How To Incorporate HubSpot Into Your Boudoir Photography Business

If you’re in the business of boudoir photography, then generating new leads and getting repeat business is probably important to you. In today’s post, we’re going to share how to reach your sales goals with the help of HubSpot’s Marketing Starter plan.

What’s HubSpot?

HubSpot is a marketing software built around the concept of Inbound Marketing. The platform can help you “grow traffic, convert more visitors, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale.” (HubSpot)

With over 56K customers in over 100 different countries, HubSpot is a very serious player in the game of content management and automation.

HubSpot plans range from free all the way up to $3,200 per month! In this post, we’re going to focus in on the Marketing Hub Starter, which starts at only $50 per month. It’s an economical choice for a small boudoir photography business … and one that will give you some serious bang for your buck.

Features Of The Marketing Hub Starter

HubSpot occasionally makes changes to their plan offerings but at this time (April 2019), here are some highlights on what the Marketing Hub Starter has to offer:

Forms:

You can create forms using HubSpot and embed them on your website. Data from the submissions on these forms will automatically be collected in your HubSpot database. You also have the option to track submissions on any external forms you have on your site. (Note: there are some special guidelines for doing this.)

The forms tool also lets you create pop-up forms that you can use to generate leads on your top performing website pages!

Contact Activity:

Once a contact in your database clicks on an email you sent them or submits a form on your website, you’ll be able to monitor their future engagement with your marketing thanks to the use of cookies. 🍪 Within a contact’s HubSpot profile, you can see which emails they’ve opened, links or CTAs they’ve clicked on, and even which website pages they’ve viewed. Pretty neat, right?!

Contact Management:

HubSpot is the perfect place for storing all of your clients’ information. With HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Starter, you can easily manage your client and lead database using pre-built and custom properties.

Email Marketing:

You can send marketing emails right out of HubSpot! (With the Starter plan, there’s a cap of 5X your contact tier per calendar month. So if your plan includes 1,000 contacts, you can send out 5,000 emails per month. This would equate to 5 different mailings if you emailed all 1,000 of your contacts each month.) For more on what is and isn’t included with emails in the Starter plan, click here.

Lists:

You can segment the contacts in your database using different criteria. With Marketing Hub Starter, you’re allotted 25 smart lists and 25 static lists.

Ideas For Incorporating HubSpot Into Your Boudoir Photography Business

So now that you know what HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Starter is all about, let’s talk about a few ways you can incorporate these tools into your business.

Client and Lead Management

By importing your leads and current clients into HubSpot, contact management becomes streamlined and easy. Once you begin filling your database, you can create segmented lists for your email campaigns and really begin to target your marketing efforts in a more strategic way. You’ll also be able to create notes within each and every contact record. Pretty much anything you need to remember about someone can be notated on their HubSpot record!

Inquiry And Booking Forms

By converting the forms on your website to HubSpot forms, all submissions will automatically flow into your HubSpot database. Again, you can place contacts on specific lists within your Marketing Hub based on which forms they have completed on your website.

Content Offers And Opt-in Gifts

If you have opt-in gifts, downloadable guides, or checklists on your website, you’ll definitely want to sync these campaigns up with your Marketing Hub. You can create unique forms for each offer and embed them on the appropriate landing pages. Knowing what your leads are specifically interested in gives you a tremendous advantage when creating follow-up marketing campaigns.

Email Marketing

HubSpot’s email marketing tool within the Marketing Hub Starter is neat, clean, and easy to use! Again, there are some limitations on the number of emails you can send each month based on the number of contacts you have in your database. However, HubSpot offers options for upgrading if you need more than what’s allowed in the plan.

Conclusion

If you’re like many small business owners, you use a lot of different technologies to accomplish different things. Switching over to HubSpot allows you to roll a bunch of technologies into one platform … and who doesn’t love creating efficiencies like that?

If you’re looking to streamline your marketing efforts, the HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter might be a great fit for you. And we’d be happy to offer you a free 15-minute consult to look at your current processes and see how they might be transitioned over. Click the button below to schedule a free consult with us!

The Pros and Cons Of HubSpot: An Honest Review From A Very Avid User

I discovered HubSpot in 2014 and became instantly hooked. Being the Little Marketing Genius that I am 😉, the automation capabilities astounded me. I was equally impressed with how HubSpot marketed itself. All of the free content and thousands upon thousands of helpful blog posts. Yup, like I said, I was hooked.

Over time, I became a self-proclaimed expert on the HubSpot marketing platform. I achieved several certifications through the HubSpot Academy. I created countless campaigns for different companies that included email, social media messaging, blog posts, and workflow automations. The beauty of it all was being able to quickly and easily see the data and track the results of my efforts.

In September of 2016 I attended HubSpot’s Inbound conference for the first time. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid! Being surrounded by thousands of marketers who loved HubSpot as much as I did was completely thrilling. I also got to experience HubSpot’s fun and progressive corporate culture firsthand. Man could these guys put on an event! Needless to say, my obsession sky-rocketed and I became even more entrenched in the platform in 2017.

Ok, so the point of this long-winded intro is to make it clear that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to HubSpot. For the past five years I’ve been using it religiously. I’m logged in on an average of five days per week. I’m still creating Inbound marketing campaigns, analyzing data, and keeping myself up to speed on the latest and greatest tech updates.

In this blog post, my intent is to give you my very honest opinion on HubSpot. The platform has gone through significant changes over the years and will probably continue to do so over the next several years. Today I’ll fill you in on the things that I currently love and the things that make me want to pull my hair out at times. Here goes!

😃The marketing platform is incredible.

To this day, I’m still amazed at the power of HubSpot’s marketing platform. The technology is just awesome. Putting together campaigns and tracking their success is where I find enormous value in HubSpot. The campaign management tool gives you a bird’s eye view of each and every one of your Inbound campaigns. Emails, social media posts, CTAs, blog posts, landing pages … the results associated with each component can be monitored and tracked along every step of the way.

From a usability standpoint, I’d say the interface and tools are pretty intuitive. If you’re brand new to HubSpot, I would definitely recommend taking some free courses from the HubSpot Academy. There’s plenty to choose from and you go at your own pace. The HubSpot Academy was my lifesaver when I first started using the platform.

