Reviews and Testimonials

Business reviews and testimonials help your business.

Reviews and testimonials. What are they? Why do they matter? A testimonial is a statement that supports the credibility of one’s business; aka a positive reputation builder! A lot of a business’ success relies on word-of-mouth and communication. Having written or recorded reviews and testimonials posted for your business will help bring in prospective customers and keep strong relationships with current customers.

Why Do You Need Testimonials and Reviews?

As stated before, credibility is everything for a small or growing business. Of course, you know your services and products work, but how are consumers supposed to know that? Reviews left on Google, Yelp, or your site verifying that your services provide 100% satisfaction for past customers helps support your claim. Chances are, you’re more willing to purchase or invest in something that has high reviews than something with zero reviews. While being conversational and quick with interaction with customers is helpful, they still may not feel ready to purchase or use your services without words of affirmation from past and current customers.

How Can My Business Gain Reviews?

You may think the only way to get reviews is sitting around and hoping a customer will decide to post about your business themselves, but that’s not the case! There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to customers and asking them to leave a review. You can ask them face-to-face, through a personalized email, or even making a post on social media. If your customers feel strongly about your good work and you have a positive relationship with them, don’t be afraid to reach out to them.

What are the Best Ways to Publicize Testimonials?

  1. Google, Yelp, online forums
    Chances are a prospective customer’s first interaction with you is through a search engine, use Google reviews and your website to your advantage.
  2. Images
    Using an image of your customer with their testimonial is a step up. Including a picture of the person leaving the review brings a more personal and direct message to consumers.
  3. Video
    Video is huge nowadays in building a business! Consumers love to be able to visualize what’s going on, and it’s easy to do with testimonials. It doesn’t have to be a fancy production with animations and crazy video effects. It can be a simple video recording of your customer speaking about their experience with you and verbalizing their testimonial. Video makes it engaging and intimate! Having prospective customers being able to watch a real person leave an authentic message is the best way to provide credibility.

Look Into The Future—Plan Your 2020 Marketing

Budget for 2020 marketing.

The air is getting crisper, the holidays are in full bloom, and before you know it, the 2019 calendar year will be over. A new year rings in the opportunity for new marketing ideas! But you shouldn’t wait until January 1st to think of a game plan for your business for 2020. Why should you make a marketing plan? Not only will you be ready to hit the ground running, but brainstorming ideas and creating a plan ahead of time will keep you and your business organized. So, let’s look at the trends and strategies we expect to see in 2020 and how your business can incorporate them into your marketing plan.

Video Production and Live Streaming

Video production is one of the best tools to use for marketing in today’s digital world, just take a look at Youtube celebrities! Creators and Influencers have become worldwide sensations just from starting with sitting in front of a camera. With the power of video you can communicate with your audience, authenticate and personalize each video, and promote your business with sit-down videos, tutorials, Q&As, etc. Live streaming has been on the rise for the last couple of years in visual marketing, but it’s bigger than ever now. It’s estimated to be a $70.5 billion industry by 2021. Live videos are unedited, raw footage. This is a great way to have your audience really get to know you, it’s quick, and it’s easy.

Insight

There’s a lot of data your company has probably compiled in the week to last year; use it as a tool! Let’s say one of your posts, blogs, or emails got double or triple the amount of clicks than what’s average; why was it so popular? Take the data from your most popular and unpopular posts and determine what kind of content was it that you were putting out and why it was so successful. Turn that around for 2020, and try incorporating more of what worked into your marketing techniques. For example, if you’re a video marketing company and your blogs and posts on drone footage and use, are always successful and your posts about video editing aren’t so successful, try making video editing topics more exciting, and recycle and find new drone content to use.

Consumer Behavior

If your company still uses a lot of traditional marketing techniques, try switching your content up with something that your customers will find easy to use, useful, and fun. For example, most people are making google searches from their smartphones – make sure your content and website layout is compatible and easy to navigate from a phone screen. Furthermore, the way people make searches are different. Image and voice search are becoming more and more popular, so make sure your SEO is up to date! (Check out our blog on SEO here.)

With all of these things in mind, remember that it’s okay to step outside of the box! If there’s a new video editing technique you want to try out in one of your marketing videos, don’t be afraid to test it out. A new year means new opportunity, and your business should take full advantage of new trends, techniques, and strategies!

Text Marketing Gets Results

text marketing.

Business owners are always looking for ways to grow their contact lists. Whether it is going to networking events, social gatherings, or email campaigns; increasing the amount of prospects to keep the sales funnel full is crucial.  What is the one thing that most everybody has and they use everyday? You guessed it, cellphones! So why not use them to your advantage? Our firm recently used a texting campaign in order to grow a clients list. 

