If you google, “types of marketing” you’ll find articles with 20 or 40 different ‘types’. For us every type actually falls into two categories. Here’s what they are and why you need both.

Two Categories of Marketing: Growth vs Maintenance

We look at businesses and their growth holistically, with the goals of consistently bringing in new customers and retaining loyal customers over time. That’s why we think both categories of marketing are vital for the long term health and sustainability of a company.

The categories:

1. Growth Marketing
2. Maintenance Marketing

They’re both vital. Growth marketing is focused on bringing in new customers while maintenance marketing is devoted to retaining them. When we start to see plateaus in engagement and revenue of a brand, the interaction between these two aspects of marketing is the first place we look for potential solutions.

What Is Growth Marketing?

It used to be that “growth marketing” is the term used for marketing tactics focused on short term, quick wins. Today, that term is “growth hacking” and this article won’t really cover this because it isn’t what we do. Growth hacking, although helpful when done right, is often a quick way to lose money for sustainable businesses, can easily lead to issues like greenwashing, and usually doesn’t lead to sustainable growth.

Today, growth marketing is a focus on data-driven marketing solutions that bring in new customers on a consistent basis. It allows us to test unique ideas and creatively build campaigns into a brand’s marketing strategy.

Growth marketing is often equated to paid ads. We want to push back on the notion that paid ads are the only way to test what works for growth in a business. Plus, they border on that ‘growth hacking’ vibe we’re not into. We create a brand marketing ecosystems that focus on long-term data-based strategies without suggesting that our clients funnel money into paid ads that don’t work.

It is important for businesses to look at monthly data and quarterly trends along with individual organic marketing campaigns to understand what’s growing the business, and what just isn’t working. It’s also vital that brands stay up to date on lasting trends and test different ways to show up!

What is Maintenance Marketing

Maintenance marketing focuses on retaining loyal customers over the long term through consistent, reliable communication.

Even though “everyone knows” they need to write a consistent blog, make social media stories, and send emails, we find that maintenance marketing is less common than growth marketing efforts.

We flip the script for the businesses we work with.

Why? People choose their loyalties quickly, so retaining clients is easier and more lucrative than earning new ones. The dedication in maintenance marketing is to stay top of mind for the people that already love you, buy from you, and support your cause.

Now, we aren’t the agency to suggest inundating your customers with a daily email or spamming on social media. In fact that kind of marketing annoys people. That said, it is vital to have regular, high quality communications for customer retention.

What to Focus on: Growth Marketing or Maintenance Marketing?

Which one should a business be focused on? Both. (I bet you saw that one coming).

A business needs both growth and retention strategies to truly grow. You want to bring in new customers and keep the old ones. That means testing unique campaigns and getting creative with your external content and campaigns, like social media and speaking at events. All the while staying consistent with your retention strategies like sending regular donor emails or reminding folks about upcoming events.

This can feel like a lot to focus on, because it is. Content marketing isn’t for the weak. We solve this issue by creating sustainable marketing cycles for our clients. It allows us to watch the trends organically and make all of our marketing decisions based on what new and loyal customers are focused on. Then, once we have the cycle going consistently and we understand our baseline, we can start getting creative and seeing what works to grow the brand!

Additionally, because we’re focused on building holistic ecosystems, when we do see changes in engagement and revenue trends, we don’t immediately assume there is just one issue. We look to the interaction between growth marketing and maintenance marketing with questions like:

• Are we losing ground with earning new customers or retaining loyal ones?
• Has the sales cycle changed? Is it longer, or shorter, and are we hitting key touch points?
• Do we need to update our maintenance marketing assets to match a successful new voice or visual branding? (This one is common)
• Are we talking to the right audience to pull in new customers?
• Are there new competitors on the scene that undermines our growth marketing?
• Is there something on the website or in the sales cycle we need to optimize?

Do you have both aspects of marketing in your business?

Book a call to talk about how we can add holistic growth and retention to your marketing strategy.

Photo by Taha Mazandarani on Unsplash

The post Growth Marketing vs Maintenance Marketing: Why You Need Both appeared first on Dandelion Branding.

