Ever wonder what the most successful agencies did differently than everyone else?

Was it luck, skill, hard work, the industry they chose, or something else?

Through my consulting work at Revenue Boost, I’ve worked with and taught over 400+ agencies how to scale their business.

From this, I’ve seen consistent patterns & traits in the ones who grow effortlessly…

Versus the ones who stay stuck for years – no matter how hard they work.

One key difference in approach stuck out to me.

I’ll illustrate what this one difference was with a story.

Once upon a time…

Two marketers graduated from business school with big plans to start their own agency. 

Ready to conquer the world, they started cold calling, cold emailing, and doing everything under the sun to get clients.

And although they had the SAME levels of work ethic and talent…

One of them now has an 8-figure agency.

The other one of them is still freelancing odd jobs, barely making ends meet.

What did the successful one do differently?

He took a big risk and started turning down clients and projects.

Instead of offering everything to everyone, like most agency owners…

And being a jack of all trades but a master of none…

He decided only to serve Plumbers and be the best dang’ plumbing marketer on the planet.

With a goal to make their pipeline fuller than a broken toilet pipe.

He mastered the art of niching down and realized it would be easier to be the biggest fish in a small pond.

And you should too – and in this article, you’ll learn exactly how to define your own niche.

Now it may seem scary to turn down clients…and it may feel like you’re limiting yourself by focusing on only one client-type.

But it’s exactly the opposite. You’re actually limiting yourself by being everything for everybody.

Niching Down Can Help 2x-3x Your Revenues

One of my clients Lauren ran a digital agency offering everything under the sun.

Social media, paid ads, web dev, SEO, and she offered it to clients from many different industries.

Because of this, her agency stayed stuck at $25,000 a month and she couldn’t break through.

On top of that, she and her team worked so much harder than they had to and operations were messy.

Every client needed different things, required customization, and nothing was standardized.

We sat together to audit all her past clients, and we found that Medical practices were her best clients.

They were easy to sell, stayed the longest, and gave her the least amount of headaches and complaints.

So, she changed her entire business model to ONLY service this industry.

Then, she developed a standardized offer for that industry, rather than customizing everything.

One offer, to one target market. Afterwards, she started cold emailing businesses in her niche with her new offer.

The Results?

 She 2X’d her revenues and grew to $52,000 in monthly revenue in not even four months time.

All from making one simple shift. One decision that can make everything easier, and you can do the same.

See, most agency owners and marketers start out with one or two clients, and then they get referred new clients from various industries.

Before they know it, they’re marketing everything for everyone and have NO idea who their ideal client is.

The Problem with Running a Business This Way Is That It Becomes Impossible to Scale.

Every single new client requires a ton of research, thought, and brainpower.

Because each new client has different needs, it leads to having no standardized processes and systems.

Which keeps the founder stuck in the business and unable to hire a team.

The other problem that arises is acquisition.

There are hundreds of thousands of agencies on the planet, and it’s really hard to stand out.

UNLESS you specialize.

When you specialize in a niche – let’s say, SEO for plumbers…

Then you aren’t competing with every other agency on the planet. You don’t look and sound just like them anymore.

Now, you’ve created your own tiny pond in which you can be a big fish.

There are way fewer agencies that specialize in plumbers or SEO, let alone both. So, you’ve eliminated the competition with one decision.

If a plumber was looking at two agencies – one that was a general digital agency and one that specializes in helping plumbers…

They almost always choose the agency that specializes in their industry and has testimonials from people just like them.

Not to mention, it’s easier to market when you have a clear niche in mind.

You know who you’re writing your content for…

You know who to send emails and social media DMs too…

You know exactly who to target in your ads….

You know what podcasts you should get booked on

And so on and so on.

Plus, you can charge whatever prices you want. Because you aren’t compared to the hundreds of thousands of agencies out there – you have a unique offer now.

Committing to one niche makes marketing easier, it makes selling easier, and it makes scaling easier.

You only have to be good at doing 1 thing for 1 person, and you can build systems and processes around it. This way, you can hire a team to take it over and be able to work less.

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Now how do you do it? What if you don’t know who your ideal client is?

