Holiday Marketing Tips for Your Business

Posted on November 21, 2024

cafe owner and staff determining a holiday marketing strategy

What’s the busiest time of year for your business? Chances are, most businesses would answer that question with, “The holidays!” Despite this season of wonder, joy, and deals, it can be tough to stand out. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling the best custom mugs on the internet; if you don’t have a holiday marketing plan for them, your seasonal sales might be as disappointing as a stocking filled with coal. Take some time to strategize and offer your customers something to be jolly about!

Leverage Holiday-Themed Content

Does creating holiday advertising content take a lot of work? Yes. Can you make it fun? Absolutely! The holiday season affords you a chance to do some creative things with your brand and products.

Gift Guides: Create short, tailored guides by category. “Mugs for the nerds in your life” or maybe “Tea accessories for your fancy loved one.” And then there’s the “Last minute stocking stuffers” guides for the procrastinators out there.
Themed Social Posts: Share a digital advent calendar countdown, offer “Daily Gift” promotions, and decorate your graphics with the colors and symbols of the holiday—just be sure to keep your brand recognizable.
Holiday Newsletters: Curated content sent out via email is the starting point to many a gift giver’s shopping journey. Make yours stand out by offering them deals they can’t refuse.

Here’s a nice little bonus tip: Why not deck the website? It doesn’t have to be boughs of holly, but you could always hang a little Santa hat on your logo, or maybe change some icons to candy canes and gifts. It’s a pleasant reward for the customer when your content does pull in clicks, and we would be happy to make it happen for you!

Offer Special Deals and Promotions

Holiday advertising isn’t complete without a plethora of exclusive deals. Discounts are welcome by all, while free shipping can entice customers to spend a minimum amount! Flash sales and last-chance reminders are also an effective way to grab the attention of all the right customers and create urgency.

If you’re intent on selling those custom mugs, this is a great chance to offer gift packages that offer more value than purchasing each item individually. You can even throw in some more incentives! Why not include a packet of hot chocolate and a candy cane stirring spoon with the purchase of each mug? After all, who doesn’t love hot chocolate?

Optimize for Mobile Shopping

Holiday marketing isn’t just about advertisements! This one applies year-round, but it’s crucial at a time when you’re seeing heavier-than-usual web traffic. Make sure you optimize your website for customers who shop using their mobile devices! Here’s what you should prioritize:

Responsive Design: Is your site fast and easy to navigate? Is it pleasing to the eye on mobile? Is the text legible?
Streamlined Checkout: Simple, efficient checkout processes can make or break a sale. Many people may back out of a sale if they’re required to create an account, so consider adding a “Guest Checkout” option.
Mobile Payment Options: Fast, simple methods of payment are becoming more and more popular—you’re probably all-too-familiar with the involuntary eyeroll when you realize you need to go fetch your credit card and enter all the info. Adding Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and other quick solutions can help reduce cart abandonment.

Still skeptical? These insights from HubSpot paint a picture of just how important mobile optimization is.

Run Targeted Social Media Campaigns

We can’t stress enough how important your social media marketing strategy is during the holidays. It’s a way to connect with potential (and existing) customers and provide interaction they’ll remember. Consider running paid social media campaigns to target specific audiences that you determine based on interests. Be sure to utilize the themed visuals we touched on earlier. A holiday-themed graphic keeps your customers in the holiday spirit and lets them know that your content is fresh. It also keeps your product or service fresh in their minds, ensuring they don’t forget that amazing gift idea!

With that in mind, be aware of which platforms you’re running your campaigns on and craft your content accordingly. On Facebook, you may take a traditional ad approach, with that custom mug front and center, filled with hot cocoa with twinkling lights in the background. But on Instagram? A photo of someone cozied up on the couch next to the fireplace while holding their mug to their lips might be the more effective route.

As for LinkedIn, it’s probably not going to sell as many mugs as the other two platforms. It’s good to know when you don’t even need to include certain platforms in your campaign!

Personalize Customer Experiences

Have you ever walked into your favorite cafe, bookstore, or other establishment to be recognized and greeted by the staff? It probably made you like the place even more. These people know you and like serving you! That’s the feeling you’re trying to spark with your holiday marketing. When they know you want to make their experience an enjoyable one, they’re more likely to support your business. Here’s what you can do:

Data-Driven Personalization: Utilize data on the buyer’s browsing history and past purchases to make recommendations on products that are relevant to them.
Exclusive Offers for Loyal Customers: Do you have a customer who has spent a significant amount of money on your custom mugs? Consider rewarding them with an exclusive discount—and ask them how they find space for all those mugs.
Holiday-Themed Loyalty Programs: Offer your customers additional loyalty points or holiday bonuses to encourage them to make future purchases. We know we would love to get a coupon that says, “Thanks for your purchase! Enjoy 15% off the next time you shop with us!”

Focus on Customer Service

This is another one of those things that applies year-round—not just your holiday marketing efforts. When stress is high for many customers, making their experience as pleasant as possible is vital! So how do you deliver that pleasant customer journey and handle inquiries with a genuine smile? It’s all about timeliness and being proactive!

This is your chance to be flexible. Offer your customers multiple support channels—chat, email, and phone support. All kinds of customers exist, and they don’t share the same communication preferences. Of course, none of that matters if you don’t answer your phone or respond to messages in a timely manner. Leaving customers hanging is a surefire way to sour their experience.

Want to take your customer service a step further? Have a system in place to notify buyers of updates to their orders, shipping deadlines, and any delays. A late package with no communication is the perfect recipe for a Grinch.

