Marketing | Bynder Group

It’s Time for a Content Strategy Tune-Up

April 29, 2023

Over time, all content strategies need a tune-up. Either due to shifting marketing conditions or evolving business priorities, the time may be now to relook at your marketing efforts and squeeze more value out of your investment. Maintaining an effective, data-driven content strategy is proven to increase website traffic and conversions while also improving overall brand awareness and is an essential marketing strategy for B2B firms.

An optimized content strategy will enable marketers to:

- Communicate their message with clarity
- Target specific audiences
- Track metrics
- Optimize campaigns along the way
- Increase revenue streams from digital sources

Whether it’s time to update your existing marketing content strategy or create one for a new business or product launch, here is how to do it and maximize your ROI.

Adopt a Pillar-Cluster Model to Transform Your Content Strategy

The pillar-cluster model is an effective content methodology that involves creating content around core topics, or “pillars”, and then expanding upon them with additional related topics, or “clusters”. The idea behind this approach is to create comprehensive coverage of information around your chosen pillar topics. This allows you to go to market as a credible, authoritative, and reliable source of quality content in your industry.

This pillar-cluster approach greatly benefits your SEO ranking by building topical authority and simplifying navigation for users and search engines.

Pillar topics support topic clusters

Start with your pillar topics. These are the broad-stroke foundational information themes for your website. Pillar topics should reflect the subject matter that your brand should be seen as an expert in.

Once you have identified the pillar topics, use topic clusters to create related blog articles. This process establishes a hierarchical information architecture that organizes and links related content together, enabling readers and search engines to find the information they are looking for quickly.

1. Audit Content and Research Competition

Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to perform deep-dive content quality and competitive audits. Analyzing and logging your current content quality will reveal what content is working and what content needs work to perform better. It will also reveal areas where your site may be lacking information. The competitive research audit will help you understand how your competitors use content to engage their audiences. You will use this data to inform your own strategy.

2. Identify Keywords and Fill in the Gaps

Keyword research provides data on what information your audience is searching for. This data can be used to generate ideas and inform your strategy for creating engaging and valuable content.

Scrape competitor websites to understand the keywords they’re using to get more traffic and cross-reference it against your own website. The keyword gaps become the foundation for creating new website content around. Group these keywords into topics and attach them to your subject pillars.

3. Upcycle and Recycle Dated Content

Updating and recycling dated content will refresh your content, improve SEO results, and re-present valuable information for your prospects. Plus, this is an efficient way to get more value out of your budget.

Identify this old content when you conduct your website quality audit and then decide on the best approach to update it. Sometimes a minor tweak is enough, while other articles might require a complete rewrite. Some you may toss all together. Too many “dead” pages can drag a site’s performance down. It is usually better to remove this type of dead weight if it isn’t adding value.

While you’re updating your content, consider using it for new videos, infographics, audio files, or downloadable assets.

4. Update Your Marketing Calendar

Organizing content ideas into an editorial calendar makes it easier to plan and execute. When updating your marketing strategy, revisit your schedule. Take a look at the data from your existing marketing calendar and determine if it might be time to increase or decrease frequency.

Ideally, your content marketing calendar should enable your team to produce content on a regular cadence with enough lead time to implement well. At the same time, maintain flexibility to accommodate timely or urgent marketing communications as needed.

An up-to-date calendar will also make it easier for your team to collaborate on content and ideas, assign tasks, and achieve better results.

Specialist Agency vs. In-House

An effective content strategy requires a lot of time, expertise, and resources to create and execute. Companies may not have the bandwidth to devote themselves to their content strategy, or perhaps may not even have qualified resources in place to do this type of strategic work.

Working with a digital marketing agency is the perfect solution for businesses that want to get the most out of their content strategy — especially during economic downturns. The benefits of working with agency experts include the following:

- Working with experienced and knowledgeable professionals
- Access to advanced training, technology, tools, and data
- Receiving in-depth analysis and recommendations
- Ability to quickly create high-quality content on a consistent basis
- Cost savings due to economies of scale

If your business lacks the bandwidth, resources, or abilities to develop and implement a high-performing content strategy, consider working with an agency that specializes in inbound and content marketing. This engagement can range from just the strategic part to full implementation. It could even include training and empowering your own in-house team.

The right agency will assist you in developing an engaging content plan that resonates with your target audience, optimizes existing content for better visibility, and provides a higher return on your investment.

Is it Time for a Content Strategy Tune-up?

Content strategy is essential for driving traffic, leads, and conversions. Companies need to realign their content strategies on an ongoing basis to remain competitive. By regularly conducting a website quality audit, identifying upcycled and recycled content opportunities, updating your editorial calendar, and working with an agency partner when necessary, businesses can create effective content that resonates with their audience. This will lead to a better return on investment and improve overall brand awareness.

