Google Analytics For Intermediates

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We all know that digital marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing. Digital marketing is more efficient; online-based marketing strategies have a wider reach and scope compared to traditional marketing strategies. Online content can be reused and repurposed making it more sustainable than flyers, newspaper ads, and streamers. Perhaps the biggest advantage of digital over old school traditional methods is that having a website as the centerpiece of your marketing strategy allows you to track performance in real-time via Google Analytics. 

Yes, we understand if the word “Analytics” can get some of you sweating or scratching your head. “Analytics” sounds like a technical term that is best reserved for experts such as web designers and IT professionals. 

The truth is, you don’t have to be an IT wizard to learn and appreciate the value of analytics. And when it comes to analytics, look no further than Google Analytics brought to you by the world’s biggest search engine.

What Is Google Analytics?

For those readers who worked in Marketing in the 90s and the early part of the millennium, it must have been a challenge to get the company to invest in a marketing campaign.

The company’s key decision-maker would always pose this question:

“What is the estimated ROI on your proposed marketing strategy?”

While traditional marketing methods have a way of tracking performance such as through the use of codes and a numbering system or by identifying any significant changes in sales, these processes are largely inefficient, time-consuming, and costly.

This question, as well as other nagging ones, was answered in November 2005 when Google Analytics was officially launched.

By definition:

Google Analytics is a service provided by Google that enables businesses to track, collate, and organize data about their website such as traffic volume, amount of time spent per page, conversion rate, and visitor demographics. 

With Google Analytics, you have access to data that will help you monitor and evaluate the real-time performance of your current marketing strategy. You can pinpoint weaknesses in your marketing strategy, create alternative courses of action, and implement improvements in the campaign. 

What Can Google Analytics Do For My Business?

A lot! 

Google Analytics removes guesswork. It helps you find the answers to the nagging questions that may have given you a few sleepless nights. 

If business numbers are not good, Google Analytics gives you a fighting chance because you can identify the problems right away and work on developing immediate solutions.

Here are 5 benefits that your business can derive from using Google Analytics.

1. Develop a Keen Understanding Of Your Target Market

Your website is a data-gathering tool. It will pick up important information about your visitors that will help you understand their online behavioral patterns and collect data on their demographics. 

Armed with these types of information, you can create a more accurate Buyer’s Profile. With a solid Buyer’s Profile, you can proceed to divide your market into segments and publish content that targets the right audience like a guided laser.

2. Strengthen Your Brand-Building Strategies

Knowing the types of content that your audience likes to read, the online platform they use to read your content, and the preferred device for accessing the Internet are valuable inputs you can use to fine-tune your digital marketing strategy that will build your brand. 

Google Analytics gives you data-backed evidence so you can get the “pulse” of your audience. You’ll get a “feel” of who they are and have a better perspective of how to position your brand so they can get a “feel” of who you are.

3. Keep Track of Your Search Rankings

How important are the search rankings? 

The first five URLs that appear on the first page of the SERP account for 67.6% of all online traffic.

And hardly anyone goes to page 2 of the SERP. 

If you’re wondering why your current SEO strategy isn’t pushing your website up the search rankings, you can find the clues via Google Analytics.

4. Establish Realistic Goals

What is the goal of your digital marketing campaign? 

  • Do you want to build your brand?
  • Are you looking to add to your number of followers?
  • Are you focused on increasing the conversion rate?

Setting goals is an important step in growing a successful business. Google Analytics has a feature called Goals Overview that will allow you to keep track of your goals.

Staying on top of where you are in the pursuit of your goals will go a long way in improving your team’s level of productivity while sticking to the parameters of your budget.

5. Gain Valuable Insights On the Competition

Are you wondering about what your competitors are doing? Why are their websites ranking higher than yours? Why do they have followers and more engagements? 

Wonder no more. Google Analytics has a feature that gives you valuable insights into what your competitors are doing. You have a virtual bird’s eye view of the strategies your competitors are implementing to stay ahead of you.

How To Use Google Analytics – A Guide For Intermediates

Google has always been big on User Experience or UX. The search engine giant’s algorithm frequently undergoes changes to include ranking factors designed to motivate website owners to improve UX. 

Thus, it is only fair for Google to give website owners an assist by making Google Analytics easy enough for non-IT professionals – beginners and intermediates – to understand.

The key is to not be overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools made available by Google Analytics. Stick to the basics about Google Analytics then slowly increase your knowledge of its more detailed applications. 

As someone who has Intermediate-level knowledge of Google Analytics, we assume that you have already set up a Google Analytics account. You must be familiar with the following actions required of Google Analytics and a few of its basic features:

  • Installing the Tracking Code – A program that collects data on your website’s activity
  • Setting Goals – A feature that allows you to set targets or goals for your website and informs Google if such goals were achieved.
  • Site Search – A feature that enables Google to track all searches done on your website and collect important information about your visitors.

