3 Ways to Improve Your Marketing Content!
When you’re running your own business, it can can be easy to assume your customers and followers want to read every brilliant blog you post. But great as they may be, if you don’t have the right AdWords and SEO practices in place, it’s possible your brilliant content could be getting lost in cyberspace.
Below, we share three ways that you can check on the SEO health of your content before moving on to more complex marketing strategies.
Google Trends
If you’re stuck on what to write about, ‘Google Trends’ is one of the best sites for discovering trending topics and stories. By searching through the most popular stories and finding the ones that relate to your organisation / business, you can take note of trending keywords and utilise them in your content. That way, when it comes time to analysing your SEO trends, you can at least be confident that you’re writing about relevant and engaging topics.
BrowserStack
So, you’ve spent hours on your website and you think it’s coming together pretty well – but have you made sure it looks clear and engaging on both desktop and mobile platforms? Ensuring your content is formatted correctly across all types of digital devices and platforms is crucial, and cannot be understated! The good news is, with BrowserStack you can quickly work out what is and isn’t working across each platform, and adjust as necessary.
Seoptimer
Using this free website review / SEO audio tool, you can find out in just a couple of seconds what you need to do to improve your website SEO! For example, maybe you need to add some ALT attributes to your images, or add a proper sitemap.xml file? It’s a quick easy analysis, and you can even download a free PDF report.
While online marketing is an extremely complex and ever-changing world, simple tools such as these can give you a head start; allowing you to get an indication of what you need to build upon to make sure your website content is reaching as many people as possible.
It’s always worth noting however – unless you consider yourself an AdWords and SEO guru – taking the next step toward more complex marketing strategies is generally better left in the hands of a dedicated marketing professional. After all, this is your business!
Are you looking for advice on how to implement these changes, create more engaging content, and ultimate get more traffic toward your website? Contact the GMT team today on 1300 332 256.
Show Your Customers You’re Exactly What They Need!
Knowing what your potential customers and clients have in common is one of the strongest tools in your online arsenal.
What Are People Using?
Now this might seem like an unusual question, but we raise an underutilised question.; what device are your potential customers using to find you, and how is this information going to help you find them?
Mobile phones and tablets are pretty popular these days. In fact, Tobias Lutke reported that by 2014, mobile devices already accounted for over 50% of all E-commerce traffic. This isn’t just for taking photos of food or tweeting about the person in front of you at Subway that sneezed on the cashier. This shows in online search as well.
Nitzan Beck wrote for Banana Splash that from 2013 to 2015, organic search results via mobile devices grew from a share of 27% to a crazy 45% in the US alone. What does this mean? It means an enormous amount of people are looking at their phones and tablets, and they’re looking for you.
Why Should You Care?
If you search for a company on your mobile phone, and the website has not been optimised for mobile devices, your experience is miserable and you dislike the company as a result.
This example is what can, and likely will happen to a website that is not mobile friendly.
If you need to optimise your website to be more mobile friendly, there are some fantastic companies that can get the work done for you, such as GetMoreTraffic.
What To Do Next?
You went from a website that made people want to donate their eyes to science, to instead having the kind of website that people love. That’s all well and good, but what’s the next step?
The answer is simple. Google Analytics. This tool has the power and potential to really help you understand where your customers are coming from. Analytics opens the doors to complete control and understanding of who is finding you, what they’re doing once they’ve found you, and how to use this information to create return on your investment.
Age, occupation, location, language spoken; these are just some of the many points of information that people set up as part of their Google profiles, and are all points that you can use to both target and understand your audience. You then take this information, and you turn it into potentially your greatest asset; profitable data.
Now You’re Playing With Power
Google Analytics has told you who your online audience contains. This opens the door to strategies and methods that are backed with real data from real people who want to do business with you.
Perhaps you stock an anti-aging cream that removes wrinkles. With Google Analytics as your guide, you avoid showing to kids, and focus on your real audience.
Your range of ‘Learn to Speak Spanish’ cassette tapes needs some attention. With reassuring words from your Google Analytics data, you find an audience outside of Spain who are trekking through the Basque Country and Andalusia!
Unlimited Possibilites
You know how to find who you need to target, and you know you can offer a fantastic experience with your website. Surely this the end? No.
The tools you have available are now stronger than ever, especially since you’re backed up by all that great data about your audience, their interests and how to create positive engagement with you.
Across mobile devices, you can be as swift as a coursing river with AdWords and PPC advertising. You can have all of the strength of a great typhoon with organic listings and Search Engine Optimisation. You can harness all of the rage of a burning fire with Facebook advertising. With the right approach, and the right data, you can take on the world, rolling all of these into a digital marketing powerhouse.
