Today’s business owners are expected to do their marketing first. And in today’s digital marketing world, they are expected to do more with less: marking a new era of content marketing, social media, and collaboration. Businesses are moving towards automation in their marketing operations. Businesses that embrace automation see benefits such as increased productivity, efficiency, accuracy and uptime. Read on to discover how you can put in place automation in your business operations so you can do your marketing like a real marketer.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is a strategy that uses software to install marketing campaigns across many channels, such as email, website, social media, and advertising. The best marketers use automation to advertise, analyze marketing campaigns, have repetitive/tedious tasks done for them and track customer behavior. Compared to manual marketing, automated marketing has a higher ROI. Making the switch to automation and ensuring it works requires a fair amount of planning, but is oh so worth it in the end.

Why Should Businesses Embrace Automation?

As a marketer, you are likely very familiar with marketing automation. Automation is more than a buzzword; it is an important tool that allows marketers to take control of their workflows, leave less room for errors and move towards more effective marketing strategies. With automation, you can scale activities such as email blasts, improve customer engagement and streamline the entire process. These advantages of marketing automation can help you become more efficient and effective, allowing you to save time and money. Here are some reasons why you should embrace automation:

- It saves time: You spend valuable time on customer acquisition and engagement, not on repetitive tasks.

- It saves money: Automation means you don’t have to hire extra employees or spend time on hiring and training. With automation, your team stays lean and your margins stay high.

How to Install Marketing Automation

The most important steps to perform before implementing automation are planning and setting goals:

- Create an Automation Plan: A marketing automation plan is the backbone of your marketing automation implementation.

- Define Goals: Before you start, make sure you define your goals. What do you want your customers to do after they engage with your marketing? How do you want to track customer engagement?

-Form sequences of actions: Once one event occurs (known as a trigger), what are the next steps that need to automatically happen in the sequence to effectively arrive at the desired end point?

- Choose the right platform: There are a lot of options for automation software such as Zapier, Workato, Bitskout, and Synaptic. For beginners, we recommend using Zapier. It’s the most widely applicable and user-friendly software for the less tech-savvy population, yet still packs the powerful punch as an automation workhorse.

- Integrate with other applications: Once you’ve chosen a platform and implemented it, integrate it with other applications such as your CRM, website, etc. Zapier can connect thousands of common apps to make your workflow effortless. When you plan your automation, make sure you list out all the apps you use daily.

Streamline Your Marketing Processes

Automation allows you to create marketing campaigns triggered by customer behavior and events. This means that you don’t have to send emails or follow up with leads. Before selecting the events that trigger your automated campaign, ask yourself, “What is the point of this marketing campaign?” and “When is the most relevant time to send this message?” Your marketing automation platform should allow you to create rules or trigger events based on the following:

- Customers signing up on your website

- Customers purchasing a product or service

- Customers leaving their contact information

- Customers completing a survey

- Customers engaging with your content

- Customers commenting on your social media posts

- Customers following you on social media

- Customers clicking on your links

With automation, you can send a consistent flow of content to your customers across many channels, such as email, social media, and your website, so they receive regular updates. Also, automation allows you to track customer engagement, which gives you a better understanding of customer behavior.

Need Help Bringing down the Marketing Budget?

Automation will make your work life better. It will flat out make your life work better. Especially if you are an entrepreneur with an online business but any business or professional can enjoy the magic of strategic automations.

Zapier is free for one-step automations. Multi-step Zaps will require a subscription of $20 per month to execute. Zapier makes it super easy to navigate the automation process and we are confident that most business owners with online companies can navigate the waters without help.

If you do need help with automation or don’t have time to streamline your business alone you can book a call with us by visiting www.guaava.co or clicking here: https://calendly.com/megan_guaava/meeting

With less than an hour commute to Austin city center, Georgetown is feeling the effects of the tech spawned Austin population boom as people are looking for more affordable surrounding areas to call their home. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau has named the city the fastest-growing in the country by percentage among those with populations of at least 50,000.

Although some folks may be reluctant to accept the change and growth surrounding their small town, some small business owners recognize the abundant opportunity that comes with an increase in numbers if they are able to properly leverage the market.