Step 1: Audit Your Current + Past Client List.

Write down every single client you’ve ever served, and group them by niche. Industry, location, size and so on.

Once you group them together, one niche might stick out for you already as your favorite type of client.

If it doesn’t, use my 7-Point checklist and rank each niche on a 1-5 scale.

These 7 criteria points are what makes a great niche.

#1 – Total Addressable Market:

How many businesses are in this market? Is it large enough to support your bigger goals? Is the market shrinking or growing? Make sure the niche is big enough for you and that it’s not declining.

#2 – Purchasing Power

Is this market (or at least a segment of it) able to afford what you want to charge?

Think back to if you’ve received a lot of pricing objections when you’ve sold to these people in the past.

#3 – Lifetime Value

How long did these clients stay? Were they one-and-done projects or did they stay with me for eternity?

The bigger the life-time value, the more money and time you can spend to acquire a client.

If the niche typically churns in a few months or only works with you for quick, one-off projects…

Then you’ll have to spend so much energy on sales and marketing to keep the business alive.

#4 – Strong Need & Pain

Does this market have an important problem to solve, one that they have to fix? Or, is what you sell just a “nice to have”?

If the latter, it’s going to be very hard to get clients.

If they can’t live without your solution, then getting clients will be a breeze.

#5 – Desire to Solve that Pain

It’s one thing for a market to have a problem, but they must also have a desire to solve that problem.

Even if they have the need that you fulfill, that’s not enough – they also have to care about fulfilling that need.

#6 – Easy to Reach

Is the market fairly easy to find online? Can you reach them via most advertising platforms and social channels? Are their groups and communities online?

If you’re targeting businesses that are hard to reach online, you’re creating one extra barrier to your success.

Step 2: Choose 1 Niche After Ranking Each of Your Past Clients.

Tally up all the rankings and pick the 1 with the highest score.

Don’t worry about making the wrong decision.

Consider this an experiment.

You aren’t married to your new niche, you can always change back in a few months if it doesn’t work out.

Step 3: Create a Pre-Packaged Offer for Your New Niche

The whole point of niching down is to create more focus and simplicity in your business

Part of this is about WHO you sell, part of this is about WHAT you sell them.

Start out by choosing 1 problem to solve for them, and 1 solution to that problem.

List out what the deliverables will be and what you want to charge.

Keep it simple! You can build upon this later.

Step 4: Test the Waters and Go Land 5 New Clients.

Before you make any drastic changes to your business, such as letting go of clients, changing your branding and website…

Test the waters first, and verify if this new niche is the direction you want to go.

Go land another 5 clients or so, and that’ll be enough to identify if these are really our ideal clients or not.

You might think they are at first but you’ll know for sure once you serve more of them.

Wrapping Up…

You know now the problems of being a jack-of-all-trades with no clear focus.

Every new client is a ton of work and requires customization…

And getting new clients is difficult because there’s nothing that stands out about your agency. You’ll look and sound like everyone else.

This means when you do niche down, and sell 1 offer to 1 target market…

Your workload will decrease. Each new client will be easier to serve than the previous one.

You’ll become world-class at helping your clients from all the focused repetition

You’ll quickly develop a reputation and become a big fish in a small pond.

In every way, it’ll become easier to grow, scale, attract, and retain clients.

Plus, you’ll have more fun and the business will be simpler & easier to run.

And with this knowledge…

You’ve learned the 5 simple steps to niching down.

So…

Time to get to work!

Put this into practice and watch it transform your business.

The post Profit More, Work Less: 4 Steps to Niching Down For Your Agency appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Page conversion rates have ALWAYS been a problem. The simple fact is most people don’t convert even on the most optimized pages. 

What’s why traditional retargeting on ad networks has been so dang powerful. While retargeted leads come cheap, they still aren’t free. Worse, you’re back competing against your competition in the ol’ ad auction system. 

For the last 6 years, I’ve been using a tactic called Inbox Retargeting to identify who lands on my key pages and directly reach out to them in their inbox. 

No more ads. No more auctions. Just a targeted contact that showed they were interested, but didn’t quite take the leap yet. 

