Category: Email Marketing

Why Buying Email Lists Is a Bad Idea

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Email Marketing

You might buy an email list if you want to grow your email list. After all, it’s a quick and easy way to get started, right? Wrong! Buying email lists is a bad idea for several reasons: first, you’re likely to get sued for spamming people who didn’t opt-in to your list. Second, you can purchase email lists often filled with invalid email addresses. Third, purchased email lists are less likely to result in conversions than email lists built organically. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the dangers of buying email lists and provide tips for building an email list correctly.

Violating the rules of consent

Violating consent rules by emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list is a bad idea. It’s also illegal in many places. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives customers the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Many email service providers (ESPs) have strict rules about emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list. If you violate their terms of service, they can shut down your account. It’s not worth the risk to buy an email list. You could violate the law and get your ESP shut down. Email marketing is unsuitable for emailing people who don’t want to hear from you.

Reputable email services won’t do business with you

If you’re emailing people who didn’t sign up for your list, reputable email services won’t deal with you. So, not only is buying email lists illegal, but it’s also bad for your business. Don’t risk your email marketing campaign by buying an email list. It’s not worth it!

You can’t buy a good email list.

Even if you could buy a good email list, you shouldn’t. A good email list comprises people who have opted in to receive emails from you. They’re interested in what you have to say. They’re more likely to engage with your email and buy from you. On the other hand, a bought email list is full of people who have no idea who you are. They didn’t sign up to receive emails from you. They might not even be interested in what you have to say.

No one knows you on a purchased list.

Bought email lists are also full of people who don’t know you. When you email them, they will not recognize your name or brand. They might think you’re a spammer and report you. After all, according to Spam Laws.com, advertising-related emails make up 36% of all spam messages. Or they might just delete your email without reading it. Either way, you’re not going to get the results you want.

Your email delivery rates and IP reputation will suffer

When you email people who haven’t signed up to receive email from you, your email delivery rates will suffer. Your emails are more likely to end up in spam folders, and your IP reputation will take a hit. This hit can harm your ability to deliver email to the people who want to receive it.

You will be annoying.

Nobody likes getting an email from someone they don’t know. You will annoy many people if you email people who haven’t signed up to receive your email. And when people are annoyed, they’re less likely to do business with you.

Your service provider can penalize you.

If you’re using a service like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook to send your email, they can penalize you for sending email to people who haven’t signed up to receive it. This prohibited act can result in your account being suspended or even terminated.

We can help!

The AD Leaf was created to work with you to develop these marketing strategies to create the best experience for your customer and increase sales for your business. Our professional help will ease your stress toward marketing so that you can focus on all other aspects of your business. We will be your trusted advisor if you have questions about driving success this holiday season. Call us today! (321) 255-0900.

How Graphics Can Help (or Hurt) Your Content

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing

Let’s be honest, when we read blogs, articles, or the news, we scan through the images and headings to decide if we want to donate our time to this piece of content by reading it in full. If this is the case, this makes the images and graphics we include in our content a big deal. This can very well make or break whether or not your potential clients and customers are reading your content and deciding to go through with purchasing your service.

Regarding content, graphics can either help or hurt your message. Poorly chosen or executed graphics can confuse or distract from your content, while well-done graphics can support and enhance your message. In this blog post, we’ll look at how to use graphics effectively to improve your content.

Consistency

As we all know, consistency is vital when it comes to graphics and content. The overall look of your website and blog should be cohesive, with a consistent color scheme, font choices, and image style. This helps create a polished, professional look that will instill confidence in potential clients and customers. Therefore, images should be clean, free of imperfections or distractions, and most importantly, they should all align.

Remember that game you would play as a kid, Which One Doesn’t Belong? You would be given several pictures and have to pick the one that didn’t fit in with the rest. The same applies here. The professionalism is lost if there are polished, pristine images and one or two with different lighting or style.

