TIS THE SEASON FOR SEARCH MARKETING MIRACLES
2018 is rounding to a close. Even as we type these words we still can’t believe it ourselves. It was a big year in search marketing and an even bigger year for our full-service digital agency.
Over the last 12 months, we made two huge strides that have helped us live up to our Globe Runner namesake. Between our two big wins at this year’s American Advertising awards and being named one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 10 Fastest Growing Marketing and Ad Agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro, we’re well on our way to running our corner of the globe.
Join us for a humble brag as we look back on our accolades – plus, some key content marketing strategies that helped us get here.
Globe Runner – an Inc. 5000 Company
4203. That’s our official ranking on Inc. magazine’s 37th annual Inc. 5000. We’re now settled firmly among the admired ranks of other fast-growing, privately-owned companies in the nation.
How did we do it? Well, for starters, we grew our sales 81% in three years, making our Addison, Texas company one of a handful of digital marketing agencies who made the cut.
Yes, we’ve come a long way from our 2009 humble beginnings.
However, we’ve continued to maintain our original mantra: to help companies grow digitally. Though our mission has remained consistent, we’re continually adding new tools and experts to our full-service digital marketing agency, offering clients an internet marketing experience that’s a bounty of in-house creative design, SEO, SEM, and content marketing solutions.
In fact, it was the creative team that was responsible for our next major victory in this year of firsts.
Globe Runner – an Award-Winning Digital Agency
Next, lend us your ear as we sing the praises of our out-of-this-world team. Creative powerhouses Eddie Hale and Brett Dougall spearheaded long-time client Muenster Milling’s new Ancient Grains dog food line and packaging system.
The revamp resulted in Globe Runner taking home two Addy awards (Bronze and Silver) from the American Advertising Federation.
With two prestigious Addy Awards lining our shelves, we’re (humbly) touting ourselves as award-winning comprehensive Dallas digital marketing agency and SEO consultants extraordinaire.
And for good reason.
With the more than 40,000 entries the American Advertising Federation receives each year, the competition was stiff, to say the least. Their mission to reward the art of advertising aligns with our mission to provide our Dallas SEO clients with unparalleled creative strategy.
Essential Search Marketing Must-haves
Are search marketing and content marketing one in the same? Hardly.
Though there’s plenty of overlap, each is nuanced and has a specialized role in increasing web traffic and leads. We used a combination of both to help propel our agency to new heights this year.
Here’s a quick checklist of digital marketing must-haves for 2019 to send your brand into orbit:
- Long-term commitment to content. We all understand the value of posting regularly, but all that time you spent creating content and writing great blog posts is wasted if you treat it as a one and done situation. One easy way to commit to your content over the long term is to go back and update past posts that have done well. Add to their word count, bring them up to date. You’ll be surprised how much it can positively impact their SERP.
- Write longer posts. Speaking of lengthening your content, more and more studies show that pieces in excess of 2,000 words see more web traffic than the shorter, average 500-word article. Try getting quotes from experts or members of your team. You can also ask members of different departments to do short write-ups then edit them together for a more uniform and expanded post.
- Consult your buyer personas. How can you create an effective content marketing strategy without knowing who it is you’re talking to? It’s the main reason our digital agency is big on buyer personas. Every piece of content you publish should be written with one or two of these people in mind. Make sure your entire team has access to them and is so familiar they refer to them on a first name basis.
- Engage for more engagement. Having a conceptual understanding of who your target audience is, is one thing. Conversing with them is something else entirely. Make it a point to engage with everyone who’s engaging you. Whether you’re replying to comments they post on your feed or following them directly, the more up close and personal you can get, the more conversions you’ll see.
- Analyze your analytics. This should go without saying, but as an SEO firm, data is our bread and butter. Use it to see which posts are performing well and gear your strategy to make more of the same.
Stay tuned to see what we roll out next year! And if you’re ready to ignite your brand with a little search marketing rocket fuel in 2019, make contact with our creative combustibles.
DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS TO RULE 2018: Q4
Part 4 of a quarterly digital marketing guide from our agency experts.
They say all good things must come to an end. In this final segment of our quarterly digital marketing trends for 2018, we’re committed to helping you complete the year on top of the world.
For the last time this calendar year, we’ve used our collective brainpower to construct a snapshot of the digital landscape. Flashpoints in SEO strategies and social media marketing, as well as PPC and web dev developments, await you.
Think back on your business goals at the beginning of the year. We’re here to make sure no box is left unchecked. As you prepare to blast out of 2018 and into the next fiscal year, let this final digital marketing mix help you warp speed past the competition.
Here’s your digital dose of everything fueling 2018 marketing trends in Q4:
Technical SEO/Link Building:
1. FAQ, Q&A and How -to search snippet results
Soon there will be even more ways to showcase your content in Google. At last month’s Singapore conference, Google showed what types of previews users will see in their search results. The idea is to use a variety of Q&A, FAQ, or How-to formats to make sure search results are as relevant and useful as possible.
2. New Search Console
Soon, owners will have more access to manage access and adjust permissions for users and other sites. Reporting features are also more robust, promising swift and welcomed changes to the search console.
3.Responsive search ads
Could you use a third headline and little more descriptive text in your responsive search ads? Google has given the green light for you to text long and prosper. You’ll now have up to 90 characters to make your elevator pitch in responsive and text ads!
