Improve Employee Recruitment with Strategy and Creativity

Our team at Green Apple is acutely aware of today’s tight labor market. We listen to reports that tell us job openings are continuing to decline. Since opening our doors in 2012, we have learned to adapt to the many changes and challenges outside our scope of influence, including shifts in the labor market. Our team quickly pivots when necessary and has applied strategic and creative thinking to the recruitment and hiring process with outstanding results. Here are a few of our top tips for finding, recruiting, and retaining employees: 

Where to Recruit 

With much of our lives intersecting with the digital world, recruiting also needs to shift online. But rather than relying on mass online job boards, our team strives to be more intentional with where we conduct our employee searches. 

Green Apple’s current openings are shared on LinkedIn, where we can vet applicants based on their profiles and see if we share any connections. We also network with an online marketing group and post to the online job boards at our respective alma maters. Because we are products of those schools and programs, we already have a good idea of the knowledge and skill set their graduates will bring to our team. 

There is immense value in the quantity and quality of applicants we can reach online, but we still enjoy recruiting in person. We regularly attend local college career fairs to get to know potential graduates. While this helps us find talented employees, it also promotes brand awareness and fills our pipeline with potential applicants.  

Consider Unconventional Arrangements

During the coronavirus pandemic, the world discovered a new way of working. Remote work was an excellent fit for our team and allowed us to bring the best talent on board, no matter where they lived. 

More and more companies are forgoing remote work in favor of a complete return to the office. While this may be necessary for some lines of work, we found it was not for ours. Strategy and creativity can be performed anywhere and are not bound by office walls. With this in mind, Green Apple maintains a hybrid work environment. We are 100 percent remote, with available space to gather in person for meetings, brainstorming, team building, open-space working, and team collaboration. 

Ensuring a Good Fit 

So you’ve found a potential employee you think will be perfect for your job and company culture. Recruitment can be costly, so it’s important both parties are happy from the beginning. How can you ensure it’s a good match? The Culture Index can help. 

The Culture Index is an assessment that evaluates how people communicate, solve problems, and use or alter their innate traits to adjust to their work roles. It is one of the first steps in our application process to help determine if someone matches the position they applied for. The candidate will move on to the interview phase if their Culture Index indicates a match. This process helps Green Apple add the right people to our team who can best serve our clients and help reach our strategic goals. 

Join Our Marketing Team

Over the years, we’ve built a creative recruitment approach that has shaped and supported our team. If you’re looking for insights on creating a marketing team or are interested in joining our team at Green Apple, we’d love to connect. You can check out our current openings or learn about the services we can provide for your business.

A Guide to Alt Text for SEO

According to HubSpot, nearly 38 percent of results that appear on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP) are images. Essentially, when users search the web page for answers, they are met with many images in addition to the standard text results we’ve come to expect. Initially, images were identified by the file name and tags associated with them. With the rise of AI, images can now be identified and categorized using deep learning networks. As part of a healthy blogging strategy, tagging images is essential in order to make them searchable.   

This is where alt text, short for alternative text, comes into play. In this blog post, we’ll explore the purpose of alt text and how your brand can use it to optimize your ranking in a search engine algorithm.
 

What is Alt Text? 

Alt text, also called alt description, alt tag, or alt attribute, is a brief sentence containing detailed information describing a webpage’s pictures. The concept was originally created to improve web accessibility for people who use a screen reader online. For example, those with visual impairments cannot see the images on a webpage, but the screen reader can relay the image description, resulting in a better user experience. Alt text is also helpful in filling in the blanks when images do not display because a webpage does not load properly.
 

How Does it Improve SEO?  

Alt text has quickly become a best practice when it comes to SEO. In addition to improving the user experience, alt text improves search engine optimization. When a user searches a topic on Google, web crawlers scan the internet for the most relevant information to display in search results. Web crawlers also scan text descriptions of photos—and skip over those without alt text. 

Including relevant descriptions of your photographs, images, buttons, and other visual elements means search engines will index this content when populating results pages.
 

Writing Alt Text for SEO

To write effective alt text for SEO, keep the original intent in mind: user accessibility. Although it can be tempting to use this real estate primarily for keywords, you want to be sure that your image description will make sense to someone who may not see your photo. 

