Kelly - Tower Marketing

People working on a project in the office.

When it comes to any type of success, you need a plan or a road map to help you get there. For B2B companies, creating a marketing strategy is a step that shouldn’t be ignored, especially if you have big goals for your company.

While marketing strategy development for B2B can take a lot of thought and effort upfront, it will ultimately help pave the way for your business’s future growth in things such as brand awareness, digital visibility in search, and potential sales. In this blog, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of a marketing strategy, and then unveil how to create one.

What is a Marketing Strategy?

To put it simply, a marketing strategy for any type of business, whether B2B or B2C, is the compilation of all goals and tactics into a long-term comprehensive plan. Its purpose is to help you weave marketing tactics and insights into a format that allows you to view and execute strategic marketing initiatives in a holistic fashion.

By looking at the bigger picture, you can better see and understand how all of the components of your marketing fit together, whether it be timing, topic, or tactic.

Types of Marketing Strategies & Marketing Techniques

Marketing strategies and techniques are usually unique to your specific business and industry. For example, if pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is incredibly expensive and competitive in your industry, you may opt to not use that method of marketing unless you have a large amount of funding set aside for it.

Alternatively, if PPC ads aren’t being utilized properly by your competition and you find there is an opportunity, you may opt to put a bulk of your marketing strategy into PPC. It comes down to the research you do before laying out your entire marketing strategy.

Additionally, it’s important to consider whether your plan should include only digital tactics, only traditional tactics, or a mix of both. This is usually dependent on your business’s industry, competition, and audience.

If you’re creating a marketing strategy with no previous marketing exposure, it may be best to test the waters in both digital and traditional tactics to get the best reach. This will allow you to experiment and gather better metrics on what worked and what didn’t for future marketing campaigns.

Digital strategies and tactics to take into consideration include:

Content Marketing & Visual Content Marketing – A vital component of marketing, the copy and the types of content for your website or other campaigns is crucial to your success. You’ll want to make sure it’s written in a way that reads seamlessly to your customers. Helpful visuals that correspond with your copy may also be included in this (infographics, animated videos, photos to add visual interest, etc.). For a full overview of this marketing strategy tactic, take a look at this blog.

Social Media Advertising – The success of organic social media posting for businesses has slowly depleted over the years due to social platforms de-prioritizing business page content in user feeds. However, that is not the case for business social media ads. While organic posting for businesses is mostly seen as a way to ensure your page appears active, advertising on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and Pinterest has been proven successful in generating brand awareness and lead generation.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Not only does SEO ensure better search engine visibility for your website, but it also allows you to create a more solid foundation for long-term marketing strategy success. By implementing fundamental SEO tactics on your website and local pack listings (Local SEO), your site will begin to see higher quantities of quality traffic and new users over time. This means you’ll be bringing in users who didn’t necessarily know about your company before, which can contribute to an increase in new sales leads.

PPC Advertising – This tactic, if set up and executed correctly, is a great way to see ROI and generate leads in a shorter period. PPC allows you to target your audience down to the smallest details, while also filtering out unwanted search queries. This allows your PPC ads to become more successful over time.

Email Marketing & Automation – This tactic can be used in a few different ways. Traditional email marketing calls for sending regular newsletters, company updates, and product or service highlights to your audience via email. Email automation allows you to set up workflows that send specific emails to subsets of your email list audience as they complete a certain set of events. For example, you could send a product-related email or helpful guide to a user who visited a specific product page multiple times (showing their interest).

Influencer Marketing – Over the years, this marketing tactic has grown rapidly as more and more users have begun to trust the people they watch or follow on YouTube and Instagram. By partnering with key influencers, you can promote your brand, products, and services more gently. When it comes as a recommendation from people your audience trusts, they may be more likely to purchase or use services from your company.

Video Marketing – Some audiences respond better to visual cues, such as a video about your business, products, or services. Videos can aid in showcasing your unique value propositions and allowing your audience to get a better understanding of what you have to offer. Whether it’s a general video about your company or demos of products you sell, videos can be a great way to elevate your brand and connect with users.

Internet Radio Advertising – Does your audience utilize modern music platforms like Spotify and Pandora? While internet radio audience targeting isn’t usually as sophisticated as targeting used for social media platforms and PPC, it is still a useful tool to get your name and message in the ears of potential customers. It helps you reach potential customers across different channels and increases the chance they’ll recall your product or service.

PR and Outreach – This tactic can start out digital and bleed into more traditional marketing. By creating items like press releases and partnering with other businesses and media outlets, you can increase your brand awareness and audience reach.

Traditional marketing strategies and tactics to take into consideration include:

Direct Mail – Sending information to your target audience the old-fashioned way is still a viable marketing approach as long as it’s done properly. You can use direct mail postcards, brochures, catalogs, and more to boost brand awareness, run sales and promotions, and generate new business.

Billboards – Target travelers in key areas around busy roads and highways with billboards. They can be a great avenue for advertising events and promotions, as well as generating overall brand awareness. While tracking the success of your billboard runs isn’t typically as straightforward as a digital campaign, if you tie your billboard ad to a website page, you can more easily see how it performs.

Traditional Radio – Like internet radio advertising, traditional radio advertising places your name and message in your audiences’ ears. However, traditional radio generally has a larger footprint with less targeting. This may be a good avenue to test for general brand awareness and widespread event marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing – This tactic forces you to think outside of the box. Guerrilla marketing makes a statement, whether it’s controversial, funny, or more professional. It allows you to capture your audiences’ attention by putting something in front of them that is out of the norm.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing – Referral marketing is a great strategy that relies on your current or previous customer base to refer new customers to your business. If you’re lucky, you may already see some of this organically. However, if you don’t have a solid referral network or you want to enhance the one you have, you may think about creating a referral program for your customers.

