Top 10+ Ways to Maximize Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

The Power of an Influencer Marketing Strategy: How and Why It Works

October 25, 2024/in Articles, Digital Media, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Social Media /by Terry Becker

We’ve all been through it—you’re scrolling through your social media feed when suddenly you come across an individual passionately endorsing a product or service. What’s more? They have a massive following. You notice this is different from the typical celebrity endorsements. That is because the individual you are seeing is a social media influencer, which makes the premise of an influencer marketing strategy so much more unique.

As a true millennial who’s seen its effects, I can attest to how important it is to be leveraging social media to enhance your marketing efforts. The following is an outline of everything you need to know about Influencer Marketing. This includes how much it costs to hire an influencer, the top social media platforms to run an influencer campaign, how to measure the success of this marketing strategy, and examples of how it’s been done successfully.

What is an Influencer?

An influencer is somebody who has the ability to “influence” potential buyers by endorsing the offerings on social media. There are several factors that indicate whether or not someone is an influencer. However, the most telling one could be that the individual’s followers fit into a particular niche, and there is active engagement between them and the actual influencer.

Rather than just being “marketing tools”, influencers are assets to a company’s social relationships with whom they can collaborate to accomplish their Marketing goals. This is what makes a social media influencer entirely different from a celebrity endorsement, and perhaps, more successful.

In celebrity product endorsements, there is less of an emphasis on engagement and more on capitalizing on the person’s fame and name recognition to benefit a brand. In short, the objective is to capture the attention of a broader audience, unlike the niche audience of the influencer.

The Cost of Influence

As you may assume, influencers can be costly and there is no set rate for incorporating them into your campaign. It’s a common practice for digital marketers to follow the “one cent per follower rule”. Some marketers know this as the $100 per 10,000 followers rule. Factors to consider include engagement rate, client budget, and campaign lengths. However, according to Instagram Influencer, Matt Crump (who has composed his own rates), creative mandates, production costs, timeline, and rights affect the cost of hiring him for your campaign. Crump explained that the price range per sponsored post varies based on the number of followers he has during that time period. The price can be as low as $100-$500 for 5-10k followers, and as high as $10,000 for over 1,000,000 followers.

It’s important for marketers to identify which platform will bring the greatest Return on Investment for their influencer marketing campaign. According to Linqia, over 68% of marketers recognize Instagram as the most effective social network for an influencer strategy in 2019. Coming in second was Facebook with 51% with YouTube, Blogs, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat following behind. The takeaway is simple: If you’re considering an Influencer Marketing strategy, Instagram is the place to start!

Similar Article: 5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media

How to Measure Success

Although over 60% of marketers are primarily focused on driving brand awareness, engagement, and impressions (Linqia), it’s still important to track sales generation from such campaigns as well as conversions, audience sentiment, and clicks. Since influencer marketing is an ever-evolving industry. Marketers need to consistently evaluate their measurement practices to ensure they’re held to the same standards as other media investments.

Similar Article: Effective Inbound Marketing Strategies

3 Examples of Successful Influencer Marketing

Now that you have an understanding of what an influencer is, how much they cost, the top social media platforms to use for your influencer marketing campaign, and how to measure its success, it’s time to take a look at influencer marketing strategies in action. The following are four examples of successful influencer marketing:

Naked Juice –

When seeking to raise their brand awareness, even more, Naked Juice decided to collaborate with Instagram influencers, Beth Norton and Kate La Vie, through sponsored Instagram posts. Kate La Vie features images of her outfits and beauty essentials. This made it easy for the brand to strategically collaborate with her snapshots. The campaign saw much success. According to Social Bond, within 24 hours the Instagram post generated more than 2,000 likes and comments combined. Additionally, this campaign enabled Naked Juice to position itself as more of a “premium juice” brand. Following the success of the campaign, the company made $57.4 million in revenue by the end of 2017.

Sperry Boat Shoes –At the end of 2016, the popular boat shoe brand, “Sperry” collaborated with more than 100 Instagram “micro-influencers”. The key influencers here were “Sperry Enthusiasts”. To create engaging content with its audience, Sperry identified fans on Instagram who were already sharing pictures of their shoes. Subsequently, the brand invited these users to develop content for its Instagram account. The strategy worked. According to Curalate, Sperry’s most engaged photo of 2016 got 8,278 likes. How did they do this? The photo was taken by influencer Slava Daniliuk who had 4,500 Instagram followers at the time. Additionally, Daniliuk posted with the brand’s trademark hashtag, #OdysseysAwait which increased engagement even more.

