Best Ways To Transform Your Google Business Profile

Are you a small or mid-size business looking to grow your online presence? As you seek methods to enhance your SEO game, look to those that help your brand stand out. By making factors like these a priority, you’ll be able to attract the right people to your website.

The best way to grow your online presence is to select SEO methods that best address your audiences’ needs. When you go with strategies that put people first, you’ll be on a path toward long-term business growth.

You’re probably wondering how adjusting your Google Business Profile (GBP) helps improve your SEO game. Today, we’ll discuss the top ways to help make that happen and how you stand to benefit.

Check That Your Contact Data Is Consistent With Your NAP

One great way to optimize your GBP is to ensure your NAP is correct. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number of your business. Taking this step may be simple, but your business does change over time. Not only that, but you may also have had different addresses in the past.

As you update your information, check to ensure your contact data on other directory sites is consistent with your NAP. By keeping your data consistent and up to date, you can build trust with your audience. Not only that, but you can also grow your rankings in the maps section of the search results.

Select The Right GBP Categories That Best Describe Your Business

Choosing the right GBP category is an important SEO factor as it can impact your local search rankings. For these reasons, make sure to select your categories carefully.

For example, if you have a store that sells coffee, you might consider choosing “coffee shop” as your category. These steps can help those looking for coffee online find your business in the local search results.

If your business does more than one thing, make sure to include subcategories too. For instance, your coffee shop may also sell cupcakes and donuts. In this case, “donut shop” and “cupcake shop” would be your subcategories.

Selecting the proper categories and subcategories helps you attract the right people to your business online. It also plays a crucial role in helping you outrank your competition in the long run.

Fill Out Your GBP Products Section

One of the most visible elements of a GBP profile is the products section. If you have a non-product business, filling out this section can bring you benefits. GBP also allows you to display photos of your service offerings. With your GBP products section, your business can gain visibility from your audience.

Google arranges your products/services photos in a carousel-style design. These features help go a long way in helping you drive more views, calls, and sales. You can categorize and add descriptions, images, and calls to action to these product profiles.

One thing to note is that the final product you enter will be the first to feature on your profile. Before adding products or services, make sure to organize them per your needs. You can also add GIFs as your product image by saving them as a JPEG. With these GBP tools, you can leverage your product section to help attract consumers.

Use Photos To Help Your Cause

Google also provides you with many options for photos you can include for your GBP. Here is a list of photo types you can add as you put together or update your profile:

360-degree view
Indoor pics
Outdoor pics

Businesses with photos receive 42% more driving direction requests to their location than those without them. They also receive 35% more clicks to their websites. These findings are according to research Google has done over the years.

The best photo practice is to include at least three pics from each of these business aspects:

Employees
Products
Services you perform

By following these measures, you can increase your web presence and get online searchers to explore your business further.

Write A Compelling Business Description

You can also optimize your Google Business Profile by writing a rational business description. On your profile, Google gives you a max of 750 characters to describe your business. One thing you want to avoid including there is sales jargon. It can potentially alienate your audience and go against Google’s rules.

Here are some things you can include in your GBP business description:

Company mission and vision
History
Products and services
What makes your business unique?

With a top-tier business description, you can give your audience the best details about your business. They also would be more likely to look into your business further.

Keep Your GBP Q&A Section Up To Date

You can also improve your SEO game by optimizing your GBP Q&A section. Google gives you the option to create a question and answer vault within your profile. They do this to ensure the answers consumers receive are the ones you want them to.

As with many portions of your GMB, consumers can contribute and control how others view your business online. To provide people with the right questions and answers, use the consumer data that comes up in your Insights section.

By adding the best questions and responding to them, you’ll have more control over the narrative. You’ll also ensure that people will perceive your business better.

Post Regularly From Your GBP

Keeping in touch with your audience is a prime SEO factor. Posts that originate from your GBP are pretty much mini-blogs. They provide your audience with important information along with updates from your business.

Below are two key benefits of how posting from your GBP can improve your SEO efforts:

Posting Boosts Your Keywords And Phrases

As you post from your profile regularly, you can boost your primary and halo keywords you want to rank for to Google’s algorithms. Over time, they build up your association with your goods and services. With these measures, you can reach the right people and influence consideration for your business.

Posting Drives Up Engagement

Google also evaluates engagement when it comes to SEO factors. They measure how much you engage with your profile.

As you provide your audience with regular updates via posts, you can drive up your engagement levels. The more you engage with your GBP, the more likely Google will reward you.

With top-quality posts, you’ll achieve better search rankings and more customers.

Check On Your Online Reviews

Review signals are another prime factor when it comes to SEO. They also influence whether people will do business with you or your competitors.

Research shows that 89% of people check online reviews before setting foot in a specific business. 84% of those consumers also trust online reviews as much as their peers. Also, 31% of them will do business with those that have great reviews.

If your business receives a bad review, that doesn’t mean doom for your business. When this happens, look to address the consumers’ concerns and work towards solutions that best address their pain points. With these approaches, consumers are more likely to view your business positively. They may even turn around to upgrade their rating to a positive review.

When it comes to reviews, make sure to also be proactive in requesting reviews. As they leave a positive review, make sure to thank them. With a people-first approach like this, you’ll be on track to gain the trust of your potential customers.

Choose People-First Approaches when Updating Your Google Business Profile

As you update your GBP, look to SEO methods that engage your audience and tell the best story about your brand. With these people-first methods, you’ll drive engagement and be on track toward building long-term consumer relations. By focusing on the needs of people, you’ll be on a path toward strategic growth for your brand.

What else do you feel is the best way to optimize your Google Business Profile? Which other SEO methods can also help you build trust with your consumers and drive business growth? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share your thoughts below.

What You Need To Know About The June 2021 Google Core Update

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Once again, change has come to the Digital Marketing world. What this means is that Google has launched another algorithm update. During this week, Google launched what is called the June 2021 Google Core Update. This comes as SEOs have been awaiting an update since the one that occurred last December.

There already have been reports that some sites are going through website traffic gains and losses. Some sites gained up to 125% in traffic, while others lost up to 70%. At the same time, they cautiously await what will occur in the July Update.

You’re likely wondering what this is all about and what this means for SMBs, mid sized brands, and enterprise firms. Today, we’ll discuss exactly that and what your brand can do to get ahead of these core updates.

What Does A Google Core Update Do?

