can be accessed, and whether users can locate what they’re looking for. Customers are often drawn in by the user interface; if a page takes too long to load or the layout is confusing, they’ll leave and go to another site.

What is UX development?

User Experience (UX) Design is the process of enhancing the overall experience of users when interacting with an application or website in order to meet the goal of providing the highest level of customer satisfaction. It keeps clients in mind while laying the foundation for any application. It primarily focuses on wireframing an application and effectively arranging all of its components and aspects to produce the user flow. Knowing the factors of user experience is critical to the success of your brand and products.

The reason why an efficient UI/UX is essential for business growth

For starters, if you’re paying and having a website maintained, you’ll want to make sure that it looks clean and professional on all devices, giving your brand legitimacy and encouraging people to learn more about what you have to offer.

It is essential to emphasize the users’ satisfaction in order to build the brand value and reputation of the business. Users’ emotions are influenced by design, while their behavior is influenced by UI/UX. It’s an essential component that you can’t afford to overlook or undervalue, no matter how tight your budget or how little your company is. What good is it to have the most beautiful website in the world if no one knows how to use it?

1. Captures the customer’s attention

When customers visit your website, you only have a few seconds to make an impression. The majority of customers will only stay if your website is attractive enough; otherwise, they will leave. When you design your website with your users in mind, you will entice more visitors and encourage them to stay on your site for a longer period of time. The longer they stay, the more likely it is that they will see your offerings and purchase them.

2. Encourages Interaction

You don’t want visitors to stand around doing nothing; instead, you want them to take action and interact with your brand. Written content, videos, images, advertisements, and calls to action are examples of visual elements used in UI/UX design that encourage interaction. Potential customers who interact with your website are one step closer to becoming paying customers.

3. Establish your brand reputation

The first impression is the last impression. Therefore, you need to be careful while building the user experience of your website. It is essential to fully understand your business and the elements that your target users need. This will keep you from making critical UI/UX mistakes and will help you establish your market reputation. This is especially useful if you are a small business. A flawless and interactive UI/UX can aid in the establishment of your brand’s market reputation.

Tags UI, User experience, UX, Web design, Web Development

Mental Health Remote work

Mental Health and Remote Work

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date August 25, 2021

The Impact of Pivoting to Work from Home on Mental Health

For many people, the shift to working remotely has required us to re-think how we take care of our mental health. The usual self-care and self-compassionate practices we’ve relied on in the past need to be adjusted to support our well-being in this new situation we find ourselves in. If you haven’t yet developed any mental wellness strategies to take care of yourself while working remotely, now is the time!

New situations naturally bring on new feelings of stress. Working remotely can cause the following stressors: isolation or disconnectedness, feeling unable to ask for help, receiving negative feedback in an impersonal way, reading into a co-worker’s tone over text communications, increased anxiety surrounding your own non-verbal communications, time management, and an inability to create concrete boundaries.

We can cope with new elements of stress but it means we need to strengthen our mental resilience first.

The Signs of Burnout that Stem from Working Remotely

Now that our working environments are in our homes, it’s a lot easier to let the line between working hours and off time blur. Remote work can be great for some people who really benefit from having a more flexible workday but, without the separation of leaving your home every day, we’re working longer hours, maybe without even realizing it and this can lead to burnout. Burnout is a state in which we feel emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted and is usually caused by being stressed for a prolonged period of time. To make sure you’re aware of your own burnout or the burnout of your coworkers and employees, here’s a few things to recognize:

Loss of confidence. This means they that might be showing a more tentative side to themselves when it comes to collaborating or communicating at work.
Change in levels of socializing while at work or a drastic dip in energy. Have you noticed that one of your coworkers has been avoiding casual drop-in sessions or doesn’t respond to your coffee break chats via teams?
Less careful when completing work. Someone who is burnout is more prone to making little mistakes that they wouldn’t normally.
Physical illness noticed through more days off than usual.

Dealing with Burnout and Building better Boundaries

Work-life balance sounds great but seems unattainable. To create the right balance for you or your business you need to draw personal boundaries that work for you that allow you to prioritize both work and rest.

