BizzyWeb

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BizzyWeb named 2019 Small Business of the Year by TwinWest

From Left: Jen Meyer, Dave Meyer, Trygve Olsen, Jenny Stenberg, Michelle Hanson

Awarded at TwinWest Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Luncheon

Champlin, Minn.— October 3, 2019 — Today at the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Luncheon, BizzyWeb was named Small Business of the Year for 2019.

“I’m incredibly excited and proud of our entire team,” said Dave Meyer, BizzyWeb’s president and owner. “Over the past 20 years we’ve grown as a company from a small, one-person shop to a thriving team that helps businesses grow through inbound and digital marketing, web design and automation. We deliver fantastic results for our clients, and this is a testament to the talent and dedication of every member of our growing Hive.”

The event featured interview videos for each nominee across several categories, including Young Professional of the Year (winner: Ryan Courtneya, Arvig), Entrepreneur of the Year (winner: Troy Redig, Rock Elm Tavern) Small Business of the Year (winner: BizzyWeb) and Large Business of the Year (winner: TrueIT). Meyer had previously won TwinWest Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016.  TwinWest is one of the largest Chamber of Commerce in the Twin Cities supporting over 700 businesses and 3,000 business leaders.  For more information on the Business Excellence Awards, visit https://www.twinwest.com/events/details/business-awards-luncheon-2019-13524.

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Why Growth-Driven Web Design Can Improve Your Sales Process

Your website should be your best salesperson. Is that true for your current website? If your website isn’t bringing you consistent quality leads, it’s time to try a new approach.

What is Growth-Driven Web Design (GDD)?

A whopping 94% of visitors reported they closed out of a website or didn’t trust it simply because of an outdated design. (Source) Growth-Driven Design (GDD) is a new approach to web design that stops this issue in its tracks.

In a Growth-Driven Design approach, websites are continuously updated every month, with substantive changes to keep your users engaged and moving through the buyer’s journey. It’s a three-step, ongoing process:

Strategy: Develop overall goals for the site to measure success.

Launch Pad: A functional, but slightly more minimal, site that’s launched in 1-3 months.

Continuous Improvement: The site is continuously updated and modified, using feedback from the goals set in step 1.

This strategy halts stagnation because you are constantly updating your website to meet your goals.

How Does GDD Improve Your Sales Process?

The core tenant of GDD is identifying your target market and structuring your website to service them. Through this process, you weed out irrelevant leads and target only the best possible customers. Through the process of creating your buyer personas and walking through their buyer’s journey, you also understand how your customers make purchasing decisions. This allows you to:

Pre-qualify leads right on the website so you spend less time chasing down the wrong customer

Anticipate their pain points and address them proactively

Know which communication channels they prefer

Coordinate your sales team so everyone is on the same page about your marketing goals

Identify negative personas – e.g., who is not a good lead

Lower your customer acquisition cost

This ultimately saves your sales team time and labor, since they waste less time on fruitless leads and are also armed with knowledge about your leads before they have to do any research.

* * *

Free Guide – How to Create Buyer Personas

Creating a Buyer Persona is the best way to write compelling content for your audience. Think about it – how can you customize your message without knowing WHO you are talking to? We have created this easy eBook to help you to understand what a Buyer Persona is, and how to create one yourself.

Download Our FREE Buyer Personas Guide

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How to Improve Your SEO with Growth-Driven Web Design

Everybody wants to rule the world, but only a select few will rule Google. Ranking on first page in Google search results is a digital marketing goal for every company, but it can be a challenge. We previously gave you tips on how to integrate your inbound marketing campaigns with your SEO, but there is another approach if you aggressively want to improve your SEO: Growth-Driven Web Design.

What is GDD?

A whopping 94% of visitors reported they closed out of a website or didn’t trust it simply because of an outdated design. (Source) Growth-Driven Design (GDD) is a new approach to web design that stops this issue in its tracks. 

In a Growth-Driven Design approach, websites are continuously updated every month, with substantive changes to keep your users engaged and moving through the buyer’s journey. It’s a three-step, ongoing process:

Strategy: Develop overall goals for the site to measure success.

Launch Pad: A functional, but slightly more minimal, site that’s launched in 1-3 months.

Continuous Improvement: The site is continuously updated and modified, using feedback from the goals set in step 1.

This strategy halts stagnation because you are constantly updating your website to meet your goals. 

How Do GDD and SEO Work Together?

One of the factors that Google considers when deciding where to place a website is how often that website is updated. With GDD, your website is updated much more frequently by nature than a traditional website. You can also add in SEO rankings as an explicit KPI and goal while implementing GDD. For example, each month when you decide what areas of your website to improve through GDD, you may make it a goal to add one new page for each keyword you want to focus on. And when that’s done, you’ll see how it impacted your rankings and perhaps set another task to go back and re-optimize those pages again in the future.

In this way, you’re no longer stuck with a static page making incremental updates, but a real strategy based on actual results.

How Do I Get Started?

The first step of any GDD process is by setting SMART goals. These are the metrics you will use to define what success looks like. Before setting these goals, do some heavy lifting with keyword research to decide what the top 5 keywords are that you need to be pursuing. Once you’ve identified those, you can then 5 SMART goals for each keyword, like so:

I want to increase our ranking for the keyword “inbound marketing” by 30 spots within 3 months. 

Armed with this goal, you can then start setting tasks to SEO your website. By rolling this strategy into Growth-Driven Design, you can be more purposeful about your content and ultimately see better results.

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Get Better Results with Growth-Driven Web Design – Free eBook

Growth-Driven Web Design is not only easier on your team and wallet- continuous updates and improvements to your website will keep your customers coming back for more. This free eBook goes over Growth-Driven Web Design and what you need to know to get started.

