Is Your Company's Content Marketing Delivering Profits?

MAKING CONTENT WORK FOR YOUR BRAND

When it comes to content marketing, the reality is that companies are doing more online marketing activities and getting less results. That is not a pretty picture and it is a strong signal that your marketing strategy and implementation is at fault.

Most marketers don't have the advantage of cutting-edge strategy; it perpetually lags behind how their customers and prospects are actually using the Internet and Mobile to find their products and services.

As a result, most marketers are spending more money, employing more tactics and creating greater volumes of content across multiple channels than ever before. But despite that investment and effort (according to a study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute), only 36 percent of businesses believe their content marketing is effective.
How can you reverse this breakdown?

At Promise Productions visual marketing communications, we believe the problem begins when there is a misalignment between the content within content marketing vehicles and the strategic messaging that defines your business.

With large volumes of content created by numerous people with the company and spread across wildly divergent mediums, it's easy for the most important, strategically aligned messages to get lost. That means your marketing is no longer integrated; it is chaotic.

When this happens, your content intended as "content marketing" degrades into "free advice" — and spending precious budgets to dispense free advice that doesn't help you accomplish your content marketing or business goals.

We a Promise Productions also often another breakdown: companies that think they will win the content marketing war by overwhelming the competition with massive amounts of content (low-quality content, usually).

By focusing too heavily on volume, many marketers employ an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach of content creation. They seem to believe that if they create a plethora of case studies, white papers, printed collateral, tweets, social media posts, etc., something will eventually "stick."

We've found that a smarter approach is to focus on engagement rather than volume. By "engagement" we mean, focusing instead on the conversations customers and prospects are already having, and where they are having them, jumping into those conversations with replies, answers, and demonstrating willingness to help the prospect get closer to their solution. We believe this is a much more effective strategy that will lead marketing teams to create quality content that delivers measurable ROI.

If you would like a better marketing strategy and approach to attracting your best business prospects, call Promise Productions at 877-858-0071.

Top 2 Business Mistakes

There are Two Primary mistakes that both small and medium sized businesses in Dallas make that keep them in a struggle mode. These are:
1. Not Marketing
2. Not Marketing

Seriously, those without a strategic marketing plan, fail to market and thus stay in a reactionary mode. Either they are slammed with business and so they "fail to market themselves" or business is slow, and they don't have the money to market themselves.

So either they are reacting to the workload and thus too busy to look ahead. Or they are too slow and desperate for the next batch of work, but without the funding or the plan to effectively promote their business.

"Marketing is all about putting a compelling message where your prospects are -- one that clearly shows you value. One that conveys that to use you is to benefit them."

That is where our Dallas business development services come in and where our marketing strategy comes in. Whatever the next step for your business' growth, come to Promise Productions and get a strategic plan we will help you implement for maximum profits. Call 877-858-0071.

Benefit from Higher Exposure On Google Maps / Google Places

As a local marketing firm, we not only develop websites but help promote businesses with multiple technologies. One often overlooked area is to sign up for Google Maps / Google Places. Even those who are "on" Google's map, often doe not have their listing optimized for best results. 

For marketing and promotion help, including video production, simply call our firm at 877-858-0071.

Here are 7 Ways to get the Most Benefit from Google Maps / Google Places

Google has recently changed its algorithm for Local Business Listings by only giving the top spots to those feeding the search engine’s ever increasing need for content. Keep reading to learn what are Google Local Business Listings, what’s changed recently, as well as how to optimize so your local business is on top of the map.

Google Local Business Listings are different than organic or pay-per-click listings. They typically only show up when the user types a service oriented business followed by the city for their search. A map from Google Maps appears alongside 3-10 URLs with a phone number by each. If you need more than ten listings you can click in “More Results from ‘Insert City’ “ and you’ll be taken to a map with alphabetically lettered red pegs for each register business on Google Maps.

It seems over the last year being listed on Google Maps and/or Google’s Local Business Listings is becoming even more important since they are being displayed more often in search before organic listings even start.

How To Benefit from Changes in Google's Local Business Listings’ Algorithm (Google Places)

1. Photos -  Add as many photos as you can and a company logo.

2. Multiple Reviews - It’s important that these be from real customers. You can not have too many. Don’t fake them either, it’s easy to catch fake reviews. Just as with Amazon, people trust products with lots reviews that have kept above three stars.

3. Use Keywords in Company Description - They offer an area where the business representative can describe what the company offers.

