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The Advantages of Using Public Relations in Your Marketing Strategy

February 20, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Public Relations /by Nicole Wagner

As most know, when it comes to marketing strategy, public relations plays a key role in getting the word out. For example, PR helps maintain your reputation through winning audience approval. It can educate all possible consumers and sway them to your point of view. It even helps to provide the target market with more detailed information than they would normally receive from other forms of marketing. Simply put, these advantages of public relations should be on the forefront of every marketer’s agenda. With that in mind, here are a few valued benefits that come from using public relations in your marketing strategy.

Reputation & Credibility

Reputation and credibility are advantages of public relations, which help to shape the image of your company. PR offers an excellent toolset for generating attention, whenever there is something newsworthy. They’re able to help maintain relationships with reporters and writers who routinely cover news about the company, product category, and industry. Your PR agency will have the right connections already in place, that way when your company has something newsworthy to share with the public.

PR also boosts an organization’s credibility, since they operate through numerous trusted intermediaries. If a third party news outlet or blog covers your product, it looks more credible to the reader. Consumers might have a tendency to overlook ads, but if your new product receives coverage on one of their favorite blogs or magazines, and is recommended to them, their perception of your business is going to be considerably different. A boost in credibility often translates into more sales. So PR helps get you in front of more people, and gain the trust of the consumers in the process.

Public relations are responsible for identifying and building relationships with influencers. This irreplaceable asset helps to shape the opinions in the marketplace, about a company and its products. Similarly, when an organization finds itself facing a crisis with their image, PR professionals play important roles in strategizing. This helps the organization respond in effective appropriate ways and minimizes the damage done to its public image.

Target Market

Target Marketing is another one of the advantages of public relations. With PR, you can market onto that target audience you are hoping to reach. A well-crafted and orchestrated public relations campaign targets the media and events that your target audience utilizes. The type of media your company is trying to consume will depend on the type of person you are going after.

A social media influencer campaign can be a great benefit of having a public relations team. Consumers use product review sites, community forums, and the views of friends and colleagues as part of their product research. As a result a PR campaign could utilize social media influencers to help build dialogue with your customers and create ambassadors for your brand.

Media sources can place the information where the consumers have a greater chance of seeing it. Which often results in consumers getting the required information they need. If you are an accountant hoping to generate some new clientele, placing an ad in a teen magazine likely won’t help. But an appealing article found in the middle of the finance publication will probably lead you right where you want to be. With a professional PR team can target the right people and outlets, you can grow your company.

Similar Article: Three Ways to Use Targeted Marketing To Reach Qualified Prospects

Opportunity

This leads to my next point, opportunity. A properly executed PR campaign, could lead to stories of your business in newspapers and magazines. TV, radio, podcasts, public appearances, and other opportunities are available through a public relations strategy. At the same time, these outlets will carry weight with your customers, and help your company grow in unimagined ways. It may not be immediate, because readers may discover articles months or even years after they’ve published. However, the long tail effect of PR can be quite invaluable for any business looking to expand.

Another, more obvious benefit of PR, is getting your products and services in front of more consumers, and thus gaining more customers. PR is a valuable marketing channel for supplementing your direct marketing or advertising efforts. If you receive ongoing coverage, your company will gain brand awareness. As a result, you will project brand authority all the while keeping it on the mind of potential consumers.

Although other marketing channels can certainly help you gain exposure and grow your business, if you aren’t looking at PR as a viable opportunity just yet, it may be time to start. Establishing your brand doesn’t have to take forever. By utilizing PR, you can improve your reputation, build your credibility, and gain more opportunity from the resources around you.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

7 Tactics to Implement in Your Senior Living Marketing Strategy in 2020

February 17, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Senior Living Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Although there is a great need for high-quality senior living facilities that can cater to a growing senior population, there are many different facilities who are competing against one another for the attention of potential residents. As such, an effective senior living marketing strategy is an absolute must. A good senior living marketing strategy will allow you to generate more awareness of your facility and more interest in it. If you don’t employ a number of marketing tactics, you’ll find it challenging to compete for residents, which, in turn, will make it difficult to succeed. With that in mind, the following are a few marketing ideas that can help you improve your senior living marketing strategy in 2020:

1. Improve your web design

Your website is the main hub of your online presence. All of your inbound marketing efforts will direct prospects to your website. However, if your website design is poor, you will likely lose a lot of the prospects that you worked so hard to attract. Make sure that your website uses a simple and easy-to-read layout that’s not cluttered. Every webpage should be easy to scan so that visitors can find what they’re looking for. Your website should also be easy to navigate. Implement a menu bar that’s not overcrowded with links and that includes links to the main pages. A search function can also be very helpful. Finally, it’s vital that your website loads quickly. Visitors will abandon any page that takes longer than two to three seconds to load. They may even leave your website as a result of the wait.

