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Digital BrandingPersonal Branding

Top Tips for Boosting Retail Brand Awareness

In the world of retail, if you don’t have a brand, you don’t have much at all. Without one, you risk entering the market (and possibly exiting one rather quickly) as yet another nameless name on the shelf, one often purchased by accident when mom sends her kid to the store to get the product that actually sits next to your product on that same shelf. Your brand is the key reason for your buyers to come back, the key reason they wear or use your product, to begin with.

But just having a brand is also not enough in the ever-growing realm of retail. To make sure you get in front of the right audience, and preferably in front of enough people so that your chances of boosting sales are high, you should use all of your creativity and marketing know-how to grow your brand awareness every day. Here are a few ideas to keep in mind that will help you enhance your presence in the retail universe and grow your chances to become a household name.

Diversify your content creation

From the SEO point of view, as well as that of pure credibility, content is your best, if not your only bet in the oversaturated world of retail. Mere fluff-laden blogs with an occasional keyword here and there will no longer cut it to help your brand stand out in search engines, especially for common phrases such as “quality sneakers” or “best prom dress”. People want personalized, highly selective experiences, and they expect you to provide them through every bit of content you produce. That includes all of your product descriptions, every blog post, and every video you add.

From your website content, the kind you share on social media, all the way to the content you allow and inspire your users and customers to create (such as product reviews, blog posts, and videos), you need to make sure that your content pool is diverse, trendy, and up to date. Of course, brand consistency also needs to permeate all of your content efforts, to allow your brand to emerge no matter where, when, and who creates and posts is. 

Build a stellar web presence

Your website is your retail brand’s greatest asset, and it can make or break your efforts to increase sales, engage more customers, reduce the number of abandoned carts, and inspire reviews. In fact, stellar website design needs to reflect your brand’s values perfectly and to serve as its most trusted vessel to convey your brand’s messages. It’s the key to keeping your retail brand memorable and to make sure it stands out among so many others that have similar offers.

Not to mention that a great part of your website’s design includes its ease of navigation, its loading speed, and of course, its visual appeal that will determine how long your customers will stay interested, linger on your site, or how often they’ll decide to go through with the purchase. No modern retail brand can survive without a spotless website, hence the need to regularly update your digital presence to ensure consistency as well as a wonderful user experience. 

Work with influencers

Influencers play a great part in increasing brand awareness in the retail industry. They are the digital versions of our traditional word-of-mouth recommendations, they are relatable, and they have a vast pool of followers eager to look up to them, mimic them, and make the same choices based on their preferences. Therein lies the rub: handpicking influencers to work with is far better than investing in random collaborations that are short-lived. Consider it a commitment that will skyrocket your retail brand’s awareness in the eyes of your audience and soon-to-be audience. 

From locally-based micro-influencers all the way to major players on social media as well as celebrities, you have numerous opportunities to build and grow your brand’s digital presence through such collaborations. Make sure that the influencers you choose are, of course, in line with your brand’s values, and that they actually have access to people that fit your target market. Because the only thing worse than no brand awareness is having any awareness in the wrong crowd.

Partner up with the right people

Are you a small retail brand that specializes in a certain wearable? Or do you own a chain of stores that sell different brands in different locations? In both scenarios, working with the right local people means gaining more exposure in the right locations for your brand. For example, if you’re a larger retail business, you can benefit from supporting a smaller local brand by working on a project to add their accessories to your stores, while they support your effort to enter the local market by giving you a share of their shelves.

As a smaller retail brand, partnering up with a complementary business in the neighborhood can help you gain the right exposure, too. For example, we all know that coffee goes delightfully well with scones and muffins. If you have a brilliant recipe for cinnamon rolls or pumpkin pie, why not work with local coffee shops to offer your lovely goods in their stores? Multiply that by a range of different collaborations of local nature, and you’ll quickly gain more traction for your brand.

The retail world is fast to change, and those who cannot adapt tend to fade into oblivion. Use these tips to stay one (or several) steps ahead of the competition and stay relevant to your audience, no matter where they are. 

Digital Branding

Driving Website Traffic Through Social Media Needs A Strategic Approach

For most of the business websites, it seems the common goal is to drive more traffic towards their site. Yes, a nicely designed and meaningful website will be of great help but that is actually noted enough when you consider the high competition in this business world, which is highly digitized in all its aspects. 

In order to get the best results and more traffic the best platform to use in social media is Instagram. This is because:

  • This is a primary photo and video sharing app that will help you to showcase your skill, creativity and your product in the best possible way and raise the interest of the audience and 
  • It has the largest number of active users making it easier for you to reach out to a larger section of the crowd in an instant.

Both these features of this platform make it the most suitable platform for business and product promotion as well as raise the number of traffic.

Your profile is crucial

In order to make Instagram work for your marketing strategy, there are a few essential things that you should do. The most essential thing to do is to consider your profile and fill it up properly. This is the most important thing to do because this is the first thing that people will see when they click on your social media page.

