Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan

You do have a marketing plan in place, don’t you? If you don’t, here are some tips that will help you easily create a marketing plan.

Target Market

You first must determine who your ideal client is. Do some simple research to find out more about your target market. What do they like/dislike? What are their pain points? What do they want/need?

Your Products and Services

Your next step is to figure out what products and/or services you can offer to your target market to solve their problems and address their pain points. What will differentiate you from your competition? What is your pricing strategy?

Geographical Features of Your Target Market

Where are your potential customers located? Where will you position yourself so they can find you? How will you channel your marketing message to them? Will you write a blog, write articles for trade journals/magazines, hold seminars and webinars or speak to certain groups?

Your Unique Selling Proposition

Develop your unique selling proposition. This proposition states your promise and sets you apart from your competition.

How Can Your Customers Purchase Your Product or Service

Next, determine how your potential customers can purchase your product or service. How are you going to get the information your prospective clients need to make their purchasing decisions?

Have a Budget

Establish your marketing budget for the year. And stick to it! You really do have to spend money to make money. Spend what you are comfortable spending. As your business grows, you’ll want to invest more into your marketing to continue growing your business.

If you need help creating or implementing a market plan, contact Blue Dog Marketing. We’re here to help you grow your business. 

The best way to predict the future is to create it. – Peter Drucker

Bring Back Your Former Clients

It’s happened to every business owner….a client stops working with you and you don’t know why. For small business owners and solo entrepreneurs who have a small client base, this loss can be distressing.  Not only can this client loss be financially painful, but a small business owner often takes the loss personally.

The good news is that if this customer purchased from you once, they are likely to purchase from you again. It is much easier to sell a former client who has already has a positive experience working with you than it is to earn the trust of a prospective client.

To regain your former clients, you must implement an organized strategy to encourage them to return and do business with you again.  Here are some steps you can take to bring them back.

End the Working Relationship on a Good Note

Your client may stop working with you simply because the project ended. Or they may just cancel your contract without giving you a reason. However your working relationship ends, ask for a meeting or send a survey where you can get some feedback on your work. Use this meeting or survey to find out the reason your client is leaving.

If you discover that they are unhappy with your work, this is the time for you to apologize and fix the problem. This may be enough to keep your client happy and have them remain with you. If your client is leaving for reasons outside of your control, respect their decision.

Send a thank you note to each client that leaves and thank them for their business and encourage them to return in the future.

Continue Reaching Out

Keep in touch with your former clients on a regular basis. Send them your quarterly newsletter. Put them on your holiday card list. Emailing and snail mailing things to your former customers on a regularly is a gentle way of reminding them that you are still there and available to help them.

Invite Them Back

Invite your former clients back. We suggest you try a direct mail campaign urging former clients to come back.  Your mail campaign could offer them a discount for a specific product or service.

Putting a plan in place to say goodbye to clients and staying in touch with them is a way to stay top of mind with them so they’ll return to you when they need your services. 

Why Are People Leaving Your Website?

You’re getting traffic to your website, but people are not staying. Why is it that so few visitors are converting into leads?

If you’re having trouble getting visitors to stay on your site and convert into leads, maybe your website needs some fixes.

Here are some reasons we have found that people leave a website:

Your Site Design is Out-of-Date

Yes, it true…people still judge a book by its cover. If your website looks like it was designed in the 1990’s, it’s time for a professional rehab.

Your Content is Not Easy to Read

The font you use, in conjunction with your background color, may not be easy for your visitors to read. If they can’t easily read your content, they are not going to stick around to learn more.

Your font should be clean and easy to read. Use high contrast color combinations to make it easy for your visitors to read your amazing content.

Your Videos are on Auto-play

Today’s digital savvy customers prefer to choose when they want to watch a video, so don’t have your videos set to auto-play. Blasting your videos at potential customers is a sure way to have them leave your website quickly.

Your Navigation is Vague

When you are setting up your website, think through how your users will actually use your site. No one wants to waste their time trying to find a specific piece of information. If your visitors have to dig through a jumble of poorly laid out navigation choices, they will leave your site.

Your Site is Boring

A bland and boring website will turn off potential customers. Show off your persona in your brand. Add your personality to your content. Use colors, backgrounds and images that catch the eye.

Your Product Benefits are not Distinct

If your product benefits are not featured clearly on your website, you will not compel potential customers to stay and convert into leads. Promoting your product benefits, rather than your product features, will increase your conversions.

