Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Deven Patel, founder and CEO of Cyfe, an all-in-one business dashboard app that helps you monitor all your business data from one place. 

Businesses can spend up to 80 percent of their time collecting, monitoring, analyzing, and reporting data.

With so many new online services popping up every day, this problem gets even worse. The bigger your presence is online, the more data you have to manage.

What impact can this have on your business?

Trying to juggle data for multiple websites, blogs, email accounts, social media accounts, and so forth becomes very cumbersome. And the data can become too overwhelming to understand. The web grows at an exponential rate so you would literally have to track a new piece of data every month.

This tedious and repetitive work is a complete waste of time. And as you may know, the number one thing a business needs is more time.

This is where a business dashboard comes into play.

A business dashboard can help you save time and make better business decisions at the same time.

An all-in-one business dashboard app like Cyfe is especially handy. It helps you easily monitor all your business data from one place (e.g. social media, analytics, marketing, sales, support, infrastructure, etc).

With Cyfe, you can take the frustration out of the entire process of monitoring and reporting on your business’s performance. You no longer need to waste countless hours logging in and out of all the different web services you use for your business.

You can also access Cyfe from your mobile device to track your results and see what your customers are saying about your business in real time.

Cyfe lets you monitor individual departments, projects, multiple websites and anything else using dashboards. You can pull data from Constant Contact, and from other popular services like Google and Facebook using pre-built widgets. Or use custom widgets to securely display data from your company’s databases.

Below are a few examples of dashboards you can create for your business.

  • Startup Dashboard: Track number of new sign ups, app downloads, subscriptions, and other related KPIs in real-time.
  • Social Media Dashboard: Monitor brand mentions, track number of Twitter followers over time, view Facebook demographics, and more.
  • Marketing Dashboard: Monitor all your marketing channels like email, SEO, social media, and analytics from one place.
  • Client Dashboard: Automate client reporting by bringing together their advertising, SEO, social media, and analytics data.
  • Web Analytics Dashboard: Track multiple websites, top referring domains, search engines, SEO keyword rankings, and more.
  • Finance Dashboard: Keep tabs on business expenses, company revenue, customer invoices, balances, and more.
  • Sales Dashboard: View sales goals, top sales reps, latest opportunities, win/loss reports, new customers, and more.
  • Project Management Dashboard: Get a bird’s eye view of your latest projects, tasks, to-dos, upcoming calendar events, and more.
  • IT Dashboard: Network monitoring, website uptime, server load, app performance, and end-user tracking all in one place.

You can also monitor your Constant Contact email campaigns directly on your dashboards.

Stats are presented inside flexible widgets that can be customized to fit your own custom dashboards, allowing you to constantly keep tabs on your email campaigns without having to log into your Constant Contact account whenever you need an update:

Cyfe Email Reports

And the best thing about using a dashboard tool is that you can share specific sets of data with specific members of your team without exposing confidential information about your business.

You can even schedule automated email reports and keep tabs on your business on the go!

Ready to get started?

Visit Cyfe.com to learn more about how you can save time and make better business decisions using dashboards. It takes less than 60 seconds to set up a business dashboard and it’s free to get started!

About the Author: Deven Patel is an entrepreneur who has always had a burning passion to create products that solve real world problems. For example, Cyfe was built to solve a specific problem he faced many times in the past.

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Ella Wirtz, co-founder of Boutique Window, an easy-to-use platform that makes online marketing simple for small retailers. Boutique Window easily integrates with your Constant Contact account. Learn more.

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social networks and has proven to be an exciting (and effective) place for retailers to connect with shoppers.

Instagram just announced that they’ve reached 200 million active monthly users and over 20 billion photos have been shared.

With easy mobile access and a beautiful visual browsing experience, it’s a no brainer for retail stores to join the bandwagon.

So what is Instagram?

Simply put, it’s a photo and video sharing social network app for mobile devices. Businesses and individuals alike can create a profile to instantly snap and share visual content with their followers. Users can like or comment on posts and explore new content by searching for #hashtags. Unlike Facebook, Instagram’s feed remains unfiltered and shoppers will be able to browse all of the content posted by the friends and businesses they follow.

Here at Boutique Window, we love Instagram so much that we made it easy for independent retailers using our tool to share photos and collages of their merchandise on Instagram, right from our marketing platform.

We recommend sharing on Instagram a minimum of 2-3 times per week and a maximum of 2-3 times per day. Remember to spread your shares out throughout the day to reach the maximum number of your shoppers (and to be sure not to annoy them with too much content!).

