advertising agency, Being Found on Google, digital marketing agency, Google Ads, Google Nonprofit Ad Grant, Instagram, keywords, landing page, marketing agency, marketing best practices, Marketing Planning, Objectives Setting, online advertising, organic SEO, paid search, pull marketing, push marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEM, SEO, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, traditional marketing, User experience, website

How To Know Where To Invest Marketing Energy and Dollars: Push Vs. Pull Marketing

Regardless of whether your organization has a small or large marketing budget and staff, you still want to spend your time and money on marketing judiciously. Who wants to throw either valuable dollars or time out the window, right?

Why not make this the year you ensure you’re maximizing your marketing efforts by revisiting your marketing plans based on the information shared below about what marketing tactics make sense based on available data.

What Is Pull Marketing?

Each marketing expert probably has their own thoughts on what they consider marketing tactics that fall in the “pull” category. But, at our Boston digital marketing agency and Boston SEO company, we think of “pull marketing” tactics as those to be employed if evidence shows that individuals are actively searching to identify someone in your geography who offers the products, services, and solutions to problems that your organization offers.

So how do you know if people are actively searching in the geography you serve for the products, services, and solutions you offer? The best way to ascertain the aforementioned is by conducting keyword research. As we explain in this previous blog post, keyword research helps you identify the average # of monthly Google searches that are conducted on search terms (known as keywords) relevant to your products, services, and solutions. Because of the tools to which you’ll need access and the challenges of figuring out how to structure your research, you’ll likely fare better by hiring an SEO company or a team of SEO experts, like ours, to conduct meaningful and accurate keyword research.

If keyword research does indicate a large volume of individuals are regularly searching to identify an organization like yours, then pull marketing tactics, such as optimizing your website to be found on Google via organic search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and/or paid search tactics (think Google Ads) make great marketing sense. You’ll still need to have an effective website (one with appropriate calls-to-actions and that provides for a strong user experience) to cause site visitors to take desired actions on your site (convert), but the two aforementioned tactics should definitely cause individuals who are “warm leads,” i.e., likely interested in your products because they are actively searching, to visit your website.

What Is Push Marketing?

We always like to say “push marketing” is about the putting the idea in the heads of individuals and organizations who might be a good fit for the product, service, or solution you offer. Push marketing tactics are all about serving up/providing information about your products or services to individuals who, based on various demographics and characteristics, such as age, gender, income level, job/career/industry, etc., might likely be interested in buying your product or engaging you for your service.

Examples of both digital and traditional push marketing tactics include: display advertising (both social media advertising and Google display advertising), banner advertising (ad purchased on a website that serves individuals and orgs. who might be a good fit for your product), and print advertising in a newspaper or magazine. The aforementioned list is not exclusive, but we think you get the picture.

So, when is push marketing warranted? Push marketing makes great sense if keyword research indicates that individuals aren’t actively searching in your geography to identify someone like your organization. Particularly when a product or service offered is a brand new one that your target audiences are not likely familiar with/don’t know exist, then focusing on executing effective push marketing tactics will be the most efficient use of your marketing time and dollars.

When To Employ Both Push and Pull Marketing

Organizations with particularly large marketing budgets and teams tend to employ both push and pull marketing tactics, and therefore, both pursue people that are “warmer” leads for their products and services, i.e., those who are actively searching AND people who are less warm but still might be a good fit for their products and services. A key reason they may employ both push and pull marketing tactics is that pull alone doesn’t bring in the volume of leads and sales they need to meet their sales objectives.

For smaller organizations who have fewer in-house individuals devoted to marketing and a limited marketing budget, the majority of marketing dollars and time should definitely be earmarked for the type of tactics — push vs. pull — that make the most sense for the organization, based on what keyword research and any other appropriate available data indicates. But, it’s likely still worth investing a small amount of time and dollars in push marketing tactics, like Google Display or Instagram/Facebook advertising, just to see what such tactics yield in results.

Our Team Of Marketing Experts And SEO Experts Is Here To Help

We always say our Boston SEO company and Boston digital marketing agency “never encourages clients or prospective clients to continue with or start with a marketing tactic that doesn’t make sense for them.” In fact, our company’s tagline since we launched our marketing agency in 2014 has been “maximizing results thru research-supported marketing.” We’ll never suggest a client employ a particular tactic, based on whether or not we offer a service related to it. If we don’t offer a marketing service from which research indicates a client would benefit, we’ll refer the work to a one of our fellow marketing collaborators. But, the very first step is holding a complimentary discussion to learn about your particular organization’s marketing challenges and opportunities, so please use our calendar app to select a convenient day and time for you if you’d like to chat!

