Why Use a Digital Agency for Your Digital Marketing?

Why You Should Use a Digital Marketing Agency to Rank Your Site



When it comes to marketing online, many small to medium sized businesses decide to tackle their digital marketing themselves. But, unfortunately, DIY digital marketing does not yield the same results. Business owners rarely have the time to add another skill to their already busy schedule; understanding the jargon, tools, and strategies involved with digital marketing takes time; it is so much more than posting and pushing content.

Business owners may find that the amount of time it takes to research, develop, and deploy a strategy is not an effective use of skill sets or budget.

And that is why it makes sense to hire a marketing agency to develop an effective marketing strategy, drive it forward, and get the results you want.


What does a Digital Marketing Agency Do?

Digital marketing is the most cost-effective marketing method available to reach the maximum amount of prospective customers, but to make sure it delivers the maximum ROI there are multiple paths within the strategy that must be developed and integrated. A professional digital marketing company hires a team of people who specialize in each area – graphic designers, web developers and programmers, marketing, and copywriters. When you hire a digital agency you have access to an entire team of experts, all working together to deliver your strategy and results. The services they provide include:

  • Branding
  • Target Market Research
  • Competition Analysis
  • Keyword Analysis
  • Web Development and Design
  • Content Strategies
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • PPC
  • Inbound and Outbound Marketing
  • Earned Media Strategies
  • Social media Content Strategies
  • Social Media Advertising Campaigns
  • Creative Consultations
  • Analysis, Review and Continue Strategy Development

A digital marketer will be able to read the statistics and data from your Google Analytics to understand your market, who they are, where they are, how they search and what content engages them most.  From the in-depth information gathered, a highly-effective marketing strategy can be developed that will integrate all the marketing channels mentioned above with a creative content strategy designed specifically to engage your market.

Complicated? It sure is! Now throw in a whole new lexicon of jargon, constant changes to the Google rules (sometimes daily) changes in  technology and tools, and cultural trends, and you quickly realize why you should hire a digital agency to handle the digital marketing for your company.

DIY Digital Marketing Can Result in Penalties

Many people who have a basic understanding of SEO and social media may decide to do it themselves; unfortunately, this can cause a lot of problems. Incorporating keywords into copy seems simple enough, but too many keywords will result in heavy penalties from Google. So how many are too many?

That magic number changes according to updated Google algorithms.

Black hat SEO tricks, duplicate content, spammy links, and breaches of copyright regulations can all result in penalties that will remove your site from the search results. The Google bots are programmed to find evidence of these black hat tactics, and social media also has rules of engagement for businesses that differ from personal sites.

Getting New Customers and Conversions

Penalties aside, the main reason a small, medium or large business should use a digital marketing agency is the incredible ROI. Online marketing can reach more people, it can target them by location, interest or language; it can determine where they are on the sales funnel and what kind of products they would like to buy. It can send them information they will find useful, and when they are looking for a new pair of shoes or a house, digital marketing can send them ads on just what they are looking for.

Are digital agencies marketing wizards? Yes, kind of, but relax, your business is in good hands – and our ‘wizarding’ hats are most definitely white.


 

 

Lead in Local – Local Marketing Uncovered

The Importance of Improving Your Local Page Rank

For all small to medium business owners, ranking in the top 3-pack for local search is hugely valuable and results in more visits and higher conversions. But how do you get your business in the top three organic search results?

The good news is that there are certain concrete steps you can take to increase your page rank. These steps include:

  1. Local listings
  2. Reviews
  3. Name, address, phone number (NAP)
  4. Keywords for local SEO

So let’s take a look at these steps in more detail.


1: How to Use Local Listings to Improve Your Page Rank

Google loves local. Google constantly updates the search algorithms to provide users with relevant search results, and most search queries for products and services are best served by local businesses. Make sure your business is listed with as many local and national business directories as possible. This will help Google verify that your business is real. Embedding a Google map on your site will also help verify and place your business in local search.

 

2: Why NAP Improves Search Results

Listing your business with directories is a first step, but you must also make sure your name, address and phone number is accurate and consistent across all listings and your website. Place your NAP in the footer or header on every page of your website in addition to the contact page, and if possible use the schema markup to do so.

Enter your business address with Google My Business. Keep in mind that if you are promoting your business with a PPC campaign, AdWords will take your contact information from your Google My Business settings.

 

3: Why Reviews are Good for Local Search

Google loves quality, and has a list of many factors that determine the quality of a site. One of the ways they try to ensure quality is through social proof. Engagement through social can be a good indication of the quality, and reviews are an easy way for the algorithms to determine the quality and value a business is offering its customers. It is well worth the time invested to follow up with customers and ask for reviews. Make it easy for them by sending them the link to make the review. And don’t forget to say thank you. A little love goes a long way.

 

4: Keywords for Local SEO

When incorporating keywords into the copy of your website, incorporate a little user psychology. Take some time to think how people search, and most importantly, think about how people search with voice commands. Not only do you need the products and services, but also the locations. A popular voice search term for local is “near me”.

These are just a few tips in digital marketing that can help improve your search results. If you would like advice on a digital marketing strategy tailored specifically for your business, call us, we’ll be happy to discuss your needs.


 

What Are Retargeting Ads – How Can They Be Done Right to Help Your Business?

What Really Happens When You Retarget Ads?


