Category Archives: Marketing

This time of year we find many of our clients are floundering to get their initial marketing on target. Unfortunately, marketing can be tough for small businesses. So in order to develop a more consistent effective marketing, we suggest five simple steps.

Know your Audience – this is a little tricky for small businesses. But what you sell is actually second to what the sale does for your client. What benefit does it provide? You probably already know this but it is important to scratch out a list. This list will help you develop marketing ideas.

Grow Your Data – this can apply on so many different levels. But first and foremost it is about collecting contact info for clients, prospects, and suspects. You should always keep this info top of mind. Grow it, groom it, and use it.

Write/Ideas – Content creation is more important than ever. This part stumps a lot of people. Take 10-20 minutes to open up a word doc and write your thoughts on new product, recent project, a client, etc. You'll find ideas can be easy. These ideas are just some of the seeds for further content development. Many people get stuck thinking they need a completed article or marketing piece. Don't start their. Start with a 100-200 word description - bullet points, outline, etc.

Develop and Diversify – once you have a few ideas written down, you can develop marketing pieces. This can be an article, infographic, white paper, or success story. You can turn it into a post for social media, a case study for your website, a newsletter article, etc. One of our first marketing efforts we used was emails. We sent out emails about successful websites. There was a small description with an image of the website. That was it. And at the end of the year we listed all our new clients to thank them. Don't over think it at first. The more ideas you develop the easier it gets to branch out.

Schedule – the last part of the process is to develop a calendar. Set up the calendar for all the parts. Not just the public launch but all the steps prior to. For example 1^st Friday – 2-3 article ideas. 2^nd Friday – write one article. 3^rd Friday – Create newsletter article with images. 4^th Friday update newsletter email list and send newsletter.

Much has been made about online marketing. We have seen some online clients implemented amazing marketing. And since digital marketing is projected to get to the 80 billion dollars a year before the end of the decade, it is not going away anytime soon. So why not set up your own online marketing? A full scale online campaign can be daunting and expensive. But it does not have to be. These tips are meant to be a start.

1. The first and most important tip we give clients is to know your Goals. Obviously everybody says generate more leads/sales/visitors. Specific goals tend to go further. What fits your business better, 1,000 leads/month or 25 leads/month.

2. Update your website, analytics, marketing, blog, facebook, google account, etc to help measure these goals. Non measurable goals are no better than day dreams. Set up the system, drive the experts, and get this right.

3. Promote the winners, discard the losers. If a new blog post gets you 100 visits and a new facebook post gets you 1,000 visits and 20 sales. Know that all things being equal a facebook post is more important.

4. Don't be afraid to experiment. Marketing rarely stands still. You have to find ways to try new campaign variations or types. Be aware of the set it and forget it mentality. You should always be working for improvement.

5. Lastly, reset your goals. Frequently you exceed your original goals or you find different avenues for success. Sometimes the success online surprises even experienced professionals like us. So don't be afraid to revise and revisit.

Note: This assumes you already have a website that is aligned with your needs and is up-to-date. If you should want some help doing amazing marketing don't hesitate to contact us at 800-985-1006 or sales@einsteinseyes.com

Although, we love online marketing. We do recognize their are some problems from time to time. If you have any of these with your marketing, they really ought to be addressed.

First the neglected platform. This happens frequently with customers. They are super enthusiastic about their blog, Facebook, or newsletter and use the heck out of it. But then real life starts to settle in and needs change. You total forgot about – the blog, social media engagement, etc. You might not even have the login anymore. The solution to this problem is fairly difficult. Typically you can focus on internal responsibilities and systems. This might be impossible if you don’t have any marketing support internally. You can’t really expect somebody whose responsibility are sales or operations to stop what they are doing and write an article or drive the marketing process. So the solution if you have an internal point person is make them responsible. If you don’t you might want to engage an external editor or writer. All these tools can work and really thrive if done consistently. I can never recall an instance where a barrage and then neglected marketing technique had any benefit. It just waste your precious marketing time.

Many of you readers may have experience with Google Adwords. You may have endeavored to even start an Adwords campaign on your own which is very alluring. Since with just a little keyword adding, ad pasting, and a Google login, you will have yourself a fully functioning Adwords Campaign. There it is, your ad is appearing to hundreds maybe thousands of visitors a day. You get started and are excited. You check it every day. You update some options. You even find out from a neighborhood kid how to explore keyword matching options. You are doing pretty well, but for some reason it never turns into business. Your attention starts to be come less then enthusiastic. Your inattentiveness morphs into neglect. More often than not, these campaigns fail. It is a story we hear frequently. There are a lot of different reasons why these campaigns fail.

The word typed in to find information on a search engine is called a “keyword.” Keyword selection is the process of selecting the right ones for your campaign. With fifteen years in business and scores of online marketing clients we have been exposed to our fair share of keyword sins. Here are some of the most common mistakes we see.

Sin #1: Failing to grasp what searchers are actually looking for. Frequently, terms used internally have no bearing on what people search for. Be careful of abbreviate terms and company nomenclature. It is best to mine the front end, those who talk directly with the customer. That makes it easier to avoid this mistake. What do customers ask for? What benefit appeals to them?