Here are some things to implement to keep a good work-life balance

Avoid promoting a ‘hustle’ culture at your workplace. Instead, try sharing healthy ways of taking breaks during the day instead of promoting or encouraging over-working behaviours.
Try not to send work emails after hours – try scheduling that email to hit your team’s inbox the next morning during their workday instead, so they don’t feel pressured to answer you during their time off from work.
Build in social interaction into your work from home situation using chat or video functionalities.
Speak openly about mental wellness and show that it is made a priority at your place of work.

Resiliency for Remote Work and Wellness

Working remotely can be overwhelming, especially when you’re operating amidst uncertainty. Stress can impact how we operate while at work and can negatively affect our productivity and well-being. Here is some advice about how you can build more resiliency working from home to prevent burnout and be well.

Create a workspace that supports a calm and productive environment. This could mean that you treat yourself to new office equipment like an ergonomic chair or move to work in different places around your home throughout the day, or even dress up your desk by adding photos or personal objects that inspire and motivate you while sitting at your desk.
Try to time block or segment your day into manageable chunks. Working remotely has required us to assess the hours in our day and make room for both work and life in a new setting.
Be intentional with your breaks and spend time outside. It’s important to step away from your computer when you’re taking a break so that your mind has time to be away from your work zone.
Schedule time for yourself outside of work and caring responsibilities. Doing something for yourself if only for 30 minutes allows you to have the space to re-center yourself and reenergize your social battery and ultimately refill your wellness cup.

Take Action to Improve your Mental Wellness while Working Remote

Making your workplace more aware of mental wellness in a remote setting starts with you. Do your best to encourage others to prioritize their mental health and have open conversations about mental wellness. Promote good habits like mindfulness, maintaining a balance between work and life outside of work, and actively foster an environment where others feel that they can reach out for help whenever they are struggling. Take this time of change and look at it as an opportunity for discovering new things about yourself and find alternative paths for taking care of yourself, your well-being, and those around you.

Tags mental health, remote work, stress, work from home

Marketing Strategy Uncategorized

Is Marketing for Your MSP a Waste of Time?

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date July 28, 2021

If you’re reading this now, chances are you’re asking yourself this same question, is marketing for my Managed Service Provider a waste of time? The answer is yes AND no. Confused yet? Don’t worry, by the end of all of this, you will understand what I mean.

With remote work here to stay, MSPs are facing one of the biggest opportunities for growth in the history of the industry. So how can you be a part of this growth? Well first, it’s important that you not forget that growing your MSP takes time and effort, it’s not just going to happen overnight.

No matter what industry you’re in, growth requires strategy, and a big part of that strategy is in how you interact with prospective clients. How you interact with your prospective clients all comes down to your marketing strategy. So going back to our question, the answer is no, marketing for your MSP is not a waste of time, but also yes, because it is a waste of time if not executed properly.

If you’re feeling like you’re wasting your time marketing for your MSP, here are some of the most common marketing issues that our MSPs run into below – and some solutions.

1. You don’t know who you’re marketing to.

Something that we’ve noticed a lot of MSPs doing is market to the wrong person. If this is you, you may be thinking, “But marketing is marketing right? If I’m getting the word out, I’ll at least get some leads.” The truth is that if you put content out, not everyone is going to like it. We’re all different, and your prospective clients have different likes, needs, and ways of communicating.

That is why, marketing must be personalized to your ideal client. So, who is your ideal client? Do they hang out on Instagram, do they like listening to the radio, etc.? What do they like to do? What do they need you to help them with? How would they ask you for help?

Once you’ve done a bit of research and answered these questions, start building a marketing strategy that caters to each “persona” of your ideal client and watch the leads roll in.

2. You’re not building brand awareness.

Brand awareness can sometimes feel like a waste of time because awareness is not the same as having a client actually purchase your services. Although it is not likely that brand awareness will give you a direct ROI, it IS a key aspect to building trust with your ideal client.

People will not purchase what they don’t trust. Your ideal client needs to first be aware of who you are. Without building awareness and letting your potential clients get to know who you are, it is not very likely that you will have many clients.

Imagine your ideal client is doing a Google search for a new MSP and your name pops up, along with many others. Your ideal client will choose the MSP that they know and trust. Every. Single. Time. That is why it’s so important that you build brand awareness, even if a potential client is not thinking of attaining a new MSP at the moment. If the first time that your ideal client sees your name is the same moment that they do a Google search, you have already lost them. 

