Your website is one of your most important marketing tools. Whether someone finds your business from a Google Ad, or even a word-of-mouth referral, most people will head over to your website to qualify your business and find more information.

As a landscaper, you understand that it is important to create something that is visually pleasing to the eye, and will stand out, but may not know how to do this through your website. While you are likely very talented when it comes to landscape design, this doesn’t necessarily directly translate to website design. 

As we are re-doing our own website currently to give it a modern look that accurately reflects our current services, we are breaking down the components of what makes a website successful.

Here are some ideas and tips to consider when designing your landscaping website:

  1. Where you build your website makes a difference

Where you build your website matters for a few reasons such as control over the website, design functionality, and even SEO.

We recommend using open-source platforms such as WordPress rather than having your website built on a proprietary platform. This is because the agency will always have control over your website making it non transferable should you decide to go another direction in the future.

It’s also important to do your research on which platform to use because of design functionality. For example you may want to consider the templates that are available, as you likely want to choose a format that best suits your business and industry. Or, if you are creating your website from scratch, you want to choose a platform that will be easy to navigate and build on. Lastly, some platforms are not ideal for best SEO practices so it is important to consider this in your research as well.

  1. Center your website around the prospective customer’s experience 

It’s not uncommon for landscapers to “info dump” anything and everything about their business. This may come as a surprise to some people, but your website shouldn’t be everything there is to know about your business because this ends up creating a very word-heavy website. Additionally, landscaping can be very technical, meaning there can be a tendency to talk over the heads of prospective clients. If prospective customers find your website overwhelming or confusing, they are going to leave.

Think about it this way, prospective clients are seeking your services because they have a problem and want quick answers on how you can help them.

One way to approach this is by putting yourself into the shoes of a prospective client and maintaining this perspective as you select images and write copy. Demonstrate your authority and industry knowledge strategically, focusing on what really matters, not what you want them to hear.

  1. Keep it simple for landscaping web designs

Messaging and layout should remain rather simple, as you want website visitors to easily understand who you are, how you will help them solve their problems, and how to get started.

In the same way that written content can be confusing, having too much going on with your visuals and layout can be frustrating for website visitors as well. You do not want your website to be too busy or confusing. 10 different competing messages floating around the main page and a busy sidebar just looks complicated, distracting people before they even have a chance to dive into the content. This typically results in people exiting your page, despite how qualified or talented you may be. 

  1. Focus on lead conversion

It’s great to see your website traffic increasing as this means your other marketing efforts are working. Although, you need to maximize this traffic by converting them into leads. That’s why it’s important to keep lead conversion at the forefront of your website design process.

It’s important to consider that many prospective clients may not be ready to request a free consultation right off the bat as they make their way through the decision making process. This is why you need to provide other items of value such as lead magnets that will keep them coming back until they are ready to commit. This could be in the form of various downloadable resources such as seasonal landscaping checklists, DIY guides, etc.

Also, seeing before and after photos can help convince a website visitor to select your landscaping business from the rest since they are able to see the one of a kind work that you do. Including a gallery for a service as visual as landscaping is essential. These galleries should be easy to navigate and view across different device types. We even recommend adding a high-quality video showcasing a landscaping project to really wow your website visitors.

  1. You get what you pay for

As a landscaper, you know the customer gets the value they pay for, and the same goes for website design. Investing in experienced professionals rather than taking on the DIY approach may pay off in the long run. This is because a digital marketing team composed of website design experts and master copywriters will understand the intricacies of an intuitive layout, effective SEO, compelling copywriting, lead conversion techniques, etc. For example, what you name your page can make a huge difference on how well your website will rank on search engines. Even if your website is beautiful, without a strong SEO strategy, it may never be seen. While we have expressed the importance of the visual nature of a website, it still is important to keep SEO at the front of your mind so that your website is able to connect with people seeking out landscaping services.

Finding a company that is experienced in web design specifically for the landscaping industry can help make sure your content is spot on. Summit Creative Marketing is experienced in web design for landscapers and are excited to help you create a website that will draw in qualified leads and help you grow your business! Connect with our team today.

The internet has become a prominent part of nearly all consumer decision-making processes. This is why ensuring your business has an up to date online presence and meets your customers where they are is extremely important in today’s age.

Here are 5 digital marketing strategies that your business should consider implementing to boost your business growth:

1. SEO

Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO, is one of the most important digital marketing strategies for small businesses. SEO is essentially what gives visibility to your website, giving your business traffic through a target audience that is actively searching for your services.

Using SEO for your business is one of the most powerful ways to bring awareness to your brand without paying. Optimizing the keywords that identify your business and its services on the search engines can help your business achieve unparalleled exposure. This can ultimately help drive more leads to your website where you can work to convert them to customers.

2. Local Search Marketing

Local Search Marketing falls under the umbrella of SEO, and is also known as local SEO. This strategy gives small businesses in particular an amazing opportunity to increase brand awareness and exposure to new customers in the area. By focusing locally, you can increase your chances of discoverability  by positioning your business as the go-to business in the area for your service when done correctly.. The main difference between Local Search Marketing and general SEO is that the keywords used focus on the locality. For example, “Heating and cooling services near me” or “Heating and cooling services in Tampa”. Oftentimes, Google My Business is a great place to start when it comes to Local Search Marketing.