Walmart –

As proven by a successful retail company, influencer marketing can also be highly effective when promoting philanthropic incentives as well. Walmart took a “Cause Marketing” approach when embarking on its “Feeding America” mission with several influencers on Instagram. The strategy was simple: For each like, #FightHunger comment, or post share, 0.90 cents would be donated to the organization. Logan Paul’s most-liked post from the campaign generated over one million likes. Due to the success of these influencers in the #FightHunger campaign, Walmart raised close to $1.65 million in addition to boosting positive sentiment for their brand.

Similar Article: Social Media Campaigns for Attracting Prospects and Generating Leads

With the numerous advantages that influencer marketing provides, it’s no secret why so many brands are going with this strategy. As soon as you scroll through your social media feed once again, you’ll come across one of these campaigns. However, you’ll now have a better understanding of what an influencer marketer is and all of the marketing elements involved.

Do You Know Your AIQ? Key AI Marketing Strategy Insights for Every Marketer

October 17, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Trending /by Dan Gartlan

AI is no longer an emerging trend—it’s a core component of advanced AI marketing strategy. But how familiar are you with leveraging AI to optimize your campaigns? Think of your AIQ (Artificial Intelligence Quotient) as a measure of how effectively you incorporate AI into your marketing efforts.

In this article, we’ll explore how you can boost your AIQ by understanding six of the most powerful applications of AI:

Ready to explore your AIQ? These strategies will guide you on your journey!

Key AI Marketing Strategies

1. AI-Powered Personalization: Tailoring Experiences for Every Customer

AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data in real-time is revolutionizing how brands personalize customer experiences. Particularly, you can leverage AI to analyze user behaviors and preferences, allowing your brand to deliver content that truly resonates with your audience—think of how Spotify curates your music playlists or how Netflix recommends movies. But today’s AI goes further than just product suggestions; it focuses on crafting a unique journey for each customer. Whether you’re sending personalized emails, tailoring website content, or providing individualized offers, AI helps ensure that the right message reaches the right person at just the right time. Have you explored how AI might enhance your personalization strategy and foster stronger connections with your audience?

2. Predictive Analytics: Data That Drives Actionable Insights

AI doesn’t just analyze past behavior—it takes things a step further by predicting future trends and customer actions. With predictive analytics, AI digs into historical data, identifying patterns that help marketers anticipate customer behaviors, like churn rates, buying habits, and product demand. You might think, “Well, predictive analytics has been around for years.” That’s true. What AI does differently is that it really supercharges the process, analyzing millions of data points in just minutes. This leads to faster, more accurate decision-making, giving marketers an edge in optimizing campaigns and strategies. For example, tools like HubSpot’s predictive lead scoring help prioritize high-potential leads, streamlining efforts to focus where it matters most. In this way, instead of relying on manual data analysis, AI now does the heavy lifting for you, making decision-making more efficient.

3. Sentiment Analysis: Measuring Customer Emotions at Scale

To maintain a strong reputation and build lasting trust, understanding how your audience feels about your brand is crucial. That’s where AI-powered sentiment analysis steps in. What is sentiment analysis? It’s the process of using AI to analyze customer feedback, social media activity, reviews, and other textual data to determine the emotional tone behind the words. This gives you actionable insights, allowing you to adjust your messaging and offerings in real-time. For instance, if customers start expressing dissatisfaction with a product or service, AI can flag the trend early, giving your team the opportunity to address issues before they escalate. Ultimately, this ability to read customer emotions on a large scale enables marketers to create a more authentic, customer-first strategy.

When it comes to optimizing your ad campaigns, it’s no longer just about trial and error. Instead, AI takes the guesswork out of ad targeting and budgeting by making real-time adjustments based on performance data. More specifically, AI-driven platforms tap into data like user behavior, engagement metrics, and demographic information to determine where and when your ads will hit the mark. On top of that, these platforms are always fine-tuning things—adjusting bids, placements, and creative elements—to help you get the most value from your investment. The end result? Smarter spending, higher engagement, and better overall ad performance!

