Marketing your business in today's fragmented digital world can be a daunting task. From over 10 years of experience in T H E web technologies and internet marketing, Blink;Tech has developed a proven method to help businesses find success on the web. Leveraging a sound and secure tech infrastructure, the latest inbound marketing strategies, and clear, accurate analytics, we've developed a Build, Promote, Evaluate process that continues to bring our clients new levels of success. S T R A T E G Y
And now we are going to share some of that magic with you....
“Blink;Tech makes sure our law firm’s message reaches the people who need our help, and my partner and I can devote our full attention to clients and their cases.” Steve Wittmer, ESQ
“Their approach of spreading high-quality content through social media is not only cost-effective, but offers residual returns that traditional advertising can’t touch.” Julian Yates, Sarasota Property Finders
“In no time at all, the Blink;Tech team set us up on a new domain with a beautiful new website, and they put together a marketing plan to not only get us back on course, but advance into totally new territory with promoting our dental practice.” Dr. Jeffrey Chirillo, DMD A Comprehensive Guide to Our Proven Process for Successful Digital Marketing The Blink;Tech Strategy
THE
STRATEGY
A Comprehensive Guide to Our Proven Process for Successful Digital Marketing
2 The Blink;Tech Strategy
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Blink;Tech www.blink-tech.com
3 The Blink;Tech Strategy TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...... 5 Today, Every Business is a Technology Business...... 6 Why Inbound Marketing is Good for Any Business...... 10 The 7 Virtues of a Killer Inbound Marketing Strategy...... 13 What Value Does Your Website Add to Your Business?...... 17
BUILD...... 21 Why and How to Have a Professional Website...... 22 You’ve Been Hacked! A Small Business Guide to Website ..... Security...... 29 Blogging: The Marketing Gift that Keeps on Giving...... 33 The Power of Blog Content for Small Business Marketing..37 The Basics of Blogging...... 41 The Importance of Great Metadata to Your Online...... Business...... 45 Closing the Deal: The Power of the Landing Page...... 49
PROMOTE...... 53 Social Media and the Power of One...... 54 Getting Started on Facebook as a Business...... 56 Using LinkedIn to Your Company’s Advantage: Healthily...... Aggressive Communication...... 60 Marketing Your Business with Instagram...... 63 How to Create an Effective Pinterest Profile...... 66 Is Twitter Still Worth Tweeting About?...... 72 Are You Making the Most of Internet Video?...... 75 12 Points of Crucial Newsletter Know-How...... 78
EVALUATE...... 83 The Art of Social Listening...... 84 The Importance of Evaluation...... 86 Turbocharge Your Business and Marketing Decisions with..... Data Visualization...... 89
4 The Blink;Tech Strategy
INTRODUCTION
“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Blink;Tech likes to pride itself on being a leader of technological advances in website design, development, and marketing. Throughout our history, we have experienced many situations that helped refine our process to create lasting impressions for our clients and ourselves. These experiences resulted in our Build-Promote- Evaluate method. B-P-E is a cyclical sequence that is ever evolving, building upon a strong foundation of proven marketing and development tactics.
This book is a collection of our experiences, offering a firsthand look at that proven process which we follow for all our clients. While this book does contain quite a bit of knowledge, it is our hope that it will also offer you some understanding of what is involved with developing an effective web presence and make the most of the technologies available.
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TODAY, EVERY BUSINESS IS A TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS
Computers, software, network systems, and the Internet are essential parts of every business today. Technology is both a cost of doing business and an opportunity to grow your business. Technology forms the infrastructure of most every business and, via the Internet, is a major tool for attracting and retaining customers.
Technology is used by businesses to:
• Reach more potential customers with your brand message and value proposition. • Streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste, and devote talent to core business activities. • Provide better service to customers, partners and suppliers.
How much should you spend on technology for your business? The answer is, “It depends.” Assess how each digital investment will benefit your business. Will it bring in larger profits? Make your operation more efficient, thereby reducing costs? Mitigate your risks in one way or another?
Your Online Presence
How do your customers prfer to shop and buy? The Internet makes comparison shopping quick and easy. If your website doesn’t grab them, doesn’t speak in language that resonates with them, or doesn’t give them all the information they need to make a buy decision, they’ll click away to take a look at your competitors.
6 The Blink;Tech Strategy Social Media
Seventy years ago, the must-have technology for business was a telephone. Twenty years ago, it was a website. Today, it’s social media. Depending on the nature of your business, you need to be interacting with customers and prospects on some subset of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It can be overwhelming, so pick and choose carefully. It’s much more effective to use one or two platforms well than to deploy many poorly.
Get the most from social media by tracking metrics within your social media accounts. These are the statistics you should be tracking:
• Impressions and reach – An impression is a view of your post. Reach measures how many people saw your posts. • Mentions – How often your business is mentioned on social media. • Follower growth – The number of followers on your social media accounts and how much they grow over time. • Sentiment – The number of “likes” or other reactions your posts are getting. • Shares – How many of your followers share your content with others. • Location – Where are your followers geographically? If your brick-and-mortar store has few local followers, you may be wasting your efforts. • Conversions – Use Google Analytics to set up Goals to track visitors from different social networks. Conversions might include clicking on a link in a social post, filling out a contact form, or subscribing to a blog. Facebook’s advertising platform also offers
7 The Blink;Tech Strategy sophisticated conversion tracking all its own. With a little bit of technical know-how, any website owner can harness these powerful tools.
Social media helps to create a community of customers and prospects who see you as more than just a business entity. They’ll view your business as trustworthy, and people buy from those they trust.
Mobile
In the United States, there are currently over 200 million smartphone users. It’s highly likely that the business prospects you want to reach use a smartphone not just for conversations, but for texting, accessing the Internet, and viewing your website. A site that displays well on a desktop computer must also be configured to render well on a tablet or smartphone. Google, knowing how many of its users view the web via
8 The Blink;Tech Strategy smartphone, penalizes sites that haven’t been updated. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly are punished with lower search engine rankings, making mobile-readiness a critical success factor. Luckily, websites can be designed or adapted for mobile viewing fairly easily by knowledgeable web developers.
Security Issues
When it comes to a security breach, it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when.” While breaches at big corporations make the headlines, small businesses are also targets for hackers. Small businesses have more digital assets to target than individuals, but less security than large corporations.
Take the security of your digital assets seriously. If cyber- security is not your area of expertise, hire someone who is an expert.
Today, all businesses are tech businesses!
9 The Blink;Tech Strategy
WHY INBOUND MARKETING IS GOOD FOR ANY BUSINESS
In his book C-Scape: Conquer the Forces Changing Business Today, MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer writes:
Across business, we are all discovering that the world in which we work and live is transforming faster and more profoundly than ever. Everyone knows that. What’s not well understood is that every aspect of these changes — from the transformed landscape of business to the specific challenges that Visa and other businesses are facing to the solutions to those problems — all have the same source: changes in media. Why media? Because every aspect of business is increasingly carried out through media. From advertising and marketing to sales and customer service, from product design and development to recruitment and employee relations, from the factory floor to shareholder meetings, everything that happens in business is ever more likely to happen on a screen or a handheld device.
Kramer goes on to make the argument that, given the technology available and its use by consumers to inform, educate, and entertain one another, every business is now a media business. As such, companies that wish to compete in the digital arena must comply with the 4 C’s: Consumers have a choice, Content is king, Curation cures information overload, and Convergence is revolutionizing human communication. These 4 C’s are very important for companies seeking to add value to their services through inbound marketing.
10 The Blink;Tech Strategy Over the last 10 years, inbound marketing has proven to be the most effective marketing method for those engaging the online landscape. More and more companies have moved away from the traditional methods of TV, radio, and print advertising, or paying for email lists of potential leads. These forward-thinking companies have instead directed their energy toward creating content that attracts — and converts — potential customers.
Because this move can be daunting for a lot of companies and entrepreneurs (who would rather just do what they’re good at instead of writing blogs, producing videos, and commenting on Facebook), Blink;Tech comes in to help clients make the transition. One of these clients is Julian Yates, the professional REALTOR® behind Sarasota Property Finders.
When Julian came to us, he was trying to build his online presence and become more visible to prospective homebuyers in the Sarasota area. As he soon learned,
11 The Blink;Tech Strategy having a top-notch website alone isn’t enough to gain traffic and make conversions. We suggested that he build on what makes him such a unique realtor in a town full of real estate agents, and started creating content-driven campaigns based on his personality, his love of Sarasota, and the lifestyle he enjoys as a Sarasota resident.
By developing blogs about various neighborhoods in Sarasota and featured properties, the Sarasota Property Finders website has continued gaining organic search traffic and registrations from people interested in available homes. What’s more, monthly event calendars and local news articles also build trust among Julian’s clientele, and his social media presence has boomed.
We believe that Julian’s inbound marketing efforts speak to his audience’s preferred choice, provide valuable content, curate important information, and help people converge. Of implementing an inbound marketing strategy with Blink;Tech, Julian had this to say:
In general, you took the burden of learning and maintaining an ever-shifting technology off my hands to free me up to do my job.
Blink;Tech can help you rev up your business with inbound marketing while you focus on the job you’re here to do. It’s a great thing to own your business, but we want to help you own the web.
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THE 7 VIRTUES OF A KILLER INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY
In the movie Se7en, the character of John Doe, a social critic turned killer, teases the detectives, played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, through his own interpretation of the seven deadly sins. When finally “caught,” Doe explains the method behind his apparent madness:
“Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.”
In a way, Doe’s right. Today, traditional advertising has become the most common landscape we lay our eyes upon. As a result, we’ve all become experts at tuning out the traditional ads as easily as one swats away a fly.