How to Use AI Writing Tools to Help with Marketing Content

March 14, 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral component of modern marketing and website copywriting. AI writing tools like Jasper and Writesonic are helping businesses create content in new ways. As of this writing, the technology is starting to appear integrated into other tools that many of us are already using for marketing, including Grammarly’s GrammarlyGO, and HubSpot’s ChatSpot.

AI writing tools are capable of producing quality marketing content quickly and efficiently, but getting the most out of these tools requires a learning curve, experimentation, research, and good editing skills.

What Are AI Writing Tools?

AI has been around for decades, long before AI writing tools were developed. Today, AI is used in many different fields, from healthcare and finance to security and military applications. Business and marketing software has long included AI for features like chatbots, automation, product recommendations, and more.

Lately, generative AI has exploded, including AI writing tools. These are computer programs that leverage AI-driven natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and are designed to assist writers in creating written content (obviously). They use natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand context, generate ideas, analyze data, and refine drafts. AI writing tools can help marketing writers create content more efficiently and effectively by generating ideas, expanding on concepts, editing bad grammar, and suggesting improvements to word choice.

How To Use AI Writing Tools for Marketing

At Bynder Group, we use AI writing tools to help create content for our clients and ourselves more quickly and efficiently. While AI has proven helpful in saving time, it also requires some skill and experience in understanding how to get the best output.

One of the biggest drawbacks of using AI for marketing content is the risk of producing low-quality content. AI writing tools can often produce copy that is repetitive or does not accurately reflect the company’s brand and tone. Additionally, AI tools are not (yet) able to capture subtle nuances in language, which may lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations.

To ensure quality content, it is important to spend time refining the output of AI writing tools with careful editing before publishing. Additionally, setting clear guidelines on topics and brand language can help steer AI copywriting in the right direction.

Tips For Getting the Most Out of Generative AI Software for Marketing

Using AI Writing Tools for Website Copy

AI writing tools can be useful for creating website copy, such as product descriptions, customer reviews, and landing pages. They can be used to quickly generate a first draft of content without having to spend hours researching and crafting each sentence by hand. This saves time allowing businesses—particularly those with limited budgets—to focus their resources on other equally important tasks. What’s more, when used properly these tools can help ensure consistency across all of your website’s pages by ensuring that each page follows the same style guide and tone of voice.

Using AI Writing Tools for Marketing Copy

AI writing tools can also be used for creating marketing copy, such as email newsletters and social media posts. These tools make it easier for businesses to craft engaging, personalized messages and help generate new ideas for content. For example, users can feed their customer data into an AI tool which will then generate personalized emails tailored to each customer’s needs and interests. When used in tandem with a CRM and marketing platform like HubSpot, the results are genuinely compelling.

Using AI Writing Tools for Content Idea Generation

Using AI writing tools to generate blog ideas can be a great way to quickly come up with creative and interesting topics. By feeding data into the AI writing tool, such as current events and industry news, as well as keyword phrases related to your topic of choice, you can quickly generate lists of new topics.

Using AI Writing Tools for SEO and Content Strategy

By feeding in relevant keyword phrases, AI writing tools can suggest topics likely to rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, these tools can be used to generate new versions of existing content, keeping it fresh and helping to ensure that it performs well for search.

Writer Assist vs. Auto-Pilot

Using AI writing tools for marketing content has the potential to revolutionize how businesses produce copy and reach their audience. However, it is important to remember that AI is still in its early stages, and it can take time to master the tools and ensure quality output. AI writing tools should be used with great care and as part of a larger marketing strategy which includes other methods of generating original content ideas and engaging customers. With proper use and careful editing, these tools can be handy for creating engaging content that resonates with your audience.

Make the Most of Your AI Writing Tools with These Best Practices:

Edit, edit, edit: Ensure your brand’s voice and style are present.
Proofread (and edit more): Don’t hit “publish” without proofreading and editing your copy.
Enhance: Don’t rely only on AI-generated copy; balance it with human-written content.
Verify: Make sure you take a close look at and correct any content that may be biased, offensive, misleading, or just wrong, especially facts and statistics.

Find a Marketing Goldmine with a CRM and Your Customer Data

January 23, 2023

By leveraging the power of customer data, businesses can significantly increase their efficiency and competitiveness. Companies have the potential to unlock previously unrealized revenue streams through the transformation of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform into an intelligent growth engine,

Having a CRM system in place has become an essential part of doing business today. But a CRM is more than just a collection of contacts like an old-school Rolodex. It’s a way for you to access, understand and monetize a valuable resource already at your fingertips: customer data. Maximizing ROI during an economic downturn is important for all businesses. Here is how you can get the most out of your customer data and turn that business intelligence into profit.