Therefore, whether it is Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, your profile will play a significant role in your marketing success and driving more traffic to your site. Therefore, focus on:

  • Twitter Bio if you want to use Twitter as your business marketing platform
  • Facebook About section if that is what you decide to use
  • LinkedIn company page if that is your choice and 
  • Instagram profile if you want to use this most popular photo-sharing platform.

It is ideally the profile that will tell the users about your business and provide info about your product or service, making it a perfect spot to drop a link that will take the users directly to your website. Therefore, your profile equates to more Instagram followers which will result in more traffic and an increased chance of conversion of traffic to your loyal customers.

Social media and traffic

According to research, using social media for business promotion purposes is considered to be the most effective in these present times because it is found to drive 31% of all referral traffic. 

You can make it even more effective to drive traffic to your site and get a slice of this huge fan following by adding a few meaningful and relevant backlinks to your site that aligns with your brand. If you can raise the interest of the people with your content and images shared on Instagram, you will not only gain more Instagram followers and more likes and comments, but it will also increase:

  • Sharing
  • Discussing and 
  • Promoting.

If people are interested in your product, they will surely click on the link in your Instagram profile and visit your site to get more information about:

  • Your business
  • About you and most importantly
  • About your product.

This will raise the number of traffic count to your site. Gaining further and proper knowledge, it is likely that they will end up making a buying decision, meaning you will have larger sales prospects and revenue for your business.

Promote blog content

Just like the backlinks on your social media profiles will give the users a chance to click-through to see what your business and product is all about, your blog content is another useful component that will enable them to read about it and gain further knowledge. Therefore, focus on your blog content for your business promotion as well as to drive more traffic to your site.

The content of your blog should be:

  • Clear
  • Meaningful
  • Informative and 
  • Easy to read.

It should not be cluttered with too many elements such as images, graphics, and animations in it. It should not be boring so that the readers do not even get to the middle of it and leave your site. Ideally, readers should not search for the things that they are looking for. Everything should be very clear, distinct, and evitable.

Creating a meaningful content

Social media is all about conveying and sharing information. It is, for this reason, your content will play an important role in your social marketing strategy. Creating content for social media will need you to put quite a significant amount of effort, time and planning. If it is not done properly you will find that two months have passed and nothing significant has happened in terms of an increase in traffic to your site.

In order to make sure that only a few people do not feast their eyes on your content and readers do read the entire thing, you need to create 15 blog posts a week and post it on social media. You simply need to create the best one and make it a point that you keep it fresh with some tweaks done on a constant basis. This will help your content to be seen by your ideal customers.

Time it well

Lastly, if you want to see tangible results, you should not post your content any time you feel like. Time it well so that you make sure that the recent followers do not miss it or not get to see a content that you published weeks ago.

You can use a social media schedule so that you can promote your old content. There are lots of tools out there such as Buffer, Social Jukebox, and Hootsuite, that will help you to do it automatically using tools like Buffer, Social Jukebox, and Hootsuite. This will make sure that the audience reads your content whenever you post them.  

Remember, using social media for your business is not easy but it is not impossible either. All you need is a little bit of effort and a meticulous plan that will help you to surge ahead. 

Author Bio

Ariya Stark has been working on the importance of social media in marketing with thousands of real Instagram followers for her postings. 

Digital BrandingLegal Branding

Eight Reasons Your Business Should Become an E-commerce Store

Do you avoid putting your business online because you aren’t sure where to start or how you’ll handle the demand? It does take some effort to get your online store set up and manage the additional business. However, it also gives you another source of revenue, particularly during times when cash flow is a trickle.

The amount of U.S. online sales for the second quarter of 2019 was around $146.2 billion. Global studies that show around 40% of consumers bought something online. If you don’t have an e-commerce store, you’re missing out on potential profits that may put you ahead of the game. As a small business owner, anything you do to improve sales could mean the difference between success and failure.

In addition to increased potential revenue, discover eight reasons to transition to an e-commerce store. 

1. Collect Customer Data

An online presence gives you a way of connecting with people in your target audience. Offer a discount, a newsletter or other content. Use this information to draw in the buyers you want most, then get them to sign up for your mailing list. 

You can even target people in a specific location with your online advertising. Draw customers from your area to your online store while encouraging them to visit your physical site.

2. Put Inventory in the Cloud

No matter what type of business you run, an easily accessible inventory is a must to see what you need and what you have too much of. Small businesses can compete on an international scale with cloud computing. If you have sales agents out in the field, they can also access the inventory via the online portal and mark items sold.

Bon Bon Bon creates artisan chocolates in Detroit, Michigan. When they took their stores online, they knew they needed a highly-responsive e-commerce design to highlight their unique confectioneries. They highlight the ability to build your own box, a customized experience similar to what you’d see in a brick-and-mortar store.

3. Automate Customer Service

Customer service can make or break your store. An online presence, on the other hand, gives you a chance to automate most interactions. For example, you can add a live chat feature to your website’s product page. Most bots are automated, able to answer common queries — like a product’s best uses or ingredients — without human interference. 

Train agents to deal with customers who buy online and in-store. A multi-channel customer service approach makes your brand highly attractive to young professionals. 