3. PPC

Pay-per-click marketing, or PPC marketing, is a paid advertising strategy that will increase visits to your website. When using PPC, your business pays a fee any time the ad is clicked and sends a customer to your website.

PPC, when done correctly, is a very cost-efficient way to drive highly qualified leads to your business. Essentially, the person visiting your website will be worth more than the fee paid for the click once they become a customer. For example, you would be making a profit when your fee is $2 per click, but that click sent you a customer that consumed $5,0000 worth of services.

4.    Content Marketing

Content marketing involves sharing relevant and attractive content to showcase your brand’s personality, value, and authority. This could be through blogs, newsletters, etc.   

When creating this content it’s important to keep in mind relevance, consistency, and value! As a small business, it is an advantage to be able to connect with your customers. Having a good product/service is just one part of your business. Being able to consistently communicate through relevant content that explains the value of your product/service is what will make your business prosper.

5. Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing refers to promoting your product/service on the social media platforms to amplify your brand and boost visibility. As a small business, a strong social media presence is a great way to build a community as it gives you the advantage to communicate directly and engage with your audience.

Having an informed social media strategy is important. Many small businesses will begin posting to Instagram, and become confused on why they are not seeing instant success. It’s important to keep in mind which social media platforms best connect with your target audience, and what the best practices are on these platforms. 

Ultimately, there is a lot to learn when it comes to digital marketing. If you are looking for assistance with implementing these digital marketing strategies, reach out to Summit Creative Marketing today!

With the warmth of the summer season, many of us are spending more time in outdoor spaces, making it one of the busiest times for landscaping. In any landscaping and lawn care business, leads are essential to stand out from your local competitors and to keep doing what you love! If you're wondering how to keep your lawn care leads growing, read the landscaping marketing ideas below.

Google Ads (Pay-Per-Click) 

Pay Per Click advertising is a form of paid digital marketing where advertisers pay a fee each time a person clicks on one of their online ads. A form of PPC advertising, such as Google AdWords, can apply to paid ads on social media platforms where advertisers can show a targeted advertisement when a specific keyword search occurs. This enables an effective marketing method to measure the amount of attention and interest in how effectively an ad performs. Thus, PCC allows a productive approach to reach people actively searching for terms related to your business to drive traffic and growth to your business. 

Search Engine Optimization

How can potential customers find you if you are a local landscape business? SEO for landscapers (search engine optimization) improves your business website's ranking in search results, making it more discoverable to those searching for keywords relevant to your business. Ongoing and properly executed search engine optimization efforts can also help you rank higher in organic search results than your competition. This results in more organic traffic to your website giving you more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. 

Promote Your Landscaping Services in the Off-Season

As the colder weather sets, fall and winter can be a difficult time for landscaping businesses. However, this can be the perfect time to take advantage of the slow season by jump-starting your business! Winters are a great time to advertise to potential customers and get ahead of your competitors’ marketing campaigns. Due to the lack of business during the fall and winter seasons, competitors will likely reduce their advertising efforts. However, if you can keep your marketing campaign thriving, you will likely spend less money for more brand exposure in the long run. Once spring comes around, customers who saw your ads over the fall and winter will remember your business when it’s time for landscaping and lawn care. (Hint: the businesses with the best marketing results don’t quit during the slow season!) 

Referral Incentives

A customer referral program is a process that gets your business out to new customers by asking your current customers to recommend your company to people they know. In local landscaping businesses, referrals are a great inexpensive way to build your client base and gain quality leads. After all, word-of-mouth marketing is extremely helpful as people trust recommendations from people they know. 

One way to boost referrals is to offer rewards or incentives to encourage clients to go out of their way to start a conversation about your work. If a customer gives you a name and a phone number, provide them with an extra service, such as a personal lawn care guide or free yard maintenance after the initial service. This is a great promotional idea to help advance your business and give back to your clients for their recommendations. Consider what solid incentive your business can offer that will encourage your clients to send more business your way!

Pro tip: If you have “Champions” for your business, or those willing to send a referral your way, ask these individuals to write you a review on Google. Reviews are gold online like referrals and word of mouth is in real life. 

Direct Mail Strategy

Compared to the craziness of today's email inboxes, old-school mailboxes see a lot less activity, which means your letter or postcard promoting your landscaping business is far more likely to be viewed. This is why direct mailing makes business management easier while providing a steady flow of leads. For example, postcards are a creative, eye-catching, and cost-effective approach that can help you stand out and develop brand awareness. However, a great message is pointless if you send it to customers that are not in the market for your services. When you create your mailing list, ensure they're all residential homeowners in your local market to ensure you get the most value from your direct mail campaign. 

If you need help with marketing for landscapers, reach out to our team at Summit Creative Marketing. We can help drive your marketing strategy to bring in more landscaping leads, while you focus on keeping your customers happy by delivering exceptional landscaping services! Contact us today.

