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What is Facebook Live and Can I Use it to Market my Business?

Adrienne Wilkerson

April 30, 2018

Facebook has been rolling out it’s live streaming video feature in waves for the last four months. Live let’s you connect with real-time video to your friends, fans, and followers on Facebook. It is currently available to people with an iPhone and has been available to celebrities, athletes and other verified public figures via the Mentions app since August. Live is consistent with Facebook’s increasing dedication to video as a medium.

“Video is one of the most engaging and immersive ways to tell your story. Whether capturing breaking news, a baby’s first steps, or rising to a friend’s challenge for charity, it is a remarkable storytelling medium. Video uploaded directly to Facebook is an increasingly important part of News Feed, and more people than ever before are sharing, discovering, and engaging with videos that they care about.” –By Fidji Simo, Product Management Director, Video, Facebook

Though Facebook is late to the live-streaming scene behind companies like Blab, Periscope, and Meerkat the sheer volume of their user base gives them a leg up on the competition. For businesses, it means that the time invested in producing and distributing streaming video could have a much larger reach and a better ROI.

Facebook is currently testing live video with selected, verified, business pages and is suggesting that a roll out to all pages could come soon via their Pages app. We recommend companies start brainstorming now on creative ways to integrate this powerful new tool into their social media marketing strategy so they are ready to roll out as soon as it’s available.

Here are a few suggestions for how to be effective using Live for your marketing.

Use effective headlines: When your followers are making the decision to follow your live video stream, all they will have to go off of it the title. Make it interesting and catch their eye.
Have a plan: Know what you are going to talk about before hand. This doesn’t mean script every second of the broadcast, in fact casual and “real” is more effective. But have a topic and a goal in mind before you start.
Do a Q&A: Invite people who are following to ask you questions and answer them live. Or get a list of questions before hand and answer them live.
Behind the Scenes: Show live video from “behind the curtain.” Do a quick snap shot of a day in the life, or how your team brainstorms creative solutions.
Show and Tell: Show your expertise by walking through how to do a technique or make a product in simple, easy to follow steps.

If you are interested in Facebook Live and want to talk about how it could be a creative solution to marketing your business, we would love to talk with you. Give us a call at 907-563-6008 or email me at [email protected].

What Does an Inbound Marketing Plan Include?

Adrienne Wilkerson

August 7, 2017

We spend a significant portion of our prospect meetings going over what exactly the Inbound Marketing plans should include. It’s usually a rather lengthy discussion depending on the particular client’s needs. Though there is a list that we recommend for most clients (a foundation if you will), it is important to customize each package to the client and their goals. A lot of the conversation seems to circle around how each of the different pieces of the plan will help that particular business.

Comprehensive Inbound Marketing Package

The way we see it, there are about 10 pieces in a full program. Not every agency will include all of these elements, but for clients willing to invest in the whole Inbound Marketing experience this is the way to go!

