Photo by Diana Akhmetianova on Unsplash
Photo by Tim Mossholder on UnsplashHow Online Advertising Can Boost Your Offline Sales
As many as 88% of consumers, and probably more now, are researching items online and then buying them in a physical store. This is according to a 2013 study by Accenture, and from it and other data we can see that the world between online and offline is blurring in regards to the purchasing process.
Whether the customer is searching for your product or brand, or is doing a related search you have an ad running for, your online ads can and do boost your offline sales. Here are some strategies to get you started, but if you are looking for more detailed advice, contact us for help.
Direct Searchers To Your Store
No matter what page your ad takes the consumer to, you should have some sort of contact information nearby. People need to be able to see your phone number, address or even a map so they can contact you and find you easily.
While this information might not always fit neatly into your ad, it should be on your landing page.
Target Searchers Who Fit Your Demographics
Woody Allen famously said, “80% of success is showing up.” This couldn’t be more true as it applies to online advertising and store sales.
If you’re not doing online advertising, you’re missing out on sales, period. By doing any form of online advertising, you’re already halfway there.
One great way to refine your online advertising is by targeting your key demographics. Through Google AdWords and the Display Network, you can target people by location, gender, income and many other guidelines to increase the impact of your ads by getting in front of the right people.
Target Mobile Searchers Nearby
Like we just mentioned, you can target people by location. But even better than that, with AdWords and the Google Display Network you can target ONLY mobile phones and ONLY within a certain area, like your local downtown district. This ensures your ad is hitting nearby mobile users who are very likely to drop in.
According to Google, 32% of consumers say that location-based search ads have led them to visit a store or make a purchase, so it’s important to take advantage of these ads to drive visits to your offline location.
Include Location, Directions, Call Options
More than 70% of consumers who have used ad features such as directions or the call button say it’s important to have location information in ads, according to Google.
Sometimes it is beneficial to have your phone number, address, or even general location directions (i.e. Inside the Crossroads Mall) on your online advertisements.
Create Direct Call Ads
Google allows businesses to create Direct Call ads. These ads show up on search results only through AdWords, and only appear on mobile phones, not on desktops. Once clicked, the ads place a call to the number you choose rather than displaying a website, leading the consumer directly into a conversation with you.
This is a tactic which could be very beneficial for certain businesses, and if used right could lead to additional sales.
If you’d like some expert help with online advertising, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped!
How Online Advertising Can Boost Your Offline Sales
As many as 88% of consumers, and probably more now, are researching items online and then buying them in a physical store. This is according to a 2013 study by Accenture, and from it and other data we can see that the world between online and offline is blurring in regards to the purchasing process.
Whether the customer is searching for your product or brand, or is doing a related search you have an ad running for, your online ads can and do boost your offline sales. Here are some strategies to get you started, but if you are looking for more detailed advice, contact us for help.
Direct Searchers To Your Store
No matter what page your ad takes the consumer to, you should have some sort of contact information nearby. People need to be able to see your phone number, address or even a map so they can contact you and find you easily.
While this information might not always fit neatly into your ad, it should be on your landing page.
Target Searchers Who Fit Your Demographics
Woody Allen famously said, “80% of success is showing up.” This couldn’t be more true as it applies to online advertising and store sales.
If you’re not doing online advertising, you’re missing out on sales, period. By doing any form of online advertising, you’re already halfway there.
One great way to refine your online advertising is by targeting your key demographics. Through Google AdWords and the Display Network, you can target people by location, gender, income and many other guidelines to increase the impact of your ads by getting in front of the right people.
Target Mobile Searchers Nearby
Like we just mentioned, you can target people by location. But even better than that, with AdWords and the Google Display Network you can target ONLY mobile phones and ONLY within a certain area, like your local downtown district. This ensures your ad is hitting nearby mobile users who are very likely to drop in.
According to Google, 32% of consumers say that location-based search ads have led them to visit a store or make a purchase, so it’s important to take advantage of these ads to drive visits to your offline location.
