marketing (5)

In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, the role of a landing page can't be overstated. A well-designed landing page not only helps in capturing the attention of your visitors but also converts them into potential leads or customers. Creating a high-converting landing page, however, is a nuanced process that demands a blend of creativity, technical prowess, and data-driven strategies. In this comprehensive guide, we delve deep into the step-by-step process of crafting landing pages that resonate with your audience and convert effectively.

In a time when digitalization is reshaping industries and personal interactions alike, religious institutions are not far behind in leveraging technology to foster a connected and engaged community. The integration of livestream technologies, particularly PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras, has transformed the manner in which sermons are conducted and consumed, bringing a dynamic and immersive experience to virtual religious gatherings. In this post, we delve deep into how PTZ cameras are becoming an indispensable tool in connecting the congregation in the digital era, making virtual sermons more interactive and engaging.

Having a content strategy for your business is essential for success, but it can be difficult to tell if your content is actually useful or not. Is your content strategy successful? How do you know? Social media is an important part of any content strategy, as it allows you to engage with your audience and get feedback about your content. In this blog post, we will provide 4 tips to help you determine if your content is useful and if your content strategy is successful.

1) Consider the purpose of your content.

It's natural to feel unsure about the value of the content you create, especially if you're just starting out on social media. First, consider the purpose of your content. Is it to educate, entertain, or inspire your audience? If so, think about how well it achieves that goal. Are you providing useful information that your audience can apply to their lives or businesses? Does it help them solve a problem? Are you creating content that is engaging and memorable? Set clear goals and objectives for your content, and then measure whether it is meeting those goals. Keep in mind, your goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-oriented

2) Pay attention to the engagement your content receives.

Do people comment on, like, or share your posts? Are they asking questions or requesting more information? Track metrics such as engagement (e.g. likes, shares, comments), traffic, and conversion rates. If people are engaging with your content and visiting your website or landing pages, it's likely that they find it useful. 

It's important to keep track of the data from your content regularly so you can assess and adjust your strategy. You don't want to spend time and money on content that is no longer serving your target audience. Having your website analytics tied into a CRM such as HubSpot helps make tracking this data a lot less time-consuming. That way you can use your time more valuably to work on growing your business and building relationships with your customers. 

Or, you may be getting engagement, but it's not converting into a call to action. This might be a sign that your content is reaching an audience, but not your target audience. Creating a clear target customer persona can help you refine your content strategy to hit your goals.

Here are a few tips to help you create a customer persona:

• Gather data: Use data from your customer base such as surveys, interviews, and social media analytics to gather information about your target audience. Consider demographics, behavior patterns, goals, and pain points.
• Be specific: Be specific when creating your customer persona. The more detailed and accurate your persona is, the more effective your content will be.
• Use multiple personas: Depending on the size and complexity of your target audience, it may be helpful to create multiple personas to represent different segments of your audience.
• Use visuals: Use visuals such as images and charts to help bring your customer persona to life. This will make it easier to remember and reference.
• Review and update regularly: Customer personas are not a one-time thing, they should be updated and reviewed regularly. As your customer base changes and evolves, so too should your customer persona.
• Make it actionable: The purpose of a customer persona is to inform your content strategy, so make sure that the persona you create is actionable and directly related to your content.
• Use it to inform your content strategy: Once you have your customer persona, use it to inform your content strategy. Your persona should be a guide for the tone, style, and topics of your content.
• Involve stakeholders: Involve other stakeholders in the process of creating your customer personas, such as sales, customer service, or product development, as they may have different insights into your target audience that you may not be aware of.

3) Ask for feedback directly from your audience.

You can do this through surveys, polls, or by simply asking for comments on your posts. This can provide valuable insights into what your audience finds most useful and can help you create content that better meets their needs. There are a number of ways to turn surveys and polls into engaging content:

• Use catchy or thought-provoking questions: Your survey or poll questions should be interesting and relevant to your audience. This will encourage people to participate.
• Use visuals: Incorporating images or infographics can make your survey or poll more visually appealing, which can make it more engaging.
• Offer an incentive: Consider offering an incentive, such as a prize or discount, for people who complete your survey or poll. This can increase participation rates.
• Be interactive: Instead of just presenting the results of the survey or poll, use interactive elements like quizzes, games or chatbots which can make the content more engaging.
• Share results: Share the results of your survey or poll with your audience, either in a blog post, social media post or other type of content. It is a great way to add value and provide your audience with interesting and actionable information.
• Create a Story: Use the results of the survey or poll to create a story that aligns with your brand or mission, making it more relatable and engaging for your audience.
• Be inclusive: Try to get responses from a diverse group of people to ensure that the results of your survey or poll are representative of your target audience.
• Respond to feedback: Respond to the feedback given in the survey or poll and make changes to your products or services accordingly. This shows that you value your customers' opinions and actively work to improve their experience.

4) Keep an eye on competitors and industry trends.

This will ensure that your content is relevant and up-to-date. Keeping an eye on competitors and industry trends can help create useful content in a few different ways:

• Identify gaps in the market: By staying up-to-date on what your competitors are producing, you can identify areas where there is a lack of content or where there is room for improvement. This can help you to create content that fills those gaps and meets the needs of your target audience.
• Learn from best practices: By observing what your competitors are doing well, you can learn from their best practices and apply them to your own content strategy.
• Keep up with industry changes: By monitoring industry trends, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your content is relevant and current.
• Inspiration: Seeing what is trending in your industry and what your competitors are doing can be a good source of inspiration for your own content creation.
• Understand audience better: By keeping an eye on competitors, you can understand better the interest and behavior of your target audience, allowing you to create content that appeals to them more effectively.
• Differentiate yourself: Keeping track of the content your competitors are producing can help you to stand out by creating content that is different from what is already out there.
• Overall, understanding your competitors and industry trends will give you a better idea of what type of content is resonating with your audience, what is lacking, and what kind of content you need to produce to be relevant and useful.
  