Social/Content Marketing:
1. Hootsuite updates
Hootsuite Inbox Beta gives you swift, consolidated access to your Twitter Direct Messages and Facebook Private Messages. If you’re looking for an additional channel to connect with customers, this will help. Monitor your messages from multiple profiles for increased oversight of complaints and compliments. Be aware these have taken the place of your Twitter Inbox and Outbox Direct Message Streams.
Hootsuite Explore isn’t yet available to everyone, but likely will be. The feature helps source brand mentions from anywhere on the web so you can tune into the conversations that matter most. They’ll even put them in a timeline where you can segment and analyze based on filters like the location.
2. Live video!
It’s become a big deal on social networks like Facebook. You’ve probably seen them start to pop up on the right-hand side of your feed. Now, you can read comments and respond to users in real-time. Why is this important? According to Livestream, “80% of audiences prefer watching live video from brands as opposed to reading a blog. And 82% of consumers say they would rather watch live videos than read social media posts.”
3. Chatbots
These digital conversation starters themselves are nothing new, but they are growing and integrating with all variety of social media platforms. For instance, Pizza Hut is one of the first national chains to allow customers to order food through their social media accounts using a chatbot.
4. Influencer Marketing
We’re no strangers to influencer marketing strategies. If you read our blog you’re in on them, too. Now, instead of partnering with celebs and other big-time figures, companies are increasing their credibility with micro influencers. According to one Forbes report, “Research shows that micro influencers have 60% higher engagement rates than traditional celebrity influencers.” The same study suggests a more than micro 22% increase in your conversation rates using the tactic.
PPC:
1. Google AdWords rebrands to Google Ads
The latest AdWords update ushers in a big push for machine learning and smart ads. It comes with a new marketing platform and Ad Manager to help you advertise over multiple channels while making sure you’re appealing to the right target audience.
2. New Expanded Text Ads
Differentiating yourself from the competing links on a SERP just got easier. If you feel like you’re having déjà vu it’s because we already alluded to this in our SEO link building section. It’s important enough that it bears repeating. What can the three headlines and expanded 90-character count descriptions do for your brand? A lot. One Wordstream piece reported, “Google found these larger ads received 15% more clicks than other ad formats…[and] saw that advertisers increased their ad CTR by an average of 20% after making the change.”
3. Updated Exact Match Keywords
As culture evolves so does our language. Dictionaries are updated with several new words a year and our day-to-day lexicon shifts with the times. How we search is following suit. Very soon, exact match keywords no longer need be exact to show up in search results. They need only be variants that convey the same meaning through synonyms, paraphrases, and other results that clearly satisfy the user’s original intent.
Website/development:
Our fearless web dev keeps us abreast on all things front and back end. Here are some quick updates that made it across the desk last month.
- Chrome 70 is now in beta
- Chrome (68) brings a new “not secure” notification when visiting HTTP pages
- Firefox 62 supporting variable web fonts
- PHP7.3 is coming soon
- TypeScript 3.0 was released
- Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) and how to debug websites
- Starting in October, most browsers will distrust Symantec TLS certificates entirely
Whatever your hopes for expansion were in 2018, lead generation to increased web traffic, we hope these guides have helped you navigate the terrain successfully. Until next year!
DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS TO FUEL 2018: Q3
Part 3 of a quarterly digital marketing guide from our agency experts.
Is there such a thing as crystal clear digital marketing? We like to think so. That’s why all of us at Globe Runner map the digital landscape so closely. We have eyes in every corner of the internet, from SEO and Social strategies to PPC and web dev.
Whether you’re looking for some quick and clean lead generation or want to drive more traffic to your website, staying informed is mission critical. That’s why we do a deep dive with our hive mind once every few months, cataloging the digital marketing terms and trends rocketing our clients ahead of the competition.
Here’s your digital dose of everything fueling 2018 marketing trends in Q3:
Technical SEO/Link Building
1. Priority hints for page loading.
Soon developers will have the ability to give extra weight to the assets that are high-priority. Be it headers or images, soon Chrome Beta will allow values to be keyed to the code itself.
2. Removal of secure lock in chrome.
Used to be one little lock symbol was the best if only way to tell whether a website was secure (denoted by the ‘s’ in HTTPS). But now, secure sites are the rule, not the exception and you need an HTTPS site to rank on Google. As of September, Chrome 69 won’t be using the lock icon since SSL (secure lock layering) is the “new normal.”
3. New Google my business agency dashboard.
Earlier this month, local marketing agencies and local SEO managers got a productivity boost. Now, with the unlimited access to locations for each of their accounts, SEO pros have the ability to manage listing invitations, move business accounts into location groups, control access and permissions, and improve search abilities all from the new dashboard.
Local SEO/Citation Updates
1. Menus.
Put your services and offerings into your sites menu page if you want to define your competition and refine your keyword targets. In just a few sentences, you can even help solidify your Google category since Google My Business (GMB) is allowing local businesses more varieties to link to a menu URL.
2. FAQ Pages.
Whether you field a lot of frequently asked questions in person or online, a Q&A section helps Google and your customers understand what your business does, what it doesn’t do, and specifies your services. GMB administrators will also see new attributes listed.
For example, car dealerships can now specify if they sell certified pre-owned vehicles or brand new automobiles. Local businesses will see a Women-Led highlight feature. These attributes are sure to expand, so keep watch. Some in the future include same day service and free estimates or quotes.
