okay yeah let's get started then perfect perfect I'm so excited
0:10
everybody's here I'm excited that we're here I'm ready to welcome everybody to lead Gen 101 I'm kind of sounding like a
0:19
first year Professor welcome to 101 unlocking the
0:24
secrets to Skyrocket your business traffic um I'm really excited I'm here
0:30
with Kesley Smith I'm mateline Johnson signups content and Community manager
0:35
today we'll just be you know covering everything from about leaden for like
0:41
whether you're a small business or whether you're an agency how you can drive traffic and build great strategies
0:47
that are gonna like Skyrocket your engagement Skyrocket your traffic get you some great leads um Kesley Smith is
0:55
the marketing director at zoch marketing um which is one of our partners and she is both the marketing director
1:02
and master of lead gen which I'm sure you'll come to see over the course of the next hour um yeah so Kesley why
1:09
don't you tell everybody about yourself absolutely well first of all thank you everybody for coming I'm so
1:16
excited to be doing this webinar with signup so thank you signup and meline for inviting me to do this I'm really
1:22
excited to share kind of tricks of the trade and help you generate more traffic to your business and more leads as a
1:29
result of that so my name is Kesley Smith as mentioned um not Kelsey I am the marketing director for
1:36
zoke marketing like Matalin said and I have nearly a decade in the marketing Arena working in all types of marketing
1:42
so brand marketing digital marketing B2B marketing and generally everything that falls under the wide scope of marketing
1:49
uh if it's marketing related I have experience in it so through the years I have hon my experience in business
1:55
development demand generation strategic Partnerships and lead generation I I found all of these efforts combined
2:02
really fuel you know strategies and um efforts that funnel Legion and create
2:08
sustainable results so over the last five years I've been at the directoral level so I strive every day to build my
2:15
skill set and expand my knowledge base I also strive to learn fresh fresh strategies and deploy new marketing
2:21
techniques every day to provide effective and impactful solutions for zoke as well as our clients and partners
2:27
as a whole yeah you your experience clearly shows in the way that you speak like I'm sure everybody's GNA realize that you
2:34
have some incredible gems about all things lead gen you're like an amazing marketer so yeah I can't wait to hear
2:41
what insights you have to say um why do we yeah like just give everybody a
2:46
little bit of background um on zoke absolutely so first of all thank you for
2:52
all those kind compliments um so to start off uh zoke was founded by our two co-founders so Sam rer our CEO and Doug
3:00
Powell our CFO um established so in 2012 with a Clear Vision to revolutionize the
3:06
online landscape for small businesses and over the last decade Z has grown at warps speed serving companies in VAR of
3:13
varying sizes and industries so zoke is undergoing an exciting Rebrand right now
3:19
so we're transitioning from a specialty partner specializing in you know wix's website design SEO um to a fullscale
3:27
comprehensive and contemporary marketing agency serving small to Enterprise level clients across varying Industries and we
3:34
offer a variety of digital marketing services so we really are transitioning
3:39
and have started the transition and are you know rebranding to become and encapsulate a you know onstop shop for
3:46
digital marketing and we've grown so much just in the last year alone that you know we've added new service
3:52
services and we're really keeping our clients and our partners at the focal point of what we do and you know
3:58
expanding our service space uh to accommodate their needs specifically great yeah I I've loved
4:04
hearing from you about the Rebrand and about the expansion um yeah and like a lot of cool Innovations you guys are
4:11
doing in the lead generation space as you're expanding and kind of reimagining your brand um yeah which is why I
4:17
thought you guys would be perfect to give some some insight so yeah so how how are you kind of building with the
4:24
Rebrand in mind how are you building out this this strategy with more like
4:29
marketing first yeah absolutely so um being that zoke was a very uh we were a
4:35
specialty partner partner that focused uh widely just on website design and SEO
4:41
um we started out as a very sales first company driven by referrals and outbound sales efforts so you know our our
4:49
process was more sales first you know referrals would come in they would go direct directly to sales sales would
4:54
convert into clients and then you know we would engage with them through like workflows and drips and things like that
5:01
but we didn't really have a robust marketing first approach because widely
5:06
our strategy was just outbound and referrals so as we transitioned into
5:11
more of that comprehensive marketing agency serving you know a wide variety of clients um in varying Industries we
5:19
transition to um lead with more of a marketing first approach to focus on
5:24
elevating our brand positioning and awareness to of course build trust credibility and engage with our target
5:30
audience through new lead sources so when you're targeting new lead sources
5:35
that are separate from what you have been doing from like warm referrals or from outbound efforts you have to
5:41
realize that these people don't know anything about you yet so you need to give them time to be nurtured and um
5:47
make sure that your strategies are reflective of your target audience and how they've interacted with your brand
5:53
so if you're targeting new lead sources to understand that they're not quite ready to buy but they're you know
5:59
they're ready to learn more about you so that's why we put hubspot's flywheel
6:05
approach to marketing kind of at the center of what we do so that pertains to attracting engaging and delighting your
6:11
audience while keeping your customers and your clients at the focal point of your marketing so when I came into Z I
6:19
worked very closely with my marketing operations manager to revisit all of our marketing strategies and ensure they
6:25
were optimized for this new marketing first approach right so we started building everything from the ground up
6:31
with more of a holistic approach so understanding you know where our target audience are is you know how we were
6:38
going to reach them you know how they were going to engage with us you know what information we were going to uh to
6:44
deploy and things like that so we started first of course with our brand strategy and positioning so we realized
6:51
that our uh you know our branding in our position was mainly still targeted at being a specialty agency so we really
6:58
wanted to elev at that to you know to capture our new positioning which you
7:04
know positions us as a fullscale OneStop shop marketing agency so we are
7:09
currently going through Rebrand right now so we're altering you know some of our branding our our messaging to really
7:16
showcase that we are the comprehensive you know leading marketing agency that
7:23
uh you can trust as your One-Stop shop for all your marketing needs so of course that will you know incor uh you
7:29
know rebranding messaging and largely our content strategy which will affect
7:35
all of our other marketing strategies so um next in turn is focusing heavily on
7:41
you know diversifying our lead sources through both our inbound and outbound marketing efforts so I'll go into those
7:46
a little bit later and then also identifying that you need to build
7:51
demand for your product or service or business so building demand especially for lead sources who don't know who you
