Why Internships Matter - Pomerantz Marketing

Why Internships Matter

Using Early Work Experience to Find Career Direction

by Natalie Floam, niece of Kathy Floam Greenspan

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein. 

Kathy and Natalie | Pomerantz MarketingLet me introduce myself. I am Natalie Floam, Kathy Floam Greenspan’s niece and your average rising high-school sophomore, meaning I don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life career-wise, but I have lots of ideas up in the air.

As a high school student, the most daunting task in the journey to college and beyond is not which short-term job to find but how to know which field is the best long-term and how to put those skills and passion into action when life comes knocking.

When I asked my Aunt Kathy, who has run her own marketing agency for 22 years, she gave me a simple answer: get an internship.

During her sophomore year of college at the University of Maryland School of Journalism, Aunt Kathy was required to complete an internship in order to graduate. Her first line of action was to go to the library and research advertising companies in the area. Then, she sent out cover letters and resumes to numerous ad agencies to boost her chances of landing an internship opportunity. This sounds easy enough, I think.

As a result of her strategy and proactivity, Aunt Kathy scored an unpaid internship at Taylor, Michaels & Grey advertising in Maryland. In the first year, she did anything they gave her to do and was happy to do it. They recognized her can-do attitude and gave her more advanced projects to work on. Ultimately, her valuable writing skills, creativity and efficiency helped her earn a promotion to a paid Account Manager position. She worked and attended school full-time, finding innovative ways such as independent studies sponsored by her professors, to obtain college credit for her time at work.

While I realize that this is likely much more than most sophomore-in-college interns accomplish at their very first internship, it’s still inspiring. Aunt Kathy’s internship experience helped set the course for her career. This is precisely what most college students need — real-world work experience that helps to shape their future. Aunt Kathy told me that her college internship “validated what talents I had and the direction I could go in my career.” She launched her own agency in her 20s and thinks it was largely due to the experience and confidence she gained by starting her career early.

While many students may not have an initial internship experience comparable to Aunt Kathy’s, having the experience alone is what matters. The moral that I gleaned from her internship story is: experience is pure gold for a young person. Aunt Kathy feels that all college students should be required to do at least one internship in order to graduate from college. She thinks it lessens the chances of years of floundering trying to find the right career path. Plus, the experience, good or bad, can be translated into a personal understanding of strengths, weaknesses, skills, aspirations and how to harness them to their fullest in the business world … and in life.

You can bet that I will be heeding my Aunt Kathy’s advice by strategically searching out internships that will help me find a career in which I can flourish professionally and personally.

Multi-Channel Marketing | Pomerantz Marketing

Multi-Channel Marketing Defined: What It Is and Why It’s Important for Your B2B Marketing

Why a Robust Multi-Channel Marketing Plan Is Necessary for B2B Companies

So often, we hear terms or phrases thrown around that sound familiar, but we aren’t totally sure what they mean. Multi-channel marketing is a prime example of that – we can guess that it has to do with marketing in more than one place, but is that really it? Yes and no. Multi-channel marketing means engaging your prospects and customers in a combination of channels, both direct and indirect. This can include website, email, social media, direct mail, in-person locations, and much more.

Multi-Channel Marketing | Pomerantz Marketing

There are a few terms that are often used interchangeably to describe this same concept: omni-channel marketing, cross-channel marketing and even integrated marketing.

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve talked about it in a few different ways now. Our integrated marketing service takes this concept a little further, ensuring all of these channels are marketed to in a coordinated way. And integrated marketing communications is a key part of this as well. The final step of our “How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck” e-book helps you come up with your marketing engine and thus your marketing plan, which incorporates a wide variety of marketing activities and channels.

The point of all of this? Multi-channel marketing is important because you need to be where your potential customers are. And since we’re not mind readers, that basically means you need to be everywhere. You must put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about where they’re learning about companies like yours, then be there. It’s all about a customer-centric approach.

