Customer Churn: What is it and How Can You Avoid It? Posted on August 18, 2022August 18, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick There’s an easy way to explain customer churn: it’s when your customers stop buying from you. Depending on the nature of your company, when a customer stops doing business with you, this can mean canceling their account or subscription, failing to renew a contract, or choosing a competitor for their new needs. With a recession looming, customer churn can be an even bigger nightmare than normal. Customer churn is not good for your company. No matter how you look at it, if you want to grow your business, the number of new customers you bring on each month needs to exceed your churn rate. So, if you bring on new customers every month that grow your client list at a rate of 20%, but your churn rate is higher than 20%, then you’re likely burning money on expensive marketing acquisition channels that aren’t growing your business. Right now, as our economy seems very uncertain, beating customer churn is an absolue must. We’ll dive into everything you need to know about customer churn and how you can prevent it. What is Customer Churn Rate? Customer churn rate is the percentage of customers lost during a certain period. The lower your customer churn rate, the better. A low churn rate means customers are sticking with your brand. This means that you won’t need to spend as much time and energy trying to acquire and maintain new customers. Your churn rate can also give you valuable business insights. It can help indicate if your customers are happy with your product or service, if you’re charging too much, or if there’s another reason customers are leaving your brand. Why is Customer Churn Bad? Customer churn is bad because it means you’re losing customers instead of keeping them. Granted, some customer churn is expected and even unavoidable. Some customers might no longer need your services, and others might not be able to afford the product anymore. And some might simply have changed their minds. But too much customer churn – or churn for the wrong reasons – can be detrimental and costly to your business. Here are a few reasons customer churn can be harmful: Fewer customers mean less revenue. Acquiring new customers is costly. It’s more cost-effective to keep your current customers. Unsatisfied customers won’t refer others to your business. Your product, service, or brand might not be meeting market demand. How to Calculate Customer Churn Rate You can calculate customer churn rate by taking the number of customers who left your business in a given period, dividing it by your total number of customers, then multiplying it by 100. Customer Churn Rate Formula Number of churned customers / total number of customers x 100 Example 1 If you were to lose 10 of your 100 customers in a given month, your customer churn rate would be 10%. Example 2 Your company had 12,300 customers at the beginning of March. 1,100 customers left your business by the end of March. 1,100 divided by 12,300 multiplied by 100 equals an 8.94% churn rate. Churn Rate and Attrition Rate Before moving on, let’s address the elephant in the room. As we all know, there can be a lot of business and marketing terms out there that essentially describe the same thing. You may have heard churn rate and attribution rate thrown around interchangeably. Like churn rate, attribution rate is also the number of customers lost over a period of time. Your attrition rate can be calculated in a few different ways: Total number of customers lost during a specific timeframe Percentage of customers lost during a specific timeframe Recurring business value lost Percentage of recurring value lost Essentially, the terms mean the same thing. Average Churn Rate By Industry It can be hard to know what a good or bad rate of attrition is. If you want to remain competitive, it doesn’t hurt to know the average churn rate for your industry. You can always check your churn rate against the industry average to determine if you’re below or above the curve. WordStream and Statista have gathered some online data on churn rates that will help give you a better idea of what you can expect in certain industries: Online retail – 22% Telecom companies – 21% General retail – 24% Financial – 25% Travel – 18% SaaS – 5-7% Customer Churn Compared to Customer Retention Customer churn is the percentage of customers who leave your brand, while customer retention is the percentage of customers who stay. Low churn and high retention rates tend to mean your customers are happy with your service. If you’re lucky enough to be in that position, congrats! It’s no easy feat. By looking at your churn and retention rates over time, you can notice customer trends and make key adjustments. Why are people leaving your brand? At what point in the customer lifecycle are they leaving? Knowing these answers can lead to a stronger, more long-lasting period of business growth. Maintaining stable churn and retention rates can also help you: Predict revenue Plan staffing levels Focus your strategic planning efforts Give your time and budget towards innovating How to Prevent Customer Churn Since it’s important to keep your churn rate down, it’s also important to understand how to prevent churn. Thankfully churn can be prevented through some really easy strategies that your business can implement with little to no cost. Here are our favorite four ways to prevent customer churn: 1. Talk to Your Customers About Why They Left The best way to understand why your customers are churning is to talk to them. You can try sending a survey that might not get opened or responded to, or you can go straight to the source by calling your customers and having an honest, open conversation about why they left. The feedback might be harsh and hard to take, but at least you’ll get to the root of the problem. 2. Make A Great First Impression Much like meeting someone in person for the first time, first impressions are everything. Follow your customer journey from the moment they find you online until the close of the sale and/or delivery of the product or service to ensure that there is a seamless, awesome experience throughout. If you follow the customer journey yourself and test it all the time, you’ll find the little bumps and iron them out before they affect too many customers. 3. Educate Your Customers Through Content Create a ton of great educational content your customers can easily access that will help them with onboarding, training, and troubleshooting. If you continually ensure your customers are content and informed, they will be less likely to leave when they’re confused or when things go wrong. You can easily offer educational content in the form of free training webinars, product demos, FAQs, screencasts, and video tutorials. 4. Build an Omnichannel Customer Experience Omnichannel customer experience is part of an excellent customer service strategy. You need to ensure that your business doesn’t just have a bunch of channels established that don’t have a cohesive brand story, message, or experience across all of them. Since mobile phones are at our fingertips, customers regularly switch between using the phone, email, text, and social media. An omnichannel customer experience makes sure that your customers have a seamless, consistent experience across all channels and that a rep understands every conversation that happens across each. Repeating a problem to multiple reps is often a frustrating aspect of dealing with customer service departments, so it’s key to ensure all channels are represented with your customer service software and agents, keeping your whole service team on the same page. 5. Don’t Stop Nurturing After the Sale It’s hard work to bring in new leads month after month. So, once those new leads become customers, it can feel like the work is done – but that’s not true. Staying top-of-mind with customers is just as valuable as staying top-of-mind with prospects. Marketing automation software can help you to continue relevant conversations with customers well after their initial purchase. Onboarding campaigns, cross-sell and upsell emails, and monthly check-ins can be easily automated and keep your customers coming back, whether to renew, solve a looming issue, upgrade, or make a new purchase. By understanding your customer churn rate and how to lower it, you’ll be poised for business success. Utilize these tips to keep your customers around and prevent churn, and your customers will be more loyal to your business. Plus, you’ll be happy not to be spending unnecessary dollars acquiring new customers to urgently replace those who leave.
