What is SEO & Why is it important ?

by | Jun 3, 2021 | Uncategorized

You’ve probably heard many times that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool, but do you know what SEO actually is and do you want to know more about SEO ?

SEO is made up of multiple different elements and best practices that help your website rank higher in search engine results, how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is significant because it makes your website more visible. However, although SEO once involved adding keywords to your site for search engines to find, SEO in 2018 is far more complex and involves a much broader scope of considerations.

Nowadays SEO is a full-time job for small businesses and many are turning to website design. Beyond that, it is also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your field. So without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about SEO and why it’s vital in today’s digital world.

The Crucial Elements of SEO

Keywords

Keywords are still the only SEO technique that mattered for a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still crucial. Keywords are still important nowadays. The difference is that today, keywords must be well-researched, carefully chosen and judiciously used in your content in order to be effective. But what are keywords, exactly? Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. For example, if you were looking to buy a new jacket, you might type something like “mens leather jacket” into Google. Even though that phrase consists of more than one word, it’s still a keyword. So, that’s an easy way to explain the keyword.

When researching keywords, it’s important to look for ones that have high search rate and low competition and to choose short-tail keywords (such as dog), long-tail keywords (such as terrier puppies for sale), and local keywords (such as puppies for sale in Boston) to work into your content. You can also use keywords to optimize all your titles, URLs, and other on-page SEO elements (more on that later).

Content

Content is a vital part of SEO because it’s the way you use to reach and engage more audiences. For instance, if you owned a nursery and wanted to increase your visibility, you might publish a series of blogs about gardening, choosing the right species of plants, growing tips, and more. When a person who wanted to know about gardening went looking for that information, your blog would come up and you’d be able to build a relationship with that prospect by providing valuable information. When the time came for that prospect to buy a plant, for instance, you’d be the first nursery that came to mind. Today’s content must be educational, but also interesting, relevant, engaging and shareable. Content comes in a variety of forms, such as:

  • Web page content
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • Infographics
  • Podcasts
  • Whitepapers and e-books
  • Social media posts
  • Local listings

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO involves external optimization practices that happen away from your site. The main technique used for off-page SEO is backlink building since quality backlinks to your site from external sites tell search engines that your site is valuable with high quality and this builds authority.

There are many tactics to backlink building and some of the current best practices include guest blogging, creating lots of infographics that will be highly shared and mentioning influencers in your content.

 

Local SEO

Local SEO is becoming increasingly important as more and more people search for something using their mobile devices. These days, 57% of all searches are performed from tablets and smartphones with half of those searches having local intent.

If you owned a restaurant, for instance, then local SEO would ensure that when people in your area went looking for the best restaurants in town, they’d come across your site. Along with using local keywords, other local SEO best practices include claiming directory listings, creating location-specific pages for your site, and creating pages for your business on Google My Business, Google+, and Google Maps.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to paid marketing efforts, and it includes things like native ads, Google AdWords, social media ads, pay-per-click, Google shopping ads, display ads, and more.

Although SEM isn’t usually a major component of a comprehensive SEO strategy, it does have its place because it can help you reach new and highly targeted audiences. 

SEM is Search engine marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engine marketing is also alternately referred to as paid search or pay per click (PPC).

Target Market 

SEO today is not about just grabbing as much traffic as possible, but instead attracting high-value visitors interested in what you offer.

In terms of demographics, what is your market searching for? How are they performing web searches? Where are they located?

The more specific your answers, the more valuable your investments in SEO become. Google Analytics is a good place to start your investigations !

Links to your site are extremely valuable

When another website links to yours, search engines consider that an indicator that your site contains valuable content. Not so long ago, getting dozens of links from low-quality sites was all it took to boost your ranking. Today, the value of a link to your site depends on the quality of the site that is linked to you. Just a few links to your business from high-traffic sites will do wonders for your ranking !

Understanding the Importance of SEO for Modern Businesses

Visibility and Rankings

One of the most important functions of SEO is increasing visibility, which means making it easier for prospects when they want to search something and they find you. Visibility is directly related to your ranking.

The higher you rank on a search engine result page (SERP), the more likely prospects are to see you and click through to your site. The more effective your SEO efforts, the higher your ranking and the better your visibility, which is especially important when you consider that a quarter of web users never click past the first SERP.

Web Traffic

Increased web traffic is one of the very important goals of SEO and you increase traffic when you increase visibility and rankings. Consider this for a moment: nearly 33% of clicks go to the first ranking page, and the first five listings get over 75% of all clicks.