Pay attention to the knowledge graph of your business, too. You’ll find it below reviews. One Dallas surgery clinic we work with has seen success using this area to answer questions about insurance, specific conditions, and treatments they offer.
3. Service Pages
Don’t have a service page on your website? Time to create one. This is your chance to speak in-depth about your offerings and lets you back them up with testimonials, case studies, or other rich media that can promote your brand.
You’ll also want to make sure and publish your services directly into Google My Business. The services section was added in April of 2018, but you have to be listed as an owner to see it.
Social/Content:
1. Snapchat cosmo after dark canceled.
The controversial channel was removed after only a week due to racy content and an outcry of parental concern.
2. Hootsuite updates.
You can now schedule, create boards, and post directly to Pinterest from the Hootsuite dashboard. No workarounds, just full integration.
Additionally, both Facebook and Instagram are changing the way partners, like Hootsuite, access data.
Want more tools to track mentions of your brand? Hootsuite Explore is hot on the case!
3. Thumb-stopping content.
The necessity for a reduced amount of text should be substituted with bolder, shorter wording and eye-catching visuals. Essentially, fewer words create a stronger impact. Focus on creative, visual content!
PPC
1. Import feeds with Bing Ads update.
Recently, Bing launched the ability to import product feeds from Google Merchant Center into Bing Merchant Center.
From the new Import tab in Bing Merchant Center (BMC), advertisers can sign into their Google Merchant Center accounts to pull in feeds directly. There is NO more having to upload product feeds to two separate places.
2. Google AdWords comments expanded.
Similar to Google Analytics annotations; Notes are now available at the account, campaign, and ad group levels in Google AdWords. This helps when changes are made that can affect results and allows for easier recollection to help understand why a metric may have gone up or down.
3. Bing Ads Editor now has the ability to add labels for MAC users.
(An added bonus PC users have been enjoying for years.)
4. In-market audiences debut.
Google first announced plans to release In-Market Audiences for search campaigns back at Google Marketing Next in May of last year. This month, Google and Bing rolled In-Market Audiences for Search out to all US advertisers.
Website/Development
1. Shopify sites.
The hosting platform is on fire right now with requests for e-commerce builds reaching a fever pitch. It’s a closed source system, but pretty user-friendly, and even handles a lot of the fulfillment legwork for you.
2. Fantasy.
For anyone following pop culture right now, you know Game of Thrones. It’s all about the mythical creatures, fantastical landscapes. In terms of the music, it’s epic orchestral music, and everybody is really excited about getting beyond the normal.
3. New Minimalism.
A lot of people will think about minimalism being a Scandinavian design concept with clean and crisp lines with lots of white. But now it’s still clean, but with more bold and vibrant colors and fluid styles.
4. Space.
With shows like Strangers Things and movies like Star Wars, the idea about space is that the future is now. We’ve got the field of robotics that is seemingly taking over our jobs and our careers, as well as automated cars that can function without us. People are really starting to explore this in their creative platforms.
Photography \ Creative
According to Getty Images, this year’s emerging visual trends are easy to spot in digital and social marketing campaigns.
For centuries, males have had their emotional complexity reduced to one problematic expression: anger. Now, images and ad campaigns are expanding stringent male stereotypes in an invitation for them to experience their full range of emotion. In other words, emoting males are the new normal.
Whether snaps are candid or carousel ads, those that gain the most traction are diverse, authentic, and inclusive. Many successful accounts and musicians are reimagining classical artworks and long-standing themes with traditionally underrepresented communities. An admonition to advertisers who have previously relied on whitewashed, homogenous campaigns – time to diversify.
Focuses on “authentic visual storytelling” (ie: images that are at once relatable and realistic). Be it through distortion, exaggeration, or reality-based imagery, we see, once again, strong social commentary leveraged to dislodge social milieus – like female menstruation – that were once taboo in the ad world.
Need a little help with your digital marketing launch? Let us send you into the stratosphere.
14 MUST-HAVE MARKETING TOOLS FOR YOUR DIGITAL TOOLBOX
Since the birth of simple machines, man has been building. As the world has become more wired, we’ve taken to constructing online. The instruments we use to form our creations have also changed. If you’re thinking of assembling an effective marketing strategy in 2018, make sure you fill your digital toolbox with these SEO and PPC tools.
SEO Tools
1. Screaming Frog
Duplicate data and broken links can sink your site. Screaming Frog is a well-known crawler tool that will scan up to 500 pages for free, alerting you of missing meta data, missing alt tags, auditing your redirects, etc.
2. Moz
One site, two services. Moz Pro is a lesson in SEO best practices like link building, google rankings, and content marketing. Moz Local handles SEO listings so you are more likely to show up in searches that pertain to your city.
3. Ahrefs
You can learn a lot from your competition. The big data compiled by Ahrefs shows you their backlinks, helps with keyword research, and allows you see what’s working for your industry.
4. Majestic
Search engine marketing is big business. Majestic gives you the tools you need for proper link intel. It has some PR peppered in, too. The SEO Backlink Checker and inbound links come with summary data that shows the authority and impact of each.
5. Mailshake
All hail email marketing. If you don’t have a huge listserv built, this cold email outreach tool can help. They have professional email templates for all your sales and marketing collateral. For about $20/month they’ll also let you automate scheduled follow ups and replies. Want to track clicks and open rates? They do that, too.
6. Hunter.io
On the flip side, if you want to focus on growing your electronic mailing list, Hunter helps you search out and verify the necessary email addresses.
