When companies today create or revamp their digital presence, they are often told they need a blog. Perhaps what is not explained – or explained sufficiently – is why they should invest the resources, and how best to utilize the tool once they have it. Blogs are one of the most popular social media marketing tools; but why?

The obvious answer is also the most powerful: it lets you speak directly to your consumers in a way that no advertisement, mission statement, or press release could ever do. A blog allows you to craft targeted content to your consumers, schedule its release, and then engage with the intended audience.

Blogging Basics

Blogs create a sense of authority in the market; they share innovations and solutions; and their rich content can boost SEO rankings and make your website easier to find. Plus, if done well, they’re a lot of fun. We’ve got a few tips for well-written, engaging, and shareable content.

Blogs are 4th most popular social media tool used by marketers. Source: 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Social Media Examiner

Create a blog persona

Bloggers are like ogres, and if you remember the movie Shrek, you know that ogres are like onions. Not because they stink – because they have layers! You too, have layers. Throughout your day, you present multiple versions of yourself to the world. There is the You that exists before and after work and on weekends. This is the unfiltered, organic, 190 proof You. There is the You that exists at your desk, in meetings, and on business phone calls. And then there is the blogging You. This particular You is one that can and should be carefully crafted. Several factors will affect your blogging persona:

Company’s brand

If you are blogging for a company, that company’s brand will be an important part of your blogging persona. Examine the voice in other branded materials from the company. Is the voice edgy and hip? Technical and precise? Clever and irreverent?

Your unique style

The company has a brand, and it trusts you to adopt that style when writing on its behalf. But remember, you were assigned the role of blogger, at least in part, because of your own personal style. When writing a blog about a new technology advancement, for example, think first of the company’s position, then its brand, and finally what about the brand resonates with you. This will create a blog that is both branded and authentic, both Company and You.

Digression

That said, digression isn’t always a bad thing. Matt Thompson, Editorial Product Manager at National Public Radio and host of NewsU’s webinar “What Makes a Great Blog,” had this to say about digression:

A Brief Moment of Digression

Room with a View – Political blog The Daily Beast’s feature “The View From Your Window” showcases audience-generated images. It’s a reversal of the typical digression, but it’s a great way to engage the community. There are even contests trying to guess the geographic location of a particular window view. 

Cat Blogging – Mother Jones’ blogger Kevin Drum digresses every Friday with a blog featuring the clever antics of Domino and Marian. 

Digression Esquire – The political blog at Esquire.com features a Midday Diversion post where such weighty questions as, “What’s your favorite sports movie?” and “What is the most underrated cut produced by Sir Michael [Philip Jagger] and the other lads in his little musical combo?” Enjoy the hooley (Irish slang for party) in the comments.  

Set your schedule

The more frequently you blog, the more chances you have to engage your target audience. It’s helpful to create a schedule. Will the blog be daily, weekly, or bi-weekly? Whichever you choose, make sure you have the resources to fill that expectation. Blog audiences are seeking content, not just copy. Don’t fill your blog with unrelated or poorly crafted content just to have a blog post.

Captivating Images

A picture really is worth a thousand words. With the invention of sites like Tumblr, some blogs are nothing but images. Choose the very best of your graphics – this not only captivates your blog audience but also increases the chances the blog will be Shared on Facebook or Pinned on Pinterest. This is doubly true for videos, which can generate traffic on your blog and YouTube channel, as well as across your entire social media presence.

Building the Community

A blog that nobody reads is a waste of time and resources. Here’s how to build a community of engaged readers.

Synergizing Assets

Spread the the word about your blog by using other marketing tools. Send out an email to your subscriber list, add a widget to your e-newsletter, share new blog posts on your Twitter and Facebook pages.

You can and should encourage readers to subscribe to your blog using an RSS feed or Google Reader, but you can also take the work of subscribing from them by posting each new blog post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. This has an added bonus of cross-pollinating all of your social media traffic.

Engage Commenters

Blog readers are a social bunch, and when they take the time to read your blog and comment on it, they have a reasonable expectation of a response. Don’t disappoint these bastions of your online presence. Reply to comments and address issues when appropriate. Crowd-source this dedicated fan base for new ideas for the brand – they’ll give you their honest opinion and appreciate that you appreciate them. Finally, you can spotlight a stellar blog commenter by using a particularly thoughtful comment as a mini-blog.

Success/Benchmarks

Let’s talk bottom-dollar. After all, the CEO has a lot more to worry about than whether or not his copywriter is having a good time. A successful blog needs benchmarks with which to gauge success. Before you identify the criteria for your blog’s success, it’s smart to identify the goal of your blog. Is it a place to marketing and promotion assets with customers? Is it a forum to explain the latest innovations or technologies? Are you looking for brand advocates, lively commenters, or a captive audience that uses your content to enrich its own?

Web Traffic

A blog chock full of rich content and SEO key phrases can help drive more traffic to your site, increase unique page visits, and encourage longer pageviews. These measurements are all easily monitored through your site’s analytics.

Linkback

If the goal of your blog is create a sense of mastery in your market, linkbacks are a great way to measure that. A linkback is when your content is used in another person’s blog post and the creator “links back” to your original content. Linkbacks also work kind of like karma. The more good linkbacks you put out there, the more likely your content will be linked back to as well. Why? Because almost all bloggers do vanity searches for their content. If you’re putting out the good vibes with linkbacks, chances are those bloggers will reciprocate. Feel the linkback love!

A note on links and linkbacks. Be sure the content you link to is relevant, the links are sound and important to the blog story. If Google suspects you are loading up your blogs with bogus or irrelevant links just to promote your SEO, they’ll penalize you for it and even ask that you remove what they consider to be bad links.

Community Engagement 

The trickiest of measurements may also be the most rewarding. Building an active community of registered commenters on your blog can also help with benchmarks one and two, but that’s just the beginning. Community members are great brand advocates, can be used as a crowdsourcing resource, and can even provide more original content for the blog.

Dollars

We lied. This is actually the trickiest measurement for success. Unless a user comes to your website through the blog and then makes a purchase, it is nearly impossible to track this type of conversion. However, there is still a strong financial argument for having a blog. Consider that AOL bought The Huffington Post (content-aggregating website and blog) for $300 million…and then based its entire editorial operation around it.

