Estimated Costs Of Digital Marketing Services For Attorneys

The best type of new customer, whether you are an attorney, an air conditioning company, a roofer or a restaurant is one that was referred to you. Not only does it cost you nothing to generate a lead from referrals, but you actually get better quality clients because when referred by a friend or family member, people seem to have a better understanding of the service they need and the help you can provide. While attorneys and other professionals are constantly looking for referrals, the reality is that they need to do more if they want to have steady work. 

Referrals are great, but they are not enough and that holds true especially in the legal industry where clients can find someone within minutes, whether they have a referral or not. For those who do not have a great recommendation from a friend or family member, Google becomes the top referral site for them, along with other platforms and sites the consumer trusts. No site generates better or more consistent results for law firms than Google and that is not going to change anytime soon. 

Digital Marketing Challenges For Attorneys 

While you know where to go for results, what you may not realize is that the word has been out for a while on that. Locally, there are dozens of attorneys battling for the top page of premium keywords. They are willing to pay for those spots and dedicate as much time as is needed. Expand your target area and you will find even more competition as national firms are covering every top city and region they can to grab new clients. 

While you do have an insane amount of competition, the good news is that there are cost-effective ways to get results in digital marketing. A bigger budget helps, but there are a wide range of areas you can invest time and money into that will help you generate short and long-term results. Some of these platforms will produce faster and more effectively than others, but each one brings with it a unique value in content distribution and audience reach. 

You Need A Good Website, Not An Expensive One 

The first thing your law firm needs if you want to establish an online presence is a good website. However, before you start heading out and looking for proposals, you need to understand the functionality and usage of the site. Your website will be used for marketing purposes and to capture leads, that’s it. You are establishing an online presence and the website is the first and most effective way to do that. However, that does not mean you have to break the bank. 

E-commerce businesses have to invest tens of thousands of dollars into their website each year. You are not an e-commerce company and therefore do not have to make that same commitment. You need a good site, one that can hold up well and be utilized for marketing campaigns, but you do not need the flashiest and most expensive one in the industry. Save your marketing dollars to drive in new clients. 

Determine Your Target Audience 

Before you determine where and how to market your services you first need to figure out who your target audience is. For attorneys, the key factor in determining who the target audience is will be based on what services you provide. For example, if you offer real estate legal services, you need to focus on relevant keywords and those who are looking specifically for lawyers who offer assistance in that area. Trying to cover too many services means you are expanding your audience but also stretching your advertising budget thin. Location and area of service will greatly impact your budget and in order to keep it manageable, you want to focus on a single service or area of services to offer. 

Start Local 

It does not matter what your budget is, what size the audience is or what your goals are. If you are starting out, you need to start local. By establishing your firm locally, you are giving yourself two key advantages. The first advantage is that you are focusing all your resources on one area, meaning you should get faster results. You also will get important information on what works and doesn’t work with that audience and that information can be used for campaigns that target different locations.

The second advantage to starting your advertising campaigns locally is that you get to establish yourself in your area and move forward. Having an established presence online is very important. Imagine if you are based in Texas and you are advertising your services in California. A potential client may see your ad and start to research you. However, upon learning you are based in Texas and realizing that you are not established there, the client loses trust in your firm. This is why starting locally is a good idea. Even national clients will want to know that you are doing great back at home, otherwise, why wouldn’t they just stay local as well? 

Every Platform Has Value 

Google is your top marketing platform and that will not change under any circumstances. However, that does not mean that you should avoid other platforms, especially if they are free and easy to use. Will you get a client from Facebook? Probably not. Will you get calls from YouTube? Maybe, but without any ad budget, you cannot expect much. So, why use these platforms? Because first you never know. You never really know if someone sees your ad on Facebook and ignores it, but when they see your name later on Google they remember it and click on your link over the competition. 

Another reason to invest time into these other platforms is that while they do generate slower results in some cases, they can generate more affordable results. In some cases, these platforms may only produce one prospect or lead a month, as an example. However, that single lead may have cost you a fraction of what your leads from Google cost you. That’s why it’s worth putting the content out there. 

The Beauty Of Google 

No law firm can consistently produce new, non-referred leads online without the help of Google. You may have heard that this lawyer had a great Facebook campaign and someone else invests mostly in email marketing. They may actually have success with those other platforms, but what they are overlooking is the number of leads that verified the firm by first checking them out on Google. Without that presence there is no reason for a prospect to select you or trust you over the competition. 

