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The Five Things to Think About For Your 2022 Marketing Budget

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It’s budgeting season. My favorite time of year! (Not.)

This time last year I was telling anyone who asked my opinion to think long term: Don’t cut marketing spending. Invest wisely. Yes, times are scary, but it is the firms that lean into their brand and digital presence that are going to emerge in a better place than those that do not.

Some firms listened. Others didn’t.

With 2022 fast approaching, it’s time to take stock of your firm’s marketing health. The longer you wait to make investments in critical marketing initiatives, the further behind your competition you will be. And take it from me: smart, forward-thinking firms are investing in marketing right now.

So, where should you focus your marketing dollars?

Marketing Automation

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First and foremost, you need to invest in marketing automation tools. Marketing automation is the process of making repetitive tasks more efficient with tools like email marketing platforms, social schedulers, etc.

There are some things a human being should always be the one executing. But pushing “send” on a marketing email at a specific time, posting to your company’s twitter feed, or making a blog post go live? Nope.

“I’ve already got a social scheduler and email marketing platform,” you’re saying. Great! Now it’s time to kick it up a notch. What type of communications do your website visitors receive when they download a resource from your site?

Notice I said communications. A single “thanks for downloading” email isn’t enough. Setting up automations to nurture those contacts is simple and truly takes just a little bit of time.

Imagine: Visitor registers for a Trusts and Estates virtual CLE you are running. Once they register, they get an email thanking them for their registration, and they are entered into a workflow so that they also receive subsequent, tailored emails on trusts and estates and other related topics every three to four weeks. Enrollment in this workflow is triggered simply by signing up for the event. No further manual action required. Until they reach out for more information on your services that is.

Resources Required:

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  • Graphic designer
  • Marketing technologist
  • Project manager
  • Marketing automation tool

Time Required For:

  • Researching the options available in the tools you have or new resources.
  • Creating automated emails from existing content and/or templates for new content as it is generated. (~30 mins/email)
  • Designing automated email templates. (~30 mins/email)
  • Setting up workflows. (Depends on the complexity of the workflow, but could be as quick as 5 minutes once you have all the right pieces in place.)

Multimedia Marketing

Call me captain obvious, but videos and podcasts are an increasingly valuable and important marketing method in your toolbox. And right now we’re in a great spot to be producing quick hit, high-value multimedia content. It doesn’t take much more than a ring light, a usb lavalier microphone, and a decent webcam (or your smartphone) to become a livestream or podcast producer. No one is expecting perfection.

“Do I have to?” No, you don’t have to. But here are some reasons why you really should:

  1. A one to three-minute video on social media gets your brand and your content in front of your audience in a method they are accustomed to consuming.
  2. Adding video to email can increase click-through rates by 200%+
  3. A video is 50x more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results, especially when it’s a YouTube video.
  4. 94% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
  5. 68% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted the amount of video content they’ve watched online, with the overwhelming majority (96%) saying this has increased.
  6. 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

“When asked how they’d most like to learn about a product or service, 69% [of respondents] said they’d prefer to watch a short video. This compares to 18% who’d rather read a text-based article, website, or post, 4% who’d like to view an infographic, 3% who’d rather download an ebook or manual, and 3% who’d rather attend a webinar,” says Wyzowl.

What does take time is the planning and distribution of this content. Invest in resources — either internal or external — that can help you put together content that can be used multiple ways, multiple times.

Resources Required:

  • Lighting for each contributor like this ring light from Amazon. This is another good option for on-the-go. (I have both)
  • A decent microphone for each contributor. This lavaliere mic works with a standard audio jack, or has an iPhone lighting port adapter. Another good option is this Shure microphone. (Again, I have both.)
  • Video and/or audio editing software OR an outsourced editor. You’d be surprised what you can do in Canva with video, but this is a truly worthwhile external investment.
  • A place to host videos (YouTube works great) and/or Podcasts (Libsyn, BuzzSprout, and Soundcloud are all good options depending on what you want to achieve.)
  • Royalty-free music (I recently subscribed to Artlist and I’m very happy with the options available. They also pre-test music for YouTube copyright passability.)
  • Graphic designer for intro/outro if your outsourced editor is unable to provide.
  • Video caption creator.

Time Required For:

  • Recording videos. Start with one-hour blocks and try to get enough content for three to four one-minute videos. (1 hour/recording.)
  • Designing video intro/outro (Varies)
  • Researching content and writing scripts (Varies)
  • For video: reviewing captions and editing transcript (Depends on length of content.)
  • Posting transcript to website (15 minutes)
  • Related email, social, and other promotion (varies)

Integrated Systems

I’m going to go on record right now and tell you there are dozens, if not hundreds, of tools that all do kind of the same thing when it comes to marketing automation. I couldn’t possibly compare all of them for you, but here is what I will say: At the heart of what you should be doing is connecting all of your marketing functions to your Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool.

CRMs and their connected marketing platforms today are not the tools they were 10 years ago. Fully integrated systems today can and should be the hub of all marketing activities, helping you attract attention, validate your presence in the marketplace, and convert prospects into clients.

