There are two core metrics that should drive a lot of the decisions you have in your organization; churn & sales. A great agency is constantly studying these two numbers diagnosing them from every angle learning specific areas of opportunity. 

The more you are able to understand these numbers and what they are composed of the better you’ll be equipped to making the right decisions for your business.

In this report, we want to look at churn, which is something we’ve been studying for about 10 years across two different agencies. The first one was scaled to over 1,000 clients and the second one we’ve scaled to over 200 full time employees in just 5 years. 

When you’re a young agency, churn is so important because 1-2 clients can represent a large portion of your income, however as you scale, the same is true. Imagine you’re an agency like Hite and you’re doing $500,000 per month in MRR.

If you have 10% churn monthly, you’ll need to do $50k in new sales just to break even. If you can create an environment where you’re more likely to have 5% churn, if you do $50,000 in sales you’ll grow by 5%.

Understanding why clients leave and acting on it, isn’t only the key to scaling. Agencies with lower churn, partake in other benefits such as receiving more referrals & a much higher evaluation when it comes to selling the business. 

Hite is constantly focused on understanding the why behind our growth & this is essential for your business if you want to scale in 2023.

Churn is critical, especially as you scale for churn is a representation of the quality of your product, service, & customers.

Every agency is constantly battling both the increase of sales and the decrease of churn.

Defining Churn? 

Churn can be broken down in a lot a ways, but for agencies, the most common two churn metrics you’ll see is Client Churn & Financial Churn. These two churn types can be define these two churns as followed: 

For Client Churn we will look at the monthly turnover of clients regardless of financial impact.

For example, If in January you had 10 clients pay you then in February only 8 of them paid you, that would be a turnover of 2 clients and equal 20% churn. In this example it would not matter how much each client represented financially. 

For Financial Churn, we look at the monthly turnover of revenue regardless of clients.

For example, if in January you had $20,000 in recurring collected MRR and in February you only collected 18,000 of that $20,000, it would represent a 10% churn rate. 

Understanding the difference between these two numbers is crucial, let’s look at the following list of clients. 

MRR

Client A $1,000

Client B $5,000

Client C $2,000

Client D $3,000

If we were to lose Client B, you would have 25% client churn, however you’d have 50% financial churn. There could be a very large difference in these numbers especially as you scale. 

The Problem With Researching Churn

Doing research on churn for agencies doesn’t come easily. First off, about 80% of agencies that exist today would be defined as micro agencies, doing less than $15,000 in monthly revenue of which the vast majority do not keep up with, nor have any data on their numbers, especially when it comes to churn. 

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If you take into consideration those that do keep great track of their numbers, between those they may manage and report back churn in many different ways, even beyond the above numbers.

For example, there is a well known agency that is doing several $100m in annual revenue that keeps track of their financial churn, but in their own way focusing more on net growth vs. churn.

In their model, they look at how much was lost, and measure that against what was upsold in order to come up with a net churn. 

With that said, we believe that this report takes all those data points into consideration arriving to tangible and definitive results.

The post How to Reduce Churn appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

They say employees are a company’s greatest asset, and it’s just as true for marketing agencies as any other business. The right team can help prove your agency’s quality, credibility, and competency to potential clients. So, it just makes sense that you want to find qualified candidates and, more importantly, ensure they’re in it for the long haul. 

Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Chances are, you’ve experienced this firsthand. Maybe you’ve lost one of your most talented employees or been disappointed by a lack of interest from candidates. Whatever the case, it’s worth looking at why this is and how you can change your approach for greater success. 

Why Finding and Keeping Qualified Candidates Is Tough

There are many reasons marketing agencies struggle to find qualified candidates and retain them. The two biggest factors are as follows:

1. Competition in the labor market
2. Employee expectations 

For starters, consider the competition in the labor market. There are more than 14,000 marketing and advertising agencies in the U.S. alone. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing job demand is expected to increase 10% by 2026. However, there’s a limited pool of candidates willing and able to perform at the desired level.

We’re all looking for a specific type of professional, right? At a minimum, the ideal team member is knowledgeable about marketing, has skills in one or more areas, and possesses the right attitude for success. A person with these traits who cares about helping clients grow is a hot commodity. Every agency that’s hiring wants them!

In short, the competition is fierce. Your competitors are trying to attract the same high-quality candidates as you are. So, you have to work extra hard to stand out and encourage them to apply for a position at your agency. And if you manage to bring them on board, you need to prove their decision was the right one. After all, there’s no shortage of options available to them.

But that’s not the hurdle you have to overcome…

There’s also the fact that the wants and needs of today’s marketing professionals (and workers in general) have changed. 