Event Marketing – If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, you may want to come up with a few events a year that bring in new customers. If a majority of your business is digital, you may want to think about partnering with local events and sponsoring them to get your name out there physically in the community.

Thinking holistically, you can also look into combining marketing strategies with a new brand or website redesign. Before you can market yourself effectively, you’ll need to make sure your branding is strong, your logo is identifiable, and your website is attractive and user-friendly. Those elements are the supporting hub for a lot of marketing tactics.

The Benefits of Outlining a Business Marketing Plan

If you’ve been researching how to get started with a business marketing plan, chances are you’re already aware of some of the benefits that come with it. However, some may surprise you!

Benefit #1: Becoming an Authority & Resource in Your Industry

By planning and executing a well-thought-out marketing strategy, your business will begin to grow authority and become a resource for your audience by association. Becoming an authority and resource in your industry is important for a variety of reasons, but can be summed up in the following:

If you are the go-to authority or resource, users are more likely to flock to your business first before considering other companies.

If you are continuously providing useful information and tools, users will view your business as an expert in the industry and will be more likely to trust your products and services and purchase or use them.

Google bases some of its search quality guidelines on E-A-T, defined as expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Your rating on this may impact how well you rank in Google search engine result pages (SERPs).

Benefit #2: Growing Your Company & Towering Over Competition

Growing your company doesn’t happen overnight and you may be worried about strong competitors in the industry. By actively taking the time to research and audit not only your own business but your competitors’ marketing strategies, you will be able to discover opportunities for improvement.

This research usually is done before marketing strategy development for B2B companies actually commences, so you can build your plan based on the opportunities you see. Note what competitors are doing well and what they’re not, and use it to your advantage.

Benefit #3: Free Time to Focus on Other Important Areas of the Business

Once your marketing strategy is in place and you’ve begun working on executing it, a lot of the legwork will be done already. From there, depending on seasonality and initiatives in your strategy, you’ll need to monitor, tweak, and complete some set-up of delayed strategies.

Because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every month to keep marketing running, you will have more free time to focus on other parts of your business that need attention. You’ll be able to be proactive instead of reactive, which is a crucial element of successful marketing.

Benefit #4: Better Budgeting & Forecasting

In terms of budget, some companies lack an independent set of funds for marketing. We highly recommend making sure your business has at least some budget set aside for marketing tactics, and then that funding can grow over time as your business grows.

Once you have a budget, you can make sure to allocate ad spend and dollars to specific marketing tactics and plan for any seasonality in business. Not only is this beneficial for you to look back on and see what worked and what didn’t to make tweaks to your year-over-year planning, but it also helps to minimize any unforeseen budgetary needs to keep you on track.

When the first year of your marketing strategy is complete, you can review what was spent, make adjustments as necessary, and start to forecast how much you’ll need for future years of marketing. This will allow you to get a rough forecast of budget even 2 to 5 years into the future.

Benefit #5: Gather Better Data for Future Marketing & Decision-Making

When it comes to business, you already know that informed decisions are the best decisions and ultimately result in better outcomes. If you have a marketing strategy written down and laid out, you will be able to pinpoint any turn of events, successes, or downfalls in the plan. This is also helpful for any future decision making, since you’ll be able to see what worked and what didn’t.

How to Create a Marketing Plan for B2B

Ready to get started? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create a marketing strategy for your business.

Research and audit your company and your competitors. Define:
- What your company does well
- What your company does not
- What your competitors do well
- What your competitors do not
- Where the areas of growth and opportunity are

Define all your goals, including ones that do not seem like they are marketing goals. You can align your marketing tactics to help meet those goals, regardless of whether they are considered “marketing goals.” Consider objectives such as:
- Creating better brand awareness
- Promoting specific sales, products, or services
- Increasing event attendance by X%
- Generating X% more traffic to your website
- Generating X% more leads (or sales) for the year

Identify your audience(s). To create an effective marketing strategy, you need to be able to talk directly to your main audience and target them. Depending on your business, you may have one or more target personas.

Ensure your branding is solidified. Consider the following questions:
- Do you have a brand voice, complete with consistent messaging and tone?
- Do you have a style guide for any creative you’ll need to make to ensure everything is cohesive and on-brand?
- Is your logo consistent and recognizable across all platforms?

Layout your marketing benchmarks. Collect current data so you have something to compare it to a year down the line to accurately prove success. Identify your KPIs so you know what to look for as you evaluate success.

Consider what phase of marketing you’re in. Does your company have any history of marketing? If not, start with the basics. If you’ve been marketing for years and are more established, creating a more complex marketing plan will be your best bet. We recommend following RICE or RACE, which details the marketing phases known as Reach, Influence / Act, Convert, and Engage.

Pick and choose the marketing strategies and tactics that are best suited to meet your goals. This could be any combination of the strategies and tactics discussed earlier in this blog. Thoughtfully choosing your tactics is crucial, because it will dictate your next year or years of marketing.

Consider timing and topics, laying out your strategies and any budget that goes along with it. It may be a good idea to use a month-by-month format, especially if you plan on presenting your marketing strategy to leadership. While timing is usually a factor when it comes to business seasonality, topics are really determined by your overall marketing goals.

