How to Correct a Failing Marketing Strategy

Developing and delivering a successful marketing strategy can be difficult if you take all the factors into consideration. On one end, you have the products your brand needs to push to new markets and audiences… While on the other — you have to do justice to the people who use your products already.

Playing both sides successfully can be difficult for many marketing teams, and sometimes their efforts don't bear fruit as anticipated. What can we do about a failing marketing strategy that seemingly only goes downhill with each passing day, before pulling the plug on our project?

Evaluate the situation

The most important thing you can do once you notice a failure in your marketing efforts is to breathe deep. We can notice these crises even into the largest international companies. And they always find a way to make things work in the end. Ask yourself and your team some fundamental questions about the marketing strategy you have developed. Why the feedback is so negative?

Did you take your audience's needs into account or did you create a content strategy without consulting anyone?

What forms of media and offline promotion did you implement in your strategy?

Did you go over the budget in your endeavors? Did you spend money sparingly and have some money leftover to make things right?

Are you capable of doing small customer feedback queries in order to get a closer understanding of what went wrong?

Did you get the approval of your CEO and executive board before pushing the marketing content on the market?

It is important to know where you stand with your project. While these questions are not easy to answer once things start showing cracks of failure. Don't assign blame to anyone on your team. Focus on working together in fixing a common problem – project evaluations can come later.

Rethink your audience

The most common problem when it comes to a failing marketing strategy is a fundamental misunderstanding of the audience it was meant to move or inspire. How did you and your team go about targeting the audience you developed the content strategy around? If you don't have the option of conducting additional research into your target demographic, take a look at the content you used to approach them.

You might be on the wrong track if you used:

muted, bleak and colorless visual content

with messages filled with despair to connect with family-centric groups and parents.

Consulting sites such as rewarded essays is a good idea to come to grips with what went wrong in your strategy. It will always be either the wrong audience or wrong message. This same example applies to every audience you may or may not target with your content.

Align with your company's vision

Another common issue that marketing teams come across is the lack of understanding of their company's vision and long-term goals. Taking a look at Coca-Cola, we can determine that:

their motto is to spread love and joy around the world

make people come together in happiness.

If they created anything that doesn't revolve around this idea, it would surely be met with raised eyebrows and cold stares from both the audiences and investors alike.

Consult your board and CEO if you don't have a proper understanding of your brand's mission, slogan, and long-term milestones. It's better to ask someone familiar with the brand than to quietly let the marketing campaign fizzle out and wait for the hammer to fall once the board realizes you made no progress.

Differentiate from the competition

Sometimes companies like to play it safe and take a peek at what their competitors or partners are doing. Taking a peek is always recommended, especially when talking about international campaigns which span over different media.

However, copying something from someone else's playbook will likely result in failure no matter how hard you try to make it look original. The problem is that marketing content is served to people around the world in the same way for every brand. If your company is featured in the social media today, your time will come to an end in a week or two and you will be replaced by another company, and then another one after that.

Marketing content is an instant message system that allows you to send a message to the target audience to see, respond to and react upon – no more, no less. Using the same visual or textual layout and elements as your competition will leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who was thinking about using your product. Try to be as original as possible while still abiding by some set industry principles.

Keep going or switch things up

Once you have assessed the situation you found yourself in, there will usually be two choices you can choose from. You can either keep going with the strategy you have already created and done minor adjustments in your content in order to compensate for the previous failure or switch things up completely.

Depending on the state of your marketing campaign so far, you can backpedal to a certain point and start anew like nothing happened, apart from the time and money that went down the drain. This is still an acceptable loss given that your campaign barely bore any fruit so far.

Weigh your pros and cons, assess how much time and resources you still have on your hands and make the final call. The data you gather from a failed campaign is sometimes even more valuable than that which comes from a successful one, so make sure you have everything documented and ready for evaluation.

In conclusion

Learning from our mistakes is an essential part of life – even seasoned professionals make mistakes. Knowing when you are wrong and trying to amend for that mistake is a greater lesson than conducting a good campaign and learning very little from it.

Plan ahead and always take failure into consideration when talking about high-risk marketing strategies with unproven methods or content strategies. Having a plan B if things go south is just as important as having a marketing plan. So give it some proper thought while you still have some breathing room.

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Source: How to Correct a Failing Marketing Strategy

Mobile Marketing: 3 Reasons You Need It [Video]

Did you know that people search more on mobile devices than on their desktops in most countries around the world? Without a mobile marketing strategy, you could be missing out on those searchers.

Watch this video to learn three ways you can make your marketing mobile-friendly:

Mobile can impact most aspects of your marketing strategy, including PPC, listings, and SEO. Get more information about mobile marketing on our website, and download our free on-demand webinar below for five search marketing trends you need to know.

Download Our Free On-Demand Webinar 5 Search Marketing Trends You Need to Know

Thank you. Please check your email for details on your request.

Stephanie Heitman

Stephanie is the Strategic Communications Marketing Manager at ReachLocal. She has experience in digital marketing, social media management, and content creation for SMBs. Stephanie specializes in helping businesses improve their online reputation and appreciate the impact social media and digital marketing can have on their brand. When she isn't researching the latest online marketing tips and trends, she enjoys eating pizza and watching too much TV with her husband and her dogs.

View all articles

Source: Mobile Marketing: 3 Reasons You Need It [Video]

Small Business Must Take Advantage of New Website Technologies to Win Consumer Loyalty

"Like my website? I built it myself!"

The good old days -- when a small business owner could buy a domain, upload a template, connect it to a few social profiles, and be in business. The DIY approach to crafting a web presence lowered the barriers to entry for many and helped launch a lot of great brands.

Those days are over.

Now, the internet is growing up, and consumer behaviors are changing rapidly as we adopt the new technology that makes it easier to connect. These changes are forcing marketing and web development professionals to grow up, too, including small business.

It's critical to understand just where the change is happening, and how this will impact small-medium sized business (SMB) digital strategy.

Voice search and the connected consumer

With the increasing diversity and adoption of Internet-connected and voice search-enabled devices, consumer behavior is shifting rapidly.

For example, take the eye-opening study from Walker Sands that came out this past summer. They found that 43 percent of Millennials have used voice search to make a purchase in the past year.  Not only that, 24 percent of the people they surveyed already own an Amazon Echo or Google Home device, and 20 percent more said they planned to get one within a year.

The uptake of this technology is fast and furious. Business websites need to be better prepared to deal with this.

Itai Sadan, CEO of site building platform Duda, says believes marketing and developers ignore this change at their own risk.

"If you think about the way you used the web just six or seven years ago, compared to today, you'll realize just how much has changed," Sadan explains. "Voice search is still relatively new in terms of technology, but it is causing a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. And I believe marketers and site developers aren't paying enough attention to it."

Adding voice search to your app, or mobile version of your website is an effective way to stay ahead of this trend. You can do it with HTML5 or can easily integrate voice search with a variety of WordPress plugins. 

SMB marketing strategies need to keep up.

These changes in consumer behavior are having a massive impact on SMB strategy, and where to focus.

First of all, SEO strategies need to be re-evaluated. People are searching for companies and products "near me," especially on mobile devices.  So optimizing for local SEO becomes especially critical.

"As content marketing became hot and search algorithms evolved, it seems that SEO got lazy," Sadan notes. "We heard a lot of talk that meta-tags weren't as important anymore. That's just wrong. And it's especially important in a solid local SEO strategy."

Secondly, e-commerce continues to grow, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, the National Retail Federation expects growth of eight to twelve percent this year. Millennials are especially heavy online buyers; UPS estimates they made 54 percent of their purchases online last year.

Clearly, a solid e-commerce platform is vital to SMBs. More and more consumers want to shop online, even from a local provider. So it's pretty shocking when you realize that only about 24 percent of SMB retailers sell online today.

If small businesses are going to stay relevant, they need to prepare for these quickly unfolding realities. And the marketers and web developers that serve this audience, must be prepared too.

Driving traffic in a voice search world

The website is the backbone of any brand's digital presence, even in this age of the omni-channel experience -- for one very important reason, as Sadan explains.

