It’s an acronym that has been a part of the marketing nexus for years now, SEO. Search Engine Optimization. You’ve probably heard if you’re not using SEO for your site, then your business is missing out. For the most part, that’s correct, Google’s algorithm directs the flow of internet traffic, and the algorithm “likes” certain things. What is sometimes overlooked (or oversimplified) about SEO is that it’s not only about placing the right words and using them as many times as possible, but also about creating content and an experience that people find valuable and enjoyable.

The Hard Truth About SEO

There’s no tricking Google’s algorithm. It’s too smart these days, relying upon many different aspects to develop its rankings. It’s ever evolving to be better and provide better results for its users, so if you’re getting into the SEO game, you should be ready to put a lot of time and energy into it and not expect overnight results.
Sounds a bit disheartening, right? Well, here’s what we do know about SEO and an overview of implementations that drive results.

WHAT IS SEO & WHY IS SEO IMPORTANT?

SEO is improving a website by working on specific elements that will help your site rank higher on Google’s results page. Why do you want to rank higher on Google? The most current statistic is 75% of people never go past the first page of search results. Then take into account that anyone can find anything from anywhere, and you’ll realize just how much competition there is in every industry and market.So, the higher on Google’s search results page you are, the more traffic your site will get, which ideally, should lead to more business for you.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT SEO ON YOUR SITE

Google’s algorithm for ranking sites is based on relevance and trust. The more relevant and trusted Google finds your answer, the more likely your site is to rank highly on a search results page. How does Google determine what’s relevant and trusted? Here are a few of the major factors that come into play with rankings.

HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT
Your content needs to be valuable and relevant to your audience. This is where your keywords live, but they shouldn’t be shoved into copy. Content for content’s sake won’t do. Content is also where site maintenance comes in. Fresh, updated content that your audience actually wants and finds value in will help you rank higher. Find out who your audience is and how you can give them what they’re looking for to generate great content.

KEYWORDS
Knowing your audience and what they are searching for is the easiest way to find useful keywords. Again, keywords shouldn’t be haphazardly placed into content because the number of times they were searched, instead gather keywords into topics and themes, allowing it to guide the kind of content you create, so that they are used organically.

MOBILE COMPATIBILITY
Knowing your audience and what they are searching for is the easiest way to find useful keywords. Again, keywords shouldn’t be haphazardly placed into content because the number of times they were searched, instead gather keywords into topics and themes, allowing it to guide the kind of content you create, so that they are used organically.

PAGE SPEED & USER EXPERIENCE
When visitors go to your site and explore your pages, how quickly does it load? Not only does page speed contribute to Google rankings, but it also contributes to the level of user engagement. People will only wait so long for an answer they need before exiting out of a page. On the topic of user engagement, how visually attractive is your site? Is it easy to navigate? The user experience on your site should not be undervalued. A better experience leads to longer time spent on a site and a greater chance a user will engage with your business.

RELEVANT & VALUABLE LINKS
To establish trust with Google, your site should contain links, both internal and external, that provide value to your content and your audience. As is the rule of thumb with content and keywords, links should also be relevant, high-quality, and fit in naturally. If you’re debating whether to insert a link, ask yourself if it would add anything of value to the page or blog first. The answer to that question should tell you what to include or not.
SEO NEXT STEPSBy considering all these factors and beginning to chip away at each of them, you will optimize your site, as well as your searchability and rankings. An audit of your site is a good place start to begin your SEO journey. From there, you can see where your site is lacking and where you can improve. Have you reviewed your site’s health recently?

GET STARTED

Still, implementing SEO can be an overwhelming and time-consuming endeavor. The best practice to remember that should ease the process is that at the end of day, SEO is about creating a stellar user experience filled with content tailored for your audience.

At Next-Mark, we understand the importance of an online presence along with the challenges it presents. That’s why we offer superior SEO and Digital Marketing services. If you feel our capabilities could assist you, please do not hesitate to reach out! 

Get in touch at 941.544.2765 or email us.

The Value of Video Content

Most businesses today implement video to market their brand and raise their online presence. With the global average for time spent watching videos a day being 84 minutes, there is no arguing that the use of video is an effective way to grab an audience’s attention and foster engagement. And in today’s social media landscape, content with video receives 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.