How to Do Social Testing For a Results-Oriented Social Media Strategy Posted on August 17, 2022August 17, 2022 by Guest Author Picture this. You’re running through your social media strategy with the leadership team and ready to launch. But one big question still needs to be answered: how do you know if your social media strategy will actually work? You could, of course, go for the tried-and-true method of throwing your social media report against the wall and seeing if it sticks. But in this day and age, there’s a better way to test your social media strategy before you launch it. This process is called social testing. Not sure what social testing is or how to do it? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. We’re giving you the 411 on social testing and how to do it for a results-oriented social media strategy. So grab a nice cup of coffee (or tea, we don’t judge) for yourself, and let’s get started. What Is Social Testing? In short, social testing is the process of trying out your social media content and strategies before you publicly launch them. It is done by creating test groups of target audiences and exposing them to your content in a controlled environment. After observing how they react, you can then make changes to your content or strategy before launching it to your entire audience. Let’s say you work for a cloud computing company. You’re ready to launch a social media campaign about the benefits of cloud computing for retail and hospitality businesses. But before you do, you want to make sure that your content will resonate with your target audience. You could put out your campaign and hope you get enough engagement to justify the time and effort you put into it, or you could create a test group and see how they react to your content before you launch it. Social testing can you help discover: How your target audience engages with your content What kind of messaging resonates most with your target audience What type of content format works best with your target audience How to distribute your content effectively When is the best time to post for your target audience Advantages of Social Testing So, now you know what social testing is and how it can help you fine-tune your social media strategy before launch. But what are the other advantages of social testing? We’re glad you asked. There are a number of marketing challenges social testing can help to overcome. This includes: You Can Avoid Potential PR Disasters We all know that social media moves quickly. And when you’re trying to appeal to a broad audience, there’s always the risk of saying something that will rub people the wrong way. For example, Pepsi’s political protest ad was met with widespread criticism and caused the company to pull the ad and issue an apology. Social testing can help you avoid these kinds of PR disasters by allowing you to test your content with a small group of people before you launch it to your entire audience. This way, if there are any potential red flags, you can catch them before they cause a major issue. For example, let’s say you’re a marketing team based in the United States, but you’re putting out a campaign on the signature definition law in Canada. Your team may not be familiar with Canadian culture and customs, so there’s a risk that your content could come across as tone-deaf or offensive. But if you social test your content with a Canadian test group first, you can get feedback on how your content is being received and make changes before it goes live. You Can Save Time and Money Social testing can also help you save time and money in the long run. How? By helping you avoid costly mistakes that could set your social media strategy back. For example, let’s say you want to launch a social media campaign targeting app owners. You want to show them the benefits of your software that can help them monitor the applause digital users have for their app. So you create a campaign and start promoting it on social media. But after a few weeks, you realize you’re not getting the engagement or conversions you were hoping for. You learn the content wasn’t simplistic enough for your target audience or that the timing of your posts was off. If you had social tested your content before, you would have saved yourself time and money by launching a more effective campaign from the start. You Can Test Different Content Formats Social testing is also a great way to test different content formats to see which ones work best with your target audience. For example, if you’re not sure whether a blog post or an infographic would be more effective in reaching your target audience, you could create both and social test them to see which one gets more engagement. You can also test different content formats within the same social test. For example, if you’re testing through Facebook ads, you could create two versions of the ad – one with a blog post link and one with an infographic – and see which one performs better. This way, you can learn which content formats are most effective with your target audience and use that information to inform your future social media strategy. Types of Social Tests A/B Testing A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a type of social test where you compare two different versions of content to see which one performs better. For example, let’s say you’re performing app store a/b testing to see which version of your app’s explainer video performs better – version A with a male voiceover or version B with a female voiceover. To do this, you would create two versions of the video and post them on social media. You would then track the engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.) of each video to see which one performed better. Once you have your results, you will then use that information to inform your future video content strategy. Here are some more examples of some A/B tests you could run on social: Posting time: Are you getting more engagement when you post in the morning or evening? Image vs. video: Do images or videos perform better on your social channels? Hashtags: Which hashtags should you be using to reach your target audience? Length of content: Does longer or shorter content perform better on longer? Multivariate Testing Image Source Multivariate testing is a type of social test where you test multiple versions of content at the same time. For example, let’s say you’re testing three different versions of content on Instagram – version A will be an Instagram story to generate brand awareness, version B will be an image post, and version C will be a video post. To do this, you would create all three versions of the content and post them on Instagram at the same time. You would then track the engagement of each piece of content to see which one performed the best. Once you have your results, you can use that information to inform your future social media strategy. Here are some more examples of multivariate tests you could run on social: Images: Which type of image performs better- a product image, an infographic, or a meme? Videos: Which type of video performs better- a live stream, a recorded video, or a GIF? Copy: Which type of copy performs better- long-form copy, short-form copy, or emojis? CTA: Which type of call-to-action (CTA) performs better- “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up?” How to Run a Test on Your Social Media Strategy Let’s take a look at how you can run a test on your social media strategy. This can be done in five simple steps: Choose Your Social Test We’ve just run you through two of the most popular social tests – A/B testing and multivariate testing. So, which one should you choose? It all depends on your goals and what you’re trying to test. If you’re looking to test one variable at a time, then A/B testing is the way to go. However, if you’re looking to test multiple variables at the same time, then multivariate testing is the way to go. Remember, you can also test more than one variable at a time with A/B testing; you would just need to run multiple tests. For example, you could test posting times in one A/B test and content types in another. Determine Your Tests’ Goals The next step is to determine your test goals. What are you trying to achieve with this social test? Do you want to increase engagement? Drive traffic to your website? Boost sales? Once you know your goals, you can develop your hypothesis. Develop Your Hypothesis Your hypothesis is what you think will happen due to your social test. For example, suppose you’re testing whether posting in the morning or evening gets more engagement. In that case, your hypothesis might be, “I think posting in the morning will get more engagement because people are more likely to be online at that time.” Execute Your Test Once you’ve developed your hypothesis, it’s time to execute your test. This is where you will actually run your A/B test or multivariate test. Remember to track the results of your test so you can analyze them later. Analyze Your Results and Develop New Ideas Once your test is complete, it’s time to analyze the results. What did you learn from your test? Did your hypothesis hold true? If not, what new ideas or next steps did you develop as a result of your test? Testing is an important part of any social media strategy. You can learn what works best for your business and your audience by testing different aspects of your social media content. So don’t be afraid to experiment – social testing can help you take your social media strategy to the next level! Where Can I Run a Social Test? There are a number of different platforms you can use to track your social media tests. Here are a few of our favorites: Facebook Ad Manager Facebook’s Ad Manager is a great tool for running social tests. With Ad Manager, you can create and track different versions of your ads to see which ones perform the best. Hootsuite Insights Hootsuite’s Insights platform allows you to track your social media performance and run social tests. With Insights, you can track your tests’ results and develop new ideas for your social media strategy. Sprout Social Sprout’s social media platform includes a number of features for running social tests. With Sprout, you can track your test results and develop new ideas for your social media strategy. Performance marketing software can also be used to track social media tests. With our software, you can understand what your customers want, when they want it, and deliver what they need with personalized automation. The Takeaway So there you have it—our complete guide to social testing. By following these steps, you can develop a results-oriented social media strategy that is based on data and experimentation and create more personalized marketing strategies. So what are you waiting for? Start social testing today! Author Bio Emily Rollwitz is a Content Marketing Executive at Global App Testing, a remote and on-demand app testing company helping QA testing companies deliver high-quality software, anywhere in the world. She has five years of experience as a marketer, spearheading lead generation campaigns and events that propel top-notch brand performance. Handling marketing of various brands, Emily has also developed a great pulse in creating fresh and engaging content. She’s written for great websites like Airdroid and Shift4Shop. You can find her on LinkedIn.