At an intermediate level, learning your way around the Audience Report will give you the keys to unlocking valuable information about your website visitors. 

Whenever you open Google Analytics, you will see your Audience Overview report which is just one of 50 reports that you will have access to. 

One of the first things that will catch your eye in the Audience Overview report is a graph depicting the number of sessions your visitors have undertaken. Below the graph, you will find key information about your visitors’ behavior such as:

  • Number of Sessions
  • Number of Users
  • Pageviews
  • Pages per Session
  • Average Duration per Session
  • Bounce Rate
  • Percentage of New Sessions

By using figures provided by these data, you will be able to assess the performance of your digital marketing campaign thus far.

  • Are your strategies generating more visits?
  • Which types of content are your audience spending more time on?
  • How many new/unique visitors are you attracting every month?
  • How much time does a visitor spend on your website?

In addition to the Audience Overview, the Audience Report will give you valuable information on six factors that are crucial for developing strategies to improve your website’s performance:

  1. Demographics – Find out which gender and age group are primarily patronizing your website and will most likely contribute to your goal of increasing conversion rate.
  2. Interests – Pinpoint the topics that your audience is most interested in so you can fine-tune your content marketing strategy. If you’re thinking about investing in Pay-Per-Click advertising, the data can be helpful in targeting the groups where will you have the highest probability of converting interest into sales.
  3. Geo – Where are your visitors coming from and what language do they speak? These types of information will give you insights to develop more effective content writing, local SEO, and advertising strategies.
  4. Behavior – Data on behavior is very important because tastes and preferences are constantly changing thanks to the influence of the Internet. In this overview, you get information about the frequency of visits, time spent per visit, and the pages they frequent every time they land on your website.
  5. Technology – If you’re developing online tools for your business, data on technology will let you know if you should focus on Mac or Chrome-based software programs.
  6. Mobile – Sure, we know that 65% of online traffic comes from mobile – but can the same be said about your visitors? 

Find out the breakdown of mobile, tablet, and PC users and the percentage of iOS and Android users among your followers.

For intermediate-level Google Analysts, another important feature to learn is Email Notifications. 

This is a feature that allows you to receive updates on specific Google Analytics reports via scheduled emails. 

Setting up Email Notifications is easy!

  1. Select the report that you want to be emailed to you on a scheduled basis.
  2. Above the report title click “email”.
  3. In the field titled “From”, you will find the email address that you use to log in to Google Analytics.
  4. Go to the “To” field, enter the email addresses you have designated to receive the data. Make sure the email addresses are separated by a comma.
  5. Type in the subject then select the frequency of transmission and the format to be used.
  6. To set the duration Google Analytics sends the report, go to “Advanced Options”.
  7. To work on the body of the email, go to the field “Text” and press Enter.

Then, click “Send”.

The wonderful thing about the Email Notifications feature is that you don’t have to log in to Google Analytics to get your reports. You can set the frequency that these reports are sent to you based on your convenience. 

At the intermediate level, you might prefer the feature Advanced Segments to Custom Reports because you may want to be more specific and detailed in your segmentation. 

With the Advanced Segments feature, you can group the data into categories so you will have a clearer picture of who your website visitors are. Once you have gotten more comfortable with Custom Reports, the Advanced Segments feature will be easier to use and understand.

Earlier in this article, we briefly discussed the importance of having data on mobile usage. The world is becoming increasingly more dependent on mobile technology. In the United States alone, 58% of all searches are done on a mobile device.

You can get in-depth data on the mobile experience your visitors are having on your website; data that can help you find the answers to the following questions:

  • What keywords are my visitors using to land on my website?
  • Is my website downloading fast enough for mobile device users?
  • Is my website navigable on a mobile device?
  • How does online behavior differ between mobile and desktop users?
  • Should I optimize content based on mobile keywords?

The last feature of Google Analytics that would benefit intermediate-level users would be Profile Filters.

The Profile Filters feature adds a different dimension to segmentation. You may have some nagging questions such as “Why does mobile account for a very small percentage of our email subscriptions?”

Applying specific filters allow you to run tests on the traffic coming to your website. Profile Filters lets you customize the type of reports that Google Analytics is generating on your website so you can find possible answers to the nagging questions. 

Conclusion

Be patient during the transition from beginner to intermediate level Google Analytics user. We all have different competencies and it might take some longer than others to be proficient with the more advanced features of Google Analytics.

What’s important is to use Google Analytics to pinpoint the weaknesses and flaws of your website and in your digital marketing strategies. 

Google Analytics puts an end to guesswork. You have access to real-time data to help you formulate the best decisions that could change the game for your business. 

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to share it with your community.

And if you are thinking of building a mobile responsive website for your business, give us a call or drop an email. We will have a high-performance, fully-optimized, and responsive website up and running for you in no time!

