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Should I Hire A Marketing Agency?

Should I Do My Company’s Marketing?

So you’re a business owner who wants to boost sales by doing some marketing. You don’t know whether you should do this yourself, how to do it, or where to even start. You have so many various tasks that need done each day so there’s no way you can take upon the task of marketing your company as well. I understand though, it’s difficult to let someone else take the reigns of your company’s image and sales strategy, but you want to focus your time elsewhere and make sure it’s done correctly. Let’s face it, you probably don’t know how to do graphic design, computer programming, write a blog, or properly manage social media accounts. It’s not that you can’t learn, you just don’t have the time for it. Well, you’re not the only one. Most business owners seek out marketing professionals for several reasons: to save time, make money, and to make sure their “baby” is marketed the way it should be.

 

Should I Hire an Employee or Marketing Agency?

Business owners who don’t have the time or resources to learn how to properly execute marketing strategies are left with a decision: Should I hire an employee to handle the various marketing or an outside agency? Typically, companies hire an employee so they have someone in-house and feel agencies will be too expensive. In reality, agencies can be significantly cheaper than hiring an in-house marketing manager. Shocking right? Well, let’s break it down. One reason why hiring a marketing agency is the better choice is because most business owners will hire someone with a base salary rather than hire agency with an hourly rate, which is a huge mistake. Hiring someone with a base salary includes taxes, health insurance, retirement plans, vacations, sick days, training costs, etc. The average income of a marketing manager is around $80,000. If you combine that with all the other costs mentioned above, you will be spending well above $100,000. A marketing agency averages $40,000 a year for all different types of marketing. For the sake of argument, let’s say you hire in someone at $40,000, with all the additional costs you’re still spending more than if you were to hire a marketing agency. Not to mention, by hiring a marketing agency you’re able to have an entire company dedicated to growing your business, which means more resources and expertise without all the additional costs.

Winner: Marketing Agency

With a marketing agency, you’re able to know exactly what you’re paying and determine how many hours you’re willing to devote to a marketing plan. The point is, there are so many other variables that prove why hiring a marketing agency is better than hiring an employee to handle your company’s future. If your goal is to save time, money, and have assurance the job will be done correctly, then hire a marketing agency; it’s a no brainer!

 

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3 Ways Automated Marketing can Rev-up Your Sales Engine

Do You Know How Your Customers Shop?

Let’s face it, you don’t always buy a product the first time you hear about it or look at it. Usually you go through several different buying stages. Most commonly those stages are awareness, consideration, and decision. Consider for a moment if you just decided you wanted to buy a car, you wouldn’t go to the first lot you see and buy the first car that catches your eye (unless you were a billionaire, which hats off to you if you are.) Realistically, you would research and become aware of the different types of vehicles, such as SUVs, coupes, trucks, etc. Afterwards, you would narrow down a few options and consider only those. Finally, you’d go to the best lot and buy the car you decided on. It’s all about process, but unfortunately so many sales and marketing teams don’t incorporate a process. Most sales teams want to go for the jugular right off the bat, which hardly ever works. I’m here to help you teach your sales team the proper way to classify and market to your potential customers by automated marketing.

Are You Failing at Sales?

The whole objective is guiding people through the sales funnel and ultimately deciding to do business with you. However, most sales and marketing teams make 3 huge mistakes.

  1. They lack proper and engaging content to last the entirety of the sales cycle.
  2. They repeatedly use the same content for each step of the sales process.
  3. They send emails one time and never follow through.

Most sales teams don’t always see they’re making those mistakes, but with automated or “drip” marketing they can make sure they send content at the right time and capitalize on every opportunity.

How Automated Lead Marketing Can Help You

It is common knowledge that nurtured leads increase sales, but it’s typically a long process and labor intensive. As mentioned above about buying a car, most buying processes are long and complex. Therefore, every piece of content should be tailored for the 3 buying stages of awareness, consideration, and decision.
Automated lead nurturing allows for detailed tracking of lead engagements with your content and site, and accurately placing your customers in the correct stage of the buying process. That means you can drip feed appropriate content at the right time and to the right people.

Key Points How Automated Lead Marketing Can Help:

Your sales team doesn’t put in efforts that could be best used elsewhere nor waste their time going over the benefits of your product or service. With automated drip marketing, your leads are already informed so you can use your efforts toward closing the sale.