Download Our FREE Growth-Driven Web Design eBook

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Avoid the Summer Slump: Grow Your Marketing with Growth-Driven Design

Summer is the time for pool parties, outdoor grilling and watching the clock until the end of the work day. It’s hard to stay motivated through the summer when business typically slows and your mind is elsewhere. But it’s important to keep your momentum going through the summer, instead of falling into the dreaded summer slump.

HubSpot asked three growth marketers for tips on avoiding the summer slump, and it’s advice we all can take:

3 Growth Tips to Avoid the Summer Slump

1. Seek Out New Voices for Your Content

If you want to grow your content reach, try using Help a Reporter Out to source expert influencers & partners. You can quote them in your piece, and they’ll share it to their own audiences.

— Blaise Lucey, Director of Product & Content Marketing at Bitly

2. Make Your Content Extremely Easy to Share

Create content with sharing in mind, and give your audience a way to easily share it. People share content that they want to represent them, so make sure the piece will make them look smart when they share it. Then, build in sharing mechanisms like social media share links, and mailto links directly into the content.

— Eric Peters, Growth Marketer at HubSpot Academy

3. Engage With Key Influencers

Be the first to comment on an influencer/journalist’s content, and make sure the content adds value to the discussion. That’s a better way to start a relationship (and drive more interaction with your own brand) than following them on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

— David Ly Khim, Growth Marketing Manager, Sales Products at HubSpot

  Grow Your Marketing with Growth-Driven Design

Another way to ensure that your marketing doesn’t slip is through Growth-Driven Design. A whopping 94% of visitors reported they closed out of a website or didn’t trust it simply because of an outdated design. (Source) Growth-Driven Design (GDD) is a new approach to web design that stops this issue in its tracks. 

 In a Growth-Driven Design approach, websites are continuously updated every month, with substantive changes to keep your users engaged and moving through the buyer’s journey. It’s a three-step, ongoing process:

Strategy: Develop overall goals for the site to measure success.

Launch Pad: A functional, but slightly more minimal, site that’s launched in 1-3 months.

Continuous Improvement: The site is continuously updated and modified, using feedback from the goals set in step 1.

This strategy halts stagnation because you are constantly updating your website to meet your goals. 

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Stay on Target with Our SMART Goals Template

The first step to any digital marketing or Growth-Driven Design project is setting the right SMART goals. SMART is a methodology that helps you establish concrete and achievable goals. SMART stands for: Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time Bound. Use our FREE template to set your SMART goals and grow your marketing.

Download Our FREE SMART Goals Template

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Google vs Facebook: Where Should I Run Ads?

You know your customers are online, but how do you reach them? Online advertising is a fantastic way to reach many people quickly, but where should you advertise online? And which is better: Google or Facebook?

What are the Differences Between Google Ads and Facebook Ads?

The main difference between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads is how ads are served up.

Google AdWords is a paid search platform, which means it relies on user intent to show ads. When a user types something into Google, ads appears above and below the search results that are related to that keyword. An advertiser selects the keywords they want to run ads for. 

Facebook is a social media platform that uses user interests to show ads. Instead of typing in a specific keyword, Facebook analyzes a user’s demographic information, their likes and their online activity to decide the relevant ads to show them. An advertiser selects the type of person they want to show their ads to (for example, women in their 20s who live near a metro area and like to shop online) and Facebook matches the ad to the user.

Another way to think of it is that Google ad viewers are active, Facebook ad viewers are passive. Google ads are only served to those who are searching, Facebook ads are only served to those who are browsing.

Which is Better: Google AdWords or Facebook Ads?

The simple truth is that neither one is “better” than the other, it just depends on your customer, your industry and desired end result. 

How to Choose Where to Advertise Online

The first step in deciding where to advertise is by looking at your audience personas. Where does your persona spend their time online? Are they active on social media? Do they already know what they’re looking for?

Generally speaking, Google Ads work best when your audience is in the consideration and decision stages of their buyer’s journey – they know what their problem/need is, and they’re actively searching online for solutions. In the example above, the person searching on Google knows they want to see cute sundresses. They’re more likely to click on the ads if they answer the question they have while searching Google.

Meanwhile Facebook Ads largely targets those earlier in the buyer’s journey in their awareness or consideration stages – they may or may not know what their problem/need is. In the example above, the person browsing Facebook is not actively searching for clothing. However, if they are interested in the clothes or had been searching for clothing online elsewhere before visiting Facebook, they may click on the ad.

Still not sure where to run ads? 

  Yep – sometimes the best way to figure out which platform is right for you is by diving in headfirst. If you’ve looked into your persona and goals and are still unsure of where you should advertise, try splitting your budget and running ads on both. Give your ads a few weeks to gain some traction and see what you find – that can help you make an informed decision on where to put your money. 

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Inbound + Online Advertising = 💖

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different notepads, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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How to Use Instagram for B2B Marketing

Instagram is the land of selfies and food pics, but is there a place for B2B? It may seem like Instagram is only useful for consumer-oriented brands to post cute photos of their products, but B2B brands can also utilize Instagram to generate more business.

HubSpot’s team at their B2B Marketing Lab created a simple-to-follow guide on how to use Instagram for B2B Marketing:

1. Use authentic, real-time user-generated content.

Forget stock photography and staged promotional pictures — it’s time to go real-time. On Instagram, your prospects and leads want authentic content that offers a personal glimpse into your company’s culture and product offerings.

Real-time content, such as live video/live streaming, is unfiltered and 100% you. It adds a much-needed human element to B2B businesses, and helps you form a genuine connection with your audience and potential customers. Extremely professional-looking content can often feel cold and dispassionate — your customers want to know there are real people and real stories behind the branding.

2. Go fast, and mix it up.

Instagram makes it incredibly easy for you to post photos or videos on your phone directly through its application. Just fire the application up, press the add button and select the photo or video you want to upload — it’s that simple.

