You have succeeded in attracting your ideal customers via quality SEO strategies. The question now is, “Now What?” Now that you’ve attracted them to your website, the next thing you do is to seal the deal. To accomplish that, you need to give them what they’re looking for in a way that makes your brand unique.
There’s one method that will help turn your website visitors into paying customers and that is Conversion Rate Optimization. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the act of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on your site. Desired acts can include anything from signing up for a newsletter to purchasing a product.
To succeed with CRO, you’ll need a clear strategy that offers clarity and differentiates your brand from your competitors. These 8 tips below will help bring your brand success via CRO. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Make Your Web Design Simple
People these days look for information that is clear and to the point. This could not be more true when it comes to your web design. You never want to have your visitors go through a maze when searching for information on your site. That is a good way to harm your bounce rate which we don’t want at all.
When making changes to your design, you want to keep it simple for your visitors. This means to make their search in as few clicks as possible. You also want to remove any unnecessary links or design elements from your navigation bars and copy. This will help make your page short, simple, and to the point for your visitors. This will help give your visitors a great user experience and increase the likelihood of them converting.
Add Testimonials & Reviews
Nothing helps build consumer confidence in your brand than what people like them have to say about you. That is why it is essential to include testimonials and reviews on your page. Adding them will help make big-time improvement in conversions – even up to 400% as in this case. You can also add logos of companies who do business with you and trust your brand. This will also help build consumer trust in a big way.
Don’t Have Too Many Form Fields
One thing you never want to do when trying to turn visitors into customers is having too many form fields. In many instances, this is a big turn off with many people asking for more fields than they’re willing to give. That’s why you need to limit your fields to only the essential ones needed to accomplish your end goal. Taking this step will help you improve that conversion rate while opening the door to future opportunities.
Have A Strong Call To Action
Do you know what else will help improve your conversion rate? Taking even a few minutes to work on your call to action (CTA) copy. Generic CTAs like “sign up” won’t give you the best results in terms of conversions. You need CTAs that paint offers in a positive light. CTAs that start with the word “Yes” such as “Yes, Give Me [Offer]” help accomplish that. In the end, you’ll make it more likely to improve on getting your visitors to convert.
A/B Test Your Headlines
Headlines make a big difference in whether people decide to read more or not. That is why you need a headline that is to the point and helps engage consumer interest. A great way to ensure that your headlines lead to success is to perform A/B Tests on each.
A/B Testing (or Split Testing) is the practice of showing two variants of the same web page to different visitors at once and then comparing which one converts more. It is advised that when deciding between headlines that you experiment with variants like tone, length, and use of statistics or numbers. This will help give you a better idea of which headline type resonates best with your audience.
Offer One Clear Path For Your Visitors
Another great way to put your brand on a path towards increased conversions is offering your users only one path. That means have a clear, predetermined roadmap for your website visitors that leads to only one action. Work to avoid any distractions and stick to only including what your visitors need to know.
Always great to use visual cues like arrows that point to the end goal you want your visitors to take. On top of that, resist any thoughts of adding more than one choice. These actions will help visitors see the path you want them to take as clear and to the point. This helps make it more likely that they’ll do business with you in the end.
Offer Guarantees To Help Build Trust With Your Audience
When it comes to conversions, trust is a major factor. Oftentimes, customers feel uneasy when they’re about to click the Buy button. That’s why you need to work to make your site one that is trustworthy for your online visitors. A great way to do that is adding trust seals like McAfee Secure to your website. 48% of users were more likely to trust a site they’ve never heard of if it had guarantee seals. Taking this step will help remove any doubt users may have and makes it more likely that they’ll click Buy.
Use Colors That Best Compliments Your Brand’s Message
One key detail that gets overlooked when it comes to CRO is color usage. Who doesn’t love colors? Colors contain messages, evoke emotions, and encourage action. For example, the purple color is seen as wise, creative, and imaginative as Yahoo is known to be.
Not only do colors work wonders in encouraging action from users, they also help complement your web design. This will help encourage visitors to stay longer on your site. The longer you keep their attention, the more likely that they’ll convert into paying customers. With that said, always make color usage a part of your CRO strategy.
