Tag: internet marketing keller texas

  • Employee Spotlight: Kate McGaughey

    Processed with VSCO with c1 presetKate McGaughey joined our team this Spring as our Social Media Director! We’ve asked her a few fun questions to get to know her a little better:

    Q. What is your job at eTekhnos?

    A. I am the Social Media Director. I help clients find their brand’s voice by selecting and producing content on relevant industry topics, scheduling posts for their blogs and social media accounts, and creating special campaigns and email blasts. In addition, I write about social media and technology best practices and how they can be best utilized by employee benefit agencies on our eTekhnos blog, as well as blasting fun and helpful content on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter!

    Q. What is your favorite aspect of your job?

    A. I love when a client comes to me with a new product or service they want to get people excited about, and I have the opportunity to work with them on both the promotional strategy and the actual implementation of the campaign. It’s fun to work with a client to achieve their vision, and get to be creative in the process!

    Q. Where is the furthest you have traveled?

    A. I previously worked as a flight attendant for a major airline where I had the opportunity to travel all the time! My furthest trip (as well as one of my favorite) was to Moscow, Russia! I was there for two days during their annual Moscow Day Festival and had the chance to take in their unique architecture, delicious food and thought-provoking art!

    Q. What is your favorite book?

    A. I loved The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It takes place in Germany during WWII and follows the life of a young girl who steals books, each that is connected to a person or a significant story. Her German family ends up harboring a young Jewish man from the Nazis, and their friendship causes the reader to think in a broader sense about how even though we are different from many people in our world, at the end of the day we are all human, and are all deserving of love and respect.

    Q. What is an ability you wish you had?

    A. I wish I had the ability to fly! Although I spent a year marveling at the world from above when I was working for the airline, I’ve always wished I was able to fly from place to place and float over beautiful landscapes on my own. I may or may not try to find Neverland 😉

  • How To Turn Your Employees Into Your Top Social Media Advocates

    socialmediaavocacyAlmost every business today is on social media. Whether you’ve opted for a Facebook or LinkedIn company page, are active on Twitter or even post videos on YouTube, you’ve most likely bought into the need to have an online presence.

    But have you considered how a social media strategy that includes online employee advocacy can drastically impact your brand?

    Research shows that employees are the most powerful advocates a company has, and should be invited into the process of raising brand awareness. Let’s look at L’Oreal as a recent case study. Their digital marketing team implemented the use of the hashtag #LifeatLoreal in an effort to familiarize corporate with local level employees by documenting interesting or humorous happenings at the office.

    The benefits went beyond expectation – employees generated interest among their personal networks in employment with the company and along with another similar hashtag campaign, it increased L’Oreal’s unique Instagram impressions to 200,000.

    Other examples of companies doing social media employee advocacy programs well are Starbucks, who brought in $180,000 in direct sales in less than a month with their Tweet-a-Coffee campaign, and Zappos, who offer special social media training to their employees and have a leaderboard to show which employees have the most followers.

    Think about it this way, when your social media manager shares content on your company channels, your reach (how many people see your post) is limited to your followers. When your employees start to actively share, your reach is then increased to their networks as well.  This can quickly add up to more impressions and ultimately – conversions.

    In fact, leads generated through employee advocacy on social media convert seven times more frequently than any other leads.

    Convinced yet? Here’s where to start.

    Create an Engaging Company Culture
    Employees need to believe in what they’re selling.  Social media advocacy programs should be voluntary, and to attract the most possible employee brand ambassadors, you need to create a culture of trust and authenticity. Be real with your employees about why you need them and how their advocacy makes an impact on achieving important sales or marketing objectives. If employees enjoy where they work, feel appreciated and understand their value, they will willingly share your content with their personal following.

    Develop a Social Media Policy and Explain How It Works
    Too often companies resort to the negative when implementing social media policies at work. Instead of focusing so much on what can’t be said on social media, highlight the positive ways sharing appropriate content can have an invaluable impact on growing and engaging new audiences. Help employees who aren’t tech-saavy by outlining liking, sharing and commenting etiquette and if necessary, provide periodic, pre-drafted copy for them to include when sharing.  Of course the best shares are organic as employees get excited about a new service, special campaign or company outreach event. Give them the freedom to share their own content as well as what you make available.

