Tag: Google

Four Tips to Improve Your YouTube Marketing

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#1: Just as it’s true with a written blog post, or, indeed, any other form of advertising, content is king. That means that your YouTube video must tell an original and interesting story. People are simply not going to have much patience with a boring or conventional video. Engaging your audience is key, and it’s not always important for your content ideas to relate directly to your product or business. This is particularly true if you’re in an industry that’s hard to get people excited about. What sometimes is more important is linking your business with content that connects your product or service with a positive emotion. Think outside the box and remember to keep it interesting.

#2: While nobody expects your video to be Hollywood quality, it’s still important for it to be watchable. That means it must be clearly seen and heard. Make sure your camera is in focus and correctly aimed on the subject you are shooting. Also, be sure that your lighting is sufficient. In addition, understand that bad audio can tank your video within seconds. Even the most polished visuals will be wasted if the sound is too low, or there is too much interference or background noise. Viewers have come to expect a credible level of technical expertise. Don’t disappoint them.

#3: Make sure your video is find-able and that it reaches its intended audience. Focus on the title, the description, the tags, and the keywords. It’s important to remember that people who find your videos on YouTube are usually in the discovery stage of the buying process and not yet ready to make a purchase. For this reason, it’s important to choose keywords that are relevant to people who are looking for new information and to provide video content that educates them based on those keywords. Remember: the goal of your YouTube video is to warm up and qualify prospects. So, use your video as a call to action and make sure it’s easy for viewers to link back to your website, where you can continue the selling process.

#4: Sad to say, in most cases, one video, however brilliant, will usually not be enough. In other words: volume wins. Publishing consistently on a regular basis creates a “cadence” with your audience. Instead of stumbling on your videos, sometimes just by chance, they begin looking for your content and make a habit of checking your channel, looking for your next YouTube gem. And it’s this cadence that you ultimately want. The more times your loyal viewers come back, the better. The best advice for creating a content cadence is to set the tone from the beginning and let your audience know what to expect. Make your first video an introduction to what sort of content you will be publishing, and how often—and then whatever cadence you set for yourself, make sure you follow through. If you don’t, your audience will leave.

The Importance of Online Marketing in 2017

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Ecommerce continues to grow and competition will ramp up, as well, in 2017. This means that customers will be harder to win, easier to lose, and fussier on price and user experience. The low barriers to entry and the fact that consumers can switch from brand to brand with the touch of a button, means that those who fall behind when it comes to customer experience and pricing strategy will lose out. So, the savvy online marketer will have to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay ahead of the pack.

Here are some tips for online marketing in 2017:

 Influencers are becoming increasingly important because they are considered credible and, unlike classic advertising, their opinion is trusted. To be successful in 2017, you will need to cooperate with bloggers, YouTubers, etc., and win them over with your products and services.
 Just as influencers need be enlisted, so must users. Users who are convinced of something are an ideal marketing instrument because they transfer their conviction to the wider market.
 Customers will have to be better informed and more inspired; it’s no longer enough just to offer products that are accompanied by a description. Shoppers want more. Products must be accompanied with ancillary information and collateral subject matter. The inspiring and informative incorporation of products and services into offers will influence purchase decisions and increase visitor numbers in 2017.
 Chatbots are small programs that function like a real chat partner. For this reason FAQs can be found on practically every internet site. But clicking through a long list of questions is often frustrating. Chatbots can perform these tasks considerably better. The user can ask his questions and the software answers interactively. Interested parties as well as customers arrive at their answers quickly, and receive the desired assistance in short order. So Chatbots will make customer service and customers’ lives easier in the year 2017.
 Live video is becoming increasingly important. With live streaming, the interested party feels more connected to what is shown. It’s an especially powerful tool to introduce a new product or service.
 Old SEO tactics are becoming outmoded. For example, beginning in January, advertising that customers are unable to bypass will be used as a criterion by Google to rank a site lower. So in addition to inspiring content in order to rank high, websites will have to put the user first. Say goodbye to annoying pop-ups.
 Native advertising is gaining importance. This includes articles in blogs, portals etc. that have not been created by an editorial team, but by an advertising agency or a company’s marketing department. Good native advertising is characterized by high-quality content. The reader is encouraged to read the article, although it is still advertising. (Native advertising should always be identified as such; otherwise blogs and advertisers are gambling with their credibility.)
 Virtual reality and augmented reality will make completely different marketing measures possible in 2017. They allow the user to be involved, and not just to stare at a screen.
 Platform as a Service is now one of the hottest trends in ecommerce. Just look at the incredible success of Platform as a Service businesses like Uber, Spotify, and AirBnB. The smart online marketer should consider selling anything that is used or consumed regularly via a subscription model. The high disposable incomes of today’s Millennials means plenty of cash for subscriptions, but their low wealth means there is never much in the bank for big one-off purchases. So, there really has never been a better time to sell your product via a subscription model.
 Mobile devices now make up over half of all web traffic and continue to grow in importance. However, mobile (phone and tablet), while accounting for 59 percent of all sessions by device on ecommerce sites, count for just 38 percent of revenue. In 2017, the smart online marketer will understand that mobile is king for research, but desktop is still where consumers do their buying.

