The Search Marketing Expo took place in New York City last week and some seriously game-changing marketing stats were revealed. Stats we know will be useful in refueling your digital marketing efforts.
50% of Search Queries tend to be 4 Words or More
Gone are the days of a couple of buzzwords being typed into Google and marketers focusing optimizing these keywords. This shift means marketers should be communicating more with their support teams, the ones who field the questions not on your website, and find out what people are asking so you can make sure your marketing is answering these questions (and phrases) on your site.
97% of Leads Are Lost on Leaky Landing Pages
WordStream founder, Larry Kim, shared this jaw-dropping stat with attendees. It goes to show that traffic generation efforts are fruitless if visitors are just leaving, doesn’t it?
The solution? Call-only buttons. These are newer features that we’re seeing on Twitter, Facebook, and even Google AdWords. Instead of directing leads to your website, the idea is to direct them straight to you.
If you’re not convinced, check out the next stat.
Click-to-Call Commerce is set to Reach $1 Trillion in 2015 – and Double by 2019
The bottom line: if your search campaigns aren’t using click-to-call, or you’re not properly tracking those phone calls, you’re seriously missing out on the value they could be bringing your business.
It’s Become Twice as Hard to Get Ads Seen on Mobile SERPs
Digital strategies for the mobile landscape are a whole different playing field. What you need to be doing to get your ads seen on mobile SERPs is bidding up. Start focusing on high purchase intent keywords, specifically long-tailed queries. Also focus on emergency and purchase-type keywords such as “discount” and “buy.” Take those keywords and stick them in their own campaigns and get to work bidding up on mobile.
Don’t let poor mobile performance put you off. Revamp that strategy and save your lower-intent keywords for desktop digital campaigns where you’re more likely to gain profitable visibility.
Over 86% of Our Time on Our Phones is Spent within Apps
Once you get a lead to download your app, the chances of converting them, or keeping consumers coming back, can increase drastically. Let’s think about it. If you get someone to utilize your app, that’s a direct marketing channel to them and massive opportunity to build long-term brand loyalists and customers.
So it’s time to make marketing your company’s app high priority. Perhaps even more so than mobile. Create a strategy that will get more app traffic through Twitter Cards, Facebook App links and Google App Index.
All Sounds a Little Daunting?
If you need help with your digital marketing strategy, give Millennium a call at 1-877-873-7445 or feel free to send me, Kyle Mallinger, an email at [email protected] or find me on Twitter.
Have you been sitting staring at your website lately thinking it’s time for a refresh? Redesigning a website is pretty similar to remodeling a room at home. It’s not only about a quick coat of paint, it’s about all the pieces that work together to create the perfect ambience.
It’s the same for a website redesign. You can’t just fill in a couple of fresh colors. You need to think about all the components of your site.
Before you start adding new features, you need to be prepared for potential issues. This is where you cover the valuables and lay down the tarp. If you don’t, you’re going to regret the mess later on.
So before you start tinkering with coding, step back and start right at the beginning to avoid these 3 website design mistakes.
Mistake #1: No Strategy or Goals
Starting a new project is exciting, right? You want to hit the ground running, the ideas and images are overflowing in your mind and you want to make it a reality, but stop just for a minute.
A gung-ho attitude isn’t going to help here; you need to start by setting out goals. SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound) goals. This will help you to determine what your site needs to achieve.
For instance, let’s say your goal is to gain 20% more contacts in the next quarter. That affects your redesign in that you’ll need to plan for more calls to action, landing pages, and forms. But if you don’t set out those goals, you won’t realize that.
Mistake #2: Not Basing Your Decisions on Numbers
Bad news: a website redesign involves math.
Yes, of course there’s heaps of creativity that go into a redesign, too, but data and analytics are at the heart of it all. Since goals drive your redesign, it is important to know your site metrics. Before even starting the redesign, you need to use data to assess what has and hasn’t been working.
Neglecting analytics presents two problems: you risk changing things that are working exceptionally well and you risk holding on to badly performing elements.
Mistake #3: Keeping Your Content
Remember when you first designed your website, or last updated it? You probably spent hours upon hours crafting cool phrases and relevant information to display on your pages. As great as that content is, you can’t hold onto it forever.
Since you’ll be changing your format, structure and design, it makes sense to change your content. You may want to place more emphasis on videos and illustrations, for example.
Speaking of content, we’re not just referring to the basic website pages. Your overall content strategy – including blogging and providing helpful, relevant information – should also adapt to the redesign. You should be boasting premium content on every page, so if you add new pages, you may need new top-quality content.
Are You Up for the Challenge?
These are just 3 key challenges you face with a website redesign. Knowing what you’re up against is half the battle. If you’re ready to maneuver these obstacles and create an incredible site for your business, give Millennium a call at 1-877-873-7445 or shoot me, Mark Dingman, an email at [email protected]. I also love a good Twitter conversation so find me online at @MRDingman.