Plan for Post-Holiday Engagement

You thought the holiday rush was over once the holiday itself ends? Think again! While it may not be nearly as busy, there will likely be a handful of gift returns or other inquiries—such is the lifecycle of the holiday shopping season. Maybe a customer received a misprint or has to make a return because they finally ran out of cabinet space. Whatever the reasoning, it’s best to be ready for:

Walk-in gift returns
DMs on social media accounts
Comments on your posts
Calls with questions

When it comes to social media, engagement is key here. Hopefully you’ll be getting nothing but comments saying how much your customers love drinking their coffee out of their new custom mug, but the opposite is a possibility (some people are hard to please). Responding to positive and negative feedback shows your customers that you really care about their satisfaction, and could be the factor that encourages them to return.

A Holly Jolly Marketing Strategy

This season can bring plenty of fortune to your business, but only if you put some work into your holiday marketing strategy. By leveraging holiday content, optimizing your website, running great campaigns, and practicing effective customer service practices, you’re letting your customers know that they matter to you. If you need a little help with managing all of it, our designers and developers are happy to craft a holiday plan for your business. Let us do the work while you sit back and enjoy some hot cocoa.

If You’re Not Blogging, You’re Missing Out (Blog Examples and Tips)

Posted on September 25, 2024

woman on her laptop researching blog examples

Before we begin, we’ll address the elephant on the page. Writing a blog about writing blogs seems pretty hilarious, but how else are we supposed to tell you about best practices and great blog examples? Through social media posts? That would take a whole long thread on X Formerly Known as Twitter. Through the postal service? That’s obviously not practical. So we have to be really meta about it.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Have you noticed a dip in web traffic recently? Maybe you can’t quite pinpoint the cause. Your social media posts are performing well and your paid ads are proving to be worth the investment, but what about your blog? Having one is a great start, but if you aren’t updating it regularly you’re missing out on some important opportunities.

There really is a lot to be said about the importance of writing blogs to help give your business a boost. It can increase traffic, educate your audience, generate leads, and even support your efforts elsewhere! Let’s get into all the benefits of blogging and even take a look at some well-crafted blog examples.

Boosts SEO and Organic Traffic

Search engines are always hungry, and content is their food. A consistent blog provides a steady stream of fresh content for those search engines to feast on (and readers to feast their eyes on), which helps your website rank higher in search results! But it’s not just about writing with reckless abandon. These search engines essentially reward the proper use of things like keywords. For example, if we want this very blog to help our SEO efforts, we would try to utilize a popular keyword related to the subject we’re writing about—a keyword like “writing blogs.”

Turns out Google really likes that last sentence.

The thing is, we have to be careful not to overuse keywords when blogging for business purposes, otherwise it’ll be considered spam. For now, though, we’re in the clear. We’ve only used the keyword mentioned above three times, so we’re far from getting dinged. As long as SEO best practices like this are followed in your blog, you’ll likely see an increase in your search rankings.

The content still has to be valuable to the human user, though. Make sure you’re writing organically and including information relevant to your target audience. Otherwise, people will see through it pretty easily, and you’ll likely lose out on valuable organic traffic.

Establishes Authority and Expertise

A blog that’s well-maintained is a great tool for showing your customers you know what you’re talking about! If they visit your site and find a treasure-trove of write-ups about the very thing your site is selling, they’ll likely be more confident in your abilities. Would you even still be on our website if we just had basic service descriptions and nothing else? Probably not.

By sharing relevant industry insights, tips, and trends, you can position your business as an authority in your industry. This trust you establish with your customers through consistent knowledge and resources goes a long way towards turning one-time customers into loyal ones. Keep up that credibility-building, and you’ll be recognized within your industry for all the right reasons!

Not sure how to convey all that knowledge in written form? Get some inspiration from our list of blog examples later in this post! Don’t have time to learn SEO and write blogs every month? Let a team of experts take this task off your hands and see your website traffic increase drastically!

Engages and Educates Your Audience

We know you can’t spend your days chatting on the phone with each customer like they’re your high school crush, but that doesn’t mean you can’t maintain communication with them. By writing—you guessed it—a blog, you can engage your readers in several ways:

By presenting them with the blog content itself
Through comments on the blog post
Social media shares
Emails/periodic newsletters

All these things can present interlinking opportunities with your content, which is just one of several benefits of blogging. It serves as a source of education for anyone who wants a few extra slices of knowledge. When you’re constantly keeping their attention, you’re constantly keeping their business!

Generates Leads and Conversions

Writing blogs is an opportunity to generate leads. How? By engaging with and encouraging your customers! This could take the form of a call-to-action (CTA) to get in touch (see our “Team of Experts” link above), sign up for a newsletter, request a quote, or plenty of other things your customers will find valuable. A thoughtfully constructed blog encourages site visitors to take the next step. This turns them from casual readers into potential buyers and, hopefully, loyal customers. As time goes on, your continued nurturing of this relationship with potential customers helps to increase conversions and foster business growth!

Need help crafting that sales language to entice your prospects to work with you? Reach out to ArachnidWorks today!

Supports Social Media Strategy

How did you find yourself on this page? If it wasn’t through a web search, it was likely through a social media post that linked here. Every blog you write can be turned into at least one social media post, but you’ll often have the opportunity to craft several. Take this very blog, for example. We’ll probably make a general post saying, “Read this great new blog!” and include a link, but our Social Media team will likely see the potential for more content than that. Maybe they’ll make a post covering each section we cover, or they might possibly find a high-value tip somewhere here that our followers on social will find value in.