🙁It’s pricey.

The best technology comes at a price. This is no surprise. That said, be prepared to pay a pretty penny for HubSpot. At this moment in time, the Professional version starts at $800 per month. Now if your jaw just dropped, don’t worry. There are lesser memberships available but they don’t give you all the bells and whistles you get with the Professional or Enterprise versions.

😃The resources just keep on coming.

I mentioned the HubSpot Academy earlier in this post but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the helpful resources HubSpot makes available to people.

When you’re logged into your portal, there’s a section called the Learning Center and in it, you’ll find a plethora of valuable tutorials and content. Topics include:

• Sales Enablement

• Contact Management

• Website Design

• Email Marketing

• Inbound Sales

• Marketing Automation

• Social Media

• SEO

• Lead Generation

There’s everything your little heart could possibly desire when it comes learning about Inbound and the HubSpot platform.

Then there’s the HubSpot blog. It’s AWESOME. Even if you never plan on buying HubSpot, you should subscribe to their blog. The content is fresh and incredibly useful, guaranteed!

🙁The initial support for set-up is so-so.

I have mixed feelings on HubSpot’s account reps. When you first purchase HubSpot, you’ll be assigned a specific person who will help get your platform set up and ready for use. However, from what I’ve experienced, these folks typically know only the very basics about HubSpot. I would HIGHLY recommend familiarizing yourself with HubSpot or dedicating an employee to it if you’re making the investment. The HubSpot account reps will only cover the basics of setting you up. Putting the platform to work for your company is entirely on you. However, like I said before, their training tools are phenomenal and they definitely provide you with everything you need to become an expert!

😃The Help Desk offers very decent service and turnaround.

I’ve emailed HubSpot’s Support Team numerous times over the years regarding issues or questions I’ve had and the response time has been pretty good. And off the top of my head, I can’t think of one issue I submitted that didn’t get resolved.

🙁The glitches have increased.

It’s my opinion that HubSpot has gotten extremely glitchy. There are days I literally have to log out and take a break due to pure frustration over things not working properly. I find most of the glitches to be on the data entry side of things. For example, just the other day I was trying to log a meeting on somebody’s contact record. When I clicked on the calendar button to choose the date of my meeting, the calendar would pop up and then suddenly disappear. It was incredibly aggravating. Things similar to this seem to happen more and more these days.

😃Let me tell you about lists and workflows...

I freaking LOVE making lists in HubSpot. I’m a list-making geek. 🤓You can literally group contacts together by any criteria you can possibly imagine. You have endless possibilities when it comes to creating HubSpot lists!

And then there’s workflows … probably my all-time favorite thing in HubSpot. Using workflows, you can trigger any number of things to happen automatically behind the scenes. For example, if a contact in the LMG database visited our Website Design page more than three times, I can set up a workflow to send them a follow-up email. If a contact lives in a certain zip code, I can use a workflow to assign them to a particular list. Honestly, you can do just about anything with workflows. It’s very cool.

🙁The Design Manager is not user-friendly.

HubSpot’s Design Manager allows you create custom templates and designs for your landing pages, emails, and blog. If you’re not versed in code, DO NOT attempt to play around in here. It’s very easy to accidentally screw something up and it can be very difficult to figure out how to fix it.

The conclusion: IF …

• You’re looking to launch an Inbound marketing strategy AND

• You can afford at least $800/month AND

• You or someone on your team will make the investment to learn HubSpot

THEN GO FOR IT!

HubSpot is an amazing platform that can offer you limitless advantages in the game of Inbound Marketing. No, the system isn’t perfect but I personally love it and I still highly recommend it to this day.

Happy HubSpotting!

PUMP THE BRAKES!

Before you can even consider HubSpot and/or launching an Inbound Marketing strategy, you first need to figure out your buyer personas. And we’ve got the perfect tool for this.

Boudoir Photography Clients To Avoid

Along the way, I’ve developed relationships with my boudoir photography clients. They share stories and, with each story, I always take away something that I believe can be beneficial in either my own business or beneficial to other photographers.

The latest tip I’m about to share is really quite straightforward and simple but I feel it’s important to say it aloud (and even louder for those in the back):

IT’S OK TO SAY NO.

And by this I mean, it’s really quite fine to say NO to prospective clients when you’re not digging their vibe … if you get the sense that they just don’t align with your ideal type of client. In fact, I highly HIGHLY recommend you do say no to these individuals. Here’s why …

Once upon a time, we took on the wrong type of client. A client who absolutely did not fit our ideal client persona. You can read the full story here but to sum it up, here’s what we learned from the experience …

When you take on the wrong client, you can expect to be:

• Expending time and energy explaining the benefits of your product or service (as well as your process)

• Feeling under-appreciated, undervalued, and sometimes downright disrespected

• Handling lots of complaints from the customer or client

• Chasing down payments you’re owed

• Feeling unfulfilled by what you’re delivering

• Dreading emails or phone calls from the customer or client

• Dealing with headaches … lots of headaches

In chatting with some of our favorite boudoir photographer friends, they’ve shared similar stories. (Yay! We’re not alone!!) From what I’ve gathered, here’s a list of personality traits that you’ll probably want to steer clear of as a boudoir photographer (a.k.a When you meet an individual who demonstrates these traits, go running for the hills and don’t look back!).

1.) The overly needy client.

These types mean no harm. They don’t even know they’re doing it! And to be honest, they mostly can’t help themselves. They’re the ones who will blow up your Inbox constantly. Asking you what to wear. What color to paint their nails. What to wax. What not to wax. They will also start to feel comfortable with you and vent to you about their dating life or how awful it is that they can’t find matching socks.

Listen, you boudoir photographers are amazing. Y’all must have majored in psychology because let’s face it … many women have insecurities. The true art of boudoir is all about empowering women and promoting self love. You should absolutely want to make your clients feel comfortable and build a relationship with them. You should absolutely nurture your clients and dual as a therapist of sorts when needed. That’s totally cool and you do it very well. However, I’m not talking about the clients who need a basic level of support from you. I’m talking about the ones who are OTT (OVER THE TOP). They can’t get out of their own way and they’re going to make you crazy before they ever even step foot in your door. Time is money! Remember, the more time you spend dealing with the overly needy is less time you can dedicate toward working with your dream clients.