Before I dive into the “What’s” and “How’s”, this tactic can only be used in the good ol’ US of A. If you aren’t in the states or don’t have clients in the states, you’re out of luck. Sorry! 

How It Works

Inbox retargeting doesn’t take a lot of heavy lifting. I’ll share the strategy next but I wanted to start with some of the logistics. 

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer or coder, so keep that in mind if technical or legal questions pop up. 

If you have a website, you have tracking scripts, e.g.,  GA4, the Facebook Pixel, Heatmap software, etc…

To get started with Inbox retargeting, you just need to be able to copy and paste two scripts on your site: 

• A collection script: This fires and tries to identify the visitor

A suppression script: You’d fire this on your conversion confirmation pages, you don’t want people who converted to land in your Inbox Retargeting campaigns.

The tech works off of a database of contacts in the United States that are eligible for emails, so it’s completely above board with your ESP. However, you’ll want to do a few things before you start treating them like a regular member of your email list. 

We initially tested this on one of our paid media campaigns. We already had a really strong campaign that we wanted to squeeze more leads out of…and boy did we. 

We were driving traffic from Meta (Facebook for the OGs) to this landing page:

This page converts at 58%. Yeah, that’s a humble brag…deal with it. 

Even with a 58% conversion rate, we’re still missing out on 42% of the traffic we’ve already paid for. That’s kind of a bummer. 

After we added the collection script to the page, they were able to capture a lot more leads. The conversion rate jumped from 58% to a very sweet 87% – that’s a 50% increase! 

That was the impact on a single page, that’s when we knew it was time to go bigger. 

The Strategy

Most of the tools out there, whether it’s Retention.com or Customers.ai, are going to charge based on the number of contacts. So it can get pretty easy to burn through contact credits if you run the script on every page you manage, your site and your clients’ sites included. 

That’s why you’ll want to make sure to select pages that capture intent versus targeting all of your traffic. 

ID Key Pages

Here are some of the pages you should consider adding the collection script: 

1. Campaign Landing Pages – If you’re paying to send someone to a page, the referring source piqued their interest. If they didn’t convert, you’d definitely want to follow up. 
2. Product Pages – If someone is viewing this page they’re evaluating a particular product they were interested in. 
3. High Intent/Value Content Pages – This could be your pillar content on your blog pages, podcast pages, or your top level service pages. 
4. Registration Pages – This is a subset of a landing page, but if someone got all the way to a registration or sigh up page, they’re a prime candidate for outreach.
5. Cart Pages – People abandon carts all the time. If you weren’t able to catch their details during checkout, this is an ideal opportunity. 

Effectively it’s any page where you’re pushing a specific action. While the above pages are the pages to choose from, a homepage is acceptable but will require a little more finesse when you follow up. 

Map to Email Campaigns 

Now that you’ve identified where you’re going to identify leads, you’ll need to map it to your automation tool. 

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Most tools have a direct integration with your email service provider, but worst case scenario you may have to pass the data through a no code integration tool like Zapier. 

Once you’ve worked out the digital plumbing, you’ll want to follow up based on the page the contact was collected on. Here’s how you should approach follow up: 

1. For Campaign Landing Pages – Give them the specific asset. They were interested in it, you’ve got their contact information, just hand over the goods. This builds good will at the start of the relationship. 
2. Product Pages – Send over the details of the product or product category they were viewing. This could be as simple as a reminder or you could build goodwill with a special offer or coupon. 
3. High Intent/Value Content Pages – Send over some of your best content or freebies that move people to the next phase of the Customer Value Journey. 
4. Registration Pages – Treat these like an “abandoned cart” type of email and get them to take that next step. 
5. Cart Pages – Same as “Registration Pages” but it’s, you know, an actual abandoned cart reminder. Similar to the product pages you could entice them to come back with a deal or coupon. 
6. Homepages – If you do run these on the homepage, you’ll need to do more of a reintroduction then transition to showcasing your best stuff. 

Email Structure

The initial message you send needs to have a very specific flow. There are four critical things that need to happen when they open up your Inbox Retargeting message. 

