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DigitalMarketingNews

  • How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    How Do You Measure the Success of a Content-Driven Marketing Strategy?

    Content marketing is reshaping ecommerce for companies large and small. That’s because marketing is about trust first and foremost and marketers are realizing that quality content builds trust quicker than traditional advertising. Tim Turner Forman of a new startup called The Tot and Matt Osias of Hawke Media recently discussed how to start a content-driven marketing strategy.

    Why is it important to resist the urge to have your content do the selling?

    Tim: What we do at The Tot is provide trust and advice and mindfully curated products. For it to be considered trusted advice it needs to come from a credible real place. It needs to be authentic and it needs to come from experts, people who know what they are talking about. At The Tot we work with a network of experts around the globe to create parenting content. What first-time parents are looking for most is information and they are just as likely to turn to a website as they are to go to a doctor and they are even more likely to go to a website than to ask their own Mother. If we are able to develop and curate content of moms sharing to other moms, that develops a relationship and provides values for them.

    How do you measure the success and performance of a content-driven marketing strategy?

    Matt: When you consider measuring in general, there are so many different formats that are out there that people can leverage. Oftentimes, people are saying… well I want articles for my blog. What type of article are you looking for? What is the goal of that piece of content? Are you trying to drive organic search and bring in new audiences so they can learn who you are or are you trying to engage them a bit more with videos and infographics? Every single format has a very specific measurement.

    Beyond that, your measurements are somewhat different than your basic media buying for example, where you spend a dollar and hope to make back three, or some version of that. When we are looking at content marketing, especially when it is brand agnostic, the real important ideal there is to think about how can I actually give something to my audience that resonates with them, teaches them and solves a problem. Then ultimately, your brand is there waiting for them.

    Awareness, Engagement, Advocacy

    The three things that I look at are awareness, engagement, and advocacy. The first thing you would want to do in building a content marketing strategy is to consider the idea of awareness, giving awareness to the people you are working with. Then having intent-driven content. People are asking questions in Google all the time and they are getting answers. If your site has the answers in its content, especially if it’s early stages, then that’s going to do something that most (ecommerce) sites aren’t doing, which is to put eyes onto your site, without the brand and product coming into play at first.

    With this brand agnostic content, the bulk of your content is primarily text-based content. With measurement I look at eyes on site and what they are doing when they get there. Are they jumping around to different pages or are they bouncing right away? When you bring in somebody to your site where it is solving something you have to have something that is engaging to keep them there and keep them coming back.

    Tim: We definitely watch inside of Google Analytics to be able to see the pageviews, what people are doing, and how they move from the editorial side of the site to the product side of the site. We also use content as part of our marketing program. It’s definitely an upper funnel prospecting piece.

    Quality Content is Just as Important as Ad Spend

    Tim: As somebody who came from an ad agency working with clients who had large ad spends and then coming to a start-up to help them grow and find customers, we didn’t have a large ad budget. What we did have though is this wonderful bank of content. This quality content has become just as important as the ad spend. Every month we put together a new prospecting campaign with a variety of articles and then we keep some evergreen pieces of what performed and that gives us a really good indicator of the type of people we are able to draw and attract to the site. It’s very contextually targeted so somebody that is clicking and looking at an article titled, “9 Ways to Prepare for a New Baby,” is probably going to be our customer.

  • What You Need to Know About a Career in Marketing

    What You Need to Know About a Career in Marketing

    Making the decision to pursue a profession in marketing (specifically, digital marketing) is one of the most popular career choices being made over the last few years. Because of this, digital marketing has quickly risen to become one of the most in-demand and rapidly rising professions available today, as you are most likely well aware.

    As a digital marketer, you have the opportunity to work on interesting and exciting marketing projects with wonderful brands and enterprises, and you can live the “laptop lifestyle” from anywhere in the world. It’s simple to see why the digital marketing field is so enticing.

    Is it Necessary to Have a Marketing Degree?

    What’s the short answer? No. General business classes are the most beneficial courses, but most of marketing expertise comes from self-study and experience after that. By far, the most effective approach to study digital marketing is to put it into practice! However, it is worth noting that a degree will definitely help in your job search. If you do go this route, make sure you have a plan to pay off your student loans quickly so that you aren’t playing catch up for years before you can enjoy the benefits this career provides.

    Whatever your goals are, whether you want to work for an agency or create your own digital marketing company, you’ll need to know what you’re doing. People who study one book or attend one class and then proclaim themselves “professional digital marketers” are far too numerous. If you truly want to be that top-level marketer, you’ll need to put in the time and effort to study, take what you’ve learned, and put it into action in order to see results. The most important thing you can do is simply start learning as much as you can.

    What are the Best Ways to Get Started in Digital Marketing?

    Sign up for an Instagram account, post some content, and observe what others like and don’t like about your work. Create YouTube videos and learn how to record and edit them, as well as how to optimize them for search engine optimization. Design and develop skills while building a website, as well as learn to rank that website using search engine optimization and keywords. Creating a digital marketing portfolio is one of the best ways to advance digital marketing career as it will show your work and expertise in the field. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn everything and everything that interests you in the field of digital marketing.

    Digital marketing is made up of a plethora of subcategories, each with their own set of rules. It might be everything from content, to SEO, to public relations, to email, to design, to development, to advertising, to social media, just to name a few. After years of research and study, most would still only consider themselves an expert on a handful of the topics covered by digital marketing. 

    Wrapping Up

    By studying and developing your abilities as a digital marketer you will become familiar with the fundamentals of marketing, which are the most important marketing principles! These fundamental marketing ideas are just as applicable today as they were 10-20 years ago, and more significantly, they will continue to be just as relevant and useful in 10-20 years as they are now.

  • Stop Making These 7 Online Marketing Mistakes and You Will Crush It, Says Neil Patel

    Stop Making These 7 Online Marketing Mistakes and You Will Crush It, Says Neil Patel

    If you avoid these seven online marketing mistakes and you follow these tips you’re going to generate more sales, says popular digital marketing expert Neil Patel. A common theme of Neil’s tips is creating a brand. “Google doesn’t want to rank sites that aren’t brands,” he says. “There’s an issue out there called fake news and that’s why they’re pushing brands over anything else.” Patel says that if you follow these tips you’re going to crush it!”