Disclaimer: I don’t actually know if that’s exactly what they’ll do, but you can bet they’ll create some great social content from this blog!

Thanks to this steady flow of content you’ll be able to share with your social following, you’ll keep engagement high and drive traffic to your site. If that content is valuable enough, your readers may even spread your content across their networks and get you welcome exposure!

Our Top Blog Examples

Writing about blogs and leaving it at that may be effective enough, but we want to do you one better. We want you to see what the end result should look like. We’ve gathered a small list of blog examples that you can take some SEO inspiration from!

#1: ArachnidWorks

Do we have a great blog full of marketing tips and well-optimized for SEO? Did we just put ourselves at the top of this list? Yes, but that’s what you can do when you write great blogs!

#2: HubSpot

HubSpot knows marketing, and their expertise really shines through in their blog. They’re bound to show up in your search results if you’re Googling things like “blog examples” or “social media tips.”

#3: Ahrefs

This is a site we visit every day, and not just because they have a great keyword-research tool. Their blog is filled with invaluable tips and tricks for anything and everything SEO. It’s updated nearly daily. They sure have a lot to say, and the impressive part is that there’s value in all of it.

#4: Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s blog is chock full of useful tips for budding marketers and full agencies alike. You’ll find insights on email best practices, networking, and much more.

#5: Serious Eats

Serious Eats knows food. They also know how to connect with their audience. They can relate to them with posts that touch on everything from the latest industry news to weird thoughts we’ve all had while cooking.

Reap the Benefits of Blogging

There are plenty of undeniable benefits to writing blogs for your business—boosting SEO and traffic, engaging your audience, generating leads, supporting your social efforts, etc. It’s an invaluable resource if you’re looking to grow your business. And on the opposite side of the coin, neglecting it could be hurting you. If you’re just now discovering the power of blogging, no sweat! It isn’t too late to start, and we’ll be happy to help you stay competitive, build your internet presence, and grow your relationships!

Thanks for reading our blog blog. We can’t wait to see your business grow!

AI for Small Business: Part 2

Posted on June 25, 2024

group of marketers using ai for small business

Last month, we took a bit of a technical look at what makes artificial intelligence tick. While a look under the hood may be a bit of a mindboggle, it hopefully gave you a small understanding of how AI works. With that out of the way, though, it’s time to get to the “good” stuff: How to implement AI for small business.

From automating routine tasks to getting insights into customer behavior, there are plenty of ways to use AI. Let’s explore the practical applications and other benefits!

Benefits of AI for Small Business

In knowledgeable hands, AI can be a powerhouse of a marketing tool. We’re not talking about the low-quality engagement farming and spam posts you see on Facebook. We’re talking about the companies who grow with the help of AI used in thoughtful ways. Let’s dive in.

Improved Efficiency

No business is free from tedious and time-consuming tasks; after all, invoicing, scheduling, and inventory are important parts of most companies. AI-powered tools can be implemented to handle those things so you and your team can focus on projects and other tasks that drive growth.

Enhanced Customer Service

Chatbots generally induce eye rolls at their mere mention, but a high quality, AI-powered one can provide real value to your customers and enable you to step in when need be. It means 24-hour support that provides answers to common questions and minor issues. These tools can even analyze and learn from previous customer interactions to be more effective in the future by establishing a “knowledge base”.

Data-Driven Insights

Customer data is readily available. It’s knowing how to use it that’s the real trick. Sometimes, though, there’s simply too much data available, to the point where it’s a huge task just to take it all in. With artificial intelligence, the analysis can be taken care of without taking up the time of you and your team. Tend to more pressing tasks while your customer data is organized in a way that helps you strategize, develop products, and improve customer service.

Cost Reduction

Time is money, which is why freeing up your employees’ time is so vital. When they’re not tied up with menial tasks, they’re able to help in significant ways, leaving the tedium to the AI that truly doesn’t mind doing those “bland” chores. We guarantee the fees for even the best AI tools out there will be significantly less than paying an employee to do these same tasks (and take much longer to do them). Put your people to work doing things that inspire them! The technology will handle the rest, with monitoring of course.

Practical Applications of AI in Business

The potential uses of AI for small business goes beyond answering queries and taking care of tedious tasks. If you have a deep understanding of how to implement it, you can take advantage of some impressive potential.

Operations and Inventory Management

Do you constantly struggle with inventory issues? If you don’t order the right amount of inventory, you take a hit. Empty shelves mean dissatisfied customers and packed ones represent money your business wasted. With AI, you can predict future inventory needs using market trends and other data. Additionally, it can help plan supply chain routes and schedules to minimize shortages.

Finance and Accounting

Data entry and other bookkeeping tasks can become quite time consuming and tedious. With the help of technology, you can free up time and reduce errors. Furthermore, AI can be utilized to detect unusual activities in transaction patterns to help combat fraud. When your finances are protected this way, it makes financial planning much easier.

Marketing and Sales

AI has the ability to analyze any data presented to it. We touched briefly on this while discussing data-driven insights above, but it goes deeper than that. It can take in client behavior such as social media activity to help you identify your target audience. Additionally, it can segment your customers for personalized marketing pushes. And of course, it can provide a big assist in creating content that your customers find valuable.

Human Resources

Say you’re in the middle of a hiring push and you’re sitting on hundreds or even thousands of applications. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem, nonetheless. With artificial intelligence tools can screen resumes and identify top candidates, which speeds up the hiring process and helps you select the right person for the job.

Steps to Implement AI in Your Small Business

Knowing the benefits of AI for small business, it’s time to implement the tools themselves. But how do you do that? If you need some pointers, we’re always happy to help, but here are a few tips for making sure you’re handling it correctly.

