5 Tips for Marketing your New Business

Just starting a business? New to marketing yourself? Check out some of our suggestions on how to break into marketing as a small business:

1. Claim your social media. Have a business name? That is enough to claim your Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and Google+ username. Even if you don't have time to launch a full social media campaign, claim your account now before it is too late.
2. Give stuff away for free. Generate excitement about your new product or service by giving it away! New ice cream stand? Give away a free small cone for a weekend. The possibilities for giveaway options are endless and don't have to be costly to your company. Getting your name out there will be worth it!
3. Leverage email marketing. Emails are completely free to send. If you are a new business, chances are your email base is small, so you can start by using a simple Gmail account. Keep all customer information in a tidy Excel sheet for future use. Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available for new businesses. 
4. Understand your customers. No matter what marketing plan you choose, put yourself in the shoes of your customers and consider what you would want from your company if you were a consumer. Think about why your customers need your product or service and then hone your strategy accordingly.
5. Well-designed website. This may go without saying, but it is essential to have a well-crafted website. Customers stay on a website for an average of 3 seconds. If they do not find what they are looking for in that time, chances are, they will leave your page for a competitor. Spend a few extra bucks and get a website that is worth your money!

Don't know where to start? Contact eMarketing247 and we will get you started! We can help you with whatever you need, from SEO and Social, to website building and PPC! 

Why PPC?

If you find yourself asking "why PPC"... eMarketing247 can help! 

We’re sure you have noticed sponsored advertisements, strategically located at the top and right side of every major search engine, such as Google and Bing. These ads are known as Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, ads. PPC is an internet marketing technique that requires you to pay a small fee for every click on your ad. Your company is then placed on the results page of a search engine. 

A Pay-Per-Click campaign is the quickest way to have your company listed on the first pages of Google and Bing, where customers can be directed to your website. A well-written and managed PPC advertising campaign can instantly bring customers to the exact page of a query through a bidding process. More often than not, it increases the chances of a potential sale. 

Don't you want to increase your chances for making money? Contact us today! 

Hiring for Marketing Roles: Questions you MUST Ask!

Here at eMarketing247, we want the best for your business! We want you to think about your business as it pertains to marketing and branding when hiring new marketing employees. We liked this email from Nataly Kelly so much, that we wanted to share it with you!  Here are some crucial questions to ask when hiring new people for marketing roles:

Questions About Previous Experience
Here are questions to ask candidates applying for a specialized marketing position in demand generation, business development, email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing:

Demand generation: consider asking...
What percentage of revenue were you responsible for? What did your overall process look like? How was each stage of the process defined? What were the top five metrics that you tracked daily? What were your conversion rates at each stage? How did you improve them over time? What were your top channels, and what percentage corresponded to each? Which types of programs were most successful? How did you drive improvements for each? What was your approach to integrated campaigns?

Business development: consider asking...
What methods and frequency did you use to communicate with sales? What productivity tools made the business development team more effective? What did you do with your team members to help drive the biggest performance improvements? What were your conversion rate targets, and how did you improve them over time? How did you measure the performance of each team member? How did you guarantee that your team would meet or exceed their quotas? How did you handle under-performing team members?

Email marketing: consider asking...
What did your database look like in terms of quantity and split across various personas? What percentage of your database was opt-in vs. paid leads from third parties? How did you measure and improve the quality of data in your database? What fields do you consider "must-haves" vs. "nice-to-haves"? What creative techniques did you use to tier your database? How did new leads enter the database, and from which sources? How often did you purge the database to ensure data quality? How did you improve click-through rates? How did you implement A/B testing? What kinds of drip campaigns did you have running? How did you measure the effectiveness?

Social media marketing: consider asking...
Which channels were most successful for you in your previous roles? How did you determine which type of content to distribute in each channel? Which tools did you use to analyze and identify opportunities? What was your posting frequency? What were your key metrics for each channel? What were your proudest accomplishments in each channel? What tactics worked best for boosting engagement in different channels? What did your process look like for each channel? Was there any content that you shared on all channels? If so, how did you make the decision?