2.) The client who makes you go, “You want me to photograph WHAT?!”

I find I keep hearing more and more of these stories … especially when it comes to couples boudoir. However, I can totally see it coming up with solo sessions, too. You are photographing nude women [and men] so I’m guessing your comfort threshold is pretty vast anyway. Clients might ask you to photograph some things that are down and dirty, perhaps kinky. If that’s your thing, awesome. If it’s not, and it’s outside of what you feel comfortable shooting, say no NOW. This is why a pre-booking consult is imperative. You learn so much from people when you hear what their expectations are. If they want you to photograph them with their significant other engaging in some super X-rated fantasy, and that’s just not how you roll, say no NOW. Say no before they’re in your studio and things get uncomfortable. There’s a photographer out there for them but it doesn’t have to be you.

3.) The creepy client.

I’m all about safety because let’s be real … people be cray! If someone is giving you the heebie jeebies and they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, walk away. I don’t care if they’re a man, woman, black, white, polka dotted, undecided, have six heads, or hold the world record for largest Bible collection. You have the right to feel safe at all times and wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry? Most of our clients work out of a studio, whether it be in their home or a private studio in a store front. Generally it’s just the photographer and the client for several hours. You may have hair and makeup peeps, but maybe you don’t, or maybe they do their thing, then leave. You should NEVER put yourself in a situation that can put you in harms way. I don’t care what they’re willing to pay you for a sitting fee. Listen to your gut.

4.) The know-it-all.

Lord have mercy, these stories kill me. Listen, they exist. The clients who took a photography class or two offered through the local community college … they learned some basics and now they’re an expert! Yeah, those clients. They’re going to school you on all sorts of things. The good news is you do have a chance with a client like this if you can bring them down off their high horse. However, if you can’t manage to convince them that YOU’RE the expert on boudoir lighting, posing, etc. and they want to continue to be super pushy … say goodBYE. Pinterest is a beautiful thing, as is Instagram, but you’re not in the business of replicating Pinterest boards. You provide a unique experience. “I totes love that filtered selfie of you on IG, but that’s not what I do here.” 🙄

5.) The never gonna be satisfied client.

These folks are not always spotted easily. However, if you watch and/or listen close … whether it be in conversations you have with them or by stalking their social media accounts … I’ll bet you can pick them out. They’re the ones who are going to ask you for the world, lined in gold, with glitter on top. And when you deliver said sparkly masterpiece, they’ll be drastically unappreciative and unsatisfied. There is no satisfying some people. No matter the time, energy, or effort. Do not waste precious time on these people. If you see them constantly complaining about other people or businesses (especially other photographers!), you spot several bad reviews they have written, or you get the sense they’re completely unreasonable … those are red flags. Run!!

6. The B.I.T.C.H. (both on or off wheels)

To be blunt, there are some mean people out there. There are selfish, greedy, rude, and downright bad people out there. Do not get into a war with these people even if you think you can out-bitch them. It’s not worth your time and you don’t need to subject yourself to that type of treatment. You’re the expert. The professional. You should be treated as such. You should be respected and be treated kindly, just as you treat your clients. So in the words of Bhad Bhabie “bye Bitch.”

Build a profile for your dream client using our free client persona builder!

Once you know exactly who your dream client is, you’ll never make the mistake of taking on a nightmare client ever again. Download our free Client Persona Builder today!

Listen, you’re the boss. It’s your business. But if you take on one of these types of clients I just mentioned, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The bottom line is, you have your ideal client persona. Whether you have formally created one or not, we all have that ideal client that we dream of. Of course, not every client is going to be easy peasy perfect. But it’s about setting boundaries and identifying when a potential client is WAY out of range.

Time is money. ESPECIALLY in a creative industry. Your work and value is priceless as it is something that comes from the depths of your soul. Your eye is unmatched and can’t be replicated, which does come with a price tag. What’s important is that you not compromise or discount your price tag inadvertently by spending way too much time on these undesirable types.

-Katie

Getting Better Qualified Clients For Your Boudoir Photography Business

As business owners, most of us have made the mistake of working with the wrong client. You know … that client who you had your doubts about during the initial consultation call. That client who you knew might not be a great fit for your brand or style but you took on anyway. THAT client.

Typically working with the wrong type of client serves as one big mega learning experience. An experience that teaches you the warning signs to look out for and stay far away from. In this blog post, we’re going to share our secret weapon for weeding out the bad seeds right from the get-go. Removing the bad apples before wasting one minute of your precious time on them.

Ready to score the most qualified leads for your boudoir photography business? Keep reading!

Earlier this week, we published a blog post about an epic fail we made shortly after launching our marketing agency. We took on a client who didn’t fit our ideal buyer persona.

There were red flags in the beginning of the relationship that later turned into big bombs going off toward the end of the relationship. While it wasn’t the best experience, it served as complete and utter proof that deviating from our ideal buyer persona was a very bad idea.

If you’re interested in the specifics on what actually happened, you can read the full post here:

We took on a client who didn’t fit our buyer persona. Here’s what happened.

Interestingly, as we were approaching the end of our contract with this very difficult client, we had attended a HubSpot Inbound conference. At the conference, we participated in a breakout session hosted by Karl Sakas.

The session was called Speed-Dating Your Agency's Sales Prospects (a name that couldn’t be more fitting, quite honestly). In it, Karl explained how to quickly sift through leads and find the best suited ones for your business.

The key to doing this: using a client intake form.

You can think of a client intake form as a screening tool. It’s a form on your website that potential clients must complete before you ever even engage in a telephone conversation with them.

We started using an intake form immediately upon returning home from the Inbound conference and it completely transformed the way we handle prospective clients. Now let’s take a look at how you can build something similar to better vet your boudoir photography clients.

According to Karl, the intake form works because,

“you’re asking them [the potential client] to lean in before you lean in. If someone takes a week to complete the form, they’re showing you this isn’t a priority. … If they never complete the form, you just saved yourself from doing a call with an unqualified prospect!”

Makes sense, right? You want clients who respect your process and find value in the way you operate right off the bat.