I’ve been writing about calendaring for years. Between laying out a seasonal marketing calendar, giving tips for sustainable marketing strategies, and teaching how to consistently create content, it is no secret that Courtney and I are super fans of a well planned marketing calendar.

Planning Fundraisers into Brand Marketing

The nuts and bolts of a successful fundraiser are marketing by a different name. If a company has fundraising goals, we always suggest choosing the dates for those fundraisers and then building in the marketing around those fundraisers throughout the year.

Creating a fundraising plan in advance offers the space to get creative. And creativity makes a big difference for a donor community.

For me, knowing that our clients want to have a fundraiser at least 3 months in advance is ideal. That gives me time to plan out a fundraiser marketing strategy without any scramble when we start executing. It gives us time to plan with our clients and get everything set up so they get the most from their charity event.

Holistic Fundraising Marketing

Because we work with social impact businesses and nonprofits, we get the chance to create content around all the good our clients do in the world. A charity event gives us the opportunity to help them get rewarded for it! But doing it right means preparing the details, letting people know ahead of time, and leading the right donors to the fundraiser. This process starts way before the actual event takes place.

When we have the date for a client’s fundraising event, we work backward to make sure that the whole donor experience feels unique and simple. These are the marketing elements that we typically suggest creating space for in your fundraising calendar.

1 – Website Content

There are three types of website content for creating an event.

1. An event/product page where people can pay to sign up for the event.
2. A landing page where people can sign up for information.
3. An article with additional information you can share.

We suggest doing all three, but at the very least, people need to be able to sign up for the event itself. Before going live with any marketing, we make sure it is possible to sign up to attend the event.

Then, when it comes to marketing, building a landing page is vital because just telling people about your fundraiser isn’t enough. Potential donors need action and promise to take an event seriously. The landing page gives them a place to sign up to learn more about an event. Plus, we use the sign up information to send reminders later on that increase fundraiser attendance.

While we think a landing page is necessary, a blog article is a cherry on top. It’s a softer way to introduce the fundraiser to your general audience and it gives you more space to share information. A landing page has the basics, but an article offers details and creates an additional SEO opportunity for well-known fundraiser dates like Giving Tuesday. Your blog and landing page should link to each other and both of them should link to the payment page.

2 – Automated Thank You Emails

We create automated emails in tandem with landing pages and sign up forms. That way everyone who signs up gets all the information they need right away. The email inbox is also an easy place to search for the information if an attendee looking to share it.

3 – Start Publicly with a Save the Date

Typically, we send a save the date email 45-60 days before the event to everyone in the client network. This is the first step of getting the information out publicly. The goal here is to have receivers take a specific action – this could be signing up for the event directly or signing up for extra information on the landing page. This allows us to gather information that we use to send the reminders we have later on in the fundraising calendar.  

4 – Add Social Media Content to the Fundraising Calendar

I don’t often talk about using social media for conversion because it isn’t a consistent way to get attention for purchasable items unless you have a huge following. However, I always suggest adding several social posts between the first ‘Save the Date’ invite and one day before the event.

It’s likely that a lot of your followers don’t follow a brand anywhere except social media so it’s important to put event information there often. Additionally, holding an event is a great way to deepen the connection with followers by pulling people into a website. There, brands collect email addresses and a good retention strategy can turn social media followers into fans for life.

5 – Networks Make the Event Louder

This is one of the fun parts of building a network as a social impact business! We use our clients’ engaged audience to make their event pop. It brings in more diverse audiences and elevates the event.

Here, we create swipe copy and email past donors, board members, and highly engaged audience members asking them to help spread the word. This works best with a personal touch from inside of the business. That’s where the hybrid marketing team excels!

6 – Reminders in a Fundraising Calendar

The attendance records for things like fundraisers, talks, classes, and open houses increase drastically with email reminders. People sometimes forget about the events they have coming up or they feel like it doesn’t matter if they go once the day comes. Sending a little reminder telling them how excited you are about their attendance is the best way to get donors in the door on the day of the event.

What is the Best Time of Year to Hold a Fundraising Event?