If you want to find more prospects of your website through a search engine, then you need SEO practices that will help you rank among the top five positions and ideally number one.

Authority

 

The concept of authority is relatively new in SEO, but it’s becoming increasingly important to search engines because it’s becoming more important to web users. Essentially, authority means that your website is trustworthy, high quality, relevant and has something to offer for your target. The more authority your site has, the higher your ranking will be and the more prospects will come to trust your brand.

Creating a Better Visitor Experience

Another reason SEO is critical is because all the time you put into generating great content and optimizing your site with on-page SEO improves the usability of your site and this creates a positive customer experience.

For instance, when you take steps to make your site responsive, it will make it usable for all your mobile visitors as well as people who visit from a laptop or desktop. Similarly, by increasing your page load speed, you’ll reduce your bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend longer on your site. Nearly 50% of consumers expect a page to load within two seconds and the longer the load time, the higher the bounce rate and the lower your conversions.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, SEO is a complex undertaking that involves many different techniques, tactics, and best practices. Moreover, these best practices are always evolving as consumer and web-user behaviors change, as new technologies emerge and as search engines change their algorithms. That being said, SEO is still of the utmost importance for any business that wants to be visible online, so your efforts are well worth it.

This means you really can’t afford to approach each campaign individually. The most successful brands integrate all their campaigns that ensure there’s always something pushing their leads one step closer to converting into a customer.

5 Steps to Build A Digital Marketing Campaign

by | Jun 1, 2021 | Uncategorized

You need to take the steps to make sure you get the most out of your marketing campaign.

A digital marketing campaign involves the execution of a marketing strategy across all the digital channels where consumers engage with a brand, usually for the purpose of improving a company’s conversion rate. Digital marketing campaigns are much more dynamic and sustained than traditional, analog marketing methods. A digital marketing campaign involves a lot more than simply placing adverts for your business or brand around social media and other websites.

There is a constant or near-constant exchange of data between the business and the various online platforms on which they market. For example, an integral part of most digital marketing campaigns is SEO. But SEO is not something you can simply buy or implement with a single transaction. SEO is an ongoing process and in order to ensure that your score continues to rise and that your competitors don’t end up overtaking you with regards to your most important search terms, you need to be regularly examining data and evaluating your effectiveness.

Sticking to the following steps when you are devising your digital marketing campaign will ensure that you approach your marketing in a logical and efficient fashion, giving you the best possible chance of success.

1) Define your goals

To some people, this advice seems so glaringly obvious that you might wonder why we would include it at all. The reason is that, for many marketers, defining their goals at the very beginning is second nature. However, there are many people who are so eager to get into the nuts and bolts of their campaign that they don’t do the planning beforehand that is necessary for a focused approach.

There are a number of choices you will need to make when putting your marketing campaign together. Of course, you might be pursuing both goals.

The exact goals you pursue are entirely up to you. They will be decided, at least in part, by the current circumstances your business is in, but only you know what it is that you want to achieve for your business in the long term. However, the following goals are worth considering, even if they aren’t the primary focus of your campaign.

  • Brand awareness

A measure of how well-known your brand is among your target market. Through digital marketing and advertising efforts, positive associations around your brand grow in the consumer’s mind, sparking consumer interest, trust and loyalty – often even before the conversion takes place.

  • Social media followers

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. The major social media platforms (at the moment) are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.

  • SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

2) Identify Your Target Market

Knowing exactly who it is that you are trying to sell your products to is hugely important if you want to be able to use your resources more efficiently. Don’t worry how much budget you have, the more you know about the demographics that you are trying to reach, the more finely you can craft your marketing materials to appeal to them. This is a much more efficient approach than simply throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

You should begin to know who exactly is currently buying your products. Your current customer demographics may not be the same as the demographics that you most want to reach with your marketing. If you are looking to reach new audiences and expand your reach with your latest marketing campaign, you need to make sure that the new direction you are planning on heading in isn’t going to alienate your existing customers.

3) Define Personas

A persona is a detailed description of your ideal customer. This includes information such as their age, their occupation, their wealth and class status, their family situation  and any other variable that will determine how they are likely to spend their money. Whereas your target demographics are fairly broad, your persona should be defined in as much detail as possible. This often includes information about their hobbies, interests and personal lives. This kind of information is often omitted when considering broad target demographics.

4) Realistically Assess Your budget

One more important step that is often overlooked it warrants. Setting yourself a realistic budget is important for a number of reasons. First and foremost, your budget will serve as the primary restriction on what you can do with your marketing campaign and will also dictate how you allocate your resources. The good news is that digital marketing is cheaper than conventional marketing, meaning that the same resources will go further when you are using them in the digital space.