Yes, you can generate leads outside of search engines. Sometimes, those leads are more affordable than on search engines. However, for long-term consistency, nothing is going to beat the top search engine sites because that’s where clients who do not have referrals or recommendations go to get information and make a selection. Google allows you to generate leads in 3 primary ways. First is your organic presence, which is affordable and allows you to establish yourself locally. The second way is with organic rankings. This is a bit different because it’s based more on the quality of your website and services and less on your location. Finally, there is paid advertising which is more expensive but generates the fastest results. 

Keep Creating Quality Content

You may have heard that content is king and that statement is true and for a very good reason. Without high-quality content, none of your ads would produce. It doesn’t matter if you are ranked at the top of page one. If you do not offer the consumer something of value in your ad, they are not going to take action. That’s why content is key and it’s something that you should regularly work on and produce. 

  • Blogs: Your website not only needs a blog section but you need to contribute to it at least once a month. Your marketing team is going to work on content that’s going to be informative and even help your website rank for Google. However, a blog from you can create real interest because you can write based on your experience and knowledge of a specific subject. Try focusing on a single topic each month and write a long-form blog about it. The reason is because it will rank better that way and generate more traffic for you. 
  • YouTube videos: Attorney’s have missed the advantages of YouTube and video platform sites for years. No, someone is not going to randomly watch a 30 minute video about real estate law and just call you. However, if that video is the best resource thousands of people have for real estate law, do you think that’s going to generate some interest? You do not need a fancy setup. Start a video and talk about the topic, then post with a relevant title and description and share it on your social media with your blogs. 
  • Webinars: A monthly webinar is actually something attorneys do not do enough of but it could generate major interest for your brand, and at no cost. Creating free content and sharing it around the web will generate an interest in your firm and the content you are creating. A webinar is not only additional content, but a way for you to get people to engage with you on your time. 
  • Newsletters: Updates about what’s going on in the world, the legal field, recommendations or tips for managing your legal needs are all welcomed to people who do not have a legal background. So, why not give that information away to that audience? They will appreciate it and have an interest in it, even if they do not currently need the information you are providing. 

Content is not designed to just get engagement. In some cases, it’s meant to establish your brand as an industry leader and chief resource for people to rely on. Once you have that established, you can literally spend zero dollars a month on marketing and still get leads. However, you can see how much work it will take to generate that kind of content and an audience to read it. 

Remember, Fast Results Cost Money 

While these strategies are proven, they have also proven that they need time to work. If you are not as patient as you would like to be, especially when it comes to getting new clients calling, then you need to invest in your digital marketing. This is where understanding each platform can benefit you even more.

Investing in results means focusing on consumers who are actively looking for your services. The place that most people go to find a lawyer or other types of professional service providers is Google. Paid advertising based on search results can be expensive, but it can also generate high-quality leads in days instead of months. It’s important to understand that even though you are paying for results, campaigns do take time to ramp up and the system needs to learn about your efforts, your brand and your audience. However, PPC is the most reliable way to get immediate traffic to your website and generate interest in your services. 

Keep Producing Content 

Even if you are investing in paid advertising, continue working on your content and produce as much as you can. Good content only reinforces your paid efforts and that can help in not only generating more leads, but also keeping your cost per lead down. Sites that have good content tend to generate better quality leads at a lower cost. 

Build New Channels Of Communication 

Your audience can visit YouTube or your social media to get your content, but how can you communicate with them? That’s the problem and you need to find a faster way to communicate. Email marketing is considered one of the best options but requires you to capture the data of not only your clients, but prospects as well. However, it’s worth the investment because email marketing works long-term and is cost-effective. 

Estimated Costs Of Digital Marketing Services 

The cost of marketing services will vary by agency, service, target audience and more. Each place will have different rates for their services but it’s important to know what you are paying for and how much it should generally cost. 

Website ($4,000-$10,000) 

A strong website will reinforce each of your marketing efforts and bring consistent and quality leads to your business. However, you do not need to get anything over the top. You just need smooth design, simple and friendly functionality and a strong content base to help with rankings and other marketing efforts. Ideally, you will be adding content throughout the site each month, so the more space you have for new content, the better. 

This is also where you want to have answers for people who are either thinking about becoming a client of yours or are currently a client and have questions about the process and what to expect. Include a FAQ, a blog and other places people can go to get actual answers to their legal questions. The more they rely on your content as a resource, the more you can expect quality leads and engagement. 