Your Customers are Looking for You, but Can They Find You?

These days, more than ever, it’s not enough just to be good at your business – you have to know how reach your customers and potential customers where they live. And, today, more and more of them are living online. So, if they can’t find you on their computers, tablets, and smart phones, then you are probably losing them to your competition. Here are some tips that will help them find you when they look:

1.You must have a professional looking website that is highly functional and easy to navigate. If your customers can’t get the information they are seeking within seconds, they will hit the back button and go looking somewhere else. Make sure that your website meets current usability standards and that it is optimized for use on a mobile phone; that the information is correct and up-to-date; and that it is easy for a potential customer to do business with you.

2. Concentrate on your local market as most consumers still prefer to do business with those nearby. Search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing provide business owners with a free way to get businesses listed ahead of all the search results via their default map systems.

3. Get listed on review sites. People want to know that others have done business with you and have had positive experiences.

4. Attract buyers by blogging. Blogging not only elevates your professional profile, it can help raise your company website to the top of the search engines pages.

5. Use social media. People buy into you before they buy from you. Social media lets you connect with potential customers without coming on too hard as a salesperson. By having an open, interesting dialog with people who may be interested in your goods or services, you stay in their minds. Then, when they are ready to buy, they are more likely to remember you.

6. Use online press releases. Think about all the new and interesting things going on in your business and write an article about them. Embed a few links back to your website, and send the release to the most appropriate online press release services.

7. Shoot a video and upload it to YouTube, or any of the other video sharing sites, and be sure to link it directly to your website. Then promote the video with social media to increase your online presence.

8. Send out regular email newsletters to current customers and anyone else who has contacted you in one way or another. By sending out fresh, new content on a regular basis, you’re reminding your customers that you’re still out there.

9. Content is still king. Create useful content and give it away free to your customers on your website. There are many types of online content: white papers, articles, reports, case studies, and webinars, for example. In addition, the more useful and original your content, the higher your site will rank on search engines.

10. If your budget allows, pay for online ads with Google Adwords and/or Bing Adwords. Paid placement will get your business on the front page of their search engines when customers are surfing the web. Get some professional advice, though, before you spend a dime. Doing it right can help your business thrive; doing it wrong can wreck your bottom line.

Remember the old conundrum: If a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, if your customers are looking for you, but can’t find you, can you really do business with them?

Google’s AdWords vs. Bing AdWords, Who is better?

Search engine marketing has become an integral part of a business’s online strategy, and paid search is one of the top sources for driving traffic to a company’s website. In fact, PPC (pay-per-click) advertising provides the highest ROI (return on investment) of any type of online marketing scheme.

The two main search engine platforms for PPC campaigns are Google AdWords and the Yahoo! Bing Network. Each one has its pluses and minuses and depending on a business’s market, budget, competition, etc. one may be a more viable solution that the other.