How SEO Plays a Part in Each of Your Marketing Channels Posted on August 12, 2022November 18, 2022 by Allie Wolff There’s a running joke among content marketers, and it goes like this: Where’s the best place to hide a dead body? The answer: The second page of Google! And, as with all jokes, there’s an element of truth to this statement. Research shows that 75% of people never venture onto the second page of search engine results. Why is this important? You want to be on that first page. It is, after all, rule number one of marketing: always make yourself seen, known, and trusted. So, you’re probably wondering, “How can I get onto the first page of Google?” Well, we’re glad you asked. Before you hire an SEO company, check out the different marketing channels that can help you rank and the role SEO plays in each of these mediums. Content Marketing Content marketing is when a company creates and distributes content that is both valuable and relevant to its audience on a consistent schedule. According to SemRush, 84% of enterprises have a content marketing strategy plan in place. A sound content marketing strategy will aid in boosting brand awareness and generating higher quality traffic. It’s a profitable marketing tool. If you’re keen to get started, you could consider interviews, ebooks, webinars, and roundups. Content is a key player in your digital marketing strategy. Therefore, SEO is a huge component of whether or not your content gets seen by the right people. In order for your content to get exposure and interest, it needs to be created with your keywords in mind. Your keywords are essentially the terms and phrases your audience uses when searching for solutions online. By creating content around these key terms, you’re laying the foundation of a strong SEO strategy and showing your audience you’re knowledgeable regarding the topics most relevant to their needs. Now, let’s dive into a few specific components of content marketing and how SEO plays a role in each. Blog Posts Blog posts are the backbone of your content marketing, and SEO blog posts are like a belt and buckle. The two fit together. Of all SEO strategies, blogging is undoubtedly the easiest to start with. Blog posts offer a host of benefits: Companies that blog generate more leads on average each month than those that do not. Businesses that use blogging as a marketing tool enjoy an ROI that’s higher than businesses without active blogs. Updating your old blog posts will increase your organic traffic. Prioritizing SEO is step one when creating blog content. You’ll want to first pinpoint your most important keywords and start by creating pillar posts for each. These are essentially lengthy, in-depth blog posts that dive into specific topics. Once these pillar posts are created, you’ll want to routinely link back to them using their designated key terms as the anchor text, which will help boost their SEO over time. Guest Articles/Backlink Strategy While blog posts are the owned media component of your content marketing, guest articles are the earned media component. Placement isn’t a guarantee; it’s earned through credibility, and rightfully so. Guest articles can bring you qualified traffic, motivated leads, authority, relevant links, and potential sales. There’s a reason they are perceived as one of the leading inbound marketing strategies around. Becoming a guest contributor means you can craft articles that provide readers with new opinions and expertise while positioning yourself as an industry leader. And since the goal is to place this content on high-quality sites your audience reads, they also provide you with an opportunity to build up your backlink strategy by linking to your pillar posts when possible. One of the core metrics that search engine algorithms consider when trying to rank your website is backlinks. Backlinks can be seen as virtual votes of confidence from other sites; however, the idea isn’t to get links placed anywhere you can. You want to focus on getting good-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. Aside from adding backlinks to your guest articles, here are a couple of backlinking strategies you can adopt for your own SEO campaigns: Exchange links with other sites Reach out to influencers who might share your content Write excellent content and conduct data reports that grab the attention of others and inspire them to share it LinkedIn and Slideshare If you’re a B2B marketer, you’ll definitely want to incorporate LinkedIn and Slideshare into your SEO strategy. Take those keywords you’ve identified as part of your keyword research and plug them into the description on your company’s LinkedIn profile page. Be mindful not to simply stuff your page with keywords, though! Search engines have evolved enough to be able to spot this and will likely not assign you points. Apply the same idea to your LinkedIn posts on your newsfeed and in industry-related LinkedIn groups. Similarly, incorporate keywords into your Slideshare presentations. Slideshare offers an excellent platform for establishing your company as an expert on a particular topic, so be sure to use your target keywords in the presentation and description and share your slideshow far and wide. PPC The first few results on a search engine results page are paid ads. If you can snag the top spots for your keywords, it increases your company’s name recognition and importance (especially if this is combined with organic search results). Be sure to use the keyword list that you generate through your keyword research in your PPC advertising. One way to figure out which keywords your target audience is using is to enable a site search functionality on your website. By doing this, you can understand exactly what language people use to search for specific products and services. Be sure to apply this same strategy to your PPC advertising on social media sites like Facebook as well. Instagram Instagram probably doesn’t come to mind when you think of places where SEO keyword research is applicable, but don’t be fooled. Just because Instagram is a visual site doesn’t mean people don’t find what they’re looking for with words. For example, someone looking for workout inspiration may browse through the hashtag #fitspo (over 74 million posts tagged), while someone planning a trip to Vegas may look through the hashtag #whathappensinvegas (over 3 million posts tagged). If you figure out the combination of hashtags that give your posts the most exposure, you’re looking at a way of bolstering your usage of Instagram as a marketing channel. YouTube Videos are a vital part of your content marketing strategy. If they’re well executed, they can help boost your company’s visibility in search engine results. So how can a website like YouTube factor into your SEO strategy? For starters, improve the quality of your videos so that people stick around for longer than the first three seconds. YouTube can tell how long people spend on videos and ranks them accordingly. One quick way to increase the duration of your views is to get rid of long-winded introductions. Include links to other videos your brand has produced to add value for the viewer and increase the views of your other videos. Encourage your audience to like your videos, share them, or subscribe to your channel. Finally, make videos based on the topics you’ve already identified as high-interest topics through your keyword research. Voice search 40.2% of Americans use voice search, with 71% of consumers preferring to conduct their inquiries by voice instead of manually typing. In fact, people are more receptive to voice ads, with one-third of shoppers saying they are less intrusive compared to regular online, TV, social media, and print ads. To take advantage of voice search, you’ll want to incorporate an SEO strategy that keeps that way of searching in mind. This involves making sure you rank for local searches online but that your website is optimized as well. [BONUS] Infographics We’re cheating a bit since infographics aren’t really a marketing channel, but they are such a useful tool for any SEO strategy that we have to include them. Infographics present data and processes in an easily digestible way. Because they’re informative and pretty to look at, it’s no wonder people readily share them. It’s for these reasons that you should include infographics in your SEO strategy. Create them based on your keyword research and share them through social media, your blog, guest blogs, and more. Be sure to throw them up on sites like Pinterest as well. The role played by SEO across marketing channels is invaluable. And yes, while the results are never instantaneous, it is worth persevering and keeping your keyword research top of mind every time that you seek to create new marketing content. Armed with a well-thought-out SEO strategy incorporating a handful (if not all) of the marketing channels above, it will only be a matter of time before the algorithms reward your diligent efforts.