Each day, Google makes a few changes to help improve the search experience for their users. Some are noticeable while some are not, but it helps them improve over time. With that said, there are several instances during the year where Google makes broad, significant changes to its search algorithm. These types of big changes are what are known as Core Updates.

Core Updates are made to ensure that Google is doing its part to present relevant and authoritative content to searchers. Google works to confirm these updates since they produce notable effects like drops or gains in some sites.

They do this to ensure that sites going through drops don’t try to fix the wrong things. These changes are all about how Google is working to improve how they assess content overall. Big changes like these can cause pages that were not rewarded properly in the past to perform better.

What This Means For Brands Like Yours

You’re likely wondering what this means for brands small to big. It all comes down to providing top-tier content for your audience that provides unique value. That’s how you help brands as yours get ahead of these Core Updates. Here are some questions for you to answer on how you can improve your content.

Does your headline provide a helpful and accurate summary of your content?
Do your subtitles describe each section of your content well?
Does your content provide unique or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
Is your content written by someone who knows the topic at hand well?
Is your content free from spelling and/or grammatical errors?
Does your content pass the Readability Test (a score of 60 or better)?
Does your website provide a seamless user experience across all devices?
Is your content within the appropriate keyword usage percentage (0.5%-3%)?
Does your content provide original value that helps contrast your site from similar sites?
Is your content made to focus on the needs of others or to please search engines?
Is this the kind of page that you would share with a friend?

You also should consider doing an audit of the pages that were most affected by the core updates. You’ll want to pay close attention to how they fare against these questions. This helps you figure out which areas you’ll need to address to maintain and grow your online presence.

What Can Your Brand Do To Ensure That Your Content Is Top-Tier?

It all comes down to delivering content that addresses your audiences’ pain points and points them in the right direction. To make that happen, you’ll need to use what is called the “EAT” Method. This stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

You’re probably now thinking about what these three parts of this method are all about. Read on, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Expertise

This refers to the high skill level or knowledge the content reader has in a certain field. For YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) topics, such as medical advice, formal expertise is a must. As for Non-YMYL topics, it comes down to showing everyday expertise. For example, someone on a support page sharing their experience on how he/she beat cancer counts as that. Expertise is a big part of creating top-tier content.

Authoritativeness

As for this part of the “EAT” method, this refers to the reputation of the content creator. When others see a person or a website as their go-to source for information, that is authority. A prime example of this is people searching for symptoms and treatments on WebMD. Raters check for authority through independent sources like these.

Reviews
Expert advice
References

This is surely something to keep in mind as you create website content.

Trustworthiness

This crucial piece of the “EAT” method talks about the legitimacy and transparency of the content creator. Rates look at many key things as they evaluate trustworthiness.

Content information
Content accuracy
Proper citation of trustworthy sources

These three pieces are crucial as you create content for your website. After all, trust is a major factor in helping you attract the right people to your website.

The “EAT” method goes a long way in helping you ensure that your content is of top quality. To add to that, it helps avoid surprises or negative results from core updates like this one.

Always Put People Over Search Engines To Help Grow Your Online Presence

As you seek ways to overcome any core updates from search engines, always keep your audience in mind. Create content that speaks their mind, addresses their pain points, and inspires them to take action. In other words, seek to please people instead of just trying to please search engines.

To achieve this, ask yourself the hard questions on how you can improve your content. Afterward, use the “EAT” method to help guide your content creation efforts. When you take a People-First approach, you’ll be well on your way towards being ahead of core updates. Most importantly, you’ll grow your online presence, and eventually, your brand overall.

What else do you feel is essential in helping brands get ahead of core updates? Which steps should brands take to ensure that they’re producing top-tier content? Questions. Comments. Please feel free to share your thoughts below.

How Voice Search Is Emerging And How To Use It To Advance Your Brand Online

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Without question, we have seen many changes occur in the Digital Marketing landscape this past year. From major events to fast-changing consumer trends, it can be a challenge for brands of all sizes to keep up. One major trend in Digital Marketing that has been emerging is Voice Search.

Voice search has been on the rise this past year. In fact, 40% of internet users in the US along with a third of its population use voice search. That is expected to rise in a big way in the near future. For brands big and small, this makes voice search crucial to helping them increase their online presence. That way, they’ll be able to keep up with fast-changing consumer trends and be able to reach their ideal consumer.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss a few ways how your brand can use voice search to advance your cause. In the end, you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to fast-changing online trends. Let us explore them, shall we?

Use Conversational Language For Your Content

When it comes to search results, searchers want results that are quick and immediate. Google understands this and has taken steps to improve its search experience. This rings even more true for voice search. With voice search, Google has made direct answers their top priority.

Voice search results are prompt and to the point. At the same time, voice search keywords tend to be longer and more conversational compared to text search. When we use text search, we might type “pocket flashlights” or “recipe for chocolate cookies.” With voice, we might ask “How do I make chocolate chip cookies?”

To have success with voice search, you want to use conversational language in your content as opposed to computer language. When using language that’s more natural, there is a better chance at matching and appearing in search results. That’s why it’s crucial to research the intent of searchers to better understand how they ask verbal queries.

You always want to study the query and conversational styles of the searchers. Likewise, take the time to learn what question keywords or types of questions are being used and asked the most. This helps give you a better idea of what type of answers are the best fit for these query types. By addressing these areas, you’ll gain valuable data-driven insights that’ll help you know what people want via voice search.

Make Use Of Long-Tail Keywords

As mentioned in the previous section, voice search queries tend to be longer. This is where long-tail keywords come into play. With long-tail keywords, they are less competitive and give your content a better chance at getting seen by the right people. On top of that, they give you a better chance at achieving higher conversion rates. It sure makes a huge difference compared to shorter and more competitive phrases.

The best strategy at using long-tail keywords in your long-form content is by using them in the title. You can also use H2 headers with those long-tail keywords in the body text in a clear and concise manner. This helps your content at performing well in voice search rankings.

Make Your Content Readable

Something that gets overlooked a lot is content readability. With people constantly on the go these days, making your content scannable and easy to read is basically a must. This means that you need to create content that is precise and readable via a standard reading level.

You want to achieve a Flesch Reading Ease Score of at least 60 or 70. If you really want to achieve high-quality readability, then aim for a score of 80 or higher. The Ease Calculator here is a great tool that checks your score and helps guide you in writing your content. Grammarly is also a great tool to help you improve your readability and catches mistakes you never thought you’d make.

