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.

Imagine a world where Sherlock Holmes has the sharpest mind but no intriguing mysteries to solve. Or Iron Man without his tech-suit. They are simply incomplete without one another. 

In the same way, lead generation is the lifeline of businesses. Without a consistent inflow of customers, even the best business idea will fail to flourish. And you don’t want that, do you? 

This is where we come into the picture. Today, we bring you the top 10 lead-generation strategies that work like a charm in 2024. Each one, when done right, can help you achieve your goal without any difficulty.

So, let’s jump right into it!

1. Content Marketing

7.5 million blogs are published each day. There is a reason why more and more businesses are jumping on the content bandwagon.

This is because the content is just not the king but the entire kingdom! And if you look at it, truly look at it, you will know how true the statement is.

Content is everywhere. From the billboards to radio ads and pop-ups and more, there is no escaping it. But when you have enticing content by your side, that’s a whole other story.

Content marketing goes beyond promoting products. When done right, it helps provide information that solves problems or addresses the needs of your audience. Inclusive content plays a pivotal role here, as it ensures that diverse voices and perspectives are represented, resonating with a broader audience and fostering a sense of belonging.

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When you consistently deliver quality content, you can position yourself as an industry authority. This is super crucial because it helps you stand out and build trust and loyalty among your audience. This trust is a key factor in lead generation.

Why? 

At the end of the day, potential customers are more likely to consider and choose a brand they perceive as knowledgeable and reliable. It is seen that companies that post 15 blog posts a month generate almost 1200 new leads per month on average.

When it comes to content marketing, the sky is the limit. From blog posts to infographics, content marketing serves as a powerful tool.

2. AI and Personalization

Have you ever noticed Amazon telling you when your favorite product is back in stock? Or Maybe you receive an email from your favorite store with a whopping discount just because they miss you.

So, how does this make you feel? It feels incredible, doesn’t it? This is the beauty of personalization. And they leverage AI to run the personalization process.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of an ecommerce store owner who deals with hundreds of consumers every day. Personalization becomes a bit difficult, understandably. But what if AI could help you out?

Unlike putting in manual efforts, AI uses advanced algorithms and data analysis, which intelligently predicts user behavior and customizes your approach to offer your audience a unique and engaging experience.

This personalized approach not only captures attention but also establishes a deeper connection with potential leads. In fact,  89% of marketers say that personalization fetches them positive ROI.

By understanding and responding to each customer’s needs, AI personalization makes conversion an easy possibility.

Whether it’s recommending relevant products, delivering targeted messages, or predicting user intent, AI makes every interaction meaningful.

And 2024 is a tech-savvy era. With so many OpenAI development companies assisting businesses create their own generative AI model, there is no shortage of tools that can be used for personalizing communication throughout the customer journey. So instead of shying away from technology, it’s high time that you embrace it.

3. Social Media Marketing

From the time of its inception, social media has changed the way we humans communicate and consume content. Today, 66% of marketers generate leads from social media by spending only six hours per week on social media marketing.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn hold so much potential. The key is to come up with a well-structured marketing campaign plan and have engaging content that fully resonates with your audience.

When you come up with a consistent and interactive approach, it builds brand awareness and trust where you easily convert social media users into potential leads.

With social media lead generation tactics, you can check how your content plan is fairing with in-depth insights through analytics. It lets you tweak your approach as you go.

4. Free Demo

Picture this. You are looking to explore a new tool. Everything sounds good on paper but something is holding you back. At the same time, the competitor with similar features offers you a free demo. Which is more enticing? The free demo one right?

Offering product or service demos is a potent lead-generation strategy. It offers firsthand experience, which lets potential customers interact with your offering.

You no longer have to go on and on about how great it can be. Instead, your consumers can go through its functionality to see if it aligns with their requirements.

Remember, with free demos, you are engaging prospects in a practical, immersive way. Demos cut through all the noise and make a lasting impression.

5. Email Marketing

Don’t shun email marketing just because it has been around for quite some time now. It is still powerful and going strong in 2024. It generates $42 for every $1 spent.

Email marketing makes use of targeted campaigns to nurture potential customers. However, plain old boring emails won’t cut. This is the era is all about being different. Don’t hesitate to experiment if you must. The end result must be alluring and personalized messages that solve the specific needs and pain points of your audience.