SEO ($2,500-$7,500 a month) 

Search engine optimization is the most cost-effective and proven way for attorney’s to generate new leads to their website. However, it is not a fast-performing service. It takes time to generate top page rankings and go after keywords with tons of competition. This is where you need to have a lot of high-quality content to get the rankings and expect link building efforts like press releases as well. 

The standard time to generate top page rankings for a good SEO agency is about 6 months. While that may seem like a lot of time, each month you will see improvements with rankings, traffic and leads. However, expect 6 months to get top page rankings for the premium keywords, especially if there’s a lot of competition. 

PPC ($5,000-$50,000 a month) 

Pay Per Click is one of the most reliable and proven services to generate fast leads for law firms. However, especially in areas and services that are extremely competitive, the cost per click can be expensive. That’s why you have to have an understanding of what you can do with your current budget, which your marketing agency can go over with you. 

In some cases, you can run $5,000 on PPC each month and get solid leads. In some cases, you will be spending less with that budget than 20-40 other law firms targeting the same area. If you are dealing with that much competition, do you expect to get premium results? The cost of PPC really comes down to what your budget is and how it can be utilized. 

Email Marketing ($1,500-$2,500 a month) 

There are mixed results for attorneys when it comes to email marketing. If the list is built with former prospects and clients, you can expect higher open rates and click-thru-rates. However, if you purchase a list you need to be more patient with it and the results you are expecting. Yes, these are new prospects, but you do not know if they need your services right now or are interested in your assistance? That’s why you need to be patient and try utilizing those lists only once or twice a month. 

Social Media ($1,000-$3,000 a month, not including ad budget) 

For those who love social media, the platforms can produce quality leads in the legal field. However, you have to take the mindset that you are targeting a more randomized audience, rather than a highly targeted one. This means you are running ads to people who may have zero interest in your services. So, why run the ads? 

If you can put $5,000 in your social media campaign and generate more leads than that same amount of money would work on Google, it makes sense to give it a try. Social media has become an avenue where attorneys with a smaller budget find affordable leads but the content has to be strong and there has to be patience with the campaigns. 

How Email Marketing Lowers Your Costs 

Investing in email marketing is always a good idea, especially for attorneys. Remember those referrals we spoke about? Imagine if you have a former client who receives your emails every month. It can be a simple newsletter that gives them tips on legal topics. They may never engage with the email but because they get it frequently, they remember you and they also remember your name if they meet someone who needs an attorney. Email marketing is a cost-effective way to keep your clients in the loop and remind them that you’re around and offering your services. 

Digital marketing for attorneys comes down to steady content creation and distribution as well as having a strong budget to target an audience on platforms that generate steady results. It’s a lot of work which is why working with an experienced agency can make a huge difference, especially as you are starting out. 

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Why Selling On Amazon Might Be The Right Investment For Your Business

Have an e-commerce business and are debating whether to join Amazon or not? The largest e-commerce site in the world, Amazon is well known for protecting its consumers and bringing millions of products and services to their fingertips. It has been a game changer for thousands of businesses, either in a good way or bad way. For some businesses, the platform has given them a new sales funnel that literally produces more business than all others combined. For others, the platform almost put them out of business. 

Everyone has different opinions on e-commerce sites and their benefits. Your company may offer something that does not work on the site and therefore you will not invest a lot of time into adding it to your marketing strategy. However, if your business would benefit from building an Amazon store, should you do it? 

Adding Amazon To Your E-Commerce Strategy 

Being a seller on Amazon comes with plenty of headaches. There are fees, impatient customers that the company will always side with, major competition and rules to market and manage your business that have to be followed. It’s a lot of work to build these stores and optimize them to perform at their very best. Here are some of the advantages that you need to consider about the site: 

  • Major consumer base: If there’s a customer base online that has an interest in your products, there’s a good chance that consumer base is also on Amazon. It’s never a bad idea to have your own site and set up shops on multiple platforms, but this one has the largest and most trusted consumer base on the web. 
  • Organic rankings: Yes, just like with SEO and Google rankings, you can manage your page and improve your organic rankings on e-commerce sites as well. This is just as important as it allows you to generate fast traffic and sales from a committed audience. 
  • Paid marketing options: If organic results will take too long then do not forget there are plenty of paid options. One of the main benefits of this option is that the platform allows you to target based on its user data meaning your targeting will be much more accurate. 
  • Great targeting options: Again, because the platform is advertising to its own users it can target them better based on their interests, what they usually buy, what they are looking for and more. 

