Advertising

idc-leads-online

7 Killer Content Tips to Get More Leads Online

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The Smartest and Best-Looking Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Digital Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Back in the day, the marketing department used to create a new piece of content only when they had something new to talk about, like a new product or service.  Gone are those days, as the content is now created to improve search engine rankings and to help attract visitors to websites. Not just visitors, but the right visitors.

We know that search engines want to display content that adds value and accurately addresses the needs of users. Companies want to attract users to convert them into leads. That’s where context comes in. Creating killer content that addresses what the visitor is searching for while establishing the company as an expert in their industry, will not only generate more leads online but will also help in the conversion of those leads into sales.

It’s a win-win if done correctly.

Here are 7 Do’s and Don’ts to help you develop content to get more leads online

  1. DO create a content strategy
  2. DO produce content that answers questions and analyzes problems.
  3. DO write content that uses keywords appropriately.
  4. DO determine ideas for content from listening to the needs of existing customers.
  5. DO use headlines and formatting to make your website easy to read.
  6. DON’T write content overstuffed with keywords.
  7. DON’T write generic content that adds no value.

Remember, creating content to create content won’t automatically display your company on the front page after a Google search, as this is only one piece of the online-ranking pie. But, it’s an excellent place to start to get more leads online.

Are you looking for help creating compelling content marketing? From marketing strategy to marketing program planning, we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the hippest yet oldest digital marketing agency in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

Brainstorm-Mktg

3 Smart Steps to Brainstorm Creative Marketing

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The Best, Oldest, and Biggest Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

The 3 Smartest Steps to Brainstorming Creative Marketing

In basketball, a “shooter’s mentality” usually means the player is not going to let missing a shot or two deter them from taking another shot.

Michael Jordan made almost 50% of his shots. That means he missed around 50% too. But he kept shooting. Great shooters do not think about missing. Once the thought of missing shots gets in the player’s head, the chances for success diminish.

“I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences, you always think of a negative result.” ~ Michael Jordan

 This is not a “brick.” This is a “swoosh.” A brick is a shot where the ball makes a huge clang-like noise on the basketball rim and does not go in the basket.

I’ve been lucky enough to be a professional creative my entire career, and as Michael Jordan, I’m sure half my ideas are big ol’ bricks that bounce harmlessly off the rim. Did that stop me from trying again? No. I know those ideas will never see the light of day in a marketing campaign for a client. I just need to work through the bad ideas because sometimes they lead to great ones. And yes, there is always a little self-delusion involved, as you may have observed—I just compared myself to Michael Jordan.

But speaking of him, how many hours in the gym do you think Michael Jordan spent to develop his shooter’s mentality—to develop the confidence that he can make the shot because he has prepared and practiced it for years, leading up to that moment?

Like making a game-winning shot, great creative is not an accident. We find that a few simple steps can lead to great creative marketing, designed to help grow a business.

1. Do your homework.

Know your brand. Know your audience. Know your objectives.

This may sound like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen firsthand marketing created in a vacuum where the creatives brainstorm something witty and award-winningly clever. Then, they create the backstory of how they got there.

I’m sure you’ve seen it. It may be the TV commercial you laughed at but cannot remember the product or service advertised. That typically means the creative team did not align the core message with the brand. This is why I cannot tell most beer commercials apart; most are funny and enjoyable, but the concept seems to be interchangeable between brands.

Even in another language that ad works. But what makes their commercial specifically branded Heineken? If this ad agency got the Bud Light account, would it be any different?

The very word “brainstorm” can imply open-minded, free-thinking to a lot of people, and with that, give them the idea that no rules apply. I have been taught just the opposite: that there is freedom (and success) in rules.

Only when you have studied the demographics, compiled the survey results, looking at the history of the category…basically done your best to absorb every resource available to understand the market and objectives can you develop great contextually relevant, branded creative in a “blue-sky” brainstorming session. When all the homework is complete and the objectives are identified the next step is to…

2. Assemble a great team.

 You will NOT want to interrupt the big, green dude.