If you’re just getting started with Instagram or simply looking for new inspiration on what to share, use these 5 simple tips to getting the most out of Instagram for your retail store.

1. Showcase your merchandise.

Shoppers want to see what you have available for sale! Keep your smartphone nearby so you can snap quick product photos of new arrivals and bestsellers. Worried about your photography skills? Use these simple tips to take photos like a pro.

ShowcaseMerchandise

2. Exhibit your styling expertise in the real world.

Lifestyle photos are a huge hit on Instagram. Recruit an employee to model your merchandise around town or show off a room in a client’s home that you’ve designed.

ExhibitStylingExpertise

3. Get shoppers engaged with a contest.

Running a contest or promotion on Instagram is a great way to get shoppers talking. Offer free swag, a gift card to your store or a private shopping event. Include details on how to participate in the contest in the caption. Don’t forget to include the promotion end date and to announce the winner once they have been selected!

Contest

4. Go behind the scenes.

Shoppers feel especially connected when they get a taste of what your everyday life is like. Share travel photos when you’re headed to market, post videos when you’re prepping for a big fashion show, or recommend your favorite local restaurant the next time you’re enjoying a meal.

BehindTheScenes

5. Let shoppers know about an upcoming sale.

Your shoppers want to know when you have newly discounted merchandise and about upcoming sales so they know when to shop! Be sure to let your followers on Instagram know when you’re hosting a sale and what kind of savings they can see.

Tip: If you don’t have the time to design images like the one below to promote your upcoming sales or promotions, the Boutique Window Content Library is full of beautifully designed social posts.

Sale

Need help with your online marketing?

Boutique Window is the simplest, most effective online marketing platform for your store. In addition to helpful tools for creating engaging posts on social media, Boutique Window integrates with Constant Contact and allows you to manage your social media, email marketing and retail website from one easy-to-use tool.

Save time, stay organized, and make more sales with Boutique Window!

Special Offer for Constant Contact readers: Get started with your 15-day free trial today. Sign up with coupon code STARTER to get 50% off your first year!

About the Author: Ella Wirtz is the founder of Boutique Window, an easy-to-use platform that makes online marketing simple for small retailers. Ella helps retailers across the world better engage with their shoppers online and increase their sales. Check out her other great resources on the Boutique Window blog and download her Free Guide to Fall Marketing.

You’ve started using YouTube to upload and share videos for your business or organization.

Now you’re wondering who is actually watching your videos and how they can get more views and better engagement.

That’s where using YouTube Analytics comes in.

Building a bustling YouTube channel requires you to understand who your audience is and how they’re engaging with your videos.

Luckily, YouTube Analytics can tell you a lot about who your audience is, what they like, and what kind of content you should be creating to be successful.

To help you make the most of this valuable tool, I’ve put together a step-by-step overview of YouTube Analytics, the different insights it provides, and how you can use the information available in your reports to improve your results!

Want to try email marketing for your business? Sign up for your free 60-day Constant Contact trial here.

To get started, sign in to your Google account and navigate to your YouTube channel page.

At the top of your channel page, you will see subscribers, views and a link called Video Manager.

YTA-Image-1

Click views to go directly to your channel’s analytics.

YTA-Image-2

You are now looking at the Overview of your analytics. The default setting gives you data for the past 28 days, but you can change that to any period of time that you wish to retrieve analytics from.

This page gives you key information on performance and engagement in a concise and easy-to-read format. For a quick snapshot of your channel’s performance, Overview is the best place to go.

Every category on the Overview page has its own dedicated page with a more expansive breakdown. In the margin on the left hand side of this page you will find tabs for each aspect of the analytics YouTube provides.

YTA-Image-3Let’s take a closer look at each of these reports and how they can be used to your advantage:

Views

The Views Report provides insight into the overall performance of your YouTube channel, and can also be used to dive deeper into the performance of individual videos.

YTA-Image-4

Using the search function at the top of the page, you can search for videos by name or location. You can also click on the calendar icon to choose a date range to analyze.

Within the Views Report you will see:

  • Views: See how many people have watched your video and more specifically how many have clicked a link that began playing your video. Whether a person only watches one second of your video before turning it off, or watches the entire video, both count as a view.
  • Estimated minutes watched: YouTube adds up the time that people have spent watching the videos you have shared. This simply shows how many minutes of your videos have collectively been watched on your channel.
  • Average view duration: See if people are watching your video all the way to the end or cutting before your video is finished. This is a great tool for determining the ideal length for videos you decide to create in the future.