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How To Use Your Website To Build A Profitable Business

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Investing in a website is a smart first step to building a profitable business. In fact, you are already several steps ahead of the 45% of businesses that still don’t have a website. 

Now that you have taken the first step, what is the next step?

If you are not sure how to use a website to make your business profitable, you are not alone. 

One reason why 45% of small businesses still don’t have a website is that the owners are not sure what it does and how it works to contribute to profitability. 

The truth is, running a small business website is not that difficult or complicated. Yes, there is a learning curve to overcome and it will take some time before you can see the fruits of your labor. 

However, with patience and diligence, your website can become a profit-generating machine for your business. 

So what is the next step? Read the article and find out how to use your website to make your business profitable.

Why Your Website Is The Most Powerful Marketing Tool For Your Business

Unlike a brick-and-mortar business, your website is open 24/7. It can be accessed by millions – even by billions – of people who are on the Internet every day. 

Can you imagine owning a retail store that is open 24/7? You can have sales transactions every hour! People will be buying after close-of-business hours and keep your cash registers ringing. 

This is possible with an online retail or e-commerce store. Your customers will simply click on your URL or website address, land on your homepage, read through your product list, then pay for the transaction at the checkout counter. 

Through it all, you could be playing catch with your son, watching your daughter’s piano recital, having a glass of red wine with the spouse, or in the REM stage of a good night’s sleep. 

Sounds too good to be true?

Well, it’s not! 

There are many online entrepreneurs who are reaping the success of running a profitable Internet-based business.  

These online entrepreneurs are not exceptions to the rule. Anyone can have a dynamic website that helps the business earn considerable income and become highly profitable. 

The key is to learn how to harness the power of your website so you can maximize the opportunities that can be found on the Internet.

1. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Responsive

We have written a good number of articles on the importance of having a mobile responsive website. 

We did not stop there. 

In our other articles on digital marketing and website design, mobile responsive is always mentioned.

Here are 4 statistics-backed reasons why your website should be mobile responsive:

Having a website is a start but complete the project by making sure it is highly mobile responsive. By this, we mean that your website should have no problem setting up on the screen of a mobile device regardless of screen size. 

If your website is not mobile responsive, you will lose business. Worse, not having a mobile responsive website can even prove to be damaging to your business. 

Imagine clicking on a website from your smartphone and having to zoom-in and manually adjust the position of the page on your screen just to be able to read the content. 

You will probably click out of the website.

Coincidentally, that is what your prospective customer will do if your website is not mobile responsive.

2. Optimize Your Website

We have come across websites that are beautiful. They look elegant and the content on the site is very well-written.

Unfortunately, according to the websites’ analytics, very few people have seen them. 

The website cannot be seen because they cannot be found. They cannot be found because the websites are not optimized.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of using techniques and processes that will increase the search visibility of your website on the Internet. 

Without SEO, it does not matter if your website homepage looks like it should be on the Louvre Museum in Paris, France or if the content reads like it was written by Leo Tolstoy.

Hardly anyone will find it unless you have it optimized.

Here are 4 areas that you should look into to have your website optimized for easy search.

  • Keyword Research – Keywords are the most-often used words or phrases when someone launches a search query. Having your website content embedded with the right keywords will make it easier for the search engine crawlers to index your page.
  • Site Navigability – The navigability of a page plays an important factor in User Experience of which Google is big on. If you want your website to convert, you must make it easy for the visitor to use. If the visitor feels like he is trapped in a labyrinth, he will just click out.
  • Meta and Title Tags – Meta and Title tags are the responsibility of the web developer. These are descriptions of your website that are included in its code. Title tags describe what your website is all about and can be seen on the results page. Meta tags are hidden within the code but are used to validate the type of website that you have. 
  • Site Speed – Although it takes 8.66 seconds to download the top ranking websites in Google, Internet searchers still expect a website to download in 3 seconds or less. 53% of users will leave a website if it does not download in under 3 seconds. 

3. Focus On Your Website Homepage

An argument can be made that the Homepage is the most important page on your website. This is because is the page where a visitor will land after he clicks on your URL. 

Having an effective website homepage means having one that is efficient – it should get the job done in no more than 6 seconds. 

If the site visitor does not see anything useful, relevant, and compelling on your website within 6 seconds, he will click out.

What then makes an efficient website homepage?

  • Less Is More – Have you come across a website that has so many things happening on the homepage? There is so much text. The homepage copy feels like reading a long-form blog. 

Likewise, there are too many images and it seems that the color choices were made without thought or purpose. 

When designing a homepage, the rule is less is more. Too much activity on the homepage will only serve to distract the site user not help him find what he is looking for.

