The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

The Found Gen

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How Can I Speed Up My Marketing?

We get it – you want results, and you want them now! For all the Veruca Salts of the world, waiting for your marketing efforts to take effect can put you on the verge of a chocolate meltdown – and who are we kidding, don’t we all want a little instant gratification from our hard-earned efforts? Before Tantrum Town sets in, take a breath and know there are ways to accelerate marketing results when applied strategically and as part of your overall marketing plan. 

Stop, Wait a Minute

But first, we must qualify this post by saying that marketing is truly about the long game. When played well, consistent content marketing and SEO efforts will start delivering results in a few months, but the true power comes from the compounding value it delivers for years to come. Moreover, you can measure success in any number of ways, but without a goal to tie those results to, the numbers will be, well, just numbers.

As you attempt to speed up your marketing, it’s critical to step back and review the big picture. What are your short- and long-term goals? How will your marketing efforts help you achieve them? Once you have some answers, then you can dive in.

Smart Strategies to Speed Up Your Marketing

Marketing is about communicating and delivering value. Do more of this to the right people and you will see results. The challenge is connecting with those right people at the right time. To speed up results, you need to meet them where they’re at. This means having answers to what they’re looking for and providing them when and where they’re looking for them.

For faster results, do this:

  • Focus on high-impact channels – Review your marketing data. If you want to know if your marketing is working, look at key data points. Pay attention to your most effective areas. Is your website data trending positively? How about your emails or social engagement? If one channel (or topic) is pulling more favorably than others, double down your efforts there rather than spreading yourself thin on things that don’t have as much impact. 
  • Optimize for SEO – You can shore up some quick wins by focusing on long-tail keywords that have less competition. This is one way to move up the ranks in search engine results faster. Another is to jeuje up old content to keep things fresh and garner new attention by the internet bots.
  • Consider paid opportunities – Spending money can often (but not always) accelerate marketing results. You could start by taking a bite-sized chunk out of your marketing budget and try something like pay-per-click advertising to ensure your content gets in front of your target audience. 
  • Outsource your efforts – If you need to move the needle on your marketing, it may be time to turn to a team of experts rather than manage the task yourself. Not only will you gain immediate headcounts (including writers, designers and strategists), but you’ll also be tapping into their expertise. This can help speed up your marketing as they’ll be able to execute strategies more efficiently and effectively. 

Speeding up your marketing efforts doesn’t mean cutting corners—it’s about working smarter, leveraging the right tools and optimizing what’s already working. If you want help, give us a ring. That’s what we’re here for.

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How to Measure Success in Marketing

It’s easy to become hyper-focused on the numbers. Numbers pay the bills. Numbers keep your doors open. But what numbers really matter when you’re trying to assess the success (or failure) of your marketing efforts?  

Here are some things to consider when you’re trying to identify measurable marketing outcomes. 

Success is Relative, So Know Your Goals 

Before going down the road of measuring performance, you need to know exactly what you’re measuring and why. Define success based on the goals you’re trying to achieve. Are you looking to generate more leads, convert more leads, increase revenue or improve email marketing performance? 

You can measure just about anything. The point is that without understanding the goals and strategy behind your efforts, the data you pull will be nothing more than numbers. Make the data meaningful by tying them to strategic benchmarks. Then, once you’ve identified your priorities, you can then begin tracking data.  

Marketing KPIs to Track 

The key performance indicators (KPIs) you choose to track will be tailored to your goals, but below are several general metrics many marketing pros find helpful. 

  • Email marketing performance – Email is one of the most effective lead-generation strategies, and it can be even more effective when done well. Tracking things like open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates and unsubscribes can tell you how helpful (or not) your content is. 
  • Website traffic and performance – Another important place prospects learn about your business is your website. Paying attention to which pages people are landing on and how long they’re staying is insightful in and of itself. Tracking conversation rates is even better. 
  • Cost per lead (CPL) – Spend enough money and you can have just about any customer in the world, but that’s not a very cost-wise strategy. On the whole, you want to keep your CPL low. That means a lot of leads for not a lot of money. 
  • Lead-to-customer conversion – How many leads are turning into customers? An understanding of this data point will help your team know if you need additional support, better leads or a larger volume of leads to meet your targets.  
  • Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) – MQLs are those leads the marketing team hands off to sales. A lead is classified as “marketing qualified” if the person filled out a web form or took some other step toward conversion that was based on the marketing team’s efforts. 
  • Sales qualified leads (SQLs) – This is the number of customers who become sales opportunities. The data point helps you understand how well your sales team is doing overall, as well as assess the effectiveness of the tools and resources they have at their disposal.  

And the list goes on. As you look to measure success in marketing, consider how the data points you’re tracking are meaningful to your overall strategy. If your marketing efforts are not meeting the mark, refine them and remeasure. It may take time to see results, but a consistent, strategic approach will yield the results you’re after. To learn more about building a successful marketing program, give our team at The Found Gen a call today.

