400+EssentialDigitalMarketingTipsforYourBusinessSEO|PPC|SocialMedia|Content|Analytics|Branding|Email

Copyright©2015byMikeNcube

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by anyelectronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems –except in the caseofbriefquotations in articlesor reviews–without thepermission inwritingfromitspublisher,MikeNcube.

All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registeredtrademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. I am not associated with anyproductorvendorinthisbook.

Website:http://www.mikencube.co.uk

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TableofContentsIntroduction

SearchEngineOptimisation

PayPerClickAdvertising

SocialMediaMarketing

WebsiteContentStrategy

GoogleAnalytics

OnlineBranding

EmailMarketing

DigitalMarketingStrategy

Resources

Abouttheauthor

IntroductionIn ‘DigitalMarketing Tips,’ you get all the top tips and techniques to help you create,manage, implement andmonitor your digitalmarketing campaigns effectively.Whetheryou are an online retailer, local service business, e-commerce site or personal brandlookingforonlineexposureandmoresales,you’vegotitallhere.

Digital marketing strategies include all the online activities that you do to meet yourcustomers’ needs and achieve your marketing objectives. Customers should be at thecentre of everything youdo as a business, and you ought to begin by researching yourtargetmarketsandthendevelopingthetacticsthatwillhelpyouachieveyourgoals.

Sothatmeans,youshouldcreatecustomersegmentsandthenchoosethemostviableonesfor your business, and target themwith your products, services or offers. It’s importantthat you choose the right customer segments because few businesses can meet all theneedsofallcustomersinthemarket–duetoresourceconstraints.

Myhope is that you find thesedigitalmarketing tipshelpful for yourbusinesswhetheryouarecompletelynewtodigitalmarketingorhavemanyyearsofcreatingandmanagingonlinecampaigns.

MikeNcube

DigitalMarketer

SearchEngineOptimisationTargetlongtailkeywords

Longtailkeywordsare3ormorekeywordphrasesthatdrivequalitytraffictoyoursite.They are not as competitive as ‘head’ keywords that have high traffic volumesindividuallybuthavemanycompetitorstoo.Anotherbenefitoflongtailkeywordsisthatcollectively, they represent about 80% of search volume onGoogle – so there is hugepotentialhere.

Targetinglongtailkeywordsisnotalwayseasybutit’spossibletoachieveifyouresearchyourkeywordsandtheirvariationsandthencreatequalitycontentforthesekeywords.So,aim tohave full-lengthcontentoneachpage that targets asmanykeywordsaspossiblewithoutkeywordstuffing.

Ifyouaimforatleast300-500wordsperpagethatwillusuallysufficetotargetyourmainkeywords and a host of long tail keywords that your landingpageswill rank for in thesearchengines.

UseGoogle+toboostSEO

Google+ is Google’s social networking platform and has many benefits for your SEOmarketingplanincluding:

•Moreexposureonsearchresults

•Connectingwithcustomersandfollowers

•Collectingreviewsforyourservices

•Boostslocalsearchrankings

CreatingyourGoogle+ iseasyand ifyoualreadyhaveaGoogleaccount throughotherservices likeGmail,GoogleAdwords,YouTube,Analytics and others, you can use thesamelogindetailstocreateyourGoogle+account.

Linkbuilding

LinksareoneofthebiggestfactorstoyourrankingsonGoogle.YourSEOmarketingplanshouldincludedetailsofhowyouwillacquirebacklinks,howmanyyouneedcomparedto your competitors and how quickly you need them. There aremanyways to acquirequalitylinksincludingguestposting,directoriesandfeaturedlistingparticularly,internallinking, links from industry sources, article submissions, social media links and manyothers.

Onethingyoushouldavoidispurchasinglinksfromotherwebsitesbecauseit’slikelytoleadtoapenalty.Inaddition,thedifficultyofbeingpenalisedisthatyouwillstruggletoremoveanylinksthatyou’vepurchased,especiallyiftherearehundredsofthem.

Userankingsoftware

UseSEOsoftware likeSERanking.comtocheckyourkeywordrankingsonGoogleandother search engines like Bing and Yahoo – for your country and other countries.

SERankingisaffordableandhasaniceinterfacethatallowsyoutocreatePDFreportsthatyoucansharewithyourteamorwithclients.

Fromjust£5permonth,youcanmonitoryour rankingsandmakechangesaccordingly.Whenyoufirstsetupawebsite, itpromptsyou toconnectwithyourAnalyticsaccountandpickkeywordsfromyourreportsthatyouwanttorankon.

Ithasaneasyinterfacetoo,anditwillonlytakeafewminutestounderstand.Oneofmyfavouritefeaturesishowtheinterfacelistsyoursitesforeachkeywordandsearchenginewhenyouclickthe‘AllRankings’reportforexample.

Researchyourcompetitors

Findouthowyourdirectcompetitorsarerankingforkeywordsthatareimportanttoyourbusiness.Using tools like SERanking.com, you can compare your rankings with theirsside-by-sideandyoucanusetoolslikeAlexatocheckhowmanybacklinkstheyhaveandfromwhichsites.Then,findouthowyoucangetlinksfromthosesamesitesandsimilaronesinyourcategory

It’seasytocheckwhoyourcompetitorsareintheorganicsearchlistingsandallyouhavetodoissearchforyourtargetkeywords.However,youneedamoreadvancedstrategytoidentify themtoassessandmonitor theirsearchengineoptimisationstrategy.Alexacanhelpyoudothiseasilyandforalowmonthlyfeeofabout£6permonth,youcancompareagainst competitors for acquisition and engagement metrics like unique visitors, pageviews,countryrank,etc.

SetupyourGoogleSearchConsoleaccount

IncaseyouhavenotcreatedyourSearchConsolesaccount,nowisthetimetodoit–youwillneedit.ThisfreetoolfromGoogleshouldbeapartofeverySEOmarketingstrategybecauseofthewealthofinformationitprovides.Oneofitspopularfeaturesisthesearchtermsreportsthatshowshowyouareranked,andwhichonesaredrivingtraffictoyourwebsite.ThisfeaturehasbecomeevenmoreimportantsinceGooglestartedshowing‘noresults’in2011forpeoplewhoareloggedintotheirGoogleaccountastheysearch

Bear inmindthat this toolreportsonlyGoogle trafficfor thesiteyouhaveverifiedandnotforothertrafficsourceslikeBingorpayperclicktraffic.Forthatyou,needGoogleAnalytics.

Thistoolprovidesyouwithawealthofinformationaboutyourwebsiteandyourrankings.Youcancheckanywebsiteerrorsandseeifyouhavesufferedamanualpenalty.YoucanalsosubmityoursitemaptogetallyourpagesindexedbyGoogle.

MoveyourwebsitetoWordPress.org

WordPress isbyfar the leadingcontentmanagementsystemwithahuge listof featuresthatincludesplug-ins,themesandwidgetsthatotherplatformscannotmatch.Itisfreeandmanyhostingprovidersnowprovidetheone-clickinstallthatyoucanusetogetyoursiteupinminutes.

Optimiselandingpages

UsethekeywordplannertoolinGoogleAdwordsifyouhaveanaccountthere,toassess

howoptimisedyourpagesareforyourkeywords.So,enteryourURLinthesearchboxandthenclicksearch.Itwillbringupalistofkeywordsthatarerelatedtoyourpages.

Thishelpsyouseehowoptimisedyourpagesareandyoucanuseittoresearchkeywordsthatyouwanttorankon.Ifyousearchwithyoursiteandfindthattheresultshavemanykeywordsthatdon’treflectwhatyoudo,thenitistimetochangeorupdateyourwebsitecontentandaddyourmostimportantkeywords.

UseYoastSEOplug-in

Thisisoneplug-inthatshouldbepartofyourSEOmarketingplanbecauseofitsabilitytooptimise your website features like title tags, content, images, indexing and so on, forhigher rankings. It is used by thousands ofWordPress sites and it is one of the mostpopularplug-ins.

ChooseyourKeywordsCarefully

Your SEO campaign should start with keyword research. Your keywords are whatsearchersusetofindyourwebsiteonGoogleandtopicktherightoneiscritical.

There are many free keyword tools to use like the Google Keyword tool to find yourkeywords.Theidealcombinationofkeywordsyoupickwillhavehightrafficvolumesandlowcompetition.Youwillwantlowcompetitionkeywordsbecausetheyareeasiertorankandtheyaresometimesmoreprofitable,especiallyiftheyarelongtailkeywords.

SignuptoGoogleMyBusiness

OneofthefirststepstoSEOsuccessisgettinglistedonGoogleMaps.ThebenefitisthatyougetafreelistingonGoogle,rightatthetopforlocalsearchesforyourservices.Yourlisting also includes your address that makes it easy for your customers to find yourbusinesspremisesandamaptoowithdirections.

Another benefit of a Google Places listing is customers can leave reviews about yourservicesandtheirpositiveexperiencecanenhanceyourbrand.

Toget startedwithGooglePlaces forBusiness,youwillneed toprovideyourBusinessname,Address,TelephoneNumber,descriptionofyourservicesandvariousotherdetailsliketradinghoursandbusinesscategory.

Optimiseforothersearchengines

Google’sshareofLocalsearchtraffic isaround67%.That’sabigsliceofsearchtrafficforsure,butthereareotherimportantplayersinthisarenaandtheyincludeBing,Yahoo,Yell and a few others. Yell, for example, is very popular with local searchers andconversionratesthereareveryhigh.AnotherbenefitisthathavingalistingonlocalsiteslikeYell,YelpandTouchLocalwillboostyourGooglerankings.

On-pageoptimisation

AdvicefromGoogletowebsiteownerslookingtorankhighontheirsearchengineistooptimise theirwebsites forvisitorsandnot thesearchengines.Optimisingyourwebsiteforvisitorsoron-pageoptimisationisaboutprovidingcontentthatisrelevant,engaging,entertaining and keeps your visitors coming back to your site for more. It also helpsimproveyoursearchengine rankingsbecauseothersitesaremore likely to linkback to

yourwebsite.

Optimisingforthesearchenginesalone,whichGooglefrownsupon,includessuchblackhatmethodsaskeywordstuffingthatultimatelywillhurtyourrankings.

Includekeywords inyour title tags,meta tagsandpagecontent, includingyour images.Also,getsomelinksthatpointtoyoursiteandincludeyourkeywordsintheanchortext.

TargetLocalSEO

Local Search Engine Optimisation or Local SEO presents opportunities for smallbusinesses that include an increase in sales or leads, and greater visibility to localcustomers. Ithasbecomeincreasingly importantascustomersarenowturning tosearchengines for local services. Google Stats also reveal that about 97% of consumers firstsearchforlocalservicesonline.

LocalSEOislikenormalSEOinmanyways,butthereareafewdifferences.ThemajordifferenceisthatlocalSEOhighrankingsareusuallyeasiertoachievethananationwideor internationalcampaign.The trafficmaybemuchlower ina localcampaignbut therearefewercompetitorstooandtheconversionratesareevenbetter.

If your business serves a local customerbase, youwill knowhowdifficult it canbe toreachyourprospectswithyouroffers.So,it’simportantyoustartearlybyoptimisingyourkeywordswithlocalcity,countyandregionalkeywordsthatpeopleareusingtosearchonGoogle.Use thekeywordplanner tool tofind theseand incorporate them,anduse themforlinkbuildingtoo.

GetTop3Position

Alwaysaimtobe in the top3positionforyourmainkeywordsbecauseanything lowermaynotdrivesufficienttraffictoyourwebsitetoreachyourgoals.Thetop3listingsgetover 70%of search click-throughs and that’s for bothbranded andunbranded searches.Also,beinginatoppositionboostsyourcredibilitywithtargetcustomersandprospects,andleadstogreaterprofitability.

WhySEO?

SEOismainlyaboutgettingyoursitetothetopofthesearchenginerankings.Oneofitsdisadvantagesisthelengthoftimeittakestoachievehighrankings,andagoodstrategyistolaunchPPCcampaignswhileyouworkonyourSEOtogetyoursitetothetop.

CertainimportantthingstoknowasyoudoSEOare:

•Googlehasover65%ofsearchtrafficanditusesover200factorsinitsalgorithmcalculations

•YoushouldbenchmarkagainstcompetitorswithtoolssuchasAlexaRanktohelpyousetrealisticgoals

•Set upGoogleAnalytics and SearchConsole tools early to understandwhereyouare,whichwillalsomeasureandreportyourprogress

• Hire an SEO practitioner to help you with On-page and Off-page

optimisationifyoudon’thavetheskillsandexperience

•Don’tbuylinks–itwillgetyoupenalisedandtheroadbacktorecoveryislongandhard

Connectwithotherbloggers

Findotherbloggersinyournichewhoareinterestedinconnectingwithyouandwelcomeguestposting.Thiswillhelp increaseyourauthorityandbrandawareness, andyouwillgetmorevisitorstoyourwebsitefrompeoplewhotrustandbelieveinwhatyouhavetosay.Italsohelpstoincreaseyourbacklinksandleadstohighersearchrankingstoo.

Makeyoursiteresponsive

Your website should be optimised for mobile too, especially if your users access viasmartphones – because Google now penalises sites that aren’t mobile responsive.WordPress, for example,hasplug-ins tomakeyour sitemobile responsive andyoucandownloadtheseforfree.

PressReleases

Pressreleasesstillworkandtherearefreeresourcesifyouhaveagreatstorytotellaboutyourbusinessoranews-worthyitem.SomePRsitestosubmittoare:

•24-7PressRelease.com

•PRLog.org

•IdeaMarketers.com

Youshouldsendyourpressreleasetoyourlocalornationalmediaoutlets,andiftheyareinterestedandpublishit,youwillseealotofinterestfromvisitorsandcustomers.

PrioritiseSEOStrategy

SEOforhighsearchenginerankingshasbecomeaprioritypromotionalstrategyforover90%ofbusinessesontheweb.ThisisbecauseofthehugevolumesoftrafficthatcanbeachievedbybeingonthefirstpageofGoogle,BingandYahoo.

Recent research reveals that a no. 1 listing for brand searchesonGoogle search resultsreceives45%ofclicks,no.2getsabout25%andno.3getsabout13%.Fornon-brandedsearches,theresultsarequitesimilarwithno.1receivingabout40%ofclick.

So,beinginthetop3shouldbeapriorityforyourbusinessandyoushouldimplementallSEOtacticslikelinkbuilding,contentcreation,etc.toachievethis.

OnlineDirectories

Directories are still effective and there aremany free ones that you can submit to likeDMOZ.Youshouldsearchfordirectoriesinyourindustrybecauselinksfromthesewillbeofgreaterbenefitthangeneraldirectories.

LaunchAlexa

Wanttokeepaneyeonyourcompetitorsandseewhattheyareupto?ThenAlexaisthe

toolforyou.AlexaisacompetitoranalysistoolthatcollectsdataonbrowsingbehaviourandtransmitsittoAlexa.

WithAlexa,youcanseetherankingofyoursitegloballyandbycountryandyoucanseeyourvisitordemographicsand thencompare thiswithyourcompetitors’.Bysigningupfor an account, you can compare 3 or 4 of your competitors onmany keymetrics andbenchmarkyourprogresstowardsachievingyourobjectives.

Getpositiveonlinereviews

StartcollectingpositiveGooglereviewstobuildyourcredibility,showcaseyourskillsandexperience. These reviews show up in search results when people search for yourcompanyandonGoogleMapstoo.

Keyworddensity

WordPressplug-inslikeSEOYoasthelpyoumaintaintheidealkeyworddensityforyourpages.Theidealdensityis2-4%,sothatmeansforevery100wordsoftext,yourkeywordshouldbementionedabout3timesonaverage.Ifit’stoohigh,saylike10%,andthenyoucould suffer a penalty for keyword stuffing, especially if it’s excessive throughout yourwebsite.

If it’sbelow2%,youwill struggle toachievehighrankingsbecauseyourpageswillbedeemedasnotbeingrelevanttothatkeywordbythesearchenginerobots.

LinkSearchConsolesandGoogleAnalytics

Linkyouranalyticsandsearchconsolesaccounts in theadminsectionofyouranalyticsaccount.ThishelpstoanalyseyoursiteandimproveyourOn-pageSEOandcheckyoursiteimpressions.

SubmitsitemapstoBingWebmastertoolsandSearchConsoles

WordPress,forexample,hassitemapplug-insthatyoucanusetocreateyoursitemapandsubmit to Bing andGoogle. If youwant to ensure that your pages are discovered andindexedbythesearchengines,thenyouneedasitemap.That’strueespeciallyifyouhavealargewebsitethathasmanydeeppagelevels.

Italsohelpstoensurethatyourpagesareindexedfasterandappearinthesearchresultsquicker.

OptimiseforBingandYahoo

Bing andYahoo are high traffic search engines. Although they are far behindGoogle,whichhasabout65%of traffic, theyarestillagreatsourcefororganic traffic.So,yourSEOmarketing strategy should include these two sites and fromwhat I’ve discovered,theirrankingalgorithmisquitedifferentfromGoogle.Doyourresearchaccordingtoyournicheandworktowardsachievingpage1listingsforyourkeywordsonthesesites.

CreateorganicsearchKPIs

Create organic search objectives and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track andmeasureyourprogresstowardsachievingyourgoals.ExamplesofKPIsfororganictrafficare:

•Percentageincreaseintraffic

•10%conversionratefororganic

•Reducebounceratebelow50%

Checkformanualpenalties

Ifyou’veseenadropintrafficoryou’reconcernedthatyoudonotseemuchtractionwithyour SEO marketing strategy, then it’s time to investigate. In your Search Consoleaccount,youcancheckifyouhavebeenpenalisedmanuallyandifthisisthecase,thenyoushouldinvestigatethecausetofixit.Don’tcontactGoogletoaskwhyyou’vebeenpenalisedbecause theywon’tgivea reason.Youshould justwork towardsmakingsureyouhaveagreatwebsitethatisnotdoinganyblackhatmethods.

Optimiseyourimages

Imagesearchisbiganditisonewaytogainmoretrafficforyourwebsite.SoensurethatyourkeywordsareaddedasalttextandthiswillhelptoimproverankingsintheGoogleImage search vertical. Alt text is also important for visually impaired people who usescreen readers to read your website and for search engines that currently cannot readimages.

Updatetitletags

Thissoundsobvious,however,over80%ofsiteshaveduplicatetitletagsandthiscouldharmyoursearchrankings.Infact,withoutoptimisedtitletags,yourCTR(clickthroughrate)inthesearchresultswillbelow,andthiswillaffectyourtrafficvolumes.UseyourGoogle SearchConsole account (formerlyWebmaster Tools) to identify duplicate titlesandchangethemassoonasyoucan.

You can view your organic CTR in your SearchConsoles account and this reveals thenumberofpeoplewho’vesearchedwithyourkeywordsandhowmanyclickedthroughtoyourwebsite.

Optimisefor2to3keywords

Optimisingyourpagesfor2to3ofyourmainkeywordsshouldbesufficienttohelpyoutarget long tail keywords andbringhighvolumesofvisitors toyour site. If youhavea100-pagesite,forexample,thatcouldeasilyworkoutat300keywordsyouaretargetingandthatwillbringyouthousandsofvisitorseachmonth.

Minimum250wordsperlandingpage

Aimforatleast250wordsforover80%ofyourpagestoavoidbeingpenalisedforthincontent.The search engines are looking at this to rank sites that theydeemvaluable totheirsearchersandifyouhavefewwordsperpageformanyofyourpages,thenyouwillstruggle to gain high rankings. This also helps to include your main keywords in thecontentandtargetbothlongtailandheadkeywords.

Increasepagecount

Googleisnowrankingsiteswithahighnumberofpages,higherthanthinsiteswithonly10to12pagesforexample.However,thisdiffersfromindustrytoindustryandifyouare

alocalservicebusiness,it’slikelythata12-pagewebsitewillbesufficienttoincludeallthecontentthatyouneedandthisholdstrueforyourcompetitorstoo.However,ifyouareinasectorlikepersonalhealthandyouhaveathinsite,thenyouwillstruggletogainandmaintainhighGooglerankingsoveryourcompetitors.

Makeitresponsive

Mobile responsiveness isnowabig factor in ranking resultsonmobiledevices. Ifyoursite is not responsive, then it will not achieve high rankings for your keywords andcompetitorswillalwaysoutrankyou.OnplatformslikeWordPress,allyouneedtomakeyour site responsive is a plug-in and there are many free ones available to install inminutes.

CheckWebsiteSpeed

Website speed is about ensuring thatyour site loads fast fornewand returningvisitors.Slowwebsitesareafrustrationformanyvisitorsandthisisamajorreasonpeopleleaveandneverreturn.So,ensurethatyoursiteloadsunder5secondsandaimfor2secondstoensure that the user experience is great for your visitors. Use a tool like the GoogleDevelopersPageSpeedInsightsthat’sfreeandshowsyouwhatiscausingyourpagetobeslowandwhatyoucandoaboutit.Thesearesomeofthecommonissuesthatyouneedtofixanditwillshowforbothmobileanddesktopversions:

•Leveragebrowsercaching

•Enablecompression

•MinifyCSS

•MinifyJavaScript

•Optimiseimages

Meta-Analysis

This includes your title andmeta description tags and they’re meant to have a uniquecontent for each page, and include the keywords that you want to rank on. Your titleshouldhaveup to70charactersandyourmetadescriptionbetween70–160charactersdescribingwhatthepageisallabout.YoucancheckyourGoogleSearchConsoleaccount(formerlyWebmasterTools)foranyproblemslikeduplicatemetatagsortagsthataretooshort.

It will also notify you which pages have a missing or empty title, pages that havecharactersabove160forthedescriptionandpageswithduplicaterel=”canonical”code.

Favicon

It’s important to have a favicon that is consistentwith your brand andmakes your sitestandout fromcompetitor sites.Asprospects search and click through to your site andalsocompetitorsites,it’seasyforthemtorememberyoursiteandcomebacktopurchase,requestorquote,registerorwhateverotheractionthatisavailableonyoursite.

Although itdoesnothelpyoursearch rankingsdirectly, ithelps tocreateaprofessionallookandmakesiteasytoidentifyyouandboostsyourbranding.Alltheseareimportantfactorsincreatingtrustandrelationshipsontheweb,andsearchengineslikeGooglearerewardingbusinessesthatachievethis,withhigherrankings.

Custom404Page

Use a custom 404 page to help people find all proper content on your website thatprovidesthemwithusefulinformationthatmakesthemstaylonger.A404pageisanerrorpagethatavisitorseeswhentheytrytoviewapagethatnolongerexistsonyourwebsite,likewhenthepagehasbeendeletedortheyhavemistypedtheURL.

The standardpageusuallydisplayeddoesn’t containhelpful informationand that’swhythebouncerate isoftenhigh.However,acustom404pagecanquicklyreverse thisandyouwillseemoreengagementfromyourvisitors.

Safebrowsing

Createagreatuserexperienceonyoursiteand try toavoidphishingandmalwarefromyourwebsite. You canmake your sitemore secure by usingGoogle Safe Browsing tocheckagainstGoogle’slistofsitesthataresuspectedofphishingscams,spam,malwareandunwantedsoftwarepages.

WiththeSafeBrowsingserviceyoucan:

•Warn users before they click on links on your site that may lead tomalware-infectedpages.

•Preventusersfrompostinglinkstoknownphishingpagesfromyoursite.

• Check a list of pages against Google’s lists of suspected phishing,malware,andunwantedsoftwarepages.

Informationisavailablehere:https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/

W3CValidation

Yoursiteshouldusevalidmarkup thatcontainsnoHTMLerrors.Syntaxerrorsmake itdifficultforsearchenginestoindexyourpages.YoushouldcheckyourwebsitewiththeW3C validation service at http://validator.w3.org/ and make sure it meets the webstandards.

TheW3CCSSvalidationtoolisalsoavailableforCSSvalidation,tocheckifyourcodeworks well or to track real errors that you have missed. It is available herehttp://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

GoogleMapsListing

Amapslistingisafundamentalpartofalocalonlinemarketingstrategy.Asmostpeopleare usingGoogle to look for your services, it’s essential that you launch aGoogleMyBusiness account and addyour business addresses. If youhavemultiple locations, thenyoucancreateanaccountforeachlocationandwithyourGoogle+account,youcansharecontent,updates,pictures,contactdetailsandmuchmore.

Also, customers can leave reviews about your services and thesewill appear alongsideyourMapslistingsandorganiclistingswhenpeoplesearchforyourbusiness.

Yourmapslistingismostlybeneficialtoprospectsthatwanttofindyourofficesorshopandeventocallyoudirectlyfromtheirmobilephones.

Checkyoursiteforerrors

UseGoogleSearchConsoletocheckifthereareproblemsonyoursitethatareleadingtopoorsearchrankings.Somenotableerrorsincludeslowloadingspeedsandmalware.

CarryoutSEOAudit

AnSEOaudit isoneof themost important tasks tocarryoutasanSEOpractitionerorwebsite owner. There are many areas to cover in an audit and because Search EngineOptimisationisarelativelynewmarketingdiscipline,thereisahighpossibilityoffindingproblemsinawebsiteandsearchoptimisation.

Forexample,somewebmasterswillselectaContentManagementSystem(CMS)withoutcarryingoutanassessmentofitsimpactonachievinghighrankingsonthesearchengines.SomewilldeveloptheirownCMSandtheywillrevealmanyissueswhenanSEOauditiscarriedout.

Some areas to consider as part of your audit include website usability,accessibility/spiderability,Keywords,geolocationandon-pagefactors:

Usability

Often,UsabilityisnotassociatedwithSEOandorganicranking,but this isaverygoodplacetostart.Thereasonisthatifyourwebsitevisitorsexperiencedifficultiescompletingsimple tasks like browsing, searching, navigating frompage to page, downloading, andcarryoutmanyothertasksandevents,theywillleaveinfrustrationandthatwillaffecttheperformanceofyourwebsite.

Forexample,bounce rate isan importantmetric inGoogleAnalytics tomeasurevisitorengagement on your site. It represents people who enter your site and leave (bounce)withoutviewingotherpages–regardlessofhowlongtheyhavebeenonthelandingpage.Google takes this into consideration in its algorithm and sites with poor bounce ratescomparedtocompetitorswillhavelowerrankings.

BounceratealsoaffectstheperformanceofPayPerClickcampaignsinGoogleAdwordsandagoodbouncewilloftenleadtogoodqualityscoresandeventuallyahighAdRank.

SomefactorstoconsiderwhencarryingoutaUsabilityreviewareconventions,sections,menus,breadcrumbs,contentstructureandanyroadblocksthatpreventpeoplefromdoingwhatyouwantthemtodoonyourwebsite–likeplacinganorder.

Ultimately,asitewithgoodusabilityandexcellentcontentwillleadtopeoplewantingtolinktoitandthiswillleadtohigherOrganicrankings.

Accessibility/Spiderability

AccessibilityandSpiderabiityrelatetoyourvisitorsandsearchenginebotsrespectively.However, accessibility is important to search engines too because theymust be able toreachyourwebsitetobeabletocrawlit.

Thisisnotaseasyasitsoundsandmanywebmastersgetthiswrongbecauseofthemanywebdesign and implementation constructs that search spiders have to understand.Yoursite shouldbe inHTML format becausewhile spiders do crawlFlash files and images,theyaredifficulttoanalyse.