    Neil Patel, digital marketing expert and founder of Neil Patel Digital, discusses the seven online marketing mistakes in his latest video release:

    Stop Making These 7 Online Marketing Mistakes

    I’m going to break down seven online marketing mistakes that you need to stop. You’re probably wondering you’re doing all these things but why aren’t you seeing results? Even if you’re doing the right things, if you’re also doing the wrong things at the same time it’s going to hurt you and it’s going avoid you from getting the results that you deserve.

    Mistake 1: Not Collecting Emails

    The first mistake you are making is not collecting emails. It doesn’t matter how good you are with SEO or marketing only a very small percentage of your visitors are ever going to convert into customers. By collecting emails not only can you get people to come back to your site but you can convince them to convert over emails.

    The moment someone gives you their email address think of that as a micro-commitment. They’re much more likely to convert into a customer because they committed, they already gave you something. That’s why you want to collect emails. You can do this through sliders or exit pop-ups. You can do this for free using tools like Hello Bar.

    Mistake 2: Not Collecting Subscribers Through Push Notifications

    The second mistake you’re making is you’re not collecting subscribers through push notifications. There are free tools like Subscribers.com that’ll make it easy. Just add in a JavaScript or a WordPress plug-in and then when people come to your website they will automatically subscribe through the browser. Then anytime you have new content or products or services that you want to sell then you can notify them through Subscribers.

    Mistake 3: Not Building a Brand

    The reason tip number one on collecting emails and tip number two on getting more push notifications subscribers are really important is because you need to build a brand. This gets you into the third mistake. Google doesn’t want to rank sites that aren’t brands. Why is this? There’s an issue out there called fake news and that’s why they’re pushing brands over anything else. It’s not just going to be Facebook and in Google. Eventually, it’s going to be Twitter and LinkedIn and all the sites out there.

    When you get people back to your site seven times you’re much more likely to build a brand. It’s called the Rule of Seven in marketing. So with your site, you want to provide an amazing user experience. When you provide an amazing user experience, create a great product, create a great service, it’ll help you build a great brand over time.

    Mistake 4: Not Interlinking

    The fourth mistake you’re making is not interlinking. You may notice on Google I’m ranking for terms like online marketing on page one. You’re probably wondering how do I do this? A lot of it comes out to interlinking. In my sidebar, I link to my most popular pages of content. When I write blog posts related to online marketing I link back to the online marketing guide that talks about what online marketing is. By having all these links it helps me rank higher.

    Mistake 5: Just Focusing On Text-Based Content

    The fifth mistake I have for you is just focusing on text-based content. The future of digital marketing is moving to video. It doesn’t mean you should stop doing text but it means you should also be doing video. When you do video you’re going to get more traffic because everyone’s lacking it. LinkedIn wants it right now. YouTube wants more of it. Facebook wants it. Instagram even wants it.

    Why is this? They want to crush the television networks. You look at things like the Oscars or traditional movie theaters and they’re not doing as well. You look at traditional TV and they’re going to get crushed. Why? It’s because of Facebook. It’s because of Google. It’s because of Netflix. If you’re there creating that video content you can be part of it and you’re going to get extra traffic. They want as much help as possible to crush these big old-school companies.

    Mistake 6: Sticking To Just a Few Marketing Channels

    The sixth mistake that you’re making is you’re really sticking to just a few marketing channels. Marketing is competitive. People raise venture capital hundreds of millions of dollars just so they can compete in marketing and sales. You need to do more than one or two or three marketing channels. The more you do the better off you’re going to be.

    Mistake 7: Not Asking For the Sale

    The seventh mistake I have for you is not asking for the sale. Whether it’s a lead or whether it’s getting people to buy your product, there’s nothing wrong with asking people to buy from you. If you don’t you’re not going to generate any sales. Everyone’s like I get all this traffic through my online marketing but no one’s converting. Why? Because you’re not asking for a sale.

    Stop Making These 7 Online Marketing Mistakes and You Will Crush It, Says Neil Patel


  • How To Leverage AI To Optimize Your Email Marketing Strategy

    How To Leverage AI To Optimize Your Email Marketing Strategy

    Email has taken communication to newer heights as it is one of the most widely used methods for digital communication. It is estimated that there will be more than 4.3 billion email users worldwide by 2023.

    Hence, the significance of email marketing is no surprise for your business to influence your target audience. Moreover, utilizing the power of artificial intelligence to optimize your email marketing strategy further enhances the impact on your target audience.

    Businesses that use AI to drive email marketing are likely to grow by US $1.2 trillion annually.

    In fact, 49% of marketers are already implementing automation in their email marketing strategy.

    Artificial intelligence can be used for smart segmentation, optimization of email subject lines, and email automation workflow, which can help you to increase click-through rates and open rates.

    Let’s deep dive into how you can leverage AI to optimize your email marketing strategy.

    1- Write Appealing Subject Lines

    With the help of AI, you can optimize your subject, body copy, and CTA.

    The subject of the email is one of the most crucial parts of the email content. More than 35% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone.

    By integrating artificial intelligence, you can analyze the performance of past emails and determine which subject lines have performed the best in the past. It also assists you by recommending a subject line that can be engaging and interactive. You can also find spam words that can be avoided while writing subject lines.

    2- Optimize Your Body Copy and CTA

    Similarly, the main content of the email can be tailored based on the past behavior of users. AI evaluates the content explored by users on your website and changes the e-newsletter from week to week when the user begins to explore a new category of content. 

    Moreover, provide a unified company-wide email signature to brand every message that you send to your subscriber. Focus on Office 365 email signature management to centrally manage and sync your company email signatures.

    For optimizing CTA, utilizing AI helps you to find the change in user behavior and interest and present the next CTA accordingly.

    For example, a user was not checking the technical document on your website. But gradually started showing interest and became engaged in your technical content. Taking it as a signal, AI prompts to offer a technical whitepaper in the next email CTA. 