Identify Areas for Improvement: When you know where your shortcomings lie, you’ll have a much easier time with implementation. If you struggle with inventory, start there!
Research AI Tools: Not every AI tool is the same. Some are built for small businesses, and others are for more personal uses. We suggest opting for something that’s scalable and user-friendly.
Pilot Projects: Don’t trust your new AI software with your biggest project. Start with a small project to measure effectiveness, and trust it with incrementally bigger tasks as you get comfortable with it.
Training and Development: AI is useless if 90% of your company doesn’t know how to use it. Take the time to train your employees and make sure they understand the tools.
Measure and Optimize: Keep track of how the AI is doing. If you have the data to back up performance, it’s easier to make adjustments or leave it as is.

Challenges and Considerations

With every new technology comes reservations and distrust. We’re already seeing a good amount of it in regards to artificial intelligence. Understanding what AI is and does can help to dispel rumors about it being the “boogie man” of the tech world, but there are considerations to take into account that aren’t black and white.

Budget Constraints

AI can offer an appealing return on investment, but that doesn’t make the up-front cost of some tools less intimidating. Take some time to evaluate the long-term benefits posed by AI and make your decision based on your findings. Try out the free level of some tools for a taste before fully jumping into a paid subscription.

Data Privacy and Security

One reason many of your customers have for sticking with you is their trust in you. That’s why it’s important to maintain that trust throughout the AI implementation process. If you’re using AI in business, it’s important you comply with data protection regulations and have good security in place so you can safeguard your customers’ sensitive information. Your business location and where you service customers have a large impact on your ability to utilize data, so be sure to check into regulations and restrictions.

Skill Gap

AI isn’t necessarily an “Easy” button. Technical expertise is required to use it, so investing in training and hiring professionals could bridge this gap.

Change Management

Change can be scary for employees who have gotten used to their roles and the tools they use within them. When you’re getting ready for AI implementation, have a change management strategy in place. Be ready to communicate, train, and take other measures that will ensure a seamless transition to whatever new processes are presented.

The Future of AI in Small Businesses

AI is growing at a rapid pace, constantly shaping the landscape of countless industries in the process. It will continue to evolve by helping with customer insights, automated processes, and advanced analytics. This means your business capabilities will be enhanced, but you’ll need to keep up to stay competitive. If AI implementation never happens at your business while others thrive with it, it can be tough to regain your footing. No matter your thoughts on this technological behemoth, it’s part of our world now. Just as the internet shaped the professional landscape, this is doing the same.

Embracing AI for Small Business

New tech can be intimidating, but the benefits AI offers are undeniable. Improved efficiency, enhanced customer service, data-driven insights, and cost reduction are all benefits made possible by AI, and approaching them in a careful, intentional way can help you keep up and see your business thrive.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, trust a business that has taken the time to use artificial intelligence in an effective way. Get in touch with ArachnidWorks and let’s set our sights on the future!

AI for Small Businesses: Part 1

Posted on May 6, 2024

business partners on a laptop

What is AI? We’ve seen it in countless TV shows, movies, and books. From R2-D2 and C3PO wandering the desert to Arnold Schwarzneggar’s T-800 declaring, “I’ll be back,” intelligent machines have long been a staple of science fiction—except now, the “fiction” part is becoming a thing of the past.

Unless you’ve been living off the grid for the last few years, you’ve heard the term “AI” (or Artificial Intelligence) frequently. After all, it’s taking the world by storm and shaking up industries in some pretty significant ways. The entertainment, restaurant, industrial, and even marketing fields are being affected by it. People are utilizing AI for small businesses wherever they can to improve processes and products, and why wouldn’t they? It can be a huge time saver and help you run your business! But as with any technology, how to use AI for small businesses is a skill that requires practice as well as trial and error.

It isn’t just about typing in prompts and using exactly what AI spits out. It’s about making the effort to learn the ins and outs so you can realize its full potential for your business. Using AI for the sake of using AI won’t help you in the long run, so let’s go over the knowledge you’ll need to know how to use AI—more specifically, how to use artificial intelligence for businesses.

How It Works

We don’t want to bore you with too much technical stuff, but a general understanding of how these systems work can help you utilize these tools better.

Machine Learning

Machine learning enables computers to teach themselves using data and its patterns. Say your friend is trying to perfect a cake recipe, and they’re using you as their test subject. They bake several cakes that are slightly different. Some have more sugar, while others use different icing.

After you try out each cake, your friend asks for your opinion. You give feedback like, “This needs more sugar,” and your friend adjusts the ingredients to take that into account. With enough recipes and feedback, they refine their recipe to make the perfect cake. That’s the general process the machine learning model uses.

Deep Learning

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on neural networks that are modeled after the human brain. Essentially, it goes through a learning process similar to our own. There’s a lot of trial and error that helps it learn and improve based on its mistakes.

Say you want to teach a computer how to play Pac-Man. Before deep learning, you’d have to tell all of the rules in excruciating detail. Now, you’d simply tell it to play the game until it got the hang of it. It would start out moving randomly, collecting a few dots by accident and getting killed by the ghosts. But it would learn from those experiences; eating dots is good and ghosts are bad. Eventually, the computer would get really good at the game. It would develop strategies to avoid the ghosts, learn the ideal routes to take, and teach itself how to maximize its score.