Tip: Getting lots of views is great for branding and advertising, but that shouldn’t be the main measure by which you judge whether or not your video was successful. High engagement, good view duration, and growing subscription to your channel can be more rewarding than views. Quality viewers are more important than quantity.

Demographics

Beyond views, YouTube also provides insight into the demographic breakdown of your audience.

The two insights currently available under Demographics are: gender and location.

Tip: For a small business that’s focused on a local clientele, YouTube’s geographic insights can provide a helpful look into whether or not your videos are reaching the right people. While it’s great to have a ton of views, you also want to make sure that you’re reaching a relevant audience for your business.

Playback locations

One of the great things about YouTube is that when you create a video that is fun, entertaining, or both — your videos can be shared in a number of different ways. One of the ways that people can share your videos is to embed them on their own website or blog.

The Playback locations report shows the sites your videos are being viewed on. This page also gives estimated minutes watched and average view duration, but this time broken down by location. This is a great way to see if people are embedding your videos on their sites or blogs and what those sites are.

Traffic sources

YouTube makes it easy to see how people are finding your videos.

Types of traffic sources include YouTube search, YouTube suggested videos (found within YouTube by clicking a thumbnail), YouTube channel page, and YouTube playlist. There are also categories for videos that are featured by YouTube on their masthead or by a guide feature YouTube generates based on what channels users follow.

Tip: One of the best ways to get more views on YouTube is to share your videos across your different communication channels — like email and social media. As you start to grow your channel and promote your videos, you can use this report to identify your most valuable sources of traffic.

Devices

This report lets you know what devices and operating systems people are watching your videos on. Computer, Mobile phone, Tablet, and Game console all have their own breakdown for you to get deeper into this data.

Tip: The vast majority of people watch YouTube videos on a computer. For this reason we suggest putting your videos into playlists. When viewing a video that is in a playlist on a computer, the layout changes to highlight the other videos in that sequence and will play the next video in that playlist, keeping the viewer watching your videos uninterrupted.

Audience retention

See how much of your video is being watched and, on average, when people are turning it off.

Tip: We recommend making videos between 30-90 seconds in length. It doesn’t sound like much time to get a lot of information out, but it’s an eternity on YouTube. Most people will watch your 30 second video all the way through, whereas very few people will watch your seven minute opus. The bottom line: shorter videos are more engaging than longer videos.

Below the Views reports are the Engagement reports.

YouTube Analytics 5

Views are just one part of building a successful YouTube Channel. As you start to share content on YouTube and build an audience, you’ll also want to be mindful of the type of engagement your videos are generating.

Here’s a closer look at  the different Engagement reports available in YouTube Analytics:

Subscribers

See how many people have subscribed and unsubscribed to your channel. This is a great measure of success for your video content. You want to be creating videos that make people come back for more; you want to be a resource for information, inspiration, or entertainment.

Tip: According to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine with over 3 billion searches a month. Get more subscribers by thinking about what people are searching for and creating content that’s valuable to them.

Likes and dislikes

YouTube makes it easy to see how people are responding to your videos — both positively and negatively.

Keep in mind that inspiring and entertaining videos typically garner the most amount of likes on YouTube. Other types of videos — like educational content, advertisements, or product focused videos — may not generate the same amount of likes, but will still play an important role in your YouTube strategy.

Favorites

This report shows both when a video was marked as a favorite and also when it was unmarked. When a person marks your video as a favorite your video becomes a part of their favorites category on their personal YouTube profile. While a favorite is a great indicator of engagement for your video, having a person remove the favorite marker might just mean they don’t want it to be a part of their public profile anymore.

Comments

See how many comments each of your videos has received. Comments can be a great way to interact with your viewers. Keep up with your comments and respond promptly to any questions or criticism.

Always be professional. Avoid arguing with someone on a comment thread; simply ask them to follow up with you via email, so you can handle any concerns in a less public setting.

Sharing

This report shows you the number of times your video has been shared, and which social network it is shared on. You can also view this data by date rather than video or sharing service.

Annotations

Adding annotations to your videos gives viewers the ability to click through to your website or blog to read more.

This report provides details of the activity, click-through data, and close rates for each annotation you add to your videos.

