Blog - Curve Communications

How To Manage Your Marketing Agency While Homeschooling in the Next Pandemic: A Non-Definitive Guide

January 28, 2021

by Amanda Bates Blog

Marketing, Parenting, and Pandemics

Amongst all the sourdoughing, online yoga and Zoom calls, all the “omg it’s soooo rewarding to spend this time with my family,” and the “let’s use lockdown to appreciate the relationships we have, the people we love, etc. so that hugs will be so much more meaningful in the future”s of 2020, I honestly can’t remember much about anything from March of last year to today. That is, aside from trying to homeschool while at the same time trying to pivot to help our clients (and ourselves) survive whatever fresh hell this has been, and of course pouring myself a large bowl of wine at 5:01pm – sleep and repeat…

There may well have been a pandemic in 1918, but I don’t remember the book those poor souls wrote on running a marketing company during a global shutdown, so that’s why I’m here now. Depending on which news outlet you believe these days, the next pandemic could be next Tuesday, or in another hundred years. In case it’s sooner than later, I thought I would write a handy future best-selling guide on How To Manage Your Marketing Agency While Homeschooling in the Next Pandemic.

1) You are a parent, not a teacher

Recognize that you did not choose to go into teaching for every single reason that properly-trained and educated teachers DO go into teaching. You do NOT have a general awareness of all (any) topics, nor a desire to teach said topics to young minds who may or may not be interested in them.

Furthermore, you are not capable of imparting correct information without Googling it first (and the right answer isn’t always on the first link you see – hey – that’s a little something I learned from marketing!) Oh – and you don’t really like other people’s kids. While many found, during “The Great Pandemic of 2020-to-what-feels-like-2099,” that they developed a new appreciation for all teachers, I also developed a new appreciation for the fact that I am not one.

2) Learn to balance marketing plans and child management

You will find that you can flush 12 months of marketing planning down the toilet with one hand, whilst simultaneously creating multiple new plans from scratch in minutes, not months, for a variety of clients who are having to switch their entire business models to online, e-commerce, delivery, etc. etc. – but you CANNOT teach a child to get their own glass of #$*!@! water so they don’t dehydrate and pass out in the next eight minutes – nope, you are gonna have to do that shit yourself.

3) Best laid plans are nothing to the harshest critics

Prepare for the fact that your beautiful Google sheets, Excel docs and wall charts (or whatever virtual, airborne system of witchcraft you now use to plot the future), long the envy of co-workers as a means to plan, document, and keep track of myriad campaigns, ensuring delivery is on time and on budget (and most importantly so that you see when anyone has a fun holiday coming up), will be viewed with utter disdain by your offspring when created in the form of a lesson plan.

They will scoff at your efforts in the same way a restaurant critic would react to an old cheese sandwich only fit to file your nails with, and they will walk away as you beg them to take a look… just one tiny look… because you worked so hard… you even got a pointy stick…

4) Wear all the hats, spin all the plates

As you juggle your clients with the skills of a plate spinner trying to set a plate spinning world record, while at the same time – in true marketing style – not letting any of the plates know that there are other plates, it’s perfectly acceptable to feed your child a bowl of dry Froot Loops for lunch.

5) Time management, don’t let time manage you

Regular school may end at 3pm, but homeschool ends whenever you goddamn say it ends.

The point is this – and it’s something we as marketers are guilty of (because if we can’t PR ourselves, who can we PR for?) – sometimes it’s all too much.

If we’ve learned anything in the past 12 months (apart from the fact that pandemics spawn a bafflingly large appreciation for words like “unprecedented,” “together,” and “now more than ever” FFS), it’s that memes telling us to be kind to ourselves, to go for a walk, to appreciate the good things, aren’t realistic when you are a business owner dealing with uncharted waters for yourself and all those you represent.

Amongst all the online advice on how to homeschool, and the (sometimes laughable) social media triteness to not sweat the small stuff, this is the post I’ve found the most relatable and realistic, and I hope that THIS is the message that survives above all else, and is shared by Marketing Moms in the next pandemic and beyond:

Parents: what we are being asked to do is not humanly possible.
There is a reason we are either a working parent, a stay-at-home parent,
or a part-time working parent.
Working, parenting and teaching are three different jobs that cannot be done at the same time.
It’s not hard because you are doing it wrong. It’s hard because it’s too much.
Do the best you can.
When you have to pick – because at some point you will – choose connection.
Pick playing a game over arguing about an academic assignment.
Pick teaching your child to do laundry rather than feeling frustrated that they aren’t helping. Pick laughing and snuggling, and reminding them that they are safe.
If you are stressed, lower your expectations where you can,
and virtually reach out for social connection.
We are in this together to stay well. That means mentally well, too.
– Emily W. King, Ph.D.

5 No-Nonsense DIY Marketing Techniques for your Small or Medium-sized Business

January 23, 2021

by George Affleck Blog

Running a small to medium-sized business can be daunting and stressful, especially these days, and the thought of doing your own marketing is even more so – mainly because marketing probably isn’t your area of expertise. The key is to focus and don’t overreach. To keep things simple, here’s the Curve Communications simple step-by-step guide to marketing your business, whether it be business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C).

1) What is your unique sales proposition (USP)?

This is often referred to as your elevator pitch. Your business’ unique selling proposition (USP, also known as unique selling point) is what you do that differentiates your business from your competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have or do, that competitors simply don’t.” Refining your USP for internal and external marketing will help focus your team for best success moving forward. It will also provide clarity for your revenue team — marketing, sales and customer fulfillment. A USP isn’t a brag; it’s a valid point that reveals the most sellable thing about your business. Really think about what your customers want, and focus on how your product(s) or service(s) will uniquely provide the solution.

Here are some good examples of products with a clear USP that has been included right in the company tagline:

Anacin: “Fast, fast, incredibly fast relief”
Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free.”
FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
M&Ms: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Metropolitan Life: “Get Met. It Pays.”
Southwest Airlines: “We are the low-fare airline.”

2) Define your perfect customer or buyer persona

Your customer or buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your “ideal” customer. It is essentially someone who gets their exact needs met by what you’re offering. The more detailed or niched down your persona is, the more you will be able to target your marketing to that exact person. This will save you time and money on your marketing and make you more money. It will also be easier to measure success. Here are a few questions you can ask to start defining them:

How does this ideal client act?
What do they want?
What do they like or dislike?
What are their challenges?
What motivates them?

Remember: think about what exactly your buyer persona needs from you, not what you need from them. If you can target that customer persona and their motivations, you’ll increase your odds of real conversions or sales in the long run.

3) Getting your message to your customers

Picking which medium to use is a crucial step. If you have your USP and your customer persona defined, you can make the obvious – and sometimes intuitive – step of choosing the right platform to reach them. Is it Facebook, Instagram, Google Search, legacy media like direct mail, out-of-home, radio, print or TV or some other new form of media? The three main factors you should think about are your message, your audience, and your budget. By considering these factors, you can fully optimize your advertising and marketing successfully. No matter what medium you choose, your message, and how you deliver it, needs to both grab your potential customer’s attention, and show them how what you are selling can fulfill their needs and wants.