The advantage of this is that you don’t have to spend ages creating content. You can upload a variety of content wherever, whenever, without much pre-planning or editing required. Different types of content will not only attract and appeal to different members of your audience, but also show different sides to your business. No one wants to just look at images or just quotes on Instagram all day now, do they?

3. Get involved in your niche.

Stop looking through the window at what’s going on inside. Join the party.

Just like any other social media channel, it’s important that you not only post content to your feed, but also partake in the wider conversation. Don’t just post images and videos, reply to your community when they leave a response. Take the time to check out other Instagram profiles, have a browse, like some content and maybe leave a friendly comment here and there.

If you take the time to engage with others, they’re more likely to take the time to engage with you.

4. Make the most of the link in your bio.

While Instagram doesn’t let you link to websites within the captions of posts, you can include one in your bio. You can include up to 150 characters in your Instagram bio — including a link. Your bio is the perfect real estate for a link to your latest blog post or offers. You can also use tools such as Linktree to create a custom link that includes a page with more links, allowing you to share up to five links and get the most out of your bio link!

Alternatively, Instagram Stories are a great way of including links with your content. However, stories only last for 24 hours — this is a limitation, but also a fantastic tool for you to provide real-time offers and value.

5. Tell a story with every single post.

On Instagram, the businesses that tell the most interesting stories build the largest audiences. If you want to attract people to your business and get them to engage with you, you need consistent visual storytelling that cuts through all the noise on Instagram.

Don’t limit your focus to your general photo and video feed. Instagram’s Stories feature allows you to create a slideshow or montage of photo or video. When strung together, tell a story and provide your audience with a more personal experience.

6. Stay away from vanity metrics.

Vanity metrics don’t tell the whole story. While an increase in clicks and likes are beneficial, they don’t tell you if the right people are actually interested your content. Instead, look for indicators of real engagement, such as people commenting on your posts and new followers in your niche. These two metrics give a better indication of how well you are performing and how much exposure your business is actually getting.

Using these techniques, you can get the most out of Instagram for your B2B brand. Once you’ve built up a solid follower base, you can work Instagram into your other inbound or digital marketing strategies. 

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Use Instagram to Push Your Inbound Marketing Further

Instagram is another important tool in your inbound marketing toolbox. Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different notepads, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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How to Create Inbound Marketing Campaigns that Convert

Anyone can slap together an inbound marketing campaign. But a campaign that actually works? One that consistently brings in high-quality leads? That’s a challenge.

Creating inbound marketing campaigns that convert requires more planning and maintenance than just throwing everything on the wall and seeing what sticks. But high-converting marketing campaigns are also the best value for your money and work, and see the best results. 

If you want a full breakdown of how to create high-converting campaigns, check out HubSpot’s in-depth guide to creating marketing campaigns. Below are the key steps you need to follow.

Plan Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

Every great marketing campaign has to start with a clear set of goals and expectations so you can track success. Begin by setting your SMART goals. SMART goals are:

Specific – Your goal needs to be unambiguous and clear.

Measurable – You should define a concrete way of measuring progress toward your goal.

Attainable – It needs to be realistically achievable for your team.

Relevant – Your goal needs to make sense for your business and overall business goals.

Timely – It’s important to set a time limit on goals to keep them in check.

For each of these goals, clearly define what you’ll be tracking. It could be website traffic, form fills, social mentions or any other criteria that makes sense.

This is also when you need to clearly define your audience by creating personas. Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They have a name, an age, a job, family, hobbies, values and fears. They are fleshed-out and fully-formed. From there, you can figure out what messages will resonate with them the most, what channels to use to reach them and (most importantly) how to convert them to a sale. For rockstar personas, use our free how-to guide.

Distributing Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

Once you know the whys of your marketing campaign, it’s time to define the whats and hows. Based on your buyer persona, you’ll want to create content that will resonate with your audience. Check out our guide for easy inbound marketing content ideas for some inspiration on what type of content to create. 

Next, decide what channels you’ll use to promote your campaign. Start by identifying which of your mediums are most successful at the moment – it could be Facebook, your blogs or Google ads. HubSpot recommends consulting the PESO model – a breakdown of various marketing channels.

Image via Ceralytics

The most common channels for a standard inbound marketing campaign are:

Your highest performing social network

Blog

Email

Your personas and goals will influence what channels you choose, so at this stage it’s important to research to identify where your prospects are spending their time online.

Converting Customers Through Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

Converting customers is ultimately the most important step in any campaign, but also the most challenging to execute. In order to convert leads, you’ll need to use conversion assets like calls-to-action (CTAs), landing pages and lead forms.

All three of these assets work in concert. Your landing page provides a destination for visitors coming from the marketing channels defined above. Your CTA is a direct ask of an audience – this is commonly a button or line of text that stands out on the page (“Download the eBook” “Sign Up for a Free Trial”). And finally, lead forms are how you actually capture a lead’s information so you can later follow-up with emails or phone calls.

Assessing Your Inbound Marketing Campaign

Despite all your preparation, campaigns are largely a wait-and-see game. Analyzing your data after a campaign launches is vital for improving your existing campaign and knowing what to do (and what not to do) for your next campaign.

The best way to tell if your campaign “worked” is by how well it reached your initial SMART goals. If it reached your goals or exceeded them, you know it was working. If it didn’t reach your goals, you know you’ll need to go back and examine your goals as well as your tactics. 

Lastly, spend time with your team reviewing your marketing campaign. Ask yourselves questions like:

What could’ve been done differently?

How could we have saved money?

For anything that went wrong, why do we think it went wrong?

What did we learn about our audience or marketing channels?

What kind of feedback could we gather from participants or customers?

With these tactics, you can create high-performing inbound marketing campaigns that convert. Get even more tips at our upcoming Webinar – Working Smarter, Not Harder, to Land Sales.