Google AdWords is the leading search engine with 67 percent of the market share. It consists of two networks: Google Search Network and Google Search Partners. Google AdWords is generally considered an easier platform to manage; it’s user-friendly, has a high search volume, and more advertising extensions than Bing. It’s better for medium or low competition markets with a clear advertising strategy and flexible budget.

Like Google, Bing also allows businesses to advertise through two different networks: Bing Search Network and Bing Content Network. Bing Ads has less competition than Google and its CPC (cost-per-click) are 50-70 percent cheaper; its impressions are 90 percent cheaper, as well. With Bing Ads, small businesses can easily rank higher while getting increased ad exposure, despite relatively small marketing budgets. So if cost and high competition levels are major factors in a company’s advertising budget, then Bing could be a better choice, resulting in low cost-per-acquisitions.

In addition, Bing allows a business to assign different campaigns, different time zones – Google does not. Bing also has a very helpful customer service department willing to help small companies that spend at least $500 per month, whereas Google’s ante for good customer service is $500,000 per year.

So, for a more user-friendly platform with high search volume, Google AdWords is often a better choice. Bing prevails for high competition, low-budget startups. For businesses that have the budget and ability, working with both platforms gives them the best of both worlds.

Finding New Ways to Reach Customes Online

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While the media used to reach customers may have changed dramatically over the last several years, there are some things that haven’t changed in the world of marketing: before you can sell your product or service, you first have to engage your target audience. And in order to engage that audience, you must reach out to them where they live. And today, the vast majority of people live online.

It’s axiomatic that every business must have an attractive, well-organized, and well-structured website rich in information. It must contain the relevant keywords so that it can rank as high as possible on all search engines, and it needs to have as many inbound, outbound, and internal links as possible.

Most important, it must include useful and original content that will resonate deeply with its intended audience. By maintaining a blog that targets potential customers’ interests, a business can position itself as a thought leader and expert in a particular industry. Finally, every website must be optimized for mobile and tablet usage, with as much video content as practicable.

In addition, to having a website, many businesses prosper with the use of paid channel advertising, specifically Google AdWords. Buying ad space on Google, or on another search engine, such as Bing, puts a company’s website on the engine’s first page, where most web surfers begin, and often end, their searches.

But in order to really reach the present generation of shoppers and consumers, a business, today, must know how to leverage the many social networks that people now use to communicate with one another. While the average person might only spend 15-30 minutes per day on social networks, many others spend multiple hours each week. That suggests that any strategic marketing plan must include a steady dose of social media.

The most widely-used social network is, of course, Facebook. Facebook provides an opportunity to showcase products, share company news and milestones, and present pictures and blogs that can engage and entertain the Facebook universe. It is an excellent way for people to see new content with every post. Facebook has a simple sign-up process that can establish a business online in minutes and it’s fairly easy to customize how a company can represent itself to its users.

Of course there are many other social networks that can be utilized to engage its users. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., all have possibilities for the savvy business owner to exploit. The most important thing to remember is the importance of finding out where one’s potential customers are spending their time and then maximizing the relationship opportunities better than the competition.

Remember – regardless of the type of media used, the most important factor in getting and retaining customers is keeping them interested and engaged in your company’s product or service. We may talk to each other via many different electronic media, but keeping it human and personal is still the key to business success.

How SEO has Changed Within the Last Three Years

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For almost twenty years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been used as an online marketing tool. And over that time span, SEO has changed and evolved as search engines, themselves, have grown and matured. The basic fundamentals of SEO are still important, however, and if done correctly will still yield favorable results. Content, performance, authority, and user experience are all concepts that have remained relatively constant.

Perhaps the major change in SEO began about a decade ago when Google became the top search engine and SEO authority, setting the bulk of SEO rules and standards. By changing its algorithms and administering discipline through search engine filters such as Panda and Penguin, Google severely restricted people who were trying to cheat the system by stuffing their websites with keywords or low-quality links in order to achieve high page rankings. Google and other search engines quickly put a stop to that practice, but in doing so, they have diminished the utility of keywords in general.

