In a few short years YouTube has gone from being an entertaining curiosity filled with funny videos to the world’s second largest search engine. During that span the company (along with Google) managed to harness its initial popularity to create an increasingly lucrative marketing hub as more viewers and advertisers migrated from television to the digital platform.

No longer strictly the domain of film geeks and funny video aficionados, the network, which boasts more than 2 billion video views monetized per week, can also provide a low-cost to no-cost way to create a social marketing channel for your business.

If you aren’t effectively leveraging the network, you’re missing the viral video boat. However, as with most things in life, success isn’t often attained with a haphazard, slapdash effort. Being successful on YouTube takes planning.

These 10 easy steps are a good place to start.

1. Know what “success” means.

What are you trying to achieve?

• Video views– Do you just want a lot of people to see your video?
• Conversions– Do you need people to click through to another website and complete an action?
• Deeper engagement with your brand– Do you need to use your video to provide potential customers with more opportunities to interact with your brand?

2. Research keywords.

Just like when you are creating content for your website, in order to be discovered on the second largest search engine, you will need to know what people are looking for. Use YouTube’s Keyword Tool to find popular searches within your space. Optimizing your digital media content for search is just as important as it is for your written content on a blog or website. You have to be strategic, do your research, and know who you want to target. Google includes YouTube videos in their search results, so cross-referencing your Google keyword research with the research you did for YouTube, can be an important step to take in the planning process.

3. Know your competition.

Search on YouTube to find other videos that already rank well for the keywords that you would like to rank for. See what it is that you are up against and seek out strategies to out-do them. This phase should also help you in your keyword research. Use this research to look into some opportunities that your competitors may not be taking advantage of. Are there any keywords that receive a lot of traffic that could possibly be easier to rank for than the ones you were initially looking into? Are there any long tail keywords you could target that might cater to some more specific questions a viewer has?

4. Create a kick-ass video.

You don’t just create viral content because you want to. Viral content – unless it happens by chance – must be well thought-out and gripping! The most sharable content happens naturally, not intentionally. This may sound counterintuitive, but sticking true to your brand and designing digital content that has a purpose for your specific audience will be informative and engaging. It may not reach millions of viewers, but it will reach the RIGHT viewers. No one is going to pass on a video to their friend(s) if they don’t really care for it themselves. Here are a couple of ideas.

5. Fill-out your video details.

Always keep in mind your standard SEO practices when it comes to posting your finished product. Make sure all of the necessary fields are filled and focused on the targeted keywords. Put important keywords at the front of your video titles, and include them in your description and tags. Do not over-do it, just put keywords that are relevant and are backed up by your research. Keep important information above YouTube’s “Show More” fold so that users don’t have to undertake extra navigation to see necessary details. Allow your videos to be embedded. Otherwise, viewers won’t be able to share them on their websites, and the videos will only be able to be seen on YouTube. Again, it all comes back to what you know about SEO; if there is any part of the navigation that disrupts the user experience, you could lose your audience, as well as your ranking.

6. Use the “Featured Videos” section.

If you are certain that your video will be a major hit, use YouTube’s paid “Featured Videos” service to get your video seen by many people in a short amount of time. Once the video takes off, your organic traffic will usually out-do your paid traffic. Just as you can pay to increase your chances of coming up when people search for you on Google, you can up your odds with your videos as well.

7. Insert links in your videos.

Use annotations to insert links to other videos to maximize every viewer. These can pop up throughout the video and lead audiences to another video, or even your website and blog. However, do not over-do this either. Make sure that annotations do not impede the viewing experience. If you have one video that you want to concentrate driving views to, use YouTube’s InVideo Programming to add a featured video overlay. Also make sure to include a branding watermark so that people can easily navigate to your YouTube page. There is a lot of potential that lies within just one video when it comes to additional navigation options. Analyze which ones would make the most sense for your business, and be sure to take advantage of them.

8. Interact with high value users.

Find users on YouTube who are active and adding value through their participation in the social network. Get your video in front of them – without spamming so that they can do part of the work for you. Your video will also benefit with more traffic thanks to increased comments. YouTube will be soon be implementing new features to increase the amount of social interaction on the website (for example by making it easier to find your friends).

9. Use social media.

With built-up and relevant social media accounts, get your video seen by more people. By “relevant” I mean that your friends and your user history should be somehow related to the topic of your video for it to get more qualified traffic. My favorite sites for video sharing are Digg, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. Now that Google+ is integrated into YouTube it is a fairly simple to reach out to people who might enjoy your content.

10. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Go back and start over. Look at what you can improve about your video production and continue to keep your video channel page fresh with more videos!

We all know how the realm of digital marketing is rapidly changing, especially in relation to the growing popularity of mobile apps. Search engines are regularly updating their algorithms, prompting marketers to adjust their practices, make changes to their paid media strategies, and stay up-to-date on the latest platforms, products, and software that are being introduced into the market.

With all of these constant changes, eCommerce apps specifically can find it hard to keep up with the other competitors within the industry. How do you read out the noise, from all of the new advancements that will actually drive results for your company? No matter what new techniques you are integrating into your marketing strategies, it’s important to maintain some basic best practices when it comes to your eCommerce mobile platforms.

Below we discuss several channels that we believe to be consistently effective ways to generate leads for your mobile business. We discuss not only the importance of using these techniques, but the most strategic ways to practice them in order to make the most out of your marketing tactics.

1. SEO

Increasing your search ranking doesn’t happen overnight. We know that it takes months of diligent work to start seeing results when optimizing your digital platform. So how does this correlate to marketing a mobile app? While the concept is still the same, there are a few differences in making the most of your SEO efforts.

Searches for your app are great, if audiences know what they are searching for. However, how can they search for it if they don’t know what your app is yet? Marketing for mobile apps has to start long before the launch of the actual platform. It needs to gain traction and a following of customers anticipating its release. Your ranking within app stores is reliant on the number of downloads you app receives on a daily basis once it goes live, and the reviews that customers give it based on their experiences. You need to maintain the relevancy of your app, by encouraging these downloads and reaching new audiences.

Downloads
The number of daily downloads needed for your app to rank vary by specific category. Free gaming apps are more competitive to rank for, while some medical, finance, and travel apps are much easier. Regardless of industry, you want to maintain not only the quantity, but consistency amongst your downloads. Having an initial reaction with a large amount of downloads is great, but it won’t keep you ranking for long unless that traffic remains consistent.

Reviews
The best way to maintain the relevancy of your app is to keep up with competitors within the market. This is reliant on regular updates to improve functionality and usability of your platform, and valuing the input of your users while incorporating their reviews into how your app works. The app stores pay attention to the reviews and rankings that apps receive, and that can play a large role into how visible your app will be to potential customers. Listen to the feedback your receive from audiences and make sure that your app is always functioning properly, with a simple navigation for users to accomplish what they need to as seamlessly as possible. Encourage your users to leave reviews by prompting them with an added plug in to your app. However, be sure to time it properly as to not interrupt their experience of navigation.

Half of the marketing for your mobile app is simply through maintaining its development. If you keep your customers engaged and happy with your product, its popularity and influence throughout the eCommerce market will grow.

2. Paid Advertising

Google is working hard to make paid advertising on mobile more efficient. Recently, they have been offering a lot of above the fold real estate in search engine results to paid ads, resulting in a huge increase in click through rates. However, advertising on desktops is very different from advertising on mobile. Mobile requires much more image-heavy ads, while desktop allows for more flexibility with text and content.

Search
Paid search advertising like PPC allows you to bid on keywords that your audience is searching for, and having a better chance of your ads appearing for them. Regardless of industry, but especially for eCommerce, you can implement some specific features into your PPC ads to make the most out of your campaigns. For example, you can incorporate a direct-to-download button for an app that will take audiences directly to the iOS store to download your platform.

While PPC is getting more and more expensive as people flock to online marketing platforms as a result of customers going online to search, there is a real benefit in this advertising tactic. There is no way to customize your ad at that level in regular search results. This is a helpful tool with a unique advantage that SEO, PR, and location-based targeting can’t do.

Display
When it comes to display ads on mobile devices, you need to keep the user experience in mind at all times. You may create an ad that works well on a desktop, but does it do the same on mobile? For most AdWord display campaigns, there are a number of different banner sizes that are supported, and you will see these ads in locations like YouTube videos, various websites, and sidebars. AdWords automatically resizes these ads, making them supported on mobile as well as desktop. This is convenient if you want to hit both audiences, but you need to keep this in mind during the design process. What will you ad look like once it is shrunk? Images and text are all resize along with the actual ad itself.

Sometimes it makes sense to create two different campaigns; one for desktop and one for mobile. This allows you to be more text-heavy on the desktop ad, while making the mobile one more visually based. You want to make sure your call to action button is bigger on mobile and easy for users to see on their device. At the very least, this will help your branding because audiences can see what you are advertising, even if they don’t immediately turn into a conversion.

3. Social Media

Social Media is an outlet that we are currently watching grow when it comes to advertisements. Visually-based platforms are offering a lot of purchasing options now businesses as well as mobile apps. Social media is becoming an extension of an existing business, and mobile apps are getting brought into the mix along with it. Stores from Victoria’s Secret and Free People, to online vendors like Amazon and Ebay, all have mobile apps now in which customers can make purchases. They are leveraging social media to direct customers from their profiles, to their mobile platforms, to ultimately their shopping carts.

Companies have incorporated Like2Buy into a lot of their Instagram profiles. Like2Buy compiles all of the companies social posts on a mobile webpage, at which point customers can scroll through previous images with products on them, click on them, and it will take the customer to their mobile website at which point they can purchase the item they were viewing. It is a great tool to integrate your social campaigns into your existing marketing practices, while creating a seamless shopping experience for your audience.

4. Geotargeting

Accessing your customers by knowing where they are located is a strategic mobile marketing technique. If you know where they are going to be based on region or an event, you can use that to your advantage and implement some location-based marketing practices into your existing strategies.

Geolocation
Location based marketing is a great opportunity for eCommerce mobile marketing. You have a number of options when it comes to who and what you want to target, and the way in which you want to implement it. Platforms like Mosaic allow you to target specific locations like an office, home, shop, or city block. You could focus on a trade show that is centered around your industry or relevant to your business and have ads being presented to people on their mobile devices in those locations.

Opportunities like this are a great way to tie in mobile with real world marketing. You can target locations that are relative to your competitors as a way to access potential clients that are interested in the products and services within your industry. This can be a very powerful tool to combine marketing tactics, and drive more qualified traffic through focusing on pre-specified areas.

Geofencing
Geofencing is an AdWords based tool in which you can target a more general area. This can be a zip code, a neighborhood, or an area surrounding your store. It is broader, but it can be used strategically if there is a general location where your customers will be that you wish to target. You could focus on places of interest such as airports, but you are limited to how specific you can be with your preferences. While this allows you to reach a much larger group of people, it is not always the right group of people necessarily.

Marketing for your eCommerce business on mobile devices can be challenging. Keeping up with the regular changes in technology and practices alone can be a daunting task. However, it is not necessarily the amount of marketing campaigns you execute, but the manner in which you do it. Strategically leveraging just a few of these platforms can make a real difference in your business, and the growth of your presence online.

– See more at: http://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/four-marketing-tips-to-improve-your-ecommerce-mobile-app/#sthash.Mghk8pq5.dpuf

Marketing as a whole is a vast industry, full of various platforms and communication channels that connect a company’s messaging with their targeted audience. Whether it is email, paid advertising, social media, or a website design these channels are capable of performing well independently, however for most brands to foster significant results both online and offline, the use of integrated marketing channels is key.

Integrated marketing campaigns include a combination of marketing channels being utilized and supporting one another to reach a common, shared goal. For most businesses to achieve their outlined business objective there needs to be cross-channel collaboration with consistent messaging that is reinforced through each platform initiative, expanding the reach and resonation with the targeted users.

Client Needs & Goals

PEX Card is the leading prepaid business debit card service that helps companies save time and money by providing real-time control over employee spending. PEX Card is a powerful alternative to petty cash, business credit cards, and reimbursement because it provides a better way for employees to make company purchases with controls to ensure funds are spent correctly, and only when necessary. Account holders can fund their team’s PEX Cards with the amount each individual needs, and restrict purchasing to specific merchant categories. Dollar amounts on each card and spending categories can be easily changed in real-time, 24/7.

PEX Card came to Web Designer Vip to create an integrated marketing campaign, with both online and offline elements, in preparation for an annual training conference with QuickBooks ProAdvisors, a major group within PEX Card’s target audience. They wanted to generate awareness that PEX Card was present at the conference in partnership with Tallie, an expense report software company, and create brand awareness for PEX Card + Tallie as the ultimate expense management solution for QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Lastly, the company wanted to collect email addresses from attendees at the conference for application to PEX Card’s ProAdvisor Ambassador Program.

Challenges

Certain challenges existed throughout the campaign that needed to be addressed in order to achieve the outlined goals. There needed to be promotion of two brands simultaneously, while clearly communicating the benefits of how they work together in a compelling way. Multiple campaign phases existed, and as in best practices for event marketing, the campaign was broken down into three distinct phases, requiring there be different assets and promotion for each. Lastly, a tight timeline for Web Designer Vip meant that there were only 5 weeks to execute on the full strategy once it was defined.

Strategic Approach

To achieve the objectives outlined by PEX Card, Web Designer Vip developed a three phase strategy that was broken down with tactics to implement before the conference, during the conference, and after the conference.

Building Pre-Conference Awareness
The initial strategy created was built around the idea of generating pre-conference awareness among the Quickbooks ProAdvisors about PEX Card + Tallie’s joint offering, and that they would be participating at the “Scaling New Heights” conference.

To achieve this, messaging was developed that would speak to the audience’s pain points, along with the campaign tagline “Your Paperless Pals” and headline “Don’t Get Buried in a Pile of Receipts.” A cohesive landing page was created that included central campaign messaging as well as relevant conference details. Our social media experts identified LinkedIn as a viable option for pre-conference social media advertising and created a series of LinkedIn advertisements that would be targeted to Quickbooks ProAdvisor groups on the platform, familiarizing potential customers with the service and how it could work for their organizations.

A media buy was activated with Intuitive Accountant, a news source that targets accountants and bookkeepers. Email banner ads were disseminated through their newsletter to recipients that were likely to be attending the conference, fostering some brand recognition before the event even began.

Conference Activities and Branded Collateral
During the conference, a memorable experience with user incentive had to be created so that potential customers would not only want to visit the PEX Card + Tallie booth, but so that they would want to submit their email address and learn more about the Ambassador Program. Web Designer Vip developed the idea to create a jointly branded PEX Card + Tallie cash cube, where ProAdvisors could win up to $250. This idea was a fun link to the brands’ association with money and led to a long line of excited participants.

Post-Conference Nurturing
To complete the integrated marketing campaign and help round out the progress that had been made before and during the conference, we created an email marketing series that followed up with conference attendees to keep the brand top of mind and further drive sign-ups for the ProAdvisor Ambassador Program.

