The Found Gen

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7 Habits of the Most Productive Content Teams: The handle the whole process

What to Look For When Hiring a Content Marketing Agency

Content marketing is a multi-step process that involves generating ideas, creating strategies, writing, publishing, and promoting. It can be overwhelming for those not accustomed to the process.

A good content marketing agency is highly productive because they have a plan for systematically moving through all the steps. And they should be more than happy to talk to you about their process. If you’re ready to embrace a content strategy and are looking for an expert team to help, there are several things to look for.

Here is what to look for when hiring a content marketing agency:

They Look for Ideas Everywhere

Topic ideas for content, whether it’s a blog, social media post, or e-book, can be found just about anywhere. Content teams examine industry trends, listen on social media, conduct research, and constantly read all kinds of information to create ideas for the best content for you.

Ask them how they come up with ideas.

They Strategize

Not only do content teams actually do the writing for you, they also create strategies for distributing and promoting the content. This includes identifying what channels are most appropriate for your content and how frequently to push out content.

Ask them how they build a comprehensive strategy.

They Know What Type of Content You Need

Along with strategizing on the distribution and frequency of content, top teams will help you determine the types of content that you need. They will examine your business and marketing needs, and identify what can best benefit you when it comes to content. They’ll help you decide if you need blogs, social media, e-blasts, or other content.

Ask them for recommendations on the spot.

They Help You Identify Your Goals

Another key aspect of content strategies are identifying goals and taking steps to meet them. Are you trying to drive more people to your website, grow your email list, or increase sales? All of these things are critical in creating a strategy and measuring results.

If they don’t ask you about your goals, be worried (and ask them why they didn’t ask it in the first place).

They Handle the Content

Professional and productive content teams create the content for you. This includes idea generation, writing, and editing everything before your final approval. They do all the work for you.

Ask them about their internal process.

They Are Organized

Organization is key to a successful content campaign. Content teams keep everything organized. They create schedules for writing and posting, and generally just keep track of everything.

If they don’t show you their organization as part of explaining their internal process, ask them about it again.

They Get Results

Content done right gets results. That’s why a productive and professional team is essential. Their organization and knowledge is essential in helping you reach your content goals. Plus, they’ll even help you measure your results.

Ask to speak with a current (or former) client.

If you have any other questions about what to look for when hiring a content marketing agency, feel free to get in touch with us today.

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A Guide to Lead Generation Marketing: It’s a strategic way to reach customers

Marketing means a lot of different things, depending on who you’re talking to. Some people think it should generate sales — and that’s the main reason there are so many telemarketers out there. Other people think it should turn their workhorse brand into a thoroughbred. But, in the end, most everyone agrees that marketing should be lead generation marketing.

The problem is that, all too often, many a business’ marketing strategy isn’t centered around generating more leads, getting prospects to ask for more information.  This essentially describes lead generation marketing, and it’s an amazing way to broaden your company’s reach.

So, what exactly is lead generation marketing?

In short, it’s what every marketing strategy should be centered around. Your campaign should be focused on generating awareness with complete strangers (ie cold leads) that could benefit from your business.

To generate these leads, businesses have to be creative about finding unique ways to attract people to learn more about their offerings. One of the ones we advocate for on the daily is blogging.

 

One of the best ways is to give them something in return for their email address or other personal information. Lead generation helps acquaint people to your business so that they will think of you down the road when you’re ready to make a purchase.

It all starts with content.

Creating compelling, interesting, or highly informative content is a must for lead generation. You need content that people crave to be a lead magnet. Some of the best types of content for lead generation include:

  • ebooks
  • Checklists
  • Articles
  • Training materials
  • Resource guides

Lead generation content must be well written and highly valuable to the users.

Then, you capture the leads.

When your content is fine tuned, you can use it to capture leads. Companies use some type of call to action to gather information about potential leads. For example, let someone download your ebook for free in exchange for their email address. Just be sure that users are opting in to receive the content and that you deliver what you promise.

Once you have the email address of someone who’s expressed interest in what you’re selling, you can target them with other useful content. You’ll also be able to track these people to see if they eventually become customers.

Lead generation should be a part of every business’ marketing strategy these days. Talk to us about our lead generation package.

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How to Keep a Client: Five Ways to Keep Them Coming Back for More

For a few months after college, I temped at a marketing agency run by a team of really dynamic twenty-somethings. They thrived on the cutting edge, and constantly chased after the latest and greatest of everything. Even clients.

In between writing catalog copy and a little ad work, I also handled the phones when the receptionist didn’t show. I got really good at identifying new clients – whose calls were answered immediately and enthusiastically – and older clients who seemed to be on agency auto-pilot, and a perpetual “We’ll call you back later” list. As inexperienced as I was, I soon saw how flawed their system seemed to be.

Losing interest in a client once they’ve been around a while isn’t good business at all, but nevertheless business after business does it.

Here are a few ways to retain your clients even while you’re growing your business with new ones.

  1. It’s not about perfect. But it is about making a perfect effort, day in and day out. Your clients want to see your enthusiasm stay at an all-time high. That means taking their calls – every call – and maintaining your interest in their growth.
  2. Pay attention to their cues. If they rarely answer emails, preferring a weekly call to review progress and make plans, then stop sending emails. Save time and money, and present them what they need in the format to which they respond.
  3. Keep interviewing them. Needs change, and so do growing companies and brands. Continue to ask the right questions to make sure you’re still on the right track. Content campaigns can become stale almost overnight if you’re not paying attention.
  4. Stay ahead of the curve. Prepare everyone involved for inevitable client chaos, ensuring that someone is watching and informed at all times. Allow room in the client’s course for strategic and creative thinking, and immediate changes in direction to outrun the trends.
  5. Own your mistakes. And own them quickly. Apologize sincerely and change course. Everything can’t be a sure win, no matter the industry, and sometimes ideas flop. It’s okay. Just be accountable.