But Doe is also wrong. In addition to his criminal actions, “sledgehammering” ad-savvy modern folk is not the best way to gain, or keep, their attention. Rather, replace sledgehammering with a more intentional, nuanced process. Inbound marketing offers just this: an effective mindset and series of tools and tactics for authentically gaining customers’ attention and engagement, producing lifelong loyalty and enthusiastic promotion of your brand and products.
Let’s move past the deadly sins and discuss instead the “7 Virtues” of a killer inbound marketing plan.
1. Attract, Don’t Annoy
Competing for your customers’ eyes with marketing messages
13 The Blink;Tech Strategy that are flashy and invasive is a short-term solution that leaves people annoyed. Instead, you want to ATTRACT customers. How? The first step is to create a focused and SEO optimized website to deliver blogs with targeted keywords, and a social media strategy that attracts visitors instead of interrupting them with annoying marketing messages. This allows you to work within an environment your customer has chosen, putting yourself in front of them without rudely pushing your way in.
2. Create Relevant Content Capable of Drawing Customers In
What content can you create for clients that will bring value to their lives? Many companies have discovered that technical documentation, once considered a necessary evil, is actually a goldmine for attracting and keeping customers when put in an easily accessible format. Blogs, infographics, and videos that are packed with useful, informative, or engaging content turns you into a resource for your potential customers, and starts the relationship off on the best foot possible: with you giving them something valuable, absolutely free.
3. Approach Inbound Marketing as a Cycle
Think of marketing as a cycle of the buyer’s journey from visitor to lead to customer to fan. Once the potential customer has encountered your relevant, useful content, they’ve entered the first stage of the journey. By then giving a prospect opportunities to engage with you, your brand, and your content, you carry them through this journey in a way that earns their respect, business, appreciation, and promotion as they advocate for you to their networks.
14 The Blink;Tech Strategy 4. Convert Prospects Into Leads with Calls-to-Action
Once a prospect is on your site, use every opportunity to take that engagement to the next level. Smart websites convert prospects into leads using calls-to-action to highlight high-level content, forms to gather information in exchange for that content, and landing pages to convince people of the content’s value.
5. Utilize Proper Channels
Create a presence on social media channels (i.e. email, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc.) that are appropriate for your business. Basically, you want to meet potential customers where they are spending time already so they can choose to interact with you.
6. Close Leads Into Customers with Closed-Loop Reporting
Closed-loop reporting integrates tracking tools to not only tell you where that customer found you in the first place, but to also gather their information before they leave so you can lead them to a product or service of yours that meets their needs.
7. Keep It Up!
Just like any relationship needs constant re-creation, so does your relationship with your customers by continuing to offer great service to further your brand. Continue creating smart content to keep them engaged while delivering ongoing value for the life of the relationship.
By dropping the sledgehammer of old, invasive marketing, and picking up this finely-tuned, virtuous, inbound strategy, you’ll be able to enjoy not just an increase in business,
15 The Blink;Tech Strategy but a heightened quality of engagement with your customer base as you earn, rather than demand, their attention.
16 The Blink;Tech Strategy WHAT VALUE DOES YOUR WEBSITE ADD TO YOUR BUSINESS?
If one asked about the value of a website to a business a few years ago, it may have been considered merely a marketing ploy or at least a novelty. Today, the website is simply invaluable.
While there are methods for valuating high traffic and e-commerce websites, it’s a little more challenging to boil down a business website to the economic advantage it offers to that business. After all, website visits and click-throughs don’t necessarily pay the bills directly. But let’s face it: Things are a lot different from when your dad was running a business, and at a time when 87 percent of Americans are on the Internet and 61 percent of them research products or services online before buying offline, marketing your business through a well-developed website is pretty much essential. 17 The Blink;Tech Strategy Let’s look at some of the values that a website can bring to a business. Bear in mind that any business, based on their size, costs, and other factors, will see a different return on investment (ROI) in a website, but this is where the value is added.
“Google” Is a Verb
When people consider a purchase of whatever product or service you have to offer, the first place that most of them go is online to do a search on it. If you don’t have a web presence optimized for search engines, chances of you ever being found are bleak. Today’s market just doesn’t use the Yellow Pages anymore.
Master of Your Domain
A business’ website is often where the seeds of the relationship with a customer are planted. In the eyes of today’s consumer, businesses with a well-developed website appear to be more trustworthy, more professional, and more stable. Your website is a platform where you can anticipate your potential clients’ questions and provide them with the answers they seek before they even ask, saving you time and building your credibility. A stellar website gives you authority and inspires confidence that money just can’t buy.
Accessibility Is Critical
By having a website, your business is now open 24/7. Google published a Mobile Movement Study back in 2011, when only one-third of Americans owned smartphones, compared to the two-thirds that own one today. Even early on in the “mobile movement,” when smartphone owners used them to search for a local business, 88 percent called or visited that business
18 The Blink;Tech Strategy within 24 hours. And according to Search Engine Watch, half of the searches on mobile devices are aimed at finding a local business, while 61 percent of them result in a purchase.
Conversions, Both Macro and Micro
The most immediate way you’re going to be able to measure ROI is your direct “macro” conversions when people purchase your product or call to make an appointment. But if you’re using your website to its full potential, the “micro” conversions — when someone reads your blog, signs up for a newsletter, watches one of your videos, or simply visits and browses your site — each gets them one step closer to making a purchase decision. A web presence empowers you like never before with an ability to cultivate relationships throughout a customer’s decision-making process.
Every Page Is a Portal
For every web page describing the people, products, and services that comprise the businesses; for every blog post sharing your business success or offering valuable information — these serve as links to all of your other pages. This creates immense opportunities to expand your outreach by targeting your customers by what they want to know. Through a search engine optimized website, you have the ability to reach your clients where they are, and guide them to where you want them to be.
Given the immense opportunities that a well-designed website can provide for a business and the value-added potential that they offer, ask yourself this: What kind of value does your website bring to your business today?
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THE BLINK;TECH JOURNEY
20 The Blink;Tech Strategy
BUILD
The beginning of any project starts with how it is built. There are a number of factors that come into play, but what is most important is to build a site with a solid foundation that can evolve into whatever is required as time and needs change. We begin by assessing the online presence and analyzing the industry and culture so that we can best serve a client’s needs and goals. Finally, we put together the tools needed for success. In the following pages, you will find a number of topics that explain these steps in further detail.
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WHY AND HOW TO HAVE A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE
With the rise and domination of social media networks on the Internet, some people question the value of even having a website anymore. If a business is able to communicate its vision and meet new clients through a Facebook page, Instagram profile, or another platform for free, many ask: Is it really necessary to invest in a website? The question really comes down to whether or not your goal is to invest in a long-term business, or your ambitions are more fleeting or don’t require full control.
Basically, it’s the difference between owning and renting.
In the physical world, people buy real estate to increase their worth in assets and to have the freedom to live the life they want on their own little piece of the world. Building a website for your business is the digital equivalent of this investment. There are some who do quite well with networking and marketing by renting space (usually for free) on social media platforms. But for those who really want to participate in the digital economy, a professional website is an absolute must.
Here are the top 10 reasons your business should have a website:
1. Digital Real Estate
Your website is the place to establish and own your business’ digital presence. It serves as a portal into your business, delivering information and opportunities to your customers while saving you a lot of time. Having your own website literally provides you with your own domain where you can shine brightly. 22 The Blink;Tech Strategy 2. Build Reputation and Credibility
For more than a decade, a website has been regarded a necessity for any business to be taken seriously. These days, most companies that lack a website are either start-ups that haven’t launched one yet, companies that probably won’t last very long, or companies that aren’t interested in growing their customer base or income.
3. Publish Your Online Brochure
A website allows you to share information about the facets of your business all in one place, which saves time for you and your potential customers. It also saves you money. The savings on printing costs alone are monumental when you move from updating, producing, and distributing paper-based marketing material every year to giving your prospects an opportunity to engage with your business in a full-color, multimedia, information-rich experience online.
4. Time Is Still Money
For many businesses with the foresight to develop their website properly, a “Frequently Asked Questions” page saves hundreds of customer service hours. Your website allows you to anticipate your customers’ needs and ensure they can independently source the information they want—so you can spend your time doing what you actually enjoy.
5. Connect with New Customers
Let’s face it: When people go looking for something they want, very few reach for the Yellow Pages anymore. Whether they search through Google, another search engine, or a social media network, an optimized website draws traffic of visitors looking to be educated or serviced. 23 The Blink;Tech Strategy Each one has the potential to become your customer, and your website allows you to collect their contact information so that, even if they don’t become a customer on their first visit, you have the power to follow up and convert them into your customer another day.
6. Find Your Voice
With the advance of blogging and content marketing, businesses and business owners gain incredible opportunities to stand out as leaders in their field. Your website gives you a platform to express yourself in a way that proves what you’ve worked hard to become: the best in your business.
7. Communicate with Your Customers
When you leverage your website to find your voice and communicate what’s important to you, you also add value by educating, entertaining, and empowering your customers. Your website provides the foundation through which you’ll guide potential customers to discovering how much they need what you have, and how good you are at delivering it.
8. Establish Relationships with Your Clients
Your website not only lets you communicate with your clients, but it also allows them to communicate with you. Let’s think outside the “contact information” box: Comments, surveys, and forms on your website open up channels for customer feedback. This, in turn, helps you improve customer service and engage with your customers to make them feel like they’re actually heard and valued. Making people part of the conversation is known to make customers for life.
24 The Blink;Tech Strategy 9. Go Global
While many online searches for products or services target local business, one perk of setting up shop on the World Wide Web is an expanded reach beyond your physical location. This can be especially helpful when people are researching an upcoming visit to the area where you do business: Should they need something in your line of business during their trip, your website will make it clear you’re the area’s go-to provider.