The processes that drive this kind of AI learning come together to achieve a huge array of things. Image and speech recognition, healthcare diagnostics, and natural language processing (NLP) are all able to be handled by a deep learning model. Speaking of natural language processing…

Natural Language Processing

Using AI for small businesses relies heavily on Natural Language Processing (NLP). This is how computers are able to understand and generate language in a way that makes sense. If everything we’ve discussed so far is what powers C-3PO’s “brain,” NLP is what helps him speak his mind!

In order to understand Anakin Skywalker (his creator), C-3PO used data available to him to learn things like sentence structure, word classification, and implied meaning and generate coherent words based on them. His artificial brain formed thoughts as data, and that data was translated into audible words that Anakin could understand. Thus, they were able to have conversations!

Identifying Your Business Needs

Now that you have a basic understanding of how AI works, let’s take the first step to utilizing it to help your business. Before you even begin to type AI prompts, you need to identify what your business goals actually are.

Assess Your Challenges

What does your business’s current landscape look like? What are your pain points and where could you improve? Consider all of these things and imagine the possible solutions you could implement with the help of AI. Whether it’s improving your processes, better understanding your customers, or bolstering your product offerings, there’s a use for AI here!

Define Your Objectives

What do you want to achieve by implementing AI? SMART goals are probably something you’re familiar with, so let’s start there. Make sure your objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. As an example, you could set a goal of increasing customer engagement by twenty percent within four months by using recommendations from AI.

Blend AI With Your Overall Business Strategy

AI initiatives should never replace your processes. Rather, they should be used to bolster your existing ones and align with your business strategy. Integrating it into your big vision helps it become a valuable addition rather than a pet project.

Next Month: Implementing AI for Small Businesses

The inner-workings of artificial intelligence are complicated and technical. We hope you stuck with us through that, because in part 2, we’ll get to the even better stuff! You’ll learn to use your understanding of AI to improve your processes!

In the meantime, we’d love to answer any questions you have about artificial intelligence for businesses or marketing in general. Reach out and strike up a conversation!

How to Handle Negative Reviews

Posted on August 9, 2023

woman using her cellphone to write a negative review about a business

The digital landscape can seem unforgiving—especially if you’re a business owner. You have to make sure your website is attractive and functional. Social media is a constant beast that needs to be tamed. And of course, there are reviews coming in from a plethora of platforms.

We’re here to discuss that last bit with you. While positive reviews can be a great boon for your company when they’re positive, poorly handled negative reviews can have the opposite effect. No company is immune to bad reviews, so it’s important to be prepared to address them.

What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Say

Wording is key when responding to negative feedback. The customer who provided it is likely irritated, so it’s up to you to perfect the balancing act of acknowledging their critique while offering compensation or letting them know their words have been taken to heart.

First of all, don’t dance around the subject. “Grab the bull by the horns,” as they say, and don’t shy away from this feedback. If a customer leaves feedback complaining of an accidentally foul-mouthed plushy, tell them you’re sorry for their poor experience. Assure them that the toy they just gave to their niece wasn’t supposed to start shouting obscenities at her. Offer a refund or store credit, and don’t hide behind made-up excuses. Let them know that this issue will be addressed as quickly as possible, and invite them to keep in contact to maintain a dialogue.

And then there’s what you shouldn’t do…

We’ve all seen those viral responses in which a company goes on the defensive and roasts a customer who may have been too aggressive in their review. While this route may be cathartic in the short term, it will rarely work out in the long run. Instead, be prepared to answer their concerns, but don’t be overprepared. Having a highly templated response that you can just plug some words into can add fuel to a fire. These responses are often easy to see through, and the lack of sincerity is noticed immediately.

Crafting an Effective Response

Hopefully, you’ve chosen to take the high road when responding. Hopefully you’ve put some thought into your response strategy, but what should your response actually say?

Let’s stick with the theoretical foul-mouthed plushy example. You just got a one-star review on Google because, through a programming error, the toy was saying wildly inappropriate things. Your response might look something like this:

“Hi, Melanie. We appreciate you reaching out to let us know the plushy you gifted to your niece was saying things that weren’t appropriate for children. This is not how the toy is intended to function, and we’re already looking into the issue to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future. We would like to offer you a full refund for your troubles. Please contact us directly if you’d like to discuss this further. Thank you for voicing your concerns.”

This is likely a delicate situation, so be sure to double-check your response for spelling, grammar, and professionalism before sending your response.

Don’t Ignore the Positive Reviews

While it’s important to address negative feedback, responding to positive reviews is just as important. A satisfied customer has paid for your product with their hard-earned money, and now they’re taking the time to let you and other potential customers know how happy they are. We’d say that warrants a response. Tell them you’re ecstatic that they loved that plushy, and giving kids joy is why you started your business in the first place! A simple response like that can go a long way towards making a repeat customer.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this detour from your doomscrolling gave you a little more confidence in responding to online reviews. The short and sweet of it is this: Respond to your customers, whether they left a good or bad review. They took the time to provide feedback, and you should let them know it wasn’t for nothing. Engaging them in this way shows them and other users that you’re paying attention to feedback and focusing on the people behind the purchases.

If you need further assistance in managing your online reputation, we’re here to help! Get in touch with us, and we’ll help you level up your digital marketing. And remember…

If you play your cards right, you can turn even the most negative review into a win!

7 Ways to Boost Engagement & Conversions with Email Marketing

Posted on May 30, 2023

small business owner utilizing email marketing tips

When you send out an e-newsletter you want people to read and engage with it. Hopefully, they’re sending you replies and sharing your content with friends and family.

An e-newsletter can be a highly valuable marketing tool that helps you build lasting relationships with your customers. Therefore, you’ll want to ensure as many people as possible find it compelling. Here are seven of the best email marketing tips and tricks you can use to ensure your newsletter’s both far-reaching and highly engaging.