Flesh out the details. Answer the following:
- What resources (software, expertise, and talent) do you have available?
- Who will be working on each marketing piece and how will you ensure it gets done?
- Do you need to outsource to a third party?
- Do you need any additional dollars to complete your entire strategy?
- How will each marketing tactic work in tandem to meet your goals?

Get approval and begin executing!

Evaluate periodically. We recommend reviewing your data monthly to ensure you know what’s working and what’s not, so you can make some tweaks as you go.

Tips For Developing Your Business’s Marketing Approach

Become Inspired by Other Businesses

Creating a marketing strategy from scratch can prove to be difficult. Sometimes, it’s best to look at examples of other B2B marketing strategies for inspiration! Here are a few companies that we’ve worked with across multiple industries that have created and executed a marketing strategy with Tower:

Consider Your Presentation

If you know convincing leadership to invest in marketing is a hurdle to overcome, it may be best to start considering your presentation early in the process. How will you frame your marketing strategy in a way that they will understand its importance and accomplish both their goals and yours?

This may be a great opportunity to partner with a third-party marketing company like Tower. Not only is outsourcing a great investment in a long-term partnership, but it also allows you to have expertise on your side. Agencies can provide you with all the knowledge and proven results you need to make sure your marketing presentation is both accurate and convincing.

Know Your Limits

In that same vein, outsourcing is a great option if you don’t have a large marketing department (or any marketing department at all) to help you execute the marketing tactics you have in mind. An agency can become an extension of your business and team without having to recruit or find staffing of your own, saving you time and money in the long run.

You can also able to pick and choose what your agency assists you with. If you can complete some of the marketing tactics in mind, but you need assistance with X, Y, and Z, an agency can take care of that for you to supplement any limited resources or knowledge.

Need a marketing strategy developed for your business? Tower has created a variety of successful marketing plans that have proven to elevate businesses digitally and achieve their goals.

Partner With Us

Working in a digital marketing agency (or really any company in any industry), you come to understand that the success of a project lives or dies by the quality of your project management.

Project management methodologies offer a clear roadmap that will keep you on track and under budget. That way your team can deliver a project not only successfully, but efficiently.

There are different types of project management methodologies you can choose from that will ensure your digital marketing project stays on track. Keep reading to learn more about which project management approach may work best for you.

What is Project Management?

Project management provides a framework for delivering completed projects. It is the planning, performing, and finishing of certain tasks and goals for a campaign or project.

The main objectives of project management are producing specific outputs, called deliverables. The work is divided into project management phases, which allow for easier collaboration, better coordination, and more efficient delivery of project work.

For example, within our agency project management is used to manage multiple marketing activities and campaigns, including:

PPC (pay per click)
SEO (search engine optimization)
Email marketing
CRO (conversion rate optimization)
Content marketing
Website redesigns
Rebranding strategies
Product launches and creative campaigns

For project management to be successful, there must be a project manager to lead in planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing out projects. The project manager is responsible for the entire scope of the project, the project team and resources, as well as the project budget and timeline.

Every project manager takes control of a project differently. Depending on their unique qualities, they will select a style and a project management methodology that suits their personality and the personality of their team.

Every successful project management process depends heavily on the strength of the project manager, and learning how to be a good project manager starts with knowing which type you are.

The 4 Types of Project Managers

Wondering what type of project manager you are? There are 4 main types of project managers that all work differently to accomplish goals. Each type has its strengths and weaknesses, but all types work efficiently in their own unique way to launch a successful project. Let’s explore each one further.

1. Technical Project Manager

The technical project manager has complete command over all project management practices. Technical project managers have great attention to detail, analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as, critical thinking and decision-making capabilities. A technical project manager is successful because their team trusts their expertise and looks to them as an authority.

2. Adventurous Project Manager

Adventurous project managers are those that believe the bigger the risk, the higher the reward. They are always looking for new opportunities and ground-breaking ideas. However, while they take risks, they still stay inside strategic boundaries. An adventurous project manager is successful because they are able to see and share the bigger picture and get the team to buy into the excitement.

3. Expert Project Manager

Expert project managers are experienced and knowledgeable. These managers focus on reliable data and are masters of executing different project management methodologies to perfection. They turn business opportunities into financial results thanks to their years of experience and hard work. The expert project manager is successful because the team can depend on their in-depth knowledge and experience to guide them through the process as well as learn from their expertise in project management.

4. Supportive Project Manager

The supportive project manager believes in motivation and delegation. They focus on uninterrupted communication, smooth team collaboration, and boosting morale. Working closely with team members, they ensure everyone has a role to play. The supportive project manager is successful because they are able to get everyone involved and working together, which leads to the entire team gaining experience and skills.

Types of Project Management Methodologies

As you begin your research into project management methodologies, you’ll quickly learn that there are several popular project management approaches:

Agile – This methodology is collaborative, quick, and open to data-driven change. It involves short phases of work with frequent testing, reassessment, and adaptation throughout the process.

Scrum – This methodology splits work into short cycles (often called sprints) which usually last 1-2 weeks. Each small team is led by a Scrum master, which is different from the project manager.

Kanban – This methodology visually represents tasks on a Kanban board. Each column on the board represents a stage in the process, and tasks are shown as they progress through columns.

Six Sigma – This methodology puts an emphasis on ensuring consistency in output and impeccable quality. It aims to eliminate defects and reduce variation.

Waterfall – Waterfall is considered the traditional project management methodology. The tasks and phases are completed in a linear, sequential order. Each stage must be completed before moving on to the next one.