"While social media and third-party distribution platforms are important for exposure, your site is still the one piece of online real estate you can own," he notes. "It's the only online space you fully control and where you can truly own brand."

Part of owning that brand means building that site to take full advantage of best practices in site marketing. 

This is where small business -- and the marketers and web developers who serve them -- can gain a fairly important competitive advantage. A study by Bing and Catalyst found that just 17 percent of marketers use Schema.org markup; the ones that do will have a definite advantage in search. The ones that don't, well, this is something that will need to be addressed. 

What all this means for marketers and web developers working with SMBs

When the internet was young, a small business owner or marketing professional could learn some basic HTML and CSS and create an okay website and get online. Nowadays, the level of programming fluency needed to implement an effective digital marketing strategy is much, much higher.

Website builders and other SaaS platforms will play an increasingly important role in providing tools that people with low-to-no tech skills can use to run their businesses. Companies that focus on creating these extensible platforms, with tools and features that web professionals can cross-sell and integrate with their other services, will be the next indispensable marketing tools. Make sure to test new technologies and see which work best for your business. 

In summary: 

Add voice search to your website.

Optimize for local search. 

Figure out your e-commerce strategy. 

Use schema.org markup

Test new tech. 

All of this creates an exciting environment in the digital marketing space. Over the next few years, we'll see a wellspring of powerful tech advances that will drive more effective web design and digital marketing strategies. And, of course, that's good for everybody.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Source: Small Business Must Take Advantage of New Website Technologies to Win Consumer Loyalty

Marketing Success: Public Relations Owner Puts Marketing Goals Into Perspective

 As founder and owner of Stephanie Krol Public Relations, Stephanie Krol has more than 15 years of public relations experience working with large household names to startups. Krol's position entails generating strategic press coverage and visibility for businesses, organizations and nonprofits. She considers herself a connector and brand storyteller. Krol successfully alerts the world about a client's organization, new project or venture. Considered an expert in marketing and the public relations industry, Krol offers strategic suggestions to help elevate a business to the next level without breaking the bank. 

 What questions should a small business consider when developing a market plan?

What's your big marketing goal? Always have a plan. Just don't say you're different. How can you show you are different? Develop a game plan for your marketing goals in order to show measurement. If you are not sure how, enroll the help of a consultant to build a marketing roadmap.

 What would you suggest to a small business owner for ways to stand out from the competition?

Be you. This is your brand. What makes your organization special and standout? How are you making life better for your clientele? Build on this. These aspects should be conveyed in your strategic key messaging that can be used for your website, email signatures, blog, social, brochures and business cards to media relations. Also, think about the 'faces' of your organization. Are these personalities memorable? Can they make a connection?

 How can a small business best serve the needs of their clients?

Look from the outside in. Have a pulse on what your clientele is thinking. Conduct focus groups for outside perspectives. Their feedback will be a goldmine.

 How important is it for a small business to be involved with the community?

Extremely important! Do good. Being a part of your community should not be a marketing tactic, but rather a brand virtue. What is something your organization is passionate about? Get involved. By paying it forward, you will always get back more than you give in your professional and personal life. I promise, this will pay off for years to come.

 In what ways can a small business get their brand out into the world?

Live your brand!  Marketing really is 24/7. There is always an opportunity to promote your brand in and outside of work.  Whether you are at a coffee shop, playgroup or dog park, on your off hours you are still a brand ambassador. Always be open to new ideas and experiences, and always remember you are a brand ambassador. Be creative living your brand. For example, find fun and strategic ways to use your identity, your logo. Connect it with things you and your employees love. Look for interesting partnerships that can open the door to new clientele.

 What are the best marketing strategies you would suggest?

Be memorable, but strategic. Cut the jargon. We are bombarded with marketing messages every single minute. When you have something to say, make it concise and memorable. What do you want the public to remember about your brand?

  This article was written by Michelle Guilbeau for Small Business Pulse 

Source: Marketing Success: Public Relations Owner Puts Marketing Goals Into Perspective

Content Marketing Mistakes Made by Amateurs

Marketing your blog can be very difficult and you have to explore what methods are working for you. For example, I've found one of the hardest things of blog and content marketing is the inability to find an effective method quickly. Sometimes, it can take months to find an avenue that is working better for you than others. You have to keep in mind, some marketing methods will be more effective depending on the niche you're involved in. However, content marketing relates to every niche because it's essentially promoting your products and/or service through your content. The study of content marketing has been growing over the last several years because it's proven to be very effective in creating conversions. We also have numerous case studies that allow us to learn quickly what mistakes to avoid. Having a better understanding of them will ensure you don't waste time on the unnecessary.

Over the last few weeks, I've been writing out a list of the common content marketing mistakes made by amateurs and would like to go over a few right now. Let's get started…

Automation

One of the biggest mistakes I've seen bloggers make is NOT automating when they can. Content marketing is only effective when you get your posts out in front of people so they can actively engage with them. However, I see many people fail to do this simply because they are lazy and can't find the time. However, this process should be completely automated so all you have to do is set it up once and let the tools handle the rest. For example, Bufferapp.com is a great tool for Twitter that will automatically post "tweets" on your behalf. There are other great tools perfect for Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media platforms. You should research a few, making use of them going forward because they are very effective in marketing your content WITHOUT you doing any work after the initial setup.

Depending on your type of blog, you can even automate the curation process by using tools that gather content from around the web and post it on your blog.

The Headlines

You have to make sure your content stands out compared to your competition so it's important to focus on your headlines. Explore popular keywords and make sure you know what your audience is looking so you can provide a taste to them through your headlines. Keep in mind, your content will be displayed in search engines with other relevant search results so it's important you're the one who gets all the click-through creating increased conversions.

My strategy is very simple because it involves me finding popular keywords that my audience is looking for. Then I write out my entire content and write down the main points on a separate piece of paper. Before I publish, I'll skim through my main points and create an awesome headline reflecting as many of these points as I possibility can. My objective is to standout compared to everyone else because this will increase the likelihood of success.

Wrong Content Type

Sometimes, getting your point across and converting your readers doesn't have to be a lengthy process. By "lengthy", I mean 2,000+ words of content because sometimes, getting right to the point is the best approach. A recent study shows the most popular type of content is "List Type" because it's short and right to the point. Imagine how useful this type of content is when people are searching for "top 10 vacation spots" and your blog is number 1 in the SERP's with your title being "50 Beautiful Places to Travel in the World". I'm sure you'll get the highest CTR and will easily be able to convert your visitors.

I suggest focusing on list type of content because it provides substance quickly and Google loves it for the value it provides.

Optimizing Content

Content marketing is only useful if people are able to find you online, which is why I encourage everyone to always optimize their content before publishing. This means to have the right keywords in your content and always research to find out what your audience is looking for. As a matter of fact, research should be done way before so you can write content around your keywords. This way, you have guidelines and direction as you begin typing, but after completion, it's time to tweak your content. For example, add "target" keywords in the title, first paragraph, throughout the body, and in the concluding paragraph. Don't forget text formatting as this has been proven to help, for example,

Bold

Underline

H1, H2, and H3

Italic

Source: Content Marketing Mistakes Made by Amateurs

Small Business Must Take Advantage of New Website Technologies to Win Consumer Loyalty

"Like my website? I built it myself!"

The good old days -- when a small business owner could buy a domain, upload a template, connect it to a few social profiles, and be in business. The DIY approach to crafting a web presence lowered the barriers to entry for many and helped launch a lot of great brands.

Those days are over.

Now, the internet is growing up, and consumer behaviors are changing rapidly as we adopt the new technology that makes it easier to connect. These changes are forcing marketing and web development professionals to grow up, too, including small business.

It's critical to understand just where the change is happening, and how this will impact small-medium sized business (SMB) digital strategy.

Voice search and the connected consumer

With the increasing diversity and adoption of Internet-connected and voice search-enabled devices, consumer behavior is shifting rapidly.

For example, take the eye-opening study from Walker Sands that came out this past summer. They found that 43 percent of Millennials have used voice search to make a purchase in the past year.  Not only that, 24 percent of the people they surveyed already own an Amazon Echo or Google Home device, and 20 percent more said they planned to get one within a year.