For instance, employee expectations include more than just a salary reflecting their value. People are looking for things like…

• Positive work culture
• Recognition 
• Flexibility
• Transparency
• Respect
• Purpose 

Unfortunately, these are things that many agencies neglect to highlight when recruiting—or worse, fail to deliver in the workplace. And in the second scenario, it leads to great talent leaving for other opportunities. In fact, 2022 showed 62% of professionals considering a job change.

To say that finding strong, qualified candidates and holding on to them is a challenge would be an understatement. But here’s the good news—it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of changing your approach, putting your marketing skills to good use, and offering value to your team.

Let’s start with recruiting…

5 Tips to Find Qualified Candidates for Your Agency

As marketers, we’re always looking for ways to level up and do better for our clients. And the same should apply to the recruitment process. If you’re having a hard time sourcing and inviting top talent to work for your agency, you need to make some improvements. 

With that said, here are five tips you can use to find qualified candidates:

Create True Job Descriptions

A job description is just that—a description of a job. Yet, most marketing agencies (and businesses in general) get this wrong. If you’re trying to build a solid digital marketing team, you probably have a lengthy list of requirements for the ideal candidate.

But that’s not explaining the job, is it?

Jason Weseman, Certified Business Coach at FocalPoint Consulting, put it best during a workshop hosted by Viral Solutions: “A job description should define the work that needs to be performed, not the skills needed to do the work.” 

To explain why this is so important, Weseman went on to say, “You can find people that meet your exact description—your requirements, your skills, your experience—that couldn’t do the work.”

Plus, if you’re strict with your criteria, you could miss on great talent. For example, research has shown that women only apply to jobs if they’re 100% qualified. 

So, focus on outlining what the job entails rather than what characteristics you’re looking for in a candidate. 

Brand the Job, Not Your Agency

As marketers, we’re no strangers to branding. And we all know how vital employer branding is. But a common mistake agencies make when trying to find suitable candidates is not branding a job. 

According to Weseman, “Top talent already knows about their competition. They know about other companies in their space… What they need to be sold on is the job itself.”

So, in each job description you write, focus on answering the following questions:

• What can they do? 
• What can they become?
• What does success look like?
• What does the future hold?

Brand the job by explaining how it will benefit them and make life better. Use storytelling to take them on a journey!

Spread the Word Wide

When you have written your job description and are ready to look for candidates, spread the word wide. Go beyond popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Monster, Glassdoor, and Indeed. Consider posting the position on marketing-specific sites like MarketingHire, the American Marketing Association, and Digital Agency Network. 

And don’t forget about the other resources you have available! You can post about the job on your social media channels and encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates they may know.  

Don’t Ignore the Passive Market

To find qualified candidates to join your team, Weseman also recommends looking at the passive market. 

What does that mean?

It means considering those who aren’t actively searching for a new job. 

This gives you a wider pool of potential candidates. More importantly, it gives you a wider pool of top talent, as they likely have the knowledge, skills, and attitude you’re looking for. After all, another agency hired them!

The key to convincing someone to change jobs (apart from making sure they see your opening) is to show that a position at your agency can offer more. A career move needs to provide a 30% nonmonetary increase. That includes job growth, job stretch, and job satisfaction. 

By proving that a talented marketing professional can have greater opportunities, a bigger impact, and higher satisfaction with your agency, you can reach more exceptional candidates.

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Rethink Your Interviews

The last tip for finding good candidates is to rethink your interviews. (This is another nugget of wisdom from Weseman.) You’ll have a better chance of filling an open slot with the perfect person if you…

• Ask the right questions. 

“What is your biggest accomplishment?” is the most critical and effective interview question you can ask. It gives insight into what a candidate views as an accomplishment and helps you see if they’d be a good fit. If their answer is irrelevant to the position or doesn’t align with your agency’s goals, they’re probably not the right choice. 

• Wait to make a final decision. 

People come to an interview as the best version of themselves, so first impressions aren’t always reliable. That’s why Weseman recommends waiting 30 minutes. If you love them after three minutes, give them tougher questions for the remaining 27. If you’re unsure after three minutes, give them easier questions for the rest of the interview.  

How to Retain Good Marketing Talent After Hiring

Finding qualified candidates is one thing, but retaining them is another. And it’s arguably more important! When a team member leaves, you miss out on everything they bring to the table. Plus, it can cost you—big time. Replacing a salaried employee costs an average of 6-9 months’ salary. 

So, what can you do to retain good marketing talent once you’ve brought them on board?

• Offer training opportunities.