First, remind them about who you are and how they know you. This can be as simple as a, “Hey, thanks for stopping by…” message. Have some fun with it. 

Next, you need to provide highly specific value based on their browsing intent. If you get this wrong, they’re just going to file your message under SPAM. 

After that, you’ve got to set expectations with what they’re getting and now you’ll be communicating with them moving forward. 

And Finally, you need to give them an EASY OUT. These campaigns have our highest unsubscribe rate, but that’s because we outright ask people to unsubscribe if they don’t want any additional contact. 

Once you’e gone through this, you treat them like one of your regular subscribers with all your fancy ascension automations, content emails, and promotional emails. 

Here are the email stats from one of our PPC Campaigns:

With an average open rate of 53.87%, we know there’s a base line interest in the deliverable. The click rate is DANG good for messaging visitors who didn’t convert.

Sure the unsubscribe rate is a little high for this campaign, but that is intentional. We push them to opt-out in the first email so we don’t get dinged later with complaints. 

The Payoff: An Additional 109k Last Year

I mean, who doesn’t want another cool 100 grand for adding a script to your website and writing a couple of emails? Here’s how the numbers work out: 

Last year, we identified 3,714 leads using this method. IMPORTANT: When I was pulling these numbers, I realized we installed the code wrong on some pages and missed out on about another 2k leads…oops!

Our average lead cost was ~$7, so the leads themself were a $26,000 additional value. This alone would be a reason to use the tech. 

BUT JUSTIN, did they convert?! 

Yes!

We closed $36,000 in IPPC business from this lead source. For what we spent on those leads we’re looking at a 750% ROAS. Not too shabby. 

The rest of the money we made was by selling this service to our clients. Since we run paid ads for clients, this method is a complete no brainer. We ran a pilot program and only offered this to a handful of clients last year, we averaged about 4k/month in sales.

We sold clients the leads at ~$2/lead for some of the niches we work in, that’s a steal. 

If you decide to sell this you need to make sure the client knows these are lower intent leads and will require longer term nurtures. If you follow the email strategy I shared above, you’ll be good to go! 

Protip: Charge for building the follow up sequence! 

So that’s it! If you’re running your own business or are an agency owner, you’ve got to consider Inbox Retargeting. Though, I do have some bad news…

Not to be “Chicken Little” but this is starting to get way more attention, there are services popping out of the woodwork so this will become a table stakes method. So get ahead of this today.

The post Unlocking Hidden Revenue: The Inbox Retargeting Methodology appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Once ChatGPT made its debut, the discussion about what it will do to marketing agencies started almost immediately. There have been tons of articles, videos, and podcasts on this topic. As a result, those in the industry are getting a lot of mixed messages about the impact and use of ChatGPT for marketing purposes.

If you’re feeling confused (and concerned for your business’s future), you’re not alone.

So, let’s talk about it…

How ChatGPT Can Be Used for Marketing

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that gives conversational responses to questions and prompts, making it a valuable tool for marketing purposes. Instead of typing a query into Google and reviewing each result, you can head over to ChatGPT and get a single answer. Plus, you can keep the conversation going to dive deeper into the topic or refine the responses.

Here are some common applications of ChatGPT for marketing:

• It can help brainstorm new content ideas.
• It can aid in keyword research for SEO.
• It can generate ad copy.
• It can be used to draft business emails and letters.
• It can provide short descriptions for videos.
• It can produce content for blogs, ebooks, etc.
• It can assist in debugging code errors.
• It can analyze customer data.
• It can offer responses for customer service automation.

As you can see, there’s a lot of potential in applying ChatGPT for various marketing tasks. But that’s part of the problem—at least for some marketers. The fact that this transformative software can do all the above (and more) has left many marketing professionals scared.

Why Some Marketers Are Afraid of ChatGPT

One of the biggest concerns in the whole debate about ChatGPT is that the tool will negatively affect marketers. There’s a fear it will replace specific roles, including writers, programmers, PPC experts, and SEO specialists. But there’s also a fear it will wipe out marketing agencies entirely.

Basically, marketing professionals are worried that ChatGPT will make their jobs obsolete.