4. Offer a Wide Variety

With drop shipping, you don’t have to worry about display space. Therefore, you can offer a wide range of products in your online store. E-commerce is an excellent place to experiment with items you wouldn’t usually carry but would like to test out. Order a limited quantity and see how they move before committing to a large volume.

Costco is well-known for its wholesale stores. However, they also have an online presence where they offer things you can’t purchase in-store. They separate offerings by the department, including a section called “Business Delivery,” where businesses can order in bulk and have items delivered.

5. Solidify Your Branding

Reaching people and making your brand a household name is difficult on a local level. Sure, you can attend local trade shows, send out coupons in mailers and advertise in your newspaper, but many people will simply overlook these efforts. 

On the other hand, you can send out highly targeted digital ads, drive people to your online store and convert them into buyers. A website offers the opportunity to post articles on topics related to what you sell. After, share your expertise on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. 

6. Market Special Promotions

You likely offer specials from time to time, but it’s difficult to let everyone know about your promotions. With an online store, you can begin to collect emails. When you have a new announcement — BOGO sale going on! — send the ad to everyone at once. 

You can also advertise specials on Facebook or Google, targeting users based on their location. This method, called geolocation, ensures only consumers within a certain radius gets the message. 

Taylor Stitch offers to clothe online and in brick-and-mortar stores. You’ll find similar items in both. However, one advantage to the online store is expanded sizes and more color choices compared to what you’ll find in the physical location. Once shoppers know their sizes and how things fit, they can go online and place additional orders without the need to visit the store and try pieces on. 

7. Tap into Different Needs

Some people are very tactile. They want to come into a store and touch items before buying. Other people hate getting out in the crowds and would rather shop at home. If something doesn’t fit or they don’t like it, they’ll return it to the store.

An online version of your store taps into the needs of different users and allows you to reach people where they’re most comfortable. 

8. Sell More for Less

The overhead costs of online stores are far less than renting a building, hiring employees to staff a retail location and paying for utilities. Instead, you only have the cost to host and maintain your site, plus employees needed to fulfill the orders. 

When you open an e-commerce store, you create a new outlet for selling goods without spending additional money. The result is more profit for your business.

E-commerce Is a Process

In the beginning, your online store may not pay for itself. However, as it starts to turn a profit, and you become smarter with your marketing efforts, you can invest more time and money into dynamic advertising geared at specific, individual users. 

Your strategic campaigns will become highly-personalized and more successful. With a little effort, you’ll find your e-commerce store is a vital part of your business model. 

About the author

Lexie is a branding enthusiast and web designer. She loves checking out local flea markets and taking her Goldendoodle on hikes. Follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner and check out her design blog, Design Roast.

Digital Branding

How Proper SEO Can Help Boost Your Brand Better

Improving your company’s brand awareness among its potential clients is a necessary step in hitting your numbers goal. When more people are able to recognize and trust your brand, it’s generally a lot easier for you to establish your credibility within your chosen niche. This can be challenging at first, but with the help of experienced search engine optimization (SEO) companies like rankfire.agency/, you can certainly penetrate the target market that you’re after.

Employing effective marketing strategies becomes all the more important if competition exists. In order to stay relevant, you have to make sure that people will choose you among all the other companies that offer similar products or services. That’s where proper SEO comes in.

SEO as a Marketing Booster

Before, SEO was plagued with marketing shortcuts like keyword stuffing. People kept on sprinkling keywords on their pages and sacrificed content quality so that search engines could pick up what their website talked about the most. This may have helped brands get better search result rankings, but the Internet eventually evolved with the people who constantly use it.

Now, SEO techniques have dramatically improved: it now focuses on high-quality content and user engagement. When you do it right, it will attract all the right customers, which eventually converts their loyalty into desirable numbers for your brand. Listed below are some reasons why proper SEO can shoot your brand’s image right to the top:It Helps Create Niche Posts

 

Nowadays, it has become a lot easier for businesses to connect with their audiences through their social media platforms. To ensure that you get to keep the interest and loyalty of whomever comes across your brand, you can create niche posts with the help of SEO so you can target them specifically.

This is especially useful for small businesses, as the content’s specificity can help them get ahead of their competitors. Although being very focused with your content doesn’t exactly cast a wide net, it actually gives you a higher chance of attracting new customers––and engaging with the ones that you already have on your team.

1. It Makes Your Posts Very Specific Using Long-Tail Keywords

This one is connected to the first point. Long-tail keywords allow you to get in touch with more specific audiences. For example, if your business involves creating custom-made hiking packs, you should focus your SEO efforts on ranking for “custom-made hiking packs prices” (long-tail keyword) as opposed to “hiking packs” or “custom-made hiking packs” (short-tail).

In this manner, it’s easier to filter out those who are really interested in what you have to offer as opposed to those who are just looking for general information.

2. It Enhances Your Brand-Related Content

A reliable SEO company can improve your website’s content such that it is able to reach the right audience at the right time. It helps establish your place in the field as a reliable source of information, products, or services. If you focus on producing quality content even for just a few loyal customers, then more people like them will gravitate towards your brand.