The Importance of Having a Clear Brand Message (and How to Achieve it) Posted on August 11, 2022August 4, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Ashley Friedlein — CEO and founder of Guild — once said, “Your brand is a sum total of how people perceive it. Branding is about shaping that perception.” For the perception to be positive and consistent, your brand message must be clear. For small businesses, having a clear brand message is one of the basics of small business branding; however, it isn’t always a priority. There are so many other things you need to accomplish to keep your business running smoothing. But, your brand message depicts your brand’s intrinsic value proposition across marketing channels and campaigns. It’s extremely valuable. Not sure where to get started outlining your brand message? Keep reading. Benefits of Clear Brand Message Shortens the Consideration Stage A clear brand message can shorten the amount of time a potential customer considers using your product or service. With your brand message clear, your prospects and leads will more easily understand what it is you offer, eliminating any second guessing or procrastination associated with moving along to the next stage of the buyer’s journey. People are likely to purchase a product whose benefits they understand the fastest. If your brand message is easy to understand, potential customers won’t take long to consider using it. Streamlines Market Penetration Penetrating the market can be tough. Every small business has tons of competition, and in order to get the funding needed to make it to the next round, investors need to know what your brand is about. And they need to believe in it. If you have a simple yet compelling brand message, investors, customers, potential employees, and the press will be intrigued to learn more. And if their positive perception of the brand matches reality, they will love and share your product. This goes a long way for market acceptance. Minimizes Advertising Expenditure If your brand message is clear, people will form the perception you want them to have about your company faster. That improves the efficiency of your advertising campaigns and reduces the frequency of adverts. This could mean that you’ll only spend a fraction of the marketing budget to hit the conversion rates you want. Improve Referrals With a clear brand message, loyal customers can easily understand your company and its value proposition. It’s also easier for them to get behind it and build advocacy. As a result, it will be easier for them to get friends, family, and followers on board when they push your products through word of mouth. How to Create a Clear and Consistent Brand Message If you don’t steer how people perceive your brand, they’ll create a brand story for you. And, their version of your brand’s story may not match your vision. Whether you want to redefine your brand message or create a new one, here’s how to go about it: 1. Define Your Target Audience You have to create your brand message with someone in mind for it to be effective. As Seth Godin states, “When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” If you want to achieve clarity with your brand message, you have to narrow your focus to your archetypal customer. Do rigorous audience research to determine the traits of your potential customers. Define their needs, demographic information, perspective on life, and life experiences. In addition, evaluate how your product meets or exceeds their expectations. 2. Identify Your Brand’s Perceived Message If your brand has been in the market for a while, find out how people currently perceive it. Ask your employees, loyal customers, and external suppliers to describe what they think your brand represents. Does the version of your brand story in the public domain match what you want it to be? If not, your brand message isn’t clearly defined. It needs some tweaking and realignment to reflect what you stand for. 3. Create your Core Brand Message Remember: You want to realign your message so that people can see what your brand stands for. For that to happen, you’ve got to outline the subtle details about your brand, such as: What is your product/service, and how do you do business? What sets your brand apart from other brands in your niche? Why do you offer the service or products? Why should the customer care? Who are your customers? String together this information to create the core brand message. Create a story that conveys your brand’s values and attributes. In addition, build supporting messages around your brand using case studies, testimonials, and data to give it more leverage. 4. Consider Creating a Tagline Taglines aren’t for everyone, but they can be helpful in conveying your brand message. A tagline is a short yet memorable phrase that summarizes your brand message. Ensure the tagline is so simple that a 10-year-old can understand what your brands offer when they see or hear it. Some of the best practices when creating a slogan include: Keep it to one sentence. Ensure it is easily scannable and doesn’t require an explanation. Make sure it captures a solution to the customer’s problem. Make it easily repeatable. 5. Create Consistency Around Your Brand’s Message Creating a brand message is one thing; ensuring it sticks in the minds of your target audience is another. For the message to be consistent throughout your business, make sure employees, press, suppliers, and customers know what it stands for and what it is. Remember that people will learn or hear about your brand on different platforms. Their first impression will shape their view of your brand. Share your brand message and story across all touchpoints to get everyone moving in the same direction. Consistently presenting your brand can increase your revenue by 33%. According to statistics, it takes people five to seven impressions to remember a brand. If the impression is the same across all channels, there’s no doubt that with sustained effort, your brand will become memorable. Enjoy the Benefits of a Clear Brand Message You can’t overlook the significance of a clear brand message. As we’ve already seen, maintaining a clear brand message offers numerous benefits to your company. If you’re getting started, the steps discussed above will help you coin a clear brand message and achieve consistency in how your business appears to interested parties. You could also hire a seasoned branding expert to guide you through the process.
12 Essential Small Business Marketing Strategies Posted on August 4, 2022July 26, 2023 by Jonathan Herrick Let’s face it: there are a million and one small business marketing strategies out there, but if you’re like most business owners, you don’t have the endless budget and time to find the hidden treasures that lead to results. Also, determining which marketing strategy is most effective can take months of testing and evaluation. After growing businesses, testing plenty of marketing campaigns, and helping our small business customers grow, I have come up with the 12 marketing techniques for small businesses that you can use to help your small business flourish. 1. Audience Research Marketing is about sending a relevant message to your target audience to persuade them to buy your product or service. If you don’t know your target audience, you risk focusing your attention too broadly or on the wrong people, which is a catastrophic error in the age of personalization. Successful marketing begins with target audience research — a data-backed process that culminates into elaborate audience persona(s). An audience persona is a profile or visualization of the person you’re trying to reach. It outlines traits such as geographical location, career, gender, motivation, pain points, budget, and more. Audience persona is your “north star” for creating and launching successful marketing strategies, from content marketing to word-of-mouth. It lays the foundation of your marketing strategy and informs the best channels to use for effective marketing. 2. Word of Mouth Advertising Once you’ve laid the foundation, you can get your marketing strategies rolling. One of the most cost-effective small business marketing strategies is to tap into the voice of your customer by getting them to talk about their experience with your business. That means building a great product or service first and then delivering it in an amazing manner to your customers. Encourage customers to talk about your small business on social and professional networks and to share their opinions. This will boost your chances of getting new customers in the door. Typically, people trust their friends and value their opinions. That is why it’s critical to tap into your customers who are willing and able to share your excellent products/services with their tribes. 3. Content Marketing If marketing is the engine that propels your business, content marketing is the gas in the tank. It’s a fantastic way to bring you leads through search engines, but it also works well to educate your customers on best practices. Content marketing is about creating interesting material that your audience is likely to engage with, be it text, video, or audio. It entails the creation of content for publishing on your homepage, blogs, product pages, landing pages, advertising channels, and social media. Content marketing allows you to show that you’re a top expert in your field. This means creating fresh content based on your audience’s biggest challenges and curating content that is relevant to your visitors/readers. Once you have created highly-relevant content, push it out where your audience is engaging, such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Your content distribution methods are the only way to harness the full potential of your content marketing strategy. 4. Search Engine Optimization Great content without search engine optimization (SEO) has a low chance of ranking on top of search engine results pages (SERPs). When you create highly-relevant content, you have to optimize it for search engines to increase its visibility when people search for keywords and terms relevant to your products or services. As a small business, it’s tough to compete with the rankings of larger companies when it comes to highly competitive keywords. Start by focusing on keywords with low competition but high commercial intent and search volume. . Once your blog or brand builds authority, throw your hat in the ring for the high-competition keywords. That said, SEO is a multidisciplinary strategy that transcends keyword targeting. Other important SEO aspects you should prioritize include: on-page SEO, local SEO, and site speed optimization. 5. Company Website Every component of your marketing plan is going to come back to your website. Don’t cut corners. It’s where your visitors find out who you are, what you believe in, and what makes you unique. Ultimately, your website exists to convert visitors into leads, and the quality of your leads will improve if you have a great website that attracts the most relevant buyers. Once you get visitors to your website, you’ve got to build a conversion strategy. You’ll want to make sure that your company website has plenty of opportunities for site visitors to provide you with their information. Add sign-up forms to high-traffic pages and landing pages to direct traffic. These pieces will enable you to collect site visitors’ email addresses and add them to your lead nurture campaigns. 