Blogging is a great way to share company milestones, discover insights into your own brand, boost traffic, and engage with your customers. And, of course, have fun! Happy blogging!

Got a question? Reach out by leaving us a comment or send an email. We’d love to hear from you!

The Florida Public Relations Association, with the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance and the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, organized a Marketing Workshop and Luncheon last Wednesday, May 8th. atLarge was invited to lead roundtable discussions on Integrated Content Marketing. I was happy to oblige – nothing makes me happier than sharing insights into, and strategies for, content marketing. I was honored with overflowing attendance for my last 2 discussions, and everyone came ready with a positive, curious attitude and insightful questions. 

Would you like to know more about how to develop your organization’s stance on integrated content marketing (ICM)? How to build a comprehensive ICM strategy, get organizational buy-in, create a clear path to conversion using targeted, sequential messaging, and tie your content metrics to company goals? Check out the slides from my presentation, and contact us if you’d like to learn more. 

As I leading discussions for the day, I was unable to attend any of the other workshops, but they all promised to be worthwhile. Experts from across the Florida digital market led discussions on topics such as email marketing, website redesign, marketing budgets, and focusing your digital strategy. After the workshops, we all gathered in the main ballroom of the Polo Grill for lunch and an address from our keynote speaker, Linda Larsen. All I can say is if you ever get the chance to see Linda speak, Go. She had the audience laughing in the first 3 minutes, and had us captivated in the first 5. She was powerfully honest, sharing humorous and harrowing stories from her own life, while revealing insights into happiness, productivity, and success. 

Things rarely go the way you want them to. How well do you perform when things are going wrong? 

This lesson couldn’t have come on a better day. The luncheon had started off rocky for me — A/V difficulties and no FedEx/Kinkos nearby to run off copies of my presentation. The morning hadn’t gone much better. My neighbors woke me with a wee hours argument, my new pumps were pinching my toes, and the first cup of coffee I poured was ruined by expired creamer. Yuck!  

How had I behaved?  Inside, I was a nervous wreck. What was I going to do without my presentation? Where was my colleague hero with paper copies of my deck? But outwardly, I’d held it together pretty well. I smiled, laughed and cheerily said, “No worries!” to anyone who inquired. I started my first presentation by opening up my laptop and smiling at my group. Halfway through it, my copies arrived. 

Okay, so I held it together. So far, so good. 

Beware of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The average person has about 40 to 50 thousand thoughts a day, and about 80% of those are negative. Can you believe that? Once again, I thought back to the beginning of my day. I ‘d woken up with a headache and two numb fingers on my right hand. I have nerve damage from a spinal condition – nothing serious, but incredibly inconvenient. This does not bode well, I’d written on my Facebook. Just like that, at 6:45 in the morning, I’d already set a negative context for the entire day. Lesson learned. 

What you name the thing, the thing tends to become.

This dovetails into the last point. When the first unlucky sign raises its head, you have a choice. You can mentally resign. This is going to go terribly. Or you can rename the situation in a positive light. This is going to be fabulous. Believe in your renaming. It will affect your perception of the situation, your behavior around others, and ultimately your personal sense of happiness. 

Harness the power of happiness. 

Happiness is the #1 selling product of all time. Linda shared several examples of “happiness” being advertised in the place of the actual product. This is great advice for marketers. Figure out how to incorporate customer happiness into your marketing strategy. How does what you do or create make people happy? Be creative. Linda found a colon-cancer screening PSA that managed to market happiness, so no excuses! 

Happiness also helps you relate and communicate with others. Smile, stand up straight, raise your eyebrows. These are indicators of a positive, happy, welcoming personality. If you consciously project that attitude, people will mirror and match it. If someone approaches you in a negative mood, don’t adjust your body language to match theirs. Stay happy, and let them mirror you! 

Take a gratitude shower. 

This was the final takeaway, and I really enjoyed the premise. Every morning, you stand in the shower and focus on what you are grateful for that day. Just by forcing yourself to focus on the good things in your life, you prime your mind to be positive, grateful and happy. 

Today, I’m grateful for you! Thank you for reading this blog. 

Two weeks ago, we announced our arrival on the global stage with our new office in Manchester, England. We set our wings and took flight. We have a long journey toward achieving our global vision, and this was just the first step.

If you’ve checked out our site recently, you’ll notice it looks very different. Gone are the case studies, the explanation of services, and the dog pictures;-) A simple placeholder has taken their place. Where are the standards: Who We Are, Our Work and Services list?

We’ve gone atLarge. Why?

We’ve always been about the daring, the unpredictable. We have also always believed in strategy and the power of connection.

When we launched atLarge, almost 7 years ago, we had a similar placeholder. Believe it or not, it stayed this way for 3+ years and was for all intent purposes, a founding business strategy. It forced us to be more creative, more adventurous, more outspoken. We convinced people we could do what we said through our passion and expertise and luckily for us, they believed in our vision and supported us through. 

Thank you. 

We’ve needed to return to that focus for some time. Our new website will reflect who we are and who we are becoming. It will meet the needs of our current and future clients. Don’t worry, though, we’ll still keep the fun around, too. We are atLarge, after all. And we’ll still be providing the quality content you expect here on the blog and through our social media channels.

Our course is set. We’re chasing the horizon. Stay tuned for the new dawn of atLarge.

It is with great pride that today we announce the launch of our first international office. The new office in Manchester, England, is the result of a long and strategic effort by the entire atLarge team. When we launched atLarge back in 2006, we did so around a very clearly defined vision.

To establish ourselves as a global company by offering trusted and proven, client-focused, innovative solutions to key market segments whom we serve through a network of physical office presences throughout the world.

It has always been a personal and business goal of mine to foster a presence in Europe and I cannot be more thrilled to share this expansion – all the more so given that I grew up in this part of the world. Since Day One, our vision has always revolved around a global perspective and we believe our team and the clients we partner with exemplify this. We have long held the belief that companies today should be looking at global markets; understanding how they can better target their message and reach to an international audience. Our goal is to be their partner in achieving this vision.

In evaluating the market, we sought out Manchester for three key reasons:

• Government investment; they recently relocated the BBC from London to Manchester
• Education & access to talent; with a strong University network, Manchester houses the largest student population in Europe, with over 100,000 students. 
• International access to key markets; Manchester has the largest international airport outside of London.

