Businesses have always sought for ways to reach their clients.  Companies typically choose to do this through advertising and marketing.  The main three advertising mechanisms in the 20th century were television broadcasts, print, and radio.  Within the past ten years there has been a new platform added to the mix: online.  As a Denver online marketing business we did some research into current marketing and advertising trends and came up with some interesting numbers behind the transition into online marketing.

The unique thing about online marketing is that it takes all of these facets of advertising and merges them in one place for the world to experience.  There is a place online for streaming music, television shows, and movies, all of which employ broadcast advertisements.  Many of the same places that employ print ads have websites, and thus room for print ads.  Traditional radio stations, online-only radio stations and podcasts stream their broadcasts online, with accompanying audio ads.

Statistics Show Online Advertising is the Future
In a recent Nielson survey, 80 percent of Americans said that they owned or planned on owning a computer with high speed Internet, whereas only 56 percent indicated that they owned or would be purchasing a HDTV.[1] This shows and reinforces the idea that online ads reach a wider audience than traditional ad forms.

As of 2010, online advertising purchased had surpassed newspaper ads purchased.  By 2013 online advertising will surpass all of print media.[2] This truly brings to light the notion that the future of advertising is in the virtual world.

Newspapers: The Lost Art of Advertising
The statistics listed above has been realized by newspapers not only across the nation but across the developed world.  With the coming of new media (online media specifically), newspapers have begun to see a decline in subscriptions.  Consumers have begun to find their news online, where it typically costs them nothing, as opposed to having to subscribe to the local newspaper.

With consumers moving online, newspapers have done the same.  It is now possible for local businesses to advertise with their local newspaper solely online.  This helps newspapers maintain the ad revenue that they need, while in turn helping a local small business leverage online advertising.

Transitioning into Online Advertising
For some the transition to online advertising will be simple. These companies will already have a modest web presence.  They will have their own website which they share with current clients.  A company like this may also have color ads designed, that will be ready to transition into the first initial phase of online advertising.  The company will simply take the digital form of their advertisement and be able to implement it into any web advertisement, because it’s a quicker form of what they already use.

However some companies may face challenges in transitioning.  If they had only been advertising in newspapers and had no color ads, this could cause delays.  What companies should realize is that online advertising should have a more personal approach.  As they transition they will potentially have to search for deeper meaning as a company to build a personal relationship with consumers.  This is going to be done through free methods of online advertising, emerging as “Inbound Marketing.”

Online Advertising for Free
The unique thing about online advertising is that a company can do it for free.  This is done through a concept known as inbound marketing.  There are many online social tools that a company can use to direct consumers to their website, which in turn brings them in contact with products.

Advertising to the Target Audience
A company can also use online advertising to reach a specific target audience.  Companies can choose to only advertise on certain videos, websites, on down to individual social media profiles.  This allows for a company to reach in a more direct manner than has ever been offered before.  When in the past a company would simply place an ad in a men’s magazine reaching any males who purchase the magazine, now male college students can be specifically targeted through advertising on social media sites.

As always, we are here for your online marketing needs.  If you have any questions related to the blog post feel free to contact us via email, Twitter, or Facebook.

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So you’ve probably seen, heard of, or used categories for your WordPress blog posts.  Maybe you have a news category, a photography category, a recipe category, and the obligatory Uncategorized category.  As a Denver online marketing company, we make use of four basic categories for our blog posts.  So categories are all about keeping it simple.  There’s a good chance you’ll confuse yourself and your readers if your blog post is in a category for politics, shopping, and local music.

But sometimes, you might write a post that covers your political opinion, latest thrift store finds, and most recently attended concert.  So…how do you deal with that?

Use tags!

Tags are essentially keywords that describe your posts’ subject matter.  You can literally tag your posts with any words and as many tags as you want (although we suggest keeping it to a maximum of five or so tags)— names of politicians, names of stores, names of bands…whatever.  However, it’s usually prudent to keep your tags simple, so that internet surfers can find your tagged post easily.  For example, “Denver band” is going to be more effective than “new local Denver band playing at the Bluebird,” because people are likely to use few words in a search for blog subject matter.

So, tags are helpful in searches outside of your blog, but they are just as important on your blog itself!  Tags can help you organize your posts— for example, tags give you the ability to devote whole sections of your blog to posts containing a certain subject matter.  This is done by the recall of blog posts with a specific tag included in them.  You might have some “pages” on your blog— away from the prominent home page— labeled as “local music,” “politics,” and “fashion.”  When a reader clicks on these pages, they can view an archive of your blog posts that contain these respective tags.  This is extremely useful for readers who are interested in specific subject matter— the ones who have little interest in politics, but are very into the local music scene.