Businesses of all sizes can leverage AI as a supportive tool to enhance content creation—whether it’s generating ideas, producing drafts, spotting trends, or improving SEO strategies. As a result, marketers can shift their focus toward high-level strategies like creative development. However, it’s important to note that while AI streamlines these processes, it’s not without its limitations. For instance, AI can sometimes miss the mark on tone, making content sound impersonal or robotic. Issues like content quality or accuracy can also arise. To avoid these pitfalls and ensure the content feels genuine and aligns with your brand’s voice, human oversight is still crucial. After all, it’s about finding that sweet spot where technology and creativity work hand in hand!

6. Dynamic Pricing: Staying Competitive with AI-Driven Flexibility

AI’s ability to process data in real-time is a game-changer for dynamic pricing strategies that can adapt on the spot. Whether it’s shifts in supply and demand, changes in competitor pricing, or customer buying patterns, AI helps keep your prices competitive while maximizing profits. This is especially useful in e-commerce and retail. For example, if an item isn’t selling well, AI can lower the price in real-time to stimulate sales. This way, you can quickly respond to market trends and optimize your revenue. While AI dynamic pricing offers immense benefits, it’s important to also consider the ethical implications involved. To successfully navigate this future, businesses must prioritize transparency, fairness, and consumer trust. In this way, you can harness AI’s power to not only drive sales but also build lasting customer relationships and achieve long-term brand success!

Boosting Your AIQ for Marketing Success!

AI is fundamentally reshaping marketing, making processes more data-driven, precise, and efficient. By embracing AI marketing strategy—like personalized customer experiences, predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and dynamic pricing—you can elevate your AIQ and keep your brand ahead of the competition. So, what role does AI play in your current marketing strategy, and what additional steps can you take to amplify its effectiveness?

Also Read Considering The Pros and Cons of Using Artificial Intelligence In Marketing

digital cotent marketing for manufacturer

Boost Your Manufacturing Growth with Digital Content Marketing

October 8, 2024/in Articles, B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

Have you read tons of digital content marketing advice, only to find that most of it doesn’t quite fit your industry?

That’s because many resources tend to focus on sectors that target broader consumer bases. However, manufacturing is a whole different ballgame—it often serves niche markets with specific needs. That’s why a solid digital content marketing strategy for this sector should prioritize showcasing technical expertise, navigating longer sales cycles, and targeting distinct B2B audiences. And that’s where content marketing comes in—it’s a powerful way for manufacturers to offer valuable insights, educate potential buyers, and build trust.

So, if your answer to the opening question is yes, this blog might just hold the solutions you’ve been searching for.

In this post, we’ll cover four key content marketing strategies:

Blog Posts & Educational Content
Video Marketing
Case Studies & White Papers
Social Media Presence

And, we’ll explore three major benefits:

Lead Generation
Better Customer Insights
Cost-Effective & Measurable

Ready to unlock new growth? These strategies will get you there!

Key Digital Content Marketing Strategies

First, let’s explore the types of content strategies manufacturers can leverage to boost brand growth:

1. Blog Posts & Educational Content

If your business doesn’t have a blog, it’s definitely worth considering. In fact, B2B companies that use blogs often generate more leads than those that don’t. It provides a great platform for explaining complex processes and technical products in a way that’s easy to grasp. For instance, in the manufacturing sector, a company could publish a series of blog posts on best practices for maintenance or the latest technology trends. Not only can these blogs help develop an online presence, but they can also establish expertise and attract more qualified leads! Just remember, it’s important to target these posts to the key stages of the buyer’s journey. By doing so, you can ensure that the right content reaches the right audience at the right time.

Also Read Marketing Blog tips to Supplement your Digital Strategy

2. Video Marketing

For the most part, people are visual learners; we love pictures, graphics, and videos. That’s where video marketing comes into play! If your content efforts include videos, chances are some customers will click on them. It’s a fantastic way to highlight a company’s expertise and products. For example, a manufacturer of industrial robots could create video demonstrations showing how their robots operate on an assembly line. Additionally, these videos could highlight customer testimonials, showcasing how the product has improved efficiency in real-world applications.