10. Websites Never Sleep
All day and night, your website is there, available for anyone who wants to find out more about what you do and why you’re the best at it. Hands-free, around-the-clock service makes the website one of the most revolutionary marketing tools of all time.
As you can see, a website is vital if you want to do business in the digital age, but you should also know that not just any website will do. There are several parameters you’ll need to consider as you move forward with the development of your website in order to ensure the highest rate of effectiveness.
25 The Blink;Tech Strategy It’s Got to Be Mobile-Friendly
According to the Pew Research Center, over two-thirds of Americans now have a smartphone, up from less than a third in 2011. Because so much searching is now done “on the go,” it is incredibly important that your website utilizes responsive design so that it is easily navigable and readable on mobile devices. Plus, if you’re wanting Google to include your site in their search results, you’ve got to cater to their customers, who are more often than not on a mobile device.
You Must Be Optimized for Searches
In order to be effective, your website needs to be developed with search engines in mind. The job of the search engines is to provide their customers with the most applicable answers to their queries, and there are specialized techniques to increase your ranking in the results to ensure you’re the answer they find.
Content Is King
Be sure you have a blog that allows you to reach out to your customers on a regular basis by implementing a quality content management system that will assist you in sharing your message through your social media networks and paid online advertising accounts.
Give Them Landing Pages
While content truly is king, campaigns are queens. As such, by implementing landing pages for your prospective clients, you’re able to make them feel regal, roll out the carpet, clear away the otherwise very helpful “clutter” of your website to present one key piece of information and call to action.
26 The Blink;Tech Strategy Calls to Action
Of course you want people to visit your website, but more importantly, you want them to act. Whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on Twitter, or call you for more information, if you don’t ask, they’re less likely to act.
Implement Analytics
Getting traffic is great, but it’s just as important to see where it’s coming from to evaluate what strategies and campaigns are working. Understanding your analytics allows you to use your marketing time and dollars more wisely and effectively.
Social Media Presence
While not all businesses are active on all of the social media networks, these platforms have created an incredible tool for connecting with present and future customers.
Social Sharing Buttons
As you’re creating new content to establish yourself as the professional you are, give your visitors the chance to share your brilliance with their networks. Nothing beats free advertising.
Social Media Icons
If you have established your presence on social media networks, offering links to those pages allows you to expand your audience and connect more with your customers.
Contact Form
While this may seem like the least exciting thing on your 27 The Blink;Tech Strategy website, it is one of the most important. It is a wonderful thing to have a website that adds value to your industry and educates your visitors. It’s even more wonderful when that visit converts them into a client. Your contact form is the first step to making that happen.
We hope this helps you recognize the value of the digital real estate that is your website.
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YOU’VE BEEN HACKED! A SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE TO WEBSITE SECURITY
“Who would want to attack my website?” A common misconception among small business owners is that their websites are not important enough to warrant an attack by hackers. It is true that unless you are a large bank, corporation, or government institution, a hacker is not likely going to consciously choose your website as a target. What a hacker will do is create infectious code that leverages your compromised website to attack a targeted website or accomplish some other goal that has nothing to do with the size of your company, your business type, or the monetary value of your data.
You May Not Know You’ve Been Hacked
Most people assume that once their website has been hacked it will disappear from the web, their bank account will be ransacked, or they will get a ransom email from the hacker. While this does happen, it’s generally not the case. No matter how small your website is, when added to a network of compromised sites, it can become an extremely valuable resource to a hacker. As mentioned before, your website can be used along with thousands of others to attack one particular high-profile website in what’s called a “distributed denial-of-service” or DDoS attack. It can also be exploited for something as seemingly mundane as mining bitcoin. Often, compromised sites are hacked to send visitors to another site where computer malware or an elaborate credit card phishing scheme awaits. In all these cases, the hacker wants to utilize your website as long as he or she can, which means not drawing attention to the hack for as long as possible. 29 The Blink;Tech Strategy But not knowing your website is hacked can have dire consequences in the long term. You could face huge bandwidth overages, site visitors could find their computers infected with malware, and your business reputation on the web could be adversely affected. To compound the hardship, an infected website can also result in the domain and the host getting blacklisted (sometimes permanently) by search engines and email providers.
Keep Your Website Up-to-Date
An obvious downside to common open-source web platforms like WordPress is that everyone, including hackers, has access to all the code. The upside is that there is a veritable army of developers on your side of the war, ready to spring into action at the first sign of trouble. The “good guys’” response comes in the form of updates to plugins, apps, themes, and even the platform itself. The best thing you can do to protect yourself from hackers is to install these security 30 The Blink;Tech Strategy updates as soon as they come out. If you don’t know how to do this, hire someone who can and have them monitor your site for future vulnerabilities and security updates. Vigilance is the operative word here.
Use Complex Passwords
It all starts with the passwords you use. While it would be easy to suggest you use a long random string of characters for every password, the reality is that you would never be able to remember them all. So the idea here is to create passwords that are hard for both people and code-cracking programs to figure out, but easy for you to remember. Stringing together several meaningful words and groups of numbers can make for a very secure password. Obviously, don’t use words and numbers that correspond to your identity or any associated account. Google, ConnectSafely.org, and other information security experts offer great information on generating strong passwords. It is also important to use a unique password for each account, especially those associated with email and finances. Even if you have been using complex passwords, it is a good idea to change them often.
Work with a Professional
Lastly, the most effective course of action here is to seek the service of a web security pro. We’ve previously made the bold declaration that web design is dead. This issue of web security is further proof of this. While you could still hire a web designer to create your site, you will need a web developer who is well-versed in web security to make sure both the site and the server (where your website “lives”) carry all the proper safeguards against hacking.
What to Do If Your Website Is Hacked
31 The Blink;Tech Strategy Act quickly! As mentioned above, the longer your website is hacked, the more damage it will do. A delay in response could quickly put your domain on blacklists, causing your site to disappear from search results and every email associated with your domain to be flagged as spam. If you have been hacked, contact us immediately! We will evaluate your situation and explain clearly the actions that needed to be taken. Our team of web developers, network administrators, and web security experts will find the most effective path forward to get your site and Internet reputation back on track.
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BLOGGING: THE MARKETING GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
At Blink;Tech, we specialize in using carefully-crafted web content to bring targeted traffic to our client’s websites and, ultimately, conversions for their businesses. While our marketing team employs all flavors of social media and pay-per-click marketing strategies, in the end, it is that finely-tuned web content (usually in the form of a blog) that drives the majority of converting traffic in both the short and long-term. And from a marketing perspective, the long-term game is by far the most valuable.
Social Media Is Fleeting
There is so much focus on social media these days that often
33 The Blink;Tech Strategy businesses will have an in-house staff member running the social media accounts. Following his or her directive, this person will, more likely than not, get wrapped up in all the trappings of social media, judging success and failure purely by the number of likes, comments, and shares a post gets. Posts will usually be short updates about the business or shared pictures and articles from outside sources. Hours after each post has been put up, it becomes buried deep in a follower’s timeline, no longer providing any marketing benefit whatsoever for the business.
Pay-Per-Click Goes Only as Far as Your Budget
Compared to your average social media post, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing has an even shorter shelf life. Basically, the second your budget runs out, all traces of your PPC marketing disappear as if it never existed. As long as the money flows, your ads appear — but once they are down, there is practically zero long-term benefit.
Blogging Is the Gift that Keeps on Giving
The missing component that can turn those ephemeral jabs at business promotion into long-term, highly productive web marketing is the blog.
In the case of social media, if a post consists of a callout and a link to a blog post on your website containing valuable, industry-related information for your target audience (read “potential customer”), then not only will you direct them even closer to the center of your web footprint (and your contact information), but you will also give those users with the opportunity to explore other blog posts that may be of interest to them. All this content on your website further adds to your perceived authority and helps out tremendously with branding.
34 The Blink;Tech Strategy When it comes to PPC, if an Internet ad brings visitors to a landing page on your site, you want to keep them there as long as possible. The best way to do this is to provide them with insightful content — again, that adds to your perceived authority and helps with the branding of your business.
Blog Content Establishes Authority
That word “authority” is one of the most important words in an Internet marketer’s vocabulary. Whether posting on social media, creating a pay-per-click ad, or writing a blog, the goal is to clearly establish that the business is on top in the industry. You want your website to be the go-to source for all things related to your business’ particular area of expertise. The branding on your website (logos, slogans, etc.) offers the visitor a quick way to recognize and remember the authority you have established.
So How Does This Translate into Long-Term?
“Authority” also happens to be the most important word in the vocabulary of an SEO expert. Authority (established by traffic, linking, keyword density, and other factors) is used by search engines such as Google and Bing to rank web pages on a given user’s search engine results pages (SERPs). As more blogs are added to a website, the more defined (and hopefully robust) the authority of that website becomes for a given topic or industry.
This authority is further established by visitors clicking through keyword-rich social media posts and even PPC ads to get to the website, then navigating the site’s content. This tells Google and other search engines whether or not that person found what they were looking for. If so, that website is considered a good authority on that topic, and this will have very positive long-term effects for the website and business
35 The Blink;Tech Strategy far into the future.
Another common situation that beautifully illustrates the long-term benefits of blogging is when a current event (whether local or national) gets people searching for a specific topic to get more information. If your website has an older blog that covered this topic well, you could find yourself with a viral blog post that was written months or years prior to the viral event. Here’s an example: You have a real estate website and blogged on a particular piece of property that no one else had ever written about. If that property was suddenly slated for controversial development, you may see a flood of traffic to your website as people googled frantically for information relating to the property. Your website would be perceived as the authority for local property information by both users and Google. All because of an “old blog” you had on your website.