Customer Data is a Goldmine

Raw data is worthless without the context to make it meaningful. But with a few strategic steps, you can transform large amounts of information into valuable insights and improved outcomes for your business.

Consider this: having an up-to-date list of all those who have interacted with your brand over the past year or so could prove advantageous – but wouldn’t it be better if you knew which customers were just browsing, ready to buy…or even primed to close AND met various criteria essential for successful sales?

Knowing how to analyze and leverage your data can make sure the right people receive pertinent messages without excessive work or intrusive tactics.

New Solutions for New Times

In the last two decades, digital marketing has been upended by a variety of forces. Legal regulations and savvy buyers have pushed marketers to change and improve their tactics—or risk being left behind.

CRMs play a vital role in any business, acting as an all-in-one repository of customer data. They range from simple spreadsheets to intelligent AI systems that develop over time – but their true power lies in taking customers on personalized buying journeys and increasing revenue potential.

These days, powerful CRM systems are now available for every type of business and every price level. We believe the HubSpot CRM is an excellent fit for most small and mid-sized businesses. The value of HubSpot truly lies in its superior tool set, customer support, and training resources. Key benefits of this software platform include the ability to integrate with other tools, it’s easy to learn and use, and the value of the investment makes it attractive and affordable to most businesses. Calculate the ROI you could experience with Hubspot products here.

Use Your CRM for Experience-Driven Marketing

Unlock the path for your business’s growth through experience-driven marketing. Taking advantage of this CRM strategy can open up new pathways to success. Research from Forrester shows that companies that prioritize customer experiences grow 40% faster than companies that don’t. Plus, it shows that those focused on building meaningful connections with their customers increase customer lifetime value by over 60%.

With CRM-rooted marketing, you can deliver the ultimate customer experience: personalized communication across all channels. Personalization remains an effective strategy for gaining attention in today’s fiercely competitive world—tailor messages to customers and your chances of standing out from the crowd to increase significantly!

Three Paths for CRM Success

There are three paths to better results with your CRM. Segmentation ensures that your prospects see or hear your message that is best suited to their specific needs. Contextualization explains in clear terms why your marketing message is relevant and appropriate to your prospects’ buying stage. Personalization makes your prospect feel a connection with your brand.

Segment

Using the data in your CRM, you can isolate specific groups of customers by wants, needs, and readiness to buy.

Lists are an incredibly useful tool to segment and precisely target your database down to the exact specifics that you need. Companies, contacts, and activities can all be effectively grouped together based on any data point stored in your system. Plus, these lists will maintain their accuracy by automatically updating as soon as changes occur.

Contextualize

Every buyer for every product must pass through the three key buying stages:

- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision

Although this journey is flexible for different circumstances, one fundamental remains consistent. It is that consumers need specific buying stage content before they can make a decision.

Knowing where customers are in their journey is the key to providing them with customized messaging that’s on point and tailored just for them. Label prospects appropriately in your CRM and make sure they get relevant messages—it’ll strengthen those valuable relationships.

Personalize

Personalization isn’t just a buzzword—it’s an essential art of communicating effectively with your audience. To get it right, you need to know the language they use, choose topics that interest them, and send messages at precisely the opportune moment. Prospects will feel a connection with your brand because the message is aimed at their needs at the right time.

Your CRM is Your Growth Engine

By segmenting, contextualizing, and personalizing customer data in your CRM system, you can take customers on personalized buying journeys that will significantly increase revenue potential.

The key to successful CRM strategies lies in utilizing clean and easily accessible data so that you can provide tailored messaging that strengthens relationships with prospects at precisely the right moment. When used correctly, a CRM system can be an invaluable goldmine for effective marketing strategies.

Maximizing Your B2B Marketing Efforts During an Economic Downturn

January 11, 2023

Strategies to Get the Most Out of Your Budget and Increase ROI

Business owners are always looking for ways to generate more revenue and effective B2B marketing remains imperative for companies to stay competitive during an economic downturn. In order to get the most out of your marketing budget, be strategic and create marketing plans that focus on efficiency and effectiveness. Even if it might be milder than expected, preparation is prudent.

Here are some tips for B2B marketing during an economic downturn:

1. Focus on ROI

Make sure you’re tracking the return on investment for marketing activities. This will help you identify which marketing tactics are working and which ones need to be adjusted or dropped altogether. Leveraging tools like HubSpot CRM or Salesforce is important in order to understand how your prospects, leads, and customers are engaging and how to improve your ROI.