Once you have a good idea of where your customer is or what media they are consuming, depending on your budgets, you will need to decide whether this will be a paid campaign or some kind of free campaign like social media or public relations. No matter what, they all take time and money; and don’t forget, your TIME is money too, so don’t choose the cheaper option because it might cost you more in the long run. Often we tell our clients that if they don’t have time to do the work to get the free exposure (pitching media and writing content takes time), they should find some money to pay for marketing and put those funds into paid advertising. As the old saying goes, advertising is the publicity you pay for, PR is the publicity you pray for. To put it simply, it means that while advertising is paid media, public relations (PR) is earned media.

4) Content and advertising

Assuming you already have a website that tells your story and sells your brand, make sure it communicates your USP and is written for your perfect customer as noted in points 1 and 2. Coming up with messaging that causes your perfect customer to ACT, is something different altogether. For both your ads and your content, consider this list from Target Public:

What Makes You Stand Out?
Use A Powerful Headline
Make Them An Offer
Talk About The Benefits
Tell Your News
Take Away Their Fear
Call To Action
Make It Seem Urgent
Use Testimonials
Use Exciting Graphics
Complete Contact Information

5) Measure and Scale

Marketing your small or medium-sized business does not guarantee a sale or a new customer, but it sure helps. If you follow the above steps, you can grow your business.

Before you start, make sure you have what you need to measure and scale your marketing and for that matter, your business itself. First you need to decide what you want to achieve financially from your marketing, also known as your marketing return on investment (ROI).

Return on investment is a metric that compares how much a team EARNS, to how much it COSTS. It’s calculated using a simple formula: [(money gained – money spent) / money spent] x 100 = ROI.

So if you spend $100 on customer service and, as a result of that service, you earn $150, your return on investment is 50% (150 – 100 = 50; 50 / 100 = 0.5; 0.5 x 100 = 50%). The formula works for product ROI too.

Generally, we recommend that clients spend around 10% of their budget on marketing, which can include a wide array of items including advertisements, staff, events and so on. Based on that math, the above-noted product would require $15 to market as part of your “money spent” portion. In other words, you should be willing to spend $15 for every $150 sale.

Assuming you want to make 1000 sales in a year, then your gross marketing budget should be 15 x 1000 = $15,000. Likely for many small businesses, that is a manageable budget for media like Google, Facebook and others. But you need to be efficient, and you will need to test and measure before you scale.

Testing requires that you know where a lead or sale comes from. With digital marketing, that is pretty straightforward, but with people phoning or walking in the door, you need to find other ways to track sales. And remember, your ads or other marketing initiatives may not hit the perfect ROI at first, but you should always have a goal.

The good news is, once you hit that magical ROI, you will have information to scale and really start growing your business, which is what future marketing of your business is all about.

By George Affleck, Founder and President of Curve Communications. If you want to talk to George about your company’s marketing strategy, click here to access his schedule.

Beginner’s Guide: How to Track Conversions with the Facebook Pixel

January 14, 2021

by wp-admin Blog

In business, the ability to see direct results from advertising efforts matters a lot. That might seem simple in theory, but many lack the tools and knowledge to track those results and be able to tie them to specific marketing and advertising campaigns. This guide will help you understand the different ways to measure results and track conversions on Facebook through a powerful tool called the Facebook Pixel.

Understanding the Facebook Pixel

Facebook is a powerful marketing platform that can bring much success to your business if used correctly. In the last few years, Facebook has developed its tracking tools to provide marketers with the ability to get the most accurate data. And the one tool at the centre of all tracking efforts is the Facebook pixel.

This snippet of HTML code (which can be generated from every advertiser’s Business Manager account) is added on the backend of your site and tracks information about the people who interact with your ads. The Facebook pixel follows those people when they visit your website, tracking their interactions with it, the pages they visit, and down to the actions they take such as filling out a form or purchasing an item. From the moment a visitor enters your site, the Facebook pixel will track them and continue to gather information about them, such as their age, gender, location, interests, etc.

Keep reading this article to find out how to set up your Facebook pixel and conversion tracking events.

Setting up your Facebook Pixel

Setting up your Facebook pixel is simple and takes under ten minutes. Here’s what you need to do:

Go to ‘Event Manager’ on your Business Manager page
Click the green ‘plus’ connect data sources button and select ‘web’
Select ‘Facebook pixel’ and click ‘connect’
Add your pixel name
Enter your website URL to check for easy setup options
Click ‘continue’
Then copy the pixel and paste it in the header section of your website, just above the closing head tag and save.

Tracking conversions with the Facebook Pixel

Now that your Facebook pixel has been set up, it’s time to set up conversion tracking. There are a few ways you can track Facebook conversions using the Facebook pixel. Depending on the type of conversion you are looking to track, some might be more appropriate than others.

a) Basic tracking with the Facebook pixel

By setting up your Facebook pixel, Facebook will automatically set up basic traffic tracking for you.
Go to ‘Event Manager’ on your Business Manager page. There you should see a graph and data resembling this:

The graph gives you a visual representation of the traffic directed to your site, while the event ‘Pageviews’ gives you the exact number of visitors your site is getting.

b) Tracking direct purchases with a Custom Conversion event

The easiest way to track direct purchase conversions on an e-commerce site is to set up a Custom Conversion event on your Business Manager page. All you need is a custom URL (such as a Thank You URL). By setting up a unique Thank You URL and automatically redirecting everyone who has made a purchase to that URL, Facebook will be able to know that the person who visited that specific URL is a conversion.

How to set it up:

Create a custom URL such as www.yourbrand.com/thank-you-purchase-abcd/
Make sure traffic that purchases something gets redirected to that URL and that your Facebook pixel has been set up correctly on your site and tracks traffic on ALL pages
Go to ‘Events Manager’ on your Business Manager page and then to ‘Custom Conversion’
Name your Custom Conversion tracker, select your data source and set your ‘Rules’ as ‘URL’ ‘Contains,’ and the URL you set up. DO NOT set it up as equals, as the URL will assign a unique number to each customer and thus won’t be the exact URL you set up.
Click on the blue ‘Create’ button and let Facebook work its magic.

Tracking conversions without the Facebook Pixel

If you are looking for a quick way to know if investing in Facebook advertising is worth it and will get you ROI, here’s what you need to do:

Run a Lead Generation ad (ad where Facebook users fill out a form directly on your ad without leaving Facebook) and see how many leads you generate and convert. Lead Gen ads give you live data on whether or not your advertising efforts work and are worthwhile on Facebook.
Set up a discount code specific for Facebook and run a traffic ad (ad with a button leading to an external page such as your website or a landing page). By using a discount code specific to the Facebook/Instagram platform, you can easily track conversions and know your ROI.

Now you know the ins and outs of the Facebook pixel and how to track conversions. If, despite this guide, you are still lost and need help, reach out to our team at contact@curvecommunications.com.

How to Write Blog Posts That Drive the Right Traffic to Your Website (And It’s Way Easier Than You Think)

January 7, 2021

by George Affleck Blog

This week I gave my agency team the ultimate challenge: 52 blog posts in 52 weeks.

The ideas for post subjects came from a list of attention-grabbing headlines I found on a Facebook group (btw — Facebook groups are great places for inspiration and knowledge building), courtesy of Vietnam-based content provider Jos Aguiar (https://iamjosaguiar.com/).

I was surprised at how excited my team got. I sent them 74 possible headlines (see full list below) and said first come first served. In other words, whoever tagged their favourite headline first would likely make their life easier on the writing side.

Now — to be clear — just because Curve Communications does marketing and advertising does not mean all of us are writers. So the idea of writing 500 words on any subject did intimidate some, but it also thrilled others, mostly based on their writing skill levels.