There are other things to also consider when writing content for voice search. You want to strive for short paragraphs (3-5 sentences long), divide your content with subheaders, and add bullet points as needed. You also want to use the Inverted Pyramid writing style. This means put your key points in the first paragraph and work to gauge readers’ interest as they read along. If readers can derive value by scanning the content text, they’ll be enticed to read more.

Using natural language while avoiding excess long words and sentences is key to helping you succeed at voice search.

Ensure That Your Website Is Up To Speed

One thing that is important for voice search but also gets overlooked is website speed. The speed of a page makes a big difference whether people do business with you or not. Websites with longer load times have higher bounce rates than those with faster load times. In other words, you’ll lose out on potential customers if your site takes too long to load. This makes keeping your website up to speed a crucial issue to address.

GTmetrix is a great tool that checks your and helps recommend steps to help improve it. Taking steps to ensure fast page speed is vital in helping your voice search efforts succeed while attracting paying customers.

Make Great Use Of Google My Business (GMB) Listings

When it comes to voice search, people like to use it for local searches often. This makes Local SEO a crucial factor in determining whether you’ll rank for these types of queries. This is where Google My Business (GMB) listings come to light. GMB listings let Google know that your business is located in a specific place. GMB listings are a vital tool for small businesses as they stand to benefit most from Local searches.

When using GMB listings, always include your name, address, and phone number (NAP) in it. On top of that, make sure that your business listings are consistent with your GMB listings. This is key in helping improve your standing in the voice search results. It’s also advised that you add posts with special deals and updates to help your brand stand out. If you don’t have a GMB listing, then take these steps in order to get top-notch results right away.

Ensure That Your Website Is Built To Handle Mobile

A voice search ranking factor that is perhaps the most vital today is the mobile-friendliness of websites. Today, mobile takes up a majority of our voice search and overall search queries. That’s why it’s vital that you work to deliver your users a top-notch mobile user experience (UX).

The best UX is one that is seamless across all devices (mobile, tablet, desktop). That’s why you should opt for your website to be of Responsive Design. This means work to design your site so that it scales your content automatically to match your device’s screen size. Also, run a test to ensure your site can handle mobile. This tool will also give you advice on how to improve your site to be more friendly to mobile.

Without question, mobile will be important both now and in the future. The same goes for voice search so making your site a mobile-friendly one should be in your plans. This crucial step is a voice search SEO best practice that will help set you up for future online success.

Voice Search Ready Websites Help Bring Your Brand Online Success

Without question, voice search will be a huge deal going forward. With that said, it’s vital that brands take measures like these to help advance their cause online. It’ll help ensure that they continue their success of reaching their audience online and help grow their business over time. By taking steps to optimize for voice search, you’ll be ahead of the game in meeting those fast-changing consumer trends. In the end, your brand shall stand out amongst the crowd and turn site visitors into paying customers.

What do you feel is key in helping a brand’s voice search efforts succeed? What other voice search tips do you feel will attract people to one’s website and inspire them to take action? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

How To Make Your Brand Stand Out Via Email Marketing

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So, you thought email marketing is dead? Well, you’re in for a big surprise there. If anything, email marketing is now stronger than ever. With that said, there have been changes over the years when it comes to email marketing. That has a lot to do with the preferences of online consumers. These days, people want to see something of worth to them when they open up to read their latest email.

With the right plan in place, email marketing can help make your brand grow in a big way. That’s why I write this blog post today. Today, I share with you ways on how you can use email marketing to help grow your brand. Let’s begin, shall we?

Give Your Audience A Personalized Email Experience

One thing you need to do to have success with email marketing is to give your audience a personalized experience. This means that you need to take time to learn every detail about your target audience. This is a crucial starting point for any Digital Marketing campaign. Every consumer is different so sending everyone the same email is not ideal. With that said, taking a targeted approach makes the most sense.

A great way to accomplish that is by email list segmentation. This lets you divide your email list into smaller but more targeted groups. This goes a long way in targeting consumers based on their individual preferences. For instance, your brand sells movies. You can ask your customers what kinds of movies they’re into. Your list would look something like horror, action, cartoons, Mexican telenovelas, etc.

You can also segment your list by demographics, geographic location, and buyer persona to help your emails be more relevant. Looking at survey results, email activity and purchase cycle can also help accomplish that too. 88% of users say that they’re more likely to respond favorably to an email if it’s tailored towards them. By connecting at their interest level and giving them high-quality content, you will be on your way towards success.

Avoid Excess Sales Jargon That Turns Consumers Off

It’s also important to know what not to do with your email marketing plans. You never want to use excess sales jargon when sending out emails. Nothing turns a potential customer off than bombarding them with emails that push them into a sale. They will tune you out if that happens and will lead to them hitting the unsubscribe button.

You always want to strive to use emails to build relationships over time. Once you’ve done that, then you can use sales emails once in a while. In the end, strive for a more balanced approach of non-sales and sales emails. This will help make your email marketing practices a success while attracting new customers.

Make Your Headlines Grab The Attention Of Your Readers

Headlines are crucial in helping attract the attention of your readers if done correctly. To attract their attention, you need to be short and to the point while describing what your email is about. The proper length for an email subject line is six to ten words as evidenced by a Retention Science study. That same study found that a subject line in that range had a 21% email open rate. Anything more or less had a lower open rate.

You also need to connect with your audience in a personable and authentic manner. Emails with personality tend to get liked or shared more. Also, don’t be afraid to use emojis in your subject line but don’t go overboard with them either. To go the extra step, talk to your audience and ask if they want to be addressed by their name or a nickname. Of course, do keep an eye out on any name or initial misspellings, and don’t use their name in excess.

One last piece of advice about email headlines is to make use of questions and numbers in them from time to time. They tend to give you a higher click-through rate (CTR) if done in a way that gauges the readers’ attention. These email headline tips will help go a long way in enticing people to open your email and read more.

Make Your Emails Scannable And Easy To Read

People these days are on the go which means their time is limited in getting to read their emails. This is why working to make your emails scannable and easy to read is crucial. Your email structure needs to have plenty of white space.

Work to shorten paragraphs (3 to 5 sentences), use subheadings to divide your content, and add bullet points when necessary. In your body, work to use the Inverted Pyramid writing style. This is where you put your key points in the first paragraph and work to draw readers’ interest. If readers can derive value from email content by scanning the text, then they would be enticed to read more. A top-notch reader experience will help lead to increased sales in the long run.

A/B Test Your Emails To Improve Campaign Performance

One crucial tip that will help improve your email marketing performance is by doing an A/B Test. A/B Testing or Split Testing is where you split your audience in two to find out which email version performs best. This will help you better understand which type of email content resonates best with your audience.