Quality CRO Makes Your Brand Unique In Your Own Way
There is no doubt that CRO will help bring you success in such diverse ways. It helps your brand stand out amongst the crowd in your own unique way. On top of that, you’ll be turning those visitors into customers while growing your brand in a big way. With all that being said, always take time to invest in your CRO strategy. It will pay great dividends for your brand in the long run
What do you feel is essential in helping make your brand’s CRO strategy a success? How do you feel about CRO being a crucial part of your overall Digital Marketing strategy? Please feel free to share this blog post and share your thoughts below.
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.
How often are you on your mobile devices? More than likely, you use it often. In fact, 66% of Americans are on their phones 160 times per day according to a recent survey. Mobile devices are pretty much part of our lives. We buy things, check our social media accounts and keep in touch with others via our mobile devices. With that being said, it is crucial for brands of all sizes to provide your online users with a great mobile user experience (UX). This will make an impact on whether your target customers will go with you or with your competitors. In this blog post, we will be discussing four keys to providing your users with a great mobile UX.
Page Speed Is A Must
One of the most crucial things for users to have a great UX is for pages to be up to speed. Each second makes a huge difference on whether a consumer buys goods from you or from someone else. In fact, 46% of users strongly dislike having to wait for pages is what they dislike the most about mobile search. Let’s put it this way. Every second more that it takes to load a web page, your conversion rate drops and your bounce rate rises. That right there is money and customers walking out on your brand. That being said, there is a way to fix this. A great tool to check your page speed is GTmetrix. It checks how your page performs, why it might be slow and gives you steps on how to improve your site speed. Having your page up to speed is crucial for bringing in customers and good for your SEO.
Image Size Matters
When it comes to image size, it is important to have an image that works best for your site. What that means is to have an image that helps describe what your content is about while ensuring that your site is up to speed. It can be tempting to put up a big image on your website. At the end of the day, it can slow down your page and therefore harm your site experience. As SquareSpace recommends, use images that are between 1500 to 2500 pixels wide. You also don’t want the pixels to be too small or it may be too blurry to see. You also want to use image files that are less than 500 KB. By working to ensure appropriate image size, your site experience will be enjoyable for your site visitors.
Responsive Design For A Great User Experience Across All Devices
The best user experience is one that exists across all devices whether it be a desktop, mobile, or tablet. Responsive Design is a method in designing your website in a way that scales your content automatically to match the screen size of your device. This helps your users avoid having to pinch their screen in order to view your site content. With responsive design, you won’t have to design multiple versions of your site. You’ll save yourself work by only designing one website that scales automatically to match the device being used. With responsive design, you’ll be providing your site visitors with a pleasant UX that helps attract your ideal customers.
Keep Site Organization Simple
When it comes to the layout of your website, you want to make it simple for your users to navigate. You never want to use too many words or images to get your point across. When it comes to site navigation, it is advised that you use icons like the phone symbol or the triple bar menu symbol. This will show viewers that your site is organized and optimized for mobile. The same could be said when it comes to videos and graphics. As mentioned earlier about image size, bigger is not always better. You want images that are of reasonable size and want video content to be of reasonable bandwidth. That way, your site will be up to speed and of top quality. In conclusion, you want to ensure that your contact info and location are easy to find. Countless brands miss these smallest of details that cost them big time. In this case, you want to be transparent and accessible to users. The more accessible and organized you are, the better the UX will be.
A Great Mobile User Experience Brings Happy Customers
With people on their mobile devices now more than ever, providing them with a great UX is a must. You need an up to speed website that is organized across all devices in order to have quality UX. These four keys are essential to helping users find what they’re looking for in the easiest of ways. As Jacob Nielson once said, “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” A great UX on your website is what makes a great first impression with your online users. When you provide them a quality mobile experience, you’ll make them happy and they’ll turn into your loyal customers.
What do you feel is also essential in ensuring an excellent mobile user experience? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this blog post & share your thoughts below.
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.
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.
When it comes to today’s online world, consumers today are looking for brands that they can trust. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen brands both big and small make today is not paying attention to the needs and concerns of the online consumer. In other words, they’re taking them for granted, and in this competitive online world, that is a difference maker in determining whether or not consumers will do business with your competitors. A great way to combat that is with a little something that we like to call Online Reputation Management (ORM). ORM is the online practice of shaping public perception and reputation of a business online. With that being said, we will now go over three key tips that will help your ORM flourish for the better.