AwelldesignedInformationArchitecture(IA)requiresthatyouputsomethoughtintoitand thiscanbringmanybenefits tousersandsearchengines.Searchbotsaren’table tounderstand pages the way humans do and this presents significant limitations foraccessibilityandspiderability.

Oneimportantfactorisflatversusdeeparchitecture.Flatsitesrequirefewerclickstogettoinnerpagesanddeeppagesrequiremanyclickstogettoinneranddeeperpages.Flatisoftenbetterforbothspidersandhumansbutthiswilldependonthenumberofpagesandcategories.

SearchEngineHealthCheck

Sometimes, your website will not be performing well in the search engines for thefollowingreasons:

ManyofyourpagesarenotindexedbyGoogle,BingandYahooandyoucanfindoutbysearchingforsite:yourdomain.comtocheckhowmanyofyourpagesappearintheindex.Youcancomparethiswiththenumberofpagesthatyouhaveonyoursiteandifthereisabigdifference,youshouldsubmitasitemaptoGoogleandBingWebmasterTools.Thiswilloftensolvetheindexingproblembutyoushouldcheckthatyoursiteisindexablebyusingthetoolsavailableinwebmastertools.

•Brand name search – Search on your brand terms onGoogle to assesshowyouarerankingandtocheckifyouhavebeenpenalisedornot.Ifyouhave, then you should take corrective action by following Googleguidelinestostartrankingagain–becauseyourcompetitorswillbetakingadvantageofyourabsence.

•Ensurethatthecachedpagesmatchthecurrentpagesonyoursite

KeywordHealthChecks

Are you targeting the right keywords? This takes time to correct if you have beenoptimisingyour site for specific keywords and then realise that you are targeting eithervery competitive keywords that require large time andmoney outlay or your keywordshavezeroorlowtrafficvolumesandwon’tbringtheROIthatyourequire.

Avoidkeywordcannibalisation–thatismorethanonepagetargetingthesamekeywords.Thisisawasteofresourcesandit’sbettertohavespecifickeywordsforspecificpagestogainmoretraffic.

Geolocationtargeting

Ifyouare targetinga specific country, it is important tomake the searchenginesknowwhereyourbusinessislocated.TherearemanywaystodothisandtheyincludeusingacountryspecificTopLevelDomain(TLD)foryourdomaine.g..co.uk.

Otherthingsyoucandoinclude:

• Host your website on a local server and not one that is abroad.Surprisingly,manywebsite owners get thiswrong andwonderwhy theyaregettingtrafficfromlocationsthattheyhavelittleinterestintargeting

•Includeyourphysicaladdressoneverypageofyoursite

•UseGoogleWebmasterToolgeotargetingtoyourtargetcountry

•SetupGoogleMaps

•Getlinksfromwebsiteshostedinthecountryyouaretargeting

•Usethelocallanguageonyourwebsite

ExternalLinks

Externallinkspointingtoyourwebpagesareoneofthebiggestfactorsinachievinghighorganicrankingsbecausetheyareavoteforyourwebsite.YoucanchecktheseinboundlinksusingatoolsuchasMajesticSEOorAlexa,whichrecordslinkstoyoursite.

Youshouldcheck thequalityof linksandcompare these toyourcompetitors’ linksandcheckforbadpatterns in theanchor text, likewhatkeywordshavebeenused–becausethese are the ones you want to rank on. A sign of link purchasing is having a highpercentage of anchor text with the same keyword and this could be seen as spam byGoogle.

Also,checkthattherearelinkstootherpagesonyoursiteandnotjustthehomepage–forexample,amorenaturallinkingdistributionismanydeeplinksinproportiontohomepagelinks.

On-pageReview

Checkyourtitletag,metadescriptiontag,contentandimagealttagtoensurethattheyarewell optimised for your keywords and there is no keyword spamming.Your title tag isveryimportantbecausethisiswhatsearchersseeintheGooglesearchresults;soyouwillwanttomakesureitisrelevantandincludesthekeywordsthatyouwanttorankon.Youareunlikelytorankhighifyoudon’tincludeyourkeywordsinthetitle.

Checkforametarobotstagandifyoudofindone,thenyoumayhavespottedaproblembecauseaNoFolloworNoIndextagcouldhinderyoursearchrankingplans.

Makesurethateverypagehasauniquemetadescriptionbecausethisisanothertagthatpeoplewillseeinthesearchresultsandifit’srelevanttoo,theyarelikelytoclickthrough.Althoughtheyarenotasignificantfactorinranking,theywilllikelybeusedinduplicatecontentcalculations.

SEOvs.PPC

SEO and PPC are two of the most popular digital channels for online marketers andwebsiteowners.Bothpose a challenge inbudget and resource allocationandhow theirimplementationandmanagementareundertaken.

HerearesometruthsyouwilloftenhearregardingSEOandPPC,whichyouneedtotakeintoconsiderationasyouplanandmanageyourdigitalmarketingstrategy:

•SEOisforOrganiclistings(free)whilePPCAdvertisingisforPaidAds.

•PagerankforSEOandQualityScoreforAdwords.You’lloftenhearPPCexpertstalkaboutqualityscores–andthat’sbecauseitisoneofthemostimportantmetricsinyouraccount.

•YouarealreadydoingSearchEngineOptimisationevenwithouthavingincludeditinyourpromotionalmix.Bycreatingcontent,publishingblogsandarticles,linkingtootherwebsitesandthemerefactofhavingawebsitemeans you have done or you’re doing SearchEngineOptimisation taskswhetheryoulikeitornot.

• A page one organic listing enhances your brand and gives yourorganisationmorecredibility.

•RunPPCcampaignsasyouworkonyourSEO.

•Onemajor disadvantage of SEO nowadays is that Google has stoppedshowing search queries for Organic searches because of privacyregulations.

•Timescales forSEOvarywhereaswithPayPerClickAdvertising, youcanknowwithinadaywhatworksandwhatdoesn’t.

So,gettingafirstpagelistingforbothisdesirable,butmanyPaidAdswilloftenreceivesubstantial trafficvolumesevenif theyarenotonthefirstpage=-especiallywhentheyseekquotesfrommultiplesuppliers.

OrganiclistingsonPage2andbeyondalsogetclicksbutthisisoftenverylowcomparedtopage1listingsthatreceive95%oftraffic.However,SEOlistingsreceivesignificantlymoretrafficthanPaidAdsat80%and20%respectively–andthisismainlybecausemostsearchesareinformationalratherthantransactional.

For SEO, you are targeting specific sites – Google, Yahoo and Bing. Whereas PPCincludesawiderangeofSearchPartnerslikeAOL,Ask,YouTubeandotherGooglesitesandmillionsofDisplayPartnersthatarepartoftheAdsenseprogrammeandprovideanendlessstreamofimpressionsandclicks.

ManysearchersignorePaidlistingsbecauseof:

1.Theirpositioningonthepage

2.Searchersknowthattheyarecommerciallistings

SERPsVisibility

Affiliatemarketing helps your site appear higher andmore often in the Search EngineResultsPages(SERPs)intwomainways:Firstly,yougetmanybacklinkstoyourwebsitefromaffiliatepublisherswhoplace linkson their sites toyours, and this improvesyourrankingsintheorganicnaturalsearchresults.Eachbacklinkislikeavoteforyoursiteandthemorevotesyouhave,especiallyiftheyareofhigherquality,thenthehigheryouwillbelistedforyourkeywords.

Secondly, for affiliates that use pay per click advertising to promote your business orproducts, you will appear for more searches, especially for searches that you haven’tidentified earlier. However, you should have rules in place that prevent affiliates frombiddingonyourbrandname,domainnameandanyclosevariants.

Stickwithit

SEOisdifficult!TheworstthingyoucoulddoisgiveuponyourlocalSEOeffortsandallow your competitors to win. Local SEO at times can be difficult and getting thatNumberonespotorPageonelistingonGooglecanbeamammothtaskforanybusinessinacompetitiveniche.Itrequiresconstantoptimisationandprovidingqualitycontentwitha well-planned link building strategy. With perseverance, your site can achieve thatcovetednumberonespotandreceivetonsoftrafficandsales.

I put this one at the end because many people give up when they don’t see anyimprovements.IfyoucontinueworkingonyourSEOstrategyandimplementingthetipsabove,yoursitewillachievehighrankings–guaranteed!Sodon’tgiveup.

PayPerClickAdvertisingLaunchPPCCampaigns

AsaGoogleAdwordsCertifiedExpert,PayPerClickadvertisingisoneofmyfavouriteonlineadvertisingtoolsforthefollowingreasons:

•Greatforreceivinghightrafficvolumesthataretargetedtoyourproductsorservices

•Highly measurable unlike many forms of online and offline channelsincludingsocialmedia,TVadvertising,radioandmanyothers

•Easilycontrollableandcanbeturnedonandofflikeaswitch

•Onlyspendwhatyoucanaffordandnotapennymore

•Quicktoimplementandtostartseeingresults

TherearenowmanyotherPPCplatformsonFacebook,Twitter,Yell,MicrosoftBingandYahoo.

However, PPC has its challenges and requires research into target markets beforeimplementation. It’s possible to see low returns or none if not set up correctly, so youshouldplanandtalktoanexpertfirst(GoogleSpecialistsareavailableforfree).

Yourresearchshouldincludekeywordresearchandanalysistoseeoutthekeywordtermsthatpeopleusetosearchforwhatyouoffer.Thedatayoufindwillinclude:

•Searchvolumespermonth

•Thevolumesforlocationsyouwanttotarget

•Itwillproducenegativekeywords(thataresimilartoyourmainkeywordsbutyoudon’twanttobidon)

• It will give you an idea of what people are looking for and how theysearch

Also,theDisplayNetworkisavailablewhichworksdifferentlyfromtheSearchNetworkinmanyways.Withthedisplaynetwork,peoplearen’tsearchingforyourproducts–butonsitesthattheyvisitwhicharecloselyrelatedtowhatyoudo,youcantargetthemwithcontextually targeted text and banner ads that they can click on to get to your landingpagesandwebsite.

TestyourPPCAdsAlways test your PPC ads to ensure you are promoting the benefits that your targetaudienceisinterested.Youcantestabsolutelyanythingincludingoffers,discounts,price,features,benefits,callstoaction,coupons,DynamicKeywordInsertionandmuchmore.

Foreachadgroup,youshouldhaveatleasttwoadssothatyoucanrunsomesplittests

andthenchoosethebest-performingones.

Withouttesting,youwon’tknowwhichfeaturesorbenefitsyourtargetmarketsaremostresponsiveto,andyourclickthroughratesandconversionswillunderperform.Therealityis,many advertisers do not test, and that is an advantage to you of course – and yourcampaignswillbemoreprofitable.

Launchretargetingcampaigns

Ifyou’vehadwebsitevisitorswho’vebrowsedandshownsomeinterestinyourproductsorservicesbutdidnotcontactyou,andyouarewonderinghowyoucangetthembacktoyoursite,thenremarketingistheanswer.

Withyouradwordsandanalyticsaccountsyoucansetupremarketingaudiencesthatyoucantargetwithbannersandgetthemtoreturntoyoursite.Forexample,youcancreateanaudienceofpeoplewho’vevisitedaspecificdownloadpagebutdidnotdownloadyourwhitepapersorreports,andthenretargetthemwithbanneradsastheyvisitothersitesthatarepartoftheGoogleDisplayNetwork.

RunDisplayCampaign

DespitetheirlowCTR(clickthroughrate),bannersareaneffectivewaytopromoteyourproductsandboostyoursales.Infact,banneradsareeffectiveatraisingbrandawareness(not just for direct response) on Google Adwords, Bing and other platforms. You cancreateandpromoteyourbanneradsinjustminutes.

YoucanalsoruntextadsontheGoogleDisplayNetwork.Althoughnotasimpactfulasbanners,youwilloftenseeabetterconversionratebecausepeoplewhoreadthetextwillbemorequalified–unlikemanybannerclickswhichareoutofcuriosity.

VideoCampaign

For maximum impact and creating brand awareness, video beats all other forms ofpromotionaltacticsbecauseofitsaudioandvisualfeatures.

There aremany video sites on theweb to upload your videos, includingYouTube andVimeo. Also, in your Google Adwords account, you can create a video campaign topromoteyourvideoads.

WordtrackerKeywordResearchTool

Wordtrackerisoneofthebestkeywordresearchtoolsonthemarketbecause:

• It provides you with greater insight into the competitiveness of yourkeywords

•Ithelpsyoutobuildyoursitearoundyourkeywordsandensurethatitisoptimisedforthesearchengines

•Helpsfindlongtailkeywords

•Itispackedwithresourcesandvideosthatteachyouhowtopromoteyoursitewithyourkeywords

•Ithasalinkbuildingfeaturethathelpsyoufindqualitybacklinks

However, Wordtracker is not the cheapest keyword research tool, and the basicsubscriptionpriceis$27permonth.

UseMergeWords

Ifyouwanttobuildalonglistoflong-tailkeywordsthatyouwillbidoninAdwordsorBingAds, thenwww.mergewords.comis the tool foryou. Itoffersyou threeboxes thatyouusetomergewordsfastandeasily,andyoucanbuildthousandsofkeywordstobidon.It’salsousefulfordomainnameideas.

LaunchBingAds

BingAdsisthesecondmostpopularPayPerClickprogramafterGoogleAdwords.IthadasignificantboostwhenitacquiredYahoo,whichisnowpartofitsnetwork.

OnefeatureI likeaboutBingAdsistheoptiontoimportyourAdwordscampaignsintoyour account. So youdon’t have to create new campaigns from scratch, and if you arestarting out in PPC advertising, then it’s best to set up an Adwords account and thenimportittoBingAdsbecausethatwillsaveyoualotoftime.

DisplayCampaignsforB2B

The display network in Google Adwords and Bing Ads is a great resource for B2Bbusinesses thatwant to raise awareness of their products and educate and inform otherbusinessesofwhattheyhavetooffer.

ThisisespeciallyhelpfulforB2Bsthathaverecentlylaunchedanewproductorservice,and target markets are not aware of its existence. In such a case, running a searchcampaignwillnotbehelpfultoincreaseawarenessorsalesbecausetheproduct/serviceisatanintroductorystageandveryfewknowofit.

So,thedisplaynetworkisveryhelpfulespeciallyforbusinessesthatlackthefinancestolaunchamassmediacampaignonTVorprinttoraiseawareness.

Here,thedisplaynetworkcanbeusedbybusinessestocreatebanneradsthatrunonsitesthatarepartoftheGoogleAdsenseprogramandhavechosentodisplay3rdpartyadsontheirsites.

ShoppingAds

First,youcreateadatafeedinXMLorCSVformatthatlistsalltheproductsyouwanttopromote onGoogle. Next, you create a GoogleMerchant Center account; upload yourfeed;verifyyourwebsite, and then link it toyourAdwordsaccount.Thenyoucreate aPLA(ProductListingAd)campaigninAdwordsandcreatetheadgroupsthatarerelatedtotheproductsinyourfeed.

Launchcomparisonshopping

Comparison advertising is a type of online advertising where your products are listedalongside other retailers’ products, and people compare them to price, features, quality,reviews,etc.Toadvertiseyourproductsandwebsiteinthisway,youneedtopartnerwitha comparison engine like Kelkoo, Pricegrabber or Nextag and supply them with yourproductfeed,whichincludesalltheproductsyouwanttoadvertise.

Googleshoppingisalsoanothercomparisonoptiontoadvertiseyourproductson,andyouwill submit a product feed to your merchant centre account and then create a ProductListingAd(PLA)campaigninAdwordstopromoteyourproducts.

Addacalltoaction(CTA)

Italwayssurprisesmehowmanyadvertisersleaveoutacalltoactionontheirbanners.ACTA leads to higher click-through rates (CTR) because it makes it easy for people tounderstandwhatyouwantthemtodoonyourwebsite–likepurchase,download,signup,register,contactus,etc.However,yourCTAshouldbestrongandincludeabenefitthatisofinteresttoyourtargetaudienceandyoushouldavoidsomethinglike‘ClickHere’.

Raisebrandawareness

Bannersareeffectiveat raisingbrandawarenessforyourbusiness,products,servicesorpersonalbrand.Becauseoftheirwidereachandcombinationoftext,colours,graphicsandanimation,youcancreatealastingimpressionforyourbrandthatyoucanreinforceeachtimeyourtargetaudienceseesyourbanners.

Createmultiplebannersizes

The more banner sizes you have, the more people you can reach. Most sites and appplacementsonlyacceptspecificbannersizes,and ifyoudon’thave them, thenyouwillnot be able to advertise on these sites. Themain banner sites accepted on the GoogleDisplayNetworkare:

•Verticalrectangle:240x400

•Mobileleaderboard:320x50

•Banner:468x60

•Leaderboard:728x90

•Square:250x250

•Smallsquare:200x200

•Largerectangle:336x280

•Inlinerectangle:300x250

•Skyscraper:120x600

•Wideskyscraper:160x600

•Half-page:300x600

•Largeleaderboard:970x90

•Largemobilebanner:320x100

•Billboard:970x250

•Portrait:300x1050

Andeachbannershouldbenolargerthan150KB.Also,thefiletypeformatsacceptedareJPG,GIF,PNGandJPEG.

Chooseplacementscarefully

ThereisawiderangeofplacementstochoosefromonGDN,andnotallofthemwillbegoodforyourwebsite.Googleallowsyoutochoosewhichcontentplacementsyouwantandsomethatyoumightwanttoavoidare:

•Deathandtragedysites

•Sexuallysuggestivesites

•Siteswithprofanityandroughlanguage

•Andmilitaryandinternationalconflictsites

These typesofplacementsandcontentcoulddamageyourbrand,andyoumaywant toexcludethemifitisarealconcernforyourbusiness.

Testbanners

Create at least two banners for each size, with slightly different features, benefits andmessagestotestwhatpeoplerespondto.ThisisknownassplittestingandlookingatyourClick ThroughRate (CTR) for each bannerwill inform youwhich are the better ones.However,youshouldensurethatyoureceivesufficienttrafficvolumesforyourbannerstoensurethatyoucanbaseyourdecisiononsufficientdata.Also,conversionratedatawillalsohelptoidentifythebetterads,andyoucanthenadjustthemaccordingly.

Matchyourbranding

Matching your brand identity on all banners you create is important to promoting yourbusiness effectively and achieving high brand recall. So your brand name, colours, tagline,logo,positioningandmessagesshouldbeconsistentonyourwebsite,banners,offlineadvertising,andanywhereelseyourtargetmarketscomeincontactwithyourbusiness.

Addoffersanddiscounts

ToincreaseCTRandpurchasesonyoursite,makesureyouaddanyoffers,discountsinyourbanners.Theseareeffectiveincentives,andyoushouldtest themtoo, toseewhichonesarethebestforyourbusiness.

Turnoffmobileappplacements

Appplacementsare ineffectiveformanyadvertiserssimplybecausemobilescreensizesaresmall,andaspeoplescrollontheirdevices,theymistakenlyclickonads.Andthisisonereasonconversionratesareverylowonthesedevices.OntheDisplayNetwork,youcanturntheseoffifyou’vereviewedyourtrafficandseenthattheyarenotconvertingorevenbeforeyourunanyads.

Landingpages

Sendprospectstolandingpagesthatarerelatedtothemessagesandoffersthey’veseenonyour banners. This helps to reduce bounce rates and improves conversions for yourbusiness.Also,thehomepageisusuallynotthebestplacetosendthem,andaninnerpageisoftenbetterbecauseitwillbemorerelevanttothecommunicationinthebanner.

Targetedtextads

Textadsareanimportantfeatureofadvertisingontheweb,andtheyaretheprimaryadtypeonpayperclickplatformslikeGoogleAdwords,BingAds,Facebook,etc.However,oneoftheirchallengesisthattheylimitthenumberofwordsandcharactersthatyoucanadd.Forexample,onGoogleAdwordsandforEnglishadsespecially, the titlehasa25characterlimit,andthatusuallyequatestoamaximumof3words–andthe2descriptionlineseachhasamaximumof35characterlimit–andthedisplayURLhasa35characterlimit.

So,youhavelittlespacetopromoteyourproductsorservices,andyouhavetomakethemostofit.Aneffectivetacticistoincludethekeywordinthetitle,highlightonebenefitandincludeacalltoactioninthedescription.Thiswillensurethatyouradsarerelevant,readable,understandableandmostimportantly-targeted.

Adplacements

Ad placement on websites and apps that are related to your industry and sector is animportantmarketingpromotionstrategytoconsider.OnAdwords,youhaveaccesstothedisplayplanner;atoolthatworkssimilarlytothekeywordplannerandhelpsyoudiscoversitestoadvertiseonwithyourbannerandtextads.

Thetoolshowsyouthepotentialimpressionsforyouradsandwhatdemographicsvisitsthesitesyouwanttoadvertiseon.

PayPerClick(PPC)AdvertisingCopy

More copywriters are offering PPC copywriting services because of the increase inadvertisersonplatformslikeGoogleAdwordsandBingAds.However,writingPPCtextads isverydifferent fromwritingwebsitecopywhere there ismorespace toputacrossyourmessagesandhighlightthefullrangeofservicesavailable.

WithPPCcopy,youonlyhave105characterstoplaywithincludingspaces–25fortheheadline and 35 characters for each description line. So, it’s important that the ads arehighly focusedand includeonlyonebigbenefit and incentive togetprospects to click.Also,adsshouldhaveagoodcall toactionandshouldavoid talkingabout featuresandfocusmoreonbenefits.

LocationExtensionsinAdwords

Location extensions are a feature in your Google Adwords campaigns under the Adextensions tab that enable you to display your address under your ad. To add yourlocations, you first create a Google My Business account and then link it with yourAdwordsaccount.YoumanageallyourlocationsinyourMyBusinessaccount.

It’simportantthatyouusethesameGoogleaccountforAdwordsandAnalyticsotherwiseyouwillnotbeabletosyncyouraddressesintoyourAdwordsaccount.

Yourcompetitorswillbeimplementingthis,andit’simportantthatyoudotooandmakeyouradsstandoutsoyourbusinesscanbefoundeasily.

Mobileadvertising

Manypeoplelookingforlocalservicessuchasrestaurants,parkingspaces,cinemasandso on are ‘On the Go’ and their mobile devices, especially Smartphones, which areimportant to them in finding these services.So, businesses need to ensure that they areeasilyfoundonthesesmallerdevicesandthattheuserexperienceisgreat.Thatmeansthewebsiteshouldberesponsiveandaccording toGoogle’s latestupdates in2015, theyarenowdemotingsitesonmobiledevicesthatarenotresponsive.

Responsive sites create a great experience forwebsite visitors andmake it easy to findinformationandbrowsefrompagetopage.

Also, the click-to-call functionality on mobiles makes it easy for people to call yourbusinessdirectlyfromasearch listingandyouarecharged thesamepriceasastandardtextlinkclickonAdwords.

Createrichmediaads

Rich media ads are popular, and they help to create a lasting impression with targetmarkets.They use advanced technology such as streaming video that interactswith theuser.

Targetmorekeywords

ForbothyourSEO(searchengineoptimisation)andPPC(payperclick)campaigns,youshould regularly research new keywords to increase website traffic volumes and boostsales.WithPPC,youcaneasilyturnonnewkeywordsbasedonsearchesandstartbiddingonthesekeywordstogetmorecustomers.WithSEO,youwillneedtooptimiseyoursiteandstartoff-sitecampaignstostartreceivingtrafficforthesenewkeywordsyouwanttotarget.

ThisisknownasSearchEngineMarketing,andithasmanybenefitslikebeing:

•Highlymeasurable

•Easytoimplement

•Cost-effectivecomparedtootherchannels

•Littleadvertisingwastageunliketraditionalformsofadvertising.

MobileAdextensions

GoogleAdwords provides sitelinks and callout extensions that you can use to promoteotherpagesonyour site.These appearunderyour standard text ad, andyoucan createmobile-specificonestotargetpeoplewhoaresearchingonmobile.Ifyouhaveaspecialoffer,forexample,thatwouldbeofbenefittousers‘onthego’;thentheseextensionscanhelpyoutohighlighttheseoffersseparatelyfromthemaintext.

Mobile-specificcreatives

Mobile-specificcreativeshelptotargetprospectswithmessagesandoffersthatareeasy-to-read and interact with on mobile devices. Many advertisers will create one set ofbannersorrichmediaadsfordesktopviewerswithouttakingintoconsiderationthatthesewill also be viewed on smaller devices – and often the results are not good. So, it’simportant tocreate thebannerswith thecorrectmobiledimensions thatwillmake themeasilyviewedandaccessibleonmobiledevices.

BrandAwareness-DisplayNetwork

Thedisplaynetworkprovidesthebestopportunitytobuildbrandawareness.ItgivesyoutheopportunitytoconnectwithprospectsattherighttimeonthousandsofplacementsthatmakeuptheGoogleDisplayNetwork.UsingrichmediaadsandCPMbidding,youcanreachyourtargetmarketsusingplacementsinAdwords.

Google’s Display Network partners include a wide range of sites that are part of itsAdsenseprogramand theyareknownaspublishers– and theypublish advertisers’ textandbanneradsontheirsites.

There are various placement types available on theDisplay network, and it’s importantthatyoupick the rightones thatare in linewithyourbrandandare frequentedbyyourtargetmarkets. So, you should avoid placing your ads on sites that could damage yourbrandsuchastheexamplesinthediagrambelow:

Theplacementoptionsyouhavearemany,andyoucouldincludeorblockthefollowing:

•Forums

•Socialnetworks

•Parkeddomains

•Errorpages

•In-gamesites

•Andmore

Therearetwooptionsforplacingyouradsonthesesites,andtheyincludeautomaticandmanagedplacements.

Automaticplacementsarebasedonthekeywordsthatyouaddtoyouradgroupsandthesystem finds sites thathave thosekeywords in their content. It hasmanydisadvantagesbecause it gives you less control overwhere your adswill appear. For example, if you

haven’t excluded apps, you will get a lot of app traffic, and frommy experience, thistraffichasalowconversionratebecausemanypeoplewhouseappsclickadsaccidentallybecauseofthesmallscreensize.

With managed placements, you get to choose the sites to advertise on and gives yougreatercontroloverwhereyouradsappear.Therehavebeenmanyembarrassingstoriesofcompaniesandgovernmentdepartmentsautomaticallyplacing theiradsonsites thatareethicallyandmorallyquestionable.

BrandAwareness-SearchNetwork

Thesearchnetworkisanimportantlinkinthepathtopurchasebecausewhenpeoplehavebecomefamiliarwithyourbrand,andhaveafavourableviewofit,theywillusetwomainwaystocometoyoursite:

1.Theymaybookmarkyourwebsiteandusethattocomedirectly,ortheywilltypeyourwebaddressinthebrowser.Thisshowsupasdirect(none)trafficinyouranalytics,andthesevisitorswillbefamiliarwithyourwebsite

2.TheywillsearchforyourbusinessnameonGoogleandsurprisingly,manypeoplestillsearchusingadomainname.So, ifyourbusinesscomesup in theOrganic results, theywillclickthroughtoyoursite.However,youmayhavesomepowerfulcompetitorswhowill outrank you for your brand name, and I often see this for businesses that have agenericnameorcategorynamethatcannotbetrademarked.