Once you figure out how to satisfy the information and product needs of your audience––and ranking high on search engines at the same time––your brand will definitely be known for the better. Many people will begin to see you as a brand that knows what they are doing, and knows how to follow through.

4. It Helps You with Link Building

SEO also takes care of creating content that will appropriately link back to your website. With the existence of various social media platforms and online forums, employing proper SEO strategies can help you gain traction among various online communities. When done right, this can grow your audience organically.

5. It Promotes Your Brand Image

The ultimate goal of any brand awareness campaign is to promote a desirable brand image. Consequently, this will boost not only your website traffic and audience engagement, but also your sales.

But what role does SEO play in this? If you focus on all the keywords that you want to be connected to your company, SEO can be a powerful tool in influencing your audience’s perception of your brand. The more that they associate important keywords to you, the more that they will choose you over your competitors.

Conclusion

SEO is just one of the many marketing strategies that can boost your brand among your target market. However, when you get it properly done, the right people will always find you through a quick and simple Google search.

Digital BrandingLegal BrandingPersonal Branding

Why Is Automation Important in Business

Changes in global trade policies brought increased demand for business to perform high-level complex functions which were labor-intensive modules. The advent of cloud computing and technological advances have made automation a reality, bringing not only quality and consistency but also governance and reliability, improving return on investment by a removal/reducing manual effort which improved operational efficiency.

1. IMPROVED OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY: Particularly in the service industry, automation has given leverage to overcome the traditional barriers between information and communication, by enhancing customer onboarding and engagements that help generate revenues. As per Industry reports, it has been observed that customers prefer a company if they can interact with them. We know the operational cost associated with opening and maintaining a call center. Small business cannot afford to have one, but automated phone lines they can afford to look after their huge client base by providing basic information about their products or services, process payment, and other non-essential queries.

2. QUALITY & CONSISTENCY: Quality is a crucial parameter that cannot be undermined, whereas automation makes sure that all actions are carried out the same way to ensure the consistently good quality outcome, with reliable on-time results. With Automation, generating reports to scheduling social media posts or be it to deliver email marketing campaigns can be performed with ease. Data has become the driving force for contemporary business operations, which has helped firms gain key insight into consumer behavior, audience engagement and their buying patterns. Without automation, it is impossible to think about handling huge amount of data and to safeguard clients and staff information. Automation software’s like BiG EVAL provide data quality solutions for the whole life cycle of data to turn the principle into value in / value out. Hence, automation software has become an indispensable tool for business operations, which can help us maintain, recover and save data This, in turn, can provide a high level of service to your customers at low costs.

3. TIME SAVINGS: Time management is of prime importance when it comes to service deliverables. Most of the employees have been observed performing repetitive tasks which are viewed as counterproductive and boring. Automation can help automate many of these repetitive tasks, which can either reduce headcounts or deploy your employees to do something more important or scale your business. Hence this has two aspects, one that allows to use staff members more effectively and secondly to hire only staff which are necessary, cutting down on expensive outsource workers and extra staffing. Just imagine what a 30% increase in staff productivity would contribute towards business operations?

4. GOVERNANCE & RELIABILITY: Automation can handle complex work, eliminating hours of manual work without any error. One of the prime concerns with companies is to avoid human errors. Automation has not only brought expertise but also reduced processing errors. Making an error would mean operational loss with high penalty or compensation, also putting reputation at stake.

5. REDUCED TURNAROUND TIMES & COSTS: Leveraging automation would mean, teams, spend less time creating tickets, working on them and eliminating unnecessary tasks. Manual work is synonyms to perform one task at a time which is labor-intensive and need long hours, which would increase the overhead cost. Automation helps streamline the process, increase accountability, transparency and centralize processes which in turn helps to optimize the flow of information throughout, example – production, billing, servicing and more. Hence, we can claim it as the key ingredients for any company to grow and serve more clients…

6. BETTER COLLABORATION: Creating and maintaining several spreadsheets, account data is no easy job either, let alone retrieving any specific information out of them on time. Automation platforms increase transparency into business operations by consolidating data in such a way that at any point of time one can figure out the performance of the organization as well as the of the team members. Even though the implementation of automation is not cheap, need dedicated developing team who can respond to challenges posed by the change in market trends and requirements, and there are no immediate returns, still, automation is a necessity to sustain in the market.

Automation and predictions

Experts believe that there will be a complete re-embodiment of chatbot features with enterprise expectations. From being just providing simple service desk functions, chatbots may have voice and chat enabled cognitive knowledge engines that can address a range of customer requirements. Automation coming in aid to governance and compliance will be a reality, for example, EU’s GDPR will enforce organizations to automate their processes to enhance their accuracy, speed, and governance. Such encouragement will initiate setting up of automation centers by the enterprises which will be a move towards governance and compliance. Risk management, auditing, controlling and change management activities will gain prominence. For any automation please check Wyzebulb for connecting all your apps.