Respond To Reviews
One common mistake some brands make is that they ignore reviews and don’t comment on them whether they’re good or bad. This can make the impression that your brand isn’t human and could care less about their customers. No brand wants to have that happen to them so responding to reviews is crucial. In fact as ReviewTrackers has reported, 52% of customers expect a response from brands within 7 days after leaving them a review, especially reviews that are negative. When you receive a positive review, make sure to respond to it in a way that shows appreciation towards your customers. When you receive a negative review, make sure to respond to it in a way that shows that you’re taking responsibility and showing commitment to resolving their inquiries in a timely and efficient manner. By doing those things, they would be more likely to do business with you in the future and recommend others to do the same.
User-Generated Content
Another great way brands can improve their online reputation is with User-Generated Content (UGC). This strategy is a winner as 70% of consumers consider UGC when making their purchasing decisions. This just comes to show you that what consumers trust the most before making their buying decisions are their peers. A great way to make use of that UGC is to highlight those positive reviews along with testimonials in order to help your brand stand out in a big way. If you really want to go the extra step in accomplishing that, invite one of your customers to do a video testimonial like Dove did.
Molly Burke Testimonial For Dove
Video is of the most easily consumable forms of content for potential consumers. Dove sure went the extra mile in highlighting how Molly Burke had a positive customer experience with them. This type of content will help your brand stand out towards your customers in a positive way and the search engines will reward you for it. The best SEO is indeed what I like to call “People-Based Marketing”.
Influencer Marketing
When it comes to Influencer Marketing, it can help bring quality results to your ORM strategy. Influencers aren’t not necessarily celebrities but they are people who have a decent-size following on social media and are much more in line with the persona of today’s consumers. Having an influencer on board in helping get the word out about your brand can help increase your brand reputation and online presence. After all, 8 out of 10 consumers have purchased a product or service as a result of a recommendation by an influencer according to a study by Rakuten Marketing [4]. This comes as no surprise as online consumers are much more likely to believe the recommendations of their peers than they would traditional advertising. It all comes down to finding the right influencer that best resonates with your brand. By doing just that, you’ll be on your way towards success online.
Consumer-First Strategies Help Your Online Reputation
Group Video Chatting With Customer
When it comes to ORM, it is similar to dating. Only difference is that you’re working towards building relationships with many people. You have to always work each day towards building that relationship and do it in a way that shows care towards the needs and inquiries of the consumer. Like in any relationship, it takes so long to build and can only take mere moments to destroy. With ORM, the importance of being proactive in ensuring that you always build trust with your consumers because without trust, you have nothing. People may think that ORM is small but in reality, it’s a big deal. These three tips that we just went over will help your brand make that next big step in improving your online reputation. By adopting a consumer-first strategy, you’ll be on your way towards success with your ORM and eventually, a loyal consumer base.
These past few weeks have indeed been hectic for all of us whether you’re a worker who has been laid off or a small business facing uncertainty due to this pandemic. With that comes big time changes in the Digital Marketing landscape that we’re already seeing happen. These changes will have an impact on how consumers go by satisfying their needs going forward. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the behavior of consumers will more than likely stick so this will make Digital Marketing crucial for those small businesses going forward. There are four key areas of Digital Marketing that small businesses need to get ahead of in order to thrive in these uncertain times. Let’s explore them shall we.
Video
Whether you’re a recruiter looking for talent or a small business looking to show off your products, video is a great way in helping accomplish your goals. In fact, we are already seeing companies conducting their work meetings with their employees in increasing fashion via video conference calls. I know I’ve been in several of these myself with my potential Digital Marketing acquaintances near and far.
A great way small businesses can thrive even in these tough times is via live video streaming. Even before this pandemic, we are already seeing companies in southeast Asia try this and achieve success via this route. Video Streaming has helped in bringing that online shopping experience as if you were in-person at the actual store. South Korea’s LF Corp was able to achieve a 30% year over year sales increase since 2015. The way they accomplished that is by allowing their users to have real-time conversations with the presenter and other users with the ability to purchase the products with just one-click. Video Streaming is indeed a great way for brands to grow their presence in a big way.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When it comes to building up your online presence during an economic downturn and pandemic like this, SEO is a great way to accomplish just that. Even before this crisis, SEO is heavily utilized by small businesses in order to help accomplish their long-term online goals. With the situation that we’re in now, SEO will be even more important going forward. The search term “SEO” and other related search terms have seen a big time increase in interest since February as Google Trends has indicated.
