Getting marketing and sales on the same page is critical to your brand’s success.

This month, we were honored to attend a client’s 2022 sales kick off meeting in Orlando to see this practice of harmonizing marketing and sales in action. Being with our client in this setting reminded us that cross-functional teams are one of the keys to maximize growth for business success. Smart business leaders and collaborative relationships fuel us, so we wanted to share our top tips for helping marketing and sales work together for greater results.

Sales teams typically focus on talking directly to the customer. The sales process might take a very long time, but the sales team will discover useful information like solving a particular problem, or what pain points a potential customer runs into. These insights can be valuable, especially to the marketing team.

The marketing team approaches the customer in a somewhat different way – focusing on the brand. Increasing awareness of the brand and these brand conversations typically take the form of websites, content marketing, social media and email marketing and advertising.

Often sales and marketing groups seem to have different goals: but in reality their goal is the same – grow the business. They just approach it in different ways. When you harmonize marketing and sales strategies you reap the benefits of shared data on targets and prospects, shared communication, shared processes, and working together to solve challenges that arise.

Four ways to start bringing your sales, marketing and even finance teams together.

1. Discuss with sales what marketing strategies and tools moved the needle in the previous year. Was it messaging, tactics and delivery? Something else? What did potential customers and clients respond to?
2. Planning is key. Make sure that marketing is supporting sales strategies. The marketing team should review annual sales plans and have a meaningful discussion on how they can support the sales efforts.
3. Agree on goals. Not just numbers and target customers, but the terminology. Are you speaking the same language? Using the same metrics and processes?
4. Make sure the finance team is not developing forecasts in a silo. Communicate with them. Just because they can access the CRM does not mean they can create real projections.

Marketing is only as successful as sales; and sales is only as successful as marketing. Harmonize marketing and sales to work together to success. Working together is more important in 2022 than ever before. It is by working together in harmony, that the greater good can be achieved.

Connections are everything. I take a moment each Thanksgiving to relay how grateful I am for those in my life. This year is no different in that regard. I am beyond thankful for my family, friends, colleagues, and clients. This year, I am also incredibly grateful for the connections and opportunities the Porch has created.

This business has always depended on connections. Regular readers of our blog know we preach the importance of authentic connections. Yet, like many others, I treated the multitude of opportunities to connect as a dependable part of daily life. It was something that just occurred naturally. Then, 2020 hit.

Connections became a carefully orchestrated medley of virtual meetings. We interacted online, on the phone, or via email. But, without the constant ability to see smiles. Opportunities for real connection had to be well-crafted and thought out.

Connections to New Opportunities

With new challenges come new opportunities, however. For that, I am also grateful. I have not previously put pen to paper and included being a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and Historically Underutilized Business (HUB), through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, on my gratitude list.

So it is here to stay now! We have had these certifications for seven years. And I have always held this certification near and dear.

In preparation for Q1 2022 sales, I have been cranking on RFPs for significant business that I could not bid on without these certifications. Opportunities through connections that I made over the past several years through these certifications now have a very tangible benefit for the future of the Porch.

First, I am honored by the business opportunities these certifications have bestowed upon us, and the myriad of connections I’ve made through holding them. And second, I am thrilled to be a part of helping others construct and market their own brands.

This Thanksgiving, all of us on the Porch hope you and yours cherish the opportunities to connect. Connect with your loved ones, your business associates and your friends. We encourage you to look at the connections you’ve made to see what opportunities are out there – both to connect and to grow. We’re grateful to connect to you! Rock on this Thanksgiving!

There are 5 business needs that we see happen about this time every year. Smart business leaders and owners know strategic branding and proactive marketing grows the top line. This is especially important in the 4th quarter of the year, when planning for next year comes into play. That’s why our clients raise their hand and ask Front Porch Marketing for help. They keep up with what their customers want and then they stay ahead of the competition by delivering it. And we joyfully help them. This past month of October, we’ve executed quite a range of marketing projects.

1. Full service marketing help for their 5 business needs.

C-suite executives looked to us to guide marketing strategy and execute pretty much everything on this list, because of empty seats on their team. We operate as “the marketing department” for several of our clients who have small teams and big needs.

