As marketing professionals, it’s important to leave the HQ every so often to collaborate with other creatives to hear new ideas, find out what’s trending in other cities, and to get some new creative juices flowing.
Every year, thousands of marketing related events take place around the world. We decided to gauge interest in 2019 events happening in the United States and compiled a list of our top contenders. Check it out!
For three days in March, thousands of marketers meet in warm and beautiful San Diego to attend one of the most fun, highly sought after social media conferences.
From Facebook to messenger bots, speakers unleash their creative genius and share the latest and greatest in social media. Some of this year’s topics include Facebook Ads, Instagram marketing, and analytics. Learn more about Social Media Marketing World here.
Adobe Summit invites you to “get inspired and become an exceptional experience maker” this March. From Adobe to Microsft, the lineup for this year’s Adobe Summit speakers is more than enough of a reason to attend.
There’s even a Bash and you won’t believe what band is headlining this year. Spoiler alert: it’s The Killers! Just as cool is the fact that Mindy Kaling is hosting the Sneaks portion of Adobe Summit this year.
If you’re a marketing professional, then you know who the Moz is. Rand Fishkin will be speaking this year, amongst many other amazing industry professionals. If you’re wanting to know about all things SEO in 2019, MozCon is the event for you.
With over 120 workshops and breakaway sessions lined up for this year’s Content Marketing World, you’re sure to experience a full three days of brand marketing and creative juices flowing, non-stop. Last year, over 3,700 marketers attended from over 50 countries. If you’re looking to become incredibly inspired as a Content Marketer, then this event is for you.
HubSpot's annual INBOUND conference draws over 21,000 marketers from across the U.S. for 4 days packed with education, inspiration, and connection.
INBOUND invites you to step away from your day-to-day activities in order to take time for big and creative ideas. The conference includes nearly 300 educational breakout sessions that are bound to challenge you and point you to new opportunities for your business' marketing.
From strategy to content and consumer behavior, the agenda for this conference is packed with topics that will not only educate but inspire attendees to take their branding and marketing up a notch.
Brand ManageCamp carefully crafts each breakaway session so that you’re sure to leave with the knowledge and next-steps you need to execute what you’ve learned. Convince & Convert Founder, Jay Baer is amongst the creative speakers lined up for Brand ManageCamp. Learn more about this event here!
Which event are you looking forward to attending this year? Let us know in the comments below!
A recent study revealed that 18% of American internet users who messaged a brand’s social media page expected a response within one hour. Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms for connecting with prospects and customers. As a marketer or business owner, it's important to know Facebook's best practices and to follow them to your best ability.
Questions people consistently have are about their Facebook page's response rate and time. Does Facebook response rate matter? How can I make my Facebook response rate better?
On Facebook for Business Pages, Facebook tracks and measures the speed and promptness of a page owner’s responses to the Business Page’s messages. While response time provides page visitors an “expectation of the amount of time it takes your Page to respond to messages” the response rate is “percentage of messages that you and other people who manage your Page respond to” according to Facebook’s Help Center.
You run a business and it’s understood that you can’t be 100% attentive to your Facebook page 24/7. Here are some things you can do to keep your messaging success at a constant high:
Follow Rate and Time Requirements
Facebook will deem your Business Page as “Very Responsive” when your response rate is at 90% or higher and your response time is within 15 minutes. Your expected response time is visible to anyone who visits your Business Page so following these general rules will help you achieve the “Very Responsive” level in no time.
Identify Frequently Asked Questions
If you notice that many of your messages receive the same questions or multiple requests for certain information, there are a few things you should do. First, you should make the information that is often requested in messenger available on your main Facebook page in the “About” section, in the form of a post on your page, or both.
You can also have a well thought-out response to your most common messages that you can easily access. This will help you save time when someone sends a message that you’ve already responded to for a different sender and gives you a chance to provide useful and thoughtful information.
Set an Away Message
Your Facebook Page gives you an option to opt-in to an away message that appears when someone messages your Page and you know ahead of time you’ll be away from your desk. You can set an away message to auto-respond for up to 12 hours making it easy to work an away message around your busy schedule. Note that away message responses do not affect your Page’s response rate or time, but will let the person reaching out know that you aren't ignoring their message.
What is Facebook chatbot? A chatbot is a program that is linked directly to your Facebook Messenger. This program can be taught how to respond to individuals who wish to interact with your business on your Facebook page. This chatbot is a 24/7 assistant that will monitor the traffic to your Facebook inbox.
Several businesses are taking advantage of automating this process and freeing up their employees’ valuable time to accomplish tasks to grow their business.