7:58
are at are yet is at like the top of the funnel so building interest building
8:03
attraction and really engaging with our audience uh and building kind of like that want or that need for what we're
8:10
offering and then lead generation which is more the bottom uh bottom of the funnel is engaging and converting those
8:17
interested uh you know customers or you know uh visitors into clients so right
8:24
next yeah so next um you know our partners are huge part of our business
8:30
it's uh again how we started we started off of being you know off of our Partnerships and warm referrals so um
8:36
Partnerships and collaborations are huge especially for uh you know expanding our business so working directly with our
8:43
you know already established Partners to ensure that we are doing you know what we can to help Elevate their business
8:50
and you know expanding our services to accommodate more of the clients that you know they can send our way um and so you
8:58
know for example our partners such as signup and um and really focusing on
9:04
bringing in new Partnerships so building you know a referral program so our current clients and you know new
9:10
partners can send us referrals uh based on you know needs of Their audience and
9:15
what we can provide for them if you know they don't provide it themselves so um really focusing on elevating our
9:22
Partnerships our collaborations with our current partners and becoming a trusted company for you know expanding our
9:29
partnership base so of course you know making sure our current Partnerships
9:34
such as the ones with sign up and our current partners are strong and you know always improving and then always you
9:40
know finding new ones to uh expand our target audience so building out that
9:46
that demand to attract and engage our audience comes from ensuring these strategies are built for success for
9:52
this new positioning strategy so since we are operating since we were operating off of referrals and more outbound
9:58
efforts we weren't attracting potential customers through education or thought
10:03
leadership um and our branding and our website was reflective of that so we changed that to be reflective of you
10:10
know positioning us as a thought leader in the marketing agency so we really honed in on re on revamping all of our
10:17
marketing efforts to really focus on these you know core pillar pillars so
10:22
strategy being first so building a community and creating more business opportunities to drive results um
10:29
influence so developing an executive and Innovative approach to drive awareness
10:35
and growth and to continue to build and sustain audiences and business partner
10:40
relationships so next is Authority continue to build and improve our brand
10:45
and messaging to position us as a leading One-Stop shop agency so solidify and enhance our credibility and
10:52
revolutionize our brand so lean into positioning us as a thought leader and being the go-to resource for marketing
10:59
um where people and you know where our target audience can find a wealth of content and then also find services and
11:06
a trusted agency that can help them with all their marketing needs and lastly is going to be impact so recognize
11:13
expertise is essent is essential for Success especially since we all live in a digital age and it's widely saturated
11:20
especially in the marketing space so making sure that our marketing and our branding and our strategies are putting
11:27
our customers at the focus focal point and really solving their specific needs so elevating our visibility and our
11:33
influence to create value for our customers to create more business opportunities more Partnerships um and
11:40
in turn create more customers and more revenue for the company right right yeah and I I love
11:45
like that you mentioned kind of focusing on the customer obviously like building building inbound is really hard building
11:52
a marketing for strategy is very difficult but like if you Center on who your customer is who your partners are
11:59
going to be then you can build something that really brings value and really can you know have a good foundation to drive
12:06
leads and yeah to be successful yeah absolutely yeah and I I know you're
12:12
talking a lot about the Rebrand which is like insanely impressive like building from the ground up you have to Rebrand
12:18
because you're kind of changing your entire marketing strategy making it more you know marketing first instead of
12:23
sales first so in the midst of all this I'd love to hear about how you guys are nailing your messaging and branding and
12:29
any tips you might have for people who are you know trying to replicate the same yeah absolutely so uh following
12:36
that model so following keeping your uh your customers and your clients and your target audience at the core of what you
12:42
do is understanding who so as as Z so when we looked into this and looked into
12:48
the Rebrand and looked at you know where we want to be we really started to understand who we were versus who we are
12:56
and who we want to be so being adaptable and evolving towards the needs of your
13:01
clients because evolving so that you are accommodating your client needs is how
13:06
you're going to continue evolving as a business and keeping client retention as well so keeping your customers at the
13:13
center of your strategies uh because they you know they make or break your business so understanding how to attract
13:20
and communicate with your target audience and first that comes with first understanding who your target audience
13:25
is so understanding what problems your target audience is facing and how your
13:31
agency or your product or service can help Sol solve those problems or provide solutions for them so catering
13:37
specifically to their needs and providing messaging and resources that speak directly to them so building trust
13:43
and credibility with your audience so like I said you know positioning ourselves as a go- through Resource as
13:49
you know a Content Hub as a resource Hub and things like that um so we
13:55
implemented our Rebrand to accommodate you know Fresh brand awareness and positioning effort so z uh was making
14:02
significant changes both you know internally and ex externally you know we were launching new Services we are
14:08
hiring new employees and we really wanted to Showcase who we are transitioning towards you know this
14:14
being this full comprehensive One-Stop shop agency instead of a specialty
14:19
agency as we once were so our marketing first strategy really focuses on
14:24
building that credibility Authority strategy and influence really want our content and our marketing efforts to be
14:31
reflective of our expertise in this industry because like I said you know the marketing industry it's so saturated
14:38
and we really need to position ourselves as how are we different and how are we
14:43
you know how are we how are we better for example you know how are our Target why is our target audience going to you
14:51
know choose us as their trusted agency compared to one of our competitors so really understanding what our why is you
14:58
know what our unique value proposition is and what our competitive advantages are and that's a great piece of advice
15:04
for any you know any businesses it's really understanding who your target audience is what your why is what is
15:09
your you your unique value proposition what is your value ad and what are your competitive advantages uh compared to
15:16
your competitors so we are scaling towards being you know more thought leadership efforts uh like I said to be
15:23
a go-to resource providing a wealth a wealth of knowledge and expert services to essentially walk our talk um and so
15:31