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Free Download: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different Post-its, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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How to Build Eyeball-Worthy Emails

Nobody likes an ugly email. If I click into an email and see walls of text, no color, no images, no buttons and not even one shred of bolded text, it’s booked itself a one-way ticket to the trash. Are your emails facing a similar fate? With the vast amount of emails we all receive daily, it’s important to create eyeball-worthy emails that command attention. The brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text – your emails have to be visual to capture interest.

Make it Scannable

Most of your readers will not read your content from top to bottom. Instead, they’ll quickly scan your email to glean high-level information. Your email needs to be as digestible as possible so they don’t immediately click away. There are some ways you can play with the design of your email, but you should follow best practice guidelines from top to bottom. That includes:

Your Logo

Header

Body Text (with images)

Section dividers

Footer

CAN-SPAM/GDPR Compliance

Create With Mobile in Mind

Emails are now opened more on mobile than desktop. Even if your industry still skews toward desktop viewers, it won’t be long before a majority of your visitors make the switch to mobile. Following the guidelines for making your email scannable will help mobile users, but you also need to take extra steps to ensure that your emails will look just as good on mobile. Most email clients like HubSpot, Constant Contact or Mailchimp will let you preview your emails in a mobile window so you can make sure they look good before you press send. Generally speaking, you’ll want to stick to one or two-row layouts for mobile optimization.

Use Images (But Carefully)

No one wants to read a massive wall of text. Images make your emails more visually appealing, but like anything too much of a good thing can cause problems. Try to stick to 3-7 images maximum in an email newsletter. Images pair well with your body content. Remember: most of your readers will be scanning your email, so the better your image can tell a story without having to read text, the better the user experience. Whenever you use images, it’s vital to include alt text describing the image in case a viewer’s email blocks images.

Utilize Color to Inspire Action

The look of your emails should compliment your website, but it doesn’t have to be a one-to-one match. Choose the colors that match your brand while also conveying a mood – a summer sale might include yellows and pinks to capture that sunny feeling, while a security update might use blue for its calming nature. Stick to only a few colors for a clean look.

When choosing colors, designate one color to use for all your calls-to-action. This color should only be used on your buttons and/or links so they pop and attract attention.

Follow these tips to create emails that are eyeball-worthy and stand out in the inbox. If you want to take some of the guesswork out of beautiful email design, HubSpot comes armed with dozens of pre-built templates you can customize for your business. Check out all of HubSpot’s offerings and why we recommend it as your all-in-one marketing toolkit.

* * *

Free Download: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different Post-its, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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5 Ways You're Sabotaging Your Landing Pages

Landing pages are the bread-and-butter of inbound marketing. But most landing pages are a burnt piece of toast. It’s easy to create landing pages, but creating landing pages that convert is much more of a challenge.

There are some basic mistakes that sabotage your landing pages before they ever have a chance to be successful. If your landing pages aren’t converting how you expected, one of these 5 mistakes may be the culprit. 

1. Cluttered Design

When it comes to landing pages, less is more. It’s easy to fall into the trap of over-designing a landing page, but it’s important to strip away all the excess noise to streamline your visitors into action. A one-second delay in loading your site can lower conversions by 7% and multiple offers on one landing page can decrease conversions by up to 266%. All high-converting landing pages have the same basic elements:

Headline

Image or Video

Benefits

CTA or Form

Stick to these core elements and watch your conversions before you start adding more to your landing pages.

2. Weak Content

Language is arguably the most important element of your landing page, but often the most overlooked. Landing pages need to quickly communicate context and value to inspire action. Always make sure the content on your landing page is written with internet users in mind and make sure your headlines pop – you only have 8 seconds to make an impression. If you aren’t confident in your writing, we have some content tips that can help you craft killer headlines and page copy.

3. Unclear Calls-to-Action

At the end of the day, your landing page exists to make your visitors take an action. You won’t see as many actions if your visitors don’t know what to do. Your calls-to-action (aka the buttons on your page) need to be unambiguous. Instead of “learn more,” make your calls-to-action more relevant to what offer your landing page provides:

Sign Up for a Free Trial

Download the eBook

Scan Your Website

Most readers will scan your landing page instead of reading in-depth, so the more obvious you can make your calls-to-action, the better.

4. Complicated Forms

Your forms and your calls-to-action work in tangent, which means your forms also need to be to-the-point. The average landing page has 11 form fields, but shortening your form fields from 11 to 4 can increase conversions by 120%. The less information your prospects have to surrender upfront, the more likely they are to fill out your form. Stick to the bare necessities – only the information you absolutely need to keep them moving through your sales process.

5. Ignoring the Buyer’s Journey

Landing pages are an important stepping stone in your buyer’s journey. It’s important to know what stage of the journey most people will be visiting your landing page and tailoring content accordingly. Do they already know who you are? Or are they searching their need/problem on Google and finding your landing page? The answer to those questions will influence every element of your landing page from imagery to messaging.

Now that you know what mistakes to look for, take the time to go through your landing pages and make sure you haven’t been sabotaging yourself. If you have, it’s not too late to fix it. 

* * *

Free Download: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different Post-its, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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What is a Buyer Persona? (And How Do I Make One?)

Do you have a clear picture of who your ideal customer is? Do you know what they like? What they do in their free time? How many children they have?

If not, it’s time to start building buyer personas for your business.

What is a Buyer Persona?

Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They have a name, an age, a job, family, hobbies, values and fears. They are fleshed-out and fully-formed. From there, you can figure out what messages will resonate with them the most, what channels to use to reach them and (most importantly) how to convert them to a sale. The strongest buyer personas are based on market research as well as on insights you gather from your actual customer base. Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20. If you’re new to personas, start small! You can always develop more personas later if needed. For rockstar personas, use our free how-to guide.

How to Make a Buyer Persona

The easiest way to bring your persona to life is by using a template. There are a lot of options out there, but we recommend HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool because it’s easy to use and understand. For your personas, you’ll want to paint a clear picture. Start with basic information:

Persona’s name, gender and age

Job title and industry

Salary and household income

Location (urban? suburban? rural?)