    3- Create a Segmented Email List

    You can win customers through data segmentation as it enables you to send targeted emails to the audience. However, manually segmenting your data requires a lot of time and effort.

    Therefore, by AI it is more stress-free and an easy task. Using AI, you can easily segment users based on:

    ●  Demographics, such as age, location, or gender.

    ●  Past purchase behavior of the users.

    ●  Email behavior, such as open or click activities in their mailboxes.

    After evaluation, AI-powered apps come up with a segmented list, allowing you to boost email marketing efforts to the fullest. It also enables you to create real-time and accurate marketing segments based on customer insights drawn from cross-channel activities.

    Moreover, it helps you to segment your subscriber based on their position in the sales funnel. Thus, AI-powered techniques allow you to target users individually for hyper-relevant marketing.

    4- Personalize Your Emails

    Integrating AI in your marketing strategy enables marketers to study the behavior of users and predict the perfect time to send them an email.

    It also helps you to reduce the spillage and reach a definite audience based on their locations, interest, likes, preferences, and search patterns. Using this data, marketers can predict the type of content that their users would like to see. Thus, making it possible to personalize your email.

    In addition, you can use professional and personalized templates that will increase the chances that your subscribers will open and read your mail.

    Utilize AI-powered email marketing tools, such as ConvertKit, Sendinblue, or Moosend, that help you create more personalized emails.

    5- Automate the Workflow

    AI-based data insights enable marketers and strategists to schedule the mail at regular intervals. If you have a wide range of users from multiple time zones, then it is better to set and optimize delivery times as per their time zone.

    AI helps you to figure out the time when your users are actively looking at their emails based on their past behavior. 

    Therefore, with the help of AI, you can optimize the send time and send sales or limited time offers when your subscribers are active and more likely to click on it.

    6- Better Reporting and Actionable Analytics

    Traditional methods of reporting included capturing statistics, such as opens and clicks. However, it can be improved with the help of AI. It enables you to generate data that can be utilized to get better insights and achieve the intended goal.

    Some of the improved techniques that you can use to get detailed insights into user behavior and create better emails are funnels, cohorts, and churn analysis.

    ●  Funnel analysis: It analyzes the actions taken by the users before reaching the desired goal. Funnel analysis helps marketers to determine where they are losing the most users and where they are converting them. With the help of this information, you can implement necessary steps to drive traffic, encourage subscribers to take action or entice them. 

    ●  Cohort analysis: It helps you to find out a group of subscribers that share the same characteristics. For example, some users signed up for emails in February and opened their emails in the following months of March, April, and May. Using this data, you can understand what products, promotions and marketing initiatives attract your subscribers.

    ●  Churn analysis and prediction: It helps you to identify signals that a subscriber is about to unsubscribe you. An example of such a single is subscribers that stopped interacting with your emails. Thus, it enables you to take action in advance to retain your subscribers. 

    Final Thoughts

    Your emails must be distinctive, specific, and target-oriented to stand out of the clutter in the mailbox of your target audience. It is because a common emailer with a repetitive message will not fetch you the desired click-through rate. You can easily achieve that by integrating AI with your email marketing strategy.

    It helps you to provide more customized, targeted, and personalized emails to the subscribers. It is one of the effective strategies to deliver quality and insightful campaigns. It uses a combination of automation and advanced tools to synchronize and create appealing email campaigns. Thus, it is advantageous to incorporate AI technology to witness exceptional growth.

  • Google Ads Was Down Tuesday Evening

    Google Ads Was Down Tuesday Evening

    Google Ads was down Tuesday evening, impacting a large number of users.

    Users started experiencing issues with Google Ads Tuesday evening. The company acknowledged an issue impacting its users.

    We’re aware of a problem with Google Ads affecting a significant subset of users.

    Just under three hours later, the company said the problems was fixed.

    The problem with Google Ads has been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but may not have access to the most recent data.

  • Microsoft Buying Xandr Ad Business From AT&T

    Microsoft Buying Xandr Ad Business From AT&T

    AT&T has agreed to sell its ad marketplace, Xandr, to Microsoft as the ad industry tries to adapt to a post-cookie world.

    The ad industry has been working to cope with changes to online advertising, including initiatives to replace the web browser cookies that have formed the backbone of the industry for years. AT&T says Xandr compliments Microsoft’s current efforts in the context of the open web.

    “Microsoft’s shared vision of empowering a free and open web and championing an open industry alternative via a global advertising marketplace makes it a great fit for Xandr. We look forward to using our innovative platform to help accelerate Microsoft’s digital advertising and retail media capabilities,” said Xandr’s EVP and GM Mike Welch.

    “With Xandr’s talent and technology, Microsoft can accelerate the delivery of its digital advertising and retail media solutions, shaping tomorrow’s digital ad marketplace into one that respects consumer privacy preferences, understands publishers’ relationships with consumers and helps advertisers meet their goals,“ said Mikhail Parakhin, President of Web Experiences at Microsoft.

    The deal is subject to regulatory review. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

  • Bing Adds Local Store Search

    Bing Adds Local Store Search

    Microsoft Bing has added a major new feature, making it possible for users to search local stores.

    Many consumers use search engines to research products and find local places to purchase them. In many cases, consumers will purchase a product online and then pick it up in person.

    Microsoft is looking to help facilitate this by making it possible for consumers to search local stores’ inventory and product availability.

    The company announced the new feature in a blog post.

    You need something from a specific store. Where is the location closest to your home? Are they open? Is your product in stock? Using Microsoft Bing or searching on Bing Maps, you will get rich results that will answer all these questions! 

    For consumers looking to spruce up their homes for the holidays Bing search provides local results for what is needed, as well as inspiration for what is possible. By searching for new table lamps on Bing Maps, results show store stock, expanded views of products at the stores, and even include store reviews. This helpful level of information can motivate and confirm purchase decisions, helping shoppers spend time and money wisely.

  • How to Get Consistent Growth in SEO

    How to Get Consistent Growth in SEO

    As more businesses are coming online, it has become important to pay more attention to SEO. You need to focus on the consistent growth of your website through SEO services.  If you are new to SEO and wondering how to constantly improve SEO and get higher growth, then we have got you covered.

