digital marketing Archives

How To Best Approach Your PPC Marketing Campaign

July 17, 2020 · In: Marketing

Most businesses know that PPC marketing can drive their success, but not all are sure how to approach a PPC marketing campaign. There are many different elements to consider, so let’s explore a few handy tips.

Determine your goals

When you are planning your PPC marketing campaign, one of the first things that you need to do is to determine your goals. There are several common goals for PPC campaigns, including:

Driving traffic: Driving traffic to your website is usually a top PPC goal. In the modern business world, your website is just about your most important marketing tool. It’s here that you’ll impress visitors with your products and content, but first, you’ve got to get them on your page!
Improve sales and leads: Improving sales and leads is one of the most common PPC goals. Increasing traffic to your site is desirable, but what you really want is as many leads as possible.
Improve brand awareness: Improving brand awareness is a long-term goal that focuses on boosting your reputation and establishing trust and credibility. PPC can support you to extend your reach and get people talking about your business.

Targeting Your Audience

Once you’ve determined what your goals are, you’ll need to decide how you are going to target your audience. Audience targeting usually involves a combination of social media and Adwords. It’s advisable to target your audience based on search intent. Search intent falls under three key categories, including navigational, informational, transactional. It’s important to make sure that the ads you display are appropriate for your sales funnels.

Social media advertising should be a key part of an effective PPC plan. When you show your ads on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, you can target your audiences based on detailed personas. Facebook has many different options for audience targeting, one example is ‘custom audiences’.

It’s a targeting feature that allows you to reach individuals who have expressed an interest in your products. There’s also a ‘lookalike audiences’ feature, allowing you to target people who are similar to your existing audiences.

Customer research

Your customer research is a key stage of your PPC marketing campaign. You need to find out what your audience wants and figure out how they search for it. For this stage of the process, you should look at your buyer personas; a detailed buyer persona will help you choose which keywords to use. If you need to improve your buyer personas, try looking closely at your contacts database. See if you can find any trends which show you how certain customers use and find your content. You can also interview prospects and customers to discover what they like most about your product.

Another way to enhance your buyer persona is to collect feedback from your sales team. Ask your team which leads they have frequent interaction with. Ask if they can make any generalizations about the customers who are most suited to your product.

Perfect your keyword research

To improve keyword research, you’re going to need the right tools. Luckily there are plenty of free options out there; these are some of the top picks:

WordStream’s Keyword Tool: With Wordstream’s keyword tool, you can target groups of keywords, gain relevant suggestions, and put words into groups according to common themes.
Soolve: Using Soolve, you can discover the most popular keywords on multiple different search engines. Soolve bases its answers on the initial keyword that you provide. You can also use Soolve to brainstorm new ideas. Simply type in an idea and Soolve will auto-generate a related concept of its own.
Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner is the most popular tool for conducting keyword research. Here you can also access stats about monthly searches, cost per click, and the competition level. As well as keyword suggestions, you’ll receive synonyms as extra ideas.

Once you’ve decided on your keywords, you’ll need to organize your words into appropriate groups. With relevant and tight keyword groups, it’s far simpler to measure performance and design relevant ads.

Determine your PPC metrics

When it comes to PPC marketing, there are several different metrics you can use to measure your performance. It’s essential to understand which metrics are the most important and to include these as part of your PPC marketing roadmap. Some of the most important PPC metrics are:

Return On Investment

Return on investment is a simple metric that is vital to the success of your campaign. Ultimately, you want to gain a good profit on your marketing efforts over time. To boost your ROI, you should focus on reducing your CPA and increasing your conversion rate. You’ll need to set a strict budget for your PPC campaign and revise this budget regularly. Tweaking your spending every now and then is how you’ll make savings.

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate is one of the most vital PPC metrics. CR refers to the percentage of site visitors who end up converting. When we are talking about conversions, these could either be product sales, subscriptions, or another end goal on your site. Part of your marketing plan should focus on improving your conversion rates. You can enhance CR by:

Using pop-ups: Adding a pop up to your site can help you to boost your conversion rates. Just remember to make an ‘easy to close’ pop up (otherwise people can get a little annoyed)!
Zero distractions: A website with too much going on can increase bounce rates and negatively affect your conversions. Create a site that’s simple, clear, and easy to navigate.
Use testimonials: People can be wary of buying a brand new product, yet lots of glowing reviews and testimonials will quickly change their mind!
Improve your headlines: Improving your headlines is another way to boost your conversion rate. If users aren’t drawn in by a headline, it’s less likely that they will read the rest of your content. You can use A/B testing to try out different options.
Try video: Using video on your site can help to engage your users, entertain them, tell your brand story, and drive leads.
Value proposition: A clearly stated value proposition is another good way to increase conversions. Let your visitors know precisely how your product is unique and why it should be chosen over a similar product.