Part of this is because the applications of ChatGPT for marketing are growing by the day. As mentioned earlier, it can be used to complete a number of tasks that people usually handle. Its current capabilities are already impressive, and it will only improve with time.

The other part is the idea that ChatGPT might become a substitute for Google and other search engines. After all, it is more convenient to generate one answer than to scroll through multiple results on a SERP. So if more people opt for ChatGPT than Google, it could spell trouble for marketers specializing in SEO and paid advertising.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been threatened by new technology, and it probably won’t be the last. But that’s why it’s worth examining what we, as marketers, can do that ChatGPT can’t.

Where ChatGPT Falls Short

Despite its speed, convenience, and capabilities, ChatGPT has its fair share of limitations. There’s no doubt about that. It’s not quite sophisticated enough to take on some tasks completely. Plus, it has the potential to be…well, wrong.

Here are a few examples:

• The answers aren’t always reliable or available.

If you ask ChatGPT a question, there’s a chance you’ll get an incorrect answer. The tool doesn’t actually know if an answer is accurate or not. Sometimes (about 15-20% of the time), it “hallucinates” and just makes things up.
Additionally, ChatGPT can’t always generate a response to a question. This often happens when you ask about current events. ChatGPT’s training data was cut off in 2021, which means up-to-date knowledge may not be available.

• It can introduce plagiarism issues.

If you use content from ChatGPT as is, you may end up plagiarizing. Tests have shown the tool has a tendency to paraphrase or outright copy text without citing the original source. Remember that every response is based on training data. So, it’s pulling and distilling information into its own language rather than producing it outright.

• It often requires very specific instructions.
  

When you use ChatGPT for marketing purposes, you still have to be pretty hands on. The tool gets confused by ambiguity, so you need to provide specific instructions. Depending on the scope of work, it may be faster to handle it manually…

Ultimately, ChatGPT’s limitations prevent it from matching us as marketers. And even ChatGPT agrees…

What Experts Are Saying about ChatGPT

As discussed in the beginning, there are a lot of conflicting viewpoints about the use of ChatGPT for marketing and whether it bodes well for us or not. So, here’s what some of the experts are saying…

Karen Hite of Hite Digital

“I think that ChatGPT (currently at least) is as good as the person feeding the prompt to it. Which tells you the tool itself is not ready to make (on its own) an amazing copy right off the bat with just a question… I believe that true marketers will use this tool to make their lives easier AND add to it to make amazing copy that adds value.”

Perry Belcher

“ChatGPT is just the tip of the iceberg of what the automaton tsunami that’s coming quick, fast and in a hurry… For the smart ones of us who grasp these 4.0 smart technologies and keep our eyes on the horizon for what is next, this is an exciting time because we see what is ahead.”

Mark de Grasse of DigitalMarketer

In a previous article about AI’s impact on marketing careers, DigitalMarketer’s own Mark de Grasse had this to say: “You don’t have be afraid of the coming changes, but you do need to be open and aware of them. Start using AI right now, and really start to think about what makes you special as a person.”

Ann Gynn of Content Marketing Institute

In an article about a content marketing experiment with ChatGPT, Ann Gynn stated, “ChatGPT can be a useful tool, but it’s no replacement for human creativity and judgment.”

Dr. Peter J. Meyers of Moz

Soothing fears about ChatGPT replacing Google, Moz Marketing Scientist Dr. Peter J. Meyers said, “While Google isn’t going anywhere, we can expect the landscape of search to change in unexpected (and occasionally unwanted) ways in the next year.”

As for me, I think ChatGPT is just another tool. It’s something we can use to streamline our efforts and become more efficient. Of course, this is only true if you’re focused on delivering valuable, educational content (and high-quality work overall) for your clients.

How the Use of ChatGPT for Marketing Will Affect Agencies

Ultimately, ChatGPT will prove beneficial for some and harmful for others.

Here’s what I mean…

True marketers and legitimate agencies work hard for their clients. They invest in themselves and their teams, taking every opportunity to improve their skills. And they do all this to ensure they’re equipped to help their clients grow.