 

Relevancy

When choosing or creating graphics for your content, make sure they are relevant and support your message. A creative, well-chosen graphic can be worth a thousand words, but only if it’s related to the topic. Irrelevant or confusing graphics will do more harm than good.

Ensure that if the person choosing the graphics is not the person who wrote the content, they should be in constant communication, ensuring the meaning behind the message is not lost in the photos.

Often, the images are the last piece to be added to any content, meaning that they are likely done quickly, possibly with less thought than the text required. However, the images paired with content have just as much, if not more, important than the content itself. A customer can be lost because the message was misconstrued or poorly relayed through inappropriate or inadequate graphics.

Purpose

Think about what you want your graphic to accomplish before you create or select it. Do you want to inform? Entertain? Persuade? Inspire? As long as your graphic serves a purpose and supports your content, it will be an asset. If it doesn’t, it will be a liability.

If the intention for the piece of content is to support your company and persuade the customer to make a purchase, the images should show happy people with the results of their purchase. Ensure that the purpose of the content matches the tone of the purpose of the image. A poor example of this is using entertainment-based images paired with persuasive writing. This could mean the loss of a sale.

So, graphics can help or hurt your content depending on how well they are integrated and how relevant they are to your message. Be thoughtful about the graphics you use, and your content will be all the better for it. However, if you struggle to do this for your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to our skilled professional team at The AD Leaf.

Email Marketing Melbourne FL | The AD Leaf ® ®

Generate Leads All Year with Email Marketing

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Email Marketing

With these email marketing tips, businesses can generate leads that lead to revenue all year round. A 2015 study by the DMA found that for every $1 spent, email has an average $38 return on investment (ROI). This is huge for businesses since with just a little effort invested into a great email campaign strategy. The campaign could pay off in a big way!

Step 1: Generate an Email List

The first thing is to start gathering emails from past or potential clients. Don’t worry if a list is only a couple hundred subscribers. A healthy growing list is better than thousands of users. For example, a business that compiled a list of 150 people from networking events and clients could generate more leads and revenue than a gigantic list. This is because these people are specifically tailored to your industry. Then, don’t sell to them but educate using intelligent material like a high-quality, topical blog article. This presents you as a thought leader, which people are more inclined to reach out to for advice. This advice then turns into a sale. 

Step 2: Create a Plan

Even though your product or business could appeal to a wide variety of people, it is crucial to define an audience. Choose exactly who to reach and the best messaging to communicate with them. This helps to create personalized and targeted emails that help increase engagement and build trust. How did users sign up for emails? This signup source can help create a customer journey segmented into groups. Each group should have a different message. Also, in this plan decide the sending frequency. Sending too often, and subscribers will flee. Wait too long, and subscribers won’t have a relationship with you. It is like a memorable courtship that needs to be nurtured correctly.

Step 3: Craft an Open-Worthy Subject Line

The average person receives 121 emails per day. You need to cut through the digital clutter. The best subject lines are concise and grab your attention. Some examples are:

  • Please Touch Me! Enterprise Delight via Multitouch
  • Defense Against the Dark Arts: ESAPI
  • Do Gamers Dream of HTML5 Sheep?
  • Baby Got (Feed)Back

Another trick is using punctuation marks. Question marks and unusual punctuation offer another method for standing out. Try to avoid exclamation marks as they are over-used for attention. The best use of this is using question marks to ask your readers a question. For example, “Rough Day?” “Want to save 10%?”. Just make sure your subject line doesn’t go over 50 characters since those with less have higher open rates.

Step 4: A/B Testing

A/B Testing or Split Testing is an effective way to learn more about your audience and get the best results from an email marketing campaign. A great start is testing multiple subject lines. These are the most important and make or break a campaign.

Play with email lengths. According to Boomerang’s research, the ideal length for an email is between 50 and 125 words. Emails that fell within these two lengths netted a response rate above 50%, proving just how important it is to pay attention to your messages’ size.

Change the images. Maybe a GIF would be more engaging, or maybe an audience wants more or less of them. A/B Testing will tell that information.