Education

Family

Values

Challenges they face

How they use technology

You can add to this list as relevant to your industry. The more detail you can give your persona, the better. There are also several ways to go about gathering the information to flesh out your personas.

Look at Existing Personas

When starting out, it’s helpful to look at example personas to get a feel for how yours should look. BizzyWeb has 5 Pre-Made Personas you can use as inspiration or foundation for your own personas.

Interview Customers

The easiest – and most important – way of gathering information about potential customers is to look at your current customers. Send out an email survey to your current customers asking them for information. Ask them about their role, their company, their goals, etc. HubSpot has an excellent list of 20 questions to ask in persona interviews to give you some ideas. Make sure to provide an incentive for customers to fill out your survey – a gift card usually does the trick. 

Talk to Your Team

Brainstorm with your team to distill the personalities of your customers and prospects. Your sales team regularly interacts with potential customers – what do prospects who convert have in common? Your customer service team is another excellent resource to tap into. Not only do they have insight into what makes your customers happy, but they can tell you what their pain points are as well. 

Behavioral Research

Google Analytics is a fantastic wealth of information. You can use it to pull information about who is viewing your site and what actions they take. You can also glean basic demographic information from many social media channels. Facebook comes with a built-in tool that breaks down the demographics of your followers. Looking at your social media will also give you more insight into your customers’ likes and personality – which posts performed the best? What types of content generate the most responses?

* * *

Webinar: Zeroing in on Your Customer and Their Journey

How do you find the right people to sell to? If your answer is “we sell to everyone” – it’s time to rethink your strategy. Has casting your net as far and as wide as possible brought in the quality leads you were hoping, or just a lot of dead-end calls?

  Instead of shouting to everyone in the world and hoping one person shouts back, speak directly to your perfect customer. Ask yourself: what process do your clients go through to make their decision to purchase from you? Do you know the specific steps they take? What hurdles they encounter?

  In this webinar, you will learn how to find your ideal customer and how to follow their buyer’s journey so you can land more sales.

Register Online

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The Only Inbound Marketing Campaign Checklist You'll Ever Need

Are you ready to get started with inbound marketing, but aren’t sure what your first step should be? It’s ok – take my hand. Follow me through this easy checklist of what you need, and you’ll have your first inbound marketing campaign off the ground in no time.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is customer-oriented and customer-driven. Simply put, inbound marketing starts with valuable content that your target audience wants, instead of just advertising your services. In a traditional marketing model, you would simply “spread the word” about your business through print or online ads. With inbound marketing, you instead focus on providing valuable information or items your customers can use. For example, you might start with an ebook, a quiz, a checklist or a blog that your ideal customer might find useful. You dangle that content offer to get nibbles in exchange for a form fill or phone call, and then follow-up with more direct advertising. 

Inbound Marketing Checklist

Ready to hit the “GO” button on your campaign? Before you dive in, make sure you’ve dotted all your I’s and crossed all your T’s. Here’s a simple checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases.

Identify Your campaign audience

Set your goals + benchmarks

Create your offer(s) + landing pages

Plan + build your automation + nurturing flows

Write a blog post

Share it on social media

Add in long tail keywords

Consider paid search and other channels

Track your URLs

Report on your results

Once you have these pieces set up, you have what you need to get going with inbound marketing.

* * *

Free Download: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign

Are you dotting your T’s and crossing your eyes? Getting a marketing campaign off the ground is a frustrating mess of trying to pull together disconnected tools and channels. Instead of relying on notes scribbled on a thousand different Post-its, use our Free Inbound Marketing Checklist to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. This download goes more in-depth into inbound marketing and everything you need to get going.

Download the Checklist

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An Introduction to Growth-Driven Design in Minneapolis

Your website is your biggest marketing asset, and the centerpiece of all of your marketing activities. It’s where people go to learn about your company, your products & services, where you’re located in Minneapolis, and more. It’s also your best “salesperson” – or should be. Research by HubSpot indicates that a prospect has already moved through 70% of the sales process before reaching out to your sales team. That is why our approach to building websites needs to change to make sure we’re providing the information people are seeking upfront.

In the traditional web design model, changes require a significant investment of both time and money to “refresh” a site with new technology, pages or functionality. Most businesses simply don’t have spare time, money or talent to do what “should” be done to keep getting worthwhile results. That’s why Growth-Driven Design is so exciting! With Growth-Driven Design, websites are continuously updated every month, with substantive changes to keep your users engaged and moving through the buyer’s journey. We partner with you to watch what your users do, where they leave the site, and where your marketing isn’t getting results. 

The Traditional Web Design Process

When we meet with potential web design clients we ask them about their previous experience designing their website. Most people look down, sigh, and look up at us with resignation. The look on their face is clear, “Don’t make me do this again.” The traditional process takes a lot of time and quickly ages as soon as its live. It’s common sense that the more you update your site, the better your digital marketing results (especially your SEO and rankings). People are hesitant to make significant changes because of the investment and work required.

The Challenges

Large Up-Front Cost: The average small to medium-sized business website costs somewhere between $15,000-$100,000, depending on the functionality required. This is substantial! At least half will be due upon signing the contract, and expected before knowing what impact the website will have on your business.

Large Time & Resource Commitment: Websites can take between 3-9 months to build (sometimes longer). The web design process will require your time for strategy meetings, content creation, approval of all of the architecture, imagery, and everything else that goes into your site. So not only does it cost a lot, it also takes a lot of your time.

Over Budget, Not Launched on Time, Not Flexible: People often forget about the systems tied into their website that need to remain in place. Or, after the design is done, there’s a change that has to be made to the structure of their site because the business needs have changed. These examples are known as scope creep—they can increase your cost and delay your project. Also, if your company doesn’t have resources to dedicate to the redesign, there an be time lapses until your plate gets free enough to write content, take the pictures of your facility or people, and approve design elements.