The email series was implemented for booth visitors, driving traffic to the PDF explaining the program in detail, and the landing page where users could sign up. Furthermore, a separate nurturing series was sent to non-booth visitors encouraging their participation as well. Our design team updated the Tallie landing page to remove the conference messaging and make it timely and relevant to users now that the event was over. Lastly, a post-conference LinkedIn campaign was activated to once again support the other marketing efforts our team was implementing, and build branding that would be seamlessly consistent as users went from one platform to another.

Results

Within a one month timeframe, the results of this integrated marketing campaign were positive across all channels and provided growth opportunities for PEX Card. Traffic to the landing page was 283% higher than the overall site average. The LinkedIn campaign click-through-rate hit 0.36%, higher than the goal click-through rate initially required for the campaign to be considered a success. The post-conference email nurturing series yielded over 32% open rate and over 5% click through rate. Ambassador sign-ups and client referrals also started strong in month one, which is of course the ultimate goal of the integrated marketing campaign.

To garner the highest ROI when implementing both online and offline initiatives, PEX Card + Tallie’s integrated marketing campaign needed to reinforce central messaging in order to maximize the collaborative performance of all channels. Brand awareness and having each marketing channel play a greater role in their presence before, during, and after the conference directly contributed to the growth of PEX Card’s client and referral base.

With January almost at a close, if your business hasn’t spent the time to update its existing strategies already, it definitely should be at the top of your task list for the rest of the month. One of the key areas that every business needs to take a hard look at when it comes to marketing strategy in 2016 is how they are handling mobile marketing efforts. Having a responsive website is an absolutely essential first step, but this year it’s going to take a look more than the basics of mobile marketing to get ahead of competition that spent a lot of last year worrying about Google’s widely publicized but seemingly irrelevant “mobilegeddon” changes.

We’ve already covered the B2B marketing trends that will define 2016, now it’s time to turn our attention towards five mobile trends your strategies need to incorporate in the new year in order to stay ahead of the competition and get the best marketing ROI possible in one of the fastest growing digital channels in the marketplace.

Mobile Payments

Technology research firm, Gartner, predicts that by 2017, 50% of all U.S. digital ecommerce revenue will come from mobile. A big part of this increase will be directly affected by mobile payments and platforms such as Apple Pay, Google’s Android Pay, and Samsung Pay. Although many of these mobile payment options are just now entering the public conscience of consumers, eMarketer forecasts that in 2016, mobile payments on platforms like these will triple and grow by 210%.

When Apple, Google, Samsung, and even Facebook are all getting behind mobile wallets, it isn’t too farfetched to think that this will become a standard payment option, and it is no surprise that many new smartphones in the coming year will have the mobile wallets pre- installed. Helping this trend is the fact that in October 2015, many merchants were even made to switch their payment terminals from swipe and-sign to chip-and-pin machines, which will be compatible with mobile payments. With 37.5 million U.S. mobile wallet users in 2016, and multiple options to cater to different devices, mobile wallets, and the payments made using them increasing in size in the next year is looking likely.

With 37.5 million U.S. mobile wallet users in 2016, look for mobile wallets to enjoy increased usage and average payment size. While medium-priced purchases of $20-100 accounted for 45.5% of all mobile payments in 2015, eMarketer predicts that by 2018, the percentage will jump up to 63.9%.

App Indexing and Deep Links in Apps

2015 was an unbelievable year for mobile, with Google rolling out “Mobilegeddon” in April, and their announcement that the United States and 9 other countries had more Google searches on mobile devices than on desktops.

Google announced the ability to index apps back in 2013, but only recent developments in the past year have really caught the attention of marketers. Besides the huge announcement about the rollout of their mobile-friendly algorithm update on April 21 of this year, Google also said that indexed apps would be playing a larger ranking factor and show up more prominently in mobile searches. Other developments this year, like Google expanding their results to include apps that were not installed on phones, app indexing for iOS (not just Android) apps in Google search, and the latest news that Safari on iOS 9 would also support Google search’s app indexing have also forced marketers to take note and shift their strategies accordingly.

The mobile internet in 2016 will rapidly grow to include more and more content from deep links within indexed apps. It won’t be enough to just create an app anymore. In order to increase discoverability, downloads, and engagement, marketers will have to start indexing their app and its content with deep links. Mobile search will continue to outpace desktop search in 2016, and the ability for apps to be indexed with deep links on not just Google, but on other platforms as well, will allow forward-thinking companies to expand their online presence in the increasingly competitive mobile space.

Google is not the only platform implementing and encouraging app indexing. Bing, Apple, and even Facebook are starting to invest in app indexing to compete with the ever growing mobile audience. Likewise, marketers would be wise to deep link content and index their apps in 2016 if they aren’t already.

Mobile Buying Through Social Buy Buttons

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram have influenced many online purchases in the past several years, and they’re also extremely popular mobile apps. Out of established social media networks like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram,only Pinterest is not in the top 15 smartphone apps in a June 2015 survey. The general consensus when it comes to using mobile devices for buying online is that users will do everything on their devices except actual buying. This is especially prevalent in the post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping season as users will check for sales, compare prices, and read product reviews, but make the actual purchase on a desktop.

With the rise of mobile commerce increasing 32.2% in 2015, it only makes sense that the next step for social media platforms in 2016 is to leverage their countless mobile users by creating a more seamless shopping experience for brands to take advantage. It’s not a particularly new concept, as ecommerce third party platforms such as Shopify and Curalate’s Like2Buy are already making a name for themselves on Facebook and Instagram with companies such as Gap and Target utilizing them to increase their online sales via social.

This isn’t the first go-around with these third party platforms, and they will continue to be modified and perfected for each platform alongside each social media platform’s own offerings. As social networks provide statistics for Likes, Clicks, and Shares, look for ecommerce platforms to provide extensive acquisition, conversion, and retention metrics for companies willing to add an ecommerce features on their social accounts. 72% of retailers in a May 2015 survey said they already had social ecommerce factored into their overall digital marketing strategy. The same survey found that 40% of retailers expected at least half of their sales to come from social media by 2018.

Buying on mobile is not the same experience as purchasing on desktop, however with the rise of all things mobile in 2016, look for social media networks and their constantly improving ecommerce features, to be a driving force for mobile buying. As social media platforms begin to incorporate more ecommerce capabilities on their platforms, look to see more mobile buying instead of just browsing in 2016.

Snapchat Marketing

Snapchat has been around since 2011, and historically has been comparatively unknown when compared to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that are traditionally better known in the social media marketplace. Ever since its release, Snapchat gravitated towards millennials – as 71% of its U.S. users are between the ages of 18-29.

In January 2015, Snapchat caught the attention of advertisers with the rollout and success of its “Discover” feature. Essentially a “Snapchat for companies”, the Discover feature lets users access and view photos and videos from major brands, and by swiping up or down on these photos or videos, users are able to access more content and articles that are uniquely curated and presented for Snapchat.

Starting off with only a handful of companies, Snapchat Discover has since expanded and now includes a variety of major brands such as ESPN, BuzzFeed, CNN, iHeartRadio, and the Food Network – with more companies eager to test out how Snapchat will perform for them. iHeartRadio broadcast its 2-day music festival on the mobile app in September and was able to gather an impressive 340 million impressions. Digiday reports that Cosmopolitan, another Snapchat Discover brand, gets an average of 3 million views per day. Snapchat receives 4 billion video views a day on its platform (which is the same as Facebook), so it’s little wonder that companies are finding opportunities to get more of these video views for themselves.

What will truly make it a major marketing platform in the coming year is how organic, creative, and behind-the-scenes the branded content on Discover is compared to the advertising options on other social media networks. Even though reports indicate that Snapchat is asking for a steep price of up to $700,000 a day for their ads, major brands will be more than willing to pay up in 2016 if the results continue to trend upwards.

In 2016, Snapchat will grow to finally be on the same playing field in terms of established social media marketing platforms as the other major platforms as long as it can find a way to channel the initial of success of its “Discover” feature into a viable option for smaller businesses.

Apps to Rival Mobile Websites

While it might sound like an outrageous claim, in 2016, mobile apps will outpace mobile site growth and start to become a key player in mobile marketing. There is data to back this claim up. A 2015 study found that smartphone and tablet users spent the majority of their time on apps (75% and 81%, respectively). Another study found that big brands like Apple, eBay, Amazon, Target, Macy’s, and Walmart largely interact with their mobile customers through apps instead of mobile sites.

When asked why they prefer mobile apps over mobile sites, smartphone users 18 years and older responded by saying that apps are more convenient (64% of respondents) and easier to use (62%). 19% of users also said that mobile sites don’t look good or render correctly on their smartphones. Besides just the hassle of going on your mobile browser, the added benefits of an app include but are not limited to:

• Push notifications
• Cloud integration
• Offline/online access
• Enhanced security
• Branding freedom
• More personalization for users

Mobile users are already spending the majority of their time on apps, and with the capabilities of app indexing and setting up deep links that will eventually lead to seamless integration between apps and SEO, business owners will start to focus on creating and maintaining apps for their businesses instead of simply improving their mobile sites during the coming year.

Mobile Marketing Matters in 2016

Perhaps the biggest mobile-wide trend that we expect to see in 2016 is more purchases right on a user’s mobile device. Whether that is through a mobile payment solution, a mobile app or a social buy button, brands should be positioning themselves in such a way digitally that it is easy for customers to purchase on their mobile devices if they so please. Furthermore, making sure these apps and social presences are prominent through app indexing, deep links, and leveraging exiting social media platforms that are native to mobile like Snapchat is going to be a key any business that hopes to execute mobile campaigns properly. Brands that execute and evolve their digital strategies to include mobile in a prominent way will be ahead of the competition and can expect to cash in accordingly as mobile devices become a viable device to research and finalize a purchase on.

The digital world and the customers in it are changing, and no one knows this more than a company’s marketing department. Marketers now require solidified skills and understanding of the digital world more than ever before, and senior managers in growing companies need to surround themselves with advanced digital expertise. For a corporation with a robust marketing department, or existing branding and creative efforts through an ad agency, it’s hard to imagine where a digital agency might fit in.

While incorporating an agency into your practices may be an option you have already considered, it can be a difficult decision for a large business with an existing marketing process to casually act upon. However, there are many different aspects to an agency that can be beneficial to your company. From strategists and analysts, to designers and developers, there are a lot of roles that a digital agency can play in the growth of your established brand. Below are just a few examples of what a digital agency can do for you.

Data Analysis

When the word on the street is all about Big Data, the people in the C Suite are waking up and paying close attention. While companies have spent years placing the people, infrastructure and most importantly, the processes in place to read relevant data on sales and product trends, the data analysis behind digital behavior is often sorely lacking. Which customers are purchasing products online; and how are they behaving? It’s not enough to have an e-commerce site: It’s time to understand how it is performing by putting the people with the expertise to read, analyze, and optimize the website into place.

Going over sales data was once the Friday afternoon activity in any company. It’s time to expand that to digital data, to learn how the customers are behaving, and what can be done by your business in order to cater towards their wants and needs. Monitoring e-commerce data goes beyond reviewing the sales numbers and associated costs – it is about understanding what the data tells us about our customers, and how we can modify the online experience to maximize sales. Which pages are they visiting throughout their path to purchase? Did they come to the site multiple times before finally buying an item? Tracking their behavior along the way can help you make educated decisions about what changes or alterations need to be made to your site. This information can be used to increase the user experience, and optimize your conversion rate in return.

Quick Monitoring and Insights

With digital we can find out more about our consumers and competitors than ever before. Responding quickly by understanding what your competitors are doing through monitoring and insights, and learning how your consumer behavior might be changing is paramount.

Imagine having the ability to review the exact pattern of how customers walked around your store, engaged with your salespeople, or tested a product: digital tracking tools provide that visibility, and your digital agency’s experts are there to help you read it. Forget visiting every competing store in the mall: Your digital marketing agency will provide a competitive analysis to determine what is going on in your industry, and what your company needs to do in order to rise above the other options within your market.

With monitoring tools on different social media platforms, you can watch what is happening elsewhere, the numbers behind it, and how audiences are responding to it. Your digital agency can provide you with data like the chart below – telling you precisely when a brand’s audience is the most active on social networks and therefore the most attentive to listen to a business’ deals or giveaways. It is another opportunity to strategize your content, and determine when the best time to reach your customers is.

For an offline example: say a competitor places a billboard on the highway, and suddenly their store at the local mall is inundated with sales. In the past, gathering data may have taken weeks to surmise. However in the digital world, we are immediately notified of competitor activity. Analysis, tools, and data help us to see the effectiveness of their behavior, and allow marketers to quickly make educated and responsive decisions to further their own company’s branding efforts.

Creative Thinking

Traditionally, marketing research; product development and R&D departments have lived by monitoring trends and incorporating them into ongoing strategy. As social networking becomes a primary activity for all ages — not just young people— it’s time to use creative thinking to expand research and garner greater shopper insights. Digital agencies are able to incorporate technological trends into creative strategy, whether it’s adding mobile experiences for older shoppers or incorporating a social networking community for an ageing population.

The thorough analysis of your market, competitors, and target audience, allows strategists to think outside of the box and determine new ways to make your business stand out. They can collaborate with you in order to maintain your branding efforts while positioning your company for online growth and success.

Content Repositioning

Advertising agencies have long lived by the adage of shiny, well-branded sales copy: “This car is sleek, goes fast, will get you women.” While this traditional model may continue to work when an extensive ad budget is focused on video, it’s important to expand the focus to digital trends in the industry. Search trends can provide valuable metrics into the content consumers are looking for, or the type of entertainment they’re likely to engage with.

For example, if you had a digital agency that took a look at what copy would best sell cars between being sleek, going fast, and getting women you’d know that, surprisingly, being “sleek” is currently more interesting to consumers than getting women or going fast:

Channel-specific ad strategies that focus on interactive media beyond a 30 second ad clip can provide experiences that are native to digital and provide an added layer of excitement to your product that would never have been conveyed on the TV screen. Use your digital agency’s expertise to understand how a standard creative ad campaign can be repositioned and realigned to cater to a targeted audience on specific digital platforms.

Digital Optimizations

It’s not just enough to take your ad and slap it up in the digital space. A billboard that works on the highway won’t work the same on social media or the homepage of a major website. Just as a brochure that works great when handed to customers won’t have the same impact if it’s a simple downloadable pdf on microsite. Digital experts can help you optimize your ad campaigns according to the outlet you want to pursue, while tailoring the digital media to succeed in its new online habitat.

Including relevant calls-to-action can encourage visitors to become a part of your online community and draw them towards your business in a way that a billboard or a commercial can’t do. Asking for email signups and social follows, while making sure your microsites and landing pages follow SEO best practices can go a long way in terms of creating a brand identity for your company online. Keep your content updated, current, and most importantly, shareable, and integrate your campaigns across social networks in tandem with print and television. Your digital agency is there to work alongside any existing creative efforts in order to optimize the perfect digital campaign.

Complement Internal Resources

A digital agency isn’t here to replace your internal team, we’re here to partner with you and supplement your efforts. Sales and marketing experts with decades of experience in the industry might be perfect for facilitating an online Q&A that will help you sell your business online, but it’s up to your agency to help you make sure the event is marketed so that potential customers actually show up.