Websites are the virtual face of a business. That is why when your business grows, or changes, your website should as well. Creating a quality, up-to-date website will give your business a strong online presence and a platform your clients can easily navigate and understand.

If your website is difficult to navigate, out of date, an information overload, or quite simply doesn’t give off the essence of your business, it may be time to consider a revamp.

Remember that when revamping your website, it is important to keep in mind that it is more than just an information hotspot, it is also an experience. 

Here are four aspects to keep in mind how you can level up your business by revamping your website:

Usability

Your website should be an experience that represents your brand and values. Having a user-friendly website will help keep consumers on your site longer. Even if you have a great business model, if a consumer finds that your site is not user-friendly, they often will exit your site.

Thinking from the consumer’s perspective and what their wants and needs are when framing your website will be crucial.

A user-friendly website is one where information is easily found and is overall easy to navigate. This may include having your contact information available, clear pages and headlines that provide structure, and the right balance between text, images, and empty space.

You also have a chance to implement people first design elements in your website. Meaning, having a website that is inclusive and accessible to everyone. For example, having “alt text” descriptions in your images allow users with vision disabilities to have an experience that will equal that of a sighted user. Not to mention alt text is also valuable for SEO!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When revamping your website, it is important to update things on the back end as well for SEO purposes. 

If the revamping of your website includes new images, overall topics, or new services you added it is essential to review and optimize for the best keywords. This means it is also important to delete any keywords that no longer relate to your website.

Utilizing keywords that are consistent with your brand, niche, topic, and content will be key for successful reach.

Mobile-friendly

Websites are accessed by various different devices. It is essential to keep in mind that each device will have a different screen size. 

When revamping your website, you should make sure that it can be viewed through a variety of devices to ensure that every user experience is good and they can easily access all information seamlessly.

Some things you may want to consider during this process may be the positioning and accessibility of your handlebar, the scaling of your images (making sure the images used for the background are edited specifically for each device and not just automatically cropped), and font sizes.

Paying attention to these details will help allow users to access your website from wherever they feel comfortable and ensure that through each device they will have an equally successful experience.

Call To Action (CTA)

As previously mentioned, your website is one of your strongest online marketing tools. You are giving prospective clients information about who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. Essentially, your website provides a platform where you can directly connect with your prospects, communicate your story, and express why they should choose you over the competitors.

However, even with a touching story, a compelling “why” for doing business, and a strong display of industry knowledge and expertise, you still need a call to action to help push the conversion. Including these calls to action throughout your website will direct customers through the sales funnel.

Make sure they stay within the tone of voice of your brand, and make them attractive with strategic colors and placements. For example, instead of making your call to action “download” you may wish to make it “unlock my free guide”.

Ultimately, revamping your website is an investment you won’t regret. You can feel confident knowing that your website better reflects your business and is optimized for business growth and user experience. Reviewing your website frequently to ensure it follows best practices and includes relevant information to your business is key as your business grows. Think of it this way, as your business grows, your website needs to as well to reflect this growth!

Looking to improve the quality of your Facebook ads? Not sure how to write effective facebook ad copy? Well-written ad copy allows you to communicate to your target audience information about a product or service, as well as establish strong customer relations.

Facebook ads improve conversions and, if the correct tactics are applied, generate more leads. The trick to writing effective Facebook ad copy is to focus on appealing to your target audience and engaging with them so they learn about the products and services your business offers. Here are some tips for crafting the perfect ad copy that converts to strong leads and drives results.

How to Write Effective Facebook Ad Copy

The following 7 tips are applicable to any ad copy writing, but they are especially useful for writing ad copy on Facebook.

1. Don’t be afraid of the “So That” statement

Compelling Facebook ad copy should explain the benefits of a product or service rather than the features, as many Facebook ads often do. Discussing the benefits allows customers to think about why they want to purchase the product. The benefits of a product highlight the real reason that someone should choose your product over a competitor’s.

Contrarily, when your ad discusses the features of a product or service, it’s merely providing information on the appealing aspects of the product. In other words, writing about the features gives customers a product overview and doesn’t strongly convince them to purchase your product.

Your ad, however, should tie both of the benefits and features of your product together in one sentence through the “so that…” connector. Once you’ve explained the features of your product or service, try adding the “so that…” statement afterward to communicate the real benefit of purchasing the product; for instance, “Get personal 1:1 instruction from me so that you’re held accountable.”

2. Ask “Yes” questions

The goal of ad copy is to write content that appeal to a target audience while also driving away less-than-ideal customers. In fact, with your ad, you should be looking to pull in the “perfect” customer by communicating and writing content that your ideal audience wants to see.

By asking “yes” questions, you are prompting your customer to say “yes” without thinking twice. Specifically, “yes” questions ought to stand out at the beginning of your ad so customers are hooked from the get-go, directing them to read the rest of the copy.