2. Targeted, paid digital strategy.

From SEO and SEM to paid search, through display, shopping and gmail ads, our clients know how important search is for customer and client acquisition. We set up quite a big of this type of digital marketing in October.

3. Website refresh.

Q4 is the perfect time to refresh your website and quite a few of our clients are in the middle of a site refresh. Keeping branding fresh and relevant. Making sure that sites are optimized for content. Maximizing and streamlining customer journeys.

4. Paid email marketing.

From platforms like eTarget, MailChimp, HereFish, Zoho and ActiveTarget. List acquisition, cleaning and segmenting. Creating emails is the part you see…but list preparation and optimization is the key to more targeting customer acquisition. Email marketing is not slowing down anytime soon from what we’ve seen in October.

5. 2022 planning for next year’s 5 business needs.

Accessing 2021 marketing activities to date, and with phone and online client and customer surveys, we’re right now developing strategies, messaging, timelines and budgets for 2022. October has been busy getting our clients prepared for growth and smooth sailing the next year. This is absolutely one of our favorite things to do – setting the stage to help our clients’ business grow.

We also love sharing client happiness. This week, when delivering a final logo design, brand guidelines and collateral materials, a client emailed us, “Those goodies are like Christmas, seriously a sense of joy just washed over me.” And that brings us joy too. The season of joy doesn’t come just once a year for us, it’s all year long because we get to work with business owners who love what they do as much as we do.

Starting a business in 2021 is hard. You have to have the right product, shown at the right time, to the right people, and have everything executed properly. Not to mention you have to compete in an ever-growing marketplace. It’s a tough world and you have to have real mental grit to be successful. Startups have a 90% failure rate according to Investopedia.com. One of the main reasons as to why these startups failed was due to poor marketing. We’re going to go over some of the top marketing strategies that will aid your start up, to get you going in the right direction. 

1. Make a Marketing Plan

You can’t have successful marketing strategies for a start up business without a marketing plan. This means coming together with metric-driven marketing goals, creating user personas, coming up with a budget that supports how you will achieve these goals, and researching your competitors, for starters.

2. Post on Social Media

Posting on social media is crucial to gaining exposure for your business. Around 2.4 billion people use social media. It’s important for you to be seen and heard, and for people to know who you are. Not to mention this helps reach a younger generation. Make sure you’re posting engaging quality content consistently.

3. Make an Email List

Email marketing can attract customers if done correctly. One way to build a list is by having a subscribe page on your website. Make sure when you send these emails out that they aren’t too advertising based – answer questions, be helpful. Help potential customers solve their problems. For example, you can post guides, infographics, or videos. 

4. Don’t be Afraid to Try Some New Marketing Strategies

Don’t be afraid to voice your ideas! If you never try something new you won’t grow as a company. You never know who could benefit from an idea you might have. You don’t have to always stay inside what everyone is comfortable with. Innovations come from questioning the status quo.

5. Use More Than One Channel for Promotion

This builds off of tip #2. Once you have your social media set up, it’s important to diversify your brand. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even TikTok can be a channel for you to connect with your audience. These are amazing tools to get your brand out there. They each hit different audiences and you should change your approach depending on the socials you use, and who your audience is. 

6. Know Your Audience

You must find your target audience. Find what age group is going to be interested in your product. What type of topics are they into? Don’t try to be too broad and play to your strengths. Once you’ve identified your target market make sure you cater to them.

7. Create and Maintain a Blog

Blogs are important to driving traffic your brand. They make you a source for information. Did you know that businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those who do not have one? Make sure you’re publishing blogs that you know your audience would read. Quality over quantity.

8. Sponsor an Event

Sponsoring events can gain massive exposure for your business. It’s a great way to get the right people looking at your company (investors). All you have to do is pay a fee to the event organizer and then you market your business with marketing materials like signs, stickers, etc. Try and sponsor events that are related to your business. For example, if you sell comic books maybe you can sponsor a comic book convention.

9. Give Away Small Things as a Marketing Strategy

Everybody loves free stuff. What do I mean by free stuff? Stickers, t-shirts, merchandise, or gift cards. These help people have a positive association with your business. It makes your company look very friendly and is great PR.