Great team members strive to learn and grow in their careers. That’s why you should offer training opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Ask what they want to do better or take a deeper dive into. Then, source appropriate training for them. 

• Create a healthy company culture.

Fostering a healthy company culture can go a long way in retaining team members long term. It can boost satisfaction and keep employees engaged. So, make sure your culture passes the test by prioritizing wellness, promoting diversity and inclusion, being transparent, and ensuring everyone aligns with the agency’s values. 

• Commit to job advancement.

If you’ve promised a candidate that your agency can provide them with job advancement, commit to it. Give them a chance to move up the ladder once they’ve shown they’re capable. Having the option for vertical career growth will increase the chances they stay on. Plus, it proves you stay true to your word. 

• Reevaluate to stay competitive.

Put in the effort to show your agency is one of the best to work for.

How?

Reevaluate what you offer your team members every so often. In addition to compensation and benefits, look at the perks other agencies provide their teams. Even giving increased flexibility by allowing team members to work from home can be seen as an advantage. 

• Prioritize employee recognition.

Team members need to feel valued, which is why you should make it a point to recognize and reward their hard work. How you do this is up to you. It could be as simple as congratulating someone on a project completed without a hitch or setting up a bonus program for hitting set goals.  

In Summary

If you’re struggling to find qualified candidates to work at your agency and stay on for years, you need to change things up. We tell our clients it’s not about them, and the same goes for us! Show how a particular job can benefit a potential candidate, and don’t forget to deliver on your promises. That way, you can build the strongest team possible and position your agency for success.

The post Unlocking the Secrets to Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent in Your Agency appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

There’s something comforting and enjoyable about creating a routine where people know you, whether that’s a favorite coffee shop or place to walk or a local beer store where they call your dog by name.

Many businesses can create this personalized shopping experience to convert more browsers into buyers. But, it can be tough to do that online where you can’t look into a customer’s eyes or easily ask what they need as they browse digital shelves. Still, we regularly hear about the need for eCommerce personalization.

To tackle that opportunity, let’s define personalization, the best way to start implementing it, and methods to optimize your efforts.

Defining “Personalization” in ECommerce

Personalization and customization can feel like the same thing, but some important distinctions exist. Breaking these out makes it easier to understand personalization and how it can apply in eCommerce operations.

For your website and sales efforts, personalization uses data and customer insights to craft a specific shopping experience for every customer. These efforts may include showing relevant products, serving recommendations, and adjusting content based on the customer’s past behavior.

Companies may also try personalizing service levels or selecting specific pop-ups and overlays based on customer status. 

Customization, on the other hand, generally refers to customer-driven choices. These range from the obvious (selection or sorting by size, color, price, etc.) to detailed efforts specific to the individual (a customer chooses not to see certain types of products). When you think of customization as something helmed by the customer, you’ll start identifying ways to use their selections to craft personalized experiences.

How Personalization Creates a Better Shopping Experience

To create a personalized shopping experience, eCommerce businesses need to invest in audience research. By understanding your customers and what they want, you can create an individualized experience that will convert browsers into buyers.

You’ll want to create as complete a picture of the shopper as possible. Ask core experience questions, including:

• What are their needs that you can and can’t address? 
• What are their wants or things that tip them over the edge to make a purchase? 
• What motivates them to make this purchase at this time?
• Why should they choose you to meet their specific needs and wants?

Once you understand your customers well, you can start creating a shopping experience tailored to them. Take learning about their immediate needs and wants. I

t’s easier to suggest the right products when you know what they’ve recently viewed or what ad they clicked on to get to your site. You’re building based on their tastes and refining suggestions based on what gets that second purchase.

Understanding why someone values your brand can also help you create personalized discounts or special deals that gain shoppers. If you’re known for customer service, you might leverage this for an ad tagline: “World-class customer service meets free shipping on every order over $20.”

It’s more than just a deal; it’s one couched in the language you know they appreciate. Tying it back to shipping and order support also reinforces your brand as one that cares about the customer.

Finally, it is important to ensure the customer feels valued and appreciated. Thank them for their business and promptly take care of any issues they may have. Creating a positive relationship with your customers ensures they keep returning for more.

3 Steps to Take to Get Started with Personalization 

To get started with personalization, businesses need to take three steps: collecting data, analyzing data, and implementing personalization.

1. Collect Data 

The first step is to collect data about your customers. This could include information such as their demographics, location, what devices they use, what pages they visit on your site, and what products they are interested in. There are a number of ways businesses can collect this data, such as through website cookies, surveys, and customer loyalty programs.