Ongoing Strategy & Analysis. An effective strategy is built on an understanding of the client’s goals and their target audience’s persona. We invest a lot of time in understanding what exactly motivates those you are trying to reach and how we want them to respond. Making sure we consistently hit that moving target requires ongoing analysis of the data from our efforts. We continuously adapt our strategy according to the data to ensure your ROI is as high as possible. Part of what makes this possible is your account manager.They are your advocate within our company, and they keep an eye on the analytics. Your account manager makes sure your Inbound Marketing strategy is running smoothly and handles any challenges that may come up.
Social Media Publishing & Monitoring. We create custom content, publish it and monitor the responses coming into your social media channel. In the creation of content, we will incorporate royalty-free photographs, custom videos, etc. We act as our first responders, so you don’t have to worry about the response time. In most circumstances, we will respond within an hour. The most effective social media channel for your business will depend in part on where your company is in the US and where your target market is currently interacting. For a robust strategy, we recommend 2-3 channels. For example Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest or Facebook, Twitter, and SnapChat. For some clients, we focus on just one.
Blogging. Quality, relevant content keeps your website current and increases your leads by two-thirds (according to a recent HubSpot survey). The best way to keep your website updated is to blog regularly. For smaller blogging packages we post twice a month, but ideally, we post once or twice a week. Our dynamite content creators write custom blogs based on questions your target audience is asking. By answering these questions, your website rankings increase as do your leads and conversions.
Content Creation. Putting out quality content is critical to a successful Inbound Marketing strategy. Content varies from webinars, YouTube videos, to whitepapers, infographics, and more. Our content creation process typically involves idea creation and research, copywriting (if needed), artwork/photography/videography, SEO optimization, web design and coding (if necessary), and publishing.
Landing Pages. When people are looking for a particular service or product, they often do not want to dig through your entire website and will bounce off your site before “converting” to a lead. The solution to this is to provide a “landing page” that focuses in on a specific service, offer, product, or piece of information that is of particular interest to the end user. When an interested party clicks on a PPC (Pay Per Click) ad of Google, a Facebook ad or a sponsored or promoted post it will take them to a landing page on your site. The user must then provide some basic contact information to access or receive what they are looking for. It is a “win-win” for both parties. The end users get the information they need, and our clients receive contact information for future marketing.
Pay Per Click (PPC). Is also called cost per click, is most often referring to Google AdWords, but Facebook has increased their ad system. In both cases, we leverage Google or Facebook’s targeting systems to ensure the ad shows up to the right target market. Our clients only pay when someone clicks or in some way interacts with the ad. We employ PPC to direct traffic to our client’s websites and their landing pages.
Google SEO and Web Maintenance. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a confusing term to grasp and this is in part because it is another moving target. Google is constantly changing their search algorithm, that thing that determines which website ranks where in attempts to improve the user experience. Blackhat marketers are always trying to figure out ways to fool the system. So there is never a clear target for long. We make marked efforts to stay on top of the newest Google requirements to ensure your website is organically ranking in a way Google approves of. This, in turn, keeps your site on good terms with Google, so it doesn’t get blacklisted. We spend time each month updating keywords, manually managing link-building, etc. Additionally, we maintain content on your website as needed for staff changes, new services, and more.
Email Marketing. It is not enough to just collect lead information; you must have a system to follow up with those leads. Email marketing through newsletters sent out at regular intervals is a powerful way to foster and develop leads into converting to regular customers.
Video Content. Facebook now has more videos being uploaded every day than even YouTube. Videos are becoming the most widely viewed content on the internet. On social media, 15-30 second videos are the most effective. We work with clients to create the strategy, record and post the videos on various social media channels.
Campaigns & Special Projects. Finally, campaigns can span multiple marketing methods and greater periods of time. They are a concerted and coordinated effort to push out a specific message or to tell a story. The size of the campaign will vary depending on the budget, the goals, and the impact required. We bring the full weight of our diverse creative team to bear for our clients to put together effective, innovative strategies that achieve their goals.

We love sitting down and brainstorming with our clients to come up with the best plans with the most value. If you are interested in what Inbound Marketing can do for your business, please click on the link at the bottom of the page for a free consultation or drop me a line at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

This blog was originally published in November 2015, but was updated for content and accuracy.

13 Inbound Marketing Stats Your CFO Will Love

Adrienne Wilkerson

May 8, 2017

“67% of the buyers journey is now done digitally.” -Sirus Decisions

The value of Inbound Marketing is unequivocal, and there is no denying the preponderance of evidence the data shows us (channeling my inner Law & Order here). When done correctly, inbound marketing is far and away the ROI champion in the marketing arena.

There are several reasons no one can even come close to competing for the ROI crown. One big reason is that consistently doing inbound marketing creates company assets that grow even without any additional investments. Each and every piece of published content (i.e. blog, landing page, white paper, video, etc.) continues to build value even over time.

Graph courtesy of Tomasz Tunguz at Redpoint

One great example is this blog by Tomasz Tunguz on “The Compounding Returns of Content Marketing”. His data shows a steady and consistent growth rate of 8% per month from core readers and 10%
per month from spikes (when a post becomes intriguing to a larger group). That is 18% per month with no additional investment of resources over a 12 month period!

In another example from HubSpot, we can see that over 90% of the leads from their blogs come from old posts and 56% of the leads they generate come from marketing they are no longer actively participating in.

But let’s get down to the stats you really came to this blog for.

Last year, 67% of surveyed B2B companies said Inbound Marketing was a top three or very high priority in their marketing strategy.

67% of B2B marketers see a 10% or more increase in sales opportunities throughout the sales funnel when lead nurturing is used. (DemandGen)

32% of surveyed brands have decided to reallocate marketing budget from outbound to Inbound Marketing.