Being able to target someone who buys a product over someone who just does a lot of research is a big advantage in targeting that e-commerce offers. This means that while you may have to pay a bit more per lead, you can see stronger conversion rates for each group of customers. Also, because they are able to buy through the main site, it allows them to use platforms they are familiar with rather than visiting your site directly. 

Change In Marketing?

Adding Amazon to your e-commerce strategy can be a great move for your business. However, it is going to change your marketing strategy. Some people like the idea of keeping the new store separate and not marketing for it. This is a mistake because the more success you have early on with the site, the more it will benefit your business in its entirety. That’s why you need to let your customers know and here’s how to alert them: 

  • Email marketing: Send out a quick email with a link letting your customers know that they can now purchase your products on this site. Allow them to browse and see if they can get better deals on shipping, faster shipping or something else. 
  • Search engine optimization: If you optimize the pages well you should see improved rankings, not only on the main store but on Google and other search engines as well. Because these pages generate so much traffic, they still get organic rankings in search engines, especially if that’s where they are primarily sold. 
  • Pay per click: Paid advertising is an effective way to drive traffic directly to your new store. You have the option of using the paid advertising within the site as well as other sites like Google. 
  • Social media: Along with search engines, you can use your social media pages to drive in traffic to your new online store. This is also a cost-effective way to run promotions on your store and market them to a target audience. 

Most platforms allow for easy marketing, especially if you want to drive traffic to a major e-commerce site. If Amazon has the potential of improving your sales numbers, it’s up to you to work with your marketing team to explore your options and see what will benefit you. Fees and regulations can be an additional challenge, but if you get sales, they’re worth it. 

Does It Make Sense To Open An Amazon Store? 

Each business is different and you have to look at the competition and your current position to determine if it makes sense. However, if you see a potential benefit from making the switch and opening up a new store, there’s no reason to delay, especially when it can work as part of a major marketing campaign. 

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How To Improve Page Speed For SEO Rankings

Digital marketing campaigns that include services like SEO, PPC, social media and email marketing can be successful or fail for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons have to do with things like the content that’s used in the ads, the target audience, the budget, the time the ads are run and more. However, one thing that will hurt any campaign, regardless of how well it is set up, is the load time of each page. 

Imagine running a campaign where you target a specific audience with an ad that intrigues them to take an action. Then, imagine if that user visits the site only to wait 5 seconds, 9 seconds and then even 20 seconds for a page to load and nothing. Do you think that lost lead is the result of poor marketing or poor page speed? 

Benefits Of Improving Page Speed

Faster page speed times mean better results for all your marketing efforts including search engine optimization. The reality is that consumers have very little time and patience for your ads. If you want them to take an action you need to be direct and give them the information they want as well as simplifying their process to take an action. The harder it is for them to take that action, or the longer it takes, the less likely they will move forward. 

How To Improve Page Speed For SEO Purposes 

It will never benefit you to try and get rankings under SEO or any other marketing campaign if you are directing traffic to pages that have slow load times. If you want to improve your marketing, improve your site starting with: 

  1. Minimize all HTTP requests: By combining separate files you can drastically reduce the amount of information your pages have to carry. Less code still allows you to get rankings but doesn’t slow the page down. 
  2. Optimizing server performance: In some cases it could be a hosting problem. Look at your hosting and make sure you have enough room on your server for everything you’re throwing at your site. 
  3. Lower the amount of redirects: While redirects can have major advantages for SEO, they require the server to make an extra trip meaning they slow down load times and can even make it more difficult for content to display. 
  4. Improve mobile responsiveness: Often the website looks great but it’s the mobile version that is struggling with page uploads. If that’s the case, you may miss on the problem but still see high bounce rates in your campaigns. 
  5. Optimize and possibly compress images: Often forgotten about, image sizes can add major storage problems to a page, slowing down each loading time and causing major delays. By compressing the images, you can significantly cut down on what the page has to bring up each time someone visits it. 

Speed is the name of the game as you want your system to work at the user’s speed, not the other way around. The more you can give them as far as quality service and website functionality, the higher your chances of seeing engagement and even sales. 

How Does Page Speed Impact SEO Rankings? 