The uptake of this technology is fast and furious. Business websites need to be better prepared to deal with this.

Itai Sadan, CEO of site building platform Duda, says believes marketing and developers ignore this change at their own risk.

"If you think about the way you used the web just six or seven years ago, compared to today, you'll realize just how much has changed," Sadan explains. "Voice search is still relatively new in terms of technology, but it is causing a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. And I believe marketers and site developers aren't paying enough attention to it."

Adding voice search to your app, or mobile version of your website is an effective way to stay ahead of this trend. You can do it with HTML5 or can easily integrate voice search with a variety of WordPress plugins. 

SMB marketing strategies need to keep up.

These changes in consumer behavior are having a massive impact on SMB strategy, and where to focus.

First of all, SEO strategies need to be re-evaluated. People are searching for companies and products "near me," especially on mobile devices.  So optimizing for local SEO becomes especially critical.

"As content marketing became hot and search algorithms evolved, it seems that SEO got lazy," Sadan notes. "We heard a lot of talk that meta-tags weren't as important anymore. That's just wrong. And it's especially important in a solid local SEO strategy."

Secondly, e-commerce continues to grow, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, the National Retail Federation expects growth of eight to twelve percent this year. Millennials are especially heavy online buyers; UPS estimates they made 54 percent of their purchases online last year.

Clearly, a solid e-commerce platform is vital to SMBs. More and more consumers want to shop online, even from a local provider. So it's pretty shocking when you realize that only about 24 percent of SMB retailers sell online today.

If small businesses are going to stay relevant, they need to prepare for these quickly unfolding realities. And the marketers and web developers that serve this audience, must be prepared too.

Driving traffic in a voice search world

The website is the backbone of any brand's digital presence, even in this age of the omni-channel experience -- for one very important reason, as Sadan explains.

"While social media and third-party distribution platforms are important for exposure, your site is still the one piece of online real estate you can own," he notes. "It's the only online space you fully control and where you can truly own brand."

Part of owning that brand means building that site to take full advantage of best practices in site marketing. 

This is where small business -- and the marketers and web developers who serve them -- can gain a fairly important competitive advantage. A study by Bing and Catalyst found that just 17 percent of marketers use Schema.org markup; the ones that do will have a definite advantage in search. The ones that don't, well, this is something that will need to be addressed. 

What all this means for marketers and web developers working with SMBs

When the internet was young, a small business owner or marketing professional could learn some basic HTML and CSS and create an okay website and get online. Nowadays, the level of programming fluency needed to implement an effective digital marketing strategy is much, much higher.

Website builders and other SaaS platforms will play an increasingly important role in providing tools that people with low-to-no tech skills can use to run their businesses. Companies that focus on creating these extensible platforms, with tools and features that web professionals can cross-sell and integrate with their other services, will be the next indispensable marketing tools. Make sure to test new technologies and see which work best for your business. 

In summary: 

Add voice search to your website.

Optimize for local search. 

Figure out your e-commerce strategy. 

Use schema.org markup

Test new tech. 

All of this creates an exciting environment in the digital marketing space. Over the next few years, we'll see a wellspring of powerful tech advances that will drive more effective web design and digital marketing strategies. And, of course, that's good for everybody.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Source: Small Business Must Take Advantage of New Website Technologies to Win Consumer Loyalty

Mixing in Digital in the B2B Marketing Approach

For a long time, business-to-business (B2B) marketing has valued events as a solid way to generate new sales leads. But research from Sagefrog Marketing Group shows that B2B marketers are augmenting that traditional method with a digital-minded approach.

In its October 2017 survey of US B2B marketing professionals, Sagefrog found three of the top four areas of marketing spending were digital in nature. In fact, website development topped the list. But the old mainstay of face-to-face tradeshows and events was the second most popular answer, followed by digital marketing and social media.

In another sign of the ascendance of digital marketing techniques, Sagefrog also found that email and social media were tied as the most commonly used marketing tactic, employed by 79% of respondents. Tradeshows and events were used by 59%, but the next three most popular marketing tools—search engine optimization, blogging and online display advertising/pay-per-click (PPC) advertising—all fall squarely in the realm of the digital.

The objectives of marketing were largely what one might expect them to be, according to Sagefrog. The firm found that sales lead generation was a high priority for 67% of respondents. Converting leads to customers was the second most important goal for marketers polled, named as an objective by 47%.

That's an interesting outcome, considering the latter task has previously fallen largely on the shoulders of salespeople. It may also be a reflection of a sales funnel that has been disrupted from its traditional structure thanks to the rise of digital marketing tools.

eMarketer has also found that B2B marketing efforts are getting more complex. Where they once focused strongly on lead generation, marketing campaigns are now also being complemented by account-based marketing, in which B2B firms focus personalized efforts on high-value accounts to drive revenue growth.

—Rahul Chadha

Source: Mixing in Digital in the B2B Marketing Approach

The growth of walled gardens and the closing off of the open web

22 November 2017    2 min read

Walled gardens are here to stay, so marketers must quickly adjust strategy to make the most of them, writes Richard Knott.

Until recently, marketers experienced a golden age of customer data and options in technology partners, where access to valuable audience information was open and easily accessible, enabled client-side by your choice of any technology vendor. This gave marketing teams fantastic insight into consumer behaviour and the ability to target audiences through their own technology infrastructure.

While this is still very possible across many publishers that utilise open adtech infrastructures, from a scale perspective, this age is under serious pressure. Thanks to the recent rise of 'walled gardens', such as Facebook, Snapchat, Apple News, and some Google products, which have closed off this 'open marketing web'.

Terms are now dictated by these providers as to what data can be applied, what data you can access, and what technologies you can use to market to their users.

Walled gardens are sites that don't have open access to data or don't allow access to be served through third-party adtech infrastructure. They rigorously gather and protect valuable customer data to build strong, personal connections with users across their networks, and have the ability to increasingly stop other brands from accessing that information or using alternative stores of data.

Facebook before Google

A quote taken from a recent keynote from marketing guru David Raab at CMO Momentum conference put into context just how big walled gardens have become: "You used to go to a store, with a shopping cart, then Amazon got you before you went to the store. Then Google got you searching before you got to Amazon. Then Facebook got you before you searched, so you didn't get to Google."

Sites like Facebook, Amazon, WeChat, Apple News, and SnapChat cannot be accessed by marketers through the open web, through a standard programmatic exchange. You can't access this inventory without using their own technology or in some cases a small pre-approved list of vendors. Ultimately, the likes of Facebook often understand your customers better than you do. While the list of walled gardens is relatively short, Facebook, WeChat, YouTube, Twitter and the likes hold up to 80% of the inventory out there (and up to 80% of digital media budgets), whereas ten years ago it was all open web. So the days of the open web, which is easily accessible to any third party, are over.

All in the data

Perhaps the biggest limitation marketers face as a result of walled gardens is the inability to target audiences based on their own data store of audience segments. Further, the audiences that they can target – as dictated by the walled garden – are often not third-party verified in any way. It is in this instance that the walls in walled gardens are evident. The walls are for keeping others out and keeping data in.

If a marketer was to run an ad campaign on Facebook, for example, the data they get back may not correlate to any of their other marketing tracking – leaving the marketer in potential confusion.

Get the tech right

Walled gardens aren't going anywhere so it is important that marketers and advertisers think creatively as to how to make the most of them. One of the ways of doing this is by using the right technologies.

There are some small changes happening for the better for marketers and advertisers.

Facebook, for example, recently lowered its walls slightly to allow more access the vast wealth of customer data it possesses. It now offers third-party viewability verification through a small number of selected vendors, in a move that will enable advertisers to more accurately measure ROI. This is an important step forward, albeit a small step, but one we can hope to see replicated across more walled gardens as demand for a more inclusive digital marketing ecosystem increases.

Creative management platforms offer an opportunity to further leverage third-party technology within these walled gardens. For example, you can build and publish your advertising creative in one place; publish across the walled gardens and the open web; compare performance metrics, make any required edits or changes – all in the one platform.