Lean – This methodology applies lean business principles to project management methods. This maximizes value and minimizes waste. The 3Ms (Muda or waste, Mura or unevenness, and Muri or overburden), represent waste in this method.

Prince2 – This methodology aims to equip project managers with knowledge of the best practices and processes. It is guided by 7 principles that dictate 7 different processes.

XP – This methodology is designed for software development and emphasizes teamwork and collaboration among managers, customers, and developers. It consists of a set of rules based on its five values.

Which one is best? Choosing the right approach can be difficult because of the wide variety of types of project management approaches.

And while all methods have advantages and disadvantages, we have found that the Waterfall method is best when it comes to digital marketing project management because of its structure and extensive documentation.

The Best Project Management System for Marketing: The Waterfall Approach

The waterfall method is a sequential, linear process that consists of several discrete phases. No phase can begin until the prior phase is complete. In addition, each phase’s completion is terminal. This means you cannot return to a previous phase once you have moved on to the next one.

The Pros of Waterfall Project Management

The Waterfall project management approach has many advantages. First and foremost, it is easy to manage and understand. Extensive documentation allows you to see progress clearly.

The documentation also means that knowledge stays in the organization and makes training simple. You don’t have to try and infer what someone was going to do next, it is already written out for you.

The Waterfall approach also allows team members to better plan their time, so they know what they need to do and when they need to do it. Lastly, it benefits the person receiving the results, because they will know exactly what to expect.

Using the Waterfall project management approach, you can segment your marketing projects into easy-to-execute project management phases.

Putting It Into Practice: Creating Project Management Phases

Project management phases are key to creating a successful project. Understanding and following these phases will help you to stay on track and successfully accomplish your goals. When choosing the Waterfall approach, there are six phases to progress through:

Discovery / Scope – The scope of a project outlines all aspects of the project in detail. This includes activities, resources, timelines, and deliverables. The scope also covers the key stakeholders, processes, assumptions, and constraints.

Design – The design phase of a project is usually broken up into two subphases: logical design and physical design. The logical design consists of brainstorming and theorizing possible solutions. In terms of deliverables, the logical phase typically takes the form of a mood board. The physical design puts those theoretical concepts into concrete practices and provides additional deliverables like design compositions

Development – The development of the project happens when programmers incorporate the requirements and specifications that were created in the design phase into actual code. This includes building out the structure as well as the functionalities required by the project, including adding in content marketing and SEO strategies.

Test – The test phase is used to evaluate the final version of the developed project. During this phase, the documentation from all the previous phases is finalized to align with the delivered project. This is also where the project manager and team will decide if the project is ready to be launched.

Launch – The launch phase occurs when the project team is ready to set the project into motion and share it with the client or the world

Review – The review phase includes the project managers comparing the actual project budget, timeline, and goals to their original projections. Depending on the results, project managers may choose to adjust schedules or adjust processes to keep future projects on track.

The Cons of Waterfall Project Management

While there are many advantages to the Waterfall approach, there are also disadvantages. The main con to this approach is that there is no going back; the completion of a phase is terminal.

In addition, there’s the pressure of making the final deadline. Since the timeline is so strict, falling behind on one task means falling behind on every task. There isn’t much flexibility or room for error.

Since there are some disadvantages to the Waterfall method, we recommend creating your own hybrid project management approach and adding agility. Doing this allows for more flexibility than a strict Waterfall approach, but still benefits you with that clear structure and documentation of expectations.

Hybrid Project Management Concepts: Adding Agility

It’s not uncommon for organizations to adopt a standard project management methodology based on the unique way their team operates. Or, even more likely, they will combine several methodologies to create a hybrid concept.

A disadvantage of the Waterfall approach is that it can be too rigid and not quickly adaptable. This rigidity can be a drawback when working in digital marketing where scope revisions can come at any time. For that reason, it’s key to develop a Waterfall / Agile hybrid of methodologies.

The key to figuring out how to be a good project manager is learning how to cater to the needs of all stakeholders and knowing when that means being flexible and stepping outside of the Waterfall model. Being flexible gives freedom to make adjustments that are needed for unique requests or scenarios.

Agile methods focus on adding, testing, and tweaking the functionalities of a project. This means you can explore potential changes as development progresses, instead of being tied down to one plan.

All features go through a testing and revision process in weekly or bi-weekly “sprints”. These sprints allow constant collaboration and continuous improvement at every stage of the project.

Person working on a project in an office.

Putting Your Project Management Approach Into Practice

Once you’ve decided what type of project management approach is best for you and your team, you can begin putting it into practice. When setting up your project management strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Creating an agile waterfall project management strategy can seem overwhelming, but with the right guidelines, it can feel less daunting. Following these guidelines will help ensure your project runs smoothly and is delivered successfully:

Have a unique scope created for every project. Do not depend on cookie-cutter project scopes. Get creative and develop a new scope for each of your projects to ensure you are determining the best course of action for that specific scenario. A well-thought-out, tailored scope is your best chance at sticking to your timeline, budget, and expectations.

Create flexible hours for completing the work. Every web redesign marketing project is different. Some may be heavier on design, while others may focus more on development. The same can be said about internet marketing projects – some will need more time spent on SEO, while others need attention on social media efforts. Your hours should reflect your priorities and marketing goals.

Incorporate project reports. Evaluating every project at the end of each phase or month will help you to measure your progress and avoid issues that can build up over time. You can then make any necessary adjustments to your project to keep it on course.