Step 5: Analyze Your Campaign

When looking at how successful a campaign is, examine opens, and clicks. It is also important to compare these to other companies in an industry. Don’t just look at how a campaign did, but look at the traction to your website or e-commerce store. These are all important to conversion rates.

Need Personalized Email Marketing Lead Tips?

Do you need more help in formulating an email campaign?  Want to get more email marketing leads? Why not set-up a one-on-one call with us? During your personalized strategy session, we will walk you through everything you need to know to make a killer email marketing campaign. Contact us today.

Is Your Marketing Cutting It? Here’s How To Make The Most Out Of Your Budget.

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Advertising, Email Marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization

Let’s cut to the chase: without proper marketing, your business is set to struggle. In today’s digital age, having an online presence is more important than ever. Even if you do have a digital presence, are you truly making the most of it?

Whether you’re new to digital marketing or have been in the game for a while, it might be time to reassess your budget. According to BDC, your marketing budget should be between 2 and 5% of your revenue for business to business, B2B, and between 5 and 10% for business to consumer, B2C. The term marketing is broad, so you may be wondering how you can know what you should be putting your investment in. The AD Leaf is here to break down how you can truly make the most of your budget.

Marketing Is An Investment

Something to keep in mind when planning out your budget is that marketing is an investment you are making and not simply an expense. When you pay for marketing, you are hopefully going to see results that will help your company endlessly. While it can be hard to justify spending the cash, especially for small businesses, there are so many reasons why marketing is worth the investment. When you market your business, you are:

  • Building brand awareness
  • Increasing your sales
  • Alerting potential customers and clients to new deals, offerings, and sales
  • Building a customer base
  • Taking advantage of social media and other online spaces
  • Putting your business where your customers are
  • Receiving analytics to help improve your future business strategy

Get The Most Out Of Your Marketing Budget

Marketing budgets can be hard to set for small and big businesses alike. It takes a lot of trial and error to find the right combination of online platforms to get a good ROI, return on investment. We have a few tips and tricks up our sleeve for you to use to get your business off the ground.

  • Start your business off on the right foot: New businesses can have a harder time breaking into an established field. By spending a little extra money upfront, around 15-20% of your revenue depending on your industry, you can get a boost into your target market. Once your business becomes a little better established, you can drop your spending to about 5-10%.
  • Try competition matching: Take a look at what your competitors are doing that’s working for them. Could it also be applied to your marketing strategy? If so, you might be able to get inspiration from other players in the field.
  • Keep your goals in mind: Having a goal-driven marketing strategy is one of the best ways to reach your objectives. Try using the acronym S.M.A.R.T. to set your goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Keeping this acronym in mind will help you set goals you can realistically hope to achieve with specific ways to achieve them.
  • Imagine yourself in the customer’s shoes: While this is a pretty straightforward piece of advice, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that you should always think of what’s happening on the other end of your marketing. Are you solving a problem for a customer, or are you just trying to sell a product? Always keep in mind your customer’s journey all the way from your advertisement to them clicking “complete purchase”. What keeps them clicking through? You should also ask yourself how many leads you are getting, and how many are turning into paying customers. Focusing on the buyer is crucial to your marketing success.
  • Keep your ROI in mind: When you start spending on marketing, make sure you are tracking your ROI. By measuring your ROI, you can determine if your budget needs to be adjusted, or if you should increase your spending.

Who We Are

The AD Leaf Marketing Firm is made of experts well-versed in social media research and content creation. We would love to conquer the world of ever-changing social media and research for your company and help sky-rocket your business’s online presence and social engagement. Contact us today for more information on how we can help you grow by using our online form or call us at 321.255.0900. You can also email us at info@theadleaf.com. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Be Concise! Less Is More With Email

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Marketing | , ,

Email: The Foundational Tool

In the world of marketing, email is one of the most fundamental tools at our disposal. It maintains its mainstream appeal through its accessibility to clients and consumers alike in communicating time-sensitive information. As foundational as email marketing is to the practice, new trends are still emerging that maintain its modernity.