Over time, then, SEO’s new mantra became “content, content, content.” Rather than building a site for the sake of search engine attention, web designers were forced to create sites that their audiences would love and talk about online, which only then would get the attention of search engines. Of course, some webmasters tried to spin content by using text replacement tools to take one article and spin it into dozens of others that looked unique but did not provide any unique value. But that practice has since gotten harder and harder to do since Google became wise to the game. As keyword emphasis declined and spinning was cut off, the emphasis has been placed on pure, high-quality content.

Another seismic change occurred with the explosion of social media – especially Facebook which was founded in 2004, and has since become the dominant social media platform. A brand that can establish a reputation on social media can leverage that trust to bring users to its website. That site can then, ultimately, earn higher rankings based on the increased traffic generated via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. As social media became a prevalent force on the Internet, aligning it with SEO best practices became more and more important and continues to be a critical aspect of any SEO campaign.

Complementing the rise of social media has been the concomitant rise of mobile devices. It has been less than a decade since the first smartphones hit the market but they have since exploded into widespread use. Today, over 60 percent of adults with cell phones use them to access the internet and a third of mobile internet users go online almost exclusively on their phones. Ignoring mobile SEO has become a sure way to lose customers to the competition.

Another major change in the SEO landscape has been the arrival of Google Analytics. The ready and easy accessibility of the information presented by analytics suites has made it easier than ever for businesses to track everything from who visits their sites, to how long they stay, and what they click on.

Some of the more recent ways in which SEO has changed over the past few years include Google’s placing increased importance on mobile-friendly sites, brand mentions, and quality relationships with key influencers as opposed to simply creating more content. Also, businesses are more quickly integrating their SEO with their marketing departments and focusing more and more on actively engaging customers via social media. They are also trying to earn more quality inbound links and citations from respected publishers by providing more well-written blog posts to their targeted audiences.

Efficient Pay-per Click Techniques Make a World of Difference for Your Business’s Bottom Line

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Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is an advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays the publisher – typically, the website owner or host – each time one of its ads are clicked on by a potential consumer, surfing the web.

Search engines such as Google and Bing allow businesses to buy listings in their search results. When someone searches on a keyword that is related to a business’s offerings, its ad will show up on as a sponsored link or banner ad on a results page, along with the natural, non-paid search results.

There are two types of PPC advertising – flat rate PPC and bid-based PPC. In the flat-rate model, the advertiser and publisher agree upon a fixed amount that will be paid for each click. In bid-based PPC, ad placement is sold at auction. Each advertiser informs the host of the maximum amount that it is willing to pay for a given ad spot based on a keyword. The highest bid has the best chance to appear first in the rankings.

Whether utilizing a flat-rate, or bid-based model, PPC’s effectiveness as a source of profit assumes that the costs of all the clicks will be substantially less than the overall gain from sales made as a result of the portion of clickers who eventually convert and buy. When PPC is not working correctly it can hurt a business’s bottom line – the cost for ads are greater than the income for sales that close.

Effective and profitable PPC campaigns rely on a broad set of carefully thought-out and well-implemented components: researching and selecting the right keywords; organizing them into ad groups; creating ad text and landing pages that are optimized for conversions; and knowing how to target the correct audience, how to test ads, and how to use the tools and analytics that measure, and can thus help refine, results. Search engines reward advertisers who can create relevant, intelligently targeted pay-per-click campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks.

Google AdWords is the largest and most popular PPC advertising system, simply because Google gets the most traffic. Every time a search is initiated, Google digs into the pool of AdWords advertisers and chooses a set of winners to appear in the valuable ad space on its search results page. The winners are chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality and relevance of their keywords and ad campaigns, their click-through rate, the quality of the page to which and ad points, and, in the bid-based model, the size of their keyword bids.