Of the surveyed marketers, 23% of their overall marketing budgets was earmarked for outbound marketing and 34% for Inbound Marketing practices. (Gannett Local)

Businesses who focus primarily Inbound Marketing save more than $14 per each new customer. (State of Inbound Marketing)

When compared to paid search, mid-sized businesses save on average 31% on Inbound Marketing costs. (Eloqua)

B2B buyers seek out to the following top 3 sources while researching a purchase decision: Whitepapers (78%), Case Studies (73%), and Webinars (67%). (DemandGen)

Inbound leads cost 61% less on average than outbound leads. (HubSpot)

B2B companies that blog at least 1 or 2 times per month generate 70% more leads than the companies who don’t blog. (HubSpot)

After five months of consistent inbound marketing, the average cost per lead drops 80%. (Eloqua)

Inbound Marketing yields 3 times more leads per dollar than traditional methods. (Kapost)

Nurtured leads will most often make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (The Annuitas Group)

Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Forrester Research)

If any of these stats catches your eye and you would like to know how if Inbound Marketing could work for your company, I would love to chat with you. You can even see some of the results we have gotten for our current clients on our portfolio page. You can reach me at 907-563-6008 or via email. I look forward to hearing from you.

This blog was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated and republished.

Numbers Don’t Lie, It’s Why I Love Inbound Marketing!

Jennifer Christensen

March 26, 2017

Friday was a great day for our business and one of our client’s business. The Inbound Marketing strategy we have put in place for this particular client has been paying off handsomely for their bottom line. In an industry that is ever changing, that is more about trial and error and a/b testing than proven formulas – wins that happen right off the bat are rare, but I’m noticing something interesting… they are becoming more common.

We met with a relatively new client ( working together three months) to go over their stats. Here’s what we tend to look for in the area of meaningful numbers for our clients:

1. Marketing efforts – How many people are we reaching through our marketing efforts? We had some great stats for that part of the conversation- About 18,000 a week through Facebook and Google targeted ads alone.

2. Click Throughs – How many of the targeted people we are reaching are clicking through to the landing pages? We also had some solid numbers on that as well – We had about 620 people clicking through to the landing pages on the website from those targeted ads per month.

3. Conversions – How many leads were being generated and how many are converting to new patients? Between their data and ours, we were able to verify an additional 20 new phone inquiries per week or 80 + per month. Most of these calls were converting into new patients!

4. Cost – What’s the cost per new patient generated, including ad costs and Beacon’s services? In this case, the ROI is staggering: $36 per new patient, each valued at over $1,300 annually.

So how do great numbers like this happen in a short period of time and why am I seeing it happen more often?

Based on our experience in working with over 100 digital and online campaigns in the past 3 years, all the stars need to line up for this to happen quickly. What are the key ingredients for the stars to line up?

1. Buyer Persona – The right message delivered to the right audience. Basically research, research and more research. Do we know who the target demographic is and what their pain points are? Have we accurately created the correct graphic and content in the right medium to send the right message to that targeted audience? *** Remember Inbound Marketing isn’t really about you, it’s about the audience for which you are providing a solution.

2. A great website – Does the website have content that is meaningful, helpful and intuitive for the consumer? Will they actually want to do business with the client after clicking on the website? *** Your website is the foundation of your Inbound Marketing efforts. Without a solid website, you are wasting money to drive traffic there.

3. Conversion – Once you have reached the right target, provided the correct message and sent them to a solid landing page on your website – then what? Make it easy for them to do business with you. Provide good references and reviews that build credibility. Avoid long forms that require your potential client to fill out just to communicate with you. Make sure your social feeds are connected to your website and that they can communicate with you there. Most importantly-that your phone number and map information is easy to find and accessible. Conversion is much more than a call to action. It’s about meeting the needs of your potential client, or patient in this case, before they even pick up the phone to call you.

So, I mentioned above that we are seeing these types of fast results happen more often in the past 6-9 months then the last few years combined. I’m convinced the reason is twofold.

1. Education- Business owners are becoming much more educated on the value of Inbound Marketing. There is an entirely different understanding in 2017 than even a few years ago. Instead of just budgeting for one of the stars to line up, like Facebook advertising or a new website- they are more willing than ever to put budget into their social media plans, websites and content management. They understand that meaningful results are based on a complete, Inbound marketing strategy, not just one piece. In fact, according to Forbes, 48% of national marketing budgets have shifted to Inbound efforts, from less than 20% 4 years ago.

2. Marketing Technologies – The rate in which digital media and targeted advertising has advanced in the past 6 months is mind blowing. Being able to target, on Facebook alone, people who are within 3 miles of your business, who have a certain income level, with interests that match your products etc. is a game changer – and that’s just ONE of the changes that we’ve seen.