    This article will be helpful in your pursuit to grow your SEO. Have a look at the below tips that you can follow to outperform your competitors.

    Consistent Content Creation

    First of all, you need fresh content to get traffic. If you are looking at the long-term perspective of organic growth, then it is very much necessary to write quality content on a regular basis within your niche. You should focus on keyword research and know what your customers want through tools like Google Consumer Surveys or Big-Data Market Research Tool.

    You should put more emphasis on customer intent while creating content for better ROI. Along with consistent content creation, make sure that you are updating old posts too for higher search engine visibility. It’s important to update older posts because when people search using certain keywords or phrases they may also look for related terms.

    Leverage Social Media Traffic

    The use of social media can also help you generate huge traffic for free. If properly analyzed, the data on various social media sites can give you a better insight into your digital presence and SEO rankings. It helps you to identify the quality of content being shared by your audience so that it is easy to have a better engagement with them.

    You should focus more on generating high-quality links through online communities rather than focusing on daily/weekly link-building strategies because strong backlinks are more helpful in improving the search engine rankings of your website.

    Quality Link Building

    Link building is one of the most important factors which play an essential part in your site’s SEO rankings. You should focus more on generating high-quality links through various quality websites rather than focusing on the number of links. When you are developing content for link-building purposes, then it is better to put your primary focus on the user intent of keywords related to your niche instead of just using anchor text. It helps in improving people’s engagement with your website.

    You can also participate in different guest blogging programs to improve the search engine rankings of your website because it offers a good opportunity to expand your target audience for free. You can also try email outreach or citation building but make sure that you are not violating any Google guidelines while doing so. Besides this, make use of Google webmaster tools and social media insights offered by various social media sites to understand your website’s visibility on the web.

    Pay Attention to Competitors’ SEO Strategy

    You should also focus on monitoring the changes being made by your competitors in their SEO strategies so that you can broaden your horizon about what works for them and what doesn’t. You can use tools like Moz or SEMrush, analyze your competitor’s backlink profile to find out their link-building strategies which are working best for them. This will help you to build a strong brand image through constant customer engagement.

    Monitor at least the top 10 competitors of your niche to understand their ways to improve SEO. You will get many creative ideas that you can follow to accelerate your SEO growth.

    Use Ads for Promotions

    You can also use pay-per-click (PPC) programs for better promotion of your website, but make sure that you are not violating any PPC guidelines. You can use Adwords or Facebook ads to grow SEO traffic through paid promotions.

    However, it is very important to analyze the cost involved with each promotion method because it helps in making the right business decisions. Figure out your ROI through the paid ads so that your investments are optimized.

    Keep Track of the Latest Trends and Changes

    It is also very important to keep track of various latest SEO trends and changes taking place on the search engine front. You need to have good knowledge about how search engines rank websites so that you can easily understand what properties are responsible for better rankings. This helps in making people aware of your website through different sources. It is also very helpful for small-business owners because they don’t have much time to stay updated with all the recent changes being made by Google or other search engines.

    The more you are involved with things happening around you, the better it will be for your business growth in terms of higher search engine rankings. Nowadays, most people turn towards the internet while looking out for it.

    Wrapping Up

    Follow these above tips to thrive online with consistent growth in SEO. Even if you are new to SEO, keep these aspects in mind to get the best ROI for your efforts.

  • Meta Eases Stance on Cryptocurrency Ads

    Meta Eases Stance on Cryptocurrency Ads

    Meta is easing its stance on cryptocurrency ads, increasing the number of accepted regulatory licenses from three to 27.

    Meta (formerly Facebook) has been notoriously against cryptocurrency advertising in the past. The company would consider applications that included regulatory licenses, or other such information proving the legitimacy of the crypto, but Meta only accepted three such licenses.

    The company is now accepting 27, greatly expanding crypto’s access to the platform’s advertising resources. Meta credits the maturation of the crypto market, and ensuing regulation, as the reason for the change.

    However, over the years the cryptocurrency landscape has matured and stabilized and experienced an increase in government regulation, which has helped to set clearer responsibilities and expectations for the industry. Going forward, we will be moving away from using a variety of signals to confirm eligibility and instead requiring one of these 27 licenses. 

    The move should be a boon to the crypto industry, exposing a whole new group of retail investors.

  • Is SEO Important for Every Business?

    Is SEO Important for Every Business?

    Search engine optimization is not just for big companies. If you want an online business that is going to succeed, then you need search engine optimization. With the different ways of improving your website and being an integral part of marketing, SEO is something that most any business should invest in. Even if you have a small startup company or a local three-person shop, it’s important to know about search engine optimization and how it works for businesses.

    There are many benefits to investing in these techniques when increasing traffic to your site through organic searches from Google.

    Benefits of SEO

    There are three main benefits for any business to seriously consider investing in search engine optimization. These include boosted traffic, increased search engine rankings, and better brand exposure. All of these benefits add up to more visitors to your website or place of business, more sales, and more revenue.

    The fact is that anyone who wants their website to be seen should invest in these techniques because it’s not very difficult and can have a dramatic effect on your website’s traffic. Furthermore, it is the best way to increase organic traffic, leading to more sales or whatever other benefits you are looking for from your site.

    SEO Expert Witness

    SEO is such a popular method for businesses to gain more visibility in the search engines that an SEO expert witness can provide technical analysis in courts to give an opinion on the subject.

    If you’re on a small budget but want to reach more customers, then there’s no need to worry because SEO has your back. The five techniques that will help you get started with increasing traffic and helping your site rank higher include content writing, link building, social media exposure, keyword research, and onsite optimization.

    These techniques come before any publication or posting ads should always be the first step when trying to improve your site’s rank. Next, with the content you write, you want to ensure that it matches what people search for when using their favorite search engine. Then with link building, you need to create inbound links from other websites for your website to be exposed more organically. Social media is extremely important for any form of marketing online today and will help in multiple ways when it comes to SEO, especially in improving rankings.