Putting different types of project management methodologies into practice is hard, but not impossible, especially when you have someone on the outside to help. With the right research, planning, and structure, you can create a project that will no doubt be successful.

Need a third party that can facilitate smooth management of your marketing initiatives? Tower can help. Discover how we can benefit your business’s efforts with our successful project management process.

Discover Your Opportunities

If you’re familiar with the phrase UX (user experience), you probably relate it to the design elements of a website. More specifically, you may associate UX with how users navigate a site and how easily they can find the information they want. UX is such an important element to website design that it has spawned new a new career field :: UX Designer. Through user research, testing, and analysis, UX Designers create user-friendly websites that meet and exceed user expectations.

Good UX, however, goes beyond the design elements of a website and extends to the content you include on your site. The content you provide and how you serve it up to users is incredibly important to the success of your website.

What is UX Writing?

UX writing, or UX copywriting, ensures that your website includes the content that users are looking for and that it’s formatted and presented in a way that drives action. Many people believe that UX writing is solely focused on the bits of micro-copy that are often overlooked on a website, CTA copy on a button, the “no thank you” copy on a pop-up, or error messages on a log-in or contact form. These are all examples of the concise, to-the-point copy that spurs users to make one decision or another.

The principles of UX writing should also encompass other areas of web content. Even on pages that include more in-depth copy, you can still incorporate the same UX writing techniques that you would on small snippets of content. This includes writing content that users can quickly absorb (through the use of subheads and bulleted lists) and providing content that funnels users through the buying journey.

Why Is UX Writing Important?

wireframe of website homepage with no ux copy

This wireframe graphic that we use on our homepage is a great visual representation of how hard it can be for a user to navigate your site when UX copy is absent. While this is a bit of an extreme example, it shows why UX writing is such an important part of the overall user experience.

As we mentioned above, strong UX writing, when paired with good UX design, creates an optimal online experience for your web users. It encourages them to make decisions that funnel them through your site and take the desired action – whether that’s to purchase something, download material, or signup to receive more information.

Smart UX writing is essential in capturing and keeping users’ attention. If your website copy isn’t engaging, doesn’t immediately show the user how they benefit, or is too long and cumbersome, they will bounce from your site (and may never return).

Finally, powerful UX writing makes the user feel that you understand their problem or need and demonstrates how your brand can help them find a solution. When a person feels understood or if they know others have had success solving the same problem, they are more likely to trust your brand.

UX Writing Best Practices

As you begin evaluating the UX writing on your website, take a look at these copywriting tips and see how many are implemented on your site. If the answer is “not many,” don’t feel discouraged. You don’t have to go back to square one. I think you’ll find that with a few small changes, you’ll see a big improvement.

Content First

This is a “chicken vs. egg” debate that we often have internally. Should content be written first, or should design be completed first? In most cases, it’s beneficial to have content first so you can ensure that the design allows enough space for your key messages. Even when you’re working with small segments of microcopy, make sure to create your message first and build the design around it.

Humanize Your Brand

UX writing is an excellent opportunity for your brand to show its human-side. Use these points of engagement to create a conversational tone, or even incorporate humor. UX copywriting often involves bite-sized amounts of copy, but they are often memorable. This example from our Contact page shows how we incorporated Tower’s personality into our page headers:

example of UX copy on a Contact Us page header

Be Concise

The goal of UX writing is to drive action, so you don’t want your users to get lost in blocks of text. Of course, there will be areas of your website where long-form content is necessary for informing and educating users, but when it comes to the final call-to-action, you need to keep it simple. “Check Your Score,” “Watch Our Video,” or “Let’s Get Started” are short, to-the-point, and let users know what to expect.

Show That You Understand

Users on your website have a problem, and they are looking to you for a solution. So it’s important to show empathy and let them know that you understand their struggle. As we wrote the content for our internet marketing service pages, we thought about the questions and concerns that we hear most often from our clients and addressed them right from the start. It showed that we understood the challenges they were facing.

example of UX writing on a services pages

Create Hierarchy

We mentioned that UX writing is meant to drive website users through the customer journey, and to be successful, you need to organize your content using the AIDA funnel (attention, interest, desire, and action). Start with a headline that draws attention, lead into informational content that builds interest, provide an offer that sparks desire, and finish with a call-out that initiates action. It might seem like a lot to fit into a small amount of copy, but this example from Moz Pro shows that it can be done.

Focus on Positive Language

Have you ever encountered a sign-up form for a health-related product (whether it’s a meal planning guide or an online exercise program) that offers two options :: “I’d Like More Info!” or “No Thanks, I Want to Stay Unhealthy!”? It’s the worst, and it’s not a motivator. Don’t insult people who aren’t interested in your offering at this exact moment, as you may lose them as a customer for life.

Avoid Technical Jargon

Your website users will have varying degrees of knowledge about your products, services, or industry as a whole, so you need to be careful with the terminology you use in your UX copy. Avoid unfamiliar acronyms, technical phrases, or industry buzz words. If they cannot be avoided, take the extra step and provide information that your users can read, watch, or listen to learn more. Here’s an example of how we accomplished this:

While domain authority isn’t exactly industry jargon, for someone who is not familiar with the term, we included a link where they could read more about it.

Do A/B Tests

As with all elements of your website, UX copy should not be static. If you’ve identified a button, sign-up form, headline, or other content areas that users aren’t responding to, switch it up. Use different calls-to-action or headlines over the course of several months, and then review your site’s Google Analytics data to determine which copy options drove the most user engagement.