Taking your business online goes beyond a simple website or Facebook page. For a correctly optimized digital presence, integrating every aspect of your sales cycle, your product development process, and your customer service management into your digital strategy needs to take place. Digital agencies are partners in progress as businesses navigate an increasingly complex landscape. It is time to stop thinking of digital agencies and internal marketing teams as two forces that don’t mix. Instead, think of them as two different but essential parts of any effective online marketing effort.

November is important for many reasons: Thanksgiving, the beginning of the holiday season, Black Friday, and to a somewhat lesser degree, the whole month is “No Shave November”. In honor of the “Movember” movement that seeks to solve men’s health issues like Prostate Cancer, Testicular Cancer, poor mental health, and physical inactivity, many men grow mustaches in a show of solidarity and in an effort to raise money. If you haven’t given already this year, you can do so here.

The month of November is quickly coming to an end, and for those us (myself included, for as long as my facial hair would allow) who have spent November growing out a mustache it’s time to consider trimming things back a bit – but that can be easier said than done. Between finding a razor that can handle your new, bushy moustache and making sure that it isn’t a low quality model that will leave you with permanent scars all over you your face, shaving correctly can be surprisingly tricky.

Enter Dollar Shave Club. For just a few dollars a month they will send you everything you need for a great shave right to your door. The business has been around since 2012 and is still flourishing – recently raising an additional 15 million in funding. Known predominantly for their attention-grabbing video advertising creative, their website is their main hub of business and seeks to get new users to sign up for their service.

For many who are getting ready to trim down their facial hair as December quickly approaches and are looking for solutions online, there’s no doubt that the website is beautifully designed, but how does it stack up in terms of search engine optimization? Just like every other “1 Hour SEO Audit Challenge” we’ve completed, we took a look to find out by grading their SEO efforts with our usual tools and the following key categories:

• Content
• Schema and SERP Friendliness
• Backlinks
• Site Speed
• Meta Tag Issues
• Title Tag Issues

Tools Used

• Ragepank
• Screaming Frog
• Mozbar
• Open Site Explorer
• Copyscape
• Microsoft IIS
• SEMRush
• GTMetrix
• Dareboost

Content

Although a lot of the focus in the SEO world is on backlinks right now with Google recently releasing a copy of their search quality rating guidelines and talk of the new Penguin update being released before the end of the year, it is important to not forget about how essential content is to a good SEO strategy.

Creating high quality content across your website is a great way to keep visitors engaged with your website and coming back time and time again to look at anything new you’ve added since their last visit. It also provides your website with a vehicle with which it can rank for relevant keywords that are added to the header tags, body text, and other important sections of your content. For more tips on things you can do to optimize the content of your blog specifically, check out my recent blog post.

So how does Dollar Shave Club stack up in the world of content marketing? As it turns out, phenomenally well. You’ve probably seen their video advertising below, which is quite memorable and is employed throughout their site, but more importantly they have a top-notch blog called “The Bathroom Minutes” that is updated just about every two days with new content that includes unique images and helpful how-to guides on shaving. It is one of the best examples of content marketing on a blog we’ve seen in this series so far, and is really quite impressive.

As if that wasn’t enough, the icing on the cake is that the blog content is repurposed as an offline magazine that ships with the razors. This is the first use of an offline/online content marketing campaign we’ve seen in this series, and it is a brilliant idea, considering users are spending a lot of time in their bathrooms and are likely to actually take the time to read the included magazine.

The only minor issue is a missed opportunity with all the image content that Dollar Shave Club creates. Of the 96 images we were able to crawl on the site, more than half (57 to be exact) were missing image alt text. This should be added so that people looking for the phenomenal images they create for their blog posts can be easily found from a Google search.

Grade: A+

Schema and SERP Friendliness

I’ve said it countless times on this series, but if there’s one section that continually is underwhelming it has been our ongoing search for a site that does schema correctly. Doing schema well can be a huge benefit for any business, and websites really need to start taking it more seriously in order to gain additional real estate in the search results for their pages, whether that is images of logos, location information, or review data on an individual product.

Last month we expanded this section to include other things that make a website more accessible on search engines, including sitelinks and Google My Business data, because realistically the goal here is to increase CTR on organic search results and these elements help achieve that goal.

So is Dollar Shave Club finally going to be the business that does everything perfectly? Almost. They’ve done a fantastic job with their branded SERP – it has Wikipedia information and other brand info pulling in the top right hand corner, and they also have sitelinks defined in order to help funnel traffic directly to their most important pages. They also have basic schema mark-up on their blog, which is fantastic.

However, I couldn’t find schema on their product pages or (in a lot of ways more importantly) on their review page. Both of these pages are designed impeccably and the review page in particular offers lots of great content that could benefit from schema markup, even though the reviews are more analytical than an actual value or # of stars.

Grade: B+

Backlinks

As I mentioned in the “content” section, links and a website’s backlink profile in general is currently the focus for a good % of SEO professionals. With news that Google is about to roll out Penguin 4.0, their update for deciding where a website deserves to rank based on the links it has amassed, there has even been speculation that this update will be the last of it’s kind – with rolling updates to replace it in the near future.

This is bad news for sites that are sticking their toes into the dark world of bad (or “Black Hat”) SEO, and a wake up call for business to get their link profiles in order before the end of the year. While these updates historically have only affected rankings in 1-3% of Google search queries, depending on what kind of links a site has amassed and where they are coming from, websites could find themselves losing significant levels of organic traffic in the not-so-distant future.

Does Dollar Shave Club have anything to worry about with this upcoming update? The short answer is no, not at all. With a domain authority of 63 and 7,004 total links coming from 1,701 root domains, Dollar Shave Club clearly has a natural and authoritative backlink profile. With less than 7 links coming to their sites from each domain that links to them, there are clearly no spammy link building practices going on, and the links they do have in their backlink profile are impressive – ranging from CNN and the Wall Street Journal to Wired.

The only drawback I’m seeing is that there is almost no product-specific anchor text. Natural anchor text should certainly be the bread and butter with a major of a domain’s inbound links, but getting a bit of keyword-rich anchor text like “razor” and “blades” would definitely be a good addition.

Grade: A-

Site Speed

While it doesn’t get much fanfare and is often considered one of the less sexy SEO elements of a website, site speed is quietly a cornerstone of good website keyword rankings. Good site speed not only provides a great user experience that decreases bounce rate and increases time on site on a website on both desktop and mobile devices, it is also a technical element that Google weighs when considering how to a rank an individual page. Thankfully, site speed is also one of the easiest elements to fix through things like image optimization and quicker hosting solutions – so there are very few excuses if your website is loading slowly.

Dollar Shave Club’s site speed is by no means poor, but there are some easy fixes they could do to increase it further. The first, and most obvious (according to both GTMetrix and Dareboost) revolves around images on the homepage. Dareboost calls for image compression on four image files, while GTMetrix suggests specifying height/width image dimensions within code for faster load times. Both of these fixes should be relatively simple and could improve load times dramatically for users and search engine crawl bots alike.

Grade: B

Meta Tag Issues

Meta tag issues are widespread in this series, particularly when it comes to meta descriptions. Partly because they don’t play a direct role in how Google ranks its results, many businesses that we’ve looked at on this series fall short when it comes to defining them. Many businesses opt to willfully ignore meta descriptions and just let Google pull the first text they find on a page in order to populate the field.

While this ensures that you don’t have a search result with no description text, it is still a huge mistake. Businesses should be defining meta descriptions themselves in order to dictate how their search results appear, as it is important to make description text that entices users to click on a result through descriptive and engaging calls to action right on the search engine results page.

When it comes to meta descriptions and meta keywords, Dollar Shave Club falls a bit short. While they do have a variation of different meta descriptions on their pages, we were only able to find 10 unique variations for the 88 different pages that had descriptions defined. This isn’t ideal, as each page should have a unique meta description assigned to it that tells searchers exactly what they can expect from the page as opposed to a broadly used meta description across multiple different pages. Furthermore, 15 pages were missing meta descriptions altogether, including the very important “gift” and “join our team” pages. This should be fixed as it could conceivably be lowering the click through on those pages from organic searches.

While the issues Dollar Shave Club has with meta descriptions are a bit troubling, issues with meta keywords are much more problematic. Google has expressly stated that they don’t want websites to define meta keywords, and as a result websites should remove them from their meta tags immediately. Despite this, Dollar Shave Club features them on 60.23% of their site (53 pages out of the 88 we crawled). While it’s good to see that they want to rank for “buy razor blades”, “buy razors”, “mens razors”, and other keywords, this is not a good tactic, and could actually be hurting them more than it helps.

Grade: C+

Title Tag Issues

It goes without saying that title tags are the reigning king of on-site SEO elements. It has been that way for a long time and there are no signs that any other on-site element will usurp the title tag for this honor. This isn’t particularly surprising as a title tag is the first thing a user sees and clicks on when browsing through the search engine results page. As a result, making sure that your title tag is optimized for targeted keywords and range in character length from 55-60 characters is an important step for any online business that is trying to attract new sources of website traffic from Google searches.

Dollar Shave Club has a decent amount of work to do with their title tags, but the good news is that the fixes are relatively minor and could help them substantially increase their online traffic. While the site is not missing title tags on any of their pages, it suffers from a number of different duplicate title tags that appear site wide, and this should be addressed so that each page has a unique title tag that has a bit more keyword targeting for the individual page.

This is particularly true on the homepage, which should have something beyond just “Dollar Shave Club” as it’s title tag. As it stands, that’s only 17 characters – leaving plenty of space to include some of the meta keywords we identified in the “Meta Tag Issues” section after the branded term. This will drastically help the website rank better for some high-volume organic keywords that drive qualified traffic to the website.

Grade: B-

General Suggestions

Dollar Shave Club does a lot of things really well. In general, their content and branding was some of the best we’ve ever seen on this series, and for that they deserve a ton of credit. Their naturally amassed, authoritative backlink profile reflects just how strong their branding and content is, and is a great example of link building done right.

However, they fall short in some of the more technical elements, such as meta tags, title tags, and a few basic elements that can help improve site speed. These should be fixed as soon as possible, with a priority given to including more keywords in title tags and removing meta keyword tags.

Some other elements that we didn’t touch on that should be addressed as well are: missing canonical tags (57.95%) – which should be added to negate the odds that someone steals their content with a scraping tool to post elsewhere without giving them getting some sort of credit, a number of duplicative H1 tags across multiple pages – which should be fixed to be more in line with the keyword targeting that should happen with title tags moving forwards, and 3 pages that are currently 404ing.

Overall, Dollar Shave club is a phenomenally strong brand with fantastic content, good SERP visibility, and a robust backlink profile. If they can manage to do some of the very slight tweaks with their technical SEO, they will become an even greater force in their industry and are sure to capture massive amounts of online traffic moving forward.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…for email marketing. With Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday barely behind us, the holiday shopping season has officially kicked off. When we weren’t cashing in on our favorite deals this past weekend, we were keeping track of some of the greatest email marketing campaigns that filled up our inboxes.

Take a look at the brands that we thought were winners this week, and the techniques they used to help their campaigns stand out amongst the busiest time of the year for both our inbox, and our wallet.

1. Vibrant Imagery: American Eagle

Rather than displaying all of their products and prices in the body of their emails, American Eagle went purely for aesthetics. Their stunning imagery illustrates what the holiday season is all about; Christmas lights, log cabins, food, and friends. Every email throughout the weekend started with a unique, yet cohesive image followed by more specific products and pricing information as a reader continued to scroll down the message. Together they told the story of the perfect holiday weekend, and through the simple design, they subtly let their readers know what they could save by shopping now.

Congested emails and busy layouts can be overwhelming and turn customers away rather than capturing their interest. If you can find a balance between detailed content, and striking imagery, it is likely your emails will be the ones that stand out amongst the other noise of the holiday shopper’s inbox. There is a reason they say “less is more,” and American Eagle’s numerous email campaigns throughout Thanksgiving weekend exemplify that mantra.

2. Storyline: Uber

Although the importance of storytelling has never been understated, now more than ever brands are creating campaigns with a narrative. On November 30, Uber began its “5 Days of Giving.” Partnering with luxury brands like L’Occitane and Diane von Furstenberg, drivers will deliver free gifts to riders in New York City who enter the code ‘TAPGETGIVE’ through the Uber app, with Uber announcing every day which brand’s gifts will be available. They are also launching Uber (RED) in conjunction with World AIDS Day on December 1st where riders can select this option and donate $5 on top of their fare to help fight AIDS around the world.

Since Uber isn’t necessarily trying to sell a product, they want readers to engage with their brand and use their app throughout the coming holidays. This campaign is telling a story to readers that will keep them coming back every day to see what prizes they can win, while also presenting them with the chance to give back. The narrative balances the theme of the gifting season by letting users have a chance to win luxury items, without losing sight on what the holidays are really about; giving back. It is a great email campaign to keep their users engaged throughout the rest of the week, and the end of the year.

3. Subject Line

The very first thing your audience will see is your subject line, and it is what determines whether or not someone even takes the time to open your email or hit the “delete” button. While some companies get right to the point and put their deals and discounts prominently in there, hoping to bring in shoppers, others have gotten a little more creative with this element of the email campaign.

Creative: Target

Target hit the bullseye quite literally this weekend. They included a little Target icon in the subject line of their email for a subtle, yet significant way to get their messages to stand out in each recipient’s inbox. Throughout the year, we have seen similar trends with companies including small illustrations like stars and snowflakes in their headings in order to draw in customers. Especially during this major shopping weekend, this extra touch can certainly help those emails make an impression.

Target’s use of the little bullseye not only captures the reader’s attention, but it helps the potential customer easily find that email again when digging back through their messages. It is very similar to Target’s own logo, making it easy for people to associate with the company. Readers will remember that, and know what to look for in their inbox when it comes time to make a purchase. Cute and creative, nice job Target!

Compelling: Madewell

Returning to work after a holiday weekend is always a challenge. However, when that first Monday back happens to be Cyber Monday, sitting at your desk in front of a computer all day might not be so bad. Madewell helps alleviate any guilt you have over online shopping on-the-clock with their subject line assuring you that “Your boss is shopping today too.” It’s funny, it’s compelling, and it’s true.

The short message quickly captures the attention of the reader and prompts them to not only open the email, but make their way to the website to start shopping. A subject line as simple as this can strongly stand out amongst the other deals that clog up an inbox throughout Thanksgiving weekend.

4. Gif: Brooks Brothers

Thanks to Internet powerhouses like Buzzfeed, GIFs are the language of choice for any millennial wanting to express their ‘feels’. Of late, marketers are capitalizing on the increasingly popular storytelling tool, as the file format proves to be an amazing tool in capturing the recipient’s attention in ways static images cannot.

Animated GIFs help provide valuable content to readers, while allowing companies to stand out from the competition – a winning combination that entices potential customers to open and read your email, and engage with your business. However, GIFs have to do more than just look pretty – they have to convert customers.