In conclusion, tags are easy to clip on to your blog posts, and extremely helpful in the realms of internet searches and your own site organization.  So, get out there and start tagging!

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Icon courtesy of Deepu Balan, released under a CC BY 2.5 license.

There are many uses of Facebook events for a company.  As a Denver online marketing agency we have seen how useful Facebook events are for companies.  We are excited to explore the events application and share how Facebook is now reaching beyond the online event to create a larger network for companies.

Companies already have the opportunity to make events on their Fan Page.  When looking at the home page for your company’s Fan Page, the events link is on the left hand corner.  When you click this link it comes up with a timeline of events created by your company.  The link you click to create an event is in the top right-hand corner.

There are several boxes to be filled out when creating an event. Title, Time, Location, Description, and Picture are the main items.  Street address can be added for a more direct location.  There are also options on who is allowed to post and who views the guest list that can be checked or unchecked.

Sadly, Facebook only allows for fans to be “updated” about the event (this goes to an update section that is almost unnoticeable by users).  To actually send an invite where fans are notified of the event on their personal profile it mush come from a personal account.  This requires the event creator to be friends with everyone that they wish to invite to the event (though the event is still shareable to everyone, as long as the event settings are set that way).

A good Facebook event will have an event photo that is unique for the event. This allows for event recognition when a person encounters event promotional material outside of Facebook.  A catchy title, with a user friendly location and time will also promote a large turn out and create a reason for people to share the event with their friends.

The truly unique thing though about Facebook events just came this week though.  Facebook events will now allow for people who are attending the event, to check-in on their mobile device at the event. This not only shows up in the user’s timeline to show that they are attending the event, but it also allows for other attendees to connect with each other.  It also allows for the company to see who actually attended their event (though currently not everyone would check-in once they get to the event). This gives a company the ability to loosely determine how effective their advertising was (should it be an event large enough to not personally know all attendees).

Facebook seems to be in a continual state of update, however this one seems to be an update for the good.  Will the new event check-in feature be of assistance to your company?

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We established last week that, as a blog owner, you really do need to blog regularly.  However, it’s highly possible that even though you want to post regularly, you just can’t seem to come up with interesting content.

Never fear, fellow inhabitants of cyberspace, as Denver WordPress developers, we’ve got your back.  Let’s talk a little bit about creating really great blog content- how to attract readers and keep them coming back.

1. Use visuals
We always find it helpful to provide some sort of visual in addition to a length of copy found in the typical blog post- whether it’s a relevant picture, a graph, or a video.  Visual interest draws people in- humorous videos or creative photography pull people in to the text you write.  Photography is obviously a great tool when you’re reviewing an event- if people weren’t there attending that event, it’s always nice to imagine what the scene would have been like.  Creative videos relevant to your blog content are always available online for linkage, or can be developed pretty easily by your creative mind and developing hand; and people will usually pause long enough in this crazy media-filled world to watch them.

2. Write about things you are passionate about and interested in
Okay you’ve probably heard someone tell you a long time ago that “knowledge is power.”  But seriously, if you’re interested in something and devoted to it, it’s a great thing to build content around.  If you’re interested in the social media business, non-profits devoted to animal welfare, or Japanese food- start writing about it!  When you have knowledge and insight to share with the world, there is no doubt that someone else with the same interests will eventually come across the path of your blog (thanks to those Google search crawlers and maybe some Denver online marketing), or that you will spark a new interest in a reader!  Don’t ever feel that something you’re interested in isn’t enough to create content with- sure, sometimes you have to do a little research and whatnot, but really that’s all part of the fun, right?

3. Ask questions
To be more specific, ask questions directed towards readers.  Questions are a great thing to put at the end of an interesting blog post.  For example, if you’re posting about a new trend in online advertising tactics, or have a sudden spew of political outrage, your post will be greatly enhanced when you ask for some reader feedback.  Make questions bold and direct- allow others to get their opinions up there next to yours!  A great blog post can sure spark up a great discussion in the comments section of your blog.

4. Post links
Link to some interesting content that is relevant to your post- further research for those who are interested in the web design business, online petitions that aim to have a positive impact on animal welfare, recipes for sushi and green tea ice cream, and so on.  Perhaps add in a little explanation of what blog readers will find at the link location and why it’s important (i.e. “passing a bill in Denver to allow people to raise their own chickens will lessen the amount of factory-farmed eggs produced and encourage people to eat local food”).