we're implementing more nurturing into our into our new leads especially our leads who are finding us from
15:36
alternative lead sources so um for anyone you know who is in the space and knows you know what if you get like a
15:42
referral from either a company or a client or something like that those are
15:47
pretty warm leads right they uh they typically don't need as many conversations because they've already
15:54
you know they've already kind of dipped their toe they already know what what your service offering are and they're
15:59
already like interested in what you know you can provide for them with leads coming in from alternative lead sources
16:06
such as you know organic or uh paid social and things like that they're a little bit colder they they need to be
16:12
more nurtured they need to learn about your company and trust your company before they make that next step to
16:17
either you know um book a consultation um you know click a resource or uh or
16:22
make a purchase right so we are implementing more of our marketing first
16:28
strategy to be nurturing to our new leads so finding our new leads that are finding us from alternative lead sources
16:34
and understanding the conversion timelines from different lead Source strategies so um we really tweaked how
16:41
we were communicating with um you know let's say uh referrals from clients
16:47
versus New Leads who are coming in so um you know how we communicated with them
16:53
previously was in a very you know sales first approach and of course you know we still do take that approach when they're
16:58
you know when they're warmer coming in but for the leads that are coming in from different alternative lead sources
17:04
you really need to alter how you're communicating with them and alter your messaging so we tested Out Concepts and
17:10
um con communicated more casually and integrated the art of passive selling um especially to our new leads so what is
17:17
passive selling you ask um people are s are sold to 247 you can't do anything
17:23
nowadays without being sold to in some way so people are pretty sick of being directly sold to all the time so taking
17:29
a more marketing a first approach focuses on Solutions and results rather than direct to sale or otherwise known
17:37
as passive selling with the art of passive selling the focus is not selling at every turn instead you're focusing on
17:43
nurturing your leads by providing them with information tailored to their specific needs sound familiar so for
17:50
example um to walk our talk for example we noticed a huge increase in engagement
17:56
with a more nurturing and Casual community ification style in our email campaigns targeting New Leads so we AB
18:02
tested um on some active sale an active sales approach so more of like that
18:07
active selling approach versus a more marketing first approach and a more passive approach with some of our
18:13
unengaged um contacts with you know consistently poor open rates below 5%
18:19
and almost a non-existent click-through rate so when we tested out this more casual and passive um tone to these
18:27
contacts we saw a huge uptick in our audience engagement so open rates to
18:33
these unengaged and what we were calling you know dead leads for example because they were so unengaged um surged to an
18:41
average of 133% um in open rate and our ctrs
18:47
dramatically improved so ctrs meaning click-through rates dramatically improved oscillating between two% and 7%
18:53
when the industry St standard is 2% so we saw a huge
18:59
yeah it was insane we saw a huge huge upti uptick in engagement by just tweaking the way that we were
19:06
communicating to these segmented list so understanding that they were in a different position that they needed to
19:12
be more nurtured more you know talk to in a more conversational tone that wasn't so active in selling a service
19:19
right so these metrics really showcase how refining and adjusting your
19:24
messaging can hugely impact your lead engagement and and interactions overall
19:30
yeah no that those are crazy numbers like 7% click through rate I don't click most of the emails you know I don't even
19:36
open most of the emails I get every day people are always you're so right people are inundated with like people are
19:41
selling to you every day and sometimes people just need they need to know who you are they need to you know they need
19:47
a little nurturing first so yeah the the proof is in the numbers truly um
19:53
exact with the with that in mind I'd love to you know hear a little little
19:58
bit about how zoke is actually driving traffic and leads through inbound and
20:04
outbound yeah absolutely and to add to that point so um uh the point earlier
20:10
about numbers um I forgot to mention we are uh we were a averaging with those unengaged contacts with those this these
20:17
new Concepts um an average open rate of 35% when the industry standard is 22% so we really saw massive massive
20:26
engagement so that was that was something we were super proud of but um back to driving uh traffic and leads so
20:34
generating leads you guys involves a multifaceted approach so myself I like
20:40
building robust inbound and outbound marketing strategies that complement each other and create demand to then
20:46
produce quality leads so for those of you who are asking which I'm sure you are is inbound marketing first inbound
20:53
marketing is more of your magnetic or pole marketing gears more geared more
20:58
towards attracting your target audience so inbound is focusing on attracting
21:03
your best prospects and active and those actively looking online for results so
21:09
starting first with your website your website is your brand and your company's
21:15
first impression visitors will judge your website based on your digital experience and a highquality quality
21:21
website can and will position you as a thought leader when done correctly um as well as an indry leaders
21:28
so your website also acts as your digital home base so your website is where your content resides and you'll
21:34
drive traffic from other channels to your website so making it your home base
21:39
um it will be your resource in your content Hub so I've talked a lot about content and being you know uh you know a
21:45
resource Hub your website should position you as an expert and credible and trustworthy it should provide
21:51
valuable content and information to your target audience so blog posts articles
21:57
videos and other typ types of sharable content that are foundational to inbound marketing so your website is also the
22:03
primary location for capturing your leads so through content through gated content such as like white papers ebooks
22:12
webinars and tools that require contact information you can capture visitor information turning visitors into
22:18
idential lead identifiable leads so also your website needs to be managed and
22:24
maintained correctly so your website should be maintained you know onor regular basis to ensure it consistently
22:31
operates smoothly and is secure and safe because there's nothing worse than going to a website where you find broken links
22:37
or that take you to different pages that will never deter a customer fast customer faster or faster than having a
22:44
website that isn't reflective of what your brand does so next I will say this
22:50
so many times over the over the course of this webinar but content creation and optimization content is King and I will
22:57
will die on that hill so uh making sure that you have a wealth of content that
23:03
is uh easily sharable to share your message message so blog post so regularly updated articles that address
23:09
your target audien's interests pain points Solutions um ebooks and white
23:15
papers so comprehensive guides on specific topics that require users to provide their contact deal details to