We’re deep diving into what we add to the fundraiser calendar in this article so I feel like it’s important to include pointers about timing throughout the year. For deeper information about year around fundraiser timing, check out this article.

Q4 needs to be on your fundraising calendar

Q4 is the best time of year for getting your donors to pull out their pocket books. Not only is it the giving season, but it’s also the end of the taxable year. More donations to charities means less taxes – just make sure that you let them know you’ll give them a claims receipt!

I can’t stress this piece enough: if you’re building your charity event into Q4 planning, you need a save the date AT LEAST two months in advance because everyone does events in Q4.

Touch base in January

Do a little touch base with your previous and potential donors in January. It’s after their holiday season, and it’s a new tax year. A lot of folks wait to donate in January because they have already hit their charitable giving for a year by the time Giving Tuesday rolls around.

Make it on your May day

Late spring feels like a random time of year for a fundraiser, I know. But listen. It’s before summer holidays so people have some savings, AND there is way less competition for donations. This could offer you a little boost before the summer slump.

Should Giving Tuesday Be Part of the Fundraising Calendar?

Yes – with a caveat. Giving Tuesday is every charity’s Black Friday. Every single charity, nonprofit, and social impact organization uses Giving Tuesday to boost their yearly donations. That puts nonprofits in competition with one another.

If you’re thinking about adding Giving Tuesday to your fundraising calendar, you’ve got to send your Save the Dates early – like mid September. That means the planning for this fundraiser calendar should start 3ish months early. Increase email reminders and entice people to donate with your organization early.

Want to talk to me about how you can set up your fundraising calendar or monthly donations? Schedule a call on my calendly.

References:

• Cool Fundraising Stats You Should Know
• Making a Calendar
• Best Dates for Fundraising

The post How We Do Marketing for Fundraisers appeared first on Dandelion Branding.

Why Hiring Top Talent Matters

In today’s competitive business world, hiring top talent is of great importance. The quality of your team directly impacts the success and growth of your company. That is why more and more companies are now in search of highly skilled employees. Just the job search in Texas alone yields over 140,000 current employment opportunities. This is because by attracting and retaining the best specialists, you gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Identifying Your Hiring Needs

Before embarking on the hiring process, it’s essential to identify your specific hiring needs. Assess your current team’s strengths and weaknesses to pinpoint the areas where you require additional skills or expertise. Define the specific skills, qualifications, and qualities required for each position you aim to fill. This clarity will guide your recruitment efforts and help you find candidates who align with your team’s needs and goals.

Crafting an Effective Job Description

A compelling job description is the first step in attracting top talent. Use clear and concise language to outline the responsibilities, qualifications, and expectations for the role. Highlight your company’s unique culture, values, and opportunities for growth. By showcasing what makes your organization special, you can attract candidates who resonate with your mission and vision.

Sourcing Candidates

Cast a wide net to find the best candidates for your team. Utilize online job boards, professional networks, and industry-specific platforms to reach a diverse pool of talent. Leverage the power of social media to showcase your job openings and engage with potential candidates. Additionally, tap into your employees’ networks and encourage them to refer qualified candidates. Employee referrals often yield high-quality candidates who align with your company culture.

Screening and Interviewing Candidates

An effective screening process is essential to identify the most promising candidates. Review resumes and applications thoroughly, looking for relevant experience, skills, and qualifications. Conduct initial phone or video interviews to assess candidates’ communication abilities and cultural fit. For in-person interviews, prepare a structured set of questions that evaluate the candidates’ competencies, problem-solving skills, and alignment with your organization’s values.

Photo from unsplash.com

Assessing Skills and Aptitude

Skills and aptitude assessments help determine candidates’ suitability for the role. Implement skill-based tests or assignments to evaluate their abilities. Assess their problem-solving and critical thinking skills through practical scenarios or case studies. This objective evaluation allows you to identify candidates who possess the necessary skills and potential for growth.

Checking References and Background

Verifying candidates’ references and conducting background checks is a crucial step in the hiring process. Contact previous employers to confirm employment history, performance, and character. Ensure that the candidate’s qualifications and certifications are legitimate. By conducting thorough reference and background checks, you can mitigate the risk of hiring unqualified or unreliable individuals.