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How Long Does It Take to See Results from Marketing?

“Patience is a virtue.”

“Good things come to those who wait.”

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

And so on, goes the list of adages touting the value of patience, but even when we know “patience is a companion of wisdom” (sorry, another one), no one who is trying to run a successful business has much time for it. We need to see results – and fast! So, just how long does it take to see results from your marketing efforts? Well, the answer is “it depends” but there are several factors that can influence results.

First, Your Budget Will Influence the Timeline

Not surprisingly, spending more money on marketing and advertising can accelerate results. But hurling money at a paid advertising campaign, though it can be effective, is not a long-term strategy. You need a sustainable approach, and that takes time and consistent effort. The good news is that with patience and persistence, you can build a successful marketing program that will deliver measurable results.

Consistency and the Compounding Power of Marketing  

The bread and butter of any successful marketing program is blogs, email and social media marketing. When done consistently and strategically, this trifecta can grow your web traffic and turn more prospects into customers, but here’s the deal – online marketing does not lead to overnight success nor does slapping up a few blog posts and calling it a day. 

For your marketing efforts to deliver results, you need to be posting content at least weekly. Why? Because if you want your site to show up on search engine results pages, you need to demonstrate to Google (and others) that you are here to play ball. Then, when the web crawlers come to index your site they’ll have fresh content to chomp on and that will boost your ranking in online search results. 

Even better, when you consistently execute your SEO marketing strategy and do it well, your efforts will compound. A blog you post today can continue to pull in leads for years to come, especially when you effectively leverage your site’s SEO power. 

Ready to See Results?

Content marketing and SEO efforts are long-term strategies, but they deliver real value. You should expect to start seeing results within a few months, but more realistically, it can take up to a year of consistent efforts for the compounding power to start delivering.

As you work to build a marketing strategy that will continue to work for you for years to come, keep these factors in mind: 

  • Know your customers – Who are they? Where are they most active? And what are they looking for? The better you know your customers, the more specific you can be with your messaging, so you cut right through the clutter and get to the heart of what’s on their minds. 
  • Be useful – Your customers are looking for answers. Give them what they want by creating a mix of useful content that will stand the test of time (a.k.a. evergreen content) as well as timely pieces that demonstrate your commitment to staying relevant.  
  • Stick with it – It takes time to build loyalty (and improve your Google ranking). Don’t stop 6-12 months into a marketing program and consider your job done. Sure, you should refine what isn’t working, run tests to compare ad strategies, but above all, remain consistent. Only then will you reap the biggest compounding payoffs. 

While some marketing efforts can deliver near-instant gratification, building a strong, sustainable marketing presence takes time and consistent effort. Remain patient and optimize as necessary to put yourself on the road to long-term success. If you want help, just ask. That’s what we’re here for.

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How to Tell if Your Marketing is Working?

When you dedicate a significant chunk of money per month to marketing, you want to know if it’s working – and at times, this can feel like a frustratingly futile exercise. Money is going out the door, but what are you getting in return? 

We get it. It can be hard to measure marketing’s effectiveness because of the tricky business of correlation versus causation. Are your leads increasing because of the email you sent out last week or because everyone suddenly needs their roofs replaced (thank you, hail storm)?

What’s more, marketing is about the long game, which can be particularly painful for new businesses looking to build their brands quickly. You need to know if your efforts are working, but how can you tell? Fortunately, there are ways you can successfully measure progress. Here are a few benchmarks you can track to tell if your marketing is working. 

  • Increased web traffic – What are your web analytics telling you? On the whole, if your website data is trending positively, you should feel confident that your marketing efforts are working. Google Analytics and other built-in web tools can illustrate month-over-month traffic increases and alert you to where your traffic is coming from so you can zero in on which channels are most effective. 
  • Increased number of leads – If your number of leads generated from marketing efforts is increasing and – even better – those leads are converting to customers, that’s another win for marketing.
  • Decreased cost-per-lead – Another way of looking at marketing success is to track whether your cost-per-lead is going down. Good marketing can help bring that number down either by saving you money on your marketing spend or increasing the number of leads you generate.
  • Increased engagement – More clicks on your emails or shares of your social media posts? This is a good sign that your content is resonating with your audience and your marketing strategy is working. 

Measuring marketing data is a key way to monitor its effectiveness, but even if you aren’t reviewing numbers as often as you’d like, you can often feel the steady boost marketing is having on your business – more calls, increased sales, that feeling of riding on a cloud…these are all good signs. 

If you’re unsure whether what you’re doing is working, give us a call at The Found Gen. We can take a fresh look at your marketing strategy to see how we can help further boost those numbers. 

