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5 TRAITS TO LOOK FOR IN A REPUTABLE DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY

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Naturally, with the essential nature of online marketing, thousands of digital marketing agencies are out there offering their services to companies around the globe. As with any business, their levels of competence and reliability vary, so you need to search carefully to find an agency that will work. To help you tell a reliable agency from less reliable ones, here are five things you should look for:

  1. Transparency: If PPC, SEO, responsive design, and other web marketing terms are gibberish to your ears, they certainly shouldn’t remain that way. A reputable digital marketing agency will not only make sure each aspect of your online marketing strategy is well executed, but they’ll also make sure you understand exactly how it works.
  2. Continuing partnership: The right agency won’t set everything up just to leave you to your own devices afterward. They will act as reliable consultants to make sure your new traffic converts into clientele.
  3. Holistic approach: Your audience is everywhere, and you’ll need multiple strategies to reach potential customers. A reputable agency understands this and will employ a wide variety of digital marketing methods to attract traffic.
  4. Awesome track record: Naturally, a reputable online marketing firm will have a strong history of pleased clients. Take a look through their reviews and see how they’ve helped other companies build a strong online presence and boost revenue.
  5. Rockstar-grade skill: To be successful in online marketing, skill and expertise are vital. The right agency for your company will employ digital rockstars with the skills, education, and experience needed to implement their strategies effectively.

Transparency, continuity, experience, and customer satisfaction are all important factors to consider when choosing a digital marketing agency to handle your online strategies. Accelerate Online Marketing strives to fulfill all of these qualities, but don’t take our word for it—check out our portfolio, browse our client reviews, and contact us to see how our team of digital rockstars can help you.

6 SEO TIPS TO HELP YOUR SMALL BUSINESS SIZZLE THIS SUMMER

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The year is half way over, but there’s still time to heat things up in 2018. Whether you’re bent on driving more traffic to your site or simply need more sales in the pipeline, search engine marketing has never been hotter.

We’ve pooled six of summer’s best SEO practices to help you sizzle this season. Look out, these SEO optimization tips are coming in hot!

1. Make sure yourmenu of services is up to date

In essence, this is your secret sauce to help out-market your competitors, get clear about your brand’s keywords, and define your categories in Google. Adding a FAQ, testimonial, and case study section to your service page will really sell it, too!

2. Utilize Google Trends and Insights to plan compelling content

‘Editorial data-based stories’ is a new feature of Google Trends that’s helping content creators make their blog topics, keywords, and social media strategies more specific – and effective! With access to data trends culled from trillions of online searches, digital marketers can gear content based on what users all over the world are querying both in real-time and overtime – for free.

3. Take advantage of new tools like In-Marketing Audiences

Want to improve your search campaign performance on Google and Bing? In-marketing Audiences allows you to target users with search histories that align with your product or service. It’s free, has the potential to lower your CPA, and helpful for gearing your search campaigns and online ads toward audiences at the end of the buying cycle.

4. Have your web dev team code for priority hits

Wish you could control what loads first on your site? Chrome Beta is about to help your most important features take center stage. In our quarterly review of the most promising digital marketing trends of 2018, we learned that developers will soon have the power key in code that distinguishes certain digital assets on your site as high-priority. This means that critical header or prized picture can start captivating your target audiences sooner than other content.

5. Set up local service ads (LSAs)

Whether you build houses or clean them, you’re likely operating in a defined SBA (service business area). Makes sense to put your online advertising dollars there, right? Google local service ads is a pay-per-lead ad platform that can help small businesses keep their review ratings high and increase their brand awareness in their local market.

6. Drill down and really look at your data

Google analytics used to be the end-all-be-all for making discoveries through data. However, Google Tag Manager, GA’s more sophisticated older sister, can track any activity you program it to. It collects information from a variety of verticals, giving marketers the freedom to isolate activity on any number of key metrics. Essentially, the more you understand what users are doing on your site, the better chance you have of making them customers.

Hot on the trail of more SEO best practices for the rest of 2018? Give us a shout! We promise we won’t just blow hot air at you.