5) Take Advantage of Social Media

Social media is the most important marketing platform in the world today. The success or failure of your digital campaign may well ultimately hinge on how effectively you are able to utilize social media. Not only is social media a very important marketing platform in its own right, it also serves as a support for many other aspects of digital marketing, creating a powerful synergy.

There are a number of reasons why these two digital marketing aspects should be considered together, not least of all because social media will provide you with valuable insights and data which can be used to further improve your SEO score. Keeping a consistent message across your various marketing components is essential for ensuring maximum synergy between them. If you utilize your social media profiles to their fullest effect, they can provide you with the kind of data that you would normally have to pay a market research company a hefty sum to produce.

A strong digital marketing strategy is a successful business. While digital marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing methods, it is also a much more powerful tool. The only caveat is that it requires businesses to take a more considered and thoughtful approach when devising a campaign.

10 Advantages Between Digital Marketing And Traditional Marketing

by | May 26, 2021 | Uncategorized

10 Advantages Between Digital Marketing And Traditional Marketing

Marketing is the act of connecting with customers with a bid to convince them towards buying a product or subscribing to a service. While traditional marketing strategies such as print, radio, and television ads still hold some relevance in today’s retail era, digital marketing has completely changed the way companies in whatever form, is one of the key activities that every business must partake in, as no business can survive without effective marketing and publicity.

Despite growing trends and research indicating how successful digital marketing tactics are, there remains a subtle yet significant hesitancy for many business owners to commit and invest in online advertising. Digital marketing is any action carried out using any electronic media towards the promotion of goods and services. This is a primarily internet-based activity aimed at selling goods or providing services.

The world is in a digital age and millions of people spend so much of their time poking around digital platforms. Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of this fact and therefore leveraging the popularity of these platforms to promote their goods and services. Marketing is all about connecting with customers in the right place at the right time .

To help illustrate how digital marketing differs and triumphs over traditional marketing methods, let’s take a look at 10 advantages of digital marketing that will highlight how much more bang for your buck you can receive from these advertising services.

1 ) COST EFFECTIVE

  • Marketing and advertising cost is one of the biggest financial burdens that businesses have to bear. While big businesses may not have so much trouble doling out millions for marketing and advertising, for small businesses, this may be impossible or an unbearable nightmare.
  • Now the main difference between all of these costs is evaluating the overall bang for your buck. Only with digital marketing strategies will you be able to officially determine how many people you’re reaching, how many people you’re engaging with, and how many people became customers as a direct result of the marketing.
  • In addition, digital marketing tactics provide businesses with more control over costs. You can subscribe to an email marketing provider and send transactional or direct emails to thousands of customers on your mailing list.

2) EASY TO MEASURE 

  • Perhaps the biggest risk associated with traditional marketing methods is how murky and unclear it is to truly assess, measure, and alter, if necessary, your marketing strategies.
  • Email marketing software allows users to track the performance of their emails; they can know how many were delivered, how many were read, and learn all about their conversion rates. With so many analytics tools to choose from, digital marketing will help you monitor the performance of your online ads, allowing you to see impressions, engagement rate, cost per click, and many more insightful metrics.
  • The fact is that digital marketing makes evaluating and amending your marketing strategies so much easier.

3) EASY TO ADJUST 

  • The knowledge of the performance of an ad will inform a business on how to proceed. For an ad campaign that is performing well, it is easy to invest more in it with just a click. But for an ad that is not delivering as expected, it can be adjusted accordingly or stopped altogether with ease.
  • In traditional marketing, it is more rigid as a mountain of paperwork must be signed and in most cases, these agreements are on a long or medium-term basis. So even if a campaign is not performing as hoped, subscribers will still have to wait for the expiration of the agreed period.

4) BRAND DEVELOPMENT

  • Businesses can use their digital platforms to build their company’s brand and reputation. A well-developed website, a blog featuring quality and useful articles, a social media channel that is highly interactive are some of the ways by which a business can build its brand.

5) EASY TO SHARE 

  • Most digital marketing channels feature sharing capabilities that allow campaigns and articles to be shared with multiple followers. This helps to create a multiplier effect and has the capacity to tremendously improve sales results.

