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Common Marketing Mistakes to Avoid: A Guide to Better ROI

Posted on by avintivmstg

Marketing is a dynamic world where every penny spent must yield measurable returns, and achieving a robust Return on Investment (ROI) reigns supreme. 

Assessing the effectiveness and profitability of marketing initiatives hinges significantly on Return on Investment (ROI). It reflects the ratio of net profit generated to the investment cost. In simpler terms, it measures the bang for your buck — the extent to which your marketing efforts contribute to your business’s bottom line.

Many businesses struggle to maximize their marketing ROI despite the available tools, strategies, and resources. The stumbling block is often common marketing mistakes that undermine the effectiveness of their efforts.

This comprehensive guide uncovers common marketing mistakes hindering ROI and offers actionable insights for success. Recognizing and avoiding these pitfalls can optimize your strategies, boost ROI, and drive sustained business growth.

Not Knowing Your Target Audience

One of the most prevalent yet detrimental mistakes in marketing is not thoroughly understanding your target audience. Your marketing efforts can easily fall short without clearly understanding your ideal customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points.

When you don’t know your target audience, you risk creating messaging, content, and campaigns that don’t resonate with them. This mistake can lead to wasted resources, missed opportunities, and a lower ROI.

Invest time and effort into researching and defining your target audience to avoid this misstep. Use data, analytics, and customer feedback to paint a clear picture of who they are, what they care about, and how they engage with your brand.

With this knowledge, you can craft tailored marketing strategies that speak directly to your audience’s desires and concerns. By delivering personalized content to their preferences, you can strengthen connections with your customers, driving engagement and loyalty and your business toward tremendous success.

Lack of Clear Goals

A critical mistake in marketing is operating without clear, defined goals. When your marketing initiatives lack specific objectives, they tend to be directionless and ineffective. It’s like setting out on a journey without a map; you might make some progress, but you’re unlikely to reach your intended destination efficiently.

Without well-defined goals, measuring the success of your marketing efforts becomes challenging. You won’t have any benchmarks to gauge whether your strategies are effective or need adjustment, which can lead to inefficient resource use and missed opportunities, ultimately impacting your ROI.

Establishing SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound — provides a clear framework and direction for your efforts. These goals align your marketing activities with your overall business objectives, ensuring that every action contributes to your success.

Track your success using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, website traffic, and customer engagement. This continuous monitoring enables you to make data-driven adjustments, optimize your strategies, and enhance your ROI.

Inconsistent Branding and Messaging

Inconsistent branding and messaging across marketing channels can dilute your brand’s identity and confuse your audience. This mistake occurs when the visual elements, tone of voice, and overall brand personality in your marketing materials lack cohesion.

When your branding lacks consistency, customers may struggle to recognize and connect with your brand. This disjointed experience can hinder your ability to convey a clear value proposition and differentiate yourself from competitors.

Focus on developing comprehensive brand guidelines that outline your brand’s visual identity, voice, values, and messaging guidelines. Consistently apply these guidelines across all marketing channels, including social media, email campaigns, advertisements, and website content.

Audit your marketing materials regularly to identify inconsistencies and make adjustments to maintain brand coherence. Consistent branding reinforces your identity, fosters stronger connections with your audience, and ultimately contributes to improved ROI by enhancing brand recognition and loyalty.

Failing to Differentiate Your Brand

Failing to differentiate your brand from competitors is a common yet critical mistake in a crowded market. When your brand lacks a unique identity, it can become lost in the sea of similar offerings, making it challenging for potential customers to understand why they should select your products or services.

A unique selling proposition (USP) is essential for setting your brand apart. Your USP showcases your products or services’ distinct advantages and characteristics, helping potential customers see why they should choose you over your competitors.

Perform comprehensive market research and competitive analysis to understand what your competitors are offering and where you can offer something different. Whether through innovative features, exceptional quality, superior customer service, or a compelling brand story, pinpoint what sets your brand apart and ensure it resonates with your target audience.

Communicate your unique value, from your website and social media content to advertising and customer communications. Consistently emphasizing your brand’s unique attributes will help build a strong brand identity, nurture customer loyalty, and enhance your ROI by making your marketing more effective and memorable.

Neglecting Digital Channels

With the increase of online platforms and the increasing digitalization of consumer behavior, businesses that do not utilize digital marketing strategies overlook extensive chances to connect with their intended audience.

Digital channels offer unparalleled reach and targeting capabilities, enabling connections with potential customers across various touchpoints, including social media, search engines, email, and websites. Utilizing tools like social media insights and Google Analytics allows for real-time tracking and optimization, facilitating data-driven decision-making for better ROI.

To avoid neglecting digital channels, prioritize building a solid online presence and implementing tailored digital marketing strategies. Invest in SEO, social media engagement, and email marketing strategies to reach and convert your target audience.

By embracing digital channels and integrating them into your marketing mix, you can broaden your reach, enhance brand awareness, and increase ROI by maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in the digital realm.

Ignoring Data and Analytics

With competition being fiercer than ever, turning a blind eye to the potential of data and analytics represents a critical misstep with far-reaching implications. Decisions made without the guidance of data-driven insights become a gamble, risking short-term outcomes and long-term success.

Data and analytics offer invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Examining metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and customer engagement can help you better understand what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. This information enables you to identify areas for improvement, refine your strategies, and allocate resources more effectively to maximize ROI.

Moreover, consumers today are increasingly accustomed to personalized experiences across various facets of their lives, from curated social media feeds to customized product recommendations. Leveraging data can provide insights into individual preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns, allowing you to create highly personalized customer experiences.

Establishing robust analytics frameworks, implementing tracking mechanisms, and consistently analyzing data are essential steps in leveraging the power of data to drive informed decision-making and achieve sustainable growth.

Overlooking Customer Experience

In a time where consumer expectations are at an all-time high, the quality of interactions and experiences directly impacts brand perception, loyalty, and profitability. Overlooking the customer experience can prove detrimental to long-term success.

A common mistake is focusing solely on lead generation and conversion rates while neglecting post-purchase experiences. However, the customer experience extends far beyond the point of sale, encompassing every interaction with a brand.

Investing in enhancing the customer experience means meeting and exceeding expectations. Businesses can elevate service levels and foster stronger connections with their audience by listening to customer feedback, identifying pain points, and proactively addressing concerns.

Prioritizing the customer experience is a matter of enhancing satisfaction, safeguarding the brand’s reputation, and ensuring its long-term success in a competitive marketplace.

Failing to Adapt and Innovate 

Adapting and innovating in marketing is not merely a matter of staying current; it’s about anticipating shifts and leading change. Static strategies quickly lose relevance with consumer behaviors and market dynamics evolving rapidly.

A critical part of effective adaptation and innovation is recognizing and addressing shifts in industry trends, consumer preferences, and behaviors. It requires thoroughly comprehending your target audience, including their changing needs, desires, and challenges.

Encouraging creativity, experimentation, and out-of-the-box thinking empowers you to explore new concepts and strategies. Such a culture of innovation fuels the development of innovative marketing initiatives and cultivates a dynamic and adaptable workforce capable of navigating change.

Being open to change, ready to take calculated risks, and adaptable to evolving circumstances is vital. Being agile and responsive enables businesses to spot emerging trends and capitalize on growth prospects while minimizing the impact of market fluctuations.

The Bottom Line

As we wrap up our exploration of common marketing mistakes and their impact on ROI, it’s clear that success requires more than just financial investment; it demands strategic foresight and a deep understanding of market dynamics.

From the importance of knowing your audience intimately to the pivotal role of adapting to digital trends, each lesson serves as a beacon for those seeking to maximize their marketing ROI.

At AVINTIV, we’ve spent over a decade immersed in the marketing world, learning from our own experiences and the 400+ brands we’ve helped grow. We understand the frustration and uncertainty of navigating these obstacles, so we’re passionate about guiding businesses toward sustainable growth and success.

If you’re ready to transform your marketing strategies and unlock your full potential, reach out to us to turn your challenges into opportunities and pave the way for a brighter, more prosperous future. 

Market Dominance: Positioning Yourself as an Industry Authority

Posted on by avintivmstg

Picture yourself at the forefront of your industry, not just as a business but as a beacon of innovation and inspiration. Gone are the days of aiming for mediocrity.

Today, businesses hunger for more than success; they crave authority, influence, and the power to shape industries. Imagine being the go-to authority, the name everyone trusts and admires. It is within your reach with the right strategy and determination.

As you solidify your position as an industry authority, your impact doesn’t just stop at your business. It echoes across the market, inspiring your competitors and the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. Your influence can shape the future of your industry.

If you’re ready to position yourself as an industry authority and dominate the market, let’s explore the strategies, mindset, and actions to unlock a flood of growth opportunities for your brand.

Understanding Your Market

Understanding your market is like having a compass in the wilderness of business. It’s essential to understand the landscape in which you operate, as every industry has nuances, trends, and key players.

Begin by developing a genuine understanding of your audience’s needs and desires. What keeps them up at night? What dreams do they chase? Immersing yourself in their world unlocks insights that go beyond mere transactions. Conduct a thorough customer analysis to find your target audience.

However, understanding your market goes beyond your target audience. You must also study your competitors to thrive and become an industry authority. Analyze their strengths, weaknesses, and strategic moves. It’s like playing chess: anticipating your opponent’s moves to identify the gaps in the market and opportunities to differentiate yourself.

As you navigate the landscape of your industry, remember that understanding your market is not a one-time endeavor but an ongoing journey. Stay attuned to emerging trends, evolving consumer preferences, and shifts in competitive dynamics to remain agile and responsive. This continuous effort will keep you ahead and on the path to industry authority.

Building Expertise

Standing out among the crowd requires more than offering a good product or service; it demands a commitment to becoming a trusted authority in your field. It’s about developing a deep understanding of your industry, honing your skills, and cultivating a continuous improvement mindset. 

This requires immersing yourself in a continuous cycle of learning and development, refining your skills and knowledge to unprecedented levels. By establishing yourself as an authority in your field, you build credibility and trust among your customers while setting yourself apart from competitors.