    Keyword research is how experts determine what kind of content needs to be written so that you can build a strong base from which your entire campaign will work. Finally, onsite optimization means making changes within your own site so that Google knows exactly what each page represents and understands its intent.

    How Much Does SEO Cost?

    You may wonder, how much does it cost? The truth is that it depends on the type of company or industry you are in, as well as the existing ranking of your own site. If your site’s rankings are poor compared to your competition, then you will need more work done than someone who already has good rankings for their particular niche.

    Many variables go into this, which is why estimates can’t really be given because each business website needs individualized attention to get the best results. 

    SEO is not something you should ignore because it’s so effective in bringing more traffic to your website. For most businesses, it can generate results quickly and is often cheaper than other forms of marketing such as radio ads or newspaper print advertisements. It also has better long-term effects than these marketing methods, which is why more people are turning to SEO every day to help them with their online presence.

    If you’re thinking about starting an online business or having a successful local business, search engine optimization is certainly something that needs to be on your radar.

  • SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO pioneer and Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin was recently asked about the future of SEO and how SEO agencies and marketers should adjust to these changes. Rands says that SEO has changed to the point that the traditional SEO focus on generic related keywords for your products and services is becoming obsolete because of how Google now displays search results.

    See below for highlights from Rand’s thoughts on the changing SEO landscape:

    There is definitely this problem in the SEO space where the amount of opportunity in SEO (is lessened), because of Google entering all these business sectors and taking away of a lot of the clicks and trying to solve the searchers’ query before they ever click.

    This means that you just don’t have as much opportunity to earn search clicks from this search engine anymore.

    Branded Search Queries

    How can we overcome that? I think the answer in SEO is pretty clear, which is the one thing that Google is not taking away from us, branded search queries. If somebody searches for StatBid or they search for Moz or they search for the North Face, that is a searcher telling Google to take me to this companies website. That’s a very very powerful undeniable signal that they want to reach your site. You’re getting 90% plus click-through rates on those.

    If you can increase the number of people searching for your brand instead of drawing a smaller and smaller percentage of the people who search for outdoor jackets, because Google’s placing all these ads above the fold and trying to say these are the best outdoor jackets and having an instant answer and a featured snippet and all this type of stuff, yeah that’s that’s a big win.

    Combining Classic SEO with New Stuff

    I think for CMO’s and for marketing departments it’s going to be a combination of classic skill sets in SEO. First, how do we rank? How do we make sure that our site is technically optimized? How do we make sure that we’re doing good keyword research and keyword targeting? How do we create good content around all these things and solve searchers problems?

    Then I think it’s also going to be some new forms of marketing that SEO’s are not generally familiar with, at least not historically. Those are things like creative that draws attention and eyeballs and interest. I think it’s a lot of storytelling. Great brands are built on the back of great storytelling and that is traditionally a big weak spot for SEO.

    SEO Teams Need to Get Retooled

    So yeah, I think there’s going to be a combination of new and old. That could mean that some (SEO & marketing) teams need to get retooled or new people need to be added. It could mean that agencies will have to upgrade those practices and I’ve already seen some agencies in the SEO world start to do that. I think serving existing demand is going to long-term not be as exciting as creating more demand.

  • Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google has joined the $2 trillion club, becoming only the third US company to cross the threshold, thanks to a surge in its stock price.

    Apple was the first company to cross $2 trillion in valuation, in August 2020, followed by Microsoft in June of this year. According to TheStreet, a surge in Google’s stock price Monday helped the search and ad giant cross over.

    Despite a great deal of hand-wringing over Apple’s various privacy initiatives, the ad industry in general, and Google in particular, has managed to survive relatively intact.

    Google’s valuation shows there’s still plenty of money to be made in the advertising industry, while still respecting user privacy.

  • How Digital Marketing is Changing

    How Digital Marketing is Changing

    It’s no secret that marketing has changed considerably in recent years.

    All types of businesses — from brick-and-mortar stores to large tech companies — have begun using digital marketing to promote their products and services, get their ads seen, and make sure their website lands higher on search engine results pages.

    In the relatively brief amount of time since digital marketing became the norm, things have changed at a dizzying pace. Recent developments have demonstrated that digital marketing numbers are not what companies once thought they were. Nowadays, it’s clear that digital marketers need to go further than cultivating a large number of clicks, many of which may or not be from real people.

    Listed below are the top marketing trends your business needs to consider.

    Ad Clicks, Marketing Fraud, and the Bottom Line

    In the past few years, there have been some high-profile lawsuits related to marketing fraud. For example, Uber won a case against Austin-based marketers Phunware for fraudulent advertisements.

    As it turns out, even some of the largest and most respected marketing companies have been pointing to clicks as “proof” of business growth and revenue. And yet, companies such as Airbnb have discovered that they don’t lose all that much when they stop paying marketers for advertisements. Business owners everywhere are realizing that they need to pay closer attention to whether paid ads are actually making any difference to the bottom line.

    Choosing SEO-Friendly Content Instead of Paid Ads

    Digital marketing services should go far beyond placing online ads. Producing relevant content that is optimized for search engines will help your business website land on Google or other search engine results pages.

    Website copy optimized for SEO makes a huge difference to a company’s level of exposure. Working with competent SEO professionals should lead to more people visiting your site. People rarely click ads, but they do tend to click through on Google searches. If you incorporate the right keywords and frequently post blogs and web pages that are properly optimized, SEO content could do a lot more for your business than paid advertisements.

    Finding the Right Demographic

    Just because your marketing company offers your business an expanded reach doesn’t mean that the right people are seeing your advertisements. Companies are starting to realize that their digital marketing needs to reach the right people.

    Marketing expenses need to be quantifiable. Large numbers of engagements, as it turns out, don’t mean much. It simply isn’t enough to switch over from traditional marketing to digital marketing. Today, it’s imperative you make sure that your advertisements, website copy, and other methods of marketing are actually making a difference to your revenue.

    An Increasing Trend Away From Outsourcing

    In the recent past, marketing has traditionally been outsourced to agencies that provide the service for you. Nowadays, however, a lot of businesses are choosing to retain a greater degree of control and reduce expenses by keeping their marketing and advertising in-house.