6. Blogging Just as your website is the guiding light for lead gen for your small business, the same holds true with your blog. And if you’re not already blogging, you should be. Why? Brands with an active blog generate 67% more leads than those without one. To generate leads, add a call-to-action on each of your blog posts asking readers to take a desired action, be it buying a product, subscribing to your newsletter, signing up for an upcoming webinar, or downloading a whitepaper. But your blog is more than just a lead gen tool. It’s a canvas to share your thoughts and perspectives, to truly position yourself as a thought leader while connecting you to your audience. It’s also part of your SEO strategy. Create pillar posts on your blog and set up an internal linking strategy so your readers can easily find and engage with similar content. 7. Email Marketing Email has come from a basic communication channel to a powerful platform to achieve your marketing goals. Its power is undeniable – for every dollar you invest in email marketing, you see an impressive $36 return on investment. Email is also a great way to build your contact list for your small business. A good strategy to build your list is to simply create valuable and relevant content. Offer that content to site visitors in exchange for their contact information. As long as you promise to share high-quality, valuable insights, your site visitors will think the exchange is worthwhile. As a small business owner, you probably wear many hats and have to juggle multiple tasks to keep the business moving smoothly. A marketing automation tool will help you facilitate effective email nurture so you can do more in less time, saving you hours that you can devote to other important tasks. An easy-to-use tool, like BenchmarkONE, lets you automatically capture visitors from your website and send the right message to them at just the right time. Doing so improves the effectiveness of your marketing strategy while helping you make the most of your marketing budget. 8. Social Media If your small business doesn’t have profiles on top social media sites, build them today. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Each one offers a different format, but all allow you to connect and talk to your customers and would-be clients on a channel that they’re already engaged on. Using social media marketing is a must to ensure that your brand and your customer base grow. Most importantly, keep your fingers on the pulse of the tilting social media landscape, which includes joining new platforms. If your brand is yet to lay a mark on TikTok, you need to move swiftly to ride the wave of the highly-creative and playful channel. With over one billion monthly active users globally, TikTok presents an opportunity to build brand awareness, promote your products, and engage potential customers, particularly the younger generation. 9. Event or Trade Shows Trade shows and special promotional events are fantastic strategies for launching a new product or service, driving brand awareness, and getting in front of your target audience. If you are attending a trade show, swap out a sponsorship package for an opportunity to speak on a topic relevant to your audience. It will keep your cost down and elevate your status as a thought leader in your niche. Bonus tip: Don’t forget to capture the full ROI of your event! Be sure to connect with prospects on social media and capture email addresses so you can run pre, during, and post-show campaigns. 10. Online Advertising One of the fastest ways to get in front of potential buyers that are actively searching online is online advertising. With PPC advertising, such as Google Adwords and Bing, you can set your budget for the keywords that your audience is searching for and measure the cost per conversion. Remember to not just set it and forget it. For example, adding negative keywords will eliminate unwanted clicks, keeping your spending down. You should also test new keywords to ensure you are optimizing your spending wisely. Also, if you are looking to increase brand exposure, remarketing is a great way to do it. Remarketing allows you to hyper-target visitors that have been to your site that you would like to bring back, with the goal of converting into a customer or sign-up. 11. Free Promotional Tools Budget constraints could limit the options you can use as far as marketing goes. One way to cut overhead is to use free marketing and promotional tools. Evaluate your strategies and determine which activities require premium tools and which ones you could do with free software. For example, if you’re only just getting started with content marketing, you can use free keyword research tools to guide you through the initial phase. Once you scale and your strategy gather momentum, you can turn to paid keyword research and content optimization tools. Sign up for BenchmarkONE’s free plan today! 12. Networking and Partnership Building Finally, always work on networking to promote your business. This is perhaps one of the most valuable ways to grow your expertise and showcase your skills to would-be partners and customers. Networking is a cost-effective way to drive sales leads and opportunities for strategic partnerships. All of these approaches are effective but don’t forget that In the spirit of cutting overheads, it’s okay to only focus on strategies that you know will bring the best results. Start small with your strategies and experiment with different aspects to determine what works. Channel your resources, effort, and time toward sustainable methods of generating revenue. Good luck incorporating these 12 essential small business marketing strategies into the way you promote and operate your business. Doing so will help you spend less time looking for solutions, so you have more time to devote to what you do best.
What Marketing Strategy to Choose for Online Business in 2022 Posted on August 3, 2022September 22, 2022 by Guest Author In today’s world, you can often face this situation: you are the owner of a great website that offers quality products at affordable prices, but the website’s traffic decreases daily. Does this picture sound familiar? What can you do in this case? A better, more effective marketing strategy is what your online business needs right now. What Will a Marketing Strategy do for Your Online Business? A solid marketing strategy facilitates the following processes for online businesses: The formation of the company image Digitization of business Evaluation of results, as this is done on a single metric system Selection of new marketing tools as a marketing strategy will allow you to determine which tools fit your goals, objectives, etc. Objective evaluation of the subordinates’ and contractors’ performance There are various types of marketing strategies your business could implement. However, all should include the following: Specified objectives. For example, increase brand awareness by 20%, and increase sales by 15%. Fundamental indicators. It is necessary to specify existing data on areas for improvement; otherwise, even the most specific objectives will turn out to be just a dream. Specific deadlines. For example, six months to solve the problem. 3 Classic Marketing Strategies for Online Businesses As stated earlier, there are various different kinds of marketing strategies your small business could use. However, there are three classic approaches you should seriously consider using. 1. Comprehensive Marketing Strategy A comprehensive marketing strategy for online business implies the expansion of all marketing components used together with modernizing and promoting your website. Logically, using a comprehensive marketing strategy for online business is more effective than, for example, the implementation of individual elements. In this case, the primary synergy law comes into play, where the addition of independent tools increases the result. You should consider that a good result is guaranteed only if the marketing strategy is controlled by experts who know all the nuances of the website’s promotion process. Only competent and experienced professionals can consider all the subtleties of the process, involve the necessary marketing channels, and apply the right tools in time. Let’s look at an example. Suppose your business is within the educational sector, and you give video lessons. Your marketing strategy for your online business may include the following components: Development and promotion of a website Publication of unique content (articles, videos, etc.) Promotion of a blog or group on social networks Ads in Google and on social media Such a complex marketing strategy will be more effective than using any one marketing component or channel. Of course, it will cost more, but your expenses will be justified with the return. 2. Digital PR Digital PR differs from traditional PR only in the area of influence. This marketing strategy for online businesses is suitable for brand promotion and target audience engagement. The optimal variant of PR is the publication of information about the company in popular web media among targeted users. Your articles should be unique (because they will be more in demand). In addition, the “right” place of publication is crucial. It should be a media that has already gained popularity and credibility with users. This way, you will be able to draw attention to your brand. The application of digital PR is similar to the usual one. The following promotion tools are the most effective: Publication of news on your website with the possibility of distribution to social networks. Thus you will establish feedback with the potential consumer, due to which not only the demand will increase for unique material, but also your website traffic. Publication of your unique articles on other similar websites. We mean the publication of information about products, promotions, and additional company updates. Cooperation with famous brands and joint implementation of projects. These can be competitions, seminars, conferences, or master classes, which you will hold together with a company that has already gained popularity with your targeted audience. 3. Viral or Guerrilla Marketing Strategy Viral or guerrilla marketing is based on developing and posting a viral message (be it a unique article, presentation, or other). The popularity of guerrilla marketing is multiplying, as it is considered the fastest information distribution tool on the Internet. This marketing strategy for online businesses is applicable to almost all areas of activity on the Internet. It can be a variety of resources, such as social networks, communities, blogs, etc. But it must be able to move freely on the Internet. It should not depend on the participation of the creator. A guerrilla or “viral” marketing strategy distributes the maximum possible number of links to your website. A search engine will definitely find all the links, and your website will take higher positions, corresponding to specific user queries. That is why guerrilla marketing can be considered one of the best marketing strategies for online businesses. Conclusion There are three rules for a successful marketing strategy for an online business: A marketing strategy should be based on specific data. Accept this as an indisputable fact. To avoid ending up with nothing, you can not act on a hunch. Of course, some people have a gut feeling, but it is better to back it up with actual data than shoot in the dark. Gather all the information you can gather. Having a lot of data for marketing strategy development will help you to do it as accurately and efficiently as possible. Don’t forget, “Knowledge is power,” but “survival of the fittest.” These quotes characterize today’s market perfectly. Do your data analysis. Of course, to make the information you find helpful, you must understand and use it correctly, and for this, you must work with it. The more ingenious your conclusions, the more you will gain a foothold in the market. Lastly, don’t forget that your marketing strategy should depend on the objectives of your online business. To choose the right marketing strategy, make sure you ask yourself, “Why does my online business need a marketing strategy?”