2. Reallocate Funds

Instead of increasing your marketing budget, reallocate existing funds so they’re being used in the most effective way possible. Focus on marketing strategies and tactics that have been proven to deliver a higher return on investment, including:

Targeted marketing campaigns
Inbound Marketing
Email marketing
Marketing automation

3. Create Personalized Experiences

Focus on individualized customer experiences that will resonate with your target audience. Personalization can help build customer relationships and increase engagement rates. The type of personalized experiences can vary depending on the marketing goal, but some effective examples include:

Segmented marketing emails lists
Custom content tailored to individual personas or segments
Customized landing pages designed for different customer segments

4. Utilize Data & Analytics

Collect data on marketing campaigns and use analytics to measure marketing performance. This will help you make smarter marketing decisions that are based on factual insights. Analytics to keep your eye on include:

Conversion rate
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Return on investment (ROI)
Click-through rate (CTR)
Cost per click (CPC)
Engagement rate

5. Adjust Strategies Regularly

To stay competitive, adjust B2B marketing strategies regularly to keep up with the changing economy. Utilize new technologies and marketing methods as they become available so that you’re always ahead of the curve.

Utilizing these strategies can maximize marketing efforts and increase ROI during an economic downturn. While B2B marketing might be more challenging in a recession, it is still crucial for businesses to stay competitive in order to survive and thrive.

Pro Tip: Try our HubSpot ROI Calculator to calculate your potential ROI with HubSpot Marketing Hub and HubSpot Sales Hub tools.

Six Essential B2B Marketing Strategies

October 9, 2022

B2B marketing is challenging, even for the savviest marketers. Whether it’s manufacturing, distribution, professional services, technology, or healthcare, B2B buyers demand the same level of sophistication and polish that consumers do. Not only are B2B buyers sensitive to marketing tactics, they also tend to perform a lot of research prior to buying and expect engaging personalized human experiences.

That’s why B2B marketers must work harder than ever to differentiate their brand, drive lead generation, and build long-term trust and loyalty with their target audience. But how? There are many answers, but successful strategies all have one thing in common: They didn’t happen by accident. Whether you’re just getting started or looking for fresh ideas for your next growth phase, here are six essential marketing strategies that will guide you to success.

1. Build a Brand People Love

A brand people love is one that resonates with its customers at an emotional level. It’s a brand that engages customers, makes them feel an instant connection, and inspires them to take action. Marty Neuemier writes in his book The Brand Gap, “a brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is”. You must steward your brand or risk losing control of it. Here are several key elements to keep in mind during the process of building a new brand or strengthening an existing one:

- What is your brand’s promise? What problem does your product or service solve for your customers? Why are you in business?
- Who and what does your brand represent? What are your core values and how is that communicated through your brand?
- Who are your customers? What are their needs, concerns, motivations, and aspirations?
- What do your brand assets, logo, color scheme, and tone of voice say about your business? What feelings do these elements inspire? How can you best translate these core elements into your marketing campaigns? What words are the most effective?

2. Leverage a High-Performing Website

One of the best ways to show B2B buyers that you’ve got what it takes to deliver amazing results is by creating a high-performing website that showcases your expertise and inspires action. The elements of your site include its design, content, navigation, user experience, and search engine optimization (SEO). These elements work in tandem to build trust, generate leads, and position your company as an industry leader. A site’s design is important, but it’s not everything. You can have a site that looks amazing but lacks the substance that draws leads and converts customers. On the other hand, you can have a site that looks average at best but has compelling content that educates your audience and prompts action. Ultimately, it’s the combination of these elements that will contribute to building an exceptional and effective website.

3. Write Great Content for Authority and SEO

B2B buyers are sophisticated and well-informed. They’re also busy and have a lot on their plate. That’s why, above all else, B2B customers want quality content that helps them make smarter decisions. Great content will increase organic traffic and drive more qualified prospects to your website. Whether you’re blogging, creating social media posts, or curating content on your website, quality content has the power to steer leads in your direction and keep them engaged once they’re there. That’s why B2B marketers must prioritize creating high-quality content that adds value to their buyers’ lives. When you consistently publish high-quality content that informs, educates, and engages your audience, search engines will notice and reward you with higher rankings.

4. Combine Paid and Owned Strategies

Paid advertising channels like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads can help you reach new audiences and boost the performance of your owned assets. At the same time, paid advertising channels are constantly evolving. As such, it’s important to stay on top of trends and experiment with new strategies to discover what works best for your business. For example, you might try experimenting with different ad creative, targeting specific audience segments for more personalized content, or expanding your budget to grow your audience. Whatever you do, don’t let paid marketing channels become a silo. Instead, integrate these strategies with your owned channels like your website, social media profiles, and blogs to create a cohesive and strategic marketing approach.