2. Publish helpful content

Create content that is relevant, helpful, and informative to publish throughout your website. Every page should have good content on it. You should also have a blog on which you can routinely publish new content to keep the interest of your prospects. While written content can be effective, make sure that you create a variety of different types of content to keep visitors engaged. For example, images, infographics, video content, and podcasts can all increase engagement.

3. Make it easy for leads to engage

If your leads have questions or simply want to get into contact with you, you need to make it easy for them to do so. Have your contact information available on every webpage and social media page that you have so that prospects can contact you through phone or email. Having a social media presence will also give them the option of messaging through your social channel as well. If you want to go the extra mile, implementing a live chat or a chatbot feature can also be quite effective.

Similar Article: 4 Senior Living Video Marketing Ideas That Will Improve Engagement

4. Encourage leads to take action

It’s not enough to just nurture and educate your leads. The last thing you want is for someone to be interested in your facility as a result of exploring your website, only to decide that they will contact you later. Because you run the risk of them forgetting to do so. Use CTAs (calls-to-action) to encourage leads to take action right away. Whether it’s contacting you or filling out a form to sign up to an email list or to redeem an offer (such as a downloadable ebook).

5. Use PPC ads to attract better prospects

PPC (pay-per-click) ads are effective because they allow you to target specific prospects using keywords. When someone does a search for that keyword, your ad has a chance of showing up. Not only can this help you spread awareness of your facility through Google, but it’s a cost-effective tactic as well. Because you’re only paying for the actual clicks that your ads get.

6. Use local SEO to find residents in your area

Many decision-makers who are looking for senior living facilities for their loved ones will want to keep them close to home. As a result, you should implement a local SEO strategy that makes it easier for people to find your facility while performing local searches. There are several tactics that you can employ to boost your local SEO. You can submit your NAP (name, address, and phone number) to online directories, such as Yelp, you can use local keywords throughout your content whenever appropriate, and you can add or claim your Google My Business to strengthen your local presence on Google.

7. Establish a presence on social media

A social media presence not only makes it easier to interact directly with your audience to answer questions and address concerns, but it’s also a great way to spread awareness of your facility. When you engage with people, their followers may see the interaction, which is an excellent way to boost your reputation. You can also post content to social media, which if it’s shared, liked, or commented on, can help increase exposure.

The success of your senior living facility is going to depend on your ability to generate awareness of your facility. As well as, being able to engage and entice decision-makers to reach out to you. These are seven tactics that you should implement in your senior living marketing strategy in 2020 that will do just that.

6 Social Media Trends To Follow In 2020

February 12, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Social Media, Trending /by Nicole Wagner

At this point in time, every business with an inbound marketing strategy should have a social media presence of some sort. Social media is one of the most effective ways to build relationships with your target audience. You can engage directly with them and learn more about what their wants and needs are. However, social media is constantly evolving. Which means that you need to keep up with all the latest social media trends. In doing so, you make sure that your presence is felt and that you don’t fall behind the competition. With that in mind, the following are six social media trends in 2020 worth implementing yourself:

1. Find More Impactful Influencers

Influencer marketing continues to thrive. Building relationships with influencers can help expose your brand to a huge audience. However, more and more so-called “influencers” have popped up over the last few years. And as a result, make it difficult to identify actual influencers. Don’t make the mistake of trying to build a relationship with an influencer based on their number of followers. Many of these “fake” influencers won’t be able to help you at all. Focus more on finding influencers who actually have sway over their followers, no matter how many they have. Many brands are focusing on nano-influencers, which are influencers who may only have a few thousand followers but who actually have significant influence over their audience.

2. Focus On Video Content

Brands are continuing to focus on the creation of video content as it continues to be incredibly effective. Not only are short videos easier to consume on mobile devices than other types of content, but people are more visual creatures that retain information better when it’s presented in a video format. On top of that, YouTube currently boasts the second most active users behind only Facebook. While channels like Instagram are continuously looking to improve their video features. As such, you should focus on creating professional-quality video content for your target audience.

3. Curate Customer Created Content

Encouraging customers to create content that’s relevant to your business not only helps to strengthen your content strategy in general (and provides you with fresh content that helps increase brand awareness on your behalf), but it’s also a great way to boost customer participation and engagement. Many brands encourage their followers to post pictures on Instagram showcasing the use of their product with a specific hashtag. For example, the eyeglasses brand Zenni encouraged its customers to post photos wearing their new glasses under the hashtag #justgotmyzennis.