If your interested in the particular case study I’m referencing in this article, or if you want to build revenue from your website and social media presence- drop me a line at [email protected], or check out our website .

Does Inbound Marketing Work for My Construction Business

Adrienne Wilkerson

August 8, 2016

We are often asked if inbound marketing or social media marketing works for general contractors, roofers, painters, landscapers and more. We always reply YES with utmost confidence and here is why. Consumers have embraced the internet as their primary resource to research products and services before making a buying decision. In fact, a recent study by Pew Research Center reports that 73% of Americans are online on a daily basis. Think about the last important purchase you made. Did your research start on Google? If you’re like most people, your answer is probably yes.

Construction Information on the Internet

An obvious question is: Do consumers use the internet to research general contractor information and particular problem or issues with their home, yard, plumbing, etc.? The answer is an astounding YES! People often spend considerable time researching the problems they have and who they can trust to fix it. Having a high quality and consistently posted blog makes all the difference in attracting the right leads to find you online. When people are researching their problem online, and they find your blog addressing their needs, they will come to see you as an expert and someone they can trust. Blogging also provides Google with the new, fresh content on your website ranks so highly in its search algorithms. The short version is that blogging increases your ranking on Google, which increases your lead generations.

How General Contractors Can Benefit From Inbound Marketing?

To be successful in your marketing, you must go where the people are- connect with them, engage them and delight them. Inbound marketing is the practice of getting yourself or your business found online when prospects are searching, getting more people to your website and then converting them into customers. This is in contrast to traditional marketing, which includes tactics like magazine and television ads as well as telemarketing.

“Inbound marketing is the practice of getting yourself or your business found online when prospects are searching, getting more people to your website and then converting them into customers.”

The Four Core Services of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing for plumbers, roofers, landscapers, asphalt contractors is not one particular action but a cohesive system of proven, effective tactics that work together and become greater than the individual pieces.

Building traffic to your website via blogging, SEO, and social media

Converting this traffic into leads by providing premium content offers

Converting leads into customers with lead nurturing, lead scoring and email marketing

Measuring and analyzing every step to see what’s working and improve on what is not.

Bottom line? Inbound marketing works. When implemented correctly, you’ll start to see results and new faces and clients come through the door. In fact according to Oracle, “the average cost per lead drops 80% after five months of consistent Inbound Marketing.” (Eloqua) I hope after reading this, blog you are intrigued about inbound marketing and how it can help your business.

Visit: multi family developers near me

New Brand, New Locations & New Horizons

Jennifer Christensen

May 11, 2016

Beacon Media + Marketing, a leading Inbound Marketing Agency in Anchorage, Alaska, is delighted to announce the launch of their new brand identity and office locations.

In conjunction with celebrating the company’s 4th milestone anniversary, Beacon Media + Marketing elected to assess the viability of the current brand amongst marketing trends and company position. The key objective of the research was to understand how Beacon Media + Marketing could better reflect and communicate the innovation, creativity and company values through our brand. The result is a clearer positioning of Beacon Media + Marketing that reflects its evolution of the company in growth, size and innovation.

“The new brand identity reflects Beacon Media + Marketings’ commitment to be on the cutting edge of marketing trends, best practices and design.” Courtney Moses, Art Director

“Beacon Media + Marketing has experienced some exciting growth in recent years, and our product and service offerings have evolved and expanded accordingly,” said Adrienne Wilkerson, President. “ We felt that as we approached more expansion and growth in 2016 that we needed a refreshed story to help us fully demonstrate our internal growth and innovative research and development team.”

The launch of the new brand coincides with moving offices into an expanded space at 3201 C street #302, Calais Building 1 and an additional Beacon Media + Marketing office scheduled to launch in August 2016 in Ohio.

Beacon Media + Marketing, founded as Beacon Publishing & Design, LLC in 2001 as a one person graphic and web design firm, expanded in 2012 into a powerhouse digital agency located in the heart of Anchorage, Alaska. We offer variety of proven solutions for our local and national clients including custom website design, search engine optimization, social media, content marketing, PPC, email marketing, app development, video production, photography and award winning graphic design, just to name a few.

Realizing the inconsistencies and lack of accountability business owners face when dealing with various mediaand marketing platforms, Beacon Media + Marketing was created with one purpose in mind – to create and implement successful marketing solutions that attract, convert and retain your customers.