The thing is, any small to medium-sized business can do this, and I would argue they NEED to do it. Content on your website and in your social feeds is king. Original content that is helpful and that evokes the personality of your business is even more crucial to engaging your current audience and enticing new people to buy your products or services.

The key to this process is to be fast at it. Choose your title, fill in the blanks, and start writing based on your knowledge base. You don’t have to be an expert but one would assume that if you own a small business, you likely are skilled at what you do. The fact is, once you have the title of the piece, the hard work is done.

I am writing this first piece of the series right now – so far, what you have read has taken me ten minutes to write. I am a pretty good writer, but I’m also a major procrastinator when it comes to getting my fingers on the keyboard. So if you are like me, or like some of my staff who are challenged by time or a writing focus, there are some shortcuts you can take.

For my team, I have said I will let them outsource the work, but they have to come up with a title first using the list below. Sites like Fiverr.com, CrowdContent.com, and Upwork.com are perfect for finding great writers. Or if they really want to, the reluctant writer in my group might want to slip 50 bucks to a fellow team member and get them to do the work. However, I am hoping they don’t do that and instead take the time to write what they know better than most. It should be a proud moment to shine.

So — what are you waiting for? You too could have 52 articles about your business’ focus that will be helpful to your customers or clients and drive new visitors to your website. And — in a way — it’s great to build team spirit and share knowledge internally and externally. Right, team?!

Stay tuned to this page and our social feeds because over the next 52 weeks there WILL be new content here from a variety of sources, giving you a ton of great marketing information, and it will hopefully inspire you to do the same. Happy New Year!

(74 Killer Headlines for your Blogs!)

George Affleck is the Founder of Curve Communications, a Vancouver-based digital marketing agency focused on lead generation for small and medium-sized businesses. His team loves it when he comes up with ideas like this. If you would like to chat with George about your business’ marketing, schedule a free consultation here.

How Magazine Design for the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation is Transforming the Lives of Canadians from Coast to Coast

December 16, 2020

by George Affleck Blog

Getting your content in front of the right eyes is more important than ever these days. With access to millions of stories at our fingertips, it takes time to create an engaging magazine that really catches your reader’s eye.

That’s why the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation (DSRF) and the Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) chose to work with our team to design their first national quarterly publication, 3.21: Canada’s Down Syndrome Magazine. For many years, the DSRF has come to Curve Communications for a variety of marketing initiatives, videography, and photography content, and when it came to the creation of 3.21 they knew exactly who to count on to turn their publication dreams into a reality.

The Design Process

The DSRF came to us with the idea of creating an all-new quarterly publication, full of stories from Canada’s Down syndrome community. The publication would be distributed nationally through the DSRF and CDSS websites and social channels, with some physical copies made available for local communities. They needed a reliable team who could bring together their collection of stories, images, features, and ads into one glossy publication with an e-magazine to accompany it – and that’s where Curve stepped in.

The DSRF had been putting out a newsletter for more than two decades but knew it was time to expand it into a more polished and professional magazine, similar to what you might see on a newsstand.

Now you might be thinking – why follow a traditional magazine format, and revive an old medium? “When you work with the right organization and audience, magazines are a great way to get your message out through the noise,” says Amanda Bates, Curve’s Vice President and client lead with DSRF. Our team worked hard to understand the wants and needs of the DSRF and their key audience. For the DSRF and their collaborative partners at CDSS, that meant creating a sleek magazine that would serve as a forum to inform and inspire individuals and families across the country. And for their audience, it meant having access to a publication that showcases important stories of families and individuals just like them.

Curve developed the magazine’s branding and aesthetic from scratch, creating a bright and professional template for the overall look of the magazine and its regular features, and from there it was up to us to bring the publication to life. With each successive issue, our collaboration with the DSRF continues to evolve as a publication for families and individuals with stories and advice from Canada’s leading Down syndrome experts, parents and self-advocates.

The Results

The whole process was spearheaded by our Manager of Creative Projects, Kerry Slater, and after a couple of meetings, 3.21’s look and format were created, along with the launch of a logo, all incorporating uplifting, bright colours throughout the publication to accompany the positive and encouraging stories within. “Creating 3.21 with the DSRF has been incredibly rewarding and has really allowed me to grow in my design work. With each edition of 3.21, I feel more and more at home with the DSRF team. They’ve allowed me to branch out with design and take artistic risks, which have paid off,” says Kerry. And there’s proof of Kerry’s hard work, eye for design, and total understanding of DSRF’s value as an organization on each page of 3.21.

So, what does the DSRF think of their shiny new quarterly publication? “We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with Curve Communications on 3.21: Canada’s Down Syndrome Magazine,” says Glen Hoos, Director of Communications at DSRF. “The product gets better and better. Our office proudly displays each of Kerry’s magazine covers on our walls and we look forward to working together on this project for many years to come.”

Are you interested in working with Curve Communications on your next design project? Our team works hand-in-hand with our clients to understand their business, brand, and initiatives.

To book an appointment with us, click here.

What Is a Marketing Audit – and Why Do You Need One?

November 10, 2020

by Amanda Bates Blog

You’ve heard the term “marketing audit” float around before, but what is it? And do you really need one, or is it just another unnecessary paid service?

Well, let’s start by explaining the concept of a marketing audit.

Professional marketing audits involve a comprehensive analysis of your brand’s marketing environment, both within the company and outside. Experts thoroughly examine your goals and strategies to figure out where you’re succeeding, where you could do better, and where your best opportunities lie.

Do you really need one? The resounding answer from any marketing guru is yes.

Audits give you the opportunity to adjust your marketing course, and therefore draw in more revenue and consumer attention.

In recent years, a whopping 89 percent of marketers ranked “improving the ability to measure and analyze their marketing impact” as a top priority. The best way to do that? Conduct a high-level audit – or have a professional do it for you.

One marketing audit every once in a blue moon isn’t going to cut it, though. Let’s take a deeper dive into the ins and outs of professional marketing audits to understand why. We’ll talk about how they continuously help your brand improve and grow.

If we’ve done our job right, by the end of this post, you’ll be scheduling your next audit for the benefit of your marketing efforts – and overall business.

A. Understanding the Importance of Marketing Audits

Before we go any deeper, we want to talk a little bit more about the sheer necessity of strong audits.

Over the course of months and years, your marketing campaigns change – whether you intend for them to or not. Conducting an audit draws you back to your central course of action so you can readjust campaigns accordingly. Without an audit, you’ll struggle to stick to your measurable goals – and you might not even realize when you’ve lost sight of your main objectives.

If you don’t already have goals in place, a marketing audit will force you to set some. We know it’s easy to get lost in the big picture of your overall business dreams. However, it’s essential that you outline your specific marketing goals so that you understand exactly how they play into this bigger picture.

During a marketing audit, you won’t just look at your goals. You’ll also weed out unsuccessful tactics, gather powerful information, and learn to make better judgment calls in the future.

Here at Curve Communications, we begin each of our marketing audits with a three to four-hour discovery session. This gives us the opportunity to reveal just how influential an audit can be. We’ll get to know the nitty-gritty details of your brand, then proceed with a targeted plan for marketing analysis and adjustment.

B.Explore Your Promotional Environment

One of the biggest benefits of a marketing audit is its focus on your promotional environment. Your marketing “environment” is the field in which your advertising (inbound and outbound) efforts play. It includes your target demographics, local economics, politics, social changes, and so much more.