Enjoy Article: The Power of Social Media Influencers: Why it works

4. Take Advantage Of FOMO

People on social media (and life in general) tend to have a “fear of missing out” or FOMO. This means that posting content that can only be accessed for a specific amount of time can help to attract more views. For example, webinars that people have to register for or ephemeral content in the form of Snapchat Stories or Instagram Stories that will disappear forever. Many followers will check in regularly to make sure that they don’t miss out on content that’s only going to be around for a day, allowing you to drive more engagement and keep your brand at the top of mind as a result.

Most companies stick to major social channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to name a few. However, there are hundreds of other social channels out there that might be worth incorporating into your social media strategy. Specifically, social channels that cater to a certain niche that’s relevant to your brand. By establishing a presence on such a channel, you’ll be able to target a much more specific audience to greater success than on channels like Facebook that essentially cater to everyone. For example, TikTok tends to be more youth-oriented but has exploded in popularity amongst the younger demographic (it’s a social platform similar to the now-defunct Vine), while Twitch is a streaming platform catering to videogamers.

Social media is thought of as a strategy that helps improve customer engagement and that can drive leads to your website; however, it’s potential to be used as a platform to generate sales is increasing year by year. Channels like Facebook and Pinterest have been used for years now to sell products; however, social commerce has increased to the point where it may soon become just as effective a source of sales as website ecommerce pages and offline stores. As such, you may want to consider incorporating social commerce into your sales strategy going forward.

These are six social media trends that you should keep a close eye on in 2020 and that you may want to consider adopting for your own inbound marketing and sales strategies.

6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs B2B Inbound Marketing

February 6, 2020/in Articles, B2B Marketing, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

There are many B2B companies that continue to advertise using more traditional methods, such as TV commercials, magazine ads, cold calls, and more. While traditional marketing can be effective, it’s a good idea to implement a variety of different marketing strategies. This includes inbound marketing. The main difference between inbound marketing and traditional marketing (often referred to as outbound marketing) is that with inbound marketing you’re putting yourself in the position to be found by prospects, whereas with outbound marketing, the goal is to find prospects and to advertise to them directly. If you haven’t implemented an inbound marketing B2B strategy yet, the following are six reasons to do so:

1. Increase Brand Awareness

As any company knows, increasing brand awareness is critical to growing your business. Inbound marketing provides numerous opportunities to generate awareness for your brand. Having a website that you post content to that’s optimized for SEO (search engine optimization) will help to increase your company’s page rankings on Google, thereby increasing exposure to Google’s users. Establishing a social media presence will help you engage with followers, who will then share, like, or comment on the content you post to social media, which helps drive exposure even further. Inbound marketing also tends to have a snowball effect when it comes to brand awareness. The more you continue to create content and post, the more awareness of your brand will increase.

2. Build Brand Authority

While generating brand awareness is certainly important, you will also want to build the reputation of your brand as a company that clients can trust and depend on. Inbound marketing can achieve is in many ways. First of all, by creating relevant content that addresses the needs of your target audience, you help to build authority within your industry. The more authority you have, the more trusted you will be. You can also generate authority by engaging with followers on social media, such as by addressing questions and participating in relevant discussions.

3. Generate More Leads

Without leads you cannot generate sales. Inbound marketing encompasses a variety of different tactics that can help you generate more leads. These tactics include SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. Effective inbound marketing strategies are capable of generating high-quality traffic to your website and ensuring that the content that’s available on your website will help to nurture visitors through the buyer’s journey, enabling you to convert your leads and eventually turn them into customers.

4. Educate Your Prospects

The more a prospect knows about their own needs and challenges as well as the solutions that will best address those needs and challenges, the more likely they will consider the product or service that you have to offer. Inbound marketing gives you the opportunity to create content that will educate prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey. The idea is to let your prospects find the information that you offer and educate themselves at their own pace. This way, they do not feel the pressure to purchase until they are ready to choose a solution. The ability to educate your prospects will not only help get you closer to a sale, but it will also build your brand authority.

Similar Article: Top 3 Ways to Maximize Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

5. Improve Understanding Of Your Audience

You can learn a lot about your audience via inbound marketing. For example, you can gather information on prospects and customers through your opt-in forms, through questionnaires and surveys, through social media engagement, and by tracking their online behavior. You can use this information to better understand who your customers are and what their needs, goals, and challenges are. As a result, you’ll be able to develop buyer personas that you can then use to more effectively target your inbound marketing efforts.