Include Location, Directions, Call Options
More than 70% of consumers who have used ad features such as directions or the call button say it’s important to have location information in ads, according to Google.
Sometimes it is beneficial to have your phone number, address, or even general location directions (i.e. Inside the Crossroads Mall) on your online advertisements.
Create Direct Call Ads
Google allows businesses to create Direct Call ads. These ads show up on search results only through AdWords, and only appear on mobile phones, not on desktops. Once clicked, the ads place a call to the number you choose rather than displaying a website, leading the consumer directly into a conversation with you.
This is a tactic which could be very beneficial for certain businesses, and if used right could lead to additional sales.
If you’d like some expert help with online advertising, give us a call or send us an email. We hope these tips have helped!
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash4 Extremely Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid
Search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary if you want any part of your website to rank highly in Google searches. If you’re not on the first page of Google results for the keywords you’ve chosen, you’re nearly invisible to searchers.
You may know some of the brighter points about what to do to have good SEO, like having consistent, fresh content and using relevant keywords, but today we’re going to look at huge SEO mistakes we see people make, and which should be avoided at all costs. Whether you work with us or not, take heed of these tips.
1. No SEO At All
The most common form of bad SEO is to have no SEO at all. This means the website has been left in it’s most basic, original state.
None of the titles or descriptions have been updated, so they are generic and unoriginal, e.g. Home, About Us, Contact, Blog, Services, Products, etc.
The descriptions might be something like, “We provide solutions for clients to help them succeed.”
Some of the content might even be left over from the development process of the website. Placeholder content such as the fake Latin “Lorem Ipsum” is common in the web development world, but can be accidentally left behind and make your website even more confusing.
No keywords will be specified, or if they are they are far too general. Not having any SEO makes it hard for search engines – as well as your customers – to understand what you website is about, leading people to leave your website very quickly without contacting you.
2. Duplicate Titles/Descriptions/Content
One of the worst mistakes which can be made is duplicating content. Whether it’s the titles of pages, the descriptions or the words on the page itself, duplicating content is a lazy way to create volume.
When content is a copy of another page, search engines will notice and only index one of the pages, meaning the effort put into creating the duplicate pages was wasted anyways. And if the content was duplicated from another, pre-existing site, none of your content may be indexed at all in favor of the original content.
Individual users will also be repelled by duplicate content. No one wants to go to a new page, only to find the same exact material as was previously covered. That would be like opening a book to page 52 and finding out the author simply started over with Chapter 1 at that point. That book wouldn’t sell a lot of copies.
3. Still Using Meta Keywords
Meta keywords were heavily used in the 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s to help search engines and searchers understand what a webpage was about. While the meta keywords form can still be filled in with keywords, it can now be more damaging to your ranking than helpful.
Most major search engines no longer use meta keywords to help them rank webpages; they instead check the content to decide what a webpage is about.
By continuing to use meta keywords, you can confuse search engines and possibly searchers, because your meta keywords may not match up perfectly with the topic of your content.
4. Keyword Stuffin
Keyword stuffing is the practice of taking a keyword or keyphrase – think “Cars” or “Used Cars For Sale In California” – and sprinkling it heavily throughout the content of a page, as well as in the description, meta keyword section and/or title.
Instead, it’s best to write about a content naturally, and let the keyword appear a few times naturally throughout the content. There is no longer a hard-and-fast rule about how many times a keyword should appear in content, as long as the content is valuable for the reader and brings people to your page.
If you’d like to learn more about how to create good SEO on your website, give us a call or email us today!
4 Extremely Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid
Search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary if you want any part of your website to rank highly in Google searches. If you’re not on the first page of Google results for the keywords you’ve chosen, you’re nearly invisible to searchers.
You may know some of the brighter points about what to do to have good SEO, like having consistent, fresh content and using relevant keywords, but today we’re going to look at huge SEO mistakes we see people make, and which should be avoided at all costs. Whether you work with us or not, take heed of these tips.
1. No SEO At All
The most common form of bad SEO is to have no SEO at all. This means the website has been left in it’s most basic, original state.