  1. Automated lead marketing takes time, but if done well you can see significant sales growth.
  2. Create relevant content to support each buying stage and track your information along the way.
  3. Automated lead marketing can show where in the funnel your leads aren’t “biting,” and allows you to develop your content based on such.

Automated lead or drip marketing can do wonders for your business. Never again let your sales team make rookie mistakes and in turn, capitalize on your leads. I mean, who wouldn’t want to give their sales team resources to save money and time. As always, go get em’!

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What Smart Developers Know About PHP Unit Testing

Imagine your toughest class in college. You had a choice: take notes and study throughout the semester—or wait until the last minute to cram before the final exam. Studying little by little might have taken up time when you’d have rather been out with friends. But by the time the final rolled around, you had a bank of clean, organized notes to use as a study guide. You probably sailed through the exam, no problem.

Or you went the other route. Skipped assigned reading and blew off study sessions. Left the hard work for when it really counted: finals week. Problem was, since you weren’t building knowledge and checking your understanding over time, you didn’t even know where to begin. You were starting from scratch—and between caffeine-fueled all-nighters and potential nervous breakdowns, you spent the same amount of time at work as the person who studied all along (although your final grade might have said otherwise).

I won’t ask which student you are in this scenario—but it’s pretty clear which is the better strategy, right? Put in a little extra effort now to make life easier later.

This is a lot like the choice developers have to make between unit testing and overall testing of their code.

Unit testing: Getting down to the nitty-gritty

Unit testing means isolating the smallest possible elements of a program’s source code, then testing them one by one to be sure they work like they should. It’s different than the overall testing you probably do just before releasing software, which simply tests that a program behaves correctly.

With unit testing, if there’s an error anywhere in the program, you don’t have to work back through all of your code to sniff it out. You can see which test failed, and from there, isolate your error and make a quick fix.

One of the more popular unit testing tools out there is PHPUnit, used to test code written in PHP. PHPUnit saves all of the unit tests you’ve previously written, making your code easier to maintain over time. (Think of unit tests like lecture notes you can refer to before a big exam.)

Just say “no” to skipping unit tests

Surely this is a part of every developer’s coding toolkit, right? Not exactly. Just like some students choose cramming over studying in chunks, many developers shrug at the idea of unit-testing their code. Why? Chris Cornutt at Sitepoint offers a few reasons: They think it takes too long. Or that their code is fine the way it is. Or that it’s just plain boring.

Those things may be true. But think about the alternative: You’re down to the wire and ready to send a program to a client—and you discover a bug. You have no way to figure out when or how it popped up, nor any way to verify exactly which parts of your code it affects. Better hope you’ve got some Red Bull handy, because you’re in for a long night.

Refactoring without tears

The other great thing about unit testing is that it makes major code changes, or refactoring, a breeze. For many developers, refactoring can feel like playing Russian roulette with your code. You don’t want to make too many changes for fear of undoing your hard work.

But if you’ve been adding unit tests to your test suite all along, refactoring is no big deal. Simply update your code, and then run your old unit tests against the changes you’ve just made. If any tests fail, you know exactly what to fix.

It’s the surest way to get your clients to give you an “A.”

Still not convinced that unit testing is the way to go? Learn more about PHPUnit here, or listen to this talk by Professor Richard Buckland on why smart programmers test in units.

Need code that works right, every time? Contact Atomic for help with your next web development project.

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6 Steps (and 3 hints) for Awesome Project Management

I’m this close to earning my project management professional certification. After months of study and 11 grueling tests, there’s just a final review standing between me and PMP status. So yeah, project management best practices are pretty much seared into my brain for good.

I’m going to spare you the hundred-page readings and lost shut-eye. Here are the steps I’ve learned to guarantee project management success.

• Define your project’s scope. Meet with clients to get a crystal-clear understanding of what the project should accomplish. Consider presenting a project histogram, with data pulled from similar, previous projects, to show down to the minute how your team’s time will be spent.

• Determine available resources. For Atomic, this means meeting with developers and designers, and getting clarification from our sales team on budget specs.

• Check your timeline. Our target duration for web design projects is 13 weeks. But sometimes clients need sites sooner. That may mean asking developers to work weekends. Give your team the heads-up as soon as possible, and adjust the schedule accordingly.

• Summon your team. For us, that’s a designer, a developer, and an SEO lead. Talk about expectations for the project, and decide who’s responsible for what. Address any concerns team members might have.