An example of this is the partnerships that we forged with SnapChat and Apple News earlier in the year to enable advertisers to easily build great creative on their platform.

Walled gardens are by no means in the wrong. It is entirely appropriate for a content provider to wish to curate the quality of technology and creative appearing on their site. It is also a necessity for sites holding vast personal data to have appropriate controls and management of who can access it. While they obtain important information, walled gardens such as social media platforms offer marketers and advertisers a huge amount of opportunity, such as greater amplification and precise targeting.

The key is knowing how to make the most of them. If you get that right you will thrive in the age of walled gardens and closing off of the open web.

Richard Knott is APAC regional director at Celtra.

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Further reading

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Image copyright: edwardsamuel © 123RF

Source: The growth of walled gardens and the closing off of the open web

Marketing to Millennials: Web Design and Internet Marketing Strategies That Appeal to the Most Digitally Active Consumer Group

LONG ISLAND, N.Y., Nov. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ Lounge Lizard is globally recognized as a top Long Island web design company within the web and mobile app development industry. Lounge Lizard's brandtenders are creative, tech-savvy, and passionate developers of innovative strategies that drive conversions for both startup and established clients of all industries. They are the "best of breed since 1998."

Millennials are tech savvy. When marketing to them online, it's not enough for businesses to simply have a website and a few social media platforms. Successfully competing for the millennial sale requires an exceptional web design and a customized internet marketing strategy. Empathetic to the difficulties businesses face successfully marketing to Millennials, Lounge Lizard, a reputable website design, maintenance, and marketing company, shares several helpful strategies across two key areas: web design and internet marketing:

Use a responsive website design. Millennials consume information using a variety of devices. Therefore, any website hoping to target Millennials must be able to adapt to the device being used. This means a mobile-friendly design is a must. Websites that maintain a pleasing aesthetic and exceptional functionality across a variety of devices will be most successful.

Opt for custom web design. Millennials grew up with technology, so they are less likely to be impressed by a template website design. In fact, a website that is easily recognized as employing a template may be a turn off. For this reason, it is imperative that businesses opt for custom web design that's original and engaging.

Employ a friendly brand voice. The era of stiff office professionalism and the hard sell is over as far as Millennials are concerned. To truly win the hearts of these savvy and creative young people, businesses need to be more informal. Any approach to engaging Millennials should involve speaking to them as distinctive individuals and showcasing the unique you. Businesses should also make sure their web design and webcopy provide a human experience. Don't be afraid to partner with a worthy cause and showcase your generosity. Millennials tend to prefer companies that connect meaningfully with the broader world.

Incorporate social media and video. Millennials are active on a number of social media platforms. Your web design and internet marketing strategy should include connections to social media. Of course, a picture can say a thousand words, so using videos in your marketing strategy is also an excellent idea. There is reason to believe videos will be the next big wave in internet content marketing.

Feature a live chat option on your website. Everyone likes to be treated as if they're the only person in the room and Millennials are no different. Including a live chat feature on your website as part of your web design allows visitors to quickly connect with a company representative. The opportunity to immediately have their questions and concerns addressed makes them feel special and that feeling can translate to sales.

Create a customized internet marketing strategy. Internet marketing involves several strategies, including but not limited to: social media marketing, blogging, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization. A customized plan hones in on the strategies that will produce results for your particular business and goals. However, it's difficult to be an expert in every area of internet marketing. Therefore, it's best to work with a professional marketing company who can devise a custom plan to promote your business and blow your competition out of the water.

About Lounge Lizard: Lounge Lizard Long Island Website Design Company is an award-winning, high-end design boutique specializing in website and mobile app development, UX/UI, branding, and marketing. Lounge Lizard excels in creating the ultimate brand strategy, fully loaded with expertly crafted visuals that work together to increase sales and effectively communicate a client's unique personality.

Media Contact: Ken Braun, Lounge Lizard, 631-581-1000, ken.braun@loungelizard.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

Source: Marketing to Millennials: Web Design and Internet Marketing Strategies That Appeal to the Most Digitally Active Consumer Group

McKinsey on digital marketing: Personalization is not what you think

Digital marketing is a complicated beast that demands collaboration across such diverse disciplines as branding, content, and data science. The best marketers combine company strategy and brand goals with a keen understanding of what makes the customer tick; listening to customers is truly the secret sauce of successful marketing.

Digital tracking allows marketers to aggregate user data into segments based on relevant actions. For example, "people who responded to an offer" and "website visitors that came from our newsletter" are two simple categories.

Data analysis gives us a schematic view of how people in our target segments behave -- what they have done in the past and, ideally, what they will do in the future. Among the reasons that Amazon is so powerful, and feared by competitors, is because its data can even predict buyer intent.

However, a strong caution is necessary. Despite the utility and seduction of data, we must not forget that a real person lies behind every data point. This human understanding is called empathy. When united with data, empathy fuels the relationships that bind buyers tightly to a brand. Bringing empathy and human understanding together with data is the most powerful formula.

All of which shows the practical complexities of modern marketing. Organizational and process challenges, the need for specialized skills like data science, and the demand for human empathy make digital marketing hard.

Seeking to find a path forward, I invited a top digital marketing advisor, and former CMO, to be the guest on episode 256 of the CXOTalk conversations with innovators. Robert Tas helps lead the digital marketing practice at advisory consulting firm McKinsey. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Pegasystems.

The conversation with Robert was insightful and sheds light on many of the critical issues described above. It's definitely worth a careful listen.

Watch our whole discussion in the video embedded above and read edited excerpts below. You can also check out the complete transcript.

Which digital marketing trends or issues are important to your clients?

The first one that I look at and I hear a lot of people talking about is personalization. I think the idea of not treating every customer the same is really, really important in today's world. A lot of companies are trying to figure out how to do that better.

The second is data. You talked about it at the beginning of your intro. Data, data, data: everyone is trying to figure out how to harness the volume of information we now have and put it into action.

The third is design. I think this is one of the newer areas that's getting a lot of traction. Understanding how to do user-centric design and how do I make my experiences relevant to my customer base.

The fourth that I like to talk about is marketing technology, one of the biggest buzzwords going there, but understanding the components of the MarTech stack, and CMOs are now becoming integrators.

Then the fifth one, which is the most evolving, is this new concept of the operating model, the speed at which we work. The reality of digital marketing today is the tools we have. We can do things a lot faster than we've ever done before.

I think CMOs are trying to figure out all five of those things to transform their marketing organizations.

What is marketing personalization?

I appreciate the question because I think people think they know what it is. I'm going to start by saying what I don't think it is.

The first thing [is] that people, when they talk about personalization, often confuse it with targeting. Absolutely every client that I talk to and every person in the industry, we all want to do better targeting. I think personalization has a piece of that, but I think of personalization as really helping manage a customer through their journey. That could include advertising. That could include experiences, both physical and digital. But it's that end-to-end view of helping the client, the customer, get through that journey in a thoughtful way.

One of my favorite examples is when people tease me about [how] I'm a big coffee guy, so I drink a lot of Starbucks. Everybody knows I use my mobile app to get it every day. Everybody thinks that that's where my personalization example stops.

The reality is, I do love the Starbucks app. But what I think the most impressive piece of personalization that Starbucks does is they put my name on the cup. What an amazing experience that is. Being able to tie my journey all the way through with that little name on it, it just makes that whole experience work.

I think companies need to figure out how to build their version of that for their customer. How do you delight them across that journey? That's where real personalization is.

Where do measurement and data science fit into digital marketing?

Understanding measurement is an important battleground area. My second point on the list was that insights piece, which has many connotations.

Number one, we must move away from this last click model. Today I see so many companies still in that silo of making decisions in one of their channels. They judge a campaign with a click, and that's how they deem success or not and are spending lots of money to do that. We have to move away and understand how the customer buys.

I came from financial services, where people are not buying a mortgage on the last click, yet Google search does extremely well for mortgage buyers because that's where we start our journey. Being able, as you said, to understand our customer across the journey, mapping those out and understanding how they work, and expanding our measurement systems is paramount to doing personalization and great modern marketing.

There's got to be a real culture change in the way we seek and use data.