Customers are naturally drawn to brands and individuals who demonstrate unparalleled knowledge and insight, as it instills confidence and trust in their expertise. When businesses consistently provide valuable insights, advice, and solutions, customers feel supported and perceive more excellent value in their interactions.

Expertise empowers your business to lead the conversation within your industry. It allows you to innovate, anticipate market trends, and provide unparalleled value to your customers, all essential to maintaining a dominant position in the market.

Innovating with Technology

Technology has become the cornerstone of modern business strategies, enabling companies to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation like never before.

Among the most powerful tools at your disposal is data analytics. It offers valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive landscapes. With the right tools, you can uncover insights that guide your decisions and spark new ideas and opportunities you never knew existed.

Additionally, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are among the newest trends in technology today. From automated customer chatbots to clever algorithms that predict what your customers want before they even know it themselves, integrating these technologies into your workflows can drive productivity and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

With the digital landscape constantly evolving, welcoming changes and building a culture around innovation and learning is essential to ensure your business remains at the forefront of technological advancement. Check out the Top Digital Marketing Trends to Watch to learn more.

Having a Strong Online Presence

Imagine your online presence as your storefront, business card, and voice in a crowded marketplace. Building an online presence requires more than managing social media accounts; it involves creating an engaging narrative that connects with your audience and distinguishes your brand from competitors.

Your brand voice encompasses the tone, style, and personality you use to communicate with your audience. From your website and logo design to your presence on social media, your branding should reflect your values and identity across all touch points. 

Beyond showcasing your products or services, it’s important to share helpful content that educates and interests your audience. Whether blog posts, videos, or interactive tools, content is king for attracting and retaining visitors. Prioritize search engine optimization (SEO) by optimizing for relevant keywords, producing high-quality content, and building authoritative backlinks to enhance visibility and attract qualified leads.

A solid online presence isn’t just a choice — it’s crucial for thriving in today’s digital landscape. By dedicating time and resources to creating and upholding a solid online presence, you can gain credibility, foster trust, and establish yourself as a leading figure in your industry.

Creating Content that Connects

Creating content that connects with your audience starts with understanding their preferences, challenges, and aspirations. This is essential for your online presence, breathing life into your brand and fostering meaningful connections.

One primary purpose of content creation is to engage with your audience on a deeper level. Whether through informative articles, entertaining videos, or interactive experiences, your content should capture their attention and spark their curiosity, encouraging them to learn more and stay connected with your brand.

When you consistently share valuable and well-researched content, you demonstrate your expertise and knowledge, earning the respect and admiration of your audience. Over time, this builds credibility for your brand and positions you as a trusted source of information and guidance.

Through thoughtfully crafted content, you can engage, inform, and inspire, ultimately building credibility, establishing expertise, and solidifying your position as a trusted authority.

Putting Customers First

Putting customers first means aligning every aspect of your business with your target audience’s needs, preferences, and expectations. By placing customers at the center of your strategies, you foster loyalty and trust and cultivate a sustainable competitive advantage.

Invest time collecting feedback, conducting surveys, and having meaningful conversations to understand their changing needs. Customers who feel understood, valued, and appreciated will likely develop a sense of loyalty towards your brand. This loyalty can significantly impact your brand’s reputation and influence within the industry.

Satisfied customers are more prone to share positive reviews and refer others to your business, amplifying your brand’s reach and credibility. Loyal customers also offer constructive feedback, providing valuable insights that drive ongoing organizational improvement and innovation.

Building genuine connections with your customers and consistently exceeding their expectations earns their loyalty. It establishes you as a respected leader in your industry, setting the stage for ongoing success and dominance in the market.

Building Relationships

Networking and building relationships with customers, peers, and industry influencers are like adding rocket fuel to your journey toward market dominance. These connections infuse your success with trust, collaboration, and credibility.

Engage in industry events, online forums, and networking groups to connect with like-minded professionals who share your passion and vision. You can harness collective wisdom that propels everyone forward by exchanging insights, best practices, and resources. Be generous with your knowledge and expertise; helping others succeed ultimately benefits the entire ecosystem.

Strategic partnerships can be a game-changer for your brand’s visibility and credibility regarding industry influencers. Identify key influencers in your niche whose values and audience align with yours. Reach out with genuine admiration and a clear value proposition for collaboration.

You can forge deep connections that transcend business transactions by demonstrating genuine empathy and personalized attention.

Staying Ahead of Industry Trends

Being proactive and adaptable to shifts in market dynamics can spell the distinction between setting the pace and falling behind. Remaining ahead of industry trends isn’t solely about keeping up with competitors; it’s about steering your organization toward sustained success and emerging as a trailblazer.

Understanding industry trends proactively helps businesses anticipate changes in customer preferences, technological advancements, and market shifts. This forward-thinking approach enables you to adjust your tactics, capitalize on fresh opportunities, and maintain a competitive edge.

Whether embracing innovative technologies, refining your products, or tapping into emerging markets, staying ahead of industry trends positions your business as an agile innovator ready to embrace change.

Gaining insight into your industry’s trajectory can help you brainstorm new ideas, experiment with novel approaches, and pioneer groundbreaking solutions. This proactive approach keeps your business relevant and positions it as a thought leader and innovator.

Tracking Your Progress 

Success requires more than a grand vision — it demands meticulous planning and diligent progress tracking. Setting clear goals, measuring success metrics, and tracking progress are indispensable components of your journey toward market dominance.

Make certain your goals are specific, measurable, and aligned with your overarching vision. Whether it’s increasing market share, boosting customer engagement, or launching innovative products, your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Tracking progress ensures that every step you take aligns with your business goals. It gives you a clear view of how your efforts contribute to your overarching objectives, allowing you to refine your approach and adapt to changes in the market.

Remember that tracking your progress isn’t just about measuring outcomes; it’s also an opportunity for reflection and learning. Analyze successes and setbacks to identify patterns, uncover insights, and refine your strategies moving forward.

Case Studies and Success Stories

These powerful narratives serve as compelling proof points, showcasing your expertise, credibility, and the tangible results you deliver for your clients or customers.

Case studies delve deep into the challenges faced by your clients or customers, outlining the specific obstacles they encountered and the strategic solutions your business provided. They provide a detailed analysis of the difficulties faced, the strategies employed to address them, and the tangible outcomes attained.

Success stories go beyond the analytical lens of case studies, offering a rich portrayal of the human narrative behind your brand. They capture the emotions, struggles, and triumphs of individuals or businesses who have benefited from your products or services.

Sharing case studies and success stories provides valuable social proof, validating your claims and building credibility with prospects. When potential customers witness real-world examples of how others have benefited from your offerings, they’re more inclined to trust your brand and consider doing business with you.

Heading to Market Dominance

In the journey toward market dominance, positioning yourself as an industry authority isn’t just about achieving success — it’s about leading the way forward, inspiring others, and shaping the future of your market. It’s the pathway to transcending mediocrity and emerging as a beacon of innovation and inspiration in your field.

By delving deep into the intricacies of understanding your market, honing your expertise, embracing technological innovation, and establishing authentic connections with your audience, you pave the way for sustained success and influence.

At AVINTIV, with over 12+ years of experience nurturing over 400 brands to greatness, we understand the nuances of market dominance and possess the expertise to guide you on this journey.

If you’re ready for your brand to soar to new heights, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of strategists today. Let’s unlock a flood of growth opportunities for your brand and redefine industry standards together!

Has Your Business Hit a Plateau? Here Are Tips to Break Through

Posted on by avintivmstg

Being a business owner is no joke. There’s no secret there. 

 

First, you get into business for yourself, thinking there will be freedom, more money, and the opportunity to be your own boss. 

 

Then, you grow your business, hire more employees, and hire more vendors or contractors to delegate your work. Before you know it, your costs are incredibly high, and you feel like an employee within your business. Then, you wonder, “Did my business hit a plateau?”

 

Every entrepreneur has been there, myself included. Before I, Jon Boles, decided to build and grow AVINTIV, I built and grew seven other brands of my own and sold one back in 2018. Business is not a walk in the park, and that’s coming from someone who has personally built and consulted on over 250 brands over the last decade.

 

If there’s one thing I can tell you, I understand your pain. I know what you’re going through regarding all the elements of owning your business. There’s not much you can tell me about what you may be going through that I haven’t gone through myself or that I haven’t seen my clients go through.

 

Before you start thinking the worst of the worst, let’s review a few things to see if your business hit a plateau and what you can do to turn things around. This blog is from my heart, as this is a topic that I can relate to personally. I will pour my heart into it and try to deliver as much value to you as possible.

Audit Your Business Before Thinking You Hit a Plateau

First, I’d like to point out that just because you haven’t reached your goals, that doesn’t equate to a business hitting a plateau. A business plateau is when your company’s growth declines over an extended period and shows no chance of growth shortly.

 

The first mistake many entrepreneurs make is setting their goals way too high. Trust me, I’d love to knock every month out of the park, but those expectations just aren’t real in today’s world.

 

Below are some things to think about to audit your business.

 

Metrics of Your Goals: What metrics are you tracking for your goals? Is it revenue? Is that revenue top-line revenue or profit, or is it COGS %? You need to know what metrics you’re tracking to set proper goals.

 

Company Goals Too High: Ensure you haven’t set your company’s goals too high. If you wrote a business plan, go back to it and see where your numbers were off.

 

Research Your Industry: Spend time researching your competition (relative size) and industry. What is the typical growth rate over the first ten years of business? How close or far off are you from those numbers?

 

Know Your Focus: I learned this one the hard way years ago. What is your focus? Do you own multiple companies or have various projects going on? Are you spread too thin? You have a pie that is worth 100%. Your family, personal life, company, and projects must fit into that 100% pie. You can’t give multiple companies your 100% at every moment of the day. Keep your main thing your main thing. Focus on one company at a time until it reaches 7-figures in revenue, or you can automate it with a management team running the day-to-day operations.

 

Finances: To successfully own and operate a business, you must know your numbers like the back of your hand and keep your finger on the pulse of the company at all times. If you don’t manage this correctly, it can most certainly lead to a plateau and then to a failed business.

 

Expenses: You should review your costs every quarter to see where you can trim the fat. During COVID-19, the management team at AVINTIV cut so much fat off the company that we didn’t even know existed. There are always ways to save money and reinvest it back into your company’s growth. Since COVID-19, our expenses have been down almost 15%, and our growth has been up over 27%.