Segment Your Audience

Many emails are never even opened. However, segmenting your audience can increase the chance your message will be well received. Each segment can receive slightly different versions of your newsletter, and by understanding your audience’s interests, you create content speaking specifically to them. This personalization can dramatically improve how effective your newsletter is.

Use Compelling Subject Lines

Readers decide to open 50% of their emails solely based on the subject line’s appeal. So, you need to know how to create attention-grabbing subject lines. Some of the most popular ways to do this include:

Asking a question
Including a number
Being funny or starting with a joke
Using your readers’ fear of missing out to your advantage

You can also increase your email open rate by using clever strategies. Personalize your subject lines and add a dash of urgency, for example, “Hey Sarah, time’s running out; better go catch it!” This will make your audience curious to open your email and dive right into your newsletter.

Employ Valuable & Concise Content

You want to include things your audience values. That might be information, advice, or promotional offers. Be sure to keep your newsletter concise and scannable so it’s easy to read. You should also use interesting visual elements and multimedia content to keep them engaged. Remember, if you continually give readers something relevant and relatable, they’ll learn to trust you, and their brand loyalty will grow.

Create Call-To-Actions (CTA)

Your newsletter should strategically direct your recipients to take a desired action. This is your chance to direct them to visit your website, purchase one of your products or services, share your newsletter, or leave you feedback which can be used to further increase email engagement. You may want to experiment and test out which types of CTAs render the best results.

Use Interactive Elements

You can actively drive engagement by incorporating interactive elements into your e-newsletter. Make it friendly and fun. People often enjoy participating in polls or taking quizzes. You should also consider encouraging readers to share their opinions and participate in discussions with you and other readers.

Offer Social Sharing Options

You can get conversations going and grow your audience by providing social sharing buttons in your e-newsletter. You can even drive the direction of discussion by suggesting a hashtag they can use on various social media sites. Once everybody’s talking, the social media marketing party really gets started.

Test & Analyze

There are many components of your e-newsletter, and you’ll need to figure out which ones are working and which ones need to be refreshed. Sometimes it’s difficult to see where your content’s stress points are. However, A/B tests can tell you what’s going right and what’s not.

It lets you see if shorter or longer subject lines perform better. It can also show how your message’s length affects performance. You can even test if you receive more engagement based on time of day. This allows you to make sound decisions driven by data so you can optimize your e-newsletter’s performance for maximum effectiveness.

The Importance Of Experimenting & Adapting Strategies

As you’re enhancing your engagement, it’s important to continually try new things. If something isn’t as effective as you’d like, don’t be afraid to try something else. Start conversations and provide open lines of communication. By following these tips, you can enhance your e-newsletter’s engagement, broaden your customer base, and in the process, establish lasting brand loyalty.

At ArachnidWorks, we know how to boost e-newsletter engagement successfully, and we design your content to encourage high engagement with readers. If you’re ready to grow your marketing strategy, contact us now!

The Do’s and Don’ts for Holiday Social Posts

Posted on November 3, 2022

Every fall, when temperatures dive and the Maryland nights grow longer, Brian, our CTO, starts his tradition of listening for the first annual playing of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Released 28 years ago tomorrow, Mariah Carey’s blockbuster, officially launches the holiday season around here, whether we’re ready or not.

For our content marketers and social media marketing strategists, the sappy tune also triggers our holiday social media planning. At AW, our team has been handling the social needs of our clients long enough to know that holiday posts need a little something extra. By keeping in mind a handful of Dos and Don’ts, we can ride the coattails of the most important seasonal trends and avoid any eleventh-hour social media crises.

DO: TWEAK YOUR POSTING CALENDAR

Review your typical posting schedule and adjust it so you can reach clients and potential customers during the ramp-up to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hannukah. Organize the dates throughout the holiday season that are most relevant to you, schedule those posts, and set reminders so you can stay on top of plan. Keep in mind that it’s a fine line between keeping your base up to date and inundating them with TMI.

DON’T: DISCONNECT FROM YOUR CLIENTS

Even the best holiday social media posts don’t take the place of a personal connection with the people to whom you owe your business. Do your best to communicate with your clients in non-digital ways when possible. You know you can’t speak with or visit everyone, so make sure your holiday posts for social media are authentic and meaningful enough to foster genuine connections.

DO: CREATE A THEME THAT REFLECTS YOUR BRAND

Ignore the hackneyed and the trite colors and images in favor of the visual components that make up your brand. The goal is to make your content stand out from the rest and appeal to your audience, so if a color palette of magenta and melon make your message pop, go with it—leave the red and green, and the blue and gold, for those with more traditional brands. Don’t be shy!

DON’T: STUFF YOUR CLIENTS’ STOCKINGS WITH NONSENSE

During the month of December, one well-known social media site lists the following dates as “not-to-be-missed” opportunities for reaching out to your clients and customers: Eat a Red Apple Day, Let’s Hug Day, National Roast Suckling Pig Day, Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day… You get the idea. Unless any of these reflect your brand and give you an opportunity to tell an authentic story about your company, skip them. Before you post anything, especially a holiday social media post, ask yourself why. If you don’t know the answer immediately, hit delete.

DO: HOST A GIVEAWAY OR CONTEST

Your loyal followers will likely enjoy the chance to win something from you that they’re pining after. Choose an item that’s appealing to your regular base, but also shareable to encourage new followers.