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What to Look for in a Content Marketing Company

Looking for a content marketing company can feel a bit like online dating. Swipe left on the ones with boring content and ghosted engagement, and swipe right on those with creativity and charm. But knowing whether you’ve found “The One” for your business and not just a fancy face that’s been AI-generated can be tricky. To weed out the best from the rest, here are some areas to tune into to help you find the perfect match. 

Mark These in the “Yes” Column 

Just like in the dating world, there are winners and losers in the marketing world. Don’t settle for second-rate. Look for these characteristics and qualifications as you search for the right fit with a content marketing agency.

  • Experience (obviously) – You’re turning to an agency because you’re looking for help with something you can’t expertly manage on your own. The marketing firm should have a strong list of past clients who speak well of them – and to be sure, you best talk to their references yourself! 
  • Goal alignment – Whatever agency you choose will be your client. They must be willing and able to deliver on whatever goals you’ve set for your business. Before reaching out to an agency, reflect on your vision for company growth and use that as a starting point for researching potential partners. For example, if you’re looking for a website redesign, make sure the agency itself has a good website!
  • Expertise – Big firm or small, it doesn’t really matter when it comes to expertise as long as they have the team that aligns with your goals. Commonly marketing agencies staff teams consisting of content writers and editors, graphic designers, analysts and operational specialists. Collectively, their strengths should span both the creative and strategic sides of marketing.  
  • Communication – There’s no substitute for good service. When searching for a marketing agency, pay close attention to how well they communicate and the rapport you feel (or don’t feel) with them. The marketing company will become an extension of your team and you’ll meet regularly with them to discuss strategy, goals and results. Be sure you feel confident they will keep you in the loop and that you can get in touch with them if you need to. 

Choosing the right content marketing company may take some effort, but the rewards of searching out the right fit will be well worth it. If you need help with your content marketing, we’d love to go on a first date to learn more about how we can support your business and goals. Contact our team at The Found Gen today.

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How to Build a Blog Strategy That Works for You

Have a website but no site visitors? It could be because your blog is lost in the Google wastelands, or worse, you don’t have a blog at all. If you want to improve traffic to your website and start converting prospects to customers, there’s a relatively simple and cost-effective way to do so. While it does not guarantee overnight success (slow and steady truly wins the race here), an effective blog strategy will in nearly all cases move the needle on your website’s performance. And when your website performs better, more customers will find you and more sales are sure to be had. Here’s where to start.

Building Out Your Blog Marketing Strategy

Step one in developing a blog strategy is to first have a blog. If you’re brand new to the blogging game, you may want to just ask for some help. It’s not hard, but there can be a learning curve depending on which web hosting provider you use.  

Once your main blog page is built, it’s time to get serious about strategy. Sure, you could just post random thoughts of the day but that takes the whole “strategy” component out of the equation. Your blog needs to be intentional if you want it to be effective. These are ways to focus those intentions.

  • Decide who will write and manage your blog – There are a few logistical things you’ll need to figure out as you launch your blog. One is deciding who will write your posts and manage their publication. You may have just one writer or a small team of writers, or you might decide to outsource this job to a marketing agency. Regardless of who does the writing, each post should have a similar tone and voice, so you showcase a consistent brand message to readers. Here are some other tips for whipping up a winning blog post.
  • Decide on cadence – How frequently do you want to publish content? To optimize your site for search engines like Google, we recommend publishing fresh content at least once a week. Internet bots index sites roughly once a month so offering new blogs for the bots to chomp on will help you score favorably on search engine results. 
  • Create a content calendar – This is where you will map out your blogging strategy. It can be useful to take a 12-month view so you can consider your full business cycle as you align content in your calendar to your business goals. If you still don’t know where to start, an easy place is always with the seasons. For example, a gratitude post in November always hits home. Another thing to think about is how your content can build off itself. Consider content themes that all tie together. This will help position you as an authority on certain topics and will give you a boost when it comes to all the backlinking you’ll be able to do.
  • Research keywords – As part of your content calendar development, you’ll also want to account for all those search terms your clients are looking for. Spend some time doing keyword research and incorporate those findings into your strategic plan. 
  • Promote your blog – Your blog does not live in a silo. It should be connected to all your other marketing efforts. While over time, site rankings on Google will improve as more pages on your site get indexed, this doesn’t happen overnight. You need another way for people to find your content. Promoting posts in your newsletter or on social media sites is an effective way to generate new traffic.
  • Track and analyze blogging metrics – Lastly, your blog strategy should continually be refined, and you do this by monitoring metrics. Which pages are getting the most views, how long are people staying on your site, where is your traffic coming from? All these indicators will help inform your content plan as you move ahead. 

When done right, your blog will transform your website’s performance and deliver new clients by the dozens. If you’re curious about how we can help you maximize your web presence and increase your conversions, give our team at The Found Gen a call today.