The Oconomowoc Chamber of Commerce was discussing ways at their monthly marketing meeting to drive traffic to a section of their website.  This section is where chamber members can post specials, coupons, or other items for the public to take advantage. Currently, the section was not being utilized to its full potential by the members so the chamber wanted to find a way to increase its use by its members. There were many attempts using other methods to increase its use but those methods had fair success.  We made a suggestion to try a text marketing campaign during a recent locally sponsored movie event in the downtown area.

The approach for this was actually very simple.  The creation of the texting account took no more than 10 minutes to set up and ready to go.  The staff of the chamber created a flyer that business owners could post in their stores for the public to see during this event as many people enter a variety of stores during the event.  An email was drafted and sent to all members announcing the new “texting program” and urging them to participate. All the businesses needed to do was print the flyer, post in their store and place their special on the chambers website through their portal.  That was it..quick and painless.  

The chamber saw a dramatic increase in usage of this section of their website by its members totaling an increase of 17 additional users.  But what was even better than this was the increase in contacts and visits the chamber received through the texts. On the night of the event, there were 108 direct responses to the texting campaign from people entering in the chambers texting number.  Which means that the chamber collected 108 new contacts to promote future events and members specials to. In addition to collecting new contacts, the members specials section of the website saw 292 user visits the night of the event. 

So as you can see through the results of this actual event, you can use technology to your advantage to raise awareness for your business and grow your audience.  It just takes a little time and effort to set up the system and you’re off and running.

What is SEO and How Can Your Business Use It?

Online marketing is an important factor to the growth of any business nowadays, especially through search engines. You have PPC, which are Pay-Per-Click ads and SEO, which is Search Engine Optimization, or in other words, real and organic clicks. Sure, PPC is a great option for your company, but did you know that organic results are 8.5x more likely to be clicked on than paid search results?

SEO can be intimidating and difficult to understand, but we’ve broken it down into simple terms. SEO is a process of optimization for your website to accumulate and receive real, organic, and unpaid clicks from search engine results. When a user searches for certain keywords or topics, search engines scan through websites to figure out which ones are easiest to navigate through, read, and understand.

So, how can your business most efficiently take advantage of and use SEO?

The first thing you can do is make changes and improvements to your website where needed. Search engines file through many different things on your website like your title page, subheadings, internal links, and body content. By making improvements to these things, search engines can better understand what your business is about, dive deeper into understanding your business with internal links, and better find keywords and phrases to match the user’s search.

As mentioned before, keywords and phrases are also important to content marketing. The more content you create around certain keywords, the higher your page will rank on search engine result pages. This can also be carried over to voice searching. Voice search is the new way people are using their search engines, and you should take advantage of it! It’s said by ComScore that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches. When speaking, people are typically more conversational, so your website’s content should match that to better enforce keywords and phrases.

Content marketing isn’t only useful to your customers, but can help out search engines, too. It’s important to have plenty of content, like blog posts, videos, and social media posts to rank your page higher in search results. How is this helpful? Well, let’s say you posted a few blogs and a video on how to use camera drones. Users googling “how to use camera drone” will want to spend more time on your site because there are a lot of tools you have provided for them to navigate through.

Stay relevant! It’s important to consistently add to your site because search engines and users love good content. If you’re in a rut for ideas for a blog post or visual content, take an old post and rewrite it to make it more up-to-date and fresh. Don’t post something just because your site’s due for an update. Take time to search for quality content that people want to read about; quality content makes for a trusted relationship between you and your users.
SEO can be a long process, but by taking the time to really up your content with keywords and videos, and staying active on your site and socials, you’re sure to bring in new and organic traffic.

Tips When Using Social Media

Social media tips.

So, you started up a social media page for your business! Maybe on Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram. You read articles and watched videos on the importance of having a social media presence, but how can you effectively use it? Below is a master list of the top 7 tips to keep in mind when using social media to help your business succeed.

  1. Have an objective

    How do you want to use social media to help your business? What are you trying to accomplish? Determine; do you want to improve sales or improve your relationship with your customers? What kind of image do you want for your business online? Once you identify how you want to use your social pages, it will be a lot easier to create content for them.

  2. Be visual

    Photos and videos are very useful when communicating with prospects and clients. It’s a great way to show off a product or to give a face to your company. People don’t always have time to sit and read every post they see on their Facebook feed, so using a photo or video that compliments your post can catch their eye and make them want to find out more.

  3. Be authentic and transparent

    Social media is a great tool to create a relationship and open communication with your clients. Whether it’s posting a photo, video, or a blog post about your business, your audience will get to know who you are, what your business is all about, and what you can do for them. Honesty is a key component to developing trust and accreditation.