23:21
download lead generation so infographics so appealing Graphics that break down
23:27
either com complex or complex information or data into more easily digestible formatting um videos so
23:35
videos are so educational they're so informational so providing educational
23:40
tutorials or explainer videos that inform or entertain your audience that or engage with your audience so um also
23:48
focusing on results focused content so case studies testimonials reviews Etc so
23:54
you can really say the proof is in the pudding um next is going to be SEO so
24:01
really optimizing your website for SEO so onpage SEO is optimizing individual
24:07
web pages uh with targeted keywords and meta descriptions and high quality content off-page SEO is building
24:14
backlinks from rep reputable sources to imp improve your website's Authority and
24:20
Technical CEO is ensuring your website is fast mobile responsive and secure so
24:27
next we're going into social media marketing we all know how important social is um so making sure you have a
24:34
good mix of organic you know organic posts that are informative entertaining and engaging um and making sure that you
24:41
are really creating a community online through social so responding to comments participating in conversations joining
24:47
groups forums that are relevant to your industry is a huge way to engage with potential Target audiences and you know
24:54
potential Connections in in your industry next is going to be landing pages so using specific web pages
25:00
designed to display a particular campaign product or service offering and Ed to convert leads um next email
25:08
marketing is so important and one of uh you know the one of my favorite ways that we're targeting leads right now um
25:15
so making sure you have a newsletter that you know sends company updates you know um anything need to know about your
25:20
business um you know that covers you know need to know topics specific you know questions that are being asked
25:26
things like that uh drip campaign so automatic sequences of emails that are sent to your users based on specific
25:33
triggers or behaviors and then targeted campaign Outreach so through so reaching
25:38
uh segmented audiences through um segmented email lists and you know um
25:43
adjusting your brand messaging and brand strategies and offerings um specific to the needs and uh wants of these specific
25:50
lists so that will also incore with um understanding your audience and understanding your audience's pain
25:56
points and also doing market research on your leads um and then next is
26:02
interactive and personalized tools so uh building quizzes and surveys so engaging
26:07
with Visitors by offering personalized feedback or insights based on their answers um calculators are great tool so
26:14
for specifically for Industries who um where customers might need cost estimates savings calculators etc those
26:20
are a great tool and then paid ads paid ads um so paid ads and semm are
26:25
extremely effective because um they are able to reach directly to your target audience through
26:31
demographics interests and behaviors and then next is my personal favorite so I
26:36
as I've mentioned a couple of times you know when we first began this company we were operating off of warm referrals um
26:43
and uh outbound sales efforts so building a referral program that encourages clients and partners to refer
26:51
more clients and rewarding them for closes so um with inbound marketing at
26:56
its core it's all about providing value so by creating and promoting content that addresses the needs and interests
27:03
of your ideal customers you can naturally attract inbound traffic that you can convert clothes and Delight over
27:09
time so going back to my flywheel approach so that was a very long-winded answer and I will go next into outbound
27:16
but mateline did you have I yeah I have a quick question just um you obviously
27:22
you mentioned a bunch of things and they're all like so important for driving leads and driving traffic but
27:27
for teams that might have less resources or may not be able to fully devote to everything especially like the different
27:34
content types that you mentioned obviously all are very helpful between white papers or videos or like tools and
27:41
other things um like what would you say someone should focus on if they're they maybe don't have resources to devote to
27:47
all these strategies so first thing you want to primarily focus on is going to be your
27:53
website so your website needs to really be your digital business card if you
27:59
will it really provides that first impression so making sure that your website is optimized um and that next
28:06
leads into SEO so having a home base and then having a method that is driving traffic to your website are going to be
28:13
you know SEO and website I think are the primary things that you should FOC focus on and then having you know you don't
28:20
have to so regular content is going to be essential especially for growth but start out with you know like one block
28:27
post per month or like one white paper per month that you can post on the website that lives on the website that
28:32
you can drive you know resources towards um I would also say social is a good way
28:38
to get started um for free so M making sure that you understand who your target
28:44
audience is and where they primarily live so let's say um you're a small
28:49
business owner and you know that most of your clientele resides on Facebook so building an active Facebook strategy so
28:56
not trying to bite off too much at once um especially when you're building up
29:01
because things like you know website will require consistency and content requires consistency but social media
29:08
rewards consistency so making sure that you understand who your T target audience is and where they primarily
29:15
reside on social media and building up like one or two platforms that you can really focus on but social is a great
29:22
way to get started um in social media it is a very
29:28
social media can be intimidating and it can be um it can be overwhelming but
29:33
that's where you can also partner with an agency such as zoke um that handles Social Media management for all you know
29:39
all business needs um but social media marketing is a good free way to get
29:44
started um with driving some of these lead gen efforts for sure exactly yeah and and how about
29:51
outbound what are your let's hear what you guys are doing for outbound as well absolutely
29:58
um I would also say uh a good starter is uh email because again email is free uh
30:03
you have email lists that are um that you already have through uh your efforts
30:09
and so really segmenting those lists and really positioning um your value to your
30:14
email list is going to be a starter uh strategy as well but no that's that's always nice to hear like low barrier to
30:21
entry not a lot of necessarily like resource investment required obviously to you have a good website you need to
30:26
invest some time and energy and money but yeah like email social um write a blog every month like
30:34
that that's something that that anyone could do yes exactly um so outbound so
30:40
outbound focuses on more of the push method of marketing so inbound being
30:45
pull outbound being push so instead of attracting your audience through pull
30:52
methods outbound is pushing information about you your product or services to a
30:57
broader audience so it's not as targeted as inbound so um going into that is going to be some paid external ads so
31:04
doing some advertisements in say newsletters podcasts um things like that
31:10
doing direct Outreach so reaching out directly to customers or Partners who you may feel like would be would benefit
31:16