 

Profitability: Do you have a roadmap drawn out of how much your company needs to generate in gross revenue to hit your profitability goals? Are you just tracking revenue and not net profit? If so, that’s your first mistake. We’ve consulted on businesses that generate over $1 million but only profit 10%. It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that the company profits $100,000. After taxes, is that even enough money to feed your family? Ensure you run a suitable business model to meet your and your family’s needs.

 

Know Your Level of Genius: This is a hard one to grasp for entrepreneurs who love to have control over all aspects of their company. Are you a business owner who tries to do all of your marketing, branding, web design, or customer services? STOP! If those roles differ from what you were born to do or what I like to call your level of genius, then stop and hire a specialist or a digital marketing agency to fill that role. Your primary focus should be completing the role(s) you do best within your company and outsourcing everything else.

 

Find Your Ideal Customer: One of the biggest reasons most companies fail is that the owner builds a company based on their personal tastes and doesn’t consider what their ideal customer wants and needs. Your branding, messaging, website, and marketing must match what your ideal customer is looking for and be geared toward that person’s buyer journey.

I Know My Business, and We For Sure Hit a Plateau

For some of you reading this article, you checked all of the above boxes. You’ve been self-employed for as long as you can remember, and you know the basics of running a business.

 

Since this article is for all our readers, we’re not focusing on one niche. Try to shape this article around your industry and your needs.

 

As you know, many variables come into play when discussing a company’s growth or decline. When trying to determine where your business hit a plateau, we recommend reviewing the following items.

 

Financials

  • Has revenue slowed down?
  • Have profits slowed down as well?
  • Is your company breaking even?
  • Does your company have consistent cash flow?

 

Culture/Team

  • Has your culture increased or decreased recently?
  • How happy are your team members?
  • Do you check in with them quarterly?
  • Has performance gone up or down recently?
  • Is your team motivated?
  • Is your team engaged and passionate?

 

Client/Customer Activity

  • Are your clients/customers happy?
  • How many clients/customers have you gained over the last six months?
  • Is that about average or less/more?
  • How many clients/customers have you lost over the previous six months?
  • Is that about average or less/more?
  • Are your clients/customers paying on time?

 

Brand Identity

  • Is your current branding and brand identity outdated?
  • When’s the last time you updated your branding?
  • Does your brand (website, marketing, etc.) speak to your ideal customers?
  • How does your brand look compared to the competition?
  • Have you changed or updated your messaging over the years?
  • Does your branding match across all of your marketing (website, business cards, brochures, marketing, etc.)?

 

Marketing

  • What are you currently doing for marketing?
  • Are you ROI positive with your marketing campaigns? Are you tracking this?
  • Does your marketing match what your ideal customers are looking to see?
  • Is your website updated or outdated?
  • Do people get a good or bad experience while on your website?
  • Do people engage with your social media posts or content?
  • Have you only built your company off word of mouth?
  • Are you relying on word of mouth to continue growing your business?

 

You will get a complete picture of what’s happening if you answer these questions and develop your own. Please get in touch with us today if you’d rather have help auditing your company.

Top Reasons For a Business to Hit a Plateau

Over the last ten years, hundreds of companies have hit a plateau and are left unable to overcome the hurdle. We will go over the most frequent reasons companies hit a plateau.

Inexperienced Business Owners

This section is one of the most complex reasons to admit why your company might be hitting a plateau. Hey, we’ve all been there. 

 

You don’t start your first company being Steve Jobs; even he went through a crazy journey building Apple. If you don’t understand the fundamentals of running a business, accounting, finances, legal, sales, marketing, and so on, you will have many hurdles to overcome. 

 

Hurdles are what some of us entrepreneurs live for, though. I’ve overcome more than you could imagine getting to where I am today. Most see it as an overnight success. They didn’t see the years of loneliness, fear, insecurities, and worries about failing every day. 

 

You have to have the grit to get to the finish line, and then once you cross it, you set another finish line further out.

Outdated Branding & Brand Identity

For your business to succeed, you must understand your ideal customer. A perfect customer is an imaginary person who is the ideal person who would buy your products/services. Everything about them gets you excited, and it’s the reason why your company exists. 

 

You can’t be everything to everyone. You need to reach one or two ideal customers from the get-go. If you’re a B2B business, what industries would you be servicing? If you’re B2C, who will buy your products/services? This task is much more complicated than it sounds, so don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t figured this out yet. Most clients we work with hire us for a brand workshop, so our strategists can complete this for them with a high success rate.

 

Once you understand who your ideal customer is, you then need to mold your brand identity and everything externally around that person or people. For example, If your perfect customer is 35 years old and she loves a soft, girly touch with hints of light blue and pink, and your website and branding are yellow and blue, you won’t convert her. 

 

Your branding and brand identity must mesh well with your ideal customer, or they won’t even look at you. If you mold your branding to what that ideal customer is looking for, they will instantly feel a bit of trust with you as they will resonate with your colors, logo, and overall messaging.

 

Your brand messaging, how you talk about yourself, and your offer will need to be crafted around that ideal customer. We’ve worked with clients who have had successful companies, but they didn’t realize that their perfect customer had been underneath their noses all along. The issue was that their branding and messaging weren’t aligned with that ideal customer. They grew their business from word of mouth but had no success with growing outside of that, which is where we came in to help.

 

Stop making branding decisions based on what you, as a business owner, are like unless you are your ideal customer; then go for it. You aren’t the one shopping at your business; you’re building it for your customers. Put the ego aside and create the most fantastic brand for your future customers.

Outdated Website and Customer Experience

Prospects check out your website before making a purchase. As one of the top web design agencies in the United States, we completely understand the significance of having a mobile-responsive website that provides a phenomenal customer experience.

 

Over 57% of internet users have said they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website. Another wild statistic says that 88% of all online consumers are unlikely to return to a website after experiencing a poor user experience. 

 

It’s almost 2025, and your company will soon be extinct if your website is outdated. What happened with COVID-19 forced most businesses to pivot to online only.

 

To succeed in this new world, you need an elegant website designed with your ideal customer’s journey in mind. The look, feel, and overall flow of the website must match the buyer’s journey. 

 

Is your current website easy to navigate? Can you get to where you want to go and checkout with 3-4 clicks? Is your website mobile responsive? These are all questions that you need to start asking yourself.

 

If you need help auditing your current website, please contact us today. We’d be more than happy to help you.

Outdated Marketing or No Marketing at All

We’ve worked with many clients who were able to grow their businesses organically with referrals and word of mouth. Honestly, that’s how we built AVINTIV for the first three years. We never really needed to push marketing or advertising, as our clients did that for us. But we hit a certain point where we knew that in order to hit our future goals, we would need to start investing more money into our own branding, marketing, and advertising.

 

I love the saying, “What got you here won’t get you there.” It’s happened with every company I’ve ever built or consulted. You finally hit a certain point and put everything you had into getting your company to a certain level. You were happy for a few minutes and then set more significant goals, but something happened.

 

You failed to realize that the tactics you used to reach your current level wouldn’t help you achieve your new goals. This realization has led to some business owners thinking they’ve hit a plateau.

 

If you aren’t marketing your company properly, you will definitely hit a plateau. Now, it all depends on your goals, and some business owners are content with where they’re at, but if you’re reading this article, then you’re not one of those people.

 

As a digital marketing agency, we run into this problem quite often. We get so busy helping our clients grow that we have pushed our needs aside with every new project. 

 

As a company, we have dedicated “x” amount of time every month to our internal needs, whether branding, content, marketing, or website updates; we make the time for it.

 

Steps to Break Past Your Plateau

If you’ve made it this far in the article, you are eager to find out how to break past your plateau, or you’ve realized there is much homework you need to do before you can make that call.

 

For those of you who know you’ve hit a plateau and are eager to find solutions to break past it, keep reading. We are listing a few strategies and solutions that should help you break past your plateau.

Audit Your Company

Reread everything we wrote up top about auditing your company and do it. Open up a Google Doc or sheet of paper and start reviewing every department in your company. Go from operations to finance and cover every department of your business. Picture it as deep cleaning your house. You need to get your toothbrush and magnifying glass and get real close. 

 

Turning over these rocks in your company can be painful, but would you instead lower your ego and find out why your company isn’t growing, or keep your pride and fail two years down the road?

Research or Hire a Strategy Team

The next step is to research or hire a strategy team that has done this before. You will want to examine your ideal customers, their needs, your competition, and the overall economics. 

 

Can your perfect customer afford your products compared to your competitors? Is your pricing too low, too high, or ideal? 

 

Treat your business as if you were a customer. Go to one of your marketing channels and follow the same journey your customer goes on from start to finish. Make a purchase on your website or in your location. How seamless was that journey for you? Would you shop at your company?

 

List what changes need to be made or enhanced to give your ideal customer a better experience.

Brand & Identity Overhaul

60% of businesses that come to us when they hit a plateau do so for the same reason: their branding, website, and overall brand identity are outdated, and their ideal customers are not finding them online. Or, if they are finding them online, they aren’t turning into customers as they don’t relate to the current brand.

 

Updating your branding doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but your branding and brand identity are the most essential pieces of your company. 

 

If you hire your buddy from down the road to build you a cheap website and hire a designer from a stock logo website, then there’s no wonder why your brand has hit a plateau. Customers can tell if you’ve spent the money on your brand. Why would they trust the products or services you’re offering if you haven’t?

 

Since 2020, there has been more competition than ever. Much capital has been injected into local franchises and eCommerce stores that are competing after your ideal customers. There are ways to compete with them while having a smaller budget. 

 

Just see for yourself. We have a client in the cannabis space who is privately owned and competing against billion-dollar companies. You don’t have to be the biggest one to win.

 

Below are some examples of a brand overhaul we did for a local periodontist.

 

Invest in the Right Marketing Channels

Once you’ve accomplished the recommendations above, it’s time to talk about marketing. The world has changed due to COVID-19, but that hasn’t stopped companies from marketing. If anything, intelligent companies have put even more money behind their marketing to beat out their competition.