7. VWO
Want to see which email subject lines or web copy is resonating with potential customers? This conversion optimization program supplies pertinent data regarding visitor research. It’ll also let you perform A/B testing so you can put out the most potent messages about your brand.
8. Spyfu
If you want to know which keywords your competitors are using to draw away your potential customers, this tool will let you download them directly—for free! Capitalize on their successes and avoid their mistakes with these key insights.
PPC Tools
1. Bing Ads Editor
Google may get a lot of airtime, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the massive audience using Bing. Bing Ads Editor helps you speak directly to 5-10% of the market share that’s up for grabs. Manage ads, track your edits, and create killer PPC campaigns.
2. AdWords Editor
This software helps you manage your PPC accounts and edit your paid search campaigns on Google. The more accounts you have and the broader their individual scopes, the more essential it is.
3. Google Keyword Planner
Use this Google keyword tool during the planning phase of your pay-per-click campaign in Adwords. Features include monthly or yearly search volume calculators to see what users are asking and location targeting to give you an estimate of impressions for a specific area. It’ll also tell you what the competition is like and how much you want to budget for each keyword.
4. AdWords Performance Grader
Google will even grade how well your PPC campaign will perform. They put it through more than 40 checks, providing you additional management tools like A/B ad testing along the way. AdWords Performance Grader also comes with customizable reports of your audits so you can show your team what’s working.
5. Supermetrics
To help with monthly reporting, Supermetrics allows you to upload cost data from Bing Ads and Facebook ads into Google Analytics Cost Analysis report. Google Analytics connects to Google Adwords and pulls in your advertising spend, but does not do this for other channels; so measuring success showing “cost” out of the box is limited. Supermetrics automated this process for you to see paid media channels performance with “spend” data in Google Analytics.
6. SEMrush
And the competitor research just keeps coming! Get a look at their organic traffic, social media engagement, PPC campaigns, and even video ads. Use the entire suite to inform you of your own successful online marketing campaigns.
7. Dialog Tech
Believe it or not, phone calls still have their place in online marketing. The trick is to be able to track them. As audiences respond to your digital marketing or PPC campaigns Dialog Tech gives helps you handle call attribution and offers insights to help you optimize the customer experience.
Digital marketing trends change quickly, but the pillars of success remain the same. Keep an eye on what’s being done in your industry and continue hammering away with these online marketing tools.
Want an SEO foreman to oversee your progress? We’re definitely up for the job.
DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS TO FUEL 2018: Q2
Part 2 of a quarterly digital marketing guide from our agency experts.
Globe Runners know how to use digital marketing trends to create liftoff. We’re not in the business of staying grounded; we’re in the business of sending our clients to new heights. To do that, we spend a considerable amount of manpower cataloging the digital landscape.
With this aerial view, we can anticipate SEO updates and algorithm changes before they make an impact. We also use it to implement technical strategies to search and social media marketing that help our digital advertising campaigns fire on all cylinders.
Here’s your quarterly look from our vantage point:
Technical SEO/Link Building:
- Ahrefs updates domain ranking to better reflect SERPs
Moving away from website authority as calculated by search rankings, the new update ranks your domain as compared to its “link popularity” against other sites on the web. It scales from 0 to 100, and after some quick computations, it spits out a DR score based on the websites that link to yours.
The Ahrefs update comes in an effort to be more transparent about how sites are ranked. It also aims to clear up misinformation about the former DR scale.
If you’ve seen a change, have your SEO agency check the following for a more accurate review:
- Cumulative search traffic
- Your site’s top 100 ranking keywords and the positions of the most relevant ones
- Total quality websites, including page and content, of those linking to you
- March 12 algorithm update
With this update, the quality of your content is safe. The core update was designed to prioritize SERP (search engine results page) quality. The Google update was also structured to reward quality sites that hadn’t been ranking well as opposed to penalizing those that broke the new rules.
Many of our clients have been pleased by these new parameters Google is now using to determine what defines a quality site. Of course, if you were negatively affected by this string of March 2018 Google Updates, we’ll happily help you course correct.
- Google replaces SERPs with answers structured data queries
If someone goes to Google looking for a quick answer with a straightforward question like, “what is the capital of Costa Rica?” or “how many calories are in a margarita?” an answer box will appear.
This update is a huge benefit to the user, but not website owners (unless you are the authoritative website that Google is pulling the answer from), as it will lessen the click-through rate in organic search results.
Local SEO/Citation Updates:
- Be Proactive on Google My Business
Last quarter, you heard us talk about the new Google Q&A section located in the knowledge panel. Here’s how to stay active with it.
- New features include Google Q&A, which currently doesn’t have notifications. Check for feedback regularly and monitor for questions about your business. Being proactive means you can even post FAQ’s as a business with answers.
- Chat on Google My Business is another new feature that can be enabled, providing another way to reach prospective customers and respond to questions or concerns.
- Google posts are becoming a strategic way for brands to stand out in the knowledge graph and Google Maps. Posts can be scheduled and planned ahead of time for promotions, special events, etc.
Taking these actions on GMB will improve click-through rate, earning more website visits, phone calls, and in-store visits.
- Review Response
Everyone knows reviews are important, but a response to a review is just as valuable. Even if you have 20+ reviews with 5 stars each, posting a response to each one will take you above and beyond. Instead of a generic, “thanks for sharing your experience,” include more context. Have a dialogue in your follow up. Look up customers in your CRM database and see what products/services were purchased. For an auto shop, your response can become, “Jim, thank you so much for sharing your experience. Congrats again on adding a new member to your family. Your Chrysler Pacifica is tuned up and ready to perform for your road trip this summer.”