2. Analyze Data 

Once you have collected data about your customers, it is important to analyze it to understand their needs and preferences. This will help you determine how to best personalize their shopping experience. Several tools are available to help with this analysis, such as analytics software and customer segmentation tools.

3. Implement Personalization 

The final step is to implement personalization into your eCommerce store. This could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts. By personalizing the shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates and average order value.

The Top 5 Ways to Personalize the Shopping Experience

Personalization can be an incredibly complex experience or a simpler operation based on your tech stack and the amount of data you use. To get started, there are some core efforts to implement that can start with minimal, current-session data and then move to longer-term tracking and utilization.

1. Use Data to Recommend Products

One of the most effective ways to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to recommend products. This could include data from past purchases, browsing history, and social media activity.

By understanding what customers have bought in the past, businesses can make recommendations for similar or complementary products. This helps customers find what they’re looking for more easily and allows businesses to upsell and cross-sell effectively.

2. Create a Personalized Homepage

Another way to personalize the shopping experience is to create a personalized homepage. This could include features such as recommended products, recently viewed items, and even a custom welcome message.

By creating a personalized homepage, businesses can make sure that each customer feels valued and that they can easily find what they’re looking for — reinforcing your brand identity as helpful and in-the-know.

Consider tying homepages to traffic and referral sources so that someone looking at your Instagram account hits a page filled with both products and the videos you create. It’s an easy way to start the fruitful process of understanding customer behavior across channels.

3. Use Data to Create Targeted Marketing Campaigns

Another effective way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create targeted marketing campaigns. This involves using customer data to segment customers into different groups and then creating marketing messages that are tailored to each group. This could include offering discounts or special promotions to specific groups of customers. 

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Don’t neglect small lifts here. Greet customers directly by name. Adjust messages based on user region. Adapt to local events and other broader experiences that keep your content from feeling too general, even if it isn’t hyper-personalized.

4. Use Data to Segment Your Email List

You can also personalize the shopping experience by segmenting your email list. This involves grouping customers together based on their interests, demographics, or purchase history. Most email marketing tools track detailed customer information you can leverage.

For example, monitoring when customers last visited allows you to email people about how “it’s been a while”. 

By segmenting your email list, you can send more targeted and relevant messages to each group of customers. This can lead to higher open and click-through rates, as well as increased sales and revenue.

5. Personalized Product Pages By Creating Variants

The final way to personalize the shopping experience is to use data to create a personalized product page. Or, at least create a page that feels catered to the individual based on broader context and information.

When you can get very detailed, this involves using customer data such as purchase history and browsing behavior to recommend similar or complementary products. You’ll need a dynamic site that can adapt to their history and habits in real-time.

If you don’t have a robust site, consider building blocks for each section of your landing pages or product pages for each SKU. Then, you can create groupings that feel customized because the pre-existing blocks you use match what people see in broader marketing campaigns. As you get more sophisticated, these blocks can then be what you dynamically insert into different elements as the customer shops around your site.

By creating a personalized product page, businesses can enhance conversion rates and have a better chance for higher order values because of the relevance of up-sell and cross-sell promotions.

The Benefits of Personalization for Businesses

There are many benefits of personalization for businesses. By creating a personalized shopping experience, businesses can increase conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty.

Conversion rates improve because customers are more likely to buy from a store that recognizes them and offers products they are interested in. If you’re marketing to the same people, small efforts like using someone’s first name in an email can increase conversion rates.

Companies that personalize offers also tend to see average order values increase in multiple ways. These incentives help push people to make more impulse purchases and reach higher overall orders — a benefit you can compound when making traditional online offers like free shipping on orders of a certain value.

Finally, studies also show that personalization can improve customer loyalty. Studies have found that more than half of people are open to receiving personalized experiences, and 72% who get these end up spending more or buying more often. This is because customers feel appreciated and valued when they are recognized and offered products they look at or follow.

Overall, personalization is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve conversion rates, average order value, and customer loyalty. When used correctly, it can be a key driver of success for eCommerce businesses.

Create an Experience You’d Enjoy

When it comes to personalizing the shopping experience, businesses must take a few steps to ensure they are doing it correctly.

First and foremost, they need to collect data about their customers so they can understand their needs and preferences. Once they have this data, they need to analyze it to determine how best to personalize the shopping experience for each customer.

Then, they need to implement personalization into their eCommerce store, which could include creating a personalized homepage, recommending similar products, using data to segment customers into different groups, or offering discounts. 

The final piece, however, is reviewing the effort and ensuring that it adds value to the shopping experience. Ask if it is something you’d enjoy or if the elements and personalization get in the way. You don’t want to be overly burdensome or overly creepy. The aim is to show people what they want to see without them feeling like you’re crunching a lot of data behind the scenes.