Knowing who your audience is, and how your audience finds you, is not just a question. It’s your first line of offence in a digital marketing universe.
If you’d like to know more about making the most of your mobile audience, reach out to an industry professional like GetMoreTraffic – call today on 1300 332 256.
Get In User, We’re Going Shopping
Google Shopping, in my own humble opinion, is one of the most underestimated tools in the online retail arsenal. Why? That is exactly what I’m here to tell you.
SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE
There is a common misconception that people do not use Google Shopping to buy products online. That’s not true, it’s impossible. Why is it impossible? Robert Hof of Forbes.com reported an increase of 47% in sales through Google Shopping from 2014 to 2015. It doesn’t take a mathematician to know that those kinds of increases are almost too incredible to function.
COMPARING YOUR PHYSICAL STORE TO ONLINE
So you’ve decided you want to take the leap from a physical store to the online market. Firstly, you go, Glenn Coco!
Secondly and more importantly, is Google Shopping a suitable format to use? You bet it is. With a physical store, you’re bound by the number of people who can fit in the building, in the online market, the limit does not exist.
No longer will you have to wait for people to count out their money, and hope you’ve given them the right change. Online, people pay with cold, hard, shiny plastic. Not only does this make for an easier shopping experience for the customer, but you won’t have to answer mundane questions like “Do you have this in size 4?”
“Sorry, we only carry sizes 1, 3 and 5. You could try Sears, who also advertise on Google Shopping”
WHAT IF PEOPLE DON’T LIKE WHAT THEY SEE?
One benefit of Google Shopping that most people don’t even consider is the ability to look before you click. Picture this. You’re a retailer that sells fashionable men’s clothing. I am part of a trendy group of party people (I can dream) and I’m in the market for a brand new shirt. Now this shirt is for a night out next Wednesday, and on Wednesdays, we wear pink.
I search for “Pink Men’s Dress Shirt” and click on a link that describes the shirt I want. Suddenly, I realised the situation I’m in. The shirt I’m looking at is the wrong shade of Pink.
How can this be avoided? It all comes full circle back to Google Shopping. Your Shopping ads allow you to show not only your price, but also an image of the exact shirt I want to buy. This avoids wasted clicks and spending. Let’s face it, why spend more when you can spend smart?
WHAT ABOUT EBAY?
When it comes to online retail, EBay is so Fetch (it’s a European thing and it’s going to catch on).
Because of its popularity, people automatically assume that it’s going to be better than Google Shopping. Although they have similar goals, both services offer very different approaches.
Time for another role play; two retailers, let’s call them Regina and George, sell skateboards online. Regina uses EBay and George uses Google Shopping. Regina pays listing fees whether her skateboards get seen or not, but for these fees, her products can be seen a potentially unlimited number of times.
George only pays when his products are found and clicked on through Google Searches. He can custom tailor his products to appear for the exact searches he wants them to. Along with this, George can utilise all of the tools that make online PPC so detailed, such as ‘conversion tracking’, ‘remarketing’, and so much more.
SO, IS GOOGLE SHOPPING RIGHT FOR YOU?
This is the all-important question at the end of the day. Do you have a visual product? Do you offer competitive prices? Do you want it to be easier for people to find your products?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, Google Shopping may just be your new best friend. Learn more from the GetMoreTraffic gurus and call us today on 1300 332 256.
How Your Landing Page Sets the Tone
“…I hate it here”.
That’s the last thing you want somebody thinking when they land on your website. You’re offering a product or service that the customer wants. You’ve put in the effort to make sure your ads and organic results appear for their searches. All of that is thrown away by an unappealing landing page.
The appearance and content says a lot about both you and your business. Think of it like the first time you’re meeting somebody. If that person wore ill fitting clothes, has messy or unkempt hair, and spoke in nothing but slurs, you’d be taken aback by their presentation. Your landing page should be no different.
The Rules of a Perfect Landing Page
Now there is good news, and there is bad news.
The bad news is, there is no such thing as a perfect landing page. The good news this leaves us with, is the freedom to create a landing page that both you and your potential customers or clients can be excited about.
With freedom comes numerous choices, which can seem a little overwhelming. Controlling yourself with a few points can keep things on track, and with a focused goal in mind. Now these aren’t rules, but more guidelines.
What Does Your Page Say About You?
Once you’ve reeled in the fish, the absolute last thing you want is a string of pop ups and a complex layout overwhelming the senses and putting this new visitor’s head into a spin. Be calculated with the images and colours you place onto the page.