Where to Implement Video Content

Smartphones changed the game. People can watch video anytime, anywhere, but with so much entertainment and information at everyone’s fingertips, content must capture viewers’ attention and with social media, it must do it quickly.

There are a number of avenues at your disposal to apply video. Here’s an overview of where you can take advantage of video content in digital marketing and expand your online presence.

Social Media 

If a social channel wasn’t originally geared toward video, it is now. TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Facebook are all driven by video content, and tweets that contain video on Twitter get 10x more engagement than without.

These videos work best in short form and are meant to attract audiences. For example, Instagram reels and stories can be up to 90 seconds long, and TikTok allows up to ten minutes, so it’s best to keep them brief. Brand films that showcase your values and mission, product demos, explainers and how-to videos, and product or event announcements are ways to draw viewers in and show off your brand’s personality.

Live Video and Webinars

Social media does allow for longer videos, mostly in the form of live streaming. Live video can be used to stream an event, product launches, seminars, expert interviews, Q&As, and much more. It makes your business more accessible, convenient and encourages viewers to comment and ask questions.

In the same vein, webinars provide live interaction with your audience. People seek out videos to teach them new skills and information, so why not use webinars to produce educational content that will develop consumer trust in your brand? Consider hosting one to reach a larger audience, generate and nurture quality leads, and position your business as an expert in your field.

Pro Tip: Recording live streams is an easy way to repurpose them later for other content, reutilizing clips from the video on social media and your website. 

Websites, Blogs, Emails

The investment and effort to create video content can be great but it’s also time and money well spent. Video content can be repurposed and distributed in so many ways, such as on your website and blog. Adding video to these helps increase SEO rankings by keeping your audience more engaged and on a webpage longer, and adding video to an email increases clicks by 300%. 

Developing a Video Marketing Strategy

“Video makes people pause what they’re doing to watch. Once you have their attention, the question is what will you show them that they’ll engage with and invest in?”

Joseph Grano, Next-Mark’s President and Founder

Create quality videos that are engaging for your target audience

Take advantage of the tools each platform has for video creation and application. When developing a video marketing strategy, understand first and foremost who your target audience is and then choose the right platforms to reach them. From there, get creative but know your audience well; you will be speaking to them on a personal level. Picking the best type of video for each platform and promotion is instrumental to a successful video strategy, as well.  

Although creating video content has become easier than ever with cameras on our phones that can film in 4k, at the end of the day, creating quality videos that drive positive results requires a little bit more than a smartphone.

At Next-Mark, our team is expertly equipped to develop a impactful video marketing strategy and is capable of producing high-quality videos for any platform that will kickstart and sustain engagement.

If you feel our capabilities could help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Get in touch at 941.544.2765 or email us.

Client Relationship Management (CRM) software is ever-evolving and improving. With so much technology at your disposal and fingertips, where do you begin and how do you put it all into a cohesive strategy?

Why Use Salesforce

The options today for a CRM platform are numerous, but Salesforce continues to revolutionize and be the industry standard. With a multitude of tools, Salesforce can aid in all aspects of your business.

Whether your business lacks a systematic process or could improve upon its current processes, CRM brings greater insight and better organization to operations. It does this by keeping track of client interactions and sales data in ways such as managing leads, contacts, opportunities, and cases, as well as packs powerful means to aid in marketing and sales. 

The Benefits of Salesforce Implementations

Salesforce can streamline your project management, automate processes, and provide you with more data for better analytics.

How does CRM software make your business more efficient? 

Communication with clients and handoffs between departments become elevated with Salesforce. CRM creates a 360-degree view of leads, giving companies the ability to measure where a lead came from and prioritize it based on its most current information. Similarly, on the client communication side of things, sending contact forms and contract renewals via automation are just a couple of examples of routine processes that can collect data more efficiently. This type of project management saves your team time, so they can focus on areas that will bring more value to products and/or services.

What does automation do for optimizing operations? 

No matter how adept or organized the worker is, human error happens occasionally. Client data is often loaded with contact information, project notes and documents, and deliverables with deadlines. With Salesforce’s capabilities, errors that can occur with these procedures and data-capturing systems can be reduced by automation and free up your personnel to take on more clients without a decrease in quality.