6) EASY TARGETING 

  • As previously mentioned, the ability to reach your target audience in a cost-effective and measurable way is arguably the biggest advantage digital marketing has over other traditional forms of marketing. Marketing over digital platforms, on the other hand, allows for targeted campaigning where ads are presented to customers based on their preferences or initial action.
  • Whether you’re reaching people who match your ideal customer with targeted advertising, keeping in touch with current customers, or showing up on search engine results for people who are actively looking for your products or services online, there are seemingly infinite ways to target your preferred customer base and ultimately convert consumers into customers.

7) GLOBAL

  • This is another dynamic where traditional marketing can’t compare to digital marketing. Unless you’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising. The world, they say, has turned into a global village. This has been made possible via digitization. Digital marketing allows ad campaigns to be visible in any part of the world.
  • This gives small start-ups the rare opportunity to go global via the immense exposure provided. The internet abounds with stories of start-ups that became hugely successful over a small period due to the opportunities created thanks to the global nature of marketing via digital platforms. With digital marketing, you can pinpoint the exact amount of people you’re targeting. But even without online ads.

8) SEGMENTATION

  • Not only does marketing over digital platforms allow campaigns to be targeted at specific customers, it also allows for customer segmentation. Segmentation is the process in which large customer groups are further broken down into smaller groups of customers according to a particular classification. Segmentation increases the chances of sales, as well as cut down on cost.
  • Take for instance, an e-commerce store that has launched new offers for women’s clothing. Using digital platforms, offering, for instance, email marketing solutions, allows the business to send emails to women alone. And if an offer is available only in certain regions, residents of given areas can be the only ones who will get the email.
  • For segmentation to work effectively, adequate information must be collected from subscribers.

9) GREATER ENGAGEMENT 

  • The cyber-world is getting noisier by the day, and any product or service that your business offers is most likely also being offered by thousands of other businesses. The average bounce rate on websites increased and the attention span of visitors is dropping. When visitors to a website do not immediately find what they are looking for, they leave for an alternative.
  • The key to staying relevant and keeping customers in this highly competitive business world is to ensure continuous engagement with your audience. Effective marketing allows businesses to stay competitive and relevant by engaging with customers through different digital media channels. These platforms allow businesses to answer customer questions, alleviate misconceptions, and even generate sales. This can be achieved via regular useful blog posts, newsletters, shows, promotions, and special offers.
  • The idea is to hold the attention of your customers for as long as possible while building a credible reputation.

10) HUGE RETURN AND INVESTMENT

  • Nothing matters more to a business than the return on the investment it makes. Digital marketing offers a substantial return on small investments. Email marketing or running advertising campaigns on social media platforms cost little when compared to traditional marketing techniques.

Digital marketing experts will be able to thoroughly analyze your current digital presence and recommend you the necessary marketing solutions to help your company thrive.

8 Benefits of Having a WhatsApp Marketing Strategy

by | May 18, 2021 | Uncategorized

8 Benefits of Having a WhatsApp Online Marketing Strategy

Here are the tips to use the world’s most popular chat app for a WhatsApp online marketing strategy that gets you to your marketing goals faster than before.

Already popular for personal use, WhatsApp changed the game with the launch of Whatsapp business – giving marketers the advantages to connect to all generations of instant messengers. Here’s what you need to know and do to your WhatsApp online marketing strategy for more success.

Why WhatsApp?

Thanks to its rich media sharing options and wide global adoption, WhatsApp is so much more than a messaging app. Users recognize its validity as a trusted new source, while Facebook continues to acknowledge it as a lucrative marketing tool.

8 Key benefits of adding WhatsApp to your online marketing strategy

1. A private and secure platform

Data misuse is no longer simply a concern. Customers are crying out for secure platforms. They’re tired of being lazy. WhatsApp is a safe app as it has established itself as a trusted platform that  doesn’t share information with third parties. Unlike other apps, it isn’t laden with ads, meaning customers look to it as a safe and private place to communicate regularly. 

Notably, whatsapp business  requires a business to verify each account, so customers can be assured that they are in contact with a verified company. 

2. Real-time customer service and support

It’s never been more important for businesses to make themselves available for customers to contact them in a comfortable and familiar way. WhatsApp Business messaging ticks all the boxes. It offers messaging that’s quick, efficient, and reliable on a platform used by many. 

With WhatsApp, alerts and updates can be received in real-time. Most importantly, any urgent questions that need answering can be answered in a timely manner.

 3. A highly engaging digital channel

WhatsApp Business messaging enables businesses to collect and analyze valuable consumer research.

