Jim Weiskopf

As our 12th Anniversary has just passed, we reflect on the evolution and transformation of digital marketing from the time of BTG's founding in 2009 to 2021. A lot has changed! Today there is a lot more to understand and keep up with, but the good news is we have better tools and functionalities to help deliver exceptional marketing campaigns and growth strategies. Websites and SEO Your website is the foundation for your business. Years ago that might have been just a statement, but today it is a fact. Companies that want to grow must have a great website as a foundation for your company's brand image!  Website development practices evolve based on Google ranking updates and user preference. One of the significant differences between now and 12 years ago is the universal use of mobile devices to access the internet today. Google announced mobile-first indexing in 2018, which actually started in March of 2020. When we started our company in 2009, websites were built to deliver content to users [...]

Our marketing world has changed dramatically over the last decade, and over the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in available marketing tools.  We’ve also seen major changes in what is effective when communicating with various target audiences. It has become increasingly difficult for companies to manage their marketing efforts.  Outside of keeping up with all the changes, the second biggest challenge we see today is the cost to build and manage an effective marketing communication program.  Marketing is much more complicated than it used to be.  Not long ago, marketers only needed to understand branding, and how to use a limited number of advertising tools.  That is not the case today; you need many skills to represent a brand and grow the business effectively. Below is a chart that showcases job titles and costs for various positions needed to operate a marketing department today.  You might not need to hire all of these positions, but you will need someone with the expertise and the skills that are [...]

Real Estate Consulting Services and Integrated Marketing Approach Drives 350% Increase in Leads These Leads Will Generate Over $5,000,000 in Increased Revenue! While This Strategy was Created for Real Estate Lead Generation, The Following Strategy and Tactics Will Work for any Business That Needs to Drive Leads and Brand Position.  For Companies That Target Other Businesses and not Consumers, we Would use LinkedIn for our Targeted Paid and Unpaid Social Media Marketing.  If you Want to Compete Today, you Must Have an Integrated Marketing Approach! Client Challenge:  For Over 40 years, this nationally ranked real estate broker has represented sellers and buyers in the super competitive Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac and surroundingMontgomery County market.  For more than three years they have offered free educational home seller’s seminars.  The seminars have been a tremendous source of leads, but over the last year attendance has fallen off dramatically.  In addition to needing to improve seminar attendance, the broker needed to revamp their online strategy and brand position. Solution: We were hired to work with their existing internal team [...]

Here’s Why Companies Add Outsourced Marketing Consulting To Their Annual Budgets We compiled the below list and information from various sources including our observations from working with many businesses over the years. Since founding Bridge the Gap Media in 2009,  we still find that owners and company executives are very confused about marketing.  The more significant problem for most companies is that the person managing the marketing doesn’t understand what to do.  They don’t understand all facets of marketing let alone how marketing ties in with your website, revenue generation, sales, digital media, and business development. The marketing communication world continues to change at a rapid pace.  Because there are so many ways to market your business today, rarely can a company manage all their marketing efforts without outside help.  If you want to grow, you must have a multi-talented marketing leader on your team or hire an outside firm to lead your marketing growth strategy. Having a comprehensive online marketing presence is no longer an option, it's a must-have! 10 Reasons You [...]

Below Is A 5 Step Content Marketing Process We Use With Many Of Our Clients. We Use Traditional Media & Online Marketing To Drive Brand Engagement & Revenue! Click On The Links Or Images Below To See How We Recently Executed The 5 Content Marketing Steps For A Client. Do these 5 things consistently & you will build your brand, share & revenue! The 5 Content Marketing Keys: 1. A Website that is engaging with educational content marketing and a responsive design. 2. Content that people want to read, download and share. 3. An Email Marketing plan that shares your brand and thought leadership with your audience. 4. Social Media followers that care about your product. 5. A revenue generating plan to follow up on data and analytics on who has opened, clicked and shared your content. These are your key customers. Key #1 - A Website That Looks Great On Mobile Devices It All Starts With An Interactive Content Driven Website That Looks Great On Mobile Devices! For Hospitality Construction [...]

We've seen many things change over the last decade in the world of sales and marketing. Clients are genuinely confused on how to manage their company efforts in this changing digital world! Most of the time, we see companies with outdated websites, no or limited social media presence, no email marketing plan and no plan to communicate with relevant content to help consumers through the buying process. For others, we find their marketing and sales efforts are put together in a scattered and ineffective manner. Typically, the online marketing process is organized and managed by inexperienced employees, interns, vendors with limited sales and marketing experience or in some cases there is nobody managing the online presence. These are the main reasons online efforts fail. Where do you stand? Your online brand is too important to let any of this happen. Your REVENUE growth is dependent on how you BUILD your online brand and how you manage CHANGE within your organization. If you need help, we would love to share some success [...]

Recently, Bridge the Gap Media was hired by the National Institute of Standards and Technology MML division. The NIST, Material Measurement Laboratory was looking for a vendor to develop a website and to build a custom PDF that would deliver the division’s 5 year strategic plan. Some of the goals and other specifics about this project were: Create a website and PDF that would properly represent MML’s brand, vision and mission. Help lead organizational change and create excitement by creatively delivering the NIST MML brand message. Partner with a vendor that had been in web development and the communications business for a minimum of 5 years. Build the website on a mobile friendly platform, so it would look great on all devices, including mobile phones, tablets and desktops. Incorporate contemporary standards of design and usability in both the website and the PDF Develop the website on an intuitive content management system for MML’s staff to easily update. We suggested multiple options and eventually built the site on Drupal, which they were [...]

Below is a link to a website page and a link to a video we created for one of our clients. This showcases how we create video, content marketing and social media that work together to drive website traffic, brand awareness and ultimately sales. Video, Content Marketing and Social Mediasales. We created the video, promoted the case study, built the website landing page and created a social media strategy for Bond Water Technologies to promote their products and services. While this business is most likely different from yours, the concept and strategy is still a very relevant example of how to create content to use for both sales and marketing. Using Video, Content Marketing and Social Media together to drive brand awareness and sales. Here are the highlights of how this is being used: 1. The following link will take you to the landing page we created to house the information on the website http://bondwater.com/daf-issues-chemicals-that-reduce-bod-tss-fog/ 2. The video and landing page are optimized for search engines. Try typing in [...]

Success with sales and marketing today is about creating online content that helps solve your prospects' problems. In this example, we convert PowerPoint presentations to video for lead generation and education. Below is a great example of how we converted PowerPoint presentations to video with a free tool called RZ Video Converter. Our client, Bond Water Technologies, spoke at an industrial conference on how their customers could improve efficiencies and save money by using one of their products. Once we figured out how to convert PowerPoint presentations to video, it was then our job to figure how to best use the new tool. The new video, complete with complex animations and music, was used across multiple online and traditional marketing channels to promote the product. Why Did We Convert PowerPoint Presentations To Video? Ultimately, For Lead Generation! The video is being used the following ways... As part of a targeted email marketing campaign to thousands of customers and prospects. We added the video to our Youtube channel and optimized it so [...]

Content is King This is a re-post from Entrepreneur Magazine. To read the original article you can click here. When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today's business-to-business entrepreneur. Late this summer, HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the state of the business-to-business, or B2B, market, and discovered that marketers are retreating from traditional marketing tactics such as search marketing and have made content marketing the most-used tactic in their brand-enhancing tool box. Fact is, according to HiveFire's B2B Marketing Trends Survey Report, twice as many B2B marketers now employ content marketing as they do print, TV and radio advertising, according to the survey. So what exactly is content marketing? It's the creation and publication of original content -- including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos -- for the purpose of generating leads, [...]