We've been in this culture of reporting, and we've got to be in this business of insights. I want to see my clients step up their game and build out their data strategies, the number of data sources they're using, how they're connecting all those data sources, and really testing and learning their way in.

There are no silver bullets. It's not one tool that you can buy. There's a combination of things that you must do to understand what works for your customers and your specific segment of customers, to drive that test and learn culture through your organization.

Best in class marketers are leading the way with data and how they approach their marketing programs. They're leading the way in testing and learning. They're leading the way with agile approaches to their marketing, constantly striving for more information around the customer to be smarter about it.

As you said, there are challenges. The first one that comes to mind is the data silos that exist in organizations, especially larger organizations. Connecting all those customer touch points is hard.

The second piece is understanding who owns the customer experience and how is that managed and implemented across the board within my organization. Often, we have silos that create the upper brand, the upper funnel team, the bottom funnel team, the post customer experience team, and things like that. We've got to figure out how to build our strategies more holistically.

The third bucket is, there's a lot of technology, a lot of legacy systems in these organizations that need to be cobbled together. You need a diligent strategy to do that.

The fourth, as you said, is to shift thinking from that last click conversion campaign thinking to enable the customer journey. How do you go about delivering that? How do you remove friction through that process? How do you get more data to enhance it and help the customer get what they want?

Exactly. Exactly. Data scientists are critical pieces to putting data together, but I've got to enable my marketing team to use the data. I've got to enable my marketing team to be able to put it into action and hold themselves accountable to it so that I can see results and I can manage it. I need data scientists to help me figure out what I need to do. I need my marketers to know what to do. Then I need the system to give me feedback in a timely fashion, so I can continue to iterate and drive impact on my business.

Why is being customer-centric so hard?

We have to focus our programs on customer needs: an outside view, not an inside view.

One of the challenges we have, Michael, is that most [companies] are [organized based on] products. We are in a certain product category. Then we have channel people. Then we might get to a customer insights group.

We've got to flip that on its head. We've got to start with that customer need and manage ourselves through that and how they want to communications, how they want to engage with us, and then figure out what the right product is.

I love agile, smaller, cross-functional pods that are outcome based. I now am no longer in the linear process where it's my job just to press that email button. But if I'm in that cross-functional team and I'm focused on a customer outcome, I can now really get excited about the impact I'm driving through that customer journey. I can be thoughtful about how I'm connecting the dots and say, "Oh, well, that's what you want to do. We're not going to send him another email. Let's do this," and start to optimize my organization's ability to meet that customer need.

CXOTalk brings together the most world's top business and government leaders for in-depth conversations on digital disruption, AI, innovation, and related topics. Be sure to watch our many episodes! Thumbnail image from Wikimedia creative commons.

Source: McKinsey on digital marketing: Personalization is not what you think

Mobile Marketing: Here’s What Happened This Week

In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories in mobile marketing and advertising we've been following this week.

How Will Influencer Marketing Continue to Evolve in 2018More than five years ago, marketers widely believed that influencer marketing was a temporary channel for them and they should sharpen their focus on other channels to reach their target…

Mountain Dew and OMD Tap Immersv's Mobile 360 and Virtual Reality Marketing PlatformLooks like virtual reality does the Dew. Immersv — an interactive ad platform for 360° and spatial ad experiences — announced Wednesday that Mountain Dew and its advertising agency, OMD, tapped Immersv's Mobile 360 and VR marketing platform to drive significant consumer engagement for their ad campaign promoting the VR experience "The Professor Presents: #GotHandles."

NinthDecimal Launches Industry's First Website-to-Store Attribution SolutionNinthDecimal, a leading marketing platform powered by location data, has just announced it has expanded its offline attribution platform, Location Conversion Index (LCI), to measure website effectiveness.

Storytelling is Dead: Reach Consumers Through ExperiencesTo put a fine point on it, the era of advertising and brand storytelling — the way we've traditionally known it, anyway — has gone by the wayside.

People First: YuMe Introduces New People-Based Video Marketing SolutionYuMe, Inc. — a proven partner for video advertising leadership and innovation — recently launched its People-Based Marketing Suite to enable cross-screen audience targeting, sequential messaging, and attribution for U.S. audiences.

Want to get the latest MMW news and insight delivered straight to your inbox every morning? Click here to sign up for our free newsletter.

Source: Mobile Marketing: Here's What Happened This Week

Facebook debuts web-based VR experiences within standard News Feed

Get the most important digital marketing news each day.

People can now enter virtual reality through their traditional Facebook News Feeds.

Less than a month after Marketing Land reported that Facebook was testing web-based VR within News Feed posts, on Friday the social network debuted examples of brands that have developed VR apps that people can interact with through Facebook's standard site and mobile apps. Facebook has labeled these VR-enabled posts as "360 experiences."

These experiences are built using Facebook's React VR web development framework, which enables people to use them through a desktop or mobile browser that supports WebVR. However, WebVR support on Facebook remains limited among brands and developers.

"We've started testing native React VR integration and experience playback within Facebook News Feed. Although we're still in the experimentation phase, we're inspired by the potential to let even more people experience quality VR content — wherever they may be," according to a post published on Friday to Facebook-owned VR company Oculus's blog.

Oculus and Facebook's in-house creative agency, Creative Shop, worked with Sony and digital agency AvatarLabs to create a web-based, interactive VR experience to promote Sony's new film, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." The film's VR experience sets people on a scavenger hunt within a virtual treehouse. Similar to viewing a 360-degree video on Facebook, on mobile, people can tap the screen or move their phones to pan around it; on desktop, people need to drag and pan to change their view. But unlike a 360-degree video, people can tap or click on objects within the experience.

While the "Jumanji" game is one of the first examples of web-based VR within Facebook's News Feed, it isn't the only one. Earlier this week, British museum The National Gallery posted an interactive virtual tour of a new wing. In addition to admiring VR versions of the wing's actual artwork, people can tap or click on individual paintings to learn more about them.

By bringing VR within its traditional site and apps, Facebook may be able to expose more people to the fledgling medium and eventually bring them into the full virtual world through Oculus's VR headsets, such as the $199 Oculus Go that will go on sale next year. And by enabling people to experience VR within Facebook, the company may also be able to entice more brands and others to develop VR experiences. To date, VR has not achieved enough scale for many marketers, leading them to explore how to bring their VR apps to the masses.

About The Author Tim Peterson, Third Door Media's Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat's ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar's attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon's ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube's programming strategy, Facebook's ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking's rise; and documented digital video's biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed's branded video production process and Snapchat Discover's ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands' early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo's and Google's search designs and examine the NFL's YouTube and Facebook video strategies.
Source: Facebook debuts web-based VR experiences within standard News Feed

Is personalization the future of marketing?

For the last decade, most of the marketing world has focused on raw traffic acquisition through channels like SEO, content marketing, and digital advertising via Google AdWords and Facebook.

But as clicks shift from organic to paid in some verticals, marketers are realizing that we are playing in a new world where driving the growth that seems to have come so easily for the last decade is going to require new strategies and tools.

Conversion optimization is becoming a better understood practice, but at its essence, conversion optimization involves changes to your website or product to convert more visitors to customers. We're not talking button colors here; we're talking full changes to your website flows and funnels to drive exponential growth.

But what if that's just the start?

What if you could actually know who your website visitors are in real time and change your messaging to speak directly to them and sell them on your service's benefits for their specific business?

What if you could also know if they are already a customer and remove email fields to allow them to sign up to new products or email courses with just one click?

Amazingly, this is now becoming reality and those who embrace it early will reap the benefits.

Here are four tools that are enabling the future of conversion optimization in our present day.

Drip

Drip is an email marketing platform that allows you to tag visitors who come to your site and drop them into specific campaigns and ad groups based on the pages they visit and the actions they take.

Depending on your business model, you can set up smart automations and emails that trigger based on their usage and other campaigns to which they are subscribed. Coupled with integrations to tools like LeadPages, Drip is a powerful tool for sending the right messages to your customer inboxes at the right time.

