Our inboxes: They can be the bane of our existence. But really, inboxes are an opportunity -- an incredible one, in fact. According to research curated by HubSpot, 89% of marketers said email was their primary channel for lead generation.

The community of people who sign up for your email list are giving you special permission; a private invitation into their inboxes. The fact that it’s a direct line for you to develop and nurture the relationships and loyalty that undoubtedly increase referrals and retention is perhaps also why, according to that same curated research, 59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue.

Yet so many small businesses aren’t using their email list to its fullest capacity. When done right, your email list becomes a VIP roster of your most loyal followers -- the followers who are more likely to share your content, become clients, and buy your products.

With that in mind, your e-newsletter should be considered one of your most integrative digital marketing tools, empowering readers to engage. Here’s how:

Step 1: Build a template that gives your newsletter good bones.

Because email is going to be a regular part of your marketing strategy from now on (right?), it’s important that you develop a design template that acts as a foundation for its layout. The benefit of a well-designed template is two-fold: It makes it easier for you to streamline the layout of your content creation, while also making your email campaign visually attractive.

The bones of your newsletter template are the things that every newsletter should have, including a header that easily identifies your brand, as well as a footer that includes social media links, your address, and the option to unsubscribe.

The remainder of your email -- the body -- will depend on what’s important to your readers. Keep them at the forefront: Deliver valuable information that can help them where they’re at. Fun tidbits about what’s going in your business can be interesting, but shouldn’t be the main focus, and should always be put in context of how it helps your audience.

At Out & About, our template includes a branded header, an intro note from our team with the main message of the email, and up to three recent blog posts or articles that we feel tie into the theme and will help our readers. Our social links divide the body from the footer, which includes our address and unsubscribe info.

Knowing what will go into each newsletter helps us plan content out in advance, and maintaining overall consistency helps us test what’s working and what’s not.

Step 2: Keep the entire email newsletter short + simple.

Have you ever opened a newsletter that feels like it’s a mile long? Instead of hungrily devouring its content, it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by the endless scrolling.

Newsletters, despite best being led by story, aren’t meant to be novels. What worked in the old-fashioned, direct-mail delivery days doesn’t stand the test of time in someone’s inbox.

Consider the 1-3 actions you’d like that one reader you’re writing for to take after reading your newsletter. (Note: In a targeted sales email, you’d be focused on one action, and one action, only.) Build your newsletter around those actions, making it quick and easy to take them.

A quick aside: Still printing a physical newsletter to mail? You can be lax on length -- make it something your reader can dive into over a cup of coffee!

Step 3: Get readers out of their inbox.

Your email exists in a bit of a silo, but you don’t want your reader to. Consider your digital newsletter as a place to sprinkle in “sound bites.”

Our blog posts shared in the O&A newsletter include a small thumbnail image and a sneak peak of the content of each post. This teaser is meant to encourage a click to read more. The goal is to get our reader on our site, where they want to keep poking around to read and learn more.

Your goal might be the same. If shares is the action you’re after, make it easy by providing tools that help the reader sift through information and grab it to share on other platforms.

Step 4: Run your newsletter through this checklist.

The steps above are easy ways to get started in developing an engaging email newsletter template. Before you hit send, though, run your next newsletter through this at-a-glance checklist to make sure you’re crossing all your t’s and dotting all those i’s:

• Have you added photos to make your newsletter engaging?
• Have you split content up with dynamic headlines? (Skimming is the rule these days.)
• Is your content easily digestible? (People can easily read bullets and lists -- like this one.)
• Is your text styled, making use of italics, bold, different sizes? (Contrast helps the eye to identify key messages and information quickly.)
• Have you added teasers of information that link to your site, blogs, social sites, or other sites?
• Do you have a call-to-action that encourages your viewer to take action?
• Have you included your social media, website, and other key links?
• Is your subject line short, sweet and indicative of what’s inside?