Filed Under: SEO

4 REASONS ENGAGEMENT RING RETAILERS WIN AT SOCIAL MEDIA

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Globe Runner has had its fair share of fine jewelry clients, specifically those in the engagement ring business. And boy, marketing diamond sparklers on social media is tough. 

Apart from the competition, there are also the twin challenges of growing your audience on social and driving traffic to the website. We’ve learned by trial and error what works and what doesn’t, and listed below the five most useful lessons we’ve learned from our fine jeweler clients who excel at social media:

1. They make their pictures work harder

Our clients put immense effort into the photography and retouching of ring photos — for good reason. In their world, it’s the eye candy that grabs attention, not clever copy.

But you already knew that. Here’s what you may not know:

Good marketers optimize their photos as they help with visual search. Make sure your photos have keywords; ensure better page load speeds by reducing their sizes. Think of places where your photos could end up and you’ll see that watermarking them (discreetly) or adding a logo or web link (discreetly) adds an extra boost to your social media efforts.

Many Pinterest boards have photos that lead to 404s because the page with the photo was unthinkingly deleted. A web URL on the image would help enormously in leading interested shoppers back to your site.

Vary the solo photo routine every now and then by throwing in themed slide shows. They’re fantastic ways to repurpose existing content and are proven to be a draw. And don’t be afraid to be quirky. This slideshow on Disney-inspired engagement rings was the best performing content about engagement rings in 2015, earning 547,000 shares on Facebook for tech site Chip Chick. Which brings us to the next point …

2. They know Facebook is their best friend

BuzzSumo research on engagement ring content from the last 12 months bears this out. If fine jewelry clients had time and/or resources for only one or two social media platforms, for sure Facebook is there. The proof is in these BuzzSumo charts:

Facebook has more than quadruple the number of shares on Pinterest, the second most used social media channel.

Facebook dwarfs the other platforms when it comes to sharing pretty much any content format for engagement rings.

Why is Facebook such a win in engagement ring marketing? Two reasons:

  • Getting engaged counts among one of life’s most significant milestones, and Facebook is The Platform for announcing to one and all life’s updates, whether big or small. If as far back as six years ago women were already discussing how to compose a creative engagement status update on Facebook, it’s only logical for fine jewelry marketers to focus the most attention on this social media network.
  • Two-for-one: Although women are the main audience for engagement ring retailers, their fiancés are the buyers. The ability to tag one’s significant other when going into raptures over rings gives marketers more visibility for their product.

Posting times can be critical to Facebook posts’ performance. From our experience, evenings are the best time to schedule a post as brides are busiest scouring social media for inspiration and ideas.

3. They promote engagement (pun intended) by asking questions

Flash a question mark in front of people and they’re prompted to respond — it’s wired into the human brain. Some examples of how engagement ring retailers have applied that philosophy with sterling results to social media posts:

  • A collage of recently engaged celebrity engagement rings, accompanied by the question ‘Whose engagement ring style do you like best?’
  • A photo of a gorgeous ring with a coy ‘Say yes?’
  • A group shot of different diamond cuts, appropriately labeled, with a caption that says ‘Marquise, cushion or halo? Which cut is your dream ring?’

Make sure the questions are of the easy yes/no variety and watch the answers roll in.

4. They don’t think of social media as an end unto itself

The best marketers of engagement rings see social media as part of an intricate ecosystem with many moving parts, and the latter has to be organized for the former to perform at its best. Before posting that perfect picture and caption on social media, you can be sure that these have taken place:

  • The landing page linked to from the post has been optimized for desired actions, e.g. extending a visitor’s stay on the site by providing links to other related products; providing a pop-up with a promotional code in exchange for an email address
  • The link was generated through Google’s URL builder to measure visitor traffic driven by that post
  •  Thought has been given to going beyond organic shares — using promoted or boosted posts, for example, or social media influencer outreach

In short, social media both complements and is enriched by other marketing channels. Getting all the cogs working together for a common objective is key.