 

We are big believers in making your house a home first. We specialize in managing social media, growing Instagram pages, Facebook Ads, and SEO. 

 

Over the years, we have realized that the number one way we had the most success for our clients was by providing SEO and content creation.

 

 

If you have a $10,000/month budget to run Facebook Ads or PPC ads, you can dabble with those advertising channels. If you don’t, like many small — to medium-sized businesses, don’t even test the waters.

 

We have studied and analyzed the different types of buyers who buy through social advertising and organic routes. Organic routes (SEO, content creation) always have a higher customer lifetime value (LTV).

 

If you don’t have the capital to hire an SEO agency, feel free to utilize our FREE blogs to help you make your own SEO enhancements. To best understand SEO, we recommend reading the articles in order from top to bottom.

 

SEO Articles & Tips:

In Conclusion

Starting a business is one of the hardest things someone will do in their lifetime. It is a lot to think about, not only starting a business but also maintaining it and growing it year after year. 

I hope this article has helped you discover if your business has hit a plateau and how to break through it. If you have any questions or want help breaking past your plateau, please contact us today.

 

 

SEO for Business Owners: Boosting Your Online Visibility

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In today’s digital age, having a solid online presence is pivotal for any business striving for success. With millions of websites competing for attention, guaranteeing your website achieves a top position in search engine listings is paramount. Search Engine Optimization is about more than climbing the ranks of search engine results; it’s about strategically attracting the right audience and converting them into loyal customers.

As a business owner, you likely understand the significance of SEO in enhancing your online visibility and attracting potential customers. However, navigating the complex SEO world can be intimidating, particularly for those unfamiliar with the concept.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll discuss SEO’s essential components and provide actionable methods for enhancing your online presence and attracting more website visitors.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is at the heart of any successful online presence. It involves refining your website and its pages to rank better positions in Google and other search engine listings. Put plainly, SEO ensures that when individuals search for keywords relevant to their business or industry, their website stands out prominently among the top results.

Think of SEO as a digital roadmap guiding users to your website amid the vast online content. By strategically optimizing your website’s content, structure, and performance, you make it easier for search engines like Google to understand and rank your site based on its relevance and authority. It’s a dynamic and ever-evolving field that requires ongoing attention and optimization to maintain and improve your online visibility.

SEO is crucial for any business thriving in the competitive digital landscape. Whether someone is looking for a local restaurant, a digital marketing agency, or a pet grooming service, SEO ensures that your business is front and center.

Why SEO Is Important for Business Owners

As a business owner, understanding SEO’s pivotal role in enhancing your online visibility and driving business growth is essential for staying ahead in today’s competitive landscape. 

As the digital marketplace evolves rapidly, embracing effective SEO strategies empowers business owners to adapt and thrive amidst ever-changing consumer behaviors and technological advancements. It’s not just about being found; it’s about staying relevant and engaging in a digital ecosystem that demands continuous innovation and optimization.

SEO is pivotal in bridging your brand’s online presence with your target audience, influencing website design and content development. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to SEO; instead, it requires a dynamic approach tailored to your industry, market segments, and brand identity.

  1. Increase Visibility and Exposure

Among the millions of websites competing for attention online, distinguishing yourself from the crowd can be challenging. SEO provides the means to enhance your visibility and capture the interest of your desired audience amidst this expansive online competition.

SEO ensures that your business appears prominently in search engine results when users seek information, products, or services related to your industry. Through strategic keyword optimization, content development, and technical enhancements, SEO magnifies your website’s visibility and exposure, allowing it to attract organic traffic effectively.

Think of SEO as your digital beacon, guiding users directly to your doorstep. Investing in SEO will enhance your visibility and establish the groundwork for long-term growth and success in the digital world.

  1. Target Specific Audiences

Reaching the right audience at the right time is crucial for driving conversions effectively. With SEO, you have the precision tools to target specific demographics, geographic locations, and user behaviors, ensuring your message resonates with those most likely to convert.

SEO enables you to tailor your online presence to perfectly align with your target audience’s interests, preferences, and needs. By leveraging techniques such as keyword research, audience segmentation, and content optimization, you can develop tailored strategies that directly resonate with the hearts and minds of your ideal customers.

By knowing the needs of your audience and providing valuable content that tackles their challenges, you can attract a higher volume of qualified traffic to your website and nurture long-lasting relationships with your customers.

  1. Build Credibility and Trust

Credibility and trust are invaluable assets in digital marketing. They can significantly influence consumer behavior and purchasing decisions. SEO is a powerful tool for building credibility and trust for your business by establishing your website as a dependable and authoritative source within your field.

One method through which SEO increases credibility is by elevating your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. When users encounter your website listed among the top results for relevant search queries, they are inclined to view your business as trustworthy and dependable. Furthermore, SEO fosters the development of top-notch, informative content that highlights your proficiency and caters to the requirements of your audience.

You can position yourself as a trusted advisor and thought leader in your industry by consistently delivering valuable content that educates and informs your audience. SEO enhances credibility and fosters more profound connections with your audience, ultimately increasing trust and loyalty.

  1. Cost-Effective

One of the remarkable aspects of SEO is its cost-effectiveness compared to traditional marketing methods. While avenues like print advertising or television commercials can quickly drain your marketing budget, SEO offers a more sustainable and budget-friendly alternative.

Investing in SEO allows you to reach a broader audience without breaking the bank. Unlike paid advertising, where you must continuously allocate funds to maintain visibility, SEO provides long-term benefits with less investment. Enhancing your website and content to rank organically in search engine results allows you to attract quality traffic without incurring additional costs per click or impression.

SEO allows you to focus on specific keywords and demographics, ensuring that your marketing endeavors target those most likely to convert into customers. Investing in SEO boosts your online visibility and optimizes your marketing budget for maximum impact and efficiency.

Steps to Boost Your Online Visibility

In today’s fiercely competitive digital landscape, businesses that aim to enhance their online visibility and extend their reach to a broader audience must adopt effective SEO strategies. These strategies are designed to improve search engine rankings, increase organic traffic, and broaden digital footprints.

  1. Keyword Research and Strategy

Meticulous keyword research is at the heart of every successful SEO campaign. This crucial process involves delving deep into your target audience’s mindset to uncover their specific terms when searching for products or services like yours. 

Crafting a comprehensive keyword strategy goes beyond simply selecting popular keywords. It requires a keen understanding of user intent and using long-tail keywords tailored to address specific queries. Although these keywords may show lower search volumes, they frequently enhance conversion rates by targeting users closer to making a purchase.

By understanding user intent, you can align your keyword strategy with your audience’s needs and desires, ensuring that your content resonates effectively.

  1. On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is like fine-tuning your website’s engine to operate at its peak on search engine result pages. It involves meticulously adjusting various elements directly on your website to make it more appealing and relevant to search engines. This includes optimizing meta tags, headings, and internal links to ensure they align seamlessly with search engines like Google’s algorithms.

Integrating strategic keywords organically within your content enhances your search ranking and the value you provide to your audience. By incorporating these keywords thoughtfully, you improve visibility and offer valuable information that resonates with your target audience.

Focusing on on-page optimization allows you to refine critical elements like website loading speed, mobile responsiveness, and user-friendly navigation.

  1. Content Creation

In the digital realm, content marketing is the cornerstone of boosting online visibility and driving traffic. It’s more than just words on a page; it’s about crafting valuable, engaging content that resonates with your target audience. Every content you produce, from blog posts to videos, should be strategically designed to attract and retain your audience’s attention.

Effective content creation begins with understanding your audience’s needs, interests, and pain points. Thorough research and keyword analysis help you identify relevant topics and themes to focus on. By addressing your audience’s queries and providing solutions to their problems, you can position yourself as a trusted authority in your industry.

Whether educational articles, entertaining videos, or insightful infographics, delivering valuable content builds credibility and trust with your audience. This ultimately drives organic traffic and fosters business growth.

  1. Link Building Techniques

Link building involves acquiring backlinks from external websites to improve your site’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. By acquiring backlinks from authoritative external sources, businesses can enhance their website’s credibility and establish themselves as industry leaders.

An effective link building technique is outreach, which allows you to contact other website owners or bloggers in your industry to request backlinks. Another link-building technique is crafting compelling, shareable content, which lies at the heart of effective link building. You can naturally attract backlinks from reputable websites seeking to reference and endorse your valuable content by producing high-quality articles, infographics, and resources that resonate with your target audience.

Businesses can harness the transformative power of link building to propel their digital success to new heights.

  1. Mobile Optimization

Optimizing your website for mobile devices is not merely an option but a necessity in the current mobile-focused landscape. With a substantial portion of internet traffic originating from smartphones and tablets, ensuring a flawless mobile experience is crucial for improving your online presence and effectively interacting with your audience.

Mobile optimization involves more than responsive design; it’s about creating a tailored experience that caters to mobile users’ unique needs and behaviors. From fast loading times to intuitive navigation and touch-friendly interfaces, every aspect of your mobile site should be optimized to deliver a frictionless browsing experience.

You can enhance engagement, decrease bounce rates, and ultimately facilitate more business conversions by guaranteeing a seamless and user-friendly mobile platform.

  1. Local SEO Strategies

Local SEO strategies help businesses connect with their target audience in specific locations. Whether you operate a brick-and-mortar store or offer services to local customers, optimizing your online presence for local search is essential for generating leads.

Local SEO strategies enhance your website and online listings to prominently feature in local search outcomes. One of the most effective local SEO strategies is optimizing your website’s content with location-specific keywords and phrases. By incorporating city names, neighborhoods, and other geographic identifiers into your website’s content, you can indicate to search engines the relevance of your business to local queries in your area.

Implementing these local SEO strategies can increase your business’s visibility in local search results, attract a larger local customer base, and propel growth and success within your target market.

Tracking Your SEO Success

Tracking SEO success is crucial for business owners who want to gauge the effectiveness of their online visibility efforts. By monitoring key performance metrics, you can acquire valuable insights and make informed decisions about optimizing your digital presence.

One essential metric to track is organic traffic, which reflects the number of visitors visiting your website through search engine results. Observing fluctuations in organic traffic across periods can help you assess the effectiveness of your keyword targeting and content optimization efforts. 

