When I'm out selling or even when I'm speaking into our marketing, I try and put myself in your shoes. You being the person that's reading the blog, navigating the website, following along on the social channels, and considering hiring us. I think it's usually pretty obvious to a prospective client that a marketing agency like The Squad offers creative website design as one of it's services. You can check out our web design portfolio, and see a few of the websites that we've designed over the last 8 years. It's a very tangible thing.

In the last few weeks alone we've launched this site, and this site, and this site. I almost forgot about this site and, oh, this site as well. It's easy to look at our design and development skills by clicking around to those links. You can judge us based on what you see on our website.

What's a little more difficult to judge is our ability to partner with a business for an ongoing digital marketing strategy driven by inbound methodologies. That's pretty hard for a business owner, marketing manager, or VP of sales and marketing to grasp. Many times they want to pursue the ongoing relationship with us, but they don't have a tangible way to see it. Well, that's the goal of this blog post in the next few hundred words.

Ongoing Partnerships with Digital Marketing Agencies

I want to give you a glimpse inside a real live ongoing partnership we have. You see, the dirty little secret in our industry is that you can set it and forget it. Launch a cool website, turn on some ads, sprinkle on some SEO and you're in business. It just doesn't work that way. To get sustained results, it takes an ongoing commitment to the following:

• A solid comprehensive marketing and sales strategy
• A content marketing initiative driven by an editorial process and built on the backbone of blogging, social, and content offers
• An SEO game plan based on keyword research, good content, shareability, backlinks, and continual measurement
• An automated marketing plan with email and internal workflows
• A ongoing management for Google PPC ads
• A constant refresh of social media ad campaigns and management of budgets
• A plan to make website updates periodically as things change within the business

Well, it's not smoke and mirrors, and it's not set it and forget it. It's comprehensive. It's hard work. And it's rewarding when done well.

Take a glimpse inside an ongoing marketing program we have right now and see if this level of investment is worth a chance at increased leads, sales and a larger, more engaged audience than ever before.

A Sample Inbound and Digital Marketing Program with a Partner Client

This program (I'll save the name to protect the innocence) is at the $4000 investment level. They also pay a couple hundred dollars in software expenses for hosting, automation, reporting, etc. The agreement we have is month to month (as all our agreements are) but they are entering their second year. Most all of our partner clients follow the flow of a monthly strategic meeting and a weekly call. At the monthly strategic, their dedicated Marketing Consultant and Account Manager will meet with the owner, marketing or sales team. Sometimes there are representatives from all 3 areas.

During this meeting we'll address any urgent issues, cover some basic analytics, and then plan out the next 30 days of tactical work. We also reserve time to cover 60-day planning, and the 90-day outlook. This allows our team to come prepared to each meeting ready with fresh ideas for what we've heard in previous meetings, and it allows us to plan out the editorial calendar far into the future. This drives email marketing, blogging, content offer production, automation, social campaigns, and social sharing.

The weekly call is usually a 15-30 minute touch base between the Account Manager and an internal champion for the partner client. This call builds upon the monthly strategic, covers the next steps in the current week, and plans for the following week. The call is also a great place to hear about real time events, opportunities, and challenges. On the many calls I've participated in, you can cover topics like: blog ideas for the following week, determining a great social share that has to go out in a timely manner, and learning that the business is ready to kick off a webinar series. Sometimes there is a new event at their office like a lunch and learn or an open house. This call will also reveal a turnover in staff, requiring a change to the website about page, or a segmented email that needs to go out to a list about a hot new offer. This call and the monthly strategic keep us on the pulse of what's happening with our partner clients.

Each week for this $4000 level client we publish 2-3 blog posts and then share daily social content on multiple channels like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Youtube. Other clients may also use Instagram, Pinterest, or even Houzz. We typically send out a monthly newsletter and about 2-3 email blasts promoting events, segments of the business, or an upcoming webinar. We write the content, coordinate with the marketing director for approvals, and stick to a very consistent publishing schedule. Part of our job is boosting key social media posts and managing a small budget geared toward building their audience, as well as promoting key events like trainings, webinars, and lunch and learns.

Not a week goes by where we don't add some new call-to-action graphics to the website, develop custom social media graphics, or build out a new landing page for lead conversions. We optimize the website for SEO on-page and we put some time into monitoring results with tools like MOZ or SEMrush.