I asked Derrick Reimer about Drip's technology and why they invested in personalization. He told me:

Years ago, it was standard practice to blast the same messages to your entire list and "personalization" meant little more than swapping in the recipient's first name in the salutation. We believe that the best way to help you sell more stuff online is through highly-targeted messaging that speaks directly to the needs of prospects and customers at the right time, through the right medium.

LeadPages

LeadPages is landing page software that allows marketers, entrepreneurs, and anyone with access to a website to design landing pages without having to write code.

LeadPages also allows you to send campaigns to your subscribers that include a one-click signup for events like webinars or meetups. This is a great way, among others, to lower the sign up barrier for your email subscribers by not requiring them to re-enter information you already have.

And with a bit of code knowledge and clarity around who your visitors are and where they come from, you can also change the messaging on your page in real time to speak directly to them and their needs.

But if that's over your head, then there's a new solution.

RightMessage

RightMessage is a new beta software tool that takes what LeadPages and Drip do and takes it to the next level. The founder is a longtime Drip user who has built seven-figure businesses off the back of Drip and smart personalization via tagging, and now is building RightMessage to make messaging personalization easier.

Brennan Dunn told me that the goal of RightMessage is this:

If I had a booth at a design conference or something like that, I am going to talk to them differently than I would somebody like at a marketing conference. [We do that] offline and [we're] just making it a little more accessible online.

The goal of a tool like RightMessage is to help you message your offering or product to your visitor based off any combination of factors such as referral source or your email campaigns to which they are already subscribed. The creators have seen conversion lifts of over 250%, and now they're helping you do the same.

Facebook ads

You might be saying "Really John, Facebook ads? Everyone does those."

I have to mention Facebook ads because they are more powerful than most people realize.

For example, within Facebook ads you are able to run a video campaign to a broad yet still targeted audience. Once someone watches your video for a predetermined number of seconds, you can then move them into another audience and show them a different set of ads across the Facebook network.

And of course, the Facebook ad pixel installed on your site is the most powerful personalized marketing and messaging tool out there.

Based on their activity on your site, you can take the messaging they've seen via RightMessage or a similar tool and serve them ads that reinforce your message and encourage them to come back and take action.

Your turn

Hopefully your marketing strategies mind is now churning with the possibilities of personalization in marketing, and hopefully you've already started implementing them in your own marketing.

I'd love to hear the personalized marketing you've done to drive real results for your clients, so tweet them at @getcredo and we'll retweet them!

Top image via Unsplash

This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.

Read next: Fujitsu built a blockchain that blockchainifies other blockchains

Source: Is personalization the future of marketing?

Can Retailers Combat ‘Webrooming’ With NinthDecimal’s Website-To-Store Attribution?

Forrester Research estimates that "webrooming — online research to in-store purchase (see showrooming on mobile) —  will hit $1.8 trillion in sales this year.

For location analytics provider NinthDecimal, webrooming represents a need for marketing solutions that help brands understand, and capitalize on, omnichannel behavior. Or, as David Staas, president of NinthDecimal, notes, brick-and-mortar brands can't just worry about the impact of mobile commerce competition.

That's the premise behind NinthDecimal's expanded offline attribution platform, Location Conversion Index, which will now measure "website effectiveness" in driving digital consumers into physical stores.

The company has partnered with CRM specialist Ansira to further test this new website-to-store attribution solution. Initial findings from the first phase of the collaboration, which span Ansira clients across QSR, auto, and retail verticals, showed:

Mobile generated a higher incremental lift in store visits than tablet and desktop

Paid search traffic drove the highest website-to-store conversion rates (1.7x greater than direct site traffic)

Direct site traffic drove the highest lift in incremental store visits

"Website LCI's insights highlight the importance for brands to build a successful plan in order to reach and convert omnichannel shoppers who are visiting their website," said Jim Badum, EVP of Client Partnership at Ansira. "It is a prodigious opportunity for brands using their web presence to increase foot traffic to their physical locations."

We checked in with NinthDecimal's Staas on how the new feature and new alliance will help retailers close the gap between website purchases and real-work transactions.

GeoMarketing: How does the focus on "website to store" attribution differ from what NinthDecimal has done in the past?

David Staas: NinthDecimal got started using the industry's first location signal, Wi-Fi, and then expanded into mobile as developers began creating location-based services. That expansion resulted in Location Graph, the industry's first audience solution powered by location data. Since then, NinthDecimal has continued to build unique data services addressing some of the industry's biggest needs: offline attribution, physical world consumer insights, household-device graph for omni-channel services, CRM activation and programmatic data.

Does it augment or supersede NinthDecimal's existing measurement products?

NinthDecimal's omnichannel measurement portfolio, which includes LCI, transaction data, TV tune-in and other forms of measurement, has been adopted by some of the largest agencies in the world and now has more than 250 integrated partners including the largest media companies, DSPs, and advertising networks in the industry.

As a result, NinthDecimal has become the industry standard for third-party measurement across the advertising ecosystem. Today NinthDecimal's measurement platform helps brands measure the effect of digital advertising (both mobile and online), TV advertising across linear, addressable and OTT, as well as OOH, print and other forms of media.

Website LCI is the next innovation in our measurement portfolio, addressing the next big need for marketers – namely connecting their e-commerce and in-store assets for today's emerging omni-channel shopper. Website LCI expands a brand's visibility into all of its website traffic marketing strategies, such as paid and organic search. In addition, Website LCI goes beyond media and ad campaigns to provide a more comprehensive view of marketing impact across the business. It offers a new set of "always on" performance metrics and business intelligence that allows brands to close the gap between online and offline shopping behaviors with their customers.

Why is website to store important? Is it about closing a gap, or does the mobile and desktop browser risk being neglected by platform companies and brands as everyone becomes more app-focused?

Despite the massive revenue opportunity that omnichannel consumers represent, marketers haven't had visibility into the overlap between website visits and store visitors in order to capitalize on this growing shopping behavior. And for those marketers who have made massive investments in their websites, they still struggle to connect that investment to results beyond the web. As reflected in the findings from the NinthDecimal and Ansira study, Website LCI is able to help marketers fill the "blind spot" around understanding and developing omni-channel consumers for the first time.

Is the website to store feature being offered to clients across the board, or only as a requested-basis?

Website LCI is an always-on measurement product being offered to new and existing clients. Through NinthDecimal's LCI Dashboard, subscribers can create an ongoing analysis of performance, quarterly foot traffic lift reports, visitation trends, and audience insights. This is all supported by a dedicated account management team to handle everything from implementation to analysis and recommendations. In addition, NinthDecimal will curate these online and offline customer audiences for brand activation and follow on engagement.

Can we mention any advertisers specifically who have tested the website to store function?

The findings from the NinthDecimal and Ansira joint study are based on actual implementations of Website LCI for major QSR, auto, and retail brands. With this type of marketing insights these brands have been able to uncover important trends related to their website traffic. For example, mobile generated a higher incremental lift in store visits than tablet and desktop while paid search traffic drove the highest website-to-store conversion rates. With this type of insights, each of the brands included in the study have been able to measure how effective they are at closing the gap between offline and online shopping behaviors.

Source: Can Retailers Combat 'Webrooming' With NinthDecimal's Website-To-Store Attribution?

Why We Rebuilt Our Content Marketing Editorial Calendar

November 14th, 2017

It started in a hotel lobby. Not the kind where there are cocktails and canapes. (After the show, it's the afterparty—holla!) No, this one had Starbucks and notebooks and a problem.

The problem was two-fold:

First, a survey that many of YOU filled out earlier this year revealed that most people don't recognize Convince & Convert (tear) without our esteemed leader, Jay Baer. Jay is the person our audience trusts. He's the thought leader in our industry with the household name. His insights are the ones that resonate.

Second, our website traffic has plateaued and was starting to decline. This is something we cannot have here at C&C.

As a result, much of our strategy, our branding, and our vision needed a major refresh (and the C&C team ego was offended—just kidding!).

An Identity Crisis

You see, the Convince & Convert you experience through the blog has other parts as well. The extended team includes some of the most experienced and highly qualified consultants on the planet. The consulting team services clients every day by creating strategic programs that double clients' results in digital marketing. This part of the business is not only fulfilling work but also a significant part of our business, making up about a third of our overall revenue.