UX Writing Tools

As you get started in your UX writing process, these tools can help you implement several of the best practices outlined above.

Crazy Egg – This is just one example of a heat map tool that can zero in on the areas of your webpage that users’ eyes are lingering on. You’ll quickly see reading patterns emerge that show how users are skimming your page content. The red/orange “hot” areas are prime real estate where you should be sharing your most important content.

Headline Analyzer – This simple tool offers so much useful feedback on the headlines or email subject lines you write. It identifies uncommon, powerful, and emotional words that will resonate with users. It also rates whether your headline or subject lines give off a positive, neutral, or negative sentiment.

Hemingway – This UX writing tool will determine how complicated your content is for your user to comprehend. It identifies lengthy sections of text that can be broken down or text that’s too dense and complicated for your average reader. It also rates your content with a grade level readability score.

If a brand new website isn’t on the horizon, implement a UX upgrade instead.

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This post was originally published in October 2016. It was updated in November 2019.

Eight seconds. A website user’s attention span lies somewhere around eight seconds. In the time it’s taken you to read these opening lines, you’ve probably picked up your phone at least twice, were distracted by something in your peripheral vision, or started mentally making a to-do list.

There’s a lot of competition for users’ attention online (and offline), so here are a few ways you can fight against short attention spans and entice users to stay on your website for longer than a goldfish can concentrate on something (which, for the record, is nine seconds).

Shorter Attention Leads to Higher Bounce Rates

Bounce rates reflect whether your website visitors click through to the second page of your site, or if they leave after viewing just a single page. These are called single interaction visits. They can often be a sign that your website is too difficult to use, information is not easily found, or the information within is uninteresting/unappealing to your users.

Average bounce rates can vary between 20 – 90% depending on the type of website you operate or even the type of page users are viewing. The chart below, created by Conversion XL, shows that eCommerce websites average a 20 – 45% bounce rate, while blogs and special landing pages average a bounce rate of 60 – 90%.

bar graph showing bounce rate of different types of websites

Online shoppers typically spend a longer average time on a website as they browse multiple products. However, blog posts or landing pages can have a considerably higher bounce rate, especially if they are not designed, written, or formatted to grab visitors’ attention.

But, also consider that a high bounce rate doesn’t always mean your website is in trouble. A visitor looking for your address or telephone number can quickly visit a locations page, contact page, or even the homepage and find the information they need very quickly. While it may result in an average bounce rate of 70-90%, it also results in satisfied users.

How to Keep Visitors on Your Site Longer

The Faster the Better

The very first way you can lose a website user’s attention is by keeping him or her waiting. The speed at which your site loads can make or break you in terms of keeping a user on your site. And users have the need for speed.

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
40% will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
33% expect load time on a mobile device to be equal to or faster than their desktop.

You can test a page’s load speed by using Google PageSpeed Insights or Varvy. If your results come in higher than user expectations, you may want to pay attention to the following elements of your site:

Reduce server response times
Condense images and media
Prioritize visible content
Enable browser caching
Optimize CSS, HTML, and JavaScript
Minimize redirects

Know Their Habits

One of the best ways to keep web users’ attention is to build your site and present your content to mirror the way they read (or, more than likely, skim) through your site. There’s no shortage of research on how people interact with websites, but here are some of the highlights we pulled to help you harness your readers’ attention.

Readers Follow An F-Pattern

When researchers conducted an eye-tracking study, looking at how users viewed thousands of web pages, a dominant reading pattern emerged. The F-shaped pattern showed that readers typically scan three main areas of a web page.

A horizontal movement along the top of your content area.
A second, but shorter, horizontal movement further down the page.
A vertical movement, which researchers called a “slow and systematic scan” down the left side of the content.

They Go Beyond the “Digital Fold”

Because of a website user’s short attention span, marketers often feel they need to cram as much information as possible into the top part of their website, which is often referred to as “above the fold.” And yes, it is important to provide key information to your readers as quickly as you can, but the main point here is “key,” not “all.” Smart web users know they need to scroll down a web page, and they will happily do it. In fact, analysis from over a billion web visits shows that 66% of attention on a normal media page is spent “below the fold.”

Users also know that the call-to-action and suggested next steps are found at the bottom of the page, which is why the bottom is the second most-viewed section of a web page. Give them what they’re looking for with a strong call-to-action to round out each web page.

Engage With Video Content

There are many good reasons to incorporate video into your website. Video allows you to tell the stories that help users learn about and trust your brand. Video also provides users with short attention spans with an option beyond reading through pages of long-form content. Videos are quick and colorful and keep users engaged longer.

Don’t be intimidated by video. Not everything you create needs to be splashy, high-production content. Here are a few ideas for video content to include on your website:

Homepage video
Product demonstrations
How-to videos
Brand story/history video
Client testimonials
User-generated video

Grab Visitors’ Attention with a Friendly Reminder

How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Is the article you started reading with your morning coffee still there? You may have already forgotten why you went to those sites in the first place. A multi-tasking audience with a short attention span can be hard to overcome, but we discovered a fun way to make your site’s browser tab stand out from the rest and encourage visitors to return to their session. Just take a look at these two browser screen grabs…

Snip20161018 6 Winning the Fight Against a Website User's Attention Span

Snip20161018 9 Winning the Fight Against a Website User's Attention Span

Did you catch the difference? The “Thoughts on Users” tab changed to “Don’t Forget to Read This…” when I clicked over to another tab. A small touch, sure, but in that eight-second span, it may be just enough to bring back an attention-challenged user.