One emerging cultural trend that has been incorporated into the way we use email in marketing is minimalism. Minimalism has impacted email marketing by transforming emails from long-winded chunky blocks of text to concise straight-to-the-point communications that are easily digestible for consumers. 

Why Less Really Is More

  • Ease of Consumption

Skimming has taken over the way we digest media. Our eyes pick up on keywords and bolded text to access the importance of information and let our minds fill in the blanks. With such an excess of media to consume, our time to absorb it all has remained the same. To account for the discrepancy, we’re largely left with one of two options: skim the content or condense the material itself so that it’s less to read. As a marketing professional, making the material easier to interact with is where we step in.

  • Consideration for the Reader’s Time

Clients and customers are on a time budget. Their email accounts are bombarded with numerous emails not unlike your own. Being courteous and condensing your content and information into concise language delivers your goals without sacrificing the time of your clients and customers which they will be appreciative of in the long run. Requiring less reading time from your customers and clients inevitably allows them more time to follow through with the action your email is asking of them.

  • Earn the Favor of Your Audience

Recipients on your email list will value your content more if you show respect for their time and energy. Being concise and writing clearly consistently builds a reputation for the communications you disseminate to your audience. They’ll know what they’re getting every time they open one of your business’ emails and know that it’s going to be easy on the eyes and easily digestible. This will improve your open rate and translate into more conversions for your goods or services and better business for all parties involved.

  • Condensed Writing Encourages Clearer, More Engaging Content

Whittling down the length of your email content forces you to weed out unnecessary information. It forces the writer to think carefully and consider the necessity of each word and sentence. Editing your email content in this way inspires creativity in the way each piece of information gets delivered. Editing out extra sentences and words encourages clearer thinking on the part of the writer and the intended audience as well. The result is writing that gets straight to the point and tells the recipient what they need to know without requiring a substantial time investment.

  • Images and Bulleted Lists Are More Substantial

Substituting lengthy blocks of text with pictures and bulleted lists break up monotonous reading. They capture interest, convey meaning without requiring as much reading, and make for a more aesthetically pleasing design. The old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” exhibits the staying power of this email marketing trend of conciseness.

Bulleted lists benefit this strategy as well by grabbing the attention of the reader and directing them to smaller blocks of important text. This gives you as the writer the opportunity to position some of the most valuable pieces of information to a spot you know the reader will see them.

  • Know Your Audience

Of course, different emails and different email recipients require a different depth of information so it’s important to consider your target audience and who it is that will eventually be opening your marketing emails. A technical client will likely require more in-depth dialogue in their marketing emails based on their industry than regular clients will. If the situation calls for more writing follow your gut and do what you think is best given the situation.

Transform the Way You Reach Your Customers

Looking to increase the open rates or improve conversions of your email campaigns? The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm, LLC is specially fitted to transform the way you reach your customers and clients. Our team of marketing experts has the experience and knowledge to take your future email campaigns to the next level. Contact us today for more information about how we can help!

The Importance of Brand Awareness on Social Media

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, Marketing, Social Media, Website Design

Brand awareness is when potential customers can recognize your brand based on your name, logo, colors, or fonts.

These potential consumers may remember your packaging, phone number, location, or slogan. These essential features act as a mechanism for possible purchase. Representing your brand starts from the ground up. A simple logo design that people can easily recognize, colors that pop and a clear visual font are of the most importance.

How do you want to be represented online?

A consistent presence on social media is key. Your content may continuously change, but the visual appearance surrounding that content will eventually influence potential consumers. Especially those that are interested in your content and what you offer. The more people who see your brand, the more likely it is that they will purchase from you rather than a competitor who does not provide a consistent image. Think about how much content you see when your scrolling through your feed. You probably have a couple of brands that you can think of right off the top of your head that you saw this morning, that you also saw last night. You may not have actually interacted with the post or ad, but you saw it, and now it’s in your head. Your brand’s consistency is essential, and that consistency is how people associate themselves with your brand.