There are several ways to work the chatbot into your life and here are a few:
The beautiful thing about Facebook Messenger chatbots is the potential for future engagement with the individuals that reach out to your business. Every person that interacts with your chatbot can be sent information directly to their Facebook inbox (similar to an email blast). Currently, there is an 80% open rate for all messages sent in this way.
Chatbots are an excellent way to improve your customer service and trust us, the number of messages you get to your page will only continue to grow. If you’re not chatbotting yet, the time to get started is now. Seriously, let’s go!
Imagine the excitement (and slight fear) that comes with hiring a new marketing agency for your business. Something was said or done to make you feel like this particular agency was the right fit for your brand. It’s a risk but it’s one every business owner is willing to take. After all, marketing drives sales and sales increase the bottom line.
Let’s flash forward one year. Your company has been introduced and handed off to five different Project Managers, a brand new Creative Director, and a few other new faces who you’re unsure of their role within your specific marketing project. By now, you are starting to lose hope. How many more times will you have to tell your story to a new Project Manager? How many times will your project be placed into the hands of a new team, watering down the goal of the project with each handoff?
The uncertainty is painful and sadly, this type of behavior has become the norm for the marketing industry. I can say that in my professional experience, this phenomenon boils down to one thing and one thing only - the significance of your employees.
When someone is significant to you, you care for them, take into consideration their needs and wants, and you show them compassion. On the other hand, when someone is not significant to you, you may feel less emotional attachment or grief should that person ever part from you.
When shopping a new agency to work with, how the agency treats their employees and what their turnover rate is usually don’t make it to the list of “things to consider.”
Having your marketing strategy and ongoing projects lose significance due to the inconsistency of team-members working on your company’s marketing can and will affect your bottom line. Here are some things you can do to avoid this costly mistake.
Whether it’s Glassdoor, Google, or any other review platform, be sure to peruse the agency’s reviews where you’ll oftentimes find insights from both past and current employees. If employees are unhappy, chances are, the turnover rate is high and the agency’s attitude towards its employees is not great.
A culture of stress, negativity, and disengaged employees can lead to poor productivity, lack of creativity, and can directly affect the work being done. This leads to underdelivered marketing efforts for your business and you never want to share anything with the world that has been worked on by a team of upset employees who didn’t pour their heart and passion into the project at hand.
If you’re in the market for a new marketing agency, don’t hesitate to reach out to some of the creative team via LinkedIn to ask them to meet you for coffee or lunch. In this type of environment, they’ll be more open to discussing their experience within the agency and will be able to give you insight as to what the internal culture is like. From there, you should be able to determine whether or not you believe the agency you’re interviewing to hire for your marketing is worth the risk or not.
One thing to bring up during this conversation is the agency’s mission, vision, and core values. What does the agency stand for? What matters to them? At The Marketing Squad, you can ask any team member what matters most to our company and the answer will most likely be our core values. At the Marketing Squad, we are:
These aren’t just creative graphics that we have posted on our office walls. We live these core values and practice them every single day. We encourage each other with these core values and we share them with our clients and the community in hopes to inspire others with them.
Finally, find out if the marketing agency that you’re interviewing has grown at all in the past year, five years, decade, and so on. Sometimes, agencies get stuck in their old ways and don’t focus on adapting to what’s new. This creates internal conflict as us creative-minded folks like a challenge. Beyond a challenge, we enjoy learning and growing. We like to learn about different things and acquire new skills. If a marketing agency isn’t providing the space for its employees to grow and move forward, it will inevitably lead to employee turnover, especially in the creative departments.
Ultimately, you’ve got to interview marketing agencies with an open mind, open ears, and an open heart. If something about the agency’s culture doesn’t feel right, then it’s probably best to keep searching until you find a great fit.
Currently searching? Let’s get together. You never know; we could be perfect for each other! Whether you're in Louisville, KY or Charlotte, NC (or anywhere in the U.S.) we're looking to help brands like yours tell their story.
For some business owners and executives, marketing is pushed aside because it’s thought to be too much of a beast to tackle. I get it - The Squad has come across many business leaders who share this sentiment. (Check out the advice the boss-man himself, co-founder and Chief Storyteller Bryce Raley, has for business leaders procrastinating their marketing.)
Yes, it requires investment in research to create a successful marketing strategy and it takes manpower to implement it, but there are plenty of quick and easy marketing wins you can achieve today to start seeing improvements in your overall brand awareness tomorrow.
Here are my top three recommendations that I hope you’ll implement. When you do, I’d love to hear how they’re helping your brand grow!
Only 44% of businesses have claimed their Google My Business listing. That’s bananas! Your Google business listing is free and provides essential data to your consumers like office hours, what number to call to reach your business, and more.