Your email newsletter = your best asset

Bottom line, your e-newsletter is a place to garner recognition and loyalty. It won’t happen on day one -- your newsletter is a constant work in progress. There are subject lines to test, different types of content to try out, and various send times to dabble with. But by following key tenets as you test -- building solid bones, leading with story, keeping it short, and getting readers out of their inbox -- you are on your way to a newsletter that doesn’t just sit idle in an inbox and actually works to convert clients.

PS: Adding newsletter content to your website, blog, and social media helps increase the reach of the content as you build your digital footprint.

Have you heard about The Amazing Lamp? The Amazing Lamp is an incredible project that aims to teach young people about mindfulness through a book series, outreach, and education. The project is the brainchild of former Baltimore Raven and NCAA record-holder Prince Daniels Jr.

Prince and his collaborators came to our team looking to redesign their website to streamline and highlight their offerings. Our goal was to elevate The Amazing Lamp brand to raise awareness of what they do and encourage lifelong meditation and mindfulness.

Visit their website to learn more about their first book release, Danny Yukon & the Secrets of the Amazing Lamp and their buy-one-give-one initiative.

There’s no such thing as a boring industry.

Seriously -- from plumbing to pageantry, there is always something interesting to market about the industry in which you work, especially to outsiders. (Just look at what Charmin’s done with toilet paper.)

Believe it or not, financial services is no different.

Yet despite there always being something interesting to talk about, there’s something holding financial professionals back that companies like Charmin don’t have to deal with: strict regulations and compliance requirements.

Fret not, content creators: we’ve heard the concern when it comes to generating interesting ideas for content that aligns with those regulations. And now, we’d like to take that concern off your shoulders, for good.

First: Generate content ideas

The first step in getting past the fear of content marketing is opening the floodgates of potential content ideas. Here are a few steps to get you going in that direction:

1. Pay attention to the FAQs: What questions do prospective and current clients ask frequently? Is there certain information you feel yourself regurgitating over and over? Example: For the third time this week, you’ve been asked about how a certain current event might affect portfolios. (Fun fact: This blog post was written based off a question we got from one of our followers.)

2. Let your current clients/customers do the heavy lifting: Beyond the questions they ask, pay attention to conversations to pull out feedback about your services, as well as fears and concerns. Example: Your customer just expressed how great it is that your team serves as volunteers in your local community.

3. Capture phrases from your clients’ vernacular: As your clients ask questions and pose suggestions, pay attention to the words and phrases they use when sharing those questions, suggestions, fears, and concerns. Example: You’ve noticed your millennial clients  consistently mentioning “crowdfunding their business idea.”  

Our cup runneth over! The new year has been good to us. Over the past few months, we've added to the Out & About Team, worked with some incredible clients, and rolled out a shiny new website that we’re super excited about. With our new website, our goals were:

• Shine a light on the people who make everything happen behind the scenes, our amazing team!
• Highlight work we’re proud of by building out a richer portfolio.
• Create a hub for resources and galvanize professional services providers.
• Sprucing up our visual feel to better reflect our love of getting out there and being social.

There's more to come, so stay tuned to hear more exciting news on the horizon. In the meantime, take a look around our spiffy new website, drop us a line to let us know what you think. We can't wait to hear from you.

If the phone rings during dinner time, there’s no doubt you’re still thinking the same thing you were 10-15 years ago: telemarketer.

Those cold calls have evolved into cold emails, but they still retain one key characteristic: they’re cold. Meaning the person targeting you with that message hasn’t done much to identify whether or not it’s a message you want to hear, and they’re going for second base without ever having asked you out on that first date.

And that, small business owner, is a big no-no. (Even in the world of online dating.)

Enter the solution for small business marketers: Inbound marketing. It’s not new, but it is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Old school outbound marketing

Okay, it might be too soon to dub it old school, but when you think outbound marketing, think traditional: cold-calling, print ads, TV and radio advertising, direct mail, and trade shows.

The gist of outbound marketing is that you, the business, initiate a one-way conversation that communicates a message to your audience.