OutrankingCompetitors

OneofthedifficultiesofmanagingAdwordscampaignsistryingtooutrankacompetitorthatisdeterminedtotakethetoppositioninthesponsoredads.Thiscaneasilyturnintoaveryexpensivetaskiftwocompetitorshavelockedhornsforthenumber1spot.

Your Auction Insights Report is a valuable report that lists some of your majorcompetitorsonGoogleAdwords.Itrevealshowsuccessfulyourcampaigns,adgroupsandadscomparewithcompetitorsparticipatinginthesameauctions.So,youcanstartheretoseewhoyourcompetitorsare,whatshareofimpressionstheyhavecomparedtoyouandwhatthe‘topofthepagerate’isforyouandyourcompetitorsasbelow:

FlexibleBidStrategies

Manyadvertisersoftenignoreflexiblebidstrategiesandtheydon’trealisethedifferencethey could make to their rankings. In fact, we’ve managed many accounts where theadvertiserdidn’tknowhowtheircompetitorswereoutrankingthem,anditturnsoutthattheyweren’tusingaflexiblebidstrategy.

YourflexiblebidstrategiesareavailableunderSharedLibraryandthetwomainonestohelp you outrank competitors are Target search page location and Target OutrankingShare.

TargetSearchPageLocation

This feature works with Search Network Only campaigns. So it is not available forDisplayNetworkcampaigns.Itautomaticallylowersorraisesyourbidstoshowyouradatthetopofthepageoronfirstpageresults.

Obviously,ifyouarelookingtooutrankcompetitors,thenyouwillbemoreinterestedinthe‘topofthefirstsearchresultspage’andnot‘anywhereonthefirstsearchresultspage’option.

TargetOutrankingShare

Ifyouarelookingtooutrankaparticularcompetitorandyouensurethatyouradisalwaysabovetheiradinthesearchresults,thenthisisthefeaturetoimplement.

ItworkswithSearchNetworkonlycampaignsandworkswithkeywords,adgroupsandcampaigns.

So,howeffectiveis‘targetoutrankingshare?Infact,itisveryefficient!However,ifyouandacompetitorareusingit, thenincreaseeachdomain’sbiduntiloneofthemreachestheirlimitandtheonewiththebestbidandqualityscorewillwinthehigheradrank.AdRank

AdRankissimplythedeterminationofyourpositionintheadsearchresults.It’seasytocalculateandtheformulais

AdRank=CPCbidXQualityScore

Youcanhaveahigh,mediumorlowrankbasedonyourkeywordqualityscoresandyourCPC bid. It is calculated each time your ad is eligible to appear in the search results.Often, a high ad rank at a low cost is what most advertisers are looking for, so it isimportanttoaddressanyissuesthatmaybehamperingyourobjectivetoachievethis.

Sitelinkscanalsohelptoimproveyouradrankiftheyarerelevantandtargeted.

So,toimproveyouradrank,youneedtodevelopthefollowing:

QualityScores

Threemain factors determine your quality scores and they are ‘expected click throughrate’,‘adrelevance’andlandingpageexperience.Eachofthesefactorswillhavearatingof‘aboveaverage’,‘average’or‘belowaverage’andyouwillneedtoimproveanybelowaverageratings.

Therearetwoplacesyoucanseeyourkeywordqualityscores:(1)moveyourmouseoverthe speech bubble next to any keyword and a window will open like the one below,showingyourqualityscoreforthatkeyword.

Good quality scores across your account will improve your ad rank and will help tooutrank your competitors.With poor quality scores, youwould pay high CPC costs tooutrankyourcompetitorsandthiscouldleaveyoumassivelyoutofpocket.

Read my blog on how to improve keyword quality scoreshttp://www.searchoptimise.co.uk/how-to-improve-keyword-quality-scores/

CPCBid

YoucansetyourCPCbidsatthecampaign,adgroupandkeywordlevel.Ifyouwanttooutrankcompetitors,increasingbidsisthefastestwaytoachievethatandyouwilloftenseeresultswithin24hours.Whenyouincreaseyourbids,manythingswillhappen:

–Youarelikelytoincreaseyouradpositionintheauction

–Yourpositiononthesearchresultspageislikelytochange–Letmeexplain:Ifyouareinauctionpositiononeinthesearchresultsandyouandotheradvertisersareontherightsideoforganiclistingswithnothingabovetheorganiclistings,byincreasingyourbid,youcouldgetyouradabovetheorganiclistingsandgetmoreclicksforit.

However,itsdisadvantageisthatitalwaysleadstoyouspendingmoreforeachclickandthatwillincreaseyourcosts.

TherearetwomainchoicestoCPCbiddingandtheyare:

a.Automatic–ThisisaneasywaytobidandallyoudoissetyourbudgetandallowthesystemtoadjustyourCPCstobringyouthemostclicksforyourbudget.Youhavelesscontrolwiththisoptionandyouareunlikelytooutrankcompetitorswhoaredeterminedto

achievehighpositions.

b.Manual–Thisismypreferredoptionbecauseitgivesyougreatercontrolandyoucansetseparatebidsforyourkeywords.However,youaremorelikelytogetthisonewrongespeciallyatthebeginningbecauseyouwillhavelittledataontheaverageCPCrate.

ImproveQualityScores

Quality Score (QS) is one of the key features of an Adwords campaign that coulddeterminetruesuccessfromfailure.Thequalityscoreforeachkeywordisratedonascaleof1-10anditisanestimateofthequalityofyouradsandlandingpagestriggeredbyyourkeywords.

It’s one of two factors that determine yourAdRank – and the other isCost PerClick(CPC).SocalculatingAdRankiseasyandtheformulais:

AdRank=CPCbidXQualityScore

AdRankissimplythedeterminationofyouradspositionintheresults–andthatincludeswhere your ad shows on the page in relation to competitors and whether the ads areeligibletoshowatall.AdRankiscalculatedeachtimeyouradiseligibletoappearintheauctionresults,soyourpositioncanfluctuateeachtimedependingonyourcompetition.

Other factors considered in the calculation of Ad Rank are the expected impact ofextensionsandotheradformats.

Thisisanexampleofagoodkeywordqualityscoreandwhatyoushouldbeaimingfor:

Toseeyourkeywordqualityscores,clickthekeywordtabandhoveryourmouseoverthespeechbubblenexttoanykeyword’sstatus.

These are the three factors that determine your quality scores and you will want toimproveanythatare‘Average’and‘BelowAverage’:

ExpectedClickThroughRate

Expected click through rate is a measure of how likely your ad is to be clicked for aspecifickeywordirrespectiveofadposition,extensionsandotherformatsthatmayaffect

thevisibilityofyourad.

Thisisaprediction,soitdiffersfromyouraverageClickThroughRate(CTR)whichisshowninthecolumnsectionofyouraccount.Itisanestimatethatassumesthatthesearchtermofthesearcherwillmatchthekeywordexactly.

Thethreepossiblestatusesofexpectedclickthroughrateare‘BelowAverage’‘Average’and‘AboveAverage’.Ifitisbelowaverage,thenitmeansyoushouldconsiderchangingyouradsothatitcloselyreflectsyouradgroup’skeywords.

AdRelevance

Ad relevance is about ensuring that each ad in the ad group is heavily related to thekeywords in that ad group. Many advertisers get this wrong, through adding a largenumberofkeywordsthatarenotdirectlyrelatedtoeachotherandthencreatingtextadsthatdon’tincludesomeofthekeywordsintheheadlineorthedescription.

Withhundredsofkeywordsinanadgroupforexample,itwouldbenearlyimpossibletohaveallthekeywordsintheadandthiswillaffectqualityscores.Peoplearelikelytoclickanadthathastheirsearchtermintheheadline,descriptionandURL–andthiswillhelptoboostclickthroughrates.

OnefeatureusedbymoreadvancedusersisDynamicKeywordInsertion(DKI)tomakeadsmore relevant.Now, you should be carefulwith this feature especially if you havebroadmatchkeywordsandthereisapotentialtodrivesearchesfrompeoplewhosearchinallkindsofways.

Sitelinks can also help tomakeyour adsmore relevant because you can promote otherpagesonyoursite,whichcouldbemorerelevanttosearchers.Yourclicktypereportswillreveal to you which are your most popular sitelinks and you can then look for moreprominenceforthemandthebenefitssearchersarelookingforonthosespecificpages.

LandingPageExperience

Nomatterhowwellwrittenyourads,andareaseffectiveasyouintendthemtobewithhighCTRs,youwon’tseemuchsuccessifyourlandingpagesdon’tdeliverthepromisethatyoumadeinyourads.

ThisisoneofthebiggestqualityscoreproblemweencounterwithclientsthatapproachustomanagetheirGoogleAdwordsaccounts.Theexplanationforthisisquitesimple!Manyadvertisersbelievethatalltheyhavetodoiscreatesuperbcampaigns,bringhighvolumesoftraffictotheirsitesandseethemoneyrollingin.

Nothing could be further from the truth! Landing page experience is perhaps themostcritical factor to high engagement and conversion rates and a poor landing pageexperienceisusuallyduetothefollowing:

•MissingCalltoaction(CTA)–withoutaCTA,visitorswillbeconfusedaboutwhattodoonyourlandingpagesandtheyarelikelytodoanumberofthings,includingclickingthebackbutton.

•Slow loading pages – visitorswon’t stick around if pages take long toload.Aimtoreducepagespeedloadtimestobelow5seconds

•Poorwebsiteusability–Websiteusability isabig topicon itsownandinvolvesoptimisingyourpagestoensurethattheyareeasytonavigateanduserscancompleteconversionactionsonyoursite

•Ineffectivewebsitecopy–Ifyourcopywritingskillsarenotuptoscratch,thenyoushouldhireacopywriter thatwillcreateacopythat isengagingandtargetedtoyourvisitors.

•Trustandwebsitequality–Yoursiteshouldgivevisitorsconfidencethatyoucandeliveronyourpromises.Theyshouldhavetheassurancethatitissecureand if theycansupplyyouwith theirpersonaldetails. Ifnot, thentheyarelikelytoleaveandgostraighttoyourcompetitors.

Keepakeeneyeonprimarymetricssuchasbouncerate,averagetimeonsite,pageviewsbecause these will inform you how effective your landing pages and website are atengagement.

PPCImplementation

Implementationof aPPCplatform likeGoogleAdwordsorBingAds is relatively easyandcanbedoneinminutes.AllyouneedareyourGooglelogindetailsifyouuseotherGooglepropertieslikeGmailandGoogle+andyoucancreateyourAdwordsaccount,andifyoudon’t,theprocessiseasytooandonlytakesafewminutestocomplete.

However, because you are paying for every click to your site, you have less room forerror. In fact, it calls forgreaterplanningand theeffectivesetupand implementationofyourPPCcampaignsformaximumreturns.

SEO,on theotherhand,hasquiteacomplex implementationprocessandoftenrequiresthatyoucarryoutananalysisofyourwebsite,yourcompetitorsandsetupofallthetoolsyou’llneedincludingAnalytics,WebmasterToolsandothers.NotwoSEOstrategiesarethesameduetomanyfactorsthatcouldbethecauseoflowrankingsforyoursite–suchas domain age, brand awareness, website content and hundreds of other signals thatGoogletakesintoconsiderationinrankingyoursite.

Control

OneofthemajordifferencesbetweenSEOandPPCiscontrol.ForPPConplatformssuchas Google Adwords, you have an interface that provides youwith a single location tomanageallaspectsofyourstrategy.Thirdparty toolscanplayapartandwillhelpwithreporting and management. However, they are not as critical to your success as theAdwordsinterface.

SEO, on the other hand, requires multiple tools to measure, track and manage yourstrategyandyouhavemanyonandoffpagefactorstotakeintoconsideration.Youalsohavesocialmediawhichnowplaysabiggerpartinthesuccessofyourorganicrankings(sinceGooglecreatedGoogle+in2011andFacebookpostshelpBingrankings).So,youwon’thaveasingleinterfacetodoallofthisandattimes,youwillrequireateamofsocialmedia,linkbuildingandSEOexpertstoassist.

KeyMetrics

PPC and SEOmetrics are similar and you have standardmetrics such as bounce rate,average time on site and average page views to assess the performance of your Paidcampaigns andOrganic traffic. However, there aremany othermetrics tomeasure andmanageandthesewillfallunderyourAcquisition,ConversionorRetentionstrategies.

A conversionmetric thatwill be relevant to your Pay PerClick campaigns isCost perconversionandyouwillfindthisinyourAdwordsaccountifyouhavesetupconversiontracking or goal tracking. Because you pay for all PPC traffic you receive, calculatingcost/conversion is easy and the system does it for you – and you can then set a targetcost/conversiontoimprovetheperformanceofyouraccount.

Bounce rate is an engagement metric that’s important to your SEO efforts because itdetermineswhatyourrankingswillbeinthefuture.Ahighbouncerateisusuallyasignthatthedestinationpagesarenotwelloptimisedandyoucouldseeadropinrankingsfortheparticularpages.

However, bounce rate is important for PPC campaigns because it’s a factor taken intoconsiderationincalculatingyourkeywordqualityscores.

CampaignandAdGroupStructure

Many advertisers fail to structure their PPC Adwords Campaigns and Ad GroupsappropriatelytomaketheirAdsmoreeffective.Infact,thisisoneofthebiggestmistakesthat both beginners and seasoned advertisersmake and until they correct this, they getlittlebenefitfromtheiraccounts.

Therealityisthatyourcampaignsandadgroupsshouldworktogethertohelpyouachieveyouradvertisinggoals,andthatmeansyoushouldunderstandwhatfeaturesareavailableonthecampaignandtheadgrouplevels.

Ithelpsyoutomakechangesquicklyandyou’llgetmorethananaccountthatiseasytomanageandkeeporganised–youwillgetadsandkeywordsthatarerelatedtoeachotherandimproveyourqualityscores.

Twoeffectivewaystostructureyourcampaignsisaccordingtothemeorsitenavigation.This helps you and others get around the account easily, and it improves your qualityscoresthatareimportantfactorsintheperformanceofyouraccount.

Thisisanexampleofanaccountthatisstructuredtomirrorthewebsite:

Thisstructurehasmanybenefitsincluding:

•Nothingisomittedandallproductsarecovered.

•Adgroupsaremorespecific.

•Noduplicatekeywordsacrosstheaccount.

•Eachcampaigncontainsadgroupsthatfocusononeproduct.

•KeywordsarerelateddirectlytotheAdsandimprovesAdRank.

CampaignLevelFeatures

Thefollowingarefeaturessetatthecampaignlevelonly,anditwilloftendeterminehowyoustructureyourPPCaccount.

•LocationSettings–Thisisoneofthemainfeaturesatthecampaignlevelanditplays

an immense factor in how you structure your campaigns. If you are targetingmultiplecountries,cities,metrosorregions,it’softenbesttosetupacampaignforeachlocation–thatway,youhavemorecontroloverthemessagesandcommunicationsyourvisitorsseeonGoogle(likeshippingratesforexample).However,therearetimeswhenit’sacceptableto addmultiple locations in the same campaign especiallywhen you have standardisedproducts,servicesandmessages.

ManyadvertisersoftenneglectadvancedlocationoptionstargetingandthisleadstopoorperformanceofAdcampaigns.ThisfeaturehelpsyoutotargetandexcludepeoplefromseeingyourAdsbasedontheirinterestinphysicallocationoranyotherlocale.

It’softenbesttotargetpeopleinyourlocationwiththesettingsbelow

However, if you are a hotel for example,many of your prospectswill be outside yourphysicallocationsoyoumaywanttotargetthemwiththesamecampaign.Butyoushouldconsider that locals and non-localswill have differing knowledge about the location ofyourhotelandhowtogetthere–soitmaymakesensetocreateonecampaignforlocalsandanotherfornon-locals.

•Budget–Again,thisissetatthecampaignlevel,andthesizeofyourbudgetwilloftendeterminehowmany campaignsyou shouldhave. If youhave a small budget, then it’susually the case that you have fewer products or services to promote so that you canachieveyourgoalswithonecampaignandmultipleadgroups.

Largerbudgetsusuallymeanmoreproducts topromoteandyoucan thenstructureyouraccountaccordingtoproductlinesoryourwebsitestructureinthecaseofane-commercesite.

•AdScheduling–ThisisanadvancedsettingthatallowsyougreatercontroloverwhenyourAdswillrun.YoucanrunAdsonalldaysandhoursorcreatecustomscheduleswiththeoptiontoincreaseordecreasebidsforspecifichoursanddays.

•Networks –This is the first feature you set up at campaign creation, andyouhave achoice between five campaign types. The three main ones are Search Network withDisplaySelect, SearchNetworkOnly andDisplayNetworkOnly.Your choice betweenthesewilldeterminewhatadgrouptypesyoucanrun.

•Language–Languagesettingsshouldgohand-in-handwithlocationtargetingtomakeAdsmorerelevant. Ifyouare targetingmultiplecountrieswithmultiple languages, thenyou should create a campaign for each countrywithAdswritten in the local language.Again, you should createmultiple campaigns for users in the same country that speakdifferent languages – for example, a Spanish campaign and English campaign for USvisitors.

•BidStrategy–YourmainbidstrategiesofFocusonClicks(CPC),Conversions(CPA)orImpressions(CPM)aresetatthecampaignlevel,andtheygoverntherulesforeachAdgroupinthecampaign.YourchoiceofNetworkwilldetermineyourclicksorimpressions.CPMbiddingisonlyavailableforDisplayNetworkOnlyandRemarketingCampaigns.

•CampaignExperiments –Perhapsoneof the list used campaign features,CampaignExperiments is inBeta and allows you to run one experiment per campaign to test theperformanceofyourkeywords,adsandadgroups.

AdGroupFeatures

These are features created at the ad group level, and they should be structured in anefficientandeffectivewayformaximumROI.

•Keywords–Keywordsaretheheartofyourcampaignandthebestwaytostructureyouradgroups,andevencampaignsaretogroupsimilarkeywordstogether.Soyouradgroupsshould be tightly themed to ensure that you have good quality scores and ads that arerelevant. It alsomakes sense to name your ad groups and campaigns according to thekeywordscontainedinthemandnottheotherwayround.

•Ads–Textand imageadsare twoof themainad types,andyoucan runbothon theDisplayNetworkandonlytextadsontheSearchNetwork.Textadsshouldalwaysincludekeywordsandshouldreflectthecampaignstructure.

• Placements – If you run a display network campaign, you can choose sites orplacementstodisplayyourtextandbanneradson.

LowerBids

Loweringyourbids isperhaps theeasiestwayof reducingyourpayperclickcostsandstillmaintaintrafficvolumesandsale/leadcount.However,youmayseeadramaticdropinsales.

Keyword bids overrule ad group bids, so you may want to lower bids for specifickeywordsthatareunderperformingwithoutremovingthemcompletely.Forexample,youmayfind thatmodifiedbroadmatchkeywordsaredriving themost trafficbutatahighCPCrate,soyoucanreducetheseindividually.

Your Search Impression Share will inform you on how many impressions you arereceivingandhowmanyyouaremissingouton,basedonyourbudgetandAdRank.Thecampaignbelowhad less than10%of impressionsover thepast30daysand ithas lowover90%ofimpressionsduetoalowbudget.Sotherearelotsofscopesheretoreducepayperclickcostsandstillmaintaintrafficvolumes.

IfyouwanttoloweryourCPCbidsacrossyourcampaignwithoutloweringitforeachadgroupandkeywords,whichcanbetime-consuming,youcanloweryourbidsincampaignsettingsforlocations,asbelow:

Lowercosts-QualityScores

Ifyourqualityscoreslookanythinglikethis,thenyouneedtoactnowtoimprovethemtoreducePayPerClickcostsacrossyouraccount.

YourqualityscoreisoneoftwofactorsthatdetermineyourAdRank–theotherisyourCPCbid.YourAdRankwilldeterminehowmuchyouwillpayforclickstoyourwebsite.

The threemain factors that determine your quality scores are Ad Relevance, ExpectedClickThroughRateandLandingPageExperience.

EachofthesefactorswillhavearatingofBelowAverage,AverageorAboveAverage.Soyouwillneed toworkonanyfactor that isbelowaverage tohelp improveyourqualityscore. For example, if your ‘landing page experience’ is Below Average, you shouldreviewthepageandmakesurethatitisthebestpagethatyouaresendingvisitors.OryoushouldconsiderupdatingthetextandimagesandincludeacalltoactionandanyfeaturesorbenefitsyouhavepromisedinyourAd.Thisiswhatvisitorsarelookingfor.

GoodqualityscoresliketheaboveleadtohigherAdRankandlowerPPCcosts.ItmeansyourAdsarehighlytargetedandyourlandingpagesarewelloptimised.

Targetlongtailkeywords

Long tail keywords drive the most traffic on search engines, and they are oftensignificantlycheaperthanheadkeywords.Estimatesforlongtailkeywordvolumesrangebetween 70 – 80% of all searches, so it makes sense to add these first before headkeywords.Andmost advertisers either ignore or are not aware of themany benefits oftargetingthelongtail.

Targeting long tail keywordswill allow you to lower your pay per click costs and stillmaintaintrafficvolumesandsalesorleads.

Lowercost-AdvertiseontheDisplayNetwork

ShiftingmoreofyourbudgettotheDisplayNetworkwillbringyoumoretrafficatalowercost.CPCbidsareoftensignificantlylessthantheSearchNetworkandyoucanachievethesametrafficvolumesforalessercost.

However,theDisplayNetworkistrickyattimes,andyoushouldensureitfitswellwithyourproductsandservices.It’softennotidealforlocalservicesandemergencyproductsorserviceswheresearchisimportant,anditisbestsuitedforbrandinggoalsinstead.

KeywordPlanner

TheKeywordPlanneristhefirsttoolthatmostadvertisersgotowhentheywanttolearnmoreabouttheirmarket.Andthatmakessenseconsideringthatitistheidealtooltofindkeywordstoaddtoanexistingcampaign–andevenresearchkeywordsthatyouwanttousetobuildyourcampaigns.

Sowhatcanyoulearnfromthekeywordplannertoolaboutyourtargetmarkets?

a.SearchVolumes

Ifyouhavealistofkeywordsandwanttofindoutthetrafficvolumetrendsoverthepast12months,youcaneitheruploadaCSVfile,especially if theyaremany,orenter themmanuallyasintheexamplebelow:

Youcanchangethetargetingtoanylocationyoulike(country,cityorregion).Geographicsegmentation isabasic segmentationbase, and it is fundamental to theassessingof thesize of the market. You can also add multiple locations here as in campaign settings.However,youshouldavoidtargetingmultiplecountrieswithonecampaign.

Youcanalsochoose to search forvolumesonGoogleOnlyorbothGoogleandSearchPartners. Ifyouplan toadvertiseonSearchPartnersites, then itmakessense to includethistraffic.

Because the results returned for your search are ‘broadmatch types’ (unless youmakethemaphraseorexact), it’sagood idea toaddsomenegativekeywords, togetamorerealisticpictureofthetruetrafficvolume.

Finally,thedaterangeisanothervariableyoucanchangeandthelongeritis,theclearerapictureyouwillhaveoftraffictrends–12monthsshouldbesufficientformostmarkets.Youcanalsocomparewithpreviousperiods,withthesameperiodlastyearandyoucanuseacustomcompareoption.

Thisiswhatthetoolwillreturnwhenyouclick‘getsearchvolume’.I’vecomparedtrafficvolumeswiththepreviousyear

b.Gettrafficforecasts

Ifyoualreadyhavealistofkeywordsandwanttofindouttheircosttrafficforecasts,thenyou can either upload them as CSV or one per line and you will get click and costforecaststhatarespecifictoyourAdWordsaccountandforthebidthatyou’veadded.

Yourforecastdaterangecanbeforthenext7days,oryoucanuseacustomdatetogetanestimateofwhatclicksandcostsyouwillreceiveandincur.

ThefollowisforanonlineclothingretailerandrevealsthatatamaximumCPCof£3.86,theycanexpecttoreceivebetween330–403clicksatamaximumcostof£417–andtheaveragepositionwillbebetween1.36–1.66.TheaverageCPCwillbe£1.04.

Trafficandcostestimateshelpyoutodeterminethelevelofcompetitioninyourmarketand what the size of the market is. It then allows you to set a budget, and with thisinformation,youcancalculateyourtargetedCPA.

Overall, thekeywordplanner isagreat tool tounderstand thesizeof themarketand tocalculate traffic and cost estimates.However, it won’t tell youwhat their demographicprofileis,andforthat,youneedothertoolsfoundwithinAdwords.

DisplayPlanner

Using your landing pages or keywords or audiences, you can find Ad group ideas orplacementsacrosstheDisplayNetworktoplaceyourbanners&Ads.TheDisplayPlannerhas similar features to theKeywordPlanner that ismentionedabove,butyouwillhaveadditionalfeatureslikethebiddingtype(CPC,CPMorvCPM).

Asearchfor ‘womensclothing’ togetplacement ideasshowsdemographicdatasuchasAge,GenderandParentalStatusonthemanypotentialsites–asbelow

Italsogivesyouanindicationofcookienumbersandthepotential impressionsyoucanreceiveacrossthedisplaynetwork,butthatwilldependonyourbudgetofcourse.

a.Demographics

This data shows that olderMillennials (25-34Age group) represent 21% of traffic andtheirmost popular device isMobilewith a full browser at 61%of cookies.This is theInternet generation and their use of the Internet are extensive for social, browsing andpurchasingpurposesandtheydothislargelyontheGo.

Astheimageaboveshows,trafficvolumesfor35to54-year-oldsisabout30%forbothgenders and it’s actuallymore if you take ‘unknown’ age into consideration. These areGen Y visitors and their use of devices will differ fromMillennials when it comes toacquisition,browsingandconversion.Youcancombinethisresearchdatawithotherdatatodetermineyourtargetingobjectivesforyourmarkets.

b.Placements

Placementsaresitesacrosstheinternet–thatarepartoftheGoogleAdsenseprogramme–whereyoucanplaceyourbannersandtextAds.Astheimagebelowshows,thereare268sites,72mobileappsand22videosavailablebasedonthe‘womensclothing’keyphrase.Youcanaddanyor allof these inyourcampaignsand theplacementsyouchoosewilldetermineyourtrafficvolumesandspend.

b.Topics

Thetopicssectionisagreatplacetofindnewcampaign,adgroupandkeywordideasastheimagebelowshows.Youcanexpandyoursub-categoriesandevenblockanythatyoudon’tfindtoberelevant.

Whoareyourcompetitors?

First,wemustdefinewhoyourcompetitorsare.

EverybusinesshasDirectand IndirectCompetitorsand theyareprevalentonAdWordstoo. Direct competitors, for example, will offer similar products and services to yourbusinessandtheywillbetargetingthesamecustomers.

Indirectcompetitorsalso target thesamecustomersbuthavedifferentproducts,servicesandoffers.AnexampleisAmazonsellingbooksabouthowtorepairamobilephoneandtargeting the same keywords that amobile phone repair centre is targeting. The optionhereisthattheycanreadabookonhowtodoit,ortheycanvisitarepaircentre.