Not only does having a Google business listing make your business visible in the Google search engine and Google Maps, but it also gives your business credibility since Google has become synonymous with trust.
Being able to attend Chamber of Commerce events on a monthly basis has helped me create some deep and beneficial business referral connections and partnerships. I have personally been a member of the Prospect Area Chamber of Commerce and after my recent onboarding at The Marketing Squad, I’ve been able to get the company involved in the PACC as well.
Being part of a Chamber of Commerce keeps you accountable for your monthly networking hours and at a minimum, you should attend one event each month or network through a Chamber of Commerce for two hours to develop and foster meaningful relationships with other business professionals. You’ll be surprised how many referrals and business buddies you’ve acquired after a year of consistent Chamber presence.
Studies show that 6 out of 10 online consumers have purchased something after reading a blog. If your business sells a product or provides a service, you should have a blog page associated with your company website.
Don’t just write to write. You’ve got to provide thoughtful, fresh content to your audience on a consistent basis. I highly recommend publishing a blog at a minimum of once per month.
Educate the masses on your product/service and industry, highlight current offers, or give praise to a leader in your business, industry, or community. There is always something you can say that will catch the attention of someone, somewhere.
I believe in your ability to take these recommendations and implement them for your brand, but if you still find yourself overwhelmed by marketing then take a look at some of the work we’ve done for our partner clients. Like what you see? Let’s chat! We’d love to discover how The Squad can implement strategic marketing for your business.
Ahh the good ol' website redesign. You've seen the lists of reasons why, ultimate guides on how to, and snarky blogs welcoming you to the 21st century (...okay that might have been us too, but we'll tone it back for this one). Yet, we've thumbed through the lists, checked out the blog posts, and investigated the resources out there for redesigning your website and, honestly, we weren't very impressed.
Now hear us out, it's not because we have some magical website redesign process or we think our website redesign checklist holds the secrets to the internet. We weren't impressed by the website redesign results we found because we felt like all of the "here's why" and technical jargon doesn't get down to the heart of matter.
Here's the heart of the matter: You know you need a website redesign, that's why you are searching in the first place. And at the end of the day, a website redesign is (usually) not as complicated as it's made out to be.
Sure, there's a right way to do it and wrong way to do it. We aren't necessarily suggesting you redesign your website yourself - but hey, maybe that's your goal and maybe you know a thing or two about code. Nevertheless, a website redesign faux pas can be committed by a number of parties involved in the process - the DIY-er (that could mean you), the basement freelancer, or even the agency you hire to do the redesign (not us though, and we'll tell you why, but first...)
In our 10 years of business, we've helped more businesses than we can count redesign their websites. We've even journey with some businesses for 2 or 3 renditions of their website over the years as the digital world has advanced and mobile has taken the stage.
As we've met business owners, marketing directors, and sales teams, their concerns about redesigning their website highlight some fears rooted in bad past experience or horror stories from others.
And they're not wrong, there are some risks to redesigning your website without an established process. Website redesigns turn into nightmares when "we've done this hundreds of times before" and "keeping it agile" replace defined tasks, with set milestones throughout the project, and someone managing the process. When that happens, these are just two of the big risks you take:
Risk #1: Going Over Budget or Over Time
When we talk to clients who have been burned in the past, one of the most frequent woes is website projects that drug out months longer than originally established and for hundred or thousands of dollars more than they bargained for.
Going over budget or over time is possibly the biggest risk you take when you don't follow a website redesign process. Sure you set a goal launch date, but without a defined process guiding you, your website redesign will be inefficient and possibly full of missed steps that have to be made up. As the saying goes, time is money. Not only does an inefficient website redesign cost you more money to finish, it also costs you potential sales that you could be making off of your new and improved website.
Risk #2: Losing Your Credibility
Like a fine bourbon, websites mature with age... or at least they should if you've been doing digital marketing right. Overtime the content on your site should build SEO, letting search engines know what topics you have established authority on. This authority and your SEO rankings should carry over to your redesigned website. Unfortunately, one misstep and it could all be compromised with hit of the "launch" button on your new site.
Steps like completing 301 redirects and updating your metadata is crucial in the website redesign process - not difficult, but costly if forgotten.
Thankfully, those risks can be avoided when a tried and true process is followed throughout the entire website redesign project. Which gets us back to the heart of the matter, website redesigns don't have to overly complicated.
We mentioned above that here at The Squad we don't commit website redesign faux pas. Truthfully, we've made mistakes, but we also quickly learned from them. We can confidently say that those mistakes were directly related to not following a process. Something as simple as forgetting to reactivate a plugin led to days of spam comments on a blog. Detrimental? No. But it was annoying and it cost time, even if a small amount, to troubleshoot and fix.