Additional Services We Offer For Our Partner Clients

Occasionally we handle some graphic design or video work for this client and bill those hours on top of the ongoing program agreement. We do this in a very timely manner. A program of this nature would typically be between 32 and 40 hours of time investment for our agency. We work to be as efficient as possible and only bill overages when they are agreed upon.

This client has a few additional strategies we are working in as we have time within the program. Those are content updates to the website (not the blog), building out marketing automation workflows between the website, email automation, and the CRM. And, lastly, we're developing new content offers to condition the market and build our lists at the top of the funnel. These offers are usually ebooks, white papers, free guides, and infographics.

So, hopefully you can see that that's a lot of stuff to do in a month. Can all of this be done for $2500 per month? No. Can more be done at $5000, $7500 or even $10,000? Sure it can.

It all boils down to the following:

1. What are your business development goals?
2. How fast would you like to achieve them?
3. Are you willing to invest money into the fast and slow burn?
4. Do you have the capacity to deliver what you're selling?

#1 is easy. We can discuss that and make sure your marketing and sales are playing nicely together.

#2 is up to you. We can advise you, but you have to decide how much gas you want to put on the fire.

#3 is about committing to digital ads in the beginning, while organic growth comes 3, 6, 9, and 12 months into the plan. If you're content to wait, we can play the long game. If you're impatient, we have to play both.

#4 Do you know what profitable business you desire? And do you have the scale to deliver it? Again, questions we can help you answer, but ultimately the answer lies with you.

Hopefully this post gives you a glimpse of what we're like. We're a fun bunch who are highly focused on results, and we love long-term relationships with our clients. We have many of our partner clients who have been with us for 6 or 7 years. Many more have been engaged with us for 3-4 years.

If you want to get started by talking to one of our marketing consultants, then click here and fill out this short form. Otherwise, just give us a ring at 502-618-4200. Ask for Jay, Joel, Bryce, or Adam. We'd love to connect with another growth-minded business in our area.

Hopefully this blog will help you see how digital marketing and inbound methodologies can take the pressure off your sales team. I'm not aware of anything as effective as inbound marketing to generate leads, condition the market, shorten the sales cycle, and keep your sales team from cold-calling.

With all the effective options in the world of digital advertising, it's easy to take your eye off of proven methods like inbound marketing with content as the backbone. Don't. As an agency, we've shifted a good bit of our focus to getting better at Facebook and LinkedIn ads. We've created a strategic partnership to offer IP targeting services for clients where this tool makes sense. We have the ability to offer retargeting ad campaigns for our clients, as well. And, yes, we still use Google PPC ads to drive traffic before we've earned those SERP rankings organically. These are all great tools in the toolbox. However, the lead still has to convert and they don't always convert at the bottom of the funnel.

The traditional business to business sales model is to hire a sales force, then hire more sales force, then hire a couple more sales people. At some point, a marketing person may come into the mix, but marketing most likely falls to the owner, operations manager, or even a sales person. We see this a lot as we're out prospecting in the B2B world. Whenever there is a longer sales cycle, sales people enter the equation. When sales people enter the equation, it's important to help them be as efficient as possible.

6 Reasons Why Your Content Takes the Pressure Off Your Sales Team

1. Content helps overcome objections for your sales team. Every objection can become a blog post that addresses the objection. Now you can have your sales team tell prospects, "We addressed your concern in a recent post," then email away and prepare for follow-up.
2. Content educates your prospects whether they are kicking tires, or starting to truly consider your product or service. Let a pricing guide on your website do the compare and contrast of your products or competitors and save your sales team the time.
3. Content conditions the market by messaging about how your product or service sets itself apart. Let website visitors know about your unique selling proposition and distinguish yourself from the competition. Your content may be the difference in whether or not your industry looks to you as a thought-leader or a mere peddler of goods and services.
4. Content shortens the sales cycle by creating content downloads for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. We call these the awareness, consideration, and decision phases. A good goal is to create content for each phase, which helps shorten the sales cycle and saves time for the sales force.
5. Content can automate marketing emails and help take your prospects down the funnel. It turns a marketing lead into a sales lead, ready for follow-up. This not only helps the sales team, but is a handy tool for marketing.
6. Content helps build a larger audience of prospects and helps turn those who have already bought into advocates, raving fans, and promoters. This is where social content can really come into play to build your brand and to generate leads.