10. Use Paid Search Advertising

Paid search is a way to purchase focused traffic on popular search engines like Google. They use a system called cost-per-click. Which means you pay when someone types a specific word you have listed in your ad. You only have to pay for when people click on the ad. This can be a great traffic driver to your website.

Marketing Strategies for Start Up Businesses Can Take Many Forms

Don’t fall behind when running your startup business. It’s very competitive out there and if you aren’t doing everything you can to stay ahead of the game you may fall behind your competitors. However, if you follow at least half of these strategies your startup will be headed in the right direction.

The secret to business success for 2022 is to start planning for it now. Many of our clients are reviewing their business plans, marketing plans and strategies for achieving their goals. Planning ahead for next year is a valuable way to invest in your business. You can know ahead of time what to do next and be proactive – not reactive. Making and having plans helps you guide your actions with efficiency and effectiveness.

Planning Ahead for Next Year, Now

Rounding the corner on Q3 2021, now is the time to plan for business success in 2022. So dust off your business plan. Does it still resonate with your goals for success? First, take the time to review the foundation of why you started this business in the first place. Make sure it still makes sense for you, for your time and energy, and for the market. Update it if you need to.

Next it is time to draft your marketing plan for 2022. Where to start? Look at your business revenue goals for the year. That number helps guide your marketing spend. Companies in 2021 spent 8.6% of topline revenue on marketing. Whatever your percentage is, don’t let this number be subjective. It is black and white.

Once you have your number, create a marketing plan. Without a roadmap, the squirrels and shiny objects will be your focus. Don’t let that happen. Staying on track to business success is much easier with a plan. Build your plan around repeating and expanding around prior success points, and adding new tactics that make sense. The plan you create can be annual or quarterly, but it can encompass many things: creative campaigns, paid advertising, PR, content or a new product or services launch. A solid marketing plan will create focus and executional excellence around several tactics working together toward a common goal. This approach will ultimately save you money, by getting you more bang for your buck.

Invest in Your Business Success

Invest in your business the smart way – and we don’t just mean monetarily. Your focused thoughtfulness and the time spent on your plan will be repaid. First, focus on your business successes by continuously improving your plan and your execution of the plan. How did your tactics for a specific campaign fare? Track and measure your results each quarter, and implement your findings into the next quarter’s plan to continue success and build momentum. Invest in the things that work. Pivot toward the successful strategies. Experimentation within the framework of your marketing plan can help you home in on insights that will get you to your revenue number for 2022.

Define Your Goals So You Can Reach Them

Define messages, targeted audiences, goals, strategies, tactics, timeline and budget. How can you reach your goal if it is not clearly defined? How detailed you are is up to you. What we have found on the Porch is that the partners that have defined their marketing budgets and plans have been successful. Being thoughtful upfront about your goals in all areas of marketing your business can set you up for business success in 2022 and beyond.

GenZ is Up and coming

Learn GenZ marketing strategies to market to this up and coming group as they become more involved in the economy. They use social media apps to shop, care more about knowing a brand and what they stand for, and are more receptive to different marketing strategies. As a member of GenZ myself, I know the in’s and out’s of how members of my generation think and shop. I also know what types of marketing they are the most drawn to.

Social Media Changes Everything for GenZ Marketing Strategies

What differentiates GenZ from prior generations is that we have grown up in a world where technology is changing by the year. We have used social media to our advantage, especially in terms of purchasing products or familiarizing ourselves with brands. According to a Forbes article, 95% or GenZ consumers use social media as their top source of shopping inspiration; 65% use social media to find entertaining content; and 61% are specifically interested in watching more video content. The most common social commerce platforms for GenZ are Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. These apps are leading the way because of their easy checkout process, limited distractions, and ability to explore other recommended brands. Also, many members of GenZ will purposefully like and follow appealing brands so the algorithm will recommend similar brands.

Brands Have to Speak Up

Another thing about GenZ is that most of us are unafraid to take a stand about issues that matter to us. Especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic and black lives matter movement upwards of 78% of GenZ’ers have said that these events have shaped their worldview. Brands remaining neutral on these issues are no longer an option. GenZ’ers are becoming more and more reluctant to purchase from brands who do not present a stance on major world events. Additionally 79% of GenZ agreed that companies behaving more sustainably has become more important since the pandemic. This generation has an attitude that can change the world for the better and want brands to do the same.