Here’s an example. Often, our clients think that they don’t really need to be on social media because they’re a B2B company and social media works best for B2C. But most of the time, that just isn’t true. Simply having a solid presence on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram can present your business as in-the-know, one that stays on top of trends. Even if you’re not getting a ton of engagement, it is important to BE THERE. After all, the majority of B2B shoppers do most of their research online before contacting a company, so make sure your presence is known, showing who you are and why you’re good at what you do.

Ideally, someone would see a consistent image of your company at each of these different touchpoints. If you meet a prospect at a tradeshow, you want your salespeople’s message to align with your booth graphics and handouts. Then, when they check you out on online, your website and social media posts should also make sense based on what they already know about you. If you follow up with emails, the same thing goes.

It can be overwhelming to think about all of this at once, which is why you should take the time to think through your marketing plan. Our e-book can help, and so can the Pomerantz team!

If you need someone to guide you through creating an integrated, multi-channel marketing plan, reach out now! Put Pom On It >

5 Reasons to Use B2B Infographics | Pomerantz Marketing

5 Reasons to Use B2B Infographics

How B2B Infographics Can Take Your Content to the Next Level

Did you know that our attention spans are getting shorter every year? It makes sense, as we’re constantly bombarded with information and content from more and more channels. As our attention spans are shrinking (we’ve gone from 12 seconds to just 5 in the past 7 years!), it’s up to us as marketers to find ways to break through to our audiences, especially in the B2B arena. B2B infographics are a tool that can help you do just that.

5 Reasons to Use B2B Infographics | Pomerantz MarketingInfographics take complicated information, stories or data and simplify them into a visual representation. They mix graphics and imagery with minimal text to deliver that information in an easier-to-digest way for today’s attention-challenged audiences. Infographics are an efficient way to deliver your message.

Here are five compelling reasons for you to introduce B2B infographics into your marketing mix:

1. Get your audience’s attention

Those shortened attention spans can be a huge hurdle for marketing. We spend a lot of time developing great content, but often our audience just speeds on by without digesting what we’re saying. On average, only 20% of content gets read if it’s more than 600 words (hey you, are you still reading this?)! This isn’t a reason to get rid of longer, text-heavy content – that’s still important for so many reasons. But it is a good motivator to inject some variety into your content with a visual-heavy infographic. A good, eye-catching B2B infographic can get the attention of even the most oversaturated reader.

2. Stand out from the crowd

By creating unique, attention-grabbing infographics, you can ensure that your content isn’t getting lost in a sea of words. When creating infographics, make sure you’re not just using a template but are developing graphics that look great and are true to your company’s brand (see more on this in #3). After all, the majority of first impressions of a brand or service are based on the design of their visual content. This goes along with what we’ve said before about the importance of web design.

3. Reinforce your brand

Infographics are a great way to show off your brand, including personality, design and knowledge. A good infographic will incorporate all of these things and prove to the reader that your company is worth their time. By designing an infographic that reflects your aesthetic and incorporates your logo or other brand elements, you’ll be reinforcing who you are.

4. Make your point

If a reader has to slog through endless amounts of text, it can be hard to ensure you’ve gotten your point across. When properly executed, shortened text combined with visuals will increase understanding exponentially.

5. Get shared and linked

One of the most concrete benefits of sharing compelling content via infographics is the shareability factor. A beautiful infographic looks good at a glance on social media, others’ websites and embedded in blog posts. Other websites will benefit from adding engaging content to their site, and you benefit by gaining natural links. The more your content (and thus your website) is linked back, the better for SEO. And the more eyes your brand is in front of, the better!

So now you know WHY you should be using infographics. But you also need to be sure you’re doing it well, which is where strategy and design come in. You can’t just take any information, throw in some random images and call it an infographic. The story you’re sharing and how you break it down are really important, as is the designer who’s creating your infographics. You want someone who’s creative, meticulous and really understands your brand and message.

Looking for someone who can do just that? Check out Pomerantz Marketing’s graphic design services. Put Pom On It >

Outsourced Marketing | Pomerantz Marketing

Your Questions Answered: What Is Outsourced Marketing?