Blogging Is SEO
In everything shared above, we hope to make clear that the success of blog content in marketing relies deeply on the quality and relevance of the writing. Blog writing is a very specialized skill that requires a deep understanding of language, social media, and SEO. A bad blog can dilute the authority of a website and harm your SEO — while a good blog can send you to the top of the SERPs for a given topic.
Are you using blogging in your long and short-term marketing?
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THE POWER OF BLOG CONTENT FOR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING
Ask our clients or anyone who has spent any time with the Blink;Tech staff and they will tell you: We go on endlessly about the importance of carefully crafted blog content. Really, we won’t shut up about it. We sound like a broken record. Yes, it can be annoying at times. But there is a good reason for it.
Good blog content is the best way to bring potential customers to your website, especially if you are a small business serving a local customer base.
The last part of the statement above is important — the part about small business. More often than not, it is the small business owner who is reluctant to invest in a blog for his or her website but is more interested in search engine
37 The Blink;Tech Strategy optimization (SEO) and/or social media marketing. This is precisely when we start sounding like a broken record. Why, you ask? Two reasons:
1. Social media is driven by blog content
Think about the links you see on posts on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. When you click them, most every time you end up on a blog. In fact, social media platforms including Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram are considered “microblogs.” Regardless of which social media platform you prefer, the name of the game in social media marketing is creating and sharing great content to bring more visitors to your website.
2. SEO relies on good website content
SEO has always been primarily a writers’ game. In the past, however, there was much more focus on the coding/web design part of the equation, simply because there was less standardization on the web and more room for coding “tricks” to leverage your way to the top of the search results. These days, those tricks are a sure-fire way to get you banned from Google. On the other hand, having a blog on your website is the best way to put more search engine optimized content on your website.
Looking at this from the perspective of time, great blog content serves both long and short-term Internet marketing goals better than any other web marketing approach. Plus, it can be highly targeted to a specific area — meaning your local customer base.
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You can see the effect one single blog can make toa website’s traffic. The two “bumps” are from a blog fora local Realtor we wrote and shared via social media about some exciting changes happening in downtown Sarasota, FL. On its peak day, the blog brought close to 2,000 new visitors to the website. Because the blog was only of interest to people who live, work, or are considering a move to Sarasota, it was an incredibly powerful marketing tool for this local Realtor. How powerful? Take a look below:
Both the graph and the table above cover a one-month period from January 12 to February 15, 2015. The Realtor has achieved his greatest success from very expensive
39 The Blink;Tech Strategy pay-per-click ads (shown here as “Paid Search”) which put his website at the top of Google search results for certain search terms. Ideally, organic search would be number one on this list, and our job is to make that happen. And we do this through carefully crafted blog content that inspires shares on social media and, in turn, drives click-throughs to the website. So in the above table, “Social” traffic defines the users who saw a post on Facebook about the blog and clicked through to read it.
Now, you may bring up the very valid point that probably very few of those reading the article are shopping for a new home. This is where the SEO element of this strategy kicks in. When a blog is shared and generates traffic to a website, Google’s algorithms give it more authority to that website for the topic of the blog — in this case, “downtown Sarasota.” Because of this, the site will now be indexed higher and those Organic Search numbers will go up as people hunt for homes in — you guessed it — “downtown Sarasota.”
From the example above, you can see how one single blog can have a tremendous positive effect on both the long and short game of Internet marketing to a small, local population. Is your business leveraging the power of good blog content?
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THE BASICS OF BLOGGING
In this day and age of content marketing, a good blog can be an extremely valuable business asset. Blogs are becoming a standard currency for businesses trying to take part in the digital economy, offering an effective way to share new information, cultivate relationships with existing clients, and draw more traffic to a company’s website. When it comes to education and outreach, nothing beats a good blog.
If you haven’t been able to effectively leverage this valuable marketing tool, here are a few basic tenets on how to blog and to blog well.
Originality is Important
A blog is an opportunity for you to create a unique voice in your 41 The Blink;Tech Strategy niche. Whether you are telling stories or expanding education, your blog gives you the chance to build on what your audience may have already seen somewhere else on the Internet, but you get to deliver it in a way that is completely your own. Creating original content sets you apart from the rest of the online content, but also gives you more legitimacy in search engine optimization.
Authorship Means Authority
When you develop a blog, you are setting yourself apart as an expert in your field. While it’s true that pretty much anyone with a computer can start blogging, not everyone can do it well, and certainly, not everyone can do it as well as you. In realizing yourself as an author, you are claiming your authority as an expert based on your education, your experience, and your passion. Don’t underestimate how many readers will take interest in what you have to say.
The Title is Telling
With each blog that you craft, you’re going to have to sell it. Coming up with a compelling and descriptive title is a very important step in that process. Not only will the title entice readers to want to know more, planting keywords in it will also help it to be found in search engines.
Keywords Are Key
Each blog you write is certain to have various themes. As you’re writing it, and after you’re finished writing it, you need to consider the people who might be searching for the information you have to offer, and what words, terms, and phrases they may use while looking for it. Using the most appropriate keywords in the title, in the text,
42 The Blink;Tech Strategy and in the meta description is largely a service to your potential readers to help them find the information (and your website) more easily.
Be Sociable
Along with blogging, a social media presence is key to participating in the digital economy. To help you excel at both, you want to make sure you’re using them in tandem. In addition to sharing your blog on your Facebook wall, Twitter feed, and whatever other platforms work for you, including social sharing buttons on your website allows your readers to share your blogs as well.
A Picture Says a Thousand Words
While the keywords and titles are important in communicating to your potential readers what your blog is about, the accompanying image can be just as important, if not more. In their consumer research, Netflix found that images are four times more likely to convince someone to watch a film than the text about it. Finding the right image to represent your blog can be a very important step in its success.
Everything’s Connected
When you find that image and have ascertained that you have permission to use it, be sure to give credit to whoever created it, and if possible, insert a link to their website. If you’re researching as you write your blog, insert links to where you get your information. In the digital economy, we’re not faced with the limitations of the inherent competitiveness found in prior mediums like print.
Content is about collaboration, so it’s not about getting
43 The Blink;Tech Strategy readers to come to your site instead of other sites, but in addition to. By offering links to other content developers, you’re offering them the respect they deserve as the experts they are with the understanding that they’ll be much more inclined to offer the respect, and the links, back to you.
Put Out The Call
Chances are good that you want to use your blog to help grow your business. Because there are a number of steps between being a visitor and becoming a customer, in order to take that journey, your readers are going to have to take some sort of action. Whether it’s filling out a contact form, following you on social media, or signing up for a newsletter, you’ve got to have a call-to-action to let them know what that next step is.
This should get you started, or if you are already blogging, hopefully, it will help you up your game.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF GREAT METADATA TO YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS
One of the most basic components of any search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is making sure a website’s metadata is set up correctly and optimized to ensure the best possible ranking in search results. Because metadata requires both technical and internet marketing know-how, it is often poorly executed if left to someone whose skills are limited to just web development or internet marketing. An SEO specialist is someone who has skill sets in both fields and can bridge the gap between the technical and marketing aspects in the development and maintenance of a website.
Metadata is ground zero when it comes to SEO.
Just What Exactly Is Metadata?
Simply put, metadata is a set of data that offers information about other data. When we talk about metadata in regards to a website, we are talking about information in the code of a website that helps search engines and other websites understand what that website is about, as well as offering technical and administrative information that can be useful in classifying, indexing, interacting with, and even displaying the website, or elements of the website, on search engines, social media platforms, online mapping tools, web-enabled devices, and more.
A good analogy to describe the value and function of metadata is the tag on a shirt. If you are wearing a blue cotton shirt, you may get compliments on how the shirt looks on you or how nice the color is. You most likely came
45 The Blink;Tech Strategy to the same conclusion in the store when you tried it on before buying, but undoubtedly, somewhere along the way you looked at the tag to determine what size the shirt was, what type of care the garment requires, and quite possibly, even where it was made. And if you take the shirt to the cleaners, they will be less concerned with the fit and color, but will undoubtedly look at the tag to determine the materials from which the shirt is made so they don’t damage it in the cleaning process.
The information on the shirt’s tag, although it is hidden from the outside world when you are wearing it, is critical to the shirt’s proper function and care. It is the same with a website where metatags in the code offer information about the website’s content, functionality, origin, and technical makeup.
The Dangers of “Set It and Forget It” in Metadata
One of the most common problems found on many long-established websites is out-of-date metadata. Developments in Internet technology over the past decade have led to a lot of new information that must be
46 The Blink;Tech Strategy gleaned from the code of a website for browsers, search engines, online mapping services, and social media platforms to properly interact, index, and display a website. If that information is missing, it could have a drastic effect on web traffic.
Going back to the shirt analogy, we can consider that at one time almost all clothing was made from a very limited selection of materials that required similar care, like cotton or wool. Tags, if even present, did not need to convey a lot of information about the care of a garment. Over time, space-age synthetic materials were developed that dramatically widened the possibility of care that could be required for any particular item of clothing. Tags became more elaborate to reflect these possibilities.
So, a website built in the early days of social media will not have the proper tagging to help social media websites display photos and snippets about the website in their user’s feeds. And if a website was made before the explosion of smartphones, it most likely will be missing critical tags that help search algorithms include it in the mobile search results of nearby users. If you have a brick and mortar retail business, the importance of this is profound.
How Do You Know if the Metadata in Your Website is Setup Correctly?
First of all, hiring an experienced SEO professional is key. Someone who is a web designer, social media expert, or Internet marketing guru, may not have the expertise in SEO to evaluate and administer the metatagging of your website. Only someone who understands both how websites interact with the latest technologies, and how to interpret your marketing needs into the sparse language of metadata, has the qualifications.