  • What Is Your Brand Value Proposition (BVP)? – The Brand Value Proposition or BVP is a statement that tells site visitors what your business can do for them. The BVP is the most important statement on your homepage and perhaps on your entire website. As mentioned, you only have fewer than 6 seconds to catch the interest of the site visitor. This is where the BVP comes in. It must be short, direct-to-the-point, and easily understood. 
  • How Compelling Is Your Call-To-Action (CTA)? – The Call-To-Action (CTA) tells the site visitor what you want him to do. To be effective the CTA must be direct-to-the-point. It should state urgency and the importance of acquiring your products and services right now.

You can make your homepage more compelling by adding testimonies or explainer videos. However, from both a design and functional perspective, less is more. 

We recommend prioritizing the BVO and coming up with an effective CTA. From there, you could consider a slide featuring testimonies from actual clients or customers. 

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4. Blog Actively

People spend 23% of their time online reading blogs. 

That statement should be enough to emphasize our point on the importance of blogging actively for your business. 

However, before you blog actively, it would be best to understand what makes a blog effective.

Blogging is not as simple as writing about a topic you like or specialize in. We have clients who are experts in their field. They create blogs that are packed with information acquired from the years invested in the industry.

Yet, hardly anyone reads them. So, they get discouraged from blogging. By doing so, they fail to realize the benefits of blogging. 

There are 2 reasons why their blogs do not gain traction and fail to deliver the desired results:

  • The blogs are not optimized for search.
  • The blogs are not written for the audience.

Blogging is not the same as writing a college term paper or a piece on a broadsheet. It combines the creativity of writing and the precision of digital technology. 

Yes, you need a good writer who can create compelling pieces that are free of spelling and grammatical errors. However, these must be optimized so that the blogs can be searched and found on the Internet. 

Optimizing a blog involves a number of processes, some of which we will discuss here:

  • Keywords – We mentioned the importance of keywords in optimizing a website. The same can be said for your blogs. In order to be found your blog should contain the most-searched keywords in your industry. Therefore, in addition to topic research, your content creation strategy should include keyword research.
  • Structure – Do you find reading a thickly-worded paragraph a pleasant experience? Not many people do. Too many sentences in a paragraph can turn reading into a tedious experience. To improve readability, the paragraphs should only contain 3-4 sentences. Consequently, each sentence should have no more than 40 words. Ideally, 20-25 words per sentence are best for optimization purposes. 
  • Content – An effective blog should have content that is fresh or unique, relevant, useful, informative, and compelling. It doesn’t matter if you have the best keywords in the right density. If your content does not meet the criteria, it will not be read.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of blogging. However, you need to have blogging done right.

We have published several blogs that have been recognized as among the best in the digital marketing industry. If you need help in blogging, we are the agency to go to!

5. Stay Active Online

The best way to stay top-of-mind on the Internet is to stay active online. 

Let us go back to blogging. 

According to research, you should blog at least 11 times per month in order to achieve the best results in sales conversions and website traffic.

What is the ideal length of a blog post for SEO purposes? According to a study by Search Engine Journal, your blogs should average 1,900 words. 

That is a lot of writing per week!

Then, you have to publish the blogs on various online channels such as social media, blogging communities, and of course, your own website. 

That is a lot of work!

However, you have the option of outsourcing these tasks to third-party agencies such as Mountaintop Web Design. This way, you can free up your time to focus on activities that are directly involved with your business. 

The bottom line is that in order to stay relevant, you have to maintain an active presence online through blogging and frequent posting of content.

6. Fortify Site Security

Last July 2018, search engine giant Google started flagging websites without SSL certificates as “Not Secure”. 

Having your website labeled as “Not Secure” by the Internet’s biggest search engine is enough to drive away interest from your business. 

Google decided to impose SSL certificates to all websites because of the growing threat of cyber-security. As you well know, Google is big on User Experience. 

You can learn more about SSL certificates and their importance for maintaining security for your website in our article “SSL Basics: Why You Need It To Protect Your Website From Hackers”.

Encourage site visitors to enter your website by securing it with SSL certificates. It is very easy to get SSL certificates and they will help protect your data from being stolen by cyber-criminals. 

Conclusion

The website is more than just a business address on the Internet. It is your digital hub online where all transactions take place. Because of your website, your products and services can be accessed by a wider audience. It will give you the platform to build your reputation as a reliable resource in the industry.

Once your website goes live, it allows you to capitalize on the opportunities on the Internet that can make your business profitable. 

However, a website will not run on its own.

You have to institute processes and techniques that are designed to drive traffic to your website. If done properly, these processes and techniques – such as the ones discussed in this article – will deliver results and make your business very profitable.

If you like this article, please feel free to share it in your community. And if you want to learn more about our services, let’s discuss it over your favorite brew!

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A Beginner’s Guide To Google Analytics

For those who are not tech-savvy, the word “Analytics” might send chills down their spine. After all, the root word is “Analysis” and the implication is that it must be too technical or complex for beginners to understand.

The truth is, learning Analytics is not that hard. We came up with this article to show you that you don’t have to be tech-savvy to understand Analytics. If you are a beginner, you have to start out with the basics which are what this beginners’ guide to Google Analytics is all about.