If you want people to be able to link to your website or domain directly from your video (Associated Website annotations), you will need to enable this feature first. A Google Webmaster Tools account is required and you will have to verify your website with Google as well. This process takes a few steps but it’s worth it to be able to point people directly to your site from a video.

Tip: We have found that adding a single, clear, call to action at the end of your video is the most effective. This call to action should not be to buy a product or service — that’s not why people are on YouTube. Giving people the opportunity to learn more about your company or services, however, can be very effective. Try driving traffic to your website at the end of your video.  

With these analytics you should have no problem measuring your success on YouTube.

Remember, YouTube is a social channel, not a place for you to advertise or sell your products or services.

The most valuable indicator of success is building an audience that cares about your brand and message and shows their enthusiasm through likes, comments, shares, and long engagement time. These are the folks that will click through your annotations and the people who will subscribe to your channel.

Using YouTube Analytics will help you decide which types of videos you should focus on. Your audience might be most interested in how-to’s, inspirational videos, or something that will make them laugh.

Pay attention to what they’re engaging with and create something that they will appreciate.

Ask us any questions about YouTube Analytics in the comments below — we’re happy to help!

Want to try email marketing for your business? Sign up for your free 60-day Constant Contact trial here.

**Bell rings**

Welcome back students! Hope you all had a wonderful summer.

My name is Professor Ryan Kettler — welcome to Content Marketing 101. My job is to help you be successful with your content marketing efforts this semester and beyond.

Content marketing is the process of writing and distributing valuable, compelling, educational and relevant content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — with the objective of increasing qualified traffic and customers to your business.

School’s back in session, so listen up and get ready to take some notes!

Let’s begin by reviewing your syllabus and going over each of the lessons we’ll be completing:

Lesson 1: Research your target audience

The first, and most important step for any content marketing campaign is to research your target audience to find out the following:

  • Who they are (demographically)
  • What they enjoy reading about
  • What they’re afraid of
  • What they need help with
  • How they prefer to receive information (where they hang out online)

Finding this information will allow you to shape and structure your content in such a way that it’s well-received. It never feels good to publish a piece of content you think is amazing, only to have it be a complete flop.

Researching helps you avoid content marketing duds.

The easiest way to research your audience is to start engaging them. Add a newsletter signup form to your blog and then send surveys out once every quarter asking your subscribers what they want to read about to get the answers and insight you’re looking for.

Another great tactic from Jason Falls is asking a research-type question to your Facebook audience every week to stay in tune.

Lesson 2: Brainstorm your blog topics

Now that you know more about your target audience, you should be able to easily come up with some relevant blog topics that are of interest to them.

Let’s say you’re a coffee roaster. Your company imports coffee beans from all over the world and roasts them to make some super-tasty, caffeine-laden work fuel.

You know through your research that your audience loves reading about the different regions where coffee is cultivated.

**Ding-Ding**

You have your first topic to write about! Not only that, this topic can easily be turned into a series where you highlight each of the countries that produce coffee and their cultures: Ethiopia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, etc.

You can determine one region to highlight each month. This allows you to easily plan out at least a year’s worth of posts, which brings us to our next lesson.

Lesson 3: Schedule your content marketing calendar

You’ve researched your audience and brainstormed some topics that would interest them. Now it’s time to schedule your content marketing calendar and get to writing.

This means planning for, and writing one relevant blog post a week, for 52 weeks. It may seem like a lot, but trust me, you can do it. Don’t worry about length, instead try to make the articles as interesting and engaging as possible.

Set a day of the week when you’re going to publish posts so your regular readers know when to expect new content from you.

By planning and scheduling your content marketing calendar, you’re going to be way ahead of the game. There are a lot of marketers who write content about topics without having the slightest clue if they’ll resonate with their audience or not. That’s a dangerous habit prone to producing fewer results.

Check out Jamie Griffiths’ handy content calendar template over on the Convince & Convert blog.

Lesson 4: Build your audience through teamwork

If you have an internal team or colleague that can assist you with your content marketing, that can take a good portion of the workload off your plate. Some of you might be working by yourself and thinking, “there’s no way I can do this” and I just don’t have the time.

I hear you loud and clear and want to share a secret — you can do it, and you do have the time. You just have to make it by prioritizing your content marketing.

One great way to save time is to work with other relevant businesses by having them promote your content. This is called co-marketing, and it’s a super-tactic for you to implement in your strategy.