    New professional-level digital tools are being released every day. There are fewer and fewer reasons to pay someone else to do your marketing. This is especially true for a large tech business with plenty of data at its disposal. If your company is doing well, you might want to think about starting an in-house marketing division. Putting more resources into marketing your own business will actually save you some money in the long run.

    An Ever-Increasing Emphasis on Social Media

    Marketing must include social media, now more than ever. While few companies are seeing significant returns on their social media efforts, there is so much potential in utilizing social channels. You can use a variety of methods to improve your social media presence. Share posts, reply to comments, and make use of the analytics available on each social media site.

    Track the number of shares and reposts from leads and influencers. Track the number of engagements. With social media, you can even do research into your target demographics. You can easily find out where they are and how you can best sell your product or service to them. Since a lot of this can be done on-site, be careful to avoid paying someone else too much to do what you could do yourself.

    Greater Access = Greater Opportunity

    Marketing has changed immensely in the age of the internet and it continues to evolve. No longer is it sufficient for your company to make a transition to digital marketing. The numbers provided by many of these companies don’t represent growth for your business.

    The number of clicks per ad, as well as engagements with ads, social media posts, and website pages need to be quantified and turned into real revenue, not merely collected and treasured as theoretical vanity numbers. Pay attention to sales conversions. Do your best to cut down on the costs of marketing while doing your best to market your business in the best way possible. These efforts in tandem will lead to the growth of your company.

  • 5 Growth Hacking Tips for SaaS Startups

    Marketing and growing a startup is one of the most difficult things for business owners today. There is stiff and fierce competition out there, and entrepreneurs have to walk an extra mile to gain traction and growth.

    For the IT and SaaS industry, it seems that there is always a new app or product in the market every hour. You have to stand out as the best to attract clients and grow your brand.

    As a startup, there are some of the hacks you can employ to grow your business and achieve the desired level of growth in the industry.

    Here are the top growth hacking tips for SaaS startups:

    1- Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best strategies you can employ to grow your small business. There are millions of websites competing for online visibility, and that means you should make your website unique to stay at the top of search engines. 

    Optimizing your site for organic, local, and international searches is one way of making your brand more visible online.

    Here are some SEO tips you can apply to make your business appear big, improve rankings, and drive more clients your way.

    ●  Make your website mobile-friendly – A significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile devices. As the number of smartphone users keeps growing, when you make your website mobile-friendly, you are more likely to drive traffic your way and increase the conversion rate.

    ●  Improve user experience – You should focus on creating the web pages for the user and not search engines. Focus more on Google guidelines for creating web pages and improving your website to target user experience. 

    ●  Improve page loading speed – If your website takes longer to load, it can easily drive away your target audience.

    ●  Get featured snippets – You get more visibility on search engines when your business appears on featured snippets. Follow this voice SEO guide to increase your chances of appearing in featured snippets.

    ●  Work on your meta tags – You should focus on optimizing your meta titles, meta tags, and meta descriptions to boost your traffic and impressions.

    2- Leverage the Power of Data Science 

    Data science is all about finding the hidden patterns in raw data. Once you gather the knowledge to decode big data, it helps you find insights that can help you develop a marketing strategy for your business to grow its customer base.

    There are various website analytics tools such as Finteza that you can use to analyze visitor behavior. Finteza offers advanced web analytics to recognize bot traffic, provides a LightHouse report to identify and fix issues related to slow site speed, and helps you automate your funnels by pages, events, and sources.

    Data science is one way to hack growth in your business. It helps you with:

    ●  Market basket analysis – You can find out why the strategy you employ does not get a lot of engagement and gives low returns.

    ●  Customer segmentation – You can easily grow customers according to their exceptional characteristics such as age, gender, region, and buying behavior. This way, you choose a marketing strategy that works for each market segment and increase your conversion rate.

    ●  Funnel optimization – Data science helps marketers develop a full-funnel optimization and get all the way down to increased revenue, referral, and customer retention.  

    ●  Insights and experimentation – Applying data science is one way of looking at the causal relationships in market segments and creating an effective marketing campaign that can grow your ROI.

    3- Offer a Freemium Option 

    The truth is that when you enter the IT market as a first-timer, you should focus more on giving your customers a reason to buy your brand.

    Create a subscription model for your products and allow your customers to try your services for the first time. A freemium option helps your customers to try the product before they can finally decide whether to buy it or not.

    4- Pre-launch On Third-Party Platforms 

    You can quickly gain an outward perspective of your brand by launching it on third-party platforms like Product Hunt, Medium, and LinkedIn. Submit your new product on these platforms and give real people that chance to discuss and share it with others. Users discuss the latest mobile applications, tech creations, websites, and hardware projects on these platforms.  

    They also get to vote on the best or favorite projects. When users comment and vote on your project, you get the feedback you need to improve your product. Also, your product will be receiving the much-needed exposure and online visibility which is necessary for growth. 

    Most third-party platforms like LinkedIn and Product Hunt also give you the chance to meet and interact with leading industry experts. You can find a helping hand with your PR, product billing, product engineering, and social media marketing. This is the most effective growth hack strategy for any startup out there.

    5. Ask Bloggers To Review Your Product 

    Another way you can grow your SaaS startup is to work closely with influencers and bloggers. Email marketing is a great way to reach niche bloggers. You can use any of these email apps to send your emails in bulk. Influencers will mention your product to their followers and drive some sales your way. On the other hand, bloggers can review your products and get people to like them.

    If you are launching a new product in a highly competitive market, you can reach out to bloggers to explain all the ins and outs of the product. When your target customers go through your product descriptions published on authority blogs, they learn more about your brand. 

    Bloggers can also help you create that social proof, which is fundamental to helping prospects trust your brand. You can pay bloggers to review your products. Also, you can launch affiliate marketing and offer a commission to bloggers for any sales you make through their websites. 

    Final Thoughts 

    As a startup, there are many strategies you can employ if you want to grow and stay ahead of the competition. One of the most effective ways to grow your customer base is to create brand awareness on social media, work with influencers, offer freebies, and tap into the power of SEO.