Brand awareness is based not only on the amount of content you share but also on its quality. In order to increase brand awareness through your social media, your content must be interesting and useful to the consumer. Whether it’s a video or a blog, your content must catch your audience’s attention. That is the primary way to create engagement and, therefore awareness.

To do this, you’ll want your content to be up to date. Search for the latest news or trends in your industry and implement how you would use them in your business into your posts. People may already know what you offer; therefore, you want to engage people that are interested in your brand, and the more current your content is, the more likely they are to comment, like, or share your post to their page, group, or better yet, their own business.

Brand Loyalty

Learn about your audience. It is best to collect all of the information you can get about the people who interact with your products. Engage and attract customers by planning, creating, and showcasing the most relevant and high-quality content on your selected marketing platforms. Quality and relevance are crucial considerations for achieving customer engagement and conversion.

Once a consumer makes a purchase and is satisfied with that purchase, the chances are good that they will come back to you. People associate trust with what they are buying, and once they associate that trust with a logo, color, or font, the rest is putting a product in front of them and seeing what happens.

People are more likely to purchase from businesses that have values they admire or appreciate. Whether it is community service, donations, or even the brand mission statement, people want to spend money at businesses that represent values that are important to them. If you’re a small business, think local.

Feedback is a great tool to increase your brand awareness. People like to be heard, and by keeping track of their interests, you can also increase brand awareness since they will most likely remember how good the interaction with your business was. Liking posts and commenting back to people let them know that they are heard. The quicker this interaction takes place, the better. The mind of a consumer moves fast, and having the thought of their post when you comment or like back is an instant acknowledgment of their post, which sticks with them.

Brand awareness is mostly reached by offering and delivering good quality products to your clients. Social media can help increase your business’s visibility and be a great window to allow the audience to participate and interact with the brand. From this interaction, memories will be created and will give a boost to the brand awareness that you need.

Content Marketing

Making Creative Content with Results

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, Marketing, Social Media

Content marketing is a tried and true method of grabbing your audience’s attention. However, this has its downfalls because you have to compete against your peers. You want your content and blogging to stand out. This is why giving your content a creative spin is so important. There are a number of ways you can help your content give an extra twist.

Decide What You Want To Market

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of making your content, you first need to decide what exactly you want to market. Perhaps you have a new service you want to announce to your customers, or maybe you just want to amplify a service most of your customers did not know you offered. Whatever it is that you want to market, make sure that your marketing focuses on this product or service. You want to make sure that its usefulness and benefits are still the main focus.

Define Your Audience

You want to make sure that both the concept you are marketing and the marketing you plan to execute revolves around your target audience. Who do you believe will benefit the most from this product or service? 

For example, if you are a roofing company that wants to market your shingle repair services, you want to market yourself towards homeowners. If you want to go further, you may want to research online search trends to see further demographics who might be interested in your services, such as gender and age.

Types of Creative Content

Now that you have decided what to market and who to market to, here is the fun part: deciding how to creatively market your product or service. There are some different methods and mediums you and your business can utilize. Here are just a few:

We will be walking through the benefits of using these types of creative content for your marketing, as well as why you should choose The AD Leaf ® for whatever creative content production you decide upon. 

Videos For Content Marketing

Videos are great for easygoing and quick bites of information. Your customers can use these videos to gain a basic knowledge of your service or product. Furthermore, videos can be easily accessible to your consumers, as they are easy to share onto multiple platforms. The AD Leaf ® can help you create the perfect marketing videos using the best equipment and software on the market.

Blogs For Content Marketing

Blogs are perfect for customers who want a more in-depth and intimate explanation of your services and products. They are also a great way for your audience to get to know your business on a personal level through blog posts on your employees and your company’s culture. The AD Leaf ®’s team of content marketers will be able to guide you through the blog-writing process in an easy and efficient way.