Strategic segmentation is a must to make sure that each email resonates with its intended audience.

Most importantly, don’t forget to implement calls-to-action and exclusive offers to push your audience to take the desired steps to move them through the sales funnel. Consider incorporating engaging email newsletters to regularly deliver valuable content and updates, nurturing your relationship with subscribers. Again, don’t create emails for the sake of it. Analyze metrics and fine-tune your approach as you go.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Your website and SEO go hand in hand. When you amplify your website content, meta tags, and backlinks, you are taking care of SEO. These efforts are rewarded by elevating your online visibility. This is the first step to conversion.

This visibility captivates organic traffic and can convert casual browsers into potential sales leads. Keyword optimization is still a strong SEO tactic in 2024 that aligns content with user intent. This is super crucial to strike a connection between your brand and your target audience.

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As your SEO efforts start making a mark, your website ranking starts climbing upward and soon reaches the first page. However, it is important to be patient with SEO as it can take at least six months.

7. Paid Ads

As aforementioned, social media is a powerful lead-generation strategy. However, if you are looking for quick results, paid ads are incredible.

50% of people arriving at a retailer’s site from paid ads are more likely to buy than those who came from an organic link.

Paid ads are like a shortcut that lets you reach specific audiences with precision and in no time. Platforms like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Instagram Ads, and Facebook Ads offer robust targeting options.

Additionally, tapping into ad networks such as the Google Display Network or Twitter Audience Platform expands your campaign’s reach across a wide array of websites and apps. What does this mean? It’s simple. Your message reaches users interested in your products or services.

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But paid ads are no magic. It is all about the strategy and efforts you put into it. With careful keyword selection and demographic targeting, paid ads maximize visibility.

The beauty of paid campaigns is that they generate likes in its immediacy. It offers quick results, which drives potential leads to your website or landing page. 

The best part is that you can keep an eye on the metrics and adjust campaigns in real time. You can leverage an AI Ads generator to create compelling ads that will get you better results.

8. Chatbots

Chatbots can be your secret weapon when it comes to lead generation. Why? Because they provide instant and personalized interactions on websites.

As mentioned earlier, we live in a tech-savvy world. So, an AI-driven virtual assistant can engage visitors, answering queries, and guiding them through the initial stages of the sales funnel.

Your AI assistant can also collect user data and preferences. The immediate response and 24/7 availability can improve user experience. After all, if someone is there for you whenever you need them, it just makes you feel good!

9. Influencer Marketing

The influencer marketing industry is now at $21.1 billion, and it has only seen upward growth since it became popular in the recent decade. So, in this era when everyone relies on social media, influencers can help you reach your goals quite effortlessly.

Here, you partner with influencers whose ideologies resonate with your brand value. You use the trust and credibility these influencers have built within their niche and tap into their established audiences.

For instance, let’s say you are a skincare product. You can collaborate with a well-known influencer for an authentic endorsement. This type of social proof can do wonders.

By strategically partnering with relevant influencers, you can generate high-quality leads who are already interested in your products or services, making influencer marketing a powerful tool for B2C lead generation.

10. Webinars

When it comes to lead generation, webinars may be the last thing on your mind. But it’s time to give this idea some merit. 89% of marketers say that webinars perform better than other channels when it comes to producing qualified leads.

One of the reasons why it strikes the right cord is because it combines education and engagement. Hosting webinars positions your brand as an industry authority. When the quality of your webinar is high, it helps attract a targeted audience looking for valuable insights.

During your webinar, make sure you address queries in real-time. This instantly creates a direct and personal connection.

Also, attendees willingly provide contact information to access the event. It helps you with a set of engaged prospects for post-webinar follow-ups.

Bonus: Use Q & A Platforms Like “Quora”

Quora has over 300 million monthly visitors. You might have logged in too in search of a solution. We all do. However, the platform is still underestimated in marketing circles.

If you are wondering how Quora can help you, well, it helps businesses understand the audience’s problems by providing a space for users to pose questions and seek answers.

Let’s say, you are an agency. You come across a question about content marketing. Now, avoid fluff and advertisement-like content at all costs. Instead, be genuine and write authentic answers. In the end, direct users to your website. Do it strategically to convert a Quora user into a qualified lead.

Final Words

As a business owner, you already know how crucial lead generation is for you. But the key lies in choosing the right set of strategies that align with your business needs.