Its features allow businesses to: 

  • Ask direct questions to their customers and gauge preferences
  • Send quick surveys and polls to get a better understanding of the demand for products, items, service levels, and more
  • Respond to individual queries in a more personal way

This increases engagement by letting users know that the business they’re interacting which isn’t constrained by a single channel of communication and that the customer’s time is valued.

4. A personal and trusted channel

Using WhatsApp allows businesses to get more personal and authentic with messaging. WhatsApp can be used to send personalized promotions, updates and more from a profile that is branded in line with the company’s guidelines.

Customers can also see when a business’ profile has been “confirmed” – this is similar to Twitter’s verified status – essentially providing a business with credibility and the customer with a sense of security.

5. Supports automation and FAQ

WhatsApp Business enables businesses to deliver faster customer service. When customers opt-in, businesses can directly contact users on their phones. This is significant when considering that 56% of people would rather contact customer services via messaging rather than over the phone.

The “quick replies” function on WhatsApp Business enables businesses to store and reuse useful and frequently sent messages to make sure the process of customer service is fast response.

This is useful for so many industries and their specific customer needs when it comes to instant responses. Consider the need for reactive responses to flight times, delivery and booking confirmations and bank transactions and how much easier it is to build a response from a template rather than from scratch every time. 

Brands can also use automation by setting up “away” messages during slow periods when it’s not possible to answer. This way, customers feel informed; they know when to expect a response and as a business it provides the chance to keep the customer satisfied.

6. Used by different demographics

Customers are much more likely to contact and interact with brands who are using their preferred platform. Although WhatsApp is mostly used by younger age groups, the functionality of the app makes it accessible to a wide age range. Companies are fighting for customers’ attention and businesses who can’t keep up risk being sidelined. WhatsApp gives customers an interactive platform to actively engage with businesses in real-time.

New generation were brought up relying on technology and as customers, they expect personalized communication from brands, especially online and via mobile. When used well, whatsapp enables companies to execute this kind of service perfectly. As a result, customer voices are easily heard. 

7. Unlocks valuable customer insight

With the messaging statistics feature on WhatsApp Business, it’s possible to gain valuable insights and measure success levels in new ways. Businesses can monitor the hours customers are most frequently active online and increase or decrease resources accordingly. Companies can also measure “messages seen” and status delivery, in order to implement and optimize for future conversations.

Features like “labels” allows a business to categorize contacts and various chat conversations in one place. Broadcast messages can then be sent to anyone tagged with that label. Overall, this can improve and even help expand reach. 

8. Provides creative engagement approaches

Tools can be used to organize and respond faster to messages or queries. An ideal way to capture customer attention is through different types of media. When sending messages, there are a wealth of options that enable businesses to send original and varying types of content via messaging from videos and photos to PDFs, gifs, and voice recordings.

A prime example is the function of QR codes. By adding one to printed promo materials, customers can easily scan them to be directed to an immediate instant message exchange with a business via the WhatsApp platform. 

Kick-start your WhatsApp online marketing strategy

Whatsapp business messaging  is a powerful and wide-reaching communication platform that can help you create meaningful connections with your customers. That’s why a WhatsApp online marketing strategy is a key part of your marketing, supporting your customer experience goals and helping to add value at critical moments in the customer journey.

Email Marketing Strategies

by | May 17, 2021 | Uncategorized

EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES

What is marketing strategies ?

An email marketing strategy is a set of procedures that a marketer identifies and follows to achieve desired marketing goals with email advertising. This plan of action gives the businesses a direct channel of communication with prospects and customers for brand promotion.

So here are the strategies for email marketing :

1) Build Your Own List

All you’re going to do by sending an unsolicited email is turn off most of the people you were hoping to turn into customers. However, you own your email list. No one can take those leads away from you.

2) Follow The Law

Email marketers must adhere to the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. These rules include having a non-deceptive subject line, providing a clear way to unsubscribe, and including your name and address at the end of the emails.

3) Mix Up Your Messages

Don’t just send out ads to buy all the time. Use your emails to build rapport with customers by sharing your expertise. Share information that lets them know more about you and your company.

4) Respect Your Subscribers

Treat your list well. Remember that the people you’re communicating with. they deserve your respect. If you want a chance to convert them from customers to fans, then make them feel special.

5) Follow a Schedule

Stick to a schedule if you’re doing newsletter. Sending out an email on the same day will help your subscribers know what to expect from you.

So, email marketing is a fully grown and well-used tactic for business promotion via emails. It is cost-effective, easily executed and gives a good impact on your campaigns. Email marketing does not replace your other marketing activities but compliments them extremely well.