3. Ascertain mutual interests

The ads you put out on Facebook compete against thousands of other advertisers and users, so it’s in your best interest to make your presence known. Make your ad relevant to your customers by highlighting mutual points of interest; for example, if you’re a local business targeting people in the same geographic area, mention your location in the advertisement. When you speak about the mutual interests between your business and your target audience, you’re enticing them to like and trust you rather than a competitor.

4. Grab attention with numbers

People tend to skim ads, so any shortcut acts as a plus. Instead of words, try replacing them with actual numbers; for instance, “We helped generate 27% more profit” compared to “We helped generate twenty-seven percent more profit.” Numbers are easy to read when the content is skimmed and are specific enough to provide context that stands out among the rest of the copy. Announcing specific numbers and statistics boosts your credibility in the industry, adds value to your ad copy and creates a sense of authority for your company.

5. Present a clear, singular call to action

It’s hard to disagree to the fact that calls to actions are the most important part of any Facebook advertisement. A clear call to action not only directs people to act on your product or service, but also drives conversions.

The most successful ad copies include one specific call to action, so it’s clear what you’re asking customers to do. When you include too many calls to actions throughout your copy, customers will be confused at the next steps. Providing choices on what to do next does not necessarily create the best results; customers may be less inclined to take action.

6. Include a URL

There are two places in your ad to include a URL: Facebook’s Website URL box and the actual text. The URL you provide should direct people to the landing page of the copy itself, and by including them in both of the aforementioned places, people have more than one opportunity to click the link and take action.

Ads are not very well appreciated in the realm of Facebook; thus, it’s important to ensure your ad comes across as organically as possible. When a URL is embedded within the body of a well-written copy, the ad reads like organic content, enabling customers to interact more positively with the information. The URL gives customers the opportunity to click through your landing page, which generates a higher conversion rate.

7. Know Your Industry

It’s best to always bear in mind that every business, niche and industry is different, so strategies and tips that work for one may not work for another. Creating the perfect ad copy takes time. The key to successful Facebook ads is to test various techniques and styles of copy.

How to Write Effective Facebook Ad Copy: Let Summit Collaborations Help!

Ready to create Facebook ad copy that converts and generates results? Chat with the Summit Collaborations team today!

The legal world is constantly changing. Today’s lawyers are stretched thin between helping their current clients, keeping up with new laws, and running between the office and the courtroom. Online marketing for law firms is essential if lawyers want to pick up new clients; however, learning the tools of marketing isn’t easy.

Consider this article your crash course in online marketing for law firms. As Tampa’s marketing agency for lawyers, we use these strategies with all of our legal marketing clients – and you should, too. 

6 marketing strategies for law firms:

Lawyers: Know Your Clients!

This might not sound like a marketing strategy, but it’s actually the most important aspect of online marketing for law firms. Chances are, you specialize in a specific kind of law, which means you target specific demographics. Without demographic marketing, none of your other marketing projects will be successful.

What is demographic marketing? In short, it’s understanding the needs of your target demographic, how your company fulfills those needs, and how you need to talk to this demographic in order to win them over. 

Let’s take our awesome client DiAngelo Law, for example. DiAngelo Law specializes in business and trademark law, so their clients are primarily start-up companies in both the Tampa Bay area and worldwide. 

Demographic marketing helps us know how to market towards DiAngelo’s potential clients. Many of those clients are high-achieving entrepreneurs; many of them are also Millennials, work in the tech industry, and their companies are just getting to the point where they need legal protections. This tells us to craft a marketing strategy that sounds professional, goal-oriented, and to the point, while also acknowledging that many entrepreneurs don’t know how to navigate the legal system. 

This knowledge helps us recruit far more clients for DiAngelo Law, allowing them to work their magic and secure intellectual property protections for their clientele. 

Social Media Marketing for Lawyers 

Demographic marketing tells us that law firms need to be in touch with their clients. There’s no better place to keep in touch than social media. Social media marketing for lawyers is essential! 

However, the trick is for law firms to run a social media account that feels authentic and engaged with the interests of their clients. 

Your social media strategy should take 3 things into account:

The answers to these considerations vary based on your target demographics, your time for social media, and the type of content you want to post. Generally, a more diverse content strategy is better: using various platforms, posting audio/visual content, and conversing directly with clients will all benefit your online presence.

Content Marketing for Law Firms

On top of a social media presence, your law firm also needs a content marketing strategy. We highly recommend all our clients keep a blog because it accomplishes several marketing goals. Good content marketing achieves the following:

Your website has a blog space, so use it! Talk about local events, provide insights on your legal expertise, or respond to client questions in an article. When it comes to online marketing for law firms, content is king, so devote time to this part of your strategy. 

Educate Your Clients 

Having a digital presence means improving the knowledge and well-being of your clients—both current and future. Your marketing materials should enrich the lives of its viewers, because if they can learn something from your digital presence, then they will definitely benefit from your legal services. 

Educational content can take the form of articles, YouTube videos, LinkedIn posts, e-books, or graphics. However you educate your clients, try to create content that’s multimedia and uses different channels, that way you can engage a wider variety of clients. 

Run Webinars 

Webinars are another type of educational content. A webinar isn’t essential, but the webinars we’ve done with our clients have greatly benefited their digital marketing reach. 