Tracking keyword rankings allows you to evaluate your website’s visibility in search engine results pages. By monitoring the rankings of your chosen keywords, you can discern patterns and adapt your SEO approach accordingly to maintain or improve your rankings. Other metrics, such as conversion and bounce rates, provide insights into user engagement and your website’s overall effectiveness in converting visitors into customers.

Conclusion

In digital business, achieving and sustaining online visibility demands continuous innovation and adaptability. It’s a journey shaped by creativity, data-driven strategies, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

At AVINTIV, we recognize the critical importance of SEO and staying ahead in this dynamic landscape. With a history of over 12 years and a portfolio boasting the growth of more than 400 brands, our agency stands ready to empower your business for success in 2024 and beyond.

If you are ready to elevate your business to new heights and exceed your goals, our team of strategists is here to help. Reach out to us today, and let’s collaborate to drive innovation, growth, and success for your brand in the fast-paced and continuously changing world of digital marketing.

After all, brands choose to partner with AVINTIV when they want to do one thing: GROW!

Overcoming the Fear of Failure: How to Embrace Risks and Grow Your Business

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Fear of failure can shadow even the most confident and ambitious minds in the exhilarating entrepreneurship journey. But in the realm of success, failure is not an end; it is a stepping stone to greatness. 

 

As a top digital marketing agency that has worked with hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, one thing is for sure: everyone has some form of fear. That is why we are thrilled to take you on this empowering exploration of how to embrace risks and turn setbacks into opportunities for your business and life to flourish.

Embrace the Mindset of a Fearless Trailblazer

To conquer the fear of failure, first, we must embrace the mindset of a fearless trailblazer. It’s time to rewrite the narrative that failure must be dreaded and avoided. Instead, view it as an essential part of the journey to success. 

 

From the boldest entrepreneurs to the most prominent industry leaders, they have all encountered hurdles and setbacks on their path to greatness. Embrace a mindset of resilience, where you approach challenges as learning experiences, extracting wisdom from every stumble and using it as fuel to propel you forward with unwavering determination.

Set Clear and Ambitious Goals

With your fearless mindset in place, it’s time to set clear and ambitious goals for your business. 

 

Aim high and envision the future you want to create. Ambitious goals ignite the spark of enthusiasm within you and your team, driving you to take calculated risks and embrace growth opportunities. 

 

Define measurable objectives that serve as milestones on your path to success. Divide them into smaller, achievable tasks to keep you focused and motivated throughout the journey ahead.

Leverage the Power of Data and Analysis

In the modern business landscape, data is king. Use the power of data and analysis to make informed decisions and minimize risks. 

 

Perform comprehensive market research to gain insights into your target audience, competitors, and industry trends. Analyze customer feedback and behavior to gain insights into their preferences and pain points. 

 

Armed with this invaluable information, you can make strategic choices that align with market demands and customer needs.

Embrace a Culture of Innovation

Innovation is the heartbeat of growth and progress. Cultivate an innovation environment within your organization where creativity and out-of-the-box thinking are celebrated. Inspire your team to explore new ideas, experiment with novel strategies, and take calculated risks. Create a culture where failure is not penalized but seen as an essential part of learning. 

 

Innovation empowers your business to stay ahead of the curve and seize opportunities competitors may overlook.

Take Calculated Risks

Embracing risks doesn’t mean being reckless; it means taking calculated risks. 

 

Before making decisions, analyze the potential rewards and drawbacks of every opportunity. Understand the level of risk your business can afford to take, and be prepared to pivot if a particular strategy doesn’t yield the expected results.

 

 Balance ambition with prudence and take steps to minimize potential downsides while maximizing the potential for growth and success.

Learn from Setbacks and Pivot

Failure is not an end but an opportunity to learn, pivot, and evolve. When setbacks occur, analyze the root causes and extract valuable lessons from the experience. 

 

Use this newly acquired knowledge to refine your strategies and improve your processes. Flexibility and adaptability are vital in the face of challenges. Embrace change, and be willing to pivot when necessary to stay aligned with your goals and seize new opportunities.

Surround Yourself with a Supportive Network

Building a supportive network is crucial in overcoming the fear of failure. Surround yourself with like-minded entrepreneurs, mentors, and peers who share your vision and are eager to support your growth. Lean on this network for advice, guidance, and encouragement during challenging times. 

 

The collective wisdom and positive energy from your support system will fuel your drive and strengthen your determination to overcome any obstacles that come your way.

Celebrate Every Success, Big or Small

Amidst pursuing ambitious goals, remember to celebrate every success, big or small. Acknowledge the progress you make and take pride in your achievements.

 

Celebrations remind you of your resilience and determination, instilling confidence and enthusiasm within you and your team to keep pushing forward.

Develop a Resilient Mindset

Resilience is the cornerstone of overcoming the fear of failure. Cultivate a resilient mindset that views challenges as opportunities for growth. Embrace change enthusiastically, knowing that every obstacle you conquer brings you closer to your aspirations. 

 

When faced with adversity, remind yourself of the progress you’ve made and the vision you’re striving to achieve.

Seek Professional Guidance

Finally, don’t hesitate to seek professional guidance from experts and consultants who can offer valuable insights and strategies. Collaborating with a confident, assertive, and enthusiastic marketing agency can provide fresh perspectives, refined marketing strategies, and expert guidance to help your business thrive.

 

In conclusion, overcoming the fear of failure is not an impossible feat. With a mindset of a fearless trailblazer, ambitious goals, data-driven decision-making, a culture of innovation, calculated risks, and a supportive network, you’ll be equipped to face challenges with confidence and resilience. 

 

Embrace setbacks as stepping stones to greatness, celebrate every achievement, and seek professional guidance when needed. Embrace the growth journey with enthusiasm and an unwavering belief in your vision. 

 

Remember, success is within reach for those willing to embrace risks and grow beyond their fears. So, let’s embrace this empowering journey together and watch your business soar to unprecedented heights!

The Power of Effective Marketing: How it Can Transform Your Business

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In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, standing out from the crowd and reaching your target audience can be daunting. As a business owner, you understand the significance of attracting customers, generating leads, and driving sales to achieve sustainable growth. This is where effective marketing plays a transformative role in shaping the success of your business.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the power of effective marketing and how it can revolutionize your business, regardless of its size or industry. From building brand awareness to nurturing customer relationships, we will delve into the key components that make marketing a driving force behind business growth and success.

Defining Effective Marketing

Before diving into our journey into the world of effective marketing, it’s crucial to understand its core essence. Effective marketing goes beyond mere advertising; it involves a strategic approach that aligns your business goals with your target audience’s needs and desires. It is about creating value, solving problems, and positioning your brand as a solution provider in the minds of your potential customers.

Building Brand Awareness

A strong brand presence is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy. We’ll explore the importance of brand identity, consistency, and messaging in building brand awareness. By crafting a compelling brand story and communicating your unique value proposition, you can resonate with your audience and leave a lasting impression. Imagine your brand as the heartbeat of your business, pulsating with life and vitality, effortlessly capturing the attention of your target audience. 

Identifying and Understanding Your Target Audience

Knowing and understanding your target audience is the key to crafting marketing campaigns that truly resonate with your customers. It lays the foundation for creating branding and messaging that resonate deeply with your customers, driving them to take action. Through in-depth market research and the development of detailed buyer personas, you gain valuable insights into your audience’s preferences, pain points, and aspirations. Armed with this knowledge, you can tailor your marketing strategies to speak directly to their needs, fostering a strong emotional connection and building brand loyalty.

Effective messaging strikes an emotional chord, prompting customers to engage with your brand and become advocates for your business. When you know your target audience inside out, every piece of content you create becomes a powerful tool in driving business success, guiding your customers on a journey that leads them to choose your brand over competitors.

Crafting an Effective Marketing Strategy

Crafting an effective marketing strategy is a dynamic process that aligns your marketing efforts with your business objectives and target audience. An effective marketing strategy acts as a roadmap for achieving your business objectives. It begins with defining clear and measurable goals and gaining a deep understanding of your audience through market research and buyer personas. By choosing the most impactful marketing channels and tactics, you can create a tailored approach that resonates with your customers and maximizes your reach. Continuously monitoring and measuring the performance of your strategy allows for flexibility and adaptability, ensuring your marketing efforts remain effective in the ever-changing business landscape. With a well-crafted marketing strategy, your business can thrive, leaving a lasting impression on your customers and driving long-term success.

The Digital Frontier: Embracing Online Marketing

The digital landscape has revolutionized how businesses connect with customers, presenting an array of opportunities for growth. We’ll explore the transformative power of digital marketing channels, including social media, content marketing, email campaigns, and SEO. Discover how these platforms can propel your business to new heights, attracting a larger audience and fostering lasting relationships. Engage with your target audience through captivating social media content, establish authority with informative blog posts and videos, connect directly through personalized email campaigns, and boost online visibility with strategic SEO techniques. Embrace the possibilities of digital marketing and revolutionize the way your business reaches and engages customers, driving sustainable growth and success.

The Customer Journey: Nurturing Leads and Converting Sales

Effective marketing is a comprehensive journey that goes far beyond simply attracting leads. It involves building strong relationships with your audience, guiding them through the customer journey, and ultimately transforming them into devoted brand advocates. Lead nurturing is a key component of this process, where we’ll delve into strategies that keep prospects engaged and interested in your offerings. Through personalized communication, valuable content, and timely follow-ups, you’ll foster trust and credibility, ensuring that your leads remain warm and receptive to your brand’s message.

Measuring Success: Metrics and Analytics

Measuring the success of your marketing efforts is the cornerstone of a data-driven and results-oriented approach. In today’s fast-paced business landscape, making informed decisions is not a luxury; it is a necessity for staying ahead of the competition and achieving sustainable growth. At our digital marketing agency, we believe in the power of quantifiable metrics and cutting-edge analytics tools to unlock the true potential of your marketing campaigns.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the compass that steers your marketing strategy in the right direction. By defining and tracking these critical metrics, you gain invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns. As with all our valued partners, our collaboration is centered around identifying the most relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tailored to your specific business objectives. Whether your focus is on lead generation, customer acquisition, website traffic, conversion rates, or customer retention, these measurable metrics serve as essential compass points on your marketing journey. By closely monitoring these quantifiable measurements, you’ll have the tools to track progress, set achievable benchmarks, and gauge success over time. Together, we’ll ensure that your marketing efforts are not only strategic but also data-driven, empowering your business to make informed decisions that lead to continuous growth and excellence.