DON’T: USE THE HOLIDAYS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SIMPLY SELL, SELL, SELL

Holiday observances around the world are becoming more secular, but for many, Christmas and Hannukah have deep cultural or religious meaning. Be respectful in your choice of images and words. Most people want warm wishes and cheer rather than links to your best-selling product’s page.

DO: ENCOURAGE POSTS FROM FOLLOWERS

Try including 1–2 photos in a social media post from a holiday tradition you or your team members enjoy observing, and invite your followers to do the same. Encourage the authentic, the genuine, and the meaningful—you’ll build your digital community and engender the type of trust and goodwill that elevates your brand.

Keeping in mind these couple of dos and don’ts, some careful planning, a solid strategy, and a commitment to brand awareness will go a long way toward a successful social media strategy this holiday season…and you don’t even have to wait to hear “All I Want for Christmas is You” to get started.

Too much on your plate for the rest of Quarter 4? Do you know how important a solid social media strategy for the holidays is for your company? No one ever said you have to do it alone. ArachnidWorks is here to help! Let’s talk.

Why Your Website Needs a Blog and How to Start One

Posted on September 29, 2022

Let’s cut to the chase––you need to start blogging.

Blogs are not just for those ranting because the sour cream was missing from their grocery order. Starting a blog doesn’t mean you must spill the tea on why you will never wear parachute pants again, but we’d love to read it if you do (#welovethe80s). Blogging is one of the most powerful marketing tools business owners can wield to grow their audience, boost sales and establish a brand voice. By the way, all kinds of fabulous content can help you stand out from the crowd. Yet, for this piece, we’re covering the OG.

At ArachnidWorks, we know a thing or two about blogging. You’re kind of reading one now, right?

Right!

So, we gathered our collective marketing brains to share why your website needs a blog.

Three Little Letters: SEO

A quality blog can boost your entire website’s SEO ranking. Here’s how.

Content & Keywords – Blog posts are a form of content. Content adds keywords to your site. Search engines crawl through your site and read your content to determine what your business offers. That helps search engines find your website over others. Nice, right?
Relevancy – Blog posts are a deep dive into a topic. They help you gain traction and position your content in front of more eyes, leading to more conversions. And with Google’s latest algorithm update, there is a heavy focus on intent––your relevancy––which provides value for the posted content.
Tag, You’re it! – Categories and tags are metadata mysteries that are not so mysterious. They tell search engines where to find your website and drive users to it.
Stay Awhile – A quality archive of material keeps people roaming your site longer. Extra dwell time on pages tells search engines people loved hanging out with you because your content was on point and fabulous.
Internal Links – Links, links, and more links within a blog to your previous posts equal more clicks on your content. It’s all a part of strategic thinking to help users find your brand and message.
Share & Share Alike – Think of it as the more the merrier. Internal linking in posts means more opportunities for other websites to find and link back to your site. The more websites linking to you as a source, the merrier, right? Right! And when you tag and repost your blog on social media, you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, you’re going to have more eyes on your content.
Where the Heck Are You? – Tagging locations to your post is a must for location-based businesses. For the local donut shop that needs those eclairs to fly out the door, you want donut-lovers to know where to snag the best in town.

If You Write it, They Will Come

You want to set yourself apart as an expert in your lane. It helps customers get to know you and build trust. It’s not a matter of just writing content for content’s sake. You want to give the masses material that solves a problem, gives them actionable steps, and shows them YOU are the one who feels their pain (points).

Who Are You?

You have a brand to define for the masses. That starts with creating a voice people recognize. You immediately know when you see that circular, green sign that it’s calling you toward caffeine. That smirk on a cardboard box? Something special is on your doorstep, right? These companies have defined their brand to the point that you don’t even need a name on their logo to know who they are. You know their voice, identity, and how they improve your life with their services. You can get there too! It starts with becoming an industry expert who builds rapport and connects with others.

My People!

You can’t grow your audience without content, and content helps you grow your audience. You want traffic to be bumper-to-bumper on your site to generate new leads. These leads mean you’ve found your people! A great way to keep the interaction alive on your site is to include a call-to-action (CTA) that offers them a little something. You know what we mean by CTA. Things like:

But wait, there’s more!
Free gift just because you’re fantastic!
Act now. Space is limited!
Sign up today, and you’ll receive an invite to my virtual bad holiday sweater party!

Other CTAs we love include:

Free eBooks
Downloadable whitepages
Fact sheets
Video lessons or webinars
Free trials
Donuts. The ones with sprinkles.

Okay, maybe not the donuts, and it’s obviously sugar-rush snack time at ArachnidWorks HQ, yet you see where we’re going with this. Anything you can offer users to jump into that funnel and start a relationship can drive long-term results.

Ready to start that blog? Awesome! Want to turn to the Frederick, Maryland, marketing pros who can help you get it done? Even better! ArachnidWorks is a multi-disciplined design collective dedicated to bringing clients strategic marketing, top-quality design services, and SEO strategy that gets businesses noticed. Let us help you make some crazy-cool content. Reach out, and let’s get started!

Content and SEO Strategy––It Matters

Posted on September 7, 2022

Believe it or not, organic search visibility, rankings, and traffic take a lot of effort. What makes a big difference in your success? Creating stellar, optimized content.

Content and SEO are in a relationship, and their union could launch your website to the top of the rankings. Are you utilizing their partnership to get noticed? Well, you should be.

Content That Impacts Your Bottom Line

Content is everywhere, and we mean ev-ry-where! You want your brand to stand head and shoulders above the rest. That’s why having an SEO-driven strategy is critical. It separates you from the others and gets attention. How does it work? The team at ArachnidWorks is glad you asked!