    Start Small With Sharing
    Implementing a social media advocacy program doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start small with your initiatives. If you already post regular content on your blog and to your company social media channels, ask employees to share these on their personal accounts. For special campaigns, consider creating some extra Tweet copy and emailing these to your staff as options for sharing. Make it fun! Send email reminders when new blogs are posted and or create a hashtag specifically for your next company event or retreat that employees can use when they share photos.

    Set Goals and Track Your Results
    As an employer or manager, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. Set reasonable goals. What do you want to get out of an employee advocacy initiative? Do you want to promote a certain product or service? Are you looking to expand brand awareness and turn leads into new clients from a previously untapped audience? Understand what you want employees to share about first. Then, identify key metrics that you will use to track the results. Examples of top metrics to follow are traffic driven to the website from social media, increased post reach, increase in sales, employee conversions from passive to brand advocate, a change in your customer base’s perception of your brand and any demographic change in customers.

    Share Your Success
    Finally, share your success with the people who made it happen! Did you meet a sales goal because of increased employee advocacy? Did you hit record high website traffic? Tell your employees. It’s important that employees see the impact of their advocacy, understand their role and contribution to the brand and that they also understand what works and what doesn’t. Top influencers should also be rewarded. Always recognize the people who are doing an awesome job at representing your company in front of their peers.  Not only does this inspire further action, it brings you full circle by contributing to an engaging company culture.

    Want to learn more about engaging your employees as social media advocates? Set up a call with our team!

     

    By Kate McGaughey

  • 5 Ways to Optimize LinkedIn for Your Benefit Agency

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    Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg

    LinkedIn is fast proving to be the foremost social media site for B2B marketing. Employee benefit agencies that rely on cultivating relationships in order to market a product or service may find utilizing more fast-moving social platforms like Twitter or Instagram challenging, but LinkedIn provides a space for professionals to interact with one another, share original industry content and create brand awareness for their company that results in leads and network growth. We’ve put together a list of five simple ways you can start optimizing LinkedIn for your business today:

    1. Create a Personal Profile

    Even if you don’t plan on doing much posting of your own on a personal profile, this step is imperative because right now LinkedIn requires that you have a personal account in order to make a company page. Your profile should contain a professional photo of yourself, your name, job title and ideally your work and educational experience as well as any relevant accomplishments or projects.

    1. Set Up a Company Page

    Now that you’ve created your personal page, you are able to set up a page that specifically provides information about your company to LinkedIn users.  This page should contain your company name, logo, a link to your website, and a short description of your business that includes relevant keywords that are specific to what you do. Keywords can be in the form of phrases such as “Maryland insurance broker” but should shy away from staying as vague as “insurance company.” This helps your page receive a higher ranking in search engine results. Finally, ask employees who have personal LinkedIn profiles to list your company in their work experience, helping ensure that you can be found easily when people search for your business.

    1. Share Quality Content

    Sharing content ensures more opportunity for people to visit your company page and then hopefully website to follow up! Posts can be a mix of your original content and outside articles, videos or podcasts that are relevant to your industry.  Recent studies show that the best time to post on LinkedIn is Tuesday through Thursday between 7-9am, noon and between 5-6pm.  In addition, data revealed that posts made on Tuesday between 10-11am have the most clicks and shares. For best engagement results, companies should make it a priority to post on their LinkedIn page once a week, but no more than once a day.

    1. Join or Create a Group

    LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals to connect with peers working in their field or with similar interests where they can share helpful content, reviews, ask questions, post job openings and make new connections. You are able to either search for groups to join or create your own group based on your topic of choice where you can invite people to become members.  These groups are useful for connecting with prospects and establishing your company as an industry expert.