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Convincing new clients to sign up for your marketing services can be a challenge in a sea of other competitive offers. 

Because marketing is not a tangible service, persuading potential clients that your business is the one to go with requires a tactical strategy that delivers value. 

To do this, you need a solid marketing proposal. 

Perfecting the art of an effective marketing proposal is the key to winning lucrative clients and boosting your business sales. Once you’ve nailed it, you can rinse and repeat – saving you hours of time creating new proposals from scratch. 

Read on to learn how to write a marketing proposal that will drive new clients to your agency like bees to a honeypot. 

What Is a Marketing Proposal?

A marketing proposal is a document that outlines the proposed marketing strategy, tactics, and deliverables for your specific client or project. 

It acts as a convincing method to encourage potential clients to hire your services. You can achieve this via your marketing proposal by demonstrating your understanding of their business, industry, and target audience, and showcasing your expertise and experience in creating effective marketing campaigns. 

A well-crafted marketing proposal can help you win new clients, establish long-term partnerships, and grow your business – all whilst showing why clients should choose to work with your agency instead of the competition.

What Are the Components of a Marketing Proposal?

To win the conversion phase of marketing, your marketing proposal must act as a clear communication method. Demonstrating both why prospects should choose you to work for them, and exactly what you plan to do in order to grow their business. 

To this end, the key components of a marketing proposal include:

• Executive Summary: A brief overview of the proposal, highlighting the key points of your marketing strategy and why it will benefit your prospective client.

• Situation Analysis: A detailed analysis of your client’s business, industry, target audience, and competition. This demonstrates your understanding of your prospect’s needs and challenges.

• Objectives: Clear, measurable goals that the proposed marketing strategy aims to achieve – such as increased brand awareness, lead generation, or sales growth.

• Strategy: A detailed plan outlining the recommended marketing tactics, channels, and messaging that will be used to achieve the stated objectives.

• Pricing and Payment Options: A breakdown of the costs associated with implementing the proposed marketing strategy, including any fees, media costs, and production costs.

• Timeline: A detailed schedule outlining the proposed timeline for the marketing campaign – including key milestones, deliverables, and deadlines.

• Metrics: The set of metrics that you will use to measure the success of the marketing campaign – such as website traffic, conversion rates, or social media engagement.

• Conclusion: A summary of the proposal, emphasizing the benefits of the proposed marketing strategy and why you are the right choice for the client.  

Some of these components are fairly straightforward and don’t necessarily require a more detailed explanation.

Others we will look at in more granular detail to help you to create the most effective marketing proposal. 

How to Perform a Situation Analysis

As we’ve mentioned, you must demonstrate a thorough understanding of your prospect’s business, industry, target audience, and competition.

To achieve this, you must perform a situation analysis to understand where the business is at right now, and the challenges they’re facing. Start by researching the business – this includes its history, mission, values, and products or services. Identify the client’s unique selling proposition (USP) and competitive advantages.

Next, research the industry and market to understand the current trends, challenges, and opportunities. Identify the target audience, their demographics, psychographics, and their buying behavior.

Identify the prospective client’s main competitors and analyze their marketing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. Identify the gaps in the market that your prospect can fill.

Research and consider your prospect’s pain points. These are the problems within their current marketing strategy that needs fixing. Your prospect will either know that they have these problems, but don’t know how to fix them, or they may be altogether unaware of any issues. 

An example of a pain point could be inconsistent messaging. When the messaging across different marketing channels is inconsistent, this leads to confusion and a lack of brand recognition. Fixing this problem may involve developing a cohesive messaging platform that is aligned with the brand’s mission, values, and value proposition.

You’ll also need to know exactly what you’re currently working with. This involves reviewing the existing marketing efforts – their website, social media profiles, advertising campaigns, and content marketing. Identify what’s working and what’s not. 

How to Set Clear Objectives

Once you’ve completed your research and ascertained the current position, you can begin to set the clear and measurable goals that you’ll include in your marketing proposal. 

Some examples of marketing proposal clear objectives can include:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month. 

Each of these objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Including clear objectives in a marketing proposal can help to align the marketing strategy with the business’s goals, provide a clear roadmap for success, and track progress and results over time.

How to Create the Marketing Strategies

We’ve looked at the what. Now we’ll explore the how part of the marketing proposal.

This section of your marketing proposal should include concise information about how you plan to improve your prospect’s marketing strategy. Basically, it’s time to show off your skills. 