So, in order to become and stay a Google AdWords winner, a business must do the essential work of creating and maintaining its PPC campaigns. Effective techniques include:

• Crafting relevant keyword lists, tight keyword groups, and proper ad text.

• Creating optimized landing pages with persuasive, relevant content and a clear call-to–action, tailored to specific search queries.

• Consistently reviewing the effectiveness of ads by testing them and then optimizing them as necessary.

• Tracking conversions and sales in order to measure return on investment.

• Avoiding keyword bidding wars that end up costing more than an ad’s potential return.

Pay per click is now a basic Internet marketing tool and very few businesses can afford to ignore it. But like any other marketing campaign, a PPC campaign must lift the bottom line, not drag it down.

The importance of Auditing your Google PPC Account.

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Your Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign needs to be constantly updated if you want it to help you achieve your marketing goals. Some businesses crate a PPC account and then make the mistake of thinking it can run on automatic, not realizing that it has many moving parts and plenty of places where problems can arise. An account audit is simply systematic way to review your account to determine areas that could benefit from anything from a minor tweak to a major overhaul.

Remember: the purpose of an audit is to match your PPC account’s goals with its desired outcomes and to maximize the impact of your ad campaign and, ultimately, your costs per conversion and return on investment (ROI). So, at the very least, you should perform an audit on a yearly basis and then whenever you think it necessary to address any known or suspected performance issues. Most experts recommend that you have an outside agency do the work so that your account can be examined with a fresh eye and from an unbiased perspective.

There are many different audits that you can complete to help ensure that your account is operating at its peak performance. Here are some things to consider:

• Account Structure and Organization Audit – The purpose of this audit is to review and ensure that you are targeting the right location, users, and keywords. Check for duplicate keywords, variations in the ad text, and keyword match types. Make sure there are no issues or missed optimization opportunities; that there exists an adequate negative keyword list to prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant queries; and that conversion tracking is set up to track the most important actions a visitor could take. Check for any approval issues. Review your budget; if the budget is maxed out, consider lowering your bids in order to reduce your cost per click– you just might get more clicks for your money.

• Ad Audit – The purpose of an ad audit is to find out which ads are under-performing and which are driving a positive response. Check for typos and spelling issues. Make sure your ad has a call to action. Examine any custom display URLs and ascertain their effectiveness.

• Landing Page Audit – Make sure your landing page works and sends traffic to the right page(s) of your website. Pause ads for any products or services that are no longer being offered. Optimize the landing page for conversions, and make sure it has the proper privacy policy and terms clauses on it.

• Extension Audit – If your account has site link extensions make sure they are correctly configured to include quick links to any top pages and are appropriate for your business. For example, brick and mortar businesses should always have working location extensions. Pause any under performing extensions and replace them with other variations.

Be thorough and methodical. Auditing your pay-per-click account is one of the most beneficial things you can do to improve its performance, lower cost per clicks, and increase click-through rates and conversions.

Once these and any other audits are completed, you will need to prioritize any necessary re-working of your PPC account according to what is going to affect your bottom line the most, or according to the amount of time it will take to complete particular tasks.

Google vs. Bing

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Search engines have replaced encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books and trips to the library, having become, over the last two decades, everyone’s resource for finding answers and information. By far, the most used search engine in the world is Google. It’s been around since 1997 and is constantly improving with new features and algorithms. In fact, Google’s search engine is so dominant, with approximately 65 percent of the country’s search market share, that the word, itself, has become a verb: to Google something is to search for it online; much like the brand name Xerox once became the active word for photocopying something.

Never to be outdone, computer behemoth Microsoft has had several search engines over the years, including Windows Live Search and MSN Search. Today, it has Bing, which in addition to powering its own searches also powers Yahoo search. Thus, Bing serves the other third of U.S. internet searchers.