Also Read Three Videos Every B2B Website Should Have

3. Case Studies & White Papers

There’s nothing quite as persuasive as a well-researched white paper or an in-depth case study. You can use them to highlight how your manufacturer’s products or services have successfully addressed challenges for other clients. For instance, an eco-friendly packaging supplier might create a case study that highlights how a customer reduced plastic waste by making the switch to their products. Meanwhile, the long-form format of a white paper allows for detailed technical specifications and quantifiable results. This makes them invaluable resources for decision-makers during the research and consideration stages.

Also Read Top Benefits of Using Case Studies For Your Business

Many brands are using social media to engage their audiences, grow their market share, and boost sales—so why not let manufacturing join in on the fun? While your company may already be leveraging platforms like LinkedIn to share industrial articles, there’s so much more social media can offer. A company specializing in renewable energy components could engage with followers by sharing industry insights, participating in discussions about sustainability, and posting videos from trade shows. This approach fosters real-time feedback and builds stronger relationships with both prospects and existing clients.

Also Read 5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media

What Are the Benefits?

How does digital content marketing translate into growth for manufacturers? It boils down to three main advantages:

1. Lead Generation

When potential customers come across articles, videos, or case studies that resonate with their needs and pain points, they’re more inclined to engage with your brand. This not only helps build trust but also transforms them into more qualified leads, encouraging them to progress further along their customer journey.

Also Read Perfect Your Inbound Marketing Strategy With Lead Nurturing

2. Better Customer Insights

By analyzing metrics such as views, shares, and comments, you can see what topics resonate most and what challenges your customers are facing. This information allows you to refine your content strategy, making it more relevant and tailored to your audience’s needs. Ultimately, understanding your customers better helps you create content that truly speaks to them, fostering stronger relationships and improving their overall experience with your brand.

Also Read Customer Engagement Strategy

3. Cost-Effective & Measurable

Unlike traditional methods, digital content marketing provides measurable results, enabling businesses to fine-tune their strategies and allocate resources more effectively. Plus, it typically costs less than traditional advertising while delivering higher returns, making it a smart investment for companies looking to maximize their impact.

Also Read Six Cost Effective Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Brand

Embrace the Digital Shift!

Gone are the days when you could only stand behind the stage; embracing digital content lets you step into the spotlight and connect directly with your audience’s interests and challenges.

The kicker? The digital landscape is always evolving, so staying agile and on top of trends is key.

What’s the bottom line? Applying these digital content marketing strategies will transform how you navigate the manufacturing world. Don’t wait—seize the opportunity to stand out and thrive in the digital age by turning your efforts into a powerful, lasting strategy for success!

When Are the Best Times to Post On Social Media?

September 25, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

There are currently more than 5.02 billion people using social media. In 2025, that number is expected to grow to around 6.07 billion. Additionally, those people spend an average of 145 minutes a day using social media. If these numbers tell you anything, it’s that your business has to use social media as a way to reach and expand your target audience. Most businesses have some kind of social media presence at this point; however, to successfully grow and optimize your social media, you need to remain active by regularly posting to your social pages. The thing is, to reach as big of an audience as possible, you need to know the best times to post on social media.

The Importance Of Social Media Engagement and The Best Times To Post

When you post to social media is important because it directly affects the level of engagement you’ll receive. Although you may have numerous social media marketing goals, increasing engagement is arguably the most crucial. Engaging your followers is what’s going to keep them interested in your brand. Engaged followers will be more likely to share your content, visit your website, and, eventually, convert. If the content you’re posting isn’t relevant, it won’t be engaging. Additionally, if your followers simply miss your posts, you miss your chance of engaging them.

Social Media Campaigns for Attracting Prospects and Generating Leads

When you post content to your social pages, you’ll want to make sure it’s seen by as many people as possible. If you post content at a time when none of your target audience is online, it won’t do very well. Timing is everything. There are a number of factors to take into consideration when figuring out when to schedule your posts.