Click-Through Rate

Click-through-rate is a metric that monitors how many overall impressions you get vs how many clicks. There are a few different ways that you can plan to improve your CTR:

Try timers: Using countdown timers can help to improve your CTR. It’s suggested that this is because timers create urgency, leading users to take action ‘before it’s too late!’
Try ad extensions: Ad extensions are a fab way to improve your click-through rate. You could try using location extensions, (showing the distance from the user to your store). Review extensions are another popular choice to boost CTR.
Use the main keyword in the URL: When you use the main keyword in the URL of your ad, this indicates to the readers that your ad is the most relevant result.

There are plenty of other PPC metrics to take into consideration from impressions to session duration and cost per acquisition.

What compliments a PPC Marketing Campaign?

Competitor Research

Analyzing the moves of your competitors is useful when creating your PPC marketing plan. It’s your competitors who you need to stay one step ahead of, so their own PPC strategies should inform yours. Of course, you’re looking to be better than your competitors, simply copying their strategy just isn’t going to cut it!

It doesn’t matter how much time you spend on your keyword research; it’s still possible to miss things. If you take a look at your competitor’s keywords, you could well find a move or two that you’ve missed.

SEO Marketing

SEO and PPC use different ideas; however, they do support each other. For example, it’s valuable to use data from your SEO marketing to help you with your PPC. Your SEO marketing will include keywords that are high performers. There’s nothing stopping you from using this data to drive the success of your PPC campaigns.

A PPC Company

To improve the success of your PCC marketing, it’s advisable to work with an expert PPC company. When it comes to PCC marketing, there are so many considerations to make, strategies to adopt, and metrics to track. With the help of a professional PPC company, you can supercharge your efforts and see an improved ROI.

A talented PPC service can support you to perfect your digital marketing strategy and boost your conversions. Most PPC services will be able to support you with your overall digital marketing strategy including SEO and web design too.

You might know a little about digital marketing, but best practices are developing all of the time. With plenty of competition out there, it’s wise to call in the professionals to help you to promote your business.

Image credit: Pexels

Easy Ways to Market Your Business

January 14, 2020 · In: Marketing

If you want to market your business to the best of your ability, then you need to try and think outside the box. Hone in on your target market. If you try and target everyone then you might not end up getting the solid customer base you’re looking for.

Here are a few easy ways to market your business even if you don’t have a huge budget.

Use Social Media

Utilize social media channels like Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook. Each of these is all unique in their own right and they require a certain approach as well.

Choose a few that really appeal to you and try not to master everything at once. Focus on consistent and quality content on where your audience is, and then branch out to other platforms as you get more comfortable.

Create Content that is Valuable

Your customers love great content, and so does Google. At the end of the day, there are so many ways that you can share information. Some of them range from creating videos to hosting podcasts and even designing infographics. When you do things like this, you can then gain authority as an expert and you can also capitalize on traffic more too. Consistent blogging is also incredibly helpful to boost your brand authority and boost your SEO.

Contests and Giveaways

Everyone loves a good contest or a giveaway. A lot of businesses try and avoid things like this because they don’t understand the return on their investment. This is not the case at all, and there are plenty of ways that you can really benefit. One way would be for you to offer a voucher or discount code for your service. When creating a contest, it helps to engage your customers as much as possible. Crosswords or even word searches are fantastic here, as they generate interest and engagement. WordMint is a great source if you’d like to pursue this further.

Send out a Newsletter

Sending an email newsletter is also an inexpensive way to engage customers. When you do, you will be able to remind your customers of who you are, and you can also encourage them to buy from you. The best thing about newsletters is that you can create them yourself and use your database to gather your customer data. If you are planning on sending out email newsletters, then make sure to track your results! If you don’t then you may end up putting effort into something that just isn’t working for you.

Image credit: Pexels (CC0 License)

A Beginner’s Guide to Meta Tags

April 5, 2019 · In: Technology

Simply stated, a meta tag is a snippet of text injected on your website to boost your SEO.

Essentially, meta tags are your opportunity as a content curator to describe what your content is about for the search engines, so you can allow your content to be more widely seen.

So, how do you create meta tags that ultimately enable us to achieve a higher ranking, and allow our content to be more widely seen? Here’s a quick guide on where to start.

Write Google-worthy meta tags

Though other search engines like Bing are significant, Google is still king. Focus on writing descriptions that are worthy of the platform. What do you want to communicate about your page in 150-160 characters or less? What keywords need to be present?

