Marketing & Event Resources Named a Constant Contact Certified Solution Provider

Local marketing expert to help small businesses and nonprofits
achieve meaningful marketing results

Marketing & Event Resources in Stratford has been named a Certified Solution Provider by Constant Contact^®, Inc., the trusted marketing advisor to more than 650,000 small organizations worldwide.

As a Certified Solution Provider, Marketing & Event Resources has completed the Constant Contact Certification Program which provides training on Constant Contact tools, marketing best practices, and business development. This training imparts industry-leading knowhow on marketing and services to create meaningful results for program participants and the clients that they serve.

"As a longtime Constant Contact Solutions Provider, this new certification will allow my organization to offer additional best practices and knowledge to make the marketing and email campaigns we develop for our clients more productive," said Jocelyn Murray, principal consultant and owner of Marketing & Event Resources. "Email can deliver highly effective results in any organizations' sales, client retention or fundraising efforts."

Marketing & Event Resources helps nonprofit organizations and small and medium size businesses realize the full potential of their online marketing efforts. The company's services include marketing strategy and planning, email marketing, social media and public relations.

“The certification program gives our Solution Providers access to the education that keeps them on the leading edge of marketing best practices,” said Catherine Kniker, chief channel officer and vice president, international, Constant Contact. “By becoming a Certified Solution Provider, Jocelyn has demonstrated her commitment to helping clients succeed by taking proactive steps to grow her marketing skill set.”’

About Marketing & Event Resources

Marketing & Event Resources is a full-service marketing agency founded in 1999. MER works with nonprofits and businesses to help them increase their visibility and revenue through a variety of marketing channels. Clients include Beth-El Center, Junior Achievement of Western CT, Easter Seals Goodwill Industries and many local small businesses. Visit the MER website for more details.

About Constant Contact®, Inc.

Constant Contact introduced the first email marketing tool for small businesses, nonprofits, and associations in 1998.  Today, the company helps more than 650,000 customers worldwide find marketing success through the only all-in-one online marketing platform for small organizations.  Anchored by our world-class email marketing tool, Constant Contact helps small businesses drive repeat business and find new customers. It features multi-channel marketing campaigns (newsletters/announcements, offers/promotions, online listings, events/registration, and feedback) combined with shared content, contacts, and reporting; free award-winning coaching and product support; and integrations with critical business tools – all from a single login. The company’s extensive network of educators, consultants/resellers, technology providers, franchises, and national associations offer further support to help small organizations succeed and grow. Through its Innovation Loft, Constant Contact is fueling the next generation of small business technology.

Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

                                                                                                                                        

Speaking Opportunities Increase as Events Become the Future of Publishing

Many business leaders speak at targeted events to increase their visibility and credibility in their industry. It's a smart strategy as more and more speaking opportunities appear to be available.

According to HubSpot's Digital Publishing Benchmarks report on the publishing industry, events will play a bigger role in driving their revenue in the near future. With decreasing ad revenues, media companies are shifting their business models. The report says that over one-third of publishers believe events as a revenue stream will increase in value in the next two years.

With these new publisher produced events, comes a plethora of speaking opportunities.  If you're a blogger, contribute to industry publications, or if you're know as an expert in your industry,  this could be an opportunity.  Those with an existing reputation in their industry will definitely have an advantage.

Check out the industry publications and magazines that you read and seek out all the upcoming conferences associated with each. Strong content including information on industry trends will be in demand.

Raise your profile: prepare and seek out the many speaking opportunities opening up in the media world. 

Facebook Page Tips to Organically Improve Reach and Engagement

With 1.59 billion users on Facebook, marketers want to make the most of their Pages and promote their businesses effectively. We're all competing for users' attention and although your Page's overall organic reach has probably declined, there are ways to make the most of your unpaid posts with some simple tips:

• Like, Comment and Share often
• Include @tag of other relevant Pages in your posts to extend your reach (business partners, customers, etc.)
• @Tag individuals in the Comments
• Post more video
• Mix up post types: images, memes, text only, questions, article links
• Post pics of staff so followers can get to know you better
• Post outside of business hours (evenings, Saturday and Sunday)
• Post when the majority of your fans are online (refer to FB Insights)
• Use a Call to Action in posts ("Tell us in the Comments", "Click Like if you...", "Please share")
• Plan and arrange all of your upcoming posts using Facebook Scheduler.
• Update the FB Cover Photo to reflect current campaign and upcoming 
• Create events on FB and invite all followers
• One to two months ahead of engagement, post who, what, when, and why info and links to web pages with details and registrations info
• Build community: Ask Fans to share their photos on your Page

For help with your Facebook Page or other social media, contact Jocelyn Murray at 203.377.9980.

10 Twitter Best Practices to Grow your Business

Twitter is a strong social media network for driving traffic to your website and for finding and engaging with key people in your industry or community.  Here are ten easy-to-implement best practices, tactics and ideas to make the most of Twitter for your business.

1. Curate good content through original info and retweets.

2. Tweet or retweet 2-6 times daily, throughout the entire day.

3. Tweet outside business hours-- on weekends and in the evenings.

4. Include links in most tweets (to drive traffic to your website). Check to be sure the links aren't broken.

5. Use relevant, researched hashtags (two per tweet).

6. Include images in your tweets to get noticed.

7. Review your new followers regularly. Engage with influential people who have a strong network.

8. Create custom images for important stats and inspirational quotes (Use free tools such as recite.com, quozio.com or quotescover.com).