Becoming a successful marketing professional—no matter the specialty—takes time, effort, and passion. And despite how great a tool like ChatGPT may seem, it can’t replace years of training and experience. It can’t tackle every task or even deliver the same level of service as marketers.

Why?

Because it’s not able to do things such as the following:

• Take brand guidelines into consideration
• Apply principles learned from training
• Double-check the accuracy of information
• Speak to customers’ emotions
• Create great copy right off the bat

What it can do is help great agencies become even better. By leveraging ChatGPT for marketing, teams can work even smarter and faster. The time normally spent on simple or repetitive tasks can be shifted to those that require a personal touch. And on top of all that, there’s also the potential to work more efficiently while keeping pricing the same.

Just to hit the point home, here’s the response from ChatGPT when asked how it will impact marketing agencies:

On to the bad news…

For agencies that do the bare minimum for their clients, ChatGPT could be problematic. But that’s primarily because those types of agencies might rely on it completely. And as we’ve already covered, that’s not the way to go. Doing so will just worsen results, cause job losses, and drive away customers.

You shouldn’t run from ChatGPT and other AI technology, but you also shouldn’t depend on it.

Bottom Line

There’s virtually no chance that ChatGPT will wipe out legitimate marketing agencies. If you strive to create high-quality work for your clients, you can rest easy knowing this is just another tool you can use to your advantage. And if applied correctly, it can go a long way toward reducing expenses and streamlining your efforts.

The post ChatGPT for Marketing: How This AI Tool Will Impact Agencies appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Here are 3 signs you’re in an Agency Armageddon

1. Renegotiation

2. Attribution

3. Ad Cost

Jason Portnoy is a serial entrepreneur, top-ranked podcast host and founder of a premier digital marketing agency. Portnoy is passionate about helping businesses get results. https://jportnoy.com/

EXTRA RESOURCES:

The 1-Page Marketing Blueprint

The #1 Reason Your Marketing Agency is Failing

The Hollywood Model

The post 3 Warning Signs of Agency Armageddon with Jason Portnoy [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

The recent turn of events has digitized business operations throughout the world. Business leaders from various industries are using technology to run their commercial ventures. 

Businesses are extensively leveraging digital marketing to up their game. With the increasing advancements in this area, it is evident that this trend will continue to thrive as we move into 2023. 

Let’s learn more about digital marketing and its successful trends. 

What Is Digital Marketing?

Are you an entrepreneur looking for ways to expand your business? If yes, you should incorporate the progressing idea of digital marketing in your branding strategy. 

Digital marketing uses technologies and online avenues to promote your products and services to people beyond your service area. Also known as internet marketing, this process uses digital communication to spread brand awareness and increase sales.

According to a Forrester report, digital marketing spending by companies will reach $146 billion by 2023. With the existing and new digital marketing trends in 2023, you can prepare yourself to take your business to phenomenal heights. 

Exploring 7 Effective Digital Marketing Trends in 2023

Out of plenty of business strategies, a wise entrepreneur will always opt for the ones that are lucrative for his venture. Some of the top digital marketing trends that will be effective for your company in the long run include;

1. Real-Time Messaging Remains Effective 

Personalizing the sales is the secret to making your customer choose your products and services. You can achieve this by real-time messaging with your potential customer. Several chatting platforms can help you in getting to know your customers better. 

You can create a customized sales strategy for every customer using their data from the chat between you and them. It spikes the chances of a successful sale as your customer will think that the product or service is exclusively designed for them. 

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2. Attract Users Through Video-Based Content

Everybody loathes the idea of reading long texts on websites. However, people are attracted to moving graphics as they provide more information in less time. Thus, it is ideal to incorporate video-based content in your digital marketing strategy to make the user stay longer on your webpage. 

Videos are captivating and successfully capture the attention of the user. Use engaging videos to make the audience stop and stare at your webpage. It is an excellent way to promote your business by including the top selling points in your video. 

3. Influencer Marketing Continues to Gain Popularity

We engage with the stories and posts of our favorite celebrities and influencers daily. So, why not use their extensive social media reach to create a buzz about your business?

Consider the trendy idea of influencer marketing if you want to attract maximum customers to your business. This idea involves social media marketing, using socially influential people and organizations to market your products and services. 