Our, in-house, exceptionally talented team of 10+ is comprised of a mix of tech savvy, business minded and creative people working together to ensure our clients success and growth in business! We love to “shine a light” into the world of Marketing. We provide classes to educate on best practices, clear reporting to showcase the results of our marketing efforts and founded and sponsor the annual Alaska Inbound Marketing Summit to bring further awareness to our community.

This winning combination allows us to create marketing plans that are results driven and has led to many awards, including the 2015 Alaska Marketing Association’s Marketing Visionary of the Year. Most importantly it’s led to extremely happy clients!

Beacon Media + Marketing Announces New Partner, Lisa Brest

Jennifer Christensen

April 10, 2016

Beacon Media + Marketing Announces New Partner, Lisa Brest

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – Beacon Media + Marketing, Alaska’s Inbound Marketing Agency, announces a new partner and addition to the executive team, Lisa Brest.

As the new VP of Finance, Lisa will be responsible for the financial control and planning for Beacon Media + Marketing. Lisa brings with her an extensive history of owning, managing and scaling an Alaska company. Lisa has a degree from the University of Anchorage Alaska in Mathematics.

“I’m excited for this new venture in joining the Beacon Media + Marketing team. I’m impressed in the quality of the team, clients and the results of the product being offered. We have some audacious goals moving forward, and I look forward to being a part of them.” Lisa Brest, SVP Finance

“We are thrilled to welcome Lisa as our newest partner at Beacon Media + Marketing. We have grown, on average, over 100% per year over the past four years and Lisa brings with her the knowledge of scaling a company, financial planning, and experience that will help us achieve our vision of continuing to grow Beacon Media + Marketing locally and nationally.” Adrienne Wilkerson, Founder and President.

Beacon Media + Marketing, founded as Beacon Publishing & Design, LLC in 2001 as a one person graphic and web design firm, expanded in 2012 into a powerhouse digital agency of 12 located in the heart of Anchorage, Alaska. We offer variety of proven solutions for our local and national clients including custom website design, search engine optimization, social media, content marketing, PPC, email marketing, video production, photography, graphic design and award winning marketing.

To learn more about the company, visit their website here: https://www.beaconmm.com/

Contact: Jennifer Christensen
Phone: 907-563-6008
Email: [email protected]

Is Snapchat Good for Marketing my Small Business?

Jennifer Christensen

January 21, 2016

This app is gaining popularity daily and has an incredible subscribing rate for users. Welcome to Snapchat. Maybe you’ve heard of the simple picture sending messaging app and its main audience of mainly millennials? Whether you’ve discovered this selfie centered app, or seem stuck using just one social media platform; you’ll soon see this app isn’t going away anytime soon. With over three hundred million users this app has quite the potential to help some businesses grow! However, before we get ahead of ourselves, how does Snapchat work?

There are two basic parts to the app interface. First is the friends list. This tab categorizes your followers into a simple list so that you can keep in organized contact with them. Second is the Snapchat story.

The Snapchat story tab is the unique feature that your business will focus on. Here you can post pictures or snaps to your story, which is a picture for all of your followers to view. However, this post only lasts for 24 hours; so constant maintenance of your business’ story is recommended. The story allows you to advertise a product to your customers. Here’s an example: If a café owner is running a business, they might take a picture of their latte of the day to draw in customers. Depending on the amount of followers your business has, you gain more views for the snap of your latte, which promotes your business.

To recap, Snapchat is new, fast moving social media channel targeting the millennial generation. Its ability for easy responding and free advertising options make it a very usable and powerful marketing tool. The downside is that it will take a significant time commitment to learn and leverage the tool and while it is growing rapidly, it is still has limited audience reach in terms of age demogaphics. However, with very few businesses taking advantage of the technology, it is a chance to be a marketing leader and try it out? If you are interested in talking about if Snapchat is right for your business, give us a call or drop us an email. We would love to sit down and chat with you.

Are the Yellow Pages Phone Book Obsolete?

Adrienne Wilkerson

January 19, 2016

We very frequently get asked by small and medium sized business owners if they should keep their ad in the Yellow Pages. 95% of the time our answer is no, there is really no legitimate reason to have an ad in the printed phone book. At one time the Yellow Pages was the go to place when you needed help and didn’t know who to call. In fact many of us still remember the popular phrase “Let your fingers do the walking!” Check out this commercial from 1970.