6. Increase Long-Term ROI

Even if you run very successful outbound marketing strategies, there will always be one major drawback: more traditional marketing efforts tend to be short-term strategies. This means that once a campaign has finished, you’ll have a good idea of what the ROI was for that campaign. The thing about inbound marketing B2B strategies is that they are long-term. Even if the ROI seems low at first, it will grow over time as you adjust and improve your tactics. For example, the content you post to your website will live there forever. Which means it can have an impact years after it’s been published.

Inbound marketing has often been touted as essential for B2C companies, but it can be just as beneficial for B2B companies if properly implemented. These are six reasons why you should implement an inbound marketing B2B strategy. And once you do, you’ll realize that there are many other benefits over the long run as well.

5 Key Healthcare Marketing Strategies to Implement in 2020

February 4, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

As a healthcare organization, you may know that you have a product or service that fulfills a pressing need; however, that doesn’t mean that patients will simply find you. You will still need to market your healthcare business effectively; in order to spread awareness of your organization and what it is that you have to offer. Because there are so many healthcare options out there for patients to choose from, your marketing strategy is even more important to your success. With that in mind, the following are five key healthcare marketing strategies that you should implement this year:

1. Focus On Local SEO

A lot of people will search for the closest healthcare practice to them if they have a pressing medical need. Even if they have some time to find several different healthcare practices and to compare them, they will often choose the one that is closest to them. You’ll want to make sure that your healthcare business can be found by such patients, which is why you should focus on local SEO. Optimizing for local SEO means that it will be easier for potential customers in your area to find you via search. To strengthen your local SEO, you should do the following:

Submit your NAP – Make sure that you submit your NAP (name, address, and phone number) to numerous local directories. Yelp or Zocdoc, would be good examples of where to start.
Set up Google My Business account – A My Business account on Google will allow you to submit your NAP along with other business information, such as a description of your services, a link to your website, photographs and more.
Encourage reviews – Encourage your patients to leave positive online reviews. When researching nearby healthcare practices or facilities, people will often check online reviews before making a decision.
Optimize for mobile use – Because most local searches are performed on mobile devices while users are out and about, it’s important that your website is properly optimized for mobile use.
Create local-based content – Create content for your blog that’s relevant to your area and use local keywords wherever appropriate (such as the name of the town or neighborhood you’re located in).

Building your reputation is key to attracting more long-term customers. Establishing and maintaining a presence on social media is a great way to do that. Social media allows you to engage directly with your target audience, whether it’s by posting links to helpful healthcare-related content (including your own), answering questions that followers have about your services or products, asking followers for feedback, and more. As you continue to engage with people through social media, you will build trust and awareness. If done effectively, people will begin automatically looking for your healthcare practice or business when they’re in need of healthcare products or services instead of doing basic Google searches.

3. Keep Patients Engaged With Email Updates

Staying on the top of mind, is important. If your existing patients forget about you, you could lose them to a competing practice. Not to mention that some patients may not stay up to date when it comes to scheduling routine appointments. Email is one of the best ways to keep your current patients up-to-date and to remind them about scheduling appointments if it’s time to do so. You can also use email marketing to inform customers about new healthcare services or products that you’re offering.

4. Attract More Patients Using PPC Advertising

PPC ads are a great way to attract new customers. The way they work is simple. You bid on a keyword. When somebody performs a search using that keyword, there’s a good chance your ad will show up on their SERP (search engine results page). You will then only pay for the ad if that person clicks on the ad. Using relevant keywords (such as keywords that are location-based and describe specific services or products), you can make sure that your ads are attracting potential customers in your area. You can use your PPC ads to promote new products and services. Making PPC advertising one of the most flexible healthcare marketing strategies available.

5. Create And Publish Relevant Content

Create content centered around healthcare-related topics that are relevant to your business. Afterward, publish that content on a website blog regularly. Not only is this a great way to attract organic traffic via Google, but it will engage readers and help to build your brand authority. The greater your authority becomes, the more your reputation within your industry will grow, thereby helping to increase brand trust.

Knowing how to market your healthcare organization is critical to attracting more patients and growing your business. These are some of the healthcare marketing strategies that will help you to attract more patients and that will help put you in the best position to compete with other healthcare businesses in your area.

Tips On Using Facebook For Senior Living Social Media Marketing

January 29, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Senior Living Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Senior living social media marketing, is one of the most effective ways to spread awareness about your senior living community. In doing so, you provide your audience with insight into your facility. This is because decision-makers will often look through social media pages; to not only find the information they’re looking for, but also to get a sense of what other people think about your facility as well as how you engage with decision-makers. As for what social channels you should focus on, Facebook is arguably the best way to reach your audience. This is because Facebook not only has over two billion users, but because 75 percent of American adults between the ages of 18 and 49 use Facebook, which means you’re more likely to reach the family members who are in charge of finding a senior living facility for their loved ones.