Have you just discovered that your reputation management strategy is a major turn off to your critics and customers? Wondering how to respond? Should you fire back, get angry, censor comments, ignore the situation entirely or just let it all play out?
These are some of the questions marketers are faced with these days. With more consumers going online to share exactly what they think of brands and companies, it’s become increasingly difficult to capture every single thing that’s being shared.
As someone who is responsible for online reputation management, doesn’t it make you wonder just how many other channels are out there for customers and critics to share opinions on? Do you know what people are saying about your brand? Do you have a plan for responding to feedback?
If your answers are no, here are the hacks for improving your online reputation.
1. You Have to Cover Your Assets
The first step is to know exactly where you are online. The next step is coming up with a plan to use those assets to suit you.
Online reputation management today calls for a lot more than looking after a website. You need to be leveraging your social media channels as a way of attracting, engaging, and encouraging positive feedback.
2. It’s A Lot About Letting Go
You’re in control of where you’re present, what you post, and how you respond to comments. So be sure that your online approach is aligned and consistent for every platform. While it’s near impossible to censor every negative comment you have online, try to respond appropriately and consistently when you do come across negative feedback.
3. Rules of Engagement
It’s always a good idea to have influencers in your corner when issues arise. Take time to build and cultivate relationships online and you’ll be setting yourself up with an army who will assist you with approaching any issues if and when it happens.
4. Is It Time to Rethink Your Strategy?
If your approach to reputation management has not involved planning for or talking about negative feedback, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Managing your company reputation head on shows you really have listened and that there aren’t any off-limit subjects.
5. Don’t Get Negative!
If you counteract negativity with negativity, you’re going to have a disaster. Instead, take a positive approach. If you feel a formal response is in order, keep that positive outlook and show you’re open to feedback and happy to address comments head on.
6. There’s No Mistakes, Only Avoidances
Learning from a mistake is key to improving your reputation management strategy. Maybe you’ve previously responded negatively to negative feedback. Avoid making the same mistake and come up with a plan for addressing issues and offering positive insight.
7. Keep Monitoring
Ongoing monitoring of your reputation is crucial for protecting your online assets. Try implementing cost effective solutions that will allow you to monitor issues in real-time for quicker responses. Not only is it important to monitor your brand mane, but also your company, products, services and even the key executive’s online reputation.
Sometimes you just need a good sounding board for helping plan the best approach. Luckily, we have extensive experience in the area of reputation management and are always up for a chat. Feel free to give me, Jessica Chabot, a call at 1-877-873-7445, reach out on Twitter, or email me at [email protected] to learn more about how to plan for putting the best version of your brand out there.
You’ve just started a business and you want to grow it quickly, but you have no idea where to start.
Before you even begin considering scaling your new business, it is vital that you have something people will get excited about, something they will be willing to pay for.
But you probably know that already, so let’s look at what your marketing strategy should be incorporating to attract and retain consumers. Here are 3 marketing strategy tips for startups:
1. Inbound and Content
Let’s say you’ve recently started a company that is hard at work building a solution to a specific problem that you’ve identified within your niche. It’s time to start writing about it. No doubt as you begin writing your passion and expertise will shine through and the result will be great content that drives lead generation.
Start engaging on Twitter, answering questions on Quora and begin hanging out online wherever your particular buyer personas can be found. Focus on adding value to conversations and highlight premium content that is going to convert visitors into paying customers right at the top of the funnel.
One particular technique that has proved popular is to write about your growth process with transparency. This can foster a good amount of engagement with your audience.
Investing time and budget in quality content will allow you to attract the right traffic and drive engagement while enjoying compounding returns over time.
2. Product Marketing
As your audience grows, concentrate on removing barriers as you strive to improve the customer experience. Now that you have your prospect’s attention, start converting them and showing them the value of your offerings. Show them just how much better life will be when they buy your products or services.
Be sure to lay out a clear value proposition and conversion path in your marketing strategy. Offer something for free, such as a demo or trial so you can demonstrate the significance of your offering.
3. Evangelism
Growth and referrals via word of mouth are some of the best ways to increase turnover, create second-order revenue and accelerate growth while lowering customer acquisition costs.
Every single customer is a marketing opportunity. Strive to go above and beyond the customer service experience and people are far more likely to recommend you.
By using these tactics in your marketing strategy, you will gain an established inbound lead speed and will be better positioned to calculate foreseeable revenue growth.
Growing Your Business
This can all feel pretty daunting, but growing your business is a task where your new we’ll orchestrated sales engine and marketing strategy will continue to pay dividends.
To learn more about marketing strategies and growing a business feel free to contact me, Linda Fanaras, at 877-873-7445 or via email at [email protected]. You can also strike up a conversation with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.