A response like this is personal and highlights the level of care you’re likely to see at this auto shop.
- It’s not all about the Reviews
There’s more to great marketing than collecting positive reviews. You might be getting testimonial letters sent to your company, survey responses, and emailed feedback. Take a look at all your interactions with customers and where their feedback is published. Use that content in a testimonial on the website.
For B2B, it can be hard to generate reviews. It can be easier to start with logos of companies you work with. Work up to asking for quotes that can be used as testimonials from your client contact.
A case study is the final tier of reputation management. It can take more effort to gain approval and write case studies for clients, but it’s worth getting several published for each location of your business.
Consider a project page if approval from clients is unlikely. An interactive map of projects completed in your location is a great way to visualize projects in your market. Nearby Now and other tools allow for your crew to simply log a new quote on a smartphone. The tool takes care of the rest, uploading the location and details of a project to the website.
Enhance your location pages with testimonials, case studies, and projects in that market. It will help you stand out from competition, add valuable content for Google, and improve conversions.
Social Media and Content Marketing:
- Demand for mobile-ready content
Google’s mobile-first algorithm, set to launch next year, will soon rank and index sites based on their mobile content. This will be a huge departure. While it’s far from the death of desktop, ranking well will soon require webmasters to prioritize the user experience. That’s happening more and more on our phones with over half of all searches being conducted from our hands, not our laps.
While no one knows exactly when the transition will occur, it’s best to prepare now. Taken in batches, it could save you from a disastrous algorithm update.
- IG dominates in engagement rates
Poised to surpass the 1 Billion mark by year’s end, Instagram continues to dwarf rival social media networks. Thanks to the early and sustained adoption of hashtags, more than ¾ of businesses are finding increased opportunities for engagement and user-generated content.
Ads rake in billions of dollars each year with brands capitalizing on story advertising. Geo-tagging is also increasing engagement, offering brands one more win for their digital toolbox. Want to continue capitalizing on the engagement bandwagon? Post photos with faces!
- Snapchat update will create a rise in IG, and even FB, stories
It’s normal to expect a bit of backlash when a company unveils a new update. But the fervor with which users have rejected Snapchat’s latest interface is nothing short of unprecedented. Snippy snapchatters have even petitioned on Change.org for a reversal, amassing more than 750K signatures and counting.
Good news for Instagram and Facebooks stories, though. They’ve siphoned off user overflow in the process and marveled at their increased online engagement. Could the switch be permanent? We’ll be keeping watch.
PPC:
- Changes to AdWords ad policies to comply with the GDPR
Changes from the other side of the pond have washed up stateside. Namely, Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation. Google AdWords is responding in kind by, “require[ing] that publishers take extra steps in obtaining consent from their users.”
- Shoptalk: new shopping actions program that offers a universal cart
In an effort to stay competitive with the ‘Zon, a new Google initiative will shake up the typical PPC campaign model for big companies like Target, Costco, and others. They’re moving to cost-per-sale instead but made sure to specify that organic rankings would remain constant.
- AdWords interface change
Snapchat isn’t the only one unveiling a new interface. AdWords is sporting a new overview and home that tab that lets you quickly visualize some top-level data in your account. Navigation, native reporting, and added extensions are some of the touted ‘improvements,’ but feedback from PPC managers has been mixed so far.
Creative/Art Direction:
- Simpler is always better
With Twitter, Instagram stories and .06 non-skippable ads, we need to be quick, to-the-point, and relevant. In other words, we need the nuggets. Tailor your online content so it can be absorbed in the instant-gratification-pace of your audience.
- Phone-ing it in
Large screens, high resolution, budget-friendly tools, and vids with an intimate feel—these are the draws of making movies on an iPhone. They’re also just some of the reasons marketers and even filmmakers are using our magic handheld devices to create their masterpieces.
More and more, we’re learning that with talent and insight, smartphones can be powerful marketing tools. Since phones are our most familiar medium, it only makes sense to continue utilizing them and their plethora of apps to create viral digital marketing content.
- Sharing stories, finding a way to relate
Marketers are natural storytellers. Whether using catchy social media posts, intruding web copy, or snappy branding, the goal remains the same: tell the story behind the brands. It’s a human-centric approach that’s aimed at finding new ways to share common ground with their consumers. These inroads offer their customers and clients new ways to consider a marketer’s brand.
If you want to make a personal connection, but aren’t sure where to begin, why not start by sharing a bit about the people behind your product? The men and women beyond the work are likely some of your most unique marketing collateral.
Need a little help with your digital marketing launch? Let us send you into the stratosphere
DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS TO FUEL 2018: Q1
New year, new series. Introducing a quarterly digital marketing guide from our agency experts.
You don’t become a true Globe Runner without rocketing ahead of the curve. Trends help us navigate our client’s digital marketing trajectory and anticipate speed bumps. To do that, we have to crunch data from every part.
From new SEO strategies and PPC changes to social media algorithm updates and web dev trends, here are what have been fueling digital marketing plans in Q1 this year.
Technical SEO/Link Building:
- tf/idf
Google makes huge computations to understand your web content. Keywords help some, but in the end, its numerical statistics are responsible for indexing and language processing.