Nowadays we consider ourselves a maturing agency. Out of our adolescent years we developed a website redesign process that has been tested and refined, and then ingrained in our operations.
Recently, we brought Billy Ward onto our team as Chief Operating Officer and Project Manager. These were roles we had filled in the past, but as the business has grown and the number of websites we are designing and developing in a month has skyrocketed, we knew we need someone with Billy's experience and strengths to lead our team, ensuring that we stick to our process every time, on every website we do.
All of this to say, we've learned that risks are mitigated when you follow a process.
Step 1 to a success website redesign process is have a plan. Step 2 is to stick to the plan, every time. Maybe in the future we'll write about the rest of the steps to redesigning your website - for us that includes a comprehensive discovery process before we even send a proposal. But for now, you can download our website redesign checklist. This checklist outlines the key steps you need to complete when redesigning your website.
Remember, if you know you need to refresh you website, then do it. Skip the fear and reduce risk by following an established process. And if things start to go sideways, you know who to talk to - ahem, us.
Let's face it, summer can be a time when many people checkout. Many businesses slow down and social engagement starts to dwindle. Maybe it's all the sunshine, vacations, and outdoor activities that distract us, but the summer slump is a real thing and can impact business and sales greatly. Keeping your social media active and exciting can help fight the summer lull and keep business activity more consistent.
Here are 5 ways to keep your social media exciting this summer:
Summer is chocked full of great events and activities. Is your organization hosting a ticketed event? Or do you have some extra products that would make a good prize? It may even be worth investing in tickets to a fun summer festival, concert, or event to generate some buzz and make the prize of the giveaway really worthwhile. If you are looking to get some extra orders placed, or grow traffic on a particular channel, a social giveaway with a great prize incentive is a fantastic way to do just that. One thing to consider - every social platform has different regulations when it comes to social contests and giveaways. Be sure you do your research and keep it legal!
Stuck in the same ole rhythms and patterns? Social is a place to be adventurous and change it up! Try new things, take risks (within reason). If you have been wanting to try a new strategy, summer is a great time to break your mold and attempt something new. For instance, if you tend to keep your content mostly business, start adding some posts discussing fun local events, polls, memes, and engaging questions. Try to think of what draws you in on social media posts - is it the funny meme, the thought provoking questions? Add in some variety and see what gets results on your pages. When one idea flops, go back the drawing board and try, try again.
Social influencer marketing is a very hot trend - and it works. Is there a product you've been wanting to promote? A hot summer sale? It might be a good time to connect with someone who is insta-famous for a paid social influencer marketing campaign. Look for those that fit with your brand and would be able to promote without it feeling forced. Experienced social influencers will have terms and prices laid out, but you can also negotiate. Many influencers are willing to accept products, gift cards, store credit etc. in lieu of cash payment. If you have never worked with influencers before, you may want to consult with a lawyer to help draft a contract as well as familiarize yourself with the legal parameters of social influencer marketing. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has strict laws to protect consumers from false and misleading advertising from social influencers. If you are compensating anyone, in anyway, to say positive things about your business or product - it must be fully disclosed. For more info on FTC regulations, click here.
Summer is a beautiful season. Summer activities are typically visually appealing and inspiring. Use the opportunity to refresh photography and share photos, videos, GIFS, etc. on your social platforms. Get involved in local events, capture some appealing shots and share them away. We are all drawn to what appeals to our eyes - how often have you seen an image of the beach and immediately started dreaming of being there? Encourage staff to photograph and document their summer adventures and start a social mini-series sharing summer adventures and encouraging followers to share theirs as well. A huge part of what makes great social is being real, authentic, human, and, well, social. It doesn't hurt to be tastefully funny every so often as well. GIFs and videos are huge tools to attract an audience on social. Even if the tone of your business is on the serious side, lightening up every once in awhile can be beneficial. Just be sure to keep it appropriate and never offensive.
Social just not your thing? Or maybe you know it's important, but you just don't have the time, staff, etc. to devote to it what it really needs. If you are looking for help with your social media or any aspect of your digital marketing endeavors, we would love to discuss with you how The Marketing Squad can assist. Our team is well versed in the social arena and always learning and growing to stay on top of social trends to best serve our partners. We can help you with everything from creative strategy and creating social content to fully running and operating your social channels. We work with each of our partners individually to learn their social voice and tone and create a social plan that they are comfortable and excited about. Sound appealing? Reach out to us today.
Whatever you decide, we hope you will make the most of your social media adventures this summer and don't be afraid to try something new!
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