New GenZ Marketing Strategies

GenZ kids are more receptive to video media and get their product recommendations from different places. Social media influencers have played a huge role in marketing and GenZ are very receptive to this tactic. Influencers will show off their favorite products routinely on social media and because they have built trust with their audiences, Generation Z’ers are more likely to purchase a product if a trusted influencer recommends it. Also, a brands social media aesthetic and presence are crucial. I can attest to the fact that a brands Instagram feed/aesthetic is one of the main attention grabbers for me which ultimately could lead to me following or purchasing from them.

The Change Upon Us

Businesses will have to adjust their marketing campaign tactics if they want to keep up with GenZ. They demand more from businesses in terms of usability, online presence, and advocation. Social media is playing a bigger role than ever before and change is definitely upon us.

Now that school is around the corner, it’s time to refresh your digital marketing strategy for your school, academy, or university. From experiencing a pandemic to entirely transforming a new academic environment for students and staff, the marketing and communications strategies that used to work for your district “pre-covid” may not work in this ever-changing 2021 environment. It is now the time to be pro-active, adaptive, and present to meet the increasing expectations of today’s families. 

Practice #1: Start a School Blog 

A school blog is a wonderful way to display the activities that students participate in and around the school. It’s also a great place to distribute advice and share the community’s voice. The blog will give outsiders an inside look on the programs and events that the students participate in. Connecting with the school’s community will emphasize how much the directors care about the students and faculty, while promoting conversation. It will also let more people organically find your school when searching for their children’s next academic steps. Overall, creating a blog will strengthen your school’s brand identity.  

Practice #2: Enhance the School’s Website 

Times are changing, and so should your website! Making an inadequately designed website and not thinking about the user’s experience will produce site traffic and static action. Like the director of Front Porch Marketing, Julie Porter states, “create a clean, user-friendly website.” This will increase the school’s reputation and lead to more engagement. Just remember to keep it simple to navigate and creative. An easy way to accomplish this is to rebrand logos, create a color scheme that seamlessly translates throughout all pages, and habitually update the navigation tabs.  

Practice #3: Make Social Media Accounts 

Posting on social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, create opportunities for parents and guardians to find your school organically. People can easily share, like, or comment on your posts to help create more popularity quickly. As your account grows, the more recognition and traffic your school develops. You can achieve this by devoting time into capturing professional videos and photos of events and activities.

A great example of this is with one of our clients, Faith Family Academy. As Christine Finnegan, our media relations director states, “be consistent will all messaging throughout your platforms.”  In addition, you can connect with your audience by responding to their comments and other members can add reviews.

Practice #4: Begin an Email Drip Campaign 

Emails are increasing in popularity due to people relying on the digital-sphere to stay in the loop. This upward trend in email reliability is the result of them being tailored to user preferences and behaviors. This personalization helps users see information related to their interests rather that unfavored topics that are being pushed upon them through advertising.

By asking current families and interested families for contact information via a survey or sign-up sheet, users can subscribe to an email list and look at automated content daily or weekly. This proves to be an easy strategy for reminding and promoting members of future academic and recreational events. Email workflows truly provide a personal touch to electronically reach each community member. 

Practice #5: Promote School Events 

Events, such as an open house, are a great way for newcomers to meet the faculty and staff. It also helps families understand if their values align with the school’s and if the school fits their expectations. Parents and guardians will also be given the opportunity to explore the campus for the first time.  

Additionally, back-to-school kickoffs are a wonderful way to understand what people personally look for in a school and its curriculum. Having organized school events with informational pamphlets to give out aids prospective families to secure their decision of coming to your school. Whether you share the events via social media or on the website, the end result allows you to increase engagement and nurture relationships with newly inquiring families.   

Conclusion 

The expectations of parents are higher than ever. It’s crucial that your school’s digital marketing strategy adapt alongside them. As the fall semester comes right around the corner, use these best practices to ensure that your digital marketing strategy is future-proofed.  