For this reason, write alt text in sentence form to keep it sounding natural. The text should also be as descriptive as possible, linking the image to the context of the article. For example, for a photo of a charcuterie board, you could describe it as “a tray with meat and cheese,” but a better description might be “a round wooden board filled with assorted meats, cheese, vegetables, and fruit.” The goal is to communicate the entire visual content of a photo, picture, or illustration.

Additional best practices for writing alt text include keeping phrases to 125 characters or less. Any longer, and you risk screen readers cutting off the description mid-sentence, resulting in a frustrating user experience.
       

Benefits of Using Alt Text for SEO

Using alt text as part of a greater digital marketing strategy for SEO and accessibility can also increase website traffic. As stated in the opening of this post, nearly 38 percent of Google’s search engine results are images—images that appear on the main results page! 

Because your images now have text descriptions, web crawlers can read them and include them in SERPs. As such, your content may appear in both image and text results, creating multiple avenues for visitors to find your page. 

Improving SEO means making all your content work for you, including content you have already created. If you have images on your site that do not have alt text, set aside some time to add them. Doing so could be an effective and efficient way to maximize your website’s current content and move the needle on your SEO.
 

Let’s Optimize Your SEO

Green Apple Strategy offers a unique approach to helping small businesses optimize their SEO efforts. Our team would love to collaborate with you on finding goal-driven solutions that reach your audience. Contact us today to learn more.

Meet the Team: Jordan Forbes

Jordan Forbes is the Assistant Client Relations Specialist at Green Apple Strategy, a marketing agency in Nashville. She is a liaison to clients and provides project management and administrative support.

Continue reading

Event Planning 101: Best Practices for Marketing Agencies

Planning a special event can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Green Apple Strategy has more than a decade of experience solving problems through a variety of strategies and tactics—including event planning. From conceptualization to day-of logistics for in-person or virtual events, our team has learned many valuable lessons along the way. Here are our pro tips to make the most out of your next event!  

First Things First

When planning an event, it’s tempting to jump straight to fun stuff like decorations, color schemes, and signature cocktails. But in the words of Stephen Covey, let’s put first things first. 

Before contacting venues and vendors, the date, time, approximate guest count, and budget need to be locked down. Now is a good time to start a spreadsheet to track invoices and payments from the very beginning. Next, create a timeline to help everyone involved stay on track throughout the planning process. Finally, think through items that will need to be designed. This may include save-the-dates, invitations, event logos, menus, branded items and décor, programs, handouts, signage, name tags, and other print or digital materials.

Pro Tip: Always get approval from your client before you design or book anything.

Planning Your Event

Once the date, time, budget, and guest count are determined, it’s time to move on to the details. Begin by asking your client to create the guest list and, if needed, offer your suggestions of people who should be included. If the event should be pitched to the media, you can include them on the invitation list as well.

Select a venue and determine food and beverage options. It can be helpful to ask the venue if they have any preferred vendors, as well as what chairs, tables, and linens they already have available. You also want to consider your venue when choosing entertainment, or vice versa. Consider music, photo booths, videos, and speeches. Each has different AV requirements to consider for making your event a success.

Now that your key decisions are made you can begin communicating with invitees via a  platform that makes sense for your event. You may need one with just RSVP capabilities, or you may need to sell merch and tickets, too. Plan on sending invitations at least 30 days before the event. Follow up with a reminder email two to three days before the RSVP deadline, a second reminder email two weeks out from the event, and a final reminder email the day before or the day of the event.

Finally, it’s time to add extra details that help make your event one of a kind. Consider creative décor and meaningful gifts for guests. Photography and videography can also surprise and delight if used correctly, such as part of live social media feeds, as complimentary takeaways, or in post-event videos.

Pro Tip: Check on requirements for event insurance, security, and any necessary permits or licenses. 

Begin Marketing Launch 

Now is the time to begin planning your PR strategy, so you’ll need to determine what press releases will go out, when they’ll go out, and what venues they’ll be featured in. Social media strategy is also a key part of event promotion. Create a content calendar to begin attracting attention well before the event is scheduled. And don’t forget about short videos! These can be used on several platforms to increase anticipation and serve as a sneak peek of the event. Finally, an email marketing strategy should be planned, designed, and deployed to pique the interest of your client’s email list. Don’t be afraid to provide multiple reminder emails with key pieces of information that attendees will need.    