Why is Google twice as popular as Bing? It may simply be a matter of habit, since it’s been around longer, because, in reality, both search engines are very similar. They both search the Web and deliver images, news, and product information in easy-to-read formats. But since both sites also serve as hubs for the other web properties that their respective parent companies own, both Microsoft and Google stand to gain monetarily by keeping web surfers using their engines. So there has been a brisk competition between them, and when comparing the two search engines (although Bing refers to itself as a “decision engine”) some differences do appear.

The first noticeable difference is the two search engine’s home pages. Google’s is pretty much a blank canvas, while Bing’s sports a colorful home page, with downloadable images that change daily. Along the top of Bing’s home page are links to more images, videos, maps, news, etc. and along the bottom are dozens more links that can immediately take a user to current news stories and other interesting sites. According to Microsoft, all of this was designed to simplify search tasks and make it easier for users either find what they’re looking for, or to encourage serendipitous searches. And when clicking on one of the images at the bottom of the screen, Bing takes its users to pages filled with a lot more information, a lot more images, and a lot more videos than Google.

In addition, the general consensus is that Bing’s video search is significantly better than Google’s. Bing gives the searcher a grid of large thumbnails that can be clicked on to play without leaving Bing, itself. For some videos, it even gives a preview when a mouse hovers over it.

Conversely, most PC experts believe that for informational searches Google comes out slightly ahead. As time goes on, though, it remains to be seen whether Bing’s more elaborate bells and whistles will allow it to whittle away significantly at Google’s market share. It’s the cyber battle of Coke versus Pepsi and as of now, Google is still the one that most users reach for.

How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?

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The easy answer to this question is: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” But, of course that’s the easy answer and in business, there are no easy answers. Some experts suggest that you allocate 15 to 20 percent of your company’s annual income for the best results, but that answer is also a little too facile.

You know that you’re going to spend something for your business’ online presence and you know that it’s probably going to more affordable than print ads, radio or TV commercials, or sending out actual mail. But what you really need to do before you spend a dime, is decide what you want to achieve, where you will find most of your customers, and what aspects of online advertising and communication will give you the biggest bang for the buck by generating leads and sales and directing people towards your company.

Generally, you will have several main choices for your online spending: a website, which requires building it, hosting it and maintaining it; search marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital ads such as Google AdWords, pay per click (PPC) campaigns, etc.; a social media presence, such as Facebook, Twitter, and all the other various platforms; review site advertising such as Yelp and Foursquare; and email communication.

The most important of these is probably your website. There you have some choices. You can build it yourself using any number of off-the-shelf templates, such as WordPress, or you can pay to have one constructed for you. Your other basic costs will include a web domain, web hosting, a web developer (if your platform needs specific functionalities that are not available as plugins or extensions), and perhaps a social media manager (if you don’t have the time or the knowledge of how to manage the different channels). And remember: as the world becomes increasingly mobile-centered, it’s best to have a website that will display properly on smart phones and tablets.

Paying for SEO is another essential cost for many businesses. There are several models in play. You can pay a monthly retainer, which is a set fee each month in exchange for an agreed-upon array of services; or you can contract for services at fixed prices. Two other options are project-based pricing and hourly consulting.

Of course, you need to be on Facebook. It costs nothing, unless you wish to pay for boosting your content. The main expense is in labor. Facebook pages need to be updated constantly. In many companies, it’s a full-time job.

Sites like Yelp and Foursquare that offer customer reviews are also helpful tools for directing customers to your business through their advertising options. Most (non-PPC) advertising is priced on a CPM basis – essentially the cost per thousand impressions. You will have to do a lot of number-crunching to determine if this option will net you a decent return on your investment.

Finally, email marketing can be the centerpiece of any effort to stay in touch with existing customers, while reaching out and finding new ones. You can use it to promote new items and offer special discounts to loyal customers or to simply keep your customers informed. Blast email programs are relatively inexpensive, but you will need to pay a staff member to keep on top of everything.

Now, once you’ve done a lot of thinking, planning, and budgeting, you can re-ask yourself the question at the top of this post: “How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?” With all of your newly acquired knowledge, however, you will still likely wind up with the same answer: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” Like we said, in business, there are no easy answers.

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