The innovative idea of marketing your niche through influencers has recently become the talk of the town. It is because influencer outreach is far better than traditional marketing, which elevates the chances of affordably acquiring more customers. 

All you need to do is hire an influencer who belongs to the same niche as your business and has a substantive following so that your brand’s message can reach maximum people. Following that, you can strike a deal with them to promote your brand in return for adequate money or complimentary products and services from your brand. 

4. Email Marketing Nevers Falls Out of Fashion 

Email marketing is one of the oldest yet most compelling digital marketing trends. 82% of B2B marketers say that using email newsletters is still their go-to method for brand promotion. 

Have you ever wondered why this method is still relevant when we have more functional and practical social media communication methods today? A prime reason is that content often fails to reach people through social media as it is heavily filtered. However, such is not the case with emails – they convey your message directly to the user without the threat of being brushed aside due to privacy and filters. 

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5. Get Smart with Artificial Intelligence 

Modern digital marketing trends are all about using smart demeanors like Artificial Intelligence to grow your business. AI marketing stores data of your potential customers to help you make automated and informed decisions in milliseconds. 

AI observes your audience, economic trends, and other aspects affecting your marketing strategy. It uses data analytics to ensure you target the right pool of customers at the right time. Several brands use AI for effective marketing and have already started to reap its extensive benefits. 

6. User-Generated Content Is Growing 

User-generated content refers to any online material created by someone not representative of your brand. These people can be your customers, brand loyalists, employees, or anyone. User-generated content includes customer reviews or ratings and back stories about the brand that employees share. 

Using user-generated content is a brilliant emerging concept in digital marketing. It shows the positive aspects of the brand, posted by people who have no direct connection to your business. 

7. Consider Outsourcing To Marketing Agencies 

Digital marketing is a vast field that comprises various innovative digital trends. It is challenging to incorporate all the emerging trends at a time by yourself; therefore, a constructive approach to expanding your business would be to hire a competent digital marketing firm.

Obtaining professional digital marketing services would boost your business in a limited time. The right digital marketer will use different innovative techniques and the latest marketing trends to increase awareness of your business worldwide. 

Assessing The Importance OF Digital Marketing

Several reports have shown that 55% of marketing in businesses worldwide has gone digital. The remarkable effect on businesses through digital marketing has increased its use in the world’s major industries. 

Let’s see some of the many gains of using digital marketing in businesses;

1. You can get global reach for your business by using digital marketing
2. Digital marketing phenomenally increases your chances of sales as it adopts a more personalized marketing approach with each customer
3. There are lower costs and manpower required to conduct internet marketing. As a result, it is a suitable option for startup businesses
4. You can use multiple strategies and forums to market your products digitally. This offers a variety of customers, which expands your business in less time
5. Digital marketing techniques are easy to learn and apply
6. The results of digital marketing are much faster than traditional marketing strategies
7. Using technology to market your niche allows you to know your customers better so that you can improve your products and services accordingly for them
8. Digital marketing offers optimization and analysis. This provides you with strategic insights into your performance, which can help to perfect future business operations. It also makes you aware of your mistakes so you can fix them quickly

In A Nutshell 

Digital marketing is thriving in the business arena and will continue to do so in the years to follow. It offers an exceptional global reach to take your business to unprecedented success. The existing and emerging digital marketing trends have entirely transformed the way businesses used to operate. 

The post 2023’s Digital Marketing Trends for Small Business appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

According to research, 37% of employees blame unproductive meetings as a significant loss to organizations. As a result, more than 24 billion productive hours are lost. Meetings take a good chunk of time out of an employee’s routine, but they are also inevitable. 

The worst thing that can happen is that after hours of discussion and brainstorming, there is no actionable outcome. As a result, company resources and productive employee hours are wasted. 

You should have a roadmap for a meeting to increase collaboration among your teams and make effective decisions. 

Strategies to Make Your Meetings More Effective 

On average, a meeting lasts 12 to 13 minutes. In many cases, this time isn’t enough to discuss the key points. Increasing the meeting time means taking a portion of the employee’s productivity.  