Instagram, social media, social media strategy, social media voice

HOW & WHY SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS CAN BENEFIT FROM AN INSTAGRAM PRESENCE

A Joint Blog Post By Riley Goodrich and Gail Snow Moraski

Everyday, more than 500 million people log onto Instagram. People post pictures of their friends, their dogs, selfies, the vacation they are taking, the food they are eating… the list goes on. 

Seeing what your friends or other people you admire are up to in their day-to-day lives — as well as sharing what you’re up to — is great. But, the wonderful thing about Instagram is that it doesn’t have to be just for personal use, it can also be used for professional purposes like the following! 

  • Whether you’re a freelancer or own/work at a small business or non-profit, you can share images with information to help others and/or to encourage them to want to learn more about your services, products, or solutions to problems; therefore, create awareness about your organization
  • Learn about organizations or freelancers whom you might engage for services, buy something from, or just learn from!

As a business, having an Instagram account is a great way to expand your customer base and create a wider interest in and awareness of your products and services; this is not only applicable for businesses with multitudes of photos of their tangible goods, i.e., business or consumer products, but also for organizations that offer services. While many individuals and organizations have been using it to gather and share information for years now, today is better late than never to create a profile on Instagram.

For example, let’s take a look at our own organization’s (@resultscommandresearch) Instagram page

  1. Inspirational quotes

Posting motivational or inspirational quotes is a great way to connect with others online. By putting out positive energy, you are more than likely to get positive energy in return! When you open Instagram, the first thing you want to see is something positive. By following upbeat people and organizations online, you can help make social media a positive place.  

  1. SEO/marketing tips 

For Results Communications & Research, in particular, we offer SEO, or search engine optimization as one of our most-popular services. This is a service, not a tangible product. Even so, Instagram is a great place to show off what we can offer. By giving useful advice and sharing best practices, we can show what we know and that we are a subject matter expert (SME); this type of post is great because it encourages engagement and consumer education!  And, target audiences like it when organizations are willing to provide some information for free, like low-hanging SEO fruit they can tackle on their own.

  1. Celebrating national holidays and days, like #NationalChocolateChipCookieDay!

National holidays are a great reason to post. As a shared experience, these types of posts engage all types of people in the community and promote togetherness. Even if your organization is national or international, it’s always important for it to be viewed as part of the community where your organization is headquartered. It also helps to demonstrate that you have empathy, and that your organization’s reasons for being extend beyond making money.

  1. Blog post announcements 

Instagram is an awesome way to start a conversation. Because Results Communications & Research regularly publishes informational blog posts, we can post whenever there is a new topic and include the link for our followers to either cut and paste in their browser (if they take it directly from our browser). Or, add a clickable link in our bio section (this is a detailed discussion for another time but you can get more info. from reading bullet #8 below!) These types of Instagram posts increase engagement with both our business and our website!

  1. Be seen as a member of your community!

This goes along with what we mentioned above about celebrating national days and holidays. Engaging with the community online is a great way to build relationships. By following others online and liking/commenting on their posts, they are likely to do the same back! 

  1. Make it personal 

Show off who works with you! By giving your followers a “behind the scenes” look at your business, you are creating the precedent for a positive work environment and friendly customer interactions. Who wouldn’t want to meet your team?

  1. Question of the day – encourages comments and customer interactions 

By asking questions via instagram posts or creating polls on instagram stories, you encourage commenting and other online interaction! The more the merrier!

  1. Create a LinkTree! 

A linktree is a great way to put multiple resources in one easy and accessible place for those who are engaging with your Instagram profile! For example, you can provide hyperlinks to multiple blog posts and pages of your website on a distinct bio page that can be accessed via your Instagram bio. Check out this example: https://linktr.ee/alpharhoplastics

  1. Before and after! 

Show how your services have helped a client. For example, you could show how your content edits helped a client’s SEO via screenshots. In other words, showcase your success stories!

  1. Use Instagram stories to call out big news or offer a promotion/discount

Instagram stories populate and disappear after 24 hours. Lots of Instagram users click through tons of Instagram stories for fun. Presenting them with an incentive, like a promotion or discount, encourages them to click on your profile and engage with your business. Check out https://www.instagram.com/onlyinbos/. They post their own stories, but also those of organizations who want to advertise to OnlyInBoston followers (this latter opportunity is something we can arrange if it interests you). Simply click on the big circle that surrounds their logo to see the stories.

  1. Track traffic to your website from your Instagram profile using your Google Analytics account (if you use Linktree, or some other product such as “Later” that allows individuals who view your profile to click on posts, in a “bio” section that include hyperlinks to appropriate pages of your website).

The team at Results Communications & Research regularly develops and implements social media strategies for clients. We can also serve as your “social media voice.” No social media question is too small, so always reach out for help!