Brooks Brothers, a company that dates back almost two centuries, has increasingly been maximizing their modern marketing efforts to attract a younger audience, and it’s working. Brooks Brother’s combination of Cyber Monday-esque design and strong messaging bolsters it as our top email campaign with a GIF. It’s simple, yet entertaining, and presents the reader with all of the information they need to start shopping.

Several marketing studies have shown that using a GIF, in comparison to using static images, can increase the CTR and conversion rates of an email campaign. Brooks Brothers drew attention to the most important element of their email, the CTA, by having it light up at the very end of the animation. A GIF is a great way to increase both email engagement and revenue to the business. Utilizing this during the weekend of Black Friday definitely helped their message stand out.

5. Unique CTA: Alessandro International

A call to action – it tells visitors what to do, where they should click, and what to buy.

Although I’m sure we don’t need to describe the importance of including a call-to-action (CTA), creating an effective CTA might be harder than you think, especially during the madness of Black Friday. Strong messaging, evoking emotion, and sustaining the focus of the reader are key elements of a high-performing CTA, so we have to admit – we were a little disappointed to see ‘Shop Now’ in almost every email this year.

Marketers are constantly looking for new ways to convert readers, and with the volume an inbox sees during the holidays, a creative CTA is now vital. A great example of this was Allessandro International’s Cyber Monday campaign, prompting readers in a refreshingly unique way with their “I WANT IT” CTA.

“I WANT IT”. Not only is it short and clear, but it’s simply different from everything else we typically see. The use of urgent language encourages immediate action and proves extremely effective in prompting readers to click through. The copy also persuades customers to shop for themselves, not just the people on their list. It works in conjunction with their ‘treat yourself to…’ attitude, and let’s be honest, it’s ok to admit that Cyber Monday shopping is mostly for yourself.

With the volume of emails that fill an inbox during the holidays, its easy to lose sight of what strategies to employ to your own campaigns. However, creativity can go a long way this time of year, and there are always new techniques to try out in order to make the most of your email marketing efforts.

Designing a mobile app and designing a mobile website can have some overlapping similarities. A lot of the best practices such as usability, cohesiveness, and conciseness are all still incredibly important, and companies should be employing them regardless of the platform they are creating. However, there are still some important design elements that stand out when creating a mobile app. Here are some of the most important design and development features that will create an optimal experience for your users, and continued success for your business.

Consider Operating Systems

Designing the functionality of a mobile app will largely depend on the operating system you choose to build it on. Each mobile user has their own device of choice that they prefer to use, so each mobile app has to be adaptable to various operating systems. When you think about programs like Gmail or Instagram, they appear slightly differently depending if you’re accessing the apps from an Android device or from an iPhone. That being said, the overall feel shouldn’t be drastically different, but it should appeal to the unique features that those devices may have. Certain navigational patterns are native to certain devices. For example, if you’re trying to delete something on an iPhone, the natural instinct is generally to slide your finger across the screen. Think about what’s intuitive for each device as far as general actions that the user needs to take while using your app. Whatever those actions may be, the design of them should reflect the intuitive action that is associated with that operation system.

Optimize Interaction for Touch

Keep in mind that users will be interacting with your app on a mobile device, not a desktop. This requires taking steps to optimize the platform for touch rather than a mouse. You want to limit the amount of hand movements and actions a user has to go through in order to accomplish a task or find information. You also want to prevent them from having to use two hands at any point in the navigation. Consider this when determining button placement, and creating long and scrollable pages instead of burying content deep within a bunch of tabs. Using “hamburger menus” can be a useful technique to organize content in a way that is recognizable to app users. You want your app to be an easy experience for your audience, and consolidating your information will prevent them from having to switch hands too often, or get distract from what the app is actually offering.

Battery Life

You always want to be considerate of how much your mobile app is going to cost a user in terms of bandwidth. You want to make your app engaging and purposeful, while keeping the design streamlined and simplified. You don’t want your app to eat up the battery life of your audience, or else they won’t want to use it. So design an easy and simple platform with all of the essentials needed for the app to be a success. However, get rid of any unnecessary animations, and lose any background activities that just don’t need to be there. This will help people get exactly what they came to your app for, without it disrupting the rest of their mobile experience.

Rewards for Click Actions

An app user has the expectation that their phone will respond quickly and efficiently to any action they try to do, so you want to make sure that your platform meets those expectations. You want to reduce the amount of clicks it takes to complete a certain action, but for each of these actions, you need to give the user some indication that something is being accomplished. For each of these actions such as clicking a button, liking something, sharing something, or refreshing a page, there should be some sort of response or feedback. These act as a reward or indication that the app recognizes something is being done, and the user can understand that an action is happening. A change in color, a glow, a noise, or an animation can serve as the equivalent of a click or a hover state on a desktop. Apps like Snapchat have the dancing ghost logo, and Twitter has a pinwheel that indicates when a page is being loaded to show users that what they are trying to do is actually being recognized. These are all little techniques that can help make the user experience natural and easy to understand.

Focus on Intuition

Instead of building a platform within the standards of web browser, a mobile app design has to depend on the guidelines of the operating system it is created on. An app should intuitively be able to adapt to the different size screens of the same operating system so that it works for all users, and the navigation patterns should be fairly identical across all platforms as well. There should be a sense of familiarity to the interactions and functionality of your app. There has to be a clear design pattern for architecture so that it is intuitive enough for first time users and still interesting for returning users. This can get challenging across different operating systems as what is a native action to Android, may not be native action to iOS. However, a universal design technique you can include is a natural path for the users to take. Place controls near the element that they will control, like an arrow or call to action that is in the proximity to show association between the two. This shows the audience that one interacts with the other and it makes sense. From the moment a user opens your app, the entire experience should be intuitive and logical in relation to how other mobile apps function. These small design techniques can be the defining factors that make that happen.

Aesthetics

When it comes down to aesthetics, there are a lot of similarities between mobile app best practices and those of mobile websites. You have to create an experience for the user that is practical for the size screen they are using. High resolution images are a must, with proper sizing in relation to the rest of the content on the page. There also needs to be large typography, with proper line height and letter spacing that allows users to consume the content from at least arm’s length. You want to avoid pinching and zooming as much as possible, so present the information to your audience in a clean and clear way that they can enjoy without having to work too hard for it.

It’s no surprise that Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most impactful social media channels out there. In just over 5 years, Instagram has built a community of 400M+ active monthly users, posting 80M+ photos every day and generating 3.5B daily likes. Needless to say, the numbers are quite impressive!

Instagram has done a great job in creating a clean, well-designed application that doesn’t overwhelm the user. The simplicity of the platform, coupled with its visual appeal, has allowed Instagram to quickly build a large community of highly-engaged users.

As marketers, this highly-engaged community is one of Instagram’s most attractive attributes, but the challenge is understanding how to market to them. Instagram has stuck to its core feature of allowing users to edit, caption, upload and view captivating imagery. The limited capabilities have challenged marketers to get creative and maximize their efforts with the opportunities they’re given. Even with the recent opening of their API to all advertisers, Instagram has kept it a priority to maintain the integrity of the user-experience.

If you’re simply wondering whether Instagram is the right channel for your business, the answer is simply YES! Every brand has a story to tell. However, if you’re wondering what you need to do before getting started, here’s a list of steps to help guide you along the journey.

1. Define Your Goal

Before you decide to create an Instagram Business account, it’s important to make sure you have clearly defined goals. What are you looking to achieve from your Instagram account? Are you looking for a place to interact with your customers? Are you trying to increase overall brand awareness? Increase foot traffic? Drive online sales?

Your messaging should have a clear call-to-action to help guide your followers to make or take your desired action. Having clearly defined goals will allow you to optimize your content and messaging to help achieve your brand’s specific goals.

2. Know Your Audience

If you don’t know who you’re marketing to, you can’t possibly know what to market. Having a deep understanding of your audience will significantly impact the way you communicate with them.

Develop your customer persona to help you understand what your customers’ values are. What are their interests? What are their daily activities? What do they care about outside of what your specific business offers? The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your content. As a result, you’re able to provide a stronger value to them. Today’s consumer is very savvy, and the days of “selling” to your customer are gone. Rather than buying what you’re selling, customers are buying why you’re selling it.

Give your audience a look into your brand, and humanize your brand to create an emotional connection. An important thing to keep in mind here is the 70/30 guideline. Generally speaking, 70% of your posts should be focused on something that your audience finds valuable, and the remaining 30% of your content should be focused on you and the products or services you’re selling.

3. Develop Your Style Guide

So, you have defined your goals and have a solid understanding of your audience. Now, how do you effectively broadcast your message to that audience? Developing your style guide is crucial in building brand awareness and establishing credibility amongst your audience. What kind of voice and tone best represents your brand and appeals to your audience? What feelings do you want to evoke surrounding your brand? What color palette and visual style best evokes those feelings?

Maintaining a consistent voice and look in your marketing is what helps make your brand recognizable. The goal is for someone to see your content and know right away that it belongs to your brand.

4. Create a Content Calendar

Before you get started with a new Instagram account for your business, it’s best to build out an editorial calendar with a plan for your posts. The last thing you want when building up a new account is to be at a loss for content, so be prepared and plan ahead.

Make a list of the type of content you want to share on your account to help you build out your calendar. In addition to product-related content, you may want to consider sharing customer testimonials, a look behind-the-scenes, pop culture references, etc.

Can you show your followers a new way to use your product? Oreo used their social channels to present different ways that Oreos can be used by creating short videos with the hashtag #oreosnackhacks. Can you give your followers an inside look into how your product is made? Gotham Greens, an urban rooftop greenhouse based in New York City, does a great job of showing their produce in the making.

Remember that social media is real-time and your content calendar is a guideline to keep you on track. Be prepared to adapt to real-time events and be flexible in the event that external factors may impact your content. As you move forward with your content development, refer back to your initial list to ensure that you’re sticking to the strategy and working towards your goals.

5. Commit Yourself

Being successful on Instagram requires commitment. It requires ongoing dedication to developing content and posting on a regular and frequent basis. If you want a presence on Instagram, then be present! Delegate someone to run your account that has a deep understanding of the brand voice and can dedicate time to building and maintaining your community. Once you’ve established a following, your fans will have expectations of you to be consistent. They are following you because you have provided something of value to them, and the best way to keep them loyal is to keep fulfilling their expectations.

Instagram effectiveness

Instagram is an incredibly valuable platform that gives businesses the opportunity to connect with a massive audience on a very personal level. Companies are able to show an inside look into how they operate, giving them an opportunity to humanize their brand. These efforts help develop stronger loyalty and ultimately create brand advocates.

Essentially, Instagram is a platform that, with the right amount of dedication, every business can benefit from. A picture is worth a thousand words, and in a world where we can be limited to 140 characters or less, a thousand words can go a long way!

2015 was another year of massive growth in the digital marketing industry, with digital ad spend growing by a massive 17% to $58.12 billion dollars according to eMarketer. The B2B vertical enjoyed a large amount of this growth when it came to digital advertising and marketing, and many businesses who have properly used digital channels to generate new business had great years as a result. This was particularly apparent when it came to how efficiently certain marketing tactics were used by B2B companies over the course of 2015. Here are five B2B marketing tactics that set the tone for 2015 and are certain to be backbones of B2B digital marketing strategies in the year to come.

Mobile Marketing Strategies

2015 was undoubtedly a year of massive growth for mobile marketing, and this was particularly true in the world of B2B business. With more than a third of US B2B marketing professionals using a mobile device 50-75% of the time when researching purchase decisions digitally, it’s little wonder that 65% of B2B marketers used mobile sites and mobile apps as a key part of their marketing strategy, while 45% took advantage of mobile email:

A great example of a business taking advantage of mobile over the course of 2015 comes from General Electric, who partnered with 40 merchants to promote local offers via Promoboxx’s digital marketing system. Promoboxx developed ads and landing pages for GE that were then co-branded with local stores in order to create a B2B relationship that was extremely strong. Leveraging Facebook’s mobile newsfeed ads at a CPM rate of $3.65 and a click-through rate of .5% as well as geo-targeted impression on mobile apps like TuneIn Radio, MLB, WeatherBug, Accuweather, and ABC News, GE to generate 1.7 million impressions, the campaign was extremely successful over a two week period.

Looking towards the New Year, recent studies suggest that mobile marketing tactics have been extremely successful for most B2B businesses. B2B product and service providers expect to increase the percentage of their mobile marketing budgets from 5.1% to 14.4% and 5% to 13% respectively, suggesting that mobile marketing spend during 2015 generated results that warrant such increases.

Targeted Content Marketing

According to March 2015 data from IDC research, for 44% of US B2B professionals, it takes between four months and more than a year to make a purchase decision. As a result it’s little wonder that content is extremely important in order to help facilitate consistent brand recognition amongst potential clients throughout their buyer journey.

With more than one-third of B2B tech decision-makers reading at least six pieces of content before making a purchase decision, and almost half reading somewhere between two to five pieces of content before their purchases according to Eccolo Media, having targeted content marketing remains one of the most important B2B marketing strategies used in 2015.

Content marketing has been a big player in the world of B2B digital marketing for some time now, but in 2015 it evolved to encompass more than just having a blog for the savviest businesses. Content types like infographics, videos, articles, digital magazines, research reports, and gamification all are now recognized players by most B2B marketing executives to not only build brand awareness and loyalty in the B2B space, but also to help drive consideration and purchases of a product or service in the B2B space:

In my monthly SEO audit series we’ve taken a look at a lot of different websites and how they manage their content, and one B2B provider really stood out with how they manage their content marketing efforts: ReturnPath. They clearly understand that content marketing is so much more than just having a blog that is updated infrequently and have content like webinars, whitepapers, fact sheets, research reports, testimonials, and events. Even better, each of these pieces of content is hyper-targeted to the perceived needs of their customers and is also leveraged to capture emails in order to help facilitate easy email marketing as customers move down the conversion funnel.

Having strong, targeted, content marketing was one of the best ways B2B businesses could generate leads online. As we move into 2016 there is no reason that this should stop being the case. In order to take full advantage of this strategy in the new year look for more businesses to create new, unique types of content to help them stand apart from the competition and generate even more leads.

Social CTA Buttons

Back in the “Targeted Content Marketing” section you may have noticed in the content types graph that the #1 content type for effective awareness was a tie between social media posts and social media sites. While social media is certainly a great tool for generating awareness, it is also an extremely important tool for generating demand and actual purchases of a B2B product or service as well. According to a 2015 survey by Bizible, throughout 2015 paid social media was used by 58.3% of B2B marketers to generate demand – more than TV, radio, and print ads and video advertising combined.

While B2B certainly has a longer lead time than B2C, that doesn’t mean that direct response advertisements on social media with calls to action won’t work. This is particularly true for B2Bs that leverage services like retargeting to inform who they serve direct response advertisements to in order to take the amount of visits to a site into consideration before serving users with an advertisement.

A great example of this is MedCPU who have leveraged Facebook’s “Contact Us” button in their ads to target users in the U.S. who are interested in healthcare IT services and could feasibly be decision makers at hospitals that are buying such products. Over the course of two weeks, MedCPU was able to generate 248 clicks to their site at a cost of only 80 cents a click.