Yet, Convince & Convert Media (including our blog and so much more) is competing against some of the biggest content marketing companies that work almost exclusively as media companies, not as a combo-pack of media, consulting, and speaking like we do. In some ways, we don't have the level of resources to keep up the same level of production and analysis as other giant media companies, nor, arguably, would we want to. But our small, scrappy team works hard to bring the "and therefore" of digital trends that Jay is so well-trusted for to the blog each day.

A Drop in Organic Traffic

While we thought we were doing a good job keeping relevant, consistent content flowing on the blog, our traffic began steadily declining without apparent reason. We had a 30 percent drop in traffic to blog posts over the course of three months, so we knew it wasn't a fluke.

After a few rounds of internal debate and hypothesizing, we reached into our network of experts for an outside analysis of our traffic dip. As you know, Google updates its algorithm periodically, and publishers experience a positive or negative effect of this change. Lucky for us, most of Google's algorithm updates have not severely impacted our traffic negatively over the years. The latest update, however, favors answering user's questions, being extremely mobile-friendly, having a fast load speed, and updating old content.

As with many other publishers, we were definitely hit by this update.

We also had to take some of our own consulting medicine in realizing (again) that more content doesn't mean better content. Couple that with the pressure of maintaining a rotating editorial calendar including podcasts, emails, ebooks, and it was a little too crazy, even for us. We needed a reset on our content calendar that was data-driven and would boost our organic, social, and search traffic.

Analyst on Board!

Enter Christina Moravec. Christina is a new addition to the Convince & Convert team and has been helping us crack the data code since the summer so we can understand what's resonating, what we should do more of, and of course, what we should stop doing immediately.

Which brings us back to that hotel lobby in Toronto. We knew we had a problem. We knew some data around why it may have been a problem. Now, it was time to brainstorm ways to solve the problem.

A Strategic Content Shift

The truth is, we have never had a real CMO or Content Marketing Director at Convince & Convert. Those roles have always lived under Jay's umbrella. But if you've ever had a look at Jay's Google calendar, you'll know that combining 50 weeks on the road with overseeing the entire consulting division plus providing direction for the media side of the company is a lot for one person to handle. (Jay is a superhero, though, and has managed to do it for many, many years!)

It was time for the strategic content marketing hat to go back on the Baer head, and together, Jay and Jess created a new editorial calendar that, based on data, research, and years of marketing experience, would make a positive difference in the number new and returning visitors to our blog. Our content would be well-researched, well-written, and continue to bring the "and therefore" content of digital marketing to you.

This new editorial calendar's launch would coincide with the website launch. We would also launch a new podcast (Experience This!) and switch to a new email marketing service provider (ConvertKit).

October 1st will live forever in our memories as the day when we launched all the things! (It is also International Coffee Day. Coincidence? We think not.)

Why "Shows?"

Often in our consulting practice, we advise clients to think like a television network. This means that each "show" has a defined audience and a narrative arc. Shows have consistent schedules (Walking Dead Sunday nights, anyone?) that audiences look forward to and plan around. By shifting our blog editorial into this type of thinking, we created two distinct benefits:

We put our audience first by ensuring consistency and the content you care about is always available.

We allowed our editorial manager (Hi Jess!) new focus because she now matches content to shows and can be increasingly selective.

(Can you feel the zen?)

How Are We Doing?

It's only been a few weeks since we launched all of these new things, and time will tell how they affect our traffic and rankings. In tandem with this new editorial approach, we have also implemented a plan to refresh old content that previously was performing well. This is an ongoing strategy that we'll be revisiting every quarter. So far, though, we've received some positive feedback from you, and our internal team has regained confidence in our content selections. And that is an early win.

Finally, we are working with Written to identify duplicate content around the web that could be sucking away some of our SEO juice. We're determining a plan of action for getting the right canonical tags on those pieces of content or asking the publishers to remove them entirely if they are simply scraped.

But we'd love to hear more about how you like our new podcast, our new editorial calendar, and our new Shows. What do you think? Are we providing anything that knocks your socks off or makes you fall asleep? Is there more or less that you're seeing that you like (or dislike)?

In marketing, a big part of our job is constant improvement, so we're always tinkering and tweaking everything we can to make it right. Of course, as soon as we get it "right," we'll have to go on changing things again, but isn't that fun?

Source: Why We Rebuilt Our Content Marketing Editorial Calendar

How to Skyrocket Your Content Marketing with Cost Effective Social Ads

You've just written one of your best pieces of content to date.

It's a well-written piece of long-form content with tons of valuable research and data backing up your claims.

You think it's going to be the next hit piece in the community. And it should be — it's awesome.

But when you've got few connections and a low follower count on social media, it's almost impossible to get it to take off.

Two weeks later, your post isn't getting a single hit on organic search.

Your post is simply dying down after a few weeks, never to be seen again.

No matter how much keyword research you do, when you don't have links or connections, you can't get traffic.

That's just how it works these days.

People publish millions of posts every day. It's becoming a saturated market.

Everybody wants a piece of the organic traffic pie.

That means that you need to find other ways to drive traffic to your posts that will generally lead to sales.

But how do you do it when social posts and outreach aren't working?

What do you do when you've got no followers and no links?

When you're in this situation, it's time to turn to cheap paid social ads.

These are one of the easiest ways to generate tons of valuable, relevant traffic for pennies on the dollar. For example, brands such as Robo generated $4.7 million in revenue at a fraction of the cost running video ads on Facebook.

Spending a few bucks a day could net you hundreds of extra visitors that are interested in your content.

Thankfully, there are multiple ways to use them to get more content traffic.

Here are three ways you can use cheap paid social ads to skyrocket content traffic inexpensively.

What you need to know before running content ads

Using cheap paid social ads to skyrocket content traffic isn't as simple as one, two, three.

Most people go wrong when it comes to social ads for content.

They often send ads to their existing audience. That's fine, but it's not optimal.

Hitting "boost" on your Facebook post is fine, but it's not going to skyrocket valuable traffic.

It will only put you in front of your own audience with higher frequency.

The goal of blog content is to capture new visitors. You want to grab people who aren't aware of your brand yet.

Blogs are simply a tool for driving more organic traffic that you can funnel through the sales cycle.

The first step of the sales cycle is establishing a relationship.

That's exactly where your content comes into play. Blogs will help you drive traffic that you can convert into a lead and hopefully qualify for sales.

But before running a paid social ad, you have to realize where your content falls in the sales cycle.

Most people try to make ads for remarketing their content, but that won't work.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check out this traffic temperature guide from Digital Marketer:

If you aren't familiar with cold, warm, and hot traffic levels, here is a basic synopsis:

Cold: Traffic that is not brand-aware yet. They don't know you yet. They haven't interacted with your content or brand.

Warm: Traffic that has interacted with your brand before. They are brand-aware but aren't ready to convert.

Hot: Traffic that is brand-aware and on the cusp of converting to a sale.

Did you notice where blog posts come into play? They reach out to cold traffic.

Blog posts are meant to turn users who are not brand-aware into users who are.

Since that's the goal, your paid social ads need to target entirely new audiences if you want to make them as successful as possible.

If you're targeting them to users who are already brand-aware, you're likely wasting tons of time and money.

They already know your brand. They can check the blog whenever.

The goal with paid social ads is to reach people who aren't brand-aware.

Now that you know this, you're ready to get started with social ads. Here are three ways you can use them to skyrocket content traffic.

1. Run carousel ads on Facebook

Carousels on your website suck. They slow down your site, and the majority of people don't even use them.

But when it comes to cheap paid social ads, carousels on Facebook are a gold mine.

They allow you to show multiple pieces of blog content to a single person without spending money on multiple ads.

You can hopefully get them interested in at least one blog post, giving you a better shot at converting them and getting them to click.

If they've got more options to choose from, you have a better chance of driving traffic.

Here is what a typical carousel ad looks like on Facebook for content promotion:

You can appeal to a wider audience than you would by offering a single post.

For example, let's say you generally focus your blog on digital marketing.