Brand awareness campaigns are a fundamental part of an overall marketing strategy. If no one has heard of you or seen your logo before, the chances of having them engage with you when you do end up using a direct marketing approach are slim to none. Even if your ideal client is not interacting with you right away, by building brand awareness, you will subconsciously grab their attention so that when they do look for an MSP, it will be more likely that they choose yours.

3. Your message is confusing.

Donald Miller says, “if you confuse, you’ll lose.” You only have a limited amount of time to captivate your audience, and if your content is full of jargon, you’re going to lose them.

Likely, you spend so much time on your business that you end up eating, sleeping, breathing, and talking MSP. But those looking for you to solve their problems won’t have the same knowledge and familiarity with your MSP that you have. That’s why it’s important to market your MSP content without jargon, so that the people who are looking for help, will know that they are looking for YOUR help.

Answering your potential clients’ questions with complex explanations will confuse and intimidate them. It’s important to simplify and translate your content so that anyone who sees it will be able to understand it. And keep in mind that even though you understand what you are saying, your ideal client may not.

Before you send your next marketing piece, or your sales team rhymes off an answer to a problem your prospective client has, ask yourselves, “How much does this client know about my MSP?” Then review your materials with that question in mind.

You might find you have to rewrite some things, but it will be well worth the time.

So, what’s next?

If you’re not gaining leads, you’re wasting your time marketing your MSP and it’s time to start building a strategic marketing plan. Fixing your marketing is easier than you think, and you don’t have to do it alone.

Don’t waste your time. Contact us if you need help building a strategy for marketing your MSP.

Digital Marketing Marketing Strategy Uncategorized

Connect to Your Perfect Client

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date April 29, 2021

More than just a LinkedIn request or a potential client you met during a networking event, connecting to your perfect client is a nuanced process. This relationship is high-trust and one that takes time and effort.

The Perfect Client

When we say, “perfect client” we don’t mean a customer who is actually perfect. Perfect implies complete and whole. You don’t need a client whose problems have already been solved.

Your perfect client is looking for a business, service, or product like yours to solve an existing problem. They may fall within your target audience (or maybe not), but you’ll know they’re a good fit when your solutions fit their problems.

Discovering Connection

The process for discovering this connection is two-fold. It requires understanding the needs of your client and then providing the right product for right scenario at the right time.

So, this connection is first and foremost relational. A huge part of being relational is understanding the other party’s needs. When you understand the needs of your client and how you can meet them, that’s where the perfection starts to show up: when you find solutions by smoothly fitting your problems and solutions together.

By understanding your client’s marketing needs, you show your ability to see the bigger picture. Demonstrate how your outsider’s opinion — while perhaps distant from the dynamics of their daily operations — is no stranger to their objectives. In fact, that distance may even provide the insight or perspective they’ve been missing.

When you demonstrate the ability to meet a need, provide a service, or fix a problem with your client, your interaction with them becomes something more than just supply and demand. It becomes a connection.

Our Approach

When it comes to marketing, not every possible service will be required or will work at the same time. There are different needs at different times. Some areas might already be working well—some less so. The more clearly you understand your client and your relationship with them, the better attuned you become to their immediate needs in certain areas.

At Stone City Digital, we perform a marketing audit to understand these areas of need in order to apply the right service at the right time to create the right solution. We strive to understand our clients in a way that serves them best.

By connecting to and with your perfect client, you can achieve a relationship that goes beyond pressing need to brand loyalty. And this connection ranges outside the world of marketing to apply in any market.

Comment below about a time you connected with your perfect client! We’d love to hear your story.

Digital Marketing Marketing Strategy SEO

What Is SEO and Why Is It So Important?

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date March 30, 2021

Search Engine Optimization—or SEO—refers to maximizing the traffic to your website from search engines like Google or Bing. It is a multi-faceted digital marketing tool that can boost your website’s overall visibility. SEO strategies are important for leveraging your website’s online presence effectively in today’s digital world.

That’s why we’re sharing how SEO works and why it’s important. Firstly though, there are some key elements that help us understand where and how we can utilize SEO effectively.

Keywords

Simply put, keywords are the phrases people type into search engines. The keywords you choose for the backend of your website, your content, or any other written material must be picked with care and thoroughly researched.

Unlike the past, keyword optimization is not the only SEO factor prioritized these days. That’s not to say that it’s not still important! Your keywords still need to have contextual significance and relevance to be effective. This is critical as they are instrumental in bringing the right visitors to your website.