    1. Make Personal Connections

    By utilizing not only your company page but also your personal profile, you can enrich your business’s success by connecting with prospects and clients. Start slow by inviting 3-5 people to connect with you per week.  Follow up with a thank you message and a quick introduction when they accept your invitation.  Did you write a blog for your company or on an industry topic?  Post it to you profile. As you continue to share content, consider submitting it to LinkedIn Pulse’s editors to have your blog post featured.  This translates to much more visibility for your company! Finally, don’t be afraid to engage with others.  If you see content you like, write a comment or send a quick message to the author.  Other LinkedIn members are interested in the same thing you are – building mutually beneficial relationships!

    Generating brand awareness for your company on social media is becoming more and more important in our highly digitalized economy. LinkedIn offers the perfect space for your company using a B2B marketing model that is based largely on relationships to thrive and establish yourself as an industry expert while expanding your network of prospects and future business connections.

  • 5 Content Tips For Your Facebook Business Page

    How much time are you devoting to your Facebook business page? If it’s something you created awhile ago but don’t regularly review, you may be missing a valuable way to grow your business.

    Whether your goal is to boost sales, engage with current and prospective customers or simply build awareness of your brand—having a Facebook strategy in mind will enable you to use this immensely popular resource more effectively.

    Here are tips for generating content that gets Facebook users hooked and coming back for more:

    1. Offer value.

    Your Facebook page is a great venue for updates on your business, but don’t get carried away. People don’t want or need an in-depth report on your latest company picnic. Instead, offer greater value by combining a timely mix of content about your business (product tips, sales events, behind-the-scenes items and photos) with third-party content, such as links to industry blogs and forums. This builds your credibility as a resource of value to users.

    Try including a regular weekly or monthly feature, such as a “discount of the week” with a special offer on a product or service. Let fans know this is an ongoing feature, so they’ll come back next time as well.

    2. Be strategic with images.

    Don’t post stand-alone photos of your products or services. Show them being used by happy, satisfied customers. Also, make it easy for fans to tag photos of their own, wherever they use your product or service, and share these as well.

    3. Avoid lengthy posts.

    You might find every aspect of your business fascinating, but a long, rambling posts will never garner the likes, shares and comments you’re looking for. If you want fans to read your posts, keep them short and sweet, generally between 100-250 characters. (Even shorter posts of 60-80 characters are likely to be more easily absorbed by fans with rapid-fire attention spans.)

    4. Focus on engagement.

    How can you stimulate users to get involved with your business? Try asking questions and offering polls that invite a response. At the end of a post, remember to invite fans to comment, like or share. When people do respond, keep the conversation going with comments of your own.

    5. Connect like a friend, not a business.

    Facebook is all about the personal experience, so treating it simply as a promotional outlet will get you nowhere. Post news and updates in a simple, informal and fun way. No marketing hype or press release stuff!

    Facebook milestones are one area where a little self-promotion won’t hurt. When you hit 1,000 fans or get 100 or 200 likes for a post, share the news. This makes people feel they’re part of a growing community.

    Other content-related tips:

    Always link back to your business website and other social media accounts. This boosts your page’s search engine rankings, thus increasing your potential visibility with prospective customers.
    Scramble content between posts, videos, photos, contests, polls, etc. Keep things lively and unexpected!
    If you run into a dry spell, look to your archives for posts or fans’ comments that can be repurposed or given a new spin. Posts relating your business to pop cultural events are always a hit with Facebook users.

    By staying focused on a key principle—Facebook is less about marketing and sales and more about conversations and relationships—you’ll come up with plenty of ideas for content that builds a growing and enthusiastic group of followers.

    Read More …

  • 5 Key Benefits of Email Marketing

    Rockstar Technology is your business solution not only for email marketing campaigns but all social media and website needs as well!  Contact us today to discuss optimizing your online presence today!

    With the overwhelming breakthrough of social media, search engine optimization and mobile marketing, it’s safe to say email marketing is on the verge of death, right? Wrong. Email marketing is alive and well, and it’s arguably the most profitable means of marketing. Here’s why:

    Email marketing presents more opportunities for your business and drives a better return on investment. With email marketing, your business can create deeper relationships with a wider audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional media.