For example, we co-hosted a webinar with DiAngelo Law on how to start, grow, and protect an online business. It combined our expertise in entrepreneurship and digital marketing with Erica’s knowledge on legal entrepreneurship! Events like these provide unique and informative content that encourage potential clients to choose our brands and services. 

Email Marketing

Lastly, an online marketing strategy for law firms must include email marketing. 

Don’t underestimate the power of email as a marketing tool. 7 in 10 Americans check their inbox and send emails, the majority of whom do so daily. 

Some marketers protest at the idea of sending emails, especially because certain email providers, like Gmail, now sort promotional mail in a separate tab. However, this is where the power of great content comes in. If your emails provide knowledge, legal insights, and personal value to the reader, they are much more likely to keep those newsletters in their main inbox. 

Email marketing also helps you increase your conversion rates. Email follow-ups from potential client meetings will certainly increase their chances of working with your law firm. 

However you market yourself through email, make sure your mail is value-first content. This way, your content strategy provides value to whomever it touches. 

Online Marketing for Law Firms: Closing Thoughts 

Law firms have it tough these days. Between an oversaturated industry and constantly changing laws, legal professionals barely have time for drama in the courtroom. How can they expect to keep on top of their digital marketing?

Luckily, companies like ours can handle online marketing for law firms. If you’re looking to boost your web presence and client intake, don’t let these projects clog your to-do list. Reach out to Summit Collaborations today, and we’ll come up with a strategy for your content and social media marketing. 

Have you ever felt like that cup of hot chocolate tastes a little better in that red Starbucks cup with the snowflakes all along the side? If so, then you’ve experienced seasonal branding at its finest. Seasonal branding is an extension of a company’s existing brand identity that is often conveyed through its logo, tagline, and brand voice. When used correctly, seasonal branding can have positive, long-lasting effects for a company, so long as your core brand values and messaging remain consistent.

Benefits of Seasonal Branding

It takes time to build up a brand, but the payoff to using seasonal branding is exponential. Implementing a thoughtful seasonal branding campaign can:

  1. Create a more personable image of your brand
  2. Show your audience that your company is not afraid to stray from tradition
  3. Potentially attract a new audience that wouldn’t normally show interest
  4. Help your brand stand out in a crowd with atypical color schemes and messaging
  5. Help increase profit during the holidays

Steps of Effective Seasonal Branding

Running a successful seasonal branding campaign starts with giving your traditional logo, packaging, and color palette a bit of a makeover. These three items make up the face of your company, so they must all collectively convey to your target audience that your company is making a change for the season.

Give your logo a more festive look. Whether you’re giving your logo a spooky look by adding some spider webs for Halloween or adding some flowers to promote some spring savings, modifying your logo to look more festive is the most evident way to show your audience you’re brand is partaking in the season. The most important thing to keep in mind is you don’t want to change your logo so much that it is no longer linked to your company in the minds of your customers. Creating too much of a change can cause consumers to disassociate your logo from your brand, which is the complete opposite of what you want.

Update your product packaging. If your company offers tangible goods, part of maintaining a uniform voice and image during a seasonal branding campaign includes modified product packaging to go along with your logo. In many cases during any given holiday, customers are more attracted to products that are presented in a more festive packaging. A perfect example of this is when Reece’s uses hearts and arrows on their packaging during St. Valentine’s Day. Customers associate those symbols with the holiday and are more apt to select Reece’s chocolates if their packaging incorporates hearts and arrows compared to their traditional packaging.

A change in your color palette to bring it all together. The two actions above won’t have much effect if they don’t have the appropriate color scheme to go with them. Making a change in your brand’s color palette, especially a drastic one, can allow you to make a bold statement without having to say a word.

Remember, making an intentional effort to modify your brand’s image to accompany a season is the best method to ensure a successful campaign.

Tailoring Goods & Services with Seasonal Branding

Let’s take another look at the Starbucks example, as a brand that offers goods. For the better part of ten months, Starbucks is known for its green cups, packaging, and logo. During the tail end of the year, however, they switch out their iconic green cups for red. By making such a bold statement with such a simple change in color, Starbucks has created a level of anticipation in the eyes of its customers, marking the unofficial beginning of the holiday season.

You can look around on any given holiday of the year and find examples of seasonal branding from companies that offer goods. But what about services? One example of successful seasonal branding from a company that offers a service on the largest of scales is Universal Studio’s transformation of their theme park into the ensemble of Halloween Horror Nights. Over the years, Universal has become synonymous with Halloween. Every night during the month of October, the park immerses its attendants in a spooky experience with a change in music, rides, and merchandise.

Successfully Using Seasonal Branding

Although seasonal branding can be a fun way for your business to gain a larger following and show your company’s marketing flexibility, it’s important to plan ahead, stay consistent in your messaging, and stay focused on the goal you want to accomplish. You don’t want to lose your audience’s interest. Study how your target audience is reacting to your seasonal brand change and adjust your game plan accordingly.