We sat down with Hometown Roofing Pros owner, Gary Brown, and asked him a few questions surrounding his roofing contractor company that’s been a Georgetown staple since 2008.

Gary ​grew up in the area and attended the University of Texas majoring in marketing. He worked for AAFES for 16 years before returning to Georgetown to help his parents open Bray’s A to Z Rental where he became more knowledgeable about construction.

Gary then began working for a roofing company. After a few years of being part of the team, the owner sold the company. He took this as an opportunity to branch out and start his own roofing business.

Since 2008, Gary has experienced quite a change in the local economy in Georgetown. The cost of expansion has been distributed between his company and the homeowner as well. ​Gary says that, “the increased cost of goods has been the major factor impacting roofing these days, as well as availability of certain shingles. Also the deductibles have become so high. It used to be around $1000, now its 1% of the value of the home.”

The best way local businesses like Gary’s can offset these costs is to utilize the advantage of the sheer abundance of newcomers to Georgetown, where they are based, and the surrounding areas that Hometown Roofing Pros serves such as RoudRock, Pflugerville, Austin, Leander, Lakeyway, Belton, Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, Temple and more.

The biggest obstacle standing in the way of small businesses are the bigger guys infiltrating the market who have no shortage of capital to inject into their lead generation campaigns and marketing efforts.

Gary wants to encourage all newcomers to the Georgetown, Austin, and RoundRock area to consider local businesses first. Gary explains, “Homeowners should do business locally and avoid the roofers that are going door to door. Those roofers are typically not local guys.”

Hometown Roofing Pros is confident that their exceptional service differentiates their company from the competition. They use quality products and systems manufactured by top rated manufacturers in the roofing industry, including Owens Corning and McElroy Metal. Gary says that Being Owens Corning certified means, “We are able to offer better warranties because we are using their full line of materials. This way, the manufacturer knows that we are installing within all of their installation guidelines.”

Gary advocates that any new homeowners from differing climates know what kind of roof suits the central Texas weather conditions best. According to his expertise, “ 24 gauge standing seam metal is best. It stands up to the heat much better. You can capture runoff water and it holds up to the storms we have in Central Texas.” One of the most common things Gary sees are trees rubbing against the roof and creating damage. He says, “​Homeowners should keep their trees cut back about 3 feet from their roofs to help prevent the rubbing.”

Considering a new roof or seeking repair on one is a big decision purchase. If you or someone you know is in the market, consider the benefits of hiring a local company who cares about their community and its members. This will ensure that you are given neighborly, high quality service because frankly, local companies have a lot more riding on their reputation than the big guys do. Hometown Roofing Pros has been active in the community for almost 20 years and has sponsored many local scholarship funds including the Williamson County A&M Club.

Here are the final parting comments from this awesome small business owner in Georgetown Texas:

“We are one of the oldest roofing companies in Georgetown. We have been through the many ups and downs of our economy. A customer can always speak directly with me, the owner, if they have any questions. We put all our customers first and strive to deliver the highest quality roof for them. ​I enjoy meeting and getting to know my customers. I have had the good fortune of making long time relationships with many. We know that we can trust one another and they feel comfortable in referring others to me as well as coming back with additional roofing needs.”

— Gary Brown, Owner, Hometown Roofing Pros

Follow Hometown Roofing Pros on Facebook and Instagram! Be sure to subscribe to the monthly newsletter for best practices to maintain your roof here: https://www.hometownroofingpros.com/newsletter

After explaining the difference between the three types of media to clients over and over again, we realized that it’s not common knowledge. We know the media can be “gate-keepy” and non-marketers are often kept in the dark. We want to do our part as an agency to change that stigma and hopefully this explainer can shed light on one important topic. Let’s dig in!

Owned:

Owned media pertains to any outlets fully controlled by a brand. Examples of owned media include internal social media channels, internal blogs, internal podcasts, or internal YouTube Channels. Essentially any channels that are owned by the brand which may be used to disseminate media content.