    1. Email Marketing is Targeted

    Email marketing solves all the inherent problems of non-targeted marketing. Gone are the days of placing an advertisement on television, on a diner placemat, or in a periodical with no control of who will see it. With email marketing, you have the ability to control exactly who sees an email by segmenting your contacts based on their lead status, demographics, location or any other data. Targeting emails ensures that your audience receives content suited specifically to his/her needs. Email marketing makes it simple to customize your message for each customer, fostering a higher conversion rate.

    2. Email Marketing Increases Brand Awareness

    With each email sent, consumers are exposed to your business and your brand. With strategic planning, smart design and targeted content, your business will consistently build value. In doing so, you stay top-of-mind with your audience. Then, when a customer needs products or services, your business stands a much better chance of turning those leads into clients and clients into loyal customers.

    3. Email Marketing is Easily Shareable.

    There aren’t many forms of marketing as easy to share as email marketing. With the simple click of the forward button, subscribers can share your deals, offers and news with their friends. Subscribers who share your emails are acting as brand advocates. Therefore, when a subscriber shares an email with friends, your brand gains more exposure and credibility.

    4. Email Marketing is Measurable

    Analytics are indispensable to measuring the success of any campaign. Many marketing channels present ambiguous and estimated results. Email marketing, on the other hand, draws precise and valuable metrics, including delivery rates, open rates, click-to-deliver rates and subscriber retention rates. Even better: these metrics are more than just numbers and percentages. They are insights about your customers behaviors and interests. Use your email marketing campaign as a tool to monitor which information your consumers are most responsive to. From there, you can further target your marketing strategy towards more successful campaigns and topics of interest.

    5. Email Marketing is Cost effective.

    Perhaps the most appealing advantage of email marketing is the return on investment. No print costs, no postage fees, no advertising rates. Email marketing is as affordable as marketing gets. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing brings in $40 for every $1 spend, outperforming search, display and social marketing.

    We Can Help!

    In today’s ever-changing digital world, email marketing tends to take a backseat. However, if you haven’t considered email marketing for your business already, now is the time. Email marketing is a targeted, shareable, credible, measurable, and cost-effective tool overlooked by many. Working with a trusted marketing advisor makes the process simple and cost-effective. With a strategic approach, proper guidance and a strong message, your business is sure to benefit from email marketing.

    Source

  • Reasons to Invest in a Well Designed Website

    You may ask yourself the question, “My business is ticking over nicely, why should I pay for a well designed website?”

    Your website is open 24/7

    A website allows your business to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are millions of people, from all over the world, online at any time of the day. Many of them are looking to source products or services. If you run a conventional brick and mortar business, you can only attract the people who walk or drive past your shop, in any one day. Having a website designed for you allows you to attract new customers that would otherwise never find you – and they can do so when your shop is closed! A well designed web site also gives them a reason to revisit the site in the future.

    Websites increase customer confidence

    A professional, well designed website, with the right content, easy navigation and quickly accessible contact details, greatly increases customer confidence in your company. A well designed website shows people that you are forward thinking and customer focused, much in the way a well designed business card did in the past, which is an important factor in any buying decision that they have to make.

    Websites increase customer referrals

    What is easier to remember, mysite.com or 01215501528?
    A website address is much easier to remember than a telephone number, so it stands to reason that having a website increases the likelihood of referrals – and let’s face it, referrals are one of the most important sources of new business.

    A website address increases the ROI when advertising

    Including your website address on all of your adverts, business cards, letterheads, invoices, etc allows people to take action straight away, when they view an advert, or hear about your product or service. Visiting your website is so much easier than driving to your store, telephoning or writing a letter to you. When online, a potential customer can take their time and enjoy finding out about your products or services without the pressure of having a salesman floating about in the background.

    Website sales

    Your website is one of the most impressive sales presentations that you will ever have. Allowing your customers to buy your products or services online is a wonderful and inexpensive way to expand your business. Spending thousands on advertising, for an ad that is featured in one mag, for one month simply doesn’t compare to investing in a long term sales marketing solution – or a well designed website as we like to call them!

    Even if you do not offer a product or service that can easily be purchased over the Internet, a website still acts as an impressive first contact, convincing the potential customer that they need what you are offering and inviting them to contact you, via telephone, email or contact form on your website.