How Outsourced Marketing Can Boost Your Company to the Next Level

What Is Outsourced Marketing? Outsourced Marketing Benefits

The answer to that question – “what is outsourced marketing?” – is as simple as it seems. When you don’t have the capacity to handle marketing your business internally (or if you simply don’t want to do it!), you outsource your marketing to someone else who can do it all.

Often, companies will have one or two in-house marketing people who are expected to get it all done. But marketing responsibilities continue to grow and change, and it can feel impossible to keep up. You can’t expect one marketing director or manager to do it all! And it can be really costly and time consuming to build an internal marketing department that has experts in each area, from social media to graphic design to copywriting to website management to email marketing to…it sometimes seems like a never-ending list.

Or maybe your company has recently realized you have marketing needs but don’t have a single internal resource who can handle it. This is when outsourcing all of your marketing can be really beneficial. Hand it over to a team of experts who can get to know your business and handle all of those little details from project start to finish.

If you’ve outsourced one marketing project, why not outsource them all? Maybe you’ve outsourced certain marketing tasks in the past and have seen the quality of work you get back. Imagine the benefits if that stretched across all of your marketing areas. By giving that work to one outsourced marketing team or agency, you’ll eliminate the need to deal with it internally, and you’ll get a team that has a holistic view of your marketing.

Here are some of the many benefits that can come from outsourced marketing:

  • Simplify management of multiple providers or employees into one
  • Save money by eliminating the need to build your own full-time team
  • Eliminate duplicative costs of hiring employees who then outsource some tasks
  • Have a strategic plan that reaches across all marketing activities
  • Communicate with just one or two people but get an arsenal of experts
  • Be quick and nimble in response to business changes with just one point of contact

Instead of piecing things together, find an outsourced marketing agency who can become an extension of your team. If you want to grow your business without investing in the overhead of an internal marketing department, outsourced marketing is the way to go.

Pomerantz is the outsourced marketing engine that makes the marketing magic happen. Put Pom On It >

What to Focus on for Killer Web Design - Pomerantz Marketing

Marketing that Doesn’t Suck: Good Web Design

What to Focus on for Killer Web Design

Good Web Design | Marketing that Doesn't Suck

Our last post highlighted the things you’ll see with bad web design, so let’s flip it and look at this from a more positive perspective: what you should focus on to ensure you’re falling into the category of good web design. You don’t just want to avoid the bad things – you need to proactively make good choices.

Here are five things to look for when designing or updating your website to ensure it doesn’t suck:

1. Audience Focused

When you’re writing the copy for your website, it’s easy to make it all about you. After all, it’s a website about your company! But instead of talking about why you’re awesome, explain how that benefits your customers. Lay out the ways their business will succeed or improve by working with you. Present your services or products in the context of problem solving, highlighting the types of issues that often face your target customers.

2. Responsive

Like we said in our last post, we’re not going to stop talking about this one. It’s one of the top ways we help our clients, so do yourself a favor and put it at the top of your priority list. To recap, a responsive site is one that looks good on all devices, including mobile, tablet and desktop. A responsive site has so many benefits, from SEO rankings to making viewing easy on your visitors to simply looking like you’re up with the times. Plus, you eliminate the redundant need for a mobile site, which means less to maintain and more SEO power for your one and only main site.

3. Mobile-Friendly

Yes, designing your site as responsive should mean it’s mobile friendly, but it’s important to pay particular attention to this functionality. Once you’ve made it to the editing and QA phase of launching a new site, take a particularly critical look at it on your phone. Do some sections look too big or small? Does it take way too much scrolling to get where you need to go? Would it function better if the top navigation followed you as you scroll? Make sure your developers are on top of these issues!

4. Logical Architecture

You may be used to how your company’s products, services or departments are structured, but will they make sense to a new audience? In other words, don’t just build your site based on your typical organization structure without thinking about it critically. Maybe you go back to that audience focused point above – what would someone be looking for? Instead of listing all your services, perhaps it would better serve you to restructure based on problems solved or vertical markets you work with regularly. And make sure those commonly asked questions are easy to find answers for – whether that’s about your locations, pricing, experience, etc.

