Inbound Marketing Blog

Let’s talk reputation management. Did you know that:

1. 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people between the ages of 18-34)
2. Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before feeling able to trust a local business
3. 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the last two weeks
4. 57% of consumers will only go with a business if it has 4 or more stars
5. 91% of 18-34 year old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
6. 89% of consumers read businesses’ responses to reviews

Let that information all sink in. Reread it if you have to. Those are real stats from BrightLocal’s 2018 Local Consumer Review Survey. These statistics were specifically compiled to help local businesses develop their online reputation management strategy for 2019.

If you’re a small business, negative reviews on Google can be especially devastating, and you can’t afford to ignore a bad Google review. If you haven’t been paying attention to your Google reviews, it’s time to wake up and take the wheel. If you don’t have time for reputation management, well, that’s what we are here for. But assuming you do, here are some tips to ensure your Google reviews are a more accurate representation of your business.

Wow, it’s been quite a year for businesses in every industry to keep up with all the changes in Google’s search algorithm. Instead of a single 2018 massive update from Google, it has been a constant barrage of changes throughout the entire year. Google has done an excellent job of keeping everyone on their toes.

Remember the days of needing a college email address in order to be verified to sign up for Facebook?

As the kids say, "lol!"

Now, according to Hubspot, there are reportedly over 1.5 billion daily users on the social media platform. Because so many people are on it, so are most businesses so they can get their products in front of more users. 

2018 is almost over and, even though a handful of companies started planning their 2019 marketing strategies during Q2 or Q3, it's better late than never! Here are five marketing questions for your company to review before the new year:

If you’ve read a few blog post on our website, you’ve probably seen links for our free self-assessment. (And if you haven’t read a few blogs, you should. Really. They’re pretty good.)

Amazon, that online bookstore that started in 1994, is now a formidable player in the digital advertising world. How and when did this happen?

Using pay-per-click is a great way to support your organic search engine marketing efforts and focus on keywords and topics that might be harder to rank for due to competition or if you are trying to attract visitors to a specific offer or event. That being said, it can be downright frustrating to determine how much of your marketing budget you should commit to any specific PPC campaign, because unlike companies like Google, Amazon, or Facebook, chances are, you don't have unlimited funds.

What is the best way to set budgets for ad spend and allocate specific amounts for individual campaigns?

It's easier than you think.

We'll give it to you straight- the success of a website development strategy meeting depends mostly on YOU. How you respond to and work alongside teams will greatly affect the tone, efficiency, productivity and overall results that come from the meeting. However, there are some other aspects to take into account as well, which we'll cover in this blog.

Google+ (also known as Google Plus), has always been the red-headed stepchild of social media. Google’s attempt to compete with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is finally calling it quits effective April 2019.

There has been a dramatic uptick in turmoil at Facebook in 2018 and the couple years previous, thanks to coordinated misinformation campaigns by foreign and domestic players alike, misuse of improperly collected information through Facebook’s third-party apps, and now the mass data breach that has affected over 50 million users.

You would think that Facebook accounts would be closing left and right, but that’s not the case.