No Guarantees: You are going to be held to some kind of ROI from your boss for the investment made in your marketing. How can you possibly know (even with your agency’s help) that you’re launching the best performing website? You can look through user data, perform some research and make a hypothesis of what people will like to see, and how to answer their questions. But it’s just that—a hypothesis.

How Growth-Driven Design Works

New research has show there’s a faster, more agile process to web design. A process that listens to the people who consume the data you provide, and makes continual improvements to ensure better results: Growth-Driven Design.

The Three Goals of Growth-Driven Design

1. Minimize Challenges: Avoid the challenges of traditional web design by shortening the time to launch, focusing on impact, continuous improvement, and learning.

2. Continuous Improvement and Learning: Constantly research, test and learn about your users to guide website improvements. Make small improvements inside a consistent process, and measure to prove results.

3. As We Learn, Inform Both Marketing and Sales: Marketing and Sales are tightly integrated throughout the process. The insights we get from user data will inform and impact sales and marketing strategies.

The Growth-Driven Design Process

Growth-Driven Design is broken down into three key stages:

1Strategy

Create a plan for your website to solve problems for your users.

Business and website goals

User experience(UX) research

Jobs to be done

Fundamental assumptions

Buyer Personas

Journey mapping

Global strategy

Brainstorm wish list

Keyword/content plan

Competitive analysis

2Launch Pad

Quickly build a website that’s better than what you have today, but isn’t a final product. Rather, your Launch Pad is the foundation to grow, optimize and build from.

Customize an acceleration approach

Run sprint workshops

Effective content development

Invest in internal efficiencies

3Continuous Improvement

With your Launch Pad website live and collecting data, we’ll start identifying high-impact actions to grow your business.

Growth-Driven Web Design is not only easier on your wallet, but it’s also easier on your team and better for your customers.Growth-Driven Web Design works by creating a functional “launch pad” website that looks great and is based on your customers’ needs, but that’s smaller-scale and launches quickly – typically in 1-3 months versus the 6-12 month timetable of traditional web design. We then track users’ actions when they visit your site and make additions, changes and improvements based on that data.

Simply put, Growth-Driven Design adapts and evolves constantly. Instead of a one-and-done approach, we focus on momentum and real-time data to make sure your website performs how it should.

* * *

Free Livestream: Give Your Website a Refresh

The first of the year is the perfect time to Give Your Website a Refresh! Learn how Google recommends building a search-friendly website, and the basics about Search Engine Optimization. You can view this Livestream webinar either in person at our BizzyWeb offices in Champlin, MN, or online.

Register Today

New Post has been published on https://bizzyweb.com/news/an-introduction-to-growth-driven-design-in-minneapolis/?utm_source=TR&utm_medium=news%20article&utm_campaign= An+Introduction+to+Growth-Driven+Design+in+Minneapolis%20from%20BizzyWeb

An Introduction to Growth-Driven Design in Minneapolis

Your website is your biggest marketing asset, and the centerpiece of all of your marketing activities. It’s where people go to learn about your company, your products & services, where you’re located in Minneapolis, and more. It’s also your best “salesperson” – or should be. Research by HubSpot indicates that a prospect has already moved through 70% of the sales process before reaching out to your sales team. That is why our approach to building websites needs to change to make sure we’re providing the information people are seeking upfront.

In the traditional web design model, changes require a significant investment of both time and money to “refresh” a site with new technology, pages or functionality. Most businesses simply don’t have spare time, money or talent to do what “should” be done to keep getting worthwhile results. That’s why Growth-Driven Design is so exciting! With Growth-Driven Design, websites are continuously updated every month, with substantive changes to keep your users engaged and moving through the buyer’s journey. We partner with you to watch what your users do, where they leave the site, and where your marketing isn’t getting results. 

The Traditional Web Design Process

When we meet with potential web design clients we ask them about their previous experience designing their website. Most people look down, sigh, and look up at us with resignation. The look on their face is clear, “Don’t make me do this again.” The traditional process takes a lot of time and quickly ages as soon as its live. It’s common sense that the more you update your site, the better your digital marketing results (especially your SEO and rankings). People are hesitant to make significant changes because of the investment and work required.

The Challenges

Large Up-Front Cost: The average small to medium-sized business website costs somewhere between $15,000-$100,000, depending on the functionality required. This is substantial! At least half will be due upon signing the contract, and expected before knowing what impact the website will have on your business.

Large Time & Resource Commitment: Websites can take between 3-9 months to build (sometimes longer). The web design process will require your time for strategy meetings, content creation, approval of all of the architecture, imagery, and everything else that goes into your site. So not only does it cost a lot, it also takes a lot of your time.

Over Budget, Not Launched on Time, Not Flexible: People often forget about the systems tied into their website that need to remain in place. Or, after the design is done, there’s a change that has to be made to the structure of their site because the business needs have changed. These examples are known as scope creep—they can increase your cost and delay your project. Also, if your company doesn’t have resources to dedicate to the redesign, there an be time lapses until your plate gets free enough to write content, take the pictures of your facility or people, and approve design elements.

No Guarantees: You are going to be held to some kind of ROI from your boss for the investment made in your marketing. How can you possibly know (even with your agency’s help) that you’re launching the best performing website? You can look through user data, perform some research and make a hypothesis of what people will like to see, and how to answer their questions. But it’s just that—a hypothesis.

How Growth-Driven Design Works

New research has show there’s a faster, more agile process to web design. A process that listens to the people who consume the data you provide, and makes continual improvements to ensure better results: Growth-Driven Design.

The Three Goals of Growth-Driven Design

1. Minimize Challenges: Avoid the challenges of traditional web design by shortening the time to launch, focusing on impact, continuous improvement, and learning.

2. Continuous Improvement and Learning: Constantly research, test and learn about your users to guide website improvements. Make small improvements inside a consistent process, and measure to prove results.