5. Employ Marketing Automation, CRM, and Lead Nurturing

Marketing automation tools like HubSpot and Marketo help you automate many of your marketing processes and improve your customer experience. You can set up automated emails to send at certain milestones like when someone signs up for your email list or when they download an asset from your website. This type of automation can streamline and simplify the way your team manages leads. It can also help you nurture leads who aren’t ready to buy yet, which is especially useful when selling to B2B audiences. Marketing automation is a great way to get closer to your audience and inform them about sales, product updates, and industry trends. It also helps you scale your efforts and deliver more efficiently.

6. Utilize Analytics and Reporting

Finally, you must track everything. You want to know who your customers are, how they’re finding you, what they’re doing once they’re on your site, and where they’re dropping off. Without tracking these metrics, it’s impossible to know whether your efforts are paying off and how you can improve. You can use tools like Google Analytics, HotJar, or HubSpot’s reporting and analytics tools to track everything from your site traffic and conversion rates to your marketing ROI. With this data in hand, you can create a B2B marketing strategy that works and delivers results every time.

Takeway

B2B marketing is challenging, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following these six essential B2B marketing strategies, you can strengthen your brand, build trust, and position your company as an industry leader. Remember, it won’t happen overnight. Building a brand, driving leads, and strengthening your reputation takes time. But it’s worth it. When you deliver on your promise to your customers, they’ll trust you more, buy from you again and again, and recommend you to others.

From Chaos to Clarity: How to Build a Better Customer Experience

September 5, 2022

Your customers’ experience is a vital part of marketing. It’s the first impression, the last impression, and everything in between. A great customer experience (CX) can increase customer lifetime value, improve retention and drive referrals. Conversely, a bad customer experience has the opposite effect.

It is essential to ensure that every touchpoint—from website, to email, to social media, to chat tools, to phone calls, and more—is a positive experience for your customers.

Complexity Breeds Chaos

Consumers now have unprecedented access to brands, products, and services. As a result, companies now have more channels and properties to manage than ever before. This abundance is both exciting and overwhelming for both marketers and prospects.

With this abundance, most marketers today struggle to provide an incredible customer experience because they’ve lost control over their marketing touchpoints through complexity. The result is that prospects have negative customer experiences using outdated and ineffectual websites and are subject to unfocused, poorly executed marketing programs.

How strong is your website? Grade your site in seconds, then learn how to improve it for free.

Most marketers have no idea how many different tools they use or where they go wrong with their customer experience. With systems cobbled together, processes are overly complex, and reporting is inaccurate or non-existent.

In response to this complexity, many companies have turned to automation tools like CRM or email marketing software to make sense of their data. But unfortunately, these tools don’t work in conjunction with one another. As a result, marketers must use multiple tools simultaneously, which is ineffective and inefficient, which causes adoption rates for non-integrated technology tools to plummet. Additionally, manual efforts are redundant, your customer data gets lost in confusion, and reporting is inaccurate.

The net result of all this complexity is that your business growth stalls, your efforts are unfocused, and your leadership is frustrated.

Achieve Clarity for Growth

The good news? You don’t need to hack together your marketing or learn multiple tools to provide a fantastic customer experience. Instead, companies can use HubSpot’s powerful Marketing Hub and world-class CMS Hub to improve their customer experience and increase ROI through a simplified, unified toolset for growth.

When your critical elements of customer experience management—Content, Messaging, Automation, Reporting & Data—are unified in technology and effort, your ROI magnifies tremendously. A single buyer’s experience becomes the center of it all.

Improving customer experience with unified marketing, website, and sales have several benefits for you and your customers:

A single source of truth improves your buyer experience with one customer record, not many.
An intuitive user experience and easy-to-use software will improve adoption among your team.
You will see a reduced total cost of ownership by taking a strategic approach to the consolidation of customer tech.

Plus, businesses improve organic website traffic and inbound leads over time using Marketing Hub and CMS Hub combined.

Why struggle with disorder and chaos when your business can benefit from a CRM-powered growth engine that will improve your customer experience, and that is customized to fit your business needs? Adopting a unified approach to marketing your business improves your customer experience and empowers you to:

Use data to create sophisticated experiences across all customer touchpoints.
Leverage automation to ensure a seamless customer experience, from the first website visit to handing off to sales.
Create better content by removing gatekeepers.
Effortlessly report on the ROI of every customer touchpoint.
Keep your messaging consistent across all touchpoints.