Day-Of Logistics

Before the big day arrives, think through key logistics. Planning a couple of walk-throughs well in advance will help you mentally plan out the space before crunch time, including check–in and parking. You’ll need to plan where guests will enter and what they will do immediately upon arrival. Will they need wristbands, tickets, or an ID? Do you need a scanner, a cash box, or additional supplies for a smooth process?

Regarding parking, consider whether self-parking or valet will work best for your event—and let guests know ahead of time. You can even station event staff in the parking lot to assist if needed.

Pro Tip: Always give yourself extra time the day-of to set up and ensure everything is in order.

Post-Event Follow-Up

As part of your post-event follow-up, take to social media to recap the event. Plan out and schedule content, photos, and captions to build engagement with attendees and spread awareness for next time. It’s also a great practice to send thank you notes to everyone you worked closely with, including colleagues, clients, and vendors.

Pro Tip: Schedule a debrief session as soon as possible to make notes on what worked well and what can be improved upon while everything is still top-of-mind.

Canceling or Postponing Your Event

Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. Even the best-laid plans can be subject to bad weather, health concerns, or scheduling conflicts. If the decision is made to cancel or postpone the event, there are steps you can take to mitigate confusion and keep your audience informed.

Let Green Apple Plan Your Next Event

Special events are a powerful tool that can be used to enhance your marketing goals. If you’re ready to build connections while increasing brand awareness, reach out to us for a consultation. 

5 Ways to Maximize Your Q1 Marketing Analytics

The first quarter of the new year has passed. You’re gathering data from your marketing campaigns so you can use it to inform your next move. With so much data readily at your fingertips—from sales to social media interactions—it can be difficult to determine which data to focus on and how to use it to improve your marketing ROI.

 

Marketing analytics can help you assess the performance of your marketing campaigns, identify areas of improvement, and drive conversions. Now is the perfect time to assess your Q1 data and reports to reset or adjust your marketing goals for a successful 2023.

 

Different Types of Data

There are different types of marketing analytics insights that can be used depending on what type of information you want to gather. You could review data related to digital marketing efforts, content marketing, social media ads and interactions, customer preferences and feedback, and even competitor data. Each data source offers its own unique insight into the successes and challenges of your marketing campaigns. While data is immensely helpful to glean what worked and what didn’t, it can also help you identify ways to improve moving forward.

 

1. Know Your Sales Numbers

The first step in gathering any marketing analytics insights is to review conversions. Depending on your business, this could be leads generated or actual sales made. If these numbers are on track to meet your goals, it’s a sure sign that your marketing strategies are working. But if these numbers fall short, you can take a deep dive into your campaigns to find out what isn’t working and take the necessary steps to make a change.

 

2. Alleviate Customer Pain Points

Data from customer interactions such as sales calls, support chats, social media interactions, and onboarding calls can offer insight into your customers’ opinions about your product or service. Gathering this information can help you find out what your customers need to know in order to fully appreciate what you have to offer. For example, if they are upset over or do not fully understand a product’s complex features, you could create an informational campaign highlighting the area in question—and alleviating an otherwise frustrating experience in the process.

 

3. Beat the Competition

Digital marketing efforts make it easy to see what competitors are doing and the impact it has on customers. Take a look at your competition’s product reviews and social media pages. Make note of common themes among commenters. What do they like? What are their complaints? What type of content is getting the most interaction? Use your findings to fine-tune your own plans and stay ahead of the curve.

 

4. Determine Customer Preferences 

Knowing your customers’ pain points and assessing the competition also helps you understand what potential customers prefer. This can make it possible for you to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Say your product has a feature that a competitor’s product does not. You know this is a feature that can meet an unmet need for your target audience. You can use this information to craft digital marketing efforts that position your product as a much-needed solution.

 

5. Optimize Your Website

When it comes to websites, customers like an easy, user-friendly search, shopping, and checkout process. But is your website set up to optimize customer experience, or are potential buyers getting lost along the way? Knowing how your customers navigate your website can provide insight into why they may not be taking the actions you want them to take. By determining which pages users are viewing and what links they’re clicking, you can design, update, and optimize your site to keep your prospects on the right track.