If you’re trying to rank for a specific topic, make sure you understand how to operate within a Tf*idf framework. The acronym of this search engine ‘building block’ stands for “term frequency times inverse document frequency.” In short, it determines the relevancy of a word or phrase in a page or document.
- Voice Search
Consumers aren’t strangers to voice-activated commands (think Siri, Alexa and the like). Where voice search was once relegated to our phones, smart assistants now live inside all types of tech devices including smart TVs, smart TV sticks (Chromecast/Amazon FireStick), computers and speakers.
During the 2017 holiday season, smart speakers were the big winners of Black Friday, offering far-reaching opportunities for businesses looking to advertise online.
- Expanded Meta Descriptions
To provide more helpful context, the descriptions that accompany a Google search result are expanding. Where they once had a hard stop at 165 characters, they now casually cut off around the 300 mark.
Take advantage of the new character limit by prioritizing the highest traffic pages on your website. Work with your CMS or SEO specialist to re-optimize them, accommodating for the longer length limits.
Local SEO/Citation Updates:
- Schema Mapping and Citation Optimization
You only get one chance to make a first impression. Microdata sounds small but has a huge impact on the authority of your site. Your branding may win over the customer in the end, but it’s Google that initially determines whether you make the ranks.
- Q&A on Google My Business
Google My Business Questions & Answers gives customers a direct line to business owners where they can answer questions about the company. Content is kept in a knowledge panel where the crowdsourced FAQs can be boosted in ranking or flagged as spam with a thumbs up or down.
- Replacing Google +
The idea behind creating a free Google My Business account is simple. Doing so allows companies to make updates and changes to how their business turns up in searches.
Now, the G+ replacement also offers a way to post events and promotions, which, done well, is very likely to increase your website’s visibility and CTR (click-through-rate).
Social/Content:
- Facebook Algorithm update: “Engagement Bait”
Facebook has been systematically curating the order in which we see our content. What was once a simple first-come-first-served model has morphed into posts that are demoted based on complex algorithms.
Most recently, posts that make blatant calls for likes, shares, tags or comments get sent to the back of the line. Once again, your business needs quality content to compete for online exposure.
- Facebook Newsfeed Changes
A second announcement to be aware of: as of January 11 of this year, Facebook will make changes to our newsfeeds. These could significantly hurt your brand’s social media marketing efforts, though business pages have been seeing this happen slowly over the past couple of years.
To show they’re all about connection, Facebook will now prioritize posts from friends and family. Content from brands and publishers will rank much lower; however, Facebook Ads appear to be safe for the time being. Proving once again, you need to pay to play on social media.
- Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories has just celebrated its first birthday. Pioneered by Snapchat, the format is similar, allowing users to capture videos and photos of moments throughout their day.
Brands are no stranger to advertising on Instagram. Now, the ability to give consumers an intimate look at the highlights of their day is just one of the reasons Stories is so instrumental in social media marketing. You can add polls to your story and encourage users to share their opinion, and you can even save the story and make it a permanent ‘highlight’ that will live underneath your bio.
PPC:
- Voice Search
If seeing Voice Search twice in one article has you scratching your head, open your ears instead.
The issue for PPC and voice search centers on segmenting and targeting voice search phrases. As a digital agency, our job is to understand how we can best use this data. By extrapolating these voice search phrases, we can include Broad Match Modifier terms related to “phrases” in question format. In short, we help catch voice searches, and that makes our clients show up in paid search results.
- Google Home Services Ads/Local Services by Google
Need help managing leads? Google is here to help you. Though it’s been slow to roll out, advertisers offering services can now budget based on how many leads they want to receive. The format of the ads will look more like a digital business card than an ad, allowing potential clients to make contact more directly and immediately.
Businesses in the 17 cities looking to capitalize on local service ads need to undergo the roughly two-week verification process that includes employee background checks and certification.
- Purchasing from Shopping Ads
Transactions just got a whole lot simpler for customers. Now, consumers can buy products displayed within Google Shopping ads with the simple click of an ‘easy checkout’ button. They never even have to leave the Google-hosted landing page and can pay directly with the payments uploaded to their Google accounts.
Because buyers don’t need further information on the products before they buy from the platform, it’s a bold way for Google to assert, “people trust us.”
Website/Development:
- Subtle Animations
These digital interfaces were all the rage towards the end of 2017 and showed no signs of slowing at the beginning of 2018.
Web developers should, however, emphasize implementation through their CMS. This creates a prime focal point as it transitions the responsibility away from the time-costly development teams to the content authors.
- Managed Dedicated CMS Hosting
- Website Push Notifications
If you thought push notifications were relegated to your smartphone, we have news for you: they’ve now caught up to the app space, allowing your WordPress site to keep your audience up-to-date with all the latest news and offers.
Creative/Art Direction:
- Simplified Packaging
Most everyone in the industry has tried nice 4-color printing. Since it’s available in almost every kind of packaging, the current graphic design trend is oriented toward simplification. This allows clients to a) stand out and b) save money on printing.
We’re not advocating for minimalism here. Instead, it’s a high concentration of the core info, including graphics all laid out with a simple treatment that doesn’t dilute the message.
- Authenticity
Consumers are responding more positively to authentic images, stories, and people. The takeaway here: if you’re looking for visual content, know your audience would rather see images and videos shot with a phone, as opposed to stock photos, especially if it helps tell the story. Of course, commercial photographers are still highly recommended if the marketing budget allows.