  

In conclusion, creating useful content is essential to the success of your content strategy. There are a number of ways to determine whether your content is useful, such as tracking engagement metrics, conducting user research, and keeping an eye on competitors and industry trends. Additionally, creating a customer persona can help you to create content that is more relevant and effective. By following these tips and regularly assessing the performance of your content, you can ensure that your content strategy is successful and that your audience is finding value in the content that you're producing. Remember that creating useful content takes time and effort, but by staying focused on your goals and understanding your audience, you will be able to create content that resonates with your target market and helps to achieve your business objectives. 

And remember, we're always here to answer any digital marketing questions you might have as you grow your business!

Have you ever wondered what is an email drip campaign? If so, you're in luck! In this blog post, we'll explore the basics of email drip campaigns and why they are such powerful marketing tools. We'll discuss what they are, how they work, and how you can use them to reach your target audience. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced marketer, this post will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to successfully execute your own email drip campaign. So let's dive in and learn all about email drip campaigns!

Email marketing has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to generate leads and sales when done right. However, too often marketers struggle with choosing the right email automation platform and getting their list growing as fast as they’d like. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help you get started, such as Hubspot, that teach you how to use email automation to turn your leads into customers without spending countless hours doing so yourself. Here are five tips to start using email automation to grow your business and brand.

As HubSpot’s marketing software continues to grow in popularity, it’s no surprise that more and more companies are choosing to implement its features into their everyday operations. However, getting started with HubSpot can be difficult — especially if your team is used to working with different tools and programs on a regular basis. If you want your team to get on board with HubSpot faster and learn how to use it in a way that works well with your specific needs, make sure you consider these five tips before you start onboarding them on the new software.

When I was a kid, I sensed I was a little different than most. Sure, I enjoyed playing outside and playing pickup street hockey just as much as the next neighborhood kid but there was something I enjoyed more. Business. Whether it was running the rec basketball league snack bar or setting up the best lemonade stand in the whole town– I loved to be involved with business. I still remember this hot summer day and Paul the mailman pulled up to my stand. Visibly parched, he paid me $10 for ONE cup of lemonade and said, “keep the change kid”.

If I wasn’t selling lemonade in the dead heat of summer, I was going door to door, at 10 years old, and offering to wash my neighbors’ cars. Instead of spending the money I earned I put it in a brown paper bag and decided that I would save up enough money to buy a Corvette. I never did save enough to buy that car but subconsciously I was altering the framework of how I perceived the world.

I firmly believe my young entrepreneurial years led to a greater work ethic that I carried with me throughout my teenage years. Never a particularly studious teen, I was more focused on sports and working after school. I excelled in every job I held, until I got my first corporate job at age 19.

During my first two years of college, I interned at an “almost” Fortune 500 company in the Human Resources department. It was a fantastic experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. That is until I decided I would interview for a full time HR Coordinator position. I crushed the interviews and was eventually offered the role, with the contingency of continuing my education. I figured I could work through school and use the tuition reimbursement to pay for the rest of it.

Weeks into the job, though, I felt uneasy. I was an unproven 19-year-old kid thrust into the wild of corporate America. I hated the politics, the gossip, and my boss and I didn’t see eye to eye. The work was mundane and repetitive. I couldn’t have imagined doing this until retirement…so, I quit AND dropped out of school.

I left a secure job that I earned at 19, without completing a college education. Who does that?! Soon after I started my first business – a talent management and promotions company for local hip hop artists and models. Yes, you read that right. The Rhode Island country white boy was going to manage and promote rappers and make money doing it. It sounds ridiculous to me now, but I had always been a student of hip hop and I knew a lot of people that rapped, breakdanced, and modeled.

The first show I ever promoted happened in 2009 at The Black Rep in Providence, Rhode Island. I put out audition ads on Craigslist for the showcase. One rapper showed to the audition. Luckily, he was a super talented dude from Brockton, MA by the name of Eclipse. Along with Eclipse, we featured artists named J.P., Sapience, and Hard Hitta. All of whom had a following in their own right.

Once the lineup was set, I designed the flyers, got them printed and hit the streets. I spent days passing out flyers in Kennedy Plaza, in the club district, and around the many colleges in Providence. I think I sold 50 or so tickets in total.

The day of the showcase was here, my mom made appetizers for the “VIP” lounge, and I “hired” my 6’2’’ 275 lbs father and uncle to act as my bouncers. The show went off without a hitch and I knew I was never going back to corporate America.

Instinctually I think I always knew I’d work for myself. My venture in hip hop only lasted 2 years but for the next 10 years thereafter, I built businesses and tried my hand in many different ventures. My most successful being a mobile DJ business. Life was great, until COVID happened. I lost 100% of my income overnight.

I had never felt a depression so deep than when my business was ripped away from me. I no longer had a way to provide for my family. That’s when I said screw it. I’m done working for myself. I’m going back to the corporate world. So, I enrolled in college (again), finished my degree, and secured a position as Head of Marketing in the public safety industry.

At first, I loved the job. But just like my first go-around I quickly lost interest. Every day I drove 45 min one way to this job and every day felt like a dagger in my heart. Even though I had a great job title and made decent money, I felt unfulfilled. I made it 6 months before I quit that job and went back to build my businesses. Thankfully, business is now better than it was prior to COVID, and I have begun this new venture with 32One Media. I am an entrepreneur at heart, and I think I always have been.

My advice to you is this, life is too damn short to be stuck at a job you hate. If you are passionate about a business idea, pursue it. That burning desire to fervently pursue your dreams is how you know; you’re supposed to be an entrepreneur.