SEO + Content = Eyeballs on Your Brand

We promise this isn’t an algebra lesson, and the math isn’t hard to master. When you marry the science of SEO with beautifully-crafted words (ahem, content), that sweet little combo produces focused marketing. It’s not just throwing words on a page, or spaghetti at a wall, hoping something will stick. It’s a strategic approach that impacts your business and a ROI that makes your bottom line happy.

SEO combined with purposely-created content is the perfect pairing. Here’s why:

SEO optimizes the on-the-page experience and increases the likelihood of launching you towards the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
Content marketing is the vehicle for your message to the masses, offering information and advertising your ____________ (insert company, brand, product, nomination for an ADDY award, etc.)
Adding them together equals traffic that contains more than just rubberneckers. They’re stopping by, staying, and engaging because they’re enticed to investigate further. The added bonus: potential conversions that become customers, sales, and the like.

Each company’s measuring stick for success is unique. No matter how it’s calculated, everyone wants to reach their goal numbers for growth.

It Starts With Killer Content

You want every visitor to have the VIP experience while engaging with your brand. That begins with quality content. SEO and SERP should intertwine with your message. These are not hindrances to crafting that magical tagline or a blog post that goes viral. Think of them more like The Three Muskateers rather than The Three Stooges. When you combine their superpowers, you’ll receive:

Better search visibility that translates into more eyes on your page.
Information accumulate about your customers, their needs, and insight into solving them.

Wait. There Are Different Types of SEO?

Yes, yes, there are. Let’s break them down and provide a snapshot of what they do.

On-page SEO – Content, keywords, internal links, and metadata: these work together to help your page gain ranking.

Off-page SEO – Guest bloggers, building backlinks, and social media marketing: these items build brand awareness. Although they have nothing to do with your website, they help boost your ranking with every little share and click.

Technical SEO – Mobile-friendly, page speed, sitemaps, and site structure: these enhance user experience and engagement while also helping search engines look through your site.

Local SEO – Google Business profile listings, relevant keywords, up-to-date company information, respond to reviews: if you want searches to convert, start local. These valuable leads in your own backyard can quickly become conversions, and that’s golden, friends.

Every good strategy begins with a plan. From finding your brand voice to strategically sourcing strong content to drive traffic, ArachnidWorks can help you take your business to the next level. Our multidisciplinary marketing and design collective in Frederick, Maryland, is dedicated to creating unique and successful marketing strategies for our clients. Ready to make content and SEO work for you? Reach out, and we’ll get busy making your brand shine.

Customer Relationships: How to Keep Them in Tip-Top Shape

Posted on July 28, 2022

Good customer relationships matter. Excellent relationships with clients are what we all should strive for. Unfortunately, agencies can become oblivious to signs that—well—they’re becoming off-putting without realizing it.

Ouch, right?

There you are, doing everything to collaborate, exceed expectations, and meet project goals. At least that’s what it seems like from your perspective. Yet, are your clients happy? Are they fed up: teetering on the edge of breaking up with you?

Our team at ArachnidWorks has put together a few of our favorite ways not to annoy clients and how to build lasting relationships.

Communicate, Communicate, and—Our Favorite—Communicate

How’s your response time? There isn’t a hard and fast rule when returning business phone calls or emails, yet not responding within 24–48 hours will put you on the client’s naughty list. The best way to avoid their frustration is to clarify communication processes during onboarding, block time during your day to respond to those who reach out, and verify you’ll get back with them in greater detail if you can’t promptly touch each point of concern.

Wait, You Wanted to be Involved?

Sometimes we get so busy doing the work and making it awesome that we forget about the most essential input—the client’s. We know it’s not intentional, but creatives can become mini silos churning out content. That can leave our customers feeling iced from the process. The last thing you want to cause is friction and distrust, right? The best ways to avoid giving clients the cold shoulder is to keep them involved, specify roles and expectations on both ends during onboarding, use collaboration software when appropriate, and set routine check-in appointments.

You’re Not the Boss of Me!

Well, they are the client, so they kind of are friends.

Customers come to you for your help, knowledge, and expertise. They do not come to you to make them feel small, uneducated, or like a nuisance. You know how to get their brand noticed and make their product sing. The thing is, no one likes a know-it-all. Be the person who invites the client to speak freely, listens to them intently, and never overpromises or overreaches to impress. Own up to it, apologize immediately, and make it right if something goes wrong on your watch.

Smarty Pants

Have you heard the expression about how words are like toothpaste? Once they come out, you can’t squeeze them back in. Using buzzwords, jargon, or acronyms you understand doesn’t mean your client knows what you’re referring to. Also, phrases like “to be honest” or “I understand your concerns, but…” or the all-time fave “with all due respect” can give clients the wrong idea. Unless you’re speaking the same industry language, never use words and phrases that alienate, be careful of certain words and phrases that could offend, and fight the urge to have the last word. Sometimes restraint, even when responding is warranted, says more than words ever could.

It’s a Date!

Deadlines matter. Period. End of story. Not delivering on time or sticking to agreements frustrates clients. They’ve made launch plans internally and externally based on your deliverables. Hiccups do happen, yet only promise what you know you can hand over promptly. Communicate immediately when there’s a bump in the process. Help keep those deadlines intact by looking ahead for obstacles during the creation timeline. It’s better to turn over work early to an ecstatic customer than explain why it’s late.

At ArachnidWorks, we’re in the business of giving our clients the best experience possible, from that first handshake to the celebratory launch of your project. Ready to put our experienced teams to work for you? Contact us now.