Because Google prioritizes things like page speed when determining SEO rankings, websites looking for those top page rankings have to focus on the optimization of each page, load time and content. If one thing is off, even by a little, it can cost a page or site top page rankings and potentially thousands of clicks each month. 

The longer a user spends on your page, the lower your bounce rate which is a good thing. However, if the page doesn’t even load for them, how long do you think they will stay? Review your website and check out each page, desktop, tablet and mobile versions to make sure they are working with the right amount of speed. 

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Building A Custom Digital Marketing Strategy For Your Business

Want a customized digital marketing strategy for your business? Why not make one yourself? The fact is that most businesses see failed campaigns, not because they choose the wrong agency, but because they did not invest in the right services, or invest properly in the right services. Sometimes, it’s about more than what your ad spend is, it’s about making the services work together, putting great content out there and utilizing platforms to target a direct audience. 

As you look for ways to market your business, it’s important to understand the services that are available and how each one will benefit you. In some cases, there may be marketing options that are not beneficial to you because of the type of business you are in. For example, realtors can invest in search engine optimization. However, because of the competition and the fact that the top sites own the top keywords, you are limited on the results you can get from this service. That does not mean that SEO will not work for a realtor, but it will not be as effective as it would for a different type of company. 

Know Your Business 

The first step into understanding where you need to invest your resources in digital marketing is to understand your business, especially your customers. What services and products do you offer? How do consumers gather information about those services and products and how do they make a purchase? Do they traditionally do this online? If so, which platforms do they use? This is why there’s a big difference between a digital marketing strategy for restaurants than there is for insurance agencies. 

Your audience will take an interest in your products and services, but the platforms they use to get or find that information are important. For example, if someone usually goes onto Google to research businesses that offer the products you offer, then Google is a platform you need to invest in. The determination of whether you should favor options like SEO and PPC comes later when you look at what you yourself can do with your budget and long-term commitment. 

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How Your Brand Should Communicate With Consumers

Marketing is basically a fancy word for communication. As a business, we need to be aware of our communication, not only with employees and customers, but also those who are not familiar with our brand. If someone were to hear something good about you, even if they were not a customer, it will give you an advantage down the road when you are being considered for your products and services. However, if that same person hears negative comments about your brand, they are less likely to use you in the future. 

Communication is challenging, especially in marketing, where you have limited time to get your message out there. Consumers have less and less time to read and listen to your content and that means you have to hit them with the information fast and let them make the decision whether or not they wish to move forward with your content. 

The content quality has a lot to do with whether or not a consumer takes a real interest. However, that has little to do with the cost to produce the content. Some of the top viewed pieces of content in your field were shot on cell phones or written in less than an hour. They come from businesses and experts who may not have a big marketing budget, but have a lot to share and that’s what the consumers want, real, reliable information from credible sources. 

Forms Of Communication You Have Available 

There are several ways you can communicate with existing and potential customers. This content can be seen immediately upon being deployed, or months or even years later. However, it can still have an immediate impact on the consumer as they see it and the better the quality, the longer it will stay relevant. Communicate with consumers utilizing these proven platforms: 

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Why Should I Be Concerned About Branding and How Can I Make It Shine?

Good branding is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. A strong brand can help a company differentiate itself from its competitors and build a loyal customer base.

Here are some of the reasons why good branding is important in marketing:

Builds trust and credibility. 

A well-designed brand identity can help establish trust and credibility with customers. A professional and consistent brand image can give customers confidence in a company’s products or services.

Differentiates from competitors.

Good branding helps a company stand out in a crowded marketplace. A unique brand identity can differentiate a company from its competitors and make it more memorable to customers.

Establishes emotional connections.

Good branding can help create emotional connections with customers. A strong brand identity that resonates with customers can make them feel more loyal to a company and its products.

Increases brand recognition.

A strong brand identity that is consistent across all marketing channels can help increase brand recognition. When customers see the same brand imagery and messaging repeatedly, it can help create brand recall and make it more likely that they will choose that brand over others.

Provides a platform for marketing efforts.

A strong brand identity can provide a platform for marketing efforts. When a company has a clear brand identity and message, it can use that as a foundation for marketing campaigns across various channels, such as social media, advertising, and content marketing.

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video marketing

Video is a Crucial Part of Marketing Today – Here’s Why

There’s no denying that video is now an integral part of marketing – and if you’re not incorporating it in a few different ways you’re missing out.

In 2021, 86% of businesses used video as a marketing tool. And 93% of them say it’s a critical part of their strategy.