If you're considering on hiring that next sales person, maybe you should consider investing in content marketing or inbound marketing first to make the job easier for those sales people already starving for good, warm leads.

Contact us to learn more about getting started down this road.

With all those non-mobile-responsive websites floating around the interwebs, we thought we'd write a post about what clients typically get for a $4000 to $5000 investment in a website redesign. We've been writing a lot lately about the big Google Mobilegeddon announcements and how they will affect your search rankings. Of course, that's just one reason why you need a good mobile responsive website. Another is to create a better user experience for all those potential prospects and site visitors who will access your website via a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet.

Just last night, my dad mentioned two websites I should check out regarding some health issues I'm experiencing. After I got off the call, I would normally reach for my Macbook Pro and look them up, but I was watching our four kids and playing wiffle ball with them, so I had to wait until we took a break. When we did, I accessed both websites on my iPhone 5c. The first website was mobile responsive, but the user flow didn't make much sense. After clicking through most of the website, I still had no idea what they really did, or what made them different. The second website was mobile responsive but was really light on content. Again, I left with more questions than I came with.

So this brings me back to the original reason for my post. When we sell a client a typical $4000 to $5000 website redesign, we usually know after one sales/strategy meeting which platform (WordPress or HubSpot) we're going to recommend. Then we go about the following process.

What The Typical $4000 to $5000 Website Redesign Project Includes

• A user flow and design meeting. In this meeting our project manager, sales strategist, and web designer hash out the big wins of the website, the content buckets, the sitemap and the basic wireframe. We also go through the website design questionnaire that the client fills out prior to the meeting.
• A mockup process that includes anywhere from 1-3 mockups of the homepage, an internal page, and a landing page. This mockup process includes between 1 and 3 revisions based on the budget.
• SEO research that speaks into the website copy content and the metadata, URLs, H1s, H2s, and alt text for images.
• Coding up the website (html5, css3, jQuery, or javascript) on either WordPress or HubSpot. With WordPress, we typically customize the Genesis Framework.
• Around five pages of written copy to fill in the content you can't provide. Also an initial blog post, and many times headline copy or copy for image overlays or CTA (call to action) buttons.
• Integration of your social media accounts into the website.
• Integration of your email subscribe and blog subscribe options.
• If on HubSpot, we'll design a few newsletter templates for your email messages.
• A handful of standard plugins on WordPress, and some custom plugins based on the project needs. (Examples include sliders, SEO, landing pages, or analytics plugins)
• Finishing the startup wizard to get you rolling on HubSpot.
• A landing page for a bottom of the funnel offer along with website CTAs. This is typically your Schedule an Appointment, Register for Demo or Schedule a Consultation offer.
• A landing page for your top of the funnel content offer with website CTAs (free ebook, guide, checklist).
• Form notifications set up for the key sales or marketing or scheduling departments in your business.
• A pre-launch punch list based upon your review of the website before launch.
• A quality control checklist prior to launch and another checklist post launch.
• A one or two-hour training on your marketing automation platform (aka hub, aka website). This is done on WordPress or HubSpot.

Additional Benefits of Our Website Design Process

• TeamworkPM project management software
• Standard online questionnaires and forms
• A dedicated project manager
• A 60-day site launch

Our entire project process consists of between 75-100 tasks depending on the platform we use—WordPress or HubSpot. Those tasks increase dramatically when we begin talking about large site migration, custom forms, e-commerce applications, subdomains, client login portals or secured areas, or database-driven functions.

Again, the pricing above is for a basic level marketing website. We think it's competitive and a great value. We're not in a race to the bottom in price, but we're also not greedy like some large agencies.

When you decide to outsource your digital/inbound marketing to an agency (and we hope you do) you'll gain many benefits. Today I wanted to talk about a few of the benefits we see each and every day, as we partner with 23 ongoing clients... and growing.