Phone books were a mainstay in every home in America and grew to be so huge that they could arguably be considered a lethal weapon and were frequently used to demonstrate feats of strength by tearing them in half! Until the mid 2000’s, if you wanted your business found, the Yellow Pages was one of the best methods for getting your business found. However the almost overnight phenomenon of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and then the Android version, the HTC in 2008 was the beginning of the end for printed phone book. According to recent PewCenter research over 90% of US adults have cell phones and their fingers are still doing the walking, but now they are typing search terms into Google.

But the question still comes up, should I advertise in the Yellow Pages? Honestly, every time I want to ask when was the last time you actually saw a Yellow Pages book outside of a strong man competition? Exactly!

So here are 5 reasons why you should drop your Yellow Pages ads like hot cakes.

It’s Expensive! Yellow Pages used to have a strangle hold on businesses and convinced them their phone ringing depended on the size of their ad. After all, if you weren’t in the phone book, you weren’t credible. Honestly, when I started Beacon Publishing & Design, LLC in 2001, I had several well respected business people tell me this. They weren’t all wrong back then. The sad result of the Yellow Page’s self proclaimed monopoly was that they could charge outrageous prices for their ads. Now we have much, much better avenues open to us for our advertising dollars. Google AdWords, Facebook ads and promoted posts, and Twitter ads just to name a few.
You are committed to a full year. Once that mammoth book is printed you are committed to that ad and the price tag that came with it for a full year. There is no opportunity to change, update or adjust any advertising you have invested in. In contrast, inbound marketing is flexible and adjusts on the fly, if needed, to the way your audience is responding. Not being locked into print means you have more capacity to adjust services, hours, products, staff and so much more. You don’t have to live with an ad that is outdated two months after it goes to press.
The Yellow Pages system is outdated and does not work for most of today’s consumers. Now it’s more about our thumbs doing the walking and not through that huge book anymore. According to a recent study Google owns 89% of the US mobile organic search market and more than 1/2 of Google searches come from mobile. Why would and number of the 90% of Americans who have a smart phone, put it down to pick up the Yellow Pages? Unless they were actually competing in a strong man competition that is. We already have our mobile devices in our hands and we are going to use the tools at hand to search for things we want or need.
The ROI (Return on Investment) on Yellow Pages is terrible! Most businesses struggle to track where their leads come from and having an ad in the phone book is just making the whole problem more difficult. When we use inbound marketing techniques, we can track exactly where leads come from and where they are going. Often we joke with clients that we can track the leads directly to their door. Using tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, Facebook Analytics, Twitter Analytics, and Pinterest Analytics, we know exactly when a specific lead starts to interact with your company, when they visit your website, what they look at and when they fill out a contact form or click on the phone number button on your website. Those are some powerful tracking tools that take all of the guess work out of the ROI of inbound marketing!
You can still get a FREE listing on YP.com. But Yellow Pages has evolved you say. They have YP.com and an app now you say! Shouldn’t I still advertise with them you ask? Don’t be fooled, a listing with YP.com that gets updated on their app is still free just like the old days when a single line phone number in the book was free when you signed up for a land line. It doesn’t hurt anything and can help some of your search engine rankings to be listed with YP.com, you just don’t have to buy a very expensive ad and be locked in for a long time anymore.

The bottom line is that the days of the Yellow Pages phone book being a viable option for current small and medium businesses are long gone. If you are a company looking for the best ROI for your budget inbound marketing is a much more effective marketing technique (60% cheaper than traditional methods). Give us a call at 907-563-6008 or send us an email for a free marketing evaluation or just a chat about a smarter, more effective marketing technique. We would love to hear from you!

Is Google+ Still Relevant?

Adrienne Wilkerson

December 17, 2015

Since its creation, Google+ has had difficulty really catching on. Because of this, Google has been focusing on listening to user feedback. You may have noticed recently that Google+ has changed a few things by detaching it from other services it had been connected to previously.

The focus is shifting to Collections and Communities, allowing users to join together based on similar interests and likes, making it much more simple and more mobile friendly.

This change is good for business marketing, as it will be very simple and even encouraged to reach out to others with the same or similar passions as your business!

These changes may worry some users who have gotten attached to certain features from the Classic Google+. Missing from the new Google+ dashboard are Events, Hangouts, Photos and Google My Business. Unfortunately, if you wish to use these features, you will have to use the Classic Google+ or locate the feature through its own subdomain.

But this redesign has been made by listening to user feedback and sometimes change can be good, as predicted in this case, so let’s focus on the positive!

Just like Classic Google+, you can view the stream of news feed of people, pages, communities and collections that you follow. You may customize the way you view your feed by choosing to view more or less from specific People, Pages, Communities and Collections that you follow. When posting updates to Google+, you may choose who to share it with, making it visible to select, people or groups.