Going back to our coffee roaster business, we know that our audience is people who love and have a passion for all things coffee. That’s a pretty big audience which means there are thousands of other relevant businesses who you could provide content to in exchange for a relevant backlink. Links from other sites are even better than content on your own website, since they connect other audiences with your business.

For example, you probably sell coffee accessories along with your coffee: grinders, scales, pour-over setups, tea kettles, etc. You should reach out to some of the vendors whose products you sell and pitch them on some guest post ideas. An example would be reaching out to the vendor that provides you with the grinders you sell in-store and asking them if you can provide them with a guest article about “How different grinding coarseness affects your coffee’s taste”.

I’m sure the vendor would agree to publish your article in a heartbeat. It’s a topic you’re already an expert on and it’s relevant to both of your businesses and audiences. It’s a match made in coffee heaven that’s sure to generate some buzz. Later on, the grinder vendor could reciprocate by providing you with a guest blog post for your website.

Lesson 5: Review and grade your progress

After you have started publishing and promoting blog posts on your blog as well as your co-marketing partners’ blogs, it’s time to review and grade your results.

In order to do this effectively, make sure that you have installed Google Analytics on your website. The will ensure that each of your posts, both on- and off-site are tracked and analyzed. Another great way to keep track of your content partnership team and audience is using BoostSuite’s co-marketing audience metric.

Success with content marketing can be measured many ways: comments, shares, retweets/mentions, sign ups, form submissions, etc. The key is to have a goal in mind around one or a couple of these metrics.

Here’s an awesome beginner’s guide to setting up goals in Google Analytics from the Search Engine Land blog for your reference.

An additional technique to use when reviewing results is creating custom campaigns and trying Google’s URL Builder to track referral traffic from the posts your partners publish.

Following these tips will allow you to quickly and easily review your results and give yourself a grade as to how close you were to meeting your goals. If you didn’t quite get there, then you should be able to tell how you can improve next semester. Obviously if you exceed your goals, you get an A+!

I wish you the best of luck with your content marketing this semester and well into the future. If you’re able to follow my lesson plan step by step, I’m sure you’ll pass Content Marketing 101 with flying colors and make the Dean’s list!

Please rate your professor’s knowledge and advice in the comments below!

About the Author: 

Ryan Kettler is Director of Communications for BoostSuite, the collaborative marketing tool for small businesses.

Ryan is an Internet marketing zealot, sports fanatic, devoted runner, avid golfer, beer connoisseur, and live music enthusiast. When he’s not helping BoostSuite customers he can be found running 5ks, sampling IPAs, and cheering on his North Carolina State Wolfpack.

Follow BoostSuite on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on the latest content marketing news and insights.

LinkedIn is one of those social networks you may feel a bit unsure about.

You might even be asking yourself, “How can this site help me grow my small business?”

LinkedIn is recognized as the professional social network. It’s a place where people in all industries can go to build relationships with their colleagues and demonstrate their experience and expertise. It’s also a place where businesses and organizations can show off their work to prospective clients, customers, and even future employees.

Use these posts to help you get started:

  1. Getting Started on LinkedIn
  2. Using LinkedIn Groups
  3. Adding a Company to LinkedIn
  4. How to Build Authority on LinkedIn
  5. How LinkedIn Can Help You Find Your Next Great Employee

For more information about using other social media networks for your business, visit our Social Media Quickstarter homepage.  

Facebook 101
Facebook.

Even if you’re not one of the over one billion monthly active Facebook users, chances are you’ve heard of this enormous social network. As you might suspect, there’s power in that kind of enormity.

When you set up a Facebook Page for your business, you can easily connect with existing customers while also getting in front of a brand new audience.

Whether you’re just getting started on Facebook or looking for advice to grow your Facebook Page, the Social Media Quickstarter can help.

Find the resources you need below:

  1. Facebook Glossary
  2. Facebook Page vs. Facebook Profile
  3. Choosing the Right Type of Page
  4. Set Up Your Facebook Page
  5. What Should You Say to Create Better Facebook Content?
  6. How to Promote Your Facebook Page
  7. Adding Photos to Your Page
  8. Choosing the Right Facebook Cover Photo
  9. You as Your Brand Page
  10. How to Schedule Facebook Posts
  11. Introduction to Facebook Insights
  12. How to Show Up in the Facebook News Feed
  13. How to Convert Your Facebook Profile to a Facebook Page
  14. Common Facebook Mistakes to Avoid
  15. How to Use Facebook to Grow Your Email List
  16. One Mistake You Don’t Want to Make When Running a Facebook Ad
  17. Facebook Advertising Ideas

For more information about using other social media networks for your business, visit our Social Media Quickstarter homepage.  