4. Use Keywords in Company Name - Don’t be deceptive by changing your company name, but if your keywords are in the extended business name or LLC, make sure this is the name in which you register.

5. Add a Coupon – Google allows printable coupons to be added by your listing.

6. Create links to the listing – Add a link from your homepage to the listing and encourage current customers or website visitors to review your company.

7. Add Videos -- If your company already has videos on YouTube you can place them right there for free on your google local "places" listing. This is yet another reason why our Video Production services increase your profits through a video business profile.

We welcome the opportunity to serve you, so call us at 877-858-0071.

Elements For Business Success - Dallas Marketing #3

Promise Productionsromise Productions is your advocate for business success. Our strategic marketing services can bring the ideal clients for optimum profits.

Whether your are a businessperson, manager or business owner, here is the Third of Three Principles that successful businesses share:

3 • Consistancy Key to success is making the right actions a HABIT. That means marketing is not a "here and there" kind of thing. It is a process with a regular budget, with repeated actions to KEEP your visibility out there.

Especially in Social Media Marketing, since it is conversational marketing, the conversation has to keep going in order to STAY present to your audience.

People are forgetful. We counteract that with compelling and creative visual marketing messaging, but, like a tire with a slow leak, out of sight will eventually mean out of mind.

So "consistency" really means "make marketing a habit". Keep your company running as it should with refreshing the air in your marketing. Call us at 972-822-3587 for solutions for your business' cashflow needs.

Elements For Business Success - Dallas Marketing #2

Promise Productions is your advocate for business success. Our strategic marketing can bring the ideal clients for optimum profits.

Whether your are a businessperson, manager or business owner, here is the Second of Three Principles that successful businesses share:

2 • The Right Strategy: Strategy is key because it either empowers or dis-empowers your actions and efforts. You can work hard, but much more important is working smart. Successful companies consistently implement smarter strategies than their competitors.

The wrong strategy is like driving on the wrong road -- you may get there eventually but have to take more bumps, stops and turns. Or worse, you might be headed in the wrong direction altogether!

Not to worry -- strategy is our specialty. And realize that strategy is changing as companies and the business landscape changes. So you need fresh strategies for results in today's marketplace.

These strategies include: the visual image in photos, videos and graphic design for your company. They include better ways to reach your target audience. Smarter strategy applies to how you implement a social media marketing campaign too. Good strategy will provide the most compelling presentation of your value proposition for higher responses. The benefits of the right marketing strategy are nearly endless! It is the difference between being frustrated and being effective.

Stay tuned for part 3 in another blog post. We look forward to serving you with the best focused strategies for your business' success. Call Promise Productions Strategic Marketing Communications at 972-822-3587.

Fall 2009 Marketing Strategy HOT TIPS

A lot of companies are afraid of the present. They are afraid of the future. They want to know that there is a strategy that will make tomorrow better than today. Many businesses are letting the pressures shape them and have fallen into a passive "wait and see" approach. That is like parking your car on the highway of change –– you are certain to get run over!

The rules to advertising have changed. But has your marketing changed to attract today's prospects?

Plunge in to where your best customers are waiting, but with a smart strategy! The fact is that things are changing faster than ever and Promise Productions has found the sweet spots! The landscape of marketing is filled with exciting new ways to:

1. Share your value proposition,
2. Interact with potential customers,
3. Take advantage of customer reviews,
4. Brand yourself in the minds of your prospects with all kinds of "current news" sources

Think about it, let's talk about that last one -- ways to use "what's new" with your business to keep your brand / your products / your services on the forefront of your prospects' minds. There are more ways than ever to make your marketing "Web 2.0" savvy -- Twitter, E-Newsletters, Email Blasts, Company Blog, Reviews You write on other Social Media Sites, and much more.

The great thing is that these ways I listed above are not expensive advertising! BUT they have to be approached strategically if you want to truly get profits from them!

Used to be if you wanted this much power to be on the minds of your prospects, you had to have massive, full-page yellow page ads and you had to have a massive TV commercial campaign. Both of those are massively expensive!

Today, Promise Productions, can show you how to do more with your marketing and advertising budgets in ways that are precise and very rewarding!

We keep saying it -- VIDEO MARKETING is one of your best bets for huge exposure on a not-so-buge budget. Video Marketing and Search Engine Visibility are the two BEST ways to promote yourselves to an audience that has migrated online. Call us for how to apply smart marketing strategy to Your Business today at 972-822-3587.