Content

Content is one of the most significant resources for optimizing your SEO. It’s the primary way to inform your target audience and draw them to your website. Content includea anything from images to videos to blogs to the very copy on your webpages.

Your content should be meaningful, relevant, and informative. All of your content has the same goal: to give your target audience a clear picture of why your brand, products, or services will meet their needs or solve their problem. That’s why the visitor is there in the first place!

There are many other important areas where you can leverage SEO but keywords and content are a great starting point.

5 Reasons You Want Good SEO

Now, you might be wondering why SEO is crucial for your brand. In today’s digital age, brands and companies need to take their businesses online. With that shift in service and product delivery, brands and companies need to be found. Good SEO is one of the main ways businesses can achieve that necessary traffic. Here are some of the primary reasons why SEO is important for your business today.

1. Authority

Authority refers to the credibility and reputation of your brand and business. The higher your website is ranked in the search results, the more authority your website will have and the more credible and trustworthy your business will be considered by your target audience.

2. Rankings and Visibility

The primary goal of SEO is to boost and improve your brand’s visibility to potential customers. SEO makes your brand more accessible to the broader audiences, which increases website traffic and the possibility of sales.

3. Relevance

Using the correct SEO increases the relevance of your website for your users. Relevance is an important ingredient for user experience. By using the right keyphrases and tactics, SEO can boost the relevance of your website and get the right info to the right people—namely your target audience!

A user–friendly website makes the consumer experience much more smooth and enjoyable when they can find relevant information at the right time. This establishes your brand’s credibility in the minds of your target audience.

4. Web Traffic

Another important purpose of SEO is to, of course, increase your website traffic. This can only happen when your brand’s search rankings (and consequently its visibility) improve. Drawing in more potential customers provides the opportunity to increase brand awareness, sales, and good connections with prospective customers.

5. Growth

Last but not least, the simple fact of the matter is that good SEO can help you achieve your business goals and your vision for your brand’s success. Yes, SEO can help boost traffic to your website and improve your brand’s visibility. But it can also help establish your brand’s credibility and build trust. That’s the type of growth that is beyond value!

At the end of the day, it is this trust and faith that people have in your brand that will ensure the success of your business and take it to greater heights!

What now?

After understanding the elements and importance of SEO, we’re sure you’re excited to get started on improving your website’s SEO. We can help!

At Stone City Digital, we work with our clients to help them improve their SEO and digital marketing strategies and then help them execute them in an achievable way. Reach out to us and let us help your business grow!

Digital Marketing Marketing Strategy

Marketing Your Business in the Days of Remote Work

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date February 11, 2021

It’s been a wild ride for the entire world these days. While it remains to be proven, I believe that humanity has never before experienced such major global shifts so quickly. It’s 2021 and it seems like EVERYTHING has changed. The way our economy works, the way we do business, the way we work, the way we see our families, the way we entertain ourselves, and the way we live our lives day to day. That means the way we do marketing in these days of remote work has shifted too.

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve been doing your best to pivot your business as gracefully as possible while juggling your usual priorities like maintaining a high level of customer service, keeping and acquiring new clients, and delivering what your business promises every day. And I’m certain that it hasn’t all been pretty or perfect for you. We know because we’re living it too.

That’s why the best gift we have to offer you is a little advice on small changes you can make to your marketing for 2021 without adding too many extra tasks to your plate.

1. Make your presence known on the internet with regular blogging.

If you haven’t started blogging, either for yourself or your business, now is the time! Your customers and potential customers are spending a lot of their time online. Your virtual presence and activity have never mattered, and probably never will matter, as much as they do now.

Overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be. Simply start by answering the most common questions you and your team encounter from your customers every day. Then get it out there using your website, social media, and emails. This will give you the opportunity to put your business, services, and products in front of people in new ways.

2. Ensure that your brand’s messaging is accessible, clear, and positive.

Brand image, reputation, and perception are extremely important to any business. That’s why you must clearly communicate what you do, what problems you solve, how you do it, and why you do it to your customers online. You should be sincere and positive. Nothing will turn away customers faster than an obvious attempt to take advantage of their negative circumstances. They’ve got problems and you have solutions; it’s a win-win for everyone!