- Fonts, fonts, fonts
Graphic designers see more hand-drawn fonts from designers. And why not, no two are the same! We can make graphics out of words alone and in whichever font we choose. Although it remains a beloved font with plenty of life left in it, really, this proves there’s more to life than Helvetica.
Stay tuned for more Digital Media Trends to blast off in 2018!
Have questions about anything we covered here? Make contact!
WHY PRINT ADVERTISING VS DIGITAL MARKETING IS A MISTAKE
Year after year consumers spend increasingly fewer hours away from their devices. They work, shop and engage socially in online platforms, consuming digital media at a feverish pace. In one year, from 2015 to 2016, the number of hours Americans spent in front of a screen rose about 90 minutes. That average now tops about 11 hours of daily screen time.
Given our demand for digital, it does make sense to invest many ad dollars online, but writing off all non-digital media is a big mistake.
Think paper content is obsolete? We have news for you.
As we’ll see, multi-channel marketing strategies that utilize both can tap into the benefits of traditional print and paper advertising while leveraging the omnipresence of those online.
Multi-Channel Marketing Defined
Let’s start by laying the groundwork for what a well-rounded marketing strategy might look like.
Simply put, it’s a plan that uses on and offline avenues to get your brand in front of as many potential customers as possible. One strategy; multiple platforms. Dedicating yourself exclusively to digital marketing tactics may yield results initially, but utilizing analog channels like direct mail or print ads has the potential to target leads over the long-term.
Another way to frame it: multi-channel marketing makes your product or service available on the platforms your customers frequent, making it easy for them to make purchases when and where they want.
Deconstructing Digital Marketing
Don’t get us wrong. We are huge proponents of online advertising. It’s measurable, it’s malleable and it’s effective. Digital ads can be specifically targeted to your audience and changed as the data demands.
However, it’s important to remember that just because something’s more trackable doesn’t mean other avenues don’t have value in building and solidifying your brand.
Depending on the type of campaign you want to run, digital may fall short. For example, one study at San Jose State University found customers are more likely to browse your ad, scanning for keywords before quickly moving on. They’re consumed and processed more quickly. If your goal is to disseminate important and concrete product information, this selective reading and spotty attention span associated with some digital media could inhibit your sale.
The point is, the instantaneous access provided by an Instagram ad or Google PPC campaign is a powerful tool, and really, the benefits of a well-planned digital marketing strategy cannot be overstated. Still, they’re not always the best, and certainly not the only, way to play.
Investigating Print Ads
This brings us to the paper-based content that forms more traditional advertisements. Generally speaking, it requires less brainpower to process and is more memorable than digital media. Because it’s tangible, the brain tends to categorize physical material differently. Memories are created with more context–where you were, how it felt to hold it–offering a more sensory and emotional experience of the advertisement.
One 2009 study conducted by Bangor University and branding agency Millward Brown found that print ads and paper content increased the brain’s connection to internal feelings, implying that customers were more likely to “internalize” the ad.
Another study conducted for the U.S. Post Office found:
- Viewers engaged with paper ads for extended periods of time.
- Respondents were able to recall more information from the ad (including company name) more than a week after they first viewed it.
- The centers of the brain that are responsible for regulating value and desire were highly active when viewing physical ads.
Essentially, it’s like the difference between receiving an email or Facebook message on your birthday, and getting a hand-written card in the mail. Both are special, but one stands out more than the other.
Planning Consumer Oriented Content
Without question, when planning your outreach efforts, go where the consumer is. This may vary based on your market.
If they have a preferred channel, you need to be on it. This may mean reaching out more than once so you catch them at the right time, in the right place and with the right message.
Make sure you’ve researched your target audience thoroughly to find out where they dwell both online and off. Create customer surveys to collect data. Use buyer personas in-house. Rely on A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing collateral.
You may find some products like luxury items or brands with unique services lend themselves better for print materials. Others with less emotional motivation or merchandise with more SKUs than visuals might be more effective for online channels.
A Message to Marketers
We live in a digital world, but that doesn’t mean the world is entirely digital. Your advertisements shouldn’t be either. Print ads still hold power. When paired with the right online marketing initiatives, they’re likely to drive digital sales. Mix up your media to broaden and bolster your brand experience.
Need a little help? Let’s strategize together.
TIPS FOR HIRING A DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY
If you’ve decided that you’re not a marketer or simply don’t have time for it (you’re an attorney, after all, and are focused on billable hours), you may have decided it’s time to outsource your digital marketing efforts. It’s a big decision. Your time, reputation and hard-earned revenue are at stake. Consider the following factors when selecting the right marketing partner.
Beware the Auto-Renewal Contract
Everybody knows about the auto-renewal contract. They’re not exclusive to consumer contracts, like those for health club memberships, video-streaming services or computer software. That’s right, auto-renewals are often included in marketing agency contracts.
Make sure you look out for any auto-renewal clauses, euphemistically called evergreen clauses. If you contract for 12 months of marketing services, but you fail to provide advanced notice of cancellation as stated in the contract (usually 90 days), you’re locked in for another 12 months. So, if you’re not happy with the agency you’ve hired, well…
The auto-renewal contract can be so punitive that 22 states have statutes that limit auto-renewals. In 2017 alone, there have been over 50 auto-renewal related bills in state legislatures. When the government gets involved, there’s an issue. One New Jersey legislator dubbed them “zombie clauses” because they never seem to die.