If you want your marketing efforts to strike hard, you need to understand the field you and your competitors are facing. Up to 61 percent of marketers state that their top challenge is generating traffic and leads. The more you understand your landscape via an audit, the easier it will be to enact marketing that works.

C. Get an Outsider’s Point of View

Wondering if a self-audit would suffice? In some cases, maybe, but there’s an enormous benefit to gaining an objective point of view on your marketing tactics.

An effective auditor should have:

An auditor within your company will likely struggle to stay entirely objective. They’ll understand the reasons and first-hand efforts behind your current marketing strategies, which will make it difficult for them to detach themselves and really find your weaknesses.

If you want to learn from an audit, we suggest hiring an agency that specializes in the process. They’ll be more prepared (and experienced) for rooting out your problems while identifying your strengths.

D. Re-Evaluate Your Marketing Organization

A marketing audit doesn’t just look at your overall results. It forces you to examine your company’s current structure, advertising policies, and management style.

Your marketing success starts from within. If there is a weakness in your marketing team’s organization, then your outward efforts won’t reap the rewards you’re seeking. A professional audit will help you gain insight into your core system.

During an audit, you’ll learn how to:

Better use your company’s resources
Work effectively as a team.
Meaningfully use the data you’ve gathered.
Listen to and collect employee feedback.
Implement new rules and tactics.
Produce better/more content.

Think about it this way: if you’re trying to sell a house, you don’t just fix up its curbside appeal but leave the inside messy and outdated. A great marketing audit will help you clean inside and out, improving the value of the entire system.

E. Different Kinds of Marketing Audits

One last thing: we need to talk about the different types of marketing audits out there. It’s important to understand how these each help your business and how each kind will serve your efforts.

1. Macro Environment Audits

The word “macro” means “large-scale.” Therefore, a macro environment audit takes a look at all of the big-picture and external factors that influence your marketing. These include (but are not limited to):

Your audience demographics.
Relevant economic factors.
Local cultures, beliefs, and ways of life
The average consumer’s lifestyle.
Environmental influences.
Political status in the field

Analyzing these big-picture concepts ensures that your marketing messages aren’t tone-deaf, offensive, or off-putting. To advertise to the fish, you need to take a swim in the surrounding ocean and understand the current layout – and a macro environment audit helps you do that.

2. Micro Environment Audits

Micro refers to “small-scale” concepts, so a micro-environment audit takes a look at internal factors impacting your marketing success. These include:

As we said before, a marketing team that’s inefficient will struggle to craft an effective marketing strategy. It’s just as important to analyze what’s within as what’s outside.

3. Strategy Audits

Finally, a “marketing strategy” audit focuses on the totality of your current visions and goals. Professional auditors will help you understand if your current marketing process aligns with what your business truly wants/needs. If it doesn’t, the audit will point out where you can better match your strategy to your goals.

Only about 58 percent of marketers say they “often” succeed in achieving their marketing goals. Increase your chances of doing so by understanding where your strategy is compatible/incompatible with your objectives.

F. The General Audit Process

Now that we’ve given you an overview of marketing audits, let us explain how the process typically works. Keep in mind, the process looks a little different for each company. These are the general steps you can expect.

Step 1: Pick Your Auditor

As we said before, you could conduct a self-audit. However, outside audits are generally considered more reliable due to their specificity and objectivity. If you really want to know where your problems lie, you need an outsider to point them out.

As you choose your auditor/marketing consultant, question their experience. Do they have the skills needed to provide excellent recommendations? How many audits have they conducted before?

Step 2: Set a Date

After you’ve found your auditor, talk about your timeline. When do you want your marketing audit to start? Are you planning one audit now, or are you scheduling multiple for the year to come?

Our professional recommendation is to make plans for regular audits – not just one big check-up. This ensures that you’re frequently adjusting your plans for the best results. It doesn’t matter how great your marketing team is – things change, and your marketing strategy needs to change with them.

Step 3: Determine Your Goals

Next, think about why you’re conducting an audit. What do you want to learn? What will you examine? What improvements do you hope to make?

It doesn’t matter if you’re conducting a self-audit or hiring a company to do it. Clarifying your objectives early on will ensure you’re following the right audit process.

Step 4: Make a Plan

Even if you’re working with a talented team, it’s a good idea to go over your audit plan before you start. Work together to identify your:

Step 5: Gather Your Data

Finally, it’s time for the big job: gathering the data. This is what you hire an outsider to do, efficiently and objectively. It’s a tedious, but crucial, aspect of any audit.

A professional auditor will gather data by reviewing your:

To gather some of this data, the auditor will need to ask questions from your employees and other team members. Information is often gathered via surveys, questionnaires, or even interviews.

Once all of the important data has been gathered, the auditor will prepare it for analysis.

Step 6: Analyze That Data

Although gathering data might be the hard part, analyzing data is the crucial part of any audit. This is the step in which you learn what you’re doing right, as well as what you could do better.

Using their own tried-and-true methods, an external auditor will analyze for:

Performance trends
Skill levels
Knowledge gaps/weak spots
In-competencies
Unmet or inappropriate goals
Communication habits
Individual and collective successes

Step 7: Study the Environment

Before providing recommendations based on the data collected, the auditor will also study the environment in which your team is marketing. As we discussed before, your “promotional environment” includes political, economic, and social factors that could influence your marketing capabilities.

Step 8: Recommendations

Finally, your auditor will deliver their findings, as well as their recommendations for a more successful marketing future. This is your chance to learn from the audit. Understand what your priorities should be and how you can address weak points within your strategy and team.

G. After the Audit

The marketing team’s work doesn’t stop after the recommendations have been delivered. You’ll likely want to bring the rest of the company into the loop by sharing the audit’s results. Find company-wide strategies for boosting marketing efficacy and bringing in more sales.

Conclusion

Marketing breathes life into your business. It’s the element that keeps customers coming and your business on track. When your marketing is unhealthy, so is the rest of your brand – which is why a regular audit is so incredibly essential. Think of it as your business’s annual – or bi-annual – checkup.

At Curve Communications, we provide full-fledged discovery sessions and marketing audits to help you grow your business. We’ll take care of the heavy lifting – like analyzing your inbound and outbound marketing efforts, as well as campaign conception and planning evaluation.

Let’s find out where your marketing strengths and weaknesses lie. Call 604-684-3170 or reach out online to begin your Curve discovery process today.

How to Generate More Leads for Your Local Business

November 4, 2020

by Amanda Bates Blog

Struggling to pull in nearby prospects? Local lead generation is an art – and one that requires plenty of practice. We’ve got some tips and tricks up our sleeves that will help you quickly generate more leads for your local business.

Effective, localized digital marketing gets your brand in touch with the right people. These tactics will help you push your products and services into the local market, as well as establish a strong presence in your area.

Without further ado, here are six excellent local lead generation strategies to employ.

1. Local SEO

We’ll start with the most obvious tactic: improving your SEO to better reach locals.

“Local SEO” involves optimizing your online presence to gain traction within your community. Your goal is to appear on Google and other search engines in localized searches, and proper SEO strategies can help you do that.

We could spend the rest of this article talking about local SEO tactics, but for the sake of brevity, we’ve narrowed down the basics you need to focus on for local lead generation.

A. Keyword Research

First things first: you’ve got to use the right words, and that starts with keyword research.