3. Your everyday content doesn’t have to ask for the sale.

No one likes to be “sold” something, but we all need to buy products and services every day. So, how do we balance that? Your social media platforms and blogs can communicate a whole lot about you and your product or service. Your content can demonstrate to customers how they can use your products or services to solve a problem they might be encountering or to address a need they might have. Get creative. Your prospective clients will connect with your personality and attitude just as much as with the solutions you offer.

4. Invest in the best digital tools.

Part of marketing your business effectively is making sure your team has exactly what they need to do their jobs well. Online collaboration and workflows can become overwhelming without the proper planning and resources in place. Make sure you have the right project management and communication tools to manage your remote work. This way, everyone on your team will have access to the data and resources they need to market your business online.

Part of equipping your team is also ensuring they have the proper tools for communication. Good communication with your customers is key to your marketing efforts. It’s best to invest in online communication tools that make your marketing clear and your customer service easier to manage. Clients expect fast responses even when you’re remote, so this is certainly something you need to take seriously.

5. Consider working with a professional marketing team to pull your brand and your marketing together.

Of course, there is no need to struggle with your marketing on your own.

Stone City Digital works with businesses to help them make the best use of digital media. We can help you market your business online and increase your digital visibility using the latest tools and strategies.

Get in touch with us today to get started!

Tags blogging, digital marketing, marketing strategy

Content Marketing Marketing Strategy SEO Website Design and Development

Your Website: The Key to Recruiting Top Talent?

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date January 15, 2021

When it comes to recruiting top talent, is your website working for you? Is it doing all it can?

By now most companies know their website is key to attracting and connecting with their perfect clients.

But this is 2021.

Your website has the potential to proactively attract, create and keep clients, communicate your corporate culture, AND attract and recruit talent to your business. That’s right. In today’s global digital economy, qualified and enthusiastic talent are screening you through your website.

So, how are you ranking in that area? Is your website attracting those brilliant minds of the future, or do they pass you over and keep looking?

Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. The best time to make a change is now and we’ve provided a few key steps you can take to start leveraging your website to attract the best talent and the best employees now!

Mobile-Friendly Website vs. Unique Mobile Experience

If your website is mobile-friendly, you’re on the right track. But the mobile experience is a different story. Your website must be optimized for the mobile experience to measure up and work for you in attracting great talent as well as great clients.

According to Google, there are 27.8 billion more search queries performed on mobile than on desktop. No, this isn’t an SEO-focused blog, but this one stat alone suggests that you as a business should be thinking about mobile-first.

When a visitor makes their way to your website on their mobile, think about these elements of the user experience: Does it load quickly? Are they able to find what they need quickly? If you’re inviting them to take some action, is it simple and fast enough to warrant their follow through?

If you’re thinking that your website should be more about your potential clients, sure, it could be. But in 2019 Glassdoor reported that 58% of job seekers use their mobile devices to search for jobs. Convinced yet?

Your Careers Webpage and Hiring Process

If you have one, great! Now get that button onto the front page of your website in an easy to find location, and create a small primer section that will attract a click to learn more on your careers page.

This is where you make the case that working for your company is the right career move for them. Like a perfect client, prospective employees are screening you for a sense of what it would be like to work with you and your team.

In addition to the basics (benefits, executive bios, corporate values and mission, company history), offer links to your blog and social media pages, and consider adding video. This could be anything from a virtual tour of the office, or interviews with existing employees about their experience working for the company to really give people a feel for your company culture.

Be as real and open as possible. You want to attract the right employees. Presenting a façade will only disappoint you and the candidates when they get to their interviews, wasting valuable time and energy for everyone.

Your Online Application

Don’t forget mobile friendly and mobile experience are key to this process. Your online application form should be simple, fast loading, and easy to fill out. There’s no need to sacrifice function for simplicity. Use a form that will allow your candidates to upload a cover letter and full resume. So many companies don’t and that’s a missed opportunity.

A cover letter invites your applicant to demonstrate who they are and their unique value to you, their prospective employer.

Not to mention, an online form can give valuable clues about their attention to detail, communication skills, and their overall passion for your industry, business, and product or service.

The Rest of Your Website and Digital Visibility

Your website provides a great first opportunity to gather interesting information from your candidates. But it also tells your candidates a lot about what you do, how you do it, and what separates you from other potential employers.

As you carefully craft your messaging throughout your website, newsletters, blogs, and social media profiles, be sure to include subscribe buttons and social links that bring candidates and your perfect clients to your content. Then, create thoughtful and relevant content regularly across every digital channel you can.