Digital BrandingLegal Branding

7 PPC Strategies to Use In Your Campaign For 2019 

Are you searching for the effective Paid-Per-Click (PPC) tips and tricks for a successful paid campaign? I know how tough it is trying to achieve goals from your paid campaigns, but sometimes, it ends up in you paying more than actually accomplishing goals.

But as long as you learn the right techniques and tips to tweak your PPC and paid campaigns, you can begin getting the results you need in time. The question is: HOW?

I’ll be sharing you all of the secrets on how to improve your paid campaigns for ads on different platforms and social media networks. Not to worry, these tips are easy to do known to show effectively WITHOUT much of the competition using it.

So read on for the best PPC strategies you can use for your campaigns this 2019 to maximize its impact!

Seven Best PPC Strategies for Better Campaigns

To help get your website up and running for the world (or your target audience) to see, follow these tips for better PPC metrics:

1. Remarket Long-Tail Keywords

One of the secrets to online outreach is remarketing. We all know repeat customers are more valuable. That’s why you should consider remarketing using long-tail keyword queries. Use all remarketing platforms, doing this through creating lists of retargeting users for every ad group subject with a UTM parameter.

You can also try using lookalikes, which has you target the same target audiences, which doesn’t only advertise your ads to repeat customers. It extends remarketing to an entirely new group for even more potential clients!

2. Reverse Engineer the Conversion Funnel

Many online marketers say that they save clicks for users to convert quicker. The faster you can get visitors through your funnel, then the more of a chance you convert and get a sale!

However, increasing the time to engage people with your ads can also do the same. Do these by reverse engineering your conversion funnel to see if it works. You can try adding a little extra, such as an interactive preview of your products or a demo to entice people to purchase your product or service.

3. Use An Inverted Unicorn Tactic

Regular ad targeting casts a narrow net, maximizing your engagement rates. This is a type of targeting to bring in specific demographics or niches.

You can try the Inverted Unicorn, which includes two unrelated interests when targeting your target audiences. As a result, you get more actual targets interested in what you have to offer.

You can also use these “unrelated” interests to customize ads, adding even more dimensions to campaigns and having them stand out, looking more compelling to others. Plus, these ads cost less because of higher engagement rates.

4. Go For Messenger Marketing

While people might focus more on landing pages and the Facebook News Feed, Messenger marketing is actually as effective. It might even be more effective, seen to be up to 80 times better compared to the News Feed or email.

When blasting out announcements on Messenger, you can see up to 80% open rates within the first hour. It’s worth trying out a Messenger blast to see if it works well for your target audience.

5. Use Advertising Slush Funds

Typically, advertisers and marketers have a monthly budget allocated for PPC and advertisements. This is because they have scheduled ads and monitor the way these ads perform. It’s a common approach, however, it may be limiting and won’t allow reacting to trends.

But when using advertising slush funds, you can create ads if a viral trend comes by. So if you’re extremely sure that your ad is effective, then consider using funds to run such ads. This method can allow you to maximize your ad campaign results.

6. Switch Off the Audience Network With Facebook Ads

I recommend that you switch off your Audience Network on Facebook Ads, which eliminated around 90% of click fraud from sketchier websites. You can see these on the Display Network on Google AdWords or Facebook.

When using the Google Display Network, say NO when they ask for managed placements. It excludes websites from reports and also gets rid of unwanted clicks from Facebook Ads, saving you money in the long run.

7. Create and Advertise Your Off-Topic Content For Building Brand Bias

New visits have a low brand affinity, with repeat visitors having a better brand connection. That’s why it’s best to remarket, targeting the people familiar with your business. Dedicate about 20% of your resources into making off-topic content. This gives people more brand affinity and value for them.

Wrapping It Up

PPC is one of the effective ways to help get your webpages seen by the right people. As long as you do it right, you can achieve even more goals and continue forward with achieving your goals. If you don’t have the time to put in all your effort for such campaigns, you can get companies like Joel House Search Media to guide you.

I hope this article on the best PPC strategies helped you out! So start looking into any of these PPC strategies for your next campaign now.

If you have any questions or want to share your own PPC tips, then comment below. All your thoughts are much appreciated!

Digital Branding

7 search engine optimisation best practices in 2019

Whether you’re new to online marketing or a well-seasoned veteran, you know that finding the best SEO strategies can be somewhat overwhelming. Experts are always sharing new tips and tricks that business owners should focus on. Also, Google has 200 factors that they consider when ranking a website and its algorithm is always changing. This is enough to make your head spin.

But what if there was a way that you could ensure that your website achieves high rankings without having to be an SEO guru or a Google developer? Well, there is. Instead of chasing down all of the latest tactics, simply put most of your focus on best practices. Below are 7 search engine optimization best practices that you should follow in 2019.

1. Focus On Speed

There are a lot of things that you can take shortcuts when it comes to SEO. However, speed isn’t one of them. It’s estimated that the average user has an attention span of a goldfish. What this means is that people aren’t willing to wait around for sites to load. The quicker your website loads, the more traffic you can expect.