Don’t fret – your primary keywords are actually quite easy to discover. Just think about what people would search on Google to find a business like yours. Say you’re a hairdresser. You know people will search with phrases like:

Take these phrases and you’ve got some strong local keywords, to begin with. Then, you can find more keywords to use by looking at Google’s “suggested” searches – or a keyword research tool of your choice. We recommend Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest – it’s free.

What similar terms or phrases are searchers using to find businesses in your industry?

B. Google Maps

Secondly, and arguably most importantly, you’ll need to ensure your business is popping up on Google Maps. No one is going to visit your in-person store or understand how close you are if your location is inaccurate.

You’ve likely already noticed how local searches work on Google Maps, just in your own time. You want your business to appear right next to all of your local competitors – with the right information listed.

Roughly 46 percent of Google searches are for local businesses. Don’t miss out on these motivated searchers because your address is listed incorrectly or you don’t appear on the map.

C. GMB Listing

Speaking of having the right information listed, it’s essential that you create a free Google My Business listing. Local lead generation is only possible when people can find your basic information, such as:

Image Source: Google Support

Additionally, creating a GMB account ensures that you’re more likely to wind up in the top three results on any Google search. This significantly increases your odds of drawing in local customers on a regular basis. At the same time, you’ll benefit from Google updates and opportunities, including its newest addition, “call history.”

In the United States, select businesses can opt-in for this new feature and use call-forwarding to better track their potential leads. Users will be able to see a full list of who has used Google to call them, when the calls came in, and what their numbers were.

2. Google’s Local Service Ads

Next, we’ll talk about a more targeted approach to local lead generation.

Image Source: Google Ads

Local service ads aren’t just paid ads. They’re an indication that Google trusts your business. Searchers notice that green checkmark beside the ad, indicating the “Google Guarantee.” You need your local searchers to trust your brand, and a thumbs up from Google is a good way to start.

Additionally, local service ads allow you to include past customers’ ratings and reviews. This is another way to impress customers and earn their trust, just with a simple ad.

Another benefit is that local service ads on Google can be optimized for voice search. Considering that 20 percent of all searches are now voice-based, this is a huge incentive.

3. Localized Content

Third on our list of local lead generation strategies is local content production. Ads and SEO are important, but you also need a big magnet that will really attract tons of users directly to your website.

We’re talking about creating a piece of content (or multiple pieces) that directly relate to your area and product/service. For example, this Texas Charter Bus Company created an excellent magnet piece about planning the ultimate road trip in their state.

Image Source: Texas Charter Bus Company

To get your creative juices flowing, here are a few prompts that will give you some magnet piece ideas.

The Complete Guide to Planning X
Everything You Need to Know About (City Name’s) X
How to Take Care of X in (City/State Name)
A Local’s Guide to X in (City/State Name)
The 10 Top X in (City/State Name)

Remember: These don’t just have to be blog posts. You can also create lead magnet local pieces in the form of emails, webinars, eBooks, and more. The format of these lead magnets is entirely up to you; they could be webinars, email-gated videos, or simply .pdf eBooks.

4. Localized Ads

We already talked about using Google Local Service ads for local lead generation, but now we need to cover localized ads that aren’t necessarily done through search engines.

You’ve heard the term “location, location, location” used in real estate pitches, but the same goes for winning customers as a local business. You need to reach people at just the right time to snag their interest. That’s where “geo-marketing” advertising comes into play.

Image Source: App Samurai

How much more likely are you to purchase a coffee at Starbucks when you receive a notification like that? If you’re like most consumers, you’ll head directly to the shop on your way to your final destination.

This is a prime example of effective geo-marketing. Your goal, as a brand, is to influence the purchasing or service decisions of people nearby with highly localized, well-timed ads.

5. Landing Pages

Have you thought about what role your landing pages play in local lead generation? Using the right images, phrases, and calls-to-action are crucial in turning interest into revenue.

Image Source: Airbnb

Try to incorporate as many localized elements as possible on your landing page. If you service many different areas, consider creating multiple landing pages to target each location. Airbnb and other travel sites have done an excellent job of this, so turn to them if you need some examples.

As we talked about in the SEO point, it’s important to include strong local language. Use the right keywords such as “Things to Do in X” or “Expert Tax Filing Services in X.” The more personalization and localization you put into your landing page, the better luck you’ll have with local lead generation.

6. Popups

Last but not least, let’s talk about pop-up ads. Although many site visitors complain about the intrusiveness of this advertising strategy, popups can still be extremely effective in certain circumstances.

When used correctly, pop-up ads convert quickly and immediately draw attention. By using a highly enticing, local message in the ad, you can grab the attention of local shoppers instantly.

Image Source: Kate Spade

To offset the annoying qualities of popups, try to include something for the visitor in the message. Give them 10% off their next order if they provide an email address or direct them to a page specially designed for viewers like them.

Local lead generation is about getting your brand in front of the right eyes at the right time. Sometimes, that calls for an add that literally pops up in a shopper’s face.

Conclusion

Using these local lead generation tips will revolutionize the way you draw in nearby consumers. Instead of waiting around for local searchers to find you, it’s time for you to hunt down the ideal local candidates via smart marketing, Google Ads, SEO, and more.

Ready to ramp up your brand image and draw in more local leads?

Reach out to Curve communications today. Call 604-684-3170 or send us a message online today.

5 Key Reasons Why SMBs Should Hire a Marketing Agency

October 21, 2020

by Amanda Bates Blog

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face a lot of challenges against larger corporations. SMBs often have fewer resources and smaller budgets – making it seem nearly impossible to compete against big name brands. The best way SMBs can get a leg up against their competitors is to hire a marketing agency to develop, implement, and monitor their promotional strategies.

Fortunately, we live in a time where innovative tactics can trump a massive budget – and that’s exactly what marketing agencies are there for.

Now, when small business owners hear this, they immediately think of their pocketbook. Hiring a marketing agency seems like a big financial risk, particularly for business owners working on a shoestring budget.

But the fact is that many SMBs are wasting a lot of time and money by trying to take on the task of marketing themselves. Investing the money with an agency is a better choice for numerous reasons.

Now, before we dive into the details of why it’s smart to hire a marketing agency, let’s talk about the biggest marketing challenges SMBs are faced with.

Marketing Challenges for SMBs

Image Source

First and foremost, small business owners need to understand and accept the reasons why their marketing strategies might be failing. Small business owners have a lot going on and usually cannot dedicate much of their time solely to strategizing and managing marketing plans.

Generally speaking, here are some of the biggest challenges SMBs face:

The reality is that many SMBs simply struggle to make marketing strategies work. Take a look at some of the statistics from a recent survey published by Fundera:

1 in 5 small businesses don’t utilize digital marketing.
1 in 10 small businesses don’t invest in any kind of marketing at all.
Nearly 90% of marketers say social marketing efforts have increased their business’s exposure.
75% of small business owners think that internet marketing is very effective or effective for attracting new customers, yet 36% of SMBs do not have a website for their company.
61% of marketers say their biggest challenges are generating traffic and leads.

The fact is that digital marketing is essential for reaching customers these days, especially since the vast majority of initial interactions will happen online. This same report also found that 81% of shoppers will go online to research a product or company before buying. If your SMB does not have information published online or people cannot find you, chances are high that you will lose that customer to a competitor.

The same Fundera survey concluded that SMBs who actively utilized digital marketing strategies – like social media and email marketing – were far more successful. When brands engage with consumers through social media marketing, customers spend up to 40% more on average with each purchase.