9. Comment, Retweet or Favorite relevant Tweets  of those who you are most interested in reading and those you want to follow you (create a list of people and organizations you want to interact with).

10. Engage and network with your key influencers (clients, prospects, journalists, community leaders).

Marketing Trends To Look for in 2016

A new year means new trends in the marketing industry. Keeping up with new but proven marketing tools and strategies is a key to running a successful business. Keep reading to find out some of the top trends that experts say will be widely popular in 2016!

Use of Video. Businesses are hiring professional videographers to create video content for marketing purposes. In addition, quality cameras in smartphones allow marketing departments to create their own video for content, especially for blogging.

Promotional videos are key to attracting new customers. Compared to infographics or pictures, video content offers the audience an interactive look at the company or its products. Videos are more attention grabbing and entertaining, and have proven to draw in potential customers. According to Microsoft, 58% of consumers better trust companies who produce video content. According to Unbounce, using video on landing pages can increase conversions by 80%. Also, 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video over reading text, according to Forbes.

Mobile Marketing. Converting your company’s online presence so that it is accessible on mobile devices is crucial. In today’s society, people are obsessed with their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Making your company’s website compatible for mobile devices ensures that users will have a readable, usable site, free of frustrations like having to zoom in to read the content! 

Additionally, a mobile-friendly website will increase your search engine optimization.  If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, Google’s search engine will penalize you which could impact your rankings.

Social Media. Creating a profile for your business on social media, whether it be Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, opens up entirely new channels to market your company. Be sure to create a social media strategy and plan that provides structure and a return on your social media efforts.  Also, continue to evaluate new social media. There are a few new social media outlets that became popular in 2015 that experts predict will be big in the marketing industry this year. Snapchat, for example, provides consumers with content in real time. After 24 hours, that content disappears. According to Forbes.com, exclusive content with an expiration makes consumers feel more connected and unique.

Retain Clients with Rewards. According to Microsoft, consumers love being rewarded for good behavior. For example, 37% of Millennials are “strongly motivated” by devices, apps, and companies that reward them with loyalty points. Giving your customers an incentive to take an action is always a good way to encourage them to get involved and interact on a more personal level. For example, try offering a coupon code or a discount on a product or service to anyone who tweets at your company using a hashtag related to a campaign you’re trying to promote.

These are just a few marketing developments to experiment with in 2016. Comment below the trends you think will become popular this year!

Need a Makeover in 2016? Five Ways to Refresh Your Marketing

by Guest Blogger, Michele Kelly, owner of GraphicWays Design

If you can't recall the last time your revamped your brochures, signs or website, you might not be properly conveying your message, product benefits or brand and missing out on valuable sales opportunities.

Savvy businesses realize that in order to attract more clients, contemporary, updated marketing materials that best communicate your products or services can give you an advantage.  While there might not be a budget for a total overhaul, a timely review of your critical marketing tools is a must. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. Logo

Is your logo still relevant and does it reflect your brand?

Are the colors and typefaces stuck in a time warp?

Is your logo geared toward your target audience?

2. Brochures

Have you added new products or services?

Does your current brochure look dated?

Is there a call to action in your sales material?

3. Website

Is your website mobile friendly?

Are you getting found in search engines?

Is your site optimized for a wider format?

4. Stationery

Has your company changed address or phone numbers?

Is your website listed on your letterhead?

Are your business cards impressive and unique?

5. Email Marketing

Missing an opportunity by not utilizing your email lists?

Do your emails end up in a client or prospects spam folder? 

Are you getting good open and click through rates?

Remember to review and understand what marketing campaigns have worked in the past. This will better enable you to recreate your marketing for the new year to wake up and re-energize your business!

Mari Smith's 2016 Facebook Tips and Trends

Facebook marketing expert, Mari Smith, recently offered some great Facebook tips and trends to look for in 2016 during her presentation at the Inbound conference in Boston. Here are a few useful pieces of information that I took away:

1.  Mari discussed three critical Facebook trends:

•  Facebook is disrupting TV and video. Will Facebook overtake YouTube? As of September 2014, Facebook's share of video posts was approaching YouTube's.  The new Facebook Live is a live-streaming feature that's only available to celebrity Pages right now. Strategize how to use live video for your business.
• There will be a stronger emphasis on Messenger for Business. Facebook predicts that businesses will be using Messenger for all kinds of customer communication and transactions. Messenger will essentially serve as an inbox to connect with customers.
•  Brand storytelling: Use Facebook to put the spotlight on your customers, to feature case studies, to use video, and to be more "people centric".

2. Mari also focused on Facebook marketing mistakes that businesses are making:

•  Making posts overly promotional
•  Targeting the wrong audience
• Using only the Boost button
• Promoting posts without a measurable ROI
• Not having an effective landing page to tie in with your ads
• Advertising without using a tracking pixel

3. Regarding content and engagement, Mari recommends that your posts either entertain, inform or prompt a call to action. Here are a few of her common sense content tips:

•  Personalize your posts (write in first person when possible)
•  Address people who comment by name
• Use humor
• Always be prompt in responding to comments/questions

4. While organic reach is on the decline, here are some ways to maximize it:

•  Post more native video
•  Try posting outside business hours
• Mix up post types and post lengths
• Repost popular posts
• Include "@" tags of other Pages
• Drive traffic from other sources
• Embed posts and videos in your blog

Are you using any of these techniques effectively? What other trends do you see on Facebook?