Electronic Media For Content Marketing

Electronic media marketing can apply to anything from television advertisements to email marketing. This can result in new customers finding out about your services or products and older customers coming back to you for repeat results. Whatever your electronic media marketing needs are, The AD Leaf ®’s team of experts will help you decide what is the best course of action for your company.

Print Media For Content Marketing

Even in an environment populated by digital media, print media marketing is far from dead. Print advertisements are more flexible to promote, as you are able to choose where you want to publish your advertisements. The AD Leaf ® will help you determine the right course of action for your print media to make sure you are reached to as many potential customers as possible. 

Infographics For Content Marketing

For people who want the basics of your business and products, infographics are a great way to share your information. The effectiveness of infographics has been scientifically tested, with researchers at Thermopylae Sciences and Technology discovering that people “[process] images 60,000 times faster than text”. With this in mind, let The AD Leaf ® help you condense your important information into an easy-to-digest infographic with our graphic design

Social Media For Content Marketing

Finally, social media is perhaps the biggest source of creative content marketing on the market at the moment. It is so effective because you can create your own campaigns centered around your service or product while also promoting your other campaigns; for example, linking your blog post on a social media site can increase traffic towards that blog post. The AD Leaf ® can help you create the perfect social media strategy for you and your business.

Contact Us

Here at The AD Leaf ®, we are committed to providing you with the best and highest quality services possible for your business. We specialize in various different types of marketing, from video production to social media. Call us at 321-255-0900 or visit our website to schedule an appointment today.

Email Subscribers

Keeping a Positive Rapport With Your Subscribers in the Face of COVID-19

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Email Marketing

As marketers, as business owners, and as fellow humans, we are in trying and unprecedented times. In the face of a global pandemic, many people are wondering how they are going to keep themselves and their families safe, while still effectively managing their business. The key to surviving these troubling times is communication, and there is no better way to do that than a built out digital marketing campaign. While there are many components to a successful digital marketing campaign, there is even more to think about in the face of a global pandemic. A business owner must balance a sense of compassion with the need to share helpful information to keep their consumers informed. One of the best ways to connect directly with the people you know you are doing business with is through your email campaign. 

 

Whether you are loyally sending out email campaigns every week, or are just looking to dust off that subscriber list, it can be easy to rub consumers the wrong way with your communication during these tough times. Here are some ways to keep a positive rapport with your email campaigns. 

 

Be Honest, Compassionate, and Helpful

Transparency is key. The benefit of having a subscriber list is that you have already cultivated a sense of community. These users have either been past customers of yours, subscribed to your newsletter, or have otherwise opted in to get more information from your business regularly. Now is the time to be honest with them and let them know you care while sharing pertinent information about your business. If you were forced to shut down, or reduce hours, make it known that it is for the safety of your loyal customers. You care about them and their well being, make sure they are staying safe and let them know that you will see them soon. 

 

This can also be a great opportunity to share any updates to your business model you may not have had before. If you have updated your strategy to include curbside pickup, delivery online shopping, etc, share that, your customers may love to know you are still in business. In times of uncertainty, people look to brands and businesses in their community. Showing that you are still working hard to deliver the product or service you love while keeping yourself, your employees, and your customers safe will go a long way in showing your solidarity and dedication. 

 

Be Conscious

While you may have the best of intentions, it is important to remember that emotions are high, and in our current environment, it can be easy to rub your subscribers the wrong way. Be mindful of your subject lines, and the emotional impact of the language you are using. You won’t want to come across too spammy or to look like you are trying to capitalize. Spare them the “Coronavirus Flash Sale”. These types of subject lines come off as insensitive, and tone-deaf. Instead, try the more sensitive “We’re committed to helping you through this by offering free delivery”. 

 

This said, you also want to make sure that if you have an important update, it is being heard.  Words like “update”, “community info”, etc are a dime a dozen right now, and chances are, your subscribers are being inundated with subject lines like these days in and day out. The best course of action is to remain genuine and make sure to communicate clearly and effectively.