Some interesting facts about our city of choice:

• The creative & digital sector in Manchester employs approximately 63,000 people and is set to grow 75% by 2025
• It is home to some of the largest sporting brands in the world (Manchester United – Congratulations!; Manchester City, Umbro and Adidas)
• It has the only internet exchange outside of London
• It’s where the first stored-program computer (The Baby) was invented in 1948
• It’s also where scientists first discovered how to split the atom in 1919
• In fact, one could say that it has almost everything but a beach…

…which brings us to our founding roots in Sarasota, Florida. Since our inception, the Tampa Bay Area has and continues to be the epicenter of our business strategy. It’s the core of our operations and we are committed to growing it as our headquarters, driving awareness to it through the markets we serve. Bringing a European presence alongside Sarasota, gives us access to unprecedented first hand perspectives of the European landscape and allows us to share this capability with our partners. We’re incredibly excited at what we can accomplish together.

Over the past few months, I’ve learned firsthand some of the challenges, pitfalls, highs and lows of establishing a UK presence. It’s always a fascinating experience doing something in a different business environment and I’ll save many of those topics for later blog posts!

A presence wouldn’t be complete without the people who represent it and over the past few months, we’ve added several new atLargers on both sides of the Atlantic. Below are their faces and the roles they serve.

None of this would have been possible without the amazing team that has continued to support and drive our vision forward to this day. If you’re a reader of our blog, you’ve already met most of them and I hope you’ll share your support in our social channels with them.

Speaking of which, please keep up with us through our social channels – specifically LinkedIn and Twitter – as over the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing about some other exciting announcements from us.

It’s great to be back. Cheers from the UK!

anand

Whether they’re pushing code or pixels, identifying new talent or new marketing opportunities, the latest atLargers know the game of digital solutions and are playing to win for you. Check out their bios to see who’s who and what they do to connect customers to your brand through their unique digital mastery. 

Barry Ashcroft

Barry’s been in the technology solutions business since 1999. A time when, in his words, “You could look out on the metropolis that is now the Internet, and sigh – I remember when all this was just fields.” As atLarge’s lead developer, Barry uses his experience in core technologies, systems integration, and software development to further the goals and dreams of our clients. When he’s not working…he’s working! Or defending chivalry, valor and other good stuff as a Level 90 Paladin on World of Warcraft. 

Mahnaz Yusaf

Mahnaz, aka Minnie, is a black-belt kung-fu crime fighter committed to saving the world from evil. Well, maybe not, but she IS a Master of Email Marketing. When she’s not putting her 6+ years of online marketing experience to work successfully developing and executing email campaigns, you’ll likely find her in the kitchen whipping up Indian foods and baked goods, or trying her hand at landscape photography.

Kenyon Kowal

Kenyon is a pixel pusher. He pushes pixels by day, by night, and if there was a third part to the day, he’d probably push pixels then too. He’s a very creative sort and loves designing beautiful user interfaces. His favorite time of the day is when he is creating the perfect design, with his headphones blasting sweet jazz music. (He’s a Miles man.) When he’s not pushing pixel-perfect designs, he’s putting his degree from Berklee College of Music to good use by strumming his guitar. 

Nicky Scanlan

Nicky’s not a talker; she’s a listener. Whether she’s recruiting the newest atLargers or fostering relationships with new clients, Nicky wants to know what makes you tick. What are your goals? What are your challenges? And how are those challenges holding back your brand from achieving a greater level of success? When she’s not exploring opportunities and searching for solutions, you’ll find her exploring the vintage markets, searching for rare treasures. Or racing to keep up with the Manchester music scene. 

Courtney Adesile

Courtney has loved all things digital since he was a kid. At the tender age of sixteen he started working in web design, and after University he launched a full-time career in backend development. But Courtney isn’t all 1s and 0s–this Drupal dominator also enjoys laying down hot beats and killer rhythms. And don’t even get him started on soccer. His love for Manchester United borders on fanatical. Glory Glory Man United!

 

Ready to join the game? Don’t be shy. We’re always looking for people ready to level up! Check out our open positions now.

LinkedIn plays the B2B social media game with style. Companies with successful LinkedIn pages aren’t sending micro-messages out every hour (Twitter), and they aren’t asking you how you used their product today (Facebook). Companies on LinkedIn are there to represent themselves professionally and present you with the information you need: What the company does, and who, why and where the company does it. These are the three principles that keep LinkedIn pages growing.

Let’s breakdown what a LinkedIn Page consists of when a user sees it and how you can make the most of it with some basic techniques.

Home Page

The Home Page is your first chance to capture your visitors’ attention. Most noticeable is the banner image. Does it captivate the user, compel them to find out more about your brand, or delight them with a brand emotion they can connect with? It should.

Next up is Recent Updates. These can be any type of content: text, image, or embedded video. Use this to post relevant content about your company, and also as another avenue to share your successes with the world. Make good use of this space to actively gain followers; post less often on here than you would on Twitter, but make sure that you post content often enough for your industry so that people can defer to you as a resource.

Tip: If you have a company blog, this content can be promoted through your company page’s Recent Updates feature.

At the very bottom of your company page, you will see several required fields that all LinkedIn company profiles have:
· Company Name
· Company Description
· Company Type
· Company Size
· Company Website URL
· Main Company Industry
· Company Operating Status

Optional fields include:
· Year Founded
· Company Locations
· Specialties

Some of these are obvious enough, but let’s not skip over the most important one: Description. Here, you need to write something that’s simple and reflects your company values. Being that it is at the bottom of the page, it won’t get as many eyeballs on it as your image at the top will, but it is of vital importance, nonetheless. And until you fill your page with Recent Updates, this About section is the second most-visible item on your profile. It can, when well-written, also increase your search engine optimization.

This is your company story. Make sure that it contains your founding ideals, what compelled your business to launch, and why you have been successful. You may even want to combine this with your Specialties section, much like Cisco has chosen to do. Be sure to fill out the rest of the fields as needed, as people will assess your company using any type of information they can get. 

Products & Services

What do you do? Now is your chance to let the world know. Descriptions of your products and services let prospective customers know what you do and also how you view that work. These descriptions are also a great place to showcase how you solve a customer’s problem or fulfill a customer’s need. Don’t be afraid to be creative with this page; add descriptive icons or photographs for each product or service. Additionally, you can take the same creative approach with your text descriptions, and list the people at your company to contact for users to learn more about a product or service from.