Underwater photo of engagement ring by Emily Cline via Flickr. Alicia is director of brand strategy at Globe Runner and a recovered diamond enthusiast.

THE SURPRISINGLY OVERLOOKED TRICK TO IMPROVE YOUR SITE’S PAGE LOAD SPEED

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by Brian MellerWe all know that a faster site leads to usability, conversion and SEO gains. And sometimes it doesn’t require specialized SEO knowledge to improve site speed, as we’ll show you in this blog post.One often overlooked way to improve the page load speed of your website is to compress your images.This may not apply to everyone, but most websites have a portfolio section or a blog that contains images. If that’s the case, it’s important to reduce the file size of your images.Most people think you can’t reduce the file size without reducing the quality, but there are two ways to get around that problem.1. Resize the image to the height or width that will be displayed on the siteSometimes we’ll see images that are 5472 x 4648 pixels, but the site’s maximum width is set at 1200px. So if you upload that original file size, it’s not useful because the site will resize the image width to 1200px and the file size will still be 3 MB instead of 600 KB.But let’s say you want the 5472 x 3648 pixel image on your site to give users the option to view it full size. That’s fine, but you should compress the image to reduce the size.How do you do this? Simple.2. Go to Tiny PNG and upload your .png or .jpg file to the siteTiny PNG will compress the image and reduce the size up to 80%.Here are two files of the same image, but in different sizes. Can you spot any difference in quality?

Brian is Globe Runner’s Quality Team Lead. He’s our resident SEO expert who can also enlighten us on the intricacies of sci-fi and Formula 1.

WHAT ARE MICRO-MOMENTS IN MARKETING?

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People are using their mobile devices more than ever before, and not just for casually browsing the web or actively shopping. Mobile users are highly likely to pull out their smartphone when faced with a dilemma or problem, such as when making purchasing decisions at the store or finding a place nearby to eat. These moments when people use their smartphones for small, everyday tasks, are being referred to as “micro-moments.”
The Research

Research by Google indicates that micro-moments can be divided into four categories:

  • I-want-to-know: These are instances when people look up information on their phones, such as something they might have seen in a commercial.
  • I-want-to-go: People will look for nearby businesses on mobile devices.
  • I-want-to-do: “How-to” searches and consultation with the web for ideas are moments included in this area.
  • I-want-to-buy: Prior to making a purchase, people will use their smartphone to evaluate their buying decisions.

The research also indicates that these instances are becoming vastly more common, making it important for businesses to take advantage of these moments.

Micro-Moments Marketing

These micro-moments mean that consumers are more likely to make decisions and try to solve problems in the moment. This has given rise to micro-moment marketing strategies that take advantage of the tendency consumers have to consult the internet at a moment’s notice. To properly take advantage of this phenomenon:

  • Make sure your online content is quickly searchable and digestible
  • Understand your customers’ needs, including “in-the-moment” needs
  • Determine in which moments your brand should come up
  • Consider location, time of day, and other contextual elements in developing content

Using these effectively will lead consumers to choose your brand over others by providing helpful information on how it can help them right in the moment.

Using Micro-Moments

Designing content and implementing marketing strategies to make effective use of micro-moments is a task that requires careful planning and keen online marketing expertise. Accelerate Online Marketing can help you put together actionable strategies that will reach your audience right when they need you most, so contact us today!

VIDEO: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEO AND PPC

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Hi, Eric McGehearty from Globe Runner here, and today I want to talk about the difference between SEO and PPC.

I think most of us know that search engine optimization is a process of getting a website to rank better in search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or whatever search engine you choose in the organic section.

Pay per click is a form of advertising, generally in search, that is the process of buying ads at the top of a search engine based on certain keywords.

They have a lot in common, because with both we’re targeting specific keywords and phrases to get a relevant customer or buyer to come into the website. If you have a number 1 result on SEO and a number 1 result on pay per click, you’ll achieve a similar outcome.