TheAuctionInsightsReportrevealswhoyourdirectandindirectcompetitorsareandtheimagebelowshowshowyouviewthisreport:

AndthisisanexampleofanAuctionInsightsReportforarepairbusinessshowingdirectandindirectcompetitors:

So,hereare14spoilingtacticsthatcompetitorscoulddotoobstructorpreventthesuccessofyourAds–andwhatyoucandoaboutit.

CompetitorsCopyingOffersandDiscounts

Discounts,offersandcouponsareeffectiveatincreasingsales,orgettingprospectstotryaproduct theyhaven’tusedbefore.CompetitorswillbequicktomatchorbeatanyoffersyoulistonyourAdsoryourlandingpages.

Andtheywilloftencreateacouponordiscount just tospoilanyproduct launchorAdsyouarerunning.

It’s not always viable to compete on price and savings alone, however, if you are in asectorwhereit’sdifficulttodifferentiate,thenit’simportanttoensurethatyourpricesarecompetitive–becauseyourrivalsareonlyaclickaway.

CompetitorsCopyingAds

ManycompetitorscopyAdsbecause:theyarelazytothink,notjustcreative,ortheylack

the experienceandassume thatbecauseallAds look similar, then it shouldbeworkingandtheymustdothesame–theyareafraidtotestandtryoutnewthings

SeehowtheAdsinthissearchfor‘BigDataSolutions’producessimilartitles.Obviously,someonewasfirstwiththattitleanditworked,untilcompetitorsfollowedsuit–andnoonetookthetimetowriteuniqueandtargetedAds.

It’sworthhiringacopywriterwithAdwordsAdexperiencetocreatesomepithylinesthatwillincreaseCTRanddifferentiatethemfromyourcompetitors’Ads.

Another option is to use Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) in title, description anddisplayURL.

Competitorsusingsimilarbidstrategies

Competitors will be fighting for a topAd positionmost of the time and theywill use

different strategies to do that. One of the easiest to do (although it can be costly) is aflexible bid strategy like ‘target search page location’ that allows them to secure a toppositionintheauction.

This is done in the ‘Shared Library’ and this strategy can be applied to campaigns, adgroupsorkeywords.

Itsadvantageisthatitgivesyouautomatedbuyingacrossmultipleorsinglecampaigns–where,whenandhowyouwantit.Ifcompetitorsareusingthisstrategyandyouarenot,then they are likely to outrank you and see better click-through rates (CTR) andconversionstoo.

Competitorsloweringprices

Price is the easiest element to change in theMarketingMix and it is the only one thatbrings in revenue. Other elements of the marketing mix – product, distribution andpromotion–areoftenmuchhardertochangeandtherearecostsassociatedwiththat.

Competitorsloweringpricesisastrategyoftenseenintheofflineworld,anddiscounterswilluseit tocounter thelaunchofarival’snewproductrange.It’scommononlinetoo,andthat’swhyitisnotoftenagoodstrategytocompeteexclusivelyonprice.

ThisiswhereyoucanuseyourAdstohighlightthevaluethatyouofferyourcustomers

andthebenefitsthattheywillrealisewhentheypurchasefromyou.

Newcompetitors

Newentrants thatareofferingsimilargoodsorservicesasyouwill likelybeaproblembecause that could increase the Average CPC bids. It also means you have morecompetitorstobeatandiftheyhavebetteroffers,thentheycouldputyououtofbusiness.

There isvery littleyoucandoaboutNewentrants.However,youshouldwork towardsbuilding a strong online presence that includes obtaining positive reviews for yourbusinessandthesecanbedisplayedalongsideyourAdsasinthepicturebelow.

ThereareGooglepartnerreviewsiteslikeFeefoandTrustpilotthatyoucanjoinandusetostartcollectingreviews.ThesecompaniesthensendyourdetailstoGoogleandifyouhaveatleast30reviewsinyouraccount,theStarswillappearwithyourAds.

Anewcompetitor isunlikely tohavepositivereviewsandcasestudiesand testimonialsfrom clients. So you are at an advantage here and you can build on that by offeringoutstandingcustomerservice

Competitorsbiddingonyourbrandname

If you have awell-known strong brand in themarket, then your competitorswillwantsomeofthattraffic.TheymaynotincludeyournameintheirtextAds,buttheywilladdyourbrandaskeywordsthattheycanbidon.

Thisiswhereitmaybeimportanttobidonyourownbrandname–andyouwon’thavetoworryaboutcannibalisation.ThisincludesyourURL,brandname,misspellings,andanyothervariationsofyourbrandname.

If competitors are biddingonyour brandnames andyou are not, theirAdswill appearabove theorganicsearch listings–and theywillgetsomeof that trafficbecause that iswhattheywillseefirst.

Themainbenefitsofbiddingonyourbrandnameare:

•Itprotectsyourbrand

•Allowsyoutoownthespace

•Itischeap–lesscompetition

•Conversionsarehigh

•CTRishighanditboostsyourQualityScores

FilingatrademarkcomplaintwithGoogle

This is a defensive strategy, commonly used by big brands likeApple. So, it’s not thatcommonamongmanysmallandmedium-sizedbusiness.Anyway,ifacompetitorfilesacomplaintwithGoogleabout their trademarkandpreventanyone frombiddingon theirbrandname,thenyouwon’tbeabletobidonthem–andtheywilladviseyoutocontactthetrademarkownerforanexception.

CompetitorsClickingyourAds

Click fraud is not much of a problem nowadays, however if you are in a competitivesectorlikeinsuranceandaveragebidsare£10andyourcompetitorslikeyourAdsoutofcuriosity;thenthatcouldcostyouquiteabit.Notmuchyoucandohereandyoushouldjustfactoritinyourbudget.Also,somesearcherswillclickyourAdsafewtimesastheyarecomparingpricesandfeatures.

The Invalid click report is available in yourAdwords account and it shows clicks thatGoogleconsiderstobeillegitimate.Thisincludesclicksfrom:

•Repeatedmanualclicks

•Automatedtools

•Robots

•Ordeceptivesoftware

Youwon’tbechargedforanyoftheseandGoogleactivelymonitorsandensuresthattheydon’taffectyourreporting.

So, an example would be a competitor intending to increase your advertising costs byclickingonyourAdsrepetitively,ortheymightbecuriousaboutyoursiteandwhatyouare up to.However, if you suspect that you have been the victim of invalid clicks thatGooglehasn’tdiscovered,thenit’sbesttocontactthemandtheywillinvestigate.

To see invalid clicks, click Campaigns, then click Columns and then click CustomiseColumns.ThewindowbelowwillopenandclickPerformance,thenclickInvalidClicks,thenclickApply.

Also,Googlewillfilteroutaccidentalclicks,likethesecondclickofadouble-click,asitprovidesnovalue.

And Google will credit your account for any clicks that have somehow escaped itsautomateddetectioninthepasttwomonths.Youcanviewtheseonthebillingtabandtheywillappearas‘invalidactivity’onthetransactionhistorypageandyouwillbecredited.

Overall, invalidclicksfromcompetitorsisnotaproblemnowadaysandyoucanbesurethatGoogleisworkingtirelesslytoimprovethis.

Visitorsdoingcomparisonshopping

Nowthesearen’tyourcompetitors,ofcourse.However,theiractionscancostyoualotforvery little in return.So, it’s important to test the idealposition foryourAdsandensurethatyouarenotpayinghighCPCbidsforcomparisonshoppers.GooglegivesthisasthereasonwhyyoumayseemultipleclicksfromthesameIPandtheyexplainthatthisisnotclicksbutvisitorsdoingcomparisonshoppingandgoingbackandforthbetweenwebsites.

CompetitorsloweringCPCbids

Beingmorecost-efficientiscriticalonAdWordsandoneofthebestwaystodothatisbyimproving your quality scores. With high-quality scores (like 9/10 for example), yourcompetitorswillhavetoworkhardtooutrankyouwhilepayingalowaverageCPC.

Competitorswill sometimes reduce theirbids to remaincost-efficientandwork towardsimprovingtheirqualityscorestomaintaintheirpositionsandachievehighAdRank.

Competitorsincreasingbudgetandlocations

BudgetsandlocationssetatthecampaignlevelaretheprimarytoolsthatdeterminehowmuchyouwillspendandwhoseesyourAds.Forwell-resourcedcompetitorsexpandinginto new territories is not a big problem and you can suddenly have a big competitoroccupyingyourspaceinnotime.

Thereareafewwaystodifferentiateyourselfhere,andoneofthemisdemonstratingthatyouarea localbusiness thatunderstands its localcustomerbaseand thatbysupportingyou,customersareactuallyhelpingthelocaleconomy.

Addingyourphonenumberisimportanttoobecauseitshowsthatyouarereal–andnotjustacompanybasedfarawaybutservingalocalbase.Thisgivesclientstheconfidencethattheycanhavesomeonetotalktoinstantlythatcanhelpthemsolveanyproblemstheyhave–andthattheyareguaranteedaquickresponsetime.

Competitorsaddingkeywords

Addingnewkeywordsissimilartonotifyingmorepeopleaboutyourproductsorservices–whomaynotbeawareofthem.Ifyouhaven’texhaustedallkeywordsinyourindustryandcompetitorsarebiddingonthem,thenyouwillcertainlybelosingalotofbusinesstoyourcompetitors.

CompetitorsusingtheDisplayNetworktoincreasebrandawareness

Thedisplaynetworkprovidestheopportunitytoincreasetrafficvolumesandcustomers,especiallywhenalltraffichasbeenexhaustedontheSearchnetwork.It’salsoagreatwaytoincreasebrandawarenessandmakeprospectsawareofyourproductsandbusiness.

It’saneffectivevehicleforreachingyourtargetmarketwiththeuseofbannersandrichmediaadswhichincludeimages,pictures,soundandanimation–andthisisnotpossibleontheSearchNetwork.

And all these features help to increase brand recall and brand recognition and it’s aneffectivewaytocreateacompetitiveadvantageonGoogle.

Competitorsofferingfreeaugmentedservices

Using callout extensions, for example, competitors will often highlight augmentedservices such as warranties, guarantees, customer service, price matching and other

benefitsthatlookfavourableintheeyesofcustomers–asbelow.

DisplayAdDirectResponse

Theaimofadirectresponsecampaignistogenerateanimmediateresponselikeasaleonyourwebsiteoradownloadofawhitepaperforbusinesscustomers.

Display ads usually have a lower click through rate compared to search ads.However,theycanbeusedeffectivelyaspartofadirect responsecampaign. InGoogleAdwords,you can create a ‘SearchNetworkwithDisplay Select’ campaign to advertise on high-quality sites that are effective at increasing sales and other conversion types on yourwebsite.

However, abetter campaignoption tocreate is a ‘DisplayNetworkOnly’ campaign foreasiermanagementofyourdisplayadsandtogetawiderrangeoftargetingandbiddingoptions.

Enhancebrandawarenessandreach

Becausedisplaybanneradsarevisual,andsomeincludeanimationandflash,theyhaveahigherimpactthantextadsandarejustclosebehindvideoforimpact.Theyhelptotargetcustomerswhoarenotawareofthebrandorbusinessandusingbannersandrichmediaadson thirdpartywebsites, theycanreachawiderangeofpeoplewhoarenotactivelysearchingforyourbusinessoryourbrand.

SocialMediaMarketingPickoneortwosocialplatforms

Because of the proliferation of social network sites,many businesses have accounts onmanyofthesesites,buttheyareeffectiveinnone.It’sbettertopickonesocialmediasiteandmanageitextremelywell–becauseyouwillseefarbetterresults.

Twitterismyfavouriteplatformsforthefollowingreasons:

•Greatfortrendingtopics

•Easytoimplementandgrowapresencethanmanyothersites

•Hasapaidsearchplatform

•Quickresponsefromfollowers

OtherplatformstoconsiderareFacebook,Instagram,Google+,PinterestandYouTube.

Increaseawareness

Whetherit’saproductbrand,awebsite,abusinessoryourpersonalbrand,socialmediaisa great place to raise brand awareness and create a lasting impression on your targetaudience.

All your posts and interactions should be consistent with your brand identity, and thisshouldbe reinforcedwith the activity youdoonTwitter, Facebook,LinkedIn,Google+andanyothers.

Increasesales

Afterraisingawarenessaboutyourproductsandbusiness,salesusuallyfollow.Ifyou’vecreated a product that meets the needs of your fan base, and you promote its benefitseffectively,youwillseeanincreaseintrafficandwebsitesales.

However,youshouldavoidexcessivepromotiononsocialmediaandaim for the80/20rule – 80% non-promotional, interesting and engaging content and 20% promotionalcontent.

Growyourplatform

Socialmediaisaperfectplacetogrowyouraudienceandplatformespeciallyifyouarelookingtopublishabookeitherthroughapublisherorself-publishing.Publisherswanttobeconvincedwhenthatseeyourplatformthatyouhavea largeaudiencefollowingthatcouldpotentiallybuyyourbookwhenreleased.

Andifyouareself-publishing,youcan’thopetosellanybookswithoutaplatform–andthisiswhatsocialmediacandoforyou.

Connectwithlike-mindedpeople

Connect with people in your industry to learn and share with each other. On Twitter,LinkedIn andother social platforms, youwill findpeoplewithgreat ideas that you can

implementinyoursocialmediastrategy,tohelpyouachieveobjectives.Youwilldiscoverhowthey’vebuiltagreatplatformandwhatyouneedtodotoachieveyoursocialmediamarketingobjectives.

Answercustomerqueries

Customerswillhavecommentsandquestionsaboutyourproducts,andtheywillexpectaquickresponsetoo.Somakesureyouarealwaysavailabletorespondandshowthatyoucareabouttheirconcerns.

Thisgoesalongwaytowardsbuildingtrustandloyalty–twothingsthatmanybusinessesfinddifficulttoachieveontheweb.

Launchaproduct

Have you just released a new product and wanted the world to know about it? Socialmedia isevenquicker thanPressReleases forgarnering interestandawareness,and thebestpart is that it’s free.There isalwaysa readyaudienceofpeoplewhoare followingyouoryourbusiness,andthatwillbeinterestedinyournewproductlaunch.Andyoucansendthemanexclusivediscounttotrialtheproducttoo.

Generateleads

If you are in the B2B sector, sites like LinkedIn and Twitter have a huge audience ofpeoplewhowillhaveaninterest inyourproductsorservices–andtheywill retweetorrepublish your content to their lists, and you will potentially see greater interest fromtargetprospects.

Increaseengagement

Peoplewhoyouconnectwithonsocialmediahaveshownaninterestinwhatyouhavetosayandwhentheyclickthroughtoyourwebsite,theywillbemoreengagedthanvisitorsfromotherchannelslikeorganicandPPC.

Gainmarketinsight

Withsocialmedia,youcaneasilykeepupwiththelatest trendsandgaingreaterinsightintoyourindustrybyfollowingthoughtleadersandexperts.

Promoteyourcontent

Haveyoujustwrittenanebook,publishedawhitepaperorwrittensomegreatblogposts,then socialmedia is thebestplace topromote it. It’squick, andyou should start to seetrafficinminuteswhenyoucheckyourreal-timereportsinGoogleAnalytics.

SignuptoHootsuite

Hootsuite ismyfavourite tool forscheduling, tweetingandkeepinganeyeonmentionsandretweets.Itcomeswitha30-dayfreetrial,andthat’slongerthanotherTwittertools.

Ithasaneasytouseinterfacethatissimpletonavigateandasanoviceuser,youwon’tfinditdifficulttomasterbecauseitdoesn’thaveasteeplearningcurve.

Soifyouwanttosaveyourselfalotoftimeandnothavetobeontwitteralldaypostingandretweeting,thenthisisthetoolforyou.

RetargetonFacebook

RunaremarketingcampaignonFacebooktoretargetpeoplewho’vevisitedyoursite inthepast.Thiscanbeyourcustomers,andyoucanuploadadatafeedofyourcustomersand send them regular offers. Or you could target people who visited your website ormobileappbutdidnotcompletetheirtransaction.

Postdaily

Few things aremore important on socialmedia sites than posting daily and connectingwithyourfollowersandconnections.TherearetoolsthatcanhelpyouautomatethislikeBufferandHootsuite.

Followback

Use a tool like Hootsuite to automate this process and follow back people andorganisationsthathavefollowed,aslongastheyarenotspammers.Thisencouragestwo-waycommunicationandhelpsbuildstrongerconnections

Tweetvariedcontent

Tweetyourownpostsandpostsfromothersitesthatyouthinkwillbeofinteresttoyourfollowersandcouldbenefitthemgreatly.Itwillalsohelpyoutocreatenewconnectionswiththeownersofthecontentthatyoupostandretweet.

Usehashtagssparingly

Avoidcrammingyourtweetswithloadsofhashtagsbecausethatjustlooksspammyandmakesyourtweetsunreadable.Twoorthreeatmostshouldbefineandensurethattheyarerelevanttothemessageyouaresending.

Connectonotherplatforms

Use a tool like socialOomph to send direct messages to your followers and encouragethem to connect with you on your other platforms like LinkedIn. This is an effectivestrategythatwillhelptoconnectmorewithtargetaudiencesandgrowyourfollowersandconnections.

UsesocialOomph

UsesocialOomphtosendtailoreddirectmessages toyourfollowers likeaskingthemtojoinyouonotherplatforms,tovisityourwebsiteorpromoteyourbookandservices.Youwon’tgetthisfeatureonotherTwittertools.

SignuptoSlideshare

Upload your PowerPoint presentations, documents, videos to slideshare and use that topromoteyourwebsite,productsor services.Visitors can leavecommentsanddownloadyourdocumentsandsharethemwithothers,andthisextendsyourreach.

TrackwithGoogleAnalytics

Use analytics event tracking to track shares and likes on yourwebsite. You can createevents in the admin sectionof your analytics account, and theywill be available in theReportingsectionofyouraccount.

CheckyoursocialinfluencescoreonKlout

YourKlout score reflects how influential you areon socialmedia.Knowingyour scorehelpsyoutofocusyoureffortsandpostonlycontentthatpeoplewilllike,retweet,shareandsoon.Themoreyougetoffthat,thehigheryourscorewillbe.

RunTwitterpaidads

Twitteradsareeffectiveatputtingyourmessages in frontofpeopleyouwant to target.Costperclickratesarequite lowcomparedtootherplatforms,andyoucancreatewideawarenessforyourbusiness.

CreateFacebookAdcampaigns

Youcanpromoteyourproducts,services,website,businesspage,fanpagewithFacebookadsandyoucansendvisitors toyourwebsiteoryourpage.Facebookadsarepreciseattargeting and more effective than other PPC platforms because you can segment yourtargetaudiencebasedondemographics,geographical,lifestylesandcategories.

Designgreatsocialmediacovers

HireafreelanceronFiverrtocreatestunningcoversforyoursocialmediaprofiles.Makesureyouusethecovertoconveyakeymessageaboutyourproductsorservicesandaddanybooksyou’vewrittentoencourageenquiries.

JoinLinkedIngroups

TherearemanyqualitygroupstojoinonLinkedIninyoursector,andyoucanpostlinks,articlesandlikeandcommentonotherpeople’sposts.UseatoollikeHootsuitetoposttoeachgroupyouarejoinedtobutavoidpostingthesamearticlestomultiplegroupsatthesametimebecausemembersacrossgroupsareusuallythesame.

Takeadvantageoftoolstosharerelevantcontent

UsethirdpartysocialmediatoolslikeBuffer,Hootsuite,SocialOomphandManageFlittertoautomateyourTwittermarketingstrategy.Youcanusethesetoolsto:

•Scheduletweetsandfreeupyourtime

•Followbackpeoplewhofollowyou

•Followpeopleandbusinessesthatareofinteresttoyou

•Respondtomentions

•Thankpeopleforretweetingyourtweets

•Gaininsightintoyourkeymetricswithanalytics

Usesocialmediatoresearch

Social media sites have a wealth of information about target audience interests, sociallives, topics they enjoy and what they dislike. This is all helpful for creating andenhancingyourbrand,whichisalmostimpossibletodowithotheronlinechannels.

Usesocialmediaanalytics

Useanalytics toolsprovidedby the social networks tounderstandyour target audience,whotheyare,whattheirinterestsare,theirdemographicsandlocations.Thishelpsyoutotargetyourmessageseffectively,andyoucanalsorunadstoincreasefollowersandtrafficvolumes.3rdpartyanalyticstoolsareavailablelikeGoogleAnalyticswhichhaveawealthoffeaturestounderstandsocialactionsonyoursitelikevisitors,shares,likes,etc.

AddaTwittercard

Toincreasefollowerengagementandinterestinyourtweets,thenconsideraddingTwittercards to display images with your tweets. People naturally are drawn to images, andtweetswhich include themhaveover30%engagement than thosewithout,sonomatterhowtargetedandwellwrittenyourcontentis,youcangainmoreexposureandinterestbyincludingaTwittercard.

Brandyourprofiles

Whether you represent a company brand or personal brand, you need consistencythroughoutyoursocialmediaprofilesandwebsite.Socreateabrandidentitythatincludesyour name, tag line, colours,messages, etc. that are essential to positioning yourself oryourbusiness.These identityelementsshouldbepartofyourprofilesbecause thesearesomeof themost important things thatvisitorsandcustomerswill rememberaboutyouandyourbusiness.

Developsocialmediaplan

Createasocialmediathatcoversthefollowingelementssequentially:

A.Researchyourmarkets

B.Chooseyoursocialmediaobjectives

C.Monitorcompetitors

D.Createacompetitiveadvantage

E.Targetyourmarkets

F.Setyourbudgets

G.Implementyourstrategy

H.Tracktheresults

B2Bsocialplatforms

Not all platforms work for B2Bs simply because their target markets will not use allplatforms toacquirenewproductsorservices.Asocialnetwork toconsider isLinkedInwhich styles itself as aprofessional socialmedia site andmanyB2Bsuses it to engagewithnewprospectsandrecruitqualifiedprofessionalstofilltheirpositions.

Also, sites like slideshare.net are used by businesses to distribute their whitepapers,presentations,videosanddemonstrationstoshowcasetheirskillsandinformprospectsonhow they can benefit from their services. Prospective clients can then follow yourorganisationandreceiveupdatesonnewmaterial thatyoushare.Thishelps tohighlight

yourexpertiseanddemonstratehowyourbusinesscanofferitsservicestothebenefitoftheseprospects.

MessagesYouWantToPromote

Themessagesyousendoutonsocialsitesarewhatpeoplewillidentifyyourbusinesswith–sotheyshouldbeofthehighestquality.Allmessages,whethertheyaretweets,images,pictures,links,etc.shouldbeinlinewithyourbrandidentityandbrandvalues,andtheyshouldreinforcetheimagethatyouwanttoputoutthere.

That may mean working with a brand strategy expert to help you create a uniquepositioningthatisevidentinyourprofile,coverimages,logos,messagesandeverywhereelseyourtargetaudienceencountersyourbrandonsocialsites.

WhoYouAreTargeting

Knowingwhoyouwant to reachwithyourmessages,offers andproducts isoneof thefirstthingstoincludeinyoursocialmarketingplan.Whethertheyareexistingcustomers,prospects or business customers; you should also know who they are and what theyactuallyneed.

Knowingwhotheyare,helpsyoualsotoidentifywhichsocialmediasitesareimportanttothem.Forexample,ifyouwanttoreachprofessionalsinyourindustryandhighlightthelaunchofanewserviceorproduct,thenLinkedInandTwitterarelikelythebestplatformstouse.

Ifyouare anonline retailerofwomen’s fashion, thenFacebook is likelyagood site tohelpyouboostbrandawarenessandcreatebuzzaroundyourproducts.

YourSocialBudget

Now that you’ve decided which strategy you will implement, and you’ve chosen thetacticsthatwillhelpyouachieveyourmarketingobjectives,it’snowtimetoincludethebudgetinyoursocialmediamarketingplan.Settingtherightbudgetisimportantbecauseithelpsyoutoimplementallthetasksthatareimportanttoyourstrategy.

So,startbymakingalistofallthetacticsthatarepartofyourstrategyandthenfindoutwhatthecostswillbeforeachandthenaddthemtocomeupwithyourfinalbudget.Also,includeanycostsrelatedtohiringasocialmediaexpertthatwillhelpyoutomanageyouraccounts.

Advertiseonsocialmedia

SocialmediasiteslikeTwitter,FacebookandLinkedInnowhavemanyfeatures,andsomeof these include paid advertisement to reach a wide range of demographics. Theseadvertisingtoolsmakeitpossibleforyoutotargetindividualsandbusinessesthatareinyourtargetmarketandincreaseyoursalesandleads.

Theseadvertisingtoolsaren’tfreeofcourse,andyoupayfortrafficthatclicksthroughtoyour website. However, this an effective customer acquisition strategy that leads to anincreaseinsales.

Offerdiscounts

Coupons, vouchers, money-off offers are effective at increasing interest from target

markets especially for consumermarkets, and this helps to increase the customer base.Discounts can be offered and promoted in your online advertising campaigns and onplatformssuchasTwitter,Facebookandothersocialmediasites.

However, discounts are not very effective at creating customer loyalty and often thesecustomerswhoarelookingforthemwillshoparoundtogetthebestoffers.

WebsiteContentStrategyChooseyourcontentmarketingtactics

Content marketing is about creating text, images, etc. for your website, social mediapages,directoriesandothersthattargetedyourcustomersandprospects;andthisalsogetstheminterestedinyouroffers.

On your website, you can implement the following as part of your content marketingstrategy:

•Blogposts

•Websitelandingpagetext

•Images,picturesandillustrations

•Articles,whitepapers,casestudies,etc.

•Navigationelements

•Andmanyothers

CreateaneBook

Ifyouofferprofessionalserviceswherepeoplerelyonyourexpertise,thenanebookisagreatwaytopositionyourselfasanexpertandincreaseyourclientbase.

Manybusinessescanbenefit fromcreatingebooks,andyoucansubmityours toKindletooandgiveitawayonyourwebsiteforfreeandcaptureemailsatthesametime.

Creatinganebookiseasy,andyoucancombineyourbestarticlesandblogsforexampleintoa10,000ebookthatyoucangiveawayorsellforasmallprice.

Createablog

Addingablog toyoursiteand regularblogginghasmanybenefits includingpromotingyourproducts,engagingyourvisitors,increasingorganictraffic,positioningyourselfasanexpertandmanyothers.Searchengines likeGooglealso favour regularlyupdatedsites,andwillvisityoursiteandblogmoreoftentoindexyournewpages.

Youshouldaimtoblogonepostadayifpossibleoratleastthreetimesaweek.Atthatrate,youwillhaveanauthoritybloginnotime

Blogregularly

Blogginghasmanybenefitsespeciallywhenregularlydone,andsomeoftheminclude:

•Leadstohightrafficvolumesfromsearchengines

•Showcasesyourbusinessesexpertiseandleadstoclientconfidence

•People returnmore to your site to read your content, and they share it

withothers

•Visitorsstaylongeronyourwebsite

Dosomewebsiteusabilitytesting

Usabilitytestinghasmanybenefitsincludingshowingyouwhatworksandwhatdoesn’t;howeffectiveyournavigationis;whatishiddenandwhatisvisibleandhowlongittakespeopletocompletevarioustasksonyoursite.