In fact, research has shown 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product after watching a video, and they’re twice as likely to share videos than other types of online content. Cisco reported that by 2022, video will account for 82% of all online traffic.

And why?

  • Live video is an essential way for brands to connect with consumers.
  • Vlogs and social media stories are great ways to show brand personality and create a personal connection with your audience.

You should also know that most people watch videos with no sound and that user-generated content is the most trusted form of online content. 

More? Here are some video marketing trends you should know about.

Live Video

As mentioned above, live video is an essential way to connect with potential and current customers. And while people prefer video content in general, they engage at a much higher rate when the content is live. On Facebook, for example, users watch live videos for 3x longer than pre-recorded videos, and live content generates 6x more interactions.

Smartphone Production

It’s easy to start because with a good smartphone and lighting, you can produce great content. And this type of real-life content is resonating with consumers more than salesy ads.

Videos Can Add to Your SEO

We all want a competitive edge in the SEO game – and videos optimized for search and give it to you. Forrester recently found that videos are 53 times more likely to generate first-page rankings than other traditional SEO techniques. Brightedge reports that Google is now putting video snippets next to 26% of search results, and users are more likely to click them when they do.

Want to use videos effectively? Make sure you optimize for relevance, consistency, and don’t forget the backend needs. Relevance comes from educating on relevant topics, answering questions and creating content presented in a fresh and engaging way.

You’ll have to use video frequently and publish it to your website so the consistency can help boost your ranking.

And finally – the homework part. Title tags, keywords in descriptions, choosing appropriate thumbnail images, and responding to comments to drive engagement.

Vlogs

Have a great storyteller on your team? Vlogs (video blogs) are a great way to position the brand as the main character and share relevant stories. Vlogs are a great opportunity to create a human connection between your team members and your audience, showcase your brand personality, and keep consumers coming back for more of your content.

Silent Videos

Smart marketers are creating videos designed to be watched without sound. Why? A whopping 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. In fact, 80% of consumers report that they have a negative reaction when an ad plays a loud sound unexpectedly. And it makes sense. People are watching videos on their phones everywhere — in crowded waiting rooms, on public transportation, in classrooms, and even in meetings. If you want to be considered – be quiet and use captions. For videos and for ads. (On average, people watch ads with captions 12% longer than videos without them). 

User-Generated Content

Have enthusiastic customers? (if not, we need to talk about that first). Consumers overwhelmingly trust user-generated content more than branded content. In fact, 85% think UGC is more trustworthy and nearly 70% find it more authentic and appealing. It only makes sense – it’s word-of-mouth via video. How can you encourage it? Offering incentives, working with influencers, creating referral programs and simply asking. Let’s create some “wow” for customers so it happens organically as well.

Spot can help you create compelling video content to augment what you’re already doing as part of your comprehensive marketing strategy. (don’t have one of those? We can help with that as well!)

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Do You Know Both Types of User Experience?

Hint – there’s Google’s version of User Experience which is things that they can measure like keyword density, functionality, load time, how your site adapts to mobile devices, etc. And then there is the actual user experience for, well, users. 

What do website visitors think about your company when they first see your site? Google can’t measure “look and feel”, but visitors to the site sure will. They will have an impression of your company based on your site within seconds. If they decide to stick around, how easily can they find what they’re looking for? Does the site have real value or is it so focused on getting the visitor to take an action that you’re missing some crucial steps visitors may want to take before they commit to filling out a form or clicking through to a commitment.

Don’t worry – user experience does take into account your business goals and objectives, it just makes sure best practices are used to achieve them in terms of the quality of the user’s interaction and their perceptions of your products and/or services. 

Here are some aspects to keep in mind when planning a new website, or refreshing your current one. 

  • Useful: Your content should be original and fulfill a need. As part of this, content strategy should be very focused. You don’t need to over-elaborate, but you need to remember that new visitors to your site don’t start with knowledge about your company, products or services, so don’t forget the basics. And before you can sell your company, sometimes you have to sell the concept itself. For instance, a site for a solar installation company can’t just focus on why choose them, but must start with “why solar?”.
  • Usable: The site must be easy to use. This should go without saying, but not every visitor will understand all the modern ways to show where menus are, or what is clickable. Try to see your site from a technically-challenged point of view as needed.
  • Desirable: The image, identity, brand, and other design elements are used to evoke emotion and appreciation. If it’s just screenshots or stock product images, then where’s the emotion? Can you show people using your product or benefiting from your service? 
  • Findable: The content needs to be easy to navigate and to find onsite and offsite. Don’t forget internal links when talking about a topic. Users shouldn’t always have to look back up to the menu to get to another element of the website. 
  • Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to people with disabilities, but don’t forget basics like font contrast against backgrounds and type size, especially if you have or target older potential customers.
  • Credible: Users must trust and believe what you tell them. A lot of hyperbole with no factual information will generally not sit well.
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Geofencing Marketing Agency

What Are the Advantages of a Smaller Boutique Business Marketing Agency?