From Pics to Vids

Video media is rising in popularity, especially with younger generations. This is prompting social media platforms like Instagram to take a more video-based approach to their branding strategy in order to reach all target audiences. Consequently, Instagram introduced more video watching features that bring a new depth to advertising and entertainment on the platform. 

The Takeover of Video Media

Tik Tok, a video-sharing focused social networking service, has ignited a frenzy of user-generated content and influencer pull. The power is now in the users and as such, TikTok has benefited from making their videos short, entertaining, shareable, and customizable to each user. These features align with the short attention span of users and their desire for a high level of engagement.  

TikTok’s platform also includes feeds titled “For You” and “Following”. These two feeds collectively hone into the individual’s likes, therefore making the app more appealing.  

Additionally, the TikTok algorithm differs from the “following” style of Instagram. With Instagram’s feed, the user customizes it with little recommendation. This is due in part to how interests, relationships, timeliness, frequency, following, and usage influence the feed. 

According to an article by The Conversation, the combination of a “feed” and videos makes TikTok very information dense. The article explains that, “video media operates on two parallel pathways conveying explicit information (the kind found in speech or writing) and implicit information (social cues like the TikTocker’s clothes and hairstyle, or emotional affect from music) at the same time.” Pictures are not as information dense, so they feel “slower” for users which further prompts Instagram to push for high-speed video sharing. 

How Instagram Adjusts to the Change

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, shared a video on July 30, 2021. He explains, “we’re always trying to build new features that help you get the most out of your experience. Right now, we’re focused on four key areas: Creators, Video, Shopping, and Messaging.” 

An article from The Verge also summarized Mosseri’s video by saying, “the message that Instagram is sending is clear: it no longer wants to be thought of as the “square photo-sharing app,” but instead as a general entertainment app driven by algorithms and videos.” 

To follow through with this vision, Instagram introduced “Instagram Reels” a concept where users can watch short videos on a continuous feed much like TikTok. Reels are the newest addition to Instagram Stories and IGTV, the forms of video sharing currently on Instagram. With this change, businesses must adjust and start curating engaging videos for all social media platforms. 

What the Rise of Video Media Means for Businesses

This video takeover is a turning point for many company’s branding strategies. Companies must now start using videos to highlight their products and services to promote the personality of their brand. The sole use of high-quality photography may no longer be enough. For instance, according to Social Beat, “41% of users use social media to influence their purchase decisions. Furthermore, 83% of users want to discover a brand’s personality through social media.” 

Whether the videos are interactive or informative, this prominent form of media makes brands more attractive to new and current customers. Showing a company’s products and services in action allows customers to see how the products and services can help “get the job done” in their own lives. 

Up Your Instagram Game

Video content has taken the world by storm and forced Instagram to adjust to a new media environment. Truly, now is the time to invest in influencers, video trends, social listening, and engagement. From creating perfect loops to setting up an aesthetic frame, Instagram’s newest video features will help many companies promote their message to target audiences worldwide. 

Your brand has a voice.

As your brand’s marketer, you have control over whether that voice builds your brand or not. A strong brand voice is the structure and tone of the copy and content that is created for a brand to speak from. You can hear this voice on its website, ads, social and in collateral. With consistency, a brand can feel like a person. And over time that person can become familiar and even recognizable. That’s when you know you’re doing it right.

Why does brand voice matter?

First, a part of your initial branding exercise, your brand might have completed something similar to what we call The Brand Elaborative. This branding document outlines the personality of the brand. This helps writers write in that voice when creating copy for digital and traditional marketing and advertising. One of the most important parts of The Brand Elaborative are the three personality words that describe the brand as if it were a person. For instance: honest, kind, quirky. So why does having a distinctive brand voice matter to your brand?

Brand voice drives consistency.

Our B2B client Agile Sourcing Partners specializes in helping gas and electric utilities and utility infrastructure companies improve operational efficiencies and performance. So, they speak in an authoritative voice with above average complexity of language. Given that their audience are decision-makers in engineering and other technical industries, it makes sense for them to speak the language of their peers. Thus, using this consistent voice in content sets them apart as insiders: educated and in-the-know.