Ideally, your site should load within less than 3 seconds. So get rid of the elements that slow it down. Deactivate any plugins that you’re not using. Clear away the clutter in your sidebar. Only use widgets when absolutely necessary.

2. Focus On Giving Links

A lot of business owners are afraid to link to relevant sites. They assume that these more authoritative websites will only take away their audience when in actuality, it does just the opposite. You see, whenever you link to a valuable site it makes your site seem more valuable. In fact, people will consider your site to be a resource and will begin to rely on you for quality information.

Perhaps the best part about linking to other websites is that other websites will be willing to link to yours as well. Create content that directs your readers to valuable information. Let the website owner know that you’ve just linked to them. Once they notice that you create helpful content, there’s a good chance that they will share your content with their readers. The key is to only link to quality content.

3. Focus On Getting Links

Not only should you be giving links, but you should be getting them as well. Search engine rankings revolve around inbound links. Whenever you get the right combination of dofollow and nofollow links, your link profile will be natural and Google will reward you for it. As long your content is high in quality, you can expect people to naturally link to your website.

4. Focus On Quality Content

No matter how fast your website is or how many links you build, you’ll never succeed at SEO if you aren’t creating quality content. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners put more focus on the keywords that they use than the actual value of their post. Not only does this hurt their brand, but also their traffic because they often neglect long-tail keywords.

The key to creating content that is well-optimized is to write for humans, not search engines. After all, humans are the ones who buy your products and share your content with their networks, not the search engines. When you’re passionate about your niche, it will be evident in the content.

5. Focus On Unique Meta Descriptions

Typically, meta descriptions are the first thing that people notice when they see your listing in Google. However, they’re often overlooked when it comes to search engine optimization. Even worse, website owners will use the same description for every page. Google hates duplicate descriptions. In fact, it’s a great way to get penalized. So make sure that you take the time to write descriptions that are relevant to that specific page.

6. Focus On Readable URLs

Another factor that’s easy to overlook is the URL. It’s very important that you create URLs that your users can understand. Why is this? Well, if humans can understand them then the search engines can read them as well. Place dashes between each word. Avoid using numbers and other characters. Ideally, there should be no more than 2-4 words.

7. Focus On Image Optimisation

Optimizing your images is just as important as optimizing your textual content. Whenever you include an accurate description of your image in the alt tags, it makes it easier for people to find you in the search engines. Keep in mind that Google has an entire section dedicated entirely to images. This means that a lot of people can find your website this way.

Takeaway

If you’re searching for professional help with your search engine optimisation Brisbane offers an excellent selection of experts. When choosing an agency, make sure that they’re aware of these best practices. Also, make sure that they understand each of their importance.

Digital BrandingLegal Branding

5 PPC Strategies to Boost ROI and Save Time 

PPC provides businesses with an opportunity to increase their revenues and grow exponentially in their respective industries. A lot has changed in the past few years. Pay-per-click advertising now comprises an ecosystem of multiple channels, numerous locations and devices, more competition amongst players, plenty of data for planning, and so much more. 

With all these, it’s only prudent to come up with the right strategy. You want to make sure that every penny counts with every action you take. A strategic approach ensures that you make the most out of every tool available. Here are 5 PPC strategies that will help you boost ROI and save on time.

1. Generic Keywords

Generic keywords are mainly used for research and can put you a couple of dollars back. Their conversion is also very low and they provide an ineffective way to achieve business goals using the last-click conversion model. To make the most out of generics, use them to retarget visitors that search using generic terms. 

Once they familiarize themselves with your brand, you want to get them to convert afterward through an offer placed in the ad copy in a different message or, by raising your bids to increase prominence on generic terms where people are willing to convert. This allows you to focus on potential customers and to minimize impression wastage. 

Use scripts to activate generic keywords at a time when people are likely to search them. (For example, during summer or winter). This helps to make your keywords effectively. The strategy is applicable to numerous triggers such as social media posts, TV ads, news articles, stock market activities, and sports.

2. Targeted Campaigns

It’s best to create several campaigns for different types of audiences. Any product or service will appeal to different types of consumers in a different way and for a different reason. Having one ad for all types of audiences will result in poor ROI. Create personalized ads that will appeal to each group differently. Each ad should explain the value the product or service has to offer to the targeted group. Start by identifying the kinds of people that will want to use your product or service.

3. Consumer Data

Since the very begin, paid search has been based on keyword intent. Simply put, it depends on what people are searching for on the web. With so much to consider, RLSAs (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads) are a great way to identify people that are likely to convert based on how they interact with your site. This helps to boost conversion rates, improve efficiency in how you spend on ads, and optimize your cost per lead.

Create customer groups by checking which URLs people are visiting. Retarget them using other relevant terms that they search for. You can do this by ensuring that your ad appears in front of them or by using a different message. Consider integrating CRM data to create audience lists based on the emails you have in your database. This allows you to target repeat customers as well as those you have interacted with before. Link your analytics with Google Ads to help you determine how bounce-rate, pages visited, time-on-site, and other metrics affect your audience list. These help to know who to target instead of making blind guesses.