Therearesomewaystocarryoutausabilitytestincludinghiringsomeonewhorepresentsyour targetaudienceandgetting themtocompletevarious tasksonyourwebsiteasyourecordthemandtakedownnotes.Allyouneedisaquietroom,acomputer,notebookandpen,cameraandawillingparticipant.Oryoucouldsimplyrevieweachfeatureonyoursitetoseehowitbenefitsyourtargetaudiencesandtoseehoweasyitislikelytobeforthemtocompleteactions.

Createacalltoactiononeverylandingpage

Onereasonmanywebsitesfailtoconvertvisitorsintocustomersorclientsisbecausetheydon’thave a clear call to actionon their landingpages.Usability testing carriedoutbymanyexpertsrevealthatmanypeopledon’tknowwhattodowhentheygettoawebsite,and theyneedclear instructions todirect theirbrowsingactivity.Somecommoncalls toactioninclude‘BuyNow’‘Download’‘ClickHere’‘Search’andmanyothers.

MoveyoursitetoWordpress

WordPress is theworld’s leading contentmanagement system. It is usedbymillions ofwebsites and has many benefits over its rivals such as being free, a blog systemwiththousandsof3rdpartyplug-insand themes toenhance thedesignand functionality. It’seasytosetuptoo,andmanyhostingcompaniesnowofferone-clicksetupthattakesonlyafewminutestocomplete.YoushouldhaveaverygoodreasonyoursiteisnotaWordpresssite.

Brainstormcontentideas

Contentmarketingideasareeverywhere,andyoucancomeupwithmanygoodonesinabrainstormingsessioneitheronyourownorwithothers inyour team.So letyourmindwander anddon’t stifle any ideasnomatterhowsilly theyappear at thebeginning. It’soften these that turn out to be winners and help to create a unique position for yourbusiness.

Targetyouraudience

Themostimportantpartofcreatingacontentmarketingplanistoidentifytheaudiencesandmarketsyouwanttotarget.Individualsandbusinesseswillvisityourwebsite,socialplatformsandanywhereelsethatyoupromoteyourcontenttointeractwithyourbusinessandbenefitfromyourcontent.

If it isnotof thehighestqualityanddoesnotmeet theirneeds, then theywillnothangaround for long, and they will defect to competitors. Finding out what your targetaudiences require is not difficult or expensive, and you can use survey tools to getresponses or you can track yourwebsitemetrics to seewhich content they respond to.

Even sites like Twitter provide analytics data to showwhich are some of your highestengagementpostsandwhattheirclick-throughratesare.Youcanthenfocusmoreonwhatpeoplerespondtothemostandisimportanttoyourprospectsandbusinessgoals.

Have a customerpersonaor targetmarket inmindasyoubrainstormcontent ideas andproducethecontentthatwillmeettheirneeds.Ensurethatyourcontentishighlytargetedandrelevantso that itencouragesyourvisitors toreadonandreturnformore.Whetheryour content is for yourwebsite or your socialmedia profiles, it should be of the bestqualityanduniquetooforSEO(searchengineoptimisation)purposes.

Typesofcontent

Therearevarioustypesofcontentyoucancreateincluding:

•Articles

•Blogs

•Whitepapers

•Videos

•Images

•Socialmediaposts

•Reports

•Guides

•Ebooks

•Infographics

Infact,therearehundredsofothersandyourchoicebetweenthemdependsonyourtargetaudience,natureofyourbusiness,youravailable resourcesandsoon.Also,pick4or5contenttypestoincludeinyourcontentmarketingplananddothemverywell.

Managingyourcontent

Partofyourcontentmarketingplaninvolvesplanning,writing,producing,andreportingonresults.WithaplatformlikeWordPress.org,youwillgetasuperbcontentmanagementsystem for free that helps you produce quality content that is optimised for the searchenginestoo.Youcanuseplug-inslikeSEOYoasttoensurethatyourpagesareoptimisedforyourkeywords.

Keyword research should be an active part of your content marketing strategy as youcreatenewblogs,articlesandchangeyourwebsitetext.Keywordsarewhatpeopleusetofind your website on the search engines, and if you include these keywords in yourcontent,youhaveahigherchanceofachievinghigherorganicsearchrankings.

Whentopublishyourcontent

Createacalendarwithdatesonwhentoproduceandpublishyournewcontent.

Also,youcanusetoolslikeHootsuitetoautomatethepublishingofyourcontentonsocialnetworks likeTwitterandLinkedIn.This iseasierandquicker,anditsavesyoua lotoftimewhichyoucanputtowardscreatingmorecontent.

MonitorKeyMetrics

UseGoogleAnalyticsandothertrackingsoftwaretomeasurethesuccessofyourcontenton keymetrics like bounce rate, pages viewed, time on page, social shares, conversionrates andmore.You can createmarketingobjectives for someof these tomonitor yourprogresstowardsachievingyourbusinessgoalsandmission.

Youshouldalsotrackwhichpagespeopleareleavingfromandidentifytheoneswithhighexitrates.Naturally,thehomepagewillhaveahigherexitratethanotherpages,andthat’sbecause it’salso themostvisitedpageon thewebsite.Also,yourconversionpages like‘thank you’ and ‘success’ pages that people see after completing a transaction orregistrationwillhavehighexitratestoo.However,lookforwaystoreducethisbycross-sellingotherproductsorservicesthatmaybeofinteresttothem.

You can’t track and report on all of them though, and you should focus on the mostimportant ones. So, start by creatingmarketing objectives that detailwhat youwant toachieve and by when with your content. For example, you could have an objective toreduce bounce rates below 50% within 6 months. Then, you should create keyperformanceindicators(KPIs)thattrackyourprogresstowardsachievingyourobjectives.

Getideasfromcompetitors

Yourcompetitorswillalsohavewebsitecontentideasthatareeffectiveinattractingrepeatvisitors to theirwebsites.Youcanmonitor theirwebsites to seehowoften theypublishtheircontentandwhattypeitis,thenlookattheirmetricsontoolslikeAlexatoseehoweffectivetheyareatvisitoracquisitionandretention.

Searchengineorganictrafficisamajorreasonmanybusinessesproducecontent.Ithelpstorankhigher in thesearchenginesand target long tailkeywords thatareprofitableforyourbusiness.Mostofyourcompetitorswillbecreatingcontentandimplementingsearchengineoptimisationtacticstoachievehighrankings.

It’seasytoidentifycompetitorsfromsearchresultsbecausetheywillhavehighpositionsforthekeywordsthatyouwanttorankon.Anditisalsoeasytoidentifythetacticstheyareusingsuchas linkbuilding,rateofcontentupdates,websitestructure,etc.Therearemany tools tohelpyoumonitor theirSEOstrategies, and these includeAlexaandSEOBook.

Createengagingcontent

Youshouldn’tcreatecontentjustforthesakeofit.Yourcontentshouldbeofthehighestqualityandshouldkeeppeoplecomingbackformore.Youcankeeptrackofmetricslikebouncerates,averagepageviewsandtimeonsiteinAnalyticstoseehoweffectiveyourcontentisatengagingvisitors.

Fromyouranalytics reports,youcanseewhich landingpagesandcontentyourwebsitearemostinterestedinbylookingatengagementmetricssuchasbouncerates,pagesper

sessionandtimeonsite.

Youcanalsoassessthekeywordsthataredrivingtraffictoyourwebsiteandthencreateblogpostsrelatedtothesesearches.

Createvisualinfographic

Infographics are popular with many people, and you can submit yours to sites likePinterestandSlideshare.So,findoutwhat’strendinginyourindustryandcreateaqualityinfographicthatwillinterestyourtargetaudiences.

PostittoTwitterwithHootsuite

UseatoollikeHootsuiteorBuffertopostallyourcontenttoTwitterandLinkedIntoseeanincreaseinfollowersandboost toyourwebsitetraffic.Hootsuite isaschedulingtoolthat saves you a lot of time and allows you to post your content when most of yourfollowersareavailableoranytimethatyoulike.

Createavideoofyourbestarticles

Create a ‘how to’videoofyourbest content andpublish it onYouTube.Manyofyourtargetaudienceswillprefertowatchthantoreadandifyouhavenovideos,youwillloseout to your competitors. Creating a video is cheap, and it will take a few hours tocomplete.

CompileTop10Lists

Top10 lists arepopular, and they are someof themost read content typeson theweb.Theyareeasytowritetooandrankhighonsearchengines.

Findqualityimages

Use sites like Pexels and Picjumbo to find quality images for your blog posts. Findingqualityimagescanbeadauntingtaskandmanygoodonesarenotfree.Butusingthesefreesitesandothers,youcanfindimagesthatyoudonotneedtocredittheauthor.

Writefollow-uppost

For yourmost popular content, you should create follow-up posts that will draw thembacktoyoursitetosubscribetoyourblogandnewsletter.

Recycleyourcontent

Turnyourblogpostsorarticles intoebooks,whitepapers, infographics,orpresentationsand share themonSlideshare,Linkedin,Twitter andother sites togainmorevisitors toyourwebsite.Forexample,youcanturnablogpostintoavideotopublishonYouTube,create a powerpoint presentation of it and upload it to Slideshare, restructure it forLinkedInandothersocialaccountsandincludesomeofitinanebooktosellonAmazonKindle.

Givingyour content awayas awhitepaper, infographicor ebook is oneof the effectiveways to increasevisitors–and forpeople to signup toyouremails.This ispotentiallymoreeffective thanselling it fora lowpricebecause itwillhelpyou togrowyour list,whichyoucanmarkettolater.

Structureappropriately

Youshoulddecidehowyourpageswillbestructuredonyourwebsiteforeasynavigationby your visitors. Also, each page should include H1, H2 tags, paragraphs, and imagesstructuredforeasyreading,andmeanttoincreaseyourvisitorretention.

Featuresvs.Benefits

It’s crucial foryourmarketingefforts tounderstand thedifferencebetween featuresandbenefits.Featuresarefactualstatementsaboutyourproductsorservicesandtheyareoftentechnicalstatementsandaren’twhatenticecustomerstobuy.

However,benefitsarewhatvisitorsareinterestedin,anditisthisthatyoushouldincludeinyourcontent.Yourvisitorswillbeasking, ‘What’s in it forme?’as theyaccessyourcontent.

Promotingyourcontent

Promoting your content is an important part of your contentmarketing plan. There aremanychannelstochoosefromincludingsocialmedia,videomarketing,organic,payperclick advertising, press releases, email marketing and it may not be possible for yourbusinesstoimplementallofthesebecauseofbudgetconstraints,targetmarketneedsandexpertise.

Forvideo,YouTube isagoodchannel topromoteyourproductsor servicesand informandeducatecustomers.Itsaudiovisualcapabilitiesareunmatchedbyotherchannelsandithelpsyoutocreatealastingimpression,buildrelationshipsandincreasebrandawareness.

Hireacopywriter

Digitalcopywritersproducecopy forawide rangeofclients indifferent formats forallkinds of online channels like search engine marketing (SEM), social media, websites,bannersandmuchmore.Soifyouplantoworkwithadigitalcopywriter,it’simportanttocreateyourobjectivesfirstandthenchoosethechannelsthatyouwantyourcopyfor.

Digitalcopywritingratesdiffer,withsomecopywriterschargingperword,somechargingperhourandstillotherschargingperpage.Italldependsonthetypeofwritingrequired,thevolumeofworkandwhereitistobeused.Everywriterhasauniquewritingstyle,andthat’s true for copywriters too and some can adapt theirs to suit the project at hand.However, you should check their previous work to ensure that it fits with what yourequire.

Workwithabrief

Alwaysworkwithabriefandbeclearwiththecopywriterwhattheexpectationsareandwhatthecopyistoachieve.Thecopywritingbriefshouldincludedetailsofwhothetargetmarket is,wheretousethecopy–is it for thewebsite,socialplatforms,banners,etc.–howmanywordsarerequiredandwhattheobjectivesare.

Abriefalsohelps thecopywriter tohaveareferencedocument thatcoversallkeyareasandwilleliminatemanybackandforthemailsandphonecalls.

Mostimportantly,thedigitalcopywritershouldunderstandtheaudiencetheyarewritingfor and then develop a tone and style that matches the brand and resonates with theprospects.

SEOWebsiteCopy

Mostcopywriters focusonwritingcopy forwebsites especially if it’s for searchengineoptimisation(SEO)purposes–toranksiteshigherintheorganicsearchresults.Withtheintense competition for the attention ofwebsite visitors,website copy should be of thehighest quality and should include thekeywords that yourwebsite needs to ranks for –withakeyworddensitybetween3and5%.

WrittenWebsitecopyshouldbefor:

•Titletags–thisisthefirstthingpeopleseeinthesearchresults

•Description meta tag – this is the second most important element insearchengineresults(SERPS)

•H1tag–themaintitleofthelandingpagewhichshouldincludethemainkeyword

•H2, H3, etc. tags – these are subsequent headings that should includesecondarykeywords

•Bodycopy–thebulkofthewebsitecontentwhichshouldideallyhaveaminimumof300wordsincludeacalltoaction,andthekeywordsincludedatadensitybetween3-5%.

There are many other copywriting website elements including product pages for an e-commercestore,corporatetext,etc.

Personalised

Personalised website content creates a great user experience for visitors and leads togreater interactionandmore returnvisits.Personalisation ispopular inonline consumerportals,andoneprominentretailerthatdoesiteffectivelyisAmazon.co.uk.

Theaimofonlinepersonalisationistocreateextravalueforthevisitorandcustomerbyreducingthetimeittakestocompletetaskslikefindingproducts,buyingrelatedproducts,rememberingpastinterestsandsoon.

EasytoFind

Content shouldbeeasilyaccessibleonyourwebsite,and thatmeansvisitors shouldnotspendaconsiderablelengthoftimingtryingtogettotheinformationthattheyneed.Thisis why navigation is a critical factor in the quality of content on your site, and this isimportantforbothsearchenginebotsandhumans.

Dependingonthesectorandindustryyouarein,awideordeepwebsitestructuremaybeimportantoracombinationofthetwo.Adeepstructureismorecommonfore-commercesites that sell thousands of products, and the layout of the site will affect the userexperienceandthesatisfactionwithyourcontent.

Timely

Content produced should be submitted and promoted on time to reach your target

audienceswhentheyaremostreceptivetoit.Thisiswhereacontentcalendarishelpfulbecauseyoucanplanyourcontentstrategyfortheyearandfactorinholidaysandseasonstopromoteit.Withsuchaplaninplace,youwillproducequalitycontentthatwillhelptoconnectwithyourprospects.

Uptodate

Regular blogging helps to keep your content fresh and up to date. It gives visitorsconfidencethattheywillfindrelevantandtimelycontentaboutwhatevertopicyouwriteabout.Also,youshouldregularlyupdateyourothercontentlikewebsitetext,imagesandgraphics regularly toensure that theyare relevantwhenpeopleaccess it. Ifvisitorsandsearchenginebotsfindolddatesonyourcontent,theyareunlikelytoreturntoreaditandindexit,andthiswillleadtoadropinvisitorsandcustomers.

Accurate

Check all facts tomake sure that they are correct and verify that anything uploaded toyour site is factual andhasnoerrors.Errorsandmisinformationcan lessenvisitor trustandcouldalsoleadtocomplaintsthatreducethechancesyouhavetobuildrelationshipsand retain customers.Also, factual content increases trust andhelps to spread thewordaboutyourwebsiteandoffers–toyourvisitors’circles.

Clear

Explained points and facts should be clear, and should leave no ambiguity.Your targetaudience should understand your content and you should keep technical jargon to aminimumespeciallyiftheyhavetosearcharoundlookingforfurtherexplanationofyourcontent.Grammarandspellingshouldbe100%correct,asthisisanimportantfactorforsearchenginerankingsandbuildingconfidencewithyourtargetaudiences.

Detailed

Youshouldhaveadetailedwebsitecontent thatyour readers shouldnothave to turn toothersourcestolookformoreinformation–unlessthatisoneofyourgoals.

Relevant

Itshouldbecreatedspecificallyforthepeopleyouwanttoreachandnooneelse,andtheyshouldbeabletogetitassoonastheylandonyourwebsite.

Customisablecontent

Onlinepersonalisationandcustomisationarebiginonlineretail,andithelpscustomerstofind what they need and benefit from other offers that you provide. An example ofcustomisation is displaying similar products to the one that your visitor is currentlyviewingorshowingproductsthatothershavepurchasedinthatcategory.Thisisknownascross-sellingandleadstogreatercustomersatisfactionandmorereturnvisits.

Frequentlyupdated

Visitorswillreturntoyourwebsiteifyouupdateitregularlywithnewcontentlikeblogposts.Regularbloggingregularlyiseffectiveatachievingthis,andonepostaweekshouldbesufficienttokeepyourcontentfreshanduptodateandtoinspireconfidenceinyourprospectstoreturn.Whenpeoplevisityoursiteandfindthatyourblogpostsaremonths

orevenyearsold,theyareunlikelytoreturntoyourblog.

Qualitywebsitecontent

Thereisnosubstituteforhigh-qualitywebsitecontentthatistargetedandrelevanttoyouraudiences.This is thenumberone reasonpeople return towebsites to readand interactwith content. Content can be of any type and can include website text, blog posts,downloadablefiles,whitepapers,casestudies,infographicsetcanditalldependsonyourindustryandsectorandwhatyourtargetmarketrequires.

Quicktoload

Slowloadingpagesareoneofthemainreasonspeopleneverreturntowebsites,especiallyiftherearecompetitorsitesthathavesimilarinformation,productsandservicesthattheycanaccess.Pagesshouldloadunder5seconds,andthisisachievablewhenyouusetoolslike Google Developer PageSpeed Insights to identify the reasons your site is loadingslowly. Some ways to improve page speed include browser caching, compressingresourcesandeliminatingrender-blockingJavaScriptandCSSinabove-the-foldcontent

GenerateResponse

Togenerateresponsesonyour landingpage,youshouldhaveaprominentcall toactionthatstateswhetheryouwantyourvisitorstopurchase,download,contact,register,signuporwhateverotheractivityisessentialtoyourbusiness.

Therearemultipleplacesonthepagetoplaceyourcalltoaction,andsomeareeffectivewhilesomearenot,and italldependson the layoutofyourpageand thecall toactionitself.Agoodtactic is toadditabovethefoldwhere itcanbeseenasvisitors landandthenplace it in themiddleof the text andat the endofyour content.Also,you shouldconsiderrepeatingitasbothtextandimage.

Engagedifferentaudiencesegments

Pages shouldhave the right combinationofheadingsand sub-headings to showvisitorsthattheyareintherightplace.Theyshouldknowwithinasplitsecondwhatthepageisabout and whether it is relevant to their need. Ideally, each page should focus on oneaudienceandalsodescribethebenefitsthattheywillgetfromyourbusiness–andotherpagesshouldconcentrateonothersegments.

Yourobjectiveshouldbetoreducebounceratesandincreasevisitorreturnrates.

AnswerVisitors’questions

Differentvisitorstoyourlandingpageswillwanttoknowdifferentthingsandhavetheirquestionsansweredimmediately.Yourpagesshouldprovidetheinfotheyneedorexplainhow they can get it from other areas of your site or by other methods like chat andcustomer phone support. FAQs can be very helpful, and these should be prominent onyoursite.

Communicatekeybrandmessages

Thegoalhereistoincreasebrandfamiliarityandfavourability,anditshouldexplainwhoyouare,whatyoudo,whereyouoperate,whatyouofferandmostimportantlyhowyourprospectscanbenefit.Youshouldconsiderusingtestimonials,reviews,ratingsandother

independentendorsementstoincreaseyourcredibility.

Knowingwhatismostimportanttoyouraudienceshelpsyoutocommunicatekeybrandmessagesthatwillresonatewiththem.

Showcaseproductoffers

Uselandingpages tocross-sellsimilarproducts thatyourvisitorsandcustomerswillbeinterested in and also to up-sell to existing customers by encouraging them to upgrade.Also,providecouponsanddiscountsthatareeffectiveincentivestogetpeopletobuyandtoreturntoyoursiteformoreoffers.

AttractvisitorsthroughSEO

Optimiseyourlandingpagesforthekeywordsthatarerelevanttoyourbusinesstoachievehigh search rankings and attract high traffic volumes. Also, your navigation, copy andpageelementsshouldmakeiteasyforsearchenginestoindexyourpagesandrankthemhigher. So, on-page optimisation should be a proper strategy for your business to helpmakeyourpagesrelevanttovisitorsandsearchengines.

Engagewithcommenters

Respondtocomments,questions,anddiscussionsonyourblogandengageyourvisitors.Thishelpstobuildrelationshipsandleadstomorevisitorsandhighervisitorreturnratestoo.

Addtags

Tagshelpvisitorstofindwhattheyneedonyourblogwithoutclickingfrompagetopage.Tagsarekeywordsor labels thatgroup relatedblogposts inonesectionbasedon thosekeywordsforthepurposeofidentification.Yourtaglistshouldprominentlybeplacedonyourblogwherevisitorscaneasilyseethemandclickthroughtothecontenttheyneed.

Includeasearchbutton

Asyourbloggrowswithmorecategoriesandpagesforvisitorstoscrollthrough,makeiteasyfor thembyaddingasearchbutton.So, thiswill turnyourblog intoaminisearchenginethatmakesiteasyforvisitorstofindwhattheywantandalsogivethemconfidencethatyourblogisactiveandrelevant.

Anotherbenefitofaddingsearchfunctionalityisthatyoucanfindoutwhichsearchtermspeopleareusingtolookforinformationonyourblog.MakesureyousetthisupcorrectlyinyourGoogleAnalyticsaccount in theadminsection.So, thisempowersyou towritemoretargetedcontentinthefuture.

Addauthorbio

Addyourauthorbioandincludeaphotosothatyourvisitorscanknowwhoyouareandfeelmoreengagedwithyourblog.Yourbioshouldincludeadescriptionofwhatyoudoandoffer,whatyourexperienceisandalistofotherpoststhatyouhavewritten.

SignuptoDisqus

Disqus is ablogcommenting service forwebsites that includesmanypowerful featuresbeyondthestandardcommentingfeaturesonyourblog.Itmakesiteasyforyourvisitors

toleavecommentsanddiscovermorerelevantcontentonyourwebsite.

Includesocialsharebuttons

AddingsociallovebuttonsiseasynowadaysespeciallyifyoursiteisonWordPress.org.Therearehundredsofplug-instodownload,andyoucanchecktheirreviewstoseewhattheirperformanceandfeatureslooklike.Theseplug-insincludeallthemajorsocialmediasites includingTwitter, LinkedIn,Google+, Facebook, etc. and you should choose onlythosethatarerelevanttoyou,andyouarealsoactiveon.

GoogleAnalyticsLaunchGoogleAnalytics

GoogleAnalyticsistheweb’snumber1reportingtool.Whatmakesituniqueisthehugenumberoffeaturesandreportsthatitprovides,andbestofallisthatitisfree.Thereisapremiumversion for extremelyhighvolume sites that receiveover 10million sessions,pageviews,etc.permonth.

SomethingsyoucanachievewithGoogleAnalyticsincludes:

•MeasuringyourROIandimprovingit

•Greaterinsightintohowyourcampaignsareperforming

• Hundreds of Segmentation variables on traffic and actions on yourwebsite

•Settinggoalsande-commercetracking

•Settingupremarketing/retargetingcampaigns

•Insightintowhichchannelsarecontributingtomostconversions

•Trackandmeasurekeymetricssuchasbouncerates,pageviews,timeonsite,etc.

•Andhundredsofotherexamples

Addgoaltracking

InGoogleAnalytics,youcantrackjustaboutanyactionthattakesplaceonyourwebsiteincludingeventsthatdon’tleadtoapageview.Youcantracksales,downloads,contacts,signups,registrations,likesandmuchmore.Andyouwillthenhaveimportantmetricslikeconversion rate, cost per conversion and the number of conversions to measure youronlinecampaigns.

Analysemulti-channelsreportsinanalytics

Multi-channels funnels report is an advanced feature that helps you understand thechannels thatarecontributing to transactionsandgoalconversionsonyourwebsite. It’snowthecasethatpeopleareusingmultiplechannelslikecpc,organic,direct,email,socialnetworks and others in combination, as they seek information andmake purchases. So,lookingat this report and studying itwill helpyouwith effectivebudget allocationandputtingintothechannelsthatworkbestforyou.

Attribution

Beforeyoudiscountanytrafficsourceormedium,whetherit’sPPC,Organic,Referrals,DirectVisitorsorSocialNetwork,youneedtounderstandthepathtopurchaseandhoweachsourcecontributestothis.

Looking at the following ‘Top Conversion Paths’ report in ‘Multi-Channel Funnels’ inAnalytics for a shopping site, you can see that ‘Organic’ traffic contributed to 18transactions.

However,ifyouwereusinga‘LastInteraction’attributionmodel,youwouldassumethatOrganictrafficisnotleadingtoanyconversions,andthenaturalthingtodowouldbetoabandonallSearchEngineOptimisationworkthatisbeingdone.ManymarketerswoulddivertfundstootheractivitieslikePPCwhichaccordingtotheabovereportshowsthatithascontributedtojustonlytwomoregoalconversionsthanOrganic.

In fact, if you use the last interaction model, referral traffic is performing better thanOrganichere,andthatisnotanaccuratepictureofwhatishappening.So,it’simportanttolookatthemodelssuchas‘FirstInteraction’whichshowsanentirelydifferentpicture–andrevealsthatOrganictrafficiscrucialtothiswebsite.

Astheabovereportsreveal,amulti-channelstrategyiscriticaltoincreasingconversions,andimprovingROI.

Andthishasn’ttakenintoconsiderationallthosevisitorswhodeletecookiesbetweentheirvisits andvisitorswhousemultipledevices in their search forproductsor services andwhichisquitedifficulttotrackacrossdevicesatthemoment.

Bouncerate

This isa topengagementmetric inyouranalytics reports,and it’sone thatmanyonlinemarketersandanalyticsusersarefamiliarwith.It isdefinedsimplyasthepercentageofsingle page views in which the person left your site from the entrance page withoutinteractingwiththepage.

Whatconstitutesagoodbounceratevariesfromindustrytoindustry,andtherearemanyopinionsaboutwhatagoodoneis.I’vefoundthatonaverage,abouncerateabove60%isnotgoodformanywebsitesespeciallyconsideringthatalmostallwebsiteshaveafeaturetheycantrackwhetherit’sapurchase,registration,signup,download,contactpageandsoon.

Sessions

Asessionisshownforthedaterangeyouhaveselectedinyouranalyticsinterface,anditis a period inwhich a visitor is engagedwith yourwebsite or app, and that includes ascreenview,event,e-commerce,etc.andalltheseareassociatedwithsessions.Thisisanacquisition metric and shows how effective your site is at acquiring visitors and howengagedtheyare.

ClickThroughRate(CTR)

This is an importantmetric that youwon’t see in analytics, and it is usually associatedwithGoogleAdwords. It shows how effective your ads are at getting viewers to clickthroughtoyourwebsite.YoucancalculateityourselfinanalyticsforyourAdwordstrafficbydrivingclicksbyimpressions

CTR=Clicks/Impressions

Newvs.ReturningVisitors

Thismetricisunique,anditmeasurescustomerandvisitorloyaltyandhoweffectiveyouareatretention.Thehigherthepercentageofreturnvisitorstoyoursite,thenthat’susuallya signofhighvisitor retention.However, thatalldependsonyourgoalsand theageofyourwebsite. For example, if your launched site is recentwith few visitors, therewillnaturally be a higher percentage of new visitors, and that’s also true if you havesignificantlyincreasedadvertisingtonewmarketsegments.