47 The Blink;Tech Strategy Even if you have a capable SEO professional working on your website, there are tools that need to be in place in order for he or she to effectively move forward. The two most important are, without a doubt, Google Analytics and Google Search Console. If you are unsure of whether your website is connected to these resources, your web developer or the SEO expert should be able to verify this for you.
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CLOSING THE DEAL: THE POWER OF THE LANDING PAGE
If you are involved in marketing a business, then undoubtedly you put a lot of time, effort, and money towards driving potential customers to your website. Once that hot prospect arrives, why just turn them loose? Why not take the sales cycle all the way to the finish line?
A landing page is a page of a website that specifically corresponds to a marketing campaign and is designed to elicit an action from a visitor, like filling out a form, making a phone call, or purchasing a particular good or service.
Because a landing page lies at the end of a marketing campaign, it will typically be much more oriented to converting, rather than informing, the visitor, and is therefore rarely included in the website’s navigation. More often than not, it is only accessible through an ad or more elaborate marketing campaign. Despite it not being included in the navigation, it can be one of the most important parts of a website.
The Call to Action
Landing pages are all about sales conversion. By the time a potential customer has reached a landing page on your website, he or she should have already gotten the information they need from your marketing efforts to make a decision about taking the next step. The goal of a landing page is not about providing additional information. It is about asking that informed potential customer to do something.
The most important thing to consider before getting into the nuts and bolts of designing a landing page for a specific
49 The Blink;Tech Strategy campaign is to determine what action you want the visitor to your landing page to take. Whatever that action is, it should be clear that you are asking them to do it. This Call To Action (often referred to as a CTA) can be as simple as “Call Now!” or “Fill out the form below.”
Offering other possible actions on a landing page (like social media buttons or navigation to other pages) is perfectly fine, but there should only be one Call To Action on a landing page. Always make it clear what you want from your visitor.
Keep It Simple
We’ve all heard the expression, “Don’t beat around the bush.” This should be your credo when creating a landing page. While the content of your landing page will be determined by the marketing that leads to it, rarely should the page feature much more than a few lines of text and a single video or image. In many cases, anything beyond the one focused CTA will be a distraction to the visitor. Likewise, if you have multiple promotions running, only offer one per landing page. Offering the visitor a choice can be just as distracting as redundant sales information.
50 The Blink;Tech Strategy Show the Benefit
There are, however, a few things you can add to a landing page that have been proven to be effective and don’t distract from the CTA. The most common of these is to show the benefit of taking action. You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase, “If you act now... ” in a TV ad. This is not about the overall benefit of the product or service being offered, but the benefit of responding to the CTA. How will it benefit a landing page visitor if he or she picks up the phone or fills out a web form?
Make a Connection
One great way to show the benefit of responding to the CTA is a testimonial of a satisfied customer. This helps your visitor make a human connection to others who have taken the next step, but even if you don’t have a quote handy, alluding to a large following on a social platform can be equally compelling.
Introduce Urgency
Above, we mention the age-old ad slogan, “if you act now….” Another approach is to explain what happens if the visitor doesn’t “act now.” This could be either an element of time (“This offer expires soon!”) or scarcity (“While supplies last!”). Adding a sense of urgency to your promotion can go a long way when introducing a Call To Action, and the landing page is the perfect place to do this.
Track Your Target
Every successful hunter is also an excellent tracker. Web marketing should be no different. Adding tracking codes to promotions and conversion codes to forms and “thank you” pages is critical in evaluating the effectiveness of any
51 The Blink;Tech Strategy modern sales promotion or marketing campaign. Without analytics to guide your efforts, it is impossible to accurately gauge your success or failure and make the needed adjustments to continue to improve your results. To be done correctly, tracking codes often require coding which is outside the realm of most marketing experts. It’s an additional step, however, that should never be overlooked.
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PROMOTE
One of the most important things to do with a website once it is built is to promote it. If no one knows it is there, then how can anyone expect it to be successful? Blink;Tech knows how to expand the visibility of a website, taking our client’s business to the next level. By understanding how movements are started with one idea, we use our social media marketing campaigns to spread out our clients’ advantage.
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SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE POWER OF ONE
Now more than ever, our ideas make an impact. The power of one voice can have an effect like never before. Sometimes it may seem like we’re caught up in a sea of information as every day another 2 million blog posts are published, and every minute, another 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube; however, it’s only within the last decade that we’ve been given these abilities to publish our own ideas, and as we continue toward an economy created by content, the train shows no sign of stopping.
But many feel it’s too much, and that their ideas get lost in the shuffle of blogs, videos, updates, and tweets. However, it is due to this surge of activity that your ideas can prosper. Given our ability to communicate and share ideas, the networks
54 The Blink;Tech Strategy we establish have the potential to dramatically increase the amplitude of our voice and the reach of our message.
For instance, look at the way that a domino only 5 millimeters high can knock over a domino 1.5 times its size, which in turn knocks over a domino 1.5 times its size, and so on, until 13 dominoes later, the tiny little domino has knocked over a domino over a meter tall. This is a great demonstration of what happens when an idea goes viral, its power scaling upward through networks and influencers.
Due to current opportunities for connectivity, the power of one person with an idea has never been greater. Although it may seem that one could get lost in a world of so much information, a 2014 report by researchers from Brown and Northeastern universities showed that retweets have grown to comprise more than 25 percent of all tweets shared. The real challenge is to become one of those who is retweeted.
It starts with offering what makes you unique, developing your special voice, and sharing it with those who will care. For those who treat both the content they produce and the networks through which they share it with the respect they deserve, the chances of virality greatly increase. Through Twitter, Facebook, and a number of other social media platforms, people in our networks forge relationships with us through what we offer them invaluable information as well as emotional connections.
Through this respect and understanding of our connectivity, the “Power of One” has a great chance at exponentially increasing as we realize that each of our connections, as well as each of our ideas, has immense potential.
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GETTING STARTED ON FACEBOOK AS A BUSINESS
As the world’s largest online network, Facebook now has over 2 billion active users worldwide, with 80 percent accessing it via their smartphones. In the midst of this, business owners are also trying to use this platform as a means of marketing. Yet with many small businesses in the US trying to make their mark on Facebook, over 60 percent of them feel that their paid ads are just not hitting the target.
If you’re one of these businesses, there are still a number of things you can do in order to improve Facebook’s effectiveness. We’ll be blogging more about the ins and outs of Facebook, as well as the other social media platforms, throughout the upcoming year, but we wanted to start with a little primer to ensure that you have a good grasp of the basics first.
Choose Your Category 56 The Blink;Tech Strategy When you sign up for a new Facebook Page, you are given the choice various categories, such as a local business or place; a company, organization, or institution; a brand or product, etc. Determining which category your business belongs in may be a no-brainer, but for many businesses owners, the choice is not so easy. The wisest path here is to think about what it is you want to accomplish with your Facebook Page and how that relates to your business and customer/client base. This approach will help you guide you to the strongest category for your social media presence.
Pimp Out Your Profile
Your profile is a portal to your business, so make it accessible as possible. Start by filling out your company information completely, especially your company description and a link to your website and phone number. Be concise and accurate and make sure any contact information matches the information on your website perfectly.
Let’s Get Visual
Facebook is largely driven by images and videos. Be sure your Profile Picture clearly depicts your business and adheres to the size specifications. Your Cover Image should be 851 x 315 pixels and can be changed regularly, seasonally, or intermittently. As you start to think about content, be sure to consider what images you’ll be sharing with each post, as Facebook users are much more inclined to engage with content that has strong imagery.
The Name Game
After you establish your Facebook Page, you can change your Facebook URL from the series of randomly chosen
57 The Blink;Tech Strategy numbers to a personalized ID. When choosing a business ID, be sure to put some thought into how you want to name it to make it easy to find and search for.
What To Share and When
Research that social media campaigns with quality posts are more effective than those that overwhelm their followers, so posting 3-8 morsels of quality information every week is a great goal. You’re using Facebook to set yourself up as a leader in your field, and your business as the go-to resource in your industry. Some of your posts should link directly back to your website, perhaps to a blog you’ve written or other information that your audience will find helpful. However, the greater part of what you share should be from articles in online trade magazines or other resources that your audience may not know about but will be grateful that you have shared it with them. This is a social network. It is about building relationships so share things your audience will want to communicate with you about.
Organic, Algorithms, and Ads
When Facebook first started, you could share something on your wall, and nearly all of your friends would see it. However, with so many people now using the social network, it no longer works that way. The algorithms Facebook currently has implemented generally allow only a very small percentage of the people who like your page to actually see your organic posts. However, the algorithms are constantly changing, so be aware that these shifts are occurring. Nevertheless, Facebook’s Ad Manager does allow you to promote your posts and create other ads targeted by demographics, geography, hobbies, and a number of other factors for a fairly reasonable price.
58 The Blink;Tech Strategy Advertising is a great way to stand out against those algorithms.
To be effective, you’ve got to advertise.
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USING LINKEDIN TO YOUR COMPANY’S ADVANTAGE: HEALTHILY AGGRESSIVE COMMUNICATION
As we all know, social media plays such a large part in our everyday business that it can seem almost overwhelming. Some business owners feel that they must do everything they can to make their presence known, while others shy away from it to the extent that no one even realizes they are there. When is it too much and when is it not enough? The trick is to make healthily aggressive communication work to your advantage. Let’s use LinkedIn as the platform of choice.
We start with aggressive action. It’s not good enough anymore to sit passively by and let other companies reap the benefits you desire. While just having a presence on social media is a great start, it will do nothing to really grow your
60 The Blink;Tech Strategy business. You must engage or risk falling behind the curve. Get your employees involved by having them spread ideas via white papers or sharing news articles. Connect with other businesses and groups and get outside of your business bubble. Whether you do it yourself or hire a virtual marketer to do the work for you, you must take action to make your presence known.