But with all that said, what should you expect from a campaign? The biggest difference is speed. SEO is something that is built over time and earned based on lots of factors including your popularity on the web. Other factors include how many people are linking to you, who is linking to you, your content, how great it is, your keyword usage, your site architecture, and your indexability.

When you are thinking about an SEO campaign and evaluating the performance, it should be looked at monthly, quarterly, annually. As much as you would evaluate any other KPI.

But it is a long term goal and not expected to see huge gains from month to month. With compounding interest in mind, you will see massive gains over extended periods of time.

Pay per click is a little different. It’s much quicker. you will see results very fast. in fact, you will see traffic the first day you turn it on. And that traffic hopefully will convert to leads and sales fairly quickly.

It usually takes a few weeks to a few months to really dial a pay per click campaign in and start generating really measurable, good results, but nonetheless, it’s a fast return on your investment.

Will it have a compounding interest effect? Generally no, not without doing extensive A/B testing and conversion rate optimization. Those will improve over time and ongoing enhancements to the campaign will improve but it won’t compound the same way SEO does. You will need to spend more money to get better results.

If your pay per click campaign is profitable, that’s exactly what you should do. If it’s not profitable, you should cut if off or make some significant changes to the way the account is structured before it continues.

Thanks so much, I look forward to talking to you next time.

VIDEO: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, NOT JUST CONTENT MARKETING

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Hi, this is Eric, CEO of Globe Runner. I want to talk to you today about content marketing – but I’d really like to change the way we talk about content marketing.

I have a lot of customers that come in and say ‘shouldn’t I be blogging and doing stuff on social media?’ And the answer is yes, you probably should. But how you do that is important.

So, let’s use a different word. Instead of content marketing, let’s call it thought leadership. Thought leadership is actually much more important than content marketing.

There’s a couple things that thought leadership does for your business that just writing content doesn’t do.

1. When somebody does read your content, they’re compelled to stay with your business and interact with you, maybe get more. Even better, they might give you their email for downloading a white paper or a case study or getting further involved in your sales process. This allows you to take advantage of the traffic you’re bringing in. It’s one thing for somebody to visit your website, but to convince them to take an action is so much more powerful.

2. The next thing that thought leadership can do that content marketing by itself could never do is generate links to your site – generate other influencers in your space to link back to your site as a relevant source that contributes interesting thought leadership to their ideas. Those links are the number one signal that Google is looking for to determine whether or not your site has relevant information to a potential searcher.

So, just two compelling reasons to put a little more energy into your blogging than just blogging or just being on social.

Instead, approach it as a thought leader and try to bring something new to the table.

If you’d like to share this video on your blog or website, use the following embed code: <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/GcvXmt7D6ZQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

5 TAKEAWAYS: GOOGLE’S PERFORMANCE SUMMIT KEYNOTE

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by Alicia Kan

If you watched yesterday’s Google Performance Summit keynote,  quite a bit of the information shared impacts marketers of every stripe — most notably local businesses and retail. Following are five of what we felt were the showstoppers, and potential implications for you.

(Want to watch the entire keynote instead? You can on YouTube.)

1. Farewell desktop; mobile, make yourself at home

Perhaps one of the most hated words is ‘paradigm shift’ but Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s VP for Advertising & Commerce, was pretty much expressing that with his choice of verbiage on mobile.

“The shift to mobile is no longer something that will happen or is happening. It has happened.” Factoid thrown out to support this: More than half of all global web traffic comes from tablets and smart phones. Cue the rush of marketers fleeing the desktop Titanic.

Google has reworked AdWords into a mobile-first tool and significant changes herald this shift in focus. Changes include the removal of the righthand ads on desktop (no wonder, because desktop’s kicked the bucket) and the recent expansion of the number of characters in description lines to 80, which totals 50% more text in text ads. Google’s test results showed that mobile users responded better to ads with longer headlines and click-through rate (CTR) improved by 20%.

Similarly, marketers will have more control over bidding. Starting over the next few months, advertisers can do individual bid adjustments over each device type and anchor keyword bids on the device(s) that work for them, within a single campaign. This announcement drew a round of applause.