    Websites promote future business

    When a potential customer comes into your shop and leaves without making a purchase and without speaking to anyone, they are basically a dead prospect. When someone views your well designed website and doesn’t make a purchase straight away, they can easily revisit anytime to make the purchase in the future. On top of that, you can use your website to collect the email addresses of visitors and send them periodical promotional emails, newsletters or updates on your product or service. So although they may not buy first time around, you have more than one opportunity to close the sale!

    So there you go, what are you waiting for? Don’t waste time -get a well designed website now!  We are here to help you get your website where it needs to be!

    Source

     

  • Tips for an Awesome and SEO-Friendly Blog Post

    Writing a blog post -like all other writing- is a skill. In order to keep your reader interested, you should think about structuring your text and writing in an appealing style. You should help your readers to grasp the main idea of your post by providing headings, subheadings and clear paragraphs. If people understand and like your text, they are much more likely to share, like, tweet and link to your post. And that will increase your rankings! So, in order to improve your ranking in Google, you should definitely try to maximize your writing skills!

    For some, writing for SEO purposes and writing to attract and keep attracting your audience could appear as two contradictory goals. However, I totally disagree. Indeed, if you not only want a good but also an SEO-friendly blog post, your text should be written in such a way that the words you want to be found for have a very prominent place. And, using your keywords too often severely damages the readability of your text. So, you definitely should not do that!

    In this post, I would like to give some tips on writing blog posts that are both very readable as well as SEO-friendly. I genuinely think those two goals should (and can easily!) go hand in hand!

    Elementary writing tips for good blog posts

    Before anything, your blog post just has to be a good piece of writing! A lot of bloggers just begin to write after creating a new blog post. They just type what comes to mind. For some, this may be sufficient, because they are natural writing talents. Others may need some help. I always follow the next set of ‘rules’ myself.

    1. Think before you write!

    Think hard about the message of your text. What do you want to tell your readers? And what is the purpose of your text? What do you want you readers to do at the end of the page? Write down the answers to these questions before you begin writing.

    2. Write down the structure of your blog post.

    Every post should have some sort of introduction (in which you introduce your topic), a body (in which the main message is written) and a conclusion (which should summarize the most important ideas or deduce some new idea). Write down what you want to write in all these three sections. You now have some sort of summary of your post. The real writing can begin!

    3. Use paragraphs.

    Everybody uses paragraphs, but make sure to use paragraphs that make sense. Do not start a new sentence on a new line, just because it looks nice. There should be a reason for making a new paragraph. Every paragraph should have a main idea or a main subject. Ask yourself what the main idea of each paragraph is. You should be able to grasp that main idea in only one sentence. If you need more sentences, you simply need more paragraphs!

    4. Use Headings.

    If you want people to find their way in your articles, you should use subheadings. Subheadings will lead people, help them scan your page, and make the structure of your articles that much clearer.

    5. Use signal words.

    Signal words help people to scan through your text and help people to grasp your main idea. If you, for instance, have three reasons for wanting to sell a product, you should use signal words as: First of all, Secondly and Finally. Also, words as Nevertheless, Surely and Indeed also give a clear signal to your readers. Readers will instantly get that a conclusion will follow after words as Thus, So or Therefore. Signal words are thus very important to structure your text.

    6. Let other people read your post.

    Before publishing your post, let someone else read your post first. Ask him/her whether or not he understands the main idea of your post. Correct typo’s and sentences that are not formulated correctly.

    by Source: Yoast.com

  • Benefit Communication in the Mobile World – Benefits Technology

    Benefit and HR communications have long been a challenge for HR departments and the benefit consultants that support them. The struggle to communicate effectively with employees so that they better understand and utilize their employee benefits has made little progress in recent years. Now more than ever benefit professionals are looking at cross selling voluntary benefits to generate new or additional revenue sources, and the need for better communication with employees is even more vital.

    The topic of how better to leverage the latest in technology is a regular in our industry news and articles, mostly related to marketing for new business.  Until recently we have all looked at paper, onsite enrollers, and email blasts to try to interact with employees so they will understand and use their benefits.  The simple problem with these options is that they are all very easy to ignore and often miss entirely. These methods are work-related and as we all know work is the easiest thing to tune out or save for some later date that never seems to arrive.