Tip: The most valuable component to this, for a page owner, is to gather recommendations and see insights to how many impressions your product or service’s page has made. By keeping track of these figures, you will understand how your LinkedIn presence grows.

Careers

As a social network, LinkedIn allows users to take their job search hands-on, instead of leaving it in the hands of another website’s search filters or a blind submission to an HR Department. In your company’s Careers section, you can showcase why your company is a great place to work, who works there, and whom a potential new hire should contact. List your current job postings, and share videos or testimonials about your company culture.

Insights

Just as a page owner can see relevant insights into who is viewing their page, a user can see relevant insights into the company page that they are viewing. Company Insights displays relevant information that a prospect viewing your page will want to know. This is the “what’s happening, who’s moving, and what’s shaking” section of your LinkedIn page- a place where interested viewers can get a quick breakdown of your company’s latest news.

The first item is Employees with New Titles. It’s always good to show that your employees are growing internally with new promotions, in addition to new hires. Next to this is Where Employees Came From. This shows from where you are attracting talent. Is it competitors or outside your industry? Now you can easily know, and this can help future recruiting efforts.

The last two important categories, Top Skills & Expertise and Most Recommended, highlight your team’s prowess and identify the people that make your company great.

These comprise the very basics of a LinkedIn page. I encourage you to dig in to LinkedIn and create a page for yourself. Stay tuned to the atLarge blog for more LinkedIn marketing tips. 

Want to connect to your future customers and recruits with a top-notch online presence? Contact us for a complete digital marketing strategy, including an optimized LinkedIn company page. 

This past Saturday, I was honored to be a breakout facilitator at the 2nd Annual Women’s Resource Center of Sarasota County Women Entrepreneur Bootcamp. Spending a Saturday surrounded by dynamic women full of drive and passion is an incredibly moving and incredibly motivating experience.

The day kicked off with greetings from Janice Zarro, Executive Director of the WRCSC, Susan Burns, Editor of Biz941 and Chair of the bootcamp, and Flori Roberts, Honorary Chair and founder of SmartCover Cosmetics. Flori shared an inspirational reminder for the day. All great business owners, actors, athletes and so on, all have one thing in common. They all started when they were none of these things. It was a call to action, and the audience seem energized by it.

Felice Schulaner gave the keynote address. She was the Senior Vice President of HR for Coach, Inc. for many years. She worked closely with Lew Frankfurt, the CEO of Coach, Inc. and the man responsible for turning the brand into a household name and women’s fashion phenomenon. She shared with the group a number of traits great leaders, like Lew, exhibit. While these traits were specific to a good entrepreneur, I think they’re good personality goals for anyone.

1. Have a vision. See what you want the future to be.
2. Be passionate. Eat, sleep, dream, drink, breathe your goal.
3. A focus on excellence.
4. Work ethic. Work harder than you ever believed possible.
5. Confidence.
6. Resilience.
7. Flexible.
8. Tenacity.
9. Self-awareness.
10. Risk-taking. Entrepreneurs believe its going to happen.
11. Disrespect rules. Do not accept the status quo or “that’s the way things are done.”
12. Optimistic. Believe in the possibilities.
13. Extraordinary charisma.

The panel discussion included three amazing women from the Sarasota area: Charlene Lenger, founder of Tropex, Roxanne Joffe president of CAP Brand Marketing, and Rebecca Smith, founder of The A.D. Morgan Corporation. Each shared intimate stories of their entrepreneurial journey. They told the audience of overcoming obstacles and preconceptions of women as leaders. They shared their techniques for dealing with the stress of starting, and growing, a business. And they discussed the work-life balance issue. I took away a different lesson from each of them.

Rebecca Smith

She talked about going to school to be an architect, but not enjoying the work when she finally started. She was pulled towards contractor work, and that pull inspired her to start A.D. Morgan Corporation, a multi-million dollar business with a reputation as a local leader in Construction Managers and General Contractors. Takeaway: Don’t be an architect when you really want to be a contractor.

Charlene Lenger

The origin story of Tropex was so simple, and yet so daring, I couldn’t help but admire it. Charlene bought $50 worth of plants, borrowed some umbrellas, had a friend fill a few buckets with cement to keep everything on the ground, and then sold her plants on Main Street in Sarasota. She sold all of the plants for $100. Then she went and bought $100 worth of plants and repeated the process. She did this over and over again, until she had $10,000. Now Tropex is Florida’s #1 commercial interior plant leasing company. She believes if you love what you do and are constantly facing new challenges, then owning your own business is worth the work. Takeaway: Grow your business so you never face the same challenge day to day. Because that’s boring.

Roxanne Joffe

Talk about dynamic! Roxanne is the president of CAP Brand Marketing, nurtures several other business ventures, and is actively involved with her multi-generational family. She shared several amazing insights, and I want to share them with you here.

• Embrace the pivotal moments in your life. Embrace the self-reflection these moments afford.
• You are your business. Take care of yourself.
• Show up & choose to be present.
• Pay attention to what has heart & meaning.
• Tell the truth without blame or judgement.
• Be open to outcomes.
• Create the big vision, but be open to shifts.
• Be you. Authentic. If you don’t love yourself, it’s hard to show others why you’re lovable.
• Don’t get caught up in negativity.
• Develop some personal mantras.
• Have a sense of humor.
• Use your worst moments as an opener, a joke.

I led two hour-long presentations on social media solutions in business. The women were positive, curious, and energized by the possibilities of social media marketing. I couldn’t have asked for a more engaged and engaging audience. The presentation covered a basic social media marketing strategy and simple techniques for optimizing common social platforms like Facebook & Twitter.

Strategy

Your social media strategy should only be a part of an integrated content marketing strategy. To start, answer these questions: 

• What do you want to say?
• What content do you have? 
• What content do you want? 
• What platforms are my audience using? 
• What platforms are right for my content? 
• What are my social media goals? 
• Who will be in charge of social media? 
• How often will we post? 
• How will we determine success?

I also provided a breakdown of the peak traffic times and optimal post times for several social media platforms.

For each social media platform–Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Pinterest were discussed–we had a few basic recommendations.