Additionally, time management and scheduling become easier with Salesforce integrations. From assembling a list of current leads for a weekly meeting or sending out a renewal document when a contract is ending, CRM can automate it.

What can access to more data do for your business? 

As these technologies gather an impressive amount of data, companies are allowed to conduct detailed examinations of what is working or not working for their business. It can show in a quantifiable way which aspects of a marketing or sales strategy are valuable. To expand on this, companies can evaluate the ROI on a specific campaign, which contributes to the overall strategy of future campaigns.

Bringing It All Together

“CRM, along with every other facet of marketing, is one of many cogs in a wheel that, ultimately, have to work seamlessly together to produce a great product.”

Joseph Grano, Next-Mark’s President and Founder

Although the data collected from CRM and the analytics it provides is no doubt valuable, it’s important to recognize that this information and these numbers are just that without a savvy team to analyze and implement strategies based on them.

The integrations Salesforce possesses can be overwhelming and complex, so it may be in a company’s best interest to enlist an expert to maximize the benefits of implementation.

Helping Navigate and Implement Salesforce to the Fullest

At Next-Mark, we are a certified Salesforce Partner, which makes us especially skilled in finding the best ways of integrating the software into your business. CRM technology can do wonders for increasing your bottom line if you know what you are looking for and how to properly develop effective strategies from it. 

If you feel our capabilities could help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Get in touch at 941.544.2765 or email us.

Growing Upward and Reaching Further

The first quarter of 2023 at Next-Mark has been a time of new client growth, addition of new team members and important milestones for our business.

Off to a Great Start!

The first quarter of 2023 at Next-Mark has been a time of new client growth, the addition of new team members, and important milestones for our business.

I cannot credit our team enough for their hard work, dedication, and invaluable ingenuity. Despite the satisfaction and pride that comes with all the recognition, we are nowhere near finished in our endeavors to grow and push the envelope.

Introducing Our New 2023 LookBook

We are pleased to present our 2023 LookBook! The LookBook not only highlights the incredible partnerships we have fostered but showcases Next-Mark’s exceptional and far-reaching creative capabilities.

Next-Mark Earns a Company Record of 17 American Advertising Federation ADDY® Awards

The 2022 awards span multiple categories that directly impacted the success of Next-Mark’s diverse clients. The categories of excellence we were recognized in included: integrated marketing campaigns, video, ambient media, branded content, and digital media, among others.

The Next-Mark team continues to be committed to delivering impactful creative content driven by a strategic business approach. To be recognized by our peers is a testament to our results-driven process, as well as the dedication of our team in delivering exceptional work on behalf of our clients.

The Beirut Peacekeepers Memorial Ceremony

Next-Mark is beyond grateful to have played a part in such a beautiful day honoring the veterans of Beirut and celebrating the groundbreaking of The Beirut Peacekeepers Memorial. Being able to orchestrate the media day on behalf of our clients Sweet Sparkman Architecture and Interiors and Willis Smith Construction felt like such an honor in getting the coverage an event like this deserves. The amount of support, love, and connectivity within this community couldn’t be more transparent in moments like these.

As it was said many times that day, “Never forget, and always remember the peacekeepers of Beirut.”

We’re Only Getting Started

Here at Next-Mark, we will continue to take on new challenges and embrace creative risks. We look forward to what the rest of the year will bring.

If you would like to collaborate with us, we would love to hear from you! 

Get in touch at 941.544.2765 or email us.

Making Social Media Social

Social Media is still at the forefront of an integrated marketing communications strategy. The struggle is real, as businesses continue to be challenged by their positioning within the social media ecosystem. Whether your goal is the be a social media influencer, an industry thought leader, or a go-to resource for information and news, we are here to help. For many businesses, social media can seem like an afterthought that’s too far removed from their service offering or product to be worth the effort. It’s confusing, it’s always changing, and there’s rarely a straight line between social media content and revenue. But social media is a “front door” to your business, often the first thing prospective clients and employees see when deciding if your “brand” speaks to them. That’s why it’s important that your social media channels have curb appeal, structure, and thought put into the way your organization’s story is told in real-time. We have partnered with numerous organizations across business categories in optimizing their social media within the context of their overall marketing direction. We are always happy to provide an audit of your social media and provide solutions to optimize your efforts. Let us know if we can help.