Rather than being a blog that's specifically about PPC or SEO, you blog about most things in the marketing industry.

That may have some advantages, but it can sometimes be a problem when your entire audience doesn't care about everything in the marketing world.

That latest Instagram post might not resonate with everyone.

Carousel ads allow you to appeal to the widest range of potential website visitors (and customers). That's why they are dirt cheap and effective.

The more relevant you make an ad, the cheaper it will be.

So, do you want to get started with carousel based ads? Let's dive in.

Open up the Facebook Ads Manager, create a new ad, and select the "Traffic" objective from the "Consideration" list:

Next, scroll down to the "Identity" section of the Ad:

Select "Carousel" from the format options to continue:

Next, scroll down to the "Links" section.

This is where you can edit the actual ad that it will display.

First, make sure that you select "Website URL" as the destination for these ads. Next, add as many cards as you'd like to show on the carousel:

Be sure that you don't overwhelm the user with dozens of cards. I've found that 3-6 cards per ad works the best.

Otherwise, you give them too many options.

Have you ever heard of that New York Times infamous jam study? Sometimes, less is more when it comes to driving a conversion.

Once you've added your cards, you can start to edit each one for the specific posts you want to drive traffic to.

For each card number, start to add your content.

Select the card number, upload an image to capture attention, use the headline of your blog post that you are promoting, add a short description, and then enter the destination URL of your post:

That's it! Now, just repeat that process for each card you've chosen to promote on this ad.

Be sure to create compelling ad visuals, too. This is a huge factor in success when it comes to skyrocketing blog traffic with a paid social ad.

You need quality visuals.

For inspiration, check out this image used on Facebook content promotion ads from Growth Everywhere:

It's pretty awesome, huh? Use simple yet beautiful images like this to display your content.

You can create your own images on Canva or outsource the task on Fiverr.

Once you've set up each carousel card, hit save and start promoting the ad to your audience!

2. Create a hyper-specific Twitter audience

Twitter is severely underrated when it comes to content promotion.

Most people look at Twitter's smaller user base and immediately assume it's not going to be worth it.

When compared to Facebook's user base, Twitter is an ant. But that doesn't mean you can't use Twitter to get tons of cheap traffic.

In fact, Twitter has some of the best audience targeting in the business. It's almost identical to Facebook.

That means that you can create a hyper-targeted list to send your content to.

It's honestly my favorite social media platform when it comes to running cheap paid social ads.

I love creating new lists with their diverse audience features. I can literally make lookalike-style audiences in seconds.

Plus, Twitter Ads are beautiful. Here's an example of a WordStream ad that caught my eye:

Twitter Ads are excellent for naturally placing content in a user's feed.

To get started, open up your Twitter Ads dashboard and select a new objective for your content traffic campaign. Be sure to select "Website clicks or conversions" from the list:

Next, fill in the basics of your new campaign.

Be sure to give it a name you can recognize, a daily budget, and say how you want to run your campaign:

Next, select a category for your ad. For example, you can choose "marketing."

Be sure to enter the domain name of your website that will be used for the ad, too.

Next, you can customize your audience targeting. You first want to establish basic demographics of your typical audience, including age, gender, and location:

Once you've selected your basic demographics, it's time for the real targeting under "Audience features."

You can choose from tons of different factors to narrow down the massive number of Twitter users to a specific audience:

Want to create a quick list of followers just like your current fans? Select the "Follower look-alike" option.

Twitter will then take your existing followers and match new accounts to their interests, giving you highly relevant targeting in seconds.

If you want to target by keywords, you can do that too. Consider testing different audience settings to figure out what works best for driving traffic to your blog content.

The options are diverse here. You can also add interests and behaviors like you can on Facebook:

But my all-time favorite way to create an audience is using the look-alike tool.

You can even use it to mimic the audiences of other Twitter accounts!

How amazing is that?

Check it out:

I can mimic the HubSpot follower audience for my own ads.

I can target highly relevant people in seconds with no extra work.

If you have a competitor, try targeting their followers.

If you've got a big industry, target some of the top dogs that are dominating the competition.

This can help you pull in highly engaged, niche-level followers that will definitely be interested in your content.

When you finish, simply order your ads and watch the cheap, targeted blog traffic skyrocket.

3. Create sponsored LinkedIn content ads

LinkedIn is king when it comes to content engagement.

Why? Almost all business professionals have a LinkedIn account and read content on it.

It's become a haven for marketing content, making it the perfect place to deliver content to new users.

Plus, getting leads on LinkedIn is easy when compared to Twitter.

It allows you to reach high-level executives who are otherwise difficult to reach.

Want to land your next big client? LinkedIn is the place to be.

Almost everything that users share on LinkedIn is focused on content and blogs. People rarely post status updates like they do on other social media channels.

It's more focused on business and content, making it a great place to promote content with cheap, native ads.

One of my favorite ad tactics is promoting sponsored content via native advertising.

This works by publishing content directly on the LinkedIn feed where most people will see it.

You can target an audience based on accurate interests, too.

To get started, head to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager and create a new ad.

Select the "Sponsored Content" option from the list:

Next, give your campaign a new name. Be sure to select the first option for your ad purpose:

This will drive traffic directly to your newest content rather than focusing on getting leads or followers.

We want all of the focus to be on content traffic here.

Next, you can select content that has already been published and shared or you can create a new sponsored post:

From here, simply paste in your latest piece of content that you want more traffic to, and LinkedIn will automatically pull in the data for you:

Hit "save" and then click "Sponsor selected content" to continue.

Now the targeting comes into play. This is where you can really focus your ads on the right audience to drive tons of traffic.

Be sure to skip over the retargeting and target a list of accounts or contacts when it comes to promoting your blog content:

Remember that you want to focus on getting new traffic with these ads — not traffic that you can already reach organically.

To get started, narrow your audience based on companies, industries, job titles, and more:

For example, you can target specific companies, such as HubSpot:

Narrow down your audience based on your ideal traffic.

Remember: Traffic without conversions isn't what you're looking for.

Skyrocketing traffic is great, but you need to skyrocket traffic among people with the right intent and interests.

Once you've established a few different targeting criteria, you can also exclude people from your targeting:

For example, do you have a few types of people who don't resonate with your content within your niche?

Exclude them.

This will heavily reduce costs on your ads and will keep the traffic relevant.

At the bottom of your audience section, make sure that you save your new audience as a template:

This way, you can refer back to it every time you decide to create new, content-based ads.

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms when it comes to driving high-level, hard-to-reach traffic.

Tons of executive-level business workers are on the platform, and remember that content is king.

Plus, LinkedIn's audience-targeting options are only getting better. They've improved their custom audience functionality, making specific targeting a reality.

Now, you can target with the precision of Facebook and Twitter on a platform that is based on business-style content.

It's a dream come true for cheap content ads.

Conclusion

When you've just written an amazing blog post, you expect traffic in return.

It's only natural.

You've just crafted a long-form post that should become evergreen for years to come.

It's got tons of data, graphs, and even a how-to guide.

It should be the next big hit in your niche, but it's getting no traffic and no hits.

When you have no following on social media or connection to get links, your posts are much more likely to fade into oblivion in just a few weeks.

If you don't have the domain authority or links to rank high, it won't matter how many SEO-based tactics you conduct on-site or on-page. You still won't get much traffic.

Unfortunately, that's just how it works.

People publish millions of posts daily. The market is saturated.

It's becoming harder to get traffic when everyone is competing for the same visits.

So, how do you still get traffic to your content?

Use cheap paid social ads.

Start by running carousel-based ads on Facebook. They help you appeal to a wider audience with the same ad rather than running multiple ads.

Next, try running a highly-specific, Twitter-based content ad. Twitter's custom audience options are just as diverse as Facebook's.

Lastly, run diverse, native content-based ads on LinkedIn. They appear directly in the news feed and are great for driving high-level traffic that is usually difficult to reach.

Cheap paid social ads are one of the easiest and inexpensive ways of driving real, relevant traffic to your site.

What are your favorite ways to drive content traffic with ads?

Source: How to Skyrocket Your Content Marketing with Cost Effective Social Ads