5. Intuitive User Experience

This last item kind of sums up all of the above. It’s time to make sure the site works well across the board. Keep in mind both these features you want to include as well as the ones you want to avoid. Put yourself in the shoes of all the types of visitors you hope to attract: prospective clients, partners and recruits. Get some outside help for a new perspective.

Designing and building a website that doesn’t suck requires paying attention to so many factors. It’s something we do here at Pom every day, so reach out for a consultation to learn about our process and how we help clients put their best foot forward on the web.

Learn more about our web design and development capabilities now! Put Pom On It >

Don't Let Bad Web Design Embarrass Your Business - Pomerantz Marketing

Marketing that Sucks: Bad Web Design

How Web Design Can Easily Go Down the Tubes

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about how important web design is. In our Jumpstart series, we dedicated an entire post to evaluating your online presence, and your website is obviously a huge part of that.  Bad web design will immediately turn prospects away from your business – it’s just a fact in today’s online-focused world. If your website doesn’t look sophisticated, is hard to navigate or isn’t well designed, your bounce rate will reflect that. How your site looks and works can make a prospect respect and trust you or send them running for the hills. I think we know which one we’d prefer!

Bad Web Design | Marketing that SucksHow do we tell if web design is going the wrong way, then? A lot of times, first impressions can tell you if your web design sucks. Try looking at your site as an outsider. How would you feel about it if you were a prospect? If you’re not able to disconnect yourself, call in a friend, family member or agency to help you be objective.

 

Ok, so first impressions matter. But that’s still just a gut reaction and hard to put into a checklist or hard analysis, so how can we be a bit more technical about it? What exactly is it that makes a web design suck?

Here are a few things that you’ll commonly find with bad web design:

It doesn’t work well on your phone, tablet, desktop or all of the above. Non-responsive sites are the #1 sinners of bad web design. We’ve talked about it before. We talked about it again. We’re not going to stop! If your site isn’t responsive, this should be at the top of your to-do list. Making your visitors pinch and scroll back and forth on a mobile phone screen is just plain rude (which is how most people are visiting sites these days, plus Google is Mobile First with ranking and visibility these days – so this isn’t just a passing phase). Not only is it annoying when a site isn’t responsive, but it also says that your company doesn’t care about keeping up with the times. That could translate into an impression of your business overall, which is not a good thing.

It’s difficult to use, and you can’t find what you’re looking for. Don’t you hate it when you’re looking for a simple piece of information about a company (why is it always so hard to find a restaurant’s open hours on their site!?), but it’s nowhere to be found? Crummy web design doesn’t pay attention to what a visitor will likely be asking, and it buries information in a complicated architecture. It should be obvious where you can find answers to questions, and it should be simple to click from one topic to another.

It’s ME-focused. Sure, people visit your website to learn about you, but ultimately, they want to know what you can do to help them. Why should they buy your products or services? Not just because you’re an industry leader, but because you have the solutions that they need. Speak to your target audiences’ pain points while also tooting your horn. That’s Marketing 101, but it is often forgotten when it comes to web design.

It’s just plain ugly. Ok, this one is really back in that “gut feeling” category, but you know what I’m talking about. The fonts, colors and graphics are outdated. They don’t convey a modern image to the world, which in turn says that your products and services probably aren’t modern, either. Yikes. No one wants that.

Bad web design basically boils down to poor architecture and non-responsiveness. Get that right, make sure things look good in the process, and you’ll be on your way to good web design…marketing that doesn’t suck!

Looking for some help to take your web design from bad to good? Contact the experts at Pomerantz Marketing to find out how we help our clients do just that. Put Pom On It >

Define Integrated Marketing Communications - Pomerantz Marketing

Define Integrated Marketing Communications: What Is That, Again?

All the Info You Need to Win at Integrated Marketing

There are obviously many benefits to developing a well-thought-out marketing plan, which is why we’re constantly talking about making it a priority and helping our clients to get theirs in order. We even created our e-book, How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck, to help readers walk through the necessary steps toward a cohesive plan. One of the other benefits of going through that process is ending up with a map for integrated marketing communications. But what does that mean? We’re here to define integrated marketing communications for you so you can keep it in mind as you’re marketing.