• Make a checklist. Here, you’ll rely on your team’s expertise. Divide the project into “programs” (design, development, SEO), and create a detailed list of what needs to happen at each stage.

• Develop a plan. Now that you know everything that needs to get done, who, and how they’ll do it, it’s time to get planning. (We like to use Basecamp for this.) Establish milestones for accomplishing big tasks. Give clients an idea of what to expect when—and if increased budget or time will be needed.

These steps will give you a solid starting plan. Now you have to actually stick to it. A few tips to aid you in your quest:

• Know that things will go wrong. Your project plan is your guide—but it’s okay to stray from it when hiccups happen. Just keep your project’s overall scope and resources in sight.

• Document everything. I mean everything. If you stray in the slightest from your master plan, write down what changed and why. This will help you convey time and budget changes to clients—and help you plan better for future work.

• Keep everybody in the loop. Monitor your team from beginning to end. And keep team members informed of the latest—successes and problems. Make sure everyone knows what everyone else is working on, so you can celebrate together when you’re all finished.

Follow these steps, and you’ll be on your way to project management success. You can take my word for it.

Got a beast of a project to take on? Never fear—Atomic’s project managers will see you through.

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Web Design Management│Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Designing—or redesigning—a site can be so much fun. (We understand. We get excited about this stuff, too.) But in discussions of content, design elements, and awesome interactive plans, it can be easy to lose sight of what should drive all decisions you make: what is your site’s goal?

As project manager, I’m reminding clients of this all the time. It’s my job to keep plans moving forward—and also on task. While this goal may elude you at times, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with. Chances are, it’ll be right in line with the aims of your business overall.

For example, if you sell gourmet gluten-free cupcakes for dogs, you may want customers to visit your shop to admire your canine confections. If you’re a purveyor of bouncy castles for birthday parties, maybe you’d like interested party planners to call you up to check availability. Or maybe you want visitors to set up a meeting, request a quote, place an order online, or comment on your site’s content.

No matter what your purpose, you should define it—clearly—from the very beginning of a project. Make sure clients and design teams alike understand it, and know how to bring it to life. This ensures that every step, from sitemap to content placement, supports the goal you want to achieve.

If you want visitors to get in touch, place a simple call-to-action form on every page of the site. This makes it easy for readers to do what you want them to—without them having to search the site to find your phone number or email address.

(And please, please: keep contact forms short and sweet. If visitors have to spend too long trying to reach you, or don’t feel like giving personal information right off the bat, they’ll get out of there quick.)

When a site is built around a central objective, everything else just falls into place. It makes for on-task design teams, satisfied clients—and site visitors that find exactly what they need.

Are you sure your site is doing what it should? Contact Atomic, and tell us about your goals.

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Why It Pays To Be A PMP

Hey, project managers! Now that you’ve got a degree and landed a job, you thought you were done studying for exams, right? Well, if you want to stay competitive, it might be time to hit the books.

Becoming a certified project manager can give you a serious leg up. It’s good for businesses, because it shows clients that their PMs really know their stuff. And it’s good for individuals, because it can mean the difference between getting a job offer…and getting passed over for someone who did get certified.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the proverbial gatekeeper of this coveted resume-booster. There are a few different levels of qualification, though the distinction of Project Management Professional (PMP) is the most common and most respected in the field.

PMPin’ ain’t easy

So what does it take to become a bona fide PMP? It’s not for the faint of heart (or of wallet). Before you can even think about taking the test, you’ll need a four-year bachelor’s degree, at least 4500 hours spent leading projects, and a minimum of 35 hours of professional education outside of work.

Between registration and testing, you can plan to drop about $1500—and that doesn’t include travel to seminars, extra test-prep help—or the coffee runs you’ll make while studying for the exam. When you pass the exam (or, should I say, if you pass—less than three-quarters of applicants do), you’ll have to keep your certification fresh by logging professional education hours every three years.

Working your way to the top

It’s a tall order—but the rewards are pretty sweet. On average, project managers with PMP certification make between $15,000 and $20,000 more than those without. Certification also means membership in the PMI—which gives you access to the latest industry insights, networking opportunities, and leadership positions in local PMI chapters. It’s more than just another line to put on your resume. PMP certification shows you’re serious about your work. (Would you spend years working towards the title if you weren’t?)

I, for one, hope the PMP is worth the hype. I’m still racking up hours, and then it’s exam time for me. For a small company like Atomic, having a PMP around is especially handy, because it shows we’ve got the credentials to compete with big-name firms.