4. Run Time-Sensitive Ads

Time is one of the most important factors to consider when running your ad campaigns. The idea is to do it when your customers are online. Targeting the right audience won’t matter if people never get to see your ads. Almost all industries have a peak hour(s) during the day. You’ll start to see positive results when your ads run at this particular time. Watch out for trends that boost the performance of your ads. You can change the time depending on holidays, seasons, and other factors. Also, pay close attention to identify when your industry is experiencing the most traffic. Capitalize on those hours as it is then that your customers are likely to be most active.

5. Focus on Long-term Results

PPC could take minutes to grasp, but ages to perfect and become a master at it. This could prove frustrating especially where you want quick results for your business. Focusing on long-term results is a key focus for SketchCorp. Brisbane. It helps to grow and improve business performance over a long period of time. You’ll start to see rising returns throughout the years. It also means that you’ll be all the more dedicated to ensuring that your audience gets the right information, which then increases your quality score. This then helps to save money in the long run. You end up spending less to maintain the same results as before. It also provides savings that you could use to run other ads, which will boost your quality score more.

Digital Branding

Doing it Yourself or Phoning It In: How Should You do Website Maintenance?

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A great business website is not a one-off thing. You can’t just pour all your effort and resources into creating it once and hoping that it will perform at a high level continuously even if you don’t maintain it on a regular basis. In order to ensure that your website is doing its job when it comes to marketing your business, you need to perform regular website maintenance.

What is Website Maintenance?

Website maintenance is the process of regularly performing checks on your websites to monitor its performance, as well as making sure that the content is kept relevant and updated. Another key process of website maintenance is looking for any bugs in the website’s features and functionality. The main goal of website maintenance is to make sure that your website is healthy, performing properly, and there are continuous traffic and growth. It also ensures that your Google rankings are kept high.

Whether you have a small business or a large enterprise, keeping your website well-maintained is critical to ensuring that your business is healthy so that you can retain old customers as well as acquire new ones. While smaller businesses might get away with cutting a few corners here and there, this still does not mean that these companies can survive for long without proper website maintenance.

How Do I Conduct Proper Website Maintenance?

There is a list of tasks that you should perform on a regular basis in order to perform website maintenance properly. You can break these down into four time periods: weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.

Necessary Weekly Tasks:

  •       Backup and Update
  •       Check for Broken Links or Loading Errors
  •       Checking your Key Metric Performance

Necessary Monthly Tasks:

  •       Update Content
  •       Check loading speed
  •       Review security protocols

Necessary Quarterly Tasks

  •       Review and update website design and images
  •       Check SEO metrics
  •       Run some test purchases
  •       Test website on all possible browsers
  •       Review and update advertising and marketing campaigns

Necessary Yearly Tasks

  •       Renew the domain name
  •       Perform a thorough user utility test

Is Website Maintenance Really Important?

As you can see above, website maintenance is a process that grows on itself so you want to make sure that you always do each step properly to prevent future problems. Luckily for you, there are new tools that come out every year that allows you to perform website maintenance properly. However, you do need to invest the time and effort into learning how to use these tools correctly and efficiently achieve the results that you want.

Speaking of which, what results do you want to achieve?

High-ranking SEO results

Any website’s goal is to achieve a high Google ranking by using the latest SEO techniques. If you use the right SEO methods to increase your website’s ranking, Google will feature your website on the top of any related search inquiries. In a nutshell, Google rewards websites with updated and relevant information with high results and penalizes outdated or security-risk websites with lower search results. Your website might even get de-indexed if it falls to a low enough ranking!

Regular Customer Attraction and Engagement

Once your website has gained traction and is regularly receiving customer traffic, it’s now important to maintain the website in order to keep the current customers and attract new ones.  

Updated Security

This is arguably the most important reason to perform website maintenance, especially if you are running an e-commerce store. Since you will be handling sensitive information such as bank account and credit card numbers, you want to guarantee that your customers will remain safe from online threats such as data breaches and hacking.

Strong Business Brand and Image

If you invest in regular website maintenance, you will show your customers that you care about having a professional image. Customers often think websites that have a clean and professional design is likely to provide a better service.

How Much Will It Cost Me, or Can I Do it Myself?

            Now, the most important question: how much will website maintenance services cost me? It’s actually quite easy to calculate the actual cost of website maintenance services, but it’s not only a matter of whether or not you can afford the money. The more important question here is whether you can afford to perform website maintenance tasks by yourself.

            What does that mean?

            Well, think of it this way: if you have a leaky pipe at home, you might be thinking of fixing it yourself. If you have the proper tools and experience, you might want to fix the problem to save the cost of hiring a professional. However, if the problem is too complicated, you might be causing more damage by trying to fix it yourself!

            This is the same idea that you should apply when thinking of performing website maintenance yourself. If you have the experience and tools, you can perform website maintenance tasks yourself. However, if you don’t have experience in the latest SEO techniques, online security protocols, or updated website design trends, you should consider hiring a professional to do these tasks for you.