3. As We Learn, Inform Both Marketing and Sales: Marketing and Sales are tightly integrated throughout the process. The insights we get from user data will inform and impact sales and marketing strategies.

The Growth-Driven Design Process

Growth-Driven Design is broken down into three key stages:

1Strategy

Create a plan for your website to solve problems for your users.

Business and website goals

User experience(UX) research

Jobs to be done

Fundamental assumptions

Buyer Personas

Journey mapping

Global strategy

Brainstorm wish list

Keyword/content plan

Competitive analysis

2Launch Pad

Quickly build a website that’s better than what you have today, but isn’t a final product. Rather, your Launch Pad is the foundation to grow, optimize and build from.

Customize an acceleration approach

Run sprint workshops

Effective content development

Invest in internal efficiencies

3Continuous Improvement

With your Launch Pad website live and collecting data, we’ll start identifying high-impact actions to grow your business.

Growth-Driven Web Design is not only easier on your wallet, but it’s also easier on your team and better for your customers.Growth-Driven Web Design works by creating a functional “launch pad” website that looks great and is based on your customers’ needs, but that’s smaller-scale and launches quickly – typically in 1-3 months versus the 6-12 month timetable of traditional web design. We then track users’ actions when they visit your site and make additions, changes and improvements based on that data.

Simply put, Growth-Driven Design adapts and evolves constantly. Instead of a one-and-done approach, we focus on momentum and real-time data to make sure your website performs how it should.

* * *

Free Livestream: Give Your Website a Refresh

The first of the year is the perfect time to Give Your Website a Refresh! Learn how Google recommends building a search-friendly website, and the basics about Search Engine Optimization. You can view this Livestream webinar either in person at our BizzyWeb offices in Champlin, MN, or online.

Register Today

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Why You Should Use Topics, Not Keywords

Conventional wisdom says if you want to rank on Google, you need to focus on keywords. But is that really the case anymore? Are keywords still important? The truth is that Google is shifting away from keywords and toward topics.

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are exactly what they sound like – key words that you want to rank for on Google. For example, “web design” or “digital marketing.” There are two primary types of keywords, short tail and long tail. Short tail keywords are direct and to the point – “digital marketing” – and long tail keywords are closer to phrases – “digital marketing services in Minneapolis.”

Why Shouldn’t I Use Keywords?

It’s not that you should abandon keywords entirely, but they shouldn’t be the driving force of any page or blog. Instead, you should focus on topics. For example, let’s take this blog post:

Keywords: SEO, Keywords, Google

Topic: Why focusing on topics instead of keywords can help you rank in Google

The two are very similar, but keywords are much more restrictive. By contrast, the topic gets to the core of why someone would read this blog post – they want to learn more about ranking in Google, and how they can adjust their strategy. There are a few reasons why keywords are falling by the wayside, but the major one is…

User Experience > Technical Rank

Google’s goal since its inception has been to deliver accurate, clear and authoritative results to searches. In its early days, Google had to rely on keywords to understand what a page was about. That led to a lot of painful, bloated content like:

We offer digital marketing services in the Minneapolis area. Our Minneapolis digital marketing services are the best digital marketing services in Minneapolis. If you need digital marketing in Minneapolis, we’re in Minneapolis.

In an effort to curb this type of content (which is called keyword stuffing), Google’s algorithm has been shifting more and more toward content written with the user in mind, not keywords. That means content needs to be to the point, relevant and useful to the reader. 

How Do I Get Started with Topics?

The easiest way to get started with topics is to start with one primary topic and then generate clusters of themes related to that main topic. For example…

Primary Topic: SEO

Cluster Topic: advice about SEO, how does SEO work, why is SEO important, keywords or topics, how to use keywords in a blog

You would then use your cluster topics to create blog posts. A good way to come up with those cluster topics is to use tools like Google Trends that keywords that people search for in Google. Long tail keywords can often transition nicely into more concentrated topics. For example “what is SEO” could transition into a more concentrated topic like “How to Rank in Google Using SEO.”

Keywords aren’t disappearing completely, but it’s time to stop writing for bots and to start writing with humans in mind. Topics are a more natural way of conveying information that resonates with your audience. 

* * *

Rank on Google With Digital Marketing

BizzyWeb’s digital marketing programs include fully-integrated solutions for content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising, social media marketing and email marketing. No two companies are the same. Their strategies shouldn’t be either. Our programs are completely customized to meet your unique needs. We work with you to build a custom strategy that engages your clients.

Check Out Our Digital Marketing Services

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How to do Keyword Research (And Why It Matters)

How do you find what you’re looking for online? Would you type into Google, “floral plants with petals” or “florists near me?”

Language is important. With our florist example, the “right” language is obvious, but more often than not it isn’t that clear cut. The closer you are to a business, the harder it is to look at it from an outsider’s perspective. 

What is a Keyword? And What is Keyword Research?

“Florists near me” is example of a keyword, something you would type into Google (or, increasingly, speak into your phone) to find what it is you’re looking for. As a business on the other side of the equation you have to tap into that consumer mindset to find the right keywords to use in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Simply put, SEO is a way of “speaking Google’s language” to make sure that your website is best positioned to rank highly in those search results. It involves using keywords, coding and formatting to optimize your website. It’s vital for search engines and user experience – check out some of our many, many blogs talking about SEO and how it works.

Keyword research is a mix of database research, anthropological study, statistics and psychology. It’s matching what you know about your business with what people search for online. 

How Do I Research Keywords?

Step 1: Start Broad

You’ll want to start off your keyword research by starting basic. Think about your business and the 5 – 10 generic keywords that describe your business. For example, for BizzyWeb that would be:

Digital Marketing

Web Design

Email Marketing

Social Media Marketing

SEO

These will be the high-level keywords you’ll want to use. HubSpot marketing describes these keywords as a “bucket” that will house other, more specific keywords.