Make Sure You Own Your Own Content
You might be thinking, Of course I own my own content, it’s my content, I paid for it! That sounds logical, I know, but you’ll definitely want to discuss content ownership prior to entering into an agency contract. Here’s the rub on content generated by some agencies: unless you’ve negotiated a specific provision in the contract, the agency might own the rights to their work even after you’ve paid for it.
What does not owning your own content mean? It means that if you move to another agency or bring your marketing in-house, all of the content on your website is gone. Pages of content will have to be reconstructed and optimized, blogs the agency has written on your behalf can’t be utilized, and months, maybe years, of analytics information is gone. So, basically, you can expect to have zero online presence for weeks, maybe months.
Be Sure to Target the Right Kind of Leads
A recent conversation with an estate planning attorney who had utilized a lead company disguised as a digital marketing agency can be summarized with this statement: “The leads were junk.” Sure, they’d delivered him one hundred “leads” per month as promised, but he soon discovered they were little more than respondents to a “check the box” survey. He spent hours contacting them, only to learn that their definition of a lead was little more than a name and a phone number. Those aren’t leads.
What Does a Digital Marketing Agency Bring to the Table?
A reputable digital marketing agency will sit down with you to fully understand your expectations, your business, and your style, then put together a comprehensive game plan based on your budget that will utilize any or all of the following elements:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)―sure, you’ve got a website, but can anyone find it?
- Content Management―are you providing valuable and educational content?
- Social Media―are you finding and keeping potential clients engaged?
- Reputation Management―do you monitor, manage and act on your online reviews?
- Listing Management―are you managing your online presence?
- Paid Search―are you reaching your audience online, at the optimal time, through targeted search engine advertising?
Remember, marketing is about developing, over time, a demand for a product or service by fulfilling a customer’s need. Can marketing generate leads? Of course, it can. But great marketing finds prospective customers that are well-informed, educated and who understand how you differentiate yourself and your practice from the rest of the marketplace.
According to The National Law Review, 96% of people seeking legal counsel use a search engine. But here’s the best part― almost 75% of them contact only one attorney prior to securing their services. What does this mean? It means that your online presence better be optimal.
If you’ve decided that your practice could use the expertise of a digital marketing agency that specializes in the legal profession, contact Accelerate Online Marketing today. We make digital law firm marketing easy, and we do it while closely adhering to the Texas Bar Association’s Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
COMMUNICATE BETTER: WEB DEV LINGO 101
The company website is the new business card. It’s the face you present to the world – a digital handshake, your first impression. As a mission-critical part of any digital marketing plan, getting it right is important.
Maybe you’re creating one for the first time. Perhaps your site simply needs a little updating as part of a brand rediscovery. Whether you’re building it in-house or using a digital marketing and web development firm, you and your team need to speak the same language.
This glossary of basic web development terms will help.
- CMS or Content Management System– WordPress and Drupal are popular examples of a CMS; a software system focused on web content. It creates an easy way for users to make text and image updates to their site without using HTML and allow your development team to add advanced features.
- HTML or Hypertext Markup Language- These are the building blocks of your site. Each web page has a markup language that structures the content therein and has the ability to describe it. Search Engines recognize this as the most basic language on the web, followed by CSS, PHP, ASP, Javascript, jQuery (see below).
- CSS or Cascading Style Sheets- This file tells browsers, mobile phones, tablets, projectors, and other devices how to display your site. Where HTML pages create a foundation, a CSS denotes how it should be styled. This includes regulating the consistency of essential elements like logos, fonts, images, menu pages, etc.
- IA or Information Architecture- Without well-designed, organized text content, your site is nothing but pretty pictures. IA ensures your site is easy to navigate and displays the top features using a planned sitemap and wireframes for each page.
- JavaScript- Programming language #3. This one comes to us from Sun Microsystems Corporation. Web apps use this language for motion elements like drop-downs, scroll-overs, or simple animations. Search Engines are still unable to read Javascript files, but they’re important for your user experience and branding.
- jQuery- This open source JavaScript library uses common functions to accelerate development with complex client-based JavaScript applications. It’s the most popular JavaScript library among programmers, allowing them to easily navigate everything from documents and animations to plug-ins and widgets.
- MySQL- Another open source database management system used in many web applications.
- PHP- Once classified as “Personal Home Page,” today, PHP is understood as an open source, C-like, programming and server-side scripting language. Dynamic websites use them to power millions of open source projects.
- Sitemap- According to our own web development expert, Daniel Edwards, “Sitemap can be a difficult keyword to decipher. It’s both technical and conceptual. Conceptually, it helps drive a site’s navigation and approach. From a technical standpoint, xml feeds illustrate the concept of a website and inform Google how large or small the site is.”
- UI or User Interface/UX or User Experience– Anything a user can view and manipulate on your site or app makes up the user interface. These include the screen itself, cursors, and keyboards as well as the menus. Conversely, the user experience (UX) has to do with a person’s emotions, attitudes, and ease-of-use accessing your website. Improving the UX Design of your site, improves the user experience of your site, making it easier for them to interact with your product or service.
- Wireframe– This “skeletal” foundation of your site is a visual representation of its content sans design. It’s more concerned with the layout structure than the text or graphics that will eventually flesh it out.
Even if your job never requires you to become fully fluent in web design, it’s good to have a basic grasp of the language. The sooner you get your site up and running, the sooner you can focus on driving more web traffic to it.