Digital Branding

4 Strategies to Build Brand Awareness for Your Ecommerce Business

In the digital world, when someone says “Apple,” you’re more likely to think of the brand that gave us the Mac, iPad, and Siri, instead of the fruit. 

That’s how effectively a brand name can leave a mark in our minds.

Now imagine having that kind of brand power for your ecommerce business.  

Although the journey to establishing a successful brand can be unique to each business, there are techniques you can use to get your brand to your target market successfully. 

In this post, let me share with you four strategies to build brand awareness for your ecommerce business. 

Let’s dive right in.

1. Share Your Brand Story

The concept behind why storytelling can be an excellent marketing technique is simple: people love hearing a success story. 

Your brand’s story gives your brand more depth and something your audience can connect with, which makes it an excellent element to add to your marketing efforts. 

For instance, technology company GoPro wrote on their website how the company founder Nick Woodman “started with a 35mm camera and a wrist strap made from old wetsuits and plastic scraps.” 

Now, the company has grown internationally and “has sold over 26 million GoPro cameras in more than 100 countries.”

Weaving this kind of narrative into your marketing strategy lets your audience “feel” the experience in your story, which helps build a connection and establish trust with them. 

When people trust your brand, they are more likely to come back, buy again, and tell other people about you. 

Your brand’s story can be anything. 

It can be a narrative of your product development journey, founder, or how the idea for your product was born as a solution to a problem.

People like hearing stories, and you can use that to your advantage with a narrative that gets your message and brand across to your target audiences.

2. Develop Your Brand Identity

Your product can leave a lasting impression on your customers even after they make the purchase and your brand identity shapes that impression.  

For instance, when someone mentions M&M’s, you’ll immediately think of those red and yellow button-shaped characters frequently shown in their commercials.

Through their iconic characters and marketing campaigns, M&M’s brand personality presents their product as fun, creative, and witty, plus, it’s something that people can easily relate with. 

There are plenty of ways to put a “face” to your brand, but one of the best ways to establish your identity is through your logo

If you’re on a tight budget, you can use online logo generators to help design your logo, or you can hire professional designers to do it for you.

Here’s a tip: If you want to tap into the creativity of the people on the internet, you can get your logo through design services such as LogoMyWay Designers.    

Through the service, you can run a logo design contest and select the best design of your choice. 

Your logo is also crucial for your other marketing efforts – such as using it for your ecommerce website and ads – since customers associate it with your brand and products. 

When designed appropriately, your logo can help you leave a good impression on your target audience, build trust with your potential customers, and ultimately lead them to buy. 

3. Create Interactive Content

In today’s digital age, there are many things to consider, such as building an effective business website, your customers’ needs, and the latest trends. 

More and more people prefer using visual mediums to communicate and interact. 

Thus, you need to shift your brand awareness strategies to cater to this kind of customer preference and improve how your customers interact with your brand.    

An excellent strategy to engage your target audience is through interactive content like videos.

With videos, you can create interactive and fun product demos that show your target audiences how to use your products and the benefits they can get.

For example, makeup brand FentyBeauty posts “Tutorial Tuesdays with Rihanna” on their YouTube channel, which shows viewers makeup looks that you can do with their products.

This is a great way to engage your target audience, offer them value that your products can give, and raise your brand awareness by giving them a unique experience with your brand.

Also, through videos, you can convey your message creatively and interactively that help make your target audiences feel like you’re talking to them personally, which helps you build a relationship with them.    

4. Run Social Media Contests

With social media, running a contest to boost your brand visibility can be easier now more than ever. 

Picture this.

You’re scrolling through Instagram to see what your favorite celebrities are up to and suddenly you find a post that asks viewers to “tag a friend” to win a contest. 

That got your attention, right?

From scrolling through your newsfeed, you’re suddenly interested in the brand, what the contest is all about, and what you can win.  

Now imagine applying that same strategy to your target audiences. 

With a social media contest, you can draw your target audience’s attention to your brand without being too promotional.  

It’s also a good marketing tactic because it offers the chance of getting value with the least amount of effort. 

After all, who wouldn’t want to win a contest just by sharing a post and tagging a friend, right?

You can use hashtags like #tagafriend for your social media contests, have the social media influencers your work with share the post, and run your it across your multiple social accounts.

That being said, social media contests can spread like wildfire, which makes them effective marketing tactics for your brand visibility throughout your social media accounts. 

If you want to target specific audiences or know the kind of content that they are looking for, you can use social media monitoring tools to improve your social marketing efforts.

Social media contests are also highly effective at creating user-generated content (UGC) from customers, which holds a lot of marketing power. In one study, consumers say they trust other people’s recommendations more than they believe in curated content by marketers.

That is why UGC is essential for any business’s marketing campaigns. Whenever you promote a new product or seasonal brand custom packaging, generate a buzz around it by organizing a social media contest where customers create content featuring the product.

What’s Next? 

Building your brand awareness for your ecommerce business requires more than just the strategies in this post. 

However, by employing these techniques, you are on the right track to raising your brand visibility, building trust with your target audience, and establishing relationships with your potential customers.