The message you’re sending should drive home the idea that you and your company will provide the most attractive and relevant career opportunity for your candidate. Even when the content you’re putting out on each channel is not directly aimed at your candidates, they will convey these messages when they are relevant to your perfect clients.

Just think about what motivates employees to seek a career change: negative work environments, need for growth, and an opportunity to realize one’s career aspirations. When your website and digital spaces are answering the true questions and needs of prospective clients and employees, you will undoubtedly attract more of the perfect applicants when you post your jobs on social media and job boards.

Of course, we’d love to help you get the most out of your website and digital spaces! It starts with a conversation. Call us today at 613.331.3252.

Tags business essentials, careers, marketing strategy, recruiting, Unique Value Proposition

Content Marketing Digital Marketing Lead Generation Marketing Strategy

Digital Marketing Tactics vs. Strategy

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date August 24, 2020

Wishing your phone would ring?

As a business owner myself, I am often (almost daily) informed about some new way to advertise my business or some new online tool that is going to revolutionize my business. These tools could be super useful, and the advertising method may attract attention and maybe even clients.

However, the reality is often that the new advertising method or tool doesn’t result in new clients, and business owners like us are left feeling like we threw our money away.

Here are a few questions every business owner should be asking themselves when it comes to their advertising and marketing opportunities:

If I’m attracting attention, what do I have in place to make sure it’s the right kind of attention?
Do I have tools working for me that ensure I achieve the maximum benefit of the attention I get?
The buying cycle is about the client’s decision-making process, so how am I helping the clients inform their process and move them closer towards trusting my business?
If I’m getting attention, and maybe even phone calls and opportunities to create clients from the attention, am I properly positioned to do so? Can I handle the work?

This is where the advertisers and marketers calling you with a new way to market run into trouble. They tell you about all the reach you are going to get because you bought into the advertising opportunity. What they don’t do is help you make sure you are set up to create and receive clients from your advertising and marketing efforts.

Back to Basics

Before developing a marketing strategy complete with tactics, a business must consider some basic business and marketing plan essentials. Think about these elements of your business:

Who or what is my business?
What do we do? Why or how are we better than the competition?
Who are my clients?
What problem do we solve for clients?
Where do my clients come from? How do I find them?
Who is my favourite client? Where did I find them?
Who are my competitors? Who do my favourite clients think are my competitors? Who does google say my competitors are?
If I receive more phone calls or sell more products, can I handle that? Do I have a growth strategy?
What’s the true lifetime value of a client? How do I know if my marketing dollars made a return?
Does my pricing structure support the cost of growth?

It’s only after we back up a little and ensure that these essentials have been considered that we can write a marketing plan that includes a social media and digital marketing strategy for your business.

The Magic Potion of Digital Marketing

Anyone can post an ad on Google or Facebook; the tools are relatively easy to use. You can push out the message easily, just like running a radio ad. Yes, people will hear about you for sure. They may even mention the ad if they become a client. But what they don’t share is the journey they took to decide to become your client and that it wasn’t the ad itself that led them to their decision. Just like the radio.

An ad without a strategy does not create a client. It may help people know your business name. But that’s about all it does.

Your digital strategy itself must include a plan for nurturing your perfect client along through the buying cycle of your business, whether the buying cycle is a 15 minute, an 8 week, or even a 1-year cycle. This part of the strategy is the magic potion of a digital marketing and simply running an ad or putting up a website will not help you with this.

At Stone City Digital Inc., this magic potion is our differentiator. Our unique 4 stage marketing process, takes our clients back to the essentials, creates clarity around your brand and your product and builds a wholistic strategy to connect you with your perfect clients at every stage of the buying decision. This magic potion recipe is different for every business, and we are committed to discovering yours with you.

The Client Journey

When you’ve got the ingredients right, a great nurture sequence, and you are reaching people who are exactly like your perfect clients, the client journey goes a little like this:

Stage 1: Initial contact

The potential client heard the radio ad, received a piece of direct mail, saw an ad online while reading their morning news, or even saw a billboard ad they pass by every day. Soon after, they looked up your business on Google, by name. Maybe they even went to your website to check out your brand and your pricing. Perhaps they noticed your Google reviews. Two were 5–star reviews but there was a 2-star review there too. Finally, they also checked out your competitors, by searching for your keywords on google and decided to hold off a bit, they couldn’t decide on following through.