You can increase the open rate with the right subject line and the CTR when changing your email copy after testing. There are several things below you can test that can help improve your email marketing campaign performance.

Welcome email opening
Subject line
Day of the week
Time of the day in which email is sent
Pop-up opt-in forms
Name of sender

Taking steps to make your emails better will help go a long way in helping enhance that email experience. It’ll make it more likely that your readers will be inspired to take the actions you desire.

Have A Top-Notch Landing Page For Your Email Campaign

Lastly, you want to have a landing page that best matches the message conveyed in your email. Like with email headlines, you want to have strong headlines that entice the visitor to read further. The same thing goes with subheadings. Make sure it gives you the best preview for the accompanying content and best supports your headline.

You also want to have a supporting image or video that addresses the landing page purpose within a minute. Also, you need to have social proof on your page such as reviews, testimonials, and trust seals. This will help remove any trust issues site visitors may have. It also helps give them a positive and consistent experience from beginning to end.

One important tip to keep in mind is to stay on the same topic as your email. Be careful not to dilute it with other topics or offers. This will help prevent any confusion or concerns that your visitors may encounter. With landing pages that follow through with the promises in your email message, you’ll help turn those readers into customers.

People-Focused Email Marketing Helps Brands Succeed

Without a doubt, striving for a people-focused approach to email marketing will help grow your brand. It all comes down to learning every detail about your consumers and following it up with a personalized, high-quality experience. Taking these steps above will help go a long way in improving your email marketing strategies. In the end, it’ll be worthwhile when you convert readers into paying customers while growing your brand for the better.

What do you feel will help make email marketing campaigns a success? What other email marketing tips do you recommend will help attract readers’ interest and inspire them to take action? Questions? Comments? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Four Keys To Having A Top-Notch Social Media Strategy

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When it comes to social media, it plays a huge role in helping grow your online presence. It is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. In fact, 78% of consumers have said that they will visit the physical retail store of a brand they follow according to Sprout. This just comes to show you the importance of having a top tier social media strategy.

Social media is not just about gaining the most followers. It is all about giving your audience an excellent experience and giving them what they’re looking for. These four tips will go a long way in helping you achieve just that. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Engage In Social Listening

One key tip that helps you have a top tier social media strategy is what we call social listening. Social listening is the practice of tracking, analyzing, and responding to conversations across the Internet. Social media is not just for posting pictures and life updates. It is also a powerful listening tool.

A great way to use social listening is to keep an eye out for mentions and conversations about all aspects of your brand. This can help you find new leads about new product ideas or features for existing products. On top of that, social listening can also help you differentiate your brand from the competition. Offering people something that is unique and gives them value is how you set yourself apart from others.

Know How To Measure Success

A key aspect of success for your brand via social media is knowing how to measure success. For that, you need to set the appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are quantifiable measures that are used to determine the success of a brand in meeting performance goals. One thing to be careful of is to not fall for vanity metrics. For example, getting likes on your Facebook page doesn’t necessarily mean that you will make more money.

Setting KPIs all depends on your business goals. There are four possible social media KPIs to use when measuring success. Here they are below:

Reach

If your goal is to increase your online presence, then setting KPIs based on reach is the way to go. Key things to watch for are follower count, impressions, mentions, and share of voice. These four things are key to measuring the success of your outreach strategy.

Engagement

If your goal is to get your audience to engage with you on social media, then you’ll need to set engagement KPIs. Things to watch out for are likes/favorites, comments, shares, retweets, ratings/reviews, and inbound website links. All these metrics are important when it comes to measuring your success with engagement strategies.

Return On Investment (ROI)

To check if your campaign is bringing you money, you’ll need to set KPIs based on Return On Investment (ROI). Key metrics to watch for are direct sales revenue, lead conversions, support costs-per-customer, and lifetime value. These things will help tell you which campaigns are earning you money and which need to be evaluated.

Retention And Loyalty

To check if you are attracting repeat customers or getting referrals, then you should set Retention & Loyalty KPIs. Key metrics to watch out for are reviews/ratings, issues resolved, service-level agreements (SLAs), time to resolution, customer satisfaction, and sentiment. All this helps you determine if you’re doing your part to satisfy customers and gaining referrals along the way.

For every type of KPI, make sure to revisit them every 6-12 months. This will help you determine whether your efforts are working or if they need to be adjusted.

Set Your Brand’s Voice And Tone To Make It Be More Human

In today’s world, people want to do business with brands that are more human as opposed to acting all boring. With that said, making your brand more human is a must. A voice and a tone are two things your brand must have in order to be more human.

A brand’s voice is the distinct personality or style of your brand. This helps give your customers a clear picture of what your brand feels like. For instance, HubSpot’s clear and inclusive voice helps them appear helpful and supportive in the minds of others.

A brand’s tone refers to the moods of specific content pieces. This can change based on the channel, situation, and audience. When choosing your brand’s tone and voice, ask yourself these questions below:

What purpose does my content bring?
Who am I addressing?
How does my audience feel?
What message should I convey to my audience?
Which tone of voice should I use?

By answering them, you’ll know what kind of content you should create for others in an appropriate tone and voice.

Provide Top-Notch Social Customer Service

A crucial aspect of having a top-notch social media strategy is providing your audience with top-notch social customer service. 49% of consumers say that they’ll unfollow brands that bring them poor customer service. 90% of consumers rate an immediate response important when they have a customer question. These reasons alone are why brands need to make social customer service a top priority in their social media plans.

Customers these days expect quick responses to their questions. Timely responses not only help problems get resolved faster, it also helps make customers more loyal to your brand. Even pointing your customers in the right direction gets your customers to think highly of your brand. All this makes it more likely for customers to stick with your brand in the long run.

A People-First Approach Leads To Success

No doubt that great social listening, great social customer service, and making your brand more human brings your brand success. It’s also crucial to set the right goals in order to help your brand get where you want to be. With these four great tips, your social media game shall lead your brand to great successes and long-lasting customer relations.

What do you feel is key in using social media to help bring your brand success? What are your thoughts on how social media helps build great customer relationships? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.