Remember, what works for business X may not work the same way for business Y. Lead gen is never a one-size-fits-all solution. That said, when you implement the top tips we have discussed in the above article, you are bound to make a mark.

The post Mastering Lead Generation in 2024: 10 Strategies to Propel Your Business Forward appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

There are two core metrics that should drive a lot of the decisions you have in your organization; churn & sales. A great agency is constantly studying these two numbers diagnosing them from every angle learning specific areas of opportunity. 

The more you are able to understand these numbers and what they are composed of the better you’ll be equipped to making the right decisions for your business.

In this report, we want to look at churn, which is something we’ve been studying for about 10 years across two different agencies. The first one was scaled to over 1,000 clients and the second one we’ve scaled to over 200 full time employees in just 5 years. 

When you’re a young agency, churn is so important because 1-2 clients can represent a large portion of your income, however as you scale, the same is true. Imagine you’re an agency like Hite and you’re doing $500,000 per month in MRR.

If you have 10% churn monthly, you’ll need to do $50k in new sales just to break even. If you can create an environment where you’re more likely to have 5% churn, if you do $50,000 in sales you’ll grow by 5%.

Understanding why clients leave and acting on it, isn’t only the key to scaling. Agencies with lower churn, partake in other benefits such as receiving more referrals & a much higher evaluation when it comes to selling the business. 

Hite is constantly focused on understanding the why behind our growth & this is essential for your business if you want to scale in 2023.

Churn is critical, especially as you scale for churn is a representation of the quality of your product, service, & customers.

Every agency is constantly battling both the increase of sales and the decrease of churn.

Defining Churn? 

Churn can be broken down in a lot a ways, but for agencies, the most common two churn metrics you’ll see is Client Churn & Financial Churn. These two churn types can be define these two churns as followed: 

For Client Churn we will look at the monthly turnover of clients regardless of financial impact.

For example, If in January you had 10 clients pay you then in February only 8 of them paid you, that would be a turnover of 2 clients and equal 20% churn. In this example it would not matter how much each client represented financially. 

For Financial Churn, we look at the monthly turnover of revenue regardless of clients.

For example, if in January you had $20,000 in recurring collected MRR and in February you only collected 18,000 of that $20,000, it would represent a 10% churn rate. 

Understanding the difference between these two numbers is crucial, let’s look at the following list of clients. 

MRR

Client A $1,000

Client B $5,000

Client C $2,000

Client D $3,000

If we were to lose Client B, you would have 25% client churn, however you’d have 50% financial churn. There could be a very large difference in these numbers especially as you scale. 

The Problem With Researching Churn

Doing research on churn for agencies doesn’t come easily. First off, about 80% of agencies that exist today would be defined as micro agencies, doing less than $15,000 in monthly revenue of which the vast majority do not keep up with, nor have any data on their numbers, especially when it comes to churn. 

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If you take into consideration those that do keep great track of their numbers, between those they may manage and report back churn in many different ways, even beyond the above numbers.

For example, there is a well known agency that is doing several $100m in annual revenue that keeps track of their financial churn, but in their own way focusing more on net growth vs. churn.

In their model, they look at how much was lost, and measure that against what was upsold in order to come up with a net churn. 

With that said, we believe that this report takes all those data points into consideration arriving to tangible and definitive results.

The post How to Reduce Churn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

They say employees are a company’s greatest asset, and it’s just as true for marketing agencies as any other business. The right team can help prove your agency’s quality, credibility, and competency to potential clients. So, it just makes sense that you want to find qualified candidates and, more importantly, ensure they’re in it for the long haul. 

Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Chances are, you’ve experienced this firsthand. Maybe you’ve lost one of your most talented employees or been disappointed by a lack of interest from candidates. Whatever the case, it’s worth looking at why this is and how you can change your approach for greater success. 

Why Finding and Keeping Qualified Candidates Is Tough

There are many reasons marketing agencies struggle to find qualified candidates and retain them. The two biggest factors are as follows:

1. Competition in the labor market
2. Employee expectations 

For starters, consider the competition in the labor market. There are more than 14,000 marketing and advertising agencies in the U.S. alone. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing job demand is expected to increase 10% by 2026. However, there’s a limited pool of candidates willing and able to perform at the desired level.