The best solution to the challenges that so many SMBs face is to hire a marketing agency that can manage these tasks completely. This allows business owners to focus on other important aspects of running their company.

Now, let’s shift gears into the main reasons why partnering with a marketing agency is the right decision.

1. Concentrated Focus on Leads and Visibility

Image Source

As previously mentioned, one of the greatest challenges many SMBs face with marketing is a lack of leads and poor visibility.

Finding leads can seem like searching for a needle in a haystack when you don’t know the strategies to do it correctly. Furthermore, most consumers will be unfamiliar with smaller brand names. This means that SMBs face an uphill battle when it comes to establishing visibility, familiarity, and trust with prospects.

Gaining visibility and building strategies for funneling in new leads is the core focus for every marketing agency. These two approaches lay the foundation to build a successful marketing strategy upon.

The key to increasing visibility and lead generation is to diversify the marketing mix to reach different customer bases. But each channel needs to be optimized depending on the customer segment or intention.

This is an extremely overwhelming task for SMBs to do, since it generally involves a lot of content creation, planning, and monitoring. On the surface level, this is why it is best to hire a marketing agency to execute the plan.

2. You Have True Experts on Your Side

Image Source

Marketing agencies pride themselves on only hiring the best employees – who typically have a wide range of experience with different industries. Marketing agencies can connect you with marketers who specialize in specific areas, whether it be your company’s industry or a certain strategy.

Of course, SMBs can hire an in-house marketer or even a small team of their own. While these marketers may be smart and talented, you will generally be able to access more experienced marketers through an agency at a cheaper rate. As an SMB, you may not be able to attract (or afford) such high-level marketers to work in-house, but you can hire them through an agency.

Full-service agencies have experts that specialize in both inbound and outbound marketing – both of which are equally important for SMB growth. Outbound marketing deals with reaching out to find new leads with strategies like media buying or direct-mail campaigns. Inbound marketing is designed to attract customers that are looking for your services or products already through concepts like SEO and content marketing.

Again, these tasks can be tricky for SMB owners who have little experience with marketing. For marketing agencies, this is often their bread and butter.

Their marketers know the importance of establishing branding for small businesses – they generally have years of experience with helping other companies do so. When you hire a marketing agency, you gain access to experts that know for a fact which strategies will work best for your brand.

3. It is More Cost-Effective

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Small business owners know that hiring new employees can be a very expensive process – and not just because of the added salary to the payroll. It costs companies an average of $4,129 to hire a new team member, due to costs in recruiting, onboarding, and training.

Now, partnering with a marketing agency is not necessarily cheap – and you do get what you pay for. Many agencies offer varying pricing structures so SMBs can get the help they need without going over their budgets.

Generally, marketing agencies will offer one or more of the following pricing structure options:

Dedicated Resource or Project Contracts - If you only want to purchase specific services or have an agency help with a set project (such as writing digital web content or designing your ongoing SEO) will typically send you a set monthly price for specific projects, then assign an employee to work with you based on your needs. Essentially, this is like hiring an expert in-house, just for a fraction of the price.
Ad-Hoc Pricing Model - If you only need assistance with smaller projects like creating a landing page, the ad-hoc model will likely be the best option. This involves setting an hourly rate and hiring marketers through the agency for the task at hand.
Fixed Price - To receive the greatest benefit from a marketing agency, SMBs can opt to pay a set price (typically per month) for assistance. The agency will create a contract outlining what type of assistance this will entail, such as a set number of blog posts to be published per month.

Marketing is a full-time job. Hiring an agency can save a lot of time trying to manage these tasks yourself. Time is money – and by delegating the heavy lifting to an agency, you can dedicate more effort and resources to operating the business.

4. Marketing Agencies Have Proven Knowledge & Track Records

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SMB owners are used to taking risks – but when it comes to marketing, you generally want to avoid risks as much as possible. Thankfully, most marketing agencies can often prove their value with case studies from past projects.

Now, it is important to mention that marketing agencies cannot guarantee specific results, such as an exact percentage lift in online traffic or revenue. If an agency makes these kinds of promises, you should probably steer clear as this could be a sign that they will be deceptive of their results to hit their goals.

Honest and trustworthy marketing agencies will have the metrics from past clients to show the value they add to other businesses. This may be metric reports with graphs and analytics from past campaigns – or it could be case studies showing the results of strategies in various industries.

When you hire a marketing agency, they can help support the entire SMB process, including (but not limited to):

Branding
USP (Unique Selling Proposition) business model
Marketing content writing (product pages, website content, blogs, videos, social media posts, etc.)
Advertising (paid targeted ads on digital marketing platforms)
Lead nurturing through email marketing and re-targeted ads
Tracking and measuring all vital metrics, such as ROI, online traffic, bounce rates, conversion rates, and ad reach
Scaling strategies to help SMBs grow and reach their goals

To make life easier on yourself, look for a full-service marketing agency. For SMBs, it’s best to have a one-stop shop that can handle all aspects of marketing, including web design, content creation, SEO, PR, email, SMS funnels, lead nurturing, sequences, and more.

5. Marketing Agencies are Partners for Your Success

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While every client’s results will vary, the average ROI for marketing strategies is extremely high.

For instance, email marketing has an average return of $40 for every dollar spent. SEO marketing has a $22 return, and mobile marketing’s ROI is around $10.50.

At the end of the day, marketing agencies want to help their clients succeed – and they will do anything to keep you on as a satisfied client. When you hire a marketing agency, it is not an expense; it is an investment that compounds over time.

Remember, most marketing agencies are SMBs themselves. They know the struggles, but they also know how to optimize strategies to grow. They get you. They want to help you so that both companies succeed together.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is not always easy – especially when you run an SMB and already have so many things on your plate. The thing with marketing is that the more you put into it, the more you will get out. Now, not all SMBs have the luxury of being able to afford the time or resources for comprehensive strategies.

Hiring a marketing agency will help you take your business to the next level and grow your brand recognition, audience reach, and, of course, your revenue. They will partner with you to grow your brand and reach those goals you never thought you could accomplish.

If you want to learn more about hiring a digital marketing agency, reach out to our team at Curve Communications.

We are a full-service marketing agency serving both B2B and B2C companies in all aspects of marketing strategies. Give us a call today to speak with one of our agents for a free one-on-one consultation.

How to craft the Perfect Startup Marketing Budget

How to Craft the Perfect Startup and New Business Marketing Budget

October 6, 2020

by Amanda Bates Blog

You’ve finally launched your new business. Congratulations!Now, it’s time to make people aware of your presence, as well

The Ultimate Guide to Manufacturing Marketing

August 25, 2020

by Evelyn Blog

When you market in any industry, the number one priority is the customer.

However, many manufacturing companies struggle to translate this concept into their marketing strategies. More than half of all manufacturing marketers (55 percent) state that their top challenge is overcoming the traditional marketing-and-sales mindset. They’re stuck advertising like they did a decade ago – and that’s not going to give them the results they need in these times.

To meet the needs and expectations of modern customers, manufacturers must embrace the chance to improve their marketing strategies. Learning to market and reach out to customers properly will lead to more qualified leads, increased revenue, and a wealth of business opportunities.

In this guide, we’ve rounded up some of the key elements of strong marketing, as shared by the experts of our online marketing agency.

We’ll tackle everything, from breaking down the manufacturing sales funnel to discussing various methods of content creation, lead generation, website development, and much more.