• Complete & customize your profile. It validates your online presence. Brand each social media channel with cover photos, profile photos, and banner images. 
• Make sure you have a pipeline of content ready before launching a social media channel. 
• Be a publishing source of trusted, expert content. 
• Test when your audience is most engaged. 
• Pictures and links with a question increase engagement. 
• Treat your social media like a customer service concierge service. Because your customers most likely will, too. 
• Write. Read. Think. Read. Then, Launch. You’ll avoid minor and major mistakes. 
• Include SEO keywords in image captions. 
• Social media is a conversation. Participate!
• When judging ROI, measure audience growth and engagement as well as sales and sign-ups.

Congratulations to the WRCSC for a successful, one-of-a-kind event. And thanks to the wonderful women and men who made the day so much fun. I’m looking forward to next year!

Before I took the red pill and became an atLarger, I worked as a copywriter for a small company. We had a big, open floorplan, with many departments working side by side. It was a wonderful, friendly environment, except for one department. Sales. There was a long-standing tiff between the two departments, and it got worse before it got better. After a restructuring at the company, Marketing became a part of Sales. It was a disaster. Sales treated us as subservient, and we responded with witty but destructive snark. We termed our new combined department “Smarketing,” and not long after words like “smarcasm” and “snarketing” were born. We were like two schoolyard gangs, competing for dominance on the playground.

There’s a lot of content on the Internet about Sales and Marketing working together as one team, yet the marketing/sales rivalry I experienced is not unique. Many businesses experience and lament this same kind of rivalry. Why? The two departments don’t understand each other. They don’t realize that sales doesn’t work against marketing, and marketing doesn’t work for sales. They work together.

So how can companies get these two departments to put down their assumptions, their past experiences and their pitchforks, and get along?

#1 Stop the bickering.

Marketing people are clever, which, when threatened, they can quickly convert to sarcasm. Sales people often feel the weight of the company on their shoulders, which can lead to superiority complexes. As a business leader, you’ve got to stop the toxic dialogue between the two groups. Identify the problems, the past experiences, the assumptions, and then put them aside.

Respect one another.

Before a big sales meeting with one of our largest buyers, I noticed a few grammatical errors in the presentation. When I brought it up to the sales rep, she said, “No one cares about that stuff.” Ouch. I care very much about what I do – it’s why I do it. The comment stung, yes, but it was also dead wrong. Grammatical errors in a presentation make you, The Company, look sloppy.

Same goes for comments like, “You make things pretty” or “All you do is take orders from the buyer, anyway.” These are over-simplifications of roles that are vital to the success of your company. And they’re dismissive, hurtful messages to send to your colleagues. Don’t let employees (or colleagues) get away with it.

Understand one another.

They spend all day on Facebook. They spend all day at lunch. They only care about the creative. They only care about the price. They’re out of touch. That last one works for both departments, by the way. These are the stereotypical marketer and sales rep ideas of one another. In order for these two teams to truly integrate and work together, you’ve got to change their minds.

Start by laying out a new definition for each department. Make the definitions contingent upon each other to start building the relationship between the two groups.

B2C Company: Sales speaks to our customer (the buyer). Marketing speaks to our customer’s customer.

B2B Company: Marketing controls the messaging. Sales executes that messaging to close deals.

Marketing creates an emotional connection to our brand. Sales uses that emotional connection to influence buyers.

Lay down a few simple facts about each department. These can be shared in a presentation, or simply put up on the bulletin board for all to see and absorb.

SALES –
1. Brand matters.
2. Marketing strategies work.

MARKETING –
1. Sales objectives matter.
2. Selling is harder than it looks.

Walk in my shoes

Finally, a great way to get these two teams to bury the hatchet is to have them walk a day in the other’s shoes. Invite a few of your sales reps to sit with the content developers, designers, social media managers, and marketing strategists for a few hours. Then, ask your marketing department to do the same. Listen in on sales calls, attend sales objectives meetings, or even tag along on a lunch meeting with a buyer. The point is to immerse these individuals in the experience. It’s harder to say all a sales rep does is go to lunch when you’ve actually seen them crunching endless numbers to make a P&L work, or that social media managers just play on Facebook when you’ve seen one quell a PR nightmare by staying calm, talking to the customer directly, and solving the problem.

#2 Speak a common language.

Marketers talk about impressions, brand loyalty, engagement. Sales people talk about margins, markups, and quotas. The two departments are always going to have two separate vocabularies, but a few words can work for either tongue. Here are just three examples. For more, listen in on sales and marketing meetings at your company. What is the vocabulary? Which words could they share?

Brand – It’s a lot more than the name and logo of your company. A brand is what separates your product from the competition and makes it stand out in the market. Everything marketing does is beholden to the brand. And brand collateral can be very persuasive with buyers. When Sales embraces the importance of the brand and become brand advocates, they can use it as a positive sales point in their conversations with new prospects.

Buying Cycle – The time it takes a person or company to complete the decision to buy. This is a great sales word for marketing to incorporate. If marketing understands the buying cycle for a hot lead, they can brainstorm marketing assets to help ease the prospect through the entire buying cycle.

Quota – Sales people have quotas. How many calls made, how many new accounts opened, how many in-store displays executed. When the marketing department accepts this term into their lexicon, it can shift how they think about their own objectives.

#3 Build a bridge with data.

Here’s another term the two departments share: ROI, or, Return on Investment. This became a buzzword in the marketing world last year, but it is a stalwart of sales. How much will we earn versus how much we are spending? Digital marketing enjoyed a long period of no specific ROI metrics, but those times are, thankfully, gone. Now marketers can show how all those “pretty” emails, newsletters, Facebook posts, Tweets, and Pinterest pins are working to drive leads or purchases.

Google Analytics

Show sales reps how digital marketing drives leads and increases revenue. Google Analytics can show how content such as videos & blogs drive online conversions. With vanity URLs and QR codes, even more traditional marketing media (aka “print”) can have online metrics.

Links with smart URLs within the email (or social media, or blog, or wherever) are trackable in Google Analytics. Marketing can show Sales how many leads clicked the Contact form link from your LinkedIn ad, your welcome email, and your Twitter feed.

Email Platform Analytics

Email platforms can break down open rates, forwards and click-thrus. Test variant subject lines, day/time of sends, and alternate CTAs. Share the results with Sales and they’ll quickly see how the right prompt at the right spot in an email can make all the difference.