from your product or service offerings um doing trade shows and imperson events
31:22
is a you know a great way to one um to network to Showcase uh your product or
31:27
service offerings to a broader scale and then also have more of those one-on-one conversations um cold emailing so uh
31:35
email marketing in an inbound sense um is different from cold emailing so cold emailing is sending emails to a broader
31:42
list without out segmenting or personalizing for individual recipients interests or behaviors so when you're
31:48
doing email marketing in inbound it really focuses on segmenting and personalizing to specific lists to
31:55
accommodate their specific needs and interest interest and then cold emailing is more about um sending to a broader
32:02
list without that personalization or segmenting um outbound telemarketing so
32:07
this is more on the sales side of our business um but it's similar to cold calling but um you know can also include
32:14
like scripted sales pitches that are delivered more over the phone um
32:19
so uh direct Outreach like I said is reaching out to Partners and clients um who would be a good fit to work with you
32:25
or your business um just display ads are display ads are on website to catch viewers attention and entice them to
32:32
click so they're not super targeted they're just placed on on a website um and then sponsorships so paying to have
32:38
your product or service promoted at an event or within media content so like let's say a podcast sponsorship or like
32:45
a let's say you do a bagd drop at an event so like putting like your let's say you sell pens putting your pen in a
32:54
event you know the bags that you get when you go to like an event or conference you know putting your product like in those bag that's what
33:00
technically would be a sponsorship um so while outbound ma marketing is extremely
33:05
effective it's often more costly than inbound um traditionally so if you engage in outbound practices make sure
33:12
you're tracking your investment um your Roi and the opportunity cost so that's going to be essential for growth as well
33:18
so here at z um we use a mix of definitely inbound and outbound strategies as they complement each other
33:23
really well for what uh we are trying to achieve with our business right which would you say has been like
33:30
the most effective for Z in terms of the different strategies um I would say as a whole
33:37
inbound for sure um as from a marketing perspective I know from the sales side
33:43
you know their outbound techniques really really do deliver and they really do work uh but since I'm not on the
33:48
sales side I I I don't really speak to that that much but they have a really robust um outbound sales efforts and
33:54
that's kind of again you know our company was started off of um warm referrals and more outbound sales
34:00
efforts so I will say that is an important piece but being marketing director and really building our
34:06
marketing strategy from the B ground up I can really say that our inbound efforts have been really effective for
34:12
sure um outbound is still super super important and I've had really great
34:19
success in direct Outreach uh you can't just uh with direct Outreach you um it's
34:25
it it's more consistent and it takes uh it takes more time to do but I've had really great um great results with you
34:33
know paid external ads um trade shows and in-person events and doing direct
34:38
sponsor sponsorships as well but I do know that our sales side does see really good results too from integrating
34:44
outbound like telemarketing and you know cold calling and things like that right
34:49
awesome um yeah let's let's get more nitty-gritty into the strategy I know a
34:55
lot of people who have joined they probably want to hear you know a little bit more about things that they can do
35:02
just I know you've gone into it a lot already but maybe like anything else you'd like to share in that realm yeah
35:08
absolutely so I would say when building any marketing or leaden strategy you ALS
35:15
you need to ensure that you're creating the demand first to funnel the lead genen so um I've kind of touched on this
35:21
a little bit but demand generation is more of the top of the funnel is how your business reaches new markets and
35:28
gets an audience excited about what you do and what you have to offer so the process really helps you increase brand
35:34
awareness it uh educates uh your audience and it generates trust and then Leen known as more bottom the of the
35:41
funnel um Leen is the process of increasing that audience interest in your business offering through nurturing
35:47
with the end goal of converting so people um with customers after so
35:53
converting people into customers after you know convincing them that what you offer um will help meet their needs so
35:59
providing those Solutions like I mentioned again so having a strong Foundation set for of course inbound and
36:06
outbound will scale um your abilities to generate demand and then in turn
36:11
generate leads so going right into strategy so like I said earlier um
36:17
having a really robust website that exemplifies who you are and what you do it should be your home base should be
36:23
your resource Hub a wealth of information um make make sure your website and your content is optimized
36:29
for SEO um so your website it's going to be your first impression so Make It Count make it last um you know how they
36:35
say you only have one chance to make a first impression it's true yeah your website
36:44
is your digital first impression so make sure that ending the right one um so
36:50
your search Eng engine optimization is crucial for discoverability so SEO helps
36:56
how you are found online and helps draic Drive traffic to your site so uh visibility across all platforms so
37:03
ensure your listing so your Google my business Facebook Etc are all set up and consistent with each other so making
37:09
sure your hours your social media accounts your um links are all consistent and they're all working so uh
37:17
these are all really important to make sure that you uh can be contacted or found easily because everybody is going
37:23
to search online first before they go visit some where so making sure that your Vis visibility is consistent and
37:31
strong across all your platforms um next is really driving into results so people
37:36
want to see why they should trust your business so as I mentioned earlier uh
37:42
your competitive Advantage your why your unique value proposition that you're offering in your you know nurturing
37:48
strategies is going to be your proof like how you walk your talk so your results that you can provide to
37:54
potential customers so reviews reviews are a great way to Source New Leads
38:00
because I don't know about you guys but before I buy anything or try out like a new nail salon or anything like that I'm
38:07
always looking at reviews so make sure that you um are asking you know customers for reviews good or bad
38:15
because you don't want to sway someone's you know experience because if they're
38:20
if they're if they had a great experience great but the negative reviews you really can learn from because negative view show you kind of
38:27
like where you're lacking in certain areas and what you can fix and it also shows customers that you can take
38:33
accountability you know you you're able to learn from your mistakes and things like that um
38:39
also true sorry it gives a little bit of nuance to your online profile too if you have some some more critical revie it
38:46
makes it seem like you didn't just buy a bunch of five star ones absolutely and we actually recently did a um a little
38:54
video um exclusive with with our because one of our I talked about having you know multiple partners one of our
39:01