We’re all looking for a specific type of professional, right? At a minimum, the ideal team member is knowledgeable about marketing, has skills in one or more areas, and possesses the right attitude for success. A person with these traits who cares about helping clients grow is a hot commodity. Every agency that’s hiring wants them!

In short, the competition is fierce. Your competitors are trying to attract the same high-quality candidates as you are. So, you have to work extra hard to stand out and encourage them to apply for a position at your agency. And if you manage to bring them on board, you need to prove their decision was the right one. After all, there’s no shortage of options available to them.

But that’s not the hurdle you have to overcome…

There’s also the fact that the wants and needs of today’s marketing professionals (and workers in general) have changed. 

For instance, employee expectations include more than just a salary reflecting their value. People are looking for things like…

• Positive work culture
• Recognition 
• Flexibility
• Transparency
• Respect
• Purpose 

Unfortunately, these are things that many agencies neglect to highlight when recruiting—or worse, fail to deliver in the workplace. And in the second scenario, it leads to great talent leaving for other opportunities. In fact, 2022 showed 62% of professionals considering a job change.

To say that finding strong, qualified candidates and holding on to them is a challenge would be an understatement. But here’s the good news—it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of changing your approach, putting your marketing skills to good use, and offering value to your team.

Let’s start with recruiting…

5 Tips to Find Qualified Candidates for Your Agency

As marketers, we’re always looking for ways to level up and do better for our clients. And the same should apply to the recruitment process. If you’re having a hard time sourcing and inviting top talent to work for your agency, you need to make some improvements. 

With that said, here are five tips you can use to find qualified candidates:

Create True Job Descriptions

A job description is just that—a description of a job. Yet, most marketing agencies (and businesses in general) get this wrong. If you’re trying to build a solid digital marketing team, you probably have a lengthy list of requirements for the ideal candidate.

But that’s not explaining the job, is it?

Jason Weseman, Certified Business Coach at FocalPoint Consulting, put it best during a workshop hosted by Viral Solutions: “A job description should define the work that needs to be performed, not the skills needed to do the work.” 

To explain why this is so important, Weseman went on to say, “You can find people that meet your exact description—your requirements, your skills, your experience—that couldn’t do the work.”

Plus, if you’re strict with your criteria, you could miss on great talent. For example, research has shown that women only apply to jobs if they’re 100% qualified. 

So, focus on outlining what the job entails rather than what characteristics you’re looking for in a candidate. 

Brand the Job, Not Your Agency

As marketers, we’re no strangers to branding. And we all know how vital employer branding is. But a common mistake agencies make when trying to find suitable candidates is not branding a job. 

According to Weseman, “Top talent already knows about their competition. They know about other companies in their space… What they need to be sold on is the job itself.”

So, in each job description you write, focus on answering the following questions:

• What can they do? 
• What can they become?
• What does success look like?
• What does the future hold?

Brand the job by explaining how it will benefit them and make life better. Use storytelling to take them on a journey!

Spread the Word Wide

When you have written your job description and are ready to look for candidates, spread the word wide. Go beyond popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and Indeed. Consider posting the position on marketing-specific sites like MarketingHire, the American Marketing Association, and Digital Agency Network. 

And don’t forget about the other resources you have available! You can post about the job on your social media channels and encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates they may know.  

Don’t Ignore the Passive Market

To find qualified candidates to join your team, Weseman also recommends looking at the passive market. 

What does that mean?

It means considering those who aren’t actively searching for a new job. 

This gives you a wider pool of potential candidates. More importantly, it gives you a wider pool of top talent, as they likely have the knowledge, skills, and attitude you’re looking for. After all, another agency hired them!

The key to convincing someone to change jobs (apart from making sure they see your opening) is to show that a position at your agency can offer more. A career move needs to provide a 30% nonmonetary increase. That includes job growth, job stretch, and job satisfaction. 

By proving that a talented marketing professional can have greater opportunities, a bigger impact, and higher satisfaction with your agency, you can reach more exceptional candidates.

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Rethink Your Interviews

The last tip for finding good candidates is to rethink your interviews. (This is another nugget of wisdom from Weseman.) You’ll have a better chance of filling an open slot with the perfect person if you…

• Ask the right questions. 