 

Let Them Know You Care

The worst thing you can do right now is to stop communicating altogether. Pausing your communication, or “going dark”, is a quick way to have your consumers forget about you. Like we mentioned, in times of uncertainty, consumers will take notice of which brands have pulled back and which brands are still engaging with their community. If you don’t want to, or can’t market your services right now, it may be a good time to think about alternatives. Try focusing on how you are giving back, share ways that your consumers can keep themselves safe, or what they can do to still support local businesses. If curbside or delivery is not an option, many businesses have taken to promoting gift cards. This is a great way to still promote sales and help your community support your business by earmarking some time to come visit you when it is safe. 

 

As a marketer and as a business owner, the best thing you can do is, to be honest, consistent, and compassionate with your subscribers. The fact is, how brands handle this situation will establish brand trust for years to come. If you need help crafting the perfect messaging with support from a digital marketing campaign, contact The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm. Together, we will partner with you to help you navigate these difficult times and help your business thrive.    

Digital Marketing Strategy

Why Businesses Need Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, Marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website Design

Why Businesses Need A Digital Marketing Strategy To Survive COVID-19

In the coming months, businesses of all sizes are going to become extra reliant than ever on their digital marketing strategy. Without wanting to sound too much like a killjoy, in many cases, it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times that are ahead. 

The unparalleled, and almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge to any business model. 

B2B companies, in particular, rely on the annual circuit of trade shows and exhibitions to network and build customer relations. In industries that are not digital-native, they may also be less sophisticated in their digital growth and customer relations strategies. Especially in the case of smaller businesses that are used to getting new customers strictly word-of-mouth referrals or on the strength of a hard-won reputation, their loss is going to come as a shock if it hasn’t already.

Larger companies are now finding themselves in the position of having potentially lost millions of dollars from canceled events alone. They won’t claw back the hours of time and expense spent on preparations for this year, but insurance and flexible cancellation policies are going to leave them with some marketing budget to reassign. Digital Marketing in any aspect is likely going to be the clear and obvious choice here, and companies that may not so much as had a Facebook page before will need to move into social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, and even influencer-led campaigns. 

This, of course, means there are opportunities out there for the taking and a key factor in resilience is adaptability. If it’s standard in your industry to go out and meet new customers face-to-face before you do business, adapting may mean opening new channels over web or social media platforms where introductions can be made and relationship fostered. In the coming months, you prospective clients are going to be less open to the idea of letting you walk through the door and shake their hand, and no-one really has any idea how long this will last and whether this will lead to longer-term change. 

We are going to be in some uncertain times, but with the increase of remote working and a collaborative approach, companies are going to turn to digital channels and embrace the transformation. There has already been a real spike in the last few weeks from companies wishing to create or update their websites, launch new social media channels and campaigns focused on home-workers and a real focus on using influencers and SEO to reach new audiences. 

Being confined to the office — or even the home — rather than on the road on sales visits or at events, means marketers are going to have more time to develop digital marketing strategies. This means researching where your customers can be found online, and how different approaches and tactics might impact your success. If your organization previously put minimal efforts into digital channels, now is going to be a prime time to revisit them. That could be as simple as giving your website or social media pages a refresh, or a more innovative approach. 

A key point to note is that a lot of corporate entities use up about 50-60% of their marketing budgets on events. When things go back to normal, budgets will most likely be going back to those live face-to-face events, but if organizations can see the benefits and opportunities that digital marketing can offer, they might understand the benefit of adding it to their long-term marketing strategy. 

Channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn Live are going to be crucial moving forward as the ability to connect with a targeted audience real-time is very beneficial, if not essential. 

It’s certainly true that the coming weeks, or months – or however long this situation lasts – will be a challenging time for any company that isn’t ready to think about how they will replace the opportunities that have been lost. 