Now on to the big changes.

Collections

By selecting the Collections button on the left sidebar, you will be able to search for specific Collections based on your/your company’s interests. Here you may chose to follow any Collection you like. You can even make/edit your own Collection.

Communities

As before, by selecting the Communities button on the left sidebar, you may search for specific Communities to join. Again, you can even own your own Community as well.

As for other changes, there are minor tweaks with editing your profile/page, changing your settings, and organizing your circles, but these changes were made to make it easier on the user. Again, Google is very adamant about listening to user feedback. So feel free to contact them to share your opinion on these new changes.

It is being said that this major shift in focus will be beneficial for the survival of Google+, but only time will tell. In the meantime, go ahead and play around with the new design! There are wonderful opportunities to connect with the new Google+.

Photo Credit: <a href=”https://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-809503p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00″>Twin Design</a> / <a href=”https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00″>Shutterstock.com</a>

Our “Big Idea” for Alaska, It’s time to lead the conversation

Jennifer Christensen

August 29, 2015

Alaska is a place of big ideas! We have a history of tenacious leadership against all odds. Walter Hickel was one of the visionaries who played a major role in our statehood. Charles Edwardson (Etok) fought for and laid the foundation for land ownership among First Peoples in Alaska. These are two examples of the many great Alaskans whose willingness to embrace change and new big ideas have lead us to the entrepreneurial culture we have todayexpertise.

My “big idea” was to bring to Alaska a world class event that provided learning and from the “best of the best” in the field of Inbound Marketing and Social Media. My big idea, became Beacon’s big idea, and grew into the amazing event that just took place in Anchorage on August 27th, 2015. #alaskainbound. www.alaskainbound.com

So why? Why did we think this “bikig idea” was one worth pursuing? There are many reasons why: perfect timing, opportunity and passion came together to create smet. The “big idea” also fit within our overall vision and mission of Beacon Media + Marketing.

It’s Beacon’s vision that Alaska has the opportunity, talent, and resources to not just be a part of the conversation, but to lead it. We are poised on the brink of a new era in Alaska. The global communication revolution we see all around us provides huge opportunities for us too not only survive but to again take the lead.

We are in an enviable position of being in the national and global eye from the political stage, to the Arctic, our natural resources and our unique and incredible people. Are we having influence in that fascination as much as we could? Instead of letting others tell us who we are, we can use the tools Inbound Marketing provides to communicate and influence on a local, national, and international stage. So how do we do that? How do we become part of the conversation that is happening all around us?

First, we learn the most effective methods to communicate that have the most influence. It used to be that the conversations people had in which they shared ideas, shared opinions where usually limited to the water cooler, the barbershop, the family dinner, or a beer at their favorite local spot. Now those conversations are happening across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging, Blab and more.

If we are able to step up and learn how to communicate well using social media, content creation and visual mediums- it won’t matter if the conversation is happening in Alaska, Japan, India, Egypt, Switzerland, or Brazil we will have the tools to be influencers. This has the ability to affect our State a National and International level, but what about our local economy and businesses?

On a local scale those same conversations are happening about our businesses. Increasing our knowledge and learning these tools have the ability to impact our local economy positively as well. The statistics are clear, 88% of of consumers are more heavily influenced by what their friends say online than what they see in an advertisement. At the bare minimum businesses have to have an online presence, but that is just showing up. 95% of Millennial expect a business to have a Facebook page. 85% of Generation X, and 78% 45-60 year olds.

Local consumers are asking questions and having conversations and reading reviews online. Which bank offers better customer service? Which plumbing company showed up on time? How much does a whale watching tour cost? These conversations are happening whether you are online or not. As business professionals when we participate, consumers develop relationships and trust. This shortens the buying cycle and helps us close leads more efficiently. To be effective marketers it is no longer enough just to have a web page, we have to move beyond “showing up” to actually participating.

93% of buying cycles start with an online search, which is why SEO is vitally important for businesses looking to get found online. If you don’t rank well in search, it’s hard for people to find you. (Marketo)

Three years ago we met with a new property management company, www.rpmlastfrontier.com. Their question to us was: “How do we compete with the established firms, grow rapidly and take over significant market share with a limited budget and no name recognition? That was a tall order and a challenge we were exited to take on because we could see they already had a great product, the right people and the right process. So our answer was two words: Inbound Marketing. Today this amazing company ranks #1 on Google through almost any search related to property management in Anchorage. They have taken over significant market share. They have shown over 100% growth every year. Inbound Marketing has been and continues to be the key to their marketing success.