Making the Offer and Onboarding

When you have identified the ideal candidate, make a compelling offer that reflects their value and aligns with industry standards. Present a competitive compensation package that includes salary, benefits, and perks. Streamline the onboarding process to ensure a smooth transition for the new hire. Provide them with the necessary resources, information, and support to integrate into the team seamlessly.

Retaining Top Talent

Retaining top talent is just as important as hiring them. Create a positive work environment and culture that fosters growth, collaboration, and recognition. Provide opportunities for professional development, advancement, and meaningful work. Regularly communicate with your employees, addressing their concerns and recognizing their contributions. By nurturing a supportive and engaging workplace, you can retain your top performers and reduce turnover.

Measuring Hiring Success

Measuring the success of your hiring efforts allows you to refine your recruitment strategies continually. Track employee performance, satisfaction, and retention rates. Collect feedback from both managers and new hires to identify areas for improvement in the hiring process. Analyze the data and adjust your approach to attract and select the best candidates effectively.

Conclusion

Hiring top talent is a strategic investment in the future success of your business. By following this ultimate guide, you can attract, evaluate, and onboard the best candidates for your team. Remember to align your hiring needs with your company’s goals, craft compelling job descriptions, leverage diverse sourcing channels, conduct thorough screenings and assessments, and prioritize employee retention. With a well-defined hiring process, you can build a high-performing team that propels your organization to new heights.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Top Talent for Your Team appeared first on Dandelion Branding.

It’s no secret that video content is one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s arsenal. Whether you’re looking to create explainer videos, record webinars, or feature customer testimonials, video content can help you reach a larger audience and build trust with your customers. In this blog post, I will talk about how to level up your marketing strategy with video.

Research Your Target Audience

The first step in creating effective video content is researching your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? What type of content will they be interested in? Knowing your demographic will help you craft the right message and ensure that it resonates with your viewers.

Outline What You Want to Produce

Once you understand who your target audience is, it’s time to start planning out what type of videos you want to create. Will they be educational or informative? Will they be funny or serious? Are they meant to inspire action or simply entertain? Writing out an outline for each video will help ensure that everything runs smoothly during production and post-production.

Create Engaging Videos

Now it’s time to get creative! There are many different types of videos that can help level up your marketing strategy, from explainer videos and customer testimonials to webinars and product demos. You can also incorporate infographics into your videos for added visual appeal and interest. Once you have all the elements in place, make sure to publish your videos on YouTube or Facebook for maximum reach and engagement.  

Optimize Videos for SEO

Producing top-notch video content is great, but it won’t mean much if no one sees your work! That’s why making sure you optimize with SEO can help make certain that people are able to locate and watch your videos. Utilizing relevant keywords throughout the title, description, tags, etc. assists Google or other search engines in recognizing what topics are included so they will be shown more prominently when potential viewers type them into a query field online. In addition, take advantage of linking back to any related pages on your website within each video’s description – it not only helps give credit where credit is due; it aids in funneling visitors back over to your site too! 

If these concepts seem overwhelming at first, then reach out for professional support from Dandelion Branding who can help you boost visibility and perfect your SEO strategy!

Using Videos in Your Content Marketing

Content marketing is a great way to get your message out there, and utilizing videos is a great way to do just that. Videos can be an effective tool in getting your point across in an entertaining format that’s more personal than a blog post or article. By introducing engaging visuals into your content marketing efforts, you can really start to interact with your audience and step up the engagement on a whole new level. For more tips and resources on content marketing, visit Cornerstone Content. 

Video content is an incredibly powerful tool when used correctly — it can help increase brand awareness, boost customer loyalty, and even generate more leads for your business. By taking the time to research your target audience and outline what type of videos you want to produce ahead of time, you’ll be able to set yourself up for success before ever hitting “record.” After production is complete, don’t forget about optimizing all aspects of the video with effective SEO tactics. This will ensure maximum reach and engagement with potential customers! With these tips in mind, you’ll be ready to level up your marketing strategy with quality video content!