“What is your biggest accomplishment?” is the most critical and effective interview question you can ask. It gives insight into what a candidate views as an accomplishment and helps you see if they’d be a good fit. If their answer is irrelevant to the position or doesn’t align with your agency’s goals, they’re probably not the right choice. 

• Wait to make a final decision. 

People come to an interview as the best version of themselves, so first impressions aren’t always reliable. That’s why Weseman recommends waiting 30 minutes. If you love them after three minutes, give them tougher questions for the remaining 27. If you’re unsure after three minutes, give them easier questions for the rest of the interview.  

How to Retain Good Marketing Talent After Hiring

Finding qualified candidates is one thing, but retaining them is another. And it’s arguably more important! When a team member leaves, you miss out on everything they bring to the table. Plus, it can cost you—big time. Replacing a salaried employee costs an average of 6-9 months’ salary. 

So, what can you do to retain good marketing talent once you’ve brought them on board?

• Offer training opportunities.

Great team members strive to learn and grow in their careers. That’s why you should offer training opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Ask what they want to do better or take a deeper dive into. Then, source appropriate training for them. 

• Create a healthy company culture.

Fostering a healthy company culture can go a long way in retaining team members long term. It can boost satisfaction and keep employees engaged. So, make sure your culture passes the test by prioritizing wellness, promoting diversity and inclusion, being transparent, and ensuring everyone aligns with the agency’s values. 

• Commit to job advancement.

If you’ve promised a candidate that your agency can provide them with job advancement, commit to it. Give them a chance to move up the ladder once they’ve shown they’re capable. Having the option for vertical career growth will increase the chances they stay on. Plus, it proves you stay true to your word. 

• Reevaluate to stay competitive.

Put in the effort to show your agency is one of the best to work for.

How?

Reevaluate what you offer your team members every so often. In addition to compensation and benefits, look at the perks other agencies provide their teams. Even giving increased flexibility by allowing team members to work from home can be seen as an advantage. 

• Prioritize employee recognition.

Team members need to feel valued, which is why you should make it a point to recognize and reward their hard work. How you do this is up to you. It could be as simple as congratulating someone on a project completed without a hitch or setting up a bonus program for hitting set goals.  

In Summary

If you’re struggling to find qualified candidates to work at your agency and stay on for years, you need to change things up. We tell our clients it’s not about them, and the same goes for us! Show how a particular job can benefit a potential candidate, and don’t forget to deliver on your promises. That way, you can build the strongest team possible and position your agency for success.

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There’s something comforting and enjoyable about creating a routine where people know you, whether that’s a favorite coffee shop or place to walk or a local beer store where they call your dog by name.

Many businesses can create this personalized shopping experience to convert more browsers into buyers. But, it can be tough to do that online where you can’t look into a customer’s eyes or easily ask what they need as they browse digital shelves. Still, we regularly hear about the need for eCommerce personalization.

To tackle that opportunity, let’s define personalization, the best way to start implementing it, and methods to optimize your efforts.

Defining “Personalization” in ECommerce

Personalization and customization can feel like the same thing, but some important distinctions exist. Breaking these out makes it easier to understand personalization and how it can apply in eCommerce operations.

For your website and sales efforts, personalization uses data and customer insights to craft a specific shopping experience for every customer. These efforts may include showing relevant products, serving recommendations, and adjusting content based on the customer’s past behavior.

Companies may also try personalizing service levels or selecting specific pop-ups and overlays based on customer status. 

Customization, on the other hand, generally refers to customer-driven choices. These range from the obvious (selection or sorting by size, color, price, etc.) to detailed efforts specific to the individual (a customer chooses not to see certain types of products). When you think of customization as something helmed by the customer, you’ll start identifying ways to use their selections to craft personalized experiences.

How Personalization Creates a Better Shopping Experience

To create a personalized shopping experience, eCommerce businesses need to invest in audience research. By understanding your customers and what they want, you can create an individualized experience that will convert browsers into buyers.

You’ll want to create as complete a picture of the shopper as possible. Ask core experience questions, including:

• What are their needs that you can and can’t address? 
• What are their wants or things that tip them over the edge to make a purchase? 
• What motivates them to make this purchase at this time?
• Why should they choose you to meet their specific needs and wants?

