Well the first quarter of 2015 is over. Tax liabilities are rolling in and Q1 reports are being analyzed. Are you on track to meet your 2015 goals? Revenue and profit aren't the only factors to consider here. So are leads and conversion rates.

Look at Conversion Rates

The average Hubspot conversion rate from visit to lead is 5% and from lead to customer is 2%. So if your goal is to get one customer per month, your website would typically need 1,000 visits in order to reach that goal.

Other numbers to consider are average revenue per client, in relation to your company's revenue goals. If one of your goals is to get $500,000 more in revenue this year and your average monthly revenue per customer is $10,000, then you would need about five to ten new clients, assuming they don't all sign up January 1.

How many leads would it take to get there? About 500 with a conversion rate for lead to customer of 2%. Obviously referrals have a higher close rate, which is why they're so sought-after, but if you're just counting on referrals alone are you really going to grow as fast as you'd like? 

When I originally planned this post, I had more of a marketing angle in mind. We usually blog about content marketing and are always trying to provide useful and relevant information to business owners. Keeping this in mind, I also know that it’s crucial to write about not only what you're knowledgeable about, but also what you're interested in. While I'm definitely a marketer first and foremost, I'm also a business owner. That’s why I decided to focus this post on my business goals for 2015 as a co-founder of DMD.

Even if you don’t own a business these should still be highly relevant to someone in the workforce, and—while I may not be an official expert—I’ve learned a lot since starting DMD. Above all else, I have learned that no one has all the answers in running a business because industries and best practices are forever changing.

By Jackie Clews and Lacey Williams | DMD

We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our boutique agency. Read the short Q&A below with our new digital marketing manager, Lacey Williams, to learn more about her and the multifacted skills she brings to our growing team.

1. Where are you from?

Longview, Texas. It’s a relatively small town close to Tyler.

2. What drew you to Dallas (besides our great shopping, food, entertainment...)?
 
Dallas has been my home away from home since I was a toddler. My favorite aunt and uncle live here, so I grew up staying at their house and doing my annual school shopping at Northpark Center. It has a great atmosphere that’s uniquely ‘Dallas.’ Austin and Houston just can’t compare!

By Micah Iriye | Webity

In our last blog, we took you through 9 essential rules to help you create emails that keep their good looks across mobile devices — the very devices that are used today by 4 out of 5 customers for shopping, and which Americans switch back and forth between on any given day.

But once your email campaign is ready to go, what's next?

In the first two posts in this three-part series about inbound marketing, we explained how buyer personas and campaigns work. Once you've conquered those methodologies and practices, it's time to take your inbound marketing to the next level with automated workflows.

By Kristi Tan, DMD Campaign Manager, and @JackieClews, DMD Co-Founder

In our last blog post, we discussed how to get started with inbound marketing by creating buyer personas, such as Renter Sally.

After you've fleshed out and prioritized your target personas, the next step is implementing campaigns with valuable, relevant offers to convert them into leads.

By @JackieClews

The world of digital marketing is often a vague, mysterious world.

That's why at DMD we are very dedicated to blogging about digital marketing to increase your knowledge of what it is we do, and what we don't do, such as public relations (PR).

This week I was at a networking event, where I was excited to meet a local PR professional. While I was discussing this person with another marketer, he asked me to articulate what the difference is between the two.

By Grace M. Frank and @JackieClews

Why use social advertising?

One good reason is because you want to accelerate your efforts, whether those goals are to grow your followers (aka prospects) or engagement (aka brand awareness). 

This week a colleague sent me a Business Insider article with a series of screen shots from the "coolest websites in 1996."

They're horrifying.

They look more like something you might see on Tetris or Super Nintendo (remember those?) than websites for big, serious names like Fidelity, American Express, or Bank of America.

Are you wondering why someone might take the time to write a blog or pay to have one professionally written and managed by someone else for their business's website?

Because it works.

Blogs have evolved a lot in the past 10 or so years when they were first people rambling their thoughts in their basement for the world to read. Now, they're a serious source of business.