What does this image mean? Does it add to the experience I’m giving? Should I add text to make a point? These are all questions you should be asking yourself. Look at things as somebody navigating this page for the first time.
What Do You Even Do?
Something that’s overlooked way too often, is a clear and concise message about what you do and what you are offering the customer and the locations you offer it to. Their search leading them to you is one thing, but if the landing page leaves them confused, they’ll leave your page confused as well.
I Want What You Have. How Do I Reach You?
Easy to reach contact information is a very powerful weapon that is often over looked. Adding in a small field with a contact phone number and email address can make a world of difference.
Which would you prefer? Finding the information you need, and then spending a further few minutes stumbling around to find a phone number, getting frustrated and cursing the company’s name forever?
Or
Seeing contact details as part of your discovery of this new service based land, and knowing exactly where you can come back to once you find the answer you need?
If you can make things easier for your visitor without sacrificing the quality of your website, do them and yourself a favour and make it easy. It’s less stress for them, and a potential business opportunity for you. Why don’t you contact GetMoreTraffic on 1300 332 256 today to learn how we can help you develop landing pages that people want to be on!
Online Marketing Reality Predictions
The suffix ‘-near me’ is becoming more prevalent in search queries on Google, having experienced a significant increase in the last year alone. As the world becomes more and more comfortable with the fact that the device in their pockets, and more importantly, the websites that they visit are becoming better to navigate on mobile devices, we will continue to see better and more targeted results from Google. Google is putting much research and development into responding to more ‘human’ enquiries. Humans don’t talk in ‘keywords’, they ask questions, make statements, and the more Google is able to recognise this, the more in-depth its returning results.
Think about this; you’re driving down the road listening to the music on your mobile device connected wirelessly through your car stereo (this alone is a ‘future is now’ scenario), when the music dims and your GPS navigation voice reminds you to turn left. As it does this, it also mentions that there is a sale on at that store you like on the same street. Intrigued, you pull up outside said store and wander in.
While you’re there, you notice that item that’s been on your ‘want’ list for ages, but you’re unsure of the price. You decide to shop around… in Google Shopping on you mobile! You find the same item for cheaper, but not by much, and realise that for an extra few dollars (which you would have paid in shipping anyway) you can instead have the item now, so you purchase it there and then.
You jump back in the car with your shiny new item. The music resumes, you begin cruising, the wind once again flowing through the luscious hair on your face (because in this narrative you’re actually me), and you make your way to your final destination of which you have forgotten where you were going. You ask your phone, “where was I going?” and it replies, “to the supermarket for ingredients for the dinner party you’re throwing for your friends”. You’re surprised, and somewhat confused, mainly because if this second person narrative is actually me, you realise that a dinner party for friends is not something you’re known for hosting, unless it’s pizza, but you roll with it for the sake of interest; you want to know more about this utopian future where your phone is pretty much your personal assistant.
You arrive at the supermarket, headphones in, walking with a swagger that can only come about from blasting DMX Greatest Hits in your ears. What are you going to buy? You turn off the music and speak into your phone, “Persephone,” you say, because how cool is that name for your phone (sophisticated and relevant), “what would you suggest for a dinner party of 15 friends that doesn’t include coriander as an ingredient,” and Persephone supplies you with several options. You choose one and log in to the supermarket’s website, pushing your order direct. You saunter up to the counter and the repurposed Robocop, now ShopCyborg has your order ready to load into the TrolleyDroid. You point Persephone at the PayPoint station, there’s a beep to signify an approved payment and you’re on your way home.
You’re pretty happy with yourself at this point, until you realise you haven’t invited anyone to the dinner party. Considering it is last minute, you realise that there is little chance of getting in touch with everyone, so you ask Persephone to calculate who is available that evening from your Facebook list based off the events they have agreed to attend and mass invite them.
Later that same evening, after the last guest leaves, extolling how awesome you are and how successful the dinner party was, you jump into bed. Persephone asks what genre of movie you would like to watch as she turns on the FloatScreen that hovers above your bed at the perfect angle no matter how you are lying down, with the kind of resolution that makes those obsolete LEDs look like snake on one of those late 90s Nokia phones.
“Sci-Fi, Persephone. Put on some Sci-Fi”.
Let’s take a step back to reality…
Now, of course there has been some artistic licence occurring in this story, particularly the repurposed Robocop, however, the mobile device advanced development is 100% in the works. Google has purchased apps to integrate with Maps that will allow companies to push specials to you *as you approach their venue*, and you’ll be able to talk to your phone like you would to a human. Our imagination of what is possible is literally becoming a reality, and my rambling imaginations could very well be realistic features that we will come to interact with on a daily basis.