As we enter into 2016 look for more direct response ads and “contact us” buttons on social media. This is particularly true on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, where social CTA buttons and direct response homepage ad units are now currently being used by a number of different brands.

Email Marketing

While email marketing is certainly not as sexy or trendy as some of the other tactics that are on this list, a recent July 2015 study found that 83% of B2B marketers think that email is currently the most important marketing tactic available. One way that email marketing is becoming trendier for B2B businesses is the concept of “lead nurturing”. Using tools like marketing automation and targeted content to guide prospects through the conversion funnel, almost two thirds of respondents said that lead nurturing would be the most important marketing tactic moving forward.

A great example of lead nurturing in action comes from the National Educational Association’s workflow to try and get current members to add their complimentary life insurance plan. Instead of just sending a blanketed email in the hopes of getting their leads to take an action, they took the time to determine what email would be most relevant to a user based on their behavioral patterns. They build out an extremely specific plan that had dozens of behavioral indicators to determine what email each lead would receive while it was in their workflow:

Look for email and lead nurturing to continue to play a huge role in B2B marketing in 2016, particularly when it comes to mobile devices. Between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015 desktop’s share of email has declined 12%, so businesses that want to maintain a strong email marketing strategy with or without lead nurturing need to take mobile into account – even if desktop’s share of email is still currently 3 times that of mobile.

Precise Location-Based Marketing

One of the most effective and quickly growing areas of digital marketing we’ve seen over the course of 2015 is an increase focus on precision location-based marketing. For B2Bs and B2Cs alike, the more precisely businesses are able to target a specific location or area the better chance they have of finding a qualified audience for their product or service. Whether it is a state, city, city, or even more importantly, a specific building like an airport or a convention center, narrowing down advertising efforts can dramatically increase the efficiency of any digital marketing campaign.

According to a study by Experian Data Quality survey done in August of 2015, US CIOs see the value of this and are planning on almost doubling their focus on gathering location data in 2016. Perhaps even more telling is that according to a study performed by Jivox, more than half of US ad agency executives use location API data to inform their dynamic ad strategies – a type of data that is second only to demographic data.

Over the course of 2016 look for location-based marketing to get even more precise to cater to marketing executives’ demands for more location data that they can efficiently leverage to generate greater ROI. Particularly with new wearable technology getting a major foothold over the course of 2015, there will be an even larger spotlight on mobile devices, with the pairing of mobile to related desktop and laptop devices and extremely precise location tracking down to specific geographical coordinates two particular focuses.

New Year, New Opportunities

While these tactics made up some of the best digital strategies used in 2015, all of these elements, from email to content marketing, will change in some way in the coming year. It is important that B2B businesses take note of changes in each tactic and shift their strategies accordingly to continue to get the most out of their digital marketing initiatives. 2016 provides B2Bs with new opportunities to latch onto evolving trends in the industry and businesses that succeed in 2015 need to make sure they keep innovating to continue to get the greatest ROI possible.

Creating a website is hardly a simple task. It requires extensive planning, intricate design and development work, and the right team of skilled experts to make it all possible. Each and every website is different because all brands have varying objectives and unique needs that they need to fulfill. That being said there is no “one size fits all” website design for brands that really want to use their online presence to promote business growth.

Our approach to design is often unique to each project’s requirements and scale. In the case of larger website projects, we have found that scalability, flexibility, and maintaining a consistent brand style across a large number of pages – often 10,000+ present some of the biggest logistical challenges.

An elegant solution to this is to follow an atomic design process. This is a much more modular and granular approach to website design and build. Rather than designing pre-set page templates and layouts, atomic design is the design of building blocks or content modules that can be added, duplicated and moved within a set of defined rules to create unique pages that work for each type of content and page on a site, while keeping it on-brand.

The atomic design methodology is broken down into 5 distinct phases of website design:

Atoms

In scientific terms, atoms are the basic building blocks that together make up matter. When you translate that over to a website design methodology, they serve a similar purpose. Atoms act as the basic building blocks for all of your website design efforts. While they aren’t design elements that can stand alone, together they create different elements that are used throughout your website’s layout.
In atomic website design, atoms serve as the starting point for all parts of your website design project. Without clearly creating and defining certain design elements, your project would lack consistency and cohesiveness. This holds true especially for projects that encompass an extensive amount of pages. Without defining basic design elements such as font on mobile or a paragraph style for section headers, it would be difficult to not only design but edit different pages as you continue through the design process. Atoms can include any of the following:

• fonts
• color schemes
• buttons
• form fields
• logos
• inputs
• labels

When following this methodology, a lot of designers create their atoms and compile them in a unique style guide. This holds all of the essential atoms you need so that you can pull pieces of each as you start the bigger design elements. Aside from selecting color palettes, or determining what all paragraphs would look like on your pages, designers have to think about the mobile and desktop versions of each as well.

Molecules

In chemistry, molecules represent the smallest part of any chemical element, and are made up from atoms combined together. Similarly, with the atomic design process, molecules are design features that are made up of the basic building blocks defined in the style guide—the atoms.

To better grasp how a molecule would be created in a website design, think about a simple search form. You may combine a button (atom) with the appropriate input (atom) and label (atom) to create a full-functioning search bar (molecule). Those items (the button, input, and label) together create something that is incredibly useful and essential to the functionality of the site, however if they were to act alone, they wouldn’t be as valuable.

Organisms

Organisms are groups of molecules together. What makes these organisms different from a molecule is that there are several of them, allowing the complexity to reach a new level. In website design, organisms are several molecules combined together on a section of your page.
When you think about the masthead at the top of your homepage, you can compare that to molecules combined together to form an organism. On your masthead you likely have your navigation, your search bar, and your logo all together to help your users navigate your site easily. Each of those three features could be used alone if they had to be (molecules). However, if you were to break them down even more, they likely wouldn’t stand alone, they would simply be the basic building blocks necessary to help create the other functionalities of your site (atoms).

Templates

The next phase doesn’t align as closely with chemistry as the previous sections have. Templates are created by putting together all of the organisms to create a website page. This provides you with a much deeper understanding of what the design and page will look like once it’s completed and live.
For the most part, templates are created to show structure and layout—not the specifics of what content will actually be on the page. You can see things like sizing and dimensions, but not how the actual content would fit in. Templates are designed to give a general idea as to what to expect when your site is live, and show how all of the pieces will come together to create a functioning page.

Pages

Very similarly to templates, pages are created to give an even more realistic outlook onto what each page will look like. Often there will be placeholders (ex. “content goes here”) and some imagery to provide a vivid sense of how the page will function.
Since this phase offers the most realistic and accurate depiction of what is to be expected once the website is live, this section is essential for testing and review. You can fully see how content will appear, how the site will function, how images will look next to each other, how text and photos can come together, and how the overall flow of the website and each page will appear. From here, you can make any edits necessary if you’re finding that certain functionalities seem off and the design isn’t supporting your needs as originally intended.

Scalability and Consistency

The best part of this type of website design is that you’re able to lay out exactly what to expect as you move from each design element to the next. By using the building blocks initially created together to create more complex systems within your interface, you can effortlessly focus on scalability and consistency, ensuring your project is completed to serve your users in the most cohesive and user-friendly way possible.

Creating a website is hardly a simple task. It requires extensive planning, intricate design and development work, and the right team of skilled experts to make it all possible. Each and every website is different because all brands have varying objectives and unique needs that they need to fulfill. That being said there is no “one size fits all” website design for brands that really want to use their online presence to promote business growth.

Our approach to design is often unique to each project’s requirements and scale. In the case of larger website projects, we have found that scalability, flexibility, and maintaining a consistent brand style across a large number of pages – often 10,000+ present some of the biggest logistical challenges.

An elegant solution to this is to follow an atomic design process. This is a much more modular and granular approach to website design and build. Rather than designing pre-set page templates and layouts, atomic design is the design of building blocks or content modules that can be added, duplicated and moved within a set of defined rules to create unique pages that work for each type of content and page on a site, while keeping it on-brand.

The atomic design methodology is broken down into 5 distinct phases of website design:

Atoms

In scientific terms, atoms are the basic building blocks that together make up matter. When you translate that over to a website design methodology, they serve a similar purpose. Atoms act as the basic building blocks for all of your website design efforts. While they aren’t design elements that can stand alone, together they create different elements that are used throughout your website’s layout.
In atomic website design, atoms serve as the starting point for all parts of your website design project. Without clearly creating and defining certain design elements, your project would lack consistency and cohesiveness. This holds true especially for projects that encompass an extensive amount of pages. Without defining basic design elements such as font on mobile or a paragraph style for section headers, it would be difficult to not only design but edit different pages as you continue through the design process. Atoms can include any of the following:

• fonts
• color schemes
• buttons
• form fields
• logos
• inputs
• labels

When following this methodology, a lot of designers create their atoms and compile them in a unique style guide. This holds all of the essential atoms you need so that you can pull pieces of each as you start the bigger design elements. Aside from selecting color palettes, or determining what all paragraphs would look like on your pages, designers have to think about the mobile and desktop versions of each as well.

Molecules

In chemistry, molecules represent the smallest part of any chemical element, and are made up from atoms combined together. Similarly, with the atomic design process, molecules are design features that are made up of the basic building blocks defined in the style guide—the atoms.

To better grasp how a molecule would be created in a website design, think about a simple search form. You may combine a button (atom) with the appropriate input (atom) and label (atom) to create a full-functioning search bar (molecule). Those items (the button, input, and label) together create something that is incredibly useful and essential to the functionality of the site, however if they were to act alone, they wouldn’t be as valuable.

Organisms

Organisms are groups of molecules together. What makes these organisms different from a molecule is that there are several of them, allowing the complexity to reach a new level. In website design, organisms are several molecules combined together on a section of your page.
When you think about the masthead at the top of your homepage, you can compare that to molecules combined together to form an organism. On your masthead you likely have your navigation, your search bar, and your logo all together to help your users navigate your site easily. Each of those three features could be used alone if they had to be (molecules). However, if you were to break them down even more, they likely wouldn’t stand alone, they would simply be the basic building blocks necessary to help create the other functionalities of your site (atoms).

Templates

The next phase doesn’t align as closely with chemistry as the previous sections have. Templates are created by putting together all of the organisms to create a website page. This provides you with a much deeper understanding of what the design and page will look like once it’s completed and live.
For the most part, templates are created to show structure and layout—not the specifics of what content will actually be on the page. You can see things like sizing and dimensions, but not how the actual content would fit in. Templates are designed to give a general idea as to what to expect when your site is live, and show how all of the pieces will come together to create a functioning page.

Pages

Very similarly to templates, pages are created to give an even more realistic outlook onto what each page will look like. Often there will be placeholders (ex. “content goes here”) and some imagery to provide a vivid sense of how the page will function.
Since this phase offers the most realistic and accurate depiction of what is to be expected once the website is live, this section is essential for testing and review. You can fully see how content will appear, how the site will function, how images will look next to each other, how text and photos can come together, and how the overall flow of the website and each page will appear. From here, you can make any edits necessary if you’re finding that certain functionalities seem off and the design isn’t supporting your needs as originally intended.

Scalability and Consistency

The best part of this type of website design is that you’re able to lay out exactly what to expect as you move from each design element to the next. By using the building blocks initially created together to create more complex systems within your interface, you can effortlessly focus on scalability and consistency, ensuring your project is completed to serve your users in the most cohesive and user-friendly way possible.

2015 is now well and truly behind us, and the world of B2B marketing in 2016 has started with a bang. B2B businesses need to get off to a good start in the New Year, and one of the best ways to do that is to create a holistic marketing strategy that incorporates some newer trends that other businesses aren’t willing to take chances on using.

2015 introduced lots of new and surprising trends and possibilities in the world of B2B marketing, and 2016 will mark the year many of these trends start to become a mainstay of marketing campaigns by brands that understand how to execute these new possibilities in order to stand out from the competition and generate the best ROI possible. Here are some facets of digital marketing where change is on the horizon in 2016, change that B2B businesses can use to their advantage when incorporating some of these new trends into their marketing strategies for 2016.

Site Personalization

When it comes to personalization, email seems to be the most popular channel referenced and thought of among B2B marketers – but in 2016 there will also be a push towards website personalization for each visitor as well. This includes a different homepage layout based on demographic, presenting products or services that are similar or pair up well with past audience behavior, location-based content, and loyalty rewards. These variations can be determined by what stage of the buying process an individual user is on, and serving more appropriate content or products and services across your website.

Invest in personalization as a part of your brand’s online digital experience may seem risky for B2Bs, but your customers unconsciously want and expect you to provide custom-tailored products and services on your site, based on their previous history with your business and will reward you with more sales or conversions when set up properly. An underlying benefit of presenting your online customers with dynamic content is that they will stay on your website longer, visit more often, and engage more with your business.

Whether they spend their time reading your blog, exploring the products and services you have to offer, downloading an interest form or whitepaper, or, most importantly, making a purchase, keeping users engaged with your website provides a myriads of advantages. Google will also recognize that your website is giving users what they’re searching for based on their engagement and bump your organic search rankings for specific pages.

At the end of the day, site personalization is all about appeasing your users with dynamic content that suits their needs and wants, but in doing so, it will also generate more qualified traffic to your website. Netflix, Amazon, and eBay are just a few businesses that have begun to master site personalization, and in 2016 look for more companies in the B2B space to start jump on the bandwagon and offer personalized content on their websites to users.

Email Marketing

With the number of email users in the U.S. expected to grow to 239 million in 2016 and with B2B companies ranking email marketing as one of the best channels in terms of return on investment, 2016 will be the year that “innovative” email tactics like personalization will become the industry standard.

Recent studies have found that 66% of emails are now opened on mobile devices, and more than ever before the shear amount of different email platforms means that special attention needs to be paid to subject lines and image load times. It’s essential to remember what was the last interaction that potential or existing customers had with your brand so that you can send customers tailored emails like:

• A Welcome Series
• General Newsletters
• Form Submission Thank You
• Post Purchase Review
• Loyalty Appreciation
• Events
• Order Status

You have to send emails at the right time for each of your customers, but you also have to segment your emails based on demographics such as company vertical and size. Personalization in 2016 will go beyond basic tactics like inserting a customer’s name in your email – customers in 2016 will be expecting personalized emails based off their past online purchases and interests.

Companies will start to take the time and effort to create email campaigns that communicate to users that they are aware of their relationship and interactions with their online brand, and users will take notice, appreciate the effort, and reward businesses with better email performance in terms of key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rate, lower bounce rate, higher open rate, and higher click through rate.

Digital Assistants

With the multitude of digital assistants across various platforms, there are a multitude of options that users can use to help them quickly and efficiently find what they’re looking for without a single keystroke. More than ever before, digital assistants can understand and execute the requests of users quickly and correctly – making them an easy way to search for things when on the go with a mobile device. As a result, digital assistants will slowly began to change the core of digital marketing by changing how users interact with the internet and how marketers are forced to optimize their digital content for conversational queries on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

As more people conduct searches on the go in 2016 and digital assistants drastically improve, users will conduct more voice queries and marketers will begin to have to create content that is not only informational, but colloquial as well, both for retail products and B2B services. Voice search is not a temporary fad, and Google, Microsoft, Apple, and even Facebook are constantly making improvements to their digital assistants so that they can better understand the questions and commands of the users interacting with them.