Staying Ahead: Embracing Innovation

In the ever-evolving business landscape, staying ahead of the competition is essential. Embracing innovation is our forte, as we explore cutting-edge marketing techniques to give your business a competitive edge. Artificial Intelligence (AI) enables hyper-personalized customer experiences through chatbots and AI-powered email marketing, while Virtual Reality (VR) immerses your audience in captivating and interactive brand experiences. Additionally, interactive content like quizzes and gamification boosts engagement, building stronger connections with your customers. With our passion for innovation and your business expertise, together, we’ll reshape the future of your industry and create a dynamic marketing strategy that sets your brand apart as a trailblazer. Let’s embark on this exhilarating journey of innovation and revolutionize the way you connect with your audience.

Conclusion

Effective marketing has the potential to transform your business by amplifying its reach, increasing brand recognition, and driving meaningful connections with your customers. By implementing a strategic marketing approach tailored to your business goals and target audience, you can position your business for sustainable growth and success.

Remember, marketing is not a one-time effort; it requires constant adaptation, creativity, and monitoring. By staying committed to effective marketing practices and embracing innovation, you can confidently navigate the dynamic landscape and unlock the true potential of your business. Let the power of effective marketing be the driving force behind your business transformation.

If you feel like your brand is destined for more, and you’re not reaching your full potential, reach out to our team of strategists, and we’d be happy to schedule some time to audit your brand and give you a strategy for pure growth!

Unlock your brand’s limitless potential! If you’re ready to take your brand to new heights and achieve pure growth, our team of strategists is here to help. Reach out to us today, and let’s schedule a complimentary brand audit and create a tailored strategy for your success!

Marketing 101: A Comprehensive Guide for Business Owners

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101: A Step-by-Step Guide for Business Owners

Introduction to Marketing 101

Marketing plays a crucial role in the success of any business. It is the process of promoting and selling products or services to customers. Mastering marketing fundamentals has become even more critical in today’s digital age. This guide will provide business owners with a step-by-step approach to understanding and implementing effective marketing strategies. By the end of this article, you will have a solid foundation in marketing principles and be equipped with the knowledge to take your business to new heights.

Understanding the Basics of Digital Marketing

In the digital era, understanding the basics of digital marketing is essential for any business owner. Digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels such as websites, search engines, social media, email, and mobile apps to reach and engage with potential customers. It offers many opportunities to target specific audiences, measure results, and optimize campaigns for maximum impact. To see success in digital marketing, you’ll want to have a good understanding of the various components and strategies involved.

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Businesses

Digital marketing offers numerous benefits for businesses of all sizes. 

Firstly, it provides a cost-effective way to reach a large audience compared to traditional marketing methods. With digital marketing, you can target specific demographics and measure the effectiveness of your campaigns in real time. 

Secondly, it allows for personalized and targeted marketing messages, which can result in higher conversion rates. 

Additionally, digital marketing provides an opportunity to engage with customers through social media and build brand loyalty. Digital marketing can help businesses increase visibility, generate leads, and drive sales.

Exploring Different Types of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of tactics and strategies. It is essential to explore these different types to find the ones that align with your business goals and target audience. 

Some common types of digital marketing include search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising. 

SEO focuses on improving a website’s visibility in search engine results, while content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable content to attract and engage customers. 

Social media marketing leverages social media platforms to build brand awareness and engage customers. 

Email marketing is an effective way to nurture leads and drive conversions. 

Paid advertising involves placing ads on various digital platforms to reach a wider audience.

Industry titans are great at utilizing all of the mentioned digital marketing channels and utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of each to craft a winning strategy for their brand.

Building an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy

Building an effective digital marketing strategy is one of the most critical steps to see positive results from your digital marketing efforts. 

You can view your marketing strategy similar to Maps on your phone, showing you how to reach your destination and what to expect.

The alternative is what most business owners do now: not use navigation and aimlessly drive, hoping they get to their destination. Those days are long behind us, and it’s time to catch up with the times.

A digital marketing strategy outlines your goals, target audience, key messages, and the tactics you will use to achieve your objectives. 

It is crucial to conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience and their preferences. These initial steps will help you tailor your marketing messages and choose the most effective channels to reach them. 

Performing extensive market research and identifying your target audience will also teach you how to position your brand in the marketplace against your competitors properly.

Your strategy should also include a budget and a timeline for implementation. Regularly monitoring and evaluating your strategy will allow you to make necessary adjustments and optimize your marketing campaigns for better results.

The Role of Email Marketing in Your Strategy

Email marketing continues to be a powerful tool in the digital marketing landscape. It allows businesses to communicate with their customers and nurture leads directly. 

Email marketing can also build relationships, promote products or services, share valuable content, and drive conversions.

Building a quality email list is essential to fully leveraging the power of email marketing, which is why incentivizing visitors to subscribe is a great strategy.

Segmenting your email list based on customer preferences and behavior will allow for more personalized and targeted campaigns. Once you know your customer, you can craft compelling subject lines and engaging content to increase open and click-through rates. 

Like any marketing channel, you’ll want to regularly analyze the performance of your email campaigns and make adjustments to optimize your results.

The Power of Content Marketing in Driving Results

Content marketing is a strategic approach focusing on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. 

It is a long-term strategy aiming to build customer trust and credibility and one of the best strategies to incorporate to help with your SEO and organic efforts. 

Content marketing can take many forms, including blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and podcasts. 

The key to successful content marketing is understanding your target audience and creating content that addresses their pain points and interests. 

By consistently delivering valuable content, you can position your brand as an industry authority and drive organic traffic to your website. 

An easy way to get more eyes on your content is to promote it through social media, email marketing, and other channels to maximize its reach and impact.

Leveraging SEO Marketing for Increased Visibility

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages. 

When done correctly, SEO can significantly increase your website’s visibility and drive organic traffic. 

We have witnessed the power of SEO for our agency, AVINTIV, and all the SEO clients we’ve worked with.

We helped a plastics manufacturing company triple its business in under 24 months and generated a 4,000% ROI.

We also helped a cannabis brand grow to 9 figures through SEO and content marketing, which resulted in 5,400% growth over five years.

Now, these are not typical returns, but we wanted to share the importance of SEO and how impactful it can be to add it to your marketing strategy.

Once you know who your target audience and customers are, you’re able to dive into what their needs, pain points, and goals are.

Once you have your target audience data, you can leverage the power of SEO by conducting keyword research to identify the terms and phrases your audience is searching for.

Then, you can start incorporating these keywords into your website’s content, meta tags, and URLs. On-page SEO is one of the most crucial components of SEO, simply because it’s easy enough for anyone to be dangerous with it. But, just like anything, there is a specific science on performing proper on-page SEO, and each industry is different.

Another critical component of SEO is technical SEO and ensuring that your website’s loading speed is as quick as can be while also giving a great UI/UX experience to the website visitor.

Once the above has been completed, your off-page SEO is the next big item to tackle. Building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites can also boost your SEO efforts and domain authority score. 

Regularly monitor your website’s performance using analytics tools and make necessary adjustments to improve your SEO strategy.

Leveraging Social Media Marketing for Brand Awareness

Social media marketing is a powerful tool for building brand awareness and engaging with your target audience. 

With billions of active users on various social media platforms, businesses have the opportunity to reach a large audience and build meaningful connections. 

To leverage social media marketing effectively, start by identifying the most relevant platforms for your target audience. 

Create a compelling social media profile and consistently share valuable content that resonates with your audience. 

Engaging with your followers and promptly responding to comments and messages will give you an edge over your competition. 

Social media advertising is a great way to reach your target audience and drive traffic to your website. Facebook and Instagram ads are one of the quickest ways to increase your revenue drastically.

Regularly analyze your social media performance and adjust your strategy to optimize your results.

How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Agency

Choosing the right digital marketing agency can make a significant difference in the success of your marketing efforts. 

When selecting an agency, consider their expertise and experience in providing the services you’re looking to invest in. 

You want to work with a digital marketing agency that has been in the trenches with its clients and has years of experience not only providing agency services but also building and growing brands in a variety of industries. 

Working with a marketing agency whose leadership team understands business exceptionally well is a much-added bonus that we recommend looking for.

Look for portfolios, case studies, and client testimonials to gauge their track record.

We wouldn’t recommend working with a niche marketing agency, as we have seen countless niche agencies using the same cookie-cutter templates for every client. Be very cautious of this.

Also, consider their communication style and responsiveness, as effective communication is crucial in any agency-client relationship. 

Finally, discuss pricing and contracts to ensure they align with your budget and objectives. Working with an agency that shows value versus just providing a product or service is an agency that can become a great partner.

By choosing the right digital marketing agency, you can access specialized skills, resources, and industry insights to help you achieve your marketing goals.

Tracking and Analyzing Your Marketing Efforts

Tracking and analyzing your marketing efforts is essential to measure the success of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions by utilizing web analytics tools to monitor key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and engagement. 

Make sure to set up conversion tracking to understand which channels are driving the most conversions. 

Regularly review your marketing analytics to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement. 

A/B testing can help you optimize your campaigns by comparing different versions of your marketing materials and measuring their performance. 

By regularly tracking and analyzing your marketing efforts, you can identify what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to refine your strategies for better results.

Conclusion

Mastering marketing is crucial for any business owner who wants to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. 

By understanding the basics of digital marketing, exploring different types of digital marketing, building an effective digital marketing strategy, and leveraging key tactics such as email marketing, content marketing, SEO marketing, and social media marketing, business owners can drive results and achieve their marketing goals. 

Choosing the right digital marketing agency and tracking and analyzing marketing efforts are also essential steps in the journey to marketing mastery. 

Following the step-by-step guide outlined in this article, business owners like you can take their marketing efforts to new heights and achieve long-term success.

With over 12+ years of experience successfully building and growing 400+ brands, we possess the expertise and know-how to unlock a flood of growth for your brand. If you’re looking to grow to all new heights and be forced to increase your goals, feel free to reach out to one of our strategists. We’d love to see how we can help you achieve more growth. 

