Q1 Marketing Strategy Review — 2026-04-05

Overview

Q1 planning session between the Asymmetric team (Mark Hope, Karly Oykhman, Melissa Cusumano) and BluePoint ATM (Wade Zirkle, Mike Stebbins). Covered SEO blog performance and process, social media account cleanup, targeted digital ad campaign planning for 12 geographies, the New York statewide cashless ban as an urgent content opportunity, the Integra list direct mail experiment, and several project management and admin items including a ZoomInfo subscription handoff.

Attendees: Mark Hope, Karly Oykhman, Melissa Cusumano (Asymmetric); Wade Zirkle, Mike Stebbins (BluePoint ATM)

Key Decisions

Blog review scope reduced: Client will now review blogs only for factual errors, not stylistic edits. If nothing is factually wrong, the blog ships. This unblocks publishing velocity.
Social media footer links will be updated to point to the new, active Meta accounts. Old inactive accounts (last post 2020) will be deleted by Wade after downloading any reusable assets.
X (Twitter) access will be provided by Wade to Karly so the agency can begin posting and update the footer link.
Q1 ad campaign will target 12 distinct geographies using LinkedIn (job title + industry + location) and Google Ads (geographic targeting). Bid strategy: ~$1/click for traditional ATM searches (education play), ~$10/click for reverse ATM searches (high-intent).
NY cashless ban (effective March 20) identified as a high-priority "screamer" topic — immediate content and geo-targeted ads for NY businesses to be launched.
Integra list: A 300–400 row excerpt will be sent to Mark for a reverse-append test to find associated emails. Direct mail is the preferred outreach method to avoid GPO agreement violations.
ZoomInfo: Client's new $5k/year subscription (1,600 contacts/month) makes the agency's service redundant. Agency will remove the charge and credentials.

Topic Notes

Blog Content & SEO Strategy

Tool: Surfer SEO generates drafts targeting an 80+ content score, calibrated to outrank the top-ranking article for each target keyword.
Process: Surfer draft → human review for accuracy and grammar (Grammarly) → post. Humanizer tools are available but reduce content score, so used sparingly.
Purpose of blogs: Drive SEO traffic, not deep readership. Most visitors land on a blog page and immediately navigate to the site — the blog is the entry point, not the destination.
Traffic funnel model: Informational traffic ("chaff") is unavoidable and necessary to capture the smaller volume of commercial and transactional traffic ("wheat"). A typical ratio: ~80% informational, ~10% commercial, ~10% transactional.
CTR performance: BluePoint is currently seeing CTRs of 15–70%, well above the B2B financial services benchmark of 3–6%. Agency target is ~10%. The constraint is impressions volume, not CTR — "reverse ATM" search volume is still low but expected to grow.
Images: Stock photo options for ATM-related content are limited across iStock, Adobe, Unsplash, and Pexels. Decision: use fewer images rather than poor-quality ones. Client (Mike/Wade) will provide a folder of approved photos. Field photos from Wade/Mike are welcome and can be cleaned up with editing tools.

Problem: Website footer links point to old, inactive Facebook and Instagram accounts (last post ~2020). New accounts were created when access to the originals couldn't be recovered.
Current posting: Agency is actively posting to the new Facebook and Instagram accounts via GoHighLevel. X is not yet connected (GoHighLevel does not support X).
Resolution:
Asymmetric updates footer links to new active accounts.
Wade deletes old Facebook and Instagram accounts (download assets first).
Wade sends X login to Karly; Karly adds X to footer and begins posting.
Hashtags: Confirmed no longer a meaningful lever — platform AI algorithms now outperform hashtag-based content discovery.