exclusive Partners is trust pilot and we did a little exclusive like video kind
39:07
of webinar with them that talks about you know um navigating your reviews and
39:12
he even said like four star an average fourstar review rating is actually where
39:17
you want to be because companies who have all five star reviews seem a little
39:24
suspect in today's day and age they you know that so no one h no one no one has
39:30
had because you you can't please everybody we know this as humans you're not going to be able to 100% please
39:36
everybody so having a really solid like four star average review rating is
39:41
actually where he said is the best place to be because you have the people who really had a tremendous experience and
39:48
then you have some people that showed you know where you were lacking in certain areas and they really gave you
39:53
like the opportunity to change those things to you know fix you know whatever communication was with that client to
40:00
really like enhance their um their experience by reaching out directly to them it really helps you
40:07
drive your business forward because it helps you understand where you might be
40:12
falling short and where you're doing really well so actually you know negative reviews can really be you know
40:19
a blessing because they can really teach you certain things about where your business is lacking and where you really
40:25
need to focus on right um and then case studies so obviously if you have clients or people
40:32
who um you've worked with who have shown incredible results make sure you you know you're doing case studies with them
40:39
um you're evaluating kind of like what their what their process was what their experience was and you can share that um
40:44
of course you know get their consent first but you can share that um and use that as content to you know fuel more
40:50
leads so people when they come to your website they want to see results they want to see success stories so making
40:55
sure that you are really engaging with um your clients who have truly had a great experience with you um the next is
41:02
going to be social media social media is huge um it's a huge lead Source there's so much untapped potential in Social
41:09
right now so like I said earlier um social really rewards consistency so
41:15
make sure that you're picking one or two platforms that you can keep up with consistently where where your audience
41:20
is the most prominent so um not trying to bite off too many things at once uh too much that you can to um really
41:27
making sure you have a down pat consistent strategy on like one or two platforms and then you can expand once
41:32
you've kind of got the grasp on things um next is going to be building some free tools that will really draw on your
41:38
potential audience people love quizzes I love taking buz buzzfee quizzes I've
41:43
channeled that energy into creating um quizzes and personalized tools that
41:50
people can really appreciate that lives in like our target audience um because people love taking quizzes it makes
41:57
information more fun in my eyes um and really personalizing it again to keep
42:03
them at the focal point of what you do like making it personalized to their needs to their you know what problems
42:09
can you solve for them things like that um also offering you know free resources and things like that so like white
42:15
papers ebooks tutorials how-tos things like that um offer incentives so sales
42:22
giveaways so um what is unique about your business and how can you draw people into what you're offering uh what
42:29
is a specific problem that you can solve for them um what is your value ad how are you different from competitors offer
42:35
sales and incentives to really um help people you know test out your service uh free trials things like that um paid ads
42:43
and paid sponsorships So Paid ads help Target your direct audience and paid
42:48
sponsorships help you get moreo exposure through more of an established source so
42:54
I've said this once three probably five eight times and I will say it again
43:00
content is king So your content marketing strategy will ignite how your business is shared and perceived take
43:06
one thing away from this webinar content is so important um so content pertains to any
43:14
sharable content so um content that lives on your website uh content that pertains to video white papers blogs
43:21
sharable resources Etc so here are some key content p pillars that we use in our
43:28
in you know our strategies that will really help you get started so be a trusted source of information and really
43:34
position yourselves as an expert in your specific specific field really give your
43:41
business that value ad that unique you know perspective um those solutions that
43:47
people are looking for so educational and informative content so this is should be mo most of your content um but
43:54
the OB objective here is to to educate inform and inform our audience and positioning ourselves as marketing
44:00
experts um in the industry so with you that can be whatever industry you're in so examples of these uh step-by-step
44:07
tutorials uh tips and tricks uh research findings statistical findings um things
44:13
like that aspirational so this objective is to share success stories like I mentioned before testimonials and case
44:19
studies that showcase the transformative power and achievements possible with your industry expertise or with your
44:26
direct you know assistance um or your product or service so client success
44:32
stories inspirational tips um case studies content highlighting how working
44:37
with you or your product or service has positively affected clients um personal
44:43
so humanizing your brand so making it relatable relatable relatable and
44:49
approachable so doing like meet the staff post like so meet the people behind the company um behind the scenes
44:55
Peaks on social um content featuring you know relevant Trends memes and
45:00
emotionally engaging material so for example um we so for some you know
45:06
personalized more uh content that focuses on a trend but also captures what we do as an industry um we posted
45:13
on our social how we would design the Barbie versus Oppenheimer websites and we did
45:19
little and those were fun so keeping you know doing like trending topics but how
45:25
they pertain to your business um and really making it personal and engaging
45:31
and humanizing your brand showing that there are people behind the brand who really care about creating content that
45:37
resonates with your target audience um and then next is going to be collaborative content so the objective
45:44
here is to Showcase work and insights from our partners such as signup um reinforcing our commitment to
45:49
collaboration and shared knowledge so doing partner blog posts co-hosted webinars like this one
45:56
and success stories from Partners participating in our program like if we've done any work for any of our partners or let's say we have a referral
46:03
partner who um did like a white label partnership with us you know doing a case study on that
46:11
regard yes but those are some of my acable actionable lead genen strategies
46:17
for you guys just some just a few a few didn't want to go too in
46:24
depth no those are those are great those are great yeah like I hope anybody of
46:30
any business type can definitely take away like so many little lead generation findings to like go and now
46:38
do for themselves um yeah awesome I oh wait something happened did this switch
46:46
the oh yeah okay I did I did want to talk about I know you talked about little BuzzFeed quizzes little like how
46:53
can you you know bring value build a tool um for your you know for your
46:59
partners or for your customers or for cold leads or warm leads or whoever's on