1. Understanding the Sales Funnel for Manufacturing Marketing

First things first: manufacturers need to understand the different stages of the buyer’s journey, specifically within their own industry.

Image Source: Sales Funnels Expert

Step

01

Consumers Become Aware of Your Brand

The first step in the buyer’s journey is simple: learning that your manufacturing brand exists.

This is when a customer stumbles into your store, or more likely, comes across your manufacturing website or content. They learn your name and develop an initial understanding of what your brand offers and the value you can provide to them.

Step

02

Your Company Piques Interest

During step number two, your potential buyers take a deeper look at your manufacturing company. They either form an interest in your services/products – or they don’t.

This is your opportunity to showcase exactly how you provide solutions to manufacturing-related problems or needs. Answer questions and make your brand’s selling points clear.

Step

03

Buyers Realize the Value of Your Products

Your brand had a chance to strut itself in step two. Now, it’s time for buyers to determine what your products/services are truly worth to them – monetarily and beyond. This is the key part of the buyer’s process.

Can you truly impress upon your buyer why they need to work with your manufacturing company?

Step

04

Seal the Deal

Last but not least, you convert your interested shopper into a committed buyer. This is done by answering all their questions, clearing up any doubt, and solidifying the fact that you are the best possible solution to their problem.

The sale is completed, and now, you’ve got a customer in the bag.

You might be wondering, “Okay, but what does all of this have to do with marketing?”

Well, as we delve deeper into this topic, you’ll soon realize that almost every part of essential manufacturer marketing fits into this buyer’s journey. Your marketing strategies are the map, and your team members are the cartographers.

Now, it’s time to lead your buyer’s straight into your desired sales pool.

2. Goals for Marketing for Manufacturers

Speaking of your desires, what are your goals for your manufacturing company? Why are you reading this post and trying to improve your marketing tactics?

Let’s take a look at some of the most common ambitions shared by manufacturers. All of these goals have a lot to do with strong marketing – and we’re going to explain why.

Leads

Did you know that roughly 71 percent of manufacturing content marketers list lead generation as their top organisational goal?

For any company, more qualified leads = more opportunities to turn a profit. Your team is hoping to reel in more interested parties with great marketing – and therefore have a chance to convert more prospects into paying customers.

Any custom marketing strategy worth its stuff works to help you generate more leads via content creation, digital advertising, customer engagement, and a whole spectrum of other tactics.

Revenue

This next manufacturing goal seems pretty obvious: bring in more money – period.

Whether you’re finding new customers or simply encouraging old ones to return, marketing should help your company achieve new revenue heights. Smart advertising allows you to appeal to buyers on just the right level, pique their interest, and convince them to spend money with your manufacturing company.

Branding

Another goal shared by many manufacturers is the aim to breathe life into your brand.

Although most of us will agree that manufacturing companies aren’t the easiest to personalize, it’s essential that you humanize your brand enough to engage customers on a deeper level.

A big part of great marketing is cultivating an excellent brand design – one that makes your manufacturing brand appear more credible, trustworthy, and appealing than your competitors’ companies.

Excellent marketing helps with creative branding through custom website design, personality development, smart messaging, and general identity cultivation.

Scaling

If you want your brand to grow (and you should), you’ll need to have a plan for adapting to that growth.

As your manufacturing company increases in size and success, you’ll face new challenges – like adjusting to a larger audience, garnering more publicity, and recruiting more employees. Expert marketing will help you break through these obstacles and scale your growth effectively.

Setting Your KPIs

The last marketing manufacturing goal we want to point out is the chance to set your KPIs (key performance indicators).

How do you know what factors indicate your brand’s success or failure?

What elements reveal your manufacturing marketing ROI?

By analyzing the right data for sales, advertising, content production, team management, and more, you will put yourself in a better position to effectively implement custom marketing strategies that drive your brand’s future.

3. Challenges of Manufacturing Marketing

Hopefully, you’ve now thought a little bit about what your goals as a manufacturing company are – and how custom marketing can get you the results you seek.

Moving on, let’s talk about some of the obstacles you’re probably facing in your marketing, as well as how you can combat them with the right strategies.

A. Targeting the Right Audience

Addressing just the right audience is a struggle for many industries, but we find it’s especially challenging for manufacturers, who often face large audiences on an international scale.

Unique Challenges Manufacturing Content Marketers Face

Image Source: Industrial Marketing Today

Not only does your marketing need to potentially appeal to people from around the globe, but it also needs to reach multi-level roles while conveying semi-complex messages.

As you can imagine, it’s not necessarily a simple task.

The solution for this challenge comes down to the discovery process. The goal is to understand who you are as a brand, the value you provide to the industry, the problems you solve, and who you aim to help.

To learn more about finding your target audience, talk to one of our experts at Curve Communications. We’ve developed a time-tested discovery process to pinpoint your most ideal customers – and how we can set up a thorough manufacturing marketing strategy to find more of them.

B. Determining What Kind of Content to Publish

Your next issue is figuring out the best kind of content to create and share. Content is the backbone of your inbound marketing strategy. If you’re not producing the right kind, you’re missing out on a wealth of opportunity.

What does your content production team need to focus on? Blogs? Landing pages? Case studies? White papers?

How Manufacturing Marketers Rate Their Organization’s Overall Level of Content Marketing Success

Image Source: Content Marketing Institute

As the graphic above indicates, about 68 percent of manufacturing marketers feel their content marketing is “moderately successful.” Another 17 percent think theirs is only “minimally successful.”

Why do so many manufacturers feel poorly about their content marketing?
Our guess is that most are posting the wrong kinds of content.

Think back to the buyer’s journey we discussed at the beginning of this guide. The goal of your content is to funnel your perfect customers from steps one to five. That means creating content that improves their awareness, grabs their interest, and provides real value.

If you’re not sure where to start with content creation, we suggest taking an informative standpoint. Instead of thinking of your content or blog as a sales tool, think of it as an educational opportunity to win over skeptical readers.

We often push our manufacturing clients to produce informative blog posts, e-books, news releases, and guides. Focus on providing your readers with real value – and the sales will follow.

C. Managing Your Website

Manufacturers, both big and small, face the challenge of consistently updating their websites to appeal to consumer taste.

Your website is your hub, your digital representation, and your chance to put your best foot forward. In the outbound and inbound marketing realm, your website is your most valuable asset.

At the end of the day, all of your marketing strategies point customers back to your website. Content, social media campaigns, emails, pop-up ads – they all encourage customers to visit your website.

Your website can’t be some run-of-the-mill platform. It needs to be fine-tuned for easy navigation, customer appeal, and conversions. Investing in expert website design and development is perhaps the best thing you can do to nurture interested visitors into paying customers.

For starters, every website today should have:

In most cases, your website is your first chance to impress a buyer. This is their initial interaction with your company – and it needs to be a good one.

D. Properly Setting Up CRM and Marketing Automation Systems

Your team may be facing the challenge of automating your marketing efforts.

The simpler and faster you can make your marketing plan, the more time your team has to focus on bigger projects and business growth. Now’s the time to look into CRM and marketing automation systems, but picking the right one is easier said than done.

At Curve Communications, some of our favorite systems include:

ActiveCampaign

ConvertKit

HubSpot

Autopilot

If you need guidance on picking (and implementing) the best automation system, talk to our marketing team. We’re equipped to match you with a system that meets your expectations and budget – and start pulling in qualified leads.