You Don’t Have a Call to Action

You have to ask for the sale. A call to action (CTA) tells your website visitors what their next step should be. Your visitors probably won’t take any action unless your prompt them to. Include your call to action on your home page, any sales pages and your blog.

Does your website need professional help? Contact Blue Dog Marketing for help!

4 Easy Steps to Create Great Website Content

Your website will be easier for visitors to read if you have a clear message throughout your site. How can you achieve that clear message? Here are four easy steps you can follow to write great content for your website:

Know Your Audience

You have ‘homework’ to do before you can start writing. You must figure out who your target audience is and what their pain points are. What are they looking for on your website?

Address Their Pain Points

You website content should be all about your customer and how you can solve their pain points. They already know you might be able to help them; that’s why they’re at you website. What your site needs to do is show them that you understand their pain points better than your competition and that you can take away their pain.

You can address specific challenges or pain points you know your target audience suffers from. You can certainly address how you solved those challenges….just don’t give away all your information….you want them to hire you.

Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes when you start writing your website content. Write as you speak because your website should sound like you.

Keep It Short

No one wants to read huge, long paragraphs on a website. You should keep your website content brief.

• Use bullet points to break down a long list of ideas
• Break paragraphs into short sections and use brief title that will draw attention to the section
• Keep to one message for each section
• Use short, focused sentences

Solicit Help

Once you’ve finished your website content, sent it to a trusted friend and ask them to review it. Ask them for honest feedback. Tell them you’re aiming for clear and interesting content. Having a person outside your business give you their perspective is a great way to get a unique second opinion on what you’ve written.

Now you’re ready to write that amazing website content that will draw potential customers in and have them hire you to solve their pain points!

Happy Veterans Day!

A leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out. Starting with himself. – Blaine Lee

Reasons Why Your Blog Posts are NOT Getting Read

What is it about some blog posts that make you NOT want to read them? We’ve all been there….you click on a blog post you want to read and faster than a speeding bullet, you leave.

So many blogger make the same mistakes, so I’d like to give you easy fixes to these mistakes so you stop losing readers.

Not Enough Whitespace

Whitespace is the empty space on the page. It allows your readers’ eyes to rest and it helps them focus on your content. Be sure to include space between each paragraph. Also, your lines within each paragraph should have spaces. You don’t need, or want, to bunch everything up. Studies have shown that using whitespace between paragraphs and margins increase your reader’s comprehension by 20%.

Allow for space around your images too so your readers’ attention is drawn to them.

You Didn’t Incorporate Section Headers

Breaking your writing up into sections allows you to present each idea on its own and keeps your writing organized. By using section headers, your readers can easily understand your main points and they want to read more. Studies have shown that your readers’ comprehension increases by 12% when bloggers use section headers.

Your Paragraphs are Too Long

Nothing makes you not want to read a blog post more than seeing a sea of text with no whitespace. Heck, you don’t even have sections! You will send your readers running in the opposite direction if your blog is nothing but long paragraphs.

Long paragraphs make your information look hard to read. Several short paragraphs will get more attention from your readers.

You’re Using a Difficult to Read Font

A tiny or fancy font may look cute, but it can cause headaches for your readers, especially if they are trying to read your blog post on a mobile device which already has a small screen. Pick an easy to read font and use a size that is large enough for your visitors to read on any device. My recommendation is a sans-serif font where your letters are plain (no embellishments), straight and clear. Sans-serif fonts, such as Arial and Verdana, are easy to read online.

You Didn’t Use Bullet Points

79% of readers scan a blog post instead of reading every word. Since they don’t have the time to read everything, use bullet points:

•  Bullet points make it easy for readers to digest your informatio 
•  Bullet points are easy for you to use
• Keep your bullet points brief

You Didn’t Bold Anything

By bolding words, you help your readers quickly understand the key takeaways from your blog post. Your blog visitors read approximately 20% of the text in your blog, so make sure your most important information is bolded. This way, if a reader is skimming your post, they will most likely remember the information you put in bold.

You Did Not Include Images

Images visually break up your text and make it easy for your readers to scan your post. They also allow your reader to understand, at a glance, what your post is about.

To best utilize pictures, place one photo at the top of your blog post to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to read more. Your pictures need to relate to your post, so choose wisely.

Now, you’re ready to start writing blog posts that will be read…and remembered!

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