Keeping this in mind, the following are a few senior living social media marketing tips to help strengthen your efforts to reach your audience and to engage with them via Facebook:

1. Showcase Your Personality

Besides delivering information about your community, you’ll also want to showcase the personality of your community. This is done through the tone you use and the type of content you post. Showcasing your personality is important because it makes your community more engaging for potential prospects.

2. Use Real Pictures Of Your Property And Your Residents

People tend to be attracted to visual content. Pictures of your community can convey much more about what it’s like to live there than words can. Facebook is a great place to share pictures of your property and residents that will have a real impact on your audience. Additionally, people will be more likely to share visual content, thereby helping to drive awareness of your community. Just make sure to use actual pictures of your property and residents and not stock pictures. As this will feel inauthentic and will hurt your trust.

3. Give Your Residents A Voice

Instead of constantly trying to convey the message that residents are happy and active in your community, let your residents deliver the message themselves. Post testimonials from actual residents in your community. Even something as simple as a quote from a resident and their picture can impact a person’s impression of your organization. Your audience is much more likely to believe what actual residents have to say about your community over what you have to say about it, after all.

4. Promote Events And Activities

Keep your followers up to date with all community-related events and activities. Posting updates that include the dates and times help keep your audience informed about what’s going on in your community. It also gives decision-makers the opportunity to see what kinds of events and activities you typically hold.

5. Be Helpful To Your Audience

Facebook is a social channel, which means it’s not just about delivering information to your audience. It’s also about engaging with them in a two-way conversation. As such, make sure to address any questions, concerns, or feedback that’s left on your page; in a polite, friendly, and helpful manner. The more helpful you are, the better it will reflect on your senior living community.

6. Post Content That Is Informative And Relevant

Facebook is a great way to nurture leads through the buyer’s journey by posting links to content. This content can be from your blog or even from other relevant blogs on other high-quality, non-competing websites. Since the buyer’s journey isn’t linear, make sure that you post content that addresses all three stages of the buyer’s journey:

Awareness – At the awareness stage, people are still identifying what their pain points are. Content that addresses common challenges to finding the right senior living community (such as budget, help with activities of daily living, location, staying active, and more) help address the awareness stage.
Consideration – Once they are familiar with their pain points, they will begin looking for specific solutions. Post content that highlights potential solutions to those challenges and how your community is able to provide such solutions.
Decision – At this point, people will know exactly what they’re looking for and will be deciding on the community that best suits their loved one’s needs. Content that helps convince your prospects that your community is the best option can include testimonials, virtual tours, ebooks, and more.

Similar Article: 4 Tips for Marketing Senior Living Communities

7. Use Relevant Hashtags

When posting content or comments to Facebook, adding relevant hashtags helps to categorize what you’ve posted. Doing so can make it easier for interested people to find your content more easily. In doing so, helping to drive awareness of your community on various social media platforms. This includes not just Facebook but also Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, and Pinterest.

There are plenty of social media tools available that allow you to track mentions of your community. This allows you to get an overall idea of what people think about you since you can monitor reviews on Facebook as well as general comments about your community. Not only can you get a sense of your reputation this way and find areas that need to be addressed (in the event that there are similar complaints about specific things), but it gives you a chance to find opportunities to engage with the people who are talking about your brand.

9. Drive Conversions Using CTAs

Although your audience can do its own research using the content you post on Facebook, they still need to be encouraged to take action. Use CTAs (calls-to-action) to encourage potential prospects to take specific actions, such as opting in to your email newsletter or calling your community to set up an appointment.

Facebook can be an incredibly effective way to inform your audience about your senior living community and to drive conversions if you know how to leverage it properly. These are nine senior living social media marketing tips that will help you do just that.

Figuring Out Your Bounce Rate Benchmark

January 27, 2020/in Articles, Content Marketing, Directors /by Nicole Wagner

When it comes to your website, it’s important to monitor how it’s performing. Tracking performance allows you to adjust different tactics. Thereby ensuring that you have the best chance of attracting high-quality leads and converting them while they’re exploring your site. One metric that you should be sure to monitor is the bounce rate. However, the bounce rate benchmark isn’t as easy to read as you might think.

What Is The Bounce Rate?

A “bounce” occurs whenever someone who has visited your webpage leaves the page without engaging further. This is generally seen as a bad thing since visitors who leave without engaging may not be interested in your content, may have a poor first impression of your website, or did no0t find what they were looking for. A bounce can be triggered when a visitor returns to their original search results, closes their browser, stays inactive on your page and the session times out, clicks on an outbound link, or enters a new URL into the address bar.