Planning ahead will put you in the best position to implement a well thought out seasonal campaign. Failing to plan out seasonal promotions can cause your company to miss out on having a greater impact.

Consistency is key. As we touched upon earlier, the brand image and values that you’ve worked so hard to ingrain in the minds of your customers is invaluable, and deviating too far from that can cause irreparable damage to your brand. Give your brand’s core image a holiday twist, but don’t go overboard.

Having a purpose in mind for your seasonal campaign will help you measure its success. Are you looking to promote a certain product? Are you looking to gain followers? Narrowing down your goal will make sure your promotional expenses aren’t being wasted.

Final Thoughts

It’s important to note that the best opportunities will differ for each company and industry. For example, a company in the cleaning industry may have an easier time developing a seasonal branding campaign around the spring than it would for the winter. Likewise, although a candy company may put forth an effort to align itself with spring during Easter, its more substantial resources would be better served during Halloween and Christmas.

Also, a point worth making is your seasonal campaign does not need to target a specific holiday. Simply building your brand’s image around a given season can prove to be just as effective.

If you’re unsure about how your company can take advantage of seasonal branding, Summit Creative Marketing can help get you going in the right direction. Our team of experts will ensure your brand is capitalizing on all possible seasonal promotional opportunities while still staying true to the characteristics that make your company so great.

Ready to chat about how you can take your brand and marketing to the next level? Reach out to us today!

Is your organic incoming website traffic just not making the cut anymore? Are your social posts not driving as much potential clientele to your website as you hoped? It may be time for your business to try a new tactic, and one of the lowest cost and highest return investments in advertising today is within pay-per-click ads.

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a form of internet advertising in which advertisers pay a given fee every time someone clicks on their ad. There are several different forms of pay-per-click marketing and is often considered a pay-as-you-go opportunity to promote your business.   The most common and effective method is search engine advertising, this method offers business owners the opportunity to showcase your business across prominent search engines such as Google, which receives 3.5 BILLION searches per day. Imagine the potential consumers you can reach at even a small targeted budget.

What are Google Ads?

Think back to the last time you searched for a local service provider near you. When you typed this search on the Google search engine, you probably saw paid ads jump to the top of your first page. These are ads purchased by businesses that have selected the keyword or phrase you used as a potential to convert you into a customer.

Google Ads is the search engine’s advertising system that uses an auction format to rank advertisements based on relevant keywords. When more than one advertiser is using the same keywords that are most relevant to the search query, Google starts an auction where these advertisers can place a maximum bid on the keywords. The average bid for Google Ads can range from $1-$2, but, some advertisers bid even higher to be sure they land on the first page. Think back to that last Google search you made. Did you ever navigate to page 3 or 4 on the search list? Probably not.  According to Junto, 75% of people never even get past the first page! This is why even a higher bid can make the difference of whether the business obtains new customers, or gets lost in the shuffle.

To determine which bid will win the Google Ads search, Google takes into account both an advertiser’s maximum cost-per-click bid and their quality score when determining ad ranking. Google measures the quality of pay-per-click campaigns, keywords, and landing pages by assigning them with scores. Advertisers with higher quality scores are rewarded with lower pay-per-click costs. These auctions are run seemingly an infinite number of times per month, ensuring that Google users are presented with the ads most relevant to their search queries.

How to Optimize Your Google Pay-Per-Click

When it comes to optimizing your Google Ads campaign, Google rewards you by charging less per click for campaigns that perform well, resulting in greater profit margins for your business. When someone is exposed to your ad on Google and clicks on it, sending them to your website, Google receives a fee on your behalf in exchange for the user’s click. When your Google Ads is operating the way it should, the fee paid in exchange for a viewer’s visit to your website is a drop in the bucket compared to the sales that result from the click. This is a win-win for both your business and Google!

There are many factors that influence the success of a Google pay-per-click campaign. However, Wordstream suggests focusing on these two starting points when setting the foundation for any campaign.

Keyword Relevance

Creating a strong list of keywords and ad text is crucial if you want to compel visitors to click on your ads. The targeted text is often the first impression potential customers will see of your business and will often be the deciding factor on whether they click on your ad. Keywords should be relevant to what users are directly searching for, and enticing enough to attract them to visit your website. When developing the copy that will accompany your ads, remember creativity and value is the key to attracting potential customers to visit your website over a competitor’s.

Keyword research is an ongoing process that can be exhausting. However, finding and bidding on words that are not only popular but highly specific and less common will help you reach your targeted audience in a more cost-effective manner.

Landing Page Quality

Now that you have a strong list of relevant and specific ad text, ensuring your landing page is up to par with those keywords is the next step to consider. When a potential customer clicks on your ad, the adjoining landing page should be directly related to the ad and should not be misleading in any way. If visitors feel misled by mismatching information or links, it may cause them to lose trust in your business causing them to never click on your ads in the future.

Be sure your landing pages have a clear call-to-action related to specific search queries. If someone is searching Google with the intent of purchasing a product or service that your business offers, the landing page linked to your ad should offer clear and concise purchasing options for that product/service. The fewer hoops potential customers have to jump through to become customers, the better.