First, different social media channels have different user bases. People may be more active at night on one platform than they are on another. Second, you need to know your target audience. Different demographics tend to use social media at different times of the day. With this in mind, the following is a general breakdown of when to post on various social media platforms:

Facebook

Many people will check Facebook towards the end of their workdays as they wind down and get ready to stop working. As such, posting between 3 PM and 4 PM will often result in a lot of exposure. You’ll likely reach that same audience between 1 PM and 4 PM at the end of the workweek as well, on Thursdays and Fridays. However, typically speaking, users are less active before 2 PM.
Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter gets the most engagement during regular work hours. It’s especially active from 12 PM to 1 PM and during commuting times. Basically, people check Twitter when they have some free time available away from home. Twitter posts see less engagement outside of working hours, especially in the evenings and on weekends.
Instagram

Instagram does have a younger audience than Twitter and Facebook. As such, you’ll get much more engagement in the evenings from 7 PM to 9 PM. Midday (11 AM to 1 PM) is also a good time to post to Twitter. Instagram engagement also tends to spike on Wednesdays. However, like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram posts see less engagement on the weekends.
LinkedIn

Because LinkedIn is a professional social platform, posts tend to do best during work hours. There tends to be a significant drop-off in activity after 5 PM. Posts due best on LinkedIn when published between Tuesday and Friday. People often stay away from LinkedIn on weekends and are too busy on Mondays to engage on LinkedIn substantially.

Schedule Your Posts Appropriately To Improve Engagement

Use this general breakdown to get an idea of when the best times are to post to social media. Just keep in mind that your specific audience plays a big part in when you should post. For instance, older audiences are less likely to engage on social media late at night, while younger audiences are.

Top Key Benefits of Marketing Automation vs. Email Marketing

July 10, 2024/in Articles, Direct Marketing, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Nicole Wagner

It is a common misconception that marketing automation and email marketing are essentially the same thing. In email marketing, you build an email list and then start sending out emails to market your business. You get statistics back showing how many people opened the email and which ones clicked through to your offer. While the information that email marketing is important, it pales in comparison to the features and benefits of marketing automation.

Marketing Automation vs. Email Marketing

How Marketing Automation Benefits Your Business

Email marketing systems have a very limited scope when compared to marketing automation systems. The email systems allow you to send mass emails out to your marketing list. Then, you get reports on how well the emails worked. But, that’s really all there is to it.

A marketing automation system gives you those same features and so much more.

With an email marketing system, you have to build your landing pages and web forms in a completely different system. In contrast, you can build both within a marketing automation system. This built-in integration makes building your marketing campaign much simpler. Plus, it gives you automatic reporting that is not available with an email marketing system.

Automatic marketing systems allow you to directly integrate your email marketing with other types of marketing for your business such as direct mail and social media. This streamlines your marketing efforts and allows you to do much more without the need to replicate efforts in multiple systems.

Also Read: Interactive Email Marketing Trends

A powerful benefit of marketing automation is the power it gives you over your lead information. The software helps you avoid duplication of leads. It also helps normalize the data, making your marketing even easier. The software allows you to score leads based on any number of criteria. You can also recycle and nurture leads throughout the sales process.

The marketing automation software provides reporting on the impact of each marketing effort on your company’s revenue. It allows you to monitor website activity and even tracks IP addresses from anonymous website traffic. It can integrate various data directories to help fill in contact information.

With the data gathered and synthesized in the marketing automation system, you can provide your sales team with qualified leads who are ready to make the purchase decision. This will drastically reduce the amount of time spent talking to leads who are not at that critical point. It will also simultaneously focus your sales team’s efforts and improve your sales numbers.

Using the information provided by the marketing automation system, you can build multi-stage marketing campaigns across any number of channels with ease, You no longer need multiple tools to get the job done. This means you can get things done faster and make adjustments as needed.

These are not benefits you can get with limited email marketing software.

How Your Business Can Benefit from Marketing Automation

If you are ready to bring your business to the next level of marketing, you need to bring the benefits of marketing automation into your company. Give us a call here at the Stevens-Tate team.

Do You Need to Redesign Your Website?

July 2, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Website Design, Website Growth Driven Design /by Nicole Wagner

If your website has sat untouched for more than a few years, then there’s a good chance that it might be in need of an overhaul. Your website should be continually bringing in new leads, increasing your brand awareness and establishing your brand authority. If your website isn’t currently doing these things, then you’re not only limiting your ability to grow; you’re also helping your competitors as a direct result.

When To Redesign Website

If you’re wondering if you need a website redesign, then you’ll want to look for specific reasons that show your website needs improvements. The following are some major reasons to know when to redesign your website:

Your brand has undergone change

It’s not uncommon for a company to undergo a change in branding. This can happen if the company changes ownership or has changed direction; for example, to concentrate on a more niche market or to target a different audience. If your brand has changed, your website needs to reflect this. Keep in mind that your brand identity consists of much more than just your offerings or your logo. It’s your company’s narrative. Brand storytelling is how you get your audience to connect with you and to relate to you. Because of this, it needs to be prevalent throughout your site.