Q1 Digital Advertising Plan

Scope: 12 distinct geographies — a mix of cities and states.
LinkedIn: Strong B2B targeting — location (city/state), job title, industry. Granular but limits audience size. Best platform for reaching decision-makers by role.
Google Ads: Strong geographic targeting; B2B in-market audiences are weak (Google treats users as consumers, not professionals). Semantic search handles misspellings and variant terms automatically.
Bid strategy:
Traditional ATM keywords → low bids (~$1/click) to intercept and educate prospects who don't yet know what a reverse ATM is.
Reverse ATM / cash-to-card kiosk keywords → high bids (~$10/click) for high-intent searchers.
Search query report: Asymmetric will pull from Search Console and send to Wade/Mike so they can see what organic terms are actually driving traffic.
Targeting spreadsheet: Asymmetric will send a LinkedIn + Google Ads options spreadsheet; Wade/Mike will return it with selected filters and budget.
Conversion model: Form fills are the proxy conversion. ROI math requires knowing close rate on form fills and average customer value to determine acceptable cost-per-click.

NY Statewide Cashless Ban

Law: New York State passed a statewide cashless ban; effective March 20, 2026.
Opportunity: Google Trends shows a sudden spike ("screamer") in search volume. NY business owners are actively looking for compliance solutions right now.
Immediate actions:
Write blog content and update NY state page covering the law and what it means for businesses.
Launch geo-targeted ads (LinkedIn + Google) aimed at NY business owners and operators.
Frame content to also address states likely to follow (e.g., California), positioning BluePoint ahead of future regulatory waves.
Note: "Cashless bail" is currently dominating cashless-related search terms and Google Alerts — content and keyword strategy must account for this noise.

Integra List & Direct Mail

Context: BluePoint has access to an Integra GPO list of ~300,000 locations, filtered to ~10,000 high-value targets. GPO agreement prohibits direct cold calls or cold emails to these locations.
Reverse-append experiment: Wade will send a 300–400 row excerpt (new spreadsheet, not the full NDA-covered file) to Mark. Mark will attempt to reverse-append email addresses using a third-party database. Expected match rate: 10–15%.
Direct mail: Preferred outreach channel for this list — less likely to violate GPO terms than calls or email. A "stadiums and arenas" direct mail campaign is already in progress, on track for a Friday send, using unique QR codes per recipient for tracking. Final analytics setup is pending.

CallRail

800 number porting is in progress. Once ported, it will become a tracked CallRail number (not a pool number) and will forward to Wade, then Mike if unanswered.
Eastern and Western office numbers will remain as-is for now to preserve geographic call attribution.
Melissa to add NY and NJ CallRail numbers and route them to Wade/Mike.

Project Management & Admin

Communication: Email is primary. Wade requested a text notification for urgent items.
ZoomInfo: Client purchased their own subscription ($5k/year, 1,600 contacts/month). Agency will remove ZoomInfo from their service stack and stop billing for it.
Fathom: Mark to check the "only allow one note-taker" setting to prevent duplicate bots joining calls.

Action Items

Wade Zirkle

[ ] Send X (Twitter) login to Karly
[ ] Delete old Facebook and Instagram accounts (download assets first)
[ ] Send 300–400 row excerpt of Integra list to Mark for reverse-append test
[ ] Finalize Google Ads targeting spreadsheet with budget and return to agency
[ ] Review state-page Mural board with Mike; Melissa to send top pages to devs

Mike Stebbins

[ ] Finalize waterpark/amusement email sequence copy (emails 6–10) this week
[ ] Send consolidated website edits to Karly and Melissa by EOW
[ ] Email Mark to stop ZoomInfo charges and remove credentials

Asymmetric Team

[ ] Update website footer links to active Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts (after Wade provides X login)
[ ] Email Gavin & Raphael re: blog image quality — use fewer images if stock options are poor
[ ] Send LinkedIn + Google Ads targeting options spreadsheet to Wade/Mike
[ ] Send Search Console search query report to Wade/Mike
[ ] Begin content and ad strategy for NY cashless ban (blog, NY state page, geo-targeted ads)
[ ] Add NY and NJ CallRail numbers; route to Wade/Mike (Melissa)
[ ] Remove ZoomInfo service and charges from client billing
[ ] Check Fathom setting to allow only one note-taker per call (Mark)

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