GoalConversionRate

This is a top level analytics metrics that is a clear indicator of how your website andadvertising are performing. It shows the percentage of visitorswho complete a goal onyourwebsite likedownloads,purchases,registrations,etc.andtostart trackingthis;youneedtosetupyourgoalsintheadminsectionofyouraccount.YoucanalsoimportyourPPCgoals intoAdwords to see howyour ads, keywords, ad groups and campaigns areperforming.

GoalConversions

Goalconversionsarerelatedtogoalconversionrate,anditshowshowmanygoalshavebeencompletedonyoursite.

AverageTimeonPage

This is another topengagementmetric, and itmeasuresanumberof timevisitors spentviewinga specificpageonyourwebsite. It’s available for all pages that are trackedonyour site, and you can view it by clickingBehaviour >SiteContent >All Pages.Thismetricisimportantbecauseitshowshowengagedpeopleareonyourlandingpagesandiftheyarriveandleavequickly,thenit’slikelythatsomeoptimisationwillhelptoimproveengagement.

PercentageExit(%Exit)

Percentageexitshowsthepercentageofpeoplethatexitaparticularpageorsetofpages.It’scalculatedasthenumberofexitsdividedbythenumberofpageviewsforthepageorset of pages. This is a behavioural and engagement metric, and it shows how usefulvarious pages on your site are at retaining visitors. For somepages like the homepage,‘thank you’ page and payment success page,% exitswill be high and this is expectedbecauseyourvisitorswillhavecompletedanactionandthentheywillclosethepage.Forotherpagesonyoursitethathavehigh%Exits,youshouldinvestigatetoseehowyoucanimprovethetext,images,offers,calltoactionandotherelementsthathelptoimprovetheuserexperience.

OnlineBrandingPositionyourbrand

Positioningyourbrand isaboutoccupyingaposition in themindofyourprospects thatdifferentiatesitfromcompetitorbrands.Thisisoneofthedifficultthingsaboutcreatingasuccessful brandwhether that’s online or offline.There aremany competitors out therevyingforthesamecustomersthatyourbusinessistargeting,sotoreachthem,grabtheirattention and create an online value proposition that is unique and of paramountimportancewhenyouintroduceyourbrandtothemarket.

Createaconsistentbrandidentity

Your brand identity is a collection of all the physical and emotional attributes of yourbrand.Theseincludeyourname,logo,colours,tagline,images,soundsandsmellthatyourtarget audience can feel, touch, sense, hear, smell and see.Depending on the nature ofyourbusiness,someofthesewillbemoreimportantthanothers.Forexample,aperfumemanufacturerwillhaveasmellasaprimarybrandidentityelement.Together,thesebrandelements combine to create a compellingoffer that is irresistible andunforgettablewithyourtargetaudienceandhopefullyleadstobrandpreferenceatthetimeofpurchase.

Pickawinningname

Anameisthemostimportantfeatureofthebrandidentitiesofmostbrands.It’soneoftheeasiest things that peoplewill recall about your brand and here are some guidelines toconstructyours:

•Itshouldbeunique

•Easytoremember

•Shouldbeshort

•Easytopronounce

Registeryourbrand

You can register your brand name and brand mark with the trademark registrationorganisationInternationalPropertyOrganisation(IPO)togiveyouexclusiveownershipofitsuseandenforceanyonewhousesitwithoutyourpermission.Italsohelpstoensurethatyoudon’tsufferlitigationfromanyonewhoclaimstoownit.

Securedomainnames

Asyou researchyour brand, you should also check that domainnames are available toregisterorhave thefinancial resources tobuy themfromcurrentowners.The twomaintop level domain names are .com and .co.uk for UK brands or the equivalent in yourcountry and move quickly to register these as you wait for the acceptance of yourtrademarkregistration.Also,registerotherdomainslike.net, .bizand.orgtoensurethatyourcompetitorsdon’ttrytostealsomeofyourtraffic.Itmayalsobeworthregisteringclosevariantdomainnamestoprotectyournameandnotlosetraffictoothersiteswhenpeoplemisspellyourname.

Promoteyouronlinevalueproposition(OVP)

UseeveryopportunitytopromoteyourOVPthatincludesallthebenefitsthatyourtargetmarketsneedorwant.YourOVPisacombinationofyouruniquesellingpropositionthatdifferentiatesyourbrandfromcompetitorbrandsandthebenefitsthatareofimportancetoyour customers and are also your strengths.With a strongOVP, your business will bemore profitable, and you will stand out from competitors and this will lead to greatermarketshare.

Createbrandrules

Yourbrandrulesstatehowyourorganisationwilluseyourbrandidentity,staff,partnersandotherstakeholders foradvertising, incommunicationsandwhereverprospectscomein touch with your brand on the web. This is especially important if you work withdesigners,freelancersandagenciesandyoucancreateadocumentstatinghowyourlogoandotherbrandidentitiesaretobeusedinallcommunications.

Createavideo

Videoispowerfulforputtingacrossyourconcepts,ideas,productsorservicesbecauseofitsaudioandvisualelements.Therehasbeenanexplosioninvideoproductionover thelast5years,andYouTubeisnowtheworld’ssecondlargestsearchengine.

Therearemanyfree tools touse tocreateavideo,andevenprofessionallycreatedonesarecheapandwilldowondersforyourbusiness.

OnlinePressReleaseCampaign

Ifyouareabout to launchanewproductorservice,don’t losetheopportunitytocreatebuzzarounditbyreleasingapressrelease.However,youshouldstatehowitbenefitsyourcustomersorthegeneralpublicandmakeitnewsworthytoo.

Ifyouhavelittleexperiencerunningapressrelease,it’sbestthatyouhireaPRexpertoruseaservicelikehttp://www.prnewswire.co.uk

CreateYouTubeChannel

YouTube is now the second largest search engine and is catching up fast with GoogleSearch,soitcan’tbeignored.Thistooliseffectiveinincreasingbrandawareness,andifyouhaveaproductorserviceyouarelaunchingorjustneedtoeducateyourtargetmarketonyourproducts,thenthisistheplacetobe.It’snowmuchcheapertocreateprofessionalvideos,andtherearefreelancersonsiteslikeFiverrandPeoplePerHourthatcancreateyourvideosforalowfeeanduploadthemtoYouTube.

YoucanalsocreateavideocampaigninAdwordsandpromoteyourvideotoanyorallaudiences.

StayAlertKeeptrackofanynewsaboutyourbrand,companyandproductsbysigninguptoGoogleAlerts. Itwillhelpyouwithonlinebrandmanagement, andyoucanquickly respond toanycommentsorquestionspeoplehaveaboutyouroffers.Italsohelpsyoutokeepacloseeyeoncompetitorsandonwhatishappeninginyourindustry.

AdvertisingBudget

One significant error made by countless online brands is to set a low budget for theiradvertising andbranding campaigns.Thismakes achievingmarketing objectives almostimpossiblewhenthereareinsufficientresourcestoimplementtheonlinestrategyandthetactics.

Also,thebudgetshouldmeetorexceedcompetitorbudgetsbecausetheywillbechasingthe same customers and it’s important that you have the resources to promote yourproductsorservices.

Consistentbrandmessages

Inconsistentmessages lead todilutionofyourbrandvaluesand leads toconfusionwithyour target markets.Wherever your brand is represented, whether that’s your website,socialmediaplatformsorinyouradvertisingsuchaspayperclickadvertising,youshouldhave a consistent brand identity that resonateswith target audiences and positions yourbrandasthesolutiontotheirwantsandneeds.

Overall,youshouldstick to thepromise thatyourbrandmakes.Whether that isalwayslowpricesorapremiumqualityserviceorwhateverthatis,youshouldmaintainitinallcommunications.

Brandidentity

Yourbrandidentityincludesallvisibleelementsofyourbrandsuchasyourname,logo,tagline, colours, fonts, images and any other physical attributes. This is what targetmarkets associatewith your brand, and it represents in a tangibleway the promise thatyourbusinessmakes.

However,somebusinessestakeshortcutswhencreatingtheirbrandidentityandwilloftencreatetheirlogoorhireaninexperienceddesignertocreateanimpressivebrandmarkandlogo.Thisrequiresexperthelp,andit’simportantthatyouhireaproventeamofexpertstocontributetocreatingallaspectsofyourbrand.

Registerdomainnames

Whenyoucreateyourbrandandarereadytolaunchittotheworld,it’slikelyyouwouldhave registered themain domain extensions like .com and .net and your country leveldomain like .co.uk for the United Kingdom. However, you should register as manyextensionsthatareavailableincluding.bizand.orgsothatyoucanpreventpeoplefromregistering these names and setting up rival websites that will steal your traffic andcustomers.

Withoutsecuringalldomainsincludingclosevariantsyourisklosingtrafficinthesearchengineresults,especiallywhencompetitorsrankhighforthesitesthattheylaunch.

BuildAwareness

If the objective is to build awareness, then decisions should be made about whatpercentageofthetargetmarketshouldbemadeawareofthebrandandbywhen.Thiswilloftenbeatthelaunchofthebrandwhenithaszeroawarenesswithpotentialcustomers,sothebusinesshas to create a strategy about how this awarenesswill be achieved andby

when.Anexampleofabrandawarenessobjectiveis:“Achieve70%brandawarenesswithonlinecustomersbyDecember2016.”

Thisbrandstrategyobjectivewillrequirespecificonlinechannelsandtoolstolaunchandmanageandsomeof themainones likedisplayadvertising,socialmediamarketingandOnline PR.With display advertising, for example,GoogleDisplayNetwork campaignscanbelaunchedwhichfocusexclusivelyonbanneradsplacedonsitesthatcloselyrelatetothebusinessanditstargetmarkets.

Channels like searchadvertisingarenotaseffectiveat raisingbrandawarenessbecausethetargetcustomersneedtobeawarefirstofthebrandbeforepeoplecanstartsearchingfor it. However, there are generic search terms that peoplewill be searchingwith, andthesecanbeincludedinsearchcampaignstopromotethenewbrand.

Createanemotionalconnection

Creating an emotional connection with target markets is not possible for all types ofbrandsespeciallywithbusinessbrandnamesacquiredforbusinessoperations.However,withmanyconsumerbrands,creatingemotionalconnectionsiscommonwithmanylargebrandslikeApple,Coke,BMW,Disneyandothers,anditispossibleforawiderangeofbusinessesthatoperateinthedigitalsphere.

Here, experience is of paramount importance, and this should be the objective of thewebsiteand landingpages tocreateanexperience that leads tohighvisitorengagementandhighcustomerretention.Socialmediaisalsoagoodchanneltohighlightthebenefitsofthebrandandcreatebuzzarounditsattributes.

Conveydistinguishingattributes

Thepositionedbrandshouldbeprovidinggreatervaluethanwhatcompetitoroffers,notjustinpriceanddiscounts,butinbenefitsofferedandadvantagesthatcustomersgetfromacquiringthebrandandnotcompetitors’.

Thebrandidentityshouldbeuniqueandappealing,anditshouldhighlightthevaluesthatit stands for. Incommunicationsandpromotions, thedistinguishingattributes shouldbehighlightedanddemonstratedtoshowhowtheytrumpcompetitorattributes.

Gaincredibilityandtrust

Togaincredibilityandtrust,thebrandshouldliveuptoitspromises.Ifthepromiseistodeliverproductswithin24hoursofpurchase,forexample,thenthisshouldbeitsnumberoneobjectiveandalloperationsshouldbefocusedonachievingthis.Anythinglessthanthepromisethatthetargetcustomershaveboughtinto,willleadtofrustrationandlackoftrustandcredibility.

Thewebsite is importanthere tooandshouldincludeall features thathelp tobuild trustsuchas securepages, infoandFAQpages, customercontactdetails, fast loadingpages,propernavigationandsoon.

Allclaimsmadeinadvertisingcampaigns,particularlyinpayperclickadvertisingshouldbedeliveredwithinoneclickofthead.Ifnot,thenvisitorswillbounceandneverreturn,andyouwillaccruecostsbutnosalesfromyourcampaigns.

Achievebuyerpreference

One benefit of creating a brand especially online is that it makes achieving buyerpreference easier for the brand. Customers are more likely to trust a brand they arefamiliarwithandarewillingtopaymoretoacquirethem.

EmailMarketingEmailMarketingBenefits

Emailmarketingisoneofthemosteffectiveinternetmarketingstrategiesforawiderangeof businesses and that’s because it is effective at creating and maintaining customerloyalty.It’salsoagreatvehicleforcreatingcustomeradvocatesthatwillrecommendyoutofriends,familyandcolleagues.

Ithasmanyotherbenefitsandtheseinclude:

•Relativelycheaptoimplement

•Highlymeasurable

•Createstrustandbuildsrelationships

•Highlyprofitable

•Easytosetupandmanage

•Nosteeplearningcurve

However,emailmarketinghasitsdetractors,andtheyhighlightthatitleadstospam;itisnoteffective,anditannoysloyalcustomers.Myexperienceisverydifferent thoughandI’vefoundittobeoneofthemosteffectivedirectmarketingtools

Captureemailsonyourwebsite

Setupanewsletterboxforpeopletosignuptoonyourwebsite.Youwillbeamazedhowthatcould lead togreaterprofitabilitywhenyoumarket toa list thathasshowna lotofinterestinwhatyouhavetooffer.

There are many free and low priced email programs to help you with this, includingMailchimpandAweberandsettingupyourlistsandcampaignsiseasy.Ifyouarenotcapturingemailsonyourwebsite,thenyouarelosingoutonabigopportunitytoincreasesalesorleadsforyourbusiness.Therearemanyfreeplug-insonplatformslikeWordPresssuchasMailmunchthatwillhelpyoutocapture emails and thenmarket to them your products or services. The return on investment for emailmarketing isunmatchedbymostotherformsofonlinemarketingtacticsespeciallyforB2Bbusinesses.

Incentive(Offer)

Always thinkabout thebenefits thatyoursubscriberswillget fromyouremail.So,youshouldincludeabigbenefitorincentivetoencourageclickthroughtoyourwebsiteandmakeapurchaseordownloadorotheractionthatyourequire.Examplesofeffectiveemailincentives include coupons, vouchers, discount, free offer, free whitepaper, free ebook,prizedrawandother similarones.Youcouldalsohavemultiplecalls toactionbecausethisislikelytoincreaseclickstoyoursiteoracallfromthemtoo.

TargetingandTiming

Emailsshouldbetargetedat therightpeopleandata timewhentheyaremost likelytoopen and respond. Timing includes specific hours of the daywhen your recipients are

availableandalsodaysoftheweeksthathaveahigherresponserateinyourindustry.Italsoincludesthetimeinthemonthandthetimeoftheyear,especiallyaroundparticulareventsorholidayslikeChristmas,forretailers.

You should also consider their time zone especially if you are mailing to people in adifferentcountryorregion.

Integration

Integration of email campaigns should be with other communication channels, andbrandingshouldbeconsistentacrossallplatformsandtouchpointsincludingadvertising.Itshouldalsobeintegratedwithofflinemarketingcampaignsandshouldfitinwiththesecommunications.

Copy

This is part of the creative and mostly includes text that should be written to a highstandard and appeal to the target audience. It should include awell-written subject linethatpassesspamfilters,aheadingthatcreatesawarenessandinterest,textinbulletpointsthat increase desire and a call to action that links to your website or other resources.Copywritingisaspecialisedskill,andyoushouldhireorengageaprofessionalwriterinproducingyourcopy.

Attributes

Assessyouremailincludingthe‘from’,subjectline,address,date/time,format(HTMLortext) to ensure that it is targeted and effective. You should send out Multipart/MIMEmessagesthatcandisplaytextorHTMLaccordingtotheemailreaderscapability.

LandingPageormicrosite

Ensure a well-designed landing page or microsite that recipients click-through to, andinclude offers and promises that you made in your email. This helps to increaseengagement, build trust, boost sales and reduce bounce rates. The opposite is that youcouldseeahighunsubscriberateandsomerecipientsmarkingyouremailasspam

Creative

It’simportanttogetthedesignoftheemailincludingitslayout,colourandimagerighttoincreaseengagementandclickstoyourwebsite.Thedesignshouldbesimpleandeasytounderstand,anditshouldmatchthebrandimageofyourwebsiteandotheronlinecontactpointsofyourbusiness.Oneeffectivedesign structure is tomirror thewebsite and thisincreasestrustwithrecipientsandreinforcesyourbrandimage.

Relevance

Foryouremailcampaigns tobesuccessful,youroffersandpromotionsshouldmeet theneedsandwantsofyourtargetmarkets.Iftheyhaveopted-inonyourwebsite,thenyouhave a higher list quality than a rented or cold list, and you will have a betterunderstandingofwhattheyrequire.So,it’simportantthatyourlistsarehighlysegmentedandthatyoupromoteoffersthatcloselymatchtheirneedsandwants.

Relativelylowcostoffulfillment

Compared tootheronlinechannels,emailmarketing is relatively lowcost to implement

andmanage,anditsreturnsarehightoo.Thisisespeciallythecasewithanin-houselistofsubscribers,customersandlistsbuiltfrombusinessconnections.Withcoldorrentedlistwhere recipients are not familiarwith the business or have little knowledge of it, thenreturns are usually lower, and costs are higher, but overall it is an effectivemarketingstrategy.

Emailismuchcheaperthanotherdirectmarketingtacticslikedirectmailbecausethereisno cost of postage or costs to create leaflets, letters, brochures and other promotionalmaterials.TheonlycostsyouarelikelytoincurarefromemailplatformslikeMailchimpandConstantContact.

Directresponse

Emailisprimarilyadirectresponsemediumandit’susedmuchlessforbrandawareness.As a direct responsemedium, it encourages immediate action likemaking a purchase.Prospects who sign up to your emails usually have one goal in mind – to receivediscounts,forproductnotifications,getcoupons,receivedeals–andanyotheroffersthattheycanpurchase,download,acquire,etc.

So,allemailcommunicationsshouldhaveacalltoaction,andthisincludeslinkstoyourwebsitewheretheycanplaceanorderoratelephonenumberintheemailtocontactyourbusinessandplaceanorder.However,callstoactionaremany,anditalldependsonyourbusinesssectorandindustry.

Fastcampaigndeployment

Email isfast tocreateanddeploy.Onefeaturethathelpsthisis themanytemplatesthatare ready-made tocreateeffectiveemails foryourbusiness.YoucanalsocreatecustomtemplatesinMailchimpandusethemregularlytopromoteyouroffers.

Easeofpersonalisation

Emailmarketingisoneofthebestchannels,bothonlineandoffline,forpersonalisation.Everyaspectofemailcanbepersonalised,including:

•therecipientsname,

•offerstheyareinterestedinorlikelytobeinterestedin,

•timewhentheyreceiveemails

•frequencyofcommunications

•andmuchmore

Optionsfortesting

Emailprovidesmanyoptionsfortestingvariousfeatureslikeoffers,subjectlines,words,calls to action, content and a whole lot more. This helps you to improve your emailcommunicationsandincreaseengagementandclick-throughtoyourwebsite.Testingwithemailischeaptoounlikemanyotherformsofadvertisingwherecostsareaccruedduringthetests.

Integration

Emailcaneasilybeintegratedinadigitalmarketingstrategywhetherthat’sforaB2BorB2Cbusiness.Integratingemailhelpstoincreasecustomerandvisitorloyaltyandleadstogreatersalesandrevenueforyourbusiness.

Regularnewsletter

Forbusinessesofallsizesandsectors,aregularnewsletterisaneffectivewaytokeepintouchwithcustomers,employees,suppliers,investorsandothertargetaudiences.Youcancreateatargetednewsletterforeachofthesestakeholderstokeepthemengagedandbuildrelationshipsthatwillbeprofitableforyourbusiness.

Creatinganewsletteriseasy,andyoucanaddanopt-informtoyourwebsitethathasagood incentive and then create newsletter templates in your email program (ConstantContact,Mailchimp,etc.)andsendanewsletteronceamonth,onceaweekorwheneverisbestforyourtargetaudience.

Customersurvey

Survey programs like SurveyMonkey help you to create easily a surveywithmultiplequestions that you can add to yourwebsite or email to your clients or contacts. It hasfeaturesthatallowyoutoemailyoursurveydirectlytoyourcontacts.

Welcomemessage

Awelcomeemailisastandardtactictosendoutwhenavisitorhasregisteredorplacedanorderonyourwebsiteorviatelephone.Thisisusuallyautomatedtospeeduptheprocessand tosend the recipientasummaryofwhat theyhavepurchased,when toexpect theirorderandasareferencefortheordertheyhavejustplaced.

Limited-timeoffer

Withanin-houselist,youcanquicklypromoteoffersthathavealimitedtimeandincreasesales for a very low cost. Emails are cheap to send out, and they are able to grab therecipient’sattentionandleadtoahighconversionrateespeciallyiftheyoffergreatvaluetoyourtargetcustomers.

Purchaseconfirmation

Thisisanotherstandardemailcommunicationthatisessentialtocustomerswhohavejustplacedanorder. Ithelps tobuild trustandconfidencewithyourbusinessandcustomerscanusethedetailstheretocontactyouiftheyhaveaqueryorneedtoupdatetheirorder.

Winningbacklapsedcustomers

Someof your loyal customerswill from time to time lapse, and it’s important that youkeep in touch with them and encourage repeat purchases through incentives. You cansegmentthesecustomersandsendautomatedmessagesremindingthemofthebenefitsofshoppingwithyourbusinessandincentivisethemwithavouchertoencourageapurchase.

Newslettersegmentedbypurchasehabits

Forautomationpurposesandefficiency,youshouldsegmentyourvisitorsandcustomerstoensurethatyouaresendingtargetedmessagestoeachsegment.Segmentationisnotas

advancedwith a standard email list as it iswith a database of customers. The two aredifferent,and it’s important tounderstandhowyouwillmanageeachandhowyouwillsegmentcustomersandsubscribers.

Topperformers

Yourwebsiteshouldhighlight thetopperformingproductsbasedonpastpurchases,andyoushouldemailthistoyourcustomerstoencouragepurchasesofproductsthattheyarelikelytobeinterestedin.Youcanhaveatopsellerslistforeachcategoryoralistoftopproducts in the category based on their purchases and send this to your customer base.Amazondoesthisefficientllyandthistypeofpersonalisationleadstohighersalesandit’saneffectivecross-sellstrategy.

Birthday/Anniversarygreetingoroffer

Showyourcustomersthatyouappreciatetheirloyaltytoyourbusinessbysendingthemagreetingcardorofferonimportantdateslikebirthdaysandanniversary.Thisensuresthatyouarealwaystopofmindwithyourcustomers,anditreinforcestherelationship.

Productreplenishment

Offeryourvisitorsandcustomersanoptiontobealertedwhenaproductcomesbackinstock.Then,sendthemanemailwhentheproductisinstocksotheycanplaceanorder.

Warrantyrenewal

Emailiseffectiveandcheaptoremindcustomerstorenewtheirwarranties,comparedtotelephoneandsnailmail.However, it is lesseffective than telephoneandresponseratesarelower,butyoucantargetmanycustomersforaverylowcost.

Abandonedcart

Peopleabandoncarts formanyreasons includingdeliverycharges thatare toohigh, toomany steps to checkout, saving it for future purchase, or as part of product and priceresearch. So it’s often difficult to know the reason. However, you can email yourcustomerstoremindthemofitemsthey’veputinthecartandevensendthemadiscounttoencouragethemtocompletetheorder.

DigitalMarketingStrategyMarketingAudit

Whenyoufirstcreateyourdigitalmarketingstrategy,youwillcarryoutanauditintoyourmarket,competitors,andtheinternalandexternalmarketenvironment.Thisisimportanttohelpyouunderstandtheneedsofyourcustomers,whotheyareandhowyoucancreateanoffertomeetthatneed.

The audit will also highlight who your direct and indirect competitors are and all thecompetitorforcesthatcouldbeathreattoyourbusiness,suchassubstituteproducts,newoffersfromcompetitorsandnewcompetitorsenteringyourindustry.

Themarketingauditwillhelpyoutoassesstheexternalenvironmentwhichyouwillhavelittle controlover.This includes forces suchasTechnologyandhowyour targetmarketuses mobile devices, tablets and desktop, for example, to access your website and,therefore,yourproductsorservices.

Anauditisanongoingactivity,andyouwilldothisthroughoutthelifeofyourbusinessandcontinuallyplugyour findings intoyourdigitalmarketingstrategy. It’s important tocarryoutregularauditstokeepaneyeonyourcompetitors.

Your audit findings will create some very important factors that you will add to yourSWOTAnalysis(Strengths,Weaknesses,OpportunitiesandThreats):

MarketingObjectives

Withall the infoyou’vegatheredfromthemarketingauditandSWOT,youwillhaveaclearideaofwhatishappeninginthemarket,sothatyoucancreateSMARTobjectives.SMARTstandsforSpecific,Measurable,Achievable,RelevantandTimerelated,andtheyhelpyoustayfocusedandensurethatyouachieveyourobjectives.

Whatever your objectives, you should take into consideration your available resourcessuchastimeandmoney,toensurethatyoucanachievethem.

Yourobjectivesshouldalsotakeintoconsiderationyourcompetitors’currentstandinginthemarket,whethertheyaremarketleaders,challengers,followersorniches,soyoucancreateKeyPerformanceIndicators(KPIs)tobenchmarkyourprogresstowardsachievingyourgoalsandagainstyourcompetitorsandadjustthemaccordingly.

Therearemanytypesofobjectives,andmanyofthemfallunderacquisition,conversion

and retention strategies.An acquisition objective, for example,would be to see a 20%increaseinnewvisitorstoyourwebsitebyaparticulardate.UsingGoogleAnalytics,youcan then create a KPI to benchmark your progress towards achieving this goal usingspreadsheets.

MonitorCompetitors

Competitorswillbeworkingashardasorevenharderthanyoutowinandgaincustomersandyourdigitalmarketingstrategyshouldsetouthowyouplantocounterthis.Withthehelp of yourmarketing audit, you can understand yourmarket’s greatest needs and usethattobuildacompetitiveadvantage.

Theproblemmanybusinesseshaveonlineisthattheyhavenouniquebenefits,whichtheycanusetocreateacompetitiveadvantage.Opportunitiestocreateacompetitiveadvantagecancomefrommanyareasincludingqualityofservice,meetingcustomers’needsbetterthan competitors, lower prices, cost advantages, offers and discounts and many otherways.

However,price isnotusuallyanadvantage,becausecompetitorscanoftenmeetorbeatprices and this spirals into a price war, where everyone loses, except the customer ofcourse.

Yourbusinessstrengthscombinedwithyourcompetitiveadvantageisknownasyourbasisfor competing.You need this towin new business, turn them into loyal customers andultimatelyconvertthemintoadvocateswhowillbringmorebusinessyourway.

OnlinePromotionalTactics

Online promotion is a huge topic on its own, and I cover itmany ofmy case studies,whitepapers,blogsandarticlesthatyoucanreadabouthereonmywebsite.Thewaystopromote your website online continue to grow and you should constantly be on thelookoutforawaytoreachyourcustomersmoreefficientlyandeffectively.