4 Qualities SMBs Should Look For When Vetting Content Marketing Agencies Posted on July 28, 2022December 8, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Content marketing is a pretty broad term. While some firms put a lot of emphasis on the “marketing” side of the equation, others may be strictly content production houses. So how do you make sure that your agency — or the agency that you’re thinking of hiring — is worth the money? You start by knowing exactly what to look for. The best measures of success for content marketing aren’t always intuitive. Only 42% of B2B marketers consider themselves successful at content marketing. Being able to judge whether your content marketing agency and the content they’re creating for your business is checking off the right boxes is critical — both in terms of meeting your goals and hitting the sweet spot with your ROI. Read on as we discuss the things that matter when you’re evaluating an agency’s performance and the utility they could bring to your content strategy. Why Content Marketing Matters Now More Than Ever Peter Drucker — a famous management consultant — once said, “Because its sole purpose is to create a customer, a business has two principal functions: innovation and marketing.” Over the years, the first function has become the mainstay for many brands, and now, the market is awash with innovative products, solutions, services, technologies, etc. The saturation has certainly made marketing more important than ever before. Innovation alone isn’t going to make your product or service stand out from the crowd. It requires a clever dose of marketing to take it to potential customers’ doorstep and convince them to buy. That’s the only way to generate real revenue. Content marketing, in particular, is now the lifeblood of many businesses in the midst of the tilting industry. Beyond driving traffic, generating leads, and maintaining audience awareness, it reassures your audience during times of uncertainty. For example, it’s a great channel to show customers how your business is responding to COVID-19 threats. Moreover, in the digital era, user privacy is increasingly becoming the top-most concern for customers. Industry behemoths such as Apple and Google are jumping the cookieless technology bandwagon. Content marketing is an excellent channel to keep customers informed on steps you’re taking to enhance their digital privacy. Beyond that, content marketing enables you to tell your brand story the exact way you want it told. Remember: The digital landscape leaves a lot of room for misinformation. To cut back on that and ensure the story being written about your company is accurate, you need to take the reins and spearhead your story through content marketing. Qualities of a Reputable Content Marketing Agency 1. Transparency A good content marketing agency will have no problem illustrating its value. Any agency that you hire should be willing and able to answer questions that you have about their performance, including things like: What is your approach to content marketing? How is your approach different from your competitors? What are some examples of your biggest successes? Have there been any big failures? If so, what are you doing differently now? What kind of ROI can your clients expect? What do you see as our biggest content challenges? What about the biggest content opportunities? Questions like these are designed to go deeper than standard interview queries, though there are some overlaps. Because here’s the thing: every content marketing agency is going to pitch themselves as your best option. It’s your job during the vetting process to really dig into the key points and draw your own conclusions about how the agency measures up. 2. Proven Track Record Beyond transparency, the agency needs to show real results. That’s the only way you know they’re going to help you achieve your content marketing goals. Has the agency worked with similar businesses on similar projects? What did they do right that led to the client seeing the desired results? What did they do wrong, and how did they handle the whole situation to foolproof the client’s investment? What were the results like? Increasing traffic, leads, or brand awareness? The result should be supported by real numbers. A good agency should have no problem responding to these questions. It would be better if the agency could show the progress they have made in fine-tuning its standard operating procedures. The content marketing industry is ever-changing, and if an agency is still stuck with techniques of yesteryears, it’s a red flag. 3. Strong References Once you get the agency’s side of the story, time to listen to the client’s testaments. The content marketing agency you hire shouldn’t be shy about sharing their references — nor should you be shy about calling them. It’s not uncommon for agencies and their clients to have differing accounts about how the relationship and campaign went, and you’re going to want both sides of the story to make an informed hiring decision. Some questions to ask the references that you’re provided include: What was your experience like? Would you say that [agency name] provided a valuable service? Are you still working with them? If not, why? Would you recommend we hire [agency name]? Why or why not? Call more than one reference if you can, focusing on businesses that are similar to your own in size. It requires some legwork on your end but considering that the investment you’re going to be putting into your content isn’t a small one, it’s worth taking the time. 4. Access Cutting-Edge Technology Assuming the client’s and agency’s stories align, you need to get an inside story about the tools the agency uses. There are two sides to the agency’s software stack. First is the technology it uses to get clients’ projects done, from keyword research tools to content distribution. Second are the tools the agency uses to conduct research (about its processes) and review its performance to determine the most effective strategies for each client’s industry. What does the agency’s software stack entail? Which keyword research, email marketing, project management, scheduling tools, etc., does it use: free or premium? Does the agency use cutting-edge reporting tools to gain real-time insights about your projects? What marketing automation tools and strategies does it put into action to maximize efficiency? What client engagement technique does it employ? Video marketing or gamification? 5. A Versatile Workforce Beyond technology, successful agencies have a great team of experts in different fields. It’s always wise to check the “about us” section to see the team that keeps the agency thriving. You want an agency that’s staffed with experts in web design, programming, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO, sales, analytics, and other content marketing fields. 6. Good Data Any content marketing agency that you work with needs to know their way around the data, so find out what their strategy is for tracking and analyzing the data around your campaign. Do they use an automated marketing platform? Google Analytics? Some other all-encompassing analytics dashboard? Good data is tantamount to good content marketing — without the former, it’s going to be very difficult to know how the latter is doing. Don’t settle for an agency that doesn’t have a comprehensive approach to data. Old-school tactics are no match for today’s content marketing environment, and you never want the success or failure of your campaign to be based on guesswork. A good way to evaluate an agency’s relationship with data: ask them for some. Request clear numbers on the performance of one or more campaigns (these can be anonymized) and see what metrics are tracked and how. 7. Values Great Communication Open and honest communication is key to the success of any relationship. A good content marketing agency keeps an open line of communication. It keeps you on top of things such as the project status and the results you’re reaping. You’ll know whether the agency is great at communication from your first engagement. Notice how the contact person listens to you as you enquire about their services. If the agent is attentive and responds to questions in a comprehensive manner, it’s a good sign. Moreover, a good agency will circle back and solicit feedback after every milestone. 8. Makes Notable Industry Contributions A good agency strives to make the industry a better place for everyone. They deliver commendable results when working on clients’ projects. At the same time, they make contributions that benefit everyone in their industry, not just their clients. The reputable agencies we know delve (especially those that have been in the industry for a long time) into research to better understand the industry and trends that are shaping it. They know how the industry is changing and are well-prepared to deal with the contingencies. Moreover, they don’t keep the things they’ve learned to themselves. Instead, they share the knowledge with industry partakers in the form of industry research reports, eBooks, white papers, and thought leadership pieces.