As Rick Burnes put it in this classic HubSpot article, outbound marketing often means using “techniques that are poorly targeted and interrupt people.”

Even with that rave review, we aren’t so quick to kick it to the curb just yet. Outbound marketing found its ground traditionally for a few reasons:

• Outbound marketing tactics are easy to create. Easy to create means easy to start.
• It’s measurable. Setting realistic goals is possible because predictive analytics exist, and are often decently accurate because there’s little that hasn’t been done before.
• You have control. Outbound tactics are typically directly connected to specific results. You pay to put a print ad in a Meredith publication, and Meredith will deliver X amount of leads to you at the end of the campaign. Straightforward.

Of course, outbound is earning its current reputation for a reason, because it does inspire quite a few cons -- here are a few of the big ones:

• You can’t guide the buying cycle. While you might be able to target on certain demo- and psychographics (Meredith publications = women decision makers, for example), there’s little you can do to target where they’re at in the buying cycle. Are they in desperate need of your service, or are they still unaware they have a problem? This uncertainty leads to our next con...   
• Lower conversion rates. A one-way conversation means little-to-no value-added information beyond the initial message, resulting in lower conversion rates. According to Search Engine Journal, SEO (an inbound tactic) leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.*
• It’s expensive. The average company saves $20,000 per year by investing more in inbound marketing vs. outbound. What could you accomplish with an extra $20K in your operating budget?

*If you’re looking to fully nerd out over marketing statistics like we do, here’s a great start. A well-deserved h/t to HubSpot on their intuitive data gathering.

From out to in: What’s behind the fuss of inbound marketing

Another way to think about outbound marketing is push marketing: You’re pushing your message on people, who may or may not need or be ready for your products and services.

The natural opposite of that? Pull marketing, which is where we find inbound: a “strategy used by marketers to generate the attention of customers that are actually in need of your business.”

In other words, customers come to you. Common inbound marketing tactics include content marketing, search engine optimization tactics, and social media.

In fact, content marketing is at the heart of all of the above (think: blogging, video marketing, ebooks/whitepapers, and much more), which, according to Demand Metric, generates three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less.

Triple the leads at 1/3 the cost? Yes, please.

Here’s why inbound marketing tactics work:

• Communication is interactive. Social media is inherently that: social. The same goes for content marketing, in general. Sharing content inspires conversations, and naturally leads to follow ups.

• You can guide the buying cycle. With content, SEO, and social, you can intentionally choose social channels and different types of content to influence people at certain stages of the buying cycle. At the beginning of the cycle? You’d likely put more into educational content. Further along? Conversion becomes the goal, and your keyword strategy, content creation, and delivery should be catered to that. Essentially, with inbound, you have the opportunity to meet potential clients where they’re at as they move through the buying cycle.

• You can measure, iterate, and increase effectiveness. While you can’t fully control results, you can measure progress and iterate based on the results of those measurements. Unlike changing a print ad, implementing changes to inbound tactics tends to be easier to do. After all, a blog can always be edited.

While technology is empowering us to block/skip/ignore push tactics, your customers are seeking out the pull tactics. SEO is based on what your customers are searching. Content is based on what your customers are asking. Social media gives you a delivery mechanism with unlimited reach potential but the ability to target on such tight niches that leads are naturally a higher quality.

Of course, inbound marketing doesn’t come without its own challenges:

• Results can take a while to show. SEO experts will be the first to tell you that a strategic search strategy won’t show results overnight. Content marketing will help build organic SEO, but not in a week. With advertising, you can hit the switch and see it go, but what’s lacking is the gradual building of your digital footprint.
• You can’t control it. Because inbound marketing depends almost entirely on your customer (and we all know customers can be fickle, as much as we love them), it’s tough to control the outcome of certain efforts.
• It’s difficult to predict. Lack of control means a lack of ability to predict. Also, so much of inbound is still developing, that you have the ability to influence it more than you have the ability to predict it.