    Before creating a marketing strategy, you should also use data science and market research to learn more about your target audience. 

  • Twitter Tweaks Algorithm and Adds New Features to Bolster Performance Ads

    Twitter Tweaks Algorithm and Adds New Features to Bolster Performance Ads

    Twitter is tweaking its algorithm and adding new features as it works to bolster its performance advertising business.

    Performance advertising is Twitter’s solution to continued growth. With an emphasis on rapid and quantifiable sales generation, the company hopes performance ads will help it double its revenue by 2023. In order to prove its value to companies looking to sell via its platform, the company needs its algorithm to properly target potential buyers.

    The company told Reuters it is tweaking the algorithm that determines what ads users see as part of its new initiative.

    “Performance ads are a very large opportunity … that’s relatively untapped for us,” said Kamara Benjamin, group product manager at Twitter. “Ultimately, this is going to lead to people installing apps, visiting websites and finding products that meet their needs.”

    One of the major new features the company is rolling out is the ability to download mobile games and apps, displayed in ads, without ever leaving the Twitter app.

  • 5-Step Guide to Successfully Reviewing Your Marketing Plans

    5-Step Guide to Successfully Reviewing Your Marketing Plans

    A marketing review is a crucial step to take when having a business in order to ensure that your marketing strategy, like the five C’s of marketing, aligns with business goals. 

    You have to find out whether all marketing activities are aligned with the company’s strategic plan, as well as examining marketing effectiveness and efficiency. 

    This article will explore five steps that you should take when performing a review of your marketing plan.

    Why Review Your Plan?

    A marketing plan is only useful when it’s up to date. It will be easy for you to review your marketing plan if it has been updated within the last six months or so since you know what goals have already been met and which are left. 

    You can revise your marketing regularly with a review tool like the SWOT-Analysis.

    In order for your business to succeed it is imperative to see what goals you’ve accomplished and what you have missed and find out why.  Maybe you had unrealistic goals or some problems along the way. Take time and effort to figure out where your company is heading and how you can improve your marketing plan based on the following guidelines:

    Analyze Your Customers AND Competitors

    The main goal is to get more (and happy) customers. So you need to find out who they are, where do you get them from and most importantly take a look at where people are not becoming customers to determine where you may improve.

    You may discover that you’re so focused on recruiting new clients that you’re neglecting your current customer base. If that’s the case, make sure your strategy plan includes some classic customer service and methods for reconnecting with past clients.

    Moreover, conduct research into current competitors and their marketing strategy. You can learn a lot from other companies. Don’t copy of course but see what niche you might fit in.

    Check Your Social Media Performance

    Facebook, Instagram and Co are the key to today’s marketing. You need to see how your marketing department is performing, and if you can exploit potentials. Marketing is all about getting your name out there and social media allows you to do that more than ever before.

    Are you active on all the platforms? Is your company interacting with the clients? Can you still handle it the way you do it or do you need to hire a media expert? 

    Review marketing campaigns and brand awareness among customers by seeing the numbers of likes, comments, and engagement on posts. Doing this will help improve your future marketing plans because it’s backed by data!

    Identify Trends

    When do you get the most customers? Is there a peak time for sales and engagement? Try to find trends and exploit them further.

    The sales trend analysis is an essential component of your strategic review since it aids you in determining when and how to promote. Will you launch a marketing campaign if business slows down in April? Are there certain products that often get bought together? This might be an opportunity for a marketing strategy focusing on a product or time period.

    Redefine Your Business Objectives and Goals 

    The marketing review is the perfect time to reevaluate your business plan, marketing strategy and its goals. You can easily make changes or update some parts if needed after having analyzed your progress, failure and success.

    You can even do it with the help of an outside perspective. Someone who does not work for you can be very helpful in seeing what is missing or where there are some blind spots. The marketing elements are not always clear cut in your business, so you can benefit from an outside perspective by asking for advice or mentoring when performing this marketing plan review.

    Always be prepared to change your plan, it might be that one of the strengths has turned into a weakness during certain circumstances.  You might find out that there is a marketing element you wanted to implement but now it does not make sense because the business environment has changed and this marketing activity will do more harm than good.

    Don’t be afraid to communicate these changes with your team or stakeholders, they can help in various ways if given the chance.

    Implement Based on an Action Plan

    Determine what resources are needed in order to execute your redefined plan  and implement what has been learned from the review. Communicate with your team and make sure there is a clear goal with specific, measurable outcomes so that it’s easy to see if you’ve achieved them or not.  

    Have a strategy for implementing and a clear schedule. Understand the business strategy behind the marketing activities. Ask why you are doing it? What is the goal? How does this align with other marketing efforts currently being implemented or planned for in the future?

    If you review your marketing plan every six months or at least once a year you will determine problems and find easier solutions and in the end have a more successful business!

  • Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    “Our ads on Reddit have gotten a lot of traction and puts a big smile on people’s faces,” says 1-800 Flowers CEO Chris McCann. “That’s what we’re trying to do is just make sure we’re relevant and create that cognitive speed bump when people think about our company. They see something different and I’m thrilled with the creative team for coming up with something like that.”

    Reddit Ad That Went Viral for 1-800-Flowers.com

    As usual, some opinionated Redditers expressed their thoughts on the ads:

    1-800 Flowers CEO discusses the company’s growth that was accelerated by the pandemic:

    Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

    What we’ve seen is an acceleration of growth in our company that began back in 2018 and really then accelerated even further in 2020 with the pandemic. It’s driven by the need for us as people to connect and express ourselves. As a company whose vision is to inspire more human expression, connection, and celebration, and as an ecommerce leader, we’re well-positioned in the trends that we see coming out of this pandemic. We think these trends are sustainable going forward.

    We started out as one flower shop many years ago. What we’ve done is created this e-commerce platform for growth, a platform for expression, connection, and celebration. It starts with this all-star family of brands that we have led by Harry & David, 1-800-Flowers, Cheryl’s Cookies, Shari’s Berries, and our recent acquisition just this past August of Personalization Mall. You see us now as a company in the expression and connection business with a leadership position in floral, a leadership position in gourmet food gifting, and certainly now leadership and position in expressions and personalized items which is a fast-growing market.