5. Guest posts
It’s always a good idea to mix it up every once in while and have a guest write a post for you.  Guests could be highly qualified professionals in a field of business interest that you often deal with on your blog, or family friends who have some sort of unique expertise to charm readers with.  Either way, a change in perspective is always nice for readers…plus then, you get to comment right away on your own blog, which has got to be pretty exhilarating.

Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s post- a final article on successful blog writing to round everything out!

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Photograph courtesy of Matthew Kenwrick, released under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license

Today’s post is a guest post from Alan Vitberg of Vitberg LLC.

New Rules for Professional Services Marketing  - Rule 2: Demand Accountability From Everyone

3^rd in a series of posts about the transformations in CPA, law and consulting firm marketing

Given reductions in marketing budgets, fierce completion for new business, and new marketing technologies that make it easier than ever before to take clients from your competitors (or to have clients taken from you), CPA, law and consulting firm marketing efforts need to be re-engineered around new rules that are laser focused on delivering ROI.

In a previous posting (“Marketing as an investment”) I talked about the change in mindset that’s necessary for beginning the process of getting more ROI from marketing and business development. Today, I want to discuss Rule 2: demand accountability from everyone – marketers, business developers, managing partners, shareholders and subject matter experts.

The fundamental that’s at that heart of this rule is that ROI from marketing and business development requires all hands on deck, working in a coordinated fashion, to: (1)  leverage more results from traditional 1:1 marketing, (2)  create inbound marketing programs to capture the “eyeballs” of people looking for a solution to their pain,(3) develop lead generation campaigns, and to (4) capture, track and convert leads to engagements.

It’s impossible to achieve accountability without goals, a defined set of metrics, and the tools and processes to measure progress and achievement. The royalty of these metrics is sales and number of new clients, but there are many, many more marketing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are critical for assessing whether you’re achieving ROI. While there are some fundamental KPIs, each firm may want to focus on a specific set. The process of driving accountability starts with defining those KPIs that are most relevant to your firm.

For example, firms might consider using a sales funnel to measure conversion rates from suspects to leads to engagements for any given lead generation strategy, like a webinar. At a deeper level of sophistication, using new marketing technologies,  it’s possible to even assess the contribution of any specific outbound marketing tactic, like an e-mail blast or even Twitter, to determine their impact on driving leads into the sales conversion funnel. (Keep the good, fix the ugly, get rid of the bad. ROI anyone?)

New rules for professional services marketing require new responsibilities from the stakeholders in the firm responsible for marketing and business development. Here’s a brief overview those new roles and responsibilities for your consideration:

Managing partners: demand accountability, oversee the strategic growth goals of the firm, and get engaged in understanding and using the new KPIs of marketing in order to sharpen the focus of your investment in marketing and business development

Marketers: put the infrastructure in place and take responsibility for developing and executing targeted lead generation campaigns where you can precisely measure the ROI from the investment in firm resources and direct/OOP costs of the campaign. You also need to play a key role in lead nurturing as “one and done” marketing is a waste of time and money.

Business developers and rainmakers: once a lead is captured, the ball’s going to be (mostly) in your hands, and you’ll likely play the key role in moving through the steps and “touches” necessary for converting that lead to an engagement. Your efforts will be measured and assessed along the way, so think conversion!

Partners/shareholders – first, do not stop the successful, traditional 1:1 marketing/business development efforts that are responsible for a significant portion of your new business success. Like your managing partner, you’ll want to get involved with marketing metrics at the niche level, so you can understand how to best complement your 1:1 initiatives with new inbound marketing approaches that will grow the top line for your niche

Subject matter experts: Your responsibility is thought leadership and playing a key role in bringing that thought leadership through executions like whitepapers, blogs, videos, and host of other tools that will not only serve as the centerpiece of lead generation campaigns, but will also serve to promote your personal brand. One of the categories of ROI is “ROP” – Return on Personal Brand.

With goals, metrics and processes and tools in place to measure the ROI from your firm’s investment in marketing and business development, you’ll have the infrastructure in place to track accountability to results. Perhaps this is a harsh light that will expose weaknesses in your marketing and business development efforts, but  it’s likely that it will also expose what you’re doing right.

That’s what we need to build upon in order to get the top line growth you’re seeking, especially at the niche level.

Visit our website for more information.

Vitberg LLC specializes in inbound marketing for CPA firms, lead generation for law firms, and ROI measurement for financial services firms, among other services.

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