Social Media Analytics

Most social media platforms have some form of Insights metrics available. If you have a Hootsuite account, you can overlay your Facebook or Twitter metrics with Google Analytics to see how your social media marketing correlates to website traffic. Pinterest tracks every repin, so you can see how viral your content is on the image-sharing platform. Google Sources can show you where traffic is coming from, so you can see which social media platform is driving the most leads to your site. And with the smart links, you can track every click from a newsletter, blog, or social media post.

For more information on social media analytics, see our blog Measuring Social Media ROI.

#4 Collaborate for common goals.

Marketing goals. Sales goals. How to best accomplish both? Now that the two departments understand each other, share a common vocabulary, and understand how one can help the other, you can create shared goals.

What is Sales overall goal for new leads? What matters to these prospective accounts? Are they price-sensitive, quality conscious, or are they looking for ways to engage their customers with new product displays? Marketing can create assets to answer any and all of these concerns.

Increasing orders from an existing account? Sales can share the account history, while marketing can provide market research on end-users and competition messaging. The combination can result in a marketing strategy tailored to speak specifically to that account, making them feel like the special customer they are.

#5 Learn to share.

When Sales & Marketing are snapping at each other over budgets and resources, they remind me of toddlers bickering over toys. Toddlers, much like Sales and Marketing Directors, are not great at sharing. But sharing is an essential part of team-building. This is the part of the blog where I clap my hands together, tell everyone to sit in time-out and listen to the lecture. Don’t worry, I’m going easy on you.

Sharing budget

Listen up, Sales. You’ve got to stop raiding the Marketing budget. Two reasons: (1) It only continues to breed the animosity between your two groups. Marketers think you’re spending the money on fancy dinners, anyway. (2) If you completely wipe out the marketing budget, or force them to spend it on your expensive but ultimately ineffective print brochures that you just had to have because “it’s what we’ve always done,” don’t be surprised when they don’t have the resources to create the custom Facebook promotional landing page or Point of Sale display your #1 account actually wants.

Listen up, Marketers. If you can’t show with real, hard data how your next marketing campaign will help the Sales department directly, your strategy should, and probably will, get poo-pooed by Sales and possibly vetoed by your CEO. Remember, no matter how much fun you’re having (and we are the “fun” department, aren’t we?) that you’re not creating in a vacuum. And you’re not just marketing to the end-user. You are the voice of the company. And that includes the voice of Sales speaking to their leads and accounts. Make your marketing dollars count for them, and then go have fun creating amazing marketing materials!

Sharing ideas

What is more fun than a bunch of super-creative people brainstorming new marketing campaigns? Nothing! But hold on there, my marketing brethren. BEFORE the next campaign is launched, or even shared with the rest of the company, you need to share your ideas with Sales.

You need to learn to listen, too. The Sales department is not made up of a bunch of automatons in nice suits. These are people, colleagues, with their own insights into your customers. Create an open, responsive line of communication where Sales people feel comfortable sharing their ideas and sharing feedback on yours.

Sales, you’re natural communicators. Talk! Marketing people love communication & collaboration. Use it to your advantage by offering up marketing ideas or insights to a particular account. Keep in mind that your marketers do this for a living. Don’t fall into the “snarcasm” trap just because they didn’t pick your idea. Instead, ask them what led their decision. Brand strategy, market research, audience personas, marketplace competition, and marketing best practices all affect marketing campaigns.

Sharing credit

When Sales is publicly lauded for their last quarter increase, remember to thank the people in Marketing who helped make it possible. When Marketing launches a new campaign that drives significant increases in web traffic, thank the Sales team for their valuable insights into your customer. Whether it’s a catered lunch or a cocktail at happy hour, celebrate your job well done together. Handshakes, high-fives and fist bumps all around! Now that’s smart Smarketing.

Looking for a digital marketing strategy that your sales team will salute? Contact us via email with this blog’s title in the subject line. Or give us a call at (941) 365-9200. We’d love to help!

April is National Poetry Month! (Yep, National Poetry Month is a real thing – we can’t make this stuff up.) Here at atLarge, we love the poetry form haiku — we write haikus in emails, Twitter posts, and even on Post-it notes to let each other know the cookies on the kitchen counter are, indeed, communal and please, help yourself. As the resident poet of atLarge, I apply a lot of my creative writing lessons to copywriting.

Here, let me show you
5 *tips for copywriters
*Tips not in haikus.

#1 Know your goal.

Whether you’re penning the next Leaves of Grass, or the SEO metadescriptions for a website, you need to know why you’re sitting at your desk clacking on the keyboard. But, how do you define the goal of your content? One good way is to have a content strategy.  

Your strategy should, at the very least, take into account three things: your story, your audience, and your available formats. Story is your brand and messaging, audience is your users or customers, and formats are the channels where this content will live. Before you begin your content marketing campaign, make sure you’ve answered these questions.

1. What is my brand’s story?
2. Who is my brand’s audience?
3. What content channels will best deliver my story to my audience?

#2 Have something to say.

In poetry workshop classes, I often sat through poems full of beautiful language but that, upon inspection, said absolutely nothing. Poets can argue about art for art’s sake (and they do, a lot), but marketers can’t risk fluffy content. In the great rush to provide more content faster, it’s easy to forget that what we create should be useful, as well as plentiful. Invest a little time in thinking about what is of value to your audience, and then how best to deliver that information.

#3 Best words in the best order.

My favorite poetry lesson comes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge,

“I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose,—words in their best order; poetry,—the best words in their best order.”

The need for effective, emotive language becomes more and more critical as the allowed numbers of words, or characters, decreases. And you are always fighting for the consumers attention against the other 100 sources of content. Whether you are writing a blog or only have 140 characters to communicate your message, the idea is the same, every word should have impact. The trick is to always shoot for Best. Push past cliches, strengthen weak calls-to-action, and choose your words like they were chess moves, because they are. Best content in the best platform. Samuel would be proud. 

For more tips on content strategy, check out our latest guidebook.

#4 Use imagery. In this case, use images.

Metaphors, descriptions, and similes – oh my! What would poetry be without imagery? Boring, I think. Similarly, what would content be without images? In an increasingly visual marketplace (the #1 data consumption on mobile devices in 2012 was streaming video), copywriters and graphic designers need to work together to create narrative, visual stories.