47:05
your website looking to know you know what Harry Potter house they belong in you know that type of thing and um I
47:13
know many times or like which potato chip are you you know important stuff and um yeah I
47:21
know that um signup has been building tools I know you mentioned zil has been in the Rebrand thinking about doing some
47:28
tools I'd love to hear about anything you guys are thinking of doing and I'll explain a little bit um about what we've
47:34
been doing yeah absolutely so some uh a quiz that we did that actually did very
47:39
well is what is your marketing personality so um what uh what is a service that directly pertains to what
47:46
your personality is um so if you're more like analytical um SEO if you're more
47:52
like creative social media things like that um it was a really fun quiz and we really got some great engagement off of
47:57
it um so we are currently working on rebuilding our website um to accommodate
48:02
our Rebrand so our Rebrand will you know our new website will accommodate you know our new Rebrand and our new
48:08
positioning and messaging efforts and things like that so we will be building custom tools to really make the user
48:16
experience a lot better so um understanding so when you know people come to our business and they don't know
48:24
you know what services uh they want but they're not quite ready to talk to let's say a sales rep or anything yet they can
48:31
use let's say a quiz to understand kind of like what their business needs so so those are some of the things that we're
48:37
going to be working on we have some things in the works that are a secret right now but uh they will be available
48:43
on the new website once once we launch the new website with our new Rebrand so it'll be super exciting yeah no that
48:50
sounds that sounds really cool yeah at sign up we're like a huge we're a huge fan of tools we don't have any quizzes
48:55
but we do have um like a scan tool that a lot of our agency partners use that basically you know um an agency can use
49:03
it on the phone with a lead and show like here is the comprehensive picture
49:09
of your digital footprint so it shows you um like here's where your listings are kind of lacking here's where um like
49:18
if you're visible on social if your reviews like what your review rating is I put like a little a little video of it
49:24
on the screen so it shows yeah like your social visibility score it Compares you against competitors shows your search
49:31
visibility score if your website is showing up if your listings are accurate if you're listed across different
49:37
websites so like for like local marketing agencies or digital marketing agencies this is like a great a great
49:44
tool that our partners have like really been loving and we just you know updated it to be more enhanced more
49:50
comprehensive so yeah like I would encourage anyone if you're an agency and you want to use the scan tool we will
49:57
include materials about that in the follow-up email and if you're a small business and you're looking to build a
50:04
tool of your own like go for it whether it's a little quiz or a little calculator or anything you know just
50:10
having something extra that can really help um help leads kind of find their
50:16
way to converting and find their way to being more engaged and getting more value is never a bad thing yeah
50:23
absolutely um and that that is that is the end of all of our official content
50:30
but yay but we do we do have like a bit of
50:37
time for um a Q&A I know that um Z had some questions from a survey that they
50:45
ran of different questions people had but also if you have a question feel free to drop it in the um the Q&A chat
50:54
um or just in the normal chat I think there's two different ones otherwise we
51:00
can jump into some of the
51:06
questions okay um what is the first question I actually don't I'm screen
51:12
sharing so oh you're you're fine so uh we ran a survey uh you know letting our
51:18
our email clients know about this webinar and um we ask questions um about what specific questions they would want
51:24
answered during this webinar um so the first question was how important is your website for
51:30
Leen and the answer to this might know it is so important it is so
51:37
important it is crucial for lead generation for several reasons so firstly we live in a digital age most
51:43
consumers turn to the internet first when searching for product services or information so like I said website acts
51:50
as your home base and is your on and sometimes your online storefront if you're e-commerce um it it gives your
51:55
potential customers a first impression of your business and what you offer so a well-designed website should be
52:01
functional it should showcase your product in services and it provides a way to capture information about your
52:06
customers and uh for your leads to contact you um or to make a purchase so
52:12
for your website to do its job can't just be built and expected to generate leads it needs to be built for design
52:19
functionality and conversions so it needs to be optimized for SE search engines ensuring that your business
52:24
appears in search results when potential customers search for products or services you offer so when done
52:31
correctly your website is a 247 marketing tool that reaches potential customers even when you're not actively
52:38
promoting making it an assets for asset for any business looking to generate leads and grow so that's why I said your
52:44
website is one of the first crucial things that you need to do for your lead gen so important it's your first
52:50
impression got to make it a good one got to make it out right um
52:55
awesome so the next question we got was how do I convert website visitors into
53:01
clients love this question so converting website visitors into clients so that
53:06
will require a lot of different things um effective design compelling content strategic engagement and execution so
53:13
here are a few ways that you can optimize your site for conversions so your website needs to be clear and
53:19
functional and provide information about your business like I mentioned before um it needs to convey your value hook or
53:25
your um your competitive Advantage so visitors understand what you offer why
53:31
you need it or why they why they need it and why they should go with you versus versus your competitor so make sure
53:38
you're doing frequent website tests to identify any broken links any broken Pages any bugs or anything that can
53:45
potentially deter customers from your site so next is St CTA strong C ctas or
53:51
calls to action sorry Maline did you oh no no no I thought thought you were done continue oh no strong call to action so
53:59
um they must be implemented implemented throughout your site um to guide your visitors towards actions such as signing
54:05
up for a newsletter requesting more information about a service booking a consultation or purchasing a prodject so
54:12
don't make all of your ctas sales Focus remember how I said sales focus and
54:18
marketing Focus um because you will potentially turn off customers who are not quite ready to buy or make the next
54:24
step so make sure you have a good mix of marketing first call to actions um built to inform and nurture so like would you
54:31
like to learn more information would you like this free resource blah blah blah versus more sales focused ctas like
54:36
would you like to book a consultation would you like to book a sales call blah blah blah and then as discussed again
54:42
for the 15th time probably content is King your content needs to be engaging
54:47
and tailored to your direct audience and your visitors needs um again you need to build trust and credibility with
54:54