 

If you’d like help maximizing your marketing efforts, contact our team today. We’d love to help develop a customized, strategic approach for your business that gets you the results you want.

What Marketers and Small Businesses Should Know About ChatGPT

Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has produced a lot of chatter among marketers and small business owners. Social media conversations, web articles, and meetings are filled with curiosity, excitement and apprehension around this new, state-of-the-art technology.

At Green Apple, we’re here to solve your problems through marketing strategies and tactics, and we want you to feel empowered when it comes to new trends that could impact your business. We want to equip you with knowledge around this new language processing tool, and its impact for business so that you can access and use this innovative technology. 

What is ChatGPT? 

ChatGPT is the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that was released by OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company based in San Francisco, CA. Since its launch in November 2022, the chatbot has taken the technology world by storm. 

ChatGPT is powered by cutting-edge language processing AI models—called generative pretrained transformers—that are capable of producing human-like, conversational interactions. Because the bot was trained on a diverse array of websites, books and more, it can provide text responses to a wide range of questions and prompts. 

While other tech companies like Google and Meta have successfully produced their own large language models, ChatGPT is the first of its kind that allows the general public to experiment with it directly. ChatGPT can write resumes, poetry, stories, and essays. It can also solve math problems and even code an entire website based on a simple, hand-drawn sketch. 

ChatGPT’s Impact on Business

As with any new technology, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding how ChatGPT could impact the business world. And it can be challenging to explain this complex tool  to your colleagues in a meaningful way. Will the bot replace jobs? Should content creators be concerned? Or is it simply a new tool that can be used to streamline and simplify tasks? 

According to Martech Series, “ChatGPT has demonstrated the ability to build complex Python code and compose college-level essays in response to a prompt, raising concerns that such technology may probably replace human workers like journalists or programmers.”

But even with all of its encyclopedic knowledge, ChatGPT is limited to the information used to train its neural network. It has also produced incorrect or nonsensical—albeit convincing—answers to user prompts. This has spelled bad news for businesses who have tried to use the bot to interact with customers in real time. Additionally, the bot lacks the ability to empathize, think critically, give personalized advice or speak to future events—all key traits necessary for successful marketing professionals. 

Best Practices for Using ChatGPT 

Given the strides made by AI companies in recent years, ChatGPT is likely here to stay. As marketers and small business owners, there are multiple ways to embrace this tool and use it to your advantage. 

ChatGPT makes an efficient search engine. Content creators can ask for information on a certain event or subject matter and receive paragraphs of data within seconds. This can replace hours otherwise spent scouring various websites to find the information you need. The cost of time saved on research and outlining can be passed on to clients.

Similar to its use as a search engine, ChatGPT can explain complicated topics in a brief, easy-to-understand format. If you’re looking for in-depth information on specific events or subjects, the bot can help as long as the information you need was collected before 2020. 

ChatGPT can be a helpful starting point for writing assignments. Give it a try the next time you experience writer’s block. While ethical issues and the possibility of plagiarism prevent you from using the content “as is,” it can certainly help get your creative wheels turning. 

Users have also had success getting ChatGPT to produce websites, write code, and gather statistics for presentations. Working late? ChatGPT can save you a trip to the grocery store by suggesting step-by-step recipes if given a picture of what’s in your fridge, among other creative uses. 

How to Access ChatGPT 

OpenAI allows users to try ChatGPT for free via the company’s website. Each user helps provide valuable feedback that will enhance the bot’s performance. 

New users receive $5 worth of free tokens to use during a three month trial. All prompts and responses require the use of tokens. Different versions of the language model require a different number of tokens. Fees are also involved when using OpenAI for business purposes. Fortunately, fees are only charged by usage, and you will only pay for the version of the language model you choose and for the number of tokens, or short paragraphs, resulting from the interaction. 

Green Apple Can Help You Embrace New Trends

Sometimes new technology can push us out of our comfort zone. If you’re looking for an innovative way to take your marketing to the next level or simply need help managing everything that is required for reaching your goals, our team can help. Contact us to learn more about our unique approach and schedule a discovery call with our team.

ATECH: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities: Marketing a New Business Model

Transforming Pandemic Obstacles Into Opportunities

Since 1990, ATECH has served as an equipment repair company for thousands of restaurants and commercial kitchens across Tennessee. When COVID-19 brought the restaurant industry to a halt, ATECH needed a new way to generate revenue and retain employees. Green Apple stepped in as an agile marketing partner to help the company codify and promote a new planned maintenance service offering.