What Is Google Analytics?

A quick Internet search will yield a list of the best online Analytics programs you can sign up for. While these are all good and can definitely help you in managing your online business, Google Analytics is the best place for beginners to start.

Google Analytics is a service provided by Google, the biggest search engine on the Internet, to help you monitor business performance. Thanks to Google Analytics, you have access to real-time data that can pinpoint which strategies are delivering results and which ones are not.

Before Google Analytics, businesses were hesitant in allocating resources for marketing and promotion because it was hard to measure results. Now, you can identify which processes and tactics are generating the highest ROI.

Here is a short list of the features you can find in Google Analytics:

  • Monitor user activity on your site – Session duration, bounce rate, and pages per session to name a few.
  • Measure inbound traffic to your website.
  • Can be integrated with Google Adwords.
  • Identify poor-performing pages.
  • Provide and create reports on user demographics.
  • Provide sales reports and a summary of site transactions.
  • Real-Time Analytics gives you information on users that are presently on your site.

Google Analytics takes away the guesswork in running a business. You no longer have to ask “What went wrong?” Analytics will show you where the weak links are in your business development strategy.

For example, blogging is one of the most popular components in a content marketing strategy. According to a study, 23% of time spent online is dedicated to reading blogs.

Blogging is a strategy that is used to achieve the following Digital Marketing objectives:

  • Enhance industry reputation as a valuable resource
  • Increase number of followers
  • Generate Leads
  • Drive more inbound traffic to the website
  • Increase website’s search rankings

Let’s say your objective is to use blogging to drive more inbound traffic to your website. According to Google Analytics, the current blogging strategy is under-performing.

You can use the data provided by Google Analytics to find out the following information:

  • Which blog topics have generated the highest engagement levels? This includes the number of shares, likes, and comments.
  • Which blog topics have the lowest engagement levels?
  • How long do people stay on my blog page?
  • How do the majority of my readers access my website? Mobile device or PC?
  • What are the demographics of my audience?

Let’s assume that your distribution of blog topics is 80% related to your company and 20% on practical issues such as How-To and List-Type articles.

According to Google Analytics, more people are enjoying your articles on the practical application of your products and services than on content about your business.

Perhaps you can do a switch and publish practical application blogs 80% of the time and limit company-related blogs to only 20%.

This is a rather simplistic explanation. The point we are trying to make is that with Google Analytics, your Digital Marketing campaign will have a fighting chance. You have data-based evidence that can help you find ways to make the processes more effective and deliver a good ROI.

If you are not using Google Analytics, you are literally in the dark.

How To Set Up Google Analytics

Setting up Google Analytics is easy. All you need is a Google Account. This can be for Gmail, Google+, YouTube or from the search engine’s other services. You should be the only person to have access to your Google Account.

Very important tip: Do you have a Digital Marketing team? Do not agree if someone suggests using his Google account to set up and manage your Google Analytics. If this person leaves your team, he will have direct access to your Google Analytics.

1. Opening Your Google Analytics Account

Is your Google Account set up? The next step is to go to Google Analytics and click the button “Sign in to Google Analytics”. Once you have done this, the screen will show you the 3 steps it takes to set up Google Analytics. Make sure you completely fill out the information that is required of your website.

Google Analytics uses hierarchies to get your account organized. Using hierarchies is important especially if you want to open additional Google Analytics accounts under your own Google account. Google allows you to have as many as 100 Google Analytics accounts under your Google account.

Setting up hierarchies is also important if you have more than 1 website or “Properties”. Google Analytics allows 50 properties per Google Analytics account. However, you cannot move the properties. This means you cannot transfer one website to another Google Analytics account.

2. How to Install the Tracking Code

When you are done setting up Google Analytics, click the “Get Tracking ID” button. Once you click “Agree” to Google Analytics’ terms and conditions, you will receive the Google Analytics code.

The code should be installed on all pages of the website. How the code is installed will depend on the website you have. If you are not sure, ask your webmaster or developer. We have done this for several of our clients.

3. Define Your Goals

Once the tracking code has been installed, it is time to configure the “Goals” setting. Click on the Admin link which is located above your Google Analytics. From there, click on “Goals” which is located below the “View” column of the website.

Why is setting up Goals important? It will advise you if your page has accomplished something important for your business. Let’s say you are running an e-commerce website and a visitor made a purchase.

When the transaction is completed, the visitor who is now your customer will find himself on a landing page that has a “thank you” message.

4. Put Up Your Site Search

The next step is to set up your “Site Search”. This feature enables Google Analytics to track and monitor searches that have been conducted on your website. By doing so, it will help you stay on top of the issues your site visitors are looking for.

Research is a very important aspect of building a business. With Site Search, you can get valuable information on the online behavior of your customers. The data can help you create an accurate Buyer’s profile.