Once you understand your customers well, you can start creating a shopping experience tailored to them. Take learning about their immediate needs and wants. I

t’s easier to suggest the right products when you know what they’ve recently viewed or what ad they clicked on to get to your site. You’re building based on their tastes and refining suggestions based on what gets that second purchase.

Understanding why someone values your brand can also help you create personalized discounts or special deals that gain shoppers. If you’re known for customer service, you might leverage this for an ad tagline: “World-class customer service meets free shipping on every order over $20.”

It’s more than just a deal; it’s one couched in the language you know they appreciate. Tying it back to shipping and order support also reinforces your brand as one that cares about the customer.

Finally, it is important to ensure the customer feels valued and appreciated. Thank them for their business and promptly take care of any issues they may have. Creating a positive relationship with your customers ensures they keep returning for more.

3 Steps to Take to Get Started with Personalization 

To get started with personalization, businesses need to take three steps: collecting data, analyzing data, and implementing personalization.

1. Collect Data 

The first step is to collect data about your customers. This could include information such as their demographics, location, what devices they use, what pages they visit on your site, and what products they are interested in. There are a number of ways businesses can collect this data, such as through website cookies, surveys, and customer loyalty programs.

2. Analyze Data 

Once you have collected data about your customers, it is important to analyze it to understand their needs and preferences. This will help you determine how to best personalize their shopping experience. Several tools are available to help with this analysis, such as analytics software and customer segmentation tools.

3. Implement Personalization 

The final step is to implement personalization into your eCommerce store. This could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts. By personalizing the shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates and average order value.

The Top 5 Ways to Personalize the Shopping Experience

Personalization can be an incredibly complex experience or a simpler operation based on your tech stack and the amount of data you use. To get started, there are some core efforts to implement that can start with minimal, current-session data and then move to longer-term tracking and utilization.

1. Use Data to Recommend Products

One of the most effective ways to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to recommend products. This could include data from past purchases, browsing history, and social media activity.

By understanding what customers have bought in the past, businesses can make recommendations for similar or complementary products. This helps customers find what they’re looking for more easily and allows businesses to upsell and cross-sell effectively.

2. Create a Personalized Homepage

Another way to personalize the shopping experience is to create a personalized homepage. This could include features such as recommended products, recently viewed items, and even a custom welcome message.

By creating a personalized homepage, businesses can make sure that each customer feels valued and that they can easily find what they’re looking for — reinforcing your brand identity as helpful and in-the-know.

Consider tying homepages to traffic and referral sources so that someone looking at your Instagram account hits a page filled with both products and the videos you create. It’s an easy way to start the fruitful process of understanding customer behavior across channels.

3. Use Data to Create Targeted Marketing Campaigns

Another effective way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create targeted marketing campaigns. This involves using customer data to segment customers into different groups and then creating marketing messages that are tailored to each group. This could include offering discounts or special promotions to specific groups of customers. 

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Don’t neglect small lifts here. Greet customers directly by name. Adjust messages based on user region. Adapt to local events and other broader experiences that keep your content from feeling too general, even if it isn’t hyper-personalized.

4. Use Data to Segment Your Email List

You can also personalize the shopping experience by segmenting your email list. This involves grouping customers together based on their interests, demographics, or purchase history. Most email marketing tools track detailed customer information you can leverage.

For example, monitoring when customers last visited allows you to email people about how “it’s been a while”. 

By segmenting your email list, you can send more targeted and relevant messages to each group of customers. This can lead to higher open and click-through rates, as well as increased sales and revenue.

5. Personalized Product Pages By Creating Variants

The final way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create a personalized product page. Or, at least create a page that feels catered to the individual based on broader context and information.

When you can get very detailed, this involves using customer data such as purchase history and browsing behavior to recommend similar or complementary products. You’ll need a dynamic site that can adapt to their history and habits in real-time.

If you don’t have a robust site, consider building blocks for each section of your landing pages or product pages for each SKU. Then, you can create groupings that feel customized because the pre-existing blocks you use match what people see in broader marketing campaigns. As you get more sophisticated, these blocks can then be what you dynamically insert into different elements as the customer shops around your site.

By creating a personalized product page, businesses can enhance conversion rates and have a better chance for higher order values because of the relevance of up-sell and cross-sell promotions.

The Benefits of Personalization for Businesses

There are many benefits of personalization for businesses. By creating a personalized shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty.