Pros and Cons of Owned Media:

The benefits of owned media include SEO, social proof, and the ability to position the brand as an expert/thought leader. Another advantage is that owned media is usually free or very inexpensive.

Two massive drawbacks to owned media are third party validation and reach. Owned media lends little credibility due to the fact that these channels are internally owned and operated, essentially making them glorified brand promo outlets.

Reach can also be a source of frustration. The audience or viewership is solely dependent upon how many followers or subscribers are tuned into a brand’s owned media channels.

If you are willing to put in the work to boost the viewership of these channels, you can increase the value of the audience and ultimately the value of the channel itself. With no reach and no audience, posting content to your owned media channels is a kin to playing a show at an empty stadium.

Paid:

Paid media is the form in which coverage is secured through payment. Some publications take payment for guaranteed guest posts or bylines, Op-Eds, and advertorials which do promo for a brand.

Another example of Paid media would be any form of paid advertising. The most common platforms for paid ads in digital marketing include social media and Google.

Pros and Cons of Paid Media:

The upside of paid media is that it is guaranteed to put your brand in front of a much larger audience than you could reach organically. While there is intrinsic value in having more eyes on your goodies, the biggest drawback is cost.

Ad campaigns can start at a modest fee but rapidly compound if you are not diligent about monitoring them. Most ad platforms do not charge a set rate, but charge a rate per each individual event (view, click, etc.)

If for some reason an ad blows up, the $10 per day limit you think is protecting your pocketbook gets a quick override from the ad manager and your new price is the cost per event in most cases.

Another related drawback to paid media is that setting up and optimizing ad campaigns is a skillset. Anyone can set up an ad campaign, but people go to school or spend years learning how to set them up correctly.

The ad manager is a cruel mistress, she will take your money knowing full well that you have a terrible ad which will yield an awful cost per result (CPR).

In short, it is very easy to waste a ton of money with little return if you have no experience managing paid media channels.

Earned:

Earned media is coverage that is given to a brand either through strategic media relations from a PR Pro or coverage that is gifted by a journalist, reporter, blogger, vlogger, influencer, podcaster or any other media outlet actively seeking a source in exchange for featuring a brand in their publication.

The key to this type of media is the word EARNED, meaning free. This is tricky as some bloggers or publications will offer you coverage for a price. To clear things up, the minute you pay for a byline or have a reporter write about your brand for a fee, the media is no longer EARNED but PAID. Sometimes it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but is in fact not a duck.

Pros and Cons of Earned Media:

Let’s talk about the upsides. Earned media is the purest form of media coverage with the highest ROI. This is the media you are looking for.

With earned coverage, the intentions have not been tainted with money like paid media and the audience is not your own like owned media, so third party validation and reach is abundant.

In its most organic form — a situation where you have no PR team to pay and the journalist is reaching out to you seeking your input as a source — investment down, if anything at all, is simply the time it takes to be interviewed. Returns are higher than any other form of coverage in this specific situation.

In a slightly more cultivated situation in which you have hired a PR team to yield earned coverage on your behalf, your returns will be less *magnifique* yet STILL more than a leap in the right direction compared to the investment needed for paid media coverage.

The downside? It’s DIFFICULT. It’s hard to get media outlets to cover you for free, that’s why it’s called earned media and not free media. You have to have an actual STORY about your company or something happening within your industry, package that story up nicely with a bow made of research and cold hard data, then pitch it to a relevant journalist who may or may not leave you on read for the rest of your life.

So many factors go into securing earned coverage there is little way to predict if coverage will be secured, which leads brands to shy away from paying for PR services or devoting time into yielding results internally.

This is a huge mistake. When the proper amount of time and research is put into the earned media efforts of a brand, this is the surest way to ensure brand longevity.

So, Which One is the Best Fit for Your Brand?

In the words of Bo Burnham, “Can we interest you in everything all of the time?” Thats right, all of it, all at once.

The best strategy to build brand recognition, increase brand visibility, and scale is to have a strategy in place for each form of media. Have a PR team pitching for you and getting you featured in articles while your marketing team is posting on social media, your copywriters are blogging about your brand, and your ads specialists are running campaigns for your intended conversions.