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Why is this important? When you have a fully integrated marketing ecosystem, your web traffic, social performance, business development pipeline, email marketing, and contact database all live in one place. This means you can better track your marketing efforts and reach your target audiences efficiently and effectively.

We at LISI are big fans of HubSpot, but like I said, there are other tools that might get the job done.

Resources Required:

Time Required

  • System configuration
  • Template migration
  • Contact migration

I won’t lie, this is going to take a lot of time. This is not a project you’ll enter into lightly, but I promise you, you won’t be sorry you did.

Branding and Marketing Messaging

Is your brand tired? Does your visual representation in digital and print reflect where your firm is today? Sometimes it’s just time for a refresh. Nothing is necessarily “wrong,” but your brand is outdated. That’s a subliminal message to prospects that your firm isn’t investing in itself. In technology. In systems and processes. That you’re slow to change.

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Resources Required:

  • This is one of those times you need to bring in an outside perspective. Depending on how deep of a dive you decide to do, this can range from brand ‘lite’ to full brand overhaul.
  • Graphic designer (internal or external)

Time Required For:

  • Conducting stakeholder interviews
  • Conducting client interviews
  • Doing a comprehensive brand audit
  • Creating a new Brand
  • Creating all the “things” that go with a new brand

In total, this can take 3-6 months for a comprehensive process. I recommend ensuring you’ve got all your stakeholders on board so this doesn’t drag out. You want these conversations to be fresh in people’s minds and reasoning behind decisions to be clear.

Omnipresent Digital Presence

I read this term recently and it really resonated with me. Having an omnipresent digital presence means being present across all the appropriate channels for your brand, consistently. This requires diligent strategic planning, consistent content production, and coordinated efforts across each platform.

In practical terms this means:

  1. Focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Optimizing your website for organic search is a critical first step. Whatever type of law you practice, when someone searches for information about that area online, you want to be front and center. Ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) is a long game, but having a coordinated strategy to get you there starts with the first step.
  2. Investing in Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing (PPC SEM) if warranted for your practice. Essentially all consumer-facing practices need to invest money in targeted PPC. Why? Because SEM completely changes the face of digital marketing and if you don’t show up in ads at the top of the SERPs, you’re missing out on business. Plain and simple.
  3. Putting a mechanism in place to generate content consistently. Two to four valuable pieces of content per month, depending on your practice. I’m talking about guides, infographics, videos, podcasts, FAQs, blogs. How? Pick a broad topic, then make a list under that topic heading of all the things that could fall under that topic. Then plan out a content generation plan to address each of those items. Vary your mediums.
  4. Creating a social media strategy. Think about the audience on each platform. On LinkedIn, for example, you’ll go for referral sources and professional contacts. Twitter, possibly media sources, or clients looking for news. Instagram is for the softer side/behind the scenes. Pick the platforms that make sense for your audience and tailor your content accordingly.

Resources Required:

  • A digital marketing specialist who knows what they’re doing re: SEO/SEM. You might have this resource internally, but if not, you’ll need to hire someone to help you with this.
  • A content specialist. Someone who can create the strategy and execute production, whether as a project manager, or as the person who is actually producing it herself. Again, this could be done internally depending on your staffing, but is a good place to outsource.
  • A social media strategist who can create the strategy and tailor content for each platform.

Time Required For:

  • Creating content (3-5 hours/piece)
  • Optimizing your website for SEO (varies depending on how many pages your site has.)
  • Creating SEM campaigns (varies)
  • Creating social media (10-20 hours/month or more)
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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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More promotions and more layoffs

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More promotions and more layoffs

For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.

The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.

Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes

Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643. 

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Here are the median salaries by role:

  • Senior management $199,653
  • Director $157,776
  • Manager $99,510
  • Staff $89,126

Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.

One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%). 

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Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.

Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams

Employee turnover 

In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”

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Men and Women

Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540

This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.

In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.

Methodology

The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents. 

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Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.

Get MarTech! Daily. Free. In your inbox.

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5 Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools for 2024 to Skyrocket Your ROI

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5 Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools for 2024 to Skyrocket Your ROI

5 Must Have Digital Marketing Tools for 2024 to Skyrocket Your

The digital marketing software market is valued at $60.3 billion. And it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5% over the next decade.

With a plethora of digital marketing tools in the market, choosing the right ones can be a daunting task.

However, it’s essential to invest in the best tools to enhance your digital marketing efforts and help you stand above the inevitable competition from your peers.Competition is a significant challenge for 27.1% of digital marketers today, as revealed in a survey conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub.

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So which tools should you use to get an edge? 

You don’t need to spend time researching the best tools. In this article, I’ll introduce you to five digital marketing tools that can boost your efforts and give you an edge over the competition.

5 Digital Marketing Tools to Drive Better Results

Here are five digital marketing tools that address different areas of digital marketing. 

They range from tools that enhance website speed to ones for improving landing pages and enhancing overall user experience.

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1. TinyImage

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TinyImage is one of the digital marketing tools you need to invest in. It’s an image compression tool that reduces the size of your PNG and JPG images online by over 75%.