A big agency can seem very glamorous, with brand name clients you recognize and very slick presentations. But here are some reasons a large agency might not be your best choice when searching for a business marketing agency, or if you’re considering switching. Here are some factors to consider.

Who will actually handle your account?

While the big guns may do the presentation, the actual work will likely be done by much more junior partners. Agencies often like to let these associates cut their teeth on smaller accounts. That means they’ll be learning on your dime, and will only serve as messengers, not contribute to fresh ideas and seasoned guidance.

Will you be a priority at the marketing agency?

If you have something that needs to be done and a bigger client has something that needs to be done and resources are limited, your project could easily be pushed since your value to the agency is not as great. 

Will your rates be higher because you’re not doing as much volume?

A la carte projects/tasks can be priced higher as opposed to those that can be bundled and cost less if there is sufficient volume. It will be hard to ascertain if this is true, but it’s worth asking about. If you’re not a media-heavy account that can contribute to the agency’s bottom line with media commissions, that can come into play as well.

How does the agency bill?

Are they billing you for every 15-minute increment? Do you have a retainer that gives you more time for a set fee? Are you getting estimates for projects before work proceeds?

Do they act like they know you’re a small business?

Are they proposing expensive solutions when there are lower cost options? This can come into play with collateral and brochure designs, promotional items, conference booth materials and more.

Do they share ideas?

Is the marketing agency helpful with ideas for your business that you could potentially execute yourself that will contribute to your goals? Do they understand the full user experience and branding, or just media buying and creating content?

Do they understand your ultimate business goals?

Maybe you want to grow your business and position it for acquisition? Maybe you want to explore mergers? Maybe it’s a passion project and you want to grow it so it can be passed down to your heirs? Whatever it is, a good business marketing agency will ask those questions because it can, and should, influence the strategy they suggest.

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Packaging is Key to Retail Success

 

Reggie Colalongo found out the hard way that the last step in manufacturing – packaging – can be the most critical.

She began her cultivation career on farms – growing and extraction, which naturally stemmed from her background in community gardens and agriculture. Then she met Bret Burroughs on a farm in Mendocino County and they saw the market changing. Reggie and Bret opted to enter the California recreational CBD edibles market and created Solstice and Sun, with a desire to create and offer artisanal products that would be vegan and organic, gluten free, as well as customized with different textures and flavors. 

Of course, the packaging needed to reflect the uniqueness as well, and included a special paper compression wrapper from Japan for each piece with everything packed into stately matte black boxes that they felt met compliance guidelines. What they didn’t count on was that in a dispensary, their stately boxes kept being placed near the bottom of display areas, with more colorful options getting front and center placement. In addition, their boxes were smaller than many others and the elements on the outside weren’t really giving potential customers a good sense of the goodness inside.

Realizing the issue, they went back to the drawing board and commissioned much more colorful, larger vertical bags featuring a serene landscape of rolling hills, with the sun high in the sky and bordered with fruits representing each flavor, with an overlay of their logo and information. They also sourced the bags in California, rather than having boxes printed in China. Another upside, the bags were easier to fill than boxes, and lowered their labor costs.

The changes were immediate – their products began to command much more prominent spaces in dispensaries, and an increase in sales followed. 

As Packhelp co-founder Konrad Kwiatkowski wrote in an article for Fleximize as his #1 tip – “Keep packaging eye-catching so that it immediately stands out and is remembered by the customer.” He also shared,Packaging is also an opportunity to tell customers who you are as a brand and what you believe in. Product packaging cannot scream at the customer – ‘buy me!’. It needs to be intriguing, create a mood and prompt a range of emotions.”

“It was a great lesson for us,” explained Regina. “The packaging has to do the selling for you in the store because no one is there to explain the product. And if you can’t get someone to pick up your box and read about what’s inside, you’ve lost before you’ve even begun.

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