I'm not suggesting that every business in the world is a good fit for outsourcing. Some micro business, startups and small businesses have no other choice than to bootstrap their efforts, especially if they are not well-funded. Other business would probably do best to handle their own marketing out of the gate. They have the passion and desire that no one else can really manufacture. It's what I/we love about entrepreneurs. Sure, they may need to hire an agency like The Marketing Squad to build their initial website, or to guide them with some strategic consulting, but they likely will have the best chance to run with their own digital marketing for the initial sprint.

Once a business moves through that phase and their marketing department starts to grow, or at least exist, we find that outsourcing to an agency can be the most logical next step. The alternative is to begin hiring employees internally that have the skills you need to create and execute a digital marketing plan. What skills do they need? Well, we're not talking bow hunting, nunchuck or computer hacking skills, we're talking about the following digital marketing skills:

Inbound Marketing and Digital Marketing Skills You Need To Hire

• A good project manager
• A graphic designer who can design for the web, along with traditional mediums
• A website developer
• A digital marketer who can handle content planning, copywriting and understands how to setup marketing automation
• A social media manager (we call this a community manager)
• A digital ad specialist who also understands SEO and a good bit of analytics
• A marketing consultant, manager or director
• A video specialist

Unless you're a small business primarily run by an owner, operator, or a strong sales team (by the way, we work for a lot of these clients), then you likely already have at least one or two of the positions above. That's great news. An agency like ours works great with an internal marketing champion and many times we work with an entire marketing team. Here's the thing: it's still a better investment of your time and resources to pay an agency a portion of what you would pay full- or part-time staff and hope you can find all the skills you need above.

Our agency has these talented people on our payroll and on teams within our business. They work together to serve our ongoing partner clients and our project-based clients day-in and day-out.

5 Intangible Benefits to Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing

1. The grease that squeaks the wheel. We force you to move and act upon all the ideas and strategies you have. We're not passive. We hold ourselves and you accountable to setting and meeting goals. We like to know if we're winning.
2. The coach that's a call away. We've seen a lot that has worked, and a lot that hasn't. We are keeping up with the changes in inbound marketing methodologies and digital strategies. But the real point here is that we are a quick phone call away, which is priceless.
3. The strategist and the playmaker. We are strategic consultants who focus on business development. We also execute and measure, which we believe sets us apart from those who just toss around ideas.
4. The edge to maximize your automation. Marketing automation doesn't have to be a buzz word. It can be a real thing with actual software, and it can marry your sales and marketing departments together.
5. The speed to market. We're your best chance to outpace the competition or to build a moat around the competitive advantages you already enjoy.

If you're considering outsourcing your digital marketing, let me recommend three things:

1. Download our infographic: The Benefits of An Outsourced Marketing Department. It's a little two-pager that talks about some costs, stats and has a little Squad humor in it.
2. Fill out a form and start the ball rolling. Meet with a sales or marketing consultant on our team. No commitments, just a meeting.

On April 12, 2016, we made the announcement that The Content Squad had become ... wait for it... The Marketing Squad.

The goal of this subtle name change is to let the marketplace know that we're much more than a marketing agency that develops content.Each year, the number of websites we design and develop has increased -- we've built over 150 websites since our inception (back in 2007). We've also added capabilities in the areas of graphic design for web and print. In addition, digital ad management, including advanced Google PPC management and retargeting, has become one of our key services. Our team has developed strong video capabilities that scale for the small business. We also have added the ability to help with more strategic consulting initiatives. Our RoadMap process is a great way to start a strategic marketing plan for your business. Also, we've led businesses through the process of rebranding.

Lastly, we've added a true veteran in the marketing and sales world. Adam Robinson, our newest partner, has brought new processes, new energy, new software tools (lots of those :), and new life to our business model. Adam has experience in sales, marketing, and business consulting that spans over almost two decades.

The Squad has evolved into a full-service digital marketing agency and we wanted our name to reflect that.

We changed our name, but we did not change who we are

• We are still a fun team that works hard for our clients.
• We still "tell your story to grow your business."
• We still have the same clients.
• We are still in the same location.
• We are still mission-minded.
• We still create strategy, execute those strategies, and have transparent accountability to measure success.
• We are still the same team, minus our good buddy Greg aka "The Ladden" who is moving on to Austin Texas with his beautiful bride. Erica accepted a job there and Greg is going to take his BBQ to a city where they appreciate some real smoked brisket.