You don’t have to worry about the security of sensitive image files as well. TinyImage uses a secure 256-bit encrypted SSL connection. It also deletes your images within a few hours of uploading them.

How can TinyImage improve your digital marketing ROI? 

Larger-sized images take up a lot of bandwidth, which slows down loading times for your visitors.

Research by Digital.com shows 21% of online shoppers are dissatisfied by slow-loading pages. Half will abandon their shopping cart if a page fails to load fast enough.  

This app is most helpful for agencies that provide custom app development services. It helps them to compress images in a few seconds and convert apps into fast loading for their clients.

Use TinyImage to:

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  • Compress images without losing image quality
  • Compare the file size of the compressed images to ensure you have the optimal file size
  • Save time by compressing multiple images at a go

Price

2. Sprout Social

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Sprout Social is one of the best social media marketing tools in the market. It helps you manage all aspects of your social presence.

You can analyze the performance of your posts and Reels to find the best Instagram Reels to embed on your website. Also, you can also monitor your competitors, manage conversations with your audience, and plenty more.

Sprout Social boosts your social media marketing efforts. And according to research, effective social media marketing results in higher sales for 55% of businesses.

What you can do with Sprout Social:

  • Analyze the performance of your campaigns and get insights into areas of improvement
  • Uncover current trends and opportunities to engage with your target audience through social listening
  • Schedule and publish posts across multiple platforms

Price

  • Standard: $249 per month
  • Professional: $399 per month
  • Advanced: $499 per month

Enterprise: Custom

3. Zendesk

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Customer support plays a crucial role in creating a better customer experience for your e-commerce store and optimizing your digital marketing efforts.

And Zendesk is one of the best tools you can use to ensure provide personalized customer support.

It’s AI-powered AI chatbot, live chat, help desk ticketing system, and other solutions help you provide instant and right customer support.

Why is it one of the best digital marketing tools to boost your ROI? 

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Zendesk has helped generate numerous leads, sales, and signups for its customers with its low-cost ownership offers.

How Zendesk can help your business achieve better marketing results:

  • It offers an AI-powered chatbot and live chat that answers instantly to customers’ questions.
  • It offers the right reporting and analytics software that help you get real-time insights for your business.

Price

  • Free: $0
  • Starting: $19 per month
  • Suite Team: $55 per month
  • Suite Growth: $89 per month
  • Suite Professional: $115 per month

Suite Enterprise: Reach out to them

4. Ahrefs

1711353365 844 5 Must Have Digital Marketing Tools for 2024 to Skyrocket Your1711353365 844 5 Must Have Digital Marketing Tools for 2024 to Skyrocket Your

Keyword research tools are important for any digital marketing strategy. And Ahrefs is one of the best there is. It’ll help boost your SEO strategies to improve your website’s visibility and ranking in SERPs.

It’s not just a keyword research tool, but an all-in-one SEO toolset that analyzes the ranking difficulty of keywords, simplifies backlinking, and more.

You can use it to scan your website for technical and on-page SEO problems that may be holding back your ranking.

Ahrefs also lets you keep tabs on keywords your competitors are ranking for and get insights into the SEO strategies they are implementing. 

Additionally, you can use it to get content ideas that have the potential to draw traffic to your site and find link prospects from a database of over 14 billion web pages.

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Ahrefs also provides access to other free digital marketing tools like a backlink checker and AI writing tools

What you can do with Ahrefs to boost your digital marketing ROI

  • Find keywords for YouTube, Amazon, and Bing and generate additional keyword ideas using AI to reach a wider audience
  • Find backlink prospects to increase your SERP ranking and enhance your credibility
  • Visualize your SEO progress using interactive graphs

Price

  • Lite: $99 per month
  • Standard: $199 per month
  • Advanced: $399 per month

Enterprise: $999 per month

5. Hotjar

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Google has clearly stated that it rewards content that provides a good page experience. Hotjar is one of the best digital marketing tools you can use to gain insights on ways to improve user experience and also optimize your store for conversions.

It provides heat maps that you can use to see your website visitors’ activities and identify friction points. The heatmaps show you how your visitors move, click, and scroll.

You can also compare user behavior across different devices using Hotjar to identify opportunities to increase conversions.

And if you serve video ads on your website or any other type of ad, you can conduct surveys and collect feedback from your customers to learn how they’re affecting their user experience.

What you can do with Hotjar to improve your ROI:

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  • Watch full recordings of your visitors’ journey on your site to find and fix user experience issues
  • Access all user data from a single dashboard, including feedback, metrics, and session recordings
  • Automatically generate relevant surveys using AI and get automated summary reports of the responses

Price:

  • Basic: Free
  • Plus: $39 per month
  • Business: $99 per month
  • Scale: $213 per month

Start Leveraging the Best Digital Marketing Tools Today

Leveraging digital marketing tools is crucial if you want to enhance your ROI. And these are the 5 best tools available in the market that you can use.

They all serve different aspects of digital marketing but with similar goals—improving audience engagement, driving conversions, and maximizing your marketing efforts.

Go ahead and give them a shot to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level and boost your ROI.


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