#5 Give it a rest. Then, give it a read.

Our world moves faster than ever. As marketers, it’s easy to feel like waiting to publish content is to risk becoming irrelevant. But, waiting a few hours before dropping a new blog or social media update can be the difference between your content being gold or gaff.

When you just can’t wait — breaking news and live events — pause long enough to read your work out loud before hitting Send, Tweet, Update, or Publish. You’re more likely to catch awkward phrases, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes when you read out loud. If you’ve got a co-worker willing to listen, even better. Ask them to tell you honestly if your prose would convince them to click, to share, to buy. Consider this the content marketer’s version of a poetry slam.

Now, who wants to see my next blog in the form of a limerick? Let me know in the comments!

Want a content marketing strategy that is a work of art? Contact us with this blog title in the subject line.

Modern tourists are looking for more than luxury and value. Research shows that the new traveler is seeking an experience. They want Instagram memories and a blog’s worth of stories to tell. Whether international tourists on holiday, families crossing state lines for a long weekend, or business leaders looking for their next convention location, travelers expect more from destination websites than hotel listings and visitor guides.

This new focus on the destination as an experience creates a unique content opportunity. It’s about more than providing content, it’s about telling stories. It is our job as marketers to be the storytellers, crafting narratives that showcase the history, values, tastes, sights and sounds of our counties and cities. Then, we have to leverage the right social media tools to share our stories and attract travelers across state lines, international borders, and even across the Atlantic.

The New Tourism Market

Younger tourists, new destinations, and advancements in social media are charting a new map for destination marketers. Before we set our compass and set our marketing assets out into the world, it’s helpful to review the data coming in on this evolving market.

International Travelers

Longer, colder winters and a long and equally dreary economic slump means international travelers are looking for two things: great deals and great weather. An ABTA Travel Trends Report on UK travelers cited that in 2012, “…nearly half (48%) of people who took a foreign holiday, booked it as a package, compared to 42% in 2011 and 37% in 2010.” Wet summers and cold winters have international travelers seeking guaranteed sunshine in warmer climes rather than risking the weather with a staycation. Luxury and all-inclusive packages will continue to do well, but many travelers are also looking for a new kind of package: tailor made itineraries that afford them greater flexibility with all the protection of a package.

Cater to international travelers with a micro-site or dedicated landing pages. Buffalo, NY has a page for its Canadian visitors with local attractions featured, as well as pertinent information for border crossing, sales tax, and duty exemptions. Pretty sweet, eh?

Gen Y & Gen X Travelers

Travel tourism no longer has a laser focus on the 55 and over audience. Here’s how the numbers break down: Gen X (those born from 1965 through 1980) makes up 31 percent of all leisure travelers. Gen Y (those born after 1980) makes up 12 percent of all U.S. leisure travelers. Young boomers (those born from 1955 through 1964) represent 21 percent of all U.S. leisure travelers. Older Boomers (born from 1946 through 1954) make up only 15 percent of U.S. leisure travelers. Older travelers, (born before 1946) represent 21 percent of all leisure travelers.  

Younger international travelers are taking more frequent holidays. Thirty- and forty-somethings are looking for locations that offer a banquet of experiences for themselves and their families. These are affluent families who are more interested in one-of-a-kind moments rather than the traditional “sunburnt family on the beach” vacation. They’re looking for experiential travel: a working farm where you pick  your own produce might be more appealing than the traditional spa resort package. Fit-cations are also gaining popularity, as young, health-conscious families seek out activities that keep them off the couch. How about dolphin-watching from your standup paddle board? Now that’s a story worth telling.

Discovering Your Destination’s Story

Every town has a story. The setting might be lush and tropical, dry and arid, or a bustling metropolis. Your characters might be small-town and charming or eccentric artists, or both! The history may be older than the founding of our nation, and the future may be aiming for the stars. There are certain elements of your destination that make it the special place your residents love. The story is there, waiting to be discovered, and shared. To discover it, marketers will need to forget what they know about their destination and experience it again for the first time.

History & Future

Every city has a history, and that history is usually pretty interesting. Spanish conquistadors and magic springs, epic battles that decided our country’s fate, or the oldest grapevines in the country, there is a history that formed the roots (forgive the pun) of your town.

Walking tours share the history of a town. But who wants to wait for the next tour, or strain to hear the tour guide over the crowd? Cities rich with history may want to invest in a walking tour app, complete with guided navigation, recorded narrative, and historical content like pictures to tap. Consider adding a few extra bells and whistles with geo-specific Easter-egg content, such as a reenactment video popping up when a user points their phone at a Civil War monument. Really wow your visitors with special deals and promo codes that they can use at local partner restaurants and shops that have historical significance.

The future can be equally exciting. Chicago plans to reduce its carbon footprint 30% by 2020, and has launched an impressive plan to get there. Austin is more than a great music destination, its one of the most innovative cities in America. Share your destination’s goals for the future and allow your visitors to share the dream.

Beyond the Basics

Look at the tourism website for almost any destination and you are likely to see the same interest buckets featured on the home page. Where to stay, where to eat, and what to do. The first two are fine, but the third? A check of ten official tourism websites all revealed the same general “Things to do,” “What to do,” tab header. “Things to do in…” is fine for a metadata title – it’s a key search phrase for any curious traveler. But if your destination is famous for one or two key attractions, whether it’s world famous beaches or the birthplace of buffalo wings, consider giving these attractions and amenities their own tab and landing page.

The same holds true for amenities people may not know to search for, but will entice them nonetheless. Damascus, Virginia, for example, positions itself as one of the family-friendliest towns in America. It’s a small town, less than a thousand people, and surrounded by national forests. It is a perfect fit-cation destination, offering lots of outdoor activities like trail walks, camping, fishing, kayaking, and even horseback riding on mountain trails. It is also just a few miles from the Appalachian Trail and has an annual Trail Days celebration. Both of these features are perfect opportunities for search ads, blog posts, landing pages, and social media content.