So what kind of questions should you be asking on the intake form? Our advice would be to think of the worst case scenario client. The client who gave you lots of headaches and sleepless nights. What are the questions you could have asked them in order to determine what your experience might be like working with them? While you want to keep the form as short and concise as possible, you need to make sure you’re getting value out of the information you’re asking for.

Here’s a list of 5 questions you might want to consider adding to your boudoir photography client intake form:

1. What’s your ideal outcome from investing in this experience?

This will clue you in on exactly what the person is looking to achieve in their session with you. The most important thing here is determining whether or not you’ll be able to deliver on their expectation(s).

2. What about my boudoir photography style or brand made you reach out to me?

We love this kind of question! It will reveal the things you’re doing right (or possibly wrong) when it comes to attracting your ideal clients.

3. Have you ever participated in a boudoir photography session before? If so, what was your experience like? If not, what has piqued your interest in doing one now?

A question like this can help determine the level of attention a client may need prior to their shoot. It will also shine light on the client’s potential comfort level in front of the camera.

4. What do you need included in your boudoir photography package?

We’d suggest giving them options here. For example: digital images, prints, retouching, etc. This will help you determine what package offering might be best for them. It will also help you weed out potential clients who are looking for services that you simply don’t offer.

5. What’s your budget range?

The budget question is a very good one! Provide some ranges here and get an immediate answer on whether or not the potential client has a reasonable expectation on what they should be spending on a session or package.

How To Incorporate The Intake Form Into Your Process

You have a few options in terms of how you incorporate the client intake form into your booking inquiry process. You can mandate a prospect fills it out in order to schedule a consultation call with you or you can book the call and simply say they have to complete and return it a day or two in advance.

Also, the intake form should have its own page on your website. That way, you can link to it from other areas on your site or easily send potential leads the link to it in an email if necessary.

Trust us when we say, the client intake form will revolutionize the way you respond to new booking inquiries in your boudoir photography business. Give it a whirl and let us know the results!

Looking for fresh ways to enhance your boudoir photography brand?

We took on a client who didn't fit our buyer persona. Here's what happened.

When we embarked on the adventure we call Little Marketing Genius, we treated the HubSpot Marketing Blog as our Bible. It was an invaluable resource for not only navigating the world of Inbound Marketing, but for running an Inbound Agency in general. We clung to every word … every piece of advice … every tip and trick that HubSpot had to offer. We were firm believers in the methodology (still are) and we were able to achieve incredible results during our first year in business by implementing the things we learned from HubSpot.

And then, we made a rookie mistake.

A mistake that we knew was a mistake but did it anyways. We brought on a client who did not fit our target client persona. Eeeeeeek!

This blog post is based on a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

😎

When we started our agency, we had a fairly clear idea of the type of client we wanted to work with. However, as we went through various Inbound certification and training courses and learned more about target buyer personas, we quickly realized we needed to get way more specific on the definition of our ideal client. And so we did.

We read all the blog posts about creating buyer personas. We downloaded the workbooks and guides and, at the end of it all, we felt very excited about the character we developed. Her name was Pixie and she was a creative entrepreneur … just like us! She understood and appreciated marketing. However, she also ran a bustling boudoir photography business and simply couldn’t do everything by herself. She would hire us because she wanted to grow her business and trusted our tactics for making that happen.

The trust component of Pixie’s persona was critical. We were adamant about working with clients who valued and believed in our professional guidance. We knew that business owners who needed to be sold on the general basics of marketing would be a struggle to collaborate with.

Fast forward to the day we met “Tom.”

Tom was referred to us by a family member who believed his business needed major help in the marketing department. So we set up an exploratory call to determine what gaps we could help him fill.

After a quick review of his website and social media accounts, we saw several amazing opportunities. The family member was right … Tom’s current marketing strategy needed a makeover. We quickly got to work developing a plan and couldn’t wait to share it with him.

Now, nothing in our exploratory call made us leery about bringing Tom on as a client.

However, this is where another rookie mistake happened.

We weren’t using our client intake form at the time. The result: we took on Tom without knowing if he did in fact fit our target buyer persona. The monthly retainer and the vision of doing some really cool things with Tom’s website and social media platforms is all we saw through our rose colored glasses.

The first red flag was when we began the process of gathering content for a series of blog posts we were trying to create. When we reached out to Tom for help, he alluded he was “too busy” and directed us to one of his employees instead. We chalked it up to a busy business owner delegating. And we were fine with that. This employee could be our liaison and get us the information we needed. Well, as it would turn out, he was equally as busy as his busy boss. 🙄

“The monthly retainer and the vision of doing some really cool things with Tom’s website and social media platforms is all we saw through our rose colored glasses.”

After months of what felt like pestering Tom and his employee for content, we realized we had probably made a mistake. However, instead of ending the relationship, we continued to plug along.

The next blow was when Tom’s wife started criticizing the work we were doing on their social media platforms. If she didn’t like one thing or another about a post, she would file her complaint with Tom, who would then relay her grievances back to us. Oh boy! 😖This was really getting out of control. But quitters we are not, so onward we went!

Tom’s company used an antiquated email marketing platform. It was not intuitive. It did not offer design capabilities. It was difficult to pull reports from, etc., etc., etc. We built a strong case for Tom to consider upgrading it. We even sat with him and did a detailed demo of another platform to show him the opportunities he was missing out on by using outdated technology. We came so very close but Tom ultimately decided against it.

Another swing and a miss!

We felt exhausted. The glorious plans we had for transforming Tom’s marketing were falling apart fast. We never finished the blog series because we were unable to get the feedback we needed. We had to nix the email marketing because we were unable to deliver quality content that we were able to report on. We knew we would never be able to provide Tom with the kind of service that we strive to provide to every client. Tom’s lack of support inhibited us from doing a stellar job for him … and we were not cool with this.

As more months passed, we were down to only managing Tom’s social media platforms. We tinkered with the idea of breaking things off with him but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.

The final straw came when we saw a paid Facebook ad come across our feed for Tom’s company. A paid ad that we did not create. What was going on here? When we reached out to Tom and asked him about it, he told us that he ‘lets his SEO guy place ads for him from time to time.’ 😖(The thought of putting the SEO guy in touch with us apparently never crossed his mind.)

It was like that moment in The Sixth Sense. The moment when Bruce Willis looks back and realizes the signs were there all along. He was dead the whole time but just didn’t know it!