Not convinced, from our example? Look at the national stats:

80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (cmo.com)
B2B Companies that blog only 1-2 times per month generate up to 70% more leads than those that don’t (Hubspot)

Whether your clientele are local, national or international and whether you are a business or non-profit organization, you need to have an Inbound Marketing strategy. The basic structure of that strategy is going to be similar and is scalable depending on your budget. In fact… Inbound Marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. (Hubspot)

To be effective, your strategy needs to have the following pieces.

Solid, SEO optimized website
A consistent blogging editorial calendar with original content
Social media presence on 2-3 channels
A system for responding to comments and questions coming in through blogs and social media
A system for following up with qualified leads
Consistency is key. You will need to dedicate the resources and man-hours to see this through on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly schedule.

We have given you the big picture….Alaska is a place of big ideas and Inbound Marketing is a big idea. We have talked about the conversation that is happening all around us and how it we cannot afford to not participate. We have given you the outline for an effective strategy. Where do you go from here?

You can learn this and do it yourself. You can delegate it to staff. To do this effectively requires constant learning and adapting to changing trends and best practices. Attending conferences like #alaskainbound is a great place to start. We also encourage people to check out HubSpot’s certification program as a foundation to becoming skilled at Inbound Marketing.

Another option is to partner with an inbound marketing company, like Beacon Media + Marketing. There are many Hubspot Certified companies around the nation and we highly recommend working with one who has been through their program and can show you the results they have already helped other clients achieve.

This is our challenge as Alaskans. Now is the time to step up and lead the conversation locally, nationally, and internationally.

How to Utilize the 4 Major Visual Content Platforms

Jennifer Christensen

July 8, 2015

We are becoming more visual every day; you’ve heard the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” and these social media platforms have proven that to be true. According to the 3M-Corporation, individuals process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Social media platforms like Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest, and Slideshare are becoming increasingly more popular as visual content drives engagement. According to Simply Measured, just one month after Facebook released their new timeline allowing photos and videos to be shared, engagement increased by 65 percent. So – how can we use visual content to our advantage?

Instagram

Use customer posts – If people are talking about your company, use this to your advantage and share it! Plus, customers will enjoy being in the spotlight. (Make sure you get their permission of course.)
Use photos of employees – This helps customers feel comfortable, like they know your company and your employees.
Do contests – This is just a win-win-win situation. You can interact with customers, customers get the chance to win a prize, and you get your page shared over and over again through use of hashtags, likes, and tagging of your account.
Showcase your products in a visually appealing way – If the customer sees a product and it looks bad, do you think they’ll buy it? Probably not, however, if it looks good they already have a nice visual to see themselves using your product.
Be unique – Stay true to your audience and your brand.

Youtube

Use engaging titles – This is the first thing a potential viewer will see/read. Your title should make them want to watch the video.
Use keywords – In your video description, it is important to include keywords so that your video can be found easily. You can also add links back your website and other social medias here.
Interact – Pay attention to the comments and respond when you feel it is necessary.
Keep it short – Be sure your videos are no longer than about 5 minutes.

Pinterest

Have a set strategy – Pin based on your goals and objectives. Why are you pinning? To drive traffic to your website, to boost your brand, increase your sales? Make sure you reflect your goals in your pinning.
Be pin friendly – Make sure your website has the “pin it” button. This allows fans of your company to easily pin things from your website.
40-40-20 rule – Keep motivational and educational posts to 40 percent each. Only 20 percent of posts should be about your brand.
Help other pinners – This allows you to engage with other companies as well as your customers. Utilize cross promoting as well. The more people you interact with, the more people will interact with you.

Slideshare

Use well-designed slides – Again, we are very visual. If you’re going to use a visual platform to express information, it will be crucial that it looks good.
Share good content – Follow normal content rules, such as having a good title, use lists or how-tos.
Pair with LinkedIn – Post presentations to LinkedIn to stand out from the crowd.

Other Sources

Visual content is important on Facebook and blogs as well. The use of visual content is more for the accompaniment of text content. These visuals are there to help tell the written story. Using visuals on the aforementioned social media platforms is much more direct, as the visual components are the story – they must be able to stand-alone. With the growth in mobile web usage, these apps and websites will become even more popular in years to come. The tools are out there. Start engaging with your customers, they’re waiting!