Someoftheprimarypromotionaltoolsandchannelsinclude:

•PayPerClick(PPC)Advertising

•SearchEngineOptimisation(SEO)

•ContentMarketing

•SocialMediaMarketing

•AffiliateMarketing

•OnlinePR

•OnlineSponsorship

•DisplayAdvertising

•DirectoryListings

•Onlineshoppingportals

•EmailMarketing

•Andmanyothers

DigitalMarketingResearch

Thefirstthingtodoistoresearchyourpotentialcustomerstofindoutwhotheyareandwhattheirneedsare.ThiswillhelpyoutocreateawebsiteexperiencethatmatchesandexceedstheirneedsandleadtogreaterprofitsandROIforyourbusiness.

Therearemanyfreeresearchtoolsthatyoucanuseincludingkeywordtoolsthathelpyouestimatethedemandforyourproductsandtounderstandwhatyourprospectsneed.

Yourresearchfindingswillhelpyoutocreateablueprintofyourwebsitethatfocusesonyourcoreservices,anddependingontheindustryyouarein;itwillassistyoutolayoutthestructureofyoursite.

WebsiteDevelopment

Your developer should be up-to-date on the latest designs and should understand theimportanceofsuchfeaturesasmobileresponsiveness.Theyshouldbeabletoadviseyouonthebestwebsiteplatformtouse,andnotjustonethattheyuseformanyotherclients.

Forexample,WordPress is theplatformofchoicefor23%ofwebsites,andithasmanycapabilitiesthatfarexceedotherplatforms.Youhaveaccesstothousandsofplug-insthatturnyourwebsiteintoawell-oiledmarketingmachine,anditiseasytoinstallwithaone-clicksetup.

So,thisisoneplatformyoushouldconsider,andyourwebdevelopershouldhavelotsofexperiencedesigningforitandimplementingittoo.

Publishingyourwebsite

Now that your website is ready to publish after a redesign or new build, you shouldconsider creating a newsworthy article in the form of an online press release to raiseawareness.

You shouldhireor employa copywriterwith expertise inwritingwebsite content.Thiswill pay huge dividends because theywill create compellingmessages thatmatch yourbusiness needs.When there is awell-done contentwriting, it creates interested visitorswhoreturnformore,andtheypromoteyourwebsitetotheircirclestoo.

Again,youshouldhaveacontentstrategyinplacetopublishregularblogposts,articles,casestudiesandotherstogainmoreexposureandencourageinterestinyouroffers.

PromotingYourWebsite

Besides the online press release to garner some attention at your launch, your websitemarketingstrategyshouldincludedetailsofhowyouwillpromoteittoyourprospectsandbringinlotsofsalesorleads.

Nowadays,youhavemanyoptionstopromoteyoursiteonsitessuchasBingandGooglewith their PayPerClick (PPC) programs andOrganic traffic sources. Initially, you can

launchPPCcampaignstostartreceivingvisitorstoyoursite,whileyouworkonSearchEngineOptimisation(SEO)tobringyoufreeorganictraffic.

SocialMedia onTwittermainly is anotherway to promote your products and services.Therearemanyotherplatform;,howeveryoushouldconcentrateonasfewaspossibletofocusyourefforts,buildalargefollowingandcreateexpertiseonthatplatform.

Another effectivepromotion tactic that can formavital part of yourwebsitemarketingstrategyisemailmarketing.Youshouldbuildanemaillistofcustomers,fansandregularvisitorsthatyoucanmarketto,withdiscountsandoffers.Emailiseffectivebecausethesepeoplehaveshownahighleveloftrustandinterestinsigninguptoreceiveyourmessages

CreatesUnity

Youronlinemarketingstrategywillhelpyoutocreatemoreunityinyourmarketingteamwithyourmarketers,contentwriters,copywriters,designersandresearchers,whethertheyarein-house,anagencyorfreelancers.

Bysharingyourstrategyandagreeingonobjectivesandwhichmarketstotarget,everyonewill be on the same page, and you will see greater unity in the team. This has manybenefitsincluding

•Moresatisfiedcustomers

•Happierstaffmembers

•Greaterprofitability

•Efficientuseoftimeandmoneyresources

DigitalMarketingStrategyBenefits

KeepsYouFocused

Aplankeepsyoufocusedonwhatneedstobedoneandbywhen.Becauseyouwillhavegoalsyouwant toachieve,youwillworkononly those tactics thatyou’ve identifiedasnecessarytoachievingyourgoals.

Youwillnowbemorefocusedonmeetingtheneedsofyourcustomersbecauseyouwillhaveidentifiedwhotheyareandwhattheirwantsandneedsare.

ImprovesPerformance

WithclearobjectivesandKeyPerformanceIndicators(KPIs)tobenchmarkyourprogress,youwillbemuchclosertoimprovingtheperformanceofyouronlinecampaigns.Youwillalso benchmark against your competitors for your important metrics such as sales(conversions),timeonsite,numberofpagesvisited,bouncerateandmanyothers.

Withthisdata,youcanworkmoreefficientlytoimproveyourads,campaignsandallyouronlineactivities.

MoreEfficientandEffective

An online marketing strategy makes you more cost-efficient on platforms like GoogleAdwords because you focus on improving the targeting of your campaigns, improving

qualityscoresandclickthroughrateanditreducesyourCostPerClick(CPC)rate.

Youradsalsobecomemoreefficientattargetingtherightaudience,andthisisreflectedinClickThroughRates(CTR)whichwillcontinuetoincrease.Yourstrategywillhelpyoutofocusontheactivitiesthatyouneedtoworkontoimproveefficiencyandeffectiveness.

ImprovesRevenueandProfitability

With better-targeted campaigns and a clearer online focus, this will lead to animprovement in revenue and even more importantly, profitability. Also, you will havemoremoneytoaddtoyouronlinemarketingbudgetsoyoucanbemorerepresentedonabroadrangeofchannelsanddevices.

The importanceof this is that peoplenowuse awide rangeofdevices and channels tosearch,browse,shopontheinternetandthemorerepresentationonthese,themoresalesandrevenueyouwillhave.

IncreaseCustomerLoyalty

Developingane-marketingstrategy isbeneficial increatingcustomer loyaltybecause ithelpsyouidentifythebenefitsthattheyareseekingonyourwebsiteandallcontactpoints,andthenyouadjustyouroffersaccordingly.

Email marketing is one of the best channels for visitor and customer retention, and itshouldbe an activepart ofyour strategywhetheryouare an e-commerce storeorB2Bbusiness.

Withtools likeAnalytics,youcanmeasurevisitor loyaltybyusingsuchreportsasNewvs.ReturningVisitors,andyoucankeeptrackoftheconversionratesofnewvisitorsandreturningvisitorstoseehoweffectiveyourstrategyis.

Meetcustomerneeds

Peoplearebombardedwithads,banners,messagesandemailsontheInternet.Infact,theaveragepersonseesover3000advertsperdayincludingofflinemessagesandit’sdifficultforanyonebusinesstoattractandengagecustomersinthemidstofallthisnoise.

So, it’s important toensure thatyou identifycustomerswhowillbenefit fromwhatyouhave toofferand thencreateacompellingoffer thatcuts through thenoise.Many toolsand channels help you do this, including PPC programs likeGoogleAdwords that areeffectiveatreachingpeoplewhoaresearchingforyourproductsorservices.

BoostOnlineROI

Online promotional tools are highly measurable compared to traditional forms ofadvertising such as TV and print and it’s easy to track your spend and measure yourreturns.

WiththehelpoftoolslikeGoogleAnalytics,youcantrackhowmanypeopleseeyourads(impressions), how many visit your site from your ads (clicks), how many of thesepurchase (conversions), how many return (% of return visitors) and a host of othermetrics.

So,allthisdatahelpsyoueasilycalculateyourreturnoninvestmentandensuresthatyouarefocusingyoureffortsonchannelsthataremostprofitableforyourbusiness.

AcquisitionObjectives

Acquisitionobjectivesarerelatedtovisitstoyourwebsite,andthisincludestrafficsourcessuchasOrganic,CPC,Referrals,SocialNetwork,DirectVisitsandothers.Youwillseethese sources inGoogleAnalytics and next to themwill bemetrics thatwill also formobjectivesforyouronlineadvertising.

‘Visits’ is an importantmetric and should form one of your acquisition objectives. Forexample,youmaywant to increaseorganic trafficvolumes to increase itspercentage to20%ofalltrafficsources.

ConversionObjectives

Conversionobjectivesrelatetopurchases,downloads,contacts,registrations,etc.thattakeplaceonyourwebsite.Youcanseetheseconversionsforeachofyourtrafficsources,andyoucancreateanobjectiveforyourmostimportantconversiontype.

Soforakeymetriclikeconversionrate,youcouldhaveanobjectivelike:

“Increaseconversionrateby25%fororganictrafficbyNov2015.”

RetentionObjectives

Customer retention is essential to online profitability, and retention objectives will besomeofyourmost importantones. In analytics, youwill haveengagementmetrics likeNewvs.Returningvisitors,bouncerate,averagetimeonsiteandaveragepageviews.Bymeasuring thesemetrics, youwill have a clearer ideaof howgoodyou are at retainingvisitorsandcustomers.

Anexampleofaretentionobjectiveistoseeapercentageincreaseinreturningvisitorsforallyourtrafficsources.

AdvocacyObjectives

Trackingcustomeradvocacyon theweb isdifficult.However, therearea fewactivitiesthatyoucantrack.Forexample,youcouldhavea‘RecommendtoFriend’buttonorformthatallowsuserstorecommendyourproducts,services,blogs,articlesandsoon.

Also,positiveonlinereviewsareanendorsementofyourbusiness,andyouwanttotrackthesetoensureyouaremeetingtheneedsofyourcustomers.So,youcanhaveobjectivestoseean increase inpositivereviewsorfriendrecommendationsand thenhave tasks tohelpyouachievethoseobjectives.

Getseniorlevelbuy-in

Selling the benefits of online promotion channels andvehicles to topmanagers in yourcompanywillbealotmoreeffectiveifyouhaveadigitalmarketingplanthatshowswhatcanbeachieved,atwhatcostandbywhen.

Createadigitalmarketingplan

Yourdigitalmarketingplanwillincludethefollowing:

a.Wherearewenow?

To answer this question, you need to carry out a health andwealth of your business’s

online environment. Thatmeans you need to find out how you are performing againstcompetitorsandwhatpositionyouhave–areyouamarketleader,challengerorfollower?

Thisisanauditandanalysis,andyouwillneedtoanswerquestionslike:

–Whoareourcustomers?

–Whatdotheyneedandwantfromus?

–Howwillwetargetthem?–whichdevicesandonlinechannels?

–Whatmessagesdotheyrespondto?Offers,qualityservice,delivery,etc.

–Whoareourcompetitorsandhowwellequippedarethey?

b.Wheredowewanttobe?

Youranswertothequestion“wherearewenow?”willhelpyoucreateonlinemarketingobjectivesandthesewillsetoutwhatyouwanttoachieveonline.

Nowthatyouknowwhoyourcustomersare,youwill thenneedtoassesswhoareyourmostprofitableclientsandhowyoushould target them.Soyouwillsegment them,andyou can do this for all visitors to your site based on how engaged they are and whatactionstheytakeonyoursite(pageviews,transactions,spend,timeonsiteetc.).

YourfindingswillhelpyoutocreateobjectivesthatareSMART–Specific,Measurable,Achievable, Relevant and Time Related and you will formulate your digital marketingstrategyatthisstagetoo.

c.Howmightwegetthere?

Whatdecisionsdoyouneedtomakeaboutyourproducts,prices,distribution,promotionandpeopletohelpyouachieveyourobjectives?Thesearethemarketingtacticsthathelpyoutopromoteyourproductsorservicesefficientlyandtheresourcesthatyouwillneedtodothis.

d.Howcanweensurearrival?

Now you will need to create a budget for all your tactics to ensure that you have themoney to achieve your objectives.You also need to check regularly your progress andbenchmarkitagainstyourcompetitorstoassesshowyouareperforming.

Measureyourprogress

Partofyouronline campaignmeasurement andmanagement should includeusing toolslike Google Analytics that provide you with reports, metrics and dimensions that arerelevanttoyourbusiness.

SomeimportantmetricsasaB2Bbusinessincludegoalconversionsforyourwhitepapers,contacts,quoterequestsandbouncerateswhichrevealhowengagedyourvisitorsare.

Withthesemetrics,youcancreateyourobjectivesthatsetoutwhatyouwhattoachieveand then have Key Performance Indicators that benchmark your progress towardsachievingyourobjectives.

Positionyourwebsite,productsorservices

Howdoyouwanttopositionyourwebsiteandproductsorservicesinthemarket?Thisisan important question to help you differentiate from competitors and create a uniqueposition for your business. Creating a unique selling proposition is a benefit to thecustomer too because it makes choosing a supplier much easier and you do this bypromotingyourstrengthsandcompetitiveadvantage.

B2Btargetmarkets

Advertisingandtargetingbusinessesonthewebisdifferentfromtargetingconsumers.Forone,businesscustomerstendtobefewerinnumber,andtheyalsotendtohavealengthydecisionprocessbeforetheypurchase,sotargetingthemrequiresunderstandinghowtheyusetheinternettoacquireproductorservices.

Businessproductsandservicesalsotendtobemoreexpensive,andit’sunlikelythattheinternetalonewillbesufficienttoselltothem.It’smorelikelythatthewebcanactasanintroduction and awareness raising channel that leads to personal selling through yoursalespeople.

So,makesureyouresearchyourmarketandindustryandknowhowbusinesscustomersusetheinternetforacquisition.

B2Bonlinechannels?

Knowingwhoyourtargetcustomersare,alsohelpstoidentifywhichonlinechannelswillbe effective at reaching them. For example, many B2B businesses will not use socialmediachannelstoacquireproductsorservices,soitmaynotbeaviableoptionforyourbusinesstopouralotoftimeandfinancialresourcesintosocialmedia.

Theymaybemorelikelytousesearchenginestolookforbusinessproductsorservices,andthisiswhereyouneedtobeadvertising.

Display advertising can prove to be effective in raising awareness for a B2B businessespeciallyforanewproductorservicethatthemarketisn’tawareof.

B2Bonlinetools?

Ifyou’vedeterminedthatpayperclick(PPC)advertisingisasuitablechanneltoadvertiseyourbusiness,thenyounowneedtochoosetheavailabletoolstohelpyouachieveyourgoals.TwomainPPCplatformsortoolsareGoogleAdwordsandBingAds,andbothareeffectiveatreachingbusinessesthatarelookingforyourproductsandservices.

Ifsocialmediaisanonlinechannelthatiseffectiveforyou,thenyoucanchoosetoolslikeLinkedInandTwittertoreachyourprospects.

B2BOnlineBudgets

Anonlinemarketingbudgetiscrucialtoachievingyourmarketingobjectives.Thishelpsyou to implement your digital strategy andput sufficientmoney for onlinepromotionaltoolsthatareessentialtoyouachievingyourgoals.Settingabudgetisnoteasy.However,there are a few strategies you can use including matching competitor budgets or apercentageofsalesorevencostingalltacticsyouwillimplementandthenaddingtheseuptoarriveatyourtotalbudget.

GoalConversions

ThiswillbeoneofthemostimportantmetricstomeasureandtrackaspartofyourB2Bdigital marketing strategy. You can track all downloads, contacts, registrations andpurchasesonyourwebsite,whichareessentialtoyourbusiness.B2Bbusinessesoftendonottakeordersontheirwebsiteandusuallywhitepaperdownloads,contacts,phoneleadsaremoresignificantconversionstotrack.

B2BDevicesTargeting

Desktopisstillmoreimportantforbusinessesthatarelookingforproductsorservicesonthe web. That’s because many searches are done during working hours from businesslocationsanddesktopstillrulesherecomparedtomobile.Mobilesearchesforconsumershave now surpassed desktop but for B2B, it still lags behind. So, it’s important tounderstand thepercentagesof devices accessingyourwebsites and then target themostimportantdevices.

Understandcustomerbehaviouronline

Whichonlinechannelsanddevicesdoyour targetmarketsuse to researchandpurchaseproductsandservices?Knowingthishelpstoidentifyyouradvertisingstrategyandsendtargetedmessageswhentheyareonlineandondevicesthatwillhelpthattoconverteasily.

Nowadays, most customers are multichannel and multi-device users, and it is veryimportanttokeepyourbrandinfrontofthemwhenitmattersmost.Theymayresearchonmobile devices but complete their transactions on a desktop because of the device userexperience.

Haveamissionandgoals

Yourmissionisthereasonyouareinbusiness,anditguidesallyouroperations.Whetheryouareabricksandclicksbusinessorpure-play internetoperation,youneedamissionthatfocusesyoureffortsandensuresyouareontracktocreateasuccessfulbusiness.

Youthenneedgoalsthatsetoutwhatyourinternetmarketingplanneedstoachieveintheshortandlongterms.Youraimsandobjectivesshouldbespecific,relevant,measurable,andachievableandyoushouldensurethatyouhavethetime,moneyandpeopleresourcestomakeithappen.

Segmentthemarket

Youwill need to identifyyour customers andknowwho theyarebeforeyoucan reachthem.So,youshould segment themaccording to theirdemographics (age, sex, income,familylifecyclestage),geographics(wheretheyliveorbased),Psychographics(lifestyle)andBehavioural (how they use your products).These are basic segmentation variables,andtheyhelpyoutocreatebuyerpersonas.

To create real buyer personas, you need to look at the various actions that people cancomplete on yourwebsite such as downloading, purchasing, registering, contacting andthenseethestepsthatpeopletaketocompletethem.Thisisknownascustomerscenarioanalysis,andithelpsyouidentifytheirneedsandwants.

CreateaUSP

A USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is what sets your business apart from your

competitorsandisabenefitthatishighlyvaluedbytargetcustomers.Thereasonyouneedthisisbecausecompetitiononthewebisatitshighestforabroadrangeofindustries–inbothconsumerandbusinesssectors.So,youshouldbuildonyourstrengthsandminimiseyour weaknesses and focus on creating a competitive advantage that leads to greaterprofitability.

Consumers are alsomore tech savvy andwill shop around to find bargains on a widerange of intermediaries like shopping comparison sites likeKelkoo andShopzilla. Thismeansyoushouldfocusondeliveringqualitythatyourcompetitorscan’tmatch,andthatwillconvincetargetmarketsthatyourproductsorservicesoffergreatervalue.

Also,competitorsareonlyafewclicksaway,andyourvisitorswillquicklyleaveyoursiteifyoudon’tcreateauniqueexperiencethatkeepsthemengaged.

Boost‘wordofmouse’

It’s not enough that your business can satisfy customer needs and prevent them fromdefecting tocompetitors.You should look toextend the relationship thatyouhavewiththemandturnthemintoadvocates.Thewebfacilitatesthiseasilyandusingchannelslikesocialmediaandblogs,yourtopcustomerscanbeambassadorsforyourbrandandbringnewcustomerstoyourwebsitethrough‘wordofmouse’.

Also, encouraging yourmost valuable customers (MVC) to write positive reviews thathighlight the quality products and service you provide will help to increase customeracquisitiononline.Youshouldconsiderpartneringwithreviewsites likeFeefo thathelpyoucollectreviewsfromyourcustomers.SoifyourunPayPerClick(PPC)campaigns,for example, youwill show these reviewswith your ads – and this is possible becauseFeefo, Trustpilot and others are Google partners and provide review data to their PPCplatform,Adwords.

Cross-sellandUp-sell

Cross-selling is about promoting related products or services that your customers willlikely be interested in. This help to increase the share of customer and increases yourprofitability with existing customers and reduces defection too. Email marketing iseffectiveatcross-sellingtoanexistingemaillistordatabase,andtheconversionratesareusually higher than for new visitors because a relationship exists already and trust hasbeenbuilt.

Up-sellingisencouragingcustomerstoupgradetoapremiumversionofyourproduct,andthis is evident in all kinds of industries – and an example is a software company likeSymantecencouragingyoutoupgradefromantivirussoftwaretotheirfulltotalsecurity.Email is valid here too, and customers can be contacted at specific times throughautomatedmessagesencouragingcustomerstoupgradeorupdate.

MassCustomisation

Amazon.com is a champion of mass customisation, and the implementation of theirstrategies can function on any website. Mass customisation is promoting products tospecificmarketsegmentsthattheyarelikelytobeinterestedinbasedonothercustomersinthatsegment.Anexampleisshowingavisitortoacategoryofyourwebsite,productsthat other people have purchased in that category. These will be popular products that

manyothervisitorshaveshowninterestinandarelikelytobeofbenefittonewvisitorsandcustomers.

It differs from online personalisation in that with personalisation; customers receiverecommendationsbasedontheirpastpurchases,orproductsthey’vebookmarked,andthiswilloftenbeemailedtoexistingcustomers.

Usemulti-channelstopromoteyourbusiness

With the diversity in product search and purchasing that customers do online, it’simperativethat thereisagoodrepresentationofyourbusinessonmultiplechannels likesearch engine marketing, social media, affiliate marketing and more. Each of thesechannelsassistsinincreasingbrandawarenessandboostingsales.

Resources8TipsOnHiringADigitalMarketingConsultant

1.Whatsectorshavetheyworked?

Digitalmarketingisawidefieldwithmanydisciplines,andyoushouldensurethattheyhaveexperience inyour industryor similar sectors.Forexample, servicesmarketingonthewebisdifferentfromonlineretailandthechannelsusedareoftendifferent.Anonlineretailer, forexample,willuseProductListingAds topromote theirproductsonGoogleShoppingwhereasGoogleMapswillbemoreimportantforalocalservicebusiness.

2.Aretheyafreelanceroragency?

The internet has changed the way we do business, and this growth has led to theemergence of an army of freelancers in all sorts of disciplines. Sites like Elance andPeople Per Hour have many experienced freelancers that you can hire for one-off orongoingprojects.Theyareveryaffordabletoo,andyoucanworkwithafreelancerthat’sontheothersideoftheglobeeffectively.

Agencyprofessionalsusuallyspecialisemoreandyouwillhaveawiderrangeofskillstomanage your onlinemarketing campaigns. So youwill have copywriters, PPC experts,SEOexperts,marketingplannerstohelpyourbusiness.

3.Checktheirqualifications

A consultant with marketing qualifications is a bonus but not essential. Skill andexperience are more important, especially in the online realm. However, Google, forexample,hasacertificationprogrammefor itsAdwordspayperclickplatform that isamarkofachievementforanAdwordsprofessionalanddemonstratesthattheyhaveskillsandhaveworkedwithmanyclients.

4.Dotheyhaveonlinereviews?

Checktheironlinereviewstoseewhatfeedbackthey’vereceivedfrompastclients.Manysitescollectreviewsandonfreelancersites,youcanseereviewsforpastprojects.

5.Whatdotheycharge?

Checktheirpricesbeforehandandensurethatitcoversalltheworkthatyouneeddoing.Theproposaltheysendshouldlistalltheactivitiesandthecostforeachwithtimescalestoo.

6.Aretheypublished?

Havetheywrittenanyarticlesorbooksthatyoucancheckout,toseewhattheirexpertiseis before you hire them. It’s not essential that they are published, however, publishedmarketers with positive reviews have demonstrated a high level of knowledge in theirdiscipline.

7.Checktheirexperience

Makea shortlistofdigitalmarketingconsultants thathave theexperienceyouneedandverifythattheyhaveworkedwithclientsinyourindustry.

8.Whohavetheyworkedwith?

Checkwhotheyhaveworkedwithandaskforreferences.

DigitalMarketingObjectivesExamples

To achieve your business mission and goals on the web, you need specific digitalmarketing objectives that guide your online promotional activities. Each campaign youcreate,andallads thatyourunshouldbe in linewithyourmarketingobjectivesandberelevanttoyourtargetmarket.

YourdigitalmarketingobjectivesshouldbeSMART(Specific,Measurable,Achievable,Relevant and Time Related); and should be benchmarked against your competitors toensurethatyouaremoreefficient.

Herearefiveimportantobjectivestoincludeinyourmarketingstrategy:

1.IncreaseSales

Increasing sales or leads is a top-level digitalmarketing objective formany businessesbecause it improves revenuesand iseasy tomeasure.Usingkeyperformance indicators(KPI),youcanthenbenchmarkyourprogresstowardsachievingyourobjective,andyoucantrackthisinyourspreadsheets.

AnexampleofaSMARTobjectivewouldbe:

“Increasesalesby10%fromexistingcustomersbyDec2015.”

2.Improveconversionrate

This is another digital marketing purpose that can be tracked in Google Analytics. BysettingupgoaltrackinginAnalytics,youwillhavereportsonconversionsforyourtrafficsources,campaigns,keywords,landingpages,locationsandsoon.

Withthisdata,youcanthentrackaconversionrateobjectivelike:

“Improveorganictrafficconversionrateby25%byNov2015.”

3.Percentageofreturnvisitors

TheNewvs.ReturningvisitorsisametricthatisavailableinAnalytics,anditiseasytotrack.Knowinghowmanyvisitors return isan importantobjectivebecause ithelpsyouseehowproductiveyourbusinessisatvisitorandcustomerloyalty.

Thishelpsyoutocreateaconcreteandmeasurablegoalthatisrelevanttoyourparticularindustry,andanexampleis:

“15%ofvisitorsshouldbereturnersbytheendoftheyear.”

4.Organictrafficvolumes

Organic traffic is natural traffic from the search engine result pages. It is considered asfree traffic, and it is distinct frompaid traffic. Lots of businesses have the objective toincrease organic visitor traffic by achieving high search engine rankings throughimplementingsearchengineoptimisation.

Toachieve this requiresmakingchanges toyourwebsite thatareeffectiveat improving

rankings and one of the important ones is including keywords in the content. Anotherimportanttacticistobuildqualitylinksthatpointtoyourwebsite.

Adigitalmarketingobjectiveexamplefororganictrafficcouldbe:

“Receive20,000visitorspermonthfromGoogleandBingnaturalresultsbyyearend.”

5.Reducebouncerate

Bouncerateinanalyticsisdefinedaspeoplewhoenteryoursiteandleave(bounce)ratherthan continueviewingother pages.This is an importantmeasureof thequality of yourwebsite because almost all businesses want their visitors to complete an action likepurchase,contactordownloadontheirwebsites.

The lower thebouncerate, thebetter,andmanymarketerssay thatabounceratebelow50%isgood.However,thatdiffersfrombusinesstobusiness.

Hereisabounceratedigitalmarketingobjectiveexample:

“Reducebounceratebelow40%foralltrafficsourcesbyDec2015.”

MobileMarketingStrategyTactics1.Planyourmobilestrategy

Create amobilemarketing strategy to plan howyouwill targetmobile userswith yourproductandserviceoffers.Thestrategyshoulddetailhowyourtargetaudiencesareusingmobile to search,browseandpurchaseproducts.Fora retailer, forexample, thatmeansunderstandingtherelationshipbetweenmobilesearchandpurchasesandhowthatrelatestodesktopsandiftheyusetheirSmartphonesforshowrooming(examiningaproductinashopbeforebuyingitonline).