    The clear opportunity before us all is that better utilizing technology and social media for employee-directed material is the true “ah-ha” moment that has been missing.  Utilizing the technology that employees use and access 100 times a day is the real key to interacting with your employees and getting the response you crave. Platforms like mobile-friendly websites, SMS/text-based reminders, and social media profiles are the next generation of employee engagement.

    Case in point:  at the next enrollment meeting notice before, after, and sadly DURING the presentation how many employees check their mobile devices. I think we can all agree they are probably NOT checking if a vital work email has come through. Text messages and social media clearly rule the attention of employees and ask yourself how much of that attention do you have?

    Examples to consider adopting for your agency:

    • Text-based messaging blasts
    • Social media / hashtag content posts
    • Incentive-driven voluntary benefit sign-ups

    Each solution could be easier than you think to leverage and might be a simple extra step with how your clients may already be connected with employees.  Be intentional and meet with your client and ask what types of communications they may already be doing and suggest one or more of these options. There are various vendors that can support and provide these services so do a little homework in advance to feel comfortable with delivering on your ideas.

    BIO:

    Jeff Hill has been passionate and working with Benefits Technology since 1998 starting with Resource Financial Group in Austin, TX. Developing employee benefit platforms for the broker community related to benefit websites, online and paperless enrollment, and communications has been Jeff’s constant focus in all areas of professional work. Jeff was on the original staff as Director of Technology for United Benefit Advisers and traveled the country presenting to agencies on how to best use technology to attract and win new business. As a leading expert in web design for the employee benefit market, his work has been utilized by agencies, carriers, and benefit industry professionals nationwide.

    As President of eTekhnos Benefit Technology, Jeff has led the company to annual double-digit growth and new innovations in the benefit technology industry.  eTekhnos is also the nation’s only Benefit Industry-focused web design and internet marketing agency. The benefit world is very unique in its marketing and branding needs and eTekhnos knows that world inside and out.  eTekhnos saves agencies time and money and delivers stunning client technology web design and social media content.

  • 5 Benefits of Blogging for Your Small Business

    If you run a small business, chances are you are wondering if blogging is worth the time and effort. The short answer is a resounding YES! Blogging on a frequent basis is a relatively easy, inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more perspective customers.

    The Case for Small Business Blogs

    Here are some of the most important benefits of having a blog for your business:

    1. Boost Search Engine Optimization-Search engines love fresh content. What better way to provide frequent content than with blog posts. By blogging consistently, you give Google and other search engines new content to index and you create opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPS).
    2. Develop Relationships with Potential and Existing Customers-Blogging allows you to connect with your site visitors. This can be accomplished by asking your readers questions at the end of your posts to get the conversation going or by simply allowing comments and feedback. By reviewing and responding to readers’ comments, you can create a rapport with your audience, build trust, and gain valuable insight into what your customers are looking for.
    3. Establish Your Business as an Industry Leader-No matter how small your business is, you can build trust and clout within your industry by providing valuable, expert information in your blog posts. Over time, you become a “go to” resource for helpful, informative content, which can ultimately lead to higher customer conversion rates. This is especially important for small businesses looking to gain credibility to compete with larger companies.
    4. Connect People to Your Brand-Blog posting allows you to show a personal side of your business that perspective and current customers won’t see through outbound marketing techniques. Blogging gives others a sense of the corporate standards, vision, and personality of your company.
    5. Create Opportunities for Sharing-Every time you blog, you create an opportunity for your audience to share your blog with others. Whether they link to your blog post, tweet it, or email it to others, it’s free marketing and it further validates you as a credible business.

    From a practical standpoint, blogging just makes sense. With minimal effort and expense, you can build credibility, boost search engine rankings, increase website traffic, and foster relationships with potential and current customers. This is an opportunity no small business should pass up.

    Read More – By Kelly Thomas Mango

    We are here to help with your blogging needs!  Rockstar Technology can drive traffic to your site with a new blog that can be integrated with all your social media outlets!