Instagram Advertising

Instagram has really taken off as a social media platform in the past several years, trailing only its parent company, Facebook, as the second largest social network and engaging 400 million active users per month. Instagram has opened up its advertising offerings to everyone this year, and due to high engagement with initial ads, eMarketer has projected that Instagram’s ad revenue will jump from $595 million in 2015 to $1.48 billion in 2016. The visual nature of the platform and the advertising features that it has integrated from Facebook will resonate with businesses and users alike, making Instagram and it’s advertising options a major player in the social media marketing landscape of 2016.

When marketers were asked which social media sites they were interested in allocating their ad budget towards in a February 2015 survey, 72% of them responded with Instagram. Why are marketers so eager to invest in Instagram advertising? Besides the jump in users from 77.6 million in 2015 to 89.4 million in 2016, the platform’s engagement rates are quite high when compared to those of Facebook and Twitter.

What makes Instagram so intriguing is that its advertising is not only based off its own behavioral data, but it will also replicate Facebook’s targeted advertising capabilities, like Custom Audiences. The image and photo-centric platform not only gives advertisers room to be creative in their ads, but it now will let them specifically go after their ideal user. Compared to ads on other social media networks, Instagram ads are subtle and outside of a small ‘sponsored’ label in the top right corner and the option for a CTA in the bottom right, they look exactly like any other post someone might upload.

Instagram advertising is great for increasing brand engagement, but the next step for marketers is to get their users to act and click on the CTAs provided to them in the sponsored posts. The platform is off to a great start with the creative freedom and unique, specific targeting capabilities it offers. While social media historically hasn’t been a huge investment for most B2B marketers, Instagram’s platform does offer up some unique opportunities that may be worth taking a risk on when going after businesses that have younger employees. 2016 will be the year that Instagram advertising will join Facebook and Linkedin in the world of social media advertising that adventurous B2Bs add to their marketing strategies.

Advanced Content Marketing

Content has become the standard for any B2B business’ digital strategy in the past several years, and for brands to really stand out and capture the attention of their audiences, they will have to do more than just branding, maintaining a blog, and actively engaging users on social with their content. With search engines constantly improving their retargeting and RLSA ads, and social advertising revenue expected to reach $9.7 billion in 2016, businesses will start to use more advanced forms of content marketing like storytelling and micro-targeting to communicate with and reach out to their highly-qualified potential customers.

Content marketing has always been about speaking to the needs of an audience. In 2015 76% of U.S. marketers said they would plan to increase their investment in content marketing and the number of marketers, as well as content occupying the internet, will only grow larger in 2016. So, how will B2B companies stand out from all the content clutter and distinguish themselves with their audience? Focusing on the emotions that connect their brand with their users and communicating their core messaging to that unique audience is a good start. Good B2B companies will start to break down their target audience beyond just a simple demographic such as age group and gender. Niche targeting will focus on a more unique audience that contains more qualified users that are far more interested in their products or services, making the ROI in the long term much higher.

In 2016, companies will start to break down their target audience beyond just a simple targeting like age group and gender. Even social media advertising has evolved to include specific targeting like interests, behavior, and lookalike targeting. Smart marketers in the B2B space will not worry about reaching less people with this type of marketing in comparison to traditional advertising where ads were blasted to a large group. Niche targeting will focus on a more unique audience that contains more qualified users that are far more interested in their products or services, making the ROI in the long term much higher.

Location-Based Marketing

Location-based marketing has been around for some time now, but in 2016 it will really start to be an instrumental tool for how B2B businesses advertise to consumers on-the-go. Not only does the continued boost in smartphone users year-over-year play a role, but also the arrival of wearable technology, and new developments in location-based marketing itself will start to make geotargeting and beacon technology more popular among marketers.

The number of smartphone users in the U.S. is projected to jump from 190.5 million in 2015 to 207.2 million in 2016. Wearable technology grew by almost 60% in 2015, and next year 63.7 million U.S. adults will use wearables. With just the sheer number of mobile and wearable technology users predicted to rise in 2016 and beyond, it’s no doubt that location-based marketing will take off to carter to these on-the-go devices.

Digital advertisers have always taken a leap towards innovation in their strategies, and location marketing presents a massive opportunity with a surface that’s hardly been scratched. For B2Bs specifically, a huge use-case for more specific location-based marketing is event and conference targeting. While beacons and geofencing allow this to happen in some capacity, narrowing down location further to specific conventional halls and areas of a convention without having to set up a beacon and spend large sums for a booth or exhibition opens up lots of doors for businesses that would be otherwise unable to leverage an event with the kind of ROI to make it worthwhile.

The use of smartphones and wearable technology will only increase in the coming years, and with top companies investing in the potential of location based marketing, expect to see a lot more messages and notifications as you visit your favorite stores in 2016.

Video Advertising

We see the influence that online video advertisements have had across various digital media platforms, and that momentum will not slow down in 2016. With the number of people consuming digital media increasing, the potential to reach customers through these channels is becoming more effective than investing in traditional advertising methods such as TV commercials or print ads. Marketers in the B2B space are recognizing the opportunities that lie in online video advertising and that an omnichannel video marketing campaign is required to succeed, and there will be more online video ads in 2016 as a result.

According to a survey conducted by BrightRoll, 72% of ad agencies believe that online video advertising is as effective, if not more so, than television. Video advertising is growing across channels outside of platforms with established video services like YouTube and Vimeo. Facebook and Twitter in particular, along with other social media platforms, are making strides in their advertising capabilities as individuals consume more and more video content through their mobile devices.

Television will be around for some time yet, and with them more traditional commercials and ads will stay an important part of any B2B advertising campaign that utilizes multimedia. However, with the constantly changing digital landscape, we can expect to see a consistent increase in online video ads in 2016.

Programmatic Digital Ad Spending

The process of using software to buy digital advertising instead of the traditional method of having humans buying and selling ads, programmatic advertising has a bright future indeed. Programmatic digital display ad spending is estimated to top out at $15.43 billion in 2015, which will account for 59% of spend on all digital display ad spending. Automated digital ad buying will only grow in 2016 as mobile websites and apps continue to gain a foothold over desktop, and programmatic digital goes beyond just the standard banner ad.

Programmatic technology will continue to grow in terms of capability and percentage of overall ad spend as it takes the work out of buying and selling ads. For B2Bs that like to rely on big data this is a godsend, as it assures that budgets are being spent appropriately with a mathematical eye towards the ROI of campaigns. Already, this has also saved time for marketers to focus on more important tasks like creating better advertising campaign creative and concentrating on which target demographic their campaigns will reach.

Furthermore, as online advertising shifts more towards mobile in the coming years, so will programmatic digital advertising. A February 2015 poll had the majority of U.S. marketers respond with mobile as the channel with which they saw the most potential for programmatic advertising. eMarketer backs that up as 69% of programmatic display ad spending in the U.S. is estimated to be from mobile at $14.89 billion.

As programmatic grows on mobile and opens up more opportunities for ROI-based algorithms to dictate ad buys, look for more B2Bs to utilize this powerful technology to take the guesswork out of their digital ad spending.

Take Existing B2B Strategies Further in 2016

With the notable exception of Instagram advertising helping to make social media more viable for a B2B marketing plan, most of the new trends that will define B2B marketing in 2016 are continuations of last year’s trends that build upon what worked. B2B marketers should look at what generated the best marketing ROI for their business in 2015 and add things like location-based marketing, programmatic ad spend, and content marketing if those are tactics that worked but need new tools to help achieve success again in the new year. At the same time, taking a chance on new trends could pay huge dividends for companies that can afford to experiment with new ways to stand apart from the competition.

– See more at: http://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/b2b-marketing-trends-2016-b2b-marketing-ideas-for-the-future/#sthash.us12LiqY.dpuf

With January almost at a close, if your business hasn’t spent the time to update its existing strategies already, it definitely should be at the top of your task list for the rest of the month. One of the key areas that every business needs to take a hard look at when it comes to marketing strategy in 2016 is how they are handling mobile marketing efforts. Having a responsive website is an absolutely essential first step, but this year it’s going to take a look more than the basics of mobile marketing to get ahead of competition that spent a lot of last year worrying about Google’s widely publicized but seemingly irrelevant “mobilegeddon” changes.

We’ve already covered the B2B marketing trends that will define 2016, now it’s time to turn our attention towards five mobile trends your strategies need to incorporate in the new year in order to stay ahead of the competition and get the best marketing ROI possible in one of the fastest growing digital channels in the marketplace.

Mobile Payments

Technology research firm, Gartner, predicts that by 2017, 50% of all U.S. digital ecommerce revenue will come from mobile. A big part of this increase will be directly affected by mobile payments and platforms such as Apple Pay, Google’s Android Pay, and Samsung Pay. Although many of these mobile payment options are just now entering the public conscience of consumers, eMarketer forecasts that in 2016, mobile payments on platforms like these will triple and grow by 210%.

When Apple, Google, Samsung, and even Facebook are all getting behind mobile wallets, it isn’t too farfetched to think that this will become a standard payment option, and it is no surprise that many new smartphones in the coming year will have the mobile wallets pre- installed. Helping this trend is the fact that in October 2015, many merchants were even made to switch their payment terminals from swipe and-sign to chip-and-pin machines, which will be compatible with mobile payments. With 37.5 million U.S. mobile wallet users in 2016, and multiple options to cater to different devices, mobile wallets, and the payments made using them increasing in size in the next year is looking likely.

With 37.5 million U.S. mobile wallet users in 2016, look for mobile wallets to enjoy increased usage and average payment size. While medium-priced purchases of $20-100 accounted for 45.5% of all mobile payments in 2015, eMarketer predicts that by 2018, the percentage will jump up to 63.9%.

App Indexing and Deep Links in Apps

2015 was an unbelievable year for mobile, with Google rolling out “Mobilegeddon” in April, and their announcement that the United States and 9 other countries had more Google searches on mobile devices than on desktops.

Google announced the ability to index apps back in 2013, but only recent developments in the past year have really caught the attention of marketers. Besides the huge announcement about the rollout of their mobile-friendly algorithm update on April 21 of this year, Google also said that indexed apps would be playing a larger ranking factor and show up more prominently in mobile searches. Other developments this year, like Google expanding their results to include apps that were not installed on phones, app indexing for iOS (not just Android) apps in Google search, and the latest news that Safari on iOS 9 would also support Google search’s app indexing have also forced marketers to take note and shift their strategies accordingly.

The mobile internet in 2016 will rapidly grow to include more and more content from deep links within indexed apps. It won’t be enough to just create an app anymore. In order to increase discoverability, downloads, and engagement, marketers will have to start indexing their app and its content with deep links. Mobile search will continue to outpace desktop search in 2016, and the ability for apps to be indexed with deep links on not just Google, but on other platforms as well, will allow forward-thinking companies to expand their online presence in the increasingly competitive mobile space.

Google is not the only platform implementing and encouraging app indexing. Bing, Apple, and even Facebook are starting to invest in app indexing to compete with the ever growing mobile audience. Likewise, marketers would be wise to deep link content and index their apps in 2016 if they aren’t already.

Mobile Buying Through Social Buy Buttons

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram have influenced many online purchases in the past several years, and they’re also extremely popular mobile apps. Out of established social media networks like Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram,only Pinterest is not in the top 15 smartphone apps in a June 2015 survey. The general consensus when it comes to using mobile devices for buying online is that users will do everything on their devices except actual buying. This is especially prevalent in the post-Thanksgiving holiday shopping season as users will check for sales, compare prices, and read product reviews, but make the actual purchase on a desktop.

With the rise of mobile commerce increasing 32.2% in 2015, it only makes sense that the next step for social media platforms in 2016 is to leverage their countless mobile users by creating a more seamless shopping experience for brands to take advantage. It’s not a particularly new concept, as ecommerce third party platforms such as Shopify and Curalate’s Like2Buy are already making a name for themselves on Facebook and Instagram with companies such as Gap and Target utilizing them to increase their online sales via social.

This isn’t the first go-around with these third party platforms, and they will continue to be modified and perfected for each platform alongside each social media platform’s own offerings. As social networks provide statistics for Likes, Clicks, and Shares, look for ecommerce platforms to provide extensive acquisition, conversion, and retention metrics for companies willing to add an ecommerce features on their social accounts. 72% of retailers in a May 2015 survey said they already had social ecommerce factored into their overall digital marketing strategy. The same survey found that 40% of retailers expected at least half of their sales to come from social media by 2018.

Buying on mobile is not the same experience as purchasing on desktop, however with the rise of all things mobile in 2016, look for social media networks and their constantly improving ecommerce features, to be a driving force for mobile buying. As social media platforms begin to incorporate more ecommerce capabilities on their platforms, look to see more mobile buying instead of just browsing in 2016.

Snapchat Marketing

Snapchat has been around since 2011, and historically has been comparatively unknown when compared to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that are traditionally better known in the social media marketplace. Ever since its release, Snapchat gravitated towards millennials – as 71% of its U.S. users are between the ages of 18-29.

In January 2015, Snapchat caught the attention of advertisers with the rollout and success of its “Discover” feature. Essentially a “Snapchat for companies”, the Discover feature lets users access and view photos and videos from major brands, and by swiping up or down on these photos or videos, users are able to access more content and articles that are uniquely curated and presented for Snapchat.

Starting off with only a handful of companies, Snapchat Discover has since expanded and now includes a variety of major brands such as ESPN, BuzzFeed, CNN, iHeartRadio, and the Food Network – with more companies eager to test out how Snapchat will perform for them. iHeartRadio broadcast its 2-day music festival on the mobile app in September and was able to gather an impressive 340 million impressions. Digiday reports that Cosmopolitan, another Snapchat Discover brand, gets an average of 3 million views per day. Snapchat receives 4 billion video views a day on its platform (which is the same as Facebook), so it’s little wonder that companies are finding opportunities to get more of these video views for themselves.

What will truly make it a major marketing platform in the coming year is how organic, creative, and behind-the-scenes the branded content on Discover is compared to the advertising options on other social media networks. Even though reports indicate that Snapchat is asking for a steep price of up to $700,000 a day for their ads, major brands will be more than willing to pay up in 2016 if the results continue to trend upwards.

In 2016, Snapchat will grow to finally be on the same playing field in terms of established social media marketing platforms as the other major platforms as long as it can find a way to channel the initial of success of its “Discover” feature into a viable option for smaller businesses.

Apps to Rival Mobile Websites

While it might sound like an outrageous claim, in 2016, mobile apps will outpace mobile site growth and start to become a key player in mobile marketing. There is data to back this claim up. A 2015 study found that smartphone and tablet users spent the majority of their time on apps (75% and 81%, respectively). Another study found that big brands like Apple, eBay, Amazon, Target, Macy’s, and Walmart largely interact with their mobile customers through apps instead of mobile sites.