2.Researchyourmarket

Findoutwhoyourtargetaudienceisandtargetthesegmentsthataremostrelevanttoyourbusiness.Remembermanypeopleusetheirmobiletosearchbuttheyuseotherdevicestomaketheirpurchasesuchasdesktop,laptopandvisitingthestoreinperson.Knowingthisasitrelatestoyoursectorwillhelpyoupickthebeststrategyincludingkeywordsandadstotargetonmobile.

3.Defineyourmobileobjectives

Havingidentifiedyourmarketsandthemobilestrategyyouwanttoimplement,nowyoushould createmarketing objectives that are relevant and specific to your business. UseGoogle Analytics to research your key metrics like session and visitor counts, bouncerates,averagetimeonpage,mobiledevicesusedandthencreateobjectivesforthese.

Thefollowingtipsaremobiletacticsthathelpyoutoachieveyourobjectivesandmeettheneedsofyourcustomers:

1.Mobileresponsivewebsite

Making your site more mobile responsive is important than ever, due to the recentannouncementbyGooglethatsitesthatareresponsivewillbenefitfromhigherrankingsonmobiledevices.

You can test how mobile responsive your website is by using the free tool herehttps://www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

IfyouareonWordPress,therearethousandsofresponsivethemesthatyoucandownloadanduseforyoursite.Overall,amobile-responsivesiteisagooduserexperienceforyourwebsitevisitors,anditleadstogreatervisitorsatisfaction.

2.Createmobileads

IfyourunGoogleAdwordscampaigns,youshouldcreatemobileadsifyouhavespecificoffersformobileusers.Manylocalbusinesseslikerestaurantsusethiseffectivelytoshowtimelyoffersandwithatelephonenumberavailable,visitorscancalldirectlyfromtheirmobiles.

3.Createamobilesite

Thedebateovercreatingaresponsivemobilesiteversushavingamobilewebsitehasbeenraging for awhile.However, a responsive site has suddenlybecomemore important asexplainedabove.However,amobilewebsiteisstillaviableoptionbecauseitallowsyoutostructurequicklyhowyoursitelooksonmobiledevices.

4.Createamobileapp

Foronline retailers, shoppers are increasinglydownloading apps tomake their searchesand purchase of clothing, footwear, accessories and others a lot easier. Also, they aredoing this to get coupons that are easily available on apps and encourage purchase.Retailerswithoutappsarelosingcustomersandtheopportunitytocreateloyalty,totheircompetitorsthathaveapps.

5.Increasemobilebids

If you advertise onGoogle, you can adjust yourmobile bids and increase them togainmoreprominenceonthesedevices.Youcanalsochoosewhichnetworksseeyouradsandwhichdevicestoo,byadjustingthisinyourcampaignsettingsandthenincreasebidsforyourchoices.

6.Localiseyourmobilemarketingstrategy

Mobileisalsoprominentforlocalsearchesandpeopleonthego,findingservicesiseasierandquickeronmobiledevices.SoyoushouldcreateaGoogleMyBusinessaccountandcreatelistingsforyourbusinesstoappearonGoogleMapsandforothersearches.

7.Trackandreport

Aneffectiveway to trackand reportonmobile traffic is throughGoogleAnalytics andcreatingaprofile formobile traffic.Thissimplifiesyourreportingandmakes itall lookless cluttered. You can even filter this further for specific countries that you are onlyinterestedinmarketingto.

EcommerceMarketingStrategySolutions

If you have plans to boost your online sales and increase customer loyalty, then an e-commercemarketingstrategyiswhatyouneed.Itwillhelpyoutargetyourproductstothespecificneedsofyourclientsandbringyouclosertoachievingthemissionandgoalsofyourbusiness.

Hereareninesolutionsforyoure-commercemarketingstrategythatyoucanimplementtodayandhelprealiseyourgoals:

1.Targetyouraudience

First, you should identify the market you want to target and understand how they canbenefit fromyourproducts. It’s important to remember that it’snot the featuresofyourproductsthatpeopleareinterestedin,butratherwhatyourproductscandotomeettheirneeds and wants. So, you should segment the market based on the benefits that eachsegment would be most interested in and then choose the groups that you will targetthroughadvertisingandpromotions.

2.LaunchProductListingAd(PLA)Campaign

GoogleShoppingadshavebeenaroundformanyyearsnowandforonlineretailersthathave a datafeed, promoting their products with this E-commerce marketing strategy isveryeffective.FirstyoushouldcreateadatafeedinCSVformatthatlistsalltheproductsyouwanttopromoteonGoogleandthencreateaGoogleMerchantCentreaccountwhereyou will upload it. Then you link your Merchant Centre account with your GoogleAdwordsaccountandcreateaPLAcampaigntopromoteyourproductsonshoppingads.

3.InvestinMobile

It’s now more important than ever to have a responsive mobile site for the followingreasons:

•Googlerankssitesthataremobile-responsivehigheronmobiledevices

•Createsagreatuserexperienceforvisitorsandbuildstrust

•Makescompletingtransactionsonyourwebsiteeasier

•Adaptionofsitetothedeviceaccessingit

•Leadstocustomerloyalty.

Also,creatingamobileappisanexcellente-commercemarketingstrategyforcustomerretention,buildingloyaltyandincreasingsales.

4.Personaliseyourwebsite

Personalising your site to visitors and clients is a strategy thatAmazondoes extremelywell. It leads togreatercustomerandvisitor loyaltyandultimately leads tohighersalesandprofitability.Somepersonalisation tactics include cross-selling similar products thatyourvisitorhasbeenviewing;recommendingproductsthatyourexistingcustomersmaybe interested in; tailoring thewebpage for thedevice and showsimilar searches in thecategorytheyareviewing.

5.Easynavigation

Visitors should easily findwhat they are looking for on yourwebsite andwithin a fewclicks.Forane-commerce site, it’spossible thatyourwebsitehasa fewmore levelsofnavigation as compared to an information site. However, you should keep this to a

minimumtomakeiteasyforyourvisitorsandthesearchenginestocrawlyourwebsite.Another feature to add is breadcrumbs, so your visitors knowwhere they are on yourwebsite.Also,don’taskyourvisitorstoregisterbeforeplacinganorder;ratherputthisattheendofthecheckoutprocesstominimisedropout.

6.Trackandmeasure

Google Analytics provides you with a wide range of tools and features to track andmeasure your website traffic. You can segment visitors on many variables such asdemographics, location, website engagement, devices used and many others. You alsohave many metrics to measure the success of your online campaigns such as sales,sessions, average time on site, pageviews, bounce rates and visitors. And you can usethese to build the objectives that are relevant to your business. Advanced reports likemultichannels funnels and attribution modelling are available to help you assess theimpact of all your channels and how they contribute to sales – Paid search, Organic,Direct,SocialNetwork,Referrals,etc.

7.Remarketing

RemarketingwithGoogleorFacebookisawaytobringpeoplebacktoyourwebsiteandincrease sales and revenue. So, you can target people, for example,who’ve visited buthavenotplacedanorderandsendthemtargetedmessagesastheybrowseotherwebsitesthatarepartoftheGoogleDisplayNetwork.Asane-commercebusiness,youcanalsousedynamic remarketing to promote products that your visitors have shown interest in onyourwebsite.

8.DisplayAds

Although banner ads have been losing their popularity over the years, and this is seenthrough lowclick-through rates (CTR), theyare still aneffectiveway to increasebrandawareness and increase sales.When targetedwell, theyhavemore impact than text adsbecauseoftheimagesandpicturesyoucanadd,especiallywithrichmediaads,andtheyhaveawiderreachtoo.

9.FacebookAds

Facebook is an effective channel for an e-commerce marketing strategy because itencompasses all aspects of your strategy including customer acquisition, raising brandawareness, sending offers and discounts and launching new products. And you canachieve all of thiswith Facebook ads and drive visitors to yourwebsite and Facebookpage.

7ReasonsWhyYouNeedADigitalMarketingStrategy

Whetheryouareabrickandmortarbusinesswithaminimalonlinepresenceorareapure-playinternetbusinesstargetingonlinecustomers,youneedane-marketingstrategytoplanyourcampaignsandachieveonlinesuccess.

Ane-marketingstrategyhasmanybenefitsandbusinessesthatfailtoplansufferfrom:

•Pooronlinetargeting

•Resourcewastagebecauseoflackoffocus

•LowROI(ReturnOnInvestment)

So, planning is imperative and here are seven reasons why you need an e-marketingstrategy:

1.Meetcustomerneeds

Peoplearebombardedwithads,banners,messagesandemailsontheInternet.Infact,theaveragepersonseesover3000advertsperdayincludingofflinemessagesandit’sdifficultforanyonebusinesstoattractandengagecustomersinthemidstofallthisnoise.

So, it’s important toensure thatyou identifycustomerswhowillbenefit fromwhatyouhave toofferand thencreateacompellingoffer thatcuts through thenoise.Many toolsand channels help you do this, including PPC programs likeGoogleAdwords that areeffectiveatreachingpeoplewhoaresearchingforyourproductsorservices.

2.BoostROI

These online resources are highly measurable too compared to traditional forms ofadvertising such as TV and print and it’s easy to track your spend and measure yourreturns.

WiththehelpoftoolslikeGoogleAnalytics,youcantrackhowmanypeopleseeyourads(impressions), how many visit your site from your ads (clicks), how many of thesepurchase (conversions), how many return (% of return visitors) and a host of othermetrics.

So,allthisdatahelpsyoueasilycalculateyourreturnoninvestmentandensuresthatyouarefocusingyoureffortsonchannelsthataremostprofitableforyourbusiness.

3.Increaseloyalty

Developingane-marketingstrategy isbeneficial increatingcustomer loyaltybecause ithelpsyouidentifythebenefitsthattheyareseekingonyourwebsiteandallcontactpoints,andthenyouadjustyouroffersaccordingly.

Email marketing is one of the best channels for visitor and customer retention, and itshouldbe an activepart ofyour strategywhetheryouare an e-commerce storeorB2Bbusiness.

Withtools likeAnalytics,youcanmeasurevisitor loyaltybyusingsuchreportsasNewvs.ReturningVisitors,andyoucankeeptrackoftheconversionratesofnewvisitorsandreturningvisitorstoseehoweffectiveyourstrategyis.

4.Achievebusinessgoals

Your goals are successmeasures, and your e-marketing strategy helps you create shorttermobjectivesthatleadtosuccessinyourmissionandgoals.Fromtheresearchthatyoucarry out about your target markets and how they use the web to purchase or acquireservices, you can create concrete and measurable objectives that are relevant to yourbusiness.

5.Checkcompetitors

Competitorswill also be launching andmanaging their e-marketing strategies, and you

willbetargetingthesamecustomers.Companiesthatwinusuallyhaveawell-documentedstrategyofhowtheywillmeetcustomerneedsandwantsandwhattheirobjectivesareastheyrelatetothemarket.

6.Monitorprogress

It helps you tomonitor howyour advertising andpromotional activities are performingandhowfaryouarefromachievingyourmarketingobjectives.Youcanalsoadjustanyaspectsofyourstrategyasthemarketchangesandasnewtechnologiesenterthemarket.

7.Trackresults

Using tools thatyouhave identified inyourplanningasbeing important to tracking theresultsofyouronlinecampaigns,youcanassesshoweffectiveyouhavebeenwithyoure-marketingstrategy.

Top7DigitalMarketingChannels

Thereare7topdigitalmarketingchannelsthatyourbusinessshouldberepresentedin,nomatteryour sectoror industry.Thewaypeople research,browse andpurchaseproductsandserviceshaschanged,andmostpeoplearenowmultichannelandmulti-deviceinternetusers.

So, if there are no adequate representation of your prospects, you will lose out tocompetitors.

Toseehowwellyouareperformingonthesechannels,viewyourAnalyticsReportsunderConversions>Multi-ChannelsFunnels>TopConversionPaths.Thiswillrevealhowyouareperformingoneachchannelfore-commercesalesandgoalconversions,andyoucanthenworktowardsoptimisingyourdigitalmarketingstrategy.

Herearethetop7digitalmarketingchannels:

1.PaidSearch

Paidsearchisaleadingdigitalmarketingchannelforthefollowingreasons:

•Quickandeasytoimplement

•Highlymeasurableandeasytotrack

•Seamlessintegrationwithanalytics(AdwordsandGoogleAnalytics)

•Easytostopandabandon

•Highvolumesoftrafficespeciallyfromsearchengines

•Availableonsocialmediaplatformswithhightrafficvolumes

•Sendsqualifiedvisitorsthatarereadytopurchase

GoogleAdwordsistheleadingpaidsearchplatformfollowedbyBingAds,FacebookAdsandothers.ItsprimarypricingmodelisCPC(costperclick)whichisachargeforeveryclickthroughtoyourwebsiteandtheotherisCPM(costperthousandimpressions)which

hasachargerateforevery1000impressionsforyourads.

Paidsearchplaysabigpartinmulti-channelpurchasingandoftenitisimportantatboththeawarenessphaseandpurchaseofthebuyingprocess.Soit’simportanttoensurethatbudgetissufficientforpaidcampaignsandthattheyarealwayslive,becausewhenpeopleare ready to purchase and if they don’t find your website, they will purchase fromcompetitors.

2.OrganicSearch

Organicsearchisalsoknownasnaturalsearch,andyouwillseetheseresultswhenyousearch on Google and other search engines in the main area of the page. One of thefascinating thingsaboutorganic search is that this traffic is free, andyoudon’tpayperclicklikePaidSearchabove.

So,thegoalistogetyoursitetothetopofthesearchenginesforyourchosenkeywords,andthetechniquetodothisisSEO(SearchEngineOptimisation).

Organic search is important throughout all phases of the customer decision-makingprocess (Perception of need, Information search, Evaluation of products, Purchase andPost-purchase evaluation). So you should have keywords targeted at each stage of thebuyingprocess.

3.Direct

As the top channels report inGoogleAnalytics shows, direct traffic plays an importantpart closer to the purchase stage.When prospects have researched using organic, paidsearchandsocialnetworks,andtheyhavefinallydecidedtopurchasefromyou,theywillcomedirectly toyour site.So this is not really adigitalmarketing channel, but it is animportantpartofthestepsthatpeopletaketoconverting.

4.Referrals

Referralsincludeawiderangeofsitesandportalsacrossthewebandahighpresenceofmany sites will often show referrals as being crucial to the paths that people take tocompletingagoalorpurchaseonyourwebsite.

5.SocialNetworks

Social networks don’t often play a big part in digital marketing channels last-clickattributionmodels.That’sbecauseitismoreefficientatcreatingawarenessandinterestinabrandandproductsanditcontributestowebsitevisitors–however,ataminimalvolumecomparedtoorganicandpaidtraffic.

However, it isaneffectivechannelforcreatingloyaltyandcustomerretention.It isalsogreatforcreatingabuzzandsendingoutviralcontentrelatedtoyourbusiness.

6.Email

Email is the most effective digital marketing channel at building visitor and customerloyalty.Visitorswho’vesigneduptoyournewsletterorbloghaveshownahighleveloftrustandbelief thatyoucansupplywhat theywantorneed.Althoughnotprominent inmanytopchannelreportsformanybusinesses,itisstillhighlyeffectiveatboostingsalesandconversions.

7.Display

Display isperhaps thebestdigitalmarketingchannel forgeneratingawareness foryourproducts and brands to an audience that is not familiarwith your business. It has highimpact,andalthoughithaslowclick-throughratecomparedtosearchcampaigns,ithasafarwiderreach.

8DigitalMarketingStrategyMistakestoAvoid

Youronlinewebmarketing strategy iswhat helps your business to increase sales, raisebrand awareness, connect with customers and reach your goals while meeting yourcustomers’ needs. However, there are many pitfalls to avoid and mistakes that couldrenderyourstrategyineffectiveathelpingyouachieveyourbusinessgoals.

So,hereare8onlinewebmarketingstrategymistakestoavoid:

1.Notidentifyingtargetmarketsegments

This is one of the biggest mistakes made by many businesses in their web marketingstrategies.Mostbusinessesdonothavetheresourcestotargetallmarketsegments,sotheychoosesegmentsthatarerelevanttowhattheysellandtopeoplewhohavethemeansandintention to purchase from the business. This is known as target marketing, and it isimportant especially on the web where precise targeting is oftenmore achievable thanofflinemarketing.

2.Nomarketingobjectives

Marketingobjectivesareessential inguiding themarketingstrategyandhavinga targetthatisrelevant,realisticandmeasurableforthebusiness.Objectivesareshort-termgoalsusuallybetween6–12monthsandtheyinformyourinternetmarketingstrategyregardinghow youwill advertise online,what features/benefits to promote, how to position yourproductsorservicesandwhatbudgettoset.

3.Notmonitoringcompetitorstrategies

Monitoringcompetitorsonlinehelpsyouidentifytheirstrengthsandweaknessesandwiththatyoucandecidehowtopositionyourbusinessinthemarket.Whethertheyaredirectorindirectcompetitors,it’simportanttounderstandwhotheyare,whatproductorservicebenefits they have and how they are performing on key metrics like unique visitors,bouncerates,pageviewsetc.

4.Usingtoofewonlinechannels

Using a few channels to promote your business online is quite common with manybusinesses,whichwillfocusonlyonsearchengineoptimisation,socialmediaorbloggingtoreachcustomers.Thisleadstolowconversionratesandwithcustomersusingmultiplechannelstoresearchandpurchaseproducts,youwillmisstheopportunitytoincreasesalesandraisebrandawarenesswithtargetcustomers.

5.Nothavingadigitalmarketingstrategy

Adigitalmarketingstrategyiswhathelpsyoutargetyourmarketsandmeettheirneedandwantswithyouroffers.Yourcustomersshouldbeattheheartofallonlineoperations,andyourstrategyshouldhighlighthowyouwillrespondtotheirneeds.

6.Insufficientbudget

Havingalowbudgetoronethatdoesnotallowyoutoimplementalltacticsthatarepartofyouronlinemarketingstrategymeansthatyouareunlikelytoachieveyourobjectives.So,youshouldprioritisetacticsthatwillhelpyouachieveyourgoalsthataregermanetoyourbusinessandensurethatyouhavesufficientfinancialresourcestoimplementthem.

7.Nobenchmarks

You should create key performance indicators for each of your objectives that help tobenchmarkyourprogressandcompareagainstcompetitorstoo.Doingthishelpstoensurethatyouarealwaysontrackandthatyourobjectivesarerealisticandachievable.

8.Incorrecttracking

Youshoulddecidewhichmetricsarecrucialtoyourbusiness,andwillhelpyouachieveyourobjectives.Salesandleadsareobviousones,andyoutrackthesewithe-commerceand goal tracking inAnalytics, but you need to go deeper into your reporting to trackacquisition,conversionand retentionmetrics inanalytics thatwillhelpyourbusiness toachievegoodprofitabilityandROIontheweb.

4TypesOfDigitalMarketingStrategies

Decidingonanonlinemarketing strategy for your business is one of themost difficulttasksyouwillundertakeontheweb.Therearemanyfactors toconsider includingwhatstageofthelifecycleyourproductsareat–launch,growth,maturityordecline–andhowyouwilltargetcustomerseffectively.

Youalsoneedtomakedecisionsonwhatyouronlinemarketingobjectivesareandthenchoose the promotional tactics and product, price and place tactics that will help youachievethem.

To help you decide onwhich strategy to follow, you should take a closer look at yourproducts, target markets, competitors, budgets and stakeholders and then review thefollowingonlinemarketingstrategysolutions:

MarketPenetration

Amarketpenetrationstrategy involves increasingshareof thecurrentmarketbysellingmore of the existing product to the existing customer base. One online channel toimplementthisstrategyisemailmarketingthroughyourcustomerdatabase.So,emailcanbe used to encourage customers to buy more of your products or services – andrecommendfamilyandfriendstoo.

Socialmedia is another channel to use for amarket penetration strategy becausemanyfollowers and fans will be existing customers and you can use offers and discounts toencouragemorerepeatpurchases.

Remarketingisanothertactictouse,andhereyoucanretargetexistingclientsandremindthem of your offers and encourage them to return to your website. Two platforms tolaunch a remarketing campaign are theGoogleDisplayNetwork (GDN)andFacebook.WithFacebook,youcanuploadyouremaillistordatabaseofcustomersandtargetthemwithtailoredbannersandadsastheyusetheFacebooksite.

Overall,adatabaseofcustomersisessentialtothisonlinemarketingstrategyanditisoneoftheprofitableonesbecauseyouaretargetingindividualsandbusinesseswithwhichyouhaveanexistingrelationship.

MarketDevelopment

Ifyouhaveachievedhighbrandawarenesswithyourtargetsegmentsandyourproductsareatthematurestageoftheproductlifecycleandthereislittleornogrowthprospects;thenamarketdevelopmentstrategyshouldbeconsidered.

This online marketing strategy involves looking for new market segments for existingproducts,andsomeeffectivewaysincludesellingtoaninternationalmarket,ortargetingnewmarketswithanupdatedversionofyourproduct.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is an online channel that allows you to target easilyinternationalmarkets by creating new campaigns onGoogleAdwords or BingAds forexample.So,withlittleornomodificationofproducts,youcantargetprospectsinothermarketswithsimilarneedstodomesticmarkets.

ProductDevelopment

It’s easier to target existing customers with new products because you already have arelationship with them, and they are aware of the level of service and have positiveproductperceptions.

One of the most effective online channels for targeting existing customers with newproducts is email marketing. As mentioned earlier, your customer database includespeople and businesses that have purchased once ormore times in the past andwill bereceptivetoanyproductoffersthatyoupushtothem.

This is especially true if you have launched a new version of a product and customershave to upgrade – for example, with an antivirus software that is upgraded yearly andoperatingsystemsoftwarethatisreleasedeveryfewyears.Thesecustomersareunlikelytodefecttorivalswhenitistimetoupgrade,andyoucanincentivisethemwithdiscountsandvouchers.

Diversification

Diversificationistheriskiestmarketingstrategybecauseitinvolvescreatingnewproductsand targeting newmarkets.A lot of research is required here into the buying habits ofcustomersandthereareonlinechannelsandtoolsthatcanhelpyoudothis.

Advertising is effective at raising awareness quickly and some online channels to usewhenyouhavelaunchedanewproductandwanttotargetnewcustomersareonlinepressreleases,banneradvertisingandpayperclickadvertising.Onlinepressreleasescanprovetobeveryprofitablebecause there isnocharge todistribute them tonewssites, exceptmaybehiringaPRexperttocraftyourmessages.

Socialmedia isalsoeffectiveat raisingbrandawareness. However, targetingcanattimesbedifficult,andyouarelikelytomarkettopeoplewhoareoutsideyourgeographiclocationand,therefore,unabletobenefitfromyouroffers.

However,withpayperclickadvertisingandbanneradvertisingtoo,youcantargetpeople

whoaresearchingforproductslikeyourstofulfilltheirneeds.

VideoMarketingTipsIdentifyyourtargetmarket

Foryourvideostobeeffective,youshouldidentifythemarketsegmentsthatyouwanttoreachand then try tounderstandwhat theirneedsandwantsare.This isoneof thefirstthings todowhenlaunchingavideomarketingstrategyand itwillhelpyou tobemoresuccessful. Knowing your targetmarkets also helps you to create specific and relevantobjectivesthatyouwanttoachieveforyourbusiness.

Keepvideounder10minutes

ShortvideosarepopularonYoutubeandtheyoftenleadtomoreconversionsespeciallywhentheycoverallthekeypointsandhaveacalltoaction.Viewersarelikelytoclickandwatchashortvideoandtheyarealsolikelytowatchthemtotheendunlikevideosthatstretchfor30minutesormore.However,yourvideosshouldbeaslongastheyoughttobe,tomakesureyoucoverallkeypoints–butkeepthemshorterwhereverpossible.

Runavideoadcampaign

AftercreatingandpostingyourvideostoYouTube,youshouldpromotetheminAdwordstogetsomeviewsand traffic toyourwebsite.This isespeciallyhelpfulwhen thevideoandyourYouTubechannelarestillnewandyouhaveno followersandexposures.Youcancreateavideocampaign inAdwordsand linkyourAdwordsandYouTubeaccountsandthenstartpromotingyourvideos.

Includethekeywordsinthetitle

Visitors on YouTube search using keywords to find videos and if you include thekeywordsinthetitleanddescription,yourvideoismorelikelytocomeupintheresults.Asyour channel growsand as it gainspopularity, your rankingswill increase andyourvideoswillappearatthetopoftheresults.YourvideoswillalsostarttoappearinGooglesearchresultsandthiswillboostyourtraffic.

Postitonyourwebsite

After posting it to YouTube, Vimeo and other video sites, you should post it to yourwebsitetogetmoreviews.Manypeopledon’tliketoreadandtheywillprefertowatchavideoorafilminstead,soyoushouldbetargetingtheseprospects.Thisisespeciallytrueontheinternetwherepeoplearealmostalwaysinahurryandwillnothangaroundtoreadyourcontent.Videoalsoleadstogreaterengagement,andpeoplearemorewillingtoleavecommentstoexpresstheirviewsandopinions.

Createanoutlineinthedescription

Yourdescriptioniswhereyoushoulddescribewhatyourviewerswilllearnaboutinyourvideo. Itwill help them to stay longer and knowwhat to expect as theywatch it.Youshouldincludeasynopsisofthevideointhedescriptionandacalltoaction,andthiswillhelpthemrememberyourvideoanddowhatyourequirethemtodoafterwatchingit.

Trackkeymetrics

Videohas someuniquemetrics thatyouwon’t findwithother traffic sources and theseincludeViews,View rate, andAverageCPV.Oneof theeasiest tounderstand is “videoplayed to” – which shows how long your video played for. So, you can see whatpercentageofyourvideowasplayedto25%,50%,75%and100%.Thishelpstoseehoweffectiveyourvideoisandhowengagedpeoplearewithit.

Createaneventinanalytics

Ifyouuploadyourvideoonyourwebsite,youshouldcreateaneventinGoogleAnalyticstotrackhowmanyviewsandinteractionsyouget.Creatinganeventiseasyandrequiresafewchangestotheanalyticstrackingcodeandthenre-uploadingittoyourwebsite.

Giveawayafreeoffer

Includinga freeofferwithyourvideoswill increase traffic toyourwebsite and lead togreatervisitorretention.Includealinkinthedescriptiontoyoursiteandalsoincludeitinthevideo itself, so thatyourvisitorscanclick-through toyourwebsite to receive it andthencreateanopt-informthattheycansignuptoastheyclaimtheoffer.

Abouttheauthor

MikeNcube isanawardwinningdigitalmarketingconsultantandmarketingauthor.Hehasover10yearsexperienceinimplementingandmanagingdigitalmarketingstrategiesfor clients in a wide range of sectors including retail, travel, professional services andcommerce.MikeisacertifiedGoogleAdwordsexpertsandhasmanagedclientaccountsforover10years

HeistheCo-FounderofSearchOptimize,aleadingmarketingagencythatofferssearchmarketingservices,copywriting,digitalstrategyandonlinebranding.

Mike is the author of many articles and white papers on online marketing, and hespecialisesinpayperclickadvertisingandwebcopywriting.

Website:http://www.mikencube.co.uk

Twitter:https://twitter.com/mikencube

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/MikeNcubeMarketer