When all forms of media work together seamlessly under the marketing umbrella, that’s when the magic really happens.

As far as digital marketing is concerned, not only is working from home possible but most might even say it’s preferable. Digital marketing, for the most part, is just that — digital. Aside from attaining some of the creative assets used in content marketing (video and photos), digital marketing is in large part done on the computer.

Besides offering employees forever freedom of time flexibility, employers are tuned in to a massive upside of remaining remote as an agency as well. Agencies are saving a ton of revenue by cutting down their overhead and staying remote. The funds previously used to keep the lights on can now be put to better use, like offering more competitive pay, bonuses, and treating their employees to special rewards all while still saving on a percentage of costs that were allocated to running the business pre-pandemic.

The long and the short is there is only one viable reason for a digital marketing agency to no longer be remote and that is if the majority of the employees desire that kind of classic structure. This very well could be the case at some organizations, some team members may crave the separation of work and home. Some workers also find it easier to focus in an environment dedicated solely to work.

For the majority of us, I think we are still enjoying autonomy. As long as we have our computer and ample back up for our data storage, we are doing just fine at home.

As a society we google where to find anything before leaving the house to go get that item. Small businesses who are attuned to this are able to tap into a huge market. The best way to sell is to be a shopper.

So how does the highly acclimated small businesses make the most of this wealth of consumerism? The short answer is digital marketing.

Business owners can build long-term relationships with their customers through digital marketing. Great SEO helps establishments become household names in the area looking for something specific or locals feeling particularly uninspired and in need of a google search. Tremendous value is held in being at the top of a google search.

Digital marketing can improve traditional marketing methods of retaining customers in the following ways:

1. Keeping your product on the minds of your customers once they leave your store or purchase your product online can lead to them coming back next time. You can re-market to customers who have already purchased a product to make them consider trying out “this other product” that complements what they already purchased
2. In lieu of the old “word of mouth” method, we can use digital testimonials. In addition to posting testimonials on your website and in social media campaigns, you should also use them in your marketing.
3. Thank you and follow-up emails instead of physical letters and pamphlets. By sending an email at the right time to the right people, you can reach a much larger audience for a lot less money. This is also a much more environmentally friendly option.

Let’s talk about data. Digital marketing provides insights to small businesses that just aren’t possible in traditional marketing. Market demographics, market segmentation, potential market reach, conversion tracking, etc.– these vital metrics are exclusively acquired by digital marketing strategies and will help you to help create more accurate buyer personas that you can use to make new & more precise strategies, optimized ads, or even rebrand to accommodate your target audience more effectively.

Point blank: Using digital marketing to target ideal customers helps small businesses learn the online habits of their customers. Taking action is based on thorough market research. A small business that is smart does not make assumptions but rather creates strategies based off of cold hard data.

With the help of Google Search Console, SEMRush, Google Analytics, and SurveyMonkey, you can identify your ideal customers’ interests & what keeps them up at night. You can use this info to approach them with a warm proposal and, ultimately, convert them to paying customers.

Do not forget to utilize social media to learn what your audience likes, what kind of posts they react to the most, and what questions they had in the past. Most platforms you use on a daily basis have access to free insights. As a small business it is important to know how to access those numbers.

So how does a small business get started? If you are okay with teaching yourself a new skill set or have the time to devote at least 15 hours a week to learning, the basics of digital marketing can be done independently by most small business owners. Things like social media insights, setting up some basic SEO, knowing what the heck a buyer persona is and how to get into those online spaces are all things we feel confident that the average business owner could teach themselves through YouTube and Google.

When we start to get into the nitty gritty of SEO, web conversion tracking, and paid ad optimization it is generally more beneficial in the long run for a small business to outsource a digital marketing agency.

These skill sets are something that people go to school for and spend years perfecting. We’re not saying small business owners with tenacity couldn’t figure it out on their own given the appropriate effort but the time spent paired with trial and error will generally cost owners more money in the long run than it would have cost them to retain professionals to get it done in the first place.

Remember, the name of the game with any small, medium, or enterprise business is always the same — think smarter not harder.