Note that in some cases, Google won’t display your meta description at all, and in many other cases, Google will only display a small portion of your description. Choose your words wisely so that no matter what is published as your description, it accurately depicts your work, and boosts your ranking.

Meta tags need to be unique

For starters, duplicating your meta descriptions is an absolute no-no. Right along with keyword stuffing, this sends the message to the search engine that the page is a duplicate, or that maybe you do have too many keywords and are just trying to use them to rank.

Try using schema markup, or creating rich snippets of relevant text, in your descriptions. Include ideas like customer ratings, reviews or product descriptions on a given page to start.

Think about your keywords

Keywords matter. Even if every other description or piece of content was taken away, your audience should be able to understand the basis of your website based on keywords alone. Because of keyword stuffing, keywords won’t affect your ranking as much as in previous years, but based on clarity for your audience and attracting your target market, they are still extremely relevant.

Title tags are relevant

In short, a title tag names your site. The meta tag, or meta description, does just that: it describes your website. Your title tag perhaps has the most important impact on your SEO ranking, and so for chloeanagnos.com most people will search for “Chloe Anagnos,” considering it is a personal brand. Therefore, a title tag is formed.

Data matters

Most people will stop after the above steps are completed, but the most success you’ll have with your SEO ranking is by paying attention to your data over time.

Remember, ranking doesn’t happen overnight, and just like your workout routine, you’ll see performance if you are consistent over time. Every month or so you should be revisiting your data to see if your ranking has improved, and if your pages are being clicked directly from the search engine. Use a tool like Google Search Console, Google analytics, or your website’s built in analytics to monitor your performance and make adjustments as needed.

Why Your Email Signature Matters

February 25, 2019 · In: Professional Development

According to research by Oberlo, in 2017 269 billion emails were sent on a daily basis, and in 2022 that number is projected to grow to nearly 333 billion.

It’s safe to say email isn’t going anywhere.

And as the world’s top communication tool, email offers the chance not only to make a great first impression but to also leave a lasting one.

One way to do this is with your email signature. It’s critical to leaving your clients and colleagues engaged, interested, and informed of what you are doing in any capacity.

Here are some easy to implement tools to captivate them:

Limit your email signature content

No one wants to read Gmail’s 10,000 character limit email signature. Keep yours at a tweet so your audience clearly sees what you want them to see. Make your signature concise, relevant, and to the point, indirectly sending your reader where you want them to go. Here’s an example:

Chloe Anagnos

Publications Manager, American Institute for Economic Research

LinkedIn: ChloeAnagnos ; Twitter, ChloeAnagnos; FB, chloeanagnoswrites

Demonstrate expertise

Consider including your title to show proficiency. If you’re a multi-passionate entrepreneur, consider making each email separate and specific to that given niche – say your work email and side hustle. Otherwise, consider making your dominant email a personal brand that articulates all you aspire to accomplish. Maybe you’re a CEO, a serial entrepreneur, or a startup connoisseur. Demonstrate whatever expertise you offer and capitalize on it.

Include a call to action

Make it clear and give every person you send an email to a call to action. Direct them to your website, portfolio, social media channels, or even to download your latest content. You can even give them a directive. Be savvy, but take advantage on your chance to be seen and noticed as you send emails.

Skip the obvious

So many people include their email in their signature…yet they can clearly see your email in the “from” section. Use your precious characters to convey information your audience does not already have. If your website domain is linked in your email already, consider sending them elsewhere. Just like any other important document, your word count matters.

If you’re on your cell phone, keep the iPhone signature

When you include the “sent from iPhone” line, you’re more likely to be forgiven for potential spelling errors. Even though this tactic may seem less professional, if you are engaged in a conversation with a client or prospect you’ve already initiated the first point of contact with, leaving this signature line will help you be able to engage with them on the go. They’ll be appreciative of your promptness in response and aware that you’re not in front of your laptop.

Protect your boundaries

It’s becoming trendy for professionals to include their work and cell phone numbers in their email signatures. Unless you want calls and texts during non-work hours, skip the cell number in your signature. To many, it’s a sign that you’re available 24/7.

Get Hired With These 5 Marketing Certifications

January 28, 2019 · In: Marketing, Professional Development

Simply put, digital marketing has changed the face of modern business across the globe. Most degrees are no longer the only deciding factors when hiring. In fact, sometimes they aren’t even prerequisites.

Today, employers are less focused on where you went to school and more interested in your experience and demonstrated ability.

So if you never graduated B-school, don’t be too worried. Marketing positions are constantly opening and the freelance opportunities are endless.

Certifications are an effective way to stay up to speed with your digital skills, make a great addition to your Linkedin profile, and each serves as experience and talking points for your resume.