Let’s use our aforementioned objectives as examples:

1. Increase brand awareness within the 20-35 year old female demographic by 20%.
2. Improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts.
3. Generate 20 new leads per month. 

The marketing strategies you create to achieve these objectives could look like this:

1. To increase brand awareness in this specific demographic, develop a social media strategy that includes regular content updates, engaging visuals, targeted social media ads, and influencer partnerships to increase the brand’s visibility. 

2. To improve open rates by 10% through email marketing efforts, segment the email list to include more targeted subscribers, optimize email subject lines, personalize emails using automation software, and ensure emails are optimized for mobile devices.

Say your prospect wants 20 new monthly leads for their JPG to PDF software service. The strategy would be to  develop  a lead magnet as an incentive to offer potential leads in exchange for their contact information. Then, plan to optimize the business website with clearer CTAs to direct visitors to the lead magnet.

Remember to add in this section of the marketing proposal that you will include regular monitoring to determine the effectiveness of each of the marketing strategies. 

How to Create Pricing and Payment Options

When it comes to pricing and payment options in your marketing proposal, there are a few things to keep in mind. 

Firstly, always be transparent. Prospects appreciate transparency, so be clear and make sure that your pricing structure is easy to understand. Be upfront about what is included in each package or service, and make sure there are no hidden fees or charges. 

Offering multiple options gives your potential clients flexibility and choice. For example, you might offer different levels of service at different price points, or offer a discount for clients who sign a longer-term contract.

You could also consider an online payment system that accepts multiple forms of payment. This can make it simpler for clients to budget for your services and make payments on time. 

Be sure to highlight the value of your services in relation to the pricing. Clearly explain how your services will help your prospective client to achieve their goals, and why your pricing is reasonable in comparison to the results they can expect to see.

Marketing Proposal Tips 

Focus on the Prospect

Ensure you write the marketing proposal with the prospect at the forefront. It needs to be all about their problems and business, and how you can help. More You, and less We.

Include Visuals

Where relevant, include eye-catching infographics to demonstrate your points. If you’ve got success stories from previous clients that include impressive stats, add them in, too. 

Use Templates

To make life easier, explore Proposify alternatives that will help streamline your marketing proposal creation process. Customize templates to come up with the best one to work with for your business’s needs. 

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Be Clear

Include transparent timelines for marketing campaigns and one-off projects. This looks like specific milestones and key deliverables dates. 

Encourage Action

Include a clear and compelling call to action that encourages your prospect to take the next step. This can include scheduling a call or meeting, signing a contract, or requesting more information.

The Art of Persuasion

Writing a marketing proposal that convinces new clients requires a thorough understanding of your audience’s needs, clear communication of your unique value proposition, and a well-structured plan for delivering your solution. 

By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can create a proposal that effectively differentiates your business from competitors, provides evidence of your effectiveness, and clearly outlines your approach and process. 

With these key elements in place, you can create a persuasive marketing proposal that helps you win new clients and grow your business.

The post Crafting a Winning Marketing Proposal appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Conversions are your bottom line. You can have the best SEO, the best relationships, and more social shares than you’d ever thought possible, but it all won’t mean much if no one is converting. 

For many companies, conversions mean making a purchase, but the term can go far beyond just monetary value. The term “converting” to you may mean completing a form, becoming a lead, calling your team, and more. 

Whatever your end conversion goal may be, it’s crucial you get there if you want to continue to grow and evolve.

1. Work on Those CTAs

A call-to-action is what drives people down your sales funnel. Make sure you take them seriously.

There are hundreds of different ways that a company can create a call to action. Consider some of these tips as you create your own call to action on your website:

1. Size: You want your call to action button to be easy to see, but not overwhelming. Websites with large call-to-action messages and links can seem like spam to many site visitors, but small calls to action can get lost (and potentially confuse a reader looking to follow through).
2. Frequency: It’s important to have your call-to-action buttons and messages dispersed throughout the page. Many first-timers only include one call to action section, but it’s best to give site visitors ample opportunity to follow through on your website. Do not be overbearing, but have at least three different ways someone can make a purchase or become active in your company.
3. Location: Make sure you put at least one call to action above the fold. This will ensure that people see the next steps they can take (especially if they don’t read the content).
4. Images: Images always make content more exciting. This is where a reader’s eyes are typically drawn, so you absolutely want to incorporate an image into your call to action. The image can be small and next to the text or be part of the text, just make sure it isn’t too overbearing and visitors can still read the page content.
5. Color: The most important thing to remember about color is that the text can still be read. Make sure the background is in direct contrast with the text of the call to action button. Also, make sure that this button is a different color than the rest of your website (while still matching). This will help draw attention to your call to action.
6. Linking: You ideally want people to click on your call to action button, but there will always be people who click on an image or your logo. Make sure that these aspects of your website also send site visitors to your call to action page.
7. Voice: Try to avoid passive voice. Tell your site visitors what you want them to do in a clear and straightforward manner. If you have a deal that won’t be around forever, let your site visitors know. Give as much information as possible in as few words as possible and you’re sure to get more clicks.
8. Mobile Considerations: You should always consider that your website or email marketing message might be viewed through a mobile phone. Make sure that your call to action button is large enough for those clicking with their fingers, and make sure that your images can be loaded quickly and clearly on a mobile phone. There are quite a few CTA plugins to make this step easier for you.
9.  Secondary Call to Action Buttons: Many site visitors are not ready to buy right away, so it’s a good idea to have another option for these people. If there is a change that someone would need more information, have a “more information” type button and put your primary call to action button on that page.
10. Use your CTAs across all your channels. Consistency is key when it comes to conversions. People see the same colors and wording in two or three places, and they feel much more confident taking an action. Use your CTAs as end screens on Youtube, on your social media, and, of course, in your reps’ email signatures when they reach out to your prospects. Have your salesperson create an email signature including your main CTA and branding, and you will notice your company’s emails convert much better.

You can also use AI-powered tools to come up with some ideas for creative CTAs if you feel stuck:

2. Shorten Your Sales Funnels

Do you know why you lose most of your site visitors or prospects?

Your conversion funnel is too long.

Email back-and-forth, waiting time spent waiting for a reply, manual invoicing, conflicting schedules – all of that can get lots of people to give up on your brand.

The solution: Shorten your sales funnel.

Automate what you can automate and let your site visitors convert instantly.

Here are a few ways to do that:

• Scale your phone support using technology like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) which would interact with your prospects, collect information about customer inquiries, and even help them make a purchase right away
• Use instant appointment scheduling option: Let your site visitors set up a meeting with you right away by clicking a link and choosing a day and time that works for them. There is online booking technology you can use for it, and it will even manage payments and reminders for you to immediately convert your site visitors into clients.
• Automate your invoicing process allowing your site visitors to pay instantly without waiting for your team to get back to them with an invoice. Depending on the nature of your business, tools like Quickbooks or PayKickstart can help you do that.

Something that can be considered an umbrella for many of the things we have already discussed is that your checkout process should be optimized. This extends beyond length and speed –  it should appear secure, be intuitive, easy to use, and require as little information on their end as possible while also giving you the data you need for future marketing.

Optimize checkout in every way possible! Make it easy for people to make a purchase with you.

2. Use Youtube Remarketing

While there are several powerful remarketing channels available to businesses these days, Youtube is often overlooked. And that is unfortunate. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine with billions of active users each month. Perfecting your marketing strategy for such a large platform can have enormous benefits for companies, and what many are realizing is that the remarketing aspect of YouTube has huge potential.

Youtube presence is a great way to generate more quality leads to help you drive your business growth forward.

The reason YouTube is so great for remarketing is not only the fact that they have a large audience, but the platform (or search engine) itself allows you to create remarketing lists of target audiences based on the type of content a viewer generally watches – even if that content isn’t yours. This offers you several different benefits, many of which are either weaker or simply don’t exist when thinking about remarketing on Google:

• Better ROI. Remarketing almost always has better results than simply putting out an advertisement to hook new consumers. You can also optimize for cost-per-view as opposed to using impressions or the number of times your video displays in order to yield a higher ROI.
• Longer ads. Unlike social media where you only have a few sentences to get someone’s attention or an ad where you have a character limit, Youtube gives you 30 seconds to make your case in a video as opposed to a static ad and image.
• Better engagement. The average Internet user spends more time on a website with video. With more and more people interested in watching videos over reading articles, there is a good chance you’ll reach an entirely new and relevant group of people (in addition to the large number of visitors discussed earlier).
• Location targeting. YouTube is very helpful when it comes to location targeting, much like other remarketing campaigns you may run on other platforms.
• Brand Awareness. In other words, traditional remarketing benefits. This includes staying on a viewer’s radar and capturing their attention frequently. It helps build brand awareness and gives targeted users more repeated options to engage with your brand, YouTube or otherwise.

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So what does this have to do with leads? For starters, all of the points mentioned above will help bring people back to your page and hopefully help people engage with your page. Because of the nature of YouTube and the enhanced features of AdWords remarketing, you can remarket to anyone who shares your video.

Don’t Forget Your Existing Customers!