– Joseph Grano

President and Founder, Next-Mark

Here are 7 tips to help make your social media make sense and maximize your brand.

BE ORGANIC
While branded content helps drive a consistent, professional message to your audience, too much-branded content can make your organization or business appear boring. You can make your brand more personable and approachable by mixing in posts that feature team members out in the field or showcase a slice of life at the office. Remember, it’s social media, and organic posts often drive more audience engagement than branded content.

Curate “Evergreen” Posts
But it’s all about balance! That branded content we mentioned earlier is an important part of driving your core messaging. It’s where you can repeat themes related to your mission, vision, service offerings, and more. The “evergreen” in “evergreen posts” refers more specifically to the fact that these posts aren’t tied to any specific date. They’re broad and are viable at any time, as opposed to organic content which is more “in the now.”

Video is King
Simply put, a video plays on an even greater amount of emotional appeal than a single image. In a well-produced 15-second video, an organization can capture a client’s journey, express their values, and speak directly to their target market without even adding a voiceover. But even with “organic” videos shot on a decent smartphone, they simply get more clicks, views, and engagement because they force scrollers to stop and pay attention.

Fostering Creativity
A lot of organizations spend too much time systematizing or commoditizing creativity. At Next-Mark, our success is built on giving each of our team members the space to be creative without fear of criticism or failure. We let the creative process breathe and flow so that results are fresh, innovative, and successful.

Rule of 9s
When you click on a business or organization’s Instagram account, the first thing you see after their brief bio, link, and spotlighted reels is the thing that everyone uses Instagram for: PICTURES. Without getting into neuroscience, the human brain loves things in 3s, so it’s important to ensure most of your first 9 images tell a consistent story. A good mix of colorful, professional imagery with organic content helps you tell a well-rounded story in the first 9 posts.

Likes vs. Engagement
This distinction causes a lot of confusion for businesses and organizations. While likes are a simple, easily understood metric, engagement is a more nuanced formula that takes into account likes, shares, and a little metric on Facebook called “People Talking About This.” Engagement metrics paint a more complete picture of how much awareness your brand is generating and is more akin to tracking “word of mouth” buzz in your audience.

Integrate Your Story
With all the nuances of each platform, it becomes all the more difficult to keep it all “on brand.” Every single post does not have to explicitly allude to your organization’s values, mission, vision, service or product offerings, but a random sampling of your posts should come close to hitting all the most important messaging points and language of your brand.

The Medium is the Message
This refers to the way a media channel can determine the way a message is conveyed. What this means for social media is that it’s important to consider the mainstream usage of the channel. For example, Twitter has gradually become a platform for breaking news and stories, while Instagram has become saturated with influencers and professional content creators. Make sure you’re using the right content for the right platform.

Reaffirming our approach as we enter our 19th year in business

To say that I’ve been incredibly fulfilled by Next-Mark’s run would be an understatement. Embarking on our 19th year in business, I am more energized than ever helping clients maximize their business with strategic marketing. I also can’t praise my team enough for their creativity, commitment to collaboration, and willingness to support each other.

I want to take this opportunity to share with all our clients, colleagues, and friends a list of the values and goals that have made us successful for almost 20 years, with a little something new for 2023.

Joseph Grano

President and Founder, Next-Mark

Kindness
This is the single most important foundation on which our firm is built. It’s about more than professional courtesy in engaging with clients and employees. Kindness is core to our approach in everything we do as a partner.

Transparency and Honesty

We’ve never felt comfortable hiding things or misleading. The same goes for the work we do at Next-Mark – it’s about communicating clearly and honestly about our work and how it will help our clients succeed.

Managing Expectations

Though many businesses want an “explosion” of sales from one ad placement, strategic marketing is not a sprint. Rather, it’s about developing the full arc of a campaign that hits milestones throughout the marketing funnel. Sometimes that means telling clients something they don’t want to hear, but we feel a deep responsibility to make sure their goals are achievable and optimal.

Focus

Nobody here at Next-Mark is content with churning out mediocre work. From creative direction to content creation to assembling a robust media list, we focus on maximizing our capabilities.