Your website ranks poorly

Every website receives rankings from Google. These rankings determine your site’s exposure on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP). Google uses its rankings to ensure that its users are provided with search results that are relevant and of high quality. The higher your ranking is, the more exposure you’ll have to people searching for topics relevant to your site. If your site ranks poorly, it means that you’re getting little exposure. This will also limit how much traffic your website will receive. Your redesign needs to implement the best practices of search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure a strong ranking.

Here are ten ways to use Google Trends to increase your SEO

Your website user-experience needs improvement

Some of the factors that influence your website’s user-experience include how long it takes your webpages to load and how easy your site is to navigate. If your pages take too long to load or your visitors don’t know how to find what they are looking for, they’re likely to leave. Additionally, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s going to affect the way that your site is displayed on mobile devices. A lack of mobile optimization makes it difficult for mobile users to browse through your site.

Also Read: The Importance of Having a Mobile Optimized Website

Your website could improve its conversion rate

If the ratio of purchases and opt-ins to your number of visitors is lower than you would like it to be, then there’s likely an issue with how your site is addressing each stage of the sales funnel. Your website should nurture visitors at every stage, whether they are looking for information about your company or product or whether they are ready to make a purchase. You should also have calls-to-action that are relevant to each page and that help drive your leads to convert.

Your website could use an updated look

Aesthetics matter. The look of your website is going to leave a big first impression on your visitors. Consider the look of some of the websites you use on a regular basis. Today’s websites have generally moved to a cleaner and more elegant look.

You don’t regularly update your website

Your website generates all kinds of useful data you can leverage to improve your website’s design and adjust your marketing strategies. By implementing a growth-driven design model, you can continually update your website based on your website data, which you can gather using analytics. This will also allow you to focus your resources on areas where it will benefit your brand the most and to adjust strategies that aren’t working.

Want more resources on how to redesign your website? Click here!

Ten Ways to Use Google Trends to Increase SEO

June 24, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

Most people love free SEO tools. Google Trends is one of the most underused free tools; it is a place marketers can use to get their finger on the global pulse. Increase SEO using Google Trends in the following ten ways.

Ways To Use Google Trends for SEO

1. Start Big and Narrow Down

The latest Google Trends dashboard is much simpler and allows you to explore various topics before narrowing down. Therefore, begin by entering a broad or all-encompassing keyword and then drill down. For example, the Worldwide feature allows you to focus on a certain market geographically. The word umbrella will peak at different times depending on the location. You can also filter your search by time selection and category, enabling you to increase SEO by targeting a wider region.

2. Use Specific Search Options

Get advanced insights using options like image search, Google Shopping or news search. Digging deeper into your queries can increase your chances of identifying a new trend. You can also click Rising to see the top keywords.

3. Context is Key

Google Trends operates in a relativistic manner. Today’s results are not compared with popular trends; rather, with the prior keywords you entered, meaning results vary according to various factors like timeframe. Therefore, never overlook the context and avoid personal blind spots when trying to increase SEO.

4. Target by Location

A cursory use of the tool usually focuses exclusively on keywords. To get the most relevant results, incorporate location into your mix. Focus on specific and relevant regions and sub-regions.

How Your SEO Benefits From A Long Term Strategy

5. Trend Predictions

It is easy to identify trends that leave a trail, but that is not very helpful as most marketers are using that data. Predict trends to gain additional insights. Identify potential trends by filtering according to specific countries or categories. Today’s health story may not be a headline on Google Trends; however, it may help you spot topics to watch out for.

6. Use Long-Tail Phrases

It may be difficult to rank high on the SERPs for a phrase like “Caribbean Cruise”, but you can make it to the top of the search results using a long-tail variation of this phrase.

7. Use Top Charts

Click on the Top Charts icon on the upper left to view Google’s version of Billboard Top 100. Do not confuse it with the trends most individuals are seeing. You can sort between Most Searched and Trending to glean more relevant information.

8. Video Optimization Data

For example, if you posted a video on YouTube about how to avail discounts on Caribbean cruises, you can switch from web to YouTube search to explore related topics and queries. You can also sort by Rising or Top to capture more YouTube traffic.