The first thing you need to do is to run a search on your website. Keep the tab open because you will need its URL. Go to your Google Analytics Admin page and click on “View Settings” from the “View” menu. Scroll down and click “On” when you come across “Site Settings”.

Go back to your URL and enter the query parameter which is usually given as “s” or “q”. Enter the letter in Site Settings.

5. Thinking of Setting Up New Accounts?

If you want to set up multiple Google Analytics accounts all you have to do is go to the Admin page and click on the drop-down menu under the “Account” column then click on the “Create New Account” link.

The procedure is similar when you want to add another website to your Google Analytics account. Except that you will click on the drop-down menu under the “Property” column then click on “Create New Property” link.

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How To Use Google Analytics

Whenever you log in and you only have 1 website, Google Analytics will open to the Audience Overview report.  If you have multiple websites registered, Google Analytics will first give you a rundown of which of these Properties you wish to view analytics on.

There are more than 50 reports that you can access in Google Analytics. Likewise, you can get these reports by clicking on “Reporting” which is located at the top.

What are the types of reports that you can find in Google Analytics?

1. Audience Reports

How well do you know your audience? If you are in the dark about the people who visit your site, the Audience report should shed light on your target market.

The Audience report will provide you key insights on the visitors who frequent your website. These insights include:

·        Demographics

·        Interests

·        Location

·        Language

·        Behavior

·        Technology used

Why are these data important?  Having detailed information about your audience will give you a basis on how to fine-tune your content and how the message is delivered.

For example, you own a business that sells consumer products. The data in Audience reports show that the majority of your visitors are women aged 18 to 34, interested in hair care products, and who access your site from a mobile device.

You should probably publish more content about your company’s shampoo and conditioner products and how to use them properly. Then you should check on your website’s level of mobile responsiveness.

2. Acquisition Reports

If you want to learn more about the visitors who make up your site traffic, the Acquisition reports will give you all the data you need. The reports are quite detailed and specific. Your site traffic is organized into categories and the specific sources are identified.

You will get valuable information about the traffic that originated from your social media networks so you can pinpoint which platforms are generating the visits and which ones are not.

Are you running a PPC ad campaign? You can get inputs on how your campaigns are performing by simply connecting Google Analytics to AdWords as well as to Google Webmaster Tools/ Search Console.  

3. Behavior Reports

As Bill Gates once said, “Content is King”. According to studies, people spend nearly 8 hours per day reading and viewing content.

If your website consistently delivers great content, good things will happen – more traffic, enhanced reputation in the industry, higher search rankings, and better sales conversions to name a few.

The Behavior reports will let you know which types of content people are reading on your website. You will find out which ones are generating buzz and interest. Thus, you will be able to channel more resources to these types of content and realize better ROI.

4. Conversions

The Conversions report will show you how many of your Goals have been accomplished. You will find out the URLs your site visitors came across and learn the path they took to finish the conversion.

You can get specific data on the conversion from Google Analytics. For example, you can learn how many conversions were made from a specific location or from a social network.

Again, these types of information will help you fine tune the process. You can focus on the strategies that deliver the results and improve the ones that fall short on their goals.

Conclusion – Why Should You Learn How To Use Google Analytics?

A website is a great investment for a business. It does not matter if you are a brick-and-mortar type of business. Having a website will open up new doors of opportunity for you. It will help enhance your presence on the Internet and make you more accessible to a wider audience.

However, a website will not accomplish these goals on its own. You will have to implement techniques, tools, and tactics to increase awareness and create inbound traffic to your website.

These techniques, tools, and tactics can be found in a process known as Digital Marketing. A typical Digital Marketing toolbox will include the following:

  • SEO or Search Engine Optimization
  • SEM or Search Engine Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Content Marketing
  • PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising

Although these tools have been proven to deliver results for a Digital Marketing campaign, there is no guarantee that they will help you achieve your business goals. Like all tools, their effectiveness depends on how they are used and on who wields them.

As we mentioned earlier, Google Analytics will give you an empirical basis to identify which of these tools are generating the best results and which ones are under-delivering.

It does not mean once you pinpoint the processes which are falling short of targets that you should discontinue them right away.

Google Analytics will allow you to find ways to improve upon these processes so that they will no longer become the weak links in the Digital Marketing strategy.

If you want to learn more about Google Analytics, give us a call. We can have it installed for you and at the same time, manage your Analytics so you can focus more on your business.

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Effective Ways to Monitor Your Company’s Competition

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Competitors can make running a business difficult to run smoothly. With competition, even a small mistake could send consumers to another business that offers a similar product. Making sure you are unique and have fantastic customer service is a must in order to compete today. But is that all? What strategies are your competitors using that you are not? More importantly, how can you monitor your competitor’s analytics so you can know how to steer your company? One of the most effective ways a business can grow is by monitoring and imitating the tactics used by their rivals. Thankfully, there are quite a few ways to do this effectively.