Four Ways Emotional Marketing Helps Connect With Consumers

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Have you thought about what it takes to stand out amongst the online world of brands to attract consumers? People today are driven by their emotions when they weigh their buying options. Today, the importance of knowing every aspect of your consumer is a huge deal. Not only that but working to tap into their emotions in a way that connects with them is key. As Alina Wheeler once said, “Brand is the promise, the big idea, the expectations that reside in each customer’s mind about a product, service or company. Branding is about making an emotional connection.” In other words, working to connect with them in a human way is how your brand stands out. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some emotional marketing methods that will help your brand reach your consumers.

Use Colors To Build Your Brand Name

When it comes to colors, brands use that to build their identity in ways that help attract their customers via emotional tactics. For example, Texas-based Whataburger uses orange to bring to mind feelings of hunger and nostalgia. Bright, warm colors like orange, red, and yellow can invoke feelings of comfort and warmth as they do for Whataburger. That being said, these colors can also bring to mind feelings of anger and hostility.

Dark, cool colors like blue, purple, and green can evoke feelings of calm and relaxation like the blue ocean breeze. At the same time, colors on the dark, cool side can also bring to mind feelings of sadness and indifference. When it comes to making the choice of color for your brand, it’s crucial to keep in mind how you want your consumers to feel. What-A-Way to be creative in order to stand out just like you like it.

Support A Great Cause

Doing good for others will help your cause with building trust with your customer base. For example, many brands are going the extra mile to honor the work of doctors and nurses during this pandemic. Companies like The North Face have really stepped up to do just that by giving them a 50% discount for their efforts. Supporting great causes like these will help people see your brand as one who cares about others. This would make it more likely for your brand to gain new customers in the long run.

Address Consumer Pain Points

This is where research will be key to the success of your brand. Brands who are problem solvers are those who will have the most success at gaining new customers. For example, Utah’s Nature Pro Cleaning works to address the concerns of chemicals in traditional cleaning options. They also address the concerns of tough stains, grimes, and other particles on carpets, tiles, and other home surfaces. What they do is offer non-toxic power washing options that are chemical-free and remove those foul particles from surfaces at the root. This helps those surfaces be free of them for good which allows people to enjoy a healthy home. By working to address consumer pain points like these, you’ll build trust with them in a big way.

Provide A Customer Experience (CX) That Speaks Their Mind

What will really help brands win over customers is providing them an experience that speaks their mind. Research is key in this regard which then leads to getting best results. Consumers love them offers that are tailored just for them. After all, 54% of them say that they’ll feel rewarded with offers that speak their mind. The mattress brand Purple is a great example of providing just that for its customers.

Their campaign of offering those in the military a 10% discount was received well by them. Purple did a great job connecting with them via their “Made In USA” brand identity. This kind of CX helped Purple up their conversions by 6X. This proves that providing your customers with that kind of experience makes a big impact for brands of all sizes.

Emotional Marketing For The Win

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No matter what the goals of your brand are. Working to build your consumer outreach via these emotional tactics is key to growing your brand for the better. Even more important is getting to know your customers in order to better connect with them. That way, your brand will lay the groundwork towards giving your consumers that great CX. Brands who work to relate to their customers are those who will find the most success. By taking a Consumer-First approach to emotional marketing, your brand shall grow in a way people will be proud of.

What other emotional marketing tactics do you feel will help brands better connect with their customers? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this blog post & share your thoughts below.

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO

White Hat vs Black Hat? Whatever could that mean? You might be thinking that a battle in the Wild Wild West is about to go down. While it might not be exactly that Old Western battle that involves cowboys, vaqueros and prospectors, there definitely is a battle between brands in standing out in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The way that brands accomplish just that is via Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most good brands would work towards focusing their SEO strategies around their ideal consumers. There are others who focus their SEO strategies on trying to trick the search engines like Google and Bing in order to get ahead. The latter my friends is what we call Black Hat SEO.

Six Black Hat SEO Tactics To Avoid

Black Hat SEO is best defined as the practice of obtaining website traffic by means of foul play against the rules of the search engines. While Black Hat SEO may get you some wins in the short term in terms of attracting web traffic, it can doom you in the long run in a way that you’ll never recover. With that being said, I’m about to describe to you six of the most common Black Hat SEO tactics you’d be wise to avoid.

Irrelevant Keywords

There are some who try to use keywords that are not relevant to their cause just for the sake of attracting search engine traffic. It might bring you plenty of traffic at first but at the end of the day, the users will bounce away from your site. Eventually you’ll lose your credibility with the online users and the search engines.

Keyword Stuffing

There are some that will use the same phrases over and over again throughout their online content just for the sake of trying to attract search engine traffic. For example, take a look at this sentence below:

“Come shop at out Doggity Dog Shop and get the Doggiest Dog Dog clothing for your doggity dog so that your dog is the doggiest dog of all the doggity dog.”

Definitely a head-spinning experience for online users (By the way, I love dogs 🐶. They’re so adorable as is my sister’s dog Zeus.) Like with irrelevant keywords, it won’t end well when it comes to where you’ll end up in the SERP. Not to mention that you’ll bore and annoy the online user.

Irrelevant Links

There are some that will seek backlinks towards their site just for the sake of attracting website traffic. Seeking just any link from websites that provide no relevant content from what your brand is about will make you look spammy. Obviously, participating in online spammy-like behavior won’t go over well with the online user and could even get you penalized by the search engine.

Cloaking

There are some that will attempt to fool the search engines into giving their site a higher ranking by showing the search engines a different set of content than what it actually is. Most of the time, the actual content is of low quality and provides the online user content that gives them no value or worse, a negative experience. This is an absolute NO-NO and could get your site greatly penalized or banned entirely from the SERP.

Spam Blogging

There are some that will comment on the blogs of others or let others comment on theirs just for the sake of obtaining link juice in hopes of getting higher rankings in the SERP. Let me tell you something, simply blogging on posts that have nothing to do with your cause will do you no favors and will make you look spammy in the face of the online user.

Duplicate Content

There are some that will take content from other pages and then put it on their own page making it look like it belongs to them in hopes of getting a decent ranking in the SERP. Let me tell you that will not go over well with the search engines and could get you penalized. Also, that is online plagiarism as we all learned in English class during grade school.

As you can see here, Black Hat SEO tactics will do you no favors in the end. On the contrary, it will greatly hurt your standing with both the online user and with the search engine. In other words, DON’T do it. Black Hat SEO is poison, evil and potentially deadly when it comes to your standing with the search engines. Thankfully, there’s a better way to go by making your brand’s voice heard in today’s online world. That something is the exact opposite of Black Hat SEO which is called White Hat SEO.