None of the titles or descriptions have been updated, so they are generic and unoriginal, e.g. Home, About Us, Contact, Blog, Services, Products, etc.
The descriptions might be something like, “We provide solutions for clients to help them succeed.”
Some of the content might even be left over from the development process of the website. Placeholder content such as the fake Latin “Lorem Ipsum” is common in the web development world, but can be accidentally left behind and make your website even more confusing.
No keywords will be specified, or if they are they are far too general. Not having any SEO makes it hard for search engines – as well as your customers – to understand what you website is about, leading people to leave your website very quickly without contacting you.
2. Duplicate Titles/Descriptions/Content
One of the worst mistakes which can be made is duplicating content. Whether it’s the titles of pages, the descriptions or the words on the page itself, duplicating content is a lazy way to create volume.
When content is a copy of another page, search engines will notice and only index one of the pages, meaning the effort put into creating the duplicate pages was wasted anyways. And if the content was duplicated from another, pre-existing site, none of your content may be indexed at all in favor of the original content.
Individual users will also be repelled by duplicate content. No one wants to go to a new page, only to find the same exact material as was previously covered. That would be like opening a book to page 52 and finding out the author simply started over with Chapter 1 at that point. That book wouldn’t sell a lot of copies.
3. Still Using Meta Keywords
Meta keywords were heavily used in the 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s to help search engines and searchers understand what a webpage was about. While the meta keywords form can still be filled in with keywords, it can now be more damaging to your ranking than helpful.
Most major search engines no longer use meta keywords to help them rank webpages; they instead check the content to decide what a webpage is about.
By continuing to use meta keywords, you can confuse search engines and possibly searchers, because your meta keywords may not match up perfectly with the topic of your content.
4. Keyword Stuffin
Keyword stuffing is the practice of taking a keyword or keyphrase – think “Cars” or “Used Cars For Sale In California” – and sprinkling it heavily throughout the content of a page, as well as in the description, meta keyword section and/or title.
Instead, it’s best to write about a content naturally, and let the keyword appear a few times naturally throughout the content. There is no longer a hard-and-fast rule about how many times a keyword should appear in content, as long as the content is valuable for the reader and brings people to your page.
If you’d like to learn more about how to create good SEO on your website, give us a call or email us today!
3 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your SEM Spend
If you don’t have an agency by your side, it can be harder to get the most out of your search engine marketing (SEM) dollars.
Whether you’ve done your own SEM in the past, had an agency manage it for you or haven’t tried it yet, as a Certified Google Partner we have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck from advertising with search engines!
1. Stay Active
Consistency. It’s important in sports, life and advertising. Even if you’re only looking for short term results, spend a little bit more and for a little bit longer of a timeframe than you originally planned. You may find that if you stop advertising and then come back, it will cost you more than if you had just stayed consistent.
2. Utilize Analytics
Your SEM with Google is managed through AdWords, and while there are some good statistics available in AdWords, Google Analytics is where you are really going to get insight into who is clicking on your ads and what they’re doing once they’re on your website. You can also tie your AdWords account to Analytics, so you can view your AdWords statistics inside of your Analytics dashboard.
Be sure to analyze your results, so you can fine tune the text and targeting of your SEM.
3. Keep Your Organic Ranking Strong
While concentrating on SEM, it’s important to keep your organic ranking strong. Strong organic placement is very important, as organic search results still receive the majority of traffic as compared to ads.
A search engine optimization (SEO) company can help your website ranking through user experience design, responsive website design, content development and more. These changes will also help users stick around when they click on your paid ads, as they will be easier able to navigate your website and find what they want.
So, increasing your SEO can increase the effectiveness of your SEM.
Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are having a hard time with your SEM, let us know! We’re always glad to help small-to-medium-sized businesses succeed.
3 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your SEM Spend
If you don’t have an agency by your side, it can be harder to get the most out of your search engine marketing (SEM) dollars.
Whether you’ve done your own SEM in the past, had an agency manage it for you or haven’t tried it yet, as a Certified Google Partner we have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck from advertising with search engines!