P.S.

I’ve hidden eighteen typos in this post to ensure that you were paying attention. Just kidding, I didn’t.

If you need help creating the written, visual, or video content that grabs visitors’ attention, contact our digital marketing specialists!

Contact Our Specialists

Are you familiar with network marketing? Let me ask you this instead — are you familiar with a distant cousin, an old co-worker, or that girl from high school who you haven’t spoken to in 20 years flooding your social media feeds with sales pitches for weight loss programs, chemical-free cleaning products, or essential oils? Does the phrase “Ask me how!” haunt your dreams? If so, you’re more familiar with network marketing than you thought.

What is Network Marketing?

Network marketing is also referred to as multi-level marketing (MLM) and it describes a business model where growth depends on a network of independent business owners who sell products while also recruiting other participants. Independent business owners sell products through in-home or “online” shows hosted by friends and family, or by using social media to spread their message and drive sales to a much wider audience.

To become an independent business owner, there is often an upfront cost, sometimes thousands of dollars, to buy product samples or build product inventory that can be used in the sales process. Business owners earn money through a percentage of their sales and bonuses from reaching monthly goals. They receive additional incentives for recruiting other business owners and then earn a percentage of their recruits’ sales (and the sales of every recruit that fall under them).

Examples of Network Marketing Companies

Network marketing companies have been around for decades. They sell everything from vitamins, household cleaning products, food and cooking tools, clothing, skincare regimes, and weight loss programs.

Some of the oldest names you might recognize include:

Avon
Mary Kay
Tupperware
Amway
Pampered Chef
Longaberger
Tastefully Simple

But new multi-level marketing companies are still debuting. More currently, you may have started to notice some of these names:

Beachbody
LuLaRoe
Arbonne
doTerra
Plexus
Monat

The very latest MLM companies are now entering the world of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Working with these companies, independent business owners sell a variety of digital products and then their commission is paid to them in bitcoin.

Network Marketing’s Bad Reputation

Now perhaps, you’ve been reading along and you’re thinking “oh, right, pyramid schemes!” Well, yes, and no. Network marketing companies earned the bad reputation of being tied to pyramid schemes and sometimes they are, but not always.

These multi-level tactics are a legitimate business practice when products are sold to end-users outside of the company. Money is exchanged for goods or a service, and all is on the up-and-up.

Problems arise when the business model puts more emphasis on recruiting new members, and most revenue is made from selling starter packs and goods to “owners” within the company. The fact that business owners earn money based on the sales of their recruits and everyone beneath them can be seen as controversial.

What You Can Learn from Network Marketing

While network marketing’s bad reputation is well-earned, there are some things they do well and marketing tactics that we can learn from them — and improve upon!

Social Media Marketing

As network marketing reaches a new generation, business owners are using new tools to grow sales and recruitment. More specifically, they have harnessed the power of social media to widen their audience. But while MLM participants bombard their entire list of (unsuspecting) social media followers with repetitive sales pitches, social media marketing is much more finessed.

Doing social media marketing for your company is a great way to connect with users and create a two-way conversation (this is the part that most network marketing agents miss). Your first step is to build a targeted audience of followers who fit the persona of your company and show a genuine interest in the products and lifestyle that your brand serves.

From there, don’t cram products and discount codes in their face day after day. Social media is a platform where you should be informing, entertaining, and engaging, not only selling. Follow an 80/20 rule with social media posts — 80% on sharing content and 20% on selling your product.

Influencer Marketing

Many network marketing companies employ celebrity endorsers to promote their products. A famous face can make their products appear more well-respected and allow them to reach a wider audience among celebrities’ followers. MLM celebrity endorsers include Warren Buffet, Sir Richard Branson, Dr. Oz, Madeline Albright, Cristiano Ronaldo, Chuck Norris, and Hulk Hogan.

Influencers can play a big role in carrying your brand message to a new audience, but you need to approach influencer marketing wisely. It might be tempting to approach a big name celebrity with hundreds of thousands of followers, but you need to look beyond the number. Nevermind the fact that social media followers can easily be purchased, you want to be sure the influencer and his/her audience are a natural fit to your brand or the message may be wasted. For example, you’d partner with a survival expert if you sell camping backpacks, but you wouldn’t partner with a fashion blogger if you sell lawn fertilizers.

Affiliate Marketing

There is often some confusion between influencer marketing and affiliate marketing. Here’s a quick breakdown: influencers are paid an upfront fee to promote a product, while affiliates are paid a percentage of the sales that come in from a link they share with their followers. Influencer marketing is very similar to how network marketing business owners make a portion of their income.

With an affiliate marketing campaign, you’ll have a team of people selling for you. Typically, you share your product or service with popular bloggers or social media influencers free of charge. In return, they create content about their experience with your brand, whether it’s a blog post, Instagram story, or social media post. They then provide a link for their followers to your website. The affiliate would earn a percentage of any sales made through their affiliate link. Affiliate marketing is a great way to circulate user testimonials and user-generated content about your brand to a wide audience.

Are you ready to use social media advertising the right way? We’ll happily build your audience reach and engagement using social media best practices.

It’s that time of year again! The holidays are right around the corner, which means eCommerce businesses should be gearing up for one of their biggest online shopping days of the year: Cyber Monday. If you’re wondering whether or not you should focus on marketing for Cyber Monday, take a look at how last year’s Cyber Monday performed, the predictions for this year, and tips on creating Cyber Monday marketing strategies that will boost your profits!