Now, when we made our Sixth Sense revelation, we interestingly enough had just returned from Inbound 2018. It was the combination of what we learned in Karl Sakas’ seminar on Speed-Dating Your Agency's Sales Prospects along with the feeling our client had cheated on us with the SEO guy. We were D.O.N.E.

The client wasn’t happy. We weren’t happy. The break-up needed to happen and happen before anyone else got hurt! And so it did. We parted ways from Tom on a professional note. Most importantly, we learned the most valuable lesson any business owner can learn:

Never EVER deviate from your target buyer persona.

As a new agency, we looked at securing any kind of recurring revenue as a big win. What we didn’t understand was the price we’d have to pay for locking in revenue from the wrong type of client.

Based on our experience, here are seven things you can expect when you deviate from your target buyer persona:

1. Expending time and energy explaining the benefits of your product or service (as well as your process)

2. Feeling under-appreciated, undervalued, and sometimes downright disrespected

3. Handling lots of complaints from the customer or client

4. Chasing down payments you’re owed

5. Feeling unfulfilled by what you’re delivering

6. Dreading emails or phone calls from the customer or client

7. Headaches … lots of headaches

How To Avoid Customers/Clients Who Aren’t A Fit

• The first step in knowing who to avoid is knowing who is the perfect fit for you and your business. Take the time to research and develop your ideal buyer persona. Need help? Download our Client Persona Builder!
  
  

• If you’re a service based business, create a client intake form. This was huge for us. On the form, ask questions that will clarify 100% whether or not the person will be a good match. To build our client intake form, we followed the advice in this Karl Sakas blog post.
  
  

• Set the right expectations by publishing the type of client you’re looking for right on your website! Start with the value proposition on your homepage and go from there. Be loud and clear about your criteria for clients. This will help move the unqualified leads along.

Over the past couple months, we’ve been developing our target buyer persona even more based on our experiences from Year 1 in business. That’s one of the best things about marketing … it’s all about trial and error. Learning what has worked, what didn’t, and making enhancements that will take your business to the next level.

Best of luck with your persona building!

Create the profile of your dream client using our free Client Persona Builder!

Once you know exactly what your dream client looks like, you’ll never make the mistake of taking on (or marketing to) a nightmare client again. Download our FREE Client Persona Builder tool today.

Our 2019 Business Goals Revealed

Welcome to 2019! 🎊 We don’t know about you but we love being a business owners during this time of the year. A time when so many exciting opportunities are just waiting to be tapped into. Looking back at 2018, we can easily identify the things that worked for our business and the things that didn’t. Since we use this blog as a platform to share useful information with other creative entrepreneurs, we wanted to give you the countdown of discoveries we made in 2018 and how we’re using them to reshape our business goals for this year.

Discovery #5: Social media drives website traffic, NOT sales.

In reviewing our 2018 website stats, social media accounted for 24% of our traffic. However, we cannot link Facebook or Instagram to a single sale we made last year. In fact, the leads that were generated by social media turned out to be fairly poor. Considering the time investment we made in managing our platforms (not to mention the money we spent on paid campaigns), this was a complete bummer.

(To hear more about our frustrations with social media last year, check out this blog post: The Only Reason We’re On Instagram)

Goal #5: Network more.

So what did generate the most business for us last year? Good old word of mouth! If only we could hide behind our computers all day and not have to get in front of people though! Networking can feel uncomfortable but, unfortunately, getting out of one’s comfort zone usually leads to spectacular things!

That said, one of our goals for this year is to do more networking. And by networking, we don’t just mean attending Chamber events and things of that nature. We mean, talking about Little Marketing Genius Every Single Chance we get. Whether it’s during a pedicure or indulging in craft beer at a local brewery, if there’s a chance to plug LMG, we’re taking it!

Discovery #4: We need to streamline our processes.

One key thing we learned in 2018 was that some of the technology we had been using simply didn’t fit our business. The email platform we chose felt clunky. Our invoicing software didn’t do everything we wanted it to. And managing social media accounts was quite the process. The result: spending way more time than we needed to on battling technology!

Goal #4: Invest in technology.

During the last quarter of 2018, we began researching technology that would streamline our business processes. We’re happy to report that we believe to have finally found the right platforms!

Investing in technology can be frightening for a small business owner … especially when revenue is in flux. What we learned is that using the wrong technology can actually cost you in the end.

Discovery #3: People love our blog.

Our blog is by far the most popular section of our website. Nearly all of the leads we get from Google and other search engines are because of our blog.

Throughout the course of 2018, we published posts but our schedule was inconsistent. We hosted a Tuesday Tips series over the summer but then didn’t blog at all in September and October. (This was a huge mistake because the blog had gained so much traction from the Tips series!)

Goal #3: Consistently blog.

We preach it to you guys all the time but didn’t do a very good job of it ourselves last year. We’re a small agency so creating content for our business at the same time as creating content for our clients can be a challenge … but we are always up for a challenge.

For 2019, we’re committing to at least one blog post per week, every week. That’s a lot of content so if you have any suggestions for topics, please feel free to share them with us below! 👇🏼

Discovery #2: The struggle of reaching your target buyer persona is real … if you’re not 200% clear on who that person is.

When we launched Little Marketing Genius, we had a pretty good idea of the types of clients we wanted to serve. However, pretty good is definitely not good enough when you’re talking buyer personas. In order to reach the people you want to serve or sell something to, you have to know much more about them than a few basic demographics. It requires going deeper than that. What hobbies does this person have? What are their favorite brands? What blogs do they read? The list of questions goes on and on.

Last year, we came to the stunning realization of how important getting super specific on your buyer persona really is. We took on a handful of clients that were not a good match for us and we struggled getting in front of those who would be the perfect match.

Goal #2: Create a robust and comprehensive profile of our buyer persona and build a new marketing strategy around it.

We began the process in December and we’re almost finished building out our persona. The next step will be to interview the clients who most closely fit this description so we can learn even more. Building the right persona is an intense exercise to go through but well worth it in the long run. We wish we had gotten more specific on our persona sooner in the game but we’ll chalk it up to yet another learning experience.

Need help revamping your buyer persona? Check out HubSpot’s free Make My Persona tool!

Discovery #1: The riches are in the niches.