visitors to your sites so making sure that you have testimonials case studies industry certifications um and you know
55:01
your partners um on your site and uh reviews on your site can really Drive interest and Authority so engaging with
55:07
your visitors using live chat functions can instantly address their questions and gain trust with them and then
55:14
creating informative functional and engaging website experiences really enhances your ability to turn visitors
55:20
into clients awesome um we do have a Live question
55:25
um what are some tips you have about designing email campaigns and it sounds like a great question for you because
55:32
you guys had such success with your new your new email campaigns with the open rate and the clickthrough rates I love
55:39
this question and I love email so um I would say first with identifying who is
55:45
receiving this email so designing different email campaigns for different um email audience segments so segmenting
55:52
out your list based on lead clients unengaged contexts and really
55:58
segmenting them out based on um you know where they're at in your business also if you want to go even further and more
56:05
granular with it um you can segment them in according to like industry so like
56:10
for example in the marketing space we work with so many different industries that segmenting into Industries or by
56:17
location really helps us refine our messaging to be really um personalized
56:22
to that audience so again is going to be personalizing your messaging so making
56:28
sure that your who you're writing to is going to resonate with them so if you
56:33
have a mix of like smbs and Enterprise clients you don't want to design an
56:39
email campaign that is going to address them in the same way because they don't communicate in the same way so you want
56:44
to make sure that your branding and your messaging is reflective of who you are communicating with and what you are
56:51
trying to convey um I would always have at least two two call to actions one
56:56
being more like marketing focused and one being directly like more of a CTA more of like book a consultation book a
57:02
call whatever um don't make emails too long emails um because because you want
57:09
to uh keep delivering to uh your email health so if you use a platform like
57:14
HubSpot it will show you where your email health is at like where your deliverability and open rates and red
57:20
rate and things like that um people do not want to spend too much time you know
57:25
digesting content from an email so make it you know short sweet to the point
57:30
what are what there are the actionable takeaways from the email um and then making your value prop like what you're
57:38
offering in that email like let's say you're doing a discount or whatever making that big enough to see also
57:44
making sure your branding is consistent I would always always always recommend doing a preview for email campaigns on
57:51
mobile and website because if you are directing someone someone to a landing page and your landing page doesn't you
57:58
know respond well on mobile you don't want to send that email out yet because that will you know reflect Poly on your
58:03
brand so those are just some of my tried and true right right um Al subjects and
58:09
preview texts huge um make sure your subject and your preview text are optimized for your audience because they
58:16
will they will deter your or not sure they will affect your open rats
58:22
sorry no it it totally does yeah if you see if you see something that's that's not it has to catch your eye amidst your
58:31
inbox definitely um no new questions from the chat so we can move on let's
58:37
see how are we on time we do maybe one more question and then if there's any more audience questions we can cover
58:43
those and then call it a wrap absolutely absolutely so um I thought this was a
58:50
really interesting question we got is um how do I prepare Leen for the upcoming holiday season so holidays especially
58:57
for businesses are huge huge times to you know to really engage with your
59:03
audience and really Propel your business forward so preparing preparing lead genen is crucial for the holiday season
59:09
um and I've prepared a few key steps to help get you started so one is going to be updating your website so making sure
59:15
your website is mobile responsive loads quickly and clear of any bugs that could deter customers add landing pages to
59:21
drive customers to holiday deals or offers um offer special specials and
59:26
promotions so limited time offers discounts uh bundles can attract leads
59:32
uh promote holiday specific packages or deals um use email I love email so send
59:37
out holiday theme emails uh segment segment your list to offer personalized deals reminders and recommendations
59:43
remember to use strong call to actions um social media campaigns so create holiday theme static posts and ads
59:50
engage users with contests polls holiday giveaways uh make sure to utilize effective has hashtag strategies as well
59:58
and if you need help again with social media this is a service that we newly launched at zoke uh is social media management and we work with you know
1:00:05
businesses ranging from small Mom and Pop to Enterprise level clients so we have an accommodation for you in any
1:00:11
space that you need um retargeting campaigns retargeting ads um are used to
1:00:16
re-engage your visitors who've interacted with your website but didn't quite convert so remind them of maybe their abandoned carts or offer them
1:00:23
special deals um optimize for local Searchers so if you have a physical location or store optimize for local SEO
1:00:31
so many Shoppers will put like near me when they're searching during a holiday season so make sure everything is
1:00:36
optimized and make sure all of your listings are consistent again um install live chat and customer support So during
1:00:43
the holiday season you're going to get an increased amount of inquiries so chat Bots can help you answer more frequent
1:00:49
questions and FAQs while a responsive customer support team can assist with more complex is issues um plan your
1:00:57
budget so allocate a specific budget for Holiday promotions so consider investing
1:01:02
more platforms and strategies that hiso have historically you know performed well for your business so make sure you
1:01:07
to look at your metrics and things like that um measure and adjust so regularly track your performance of Legion
1:01:14
campaigns so use analytical tools to see what's working and where adjustments are needed and then um prepare inventory and
1:01:21
Logistics so if you're an e-commerce if you're an e-commerce business bus um ensure that you have enough stock of a
1:01:27
popular item of your popular items and then also communicate uh delivery times and clearly um manage customer
1:01:34
expectations as well um lastly start early the sooner you start the um to
1:01:39
roll out your holiday Legion the better and you can capture early bird Shoppers um and make necessary tweaks to your
1:01:45
campaigns along the way awesome okay there's no more questions in the chat so it looks like
1:01:52
that's the end for us awesome guys for having yeah no I was so great you gave
1:01:59
us like everyone so many great tips um yeah thank you everybody for joining the webinar um thank you Kesley again for
1:02:07
coming on and um yeah this was amazing and I hope everybody learned a lot
1:02:12
remember website first content is King the
1:02:18
most one more time oh wait actually someone oh
1:02:25
someone said nice to see you again nice to see you again too um join in the next one um yeah
1:02:32
thank you so much everyone um have a great day and have a great weekend one day
1:02:38
early happy Friday Junior happy Friday Junior so
1:02:43
true okay take care everyone bye guys
1:02:49
bye