8 SEO Strategies for Driving Traffic to Your Website (with Examples) Posted on July 27, 2022February 15, 2023 by Natalie Slyman SEO may be the single most important marketing strategy for a small business. It brings potential customers to you and it can expand your reach since it allows you to tap into an interested online audience. If you haven’t yet invested in it, you’re not only behind the curve; you’re missing out on tons of opportunities to convert more customers. Still, need some convincing? Here are some SEO statistics you can’t ignore: 68% of online experiences start with a search engine 63% of all shopping starts online, including purchases that happen in a store 70% of online marketers state SEO is better than PPC when it comes to sales 66% of consumers perform online research before making a purchase 76% of consumers who search for a local business visit a related business in 24 hours People use search engines frequently to make purchase decisions or to find businesses that will fulfill their needs. It’s important for your business to be on the first page of Google (or, even better, listed as one of the first three organic search results). Mastering SEO can be confusing, which is why a lot of businesses spend tons of money hiring SEO consultants or agencies. But SEO is a journey, not a race, and seeing results can take time. That means you could be exhausting your marketing budget before seeing anything worthwhile. So, before you look into outsourcing, consider DIY’ing your SEO. Trust us, it can be done, especially if you try some of the quick strategies listed below. What is SEO? First, if you’re a beginner to online marketing, you might not understand what we mean when we say SEO. Simply put, it’s the process of making your website visible in search engine result pages (SERPs). Since Google owns almost 95% of the global search engine traffic, we’re going to talk about Google only when teaching you how to excel at SEO. When a user searches using Google, Google uses a proprietary algorithm with over 200 signals when choosing what webpage to show. Google scans every single page on the web and stores the data. When a user types something into the Google search box, Google lists in order from top to bottom the most relevant and authoritative pages to answer the user’s search query. You want to ensure your content is written and optimized to be on the first page, yet keep in mind the Google algorithm is constantly changing. Successful SEO can seem like black magic, but there are common strategies that are known to work if done correctly. Strategies for Driving Traffic to Your Website Using SEO 1. Build Content Clusters Google likes websites that ooze Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E.A.T). Your web pages on a particular topic are only going to rank if Google deems those pages to have high topical relevance to a search query. One of the best ways to demonstrate topical relevance is to create content that’s rooted around content clusters. A content cluster consists of a pillar page and content clusters. The pillar page is the foundation and the central keyword theme of the content cluster. It’s a long-form piece that covers a topic in a broad yet to-the-point way to build authority and relevance on its subject matter. On the other hand, cluster content refers to articles with a narrow focus on a specific topic relevant to the main keyword theme. They are short-form articles, blogs, or guides that link back to the pillar page. For example, if your pillar page title is “ What is Remote Work?” you could have content clusters focusing on areas such as: Characteristics of remote work Remote work policy Remote work legal issues How to build a remote work culture The remote work software stack How to manage remote teams, etc. Jonas Sickler, SEO manager at Terakeet, states, “Content clusters help search engines understand the relationship, context, and hierarchy of web pages within the family of content.” 2. Improve Keyword Strategy A strong keyword strategy focuses on attracting both customers at the bottom of the sales funnel who are ready to make a buying decision, as well as customers at the top of the sales funnel who are just doing a bit of light research. Conduct Keyword Research To understand what keywords your business should use, you want to perform keyword research before you even launch SEO tactics or a blog. Keep in mind that now that more and more companies are performing SEO and content marketing, search engine results have become increasingly competitive. You’ll obviously want to rank for relevant keywords, but you don’t want to go after words that every other brand within your industry is vying for. Conduct Keyword Gap Analysis Another great way to make the most out of your SEO strategy is to conduct a keyword gap analysis. Look around and pinpoint some of your fiercest competitors — those that you compete with online. Use software such as the SEMRush keyword gap analysis tool to identify keywords that the competitors rank for but that you don’t. Create relevant content around these keywords or update old articles, blogs, and guides with relevant topics to cover those keywords. 3. Update Existing Content When it comes to creating top-ranking content, you don’t have to start from scratch all the time. Sometimes, optimizing existing content yields more gains than creating completely new pieces. However, not all old pieces of content are worth an upgrade. You’ll see significant gain only when you optimize top-performing pages on your site. Head over to the Google search console, and on the left side panel, click Behavior → Site Content → pages. Check the content performance and pick those that are doing well (high volume page views) or those with high potential yet lie on page two of Google SERPs. Go to Market Muse or the content optimization tool you use to find out where each piece is lacking. Market Muse pinpoints the keywords you need to work in, and the target word count to give each article the impetus to jump to page one. Improve the content by adding new topics or expanding upon existing topics to close all content gaps. Add new images, incorporate new keywords, and add new internal links to improve the content quality. 4. Optimize For Future Snippet If you’re not prioritizing featured snippets, you’re leaving a lot on the table. Ranking for featured snippets (position zero on Google Serps) can increase traffic to your website by 30%. Beyond web traffic, ranking for featured snippets improves your brand authority and click-through rates. For starters, the featured snippet is the excerpt of dedicated content that is located at the top of Google SERPs. It provides the searcher with a concise answer to a search query, and it can feature text or video content. What does it take to rank for position zero? Use questions in your article. According to a study by SEMRush, 29% of search queries that trigger featured snippets are question-based. That is, they start with a question-based word such as do, can, why, etc. Date your content. More often than not, Google picks the most up-to-date content for the featured snippet. It can only decide how recent an article is if there’s a publish date. Keep your content current: Google tends to favor the most current articles. The same study found that 70% of featured snippets return content published not later than three years. Keep in mind that featured snippets can take one of the four formats: listicle, table, video, or paragraph. As you write your content, use these formats naturally within your articles. SEMRush recommends keeping each of the text formats to 40-50 words whilst making it as succinct as possible. 5. Optimize your Site Once you understand the keywords your customers use to find your business, it’s time to optimize and speed up your website. SEO website optimization touches six critical areas: Title Tags This is the copy that appears in the search result as the description of your page. It also appears within the tab of your webpage. Title tags carry a lot of weight and should absolutely use your focus keywords. For instance, here’s the title that appears on Crisp’s home page when you search for “Chatbot Software:” The same title appears in the browser tab of their home page. Header Tags This refers to the headlines used on your site with the H1-H6 text formatting. H1 and H2 are most important to Google — make sure your page has a clear title using your keywords in an H1 tag. Back to our Crisp example, their H1 header includes the same “Chatbot Software” keyword that they focused on in their title tag. Page Copy Use your short-tail keywords in the page copy throughout your website, but don’t overdo it. Google is smart and will pick up on keywords even if you don’t use them in every sentence (and you shouldn’t). Always keep your user in mind: does the copy read smoothly for your potential customer while also strategically using keywords throughout your pages? Bingo. For instance, Crisp uses target keywords like “Chatbot Software” and “Conversational Experience” on their home page; they still flow nicely and don’t seem forced. URL Structure Your website URLs are a great opportunity to highlight keywords. You want to make sure words are separated by hyphens, written in all lowercase, and use clear keywords. Back to our Crips example, they use the URL https://crisp.chat/en/livechat/ on their live chat page. Images Google image search is another place SEO matters — for every picture you put on your website, make sure you name it with the appropriate (and relevant) keywords. It’s also important to include an “alt text” tag and image “title” tag. The “alt text” tag is the text that will appear if your image does not load, telling the user what the image is. The “title” tag can offer a short description of the image. For instance, in some web browsers, the image title will appear when you hover over an image. Both of these tags matter to Google and help give context to your images in search. When we inspect the live chat image on Crisp’s feature page, we can see they’ve given it the alt text tag of “live-chat-main-illustration-chatbox.” Meta Descriptions The meta description is the two lines of text that appear below the clickable link in search engine results. It’s important to make sure you fill out meta description information. Otherwise, Google will choose and pull the copy directly from your webpage. Each of these parts of your website can be changed by your web developer or within a CMS platform such as WordPress if your entire site is built that way. 6. Build a Proper Internal Linking Strategy You don’t have to create new content to boost organic traffic. Sometimes, all your website needs is a proper internal linking strategy to get more eyeballs on the low-ranking pages, particularly those that have stagnated on page two. Here’s how it works: An article ranking on the first page has built better link authority and relevance signals than an article on page two. If you link both articles, you spread the link authority and relevance signal juice to the low-ranking article giving it the wings to fly into page one. 7. Prioritize Content Distribution Don’t underestimate the power of content distribution. As Ross Simmonds — CEO at Foundation Inc — states, “Create once, distribute forever.” Most brands fail with content marketing because they don’t distribute their content properly. Remember: organic SEO is a single content distribution channel; if you only depend on it to broaden your content reach, you won’t get the desired results. To significantly improve your website traffic, you have to use other distribution channels. One way is to repurpose your content. Turn your blog post into a Twitter thread or a YouTube Video. Alternatively, write a blog post capturing the most valuable points in your webinar video. Moreover, every time you update a blog post, make sure to inform your followers on social media. The content repurposing list is endless — just be creative and leverage every opportunity to a new set of eyeballs on your content. Beyond repurposing, try guest posting on healthy websites to build backlinks to internal pages. 