Whether you’re looking for a new gig, developing your own business, or on the search for a digital side hustle, here are five certifications to help you get hired and to sharpen your skills.

Google Ads

According to SEO Tribunal, Google is responsible for 96 percent of all smartphone search traffic and 94 percent of total organic traffic.

Google Academy for Ads offers a free certification course, and will guide you step by step on how to implement successful campaigns for your business or for your clients. This platform is king considering most online purchases are still made in search before they’re made in social.

Hootsuite Social Marketing

Though Hootsuite has had some competition over the last few years as more social scheduling platforms have come on the market, they are still the first platform with the most credibility when it comes to scheduling social media.

Hootsuite’s certification exams do start at $200, but their social media certification is arguably the most well-rounded. Their course focuses on core strategies to develop your social media presence as a brand and will give you the foundational principles you need.

Hubspot Inbound

Inbound marketing is an excellent strategy in the digital marketing world, and is essential to understand and implement – especially as a small business. Hubspot’s inbound certificate is free and focuses on fundamental marketing concepts that many of us tend to skip right through. This course builds an excellent foundation on how to engage your audience, target prospects, maintain a pipeline of leads, understand the buyer journey, and really know your audience.

Google Digital Marketing

Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certificate is yet another free certification that lays a strong framework for almost every area within digital marketing. If you don’t have a marketing degree, this course covers just about everything you need to know in terms of building a digital marketing foundation. This course covers multiple platforms and strategies from email marketing to social media.

Facebook Blueprint

Social media has shifted more into a “pay-to-play” model, so unless you’ve got a strong personal brand and/or became an “influencer” before the market became saturated, you’ll want to consider Facebook advertising. Facebook’s certification is $150 and will get you up to speed to ensure you get the most value for your dollar.

4 Marketing Musts to Keep Your Strategy on Point

January 16, 2019 · In: Marketing

When it comes to marketing, there’s always something else you could be doing. Another platform to be on, another software to utilize…the list goes on and on.

But when it comes to your strategy, there are four significant components that can and should be considered in every decision you make.

Establish your target audience

If you shoot for nothing you’ll miss every time, and by trying to reach everyone you’ll end up helping no one. You must have a target audience and it has to be specific.

For instance, by simply establishing your target audience as WOMEN, you are targeting 3.8 billion people. That’s essentially half of the world’s population. On your first ad campaign, you’re probably not going hit them all.

A buyer persona is a helpful exercise to establish who your ideal client is, but again, you must have a target audience. It will significantly narrow down the platforms you invest time on and the kinds of content you need to create.

Establish a marketing strategy

A marketing strategy is a must (hence the name of this blog). And mentally knowing your objectives simply isn’t enough. So plan, plan, and plan.

It doesn’t mean every decision you make has to be by the book, but you should have a plan in place as a framework and foundation to guide your brand. It may not include your daily workflows or the most minute decisions on your agenda, but your strategy is your foundation for every marketing decision you make.

If you’ve never formulated a marketing strategy, now’s your chance to start. Open your favorite bottle of wine and check out these quick and easy to use templates to inspire you. Your plan will develop and grow over time, but putting a strategy in place will help when you’re caught in a rut.

Be consistent

Consistency is key, and before you take on anything else, make sure you are consistently executing the marketing practices you have in place now.

Automate as much as you can with platforms like Later, and wait until you’ve done something consistently before you analyze the results for at least a month (preferably a quarter) before you drop it or change it substantially. Sometimes, you just have to show up, rain or shine. (And until you show up consistently, you won’t know what to fix or improve.)

If you loathe a particular strategy you know is effective for your target audience, hire someone.

Websites like Upwork can help you find talent so you can delegate the tactics you don’t necessarily enjoy.

Whatever you’re doing, do it well, and just do it consistently.

Follow through your objectives

Finish what you start, and take action. Telling someone else about your idea or writing about it in your journal isn’t going to wish it into existence. You have to do. So take action.

If you’re overwhelmed with being consistent with everything you’re implementing already, schedule what you plan to do. Create an annual calendar with benchmarks of the goals you would like to accomplish this year. And if not this year, the next one.

Need to ramp up your understanding of SEO? Put it on your calendar. Set alarms.

Along with that calendar, keep a running tab of all of the ideas you’d like to implement. Instead of becoming distracted, keep your list in a document close by where you can quickly jot down your objective. When you have time, revert back to the list…and schedule it! To be successful over time, you have to follow through.

You are important, and your goals and aspirations are a priority. Implement these marketing musts to ensure you are being proactive in investing in the one thing you have got to stop brushing off: yourself.

What compliments a PPC Marketing Campaign?

I’m Social

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