Collaboration and Consensus

While many agencies produce quality creative work, it’s our experience that many miss out on allowing the client to take an active role in the process. Ultimately, business leaders have key insights into how the brand should be expressed. Input from our clients ensures a more effective final product.

Fostering Creativity

A lot of organizations spend too much time systematizing or commoditizing creativity. At Next-Mark, our success is built on giving each of our team members the space to be creative without fear of criticism or failure. We let the creative process breathe and flow so that results are fresh, innovative, and successful.

Passion for Excellence

You can’t teach someone to have high standards for their work. That’s why at Next-Mark, we pride ourselves on assembling a team of people who assume a deep responsibility for producing work that exceeds client expectations. We check our egos at the door and relish the opportunity to do what it takes to achieve a high-quality and successful product.

Seeking Knowledge

As marketing practices evolve, we stay ahead of the curve, committed to adding to our arsenal of strategies and innovative technologies to ensure clients’ success.

Community Partnerships

In the last few years, the Next-Mark team has been privileged to work with many governmental and nonprofit organizations. Working with these clients is rewarding and a way to give something back to the place we call home.

Building New Relationships

Nothing beats a handshake, a smile, and a conversation when it comes to building new relationships. That’s why the Next-Mark team is active in professional associations, meeting with governmental representatives, and participating in community events.

Be Courageous

For 2023, we asked ourselves what we could do to take our team and success to the next level. Entering our 19th year in business and with decades of combined experience, we are primed to push the envelope with our approach. We will embrace more creative risks, say “yes” to new challenges, and encourage our clients to push themselves outside of their comfort zones.Many thanks to each and every person and organization that has joined Next-Mark on our journey. We are beyond thrilled to see where it leads us next!If we can help, please give us a call at 941.544.2765 or email us to get in touch. For more information about all of our capabilities, view our Digital LookBook.

Turbo-charging Your Business Processes

A quick guide to what Salesforce solutions can do for your business

As CRM software platforms continue to become more prevalent across every industry, a relatively new problem has arisen: What CRM software is right for me? For years, businesses only had 2-3 options to choose from to give them a competitive advantage. Though we have nearly a dozen platforms to choose from today that range from collaborative, analytical, and operational, the Salesforce platform has risen to the top of the industry on the strength of its powerful tools.

Though we at Next-Mark have experience with a variety of CRM platforms, our 75+ implementations in the Salesforce ecosystem have given us the insight that it is, in fact, the industry standard. Simply put, the platform helps turbo-charge a business process, especially when it lacks a systematized template to make it run more smoothly. More than just a marketing tool, Salesforce opens up possibilities across any industry, any department, and any process. Here are the biggest things Salesforce can help a business do:

1. Streamline

In the days before computers sat on every desk in an office, a company’s personnel had to navigate a labyrinth of departments and know which people handled which piece of the sales or operational puzzle. The same issue exists today but has become more complex even as personnel no longer have to hand-deliver documents or information. Salesforce is one of the strongest CRM platforms for streamlining these processes so that sales, finance, operational, and other departments can focus on the functions that generate value. For a recent client, we designed a CPQ (Cost-Price-Quote) integration that generated renewal forms, saving the sales and finance teams time that would otherwise have been spent requesting, retrieving, sending and entering data.

2. Automate

Even when looking at extraordinarily organized, top-performing personnel, most business processes in the modern day require an amount of juggling that simply isn’t sustainable. Client files can be chock full of project notes, timelines, deadlines and contact info. With Salesforce’s tools, any business process or data capture system can be automated to reduce the human errors that become more likely as personnel attempt to manage more and more projects. Automation can give an organization real-time reporting that’s tailored to whatever period of time works best for them. Are sales meetings occurring every Monday morning? A Salesforce integration can generate an automatic roundup of current leads. Is a client’s contract up for renewal in 5 weeks? Salesforce can automate the creation and execution of renewal contracts that help ensure clients don’t go elsewhere.

3. More Data, More Nuance

As part of Salesforce’s ability to capture and organize data, companies then have the ability to conduct much more thorough and actionable analyses of what’s working and what’s not. For many businesses, sales strategies are left largely to each individual sales rep to devise on their own. Naturally, some sales reps have a greater total quantity of sales while others have a higher percentage of sales per capita. Were these regional differences, a function of tactics, a by-product of timing? With more data comes more nuanced modifications to a sales strategy. Often times, we find that the key is to unlock some untapped synergy between departments, whether it’s linking an Account Executive with a Business Development Representative, or the Finance Department with the Sales Department.