Next, we look at communication. A company can live or die by its communication practices, with too much or too little stifling its growth. With social media, it’s the same, and healthy communication among the proper platforms will work to your company’s advantage.
Like other social media platforms, posting too much or too little and spamming users will wreak havoc on a marketing plan, but by using healthily aggressive communication, LinkedIn can be one of the best-used tools on the market.
What exactly does “healthily aggressive communication” entail? While we could discuss this at length, the top four aspects include:
1. Choose Topics that are Relevant and Timely to the Marketing Climate
Don’t just post to have a post – make sure there are reasons for posting that are valid and necessary. There’s no quota on how many posts to make and there’s no trophy to win if you have more posts than your competition. Quality is always better than quantity when it comes to gaining followers.
2. Connect to the Proper Contacts
Just like cold-calling is not as appreciated in today’s marketing
61 The Blink;Tech Strategy as it once was, connecting to contacts for the sake of gaining contacts is not a best practice. Yes, you must go outside your bubble, and that sometimes calls for taking chances with potential contacts. But you need to choose wisely so that your contacts can work efficiently for you.
3. Use Your Resources
Unless you really are a one-man band, you have people around you who are knowledgeable and supportive. Use them. They can help you think outside the box and come up with a plan that you may never have considered.
4. Respond to Your Public
Once you begin a dialogue with contacts and groups, don’t forget about it! Return to those posts and continue the discussion so that the creative juices are always flowing and evolving!
Healthy yet aggressive communication is a key factor in making social media work to your advantage. Don’t get left behind just because you are uncertain about different platforms – take control and make sure you are “LinkedIn” to your potential!
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MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS WITH INSTAGRAM: OUR STRATEGY GUIDE
Since its launch seven years ago, Instagram has grown from the 2011 “iPhone App of the Year” that gained one million members in its first two months, to one of the most-used apps on the planet. With over 150 million photos shared within its first year, Instagram now has over 150 million members that have uploaded over 16 billion photos that generate 1.2 billion likes every day. For the social media- minded business, it is no longer a question of if you should be using Instagram to connect with your customers, but how.
We at Blink;Tech would like to help you answer that by offering eight “best practices” for an Instagram marketing strategy.
1. Realize You’re Telling a Story
A picture really does tell a thousand words, so give some good thought to the story you’re telling. Share photos that explain just what makes what you so incredible.
2. Take Your Followers on a Journey
Your photos should not only tell your story individually but also sequentially. Instagram lets you illustrate before-and-after shots, and step-by-step sequences of how you do what you do. Instagram also offers “stories”, which is a feature that allows for sharing multiple moments from the day in a slideshow format.
3. Step Into the Limelight
Instagram is a great way to showcase products. From the 63 The Blink;Tech Strategy launch of a new line to highlighting key features of your products, this a great opportunity to let people know what you have to offer.
4. Utilize the Power of Analytics As an enormous generator of user data, Instagram offers great information on your demographics regarding what else they like and how you can connect with them. Use this information to find more common ground beyond the business/customer relationship and give them more of what they love.
5. Cultivate Relationship Marketing
Your followers depend on you to engage them with what you share. Although you do get to share your own products and services, you don’t want customers that just buy things — you want customers that buy things from you. Let them know that you’re human and that you’re glad they’re part of your experience.
64 The Blink;Tech Strategy 6. Let Your Followers Get Involved
Offering contests and sweepstakes is a great way to engage and increase your followers. Ask them to generate content that features your product or service with a hashtag about your endeavor. This way you give Instagrammers the ability to creatively compete for your attention while amplifying your reach to other users.
7. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Cute
Essentially, people look to social media because they’re looking for reasons to smile. When your place of work gets furry visitors, be sure to share the cuteness with your followers. And don’t forget how cute your coworkers can be.
8. Leverage Your Facebook Advertising
Your business Instagram page can be leveraged via paid advertising, so be sure to consider this for your advertising budget.
9. Engagement is Essential
Whatever you release through social media, be it on Instagram or any other platform, it’s meant to help you engage with people. Actions such as “likes”, tags, comments, and shares may seem like small gestures, but they have the potential to create lifelong customers.
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HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE PINTEREST PROFILE
Pinterest is a rapidly expanding social media platform that stands out from other giants like Twitter or Facebook for its distinctly visual nature. Now host to over 70 million primarily female users, Pinterest functions like a virtual bulletin board on which users can compile, organize, and share related “pins” (i.e. images with short descriptions and an embedded link to a site anywhere on the web).
Upon first glance, this hub of pretty boxes may seem more like a handy tool for crafters, collectors, or enthusiasts than a marketing avenue, yet in 2014, Pinterest pulled in over 3 times the traffic of YouTube, Google+, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and Reddit combined.
66 The Blink;Tech Strategy If you would like to use this powerful network for your brand’s growth, here are the basics for beginners and the steps to mastery.
Get the Basics Right
When you sign up for Pinterest, be sure to:
• Sign up for a business account. It gives you many valuable options and tools for promotion and tracking the performance of your pins. • Link your account to your business or personal Facebook timeline, so that all of your recent Pinterest pins (posts) will show up on your Facebook timeline in one consolidated box, allowing viewers to easily connect with you on Pinterest. • Add the “Pin it” button to your browser (to make it easy for you to pin your own items) and include a “Pin it” feature on each item you pin, so other users can re-pin them with ease.
Once you have a profile set up, you’ll want to begin populating your profile with pins and with boards, which you’ll useto organize your pins. As a rule of thumb, remember to always pin in an organized fashion, so that pins meant for one board (“recipe ideas” for example) don’t end up in a “vacation ideas” board.
Pin Like a Pro
Pinterest is a space for curation more than promotion. First and foremost, users are logged in to collect and organize resources, ideas, instructions, and inspiration for things that matter to them. Perhaps the most difficult thing to grasp about marketing on Pinterest is that you should pin items that do not directly link to your products, services, or website.
67 The Blink;Tech Strategy Users will connect to your brand as a result of coming across something useful, inspiring, or engaging that you have posted.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. What do you find useful? 2. What would your customers or prospective customers find useful, interesting, delightful, or inspiring? 3. What lifestyle or ethos does your brand represent?
Instead of populating your boards with “everything under the sun we’ve created, posted, or done,” create collections of pins that provide valuable content around the above questions.
For instance, if you are a fashion company with your own line of clothing, think about your ideal customer and create boards that represent things they get excited about. If you market to a hip and scrappy younger crowd, this may be a board about new fashion trends (which thematically relate to your products), one about cheap, alternative road trip ideas, and one about DIY accessory ideas.
Of course, you should post your own material as well. Just be sure that it’s balanced with plenty of pins that are not yours. Users will find value in your curation and follow you because of the resources you help them find, thus establishing a richer relationship with you than if they were just coming across your advertisements.
Strive to Personalize
Pinterest is a space for passion, creativity, and ideas. So, the best fuel for creating an authentically engaging Pinterest profile is to authentically represent yourself and your brands
68 The Blink;Tech Strategy as much as possible. If you are the main person posting for your business, post a profile picture of your face, since people enjoy interacting with real people more than faceless entities. If you are one of several posting, a logo is a good image choice.
When creating boards, tap into your or your team’s passions. What do you “geek out” about? Healthy lunches to bring to work; unique winter wear; work-out tips? If these things make sense in relation to your brand, pin it! When you’re pinning with authentic enthusiasm, not only will you have more fun, but your profile will reflect genuine excitement and a thread of authenticity that will attract users, likes, and reposts.
Once you have gotten the foundation down by setting up your account as a business (not personal) profile, established themes around which to pin, and personalized your Pinterest presence, you’re ready to refine your strategy even further to begin generating real business leads and deals from your efforts.
Pin Often
Like with most digital platforms, frequency is key. Be sure to pin 2-5 times a week to keep your boards fresh and viewers engaged.
69 The Blink;Tech Strategy Include Prices
If you have a product to sell directly, don’t be coy! Include the price tag. Pinterest pins with prices get 36 percent more likes than those without.
Primp Your Pins
Pinterest is primarily a visual platform. To make your presence and time spent here worthwhile, you’ll need to bring your own serious visual game. That means pinning your own content in a way that’s visually captivating, current, and clearly communicates its content.
But let’s face it: most of us are not graphic designers – and even those of us who are can’t afford to constantly design Pinterest tiles (known as “badges”) from scratch every time we want to pin.
For all of us under that umbrella, there’s a wonderful solution called “Canva.” Also useful for many other quick-and-easy graphic design needs you may have, one of Canva’s best selling points is that it is free to use with a basic account. Canva offers a “Pinterest” pre-set with lots of colorful, enticing designs perfect for pinning.
Integrate and Cross-Promote
Why not utilize your other social media and digital communications to drive people to your Pinterest profile? Here are some ways:
1. Include a pin in your email newsletter with your most relevant, interesting, or recent pin. You can include an image of the actual pin, and invite readers to view and pin it themselves.
70 The Blink;Tech Strategy 2. Post on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, to engage viewers around a recent pin. For instance, with a post like “Our new menu items are the best yet! Pin your faves,” provide a link to your pin and images of the items mentioned. 3. Add the free Pinterest app to your Facebook account for easier cross-promotion.
Pin With Strategy
One of the most important points for successfully harnessing Pinterest for marketing and business growth is to be sure that your pinning is part of a pathway to drive viewers to your website, provide content, and capture emails for longer-term engagement and, eventually, sales.
Unless you have a route for a viewer to follow that will lead them to your site or blog, and an opportunity to either join your email list or engage in a direct sale, your Pinterest account will not actually yield you much beyond some new digital relationships, and perhaps some brand familiarity.
