Why Customer Engagement Is So Important

Why customer engagement is so importantMarketing is consistently becoming more personalized and targeted, focusing on smaller groups of relevant prospects instead of a single, large audience. Marketers need to focus on building closer, emotional connections with their customers to increase satisfaction, retention and revenue.

In the past, companies focused primarily on selling their products to customers without much care for expanding on the relationship and ensuring the target consumers’ preferences are met. A recent study from Marketo revealed that customer engagement is establishing itself as a top priority in digital marketing, according to Forbes. Companies are starting to emphasize the customer life cycle rather than making a one-off sale. Marketers need to provide a unique, personalized experience for customers at each touch point in the sales process. Putting this into practice will require more in-depth content, which will need to be optimized for a user’s device or the particular context of the situation.

7 Tips for Business-to-Consumer Lead Generation

7 tips for B2C lead generationLead generation receives a lot of attention in the business-to-business community, but what about B2C? Consumer-facing companies need a consistent stream of leads to maintain revenue growth. Unlike in B2B marketing, businesses have less time to build the relationship with prospects. Marketers need to find new ways to create opportunities to acquire customers, according to MarketingProfs. Here are some tips to maximize your lead generation efforts:

1. Confirm interest with email

It’s a waste of time and your marketing budget to pursue leads who aren’t interested in your products or service. When potential customers subscribe to your email list, it may be a good idea to follow up with a confirmation message that asks them to take another action such as clicking a link. People who are willing to do this tend to be more profitable to your business because they are more engaged. Leads who don’t respond after multiple confirmation messages are unlikely to provide as much value.

Content Marketing Master Class Conference

Processed with VSCOcam with hb1 preset Content Marketing Institute (CMI) held their Content Marketing Master Class conference at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco on December 4. Prestige’s resident Content Specialist, Echo Quan, was in attendance to hear speaker and Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose talk about Content Marketing in the context of the evolution of marketing.

Prestige’s Takeaways

1) Value over Information A great question that Rose presented was about the value we offer, and the value our customers are looking for. When we look at our homepage content, is what we see informational content or content of value to the customer? Since our site’s homepage is often the target audience’s first interaction with our company, or is their first online reference to us, that we should use it to show that we are of value of them. It is your first and possibly only chance to deliver an excellent experience. You could have featured webinars, videos or educational content. Rather, company homepages often center on information about who, what and why about ourselves rather than the customer, leaving it up to the visitor to draw their own connections. Focus your content to send a message: target upper management, present thought leadership, and remember: “Differentiate means telling a different story, not the same one incrementally better.”

2) Your Real Competition Rose suggests that our real competition is not our direct competition. In fact, he claims that our target audience doesn’t even see our direct competitors as our competition. If what we are competing for is our existing and future customer’s attention, then Rose is arguing that the context of attention isn’t just confined to marketing needs. Whatever people are giving their time and energy to is your competition. Even deeper, what people care about is your competition. Sure, when it comes down to choosing marketing services, of course your customer has to pick between you and other marketing firms. But contemporary consumers have different standards of loyalty and relationship. If you are only a product or service, that in itself is not a hold on your customers because what they care about is not a product or service. The underlying motivation is that they care about the success of their role or company. For example, if your ideal customer is management of medium or larger sized firms, they are looking to get ahead of the competition and CIOs are en route to a career as a CFO. To give specific value, you could create content like an e-book or webinar series such as “The New Voice of the CIO.” This is content that makes you valuable to your target audience and sets you apart.  

Winners all Around: WhitecapsFC Suite Social Contest

DSC_0635 (2)The Vancouver WhitecapsFC ended their 2014 regular season and entered the playoffs with a 1-0 victory against the Colorado Rapids this past Saturday night. Prestige Marketing and WhitecapsFC had teamed up to host a Twitter contest for top-tweeting fans to win a seat in Prestige’s hospitality suite for themselves and a guest, as well as a chance at a Whitecaps jersey signed by the players. We got to enjoy the exciting game together, and Murray Lynn amped up the luck at halftime by winning the draw for the signed jersey, presented here by our Business Development Manager, Daniel Whalen.

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Measuring Effectiveness with Performance Marketing

Even if you’re a complete novice when it comes to marketing, one thing is clear: It’s big business.

In fact, Statista reports that as of 2012, advertising spending in the U.S. was expected to increase to nearly $166 billion.

While television was set to continue leading the pack for advertising budgets, the online market was making a big splash, projected to see the highest growth rate among all media.

(via Has Offers)

The fact that America is fond of its advertising is hardly surprising. After all, Don Draper and the rest of the gang on “Mad Men” have been a hit since the very beginning, and the U.S. is set to continue its dominance as the largest advertising market in the world during 2014.
The question is: What does this all mean for you and your business?

Landing Page Optimization for Quality Leads

Lead generation was a cornerstone of business success long before the Internet changed the game, but in the ensuing years, it’s become ever more important for organizations both large and small to focus on bringing in new consumers.

(via Web SEO Analytics)

So whether it’s your online presence you’re worried about or more classic forms of lead generation, it pays to have best practices in place. The following are some cardinal rules you’ll want to keep in mind when creating a lead generation strategy:

Leave a number

Whether it’s a landing page on your website or an ad on the radio, providing consumers with a number to call is essential for lead generation.

Using Geo-targeting to Reach Local Customers

“Local” has been a buzzword for a while now, and it shows no signs of falling by the wayside. Buying local produce, supporting local businesses–consumers are becoming more concerned with their surrounding communities every day. So doesn’t it make sense for businesses to focus on their local marketing efforts?

Inside a Chinatown shop

(via Eric Flexyourhead)

Unfortunately, data shows that some local businesses are falling behind when it comes to their marketing efforts, according to Brandmuscle’s “State of Local Marketing Report“.

Marketing has probably changed more in the past two years than the previous fifty,” Clarke Smith, chief strategy officer at the organization, said in a recent press release. “Insights from our study help corporate marketers and their local affiliates make sense of the growing complexity of communication channels so that the marketing programs they build can work across dozens, hundreds or thousands of regional markets.

Targeting local consumers
The increased focus on shopping locally for goods and services provides businesses of all sizes the chance to find their niche in a community and capitalize. However, with most consumers turning to the Internet these days, simply running ads on local radio stations and TV channels is not enough.

Geo-targeted marketing is all about setting up your website and business so search engines know you are a local option for consumers. Whether prospective customers are searching on Google maps or are turning to their smartphones to find a local business, you’ll want to make sure you are a part of the results.