Ok folks, this is our biggest discovery of 2018. We first heard about the concept of niching down when we attended Inbound 2018, a conference hosted by HubSpot every year. One of our favorite marketing gurus, Karl Sakas presented a seminar on how to attract the right clients. As part of this, he talked about vertical specialization:

“Narrowing your focus allows you to build better project management workflows. Specialization helps you close more clients, since your success stories will all be highly-relatable within the industry.

Ultimately, specializing in a particular client industry gives you an edge. For your prospective clients, there are too many potential agencies out there - they want to narrow things down. Your agency can either stand out as experts in a narrow field, or fade into the sea of thousands of generalist agencies.”

— Karl Sakas

Read Carl’s full blog post on vertical specialization here.

Now, while Karl only consults agencies, this concept can apply to most businesses. We found it to be compelling but drastically thinning out our pool of prospects just seemed too scary for us at the time.

Fast-forward to the end of 2018. We were taking a web design business course by Paige Brunton and she highly recommended doing the same thing. Her words: the riches are in the niches!

Goal #1: We’re niching down!

While we can’t share all of the details on this just yet, 🙊 we can tell you we’ll be making some big changes in 2019! We’re going to get laser-focused on who we serve and the types of services we provide. We started preparing in December and probably won’t be ready to roll them out until the summer of this year so stay tuned!

We can’t wait to see what the New Year brings. We hope you have exciting things in store for your business as well. Comment below if you want to share any of your 2019 goals with us!

Looking to revamp your website design and brand in 2019? Book a free consult with us!

4 Easy Ways To Capture Leads On Your Website

Think of your website as a salesperson who works for you 24/7. Have you equipped this salesperson with all of the necessary tools to ace their job? Not only should your website contain a wealth of interesting and helpful content for visitors, but it should also serve as a portal for capturing new leads! In this blog post, we’re going to share a few easy ways to do this.

1. Put your high-traffic pages to work.

Each month, you should actively review your website data. Don’t worry … this is not as scary as it sounds. If your website is integrated with Google Analytics, then you already have access to a plethora of valuable statistics. One piece of data that we like to regularly monitor is page traffic. Page traffic outlines what content your site visitors are most interested in and essentially points you in the right direction for CTA placements.

A call-to-action, or CTA, is an image or line of text that prompts visitors, leads, and customers to take action. It is, quite literally, a "call" to take an "action." (HubSpot)

Many times, CTAs are linked to landing pages where a visitor can complete a form. This form might allow them to book a consultation, download a free piece of content, or even enter some sort of contest. Regardless of what the form is linked to, its sole purpose is to collect information from website visitors.

Placing CTAs (that ultimately link to forms) on your top performing website pages will allow you to strategically capture leads. Just be sure that your offers are enticing and relevant to the website pages you’re promoting them on!

2. Use pop-up boxes.

A fantastic way to grab new blog subscribers is to use pop-up or subscription boxes on those high-performing pages we just discussed. If you’ve poked around on the LMG website, then you’ve probably already noticed how we use these.

That little pink box in the lower left corner = a lead generation tool.

So how did we create these nifty little pop-ups? Using HubSpot, of course! The great news … you can do this even with their most basic FREE Marketing Hub subscription! If you’re interested in learning more about getting your website synced up with HubSpot, then reach out to us.

Lead generation pop-ups can be as loud or subtle as you want them to be. On our homepage, for example, a visitor is only presented with the pop-up box after they scroll through 50% of the page. The box itself is also pretty non-intrusive. It simply appears in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. And we have it set to not reappear for a certain length of time if a visitor X’s out of it.

3. Present visitors with an option to subscribe on every page.

You never know when a website visitor might feel inspired to subscribe to your content. So give them the option to do so on every single page! Whether it’s via a simple button or perhaps a basic one-field form at the bottom of each page, be sure your website visitors have a quick and easy way to subscribe to your content as soon as they want to.

This section is found at the bottom of every LMG web page. It gives visitors a quick and easy way to subscribe to our content. Speaking of which, why haven’t YOU subscribed yet?

4. Activate the power of your blog.

A business blog serves a number of different purposes … the most obvious one being a platform to share valuable content and information with your website visitors. However, the importance of blogging runs much deeper than this. Did you know that each time you publish a new blog post, you’re adding a new page to your website that will eventually be indexed by Google? This equates to more opportunities for you to show up in search results!

Want to learn more about this? Read our blog post on How To Get Found In Google Searches!

Now let’s tie that into our topic of capturing new leads. By including an enticing call-to-action in every blog post, you can acquire pertinent information on new prospects. Having intel on where a future customer is in the buying process (as well as their needs, pain points, and desires) will tremendously improve your ability to effectively market to them in the future.

When placing CTAs within your blog posts, try experimenting with different options in terms of color, style, and even placement. We’ve found that when we place CTAs closer to the top of our posts, they get clicked on more. Graphic CTAs as opposed to linked text also tend to yield a better result. You’ll want to do a little of your own testing to determine what works best with your website visitors.

Remember what we said at the beginning of this post … your website is a 24/7 salesperson! Put it to work by incorporating lead capture mechanisms throughout and never miss another opportunity.

Ready to revamp your website for 2019? We’ll give you a FREE 15-minute consult!

Tuesday Tip #13: 3 Ways To Come Up With Blog Post Topics

You stare at that little blinking cursor against a blank white document and the frustration builds. Writer’s block. The minutes gradually pass and, before you know it, an hour or two goes by. Still nothing. Now you’re really getting pissed off. 

Does this situation sound familiar? Yup. We’ve been there, too. However, we have a few techniques that help us break through writer’s block. For today’s Tuesday Tip, we’re going to share three different ways we come up with topics for the LMG blog. Bookmark this page and never suffer through the creative process ever again.

Get Our Free Guide To Blogging

1. Create a list of commonly asked questions from your clients or customers.

Your website should be a useful resource for visitors. And developing a blog is the perfect way to address the topics that your customers and clients are interested in learning more about! One thing that we do at LMG is keep track of the marketing questions we get asked. If the same question ends up on our list multiple times, guess what that means? We’re creating a blog post about it! 