Inbound versus outbound: What’s right for you right now

So, the question remains -- what’s right for you right now? Let’s split you into two camps:

Short-term, immediate results: If you’re looking for instant results that may or may not show a return on investment, you might want to try out strategic outbound marketing tactics.

Long-term, consistent results: If you’re in it for the long run, already have a developed sales cycle, and are committed to educating your potential consumer, inbound marketing is more up your alley. It takes prolonged effort, but carving out an impactful digital footprint takes time.

At Out & About, we place the focus on inbound marketing because we’re out to help you build that long-lasting digital footprint. Can outbound be sprinkled in there? Of course, but a smart marketing strategy is focused on education driving awareness, resulting in higher quality leads.

Found vs. finding; hunted vs. hunting

We help small businesses think different when building solid campaigns that support ongoing growth. Making it about being found versus finding means taking the onus off your limited resources, and making the most of what you do have: strategy and smarts.

Inbound marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Scary? Sure. But how do you complete a marathon? One step at a time. Those little steps add up quick when you’re building what will eventually become your overall digital footprint. Make it the footprint you can be proud of in the long term, as your business thrives from the right people being able to find you at the right time.

PS: Wondering what you should budget for strategic marketing? We tell all here.

Sales and marketing are two peas in a pod. The Sales & Marketing Leadership Alliance (SMLA) aims to put sales and marketing professionals side-by-side at the same table to learn how to grow their businesses. The mission is simple – to bring sales and marketing leaders together, to enhance their productivity, build stronger bonds, leverage best practices and ultimately increase sales and enhance brands.
The SMLA recently launched their new website designed by Out & About. This redesign prominently features partners and sponsors, streamlines website upkeep, and offers a brand new members-only area. Being enthusiastic members of the SMLA ourselves, we’re thrilled with the new features.
Want to learn more? Join us for an event in San Diego or Orange County!

We’re not marketers keen on spinning stories. Getting to the core of who our clients are is key to elevating their brand and building authentic relationships with their clients and customers. We developed the WorthPointe Wealth Management’s digital strategy in alignment with who they are as a company: knowledgeable, innovative, and accessible. In collaboration with WorthPointe’s incredible, multi-city team of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS™, we helped them tap into their deep well of financial expertise and deliver that knowledge to their clients via blogs, videos, social media, press features, e-books, and more. It turns out we’re not the only people jazzed about our digital marketing work for WorthPointe; we recently won a Gold AVA Digital Award! Visit worthpointeinvest.com to see our work in action.

We have an honest question for you, from our team to yours:

Why be the same, when you can be different?

Now, here’s what we know your business-focused mind might be thinking: There are industry best practices. Trends are trends for a reason. Tried-and-true brings predictable results.

You’re right. But here’s the thing: Being different -- what we like to think of as not being cookie cutter -- doesn’t have to mean ignoring best practices, shunning viable trends, or completely forgetting what’s worked in the past.

It does mean taking that delicious cookie dough you’ve created and developing your own molds: your own voice, your own process, and your own results.

It’s the cookie cutter conundrum: How do you respect the things you know to be true while setting your business apart from the crowd?

Why cookie cutter is dangerous in digital marketing

We’re not just coming at you from a crunchy-mama, “I-don’t-buy-mainstream-products” viewpoint. We’re coming at you from a “we-know-professional-services-and-you-better-believe-it’s-a-crowded-market” standpoint.

Cookie cutter means doing what the guy or gal next to you is doing. Cookie cutter means subscribing to the “shoulds” -- you should still be using billboards; you should update your website every two years; you should spend $50k on developing a hip website.

Cookie cutter, above all, means being okay with having your voice get lost in the crowd, instead of taking the time to figure out what sets your business apart.

[Insert gasp here. It’s scary, right?]

That, fellow business owners, is what makes cookie cutter so dangerous when you’re operating in a saturated marketing where content and messaging is pumped out on the regular. If you’re doing everything the same, then it’s likely you’re saying everything the same. Tough sell, indeed.