Above all, the best way to keep a valued client is to continue to go above and beyond expectations and promises. Remember, you succeed by helping your clients succeed.

At The Found Gen, we specialize in keeping our clients happy. Try us out.

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Winning in an Online Environment… When You’re So Much Better IRL

You’re charming as all get out. The life of the conference call. The master of small talk conversations at networking events. You can motivate, inspire, and re-energize the masses like no other.

But your work interactions are shifting almost completely to online communication, and you’re quickly realizing that your email and texting skills are not as winning as your personality. How do you adapt? We can help.

Finding Your Voice in the Digital Age

  1. Retain your personality. Whether you’re talking with a colleague or client in person or online, make sure you keep true to the real you. Imagine yourself on the conference call; how are you engaging your audience? Capture that same tone, warmth, enthusiasm, and word choices in your online correspondence.
  2. Speaking of words, keep your online communication actionable and concise. Your recipients will appreciate your obvious respect for their time, because who among us wants to spend ten minutes wondering what an email really means?
  3. The message you send isn’t always the message that’s received. Texts can be easily misinterpreted. Review your emails before sending and consider how your recipient will read them. Is your implied tone of voice coming through accurately? Does a point need clarification?
  4. Clear communication is the goal, but being catchy, funny, or entertaining is equally important. The goal is for your emails to elicit positive feelings, and never groans.
  5. Take your time composing your messages. An unfortunate misspelling or confusing accidental send can really affect your online credibility. Your hurriedness may cause a miscommunication you may not be able to retract. (Also see: The correct usage of “your” versus “you’re,” not to mention there, their, and they’re.)
  6. Treat a text message like an actual phone call. This means you don’t hit send at one in the morning, or continue to text whether you receive a response or not.
  7. Know when to end the conversation. It can get awkward really quickly if you don’t properly close out an online conversation. A good practice is to come up with something that clearly ends the conversation, like using their name, thanking them, and using a closer like “Talk again soon.”

Whatever online communication medium you choose, patience and understanding is important. While we may wish in-person meetings were still the norm, clients and coworkers are everywhere; it’s nearly impossible to get everyone you need gathered in one location at one time. That’s why we email and text, and that’s exactly why you need to get great at improving your messages and mastering modern communication — including upping your Instagram game.

If you’d like us to handle your communication between you and your clients, text us. (Just kidding. You can totally call or pop in. We can’t wait to meet you.)

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Social Listening: How It Drives Content Marketing

Social Listening Tips:

Start By Giving Your Audience What They Want

Quality is what you should care most about when it comes to content. Your content needs to provide valuable information and entertain your readers, which will help you build relationships with them. This starts with knowing what they want.

Poor quality content usually reflects little knowledge of the targeted audience and their needs and wants. Personalization is the key to content that connects, but you can’t personalize without listening to your audience and understanding their preferences, interests, and the types of content that they commonly share on social media. Enter social listening tips.

Listen Before You Speak

Taking your audience’s pulse will put you on track for a successful content strategy. You can start by tracking and analyzing behaviors with a piece of content. What’s getting the most clicks? What’s getting shared? This level of social listening will help you understand what your audience and potential customers are all about.

Find Out What People Are Talking About

Where are audiences engaging with your content? The best content strategies are multi-channel, where each channel creates a different opportunity to listen to your people. Discussions change based on the channel, so you need to also know how people are using each one.

Listen to find out what topics are influencing conversations, and you can develop your content strategy to respond in the best way to get the best results. This is social listening tips in a nutshell.

Give People the Content They Want

Social listening lets you understand what people are talking about and what they want. It also helps you identify the types of content that are most engaging. Do you get more response from videos or photos? Or, do you have a high open rate on your email marketing? This information is incredibly valuable in identifying your strategy’s effectiveness and how to plan for the future.

Stay Relevant

Staying relevant in the social scene can be tough because it’s constantly changing. Social listening’s ability to let you track engagement and responses helps you stay at the forefront.

If you need a little help creating content that truly connects with your audience, give us a call. Let us help you tap into your audience and give them what they want.

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Does Your Content Have a Good Enough Call to Action?

Let readers know what’s in it for them

A call to action is the most important element of your content. Blogs and email newsletters aim to educate and entertain. Paired with the call to action, the piece will inspire an action.

Phrases like “learn more,” “download now,” or “call us” start readers on the path to becoming customers. A good call to action, sometimes referred to as a CTA, makes your marketing efforts more effective. Here’s how to write a powerful, well-positioned CTA.

Create a Powerful Punch

Keep this in mind when writing your CTA: the reader is already on your site or reading your content. Since they’re already engaging with you, you have the power. You just have to go the extra step to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

The simple answer is to give them something in exchange for email address or other valuable information. What should you give? A free consultation, a free trial, discounts, e-books, or white paper. The point is to build trust by establishing you value.

The most powerful CTAs give readers direction on what to do next with your content. And, you can measure your click-through rates to determine how successful your strategy is.

Position and Polish the CTA

In the copy, you have to answer the “What’s in it for me” question. And, spice up the CTA. “Get a free quote” or “add to cart and get 25%” are some examples of effective calls to action.

Also make sure that the CTA stands out — maybe by using your brand’s colors or plenty of whitespace. Don’t ask readers for too much information, or they probably won’t follow through.

Placement is another consideration for the best interaction. On your homepage, at the bottom of a blog post, or as a pop-up box are some positioning options so that your CTA is easy to interact with.

Need some help with your content? Let’s talk.