We could spend weeks exploring the ins and outs of just one of our Salesforce integrations, and if you’d like to take a deep dive into some of them, we suggest you read our case studies. But a Salesforce integration is only as good as the team implementing it. It’s a complicated platform, and the right team should have a clear system in place to ensure an implementation strategy meets the specific needs of your business. Customized and maximized integrations require intensive discovery, a methodical build, meticulous testing, and a collaborative deployment phase fueled by client empowerment.

For us at Next-Mark, we also have the added advantage of being able to bridge the gap between Salesforce and marketing initiatives. This means your visual identity and brand voice can be fully integrated into the Salesforce integrations, ensuring a seamless experience for sales leads.

If you are curious about what Salesforce can do for your business and how we can integrate it with your marketing needs, feel free to reach out! We love to geek out on this stuff and love welcoming new businesses into the Salesforce ecosystem. You can also check out our Salesforce profile on the Salesforce App Exchange.

Visit Next-Mark’s latest Case Studies to learn more about how Next-Mark can transform your Salesforce Environments

As Sarasota’s only certified Salesforce Partner, we at Next-Mark are uniquely positioned to help you understand what to look for when integrating the Salesforce software into your business. Salesforce is a powerful tool to add to your analytics, but with that great power comes a great responsibility to leverage the data correctly so that it increases your bottom line rather than clouding your sales flow with more noise.

For years, we’ve been helping clients in a variety of fields—from healthcare to ride shares to publishers—utilize the platform to unleash the full potential of their client relationships by maximizing their digital marketing environments. When it’s time for you to choose a Salesforce partner, here are some insights we’ve learned about the competencies you should look for:

1. Good Listener

No two businesses are built the same, even when in the same industry and offering the same service. It’s important that you find a Salesforce partner that takes the time to listen carefully and conscientiously to your organization’s specific needs. We have seen too many times how a templated approach to digital marketing solutions prevents businesses from standing out from the crowd. In the end, our job is to translate your unique business processes into the Salesforce platform, which is only maximized when it aligns with your needs. In addition, a strong start to a Salesforce migration ensures a solid architecture to build future processes on.

2. A Strategic Planner

The integration of Salesforce is not a simple, short-term solution to your organization’s needs. Managing, tracking and automating requires frequent upkeep over the duration of the process, which is comprised of a long string of milestones. Make sure your Salesforce partner demonstrates an understanding of how those milestones are achieved and tracked over the full breadth of your relationship, with KPIs established early on. In addition, make sure to choose a Salesforce partner with a proven track record of long-term client relationships, as this helps reveal a partner’s ability to reliably evolve and grow in tandem with your organization.

3. A Team Player

A large component of Salesforce implementation is your organization’s ability to navigate the platform. The right partner, rather than keep you in the dark and keep the expertise to themselves, should exercise patience and enthusiasm when walking you through the software’s capabilities and utilization. That’s why at Next-Mark we developed our Next Methodology for Salesforce implementation, which lays out our collaborative approach from the initial conversation to the go-live result and emphasizes a educational dialogue along that entire journey to ensure our Salesforce clients know how to utilize the platform. In  addition to helping foster transparency and open communication, this collaborative approach inevitably leads to more creative use of the software. The more perspectives from knowledgeable users, the more new ideas and techniques can be leveraged to make the team stronger than any single individual.

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Getting Personal, Seventeen Years and Counting . . .

As we complete our 17th year in business and reflect on the year that was for Next-Mark, I keep coming back to one word: grateful.

2021 was a milestone year for our business. For that, I have to thank the existing clients who maintained their relationships with us, the new clients who put their faith in us, and our insightful, creative staff who always gave their best to each and every one of them.

2021 also was the year Next-Mark “came home” in a sense. After 16 years of meeting the needs of mostly national and international clients, we found ourselves also working in our own backyard, as various local organizations and governments came to us for communications support. As a Southwest Florida business, it has been immensely rewarding to participate in the betterment of our local communities and be part of such a vibrant, growing area.