With these trends in mind, there’s no doubt that investing in your SEO game will be key to success during this pandemic and beyond. People these days are looking towards brands that they feel that they can trust. To build trust with your target audience, get away from those sales jargon and instead work to build content that follows the E.A.T. method. Building content that rallies around Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness will help your cause in helping grow your online presence in a positive way towards your desired customers. It also will help save you money in the long run assuming you continue to always stay ahead of the game in adjusting to the fast-changing needs of today’s consumers.
E-Commerce
With consumers less willing to endanger their health by going in-person to crowded shopping centers and stores during a pandemic, they will be looking towards online options and that’s where E-Commerce comes into play. 42% of consumers are now shopping online more as a result of this pandemic according to a survey by Valassis. These changing shopping habits are more than likely here to stay even after this pandemic so it’s important for businesses to get ahead of the E-Commerce game.
To have success in your E-Commerce game during this time, what you must have to begin with is a banner at the top of your website talking about COVID-19 as far as shipping updates are concerned. Of course, it would also be a great idea to go a step further to keep in touch with your customers via email and social media talking about how your business is responding to this pandemic. This would help make your customers feel safe and in control in doing business with you.
In addition to that, it is important to also keep your site up to date and up to speed especially on mobile devices. Definitely work to give your customers a great shopping experience by having shopping cart/wish list options handy for your online customers as well as a search function and an easy-to-use payment feature to ensure that their online experience is quick, flexible and easy for them. After all, website experience is crucial now more than ever especially in E-Commerce.
Reputation Management
During these unprecedented times, managing the reputation of your business and responding to adversity in a timely manner is important now more than ever. According to a recent study done by Bright Local, 71% of consumers are more likely to do business with brands that respond to reviews. Whether the reviews left by consumers are good or bad, it’s important to respond to them on each review site in a timely fashion. That’s especially true if it’s bad. The way to respond to them is by showing commitment towards resolving the situation at hand.
Today’s customers mean business. With some businesses trying to game the system by getting fake good reviews, customers are looking towards multiple review sites and their peers to ensure that what they’re getting into is legit and will advance their cause in a positive way. It’s also not a deal breaker if you get a negative review. All businesses get them as there are no perfect businesses. What customers pay attention to the most is how you respond to adversity. If you ignore it or are careless towards complaints, of course they won’t do business with your brand. If you show commitment in going beyond the ordinary to listen to the consumer inquiries and work towards solutions, consumers will be more than likely to do business with you. With that being said, it’s important now than ever to work on upping your game when it comes to Reputation Management. It will benefit you greatly long after this pandemic.
Stay Committed To Your Loyal Customers While Staying Safe
Indeed these are tough times for us worldwide whether you’re a customer or a small business looking to achieve great successes. Change is always upon us and this pandemic is another reminder that we must always be adaptive to the fast-changing needs of the customer. We just need to plan accordingly in these four key areas of Digital Marketing and always keep the needs of the customer first before anything else. People-Based Marketing is the name of the game today and every day. By staying true to your customers and showing commitment towards providing them a great customer experience, you will no doubt be set up for success in the long run.
On a special note, may you all stay safe during this pandemic and listen to all the safety measures put forth by our medical community. I look forward to posting even more Digital Marketing articles like these in these next few weeks and I value each and every one of my loyal readers.
What do you feel is important in keep your online presence active during these unprecedented times and setting it up for success in the long run?Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.
Two months have passed and already 2020 has been a year of big time events . That is especially true when it comes to the Digital Marketing industry. Already we’ve seen some impactful changes that affect how we reach our target audience. What may work yesterday may not work today so Digital Marketers should definitely take notice and prepare to adjust to changes. After all, the Digital Marketing industry is all about constant change and constant adjustments to your online outreach strategies. When it comes to trends, there have been many but there are six Digital Marketing trends that we as Digital Marketers should take notice of. Let’s look at these, shall we? 😉
Influencer Marketing On The Rise
In recent years, we have seen the rise of Influencer Marketing in a big way in comparison to corporate advertising. People these days look for brands that are authentic and relate to them in a more personalized manner. In fact, 63 percent of consumers trust the opinions of influencers than they do corporate advertising that makes it about the brand. When it comes to reaching out to influencers, it is important to reach out to those who would be more relatable to your brand as opposed to focusing on macro-influencers endorsements. If you’re a smaller business, definitely consider micro-influencers as your go to when it comes to reaching your ideal consumer.