Five White Hat SEO Tactics To Embrace

White Hat SEO is best defined as the practice of obtaining website traffic via online consumer-oriented means that actually focuses on building relationships with your ideal target audience while being within the rules of the search engines. While this route may take time for you to see strategic results, it will pay off in the long run while helping increase your online presence towards your potential customers in a positive way. With that being said, here are five of the most common White Hat SEO tactics that will help you achieve quality results.

Keyword Research

What everyone must do in order for their ideal consumer to find you is to think like them. Study their search intents at every stage of the customer journey. Are they asking a question? Are they ready to make a purchase? These are questions to ask yourself before choosing keywords that are most relevant to what you offer and that will best attract your audience to your website. Keyword research will make a big difference when planning your content that will help attract the right people to your website.

Relevant And Quality Links

When it comes to link building practices, it is important to not just seek any links. Definitely focus on seeking quality links that are most relevant to your cause. Focusing on getting those right links will help your brand stand out towards your audience in a positive way. It will also be a win-win situation for both you and your linking partner as they would both benefit from that quality web traffic due to your discipline in seeking the right links. In other words, Quality over Quantity wins out here as it does in countless Digital Marketing situations.

Quality Blogging

Just like when it comes to link building, the best blogging practices come when you focus your efforts on those who are most relevant towards your cause. When reaching out to the blog owners, important to be authentic when composing that message. Show interest in their work and offer something that is of value to them that will help grow their cause. Using the Quality over Quantity approach while showing genuine interest in your outreach approach will help lay the foundation towards achieving strategic online results.

Quality User Experience (UX)

Definitely important to give your online audience a quality experience while they browse your website. Websites that are easy to navigate and up-to-speed are more likely to be viewed favorably by your online audience. In order to ensure maximum success, making your content easy to find in the least possible amount of clicks or taps will help your audience find what they’re looking for in a much quicker fashion. It also is a great idea to ensure that your videos on your site are no more than one minute and make sure that your website is optimized for mobile as mobile takes up a large percentage of today’s online searches.

People Over Search Engines

When it comes to developing your actual content, it is important to develop an approach that is Customer-Centric. While you do need to ensure that your website is visible to search engines, you also need to think of your customers first. When placing your keywords into your online content, do so in a way where your sentences are clear, understandable and easy to read. Ensure that your web content focuses on the needs of your ideal consumer and helps lead to resolving their inquiries. Focusing your Digital Marketing strategies on being the solution to the problems their ideal audience faces will help your brand stand out in a positive way. Also, don’t be afraid to share your story in a way that resonates with your audience and inspires them to take action. Taking the Customer-Centric approach to Digital Marketing will help your brand stand out against your competitors in today’s online world.

As you can see here compared to what you saw in the Black Hat SEO section, White Hat SEO is much more likely to yield you strategic results that will help lay the foundation towards long-term relationships. White Hat SEO is that magic potion that will help catapult your brand towards new heights. Ranking highly in the SERP does take hard and does take time but at the end of the day, staying true to your end goal towards customer-centricity will pay dividends for the better.

White Hat SEO Wins Big In The Wild Wild Online World

As you can see here, White Hat SEO is the Good while Black Hat SEO is the Bad and Ugly. In today’s online world, Good is what wins all the time, every time. The key to success is by implementing an online strategy that is relevant to your brand’s cause, focuses on authentic outreach strategies and focuses on the needs of your target audience. In other words, Quality Over Quantity and People Over Search Engines is how you accomplish your Digital Marketing goals. By staying true to your brand and showing long-term commitment towards your goals, you’ll be on your way to success in building your online presence and grow your brand for the better.

What SEO strategies do you feel will help grow the online presence of brands in the long run? What SEO strategies do you feel we should all avoid? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.

Three Keys To PPC Marketing Success

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When it comes to today’s online consumers, many of them are looking towards brands that address their needs and offer viable solutions to those needs. It has become increasingly important for brands to dig deep in researching the intents of their target audience. That way, they’ll have a better idea on how to plan out their Digital Marketing strategies that will help attract their ideal consumers. This is especially important when it comes to paid search efforts such as PPC Marketing.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the process of obtaining traffic to your website via paid channels. Websites only get charged when a searcher clicks on the link to their site. They would also see their website traffic increase overnight as opposed to the SEO route where you must put in long-term commitment in seeing strategic results. PPC is most commonly used by businesses who seek high intent customers who are looking for immediate needs such as an emergency plumber. PPC is also used by brands who offer unique or specific types of goods that customers wouldn’t be able to obtain at regular stores.

When it comes to PPC Marketing, bidding a higher Cost-Per-Click (CPC) amount doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the top ad position in the paid search results. There are other factors that determine the ad position of PPC ads. Like with organic search results, it’s also important to research the exact intents of your target audience in order to properly plan out your PPC campaign as you would with an SEO campaign. With that being said, there are three keys to success to PPC Marketing that will help your brand stand out at the lowest cost.

Relevancy

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A great first step in ensuring success for your PPC Marketing campaign is to make sure that your ads are relevant towards your cause. One common mistake brands make is targeting their ads towards keywords that are not relevant towards their cause at all. This type of mistake will not attract the right audience and will end up wasting valuable advertising dollars that could be going to bigger and better things. In order to avoid these mistakes and work towards a successful PPC campaign, it is crucial to first research the intents of your target audience. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of how to plan your campaign in accordance to the exact needs of your target audience.

Relevance is a big part in the minds of the online consumer when it comes to making their decision of whether to buy from a brand or not. Definitely work towards PPC campaigns that target ideal consumers who are searching for relevant products or services that you offer. By making your PPC ads relevant, you’ll save some valuable advertising dollars and will be on your way towards success in your PPC campaign.

Consistency

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When it comes to brands, what online consumers want out of them is consistency. With PPC Marketing campaigns, this is indeed the case. Not only must your PPC ads be of relevance to your target audience but they also must be consistent throughout all phases of your campaign. This is especially important when it comes to your landing pages since that will be the first page that your audience visits upon clicking your ad. You definitely don’t want your PPC ad to say one thing and then have your landing page talk about something that’s not relevant to what your audience is looking for. That would be a great way to lose out on prospective customers. Not only must we work towards attracting your ideal audience via PPC ads but also improve the landing page experience for them once they’ve arrived on your page.

There are three steps that you can take in order to ensure that your landing page is consistent with your PPC ads:

Match your ad text to at least one of your keywords.
Match your ad to the appropriate landing page where customers can do what you promised.
Make sure your landing page is relevant to your ad text and to your keywords.