What makes your business different?

Before diving full-hog into a project with a new client, we like to start by asking a few introspective questions. Here are two of our favorites:

What are your customers’ main pain points/problems -- and how does your service solve them?

and

What sets your business apart from the competition who’s providing similar solutions?

Of course, at first glance, these questions are easy. But when you really dig into them, they’re what gives the ultimate insight into how your business is different.

The magic, of course, comes in identifying what it is that’s working in your industry and amongst your competition, and then figuring out how you can capitalize on that while exercising your own ethos.

In the hot seat: Out & About Communications

We’re about to get vulnerable. You see, we’re a digital marketing agency -- which, to be frank, are about as common as taco stands here in San Diego. Needless to say, if we were okay with being cookie cutter, we most likely wouldn’t still be here.

Being a digital marketing agency might be a relatively “new” thing, considering the proliferation of digital strategy in only the last 10-20 years, but there are still quite a few industry best practices, “shoulds”, and tried-and-true trends hanging around. Here’s are just a few ways we’ve rectified our own cookie cutter conundrum while standing out from the crowd:

Best practice:

Entering clients into standard sales funnels and selling practiced packages.

Out & About mold:

We put together customized proposals based on our discussions to date -- not something we did for the last company we worked with. Is our intake process and onboarding streamlined? You better believe it. But it includes all the time each client requires to take to get to know them and their firm before we dive into our work together.

Industry trend:

Building a multi-faceted, in-house team that can address all specialties.

Out & About mold:

We pull in the right talent for your project -- but only on an as-needed basis. Need SEO insight? We can provide that. A project manager? Sure thing. A copywriter specializing in email marketing? We’ve got a few. We’ve followed the trend of multi-faceted teams, but we’ve made it our own by building a network of specialists honing their own skills, who are at the ready when -- and only when -- you need them. Meaning we aren’t passing our overhead onto you.

“Should”:

Determine the best tools + strategies and encourage clients to implement them.

Out & About mold:

Yes -- there are platforms and tools we recommend, and even those we prefer. But when it comes to what makes each and every client project tick, it’s about knowing what’s going to work best in their environment; not ours. Because of that, we not only customize the processes and operations for each project; we also select marketing tools that are a specific fit, whether that’s Google Docs or MS Office; InfusionSoft or MailChimp; Basecamp or MS Project.

In short:

We’ve differentiated our digital marketing services by seeing our clients as an extension of our business. We answer calls/emails. We invite our clients to events. We go out of our way to ensure each client experiences the red carpet treatment. Are we solving a lot of the same problems as our competition? Absolutely. But the way in which we do it is what makes us stand out from the crowd.

Now, it’s easy to talk about this from the 35,000-foot view. But of course, there have been some ups and downs where we’ve seen experiments that have turned out poorly, or endeavors that didn’t bring intended results. But when you hear things like this...

“Wow, you’re the first firm that gets what we want to do.”

"I feel like you're not just telling us what we should do, but you're helping take what we've built and elevate it to that next level."

“I've been through a lot of these marketing strategy meetings, and your session was one of the best. You actually got people talking, brainstorming ideas, and pulling out frustrations related to marketing."

...then you know you’ve officially broken the cookie cutter mold.

You can have your cookies and eat them, too

Knowing what makes your company different is what’s going to help your business stand you when it comes to your digital marketing. Look at the best practices, the trends, and the “shoulds” that are weighing you down, and ask what it is that you can do to set yourself apart.

Then? Do it.

P.S. - Want an even more in-depth look at how we work? Take a peek behind our curtain.

We won an award! Out & About was selected by The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts to receive a 2016 Davey Award for the website we designed and built for Tobias Financial Advisors. There were nearly 4,000 entries from the best small firms in the world and we are incredibly honored to have won a silver award in the financial services category. The Davey Awards are given specifically to small agencies, the “Davids” in the world of large “Goliath” companies. As a small business serving other small businesses, this award means a whole lot to us. To find about more the Davey Awards click here. You can explore our winning website by clicking on the image below or by visiting http://tobiasfinancial.com.