If you’re a project manager and want to get noticed, go for the PMP. It’s hard work, but the payoff is worth it. My advice: pay attention to everything. You never know what could end up on the exam.

How does an (almost) certified PMP get things done? Give Atomic a ring, and witness project management panache.

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3 Blogging Basics: Why, What, and How

Most of the websites we create include blogs. We consider them a critical component of most websites and most successful SEO strategies.

However, blogging usually represents foreign territory for our clients. They’re unsure why it’s important or what they should write about. And if they’re not IT people, the whole process can seem intimidating.

For those just venturing into business blogging, here’s a basic explanation of why it’s is so darn important — and some quick tips on what to write about.

Why blog at all?

First off, there are too many websites for search engines to monitor in real time. Therefore, how often they crawl a given website depends in large part on how often new content is added.

For example, Google might crawl your website after an absence of three weeks. If new content has been added since then, Google will be more likely to return after only two weeks. And if there’s always new content, that’s a sure sign to Google that someone cares about this website. They’ll start crawling even more frequently.

Conversely, if Google never finds any new content on your site, their spiders might not return for a month or even longer. That means your site is going to do poorly in search results.

So adding new content to your site is a critical way of promoting your search rankings. And what’s the easiest place on a website to add new content? Your blog.

What in the world should I write about?

Once our clients get the importance of new content, they’re willing to start blogging. The next stumbling block? Figuring out what to write about.

Here are some fail-safe suggests.

  • Client problems and the solutions you provided
  • New developments within the company — new employees, a new office
  • Developments within the industry — Is there a new product available? What technology is pushing your industry to change?
  • Fun topics — company parties, company pets, a particularly interesting project
  • Writing specifically for keyword phrases. For example, a client of ours specializes in exterior home improvements and is interested in acquiring roofing leads. He and I created an article on energy-efficient roofing solutions, frequently linking from the article to his roofing page.

 

How do I do it?

I’m not going to belabor this point. Suffice it to say that once I sit down with a new blogger and show them the incredibly easy GUI that modern blogging platforms provide, they’re sold. They can see the parallels between Word and WordPress, and see how easy it is to make the leap.

A final suggestion

So this is the basic information I give to our clients about getting started with blogging. One final suggestion: In terms of content, don’t limit yourself —remember that nearly any content is helpful.

After all, Google learned what you’re selling the first time it crawled your site. It also probably knows 500 other websites selling the same thing. Start blogging and differentiate yourself by out-content-ing your competitors.

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Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Devices

Recently, I’ve been surprised to find that some of our customers are still uncertain about the value of optimizing their website for mobile.

It’s been a trend for a few years now. But let me throw down two statistics to explain why it’s increasingly important.

  • Today, 15 to 30% of all searches are done on mobile devices.
  • By the end of 2011, 50% of Americans will have a smart phone.

In other words, a ton of people are already trying to search for you via mobile. Those numbers are only going to increase. And before your website can function effectively as a mobile website, it must be made compatible with mobile devices.

Atomic can accomplish this task for you, a lot more quickly than you might think. Ready to optimize your site for mobile? Here are a few points to keep in mind.

  • Simplify. Make the layout simple. Complex graphics and unconventional navigation are lost on mobile users. What are the few critical pieces of information your customers need? Include that. Forget about everything else.
  • Resize. Make sure navigation links and buttons are large and easy to find. Your thumb isn’t as accurate as your mouse.
  • Prioritize. What content do you want your visitors to read? Make that the first thing they read. Users are much less likely to browse on mobile devices. They want to find the information they’re looking for immediately.
  • Technify. You’re creating a mobile site. So maximize the capabilities of mobile devices with features like “Click to Call.” Click-to-call lets a user press your phone number and instantly place a call —rather than having to exit their browser function, call up the phone function, and enter your number manually.
  • Streamline. Whether your goal is to increase phone calls or sales, make this task as simple as possible. If you want a phone call, break the process into three quick steps: provide a brief description of services or why a customer should call, offer an incentive for calling, then show the phone number (using click-to-call). If you want a sale? Provide a brief description of the product or service, let your user click to the product page(s), and then click again to checkout.

If you want to see the difference between an optimized and non-optimized site, compare Home Depot vs. Menards, or Smashburger vs. Applebees. The difference in usability is huge.

So ask yourself: Which way do you want your site to look?