Furthermore, display ads will also be able to unlock native ad territory. Publishers will be looking forward to that for sure.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS B2C brands will be thinking furiously about how they can ramp up their mobile advertising with these new options. And, if it has been relegated to the side as an afterthought, bring mobile front and center in your chosen ad platforms. Anticipate budgets being shifted around and oh, horrors, for you to become a mobile advertising expert overnight.

2. The customer journey is moment-driven

Google has been heralding the ‘micro-moment‘ movement for some time now and to marketers, it can be daunting. According to Ramaswamy, successful brands are the ones who have rethought their approach to marketing by supplying actions that speak to consumers where they are, when they need them.

The example supplied was Macy’s, which masters I-want-to-buy moments by directing searchers to the right storefront, whether online or physical. People searching on laptops are directed to the Macy’s website; searchers using smartphones are sent to their nearest Macy’s, and have the ability to see whether the merchandise they seek is in the store.

Google wants us to latch onto these two words: Intent and context. What the consumer searches for and wants the minute he rolls out of bed and reaches for his smartphone is not what he wants when, say, he is searching idly for lunch takeaway options while coming back from the bank or gym.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS The buyer persona exercise will expand to cover micro-moments. It won’t be enough to just know who’s buying what and why, but when and in what conceivable scenario.

3. Local search is a bigger deal than we all thought

VP for Search Ads Jerry Dischler shared research findings that supported this theme: 90% of purchases are made in stores, not online. Nearly 1/3 of mobile searches are related to location. In 2015, location-related mobile searches grew 50% faster than mobile searches overall. “Smartphones have created a new front door, bridging the physical and digital world,” he said. In that Stargate vein, Google has helpfully supplied us with new toys.

Over 1 billion people worldwide now use Maps, which was created to help people navigate the physical world. For added functionality, wouldn’t it help to also provide useful items like reviews to recommend where to go, popular times when you can escape crowds and lines, or real-time transit times that help you avoid delays? Google thinks so, therefore they’re allowing ads within Google Maps.

The next generation of local search ads will also have Pinterest-type pins relevant to the searcher. Advertisers can customize the page with content or offers unique to the location that would enhance foot traffic to the establishment.

Google has already been testing the marrying of data between search, location (opt-in) and beacons to determine what online behavior truly drives offline purchase. According to the 10 big box retailers that participated in the study, the number of incremental visits driven by mobile search ads exceeded online conversions.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS  Finally, there’s a way to directly link search and online advertising budgets to offline purchase other than coupons — very handy when budget-planning time rolls around. Smart small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will study how they can take full advantage of local’s growing halo. We foresee location-based marketing, which had its heyday in 2010, to make a comeback.

4. Machine learning is helping us target and understand untapped customers

Because marketers can’t keep track of Stacy, a 32-year-old Midwestern mother of a two-year-old with another child on the way, who is shopping for a minivan. A Google longitudinal study on Stacy unearthed 900 touch points from her in three months, from researching vehicle reviews during playdates to checking out videos in the rare spare minute. That’s a lot of micro-moments for just one consumer. Multiply that with all your other consumers and it gets tricky.

Fortunately Google’s machine learning can handily assist with identifying and reaching the Stacies of this world. With data and automation, marketers can be there during critical micro-moments. Display advertisers can turn to programmatic to deliver the right message at the right time. DoubleClick Manager and Google Display Network will deliver ads based on intent, context and demographics.

Google is also launching a cross-exchange inventory that will reach additional websites and apps across the world, said Brad Bender, VP of Display and Video Ads for Google. Additionally, they’ve just launched Similar Audiences for Search, a new product that allows remarketing lists to extend to buyers unfamiliar with a brand. Marriott has already tested Similar Audiences and reported a quadrupled ROI. Similarly, Fiat Chrysler has experimented with the product and bid aggressively on new audiences that have a lot in common with their consumer. The results were 5% more click-through rates (CTR) and 14% less cost per acquisition (CPA).