Famous people are always a draw. Who lived here? Who died here? Best of all, who still lives here? You don’t have to fly to L.A. or New York to enjoy a little star-spotting. Our own backyard of Sarasota County boasts best-selling author Stephen King, Aerosmith’s guitarist Joe Perry and actress Jane Lynch as local celebs. Literature, art, and theatre-based tours and packages are increasingly popular. My own favorite? The small town of Newport, NH, is the hometown of Sarah Josepha Hale, believed to be the author of the childhood poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

If there are any in your area, be sure to include articles and listings for local bars, breweries, wineries, or distilleries. These “third places” are gaining popularity and serve as a perfect break from theme-park overload. They’re great places for out-of-towners to mix with the locals and get more “must-see” ideas, snag a unique souvenir, and perhaps go on a tour of the facilities.

Unique details

What about your destination provides a truly unique opportunity? Here in Florida, we might take swimming with manatees or spotting dolphins for granted, but it could be the highlight of a UK family’s vacation.

Don’t be afraid to stray off the beaten path. Detroit is famous for the auto industry, but did you know it also has beautiful waterways you can explore by kayak? It’s true!  What secret gems is your destination hiding? Put them in the spotlight with a jumbo on the homepage, a landing page with informational articles, and a social media mini-campaign.

Story for business travelers

If right now you’re thinking, “My location is primarily a business and organization destination. What does all this story-stuff have to do with me?” then here’s your answer. Everything! Marketing to a vacationer or to the event planner for a ten-thousand person convention has one thing in common: people. And people love stories. Give the CEO or event planner the information they need – site locations, accommodations, local banquet & catering facilities, airports and transportation, in a narrative that lets them envision their big event going off without a single hitch. Don’t forget to include local attractions close to convention sites, popular jogging routes or yoga meditation centers open to the public, restaurants that are perfect for networking parties or business dinners, and a great place to grab a cup of coffee around town.

Telling the Story

Now comes the fun part! You’ve aligned your head and heart with your prospective visitors, you’ve re-discovered your destination and all that it has to offer – now you get to tell the world about it! We’re talking about narrative, informational content. It’s got to be more than just a partner listing. If a potential visitor comes to your site and searches “skiing,” a first person account of staying in a posh ski lodge and learning to ski is way more exciting a Google search feed that only displays local partners’ websites.

The Writing Matters

Let’s get one thing straight: The writing matters. Particularly in destination marketing, the writing needs to be good. Good writing enchants, suspends disbelief, allows your brain the space to daydream. And daydreaming is vital to the tourism industry. When we first start to plan our vacations, we think of where we would like to go, where to stay and what to see/do/eat? Content that puts the daydreamer directly in the experience is more likely to grab their attention. You’re feeding their daydream, and they’ll chase it straight to your destination.

Embrace the persona of a traveler in your destination, or a local who loves sharing the lore of the land. Whatever the persona is, remember you’re telling a story. Capture sensory details, try a simile or metaphor, provide dialogue through quotes from local residents and partners. You can even let past visitors and locals tell their stories directly on the website. Don’t underestimate how much your potential visitors rely on local opinions and feedback from other travelers.

Tell the Truth

One of my favorite quotes on writing comes from author Frank Norris,

“I never truckled. I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies.

I told them the truth.”

Truth is one of the strongest pillars of good writing. Even sci-fi and fantasy writers are beholden to the truth of their created worlds and dimensions. What does this mean to you, the destination marketer? It means tell real stories. If your town isn’t known for it’s cuisine, don’t create a foodie’s fantasy story. But, if the beaches of your town are known far and wide as “the perfect proposal spot” you should probably get that story out in time for the holidays–the most common time of the year to get engaged.

One easy way to capture truly authentic stories is to ask your locals to share their stories. Follow up on the most captivating. Create your narrative around this true story. You can even include quotes straight from the local and maybe even a picture of them. Who could resist Local Joe’s tale of proposing to his wife of 15 years on your destination’s most romantic beach? What foodie wouldn’t drool over a local chef’s tale of farmer’s markets, independent restaurants, and the new mixology bar downtown? Let your locals share their stories and invite tourists to experience what they love about this place they call home.

1,000 Words

While sitting through your friends’ vacation slideshow may be total Dullsville, sifting through richly colorful and deeply expressive photos is the new way to shop for vacation destinations. Make sure you have the very best images out on the web for your destination, even if that means hiring a professional photographer for certain shots. Let these images  live on your website through jumbo displays, sliders, and blogs.  Share them on sites like Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest.

One of the most popular categories on Pinterest is Travel. Pin pics of your destination to Pinterest with captions optimized for search engines. Watch the re-pinning begin. You can even use Google Analytics to see which pictures from Pinterest are driving the most traffic to your site.  

SEO & the 5 Senses

It would be bad advice to tell you to ignore SEO, however, it is called “optimization” for a reason. It’s something that should be done after your copy and images are prepared. Focus on capturing the reader, getting them to read the next line, to Like or Comment, to click and click…and click. What does your destination feel like, look like, smell and sound and taste like? Use pictures that evoke emotion, copy that immerses the user in the experience. Once you’ve got content that inspires daydreaming, then you can go back and optimize it for SEO. If you know your audience and your content strategy is strong, SEO should follow along.

Story Structure

Your content marketing strategy is to tell a story. You may have smaller stories within that story – I Love NY breaks up the content into 10 different regions – but keep your main story at the front of your mind. Place your stories in well-described settings, illustrated with beautiful photos. Populate the stories with the voices of your local residents and business owners. End your stories with a question or an invitation to encourage a feeling of community on-site and in-destination.

Drive Them to Action

If content is to drive traffic, it must have clear calls-to-action. Use verbs to incite action, invitational vocabulary to create a welcoming online space, and clear instructions throughout the conversion process to keep visitors moving. For example, “Book your dream vacation” is more compelling than simply “Book a vacation now.”

Share Your Story

Your blog isn’t the only place your content story can be told. Social media plays a huge part in content marketing. Pinterest and Flickr share photos, an in-destination Twitter feed can alert visitors of local events or special deals around town and Facebook allows you to share articles, images, and videos with users, as well as ask for opinions and feedback. Your blog is the home of your destination stories, but you can also share them through advertisements, newsletter or emails, and social media updates. Decide which channels are best for you and what story you want to tell about your hometown…and then tell it.

Looking for more content marketing strategies that’ll have people packing up & heading out to your destination? Reach out! We’d love to hear what makes your destination unique & how we can help your story be heard!