Storytelling has very much become a buzzword in the digital marketing world these days. But instead of shunning it for that reason, we pay attention to it for that reason -- after all, the market is driven on trends. Though, to be honest? This storytelling thing isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around since you were a kid, and since your parents were kids, and since their parents were kids…you get it.

Of course, the importance of storytelling as we talk about it here wouldn’t be found in an illustrated children’s book, nor is it likely to be told at your next campfire.

The story we’re referring to is your brand story. The one that is told about your business and the problems you solve that directly fits into the lives of your customers. The one they can immediately relate to and see themselves as a character in. The one that connects you to your target market and helps amplify your brand until it’s a household name. (So perhaps a campfire telling isn’t so out of reach.)

We don’t need to tell you this, though -- because you’ve already figured your business’ story out. You’re battling the second half of brand story conundrum: getting your entire team on the same page when it comes to sharing that story with the world.

5 steps for getting your team on the same page in telling your brand story

The true power of a story is in its retelling. That’s where it gains traction, travels from person to person and crowd to crowd, and earns its keep in our memories.

Which makes it incredibly important that we maintain its integrity as we tell it, time and again. That might be easy if it were just you, fellow business owner, as the narrator. But when you’ve got a team of people on the front lines communicating your story regularly, it’s not so easy to keep it consistent.

So before Ben in marketing starts telling one story and Tabitha in client services starts telling another, here’s what you need to do:

1. Conduct a high-level strategy meeting. Bring department heads, VPs, and team leaders to the table to talk strategy. This is where you want to get solid on what your story is, in the first place. Of course, this can’t be completely done in a board room. While you don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, you’ll want the input of both customers and client-facing employees when it comes to your messaging.

Once that feedback has been gathered, the purpose of your high-level meeting is to figure out how to incorporate it into your existing brand story, and then how to disseminate that across the organization.

2. Tell your story out loud and give it a direction. Once you’ve compiled all feedback, verbally hash your brand story out. Give it a voice and tell it to the room. Then, write the story down and build a plan for where and how it’ll be used, from your marketing materials to your about page and your sales calls to your FAQs.

3. Give each person their own soapbox. Once the core story is formed and told several times both within that initial meeting and to the organization as a whole, help employees shape the story within the context of their role.

For example, your team in business development might position the brand story in a way that attracts new funding, while the sales team might use it to court customers. Give each person their own sandbox, but help them build the castle. It’ll encourage the use of the same story across the board.

4. Encourage practice, practice, and more practice. At this point, the goal is to make telling your brand story second nature to each and every person in the organization.

Host a happy hour where everyone has to move about the room, taking turns telling the story. Encourage teammates to use the story in different ways, and gamify the process by assigning rewards each time they do. Most importantly, provide materials relating to your brand story to talk through and refer back to as time goes on.

5. Systematize your sales cycle. Finally, we reach the final step in most brand exercises like this: streamlining. The goal here: systematize the sales cycle so that you can strongly incorporate your story within it and make the most of your business development efforts.

This might look like a one-pager within your onboarding packet that tells your story, or it might be a narrated video on your homepage. Build it firmly into the cycle so that it’s a natural portion of it.

Getting everyone on the same page

Your story isn’t just a fluffy element of your brand that proves to be a fun, yet futile exercise. When done right, your brand story becomes the embodiment of your mission and the single best way to connect with prospects and turn clients into raving fans.

And a story becomes infinitely powerful once adopted and shared by many.

Your brand story deserves that dedication within your organization so that prospects and clients give it the same respect when they undoubtedly share it around their next campfire, right after the first kumbaya.

PS: One of our favorite brand storytellers is Dove. The company’s story as the home of “real beauty” has been magnificently translated into social media campaigns, video marketing, and much, much more.