By following these three critical steps, you’ll have the framework in setting your potential customers up for a consistent and excellent user experience on your website making it more likely that they’ll convert into customers.

Quality

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Having talked about the importance of relevancy and consistency when it comes to PPC ads, no doubt that those two areas are important when it comes to attracting your ideal target audience. That being said, there is still one crucial piece of the puzzle left in ensuring success for your PPC ads. That most important piece is Quality. When I mean Quality, I mean give them a reason to convert with you. Online consumers are looking towards brands that offer solutions towards the issues that they face. In other words, offer them something that is of value to them that your competitors don’t.

A great way to accomplish that is to create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your brand. A USP basically talks about what your business stands for and what makes your unique compared to other brands. By researching the issues that your ideal target audience faces, you’ll be able to gain a better insight on how to come up with a USP that will resonate with your audience. The best way to come up with a USP is to be known for something specific or be known for your expertise in serving a specific audience. For example, you could say something like “Best & Affordable PPC Marketing Services For Small Businesses” to appeal to small businesses who may not have the same marketing budget as larger companies do. USPs are a huge part of how brands like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Zappos, Amazon and many other big name brands are where they’re at today.

Once you’ve come up with a USP, now comes time to actually incorporate it into your PPC ads along with your landing pages. A great place to do just that is in your ad extensions. By making your USP visible towards your audience via your ad extensions and then following that promise up on your landing page, you’ll be well on your way towards turning those online users into your customers.

Excellent PPC Marketing For The Win

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There’s no doubt PPC Marketing is a great way for brands to stand out to their ideal consumer in a unique way. It all comes down to planning your PPC campaign in accordance to what you learned about your target audience and offering a USP towards them. When you stay true to your audience via the Three K’s to PPC Marketing, you’ll have no problem appealing to your ideal audience. In today’s competitive online world, staying true to relevancy, consistency and quality is what online consumers value the most. By valuing your online consumers, you’ll be on your way towards becoming the next big brand while saving yourself valuable advertising dollars.

What do you feel is key in using PPC Marketing in helping your brand stand out in today’s competitive online world? How do you feel about using USPs in your PPC campaigns in order to appeal to specific audiences? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.

The Importance Of Influencer Marketing Today

There is no question that the nature of today’s online world is shifting towards more consumer-centered ideals. What that means is that online consumers want to hear less from brands about what they’re selling and more from brands about how they relate to them and their needs. In other words, authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to building relationships with online consumers. This is a big reason why Influencer Marketing is on the rise and is a great way to get ahead in today’s online world. In this article, we’ll go over the top reasons why Influencer Marketing is important and how one can use it to get ahead in today’s competitive online world.

It Has Become The New Norm

There’s no doubt that Influencer Marketing has basically become the new norm. In fact, 92 percent of consumers around the world have stated that they trust earned media like recommendations from friends and family over traditional corporate advertising according to a study done by Nielson. People these days can’t stand brands that attempt to shove sales jargon down their throats. What they want to hear from brands is how they can help them solve the problems that they face. In other words, online consumers are into brands that resonate with them and are caring about the ordinary people. This is a big reason why Influencer Marketing has become ever so popular today and isn’t going anywhere too soon.

Finding The Right Influencer

When it comes to trying to use Influencer Marketing to get ahead in the game, we must first know what we’re looking for in an influencer to potentially work with. We must do some research and ask these three questions:

Will they fit in with a brand and the vision that it has?
What role will they play in helping a brand accomplish their objective? Will they fit in with a brand and the vision that it has?
Will this potential influencer resonate with the brand’s target audience?

By answering these three questions, you’ll have a better picture on how to plan out your online marketing strategies. When it comes to influencers, there are three types of influencers listed below and what they’re best described as:

Mega-Influencers- Typically have at least 1 million followers and tend to be celebrities like Beyoncé, Chicharito and Alex Morgan for example.
Macro-Influencers-Typically have somewhere in between 10K to 1 million followers and tend to be journalists, bloggers and other people who share their passions with the world.
Micro-Influencers-Typically have less than 10K followers and tend to be ordinary people like you and me.

Now when it comes to selecting the appropriate influencer to reach out to, it all depends on who you are, what type and size of business you are and what you’re looking to accomplish. Corporations with room to “splash-the-cash” like Gatorade for example tend to go for those Mega-Influencers like they to Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade for example.

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For small businesses, especially those who are more limited on advertising cash, you might be better off investing in either Macro or Micro-Influencers. They’re less costly and are much more likely to resonate with your brand as they’re viewed by online consumers as a more trustworthy source. One thing that every type of influencer has in common is that they’re more likely to respond to you if you show interest in what they do and offer something of value to them. Always important to keep in mind to always reach out to them in a professional manner and ensure that it’s a win-win situation for both sides in order to lay the foundation towards long-lasting relationships with potential business partners.

Putting Your Influencer Marketing Strategies To Work

Now when it comes to actually putting your influencer strategy to work, we must work to connect with online consumers in an authentic manner. The way we go by doing that is to obviously know who your target audience is first. Once you’ve figured that out, find out what the passions and interests of your target audience are and work to tap into their passions. A great example of that is when Nike partnered up with Megan Rapinoe and the USWNT to run a commercial inspiring women to strive for their aspirations and to shatter glass ceilings in order to advance women’s rights in this country.

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Nike without a doubt built inspiration among women and all those who are passionate in wanting to see women succeed everywhere including myself. Another important note to remember is to consider the feelings of how your target audience would react. It’s always recommended that you don’t try to relate your Influencer Marketing campaigns to controversial topics. If you must, proceed with caution and analyze your target audience to ensure that your current and potential consumers don’t get offended. Strongly recommended that you always focus more on the passions of your target audience.

Another great way to up your game in Influencer Marketing is to feature your influencers in consumer testimonials. A great example of that is when Dove featured an actual consumer in Molly Burke on how their products gave her a positive new experience as she faced blindness.

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This is definitely a great way of using Micro-Influencers like Molly to showcase how their products can give them that totally new feeling that one never experienced before. As mentioned earlier, when an ordinary consumer like Molly has this kind of positive experience, they’re more likely to be trusted by potential consumers more than traditional advertising would. Without a doubt, Influencer Marketing campaigns like these two can go a long way in advancing your brand or cause in a positive way.