When asked why they prefer mobile apps over mobile sites, smartphone users 18 years and older responded by saying that apps are more convenient (64% of respondents) and easier to use (62%). 19% of users also said that mobile sites don’t look good or render correctly on their smartphones. Besides just the hassle of going on your mobile browser, the added benefits of an app include but are not limited to:

• Push notifications
• Cloud integration
• Offline/online access
• Enhanced security
• Branding freedom
• More personalization for users

Mobile users are already spending the majority of their time on apps, and with the capabilities of app indexing and setting up deep links that will eventually lead to seamless integration between apps and SEO, business owners will start to focus on creating and maintaining apps for their businesses instead of simply improving their mobile sites during the coming year.

Mobile Marketing Matters in 2016

Perhaps the biggest mobile-wide trend that we expect to see in 2016 is more purchases right on a user’s mobile device. Whether that is through a mobile payment solution, a mobile app or a social buy button, brands should be positioning themselves in such a way digitally that it is easy for customers to purchase on their mobile devices if they so please. Furthermore, making sure these apps and social presences are prominent through app indexing, deep links, and leveraging exiting social media platforms that are native to mobile like Snapchat is going to be a key any business that hopes to execute mobile campaigns properly. Brands that execute and evolve their digital strategies to include mobile in a prominent way will be ahead of the competition and can expect to cash in accordingly as mobile devices become a viable device to research and finalize a purchase on.

The New Year has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that the time for celebration is over. Particularly if you’re lucky enough to be in New York City until February 5th, you can indulge in one of the great perks of the city – “NYC Restaurant Week”. Meals at great restaurants are greatly reduced, and for most restaurants it’s a particularly busy time of year.

With this added business comes an increase in website traffic for most restaurants, so its more important than ever that they make sure their websites are optimized to attract and capture the traffic of hungry patrons across the web. In honor of this great event, this month’s “1 Hour SEO Audit” will take a look at one of the most recognizable restaurants in the city – Sarabeth’s.

With more than 5 locations in New York alone, Sarabeth’s serves thousands of hungry customers each day – and their website needs to work overtime to make sure they’re top of mind for as many local and national eaters as possible so that they can consistently fill their many locations to capacity. Will their site be able to do this through effective SEO? Our audit explores this question by using our standard tools and ranking factors:

• Content
• Schema and SERP Friendliness
• Backlinks
• Site Speed
• Meta Tag Issues
• Title Tag Issues

Tools Used

• Ragepank
• Screaming Frog
• Mozbar
• Open Site Explorer
• Copyscape
• Microsoft IIS
• SEMRush
• GTMetrix
• Dareboost

Content

Although 2016 is now in full swing, some things that were important to SEO in 2015 haven’t changed all that much. One of those fundamental things is content. Particularly on the heels of Google’s announcement that their content-oriented Panda update is now part of their constantly running core algorithm, good content will play an even larger role in generating organic traffic for businesses. There is no doubt that content remains the best way for businesses to rank for long tail keywords by providing an avenue for brands to create high-quality content that keeps visitors engaged with their brand while building long-term customer loyalty.

Sarabeth’s goes all out when it comes to content marketing initiatives. On a general level, the site features phenomenal photography that helps sell products and keep customers hungry as they learn about the restaurants and the fantastic foods they prepare. From their “books” section that features offline cookbooks for sale directly from the website, to their extensive recipes, news, and blog content, there is a monstrous amount of content for users who are interested in learning more about Sarabeth’s and the recipes and food they provide to their customers.

The only negative onsite when it comes to content is that the “blog” and “restaurants” sections are on their own domains off of the main “sarabeth.com” website. This is a massive shame from an SEO perspective. All of the fantastic content that is on the blog doesn’t translate into much SEO value for the rest of the website and the same can be said for the restaurant site. With domain authorities of 41 and 30 on the restaurant and blog respectively, and with the main site only at a domain authority of 47 – it’s a shame that everything is so spread out across multiple domains. Combined into one powerhouse of a website, the overall authority would be much higher and would be likely to close more sales and attract much more traffic overall.

Grade: A-

Schema and SERP Friendliness

A lot of sites fall flat when it comes to schema, but recently we’ve started to see a number of sites implementing at least one form of schema somewhere on their site. This is great to see, because schema can be a massive asset for any business and is still one of the most severely lacking elements on sites in terms of SEO. Particularly for our previous two audits, Dollar Shave Club and Veuve Cliquot, there was at least a bit of information in their branded search engine result page or on the site itself for things like navigation elements.

More than any other single business that has been looked at it in this series, Sarabeth’s knocks schema out of the park. Not only do they have some branded search results for each of their locations, they also have included a variety of schema on their pages. This includes simple product schema as well as availability and offer schema as well. It’s great that they’ve taken the time to add all of these elements and they are the new threshold for businesses to live up to when they are featured on this series from here on out.

Grade: A+

Backlinks

It’s harder than ever before to organically amass great inbound links, and as a result there has been no better time to consider how important an overall backlink profile is for business owners and digital marketers. They play a pivotal role in how well individual pages and overall domains rank for target keywords, and it is extremely important that business owners are able to identify where their backlink profiles are strong and what aspects might need a bit more work in order to take them to the next level.

At face value Sarabeth’s does a decent enough job with their backlink profile. They have a domain authority of 47 with 2,083 links from 451 root domains, which comes out to roughly 5 links per domain, which isn’t bad at all. However, as we’ve already mentioned, if you dig a little deeper there’s a pretty big issue with the site – there are 3 separate domains. This means that the main domain is missing out on adding another 1400 links, from sources like ABC, CBS, Timeout NY and Mashable. This is a huge loss for the domain authority and possible keyword rankings for the main domain and I strongly believe that unless there is a branding reason to have 3 separate sites that all sites should be formed into one quickly and efficiently without loss of functionality to get the most SEO value possible out of all three.

Putting domain issues to the side, it must be said that Sarabeth’s has very nicely varied and natural anchor text. There are a lot of branded terms, as well as some nice keyword rich text like “bakery”, “kitchen”, and “preserves”. Clearly the links they have gotten have been naturally acquired and they should be able to grow their backlink profile without any fear of penalization from search engines like Google.

Grade: B

Site Speed

Site speed it an important part of SEO and should be a focus for any business owner that is looking to take their website to the next level when it comes to attracting organic traffic. Good site speed paves the way for better user experience, brand credibility and on-site conversion rate, while simultaneously playing a slight role in keyword rankings. A website that loads quickly can be the difference between your business getting a new customer and not, and this fact alone should give a business owner enough of a reason to ensure that site speed is optimized appropriately.

Sarabeth’s fundamentally fails when it comes to site speed and generally has a lot of room for improvement. While their GTMetrix score wasn’t particularly bad, they received the first “F” we’ve seen from PageSpeed in a very long time and definitely need to fix pretty fundamental issues like serving scaled images, specifying image dimensions, and avoiding bad requests. These are all very simple fixes and there is no reason they shouldn’t be relatively straightforward to make in order to get extra SEO and usability value.

Grade: D

Meta Tag Issues

While there have been some outliers in past 1 Hour SEO audits that have done meta descriptions quite well, like Odoo and Casper, most businesses fall short when it comes to creating self-defined meta descriptions for their website. For whatever reason, businesses seem to think it is acceptable to allow Google to define meta descriptions for their business, even though the process for doing that doesn’t make the page attractive to searchers and fails to facilitate higher click-through rates for the pages in question. As user behavior is an SEO factor, having more people click through to a page from a search result is a positive signal for a website. As a result taking the time to do this process properly when defining a meta description is a key part of taking a website to the next level.

Sarabeth’s has a little more than 16% of their meta descriptions marked as duplicative by Screaming Frog, but perhaps more importantly, they’re missing almost 42% of their meta descriptions entirely, which is a shame. Particularly for the homepage, and the about us, recipes, and restaurants pages, this is a real shame because the text used by search engines likely has very little to do with describing the content on the page. All of these pages could be generating good inbound traffic on their own, but without an interesting meta description it is very unlikely that people that are even searching for these pages specifically feel any sort of desire to click to these pages based on the meta description they are given in the search results.

Grade: C-

Title Tag Issues

Until Google can figure out a better solution, which seems unlikely, title tags will remain the first and most important part of a page when it comes to SEO value. Having a title tag that is optimized correctly for a keyword that will drive qualified traffic to your website can often be the difference between a website that gets lost in the anonymity of the internet and one that succeeds at generating new sales for a business.

Sarabeth’s does a fantastic job with their page titles. They aren’t missing a single one, and while a few are above and below the required character length very few are over by a noticeable amount – minimizing the chances of a search engine rewriting their page titles for them.

While Screaming Frog shows them with 16 duplicate page titles, the problem is actually symptomatic of a larger issue that has more to do with URI structure than page titles. For some reason a few pages (such as The Bakery, chocolate chip cookies, and preserves pages) have two URI configurations – one in lowercase and one with a first letter in uppercase. This means there are two duplicated pages on the site with the same title tag. This is certainly a massive issue, but one I don’t think Sarabeth’s is aware of – obviously one of the page versions should be removed, 301’d or at the very least canonicalized as quickly as possible to solve this problem.

Grade: B+

General Suggestions

While there are a lot of things done right on the Sarabeth’s site, one thing stands out more than anything else. There are three different domains, one for the blog, one for locations and reservations, and one site to sell products. I suppose from a branding/usability standpoint this made sense at the time as presumably each site has separate functionality or content management systems that made it difficult to combine them all, but the reality is that all three of these different domains really should all live on one domain. Having three relatively strong sites that could easily just be on one domain is a massive waste from an SEO standpoint. If all the inbound links were added together, the Sarabeth’s site would likely ranking for many more keywords in higher positions and all three sites would enjoy increased traffic and conversions.

Any competent business owner knows that marketing mistakes can be incredibly costly. From the missed opportunities that come with failing to reach your target audience, to competitors muscle in on your market share and negatively impacting sales, marketing tactics that negatively impact how clearly you’re able to communicate your value to users can destroy brand growth in a matter of months, weeks, or even days. Oddly, you’ll often hear and read stories about how to do digital marketing the right way, but those sorts of articles and stories don’t address what exactly went wrong and what you as a business owner can learn from these mistakes.

In an effort to help you learn what not to do when creating a digital marketing campaign so that you can quickly and efficiently build campaigns that won’t suffer from reduced ROI, I’ve identified 5 of the most common marketing mistakes that businesses make and address how these issues can be solved:

1) Marketing Without Goals

Nothing is more disappointing than when a client says they need to focus on a specific marketing channel, yet have no plan, strategy or rationale as to why that channel makes sense for helping them to achieve their goals. It’s impossible to start marketing without knowing what your milestones, goals, or key performance indicators (KPIs) are. To try and do so is a huge mistake, and while it seems fairly obvious the reality is that a lot of businesses out there do this all the time.

If you fail to identify what you’d like to accomplish with a marketing campaign, there’s no possible way you can measure effectiveness and hold any specific elements of your strategy accountable for success or failure and reallocate budget appropriately. For example, if a single channel of your marketing strategy is bringing you a certain number of leads, how can you tell if it’s the best performance possible? Without a strategy that includes clearly outlined goals, and performance thresholds there is no way to accurately develop a plan that will let you reach the goals you’ve set.

2) A Dollar and a Dream

A lot of people understand the premise “in order to make money you have to spend money” but a lot of people fail to establish it to their business. Whether you are a startup or an established brand in the Fortune 500, this theory is true. A lot of businesses think that they can bootstrap their marketing efforts using things like social media, free email platforms, template websites, and SEO, but the reality is that these all have a very low growth ceiling and in order for them to grow you need to spend – whether that is an actual budget for paid advertising or for manpower to create content, designs, emails, and other collateral you need to succeed.

When considering marketing budgets its important to understand that whatever product or service you sell, for every dollar you spend you won’t get return on investment right away. Sometimes this is because of something called a “loss leader”, which is when you lose money in order to acquire a first time customer, and then get more than even return on investment over the course of that customers relationship with you. Marketing investments take time, and while the buying cycle for each company varies most B2Bs have a buying cycle that could be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, and for a B2C the product cycle could range from a single day to a 1-3 month period.

3) Not Focusing On Returning Visitors

On most websites it’s not first time visitors that are going to make massive purchases, regardless of whether a business is B2B or B2C. Repeat visitors almost always convert a higher rate and with a higher average purchase than first time visitors. A lot of business owners overlook this fact and remain focused on continuously bringing new customers to their website instead of considering how they can get customers to come back and buy again.

Ideally, businesses should use a broad range of marketing tactics to achieve this goal. Email marketing and display advertising retargeting are two very effective and widely used options. Once you capture a user’s email, you can send them high quality-content with an incentive or perk that they will find valuable and appealing. Similarly, proper retargeting while show customers a product or service they were considering in order to get them back to the website to complete their purchase. Going beyond things like standard pay per click and display advertising in order to add retargeting is something that doesn’t happen as often as it is should, and not doing so is a huge mistake that leads bundles of money unclaimed for any online business.

4) Content Lacking Value

Everyone knows that content is king when it comes to generating new traffic to your website that builds brand recognition and gives your business more potential customers to convert. What a lot of businesses seem to miss is the fact that the content actually needs to be valuable. Users want to invest their time and money with your brand because they know you’re knowledgeable in your specific industry. If you don’t provide them with the content to showcase that, users won’t see your value.

In order to make content valuable to your audience focus on he needs of your users, both real and perceived, and address them quickly and efficiently. Include vibrant imagery such as infographics, graphs, animations, and photos to reinforce messaging without overwhelming the reader with too much text. Also including quantitative data like relevant statistics to help substantiate any statements or thoughts you’re presenting in your content is a great way to add legitimacy and trust.

If this isn’t your first time on our blog, you know that we share all of our expertise here and have garnered a significant following because of it. Content marketing has helped us to grow immensely as an organization by presenting our employees as thought leaders, and its played a key role in attracting new clients for us.

5) Not Knowing Your Audience

Too often, you’ll hear start-ups claim they have the best product in their vertical, and that it’s for everyone. This is rarely (if ever) true, because in general most businesses understand that products and services can’t be designed for everyone – they should aim fulfill a unique need to a very specific audience. Just from a financial standpoint, unless you’re a Fortune 500 company, you’re not going to have the finances to market to “everyone” correctly anyway.

If a business thinks that their target audience is everyone, then they probably haven’t done proper due diligence to identify who your target customer is and likely don’t have a strategy that is aligned with that customer’s needs in mind either. This is setting up any marketing efforts for failure.

Know ho your market is – the more niche, the greater your chances of success. It’s better to target a very narrow demographic of users you know how to reach and whose behavior and interests you understand rather than just going after “everyone”.

Your Brand and Your Marketing Needs Are Unique

Marketing mistakes can be costly on so many different levels. From financial losses to missed opportunities, if you’re trying to grow your brand you can’t afford to make any of the common and very fixable mistakes I’ve outlined above. Take the time really understand who your company should be trying to attract with your marketing efforts and to try and understand their unique needs.

The commercials that air throughout the Super Bowl are a time-honored tradition in the football-watching world (America). However, what was once the Monday morning water-cooler topic of conversation, has evolved into something much greater. As the marketing industry continues to change, these game-day advertising campaigns now begin long before kickoff, and continue way after the Lombardy trophy finds its’ new home.