1. Stay Active
Consistency. It’s important in sports, life and advertising. Even if you’re only looking for short term results, spend a little bit more and for a little bit longer of a timeframe than you originally planned. You may find that if you stop advertising and then come back, it will cost you more than if you had just stayed consistent.
2. Utilize Analytics
Your SEM with Google is managed through AdWords, and while there are some good statistics available in AdWords, Google Analytics is where you are really going to get insight into who is clicking on your ads and what they’re doing once they’re on your website. You can also tie your AdWords account to Analytics, so you can view your AdWords statistics inside of your Analytics dashboard.
Be sure to analyze your results, so you can fine tune the text and targeting of your SEM.
3. Keep Your Organic Ranking Strong
While concentrating on SEM, it’s important to keep your organic ranking strong. Strong organic placement is very important, as organic search results still receive the majority of traffic as compared to ads.
A search engine optimization (SEO) company can help your website ranking through user experience design, responsive website design, content development and more. These changes will also help users stick around when they click on your paid ads, as they will be easier able to navigate your website and find what they want.
So, increasing your SEO can increase the effectiveness of your SEM.
Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are having a hard time with your SEM, let us know! We’re always glad to help small-to-medium-sized businesses succeed.
8 Strategies To Boost Email Marketing For Small Businesses
As a small business, it can be hard to keep up with an ever-changing marketing field. Email marketing and other types can be time intensive. But if you can make the time for them, they can really boost your business.
At Cohlab, we help our clients build and sustain email campaigns across multiple industries. If you need expert help, let us know, but we hope these strategies can help set you on the right course.
8 Strategies To Boost Email Marketing For Small Businesses
1. Make It Obvious
The first key to successful email marketing is getting subscribers. You may already have users heading to your website, landing pages, blog or Facebook; use this to your advantage and give them some way of signing up, whether you find a WordPress plugin, a Facebook feature, or just give them a link to send you a generic email opting in.
The most important part is to make it obvious. Put it at the top of your pages, make it part of your Facebook cover photo, do something to get the idea of being on your mailing list in front of them and easy to do. All they should need to do is give you their name and email, don’t confuse the issue by asking for anything else.
2. Keep Them Informed
Once you’ve begun building a list, let them know what you’re using it for. Send everyone a welcome email as they are added to the list letting them know you’re grateful and that they’ll be receiving Marketing/Coupons/Blog Summaries/Survey/Etc. emails from you.
Email services like MailChimp and HubSpot (which we’ll discuss later) have an option to automatically reply to someone when they sign up for your list.
3. Subject Lines Are Important
Subject lines are key. What are you trying to get them to do, and what information is inside? Readers should be able to know without even opening the email whether anything valuable is inside for them.
Technically speaking, emails with subject lines of less than 50 characters tend to be opened more often than any other length, while subject lines of more than 70 characters tend to have links or coupons inside clicked on more often.
4. Consider Using A Service
In point #2, we mentioned MailChimp and Hubspot. These companies provide email services, allowing you to create lists, email templates, as well as keep you on the right side of the law. These email marketing providers automatically put unsubscribe links at the bottom of every email, which allows readers to opt out at any time and saves you the hassle of breaking the law.
5. Be Brief
About half of all emails are read on mobile devices, which means people are on the move. Keep your emails brief. You should really have only one or at the maximum two focuses in a single email message, to prevent confusion and keep the length in line.
200 words is usually a good maximum. If you need more than 200 words to get your point across, write a blog post instead and link from a short summary on the email to the blog post.
6. Be Committed
Keep it steady. If you feel customers will benefit from one email a month, do that and stick to it, always hitting it on the same day at about the same time. Create a calendar if you have to.
If you are doing more than one email a month, you’ll probably need a calendar. Keep it steady, with one email a week or whatever you choose.
If you decide you absolutely need to change your emailing frequency, inform your email list so they aren’t confused, or create separate lists and encourage people to subscribe to both lists if interested.
7. Stats Are Important
With an email marketing service like MailChimp or HubSpot, it’s easy to watch your statistics roll in from your email campaign. Open rates (what percentage of subscribers have opened a particular email) as well as click rates (what percentage of subscribers have clicked a link within a particular email.)