Conversion rates improve because customers are more likely to buy from a store that recognizes them and offers products they are interested in. If you’re marketing to the same people, small efforts like using someone’s first name in an email can increase conversion rates.

Companies that personalize offers also tend to see average order values increase in multiple ways. These incentives help push people to make more impulse purchases and reach higher overall orders — a benefit you can compound when making traditional online offers like free shipping on orders of a certain value.

Finally, studies also show that personalization can improve customer loyalty. Studies have found that more than half of people are open to receiving personalized experiences, and 72% who get these end up spending more or buying more often. This is because customers feel appreciated and valued when they are recognized and offered products they look at or follow.

Overall, personalization is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty. When used correctly, it can be a key driver of success for eCommerce businesses.

Create an Experience You’d Enjoy

When it comes to personalizing the shopping experience, businesses must take a few steps to ensure they are doing it correctly.

First and foremost, they need to collect data about their customers so they can understand their needs and preferences. Once they have this data, they need to analyze it to determine how best to personalize the shopping experience for each customer.

Then, they need to implement personalization into their eCommerce store, which could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts. 

The final piece, however, is reviewing the effort and ensuring that it adds value to the shopping experience. Ask if it is something you’d enjoy or if the elements and personalization get in the way. You don’t want to be overly burdensome or overly creepy. The aim is to show people what they want to see without them feeling like you’re crunching a lot of data behind the scenes.

The post Crucial Steps to Converting Browsers into Buyers appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Convincing new clients to sign up for your marketing services can be a challenge in a sea of other competitive offers. 

Because marketing is not a tangible service, persuading potential clients that your business is the one to go with requires a tactical strategy that delivers value. 

To do this, you need a solid marketing proposal. 

Perfecting the art of an effective marketing proposal is the key to winning lucrative clients and boosting your business sales. Once you’ve nailed it, you can rinse and repeat – saving you hours of time creating new proposals from scratch. 

Read on to learn how to write a marketing proposal that will drive new clients to your agency like bees to a honeypot. 

What Is a Marketing Proposal?

A marketing proposal is a document that outlines the proposed marketing strategy, tactics, and deliverables for your specific client or project. 

It acts as a convincing method to encourage potential clients to hire your services. You can achieve this via your marketing proposal by demonstrating your understanding of their business, industry, and target audience, and showcasing your expertise and experience in creating effective marketing campaigns. 

A well-crafted marketing proposal can help you win new clients, establish long-term partnerships, and grow your business – all whilst showing why clients should choose to work with your agency instead of the competition.

What Are the Components of a Marketing Proposal?

To win the conversion phase of marketing, your marketing proposal must act as a clear communication method. Demonstrating both why prospects should choose you to work for them, and exactly what you plan to do in order to grow their business. 

To this end, the key components of a marketing proposal include:

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of the proposal, highlighting the key points of your marketing strategy and why it will benefit your prospective client.

• Situation Analysis: A detailed analysis of your client’s business, industry, target audience, and competition. This demonstrates your understanding of your prospect’s needs and challenges.

• Objectives: Clear, measurable goals that the proposed marketing strategy aims to achieve – such as increased brand awareness, lead generation, or sales growth.

• Strategy: A detailed plan outlining the recommended marketing tactics, channels, and messaging that will be used to achieve the stated objectives.

• Pricing and Payment Options: A breakdown of the costs associated with implementing the proposed marketing strategy, including any fees, media costs, and production costs.

• Timeline: A detailed schedule outlining the proposed timeline for the marketing campaign – including key milestones, deliverables, and deadlines.

• Metrics: The set of metrics that you will use to measure the success of the marketing campaign – such as website traffic, conversion rates, or social media engagement.

• Conclusion: A summary of the proposal, emphasizing the benefits of the proposed marketing strategy and why you are the right choice for the client.  

Some of these components are fairly straightforward and don’t necessarily require a more detailed explanation.

Others we will look at in more granular detail to help you to create the most effective marketing proposal. 

How to Perform a Situation Analysis

As we’ve mentioned, you must demonstrate a thorough understanding of your prospect’s business, industry, target audience, and competition.

To achieve this, you must perform a situation analysis to understand where the business is at right now, and the challenges they’re facing. Start by researching the business – this includes its history, mission, values, and products or services. Identify the client’s unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantages.