How Summit Creative Marketing Can Increase Your Online Visibility

At Summit, we streamline the pay-per-click process for your business by segmenting the Google Ads process into four key steps: Discovery, Setup, Launch, and Reporting.

Discovery: 

Summit will take an extensive look at your business’ pay-per-click metrics to see how we can improve upon what’s already live as well as in-depth research into your industry to determine optimum keyword practices and existing competition.

Setup: 

We will identify and implement any keywords not already in use by your business that will benefit your brand in addition to creating all necessary campaign segmentations with fresh content that will attract potential customers to your website.

Launch:

Campaigns are taken live with a series of comprehensive performance checks, ensuring you are receiving the highest value possible for your ad spending.

Reporting: 

We provide weekly reports and analysis on all benchmark metrics to help identify metric trends and opportunities.

Pay-per-click advertising is just one of the many services we offer that can help your business reach its target audience in an efficient, impactful way.

To have an extensive look at all the services we offer, please visit SummitCreativeMarketing.com. Or, if you’re ready to get started, schedule your discovery call here.

The responsibilities of a marketing manager are seemingly endless. From creating and executing marketing campaigns to producing promotional materials, your internal marketing team is covering a wide range of duties to advance the company’s brand. However, having so many tasks to keep track of can spread your internal team too thin, leading to burnout and a diminished quality of work.

This is where an outsourced marketing agency comes in. Hiring an external digital marketing agency outside of the business will help free your internal marketing team from the responsibility of shouldering any online marketing efforts. This will allow them to focus more time and effort on the big picture: coordinating efforts with your sales team and implementing campaign and strategies to achieve long-term goals.

What exactly will an Outsourced Marketing Agency bring to the table?

Marketing agencies offer a wide variety of services geared toward improving a company’s online presence. These services include but are not limited to:

Marketing Strategy Development 

In addition to these services, marketing agencies offer strategy development, which serves as a marketing roadmap for companies to better understand their customers’ behaviors, on and offline. By helping your internal marketing team implement a strategy, an outsourced digital marketing agency will, as a result, make advertising online more effective and cost-friendly.

One of the key reasons digital marketing agencies are able to provide a thorough online marketing strategy is through hard data. By utilizing key performance indicators (KPI), they can accurately measure results and analyze what’s working for a company and what needs improvement. However, not all performance metrics are equally important to every business. A digital marketing agency will determine which indicators are most relevant in measuring a business’s success, whether it’s conversion rates, number of qualified leads, etc.

Digital marketing agencies will then use the data from these metrics to determine which areas of a business’s online marketing efforts require more time or resources. This also includes identifying channels where efforts should be scaled back. For instance, if only a small percentage of website traffic can be attributed to organic search, an agency would suggest that more time and effort be spent on improving the business’s SEO ranking.

How Can an Outsourced Marketing Agency Help My Team?

By working alongside an outsourced marketing agency, your internal marketing team will yield more quality results across the board. Rather than monitoring the performance of a social media ad, your team’s time can be better spent focusing on the bigger picture in creating a cohesive, uniform marketing campaign. Leave the minute details to the outside agency. They will focus on analyzing the results and presenting you with suggested methods of improvement, which will ensure no one area of your marketing efforts is lagging behind.

Moreover, discovering the optimal way to sell to customers is invaluable to any business, and digital marketing agencies can help you attain just that. Through reliable data, an agency will be able to conjoin the efforts of the sales and marketing departments and determine the most common paths customers take to finding your company and making a purchase.

Should I Work With a Niche or Full-Service Agency?

If you’ve made the decision to work with an outside digital marketing agency, the next step is determining whether to hire a niche or full-service agency. Niche agencies typically provide one or two services. Conversely, full-service marketing agencies cover a wider variety of services, offering a more complete package.

Although it boils down to how many services a business needs to outsource, it should be noted that hiring multiple niche agencies down the road to oversee different segments of the marketing approach can get messy. For example, let’s say to start, all your internal marketing department could really use some help with is web development and email marketing, then hiring a niche agency that specializes in those two aspects will do the job. However, after your company has experienced substantial growth, you may come to realize that more help is needed in other areas of your marketing department, forcing you to look into hiring a second or even third niche agency. This can lead to communication issues and a lack of cohesion, which is why a full-service marketing agency is the best choice to begin with.

It’s no secret that the Internet has forever changed the ways we do business and will continue to evolve. With online marketing encompassing so many different facets, it can be hard for one team to handle them all on top of traditional marketing efforts. With the help of an outsourced marketing agency, you’ll be better positioned to significantly improve your team, your marketing strategies, and your business as a whole.

Are you looking to work with an outsourced marketing agency or looking for an external marketing agency to support your internal marketing team? Look no further – Summit Creative Marketing is here for you. Summit Creative Marketing is a web design agency and marketing agency based in Tampa, FL, supporting clients across the globe. Let’s chat to see if we’d be a good partnership!

Are you ready to TRANSFORM your credit repair business through the best digital marketing techniques?