Bender said a parallel offering called Demographics for Search Ads is set to launch in the foreseeable future.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS Remember that legendary story in 2012 about Target exposing a teen girl’s pregnancy? That was done with the help of statistical genius Andrew Pole. From the sound of it, Google is set to make online targeting even more eerily accurate. Except this time there will be less perplexed parents — the coupons should be delivered to a smartphone given the emphasis on  mobile.

5. Reporting changes are more than a facelift

In March, SEOs learned of the new 360 Suite that integrated six Google products, from Analytics to Tag Management, into one enterprise platform. Significant news today:

  • All 360 Analytics customers can join the closed beta
  • Data Studio 360 will have Google Docs’ collaboration ability, allowing several parties to edit at the same time to create rich, dynamic reports that integrate data from different sources — very neat stuff demonstrated by Babak Pahlavan, Google’s Senior Director of Measurement & Analytics
  • Integration of Google Assistant into Analytics: You’ll soon be able to ask a question about Analytics findings via voice or a typed question — even more impressive demo-ing by Pahlavan
  • A free version of Data Studio 360 for up to five reports was launched today in the US for all Analytics accounts (although we haven’t seen any sign of it yet). The free version will be rolled out across the world right after

AdWords was not forgotten in the redesign. Samantha Lemmonier, Director of Engineering for the AdWords platform, showed a new homepage with insights at-a-glance, such as top performing campaigns, top devices, even best time of day to run a campaign. Advertisers can supply their objectives and actions they want to drive; AdWords will offer a campaign creation flow.

Best of all, no migration or upgrade is required, Lemmonier said. Campaigns will run the same as they do today. The AdWords team will continue building out what she called ‘the [new] AdWords experience’ and invite marketers to try it out.

IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS Start thinking of the five clients who should get the Data Studio 360 report. Possibly prospects to impress? Presenting Analytics data to clients face-to-face should also be a novel experience now that you can verbally ask for insights and get a Siri-like reply (for safety, practice first so you get the right answer). 

IMPLICATION FOR APPLE Oh dear. Siri is going to have to one-up this. 

WHY ARE VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS IMPORTANT FOR MY MARKETING STRATEGY?

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With sites like YouTube receiving vast amounts of traffic every hour of every day, video advertisements have become much more prevalent on the internet. Whether it’s a 13 second ad before a streamed video or a URL sent via email, video advertising is an engaging, memorable, and cost-effective way to promote your brand on the vast sea of the internet marketplace. Here are a few reasons why:

  • Engaging: Videos are inherently engaging, and interesting vids are shared frequently by people on social media. Of course, to get this to happen, you need a video that’s neither too short nor too long and that contains engaging content. Engaging content must be either entertaining or informative (or both), and it must provide that value quickly.
  • Memorable: Engaging videos are memorable (seriously, just try forgetting Gangnam Style). The very nature of video makes it stick in people’s minds since it incorporates both visual and audible elements. Your audience will see, hear, and—if you do it right—feel your message, making it a highly effective way to get people thinking about your brand.
  • Data-driven: Sites like YouTube now use data to drive their video advertising. They track what videos people usually watch, enabling your message to get to people who are most likely to be interested. Think of the effect a hardware store ad will have when streamed right before a DIY project video, for example.
  • Promotes brand recognition: Written and visual content both build your brand’s identity. Add sound and movement to that, and you suddenly have a much stronger way to convey your voice online. In addition, it adds a whole new dimension to your brand identity, which makes your brand that much more memorable. This is what video does for you—it fleshes out your identity and makes it more distinctive.
  • Cost effective: For the value it provides, video advertising is highly cost effective. It has far more click-throughs than written content, and it will usually keep people on your site longer. Add that to the reach and recognition it gives you, and it’s easy to see why video is such an important part of your online marketing strategy.

To be truly effective, a video needs to be well crafted and used in the right way. Otherwise, it won’t get the reach and click-through rates it needs. This requires the marketing expertise of digital rockstars, which you can find at Accelerate Online Marketing. To learn more about the importance and use of video advertisements, contact Accelerate today!

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