After all, brands choose to partner with AVINTIV when they want to do one thing: GROW!

Medical Practices Should Utilize Google’s New Search Feature For Virtual Healthcare

Posted on by avintivmstg

Due to the high risk of spreading COVID-19, many businesses, and healthcare providers have reduced or stopped seeing patients in person altogether. Social distancing is extremely smart right now, but what happens to patients that truly need to see a doctor or medical professional? People still need a way to continue to get medical care and treatment, especially from the safety and comfort of their own homes, which is why virtual healthcare is the new norm.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen the needs for telehealth, telemedicine, and virtual healthcare massively skyrocket for people around the world. March 2020 alone had a 50% increase in telehealth visits due to the coronavirus pandemic. Analysts are also expecting that medical care visits will be over 200 million this year, which is way up from their original expectation of 36 million visits for all of 2002.

Virtual Healthcare, telehealth

Now is the time to offer telemedicine for your practice as many people are still in need of medical treatments. We are going to be going over Google’s new search feature for virtual healthcare and how you can do the same.

Google Connecting People to Virtual Doctors

Google has decided to help people connect with their health care providers much more easily. Google’s main priority is to provide people with access to high-quality and authoritative information for their healthcare needs.

Google is currently rolling out new features in Google Search and Google Maps that will make it easier for people to connect to virtual doctors much easier. This feature will apply for any size medical practice that can offer telehealth services.

This new search feature will decrease the amount of stress and time when looking for help online. You won’t have to click on a medical provider’s name and then go to their website to see if they offer virtual healthcare options. Searching Google can be a daunting task, let alone for someone who needs medical attention. 

Google My Business Profile Displaying Virtual Healthcare Options

This new virtual care feature is for healthcare providers like doctors, hospitals, and mental health professionals. Someone searching for medical assistance might see a “get virtual healthcare” link on their search results or maps. The person searching will be able to click on their link where it will bring them to the healthcare providers’ website for more information. You will see later on what we recommend doing for that landing page.

Virtual Healthcare, Telemedicine, Source of Health

Due to every state having its own rules and regulations about what is currently open or closed, we’d recommend updating your information in your Google My Business profile. Google is automatically putting a link directly to healthcare providers’ COVID-19 information page on Google Search and Google Maps, so make sure to update yours. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend reading Google’s best practices on how healthcare providers should update their websites with the latest COVID-19 information. 

Landing Page For Your Telemedicine Options

If you want to do this correctly, we would highly recommend building out a telemedicine or telehealth landing page that is built specifically for virtual healthcare. The last thing you want to do is have someone click your virtual healthcare link, but your website says nothing about virtual healthcare options. Here is an example of a telemedicine landing page that we just built for a local Scottsdale, AZ medical provider.

Virtual Healthcare, Telemedicine, Source of Health

Make sure that your telemedicine landing page is straightforward and clear to understand. The whole goal of this page is to ensure confidence in the visitor that they know who you are, what you offer, and how they can make an appointment.

Treat the page as if the visitor has never heard of telehealth or telemedicine. We recommend listing out, “What is Telemedicine?” and then explaining the specifics on why telemedicine or virtual healthcare is important and what the benefits are. Remember, virtual healthcare is brand new to a lot of people that haven’t experienced it yet.

Next, list out the virtual healthcare services that you offer, so the visitor understands what you do provide and what you don’t provide. The last thing you’ll want is having to turn down a person who truly needs medical attention for services that you don’t provide.

Last but not least, list out how to become a new patient, what they should expect, and a call to action to either call now or book an appointment.

Virtual Healthcare Options in Search Results

This new virtual healthcare feature is beginning as a pilot for search results in the U.S.

Google gave an example of someone searching for “immediate care,” and the search results showed available virtual care options and related information about the visit. Some of this information would be on out-of-pocket costs charged for a visit (for those that don’t have health insurance). This will be an easy way for people to directly connect with a virtual healthcare provider without ever having to leave their homes. Virtual visits should take place on the healthcare provider’s platform of choice.

Someone searching for healthcare will be able to directly see in the results what virtual healthcare options are available and what the out-of-pocket costs are for a visit.

In Conclusion

The world is changing every day at a rate that most of us aren’t used to. Being in the medical and healthcare industry, now is your chance to step it up a notch and provide that extra level of care for patients that need virtual healthcare. If you need any help with optimizing your website for COVID-19, setting up your Google My Business profile for virtual healthcare options, or building telemedicine landing pages, contact us today. We are ready to help our community just as much as you are.

Why Local SEO Is Important for Your Marketing Strategy

Posted on by avintivmstg

March and April 2020 have been a whirlwind of uncertainty, confusion, fear, confidence, and a mixture of everything in-between. Every person and business in the world has been affected by COVID-19. It’s how we allow COVID-19 to affect our business that dictates our future journey. We’re writing an article on why local SEO is important for your 2020 marketing strategy because we chose to be the positive light helping businesses get through this difficult time.

You have a choice as a business owner. You can fold your arms, play the victim, and wonder why this has happened to your business and you. Or, you can take a step back, breathe, and plan how you’re not just going to survive, but figure out how your business can thrive. What can you do right now to bounce back 10x stronger than before?

We work with a variety of different industries, both online and local businesses, and thankfully they’re all doing well. We’ve helped every one of our clients pivot their business during these uncertain times, and it’s paying off for them. We’ve also had an influx of companies reach out to us to rebuild their branding, websites, and SEO as before COVID-19, they didn’t have the time to start these types of projects.

We have great sympathy for the entire world right now, especially business owners as this is not an easy time. If you haven’t already optimized your business for COVID-19, start with this article on What Your Business Should be Doing to Fight the Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Businesses Affected by COVID-19

Businesses all over have been drastically affected by COVID-19. Right now is the time for smaller companies to go head to head against their much larger competitor. If you own a local medspa with 3-4 employees and a 3,000sq ft office space, you have an amazing chance of surviving COVID-19 as you may not have the same challenges as the medspa with 20 employees, 10,000 sq ft office space and a $30,000 per month marketing expense.

We can speak on this topic as we have medical clients in that space right now who are planning on even financially helping or buying the other medspas that can’t weather the storm as it’s a smart play right now.

Now, before we go too far off track, we wanted to give you an example of businesses that are getting hurt from being closed, yet still keeping a positive outlook on life and doing whatever they can to grow their business during COVID-19.

Local SEO and Why It’s Important During and After COVID-19

We are going to go over why local SEO is so important now more than ever for businesses in the following industries: salons, spas, health and wellness, plastic surgery, medical, restaurants, massage, and cleaning services. It’s April 14th, 2020, as we write this article, and the State of Arizona, along with the rest of the country, is in complete lockdown.

Right now, most cities and shopping centers look like ghost towns, and that’s okay. Do you know how busy it’s going to be when everyone can leave the house and resume their normal lifestyle? We’re afraid most businesses won’t even know how to deal with the increase in demand for their restaurant, salon, spa, or shopping center.

Think about it. Everyone has been cooped up at home for two to three months with their spouse, pets, kids, etc. They want out, and they want to get back to their normal life of eating out, going to the gym, watching a movie, etc.

This exact reason is why local SEO is so essential for your business. You should want your business popping up on the first page of Google and #1 in the local 3-pack Google map when searching for your type of business. We are going to go over what local SEO is and five reasons why local SEO is important for your business right now.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO (search engine optimization) is a way to optimize your business and its website to be visible and populate for location-based searches on Google. Local SEO is a strategy that can be incorporated into your marketing campaign to drive more organic traffic to your website, to give the user directions, and for the ability to call your phone number to visit you or set an appointment.

When a user is searching for specific keywords with the city, state, zip code, or near me searches added, your business should populate. Local search optimization is one of the best marketing tactics and strategies to grow your local business.

Below is an example of searches 

  • Restaurants near me
  • Bars near me
  • Scottsdale Medspas
  • Medical clinics in Phoenix

Avintiv Media has our proprietary process on how we get our local clients ranking on the first page of Google and in the 3-pack map. Some standard strategies can include content creation, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization with an emphasis on local directory listings.

5 Reasons Why Local SEO Is Important and Should be Your Main Marketing Focus for 2020

 

1. When COVID-19 is over, traveling, eating out, and shopping will be busier than ever.

One of the biggest misconceptions when wanting to grow your business is building your marketing around current events. That is slightly true but mostly false. True SEO campaigns and strategies take 60-90 days before Google fully processes all of the changes and starts sending you more organic traffic. If you started local SEO today, you would start to see results around June 14th, 2020. June 14th, 2020, which would be weeks after the U.S. has lifted its lockdown policies, and people would slowly going back out and looking at places to eat and shop.

Not only that, I can attest to this, but most of us do not look like our best selves right now, whether it’s from nails or hair not being done or gyms being closed down. Gyms, medspas, hair salons, and any type of medical or health enhancement company are going to be booming with customers wanting to enhance their look. Is your medspa going to pop up #1 on Google when a user searches, or will your competitor take that spot?

A lot of your competitors are probably doing worse than you due to their company being larger with much more expenses. They are more than likely taking their foot off the gas, which is the perfect time to catch up to them before they even notice. We love working with the Davids of the world as we take down the Goliaths of the world. We genuinely want everyone to win, so we say that half kidding, but the other half being dead serious.

2. Local SEO stats you should know.

We can sit here and tell you why local SEO is so important for your business right now and in the near future, but we’d much rather you see real research and data. 

These stats can be found on our recent blog 5 Need to Know SEO Tips for Dentists and Periodontists for 2020.

3. Getting Your Business Listed on the Google 3-Pack Map

You, along with everyone else, have searched for something on Google and have clicked a business listed in Google’s 3-pack map. Most people never even go past the 3-pack map since Google launched it. 

Ironically, Moz completed a study where over 44% of the people who performed a local search, then clicked on the 3-pack listing. Only 8% of those people chose to press “load more” to see the rest of the results. Do you want to be a part of the 8% group of businesses?

The Google 3-pack map has made it extremely easy for people to find a business’s website, address, or phone number with just a few clicks. If you’re using a new smartphone, which is highly likely, your phone will give you turn-by-turn directions to that business within seconds.