Cyber Monday Statistics & Predictions

How Cyber Monday Performed in 2017

Over the past few years, Cyber Monday has become one of the largest sources of revenue for businesses. Here are a few of the statistics that were generated based on last year’s data:

Online transactions reached a staggering $6.59 billion, a 16.8% increase from 2016.
Mobile sales reached $2 billion in 24 hours.
Cyber Monday 2017 topped the charts and was proclaimed the largest U.S. online shopping day ever.
Millennials spent an average of $419.52 per person, which is 25% more than average customers in other demographic groups.

Predictions for Cyber Monday 2018

Now that you have seen how successful last year’s Cyber Monday truly was, it’s time to look at the possibilities for this year! Marketing experts in the field have predicted the following based on data and trends from previous Cyber Mondays:

Businesses will be providing a wealth of exclusive promo codes for site-wide discounts and free shipping on their products.
Product sales will be announced right before the holiday or incrementally throughout the day on Cyber Monday, helping to provoke a sense of urgency from customers.
Cyber Monday will generate more revenue than its in-store competitor holiday, Black Friday.
Some online eCommerce businesses may begin their Cyber Monday sales on Saturday or Sunday to help increase sales under the guise of “Cyber Weekend” or “Cyber Sunday.”
Voice-driven shopping with digital home assistants like the Amazon Alexa or Google Home will make a presence this year, though it will be a small sliver of online shopping.

Cyber Monday Marketing Strategies

So, are you ready to get going on your Cyber Monday marketing strategy? We’ve compiled a full list of ideas to help you make the most of the eCommerce holiday.

Step Up Your Social Game

Consumers will be bombarded with deals around the holiday, so it’s important to stay on top of your social posting to make sure your target audience doesn’t miss out or forget about your sales. Here are a few ways you can engage with your consumers:

Offer a Giveaway — Who doesn’t love free products or gift cards? Entice your users and reward them for posting about your brand or products or using a specific hashtag associated with your Cyber Monday campaign.
Collaborate with Other Businesses & Organizations — Extend your business’s reach while supporting other local, small businesses and organizations by working together to promote one another. Not only does this help to establish a sense of community, but you may also be able to pull in an audience that wouldn’t have heard about your brand otherwise.
Use Influencer Marketing — Putting a face to your social media channels can drive engagement, foster authenticity, and broaden your network. Have a micro-influencer takeover your account for a day or throughout your campaign to showcase your new products or items that are currently on sale.

Check out a few examples of how businesses can use social to garner engagement during Cyber Monday:

Enhance Your Cyber Monday Email Marketing

Email marketing sees some of the greatest conversion rates for Cyber Monday deals. In fact, 24% of traffic directed to eCommerce sites on Cyber Monday in 2017 came from marketing emails. Here are a few tactics you could try:

Provide Exclusive Deals to Current Customers — Reward your current customer base for being loyal to your brand! Send them promotions or coupon codes before your Cyber Monday sales begin to instill a sense of excitement.
Target Your Highest-Converting Audience — Take some time to look into your website’s analytics. To gain the most conversions to your site with your Cyber Monday email marketing strategy, cater your messages to them.
Create a Gift Guide — Give your email subscribers the inside scoop by letting them know about some of the deals you’ll be offering during the sale. Show them how some of your products would make great gifts.
Set Up Exclusive, Email-Only Deals — Provide your subscribers a real, VIP treatment by offering them coupons and promo codes that only email subscribers will receive.

Offer More Than Free Shipping

Since a majority of online retailers offer free shipping, you’ll want to set your business apart by providing your customers with something more. You can still entice new customers with free shipping, but you can also one-up your competition by offering a bonus gift with orders or letting customers know that you’ll be donating a portion of your Cyber Monday sales to charity.

If your business isn’t able to offer more than free shipping, it’s important to guarantee your shipment and delivery times. Reassure your customers that their order will be delivered in a timely manner and that they’ll receive it well before Christmas. This is especially vital for customers who are solely shopping on Cyber Monday for gifts for their loved ones.

Extend Your Cyber Sales

One other Cyber Monday marketing strategy is to extend your sales an entire week. This gives your customers more time to shop your online store and find all of the items they want. You can incorporate flash sales to motivate buyers to make purchasing decisions throughout the entire week, helping to promote even more sales.

Need help preparing and creating your holiday marketing strategies? Our expert marketing consultants have you covered.

If you’re an email marketer, you might as well add the title “Warrior” to your email signature and resume. You are constantly fighting for higher open and click rates, changing up tactics and strategies, and defending your email campaigns from bounces and unsubscribes.

Unfortunately, no matter how mighty your sword or how hard you fight, you may find that your bounce rate is continuing to increase. Don’t surrender just yet, warrior! We have the tools you need to become an email marketing champion. Take a look at the reasons your emails have bounced back, discover whether they are hard or soft bounces, and learn how to fix them with our tips and tricks.

Your Email Bounced Back Because…

1. There Are Deliverability Problems

Bounce Type: Soft (Temporary Issue)

If your email bounced back, it could be due to a variety of temporary issues. These issues tend to resolve themselves automatically. The issues are often caused by the following:

Recipient’s inbox is full
Recipient’s server timed out and is unavailable to receive the email
Recipient has a vacation or auto-reply set up

2. Your Email is Too Big

Bounce Type: Soft (Temporary Issue)

If you’ve sent a large email and the recipient’s inbox restricts incoming email sizes, the email may bounce back. Be sure to double check your email size. Are you using large photos? If so, decreasing image sizes can help.