While a high bounce rate might indicate that there’s something wrong with your page (for example, it’s not loading fast enough, resulting in visitors returning to their search results in frustration), it’s not always a bad thing. In some cases, certain pages simply have naturally high bounce rates. For example, contact pages often have high bounce rates. This is not because the visitor is leaving as a result of a negative experience — instead, they may simply be using the contact information they’ve found to reach you. With that in mind, you’ll want to set a different bounce rate benchmark for different types of pages.

Setting Your Bounce Rate Benchmark

Setting a bounce rate benchmark is important. When you monitor your bounce rate of certain pages, you’ll want to be able to identify if the bounce rate is too high or not. A bounce rate under 40 percent is considered normal, while a bounce rate between 20 and 30 percent is excellent. However, there are other factors to consider as well. Sometimes a 50 percent bounce rate isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With that in mind, the following are some of the factors you’ll need to consider when setting your bounce rate benchmark for different pages on your site.

Similar Article: Improving User Experience With Good Website Navigation Design

The type of page

As previously mentioned, some pages are going to have higher bounce rates than other pages because of the type of page that they are. Content-based pages, such as blog pages, tend to have higher bounce rates. A visitor might spend some time reading a long-form blog post and then leave after finishing. Unfortunately, this can trigger a bounce if all they did was read the post. But this isn’t necessarily a negative thing — if they stayed on the page and finished reading the entire post, then there’s always a chance they’ll come back to your site in the future.

Additionally, content pages are often visited via links posted on social media. This means that someone who came to your site, via a link to your blog that you posted on Facebook may go back to your Facebook page after they’re done. Just because they didn’t engage further on your website, doesn’t mean that they’re not engaging on your social pages afterwards. In addition to content-based pages, reference pages tend to have high bounce rates as well. For example, FAQ pages, form submission pages, and sales confirmation pages.

The device used

The device the user is on affects the bounce rate as well. People using a desktop are more likely to engage with a webpage that they are visiting because they have more time. Mobile users tend to be in more of a hurry and are more likely to bounce as a result.

The origin of the traffic

Knowing what channels your traffic is coming from is helpful since the origin of the traffic can affect the bounce rate. Visitors coming to your site from social media pages tend to go back to the social channel they came from. It’s why social media bounce rates are usually two to three times higher than bounce rates from other channels. The highest bounce rates come from display ad traffic. As far as the lowest bounce rates go, they tend to come from referral and email traffic. This is because visitors coming to your site from a referral or email link, are more likely to have an existing interest in your brand and are more likely to continue engaging on your site.

Although bounce rates are an excellent metric to track in order to monitor your website’s performance, it’s important to understand the factors that contribute to your bounce rate. Understanding why the bounce rate is what it is will make it easier to judge the performance of your pages.

Evaluating Your Internet Marketing Strategy

January 23, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Website Design /by Nicole Wagner

It’s not only the beginning of a new year, it’s the beginning of a new decade. So what better time to update your internet marketing strategy than now? If it’s been a while since you’ve evaluated your marketing strategy, then it’s time to do so. Even if your marketing efforts have been effective, there’s no reason why they can’t be improved on. The following are five ways that you can update your internet marketing strategy in 2020:

1. Update Your Web Design

Your website design will always be one of the most important aspects of your internet marketing strategy. It’s the foundation from which all of your marketing efforts depend on, after all. If visitors come to your website and it’s difficult to navigate or not aesthetically pleasing, it will leave a poor first impression of your company. Consider the last time that you updated your web design. If it’s been longer than a year, then you may want to consider re-evaluating your website in the event that it could use an update.

Pay attention to how easy it is to navigate. You should make sure that there are clearly marked links to the most important pages of your site on your homepage. Add a search feature to make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. Check to see if all of your links are working. Make sure every page loads quickly. These are all important to a successful web design. You should look at competing websites as well to get an idea of what’s working and what isn’t. When it comes to the aesthetic of your site, remember that what may have been popular a few years ago may be significantly outdated tomorrow. These days, clean, elegant, and minimal web designs are preferred.

2. Expand Your Content Strategy

A successful content strategy is one that produces a variety of different types of content. You may be running a successful blog on which you post new articles several times a week, but there are other content creation tactics that you should consider employing in order to improve results. For example, writing guest blogs for companies within your industry that you’re not competing with directly can help to build your audience as well as increase brand authority. If you’re not creating video content yet, then you should begin doing so. Video content is more easily consumed by people, especially those on mobile devices, making it an important component of any modern content marketing strategy.