9. Cyclical Trends

If you are optimizing your wedding boutique, even a simple search will reveal that most weddings do not compete with holidays. With some aforementioned strategies, you can determine a few additional keywords to carefully direct your future posts to better handle each cyclical trend.

10. Avoid Misreading the Trends

Advanced and sophisticated use of Google Trends allows you to move a step or two beyond your current insight to determine if there are any blind spots. For example, never trust one snapshot to tell you the whole story; instead, get a broad view of different timelines to figure out what else is happening.

The Importance of Implementing a Marketing Dashboard

June 10, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Dan Gartlan

At this point in time, most businesses realize how important data is and how analyzing the data that they collect can provide valuable insight into the performance of their marketing tactics as well as into how their audience behaves. The challenge lies in making those metrics easy to access and easy to read for everyone in your company. Fortunately, tracking data is easier than ever with the use of dashboards.

What Is Marketing Dashboard?

Marketing Dashboard is an app or platform that collect all of your KPIs (key performance indicators) and critical metrics onto one easy-to-read display. The information is pulled from multiple data sources, often both internal and external. The data displayed on a dashboard can be viewed at any time and in real time. Essentially, they act as real-time reports, eliminating the need to wait until the end of the month to receive an analytics report from your marketing department.

Tactics

There are tons of different tactics dashboards out there that you can integrate into your system. This can range from email dashboards and website dashboards to search dashboards and social media metric dashboards. While these types of dashboards are often effective in displaying certain metrics, they don’t typically paint a whole picture. They may show you how your tactics are performing individually, but they don’t show you how they are impacting your company’s revenue cycle. It’s why you should implement a marketing dashboard.

The Benefits Of Implementing Marketing Dashboard

Tactics dashboards can be useful in that they showcase soft metrics (engagement, awareness, interactions, etc.). However, you’ll want a dashboard that can also display hard metrics (such as the internal rate of return and the net present value of your current campaigns) along with online marketing metrics (such as bounce rate, total visits, click-through rates, etc.). It’s why you’ll want to use a marketing dashboard. The following are just a few more reasons why integrating a marketing dashboard will be hugely beneficial for your business:

The Power of an Influencer Marketing Strategy: How and Why It Works

Customize your dashboard to your needs

Instead of being limited by tactics dashboards, a marketing dashboard allows you to customize which metrics are displayed. You can then pull what you deem to be the most important of your social media, email, and search metrics so that they are visually represented on one single display.

Track the performance of your marketing efforts

A properly optimized marketing dashboard will make it easy to see how your marketing efforts are performing in real time. This can be from engagement on social media to lead generation on your website. Not only can you identify how individual tactics are faring based on your KPIs and metrics, but you’ll get an idea of how well your overall strategies are performing as well.

Keep your team on the same page

One of the challenges of running a business is that many of your employees aren’t always on the same page. If everyone has access to your marketing dashboard, everyone can see what’s working and what isn’t. This makes it easy for company-wide communication to take place. This can result in more effective adjustments to marketing and sales strategies to improve performance.

Allow for more informed decision making

Being able to see how your marketing campaign is performing in real time allows you to make adjustments to your strategies and tactics on the fly. In thepast, simple reporting would only tell you how you’ve done. The use of marketing dashboards gives you the chance to make more informed decisions on a daily basis. In turn, this can reduce the cost of your marketing efforts and improve their impact on your revenue cycle.

While a marketing dashboard can be considered a real-time report of your marketing activities, it’s much more than that–it’s a decision-making tool. The potential success of future marketing campaigns depends heavily on your ability to collect and analyze your company’s most important metrics and KPIs and determine how your marketing efforts are affecting your revenue cycle. The best way to do this is by integrating, customizing, and optimizing a marketing dashboard.

How Your Web Page Speed Effects Your SEO and Google Ads Performance

June 7, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

For companies that already advertise to prospective customers on mobile devices, or who have organic search presence, there are numerous elements of their online presence that need to be checked, tested, and, where appropriate, changed. Implementing a robust SEO strategy is crucial to ensure visibility and competitiveness in the digital landscape. Knowing how to optimize your mobile site for speed will make all the difference to your search engine rankings.

The Importance of Testing Site Speed

The changes are going to make knowing the speed of a mobile site essential. Many tools permit site owners to determine their page speed to see whether enhancements are needed. Most of the tools that are available to test speeds are free and do not require administrator access to the website in question. That means that companies can check their competitors’ sites as well as their own.