Dark Social Becoming The New Thing
Dark Social is absolutely becoming another rising trend in this day in age and no, there’s not gonna be a Zombie Apocalypse coming to take over the world. Dark Social is a term used to describe website referrals that go through private social media platforms that aren’t trackable by analytics programs. According to a survey of 3000 US and UK internet users, dark social apps are used by 63 percent of people to share content. Both younger and older generations have been using Dark Social in increasing numbers so it is important for brands to join in on the fun and to do so in an authentic manner. For more information about how to properly use Dark Social, I welcome you all to view my latest article here.
Mobile Friendly Sites Are A Must
With people on the go these days, it has become increasingly important for businesses to ensure that their websites are up-to-date and up-to-speed on both desktops and mobile devices. People want great user experience on websites and want it fast. If your website takes too long to load, your potential customers will leave you for your competition and your page ranking in the search engines would likely drop. In fact, your bounce rate will go up the longer your website takes to load as witnessed in this study by section.io. Online users are likely to visit a lot more pages when page load time is 2 seconds compared to 8 seconds. Definitely work to have your sites up to speed while also ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly either by responsive design or adaptive design.
Voice Search Is Becoming Increasingly Important
Without a doubt, today’s consumers are looking for newer and more convenient ways to search for what they’re looking for. They especially would enjoy not having to type in their search or even leaving their couch to order something. With this in mind, it is no surprise that Voice Search has become increasingly important. In fact, half of all searches will be via voice by this year with 52 percent of people keeping their voice-activated speakers in their living room. [E] This is important for people of all age groups so it has become important for brands to include voice search in their Digital Marketing strategies going forward. By doing that, they’ll be ahead of the game in meeting the increasing demands of today’s consumers.
Reputation Management Is A Must
When it comes to Reputation Management, let me just say that this is a big deal in today’s online world. With people increasingly viewing online reviews as a big factor in their purchasing decisions, brands must look to build trust with their target audience. One of the biggest ways to do that is to respond to comments and reviews whether they are good or bad. In fact, 78% of people agreed that brands who respond to reviews and comments made them believe that they care about them. Brands both big and small should always work to respond to comments and reviews in a way that shows that you’re committed to the needs of the customer while making them feel at home. After all, that’s how you build and maintain relationships with your ideal consumers.
Personalization
Last but certainly not least when it comes to my Top 6 Digital Marketing trends to keep an eye out in 2020 is personalization. In this day in age, people prefer brands who are authentic and relate to them. In fact, 80% of online consumers are more willing to do business with brands who provide them a more personalized experience. Whether you’re starting an Email Marketing campaign or developing your online content, it is always important to keep these stats in mind when it comes to tailoring your content in order to meet the individual needs of the consumer. Don’t be afraid to share your story to your audience. People love stories that speak their mind and makes them feel that they relate to your brand. Your content should focus more on others and not just about your brand. That’s how you compete and that’s how you Win Big in today’s competitive online world.
Change Happens For The Better
There’s no doubt that the preferences of consumers have changed and when that happens, so will the way we as Digital Marketers reach out to those consumers. It is crucial to always be on top of online trends and be flexible to change in order to meet the demands of today’s online consumers. In today’s fast-changing online world, authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to attracting and retaining your ideal online consumers. Authenticity is how you compete in today’s online world and it is how you become that next big thing. By keeping these six big Digital Marketing trends in mind, you’ll be able to achieve great successes in attracting those valuable consumers and Win Big in today’s competitive online world.
What other Digital Marketing trends should we keep in mind in today’s online world? What role does authenticity play in the success of brands? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When it comes to today’s online consumers, they’re always looking for brands that relate to them the best and will help them solve the problems that they face. There are so many brands both big and small that they can choose fun which means that competition is on the rise to win over those potential customers. Many businesses, especially small businesses, always ask themselves questions on how to reach their ideal target audience. Well, it all starts with doing what is called Keyword Research.
Keyword Research is the process of targeting keywords that will help you reach out to your ideal target audience in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other major search engines. With competition at an all-time high, it’s crucial to research the intents of your target audience and come up with keywords to reach them and help grow your business in the long run.