8. Create Content That Ranks Content and SEO go together like eggs and bacon — I truly believe you can’t have one without the other. Why? Because one thing we do know about Google’s mysterious algorithm is that it puts a lot of weight on fresh, new content. Here’s how you can utilize content to win at SEO: Launch and maintain a blog. A company blog is the number one way to constantly create new content that features short- and long-tail keywords. The more content you create, the more keywords you’ll rank for and grow new potential customers visiting your site. I’ve seen businesses grow their traffic by more than 1,000% in 18 months by just sharing regular blog posts. Build out landing pages. There are likely at least 5 – 10 landing pages that would make sense to create for your business and put within your navigation. These could describe a service or answer a question. Think beyond the About and Contact page — how can you utilize your keywords in thorough, content, and multimedia-rich pages? Testimonials and case studies. Gathering reviews from your clients and writing testimonials and case studies are great ways to naturally feature keywords on your site. It’s also an awesome way to showcase your customer service and help potential clients understand why they should use your business. Use These SEO Strategies to Increase Traffic If you perform keyword research, optimize your website for better SEO performance and create consistent, fresh content, your business will be leaps and bounds ahead in the SEO game. A great way to tell if your effort is paying off is to benchmark the keywords and organic traffic on your site before doing the above strategies, then check in 3-6 months how much traffic has grown thanks to your SEO techniques. SEO can seem like a lofty goal for a small business, but with a little time and effort, it will definitely pay off.
6 Must-Have Features for Your Agency’s Website Posted on July 21, 2022July 14, 2022 by Tricia O'Donnell We live in an age when having a website for your company is an absolute must. A website helps assure people that your business is legit, and it’s where potential customers turn to learn more about you and what it is you offer. As someone who works at an agency, you’re probably very used to putting your clients’ needs first. While that’s not a terrible thing, it can definitely end up setting you back. If your agency is to build its business and get more clients, it needs to prioritize its marketing, including fleshing out and updating its website. An agency website with the right features will help you attract the right prospects, increase your credibility, provide your business with organic traffic, generate leads, and ultimately create more customers. Read on for some features your agency website should have. 1. Examples of Your Work Your website is a great place to show off some of the impressive work you’ve done for other clients. Make sure you have a designated and easy-to-find spot to showcase this work; that way, when potential clients come to your site, they’ll know exactly where to find it. It’s also a good idea to explain each project, stating what the context was, the problem to solve, and any other parameters your team was working within. This shows other potential clients exactly what your team is capable of and entices them to work with you. 2. Easy Navigation Your site’s navigation is maybe the most important feature of your website, as it impacts the user and customer experience. If website visitors have a hard time getting to important pages or accessing relevant information, it leads to higher bounce rates, meaning that visitors will be spending less time on your website. It could also eat away at your credibility and ultimately affect your business. Ensure your navigation menu is not hidden or located in an obscure space, use names that your target audience is familiar with, and consider their needs – what would your prospects be more interested in when they land on your agency’s website? You can also take advantage of the bottom navigation. Use the top navigation to highlight essential pages your prospects are likely to find interesting, and use the bottom navigation for other important pages you want to showcase. Top Navigation: Product/services Examples of work Resources About section Bottom Navigation: Contact information Career opportunities Blog If you still aren’t sure what to put where look at some other sites on the web. See what your competitors are doing and take notes from websites you enjoy. If you are on a site and enjoy the experience, write down why and see if its something that makes sense for your site as well. 3. About-Us Page The about-us page is where your website visitors can learn more about your agency and the individuals that work there. Most website owners do not treat the about-us page with the seriousness it deserves, but when done right, it can create a level of transparency that your potential clients can really appreciate. You can make it a powerful sales tool for your agency by approaching your content in a goal-oriented way. Your agency’s about-us page should: Tell the story about how you started your agency Explain your business to prospects in a few paragraphs Express your agency’s core values Clearly state your unique value proposition Show the faces behind your company Use persuasive copy that appeals to your prospects’ emotions This is the page you can have some more fun with and show off the personality of your agency. It’s always a good idea to provide headshots of your employees, their names, and job titles so prospective clients can see the people behind the work. 4. Comprehensive Case Studies With about 77% of online buyers regularly reading reviews to make buying decisions in 2021, it’s important to understand the importance of case studies. They can provide potential customers with a detailed analysis of how your services and product offerings helped solve specific client problems. The goal here is to paint your client’s success with your agency’s services and show prospects how they can get the same results when they do business with you. Case studies are different than examples of your work. While yes, they show potential clients what you do, it’s more about showing them a very specific issue you helped a client solve and explaining the results to prove you delivered on your promise. This helps set your agency apart from the many other agencies potential clients have to choose from. Dedicate a page on your website to case studies and make it easy for website visitors to locate it, as we did with our agency partners here at BenchmarkONE. This page is accessible through our top navigation under “Agencies.” 5. A Helpful Blog A blog with helpful, valuable, and accurate content is a must-have feature for your agency website. It can build your agency credibility by presenting you as an expert in your industry. An excellent blog section helps you share valuable educational content with your audience. By consistently publishing blog content, you’re able to build trust and create content to share in your email nurture campaigns and on your social media calendar. What’s more, when you prioritize SEO in your content creation, you’ll create a blog that ranks in search results, making you even more accessible to your audience searching for resources online. 6. Compact Contact Section Some websites leave out the contact page, but we do not recommend doing so. You want to remain accessible and show site visitors that you’re willing to get in touch with them if needed. This can go a long way when you’re continuously looking to build your book of business. Maximize the contact page section on your agency’s website by doing the following. Make sure finding it is straightforward for prospects Provide another option to contact you (e.g., your email address) apart from the contact form on the page Keep it simple – a form, phone number, and/or email address Have a clear confirmation message/pop-up that appears to prospects who reach out to you, letting them know that you’ll be in contact with them shortly Keep your form simple, and do not demand too much information from prospects 7. Website Forms and Landing Pages You want to take advantage of all the site visits you’re getting by creating a way to track those visitors and enroll them into your email marketing. A great way to do this is to add pop-up forms on your website. You can add these forms to high-traffic pages and encourage visitors to sign up for your email marketing. Once you have their information, you can send them blog content and add them to your drip campaigns. You’ll also want to have landing pages on your site, so you have a place to direct people to download valuable resources, like guides, eBooks, or whitepapers. You can create digital campaigns around these landing pages for even more exposure and to generate more leads for your agency. Improve your business visibility and attract more leads to your agency by implementing the above must-have features for your website. If you’re interested in learning more about how BenchmarkONE helps agencies like yours build their retainer business with our all-in-one CRM and marketing automation software, partner with us today.