Stage 2: Reminder but no need and no follow through

A few weeks later an ad popped up on Facebook and caught their attention. They took no action, it wasn’t the right time. A few days later, while on YouTube, a quick 6 second commercial popped up while they were watching a funny video AND their favourite vlog. They hit “skip ad” and kept watching their video. Still no action.

Stage 3: The need arises

The need for your product or service truly arises, and the potential client realizes they shouldn’t delay the purchase anymore, so they return to your website either searching your business name or typing in your keyword. You’re #3 on a list of 10 or 11, but they know your brand so they click yours first.

When they land on your website they notice an article titled “10 Questions you don’t know you should ask us before you buy from us.” They have to add their email address to read the whole thing but you’ve peaked their interest, they give you their email address and go ahead and read. They visit your competitors sites too, but they don’t have an article and your prospective client is out of time today… they’ll finish this later.

In the meanwhile they get an email thanking them for being well informed customers and provides a few details that weren’t in the article or listed on the website. The email also asks them a few questions about what they might be most interested in or if they have any more questions… From here they are treated to a scheduled group of emails based on their answers to the questions in their first e-mail Every contact with them being meaningful and helpful, never pushy. From time to time a coupon for extreme savings is included but mostly it’s great information.

Stage 4: It’s time to buy

Finally, the time has come. The prospective client awakes in the morning and knows they must finally buy your product or service and they remember that they have a coupon in their e-mail in box, they didn’t delete it. They decide they’ll reach out to you to complete the purchase with you today. Your phone rings and your sales team does everything right. When your team asks “how did you find out about us?” they answer, “from Google”.

Stage 5: After the sale

The sale is finalized and in true professional form, your new client gets a welcome message and enters into an email sequence written to ensure that your client feels welcome and confident in the quality of their purchase. What’s more, your post sale e-mails confirm that once they buy they are still important to you. So, when they need to buy again, they’ll buy with you.

Connecting with your perfect client

Great marketing is more than running an ad or posting on social media. It’s a process of meeting your perfect client before they need you and then being available to them at every stage of the journey. The results are indisputable. You know your marketing works, when your perfect clients are coming to you first because they already trust you before they’re ready to buy.

There’s no silver bullet to any marketing. Yes, we use tactics and some commonly used tools that anyone else can use. However, Stone City Digital Inc. critically addresses the essential questions listed above by ensuring that you have a marketing and digital marketing strategy that includes a plan for nurturing your perfect client through the entire buying cycle of your business.

The next time you consider an advertising opportunity, ask yourself, “Is this tactic going to bring me my perfect client and get them into my buying cycle so I can nurture my relationship with them? “

If your answer is “no” or even “I don’t know,” call us. We can help.

Tags advertising, business essentials, buying cycle, strategy, tactics

Digital Marketing Marketing Strategy

Know Your Business, Know Your Value

Post author By Christy Falkenberg
Post date August 21, 2020

team meeting with computers and notebooks

Your Business, Your Value

You’re an expert in your business.

You know your business or product better than anyone and you know the value you bring to your clients.

But have you written that information down and used it consistently? Have you clearly stated your value proposition in digital spaces such as your website and your Facebook page?

Why Should They Choose You?

Your value proposition is ultimately a brief explanation to clients and customers as to why they should purchase from you or hire you instead of someone else. Essentially, your value proposition is an outline of what makes you unique.

For example, our unique value proposition at Stone City Digital Inc. is that, “We build and implement digital marketing strategies while educating, engaging and empowering our clients to participate fully in their digital marketing strategy through their entire business lifecycle.” Our purpose at Stone City Digital Inc. is to teach businesses to fish rather than to sell them fish.

Analyze Yourself

Now, consider your own business and ask yourself these questions:

What is it that your business does?
How does it make your clients’ lives better?
How do you do it?
How does your competition do it?
Why are you the best choice above all other competitors?

Spend a little time with these questions if you haven’t already, and write down your answers. Writing this information down is key to focusing your business’ purpose and offerings. Attempt to combine your answers into a nice and tidy little statement in one or two sentences (or even less).

Need help?

If you’re finding that you are having a little trouble composing your unique value proposition, check out Strategyzer’s explanation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=D254suPMpwY&feature=emb_logo

Tags Communication, digital marketing, Unique Value Proposition