  4. Identify your target audience

    Let’s say your business makes products for hair growth for men – your primary audience probably isn’t a teenage girl. Research what main platforms your target audience uses, their means of consumption (video, articles, etc.), and what kind of language you should be using to best communicate with them.

  5. Create a calendar

    Not only does creating a calendar help to keep you organized, but it can help grow your online presence. It’s estimated that internet users spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes a day on social media. If prospects become familiar with your presence online, they feel more connected to your business. With consistent posting, you can also determine what content is getting more views and feedback, and you will eventually get into the groove of what kind of posts work for your company and what doesn’t.

  6. Step outside of your comfort zone

    Things are constantly changing, especially in today’s digital-dominated world. If you see a trend blossoming on social media, like video marketing for example, don’t hesitate to branch out. Research the topic to figure out where to start and how to most effectively integrate it into your business. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new strategies to improve your online presence.

  7. Be interactive

    Social media was created to be social! It’s important to consistently answer prospective customers’ questions, but it’s also important to spark up a conversation. Social platforms are a great way for you to connect with your clients, partnering businesses, or people inside your company! Let them know that they are heard and that you acknowledge them by taking time to connect with them. Social media is a great tool to promote your business, but it’s an even better tool to show your business’ appreciation!

Drone Registration Scams—Be Aware!

Drone Registration Scams, be aware.

When you own a drone, it is mandatory that you register it with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as part of the rules and regulations created in 2016. With the creation of these laws, it opens the doors for others to try and make a quick buck! The FAA has warned people who own drones to beware.

There are lots of organizations that offer their help to commercial and hobby drone owners to file an application for a registration number. Many of these so called companies try to match the look of the FAA’s website with graphics and some have gone as far as including the FAA logo. Some have seen these agencies state that they are an approved agency of the FAA. Believe us when we tell you that they aren’t and you’ll be wasting money by using them.

Some of these companies have extorted fees of almost $150 for their “service”. This is way too high, especially when the actual fee to register your drones is only $5.00 through the FAA website. For hobbyists, you will receive one number for all the drones you own and for others the fee is for each drone. The FAA does not have any regulation or will legitimize any of these outside services.

There is really only one way to be certain that your drone is registered properly and legally with the FAA. We recommend you avoid registering your unmanned aircraft anywhere but at the FAA Drone Zone. Save yourself the high fees or possible drone registration scams by only using this method. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us at [email protected]. We’d be glad to steer you in the right direction.

Benefits of Email Marketing For Small Businesses

email marketing for small businesses.

Email is a tool most people use everyday. Email marketing is a cost effective solution to directly communicate with your customers, especially for small businesses. Whether it be a monthly newsletter, “Happy Birthday” message or seasonal specials, sending emails to your clients can be a great way to increase brand awareness and help drive sales. Here are five benefits of email marketing for small businesses:

  1. Increased Awareness

    Email marketing is an easy way to stay in front of your target audience. Send them messages to stay on top of their mind. Be consistent for the best results. If your email marketing schedule is inconsistent, people might not remember your business and will be less likely to open the message. Keep your messages fun and relevant for best results.

  2. Consistent Communication

    Like mentioned in the above point, it’s important to send out your messages consistently. Whether it’s once or twice a month or quarterly, make sure you have a plan. You don’t want to bombard people with emails all the time but you also want to stay in front of them. Sending out an email once a year is not going to be an effective solution for your marketing plan.

  3. Increased Website Traffic

    It’s important to have strong call to actions in your emails. Often times, an important call to action would be sending recipients to your website. This needs to be done strategically. You can’t always send them to your home page. Which page is going to have the most relevant information? It could be a service page, a product page, or the contact page. Send them to a page where they would be expecting to go based off the information in the email and a page that will give them necessary information to increase conversions.

  4. Build Credibility

    People are more likely to open a message from a sender they know. Make sure subject lines are relevant so the recipients can see who you are and how you can help them. You don’t want your messages to look like spam. Know your readers and make sure your content is relevant to the people receiving the message. All of these things build credibility for your business and can help increase sales through your email marketing. Get people to trust your business.

  5. Cost Effective Option

    Email marketing offers more cost-effective benefits than direct mail, making this a great strategy for small businesses. With email marketing being a digital platform, you don’t need to worry about printing costs or postage. For an even more cost effective solution, collect emails from your customers and potential customers to build an email list so you don’t need to purchase a list. This will lead to best results and ROI as you’ve already established credibility and a relationship with these recipients.

The Importance Of Social Media Marketing

social media marketing.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and even TikTok are all social media platforms that are dominating the Internet. Their impact alone should make it pretty obvious why social media has become so important. But how does it benefit small businesses? Read on to learn the importance of social media marketing.