4. How to Do Marketing for Manufacturing Businesses

Now that we’ve discussed common goals and obstacles for manufacturers, let’s get to the real meat of this guide: creating a marketing plan that works.

These are the top steps you need to tackle if your strategy is to take flight. Trust us: skipping even one of these tasks can lead to sub-par results and lots of wasted time and effort.

A. Create a Buyer Persona

The first to-do we want to discuss is defining your ideal customer(s). This is an enormously important part of targeting the right audience and crafting effective marketing messages. The more detailed your personas are, the easier it is to get your marketing plan right on the first go.

Image Source: Sevaa Group

As you develop your customised marketing strategy, get really specific about your buyers. Before diving deep into the discovery process, ask yourself the following questions:

The more detail you can provide for a buyer persona, the easier it will be to target them with precision.

When it comes to manufacturing marketing, you likely have more than one type of persona you’re attempting to engage with, and that’s alright. Take a hard look at your best customers and come up with some categories.

For example, are you mostly selling to design engineers? MRO managers? Procurement teams?

Don’t assume you already know what your ideal buyer personas look like. Take the time to conduct real research – this will fuel smart, impactful marketing strategies in the near future.

B. Design the Perfect Website

We’ve already touched on the importance of having a mobile-responsive, neat, impressive website, but let us say it again: your website needs to be flawless.

Some even argue that your website plays the most important role in your inbound marketing strategy, above any content or ad tactics.

As you look into custom website design and development services to improve (or build) your manufacturing website, you need to focus on the following elements in order to create a site that markets for itself.

a. Easy-to-Manage CMS

Your CMS (content management system) dictates how simple it is to create, manage, and change content on your website. This includes your graphics, code, and overall design.

You need a CMS that’s easy to use so you can consistently adapt your digital marketing strategies within your website’s setup. Look into popular choices like WordPress or Magnolia for systems that make adaption simple.

A website shouldn’t be a stagnant entity but an evolving representation of your brand. A good content management system helps manufacturers achieve this.

b. SEO

If you want your manufacturing website to rise up the ranks of popular search engine results, you’ll need a solid SEO strategy in place.

Ensure your website is optimized with the right manufacturing keywords, expert content, and a setup that Google favors. Failing to keep SEO in mind as you design your website will make it significantly more challenging to find new leads organically.

c. Copywriting

As your website design takes shape, the importance of the text on every page cannot be overstated. Not only is copywriting a part of SEO, but it’s also extremely important when it comes to customer perception.

Think about it this way: would you trust a manufacturing company whose website is littered with poorly written, incorrect copy? Or would you go for the brand with attention-grabbing, grammatically correct text?

Don’t just slap some words on the homepage and call it good. Recruit strong copywriters who will help your website pack just the right amount of punch.

d. Easy Navigation

A whopping 94 percent of respondents in a Small Biz Trends survey indicated that easy navigation is the most useful feature on any website. This is especially true on manufacturing websites – people want to find what they need immediately without sifting through lots of complicated information.

Give your website an easy-to-follow setup, a helpful search bar, and any other features that will make it functional for a variety of users.

e. Third-Party Lead-Tracing Tools

While giving your manufacturing website a facelift, you need to implement some lead tracking tools. Apps like Zoho, Salesforce, and Quick Base will help you better organise all of the relationships you make with incoming customers.

Immediately plug signed-up users into your email system, create customized dashboards for tracking, forecast sales, and personalize the user experience.

f. Active Blog

We discussed how important it is to educate your visitors with expert information as a part of your manufacturing marketing strategy. An on-site blog provides the ideal platform for doing just that.

Image Source: Finances Online

A large chunk of your website visitors will check out your blog before they make any moves toward purchasing. Give them posts that are
full of quality writing, eye-catching headlines, and information that really benefits them.

g. Beautiful Design

This might sound like a no-brainer, but remember: your website needs to be be
aesthetically pleasing.

Just because the site is for a manufacturing company doesn’t mean that it should be bare-bones and boring to look at. First impressions of a brand are 94 percent design-related, so make sure that your website gives your brand the best chance at impressing viewers.

C. Planning Different Types of Content

Only about 40 percent of manufacturing marketers always/frequently craft content based on their average customer’s journey.

Ignoring your manufacturing marketing sales funnel is a surefire way to create ineffective content. Your website should be a pedestal for content that plays right into the buying journey – and that means creating different types of content for different purposes.

Let’s break it down. Here are the three basic stages of the buyer’s journey – and the types of content that best fit within each step of the process.

The “Awareness” Stage

In this stage, people are looking for answers. This is where you want to provide educational, top-level content, like e-books, blog posts, social content, and general information. You might even produce a few videos to catch their eye in this initial step.

The “Interest” Stage

If someone has made it to this stage, you’ve caught their attention. This is your chance to draw them in deeper – perhaps with some testimonials and case studies that reveal just how beneficial your products/services could be for their problem.

The “Decision” Stage

You’ve almost snagged a new customer. Now, it’s time to produce content that really makes the sale. We’re talking about emails with direct calls-to-action, pricing-related messages, and other kinds of content that take them from “maybe” to “definitely.”

Don’t skip on any stage of the buyer’s journey as you create content. Each part of the process is essential and requires specific marketing messages

D. Picking Channels for Content Distribution

You’ve created content for each stage of the buyer’s journey, but you’re not done yet. You need to determine how you’re going to share this content for the best audience engagement and response.

What channels are you creating content for?

Image Source: HubSpot

As you can see from the graph above, social media is typically the distribution channel of choice – specifically Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. YouTube is also highly valued these days.

Unfortunately, there’s no right or wrong answer that we can direct you toward when it comes to picking distribution channels. It all depends on where your target audience hangs out and what kind of content you’re sharing.

What we can tell you is that we’ve seen many of our manufacturing clients succeed with strong distribution on their own website. Creating videos, blog posts, podcasts, and other content for their website has led many manufacturers to directly reach customers on the hunt for answers.

Still, it’s not a bad idea to plan out a few other distribution channels in your manufacturing marketing plan. Consider the best social media platforms for your particular business and progress from there.

E. Measuring ROI

Last but not least, we’ve got one more big marketing topic to tackle: measuring your return on investment.

If you really want to know how successful (and worthwhile) your marketing services are, you need to understand exactly how much revenue you’re receiving compared to how much you’re investing.

Image Source: Wall Street Mojo

For all types of digital advertising, traditional advertising, outbound marketing, and inbound marketing, you want to feel good about your investment. It’s all about balancing the risk with the reward to achieve the perfect setup for your manufacturing brand.

To keep track of your marketing campaigns and their success, you need to be keeping a close eye on your marketing data and CR. You’ll need to have a data-backed understanding of what’s working, what’s not working, and where your greatest challenges and opportunities lie. The goal is to justify every single dollar in your budget.

Measuring ROI is not always apples-to-apples. Do yourself a favor and leave it to the experts!

Conclusion

Hopefully, our ultimate guide to manufacturing marketing has given you some strong launch pads for igniting your own strategies.

If you’re still feeling a little lost, or possibly overwhelmed by all of the information we just threw at you in 3,000+ words, reach out to the team at Curve Communications.

Our traditional & digital marketing agency has extensive experience partnering with manufacturing businesses just like yours. Let us take your marketing plan – and your company – to the next level. You’re ready to go, and we’re ready to make your dreams a reality.