Building content from frequently asked questions can help drive more traffic to your website. How? Think of it this way … if multiple clients are asking you a similar question, just think of how many prospective clients are Googling answers to that very same question. 

Tracking your FAQs not only unveils blog topics for months to come but also increases your chances of getting found in search results. Win, win!

2. Review insights from your website.

Your website analytics represents a host of powerful information just waiting to be unleashed! We regularly review our LMG website traffic to learn what pages and content are outperforming the rest. Using this information, we create blog posts centered around the hot topics. 

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Pro tip: If you discover a broad topic that has gained popularity on your website, create a blog series! The topics you choose for the posts within the series should be specific yet directly related to the higher level topic. A series presents a great way to keep your audience engaged for an extended period of time. And while it’s running, be sure to continually promote it on your social media channels! 

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3. Use the HubSpot Blog Idea Generator.

When all else fails, use the HubSpot Blog Idea Generator to get your creative juices flowing! Simply fill in a few fields with words you think you might want to write about and, within seconds, you’ll have a week’s worth of blog post titles.

Coming up with blog content should not be painful. Utilize these three tips and you’ll be publishing like a pro! Need more help getting your blog up and going? Be sure to grab a free copy of Jamie & Katie’s Guide To Blogging!

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Every Tuesday we share easy and actionable advice you can take to refresh your current marketing plan. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more!  

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Tuesday Tip #12: How To Get Found In Google Searches

It’s the dream of every website owner to rank on the first page of Google search results. The truth is, however, achieving Page 1 Status requires work. This statistic alone sums up why the work will be well worth it:

89% of U.S. internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is ultimately made at a local business. (HubSpot)

Owning a domain and a website are simply not enough. Your website needs to be optimized for search. Before we dig in and explain how to do this, let’s first take a look at the definition of search engine optimization:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. (Moz)

The quality of your website is defined by the visitors it’s attracting. Are they genuinely interested in the product or service you’re offering? A quality website should draw quality visitors, which leads to quantity. The more traffic the better.  

Needless to say, there’s a lot to know when it comes to SEO. For today’s Tuesday Tip, we’re going to unpack four things you can do to help your small business website get found on Google.

1. Implement a keyword strategy.

In order for your website to rank in Google search results, you’ll need to optimize it for the keywords people are using when they perform a search. However, this will require you to do some research first. 

We recommend beginning your keyword research with a brainstorming session. Open a blank Google Doc and fill it with every keyword or phrase pertaining to your business that you can think of. You’ll want a good mix of both short-tail keywords (one or two words) and long-tail keywords (more than three words). 

Note, the broader the keyword, the more challenging it will be to rank for. For example, “inbound marketing” is a very popular search term, making it difficult to rank for. “Inbound marketing agency in Middletown, CT” might have far less searches but this long-tail keyword would be easier to try and rank for. 

HubSpot Hint: Narrow the competition and relevance of broad keywords to include local elements and more specific services.

After you’ve written down all of the keywords you’d like to rank for, go to Google and type each of your short-tail keywords into the search box. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see other searches that are related to the search you entered. Make sure you add all relevant, related searches to your list as well.

Once you’ve put together your comprehensive list, you’ll want to use an analytics tool such as Moz’s Keyword Explorer to decide on the most sensible keywords to try and rank for.

Ok, so now it’s time to optimize your website for those keywords you decided on. According to HubSpot, “every page on your website needs to include the critical optimization elements that help Google understand what each page is about. Each website page needs to have the following elements addressed with a single focus keyword.”

• Page Title (under 70 characters)

• Meta Description (under 155 characters)

• H1 & H2 Title Text (break up main content by describing it)

• Alt Text (every image needs a title)

• Keyword in Content (at least once, bolded)

2. Implement a content strategy.

Your marketing needs to resonate with your audience and offer more than just touting your brand. It needs to tell your story and effectively explain the WHY behind what you do. If you’ve been following us on social media, we’ve been talking a lot about content these days. So what exactly is content marketing?

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing and business process focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” (Content Marketing Institute)

Like the exercise of keyword research, implementing a content strategy takes time and planning. What types of resources will your target audience find most helpful or beneficial? After you make that determination, you’ll then have to create the content! 

“The most common components of a content marketing program are social media networks, blogs, visual content, and premium content assets -- like tools, ebooks, or webinars.” (HubSpot)

For many small business owners, the task of content creation can seem quite overwhelming … maybe even impossible. Don’t freak out! LMG offers content planning and development solutions so you don’t have to worry about writing or designing graphics and guides. To learn more about our content marketing services services, contact us.

The key takeaway here is to never let your website get stale. Implementing an ongoing content strategy will ensure fresh content is always being added. 

3. Implement a blogging strategy.

Blogging is a great way to get your small business found on Google. Each time you publish a new blog post, you’re adding a new page to your website that will eventually be indexed. This equates to more opportunities for you to show up in search results!

Now let’s tie in that content strategy we just discussed. A blog gives you the opportunity to capture and convert leads who visit your site. By including an enticing call-to-action (CTA) in every blog post, you can acquire pertinent information on new prospects. Having intel on where a future customer is in the buying process (as well as their needs, pain points, and desires) will tremendously improve your ability to effectively market to them.

Lastly, a blog is the perfect way to showcase and share your industry knowledge with others! When you develop interesting and informative content based on your own experiences it not only positions you as a thought leader, but also creates a fantastic opportunity to share something with your social networks.

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Still not convinced? Then absorb this fun fact …

“Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic and 70% more leads than those that don’t.” (HubSpot)

 

4. Implement a link strategy.

In February 2018 we published a blog post on backlinks. If you missed it, here’s the definition of what a backlink is: 

A backlink is a link one website gets from another website.

You’ll notice that throughout this post, we’ve linked to sources such as HubSpot and Moz. Your goal as a website owner is to try and get other websites to link to yours. But not just any websites. You should strive for placement on quality sites that are relevant to your industry. And if those sites are ranking well on Google, it will help your cause even more. 

“Guest blog articles are a fantastic application. The idea behind guest posts is that everyone wins. The host site gets a good piece of quality content, it's readers get yet another piece of information relevant to their interests, and you get to expose yourself to a completely new audience by posting to their blog instead of your own.” (HubSpot)

While we’re on the topic of links, let’s not fail to mention the importance of linking to your social media channels. Be sure to include social sharing buttons on your website (especially in areas where you’re promoting content). And when you publish new content to your website or blog, be sure to share the link on social media, too! 