Learn More: 5 Ways to Update Your Internet Market Strategy in 2020

3. Improve The Effectiveness Of Your Email Marketing Strategy

Because of how old email marketing is, some people may think that it’s an outdated strategy in itself. This is a mistake — email marketing can still be very effective if you do it right. You just need to make sure that your email content can’t be mistaken for spam. The best way to ensure that your email marketing efforts are effective is to use the data you have on your subscribers to segment your email list. This will allow you to send out more relevant content, thereby allowing you to nurture both leads and customers more effectively. You should also begin performing A/B tests on your emails. This will help you pinpoint certain elements (for example, the types of CTAs or titles that you’re using) that result in the best open and conversion rates.

4. Find More Ways To Improve Your Conversion Rate

Be sure to monitor your conversion rates over time. You can identify ways to improve your conversion rate as well by testing different elements. For example, use conversion rate optimization to test images, webpage layouts, CTA buttons, and more to identify what visitors prefer. For example, you might find that a blue CTA button converts more visitors than a red CTA button despite the page layout and content being the same.

Social media is an incredibly cost-effective way to engage directly with your audience. As such, it’s the perfect tool for building relationships, promoting content, and even managing PR. If you’re only using social media to promote content, consider leveraging social media to engage your audience in other ways. For example, begin contributing to discussions that your followers are having. Hold contests on social media to encourage followers to engage with each other. Use social media to collect valuable feedback from your customers. You may also want to re-evaluate your social media strategy to determine if your audience is using any other channels other than the ones you’re on. You want to have a presence wherever your audience is, after all.

As effective as your internet marketing strategy may currently be, you should always be on the lookout for ways that you can improve it. These are five areas that you should focus on when evaluating and improving your internet marketing strategy for the new year.

10 Best Digital Marketing Podcasts in 2020

January 16, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

Marketing strategies constantly change and evolve every year. Therefore, it’s important that you stay up to date on all of the best digital marketing podcasts, and latest marketing trends. Doing so can give you good ideas on how to improve your marketing strategy. So that it doesn’t grow stale. While keeping up with the latest marketing trends may seem like a challenge, it can be easier if you know where to look — or listen. Podcasts are becoming an incredible resource for all kinds of information, especially when it comes to online marketing. The following are ten of the best digital marketing podcasts that you should be sure to check out:

1. Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing is a podcast that has been around for the better part of a decade. The podcast covers a number of digital marketing topics. From organic SEO to word-of-mouth marketing and more. Likewise, host John Jantsch, brings well-known guests onto his podcast. Including the likes of John Lee Dumas and Neil Patel. As a result, these conversations contain helpful advice for interested listeners. Moreover, Duct Tape Marketing is particularly useful for beginner and medium level marketers.

2. Marketing School

The Marketing School podcast is unique in that it’s a daily podcast that’s only ten minutes long. Easy to consume and a great way of obtaining helpful advice. Considering that the hosts are well known for their marketing acumen (it’s hosted by Neil Patel and Eric Siu), Marketing School is well worth tuning into eve Best Digital Marketing Podcast 1 ry day.

3. The #AskGaryVee Show

Gary Vee is a New York Times bestselling author, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur who gained popularity with his YouTube series. Consequently, his podcast, the #AskGaryVee Show, is a spin-off of that series. Going over lots of marketing tips as well as diving into emerging marketing trends. Gary Vee also answers questions that his listeners submit. As a result of using the #AskGaryVee hashtag on every podcast.

4. Marketing Scoop by SEMrush

SEMrush is known for their knowledge of digital marketing. As a result, they launched their podcast to help share this knowledge in an easy-to-digest way. The first season focuses mostly on SEO and PPC. Their second season covers news, trends, and discussions with industry leaders. All of which focusing on content marketing, SEO, and more. Some of the guests in the past have included Jim Banks, Barry Schwartz, and Larry Kim.

5. Everyone Hates Marketers

Everyone Hates Marketers was launched by Louis Grenier, the Content Lead at Hotjar, back in 2017. His goal was creating a podcast, that would help inform listeners on how to market the right way. Similarly, encouraging them to avoid manipulative tactics. Which included, interviewing successful marketers who avoid using “buzzwords” and focus on telling the truth.

Similar Article: Types of Digital Marketing Strategies Your Business Should Use

6. The Mad Marketing Podcast

The Mad Marketing podcast is hosted by Marcus Sheridan, one of the partners of HubSpot, and the founder of River Pools and Spas. The podcast focuses mostly on SEO and content marketing and is a great resource on those topics. It’s an easy listen as Sheridan is a entertaining host. Incorporating personal stories from his career into his podcasts.