Adjusting Mobile SEO Strategy for Google’s Speed Update

One such change that companies should consider is switching to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). An AMP works by altering the source code of the website, thus directing the standard HTML page to a minimalist version of itself, the hosted AMP page. As AMPs are still so rare, they load exceptionally quickly. In initial Google testing, AMPs reduced load time up to 85%.
Local search should not be ignored, either. A Google Mobile Moments Study revealed that 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Companies also need to be aware that mobile search engine users enter queries differently than desktop search engine users; mobile queries tend to be much shorter.

Leveraging Search Console is a fantastic way to check in on a site’s usability. Using the following options under “Crawl Errors” can make a significant difference to usability:

Smartphone tab – It allows users to recognize any crawl errors that might be burdening their mobile pages
Fetch on Google – It allows users to to see how crawlers view the site and adjust accordingly for better indexing and ranking in search results.
Mobile Usability report – It precisely informs users about pages with mobile usability issues, along with detailing the nature of these issues.

How Will Google’s Speed Update Impact Your Google Ads Account?

The Quality Score algorithm, the algorithm that determines how much users pay per click to serve an ad on the Search Network, is heavily influenced by landing page experience. If a company’s site does not load quickly and does not convey beneficial information, the company will either end up paying a premium or realize that they are unable to serve an ad at all.

The Google Ads documentation recommends five ways to affect positive change regarding a site’s landing page experience:

Include relevant, compelling content
Be recognized as trustworthy
Make navigation simple and effective
Reduce load time
Make the website faster

In Conclusion

Google Ad users need to ensure they optimize for load time and landing page speed, and not just in terms of relevance. Companies should also contemplate making a move to AMP, ensure that their intent is on point, and make the most of the power of Search Console and page speed insights.

Visual Storytelling Techniques That Will Take You To The Next Level

June 5, 2024/in Articles, Brand Story Telling, Directors, Marketing Strategy /by Mark Beebe

Not only has video content become incredibly easy to consume due to the quality of smartphones and tablets, but it’s become much easier — and affordable — to produce as well. Considering the fact that 72 percent of consumers would prefer to learn about products or services via video and that the average consumer watches around 1.5 hours of video a day, your marketing campaign needs to have a video content marketing strategy.

However, your video content will only be effective if it’s of high quality. The following are ten visual storytelling techniques and promotion tips that you should keep in mind:

Top 10 Visual Storytelling Techniques

5 Storytelling Techniques You Should Use For Your Marketing Efforts.

Maintain a single POV

Make sure that your video focuses on a single idea or message and that you don’t stray off topic or else you’ll lose the attention of your viewers.
Be human

Use emotion to connect with your audience. A video full of dry facts with no personal point of view isn’t going to be very engaging. Additionally, showcase actual people in your videos so that your viewers have someone to relate to.
Be memorable

If there’s nothing memorable about your video, then it will fail to impress. Viewers are less likely to share video content that hasn’t made much of an impact on them as well, so strive to make content that is memorable in some way.
Be more visual than verbal

Video is a visual medium, so instead of just showing a talking head explaining your message, tell your message in a visual manner. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Start with what’s real

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the visual style of your content, but substance will always trump style. Begin with what’s real and use that as the foundation for your video. The video’s style should be the unique way in which you convey that message to your viewers.
Make it compelling

Remember who your target audience is in order to create video content that they will find relevant and interesting. If you aren’t targeting the right audience, your video content won’t end up being compelling, no matter how well produced it is.
Optimize your videos

Don’t forget to optimize your videos by using strong keywords and links in your titles and descriptions.
Use strong CTAs

Just like written content, video content should have calls-to-action at the end to encourage your viewers to do what you want them to do.

Also Read: 3 Helpful Tips To Improve Your CTAs To Generate More Leads
Use YouTube

YouTube has over 1.8 billion monthly users. You can’t ignore an audience that big, so be sure to post your videos on YouTube.
Share your videos

Promote your videos by sharing them on all of your social channels to help attract more viewers.

Using visual storytelling techniques will help audiences connect with your video content and make them more likely to engage. Just remember that all the visual storytelling techniques in the world won’t work if your videos aren’t being watched, which is why promoting your video content is important as well.