Not seeing good results? It might be time to change the time/date of your emails (see point #6.)
8. Images Might Not Show Up
Alt tags. These are text descriptions of graphics (images, photos, videos, logos.)
Every graphic you put in your email should have an alt tag, not only for those who use software to read their email to them, but also for those whose email provider has blocked images from appearing. Otherwise your customers might not even know you included a valuable coupon, or what it’s worth!
We hope these strategies have helped you on your journey, and if you need anything else, we’re just an email away!
8 Strategies To Boost Email Marketing For Small Businesses
As a small business, it can be hard to keep up with an ever-changing marketing field. Email marketing and other types can be time intensive. But if you can make the time for them, they can really boost your business.
At Cohlab, we help our clients build and sustain email campaigns across multiple industries. If you need expert help, let us know, but we hope these strategies can help set you on the right course.
8 Strategies To Boost Email Marketing For Small Businesses
1. Make It Obvious
The first key to successful email marketing is getting subscribers. You may already have users heading to your website, landing pages, blog or Facebook; use this to your advantage and give them some way of signing up, whether you find a WordPress plugin, a Facebook feature, or just give them a link to send you a generic email opting in.
The most important part is to make it obvious. Put it at the top of your pages, make it part of your Facebook cover photo, do something to get the idea of being on your mailing list in front of them and easy to do. All they should need to do is give you their name and email, don’t confuse the issue by asking for anything else.
2. Keep Them Informed
Once you’ve begun building a list, let them know what you’re using it for. Send everyone a welcome email as they are added to the list letting them know you’re grateful and that they’ll be receiving Marketing/Coupons/Blog Summaries/Survey/Etc. emails from you.
Email services like MailChimp and HubSpot (which we’ll discuss later) have an option to automatically reply to someone when they sign up for your list.
3. Subject Lines Are Important
Subject lines are key. What are you trying to get them to do, and what information is inside? Readers should be able to know without even opening the email whether anything valuable is inside for them.
Technically speaking, emails with subject lines of less than 50 characters tend to be opened more often than any other length, while subject lines of more than 70 characters tend to have links or coupons inside clicked on more often.
4. Consider Using A Service
In point #2, we mentioned MailChimp and Hubspot. These companies provide email services, allowing you to create lists, email templates, as well as keep you on the right side of the law. These email marketing providers automatically put unsubscribe links at the bottom of every email, which allows readers to opt out at any time and saves you the hassle of breaking the law.
5. Be Brief
About half of all emails are read on mobile devices, which means people are on the move. Keep your emails brief. You should really have only one or at the maximum two focuses in a single email message, to prevent confusion and keep the length in line.
200 words is usually a good maximum. If you need more than 200 words to get your point across, write a blog post instead and link from a short summary on the email to the blog post.
6. Be Committed
Keep it steady. If you feel customers will benefit from one email a month, do that and stick to it, always hitting it on the same day at about the same time. Create a calendar if you have to.
If you are doing more than one email a month, you’ll probably need a calendar. Keep it steady, with one email a week or whatever you choose.
If you decide you absolutely need to change your emailing frequency, inform your email list so they aren’t confused, or create separate lists and encourage people to subscribe to both lists if interested.
7. Stats Are Important
With an email marketing service like MailChimp or HubSpot, it’s easy to watch your statistics roll in from your email campaign. Open rates (what percentage of subscribers have opened a particular email) as well as click rates (what percentage of subscribers have clicked a link within a particular email.)
Not seeing good results? It might be time to change the time/date of your emails (see point #6.)
8. Images Might Not Show Up
Alt tags. These are text descriptions of graphics (images, photos, videos, logos.)
Every graphic you put in your email should have an alt tag, not only for those who use software to read their email to them, but also for those whose email provider has blocked images from appearing. Otherwise your customers might not even know you included a valuable coupon, or what it’s worth!
We hope these strategies have helped you on your journey, and if you need anything else, we’re just an email away!