You have to ensure that each minute spent in the meeting has a beneficial outcome. Managers and leaders should use the following meeting strategies to conduct effective meetings

1. Create Goals and Objectives for Meeting

The first step before you call the meeting is creating an agenda. The best thing is to determine the reason why you need a meeting. As soon as you get valid reasons, you have a green light. 

Whether the meeting is to discuss tasks’ progress or company crises, it would be best if you have predefined goals and what you are willing to achieve from the meeting. 

Managers can also create an agenda and cover all the necessary objectives without deviating from the meeting goals. Once the meeting’s agenda is finalized, distribute it to the selected attendees. 

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2. Invite Relevant People 

 Meeting attendees can be divided into two groups. Those who directly contribute to achieving goals (managers and team leaders) and the interested or contributing parties (team members). Any other person’s presence is unnecessary.

Suppose the meeting agenda is “budgeting for future investments,” only invite the finance department’s head and team members. Any other person who is not relevant to the meeting agenda is the third wheel. 

Unnecessary attendees will waste their time. They do not have prior knowledge of the agenda.

3. Utilizing Mind Mapping Tools 

Mind mapping is an effective method to discuss an idea and explore new possibilities related to it. Business meetings can significantly benefit from a mind map maker. Managers can use mind mapping tools for the following benefits 

• Managers and leaders can create engaging presentations for the meeting. Audience engagement is crucial to getting a positive outcome from the meeting
• Regular meetings with PPTs can take minutes and even hours to discuss the plan. Mind mapping allows you to cover long meetings in just minutes without missing any essential details and remaining on the meeting agenda
• Mind maps make task assigning seamless. Team members and leaders can know their responsibilities without complex explanations
• Meetings can discuss the agenda in order and logical structure with mind mapping

4. Minimize Distractions/Disturbance

Distractions lead to a decrease in productivity. During meetings, many factors can cause distractions, identify the elements and take measures before the meeting. Conduct test runs and demos before the meeting to find distractions that can waste the attendee’s time.

There are chances that your internet connection, power, or other technical errors can come up in the meeting, and fixing them can require considerable time. Moreover, it can create a bad image when you have a meeting with C-level executives or higher management like CEO or CFO.

5. Time Management 

Time management is crucial for saving attendees precious time. It also increases the productivity and efficiency of employees. Moreover, it is the manager’s and HR’s responsibility to ensure that attendees follow the meeting time as part of organizational discipline. 

Time is money, meaning wasting time is directly causing loss to the organization. Whether it is starting or ending the meeting late, it will compromise the schedule and productivity of teams. The ideal approach is to keep the meeting time at a minimum and keep it efficient using tools like mind mapping.

6. Assign a Moderator

As a manager you already have tons of other work. There are chances that the workload can affect the meeting quality. You can find someone with good leadership skills as a meeting moderator. 

The moderator can effectively conduct the meeting on time with the necessary requirements allowing you to be more productive. However, the moderator should know how to conduct effective meetings and ensure that they follow the agenda.

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Managers can also assign a note taker that focuses on creating notes for attendees. Everyone can focus on the meeting agenda without frequently writing notes down. It will not benefit the meeting agenda after it ends and will reduce distraction. 

7. Set Up a Q&A Session

Many of the meeting attendees will have some queries or questions. However, allowing them to ask during the meeting will create frequent interruptions, and meeting decorum will be disturbed. 

The meeting guidelines should have a specific time for a Q&A session. It usually happens after the primary points are discussed to save time and make the meeting more meaningful. 

8. End Meetings When the Goal has been Accomplished

You should know when to end the meeting. If the desired goals are not achieved, or attendees do not have significant insights, it is a waste of time. 

Along with implementing other practices, you must complete the meeting when attendees have the necessary information and the desired meeting goals according to the agenda have been achieved. 

Conduct Less but Effective Meetings 

Conduct fewer meetings and achieve more. Your purpose is to make the organization as productive as possible; meetings take a lot of time. 

By following the above practices, you can keep the meeting relevant to the agenda while saving costs and time. 

The post How to Make Meetings More Meaningful Without Wasting Time appeared first on DigitalMarketer.