As long as businesses can approach the shift to digital marketing strategically, there’s no reason why it should just serve as an emergency fill-in but could carry on providing long-term value when the world eventually gets back to normal. And of course, this would make companies more resilient to deal with any future pandemics. Do you need help with your Digital Marketing Strategy? Looking to take your social media or SEO to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today and weather the storm that is COVID-19!

Marketing Agency

5 Reasons To Hire A Marketing Agency VS An In-House Team

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Marketing Firm
Content Writing, Email Marketing, Graphic Design, IT Services, Marketing, Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website Design

Should you hire a Marketing Agency or build an in-house team?

In today’s digital landscape, there is no shortage of marketing options for businesses. From freelancers and marketing agencies to hiring your own in-house team, companies have more choices than ever before, specifically when it comes to online marketing. As your business grows, you will need to consider how your marketing will be handled, including whether to hire new employees and build an internal marketing team or empower your brand through a Marketing Agency.

While each has its own advantages, a full-service Marketing Agency provides substantial value to large, medium, and even small businesses. They strive to build cohesive and effective brands, put organizations in front of their customers and audience, and drive sales through awareness.

5 Reasons to Hire A Marketing Agency

1. Unparalleled Experience

Why piece together individual talents when you can hire an experienced Marketing Agency to handle everything for you? One of the major advantages of hiring a Marketing Agency is a professional experience. In fact, a good agency will have specific knowledge in a wide range of industries and markets, along with experience facing a diverse range of scenarios and challenges never encountered by many newer business owners. Having a knowledgeable and experienced staff at your side can produce immediate results for owners, helping to quickly get your marketing efforts off the ground.

2. Broader Skillsets

It can be difficult to locate suitable in-house employees with branding and marketing skills such as SEO and graphic design. By hiring a Marketing Agency, you’ll not only have the necessary tools to achieve your vision for success but a suite of creative services at your fingertips.

For example, a full-service Marketing Agency can assist clients in everything from rebranding their company image and website, developing their print and direct mail campaigns, and creating a social strategy to boost SEO and PPC campaigns. With a Marketing Agency, a client may choose to utilize one service or all them–whereas, with an in-house team, businesses are limited in what they can achieve.

3. Fresh Perspective & Inspiration

Another major advantage of hiring a Marketing Agency is a new perspective. A marketing team can help inject new life into marketing efforts, helping to identify unseen opportunities and enhance current campaigns. One example is social media marketing. With more companies looking to broaden their social reach through sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, a Marketing Agency can significantly enhance a brand’s approach to social media, including how they’re perceived by their audience.

4. Speed, Efficiency, and Consistency

As an up-and-coming business owner, you’ll be forced to wear several hats when getting your business off the ground. Generally speaking, this will almost include tackling aspects of the business you’re unfamiliar with, such as branding and digital marketing. With only so much time in the day, it’s important your marketing approach doesn’t suffer from time restraints or inexperience. Hiring a Marketing Agency can easily solve this dilemma.

5. More Affordable Than Hiring In-House

The cost of hiring and maintaining a team of in-house marketers can be very expensive. For smaller businesses, this expense may be too much to afford.
One of the more surprising benefits of hiring a Marketing Agency is cost-effectiveness. Along with providing a plethora of knowledge, experience, and skillset, a Marketing Agency is almost always more affordable compared to hiring a full-time marketing team. For example, after hiring a marketing manager, web designer, graphic designer, content writer, and social media manager, the total cost can reach upwards of multiple six figures a year! And that’s not even including the cost of employee benefits.

Marketing is the heart and soul of any business. At The AD Leaf ®, we’ve spent the last 25 years working with a diverse range of clients — from healthcare and technology to governmental, law enforcement and consumer goods — to perfect our approach to marketing, advertising, and branding. From strategic creative direction to engaging digital marketing, our extensive marketing team is here to handle every aspect of your business.

Want to enhance your content marketing? Looking to take your social media to the next step? Contact the team at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm and learn how you can grow with us today!