Marketing has always had concepts that remain relevant throughout the years, but it's also constantly changing as technology advances and buyer shopping habits and methods change. As trends, the economy, consumer preferences, and other factors change, marketers have to consistently take a proactive approach if they want to see conversions.
If you have a website, you likely understand the struggle to best optimize it to maximize sales-qualified traffic and increase conversions. It is essential that you not only understand how your users find your website but also how users are currently using and navigating your website so that you can make the necessary changes to increase your conversions and create a better user experience.
Keywords have traditionally been the focus of Google and other search engines since the mid-nineties. So after twenty-plus years of focusing search engine optimization efforts around a short list of keywords to work on and rank for, times have changed. With updated Google algorithms, the focus is no longer just on keywords, although those are still relevant. The greater focus is on topics that answer the questions that users are searching for via desktop computers, mobile devices, and voice command devices. Let's delve into what this change means for you.
With a social media platform for every niche, just about everyone is on social media in some form or another these days. So, it makes sense that you would want your business to take advantage of these worldwide mass audiences, right? Sure, you could create a page on Facebook and cross your fingers. But that isn’t going to do you any favors if your target audience isn’t there. It’s all about knowing your buyer personas and honing in on your best prospects. (If you're not sure who your buyer personas are, you can use our Buyer Persona Worksheets to figure that out first!)
To eliminate some of the guess work, we have created a handy infographic that breaks down the data on who is using which social media platform to help you pinpoint which one may be right for your business.
Pillar content is taking the web marketing world by storm. When we discovered that it not only created helpful information for potential clients but that it also had immense benefits for SEO purposes, we had to start implementing it. The results we’ve seen for clients have been astonishing (you can see one example of pillar content strategy here).
Let’s be honest, there are a myriad of tools floating around that can help you create some pretty amazing videos and graphics for your social media accounts. The caveat is that most are not free, and for a company or individual who is looking to create compelling videos and graphics without having to spend a lot of money doing so, this journey can be frustrating.
When I began blogging, I took the approach of purely factual and informative writing. Can I be honest? It was boring to write, and even more boring to read. Nobody cares to read blogs that are full of information and lack the human touch. Information is important, sure. However, it's how you present that information that determines its success. If you're looking to engage your audience more than you currently are, you've come to the right place.
You and Google have something in common: you both love fresh, quality content that is full of substance, easily digestible, and relevant. Google wants content that speaks to the reader, not at the reader; and believe me when I say they know the difference. Google's algorithms are so much more advanced than they were even a couple of years ago.
I don’t know about you, but I like to check out several companies (online and in person) when searching for a particular product or service. If time permits, I could be searching for several hours. Researching is always my go-to when I'm on the hunt for something specific. You wouldn't believe the time my husband and I recently put into finding a new mattress. In our search, there were a few factors that really swayed us in our decision. Quality of the product and how it solved our needs were obviously the top two. But the third factor had to do with the companies themselves. Our online experience with each company played a huge part in determining which stores we actually wanted to take time to go to in order to try the mattresses. Let me tell you, there were a lot of brands we dismissed right away. Maybe their product WAS as great as they tried to market it to be, but the experience we had on their websites and the reviews they had floating around swayed our minds away from doing business with them. Why was that?
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the more times you connect with your customers, the more likely they are to remember you and choose your company's product and/or services over a competitor.
In marketing, the official term is called ‘touches’ – an instance where your customers see or interact with your company.
When it comes to customer delight [see the Four Actions of Inbound], 'touches' can go a long way. According to Stacy Willis on iMPACT, "When expectations are met, you have customer satisfaction. When expectations are exceeded, you achieve customer delight. How do you get there? By being human. Listen to your customer and their needs."
Studies have shown that it takes at least 7 or more touches to generate a person’s interest.
So, how do you make sure you interact with customers in an engaging way and often enough so that your company becomes memorable without you spending a fortune trying to do so?