The post <strong>Level Up Your Marketing with Video Content</strong> appeared first on Dandelion Branding.

It’s easy to overlook and even to ignore. It’s automatically filled out, so should you even consider filling it out?

Short answer: yes!

It may seem small, but filling out your search engine listing preview is one of the most important ways for you to earn clicks to your website from Google.

Your search engine listing preview is literally what you see on Google – like this:

Filling this out correctly is how your products, pages, and websites get found by people searching for them organically through google!

Think about it—how do you choose what to click on when you google for a product?

You look at the name of the page and the mini-description—in other words, you look at the Search Engine Listing Preview!

This article is specific to Shopify, but most carts and blogs will have essentially the same options because the way that your website elements look on the Google search engines matter a lot for how many people click to your website.

The Elements of the Search Engine Listing Preview in Shopify

There are three elements of the preview in Shopify:

• the page title
• the meta description
• the URL and handle.

View each of these as separate opportunities to showcase your product. It takes a little bit of insight into your ideal customer because SEO is all about knowing what YOUR people are looking for and giving it to them.

Most people won’t spend more than 30 seconds on a search so keep in mind that you have to convince someone to click with a glance.

4 General Tips for your SEO Description

Don’t be creative. Your Google listing isn’t the place for flowery language because when people google they are very direct and succinct. Say exactly what it is that you’re offering. Save the pretty words for your actual page.

Be clear. You don’t have very much space to make an impression, so say exactly what you’re offering and the selling points. If you’re solving a problem or your product offers benefits that people are searching for, try to include them.

Use the space you have. You don’t have very much space and what you do have is powerful. Make it count!

Use your brand voice. Use the same voice that people can expect to read in your article.

1 – Writing the “Page Title” of Your Search Engine Listing Preview in Shopify

Your “page title,” also thought of as an SEO title, is what people will see in their Google Search.

It also shows up in the tab at the top of the page next to your flavicon (the little picture on the left side of the tab).

You have 50-60 characters for your SEO title. For this section, you want to include these elements:

• your main keyword (which you should always identify before working on SEO)
• what your ideal customer would type into Google to find this
• your brand name

Your potential customers need to know what this page is and who you are immediately. You want to be descriptive and as specific as possible. This alone will set you apart from most of your competitors.

Product Page Example

Your company is called BabyTime.
Your product is organic cotton baby blankets

Typical Page Title: Organic baby blanket – BabyTime

Actually google “organic baby blanket” and look at all the listings there. You’ll never rank using an SEO title like that because they all say EXACTLY the same thing.

Rankable Page Title: Baby Blanket. Organic Cotton, Cozy and Soft | BabyTime

See the difference? You captured the keywords that your ideal customer is searching for, the title is super clear, and your name is listed there. The first words are the product because that’s what they’ll see in the tab so if they click to a different tab, they will still see “Baby Blanket.”

Why put your name in the page title?

I get this question a lot. It has a simple answer: you want to be recognizable everywhere by your ideal customer.

Remember that Google doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It uses search history and viewership to show relevant results. If you’re focused on SEO at this stage, there’s close to a 100% chance that you’re also focused on targeting people on social media, creating reliable content, and showing up consistently to your ideal customer.

The Google algorithm is more likely to show your content when you’re active in your niche and updating your site on a consistent basis. The more your name is seen by the people you want in your sphere, the more they’ll remember you and recognize you. The more you’re recognized (read: clicked), the more you’ll be shown to other people searching for the same keywords.

And, when you create great content with your name attached, the more likely people are to click on your name again when they recognize you! (Trust building 101)

2 – Meta Description

A Meta description is the little description below your Page Title on google and other search engines.

Shopify will auto-populate these with the first 300 characters of copy from your description. That isn’t the worst thing ever but in reality, you want this to be an explanation of what they can expect from the page.

It’s also important to note that Google will show about 150 characters in your meta, so try to fit these elements into it:

• the main keyword
• a honest description of the content in your voice that makes people want to click on it

Remember that this is where your ideal customer will read exactly what she needs to in order to click into your site.

Because you already made the title completely clear, you don’t have to introduce the concept of what you’re talking about so you can talk about the benefits of the product, the key takeaways of an article, or the point of the page.