Great news! Our Ultimate Credit Repair Marketing Guide is designed to help you create marketing plans for credit repair companies that actually work. Let’s dive into a few of the tactics. 

Elevate your Website

Having a website is essential for any online business. Your website will serve as the face of your business and is a space where you will own your audience (see our blog about the importance of owning your audience).

Essentially, your website will be a space where you direct traffic to and ultimately convert website visitors to customers. Your website will provide space for you to inform visitors about your business, provide contact information, and highlight any business promotions.

List your Credit Repair Business on Google My Business 

Now that you’ve started getting the word out about your credit repair business with your network, it’s time to dive into the world of marketing. Starting off, getting your business listed on Google My Business is crucial. Google My Business will be the first thing people notice when searching for your business! Listing your business on Google My Business will allow local search traffic to find your business more easily, making your business more discoverable. 

An added benefit is that Google My Business has a feature for reviews, so your business can build its testimonial base, and boost social credibility.

Utilize Search Engine Optimization

In terms of driving traffic to your website that you have put so much work into, it’s best to make friends with the search engine itself. 

Every business’s goal is to rank on the top page of Google when people are searching for their services. The best way to do this is through search engine optimization. This includes utilizing and optimizing keywords, title tags, and meta descriptions.

Spreading top keywords throughout your website can be very helpful for attracting the right customers. But don’t go overboard here! If you add in too many keyboards, and they seem forced or unnatural, your article can lose its quality and value. You want your website to retain its educational value and natural flow, so it’s best to add in the researched keywords to your article rather than write your article around these keywords.

Create Credit Repair Related Content

When considering what other types of information to add to your website, a blog should be at the top of your list. Having a page that houses your blog posts allows visitors to not only learn valuable information, but also these blogs can pull in visitors by the use of keywords and search engine optimization (a little more on that later!)

In terms of blogs, creating quality content surrounding your business and the credit repair industry is extremely valuable for building your online presence and overall credibility. This content should educate your website visitors and in the end, provide a call to action for your credit repair services. Most importantly, add your own flair to these blogs, making them original from all the other content that is already online.

Create a Lead Magnet

One great way to market your credit repair business online and build your list of leads is to create a lead magnet. Your “magnet” should be something that will be of value to the prospective customer that you will give to them for free. But, it isn’t necessarily free. They will be giving you their information in exchange for the valuable resource you offer.

In order for them to redeem this thing of value, they are prompted to give their information such as their email address, and any other relevant information you might like from them. Now you have a sales lead that you know is interested in what you are offering.

What exactly should you offer that is “of value” to a prospective customer? This offer could be an ebook, a guide, a free consultation, a digital course, a resource library, a checklist for credit building, access to a private group, or anything else you might deem of value to your customers. People love free things and this teaser of your services might help them determine that they trust you and are ready to do business with you.

Develop a Strong Social Media Presence

Social media for credit repair could end up being its own blog post. For now, we will give a run down on the basics. First, it can be helpful to determine which social media platforms you want to utilize. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and even now TikTok tend to do well in this industry. These platforms are great for gaining awareness of your business, building trust, and establishing yourself as a thought leader in the space. 

It is important to make sure your profile is optimized for the best success on each platform. For example, on Instagram, it’s important to optimize your bio and utilize relevant hashtags.

A general rule of thumb is to build your reputation by posting engaging and valuable content consistently throughout the week across these platforms to keep your customers interested. 

Implement Facebook Ads

While you can develop a social media presence through Facebook organically, putting some ad spend behind your content through Facebook Ads is a whole different ballgame for growing leads. With Facebook Ad targeting options you can push your ads to specific demographics which will help you attract your target audience.

The world of Facebook Ads is a vast one, with many different factors to take into account. For those who are just getting started in the game or looking for an edge on their competition – it may be helpful to call in the help of a professional for best results here!

Referral Partnership Marketing 

One of the best ways to start building your business is to start building your network. Having the right connections can be key to a successful business!

Realtors, mortgage lenders, and those in an adjacent industry are particularly great to network with within this industry. As you know, it is not uncommon for people to be denied in the homebuying process as a result of their credit standing. By connecting and building relationships with realtors, lenders, or others in the real estate industry, you can position yourself as a company they can trust and are confident to pass their clients who need credit repair to.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Many people marketing their credit repair business tend to go full steam ahead on SEO with Google or focus wholeheartedly on building their social media platforms. After all, these are extremely valuable marketing tools. However, as established in the beginning of our guide, word-of-mouth marketing is extremely valuable as well when trying to stand out from other credit repair companies. Being the best credit repair company you can be and genuinely caring for each and every customer is the greatest strategy that you can use with your business.

Conclusion

We hope you’ve found this guide helpful in determining the best ways to improve your credit repair marketing strategy.

If you’re ready to get started with these strategies, and want to enlist some help, we’ve got your back! 

Summit Creative Marketing specializes in credit repair marketing. We invite you to book time with our Credit Repair Marketing Team today for a free 1-hour consultation. 

Written by: Kryslin Kane, Digital Marketing Specialist, Summit Creative Marketing

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