Retargeting, remarketing and pixels… They’re marketing buzzwords you’ve probably heard thrown about in conversations, or perhaps even told you need, but what exactly are they and how will they boost your business?


How Remarketing and Retargeting Works

Many people use the terms remarketing and retargeting interchangeably; and while they are very similar in strategy, they can differ in tactic.

Retargeting: Nurturing a website visitor into a lead with reminders of your brand, business, products or services through display advertising on other websites they visit. And, just to confuse things, Google calls this method of advertising ‘remarketing’ which is why the terms are often used interchangeably. We’ll refer to this method of advertising as Pixel-Based Retargeting.

Remarketing: Remarketing is the term typically used to refer to re-engaging customers or past website visitors via. Email campaigns. We’ll call this form of advertising Email List Based Marketing.

Essentially, both forms of advertising serve to remind potential customers about your brand.

Pixel-based retargeting

Pixel-based is the most commonly used. If you want to use retargeting as part of your marketing campaign you will need to place a piece of Javascript code (known as a pixel) on your website. This code will not be noticed by your visitors, but when they visit your site, the code will drop an anonymous browser cookie.

And as your cookied visitor browses your website and then the web, the cookie notifies your retargeting provider to serve your ad to the people who have visited your site.

Most online shoppers browse before they buy, in fact the percentage of first-time conversions is less than 3%. Retargeting helps brands market to visitors who have bounced off site, but might still be interested in the product. It also helps visitors by offering them easy access to the products and services they searched for without having to dive into their search history to find that site with the swimsuits they like.

Email List-Based Remarketing

Email List-based remarketing involves collecting a database of contacts from your website visitors. Depending on your business you may further segment the list into various categories/actions/themes.

The benefit of a list-based campaign is the ability to segregate lists and develop highly-focussed email campaigns to serve as a reminder of your brand, business, products and services. These campaigns can be simple in nature (regularly scheduled email newsletters) to more sophisticated (product-based emails to subscribers based on what they have browsed on your website.

Define Your Retargeting & Remarketing Campaigns

To make the most of your campaigns, you should begin by defining your goals.

Is it to create awareness? – an ad that wants to drive awareness will direct the customer to pages that provide information about the products or services.

Is it to drive a conversion? – if  the ad is to drive the conversion of a product, it will direct the customer to the product page where they can easily add it to their cart.

If the conversion is for a service, the ad may direct the customer to a landing page or contact page where they can book an appointment or call for service.

Do it Right –  10 Point Retargeting Checklist

  1. Make sure your ad is clearly branded with your company logo
  2. Make sure the CTA is clearly defined – so visitors know what to expect
  3. Use power words in the ad copy
  4. Create a few different versions of the ad to avoid consumer fatigue and irritation
  5. Try A/B Testing of the ads to determine best conversion rate
  6. Display the value of the offer
  7. Make sure the ad is bold enough to stand out from the rest of the page
  8. Think about the length of the buying cycle to make sure you don’t run redundant ads
  9. Create several banner sizes to be compliant with different ad placements
  10. Make sure the pixel tracking code is on every page of your site or properly strategized and implemented if the goal is to provide specific ads to specific interactions of your website
  11. Create different ads for each target segment

Retargeting is a useful means of advertising but it can be confusing. If you would like learn more about how retargeting can help your business, contact GetOn Marketing Inc, as your digital marketing consultants we will be happy to help.


 

How to Create Social Media Guidelines for Your Business

Our Tips for Social Media Guidelines

If your business has employees or contractors posting on your social media channels, it is important you set social media guidelines so your social media correctly reflects your business brand.

  1. Define your brand. What is the feeling behind your business. How do you want your brand reflected on social media. Do you want to lean more toward the corporate or more toward the social.
  2. Select words. Many businesses have words they like to use often and words they choose to avoid. Have an ‘instead-of-this-use-this’ list so posts can reflect your business brand.
  3. Define roles. Will all your employees post under the corporate account or will you allow employees to post using their own accounts?
  4. Define resources. How many blog and/or social media posts do you expect per day/week/month? How much time will the Company allocate to this.
  5. Define content. What types/theme/style of content would you like to see on blog/social media regularly, what styles of posts would you like to see sometimes, what styles of posts do you not want to see at all.
  6. Define the goal of your blog/social media channels. Remember, social media is more of a game of connections rather than numbers. Are you simply using social media to connect with your customer/visitor base, are you hoping to bring traffic to your website, or are you hoping for lead generation?
  7. Select which employees can post on behalf of your business. Not only do you want someone who can understand your business, but you want someone who understands the ramifications of posting the wrong thing on social media.

Social Media Guidelines Sample:

  • If you identify yourself as a (Company) employee, be sure all content associated with you is consistent to (company) brand and philosophy.
  • If you identify yourself in your personal account as a (Company) employee, please ensure your privacy settings are set to keep your personal posts separate from what you may share with the general public as a (Company) employee.
  • If you are posting as a (Company) employee, do not enter into controversial discussions. If you are giving an opinion state it is your personal opinion.
  • If you are posting as a (Company) employee, write what you know based on your area of expertise.
  • Respect proprietary information, content and confidentiality of (Company)
  • When quoting, give credit were credit is due. Never use copyrighted material without permission.
  • Monitor and reply to comments in a timely manner.
  • Be polite and professional.