By employing these tips to strategically integrate Pinterest into a robust inbound marketing system, pin frequently, and increase your pins’ attractiveness through good design and price inclusion, you’ll be able to leverage this platform’s huge capacity for powerfully marketing your brand.
Happy pinning!
71 The Blink;Tech Strategy
IS TWITTER STILL WORTH TWEETING ABOUT?
After eleven years of tweeting, many have said that Twitter has an unsure future. The New Yorker, The Economist, Vanity Fair, and a number of other magazines have predicted its demise, yet Twitter remains as the go-to platform for athletes, business leaders, celebrities, and politicians to share important announcements, and for users who want to chat about live events. Although its stock price plummeted to $14 a share in 2016 from its high of $69 in 2014, Twitter still proclaims that it is “live.”
Compared to Facebook, Twitter has not developed any new, major innovations in the last few years, and shows no signs of expanding past its 317 million daily users. Although other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are overtaking it in popularity, Twitter maintains a committed user base and
72 The Blink;Tech Strategy continues to be thebest place to get up-to-date information on just about everything happening in the world. With such a loyal and high-profile fan-base like that, it may be a long time before Twitter joins platforms like Friendster and Myspace on the Internet scrap heap of forgotten websites.
Of all the social platforms, Twitter also continues to be the one most often quoted in magazines and newspapers and was arguably the most relevant social media platform in the 2016 presidential election. While some may not see that as a very strong selling point, and while Twitter has also become a haven for Internet trolls, threats, and verbal abuse, Twitter seems to be maintaining its existence because it is still relevant. As long as it offers relevance, it still has a place on the Internet and in our lives.
If you’re still thinking of using Twitter as part of your social media marketing, here are a few of the reasons that it’s still a good choice.
It Really Is “Live”
Unlike Facebook, which uses an algorithm to highlight the most popular or pertinent updates, Twitter’s feed is in real time, allowing users more immediate updates as to what’s going on in the world and the ability to participate in live events.
Access to Influencers
While many social media platforms have followed Twitter’s model of allowing people to “follow” celebrities and other people of influence, it still seems to be the king of influencer engagement.
While less than 4 percent of their followers may actually see an individual tweet, most major brands post on Twitter more
73 The Blink;Tech Strategy than any other platform.
Hashtag Targeting
By using hashtags (merely adding the # symbol to a keyword) users are better able to pinpoint and engage with their audiences, participate in live events, organize activities, and search for relevant information. Hashtags are used on other platforms, but they originated on Twitter and are still used extensively.
Brevity Is the Soul of Tweets There has been the talk of the possibility of extending tweets to allow for 10,000 characters, the limitation to 140 characters for the last decades has been one of Twitter’s key draws. The shortness of tweets allows users to get more information in bite-sized chunks without having to get drawn into lengthy posts that sap their valuable time. However, by the end of 2017, Twitter did implement a change where users can now tweet up to 240 characters.
Customer Service
According to the Technology Services Industry Association’s 2016 Social Support Survey, Twitter is the preferred method by millennials to engage with customer service support.
For the last decade, this platform has changed the way people communicate, organize, and participate in the world around them. It has even changed the nomenclature. Although it may seem to be on shaky ground and have an uncertain future, for the time being, Twitter is still tweeting.
74 The Blink;Tech Strategy
ARE YOU MAKING THE MOST OF INTERNET VIDEO?
We’ve written many blogs over the years offering insights into technology trends and the future of the internet, but perhaps none were as prescient as our 2015 blog about online video and how it would become part of our daily lives in just two years. Since that blog was posted, Facebook has introduced Facebook Live, Snapchat has become more brand-friendly, Pinterest now offers independent and large brands alike the opportunity for more inspiring looks, and Instagram recently unveiled Instagram Video, their answer to Snapchat. In 2015, we saw the ramped-up usage of video for conferencing, training, marketing, and advertising, and we knew the demand for online video would only grow with its acceptance in our social media timelines. So, here is an overview of the advances made in video technology since 2015, and how businesses can use this ever-growing medium to expand their reach and brand.
New Video Platforms
When Facebook announced it was going to offer a live streaming video application, most people thought it would be a fun way to connect with friends far away and not miss out on events and important moments. Like with any live video application, such as Skype or FaceTime, you could be an instant spectator of events, both spectacular and mundane, happening anywhere around the world. With Facebook Live, however, you could also interact and have those interactions quantified – this is what changed the game and made businesses and advertisers take notice.
75 The Blink;Tech Strategy Soon after, Snapchat wanted in on that game and instead of being geared towards individual users, Snapchat is now offering branded geofilters for events and promotions to encourage companies to advertise. Instagram Video has recently added live video, which isn’t a surprise since they are owned by Facebook. However, they took a note from Snapchat and followed the “disappearing video” model, meaning that once the live streaming is over, the video is no longer accessible.
Pinterest focuses more on the visuals, rather than specific events. Brands and companies are able to use this to their advantage by telling a story people can easily relate to. For example, if your company sells fabric, a visual that shows the fabric being used in an everyday setting can inspire new home owners looking for design ideas.
How Can Businesses Use Online Video?
Success in internet marketing, like all marketing, comes down
76 The Blink;Tech Strategy to one’s ability to track and accurately evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of a given campaign. How well is it working? Do we need to adjust the messaging? Are we using the right channel? How is the target audience responding to the ad?
With Facebook Live, you can pull that information directly from the feed – users interact with the video, “liking”, “loving”, or even “hating” the content in real time. They can also comment in real time, letting you know exactly what they think. As long as you have followers watching, you know it’s working!
One great way to use Facebook Live would be to engage followers with behind the scenes looks at a typical day at the office. Introducing the staff, streaming at an event, offering a question and answer session, and even teasing new products can give followers the chance to feel more connected to your business and brand, and feel included because of the special information they are receiving. This can be similarly effective on Instagram Video and Snapchat, though these platforms will follow the rule of disappearance once it is over while Facebook allows viewers to replay the video or watch it later.
Society is becoming more and more reliant on video applications in all areas of commerce and we’re still in the beginning of this exciting trend. In less than two years, streaming video has grown exponentially and has become an integral part of our daily lives – we can only imagine what the next two years will bring! How are you using video to grow your business?
77 The Blink;Tech Strategy
12 POINTS OF CRUCIAL NEWSLETTER KNOW-HOW
Though it may seem old-school, crafting an effective newsletter campaign is one key marketing action you shouldn’t ignore. Although we get really excited about the latest technologies of mobile-friendly responsive websites, value-laden content, search engine optimization, social media strategies, and video development, one of the most important forms of internet marketing is also one of the most old school: the newsletter.
While many are now apt to spend more time on other platforms, nearly everyone still has email they check almost every day. The good old email newsletter remains the best way to remain present in your customers’ or leads’ minds, and email marketing is reported to be 40 percent more effective at
78 The Blink;Tech Strategy gaining new customers than Facebook or Twitter.
Equally crucial to having a newsletter is doing it well. Like all communication, newsletters that are poorly timed, irrelevant, or disconnected from your overall online presence can push your audience away more than pulling them in.
Here are 12 points to keep in mind when you’re constructing a newsletter.
1. Make Sure Your Message Adds Value
First, spend time discovering what will genuinely add value to your recipients’ lives through your messages. Often we’re inclined to send out information detailing topics and news that is important to us. But is that what our customers or leads really want to know about? It’s a good rule of thumb to keep your messages to 90 percent content-rich topics and 10 percent advertisement.
2. Be Relevant to the Interests of Your Contacts
No matter your industry, there is always an overwhelming range of topics you could focus on for your newsletter. Be sure to reflect honestly on what the folks on your list truly want to learn about. Mind you, this should not be what YOU think they should be interested in, but what they actually spend time reading about, researching, and talking with friends or colleagues about. Do your research and let that inform your direction.
3. Segment Your Lists
It’s highly unlikely that all of your contacts will thrill to the same set of topics. So, give each sub-group what they want and let them off the hook of scrolling through topics that
79 The Blink;Tech Strategy hold no interest for them. And if the logic of this isn’t convincing enough, the data is: segmented lists deliver 6 times the open rate than non-segmented lists.
4. Be Consistent In Your Communication to Set the Right Expectations For Recipients
Being clear from the beginning about the frequency and content of your newsletter will both increase the likelihood that people will sign up in the first place, and the overall impact of your newsletters. Similarly, inconsistent communication reflects badly on your company, giving recipients a sense of disorganization and eroding any trust they may have for you already.
5. Do Not Buy Lists
As tempting as it may be to have magically generated, ready-to-go distribution lists with the swipe of a credit card, purchasing lists is both ineffective and potentially harmful to your business and marketing strategy for multiple reasons. Most sellable lists are not made up of good email addresses. Sending to a bought list can also trigger spam alert systems that prevent you from successfully sending emails in the future. Finally, recipients on a purchased list do not know you or your company, and so are less likely to be interested in your communications.
You’ll be more successful and gratified by hunkering down and building your own list from your existing and future contacts.
6. Personalize Your Emails
Now more than ever, personalized communications get more attention and hold more value than generic ones. Utilizing
80 The Blink;Tech Strategy data you have on your contacts, personalize your messages so that each interaction they have with your company, products, or homepage generates a responsive message relevant to the interaction.
For instance, if a contact hasn’t opened an email or visited the page in a long while, a personalized email asking for feedback is a great way to re-engage and show the contact that you value their attention, business, and engagement.
7. Don’t Rely On Images
Imagery should be complementary to content, not the content itself. To make sure their email server runs faster, many people have it set to not even show images at all. Be sure that each email is packed with valuable information, tools and, material, and that the visual component functions as a way to illustrate and draw attention to those items.