Learning about online marketing can be a challenge.

Learning about online marketing, while also trying to sort through all of the vocabulary that comes with it, can be downright scary.

From tired buzzwords to misused jargon, it can be hard to get to the bottom of what some marketing concepts actually mean and how exactly they can be applied to your business strategy.

To help you cut down on the confusion, here’s a short list of some common marketing terms that are often misused or misunderstood.

1. Content

I like to think of content as a gift to your audience.

Whether it takes the form of a blog post, webinar, podcast, image, tweet, E-book, or infographic, content should be valuable to your audience. It should also help you build trust and authority with the people you share it with.

Think about the best gift you’ve ever received. Most likely what made the gift special was the feeling that the person who gave it to you knew you so well. When you’re creating and sharing content, always have your audience in mind and offer them something meaningful.

If you get stuck, just remember that the best type of content is something your audience will thank you for.

2. Marketing

Think of marketing as the bridge you build to connect you and someone you want to develop a strong, long-lasting, professional relationship with.

Good marketing should effectively communicate what your business or organization can do for other people. The major goal of marketing is to share the right message with the right people at the right time in the hopes of building a mutually beneficial connection.

3. Content marketing

Ready to bring the two together?

Content marketing is giving people something valuable and relevant, to connect them with your business and create a strong relationship.

4. Marketing campaign

If marketing is the overarching philosophy you’re working with, a campaign is marketing in action.

A marketing campaign is a specific, well planned, and concentrated effort to attract people to your business or organization.

Campaigns can take a lot of different forms. Here are some of the most effective:

  • Email campaign – Email is one of the most direct ways to reach your audience because you’re sending to a place most people go every day — their inbox. Using a professional looking email template, adding engaging content, and providing a clear action for readers to take is a smart approach to building a connection.
  • Survey – Getting feedback regularly is the best way to know if your marketing is on track and to find out where there’s room for improvement. Ask your audience what’s working for them and what not and really listen to what they have to say. Making adjustments based on their input will go a long way in showing your audience that their opinion matters to you.
  • Local deal – Who doesn’t like a good deal? Giving your audience a special offer or discount is a great way to inspire them to be generous with you. But be careful — making an offer without thinking it through could backfire and end up hurting your business and reputation. Take the time to formulate a plan and make sure you can deliver on what you’re offering.
  • Event – You may not realize it, but events are one of the most effective marketing campaigns you can run. For small businesses, events provide an opportunity to take customer relationships offline, and bring new people into your store, restaurant, or office. With online marketing tools, you can easily promote your events through email and social media, collect registrations online, and send follow ups to keep relationships going, long after the event has ended.

5. Brand

For a campaign to be successful, it needs to be unique. In other words, it needs to incorporate your signature style or brand.

Branding is what sets you apart from your competitors. Building a brand is about identifying your strengths and making promises you know you can deliver on.

6. Lead

A lead is an individual or organization whose needs align well with what your business or organization has to offer. A lead has expressed interest in some way, whether that’s visiting your website, coming into your store, or connecting with you on social media. You should actively be pursuing leads to grow your business.

7. Lead capture

As menacing as the word “capture” may sound, don’t let it turn you off. Ultimately, lead capture ensures you are not ignoring people who are interested in your business or organization.

Encourage leads to share their contact information through a form to your website or utilize one of the many campaign types already mentioned. The next step is to nurture your leads.

8. Lead nurture

If marketing is the bridge between you and your target audience, think of lead nurturing as all the steps you’re encouraging people to take to get on your side.

In more concrete terms: once a lead has connected with you, you need to cultivate that relationship by giving them relevant and consistent information to guide them to a place where they are comfortable with and committed to you.

9. Conversion

Throughout all your marketing efforts, one of your biggest goals will always be conversion. Conversion happens when someone performs a desired action based on your hard work.

Conversions can range from minor things like when a contact opens an email or clicks on a link, to larger actions like when a lead signs up for one of your services. Ideally, you want every minor conversion to bring your lead one step closer to a major conversion.

Hopefully this was helpful in making a few marketing terms less daunting.

Of course, there are plenty more marketing terms out there that could leave you scratching your head.

We’re here to help! We’re already at work, building our next list of marketing terms and want to make sure we’re giving you the help you need to be successful.