Last year also saw a significant progression of our newest endeavor, as a certified Salesforce partner. We obviously filled a need, as we continue to help a growing list of national and international clients bridge the gap between strategic content and full utilization of their Salesforce Customer Relationship Management platform, enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently.

This combination of serving existing clients in fresh ways, helping new clients recharge their marketing communications, and developing additional capabilities ourselves has built a powerful platform for Next-Mark in 2022. It is one we greatly appreciate and intend to build upon.

Our goals for 2022 include:

• Continue to build our team and continue to serve our evolving client base
• Build on our capabilities as a certified Salesforce partner
• Partner with our clients locally, nationally, and internationally in bolstering their brand promise and value proposition.

So, thank you to all who got us here. I look forward to seeing how far we all can go. If we can be of help, feel free to contact me directly at josephgrano@next-mark.com or at 941.544.2765.

The Value of Event Marketing

Today’s marketing ecosystem is focused on any number of metrics, analytics and other quantifiable measures of outreach and leads. A marketing professional’s workflow might include charts, graphs and reports with cold numbers—and rightfully so, since these facets of a marketing plan give a marketing professional the data needed to design effective e-blasts, press releases, landing pages, social media posts and other measurable impressions. But as much as these numbers have helped take campaigns to the next level in the digital age, the value of in-person engagement cannot be overlooked.

A 2018 market study by Bizzabo, an event marketing platform, found that 91 percent of overperforming businesses place a greater emphasis on live events than their average and underperforming competitors. In addition, the same study found that 87 percent of C-Suite executives believe live events play an essential role in their company’s success. That’s why live events are one of the most impactful tools we use at Next-Mark to create strong B2B and B2C connections.

Event marketing, also known as experiential marketing, is a type of marketing that includes trade shows, product launches/demos, seminars or grand openings, to name a few. And as we all learned first-hand over the last year and a half, web-based events can also serve as a serviceable placeholder. All of these forms of engagement leverage the power of human interaction to create a more impactful impression on prospective customers and clients, helping to foster a more robust, holistic brand awareness. In short, an event helps our clients show their brand rather than just tell.

At Next-Mark, we pride ourselves on the work we have done, helping clients produce a variety of event marketing initiatives in our home city of Sarasota, Florida and across the nation. Most recently, our Sol of the Circle event series played an integral role in further promoting St. Armands Circle and boosting the destination’s marketing initiatives. As a vibrant cultural center that is part of the illustrious Ringling legacy in the Sarasota region, we felt that a live event series was a perfect opportunity to help develop the brand of the Circle, as a destination for entertainment and recreation across a diverse set of target groups. The series ran through the summer and included monthly live music nights, outdoor yoga activations, unique Family Day events and culminated with Sarasota Arts LIVE, which featured live performances from some of the biggest performance art institutions in Sarasota.

These events aimed to show St. Armands Circle’s target audiences that the Circle is a dynamic venue worth returning to and spending a memorable day among family and friends. The series allowed restaurants, bars and retailers to present a cohesive, unified experience to visitors centered on the sights and sounds of the historic commercial district. The visitors themselves were provided a dynamic, diverse occasion to not only stop at one destination, but also immerse themselves in a culturally meaningful, live experience. A 2016 study by the Event Marketing Institute corroborates the impact of a vibrant live event: 98 percent of event attendees feel more inclined to use a product or service after attending the event, while 84 percent say it gives them a more positive view of the brand, product or service.

Another benefit of event marketing is the ability to attract media coverage from magazines, newspapers, websites and social media influencers. Known as “earned content” in the marketing industry, this kind of coverage signals to your target audience that an objective, third-party entity has found your client’s product, brand or service to be noteworthy. In the case of Sol of the Circle, Next-Mark was able to secure mentions in several publications, including a feature article about the Sarasota Arts LIVE event in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Looking to the future of marketing trends, the Bizzabo study found that 57 percent of overperforming companies plan on increasing their budget for event marketing. It all goes to show that the digital marketing tools available to us are only one piece of the overall puzzle. Ultimately, humans are social creatures and derive more comprehensive impressions from in-person engagement. Nothing beats the power of a positive live experience.