– Problem –

Navigating a Trickle Effect of Challenges

ATECH has decades of experience as a successful commercial kitchen equipment repair. Like others in the restaurant industry, their business came to an abrupt halt in March 2020. The restaurants they served shut down for weeks during the early days of the pandemic. Even when restaurants reopened, the need for equipment repair was still on the decline. ATECH’s leadership team realized they needed to find a solution.

– Solution –

Overcoming Obstacles with Agility and Creativity

The team at ATECH quickly identified a new business opportunity — offering planned maintenance services for restaurants and commercial kitchens — and turned to the Green Apple team for help. Our team designed and implemented a comprehensive marketing strategy that promoted the new service to current clients and potential customers.

This included a website redesign, marketing collateral, local SEO, and lead generation campaigns to drive business for planned maintenance. The effort led to tremendous growth and new business opportunities, which created a new challenge: staffing all their planned maintenance requests. Green Apple then pivoted to support ATECH’s new HR needs. Our team worked alongside ATECH to implement an additional marketing strategy for recruiting employees. Our strategy included event planning, tradeshow campaigns, technician spotlights, and social media management.

– Results –

A Bright, Sustainable Future

By serving as an agile marketing partner, Green Apple has been able to support ATECH’s most pressing business needs. As a result, the team at ATECH has experienced: 36% increase in revenue YoY 73% increase in their planned maintenance business 27 new hire applications Today, ATECH’s business is stronger than ever with a more sustainable business model and growing team. Together, ATECH and Green Apple have learned that marketing can play a helpful and important role in supporting any area of a business — from operations to HR. Whatever unexpected challenges might come next, the two teams are confident in their ability to work together and find new opportunities for growth.

– Creative –

What We Did

Marketing and Sales Strategy, Graphic Design, Event Planning, PR, Blogging, Email Marketing, Social Media, Video Scripting and Production, Employee and Customer Spotlights, and Recruitment and Operations Strategy.

Case Studies

A small selection of Green Apple’s solutions and marketing services.

Silicon Ranch: Energizing a Solar Brand with Strategy & Events.

Making a Brand Shine Through Digital Strategy and Event Planning

Silicon Ranch Corporation is one of the fastest-growing developers, owners, and operators of solar energy plants in the United States. The company partnered with Green Apple Strategy to execute a brand refresh, design a new website, and plan a trade show event that would help the company stand out in an increasingly competitive solar energy market.

– Problem –

Standing Out in a Competitive Industry

Silicon Ranch Corporation has provided light and energy to thousands of people through its solar farm systems. As its leadership planned to expand its reach, they recognized the need for an enhanced digital presence.

Silicon Ranch reached out to Green Apple to help refresh its brand and design a new website. That initial project, paired with an updated approach to an annual trade show event, could help confirm Silicon Ranch’s presence and position as an industry leader and convert more leads.

– Solution –

Driving Results with Strategy, Creativity, and Execution

Before creating the new website, Green Apple conducted a digital audit and a UX audit. The data collected helped inform the design and the SEO strategy used to improve search engine rankings. The audits also identified several practical and actionable ways for Silicon Ranch to drive more leads. 

Green Apple also supported Silicon Ranch’s business efforts with event planning services. In 2018, Green Apple helped plan and execute a special evening at the historic Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, featuring award-winning singer-songwriters and hundreds of industry professionals. We took the event to Orlando, New Orleans, and back to Nashville in the years to follow. It became a major annual event in the industry, solidifying Silicon Ranch’s reputation with the members of NRECA and others in the field.

– Results –

Establishing a Foundation for a Bright Future

By partnering with Silicon Ranch for its brand refresh, website development, and trade show event planning, Green Apple was able to set the company up for a bright and successful future.

63% increase in yearly website visits

44% increase in unique page views

Connected with 300+ business leaders through annual event

– Creative –

What We Did

Marketing Strategy, Graphic Design, Website Design and Development, Event Planning, Blogging, Project Spotlights, Social Media, Email Marketing, and PR.

Case Studies

A small selection of Green Apple’s solutions and marketing services.