Content marketing: consider asking...
What did your content strategy look like in your most recent role? What were the most successful types of content? How did you measure content marketing performance? Which types of content work best for each stage of the funnel, in your experience? What was your frequency for each content type? How did you balance quality and quantity? How many audiences did you produce content for? How did you ensure that your content was resonating with those audiences? How did you come up with creative ideas? What did your content process look like? Which stakeholders and internal team members were critical for your success?

Five Questions to Help You Figure Out What Makes Them Tick
Though it's important to drill down into candidates' marketing backgrounds with questions such as those listed above, it's also a good idea to include high-level questions that will help you learn more about them, such as how they define and measure success, what companies and marketing leaders they admire, and their preferred marketing technologies.

Consider asking the following five questions:
1. What would success look like for you in this role?
Your candidate's response to this question will tell you how he or she defines success for the role itself, and how he or she could contribute to your team and company. People who are interested in moving the company forward will likely mention aligning with sales and watching the company grow. Look for people who mention growth in their answer, and those who link their individual success to the larger success of the company.

2. What is the best way to measure your success?
Look for someone who comes back with clear answers that can actually be measured, such as conversion rates, click-through rates, and specific, measurable outcomes. They are likely goal-oriented and will be able to help think in terms of metrics from the start, even in relation to their individual performance.

3. Who are your main "gurus" and go-to sources of ongoing education in this area of marketing?
Candidates who are truly on their game will not have to think too long about this questions. If they can't name any, they are clearly not a specialist in this area. That's fine if you're hiring a generalist, but not if you really need someone with a track record in a particular area of marketing.

4. Which companies do you admire most in this area of marketing?
This question gives you a slightly different view of the candidate, and it reveals more about their aspirations. If they can't name any companies that are doing a good job in this area, that's a red flag that shows they may not be as passionate as you might want.

5. What are your preferred technologies for this area of marketing?
This is a bit of a trick question. Candidates should show a willingness to experiment with many marketing technologies, even if they have strong preferences. Look for people who have quickly mastered new technologies and have tried out various tools relevant to their work.

Prioritizing Corporate Culture
Of course, corporate culture is a major consideration when hiring a person or company.
Every person or company you hire can have a dramatic impact on the team's morale, productivity, and, ultimately, its success. So make sure to have various team members interview candidates, and make sure to consider their feedback seriously.

Free Cups and Cold Beer At Freedom Fest 2015

We aren't kidding about the beer and cups! eMarketing247 is giving away FREE solo cups with your purchase of beer at this weekend's Freedom Fest in Oldsmar. This is Freedom Fest's 6th consecutive year remembering those whose lives were sacrificed in service this Memorial Day Weekend.

The event will run from Friday the 22nd through Sunday the 24th, and will feature live music, food, drinks, vendors, and games for all ages. Lucky for you, you will be able to purchase discounted cups of chilled Budweiser. That's right! Premium beer for a cheap price in a reusable eMarketing247 solo cup that you can cherish forever!

Over the course of Freedom Fest, you will have a chance to score a FREE Asus tablet! Simply toss your business card in our fish bowl and you might be walking away with some new technology come Sunday afternoon!


A $2 donation is suggested to enter this event. To find out more information about Oldsmar's Freedom Fest, please visit their website! 

We hope to see you there!

4 Reasons Why E-Mail Marketing is Still Important

Sure all this talk about social media, updated content, SEO etc. is extremely important to be competitive in today's business environment, but your business shouldn't forget about email marketing! Many people believe that email marketing is outdated, however, this is far from the truth. Here are just a few reasons why sending out emails to customers and potential clients is still important:

• You can reach today's mobile audience.  According to Google, 1 in 7 searches were done on a mobile device in 2013. This number rose 50% in 2014. You see where we are going with this! Emails can be opened on any kind of mobile devices, from tablets to cell phones, and don't cost customers a dime...like receiving text messages sometimes does. 
• It's a great way to offer coupons! Sure, you probably offer coupons straight on your website, but in today's busy world, customers may not have the time to seek out coupons. If the discount is sent straight to their inbox and is opened right in front of their very eyes, they will notice your coupon and will be more likely to visit your business/website and make a purchase.
• It's cheap. Email marketing is inexpensive, and sometimes even free, depending on how you go about it. Whether you are paying to print a traditional paper advertisement, or paying Facebook/social media to "boost" your posts, chances are you are spending a decent amount of money. With email marketing, you can save big!
• It helps create conversions.  The whole purpose of marketing is to convert people from "looking" at your product or service to actually purchasing it! This is called a conversion! Emails are a great way to create conversions because they ask the reader to do something, whether it is sign up, forward, buy now etc. When leveraged properly, email marketing can drive sales! 

Need help starting your own email marketing campaign? eMarketing247 can help! 

SEO vs. Social Media

Here at eMarketing247...we are always looking to educate our clients, employees, and friends. 

Check out this fantastic article we found by Travis Bliffen...we couldn't agree more!

If you have the time or budget to use SEO in conjunction with social media optimization, doing so will allow you to reach the broadest possible audience. If your time and budget limit put you in a positon of having to choose, here is some information that will help you do so intelligently.

1. BrightEdge conducted a study in 2014 that indicated 51 percent of website traffic across their study group came from organic search compared to 5 percent from social media. Even more shocking, when narrowed down to service based sites, organic search accounted for 73 percent of all traffic!  (BrigthEdge)

2. Facebook has an average visitor to lead rate of .98 percent. SEO has a visitor to lead rate of over 14 percent. (Hubspot)

3. Organic Facebook posts only reach an average of 12 percent of your followers. Appearing in the top three in Google organic search results in an average click-through rate (CTR) of 60 percent. Put simply, five times as many people will click an organic result as will even see a Facebook post! (TechCrunch & SeoBook)

4. Imagine this, you wake up to a massive leak in your roof. You just moved to the area and don’t know who to call. What do you do? If you are like over 60 percent of others surveyed by Econsultancy you use Google to find a company. (Econsultancy)

5. What about forecasting? Readily available tools such as the Google Keyword Planner allow you to easily see the average monthly search volume for keywords. Using industry averages, you can take the search traffic and accurately estimate total site traffic for a new campaign. Unfortunately, traffic forecasting is not easy to do for a new social media campaign.

6. What about YouTube? Many of you already know that YouTube is the second largest search engine. While some may argue that YouTube is a social site, SEO is a powerful way to market videos as well. If you are not familiar with YouTube SEO, you can learn more about that in our recent post covering how to generate quick search traffic.

Again, social media can be a great addition to a comprehensive marketing plan but if you are looking to maximize your ROI on every marketing dollar spent, SEO is where you should be investing.

 Lucky for you, eMarketing247 can help you reach SEO success. Contact us today to get started!

Marketing Tips for Easter

Easter is just around the corner! It isn't too late to throw together a quick marketing campaign to make the most of the holiday. Here are some simple but effective suggestions:

1. Create a high quality Easter video. This video could include a list of your services, interspersed with some cute bunnies or religious themes. More and more customers are turning to video to learn about services.

2. Have fun with your email campaign. Send out an Easter themed email campaign, and hide small digital Easter eggs around the flyer. Tell customers that they get to partake in a mini adult egg hunt. After watching the children run around all weekend, this might come as a welcome respite.

3. Don't put all your eggs in one basket! We're serious! Leveraging one type of social media or marketing strategy will not get your business to come out on top! In order to succeed, even around Easter time, you must utilize a variety of marketing techniques. You should use SEO, PPC, social media, emails, blogs, and copy writing, just to name a few!

4. Don't forget your "call to action." A cute or inspiring Easter campaign can only go so far without a call to action. Don't forget to ask your potential customers to do something. Is it try out your famous pizza? To make a reservation at your hotel? No matter what industry you are in, don't leave out your call to action.

5. Mail to your best customers. You know who your best clients are. Why not take this Easter holiday to thank them with a personally handwritten Easter card. This gesture is cheap and quick but will make a big impact with your business customers.

Too busy? Don't worry! eMarketing247 would love to help you with your marketing needs. Please contact us today to get started!