Traditional marketing campaigns have a hard time surviving on their own in the digital world. No matter how memorable the commercial may have been, it needs to have a digital component to supplement the campaign, and keep it fresh in the minds of audience members. If you want your next marketing effort to be talked about and remembered, take a note from the companies that topped our list of the best digital marketing campaigns of this year’s Super Bowl.

Amazon: #BaldwinBowl

For Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial debut, Alec Baldwin hosted “The Baldwin Bowl” as a way of promoting the Amazon Echo and virtual assistant Alexa. For the days and weeks leading up to the big game, celebrities like Missy Elliot (who ended up being featured in the commercial) took to social media to show that they were invited to “The Baldwin Bowl,” and planned on attending. It wasn’t until game day that we found out it was actually for the commercial, rather than a real party we all wish we were invited to.

The company released two commercials, one during the game and one after, and the team managing the Amazon Echo Twitter account immediately congratulated the victorious Broncos with a little video. This was among a number of other supplementary videos that were posted throughout the game to accent the commercial itself, spitting out various facts about Alec Baldwin and Dan Marino and even updates on the score of the game.

They were setting the scene for their Amazon Echo advertisement from before the Super Bowl even began, and maintained it throughout the night. It’s one of the commercials that everyone is talking about, and current Amazon Echo owners are using social media to share their experiences with the product, helping the hashtags #AskAlexa and #BaldwinBowl gain some traction. To top it all off, Amazon Prime is now streaming Missy Elliot’s new song Pep Rally that premiered during the commercial.

The number of things actually being advertised within this campaign is hard to keep track of, but it’s a great example of how these successful Super Bowl marketing campaigns actually begin long before the Super Bowl itself. Businesses are no longer restricted to a 30 second ad spot, and are able to stretch their creativity to multiple channels for a longer period of time (and a smaller budget).

CFDA & NFL: Bespoke Designer Footballs

In preparation for the Super Bowl 50 (and a little thing called New York Fashion Week), the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the National Football League (NFL) teamed up with 50 designers to customize their own footballs and auction them off with all proceeds benefitting the NFL Foundation. From Tiffany & Co. to Betsey Johnson, many of the designers took to Twitter and Instagram to promote their bedazzled footballs, and encourage fans to bid on their respective items in the weeks leading up to the big game.

While you may not immediately think of the fashion and sports industries joining forces, this campaign pays homage to the fashionable football fandom by saying that you can be a diehard fan, and look good while doing it.

Crossing these two unique demographics, was a great way of getting two different audiences involved with one worthy cause that was relevant to the big game. The designs (like Rachel Zoe’s pictured below) were on display at various events around Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, allowing fans in the area to get a good look, and share their experiences on social media. This campaign was a great example of cross-promoting industries, and using digital media to get audiences involved.

The designer footballs are still up for auction at NFL.com/auction until February 14th, so bid on them while you still can!

Gatorade Bath Snapchat Lens

Snapchat is a frontier that advertisers have begun to explore while trying to manifest destiny and reach the millennial market. Gatorade utilized a customized lens to fulfill everyone’s secret desire to have a famous “Gatorade Bath,” and become a part of the Super Bowl tradition of having a bucket of the stuff dumped on your head. This is what it feels like to win the big game, and this is what it looks like to successfully market your product on a social media platform.

On any normal day, a sponsored Snapchat lens can cost a company $350,000. However, on days like holidays or the Super Bowl (an unofficial holiday) the price is estimated to exceed $750,000. This may be a lot to risk on a social media campaign, but when you weigh the audience reach, and compare the price to a $5,000,000 commercial slot, it’s a creative and unique way of selling your product.

PepsiCo, the company that owns Gatorade, is all too familiar with Super Bowl advertisements. They own the halftime show, and fill most of the available advertising spots each year with their products (Pepsi, Doritos, etc.) Their Snapchat efforts were abundant this year, and the Gatorade filter was a perfect look at how marketing surrounding the Super Bowl is going to continuously evolve in future games.

Uber: Puppy Bowl

Maybe more important than the actual Super Bowl, is the annual Puppy Bowl that airs on Animal Planet. This year they teamed up with Uber and the Humane Society of New York the week before the big game to bring puppies right to your door after requesting them through the Uber app. Then you would have time to play, snuggle, and even adopt the little pups!

As avid puppy lovers, we here at BFM had multiple people trying to get these puppies to come and visit us that morning. Just when we thought all hope was lost, and all the puppies were “currently being snuggled” by some other lucky individuals, we got the call that we were about to have some fluffy visitors!

It was a lot of fun, so naturally we are big fans of how this marketing campaign was executed. All day long you would find #UberPuppyBowl on almost every major social media platform with people sharing their puppy pictures. Different adoption organizations in major cities across the US took place in the promotion, marketing the Puppy Bowl, finding the dogs homes, and turning an average work day into something much more enjoyable.

The blend of offline and online advertising is something that marketers should be taking note of when coming up with creative strategies. While both channels can be influential on their own, the magic really happens when they come together for one successful and cohesive marketing campaign.

We are very proud to announce that our collaboration with Service King, a leader in automotive collision repair, has been selected as the winner of the third annual Westwood One Super Bowl Sound Awards. Service King’s “Mission 2 Hire” radio spot was crowned the winner of this distinguished honor for audio creativity based on a combination of votes from listeners for their favorite radio spots as well as through a comprehensive Nielsen consumer study. You can listen to the ad below:

Our team worked closely with the Service King team to write and produce a creative and compelling radio advertisement that promotes their Mission 2 Hire program. Dedicated to hiring 500 veterans and their spouses at their various collision repair centers throughout the U.S., the program aims to give back to the community by giving to jobs to those who deserve them most.

The 30-second radio spot captured the essence of the brand with unique elements such as an emotional perspective that helped to illustrate the goals of the program and provide a memorable listening experience that uniquely positioned the ad to stand apart from the competition. Narrated by 13-year Army veteran Jeremiah Kuehl, one of nearly 100 veterans recruited and hired by Service King as a part of its ongoing Mission 2 Hire campaign, the radio spot was a part of a larger omnichannel marketing campaign that has included a website redesign and a multi-faceted digital marketing strategy.

“Audio builds brands and drives sales. Today we celebrate excellence in audio creative on the Golden Anniversary of the Super Bowl, Super Bowl 50,” said Brandon Berman, SVP, Sports Sales & Marketing for the competition’s sponsor, Westwood One. “We congratulate Service King, Motel 6, and Wendy’s for their audio excellence.”

Westwood One is the exclusive national radio partner of the NFL and aired national play-by-play coverage of Super Bowl 50 from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California last Sunday. Their broadcast was heard on more than 650 radio stations and simulcast on SiriusXM Radio, the TuneIn Radio App, NFL Game Pass, NFL Mobile from Verizon app, and on the American Forces Radio Network. With more than 28 million fans engaging with their coverage via on air, digital, and social media platforms, the Super Bowl Sound Awards were created to encourage brands and their agencies to fashion memorable, breakthrough creative that resonates with listeners.

An array of online, on-air, and social media promotions encouraged listeners to vote for their favorite Super Bowl commercial from midnight Wednesday, February 3rd through 12:00 pm Monday, February 8th. Nielsen also conducted an 8-minute self-administered online survey from January 29-31, 2016, among 3,030 U.S. residents 18 and older that were not employed in advertising. The winner was determined based on the percentage of respondents rating how they liked the ad on a 1 to 5 scale. Each respondent also ranked each ad in terms of how memorable, engaging, and relevant if they were able to remember the brand or product/service for each ad.

When it comes to your marketing budget, you want to make the most out of every dollar you spend. Some businesses may have tighter budgets than others, which is why it is important to analyze which channels will benefit your marketing efforts the most.

The debate between digital and print advertising is a conversation that marketers have faced for quite some time. Both options have their benefits and drawbacks. However for companies working on a limited budget, it is hard to deny the fact that the cost of generating a qualified lead, as well as some brand exposure, is far less in digital than in print.

Print vs. Digital

Before we get to deep into weighing the different channels, lets clarify that when we discuss print advertising, we are strictly talking about magazines and billboards. For digital marketing we are referring to search engine ads, social media, and email marketing. For our research, we are looking at the cost of an impression, instead of a click or an actual lead, and what that cost looks like in both print and digital.

As we know, almost every company is online and starting to take part in digital marketing right now because it is easier to target, and the entry to barrier on digital is far lower than it is for print advertising. For companies that are working on a limited budget, the digital options are a way for a company to create a foundation for their marketing efforts, while print can do more from a branding prospective.

Print Ads

Print advertisements can be extremely beneficial to a company, especially if it is done consistently, and targeted properly. It is not something you just do one time in a magazine with a big name, it’s a long term game. When looking at the several different magazines, a full-page ad can cost you anywhere from $20,000-$300,000. With varying circulation numbers, the average CPM was between $140-$1,300.

Its important to consider that the number of magazines in a given circulation, does not equate the number of people that are going to see your ad. Since every magazine isn’t purchased, many are left on the stands by the time the next circulation comes out.

Digital Ads

When looking at digital ads for our own accounts as well as some of our clients, the CPM can range from $2.00 – $12.00. This is a big gap that is difficult to overlook. With search campaigns, you are able to customize them to target specific audiences, and make changes at any time. If you see that they are performing a certain way in your data, you can make adjustments to improve it or alter it in any way that you see fit.

What is even more interesting is the fact that for some digital marketing channels, your CPM can be free. Google display ads for example, charge you CPC instead of CPM. Overall, if you are looking to make the most out of a marketing budget, you can see your efforts go a long way with online marketing.

Analysis

For companies that have the budget and the resources to spend money on a print advertisement, it’s a wonderful form of branding. However, if you have a small budget and are still looking to make an impact in print media, consider smaller publications when pursuing the right outlet for your business. While the big names are great, they may not always be great for your brand. Consider the people that you are really trying to reach, and research the unbelievable amount of print sources that cater to niche audiences. Advertising in those specific locations show that you have an interest in the demographic they are targeting, and show those reader that you are a leader in that field.

That being said, the customization options that come with digital marketing are extensive and difficult to ignore. As a business, you have much more control over how the ads get displayed, who sees them, and what they look like on every device. The detailed analytics that come with online marketing allow you to track the impact of your ads, and give you the insight to create ones that will perform the best for your business. Rather than waiting until the next circulation of magazines, you can make alterations whenever you want.

No matter what, it is important to understand that when it comes to branding, you want to be everywhere. For any print effort you make with your business, its important to have a digital supplement to it. An online presence is essential for a business to survive in today’s world, and if you want to invest in print, you need to make sure there are digital efforts to back it up. When the two channels work together, you can have a very strong and successful marketing campaign.

Whatever your budget may be, we hope this insight can help you make the most of it. Every dollar you spend plays an important role in the growth of your business. Take the time to analyze what you are trying to accomplish for your brand, and determine what marketing channels will help you execute that plan.

If you’re selling directly to customers online, either as a small online shop or a full online retail platform, your online marketing strategy can make or break your store. Web Designer Vip have one aim in mind – to increase your ecommerce sales revenue whilst actively getting more for your marketing spend.

We believe that ecommerce marketing is all about having your product visible at the time that users are ready to make a purchase. We do this by making sense of the sales data and translating this into actionable items for strategic execution to increase your ecommerce sales.

What Ecommerce Marketing Services do we offer?

• Ecommerce PPC
• Ecommerce SEO
• Ecommerce Design
• Ecommerce Social Media

Ecommerce PPC

Our Google analytics qualified account managers are passionate about craft creative ecommerce PPC campaigns aiming to attract those potential customers often in highly competitive markets. From Google Shopping Feeds, to Mobile Ads we can help create the perfect PPC campaigns for your ecommerce offering.

Enter The Global Marketplace

Marketing is all about communicating with your potential customers and clients, which means more than just speaking the right language.

Our multilingual marketing consultancy and suite of associated services helps you to make sure you are speaking to your customers on the right channels and in the right away to help your brand and business grow.

The multilingual marketing services Web Designer Vip offer, provide a lot more than just translating text into the local language and hoping for the best.

The modern multilingual marketing strategy we will work with you to create needs to take complete localisation into account which includes cultural and religious differences as well as linguistics. Just some of the services we offer include

• Localisation (including cultural and religious aspects)
• Culturally sensitive marketing and brand design
• Search engine optimisation and keyword research in multiple dialects as well as languages
• PPC, email marketing and other advertising for multiple languages, dialects and global regions

Take Your Marketing International

We always pay attention to colloquialisms and dialogue, as well as imagery, colour schemes and the general mood and feel of your brand – it may be fine for your core “home” audience but will it be popular, or even ethically acceptable, when you enter the international market?

Cultural sensitivity is absolutely critical with any form of multilingual marketing which is why we use native staff to ensure all aspects are covered. Across the world you may find that humour works differently, etiquette when dealing with people from various walks of life differs from your home equivalents and the sort of incentives and rewards that encourage action or performance are also completely different from what you may be used to.

Grow Your Business With SEO

94 percent of B2B buyers research online for purchase decisions. These days, brands can’t afford to ignore SEO! Search engine optimisation can be the difference between failure and success. Our passionate SEO specialists provide comprehensive, customer centred SEO services which can be tailored to meet your precise needs.

• Years of Ethical SEO experience
• Revenue Growth
• No Contract
• Transparent Reporting

Years of ethical SEO experience

We have over 10 years of experience of creativity and innovation in SEO and have always prided ourselves on providing ethical, white hat SEO services. None of our clients have ever seen a penalty from search engines – and we’ve helped several websites recover successfully from a harmful penalty.

Boost Your Traffic With PPC

Our comprehensive professional PPC services are designed to help your business grow in visibility in a competitive marketplace for the search terms and phrases that matter to you. Our paid search marketing is a highly consultative service which works closely with you to select the best strategies and solutions that will give you top ROI for growing your business online.

• Outshine competitors and grab the attention of potential clients
• Grow awareness of your business and your brand
• Improve the volume of revenue from your website
• Get more new business leads from your website
• Convert your website from a useless expense into a valuable business tool

Professional PPC services can be one of the most effective and sustainable methods of growing your business presence throughout the world. Our dedicated and experienced team of qualified in-house paid search marketers can help you put together a plan for sustainable online growth optimising your paid search account and getting the most from your advertising budget, improving your visibility to give you an edge over competitors for years to come.

All the time we’re working to keep our goals in line with those of your business, so we keep our focus on improved visitor numbers, rising numbers of leads, larger customer base and the best possible return on investment. This holistic approach doesn’t just give you high ROI marketing but makes a real, positive difference where things really matter – your bottom line.

PPC Services Example Results

• Advertising spend reduced 70% while giving increased revenue
• Four times more sales and double profit in less than two months
• Sales value increased 127% in only one month
• 150% increase in goal conversions in under two months
• New business enquiries up 126% month on month
• Cost per conversion down 74% month on month

We always align our aims with those of your business, which is why you’ll see our PPC services focus on raising your visitor numbers, improving your number of leads and growing your customer base, giving you the best return on investment in your paid search marketing that will positively impact your bottom line.