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Three Tips for Thinking Like a Customer

Everyone knows that when developing a website, you want to think like a customer, not a marketer. You should build the site from the customers’ perspective, to address their pains, needs, and desires.

But there’s a huge gap between knowing you should do this and knowing how to do it. Here are a few techniques I use to “get into the customer’s head” and help create successful, customer-centered websites.



Imagine you’re a shopper. During the planning stage of your site, try to slip into the mindset of a customer. Think about their needs, rather than your own. Most business owners make the mistake of focusing too heavily on their own product specifications. They want to shove as much info as possible into the site—rather than considering what customers need to see before they can even get interested in a product.

For example, if you have a storefront, your customers’ priority might be as simple as finding out your hours and location. They don’t need a lot of product detail — they’ll come to your store to get that. Or if you’re selling high-end products online, customers might want to see your pricing up front. Only if the price suits their budget will they take the time to learn more about the product.

Get an outside view of your site. Pretending to be a customer is a good start, but realistically, it’s almost impossible to see your own site objectively. You’re too close to it. Start getting input from a third party—an interactive firm, a user research group, or even friends and family.

Often, an objective reviewer can spot gaps in your content or navigation almost immediately. Usually, those gaps represent your own instinctive understanding of the site content — an understanding that outside customers won’t have. In other words, you designed the site, and you “get” how it works — but no one else does.

Check out the competition. To get a fresh perspective on your own site, look at what your competitors are doing. How do they structure their navigation? Where do they place calls to action? How quickly do they introduce pricing—or do they introduce it at all?

Their choice aren’t necessarily the right ones. But seeing their approach can provide valuable insight—and again, help you spot gaps or flaws in your site that you otherwise wouldn’t spot.

If all else fails, remember three basic concerns that all customers have. Is your site easy to navigate? Is it easy to find what you’re looking for? Is it visually stimulating? If you answer “yes” to all three questions, you’ve gone a long way toward creating a customer-friendly site.

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5 Steps to a Successful E-Commerce System

Selling products online seems simple: choose a shopping cart, price your merchandise, and watch the sales start rolling in.

In reality, there are a number of critical decisions you need to make before launching a successful e-commerce system. Here are 5 steps to get you there.

  • Organize your products. A surprising number of people who want us to set up an e-commerce system can’t tell us exactly what they want to sell. They’ve never made a comprehensive list of all their products. Before diving into e-commerce, start with the basics. Create an end-to-end product list in a database or Excel file. Include the product name, description, cost, weight, dimensions, and SKU number. You’ll also need product photos for each item. (Tip: Name each jpg according to the product’s SKU number to reduce confusion). Once you can identify everything you want to sell, we can get rolling.
  • Categorize your products. Think about how to organize your products into categories. If you’re a home store selling curtain rods, for example, should they go under Curtains or Hardware? Should a glass bowl go under Room Décor or Serveware? Or both? Choosing categories that reflect where customers will naturally look for products will ease frustration and promote sales.
  • Choose your software. A number of e-commerce options are available; you want the one that best fits your company, products, audience, size, and aspirations. You also need to ask specific questions. For example, do you sell to retail and wholesale clients? If so, your software must feature a tiered pricing structure. Do you sell thousands of different products? If so, you need enterprise-class software … and a sophisticated search feature. Will your customers buy via credit card or PayPal? The list of questions goes on. Answering each one helps us narrow your choices and identify the right system for you.
  • Determine the flow of your cart. The goal is to create a natural flow through your site – one that leads customers from an initial landing page to exactly what they want. To do this, you need to think about how customers would click through your site. What are the broad, top-level categories they’ll start with? (Electronics, for example.) What sub-categories will they expect to see under that? (Cell phones and TVs, for example.) What filters will they to use to narrow those subcategories? (Brand and Price?) Creating a logical flow will help customers easily find and purchase what they want.
  • Choose multiple products vs. a single product with options. Do you have a wide range of products available in different styles? (For example, men’s shirts in various colors, patterns, sizes, and lengths?) If so, you may want to set your cart up to have fewer products with multiple options. In contrast, do you sell products with options (such as color or fabric), but want to highlight the distinctiveness of each one? Then you may want to set each item up as an individual product.

This article should give you a sense of the many questions that come into play when setting up a successful e-commerce system. Before jumping in feet first, find a developer who’s a true e-commerce expert and work through these questions together.

The time you spend up front choosing the right system and configuring it properly will pay off in ease of use and increased sales in the long run.