Well, it really is what it sounds like: having a cohesive message that you deliver across all channels for your company or brand. It’s not just about a consistent look and feel, though – you’ve got to strategically integrate your marketing efforts in order to maximize their effectiveness.

And it doesn’t mean using the same words everywhere you’re marketing (that’s actually a terrible idea) but keeping your core message at the heart of all efforts. This is why having a marketing plan can make developing integrated marketing communications pretty simple – you know your value proposition as well as your different audiences, channels and main areas and projects you plan to tackle. Take that big picture and push that value proposition consistently but in a variety of ways, and boom! You’re an integrated marketing communications master!

While this is a pretty common sense approach once you dive in, let’s also look at some of the more specific benefits of integrating all of your messaging.

1. Maximize Budget: using that one big idea in a variety of ways can save money on creative, design and copywriting

2. Build Your Brand: consistency only reinforces who you are and solidifies that brand image across channels

3. Strengthen Relationships with Target Audiences: delivering a similar message to everyone but in ways tailored to their preferences balances the need to present a strong value proposition and prove you know what your potential customers need

4. Enhance Effectiveness of Your Campaigns: reiterating your message in a variety of ways bolsters those campaigns, with social posts supporting direct mail which in turn reinforces print advertising, and so on

So turn your brain onto the idea of integrated marketing communications, and reap the benefits!

Still don’t have your marketing plan in order? Reach out to us now, or download our free e-book to get started immediately!

Marketing 101 - Pomerantz Marketing

Developing a Content Strategy that Will Take Your Online Marketing to the Next Level

In my last Random Thoughts blog post, I talked about how ongoing, consistent effort is required to nurture your website so that it performs how you need it to. You can’t build a site and then just let it roll – you’ve got to keep working on it, improving it and responding to change. A huge part of this can be accomplished by developing a content strategy.

Developing new content can be overwhelming. From blog posts to e-books to site pages, there are endless opportunities for content creation. It even goes beyond your site and into the social media world or writing for other publications to bring readers back to your site. Plus, who’s going to do all that writing and planning?

For the Pom team, writing our JumpStart blog series and then designing and launching our new e-book, How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck, were two (big) pieces of our content strategy puzzle. So how did we decide to do this? What led us to develop these specific pieces? And how did we get it done?

Let me take you down the path we traveled to help you pull together your own content strategy

Content Strategy | Pomerantz Marketing

1. Target

Figure out who you’re targeting with your new content. In other words, go back to those personas you’ve developed (no clue what I’m talking about? Check this post out.) and think about creating content for each persona type.

2. Research

Once you know who you’re developing content for, figure out what interests them or what kinds of questions they’re asking. Brainstorm ideas for how to help this specific audience. For our e-book, we pictured all of those overwhelmed marketing managers who have so many balls in the air that they don’t know where to start. Then we thought about what kind of content could be helpful to them.

3. Develop

Now it’s time to get writing. We decided to develop an e-book because the topic we wanted to address was so huge. An e-book allowed us to write in depth on the topic and to provide helpful tools in the form of worksheets. If the problem was smaller, a blog post may suffice. Or maybe just a single worksheet. Figure out how to best convey the information you want to share, then gather the right people to get it done.

Often, development of content is where many people get hung up. Maybe the expert on the subject isn’t a writer, or perhaps people won’t commit the time you need. This is an essential part of developing a content strategy – figuring out how exactly you’ll execute. Break it down and figure out how the essential team members can fit the work into their schedules, and make it a priority.

4. Analyze

Once you’ve posted your new content, analyze its performance. Whether that’s by tracking visits to a blog post via Google Analytics or through form fill-outs or even through new leads, see what content is performing best for you. Then, figure out how to replicate that performance. Is it the writing style? The use of good imagery? Did the topic really resonate? Apply this to your future content plans.

5. Repeat

Publishing one awesome blog post is a great start, but it’s not going to get you very far. Consistency is key when it comes to content. Figure out what schedule works for the team you have, then follow through. Develop a content calendar a few months ahead of time to allow you to work ahead and bank content.