Influencer Marketing For The Win

With the increase of Influencer Marketing in today’s online world, there’s no question that businesses from small to big need to get onboard as the future of advertising will depend on Influencer Marketing. Always important to remember the kind of target audience you plan to reach out to, figure out which types of influencers would resonate with your target audience and work to capture their attention by tapping into their passions, interests and emotions. With this type of formula in planning out your Influencer Marketing strategies, you’ll no doubt have great successes in making your brand stand out in an authentic way and lay the foundation towards long-lasting relationships with your current and potential consumers.

What do you feel is key in using Influencer Marketing in advancing your brand and/or cause? How has Influencer Marketing influenced your decision to consider a brand? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.

Using Instagram To Establish Your Brand

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor and privilege in taking part of an Five-Day Instagram Engagement Challenge hosted by Social With Shayna’s Shayna Marks. It was there where I had the opportunity to work alongside many female entrepreneurs from different places with different backgrounds while learning a great deal about the work that they do in building their online presence. One of the biggest lessons I learned from this experience is that people crave authenticity. They prefer brands that are open to two-way conversations and make it about their target audience. In other words, they love brands that speak their language. In this article, we’ll discuss creative ways on how one can use Instagram to be personable on your way to establishing the reputation of your brand.

Defining Your Target Audience

When it comes to establishing your brand via Instagram, the first step is to know who your target audience is. It’s important to know that the “One Size Fits All” approach won’t do the job when targeting a specific audience. Depending on the type of business or page that you have, each will have their own type of audiences who have different kinds of needs. In other words, you must dig deep in researching the kinds of consumers that are more likely to perform a specific action on your page or even become your customer. Let’s say you own a Digital Marketing blog page and want people to read your blogs, you might want to target people who work in Digital Marketing who are looking for ideas on how to make them better at Digital Marketing. They would be more likely to do business with you than say a bicycle rider (BTW, I love riding bikes 😉). Definitely take time to know everything there is to know about who your potential consumers are. If you do that, you’ll be off to a great start in building up your online presence here on Instagram and on social media overall.

Adjacent Accounts

In addition to defining your target audience, you also want to partner up with people who can be of help to you in establishing your brand. This is where adjacent accounts come into play. Now you’re probably wondering what adjacent accounts are. Basically, they’re businesses or page owners who have a target audience similar to yours but do different types of work. Let’s say that you’re a Digital Marketer looking for quality photos that capture the feelings of your target audience. A great type of adjacent account to try to partner with in this scenario would be brand photographers like Courtney Paige Ray. When it comes to partnering with adjacent accounts, it all depends on the needs of your business so I recommend that you take the time and research potential adjacent accounts who can collaborate with you while helping each other stand out in today’s online world in a positive way.

Using Location Tags

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about location tags. Well just so you know, location tags can actually be more helpful than you think. If you use location tags in a strategic way, you just might be able to grab the attention of your target audience. The important thing to keep in mind when it comes to grabbing the attention of your target audience via location tags is know which places they like to hang out at. Let’s say for example that you want to reach avid bicycle riders. More than likely, the best places they would hang out in would be in recreational areas or in parks such as Big Bend National Park. That’s where the location tags come in handy when it comes to making yourself known to your target audience. Assuming that the Instagram profiles of your target audience is public, reaching out to your target audience via location tags is pretty easy. Always remember to never be afraid to reach out to them via their “natural habitats’ as Shayna likes to call them.

Using The Right Hashtags

Now we arrive at the section where music instrument players call the “sharp sign”. Oh and did I forget to mention that I played the baritone and mini-tuba during my days at Ropes High School in small town West Texas.Those were definitely the days. Well anyways, these hashtags or “sharp signs” or whatever you like to call them are a valuable symbol that can get you visibility if you know how to use them to your advantage. Now you’re wondering how you can get seen by your target audience when you post on Instagram. What you’ll need to do to be seen by your target audience is identify 7-10 hashtags that they actively use. Now comes the tricky part figuring out which hashtags would actually help you get seen by your target audience. It’s important to know that many hashtags have a high density (over a million) and are more likely to be highly competitive meaning that you’ll have a hard time being heard by your target audience. Same thing goes for using hashtags that very few people use. The one time I recommend using low-to-no density hashtags is when you want to create your own unique hashtag that best identifies with your brand. Now what you want to do to be seen by your target audience is use hashtags that a more moderate amount of people use. The recommended hashtags that you should use as Good Ole Shayna told us are those that have a density in between 10K-200K. By following these tips on how to use Instagram hashtags, you’ll definitely be on your way in seeing your online presence grow and making your voice heard in today’s competitive online landscape.

Authenticity Is The Key

Now that we’ve covered the basics of researching your target audience and how to grow your online presence on Instagram, we’ve now arrived at the part where we talk about the best ways to actually engage with your target audience on Instagram. The #1 rule when it comes to Instagram engagement is to never use sales jargon or ask for favors right off the bat. That will never end well in almost every scenario. Whether you’re reaching out to an Influencer or to your target audience, the one thing that people seem to be craving in today’s online world is authenticity. People are interested in brands that speak their language and are personable with them. When reaching out to them via Instagram, start out by complimenting their work or how a certain topic related to their content resonated with you. When inviting them to connect with you via Instagram, definitely mention what you liked about them and how you look forward to hearing more about the work that they do. That will help your cause in a big way and will help lay the foundation towards great relationships. In addition to that, always remember to tailor your messages depending on the types of consumers, Influencers or businesses you interact with. This will help make your target audience feel that they had a personalized experience and would more than likely do business with you in the future. Definitely important to remember that this is a long-term game. It will take time to build up your brand but by making it all about your target audience, you’ll be on your way to establishing your online presence in a positive way.

Recapping How To Grow Your Online Presence Via Instagram

No doubt that today’s online world is constantly evolving. The days of sales jargon and the “One Size Fits All” approaches are over. To recap, online consumers definitely love brands that speak their language and go the extra mile in being personable towards them. Always important to remember that the key to making your online presence known in a positive way is to research your target audience, research potential collaborators, make great strategic use of your location tags and hashtags, and most importantly, never be afraid to be authentic. By doing all these things, you will without a doubt be on your way to great successes in establishing your brand for the better.

I’d like to extend a special thanks to Shayna Marks, Courtney Paige Ray and everyone else who took part in Social With Shayna’s Five-Day Instagram Engagement Challenge in inspiring me to write this latest blog post about how to go by building your brand via Instagram. I learned a great deal on how to be better as a Digital Marketer. I’ll definitely do another challenge like this in the future.

What do you feel is key when it comes to building your online presence in a positive way via Instagram or through other social media channels? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below