With that being said, here are three essentials to a successful keyword research strategy that will help lay the foundation to your long-term SEO strategy.
Know What Your Target Audience Is Looking For
Before you can actually start researching keywords and adjusting your content to reach your ideal consumers, you must first know what their search intents are when it comes to their exact needs. This all depends on where they are in their customer journey whether they just want information or if they’re ready to make a purchase. When it comes to the search intent of your target audience, there are five major categories of intent they could fall under as listed below:
Informational: This is where searchers need specific information such as the name of the highest point in Texas.
Navigational: In this scenario, searchers want to go to a page of well-known brands such as Microsoft or to the Denver Broncos homepage.
Transactional: Here, searchers want to do a specific action like downloading music or buying a ticket to a sports event.
Commercial Investigation: In this case, searchers compare products and services to find the best one that fits their exact needs. This is common in the E-commerce industry.
Local Queries: Here, searchers want to find a business that’s close to home or in their vicinity such as a nearby restaurant, movie theaters, etc. This is the category that we recommend small businesses strive to rank in as they’re most commonly concentrated in one local location.
Language: This is where searchers may speak different languages and want information displayed in that language. One example of this is when Spanish-speaking customers are searching for Popsicle sticks, ice cream, and other frozen treats via search terms like “Paleteria Y Neveria De Aaron.”
Definitely, valuable information we just went over in defining the intents of your target audience and how to categorize them based on their exact kinds of needs. Knowing which categories your audience falls under will better prepare you as you seek out those keywords while adjusting your content to reach those consumers. Now that you know how to categorize the intents of your target audience, let’s dive into how frequently are they searching via specific search terms.
Know How Frequently Your Audience Uses Specific Search Terms
Always important to note that many are also seeking the same keywords that you are. With that said, look for ways to distinguish yourself from your competitors. What may work for them may not work for you. This is especially true if you’re a small business competing for a great position in the SERP so it’s crucial to come up with the right keywords that best describes what you have to offer to your ideal customers.
There are two keyword types commonly used to reach consumers in the SERP.
Short-Tail Keywords: These are the keywords that consist of phrases of three words or less and tend to be broad. Keyword examples are “Women’s Soccer Gear”, “Men’s Shoes” and “Spatula”.
Long-Tail Keywords: These are the keywords that consist of phrases of more than three words and tend to be specific. Keyword examples are “Short Sleeve Denver Broncos Shirt” and “Hydrodynamic Spatula With Port And Starboard Attachments”.
Aaron’s Search Demand Curve Picture
They definitely have key differences in terms of search traffic potential and conversion rate potential. Short-Tail Keywords tend to be highly competitive keywords which makes it harder and more costly for your website to be found in the SERP. Only well-established and authoritative companies like Amazon and Google would be found easily via these types of keywords. It’s probably better for newer companies and SMBs to be found via a different route.
Long-Tail Keywords tend to be less competitive and have less search volume but here’s the catch. It costs less and those who search via this route have high intentions of making a purchase which means that the chances of conversion are pretty high.
This is definitely a gold mine for new businesses and SMBs to take advantage of and lay the foundation towards not only getting found by your ideal customers but also getting them to become your customers. That is assuming that you have quality content that answers the exact needs of the customer. Focus your keyword research on long-tail keywords. It will definitely pay huge dividends as you work to build your brand via an excellent SEO strategy.
There are great keyword research tools that can help assist you with finding keywords that work best for your business as you work to build up your long-term online presence. Great tools include the following listed below.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Google Keyword Planner
Google Trends
Answer The Public
Bing Keyword Research
SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool
Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest
These are all valuable tools that can help you gain valuable insights about ranking potential, competition and suggestions on giving you the best insight on which keywords would work best for you when it comes to standing out in the SERP on both Google and Bing.
Know Where To Insert Your Keywords Into Your Content
Now that we covered the keyword search intent categories of what your target audience is a part of and how to research the frequency of those keywords, now we must figure out which areas of your content would we place them into.
One big thing to remember is that you don’t want to get into keyword stuffing just for the sake of trying to trick the search engines into ranking you higher. That will be a huge turnoff towards your target audience and will hurt your chances of converting. Also, it would hurt you in the rankings and you’ll lose the trust of your target audience.