Step 2: Get Specific

Once you have your high-level “bucket” words, it’s time to start filling the bucket. Start with each category and think about what related keywords people may be searching. Try to think of a mix of some longer keywords and shorter keywords. If you’re having trouble thinking of related keywords, you can skip to step 3 to help you find a place to start.

For example, let’s take “web design” and break that down into some more specific keywords:

User experience web design

Web design Minneapolis

Web design company

WordPress web design

At this stage, it’s ok to have more keywords than you’ll end up targeting. Step 3 will help you zone in on your most valuable keywords.

Step 3: Use Tools to Get Even More Specific

While you’re thinking of keywords in step 2, there are a few tools that can help you. First, there’s Google Trends. This tool will not only show you how many people search for a keyword, but it will also suggest related keywords. This can be very helpful when you’re trying to think of specific keywords in Step 2.

When you’ve gathered a sizable list of possible keywords, it’s time to dig into Google’s Keyword Planner. This tool will show you how much traffic each keyword receives each month, how much it will cost if you want to advertise using that keyword, as well as a rough idea how competitive the keyword is. This can help you decide which short tail and long tail keywords you want to pursue for the best chance of increasing your rankings. Additionally, it will show you what you’re currently ranking for. You may be surprised to learn it’s not what you thought. 

Now that you have your keywords in hand, it’s time to go forth and SEO.

* * *

Find Out What To Do To Improve Your Rankings

Get your Free Buzz Report and use it to find out what needs to be changed on your website to improve your search engine rankings. 

What you’ll get in this report:

Speed, tag, description and image analysis

Top keywords

Social analysis

Link analysis

Domain analysis

Tasks for your next steps

Get My Free Buzz Report

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Fantastic Brands and Where to Find Them: Marketing Lessons from Harry Potter

On November 18, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be released and mark the latest entry in a decades’-long cultural powerhouse. Few things have generated the lasting impact Harry Potter has, in no small part due to some clever marketing. Your business might not spawn 10 movies and billions of dollars (sorry) but you can still nab success by mirroring some of the successful strategies of Harry Potter.

Hone Your Brand

One of the most brilliant successes of Harry Potter is how it took root in social consciousness. Even someone who has never read the books or seen the films can recognize key elements from the books, like a lightning-shaped scar, a magic wand or Quiddich. The iconic nature of the Harry Potter world shows just how important branding is for any business. Knowing who you are and how you present yourself to the world is the first step in making your brand memorable.

Know Your Audience

The Harry Potter books may have been written with children in mind, but a good majority of fans are adults. J.K. Rowling knew the power of universal themes like love, justice and triumph, and used these elements in her story to create something that would appeal to a wider group of people. Before you do any marketing, it’s important to have a clear picture of your intended audience. In marketing, we call these personas – or fictionalized representations of your ideal customers. Creating personas will help you find a voice and path for all your marketing efforts.

Tap into the Power of Inbound

One of the reasons why the Harry Potter series took off was word-of-mouth. Readers became fans who spread the popularity of the books and created online communities. At one point, Harry Potter didn’t even need to market itself the fans were producing so much buzz. Instead of telling people why they should care about your brand, turn them into believers with inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a methodology of marketing that flips the traditional marketing model to provide engaging content (like the Harry Potter books) that will bring customers to you.

You may not be able to cast spells or fly on a broom, but you can take these lessons from The Boy Who Lived to make your marketing into magic.

* * *

Make Magic with Digital Marketing

BizzyWeb’s digital marketing programs include fully-integrated solutions for content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising, social media marketing and email marketing. No two companies are the same. Their strategies shouldn’t be either. Our programs are completely customized to meet your unique needs. We work with you to build a custom strategy that engages your clients.

Check Out Our Digital Marketing Services

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How to Make Your Digital Content More Accessible [Star Tribune Feature]

Recently, Dave sat down with Mike Porter of The Star Tribune to discuss accessibility in digital content. (Read the full article on Star Tribune’s website).

Q: What pitfalls can our business avoid when trying to make our digital content accessible for people with disabilities?

A: Serious consideration of user accessibility for people with disabilities goes back a couple of decades, with the Web Accessibility Initiative beginning its work in the late ’90s. The most commonly supported disabilities are hearing and vision impairment, and even after 20 years, some businesses still miss the mark.

Being accessible begins with simple things, like coding the web programming language known as HTML with semantically meaningful names for images and links to someone using a reader program to engage with content.

According to Dave Meyer, president of BizzyWeb, a Minneapolis marketing agency, “It’s important to meet any web user where they are, regardless of limitations.”

As a national speaker and trainer for Google, Meyer points out that half of all website visits come via mobile devices, and not being “mobile friendly” means your digital content will not be ranked in search.

Meyer notes that many web visitors leverage reader apps on mobile devices. “Pitfalls arise from things that those without impairment forget to consider.” He suggests that transitioning images, animations and other visual “eye candy” can cause site slowdowns or other technical issues, beyond presenting content that can’t be consumed by everyone.

Another aspect stems from overemphasis on search engine optimization (SEO) in naming links. In addition to avoiding nonlanguage strings of characters, using long SEO-driven phrases can also be a distraction for those using reader programs.

For the hearing impaired, there seems to be a push to offer more closed captioning. According to Meyer, “YouTube, for instance, offers a relatively easy-to-use captioning tool, so firms can take advantage of the current video renaissance without leaving some audiences out.”

Meyer warns that regardless of what impairments you attempt to address, to drive the best business results, thorough review and testing of captioning or how assistive tools present your content is worth the time and energy to assure a positive user experience.

Mike Porter is the faculty director of the MS in Health Care Communication at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.

* * *

Make Your Website Accessible

Is your website behind the times? If your website isn’t friendly for all users, then it isn’t going to perform how it should. 

Learn More About Our Web Design Services