Ok, so this was a lot to absorb. We understand! If you want to improve your small business website rankings on Google, we’d love to brainstorm and help you generate some fresh new ideas! You know how to find us :)
 

Every Tuesday we share easy and actionable advice you can take to refresh your current marketing plan. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more!  

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Tuesday Tip #11: How To Use The Customer Value Journey To Grow Your Small Business

Plotting out and understanding the Customer Value Journey can lead to big wins for your small business. For today’s Tuesday Tip, I’ll explain what the journey is all about and then provide you with some direction on putting it to work for your business.

First thing’s first. What exactly is the Customer Value Journey? Well, the idea behind it is actually common sense. I love the way our friends at IMPACT put it so I’ll share a quote from their blog:

“Just like it would be highly inappropriate to say hello to new acquaintances by touching their hair, you can’t assault your prospects with heavy sales pitches right off the bat. That’s why you need to make people feel comfortable around you (or your brand) before they’re ready to move to the next stage (in this case, making a purchase.)”

The goal of the value journey is to “build a universal framework for transforming strangers not just into customers, but into rabid buyers and raving super-fans.” (IMPACT)

Sounds great, right? So now let’s dive into the different stages of this journey and how you can be optimizing each one.

1. Aware

This is when a prospect realizes their need for something you can provide them with and discovers, or becomes aware of, your brand. They might have found you by means of a referral, on social media, or an online search. 

I’m going to illustrate with a real-life example.

When I moved out to the country in 2017, I experienced a bit of a culture shock (that’s putting it very mildly). I had been previously accustomed to driving very short distances to get to the places I needed to go. The mall being one of these places. Fear immediately set in over how this move would impact my wardrobe.

One day, I was hanging out with my sister-in-law (who just so happens to also live in the country) and complimented her on the top she was wearing. I then immediately began to express my concerns over living so far from White House Black Market. It was at this moment that she made me aware of a lovely little company called Stitch Fix. 

Marketing Ideas For This Phase:

• According to DigitalMarketer.com, you need freely available content at the top of the funnel (TOFU) that 1. Entertains 2. Educates or 3. Inspires. Curate a collection of little videos, photos or infographics to utilize during the Aware stage.
  

• Help make prospects aware of your brand by optimizing your website and running paid campaigns to drive traffic.

2. Engagement

Moving along to Engagement. This is the part of the journey when a prospect starts interacting with your content. Maybe they read a blog post on Fall Fashion that you’ve published. Maybe they visit your Facebook page and watch a how-to video you’ve posted. Either way, you’ve piqued their interest and got them to engage! Nicely played!

Going back to my own story, I immediately checked out Stitch Fix’s website and Facebook page after I got home from my sister-in-law’s house that night. I read through a couple of their recent blog posts on fashion trends and I was intrigued, to say the least. 

Marketing Ideas For This Phase:

• Take advantage of middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) content to help educate your prospects (quizzes/surveys, case studies, white papers).
  

• Set up a Facebook retargeting campaign based on page views on your website.

3. Subscribe

Now you’re getting warmer! During the Subscribe phase, the prospect actually shows a vested interest in your content. They are willing to provide some basic information (i.e. their email address, first name, location) in order to access it.

If a prospect subscribes to your blog or completes a form to download your recently published case study on personal shopping, they’ve entered the Subscribe phase of the value journey. 

Marketing Idea For This Phase:

• Create a library of gated content in order to better define exactly which products or services might be of interest to your prospects. In order to access this content, a prospect would be required to supply some basic contact information via a form on a landing page.

4. Convert

In the Convert phase, the prospect is getting even closer to becoming a customer. They’ve made a small investment (in either time or money) to learn more about your product or service. For example, they might have purchased a trial membership or watched a 30-minute webinar that explains the process of subscription-based online shopping. 

In my journey with Stitch Fix, I claimed an offer that saved me the $20 styling fee for trying out the service. 

Marketing Idea For This Phase:

• Offer a 30-minute webinar that’s related to the products or services you sell.

5. Excite

Put your game face on because things are getting serious! If you provided the prospect with a high-quality offer during the Convert phase, there’s an excellent chance they’re beginning to feel excitement about your brand. To ensure they’ve consumed the content offer and enjoyed their experience, set up a nurturing campaign to check-in with the prospect.

Staying in front of someone who is already excited about your brand is the key to turning them into a customer.

Marketing Ideas For This Phase:

• Utilize bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content and offers to help persuade your prospect why they should do business with you. This could be in the form of a free trial, for example.
  

• Set up a nurturing email campaign to check in with the prospect to make sure they’ve enjoyed their first experience with your brand.

6. Ascend

I like to think of this stage as the perfect opportunity to cross-sell other relevant products or services you have to offer. You already have an enthusiastic buyer. Be sure to offer the right kind of add-ons so they can get the most value out of doing business with you.  

Marketing Idea For This Phase:

• Develop a plan for cross-selling other products and services you offer.

7. Advocate

At this stage of the value journey, the happy customer has been talking up your brand. So why not take advantage of this opportunity while their positive experience is still fresh in their mind? Don’t be shy. This is the moment when you ask them for a testimonial! 

Btw ... Stitch Fix didn’t ask me for a testimonial but, being the marketer I am, I gave them a 5-star Facebook review along with an amazing write-up detailing my first Fix. 

Marketing Idea For This Phase:

• Create an email marketing or social media campaign to acquire glowing testimonials.

8. Promote

Finally! You can kick your feet up and relax! When a customer reaches the Promote stage, they’ll actively promote your brand unsolicited. However, setting up a referral program is a fabulous idea if you don’t already have one. This will allow your happy promoters any easy way to entice their friends and family into checking you out. 

My Stitch Fix story is pure validation of the Promote phase. Since joining, I have recruited five more of my friends and family to the service!

Marketing Idea For This Phase:

Have a referral program in place.

Hope you enjoyed this week's tip! If you need help creating a marketing plan around your specific Customer Value Journey, you know who to call! ;-)

Every Tuesday we share easy and actionable advice you can take to refresh your current marketing plan. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see more!  

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