Brand voice helps you discern what copy hits the mark – and what misses.

Our restaurant client Chocolate Angel Café & Bakery is a local favorite for cross-generational high teas, exquisite baked good and charming family recipes. They believe in serving one another and understand that relationships matter. Thus, their brand voice is connective, celebratory and conjures up memories of childhood. They express gratitude often, and make every day feel like a special occasion. So it’s no wonder they’re a favorite for bridal showers and family celebrations. If it sounds like your great aunt reminiscing about a casserole, then we’ve hit the mark.

Brand voice creates fans.

Our education client Faith Family Academy, a charter school in DFW believes in pushing public education beyond just the classroom. They speak in servant leader’s voice. FFA makes students the center of attention, celebrating wins and putting every effort possible into their individual and collective success. The social media channels for Faith Family Academy are a testament to this brand voice in creating fans. In both English and Spanish their fans celebrate right along with the students, staff and parents. The FFA community adds congratulatory comments and a plethora of emojis on a daily basis. So who wouldn’t want to be part of this kind of enthusiasm, joy and experience of being lifted up by your community?

Brand voice can make your brand the authority on subject matter.

Our real estate client The Slay Diaz Group is a woman-owned residential real estate team who regularly wins “best-in-class” awards for their work. As a result, their voice is very real, straightforward, easy-to-understand and ready to give helpful advice on everything home-related, even sharing their coveted list of service providers. This is who you ask when you don’t know if remodeling your bathroom is a good idea or not. And, this is who can tell you if now is a good time to sell your house, put in a pool or move to a new neighborhood. Their consistent brand voice has grown their business, their reach and their authority on the subject of residential real estate.

Brand voice lets people know what you stand for.

Our own brand voice here at Front Porch Marketing tells you that we will go the extra mile to help. That we share what we know without reservation. And that we will be your biggest cheerleader. We stand for lifting you up, making you laugh and creating opportunities for others to do the work they love while taking care of the people they love. If your brand has a mission, shouldn’t all of your content reflect that mission? We think that your brand voice can show your potential customers that you are like them – kind, helpful, positive – and they will want to hang around with people like that.

Need to define or redefine your brand voice for better consistency and stronger connections with your audience? Then get started with a branding exercise which results in the guidance documents you need to hone your tone and define your voice. Consumers actually prefer brands with strong, defined and unique personalities. And having a unique personality definitely helps in creating spot-on social content, email storytelling and website visuals for your brand – which results in stronger brand loyalty and repeat customers.

You can visit some of our Front Porch client brands to see different types of brand voice in action.

Do you think you need a marketing audit? We’ve said it before, and we will say it a million times over – consistency in marketing equals recognition. You have to be consistent in your branding across all channels and materials. You also have to be relevant to your audience in the current marketing climate. 

There is a simple solution to ensure your marketing materials are current, accurate, and consistently following your branding guidelines – an audit of your marketing materials.

What is a marketing audit?

A marketing audit is designed to make sure your materials are aligned with your goals via a review (or creation of!) your brand’s marketing plan. It is a fabulous way to keep you on pace in the marketing marathon.

Here are five reasons you may need a marketing audit:

1. It has been a hot minute. Maybe you’ve never done an audit of your marketing materials or perhaps it has been a long while since your last one. If it has been a year since your last audit, it’s time to rock one!
2. Demand shifts. Products and/or services routinely go in and out of style. Your offerings need to be effective based on current supply and demand fluctuations.
3. Products or services have changed. If you’ve added or removed products and/or services, your marketing materials need to reflect those changes.
4. Competitive changes. This is one area you absolutely want to make sure you’re keeping up with the Joneses. You don’t want stale messages to hold your brand back while your competitors offer fresh and inspiring marketing.
5. Contact information updates. If your address, phone, website or e-mail has changed, your marketing materials need to as well. If you’ve added – or need to add – a social media presence then your marketing needs to reflect that, too.

The market is constantly evolving and changing. Don’t let the materials designed to boost your brand get behind the times. A marketing materials audit gives your brand the boost it needs to keep rocking. Give us a call – we’re always ready help your brand reset and refresh.