And if you just don’t have the capacity to get it done, look outside for help. At Pom, we not only write content and develop supporting graphics for our clients, but we also come up with a robust strategy that fits in with your overall marketing plans.

How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck - Pomerantz Marketing

How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck: an E-Book for Frustrated B2B Marketers

GAME-CHANGING READING FOR THOSE OVERWHELMED BY B2B MARKETING

How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck by Pomerantz MarketingPomerantz Marketing is excited to share our new, complimentary e-book, How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck! We’ve taken the highlights and most helpful tips from our JumpStart series and boiled it down into a free, even easier to follow, step-by-step guide to help you make the most of your B2B marketing.

We see frustrated B2B marketers pretty much every day – navigating Marketing Land on your own can feel completely daunting. We’d love to help you figure out the best route forward, whether it’s through this e-book or directly as your marketing agency partner. No one should have to go it alone!

This e-book walks you through each step of the process we use to develop strategic marketing plans for our clients, starting with goal prioritization and ending with an actionable list of items to tackle. We’ve taken our JumpStart series and added in even more concrete ways to help you, including a detailed graphic you can use to build your own marketing engine.

Along with the step-by-step guide, this free e-book also includes a handy, interactive worksheet for each step of our proven process. Once you’ve read the e-book and completed each worksheet (type directly in the pdf!), you’ll be well on your way to having a solid marketing plan based on concrete data.

If at any point you need a little extra help, reach out to us! We want you to succeed.

Get your copy of How to Make Your B2B Marketing Not Suck now >

 

Random Thoughts - Blog | Pomerantz Marketing

If You Don’t Take Care of Your Website, It Won’t Take Care of Your Business

Take Care of Your Site for Reliable Lead Generation

Developing the JumpStart 2018 series of blog posts was good for our agency. We applied the techniques and exercises that we successfully use in helping our clients to focus and be strategic for ourselves. After all, just because we’re a marketing agency doesn’t mean we don’t face the same struggles in Marketing Land as our clients. We are all living and working in complicated, overwhelming times. It takes proactive, deliberate effort to push forward and move the needle in today’s world. As a result, we have our marketing plan in place plus an ongoing list of tasks and initiatives dedicated to the proper care and feeding of our website to ensure reliable lead generation.

As a business owner, I rely on our website to generate new business opportunities for our agency and keep our sales pipeline full. This is why one of my business objectives for 2018 is: We are tending to our website on a weekly basis in order to ensure that it’s a steady, reliable lead generation machine for our agency.

The reality is that having a website that is a reliable lead generation machine takes a village. It’s not realistic for one webmaster to know how to do it all. In our agency, we have someone who eats, sleeps and breathes Google and keeps us up to speed on any/all algorithm and protocol changes we need to address. She also happens to be a whiz at keyword research. Then, we have an online marketing specialist who studies our Google Analytics every month and strategizes and implements various ways for us to grow our online presence. We have a web developer (or, web mechanic as I like to call him) that troubleshoots and fixes the annoying, inevitable issues that arise when you’re really paying attention to what’s going on with your website. He also helps us add new functionality to our site. Add to this mix a designer and copywriter who fuel our site with new graphics and content to keep it fresh. And then there is me and the rest of our team who pretend we are potential customers and regularly scout around our website calling out issues we spot, mentioning ideas we have for new content and testing functionality.

All of the work we do on our website is documented and maintained so we have a log that we can refer back to in order to recall the work that has been performed. It’s sort of like the records you hope your doctor maintains on your visits but maybe even better.

The reality check that I hope to impart from all of this is that if you’re serious about relying on your website as an integral part of your business — whether for lead generation, recruiting, brand awareness, etc. — it’s not a set it and forget it kind of thing. It requires the ongoing, regular, consistent effort of people who know what they are doing. Plus, it’s becoming more complicated, not less. You need to either staff up with the right mix of talent or outsource it to a team of professionals that do this stuff all day everyday — like us.