No man (or creative) is an island. Like the Marvel Avengers, everyone brings something to the party. This is the “secret sauce” of any great creative team. It helps to have the right mix of idea people and pragmatic or data-driven people. It also might be good to include a ringer, an outsider…maybe a freelance writer or a trusted vendor. We’ve invited improv actors. A sense of humor is always welcome on my team. One thing holds true for everyone in the room…

 

3. Brainstorm in a safe environment

The idea is to generate ideas. We find the best way to accomplish that is to have a balance between yin and yang, up and down, black and white and most importantly, YES and NO.

Poo-poo an idea, and Mr. Crabbie gets thrown at you.

No interrupting (let the idea get out!). No poo-pooing ideas (withhold criticism). No hierarchy in the room (everyone’s idea has equal value).

Yes to quantity (get as many ideas out as possible—this is where a “shooter’s mentality” is a real asset). Yes to welcoming an unusual idea (it may be “out there” but spark a hidden solution). Yes to combining, improving or “building” on an idea (also known as 1 + 1 = 3).

In this type of safe brainstorming environment, marketing professionals, like those at idc, can truly shine. We are prepared for the moment, the clock is running, and we are ready to score the winning shot (or develop that business-building campaign). 40+ years of practicing successful creative marketing have taught this team a thing or two about winning.

Do you have creative marketing questions? From digital to traditional marketing, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is the oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

3waysROI

3 Simple Ways to Improve Marketing Budget ROI

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The Most “Fun-To-Hang-With” and Smartest Full-Service Lafayette, Indiana Advertising Firm Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

3 Simple Ways to Improve Marketing Budget ROI

Guest post by Stephanie Bossung, IDC Vice President of Account Services

Today all sorts of advancements in targeted advertising options are available. But you’re still running bus boards with the local bus system. Don’t get me wrong—running bus ads might be a good buy for you, depending on your target audience and your budget.

However, a smarter buy might be a targeted pay-per-click search campaign to put your business in front of the right people at the right time. Either way, start improving your marketing budget ROI by answering these three questions:

1. Who’s Your Target Audience?

You wouldn’t feed your cat dog food, right? Nope, it’s not for them—just as you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t. I’ve seen it many times) advertise products or services to those who are unlikely to buy from your business.

An effective media strategy is framed around your target audience—how are you going to talk to them, reach them?

In a previous life, I was a morning DJ for a local Top 40 radio station, which targets an 18–34-year-old female. (We named this “female” Wendy and hung up a picture, so we knew who we were talking to—an old marketing trick.

One day I was asked to do a commercial for a new client, a funeral home. Let’s think about this. The station caters to all music and content around a young 18–34-year-old woman.

I can tell you, Wendy is NOT interested in funeral homes, nor is she even in a consideration mode. Which brings me to the next question you should ask:

2. How Are You Going to Reach Them?

I know, it can be very overwhelming to consider the many options when it comes to media buying—online display, TV, cable, print and online newspaper, radio, billboards ,and so on. Not to mention, you have every media sales rep in town calling you with deals you don’t want to pass up.

But do they know the overall goal of your business?

Remember my funeral home assignment? I had to ask why is a funeral home advertising on this station. The response? The people who worked there loved the station, they listen every day, and they are excited to hear their commercial on this station. Yes, without consideration to their target audience or at which radio stations they’d find them! This happens more than you think. …

So now that you know your target audience, maybe you have or haven’t picked the right media option because the next question can go hand-in-hand with the previous question.

3. What’s It Going to Take to Reach Them? 

What’s your budget and strategy to reach your audience?

Let’s say you have 4 media options; all of them ARE a fit for your target audience—but you have a limited budget. Some media are more expensive to buy. Therefore, not all of the options in reaching your audience are priced equally.

Media advertising can be expensive; not having enough budget to reach your audience makes for an ineffective campaign. Too much of a budget (yes, there is such a thing) is a waste of dollars that could be spent elsewhere.

What’s the moral of the story? Turn off your paid media spend that isn’t leveraging your target or specifically focused on your audience. Otherwise, you’re throwing your marketing budget right out the window. You should be targeting your marketing campaign to people you want to reach, those who are likely to buy from you. Even if the overall volume is lower, your conversion rate will be higher.