Obtaining new customers tends to remain a top priority for many e-commerce companies. While this is important, it is really critical that you don’t forget about your current and returning customers. These consumers are much more likely to make another purchase from your site than a new consumer is likely to make a first transaction.

Offer incentives to returning customers at the time of check-out or send emails with rewards after purchase. Always remember the importance of returning customers.

The post Three Ways to Turn Prospects into Instant Clients or Leads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

My name is Adrian Boysel, and I have something special to share with the Digital Marketer community. This advice is something that I’ve previously only shared on stage or on camera. But today, I’m going to document one of the most important and personal keynote presentations I’ve ever delivered: how to generate six figures of revenue in six months.

This is something that I’ve been doing since the very beginning of my career—and that’s because I had a plan of action with steps to follow. Here, I’m going to share those steps one by one, and show you how to become an industry leader and create a momentum explosion for your business.

Three Steps, Six Figures, Six Months 

Before I get into the steps, I want to share the story of how I stumbled upon this winning formula for revenue generation. Graphic design was originally my side hustle while I worked in sales. Unfortunately, in 2006, amid just some challenges in my life, I suffered some traumatic losses from my income and dropped my car insurance. After an accident, that decision cost me 30 days of freedom.

That was one of the lowest points of my whole life, so I asked my mentor for advice. He told me, “Look, man, this is not the end of your life. You’re still young. You still have an opportunity to come back from this. This is a blow, but you can come back from this. You’re a smart guy, you’re a talented guy, and you’re passionate. This should not hold you back, and this should not ruin your life. Don’t let it hold you back.” 

So I took that opportunity, those 30 days that I spent in jail, and I actually wrote my entire business plan for a printing company. I had already been doing printing as a little side hustle, like I said, for friends and family and for him for bars and nightclubs, and I really wanted to take it seriously and change my life. I knew that I had to do something differently. Ultimately, I didn’t want to work for anybody but myself. But I needed to figure out a way to do that, and that’s where the three steps were born. 

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Step 1: Plan 

Planning is the first and most crucial aspect of business success, and it’s where most businesses fail before they ever get started. Creating a business plan may seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Success in sales is nothing more than a numbers game, and a business plan simply defines the game’s rules. You need to know what you’re selling, who needs it, and how many sales you need to make. 

My plan was simple. I was selling a brand experience. That meant logo design, business cards, and promotional materials like flyers. My audience was local small business owners, with a focus on nightclub owners. I wanted to sell at least $200 in printing products and design services to at least three people every day for six months to make six figures in sales. If I could sell $2000 per client, I only needed to make two sales per week. That made room for a lot of nos between those yeses. 

Step 2: Act 

Well, as soon as I got out of jail, I started sticking to that business plan. My first office was a tiny 10×8 space with no windows, a desk, and a futon that I was sleeping on. Kalifornia Printing was born in that cramped hole-in-the-wall, tucked behind a barbershop. I called hundreds of people 

every week to make my minimum sales goals, and those clients referred new customers to me once they saw how passionate I was about helping small businesses to build their brands. 

Create an irresistible offer tailored to your target audience that explains how your product or service solves a problem for them. When you reach out to build a relationship with your

prospects, they will appreciate your taking the time to understand their problems. Those relationships are the core of sales success, as well as building a team you can rely on to stick to your plan, as well. Take massive action on your business plan and don’t let up until you get where you want to be. 

Step 3: Grow 

Finally, you have to pursue growth. You need to grow your skills by learning new techniques and adding more services to your repertoire. That skill growth will, in turn, grow your prices and your income as you offer more value and more complete solutions to your clients. That will lead to more referrals, which will grow your client base and bring in new relationships to start the process again. I went from selling logo designs and business cards to creating brands from scratch. 

Once you grow your income, you can afford to grow your team. These are the people who have your back and to whom you can delegate tasks that aren’t where your passion lies. In the beginning, at Kalifornia Printing, it was just me. Now, at Adrian Agency, I have two amazing business partners and a team of creative professionals to help the agency achieve new heights in sales, relationships, and fulfillment. 

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Key Takeaways for Six Figures in Six Months 

That’s it; just plan, act, and grow your business to six figures in six months using the steps above. If you keep your business plan simple and easy to follow, it makes it easier to act on your plan. By creating irresistible offers, you make it simple to reach your sales target, no matter how big or small the price tag may be for your product or service.

Finally, relationships are worth more than all the money in the world. They drive your sales, build your company, widen your network, and create opportunities for you and your business to thrive. Keep these philosophies in mind, and you’ll see an explosion in your momentum.

The post Six Figures in Six Months: How to Build Your Business Fast appeared first on DigitalMarketer.