Below is an example of one of our clients, who is a local dentist and periodontist. We’ve been grateful to have been working with them for almost two years now. We rebuilt their brand, website, and completed local SEO with ongoing SEO support. Within just a few short months, her business was on page one of Google and the Google 3-pack map for competitive keywords within her industry.

Local SEO, SEO, Dental SEO, Search results

4. Tourists and people that are traveling are going to use Google to find businesses near them.

Although it’s hard to imagine people traveling right now with everything going on with COVID-19, there will be a time in the near future when the world resumes back to how it was. When tourists travel to different places, they search Google for what’s around them. Odds are if you haven’t invested in optimizing your business for local SEO, they will not be finding your business.

As you can see in the image below, search engines (SEO) is the number one online used source for travel planning by leisure travelers and the second source for business travelers.

Make sure that you have a nicely designed website that will give your visitors a phenomenal experience; otherwise, Google won’t want to rank you towards the top.

 

Local SEO, SEO, Travel and vacation search results

5. Local SEO has the highest conversion rates out of all local advertising channels.

This reason is probably one of the most important because as a fellow business owner, we all understand ROI and revenue is much more important than analytics in a monthly report. There are many parts of SEO, but the two most significant elements are: getting your website more organic traffic and then having that organic traffic convert into paying customers.

There was a recent study done that showed an astounding 78% conversion of offline sales through local SEO, with almost 90% of those purchases being a physical store or location. Out of those local searches, 76% of the offline sales happened the same day, and 63% within just a few hours. I don’t know about you, but those are some pretty fantastic conversion rates.

When people are searching on Google through their mobile devices, chances are they are ready to buy something or come to your business within the next 24 hours. 

In Conclusion

With the addition of Local SEO, you’ll also be one of those businesses that can proudly say we not only survived COVID-19, but we also set our business up for future success and it’s now doing better than ever. Are you going to be that person? If so, schedule a FREE SEO audit with us today to see how well your local SEO is performing.

Top Tips For Being Productive While Working From Home

Posted on by avintivmstg

By now, working from home is no shock to the whole world. As we write this article, we’re going on 33 days of working from home. Although we’re a digital marketing agency and can pivot fairly quickly, it’s a culture change and shock to a lot of people that aren’t ready for it. Not to mention, a lot of people have a problem when forced to do something, even if it’s for the best. Thankfully, our entire team transitioned to 100% remote with ease as we helped each other through the mental change.

After seeing and hearing about a lot of companies and people struggling with the 100% remote transition, we figured we’d provide some value and give you the top tips that have helped our agency pivot 100% working from home with ease.

Top Tips For Being Productive While Working From Home

Before we dive into the top tips for being productive while working from home, we’d like to touch on a few things. Everything in life, whether good or bad, is analyzed and processed by your mind, your emotions, and how you feel about situations. You can follow all of our tips, but if you’re doing it while the news is on or you’re scrolling through social media looking for COVID-19 updates, you might as well throw these tips right out the window. You must eliminate all stress from your life and put blinders on during this new world we’re living in. Try to focus on the positives that have come from this. We know it’s hard to be positive during a tragic time, but it is very much possible as we’re writing this article from a very positive and happy place.

Make sure your house is clean and stays clean.

I know we sound like your mom in the 3rd grade to make sure you clean your room before you can play with your friends, but we’re serious. If you haven’t read the book “Make Your Bed,” we’ll start with your first task. From the moment you wake up, you must start the day with a sense of not only accomplishment but a clean and healthy start. It puts your mindset on attention to detail mindset for the day. A clean home will create a positive and stress-free environment for you and your work. This current situation might be much harder for those of you reading this that have a few kids running around at home but ask for help from others.

A lot of people struggle with their schedule while working remotely, which is why we recommend scheduling your cleaning on your Google calendar, where you can see it every day. We’re not kidding. Schedule out your chores and cleaning time on your calendar so you treat it as if you would like any other task in your life. I’ve personally been doing this for years, and it works like a charm. Even if you have a cleaning lady or company that usually comes, odds are, we’re all cleaning our houses right now. A productive day starts with cleanliness and positive energy.

Make sure that you set up a remote office in a room in your home.

This one might seem obvious, but we have to remember that some people live in studio or one-bedroom apartments. This tip also goes to anyone that has an office at home but decides to use the couch instead. No matter how much “flow” you think you have from a comfy chair or comfy couch, you should still set up a designated office in your home. Your office will allow you to sit up straight in a chair and type effectively on your computer. It won’t have you getting comfy like a couch cushion would, which will slowly put you to sleep throughout the day.

You should also treat different rooms in your house for different purposes; otherwise, you’re going to go crazy by being inside your home 24/7. If you work, read, watch tv, and talk to friends on Zoom all from your living room, chances are you’re going to get sick of your living room and feel trapped very soon. Spread your time throughout your entire home. If you have a smaller house or apartment, feel free to get outside while staying socially distant from people.

Communication with your team is crucial.

When working from home, we’re forced to read lines in a text message, email, or Slack channel versus seeing that person and having a conversation face to face. We’ve all had someone misread our text or email before and take the message the opposite way that you intended it to be read. That calls for increased communication with your team during these times.

Our team has two stand-up meetings on Slack and Zoom every week, managers meeting every Friday, and we all work live in slack together from 9 am – 6 pm Monday through Friday. Although our team has been working until 8 pm – 9 pm most nights as a lot of our clients have tight deadlines for COVID-19 projects and not much else to do right now outside of work and binge-watch your favorite Netflix series, Tiger King.

Making a schedule is crucial.

Some of you might live by a schedule, and some of you might hate schedules. Now is the time to get accustomed to a schedule if you want to be productive while working remotely from home. Some of you might be single and alone at home, but some of you might have a significant other and kids at home, so it could also be pretty hectic.

We highly recommend putting everything about your day in your Google Calendar. You can then color code your day. I’ll give you an example. I wake up every morning at 6:30 am and spend the next two hours reading, meditating, and journaling. I mark that blue in my calendar for personal time. I then color code which subjects I’m working on throughout the day: content creation is yellow, SEO is orange, sales is green, creative or branding is pink, and so on. You don’t have to go that granular. You can just start by adding everything to your calendar and breaking it down, so nothing catches you off guard, and you can visualize everything you genuinely plan to get done for the week. The other cool feature of Google Calendars is that you can break down that goal or time slot into bullet points of tasks or goals in the description box.

Google Calendar, Productive, Work From Home

Take a 10-15 minute break every 2-3 hours.

We started implementing this at our agency about a year ago. We saw research that increased productivity after taking a walk. When you’re staring at your computer screen for hours at a time, you need to give your eyes and brain a rest and refresh. Going for a walk is a great way to breathe some fresh air and get away from work.

We noticed that every time our team would walk around our neighborhood in Scottsdale, AZ, they would get a bunch of vitamin D from the sun, and see bright blue skies, birds chirping, and super green trees. How could that not freshen someone’s day up? So, we started pushing our team members to go on walks with each other. Going for a walk will also help you focus on the positives right now and show you how much bigger this universe is than just us and our needs during this time.

Set a timer on your phone every 2-3 hours, and it will remind you to go for a walk. We’d recommend bringing water with you as the odds are you haven’t hydrated enough while working away at your computer.

Use this software to work at home with ease.

Below is a list of some of the software we use at Avintiv Media to be productive while working remotely.

Slack

Slack is the same thing as an advanced chat room for your whole company. It’s a live chat system that allows you to take to your entire company or just one person at a time. Your company is a workspace, and it will enable you to organize communications by creating channels to organize group discussions. You can add text, links, files, and pretty much anything else inside slack that you would want to send to a colleague. Our agency counts on slack a ton, even when we are working at the office, since we have had remote team members all over the country.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is just as it sounds; it’s a shared calendar linked to your Google Account. Google Calendar allows you to quickly schedule meetings or Zoom meetings while getting reminders about upcoming meetings throughout the day. Google Calendar works excellently with teams of any size. You can view what your other team members are working on or where they have free time for an up-and-coming meeting. This calendar has been a massive lifesaver for us at the agency.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a free online cloud-based storage system that allows you to store and access files online. Odds are, your company either uses Google Drive or Dropbox to organize all of your company files. Google Drive syncs all of your stored files to any of your devices, whether it’s your desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet. You can access all of your files in the cloud.

Zoom

Outside of being one of the best stocks to have invested in for the beginning of 2020, Zoom is one of the top software programs getting everyone through working remotely. Zoom is cloud-based videotelephony, online chat, and business telephone service you can use to video chat clients, team members, friends, or anyone else who has it. Zoom allows you to share your screen or draw on the screen, so it feels like you’re still face-to-face with those you’re meeting. We highly recommend using Zoom for all teams who are working remotely right now. Zoom has been one of the most significant culture pieces that have been holding our teams together. Our team is a big family, and we all know how we feel when we can’t see family for weeks at a time. Zoom allows us all to see each other’s faces, along with our clients, faces, multiple times per week.

ClickUp

ClickUp is a cloud-based project management system that is suitable for all sized businesses or projects. We use ClickUp to manage all of our client’s projects, budgets, timelines, and internal processes. One reason we’ve been able to scale our agency so quickly is due to the level of quality of our work and our streamlined processes. ClickUp has enhanced our processes to deliver an even more phenomenal experience to our clients.

If you’re having trouble organizing projects or collaborating on deliverables with your teammates, then we highly recommend you look at ClickUp. It has saved a lot of our projects from colliding with each other, as a lot of our projects are from different clients with different deliverables and similar timelines. Even if it’s you by yourself, it’s an excellent way for you to stay organized on what needs to be accomplished with your projects.

In Conclusion

We understand that right now is a difficult time for a lot of people in the world. There’s no way of sugar-coating that. It’s not what happens to you that defines you; it’s how you react and handle those situations that define you. There are a lot of positives to look at during this massive refresh the world is doing. A lot of us have taken for granted the little things in life, like leaving our houses or going to a restaurant. Right now, you have the full power to be productive working from home and keeping a positive attitude about life and work. If you need help with your business or want to pivot your business, feel free to contact us, and we can chat.