There are a lot of benefits, one of them being that it gives small businesses a competitive advantage. If you think about it, the majority of a small business’s target audience is already using social media. In an article posted on statista.com, as of last year, 77% of Americans have a social media profile. So it makes sense for small businesses to make their mark in an already highly utilized platform.

One of the biggest benefits social media has for small businesses is the personal connection to customers. Small businesses typically focus on the community and individuals. Social media provides the opportunity to talk about products and services with customers and have them engage and interact with the content. This is done by sharing pictures, reviews, and answering questions. These interactions in turn, create brand loyalty and awareness.

Lastly, social media is cost effective. Small businesses can reach their target audience through ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Unlike huge product campaigns aimed towards large areas, small businesses can focus on targeting their local area and can update their customers on promotions or new products.

Today, having an online presence has become a must for businesses. It makes them relevant and keeps their customers updated about the latest happenings in the business. It is a research tool for customers to become more familiar with a business and decide for themselves whether they want to invest in what that business has to offer. We hope that by understanding the importance of social media marketing. you’ll consider creating a social media presence if you haven’t already. Contact us at Paragon Marketing Group to get started today.

Does Your Wifi Bring Customers In The Door?

restaurant marketing.

Zenreach is the relationship engine that helps you know what your customers do in the real world, so you can keep them rushing back for more.

  • Boosted Contact List
    Zenreach turns your WiFi network into an automated contact collection tool—effortlessly growing your customer list 5x faster than before.
  • Automated Marketing
    It’s time to truly understand your customers—send messages that are automatically triggered by your guests’ unique visit behavior.
  • Transparent ROI
    Don’t rely on open rates and social media to guess the effectiveness of your online marketing—Zenreach shows you which messages bring customers through your door.

What other tech out there shows you exactly how many customers return after receiving an email? It’s inarguable ROI.
—DogHaus, Las Vegas

  1. It all starts with WiFi
    5 minute setup–Just plug in your access point and customers will get instant access to free, fast, and secure WiFi. Customers can use their own routers or purchase a plug-and-play Zenreach AP.
  2. Custom-branded portal
    No more fishbowls on your counter and manually logging outdated guest contact info. Zenreach automatically builds your contact list over WiFi through a customized portal complete with demographic and visit behavior.
  3. Collect contacts 5x faster
    Send the right message at the right time with our automated campaign tools – personalize messages to each individual customer based on behavior, demographics, and more.
  4. See your Walk-Through-Rate™
    Success your clients can see—We show you and your clients exactly how well their marketing is working by calculating the Walk-Through-Rate™. This is how many customers respond to messages by physically walking through the business doors.
  5. Build Your Reputation
    Get direct feedback and take control of your reputation. You can tell satisfied customers which popular review sites matter most (so they can leave their reviews there) while interacting personally with any unhappy customers before they post bad reviews.

“65% of customers are happy to share their information in exchange for more targeted marketing.”
—Big Commerce, 2015

 

Article Courtesy Of Zenreach

Drones, Safety, and Law: Some Things You Need To Know

Drones in video.

Drones have increased in popularity and the uses for them have grown significantly over the past few years. Especially for video productions that are used for a variety of reasons in the business world. With the increased amount of drones in the air, comes more and more regulations and concerns businesses need to be aware of.

The amount of pilots has increased significantly. Many of the pilots have the proper credentials to operate a drone legally for commercial purposes and many do not. Here are some items that businesses need to take into consideration before hiring a pilot to capture footage for your business:

  1. Be sure the pilot has a license. In order for a business to use drone footage for commercial purposes; it has to be captured by a licensed drone pilot. The FAA has strict guidelines regarding this and penalties can be handed out for used footage that was not done by a FAA tested pilot.
  2. Be sure the pilot has insurance. Many drone companies and commercially licensed pilots do not have the proper type of insurance that specifically covers drones. There are specific types of insurances for UAV pilots. So ask for a certificate of insurance prior to operations.
  3. Ask about their experience. Many people say they are drone pilots but fall short on the experience. Just because the ease of obtaining drones is there, doesn’t mean the individual has enough experience to handle the myriad of situations that present themselves during flights. Ask about how many flight hours they have, ask to see their flight logs, or ask what training they have received. A good pilot will not be offended by these inquiries.
  4. Has the flight been reported? Ask the pilot if he has reported the flight operations to all surrounding registered airports or aerial facilities prior to operations. This is a requirement by law and should be strictly followed.

So as you can see, there are lots of things to consider when it comes to hiring a service to capture aerial footage. Be sure to inquire about these points because taking these steps will insure the operations for your flight are safe and most importantly, legal.