Networking

In writing blog posts for clients and ourselves, Canright focuses on five major types of blogs. These posts run the gamut from spot news to big ideas, and all help you gain interest in your company and generate traffic to your site.

1. Identify a Trend. A staple of media reporting is the trends story. A trends post can start with a report on industry surveys in order to show a trend. “Wealth Technology that Personalizes Portfolios,” by FinTech Rising, takes the trend post a step further. In the piece, product providers advise investment advisors on how they can use technology to retain their trusted positions with clients.

2. Present a Case Study. Case studies are the bread-and-butter of marketing communications and blog posts. They are also great ways to gain a position in search results. For example, a recent case study written for the North Central Terrazzo Association (NCTA), titled “Breathing Life Back into an Architectural Wonder,” highlights a terrazzo project that was part of a large-scale renovation project to bring the Bottleworks Hotel in Indianapolis back to life.

3. Develop an Idea. Leaders in their fields develop new ideas and knowledge. In “Principled Capitalism: A Pragmatic Approach to Corporate Governance,” Don Delves, president of executive compensation consulting firm The Delves Group, writes about capitalism under attack. Based on his experience at a recent conference, he proposes five principles for capitalism, which he will develop in subsequent posts.

4. Build on the News. There are times when an issue gets a lot of media attention. When a lot of coverage hits, a post that wraps it all up provides an opportunity to get the news in front of your network once again. For example, the article titled “Safeguard Your Business from Cybercrime” from Dubuque Bank and Trust is a good example of how you can use current news to showcase your solutions.

5. Make an Announcement. You can also announce a new product or service. Lyonscg used its blog to write about the different types of Quality Assurance in software as a way of announcing its new methodology.

There are other many other types of posts you can experiment with for your business. From covering news and interviewing subject matter experts to teaching techniques and demonstrating your business value, the sky is the limit. What others types of posts do you enjoy reading or writing about?

There are many different ways businesses can attract leads. Social media, in-person events, online events, advertising with billboards, and print media are just a few ways businesses can appeal to prospective customers. One method, however, stands out from all the rest because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Email marketing. 

A Powerful Tool

Despite the rise of social media and the appeal of in-person events, email marketing has stood the test of time as one of the most effective and easiest ways to reach prospective leads and existing customers alike. When done correctly, email marketing can stir enthusiasm for your brand and serve as a way to inform customers and prospects of events, products, services, and other relevant news to your business. Additionally, carefully crafted email marketing campaigns are great at attracting leads because they can be personalized with targeted messaging. 

Email Address Lists: Clean Them Up!

Email is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal when it comes to communicating with prospects. For it to truly be effective, though, it’s important to maintain clean email address lists. There are many platforms out there, like MailChimp and Salesforce, that allow businesses to build and edit email lists. Keeping these lists clean and updated ensures emails actually reach your targeted audience and reduces the likelihood of bouncebacks. 

What Makes Up a Good Marketing Email?

While email marketing is often praised as a simple marketing tool, that doesn’t mean you can just slap on any phrase in a subject line and expect spectacular, groundbreaking results. Think of the content in your subject line as the hook. It should be attention-grabbing, catchy, and stand out from other emails in your prospect’s inbox without sounding spam-y.

The body content is also essential and should contain targeted messaging directing the reader to a particular landing page, event, or whatever your campaign is advertising. For example, if you’re advertising an event, make sure the body content contains a sign-up link. 

It’s About Relationships

With the right messaging and engaging subject lines, email marketing allows businesses to build relationships with prospects and customers. It can track down leads and the data collected via analytics can be an important tool for advertising campaigns. Even though it’s been around for a while, email marketing is no less important than it was a decade ago. In fact, it may end up being one of your most effective and reliable marketing tools. 

Canright Communication’s comprehensive Case Study Research questionnaire and outline gives a framework for researching product and service case studies that interest and educate. Most case studies do not need this much detail, but the more you have the better you can show how your product or solution helps clients achieve their business goals.

These are the typical sections included in a good case study:

Background

• Client’s name.
• Purpose and mission of organization.
• What is the essence of the solution?
• How does the company stand out in its market?
• What makes it unique or interesting?
• Annual revenue.
• Publicly traded / private / not-for-profit / government / individual.
• Locations.

Challenges

• What problem was the client trying to solve?
• What were its goals for the program?
• What Product-Service elements did you use?

Solutions

• What did Product-Service do?
• How did you use the Product-Service?
• How did implementation work? What was required from you and what did your client do?
• What problems did Product-Service overcome?
• What was the process and time to implement solutions and bring online?

Costs

• How much did the solution cost?
• What components go into determining solution cost?
• What cost options did the client consider?
• How did the client justify the cost?

Benefits

• What benefits did Product-Service in general and Product-Service in particular offer?
• How much were cost reduced?
• What process efficiencies resulted?
• How much did the solution save?
• How easy was it to use the services?

Results

• Enhancement of market position, customer retention, customer satisfaction, internal attitudes, cost savings, etc?
• What services worked best and why?
• What were unexpected surprises? Any “good news” surprises?
• Data on results, preferably data that can be charted into a visual.
• How has your institution changed in the eyes of your customers?
• Learns, such as, “Are online billing customers more profitable?”
• Growth, grounded in data such as change in number of customers or accounts, revenue, profit, market ranking, changes in product line, customer retention rates, etc.
• What did the client learn?
• How did Product-Service enhance overall marketing performance?
• How did client’s products or services change case study organization’s rankings?
• Have your services helped attract new customers?
• How are retention rates?
• Movement toward ideal state. What’s next?

It’s important to note that benefits refer to the actual benefits of the products and services. Results are the outcome(s) of those benefits.