I do admit it might be a bit weird having a phone called Persephone replying in Family Guy voices, but I’ll jump that hurdle when I come to it.
With this future soon to become a reality, will your online marketing keep up with technology? Get in touch with GetMoreTraffic today on 1300 859 600 and don’t let your business get left behind!
How To Successfully do Business in a Multi-Device World
I don’t know about you but I’m sitting here with four devices displaying a variety of entertainment/information. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a male, if sitcoms have taught me anything, and they have, I should not be able to multi-task like I seem to be doing right now. But I’m not going to lie, while I may have all of these devices open, I have to pause Netflix on the TV while I type this, despite the fact that I tried, oh geez did I try, to write this while a comedian peddled their wares in the background. I had to pause every so often because otherwise you’d be reading his material instead of mine (happens all too often).
I want you, yes, you, the person looking to sell their product to me, to sell it in a way that is both subtle, yet in my face enough that I’m impelled to purchase. I want you to place something in front of me that not only am I interested in, but that I am ready to purchase. I WANT to give you my money, why are you stopping me?
I can tell you why, because I understand mass psychology in a way that few do, including people who study psychology. I’m an online marketer. Day in and day out I watch trends online, behaviours of purchasers, and dummy spits of people who don’t purchase because they are annoyed that they have to fill in some innocuous yet tedious section of a form that stands in the way of them and their desire.
I’m logged in from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, literally. This is not hyperbole; I am literally writing this from my bed on my laptop at 11:05 pm (according to studies this makes me creative). I am listening to music on Google Play on my Android and will likely sing myself a lullaby by reading the latest posts of my favourite martial arts forum on my iPad. At all stages I am logged in to my Google account, so why don’t I know about you? If I’ve searched for your product on my mobile on the way home from work, why aren’t you tailoring a cross device strategy to target what I am interested in so when I am comfortable, you’re popping up to remind me that you’re there?
Don’t feel bad, this isn’t about shaming you, but really, I do need that new thing that you have on the market, so get it in front of me. Nobody is doing it, believe me, I’m seeking it, I want someone, anyone, to blow my mind with how they’ve tracked me from my mobile, to my laptop, to my tablet.
Pop up advertising used to be a dirty word, but it’s not (really it’s not). If you can slip something on one of my apps that can replace the usual crap which bears no semblance to my interests, based off my search history, I will be grateful. As much as I understand that my teeth will be whiter with [insert brand here] toothpaste, I do not care, but if you, with that thing that I searched for at home two days ago on YouTube, on my iPad, that then appeared on my darn smartphone with a notification of some sort, man, I’m buying.
I want you to provide me with a marketing strategy from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep. I want to dream about your product in my possession. This will become easier and easier as more and more operating systems will be able to sustain technology from a variety of platforms. Don’t believe me? Windows 10, you know about it, there’s a pop up at the bottom of your screen that you’ve been putting off ‘upgrading’ for about a month and a bit, well, Microsoft has indicated it will run across smartphones, tablets, desktops, and even gaming consoles. Eventually apps will run on all devices, it will be the job of the operating system to accommodate the differing code. Hell, it’s happening now with all the cloud based services available to individuals and businesses.
There must be a billion possibilities when it comes to integration which are either in the works, in the development pipeline, or in the head of some genius just waiting to hit the stage. Are you prepared to take advantage of the upcoming technological shift? Do you have a website? Is it mobile optimised? If not, you already know you’re behind, but even if you have, I’m here to tell you that unfortunately you’re still running in a pack.
Don’t get left behind. Speak to Get More Traffic on 1300 332 256 and learn what we can do for your online marketing across multiple devices.
Common AdWords Faux Pas – Don’t Get Caught Out!
Do these emotions/actions/ feelings sound familiar in the anticipation of your first AdWords Campaign; ‘electrified’, ‘fast and shallow breathing’, ‘excitement’? It seems straight-forward; easy even, but fast-forward a few weeks and you have noticed no difference in leads let alone sales. You begin thinking that maybe you’ve missed something, that maybe the simplicity of setting up a campaign belies the complexity of the entire system.
Don’t Leave Your Online Marketing Until It’s Too Late!
Time and time again, I see businesses put weeks, months, even years of planning and research into business models. But time and time again, I see companies throw in the towel mere weeks into trade. I wonder if they have ever looked at the time and effort they have put into setting up their business and compared it to their marketing…?
“I’ll just use the newspaper; I get a few calls from that!”