8. Have a Goal for Every Email
Do you want to promote a new sale? Drive people to your most recent blog and webinar sign-up? Generate feedback on a new product? People are too busy for communications without a clear point, so make sure to clarify your purpose before constructing and sending any newsletter.
9. Your Landing Page Is Part of the Email Campaign
Each issue of your newsletter should unfailingly bring contacts back to your landing page, where they can be reminded of the many great things you do, services you offer, and opportunities for them to engage with you.
10. Thank Your Customers
81 The Blink;Tech Strategy While gratitude to the folks who keep your business afloat and thriving is a good attitude to maintain every day, it’s important to express that gratitude regularly. Challenge yourself and your team to come up with innovative ways to say “Thank you,” such as a regular customer spotlight or special deals for newsletter recipients.
11. Nurture
One of the prime underlying purposes of a newsletter is to nurture leads as well as your existing customers. The above actions will greatly heighten the nurturing impact of your newsletter by demonstrating your attentiveness to the needs and wants of your contacts, and your awareness of their schedules.
12. Measure and Learn
Email marketing is both a science and an art. Balance your front-end construction time with back-end analysis by using your newsletter distribution platform to measure your click-through rate, open rate, and unsubscribe rate. Pay attention to what seems to produce the highest rates and adapt as you go to optimize your newsletter strategy.
Put these 12 tips into practice to make sure that you and your contacts get the most out of each newsletter.
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EVALUATE
While many think that the work is done as soon as the website is built and marketing initiatives are in effect, the real work finally takes place once those are all finished. Evaluating a website and its Internet marketing campaign, and recalibrating that work, is the only way to ensure that all the investment has been worth it. There is no one-size- fits-all answer, so by evaluating the responses and reach, we at Blink;Tech can keep our clients on top and summiting mountain after mountain.
83 The Blink;Tech Strategy
THE ART OF SOCIAL LISTENING
When evaluating your company’s marketing outreach, one important aspect to consider is the effectiveness of your social media campaigns. That may seem like a simple statement, but in fact, it is quite difficult due to the multi-dimensional scope of social media. At Blink;Tech, we use a model of “Build, Promote, and Evaluate.” We are always evaluating what else can be done to achieve our goals and those of our customers. Therefore, we are always listening to social media to find what the next step should be to reach those goals.
When we begin work with a new client, we outline the project in various steps, including building their oline presence. Once an elegant website and their various social media platforms are integrated, we can then promote via campaigns and other outbound channels to garner the attention of potential clients. It’s at this point that ACTIVE LISTENING to social 84 The Blink;Tech Strategy media becomes an imperative aspect of our job. Not only will conversions and sales tell us how things are going, but by actively listening to comments and feedback from customers and users, we can discover many ways to improve the reach and impact of a marketing campaign.
This aspect goes hand in hand with the next idea: PROMOTE INTENT. A company who only listens can only go so far, as they must also listen with the intent to take action. By approaching an issue with the intent to take action, you will already be a step ahead of the curve. Intent will promote an action, and that action will promote loyalty and advocacy of the brand. In turn, your company will reap the benefits of return customers and positive word of mouth.
Another interesting consideration is COMPETITION. Keeping your eyes on your competitors can help with learning better practices as well as what not to do. This doesn’t have to be a deal breaker for any particular channel of communication, but by watching and learning from the competition and in how others respond to them, you can stay on track to ensure positive results.
Lastly, TECHNOLOGY should always be kept in the loop when finding ways to evaluate your marketing outreach. Technology has come so far in the last ten years, that the work is sometimes already done for us before we begin. Most social media platforms offer tracking on campaigns, so be sure to listen to what they have to say. By using Google Alerts, Facebook and Twitter Insights, as well as Hootsuite, any company can use the technology to their advantage and raise their outreach game.
By combining today’s technology with old school marketing savvy, your company can effectively use social media to create a marketing outreach plan that will carry you to the next level. 85 The Blink;Tech Strategy
THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATION
One thing most people can agree on is that taking exams in school was one of the more difficult experiences in getting an education. Tests, exams, evaluations, whatever you prefer to name them, always came down to succeeding or failing, which is a source of stress for most people. It should not be surprising that the most successful endeavors in your life included some type of evaluation: college graduation, a driver’s permit, or that promotion at work.
Therefore, it should also not be surprising to find out that one of the most important parts of building your business and its website is evaluation. At Blink;Tech, we follow the “Build, Promote, Evaluate” model for design and management, which allows us to offer our clients a never-ending scale of growth.
86 The Blink;Tech Strategy While building and promoting are the major stepping stones, the evaluation part is what will make or break the time and effort put into the project.
When evaluating a web project, the steps are very similar to evaluating any other project: gather data over a period of time and then analyze it in such a way so that the resulting information can be used to determine whether the work has effectively carried out its plan and achieved its objectives or anticipated results. In order to gather the data, we look at a variety of metrics, including website and social media analytics (geographies, reach and conversions, traffic demographics), point of sale conversions, and customer profiles, as well as customer acquisition costs. While these terms may seem like gibberish to many of us, they are indeed very important tools for those in the marketing field.
By analyzing web traffic and comparing it to visitor type, demographics, and conversion rates, marketers can adjust advertising campaigns to target the precise audience they need to succeed. Knowing customer profiles and how they came to purchase a product can drect marketers to the appropriate channels in which to spend their marketing dollars. It might seem that we would find failure more often than not, since marketing and the web can be fickle entities. However, as data reveals patterns to sharpen our approach and refine our methods, failure is rarely encountered.
By continually evaluating, websites and marketing campaigns can continually grow so that a business can become as successful as possible. It’s only when we stop evaluating that we find anything close to failing, which also rings true in life: it’s only when we stop learning that we stop growing. Suffice to say, it’s an interesting parallel that we find in life and in marketing.
87 The Blink;Tech Strategy As we evaluate the work done after building and promoting, we can see patterns and trends that worked or didn’t work, so that we can continually update and evolve your website design and management.
88 The Blink;Tech Strategy
TURBOCHARGE YOUR BUSINESS AND MARKETING DECISIONS WITH DATA VISUALIZATION
If you own a professionally-built website, it is most likely connected to a Google Analytics account. It is also very likely that all that great data being recorded by Google Analytics is being ignored or forgotten when important marketing and business decisions are being made.
At Blink;Tech, we have proven time and time again by the actual success it has brought to our clients, that web analytics are critical to online marketing success. This is the “Evaluate” portion of our “Build, Promote, Evaluate” model and it is every bit as important as having a well-built website and a robust marketing plan. It is the evaluation of pertinent data that speaks to solid strategy development and sound decision making.
There is, however, one big stumbling block to the evaluation process for most people who need to make decisions that are relevant to their website traffic or internet presence: navigating Google Analytics and understanding and interpreting the data they are seeing. And this is precisely why most analytics data is overlooked or forgotten. Fortunately, there is a solution.
What Exactly is Data Visualization?
Data visualization is taking raw data and putting it in a visual context such as a graph, pie chart, or even a geographic map. While analytics experts can easily spot trends and user patterns in raw data, this can be a daunting task for the everyday business person. Having this data interpreted
89 The Blink;Tech Strategy graphically can really help clarify the impact of marketing efforts, the business environment, and even current events for the untrained eye.
Data visualization clarifies relationships between cause and effect and can show distributions of data, and reveal trends over a specific time period. Great examples of data visualization are:
Time Graphs
Time graphs are excellent for plotting trends and for associating a change in data with a specific event. When different data sources are plotted over time on the same graph, a very clear picture of cause and effect can be revealed.
Bar Charts
For showing distributions and tendencies in sets of data, bar
90 The Blink;Tech Strategy charts are both easily understandable and effective. They also are a great way to compare compound sets of data, such as the breakdowns of both gender and age of website visitors.
Pie Charts
When you want to show a comparative breakdown of the composition of something, there is no clearer way than a pie chart. In the graphic above, we use a pie chart to show the percentage of device types website visitors are using to access a website.
Maps
Maps are great in data visualization for showing geographic distributions and tendencies. For example, a map would be the perfect way to identify an area where a specific blog post resonated and further marketing could be directed or honed to appeal to that location.
Excellent Data Requires Excellent Tracking
For data visualization to be meaningful and effective, the data used must be as complete and accurate as possible. A common situation we encounter with new clients is a Google Analytics account that has been improperly configured. Often important reporting options have not been turned on and other web resources have not been connected. Because Google Analytics is basically a recorder like the black box on an airplane, when data streams are missing, there is no way to turn back the clock to get that data.
But this is only a start. Great marketing requires very detailed data and the only way to get that is to make sure that all marketing efforts are trackable - even down to specific social media posts. Not knowing specific correlations
91 The Blink;Tech Strategy between your marketing efforts and the results of those efforts, could actually be costing you money. This ongoing cycle of evaluation and correction is where data visualization really pays off.
Before you hire anyone to rebuild your website or take on your digital marketing, make sure they not only know and use web analytics but that they have an effective and clear way to share that data with you. And most importantly, review your web analytics often - that data can effectively inform a surprising amount of important business decisions.
92 The Blink;Tech Strategy Blink;Tech endeavors to be the authority on Internet marketing and design, and we do it to ensure that our clients have the best and most state-of-the-art technologies at their fingertips. We hope that you found this book enlightening if not pertinent to your business needs. However, if you need a tech partner to help you make your mark and own the web, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact us today!
93 Marketing your business in today's fragmented digital world can be a daunting task. From over 10 years of experience in T H E web technologies and internet marketing, Blink;Tech has developed a proven method to help businesses find success on the web. Leveraging a sound and secure tech infrastructure, the latest inbound marketing strategies, and clear, accurate analytics, we've developed a Build, Promote, Evaluate process that continues to bring our clients new levels of success. S T R A T E G Y
And now we are going to share some of that magic with you....
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