Directive Blogs

Your Google Reviews are front and center when a prospect starts investigating a product or service and those that provide it. For businesses of all kinds, these reviews are more than just a star rating; they're a powerful testament to your brand's reputation.

We’re not just about building sleek, high-performing websites and crafting compelling content; we’re about empowering you to take control of your entire online presence… and that, my friends, includes the good, the bad, and the sometimes-just-plain-weird world of Google Reviews.

Today, email isn't just for internal memos. When used correctly, it’s a powerhouse tool for growth. It is our humble opinion that technology should do two things: keep your business running and help your business grow.

Here are tech-savvy strategies to master your email marketing and make the most of this powerful tool.

Capturing leads is only the first stop. Turning them into clients? That’s where the real challenge lies.

Success isn’t just about making a good first impression—it’s about maintaining the momentum. A well-crafted email nurture sequence bridges the gap between initial interest and long-term commitment, providing a scalable and strategic way to guide leads through the sales funnel. 

Let me ask you an important question: would you find a statement more impactful if it came from a business or if it was presented from the perspective of one of its clientele?

It's probably the second option. It only makes sense… even if it’s the business distributing it, the fact that someone else’s name is tied to a statement adds significant confidence that the contents are trustworthy. This is precisely why client success stories can be so compelling when featured in your marketing.

Let’s talk about how to use these powerful marketing tools for yourself, but first…

Little can be more frustrating than thinking you’re doing everything right, only for your desired outcome to elude you… for instance, if your marketing prospects aren’t being drawn in.

Let’s explore some potential reasons why your prospects aren’t converting and how you can resolve the issues that may be present. 

Success and failure aren’t just about how motivated you are. Most of us who own and/or operate a business are very detail-oriented, and it’s easy to get tangled up in the small details. Sometimes, getting stuck on the minutiae can really get in the way of launching and succeeding.

Let’s discuss some common pitfalls businesses often get stuck in that prevent them from driving their operations forward. 

It shouldn’t be surprising to think that your prospects—or even businesses you already work with—aren’t going to take you at your word that you and your services are the best option for their needs… as easy as that might make things. No, the hard truth is that you need your marketing to communicate the value your business and its services offer. Let’s go over a few ways you can ensure it does.

Email is a hugely effective tool that you can use to boost your business’ marketing efforts, provided you use them correctly. If misused, however, email marketing can be less beneficial (or worse, actively harmful) to your business’ self-promotion.

Your business’ success is heavily influenced by your marketing. Similarly, your marketing’s success is heavily influenced by how accurately your marketing reaches who you want to be talking to… your prospects and even your current clients, your target audiences. They need your marketing to show them that your values align with theirs and that you’ll be invested in their success.

Email marketing remains one of the most popular ways businesses can nurture leads, build the necessary impressions to convert prospects, and maintain relationships with current clientele. With this popularity, however, comes plenty of competition for attention in recipients’ inboxes. This means you must do everything you can to make your email marketing as effective as possible.

Let’s review ten things we recommend you prioritize as you work toward this goal.

While it might be nice to think that your business can serve “anyone”—after all, being able to serve anyone means that you have the potential to work with everyone—this, unfortunately, isn’t the reality. Even the most accessible businesses will have certain clients that are inherently more valuable than others. These “ideal clients” are critical to identify, so let’s talk about how you can do so.

The value of a good referral should not be underestimated. Not only do they help you acquire a new prospect without the typical marketing investments you would otherwise make, but they also typically enter your marketing funnel much closer to the purchase point than the average lead does.

However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that referrals will start flowing in without some effort on your part. Let’s discuss the processes you must adopt to encourage your clients to provide you with referrals.

In sales, context is everything. Crafting a compelling sales presentation remains a cornerstone of successful business interactions. In today's rapidly evolving landscape, merely delivering information is just not enough. The true measure of a presentation's success lies in its resonance with the audience. For everyone involved in the sales process, understanding this dynamic is crucial for driving meaningful engagement and fostering lasting connections.

A marketing strategy is the building block of a marketing plan. It lays out a clear, well-defined big picture plan to attract customers to your business by specifying long-term objectives, actions to be taken, and marketing tactics used to achieve marketing goals. B2B marketers often struggle to develop successful marketing strategies. 40% of the least effective marketers have no defined marketing strategy, and 56% of B2B marketers in the United States find it difficult to build their brand through the strategies they create.

Your website is the roadway for all digital information about your company’s services, products and vision. Leveraging your website to generate and convert leads is pivotal in today's digital landscape. In this article we will discuss six marketing tools that, when utilized adeptly, can guide potential customers directly to your digital doorstep.

Search engine optimization can be a relatively simple concept while simultaneously being complex and nuanced. On the surface, Google advises us to focus on having a quality website and content to match, while behind the scenes, hundreds of secret metrics are weighed and balanced to deliver your ranking. Then there are the experts who have purportedly cracked the code or figured out the “one easy fix that brings instant success.”

Have you been running those free online SEO audits, and have been disappointed with the results? Instead of fearing your website is trash, take a moment to understand the pros and cons of a free online SEO audit.

In order to effectively market any businessmit is important to have a pretty in-depth understanding of the business as it stands. However, this is often easier said than done. That being said, there is a helpful framework you can use to greatly simplify the process and ensure that you accomplish this level of understanding: the five C’s of marketing.

Businesses have been able to create specific pages to represent themselves on Facebook since November of 2007, opening the door for many great opportunities. If you haven’t established a presence for your business on the social network, or you haven’t fully utilized it to this point, you’re missing out.

Let’s run through three reasons that a Facebook presence is an excellent asset for your business to have in support of your marketing efforts.

There is no denying that SEO can seem to be a little... nebulous at times. However, there are many ways to measure if SEO is working for your business: your analytics, search position, and of course conversions. Despite these tangible measurements, many businesses don’t feel their SEO is working. Before you call it quits, here are some questions to answer before you give up on your SEO.