A product page meta description example

We’ll use our same baby blanket example. Since we’re using “organic cotton,” we can also assume that the ideal customer cares about things like sourcing and quality — great to guarantee that. Put a couple extra little bits of love about your product that appeals to your customer and that sets the product (and your brand) apart.

Meta description:

Our sustainably sourced organic cotton blankets are hand stitched to prevent fraying and are pre-washed for the safest, softest touch on the most sensitive skin.

3 – URL and Handle

This one is easy to overlook because Shopify will automatically populate your link with the title of your product – and potentially a bunch of numbers.

No one likes chunky, ugly links with bunches of numbers and weird stuff. It isn’t shareable. Tips for your link:

• Make it clear so that if you were just looking at the link you would know what product you will find.
• Use your keyword
• Remove words like and, it, a, the.

For our example it would be something like this: .com/organic-cotton-baby-blanket

A Finished Search Engine Listing Preview

Here’s the finished search engine listing preview filled out!

Rankable Page Title:
Baby Blanket. All Natural Organic Cotton, Cozy and Soft | BabyTime

Meta description:
Our sustainably sourced organic cotton blankets are hand stitched to prevent fraying and are pre-washed for the safest, softest touch on the most sensitive skin.

URL and Handle:
babytime.com/products/organic-cotton-baby-blanket (that’s not a real link)

It looks like this in your Shopify:

That’s it! If you have questions, put them in the comments below.

Disclaimer: this is an example that I made up. We don’t work with babytime, and I did a quick search for the domain before this article was published and it wasn’t being used at this time. There was something similar that did not sell baby blankets.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The post How to Write a Search Engine Listing Preview in Shopify appeared first on Dandelion Branding.

It’s easy for an email list to get messy, and we know how quickly it can feel overwhelming to come up with emails for your subscribers, so regular sends just go by the wayside.

With the holiday season coming up, it’s time to make a calendar and establish a plan for any sales, launches, or fundraisers you may want to include in your marketing over the next few months!

So let’s talk about how to optimize your email marketing for the Holiday Season & Beyond!

Best Email Promotion Dates for the Holidays

We don’t want any holiday dates to come as a surprise so it’s important to note a few key dates and inform your customers.

1. Give folks a few days heads up prior to any sales, launches or fundraisers. Start to get them excited!
2. Email folks on the day of your sale or launch to let them know- the day has come!
3. If you sell a physical product it’s important to tell your audience the shipping cut off date – this is the last day they can place an order with regular shipping to get the product before Christmas day. This is likely about 2 full weeks before the holiday, but give yourself a few days extra buffer just in case.
4. Don’t just stop there though, give folks an option for something digitally, or something they can print at home to easily give as a last minute gift!

Optimize Your Email List Using Segmentation

You might think email doesn’t work for your business because you’re seeing low open and click rates, but who exactly are you emailing? Did these folks sign up years ago? When was the last time they actually engaged?

Periodically cleaning up your list can be really beneficial. Not only will this likely save you money with your ESP, but it will also ensure you’re getting accurate open and click data because you’re not sending to folks who don’t want to hear from you!

We like to cut folks from our lists if they haven’t clicked to open an email or engaged in any way after 3 or 4 months.

But don’t just cut them off cold turkey, give them an opportunity to reengage and that leads me to my next tip

Optimize Email Marketing Experience with Automations

Automations can help you establish a great relationship with your email audience right from the start! Giving folks a custom tailored email series from the moment they sign up, until they’re receiving your regular campaigns can be a make or break moment.

We use automations to Welcome audiences with specifics on HOW they signed up. Anytime someone places an order, there is also an automation there to help them stay informed on their order, get help, and give reviews, and we have automations set up to win folks back before they go onto our unengaged list and ultimately get deleted.

We tailor make the email automations for all of our clients and these are consistent revenue drivers! Be sure to get your email automations set up before the holiday season so you can stay connected and keep them engaged!

Check out our guide to the top 3 highest converting email automations here!

If you have any questions or need any help with your email marketing, get in touch here!

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