7. Marketing Over Coffee

Marketing Over Coffee, hosted by Christopher S. Penn and John Wall, focuses on the latest digital marketing tactics and techniques. As a result, this weekly podcast is an excellent way to stay up to date. Conversations ranging from social media marketing and email marketing to copywriting and SEO marketing.

8. Seeking Wisdom

Seeking Wisdom is a podcast created by Drift. Featuring conversations, between David Cancel, the CEO of Drift, and Dave Gerhardt, the host. Each podcast spending about 20 minutes on a conversation between the two men over coffee. Leadership principles and the process of building Drift, are among some of the discussed topics of the podcast.

9. Growth Marketing Toolbox

The Growth Marketing Toolbox is a podcast hosted by Nicholas Scalice from Earnworthy. Focusing on exploring the newest marketing tools and technology being used within the marketing industry. Similarly, Scalice himself is an expert in landing page design, conversion optimization, and A/B testing. In short, this a podcast is worth listening to.

10. The Marketing Companion

The Marketing Companion is hosted by Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster, combining over 50 years of shared marketing experience and expertise. It’s an on-demand podcast that is incredibly entertaining. Having seven years worth of podcasts currently available, there’ll be plenty to listen to.

In conclusion, these are some of the best digital marketing podcasts available. Retaining insightful and invaluable information when it comes to finding ways to improve your own marketing strategy.

25 Website Must Haves For Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales

Cornerstone Content & Why You Need It

January 13, 2020/in Articles, Content Marketing, Directors, Inbound Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

As you likely know at this point, the success of your inbound marketing strategy depends significantly on your content strategy. Your content strategy, however, probably consists of several different facets. As you plan your content, it’s important to understand that not all content provides the same value to your strategy. Some content is much more valuable to your marketing strategy than other types of content. The most important of this content is known as cornerstone content. It’s useful to understand what cornerstone content is and that you implement it on your website.

What is Cornerstone Content?

Cornerstone content is the best and most important content found on your website. Out of all the content you create, this is the content that you want to rank highest in search engines. It provides new visitors with an overview on important topics that are relevant to your business. For example, cornerstone content for a roofing contractor might include an article, about the different types of materials that can be used in a roof installation. Or how to tell when your roof needs to be replaced. It can also include an in-depth breakdown of services offered by your company and when they might be needed.

As such, cornerstone content can take the form of a blog post or a webpage. Cornerstone content is generally found at the top of your funnel. Since it provides visitors with a thorough introduction to a topic, it doesn’t need to be gated.

The Benefits

The following are some of the benefits of creating and implementing cornerstone content onto your website:

Increase your brand awareness – Your content is more likely to be found by new visitors, who are looking to educate themselves about certain topics. Because your content provides visitors with an introduction to certain information, it should help to drive awareness of your brand as a result.
Create a positive first impression on visitors – People who first arrive at your site are more likely to do so via your cornerstone content. If the information is helpful and insightful, then you will leave a good first impression. This will encourage them to continue exploring your site and to read other content.
Earn natural links – Cornerstone content is more likely to earn links from other respectable sources. As a result of being a good source of information for people who are new to the topic. As such, cornerstone content is more likely to earn traffic as a result of external links.
Drive relevant web traffic – Create what is relevant to your brand, then the people who search for the topics you’ve focused on are more likely to be part of your target audience.
Build brand authority and trust – If what you create is of high quality, it will help to build brand authority, making it easier to earn trust from new visitors.
Repurpose into other types of content – Because cornerstone content is a long-form introduction or overview of a topic, you can repurpose it into other types of content, such as smaller blog posts.

How to Create What You Need

As important as cornerstone content is, creating it is a simple process. The following are some of the basic steps you can take in order to create what’s needed for your website:

Identify main keywords – Do keyword research to determine what the main keywords you want your website to rank for. Use these keywords to form the topic ideas for your content.
Write long-form content – Cornerstone content should be more in-depth pieces of content that provides readers with highly-informative material. Content that is impressive in both quality and scope is more likely to be linked to. Make sure that when you begin crafting that it’s well-developed and comprehensive.
Connect related content – Link your cornerstone content to other pages and other content on your website that’s relevant. Keeping it interconnected will help boost your SEO as well as make it easier to keep visitors on your website.
Optimize – Make sure you also use proper keywords in your headers, meta tags, titles, and URLs.
Make your content accessible – It should be easy to find your cornerstone content. Even if new visitors don’t find it via a search, they should be able to find it when on your website. It’s why you should link to it from your homepage.

When it comes to your content strategy, the importance of having this information on your website is essential. It is the foundation that will help to drive the success of your content marketing strategy in general.