Next, research the industry and market to understand the current trends, challenges, and opportunities. Identify the target audience, their demographics, psychographics, and their buying behavior.

Identify the prospective client’s main competitors and analyze their marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Identify the gaps in the market that your prospect can fill.

Research and consider your prospect’s pain points. These are the problems within their current marketing strategy that needs fixing. Your prospect will either know that they have these problems, but don’t know how to fix them, or they may be altogether unaware of any issues. 

An example of a pain point could be inconsistent messaging. When the messaging across different marketing channels is inconsistent, this leads to confusion and a lack of brand recognition. Fixing this problem may involve developing a cohesive messaging platform that is aligned with the brand’s mission, values, and value proposition.

You’ll also need to know exactly what you’re currently working with. This involves reviewing the existing marketing efforts – their website, social media profiles, advertising campaigns, and content marketing. Identify what’s working and what’s not. 

How to Set Clear Objectives

Once you’ve completed your research and ascertained the current position, you can begin to set the clear and measurable goals that you’ll include in your marketing proposal. 

Some examples of marketing proposal clear objectives can include:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month. 

Each of these objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Including clear objectives in a marketing proposal can help to align the marketing strategy with the business’s goals, provide a clear roadmap for success, and track progress and results over time.

How to Create the Marketing Strategies

We’ve looked at the what. Now we’ll explore the how part of the marketing proposal.

This section of your marketing proposal should include concise information about how you plan to improve your prospect’s marketing strategy. Basically, it’s time to show off your skills. 

Let’s use our aforementioned objectives as examples:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month. 

The marketing strategies you create to achieve these objectives could look like this:

1. To increase brand awareness in this specific demographic, develop a social media strategy that includes regular content updates, engaging visuals, targeted social media ads, and influencer partnerships to increase the brand’s visibility. 

2. To improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts, segment the email list to include more targeted subscribers, optimize email subject lines, personalize emails using automation software, and ensure emails are optimized for mobile devices.

Say your prospect wants 20 new monthly leads for their JPG to PDF software service. The strategy would be to  develop  a lead magnet as an incentive to offer potential leads in exchange for their contact information. Then, plan to optimize the business website with clearer CTAs to direct visitors to the lead magnet.

Remember to add in this section of the marketing proposal that you will include regular monitoring to determine the effectiveness of each of the marketing strategies. 

How to Create Pricing and Payment Options

When it comes to pricing and payment options in your marketing proposal, there are a few things to keep in mind. 

Firstly, always be transparent. Prospects appreciate transparency, so be clear and make sure that your pricing structure is easy to understand. Be upfront about what is included in each package or service, and make sure there are no hidden fees or charges. 

Offering multiple options gives your potential clients flexibility and choice. For example, you might offer different levels of service at different price points, or offer a discount for clients who sign a longer-term contract.

You could also consider an online payment system that accepts multiple forms of payment. This can make it simpler for clients to budget for your services and make payments on time. 

Be sure to highlight the value of your services in relation to the pricing. Clearly explain how your services will help your prospective client to achieve their goals, and why your pricing is reasonable in comparison to the results they can expect to see.

Marketing Proposal Tips 

Focus on the Prospect

Ensure you write the marketing proposal with the prospect at the forefront. It needs to be all about their problems and business, and how you can help. More You, and less We.

Include Visuals

Where relevant, include eye-catching infographics to demonstrate your points. If you’ve got success stories from previous clients that include impressive stats, add them in, too. 

Use Templates

To make life easier, explore Proposify alternatives that will help streamline your marketing proposal creation process. Customize templates to come up with the best one to work with for your business’s needs. 

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Be Clear

Include transparent timelines for marketing campaigns and one-off projects. This looks like specific milestones and key deliverables dates. 

Encourage Action

Include a clear and compelling call to action that encourages your prospect to take the next step. This can include scheduling a call or meeting, signing a contract, or requesting more information.

The Art of Persuasion

Writing a marketing proposal that convinces new clients requires a thorough understanding of your audience’s needs, clear communication of your unique value proposition, and a well-structured plan for delivering your solution. 

By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can create a proposal that effectively differentiates your business from competitors, provides evidence of your effectiveness, and clearly outlines your approach and process. 

With these key elements in place, you can create a persuasive marketing proposal that helps you win new clients and grow your business.

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