    You’ll continue to continue to see us grow by organic product development of products that help customers express and connect. And as we’ve done through acquisition, adding to that platform and leveraging that platform that we’ve built.

    Need To Express and Connect Is a Lasting Trend

    Hopefully, the vaccines accelerate and we turn to some sense of normalcy sooner rather than later. As we look at our business, the momentum we saw began in 2018 and 2019 and then accelerated with the pandemic. We’ve been on a good momentum growth even before the pandemic and we really see ourselves now as a bigger stronger company than we were prior to it. We’ve acquired Personalization Mall just this past August and by putting it on our platform and leveraging our digital marketing expertise we accelerated the growth of that company. It grew by 50 percent this last quarter.

    A year ago August we acquired Shari’s Berries and took a business that was stagnant and losing money to now one that’s got a nice growth rate and is generating a nice contribution margin as well. If we just keep our focus on what the consumer is looking for to help express and connect then we’ll be continuing to see double-digit growth for some time to come. That trend that we’ve all learned from being isolated, our need to express and connect is a lasting trend coming out of this pandemic along with the shift from offline to online.

    1-800 Flowers Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

  • Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    “We’re forecasting that ecommerce spending this year will be somewhere between $850 billion and $930 billion,” says John Copeland, Vice President of Marketing Science and Customer Insights at Adobe. This would be a 14 percent increase over last year. That would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.”

    John Copeland of Adobe, predicts that ecommerce spending could be $930 billion, or just under $1 trillion, in 2021:

    COVID was a catalyst to the ecommerce channel last year. What we saw when you look at the full calendar year of 2020 was $813 billion dollars in ecommerce spending, 42 percent growth over 2019. That’s like combining two years’ worth of growth into a single year. Consumers have really embraced the online channel to meet their needs during these challenging times.

    We’re all kind of wondering what (the vaccine rollout) is going to do in terms of ecommerce. We’re forecasting this year somewhere between $850 billion, only a 5 percent over last year, and up to $930 billion, which would be a 14 percent increase over last year. The 5 percent increase would be if everybody gets vaccinated and rushes out and we see kind of a slowdown. The $930 billion, 14 percent increase, would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.

    Buy Now Pay Later Up 215 Percent Over Last Year

    Buy Now Pay Later is very much good for retailers. In fact, what we’ve seen in February this year relative to February 2020, which is kind of on the cusp of the pandemic, is a 215 percent increase year over year in buy now pay later orders. In terms of retailers, it comes along with larger average order values. What we’re seeing is 18 percent larger orders when customers are using that service. Unlike layaway, with buy now pay later you actually get the goods upfront, you don’t have to wait until the payment’s done.

    Another trend is Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, also known as BOPUS. In February of this year, we’re already seeing it growing 67 percent year on year. It’s always been huge and growing during the holiday season but now people are clearly working it in as part of their fulfillment options. Picking up in the store gives consumers the ability to schedule it according to their availability and knowing that stock will be there for them when they want to pick it up.

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion, Says John Copeland of Adobe
  • Facebook Building Yellow Pages Into WhatsApp, Launching in Brazil

    Facebook Building Yellow Pages Into WhatsApp, Launching in Brazil

    Facebook announced it is building a Yellow Pages feature into WhatsApp, allowing users to look up local business information.

    Once a staple of everyday life, the Yellow Pages directory have fallen out of favor, replaced by digital alternatives. In Facebook’s quest to monetize WhatsApp, and make it a critical business tool, the company is looking to provide a digital Yellow Pages feature that will help users find local business information.

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature in a Facebook post:

    We’re building a modern-day Yellow Pages into WhatsApp where you can look up and contact local businesses right inside the app. Launching in São Paulo today, and hopefully more places soon.

  • Intuit Acquiring Mailchimp for $12 Billion

    Intuit Acquiring Mailchimp for $12 Billion

    Intuit has announced it is acquiring email marketing service Mailchimp for $12 billion.

    Mailchimp is one of the leading platforms for email marketing. The company was founded some 20 years ago, and is used by companies around the world. Intuit sees the acquisition as a way to improve its small and medium-sized business offerings, providing its customers a marketing solution to compliment its other services.

    “We’re focused on powering prosperity around the world for consumers and small businesses. Together, Mailchimp and QuickBooks will help solve small and mid-market businesses’ biggest barriers to growth, getting and retaining customers,” said Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit. “Expanding our platform to be at the center of small and mid-market business growth helps them overcome their most important financial challenges. Adding Mailchimp furthers our vision to provide an end-to-end customer growth platform to help our customers grow and run their businesses, putting the power of data in their hands to thrive.” 

    Ben Chestnut, co-founder of Mailchimp, echoed those sentiments:

    “Together with Intuit, we’ll deliver an innovative small business growth engine powered by marketing automation, customer relationship management, accounting and compliance, payments and expense, and e-commerce solutions, creating a single source of truth for your business. We’ll also be able to offer more personalized support and onboarding, expand our international footprint, and scale our teams to innovate faster and deliver the solutions you want and need.”

    The deal is worth $12 billion, in stock and cash, and subject to the usual regulatory approval. The deal is expected to close before the end of Intuit’s Q2 2022.

  • YouTube Paid Creators $30 Billion Over the Last Three Years

    YouTube Paid Creators $30 Billion Over the Last Three Years

    YouTube has provided insight into the state of its content platform, including some impressive figures regarding its revenue and payouts to creators.

    YouTube is the undisputed king of video platforms. The company recently crossed the milestone of two million creators in its monetization program — the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) — and is revealing just how much it has paid those creators over the last three years.

    Creators who are part of YPP can make money and earn a living from their content on YouTube with ten different monetization features (and we keep adding more), from advertiser revenue to selling merchandise. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. 

    With $7 billion in ad revenue in Q2 20201 alone, YouTube’s report is an impressive glimpse into just how important the platform is to Google’s overall business.