I’ve heard this on too many occasions, a client hasn’t received positive ROI in the first 3 weeks and they decide that the money would be better spent on something that is getting ROI, albeit limited. The writing is on the wall, digital media is growing and newspapers are declining. They’re an old medium for news access, plus we have a tiny device in our pockets that allows us to gain an insight into the world’s information. Tell me how one would grow their business in a dying media and I’ll show you an advertising executive from the old guard.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was a company. People invest in their business from the get-go, insurance, equipment, fees for registering the name, etc. This is all before anything has even been sold. This can take months, even years before the business is ready to trade.
I understand that there needs to be revenue, even if it isn’t positive ROI, there needs to be some ROI, but we have to look at the facts before jumping the gun and terminating an online strategy prior to it taking flight. Imagine buying a plane with the view of escaping to the Bahamas (or a destination of your choice), organising all the flight path requirements, gaining all the necessary documents, employing a pilot, taxiing to the runway, as the g-force of the take-off begins you run up to the cockpit and just as the wheels leave the asphalt, yell at him to power down because you’ve realised that the jet fuel is expensive and you could buy a rowing boat to get there cheaper.
“I will just do flyer drops!”
This amuses me, as I’ve had experience outside of work with this sort of advertising. It might bring in a couple of people, sure, and for some businesses a couple of ongoing customers is great. I had a friend with a gym and he did flyer drops in the local area, just like the eight or nine other gyms in the local area did. People did the free trial and yes, some signed up, but what happens then? Do you do another flyer drop in the hopes that you missed someone? What about the person in the suburb just over who drives through your suburb on the way home from work? There’s no way a flyer will catch them. There’s a much broader market out there that is being missed out on and that market is digital.
This is why the online strategy must be prepared for, budget allocated for several months to find the right strategy. There’s no magic button, you may be lucky and strike gold in the first month, or you may have to slog it out for 2-3 months before you find something that works. This is the nature of business.
“I would’ve expected more by now!”
There’s a few, quick and broad, steps that I take, particularly in regards to AdWords, which sets the stage for a broader strategy:
1. Ensure the Keywords are relevant.
2. Remove search terms that are irrelevant.
3. Analyse the activity of people who are relevant on the website.
4. Ensure market targeted is correct
5. Optimise both the campaign and the website based off that information.
Once you know what returns business, take it to the next level, use that as a basis for your SEO, Facebook, etc.
To make it in business, investment is required. We are at the cusp of a revolution, in my opinion, that will return the power of business away from the corporations and into the hands of the little guy, aided by the internet and politics. Begin your journey now and be ahead of the game when this revolution takes hold; make sure Get More Traffic is there with you to help your business make the most of it. Call us on 1300 332 256 today!
Google Shopping for Christmas 2015
Part of my job is setting up Google Shopping for my clients; all that time spent liaising with web developers from overseas creating manual Data Feeds when the web developers aren’t able to pull one from the site, setting up a Merchant Center (sic) and spending time on creating Shipping Rates tables, creating the campaign in the AdWords account, troubleshooting, and when you think you have entered everything correctly you find that one tiny detail that wasn’t required on other accounts is now suddenly is required on this particular account! It’s enough to pull your hair out (lucky I don’t have much there)!
There is some real joy in setting up a Google Shopping campaign, but that comes right at the end when you begin to see actual results and conversions coming in. The build-up though can be exhausting and time consuming. Google has recently added extra requirements which allow us to provide customers with a better experience, which is of course great, but it does take a little more time.
The key to setting up a successful Google Shopping campaign in time for Christmas is all in the organisation and preparation. Much like a SEO campaign, which needs to be implemented many months before you begin to see results, a Google Shopping campaign needs to be given sufficient time to be set up so that once Christmas actually rolls around, it’s up and ready to serve. A Google Shopping campaign has many components that must be set up, reviewed and validated prior to the campaign even going live.
Depending on the efficiency of your web team, or the capabilities of your web platform, pulling a Data Feed can take time. Some platforms don’t even allow it, so a manual feed must be produced and depending on the extent of your product database, you could be sitting there inputting data for quite some time.
Updated shipping requirements are time consuming too. If you’re a ‘single rate’ business, then good for you, but if you’re not, get comfortable, and this is all before the ads are put under review by Google.
There is also the inevitable scenario that not every product on your website is going to give you an instant ROI, so optimising your Google Shopping campaign will require attention too. Hopefully your digital strategist has been on top of things and provided you with this same advice and your Google Shopping campaign for Christmas 2015 is well underway. If not, then perhaps it’s time to have a word with us here at Get More Traffic, so call us today on 1300 332 256.