Are you looking for ways to improve marketing budget ROI? From marketing to branding to advertising, we are always interested in helping you grow!

First introduced in 1972, idc-marketing is the most helpful, most prominent, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

DearSanta

An IDC Christmas Marketing Letter to Santa

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The Hippest, Smartest and Oldest Lafayette, Indiana Marketing Firm Writes An IDC Christmas Marketing Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Team IDC has a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost, we have been good all year—took care of our clients and made some new friends looking for our brand of marketing help. We helped all those folks make money. For most of them, that means we helped grow market share, for some we helped define and position their brand, while others we helped launch into new segments. So I’m not asking for much this year. Here are a few things come to mind:

  1. Economy, economy, economy. You are going to need a very big bag, Santa. Maybe even a few extra reindeer to keep this economy chugging along.
  2. A new hole punch. Santa, do you see the magic? It punches holes in office papers AND makes guitar picks. Very useful.
  3. More awesome clients for IDC. Santa, thanks for the current roster, my man. I owe you big time. This past year was the most fun I’ve had in my entire career. Think you can try to out-awesome yourself again this year? No worries if you can’t. But please consider dropping a Ronco™ Client Cloner DX200® down the IDC chimney. That would be a cool second choice.
  4. Keep the amazing creative coming. Santa…dude. Whatever you have been doing, please fill our stockings with it again. Our cup floweth over but I know it can’t be in the water. We have that brought in. The last person that drank from the tap in this old building grew an extra toe. Turns out, that’s not as cool as it sounds.
  5. Torque up the funny. I know you think we have too much fun, Santa, but we’d love to see a few more YouTube ultimate fail videos. BTW: sorry about the “jalepeño & Tabasco-laced-cookie-icing” trick we pulled last year. Not funny. We understand.
  6. An app for that. Love apps, Santa. Surprise me with something cool on the big day. From Quickalytics to Angry Birds, you gotta love the innovation, functionality and pure fun of it all. We have a few in development so we’re giving back too!
  7. Get home safe for Christmas. From one road warrior to another, we need to work together here, Santa. If you can’t get me coach seats next to people smaller than me, at least let’s try to make the plane be on time.
  8. Also, are as many people really texting/Tweeting/Facebooking/emoticon-ing while driving as I hear in the news? Please remove their thumbs. Not just Keyboard-iTarfor me, but for all our loved ones and friends. No one needs to get hurt because some Snookie-loving dummy is texting her new BFF LOL, OMG, GMTA, and KMA while drinking a *$.
  9. KeyboardiTar. Does this thing exist, Santa? No one will rock that powerpoint like the dude that’s jamming the KeyboardiTar. I wonder if it comes with a hands-free microphone?
  10. Cookies. Santa, somehow these things seem to be multiplying in the office. I think we might want to stock up so we can wean ourselves slowly off the sugar and calories through the first few weeks of 2020.

Do you need creative copywriting to help grow your brand? For help finding the right words to maximize your marketing investment, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Founded in 1972, idc-marketing is pretty much the undisputed best advertising agency in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.

MvBvA-Advertising

Marketing vs. Branding vs. Advertising #3: Advertising

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Lafayette Indiana’s Most Creative, Strategic and Oldest Marketing Agency Offers Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing vs. Branding vs. Advertising

A lot of agencies say they are marketing firms but they really are advertising agencies. Advertising agencies make most of their money from placing media.

Marketing and branding are both critical elements of your company’s marketing process, working in unison to establish, enhance, and build equity to your company’s reputation and increase sales.

Last but Not Least: Advertising: The act of delivering a message to a target audience. Advertising focuses specifically on driving sales or gaining customers for your company’s products and/or services. The goal of advertising is to get the word out about your product/service through paid campaigns, which are expressly written and designed to reach your target market through various media outlets.

Are you looking for a marketing team to get sales rolling? From marketing to branding to advertising, we are always interested in helping you grow!

Launched in 1972, idc-marketing is the most creative, strategic, and oldest advertising firm in Lafayette, Indiana. We are a full-service agency that helps companies grow business-to-business (B2B) and consumer-to-business (B2C) market share.