Always important to optimize your site for the user first before anything else. After all, the users are your potential customers so always strive to provide them an excellent user experience.
When it comes to the areas of where in your website you would strategically insert your keywords into. There are four types of areas we would place them into as listed below:
In Your URL
Definitely important to include keywords in your URL that are relevant to your cause and would help the users understand exactly what type of content they can expect on your site. A great example of a user and SEO-friendly URL would be something like this:
People and search engines alike both prefer URLs that have descriptive keywords relevant to the site owner’s cause as opposed to boring old numbers that say nothing about you. Definitely keep this in mind when deciding on your URL.
In Your Heading And Meta Tags
These are one of the first places the search engine will be scanning so definitely incorporate your keywords here. The Title Tag will be of biggest importance as this will be what your audience will see as the link on the SERP. Definitely use keywords that are relevant to your cause and will help identify yourself to both the users and the search engines.
You also want to incorporate your keywords into both the META description tag and the META keywords tag. This is the area where only the search engine bots will be crawling your page. When it comes to the META description, you definitely want to include your keywords towards the very front of your description as search engines only scan through the first 150 characters.
When it comes to the META keywords, you definitely want to only include keywords that are relevant to the page on your site as well as the website as a whole. The key to be recognized and identified correctly by the search engines via the META tags is to aim for relevancy and accurate descriptions of what your cause is about. That will help rank you for exactly what you’re wanting to rank for.
Definitely work to use keywords that will help both your target audience as well as the search engines identify exactly what your cause is about so definitely refer to this when coming up with what to write as your heading along with the META tags. Also, do the same thing for your headers and sub-headers within your content as well.
In Your Alt Tags
This is important when it comes to increasing visibility towards the search engine, those who search for images only and those who are visually impaired. The key to success in increasing your visibility towards your target audience via keywords in your Alt Tags is to use keywords that are relevant to the image. Also, avoid using image numbers as your alt text. Numbers won’t tell the users and the search engines anything about what the image is about.
Here’s a great example of a good Alt Tag as listed below:
“football.jpg”
Here’s what not to use as an Alt Tag as listed below:
“img.30014”
See how much better the first Alt Tag is. It contains a relevant keyword that actually tells you what the image is about. This will come in handy in the event your image fails to load. Keep this in mind as you’re prepping your content.
In Your Body Text
This is perhaps the most important aspect of SEO on a website. You know the saying about Content is King. Well, this definitely rings true here. When it comes to incorporating your target keywords into the body text of your content, you must work hard to balance out in satisfying both the search engines and your target audience.
Mentioning too little of your target keywords won’t allow your site to get found by either search engines or your target audience while overdoing it would result in keyword stuffing as we discussed at the beginning of this section. This is definitely a tall task for SEO Specialists to handle. At the same time, it can most certainly be done with some great strategic thinking. Strive for a keyword density of between 0.5% and 3%. This will help you strike the right balance of keyword usage.
In addition, these three tips in writing quality content that is SEO-friendly will help keep your target audience engaged.
Keep it relevant to what that section of your particular content is about.
Write as you normally would while explaining to them in everyday language they would understand. In other words, relate to the user.
Center your content around what your audience wants to do and use specific language such as long-tail keywords as we discussed in the previous section. This will best relate to the exact needs of the customer and they would be more likely to look into you more.
These three tips will go a long way in balancing out in ensuring that your target audience is engaged while at the same time increasing your visibility with the search engines. Absolutely crucial to keep these things in mind when incorporating your keywords around the content that you write on your site. I promise that it will pay off in the end by following these tips.
Key Lessons Learned About Keyword Research
When it comes to finding keywords that will help attract your ideal target audience, there’s no doubt that research is key. On top of that, knowing exactly where to incorporate those target keywords within your content is even more important. Proper keyword research followed by proper keyword usage will not only help attract your ideal consumer but also will help keep them engaged while making it more likely that they’ll do business with you.
Quality keyword research is the first big step in building up your long-term presence via a quality SEO strategy. By making keyword research alongside developing quality content as your starting point for your SEO strategy, you will no doubt be on your way towards building trust with your target audience and lay the foundation towards long-lasting relationships.
What do you feel is essential when it comes to using keyword research as a way to build your online presence? Questions? Comments? Feel free to share this article & don’t be afraid to share your thoughts below
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