So, although we've grown, changed our name and added capabilities, we still have the same DNA that has gotten us to where we are.

What this change means to you

OUR CLIENTS

What it means:

If you're a client, we want you to know that we have added capabilities. If you're not growing you're dying, at least that's our philosophy. So we want to always identify ways we can grow in service and execution for our clients. We've added a lot of new software tools that help us do our job better and help you win—whatever winning is for you. We've created new structures within our business model and they are streamlining the way we serve our project and retainer clients.

What it doesn't mean:

It doesn't mean we're going to spend lots of time focusing on ourselves and ignoring your needs. Many businesses can get so lost in their own brand they can forget that service to their clients is the lifeblood of their business. That's not gonna be us. If you notice us hyper-focusing on us, then drop us a line and let us know. It's that important to us.

OUR PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS

What it means:

If you're considering working with us, we want you to know that we still pump out targeted, relevant content (lots of it every day and week) just as before. However, now we can be a part of a bigger conversation in your marketing. We can truly be an outsourced marketing arm for your marketing department. We also can help align your sales and marketing to maximize business development.

What it doesn't mean:

It doesn't mean we're lumped in with all those other agencies that are ad agencies or marketing agencies. We continue to have a very digital/inbound flavor to what we're doing. We're not engaging in outbound media strategies like TV or radio for clients. We didn't cross over. We do have partnerships in place for clients where these higher cost methods still make sense.

FOLLOWER AND FRIENDS OF OUR BRAND

What it means:

We'd welcome your continued attention. Your time and what you spend it on is one of your most valuable assets. With our indbound marketing and our content, our goal is to educate you and to make you laugh or think from time to time. We appreciate our community we've developed and we are always open to how we can communicate with you in more effective ways.

What it doesn't mean:

It doesn't mean we're moving on and growing up. Our followers and friends are the ones who got us here after almost 9 years, and we believe in dancing with the one who brought you. #loyalty

SUPPLIERS AND VENDORS

What it means:

It means there will be a new name on the checks coming your way.

What it doesn't mean:

It means The Content Squad won't be on the checks anymore.

Thanks for catching up on what this renaming really meant to us, and to you. We appreciate the time you took to scan this post. Please share it with your networks on social or email. We'd love to get this message of the new (but the same) us out to those who want to hear it.

Bonus thought on the meaning of the word "subtle"

In our announcement message Adam Robinson, our newest partner, said that the renaming was a subtle shift. As Managing Partner, allow me this brief postscript on what exactly that means 🙂 It was a subtle shift, just one word, right? So, outside of changing all our signage, all our marketing collateral, all our directory listings, and all our website assets, no problem. Wow, changing one word in your name still means a lot of work across the board! I know many of you can relate as you've been down this road before.

The source of all good blog material is the endless archive of Seinfeld episodes. One of my favorites is the one where Kramer and Mickey pick up a gig acting out medical diseases at the local University. Kramer does such a great job with his disease that they keep casting him with the same disease. He yells out, "I've been typecast." Well, Kramer is not the only one. Many of our businesses have been typecast. I'll start with an example that's close to home.

We at The Content Squad have a mutual friend who insists on referring to us as an SEO firm. It doesn't matter how many times we correct him he will refer to us that way. Now to us that's the ultimate pigeon hole. It's degrading. We do so much more. We do inbound marketing, better yet, we show businesses how to integrate sales and marketing online. Sure there are tactics involved like corporate blogging, email marketing, content marketing, website design, copywriting, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. This list isn't even exhaustive so to call us an SEO firm is the ultimate playdown. I'm sure you're just like us. You have customers or prospects who typecast your business. It's frustrating and we want to tell you what you can do about it.

Here are two things you can do:

1) Don't worry about it. Realize you can't change some people. Well, most people. Now that's liberating. Realizing we have little control over others, and not caring what everyone else thinks of us, is empowering. It was Bill Cosby who said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

2) Tell the story. Then keep telling the story. Whatever your story is, keep preaching it. In season and out. Develop your mission and stick to it. Eventually, many will come alongside you and pick up on it. They will become a fan, then a follower, then an advocate. That's golden. Use your blog, your email newsletter,  or your social media accounts to keep telling that consistent story.

I like both options. It just depends on the situation. Choose one. Choose both. Choose neither.