Go Beyond a Google Search

As you begin your research to monitor your competitor’s actions, it’s always good to start your research with a google search, but be sure not to stop there. It is a good idea to turn on Google Alerts, which will help notify you when there is an announcement or important news being announced by a rival or competitor. These notifications alert you to changes that you would otherwise spend a lot of valuable time trying to find. Another great resource to use to keep up with your competitors is Spyfu, which will let you know about the keywords and Adwords that your competitors are using and how successfully they are working for them. 

Spend Some Time on Their Website

One of the quickest and easiest ways to find out information about your competition is to familiarize yourself with their website. You should pay attention to the content that is popular and shared the most often. For example, if a keyword is working for your competitor over and over again, maybe it’s time you implemented similar keywords or targets to your own campaign. You can use Buzzsumo to find out more regarding shared content, what influences their customers most, and how your domain and keywords match up with your competition.

Talk to Your Customers

There is a reason why your customers chose you over your competitors. Usually the best research you can do is speaking directly to the people who chose your brand over another. Ask your customers why they used a previous business and what attracted them to yours. What other companies were they considering, if any? You may learn about new strategies and even incorporate similar ideas into your own business.

Another great way to access customer information is through reviews online. This allows you to see honest discussion about what consumers are looking for and what they would like improved. Online reviews allow the contributors to remain anonymous, which gives them the freedom to honestly discuss an organization without backlash of any kind. While someone may be cautious how they talk about a company they work for or buy from regularly, anonymous reviews allow for honest discussion and can be the most trustworthy platform on which to gain information.

Pay Attention to SEO

Search engine optimization is important because it is what increases visibility on the web and allows people to find you easier. You should pay attention to the SEO techniques your competitors are using. Are they using a company to help boost their website, or are they using google to help promote their website? In today’s world, being easy to find and access online is one of the most important tools you can use to help boost business. If your competitors are doing it right, you should learn how to effectively utilize SEO as well.

Call Them

After you have done research on your competitors, it never hurts to just pick up the phone and give them a call. In many cases, companies will not mind answering questions that you ask, and you may be pleasantly pleased with how much they are willing to tell you for free.

Attend a Conference

Attending conferences held by your competitors can help you better understand your competitor’s points of view, as well as more information regarding their products and services. Make sure that you visit the competitor’s booths and interact with them.

As important as your own strategy is, it is just as vital in today’s business world to know your competitor’s strategies just as well.

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A Detailed Guide to Creating a CRO Plan

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So, you decided to take your business to the next level and invest in a nice website?

Awesome!

But, what you should know is that despite the beautiful design and good overall usability, your sleek new website needs tweaking and fine-tuning if you want it to live up to your expectations in terms of conversions and bottom line.

Many people make a mistake by thinking that once the website is finished and live, their only task is to update content and fix potential bugs.

The truth is that the real work begins only after your audience gets a chance to visit your website thus allowing you to monitor its performance in the real world and optimize it for conversions.

This means that you need a solid, easy-to-follow CRO plan, so let’s see how to craft it.

Why Do You Need a Plan?

That’s a good question.

The main reason for having a conversion optimization plan in place is to establish the right goals, methods, and tasks which will help you make the most of your website and turn it into a conversion machine. Without a plan, it’s easy to lose focus and waste your time on things that don’t particularly matter.

It’s about setting your priorities and identifying what the problem is and how to solve it in the most effective and efficient manner.

Although the approach “Let’s see if it’s possible to convert more people if I change this or that element” is a good starting point, it needs to evolve and cover different areas of your sales process, and your business in general.

1. Collect Data

You’ve probably heard that popular phrase “People don’t buy products; they buy better versions of themselves,” and it perfectly sums up why you need to have a deep understanding of your customers, their needs, interests, and issues, as well as how they perceive your business and website, if you want to optimize your conversions.

Having the right data is essential for gaining valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t, that is, what areas, pages, and elements of your website should be optimized.

This step is crucial for helping you see where you stand and what assets you have.

As this is a pretty comprehensive process, it’s a good idea to break it down into three main categories.

In other words, you need to gather data on the following areas:

  • The company itself. Dig deeper and identify the “why” of the company – why it exists and why customers like it. It’s not always about superb products and services. There’s that special X factor, which makes a particular company and its messaging appealing, and it’s up to you to pinpoint what it is and implement your findings into your CRO plan. Identifying the unique sales proposition is essential because it’s what distinguishes your company from competitors who sell similar products or services. The USP is integrated into your marketing messages and its role is to capture your customers’ attention and give them a reason to explore your website further. Finally, learn what your customers’ common objections and complaints are. Talk to your customer support reps and they will provide you with customers’ feedback. If we bear in mind that 67% of customers name bad experiences with a brand as their main reason for churn, but only 1 out of 26 will actually complain, it’s self-explanatory why this step is a must. So, knowing what your customers feel about your company is a make-it-break-it factor when it comes to improving your CRO.
  • The website. Your website analytics should be accurate and detailed. Be in the know about all the relevant metrics such as the amount of traffic, dwell time, bounce rates, conversion rates, as well as the demographic information. The data about the browsers and devices they use to access your website is extremely important, especially after Google officially rolled out mobile-first indexing in July 2018. The fact that most people visit your website from their computers might indicate that there’s something that they don’t like about the mobile version.
  • The customers. This is, perhaps, the most important area and you should use different methods and tools in order to feel the pulse of your audience. Use heatmaps to find out what pages they visit and engage with most and use surveys to hear their first-hand opinions and experiences.

2. Create a Hypothesis

After this lengthy and demanding first step, it’s time to put these findings to good use.

You’ve probably identified a couple of issues on your website that need to be solved. There are two options when it comes to testing a page that returned poor results – you can either build it from scratch and test that new version, or you can change a couple of elements and A/B split test them.

For example, if the data shows that your CTA button doesn’t generate clicks, you can introduce a number of changes, such as the copy, different colors, and fonts, and test them.

But before you start experimenting, you should be able to clearly state why you believe that a particular change will improve your conversion rates and what problem it solves.

Again, you need to know:

  • What you’re testing. Let’s say that you’ve found out that a lot of your customers abandon their shopping cart and that your customer support reps frequently answer questions about how secure the checkout process on your website is. This clearly shows that you need to introduce some trust signals which will convince your customers that it’s safe for them to trust you with their personal information. For example, using an SSL certificate and switching to the HTTPS protocol, offering multiple payment methods, and showing payment assurance certifications are some of them.
  • Who you’re testing. There are different ways to split your audience, not just based on demographic data. You can, for example, test your repeat customers, one-time customers, or those who abandoned their shopping cart. Segmenting customers based on the browser they use is also helpful because you won’t test Opera users if the element you want to test doesn’t load properly in this browser.

3. Test Your Hypothesis

It’s showtime.

Although implementing new design and testing it might seem like a complicated task, there are useful tools that can significantly simplify the process.

Some of them include Optimizely and Visual Web Optimizer.

There are a couple of things to bear in mind:

  • Make sure that your new design displays properly across different browsers before it goes live.
  • Choose how much traffic you will direct to your test pages. If you have a lot of visitors, then this step can help you control possible risks in case that your design fails and your conversions on the test pages drop.
  • Don’t neglect the average order value, because although your conversion rates might be low for the pages you test, the average order value might go up.

So, set all these things up before you launch your tests if you want to get accurate readings. If you want to run your tests efficiently and effectively, it’s a good idea to enlist the help of experts from respectable web design agencies who will offer you their take on your ideas and implement everything properly.

4. Review Your Results

In this stage, you’ll review your results and see whether your hypothesis has been correct.

However, before you get down to work, it’s important to establish whether statistical significance has been reached. This is a complex concept, so check out this article which will tell you more about it.

Luckily, even if you’re not familiar with statistical significance, most optimization tools will give you this information.

If your hypothesis is correct, then implement these design changes properly and send all your traffic there. However, it’s important to keep track of your metrics closely to see whether everything works as expected.

If your hypothesis isn’t correct, make sure to save all your data from these unsuccessful tests, and go back to square one – create another hypothesis and do it all over again.

It’s crucial not to give up because failed tests are gold mines of data that you can use later.

These 4 steps can help you get to the bottom of a CRO plan that everybody can understand and implement.

Harris Norman is a 35-year-old web developer, born and raised in San Francisco Bay Area. Harris is also very passionate about spending time in nature, which is why he spends all of his free time hiking, sailing and mountain climbing. His design skills are admirable, which is why he’s got a special place among the writers of designrush.com. When he’s not running around chasing adventure, he likes to play the trombone, though not very well.

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Social Media Analytics: What It Is And How To Use It To Improve Your Content

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Social media can be a goldmine for your digital marketing strategy. You can “strike oil” if you know where to focus your content marketing process. This is the advantage of having social media analytics. It will help you track, monitor, and evaluate key data so you will have a solid basis for fine-tuning your social media strategy.

4 Benefits Of Using Social Media Analytics

  • Track and measure the performance of every piece of social media content. By identifying the types of content that generated the best results you will be able to re-share the posts that garnered the highest levels of engagement.
  • You will be able to identify the poor performing posts and have accurate data to find ways to improve them.
  • Stay updated on trends; industry developments and changes in audience preferences and behavior so you will have an idea which topics are of great interest to your followers.
  • Pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of your current social media marketing campaign so you can identify which strategies generate the highest ROI.

What Is Social Media Analytics?

More than 3 billion people log in to some type of social media platform every day. That is nearly half of the world’s population. Thus, with such a large volume of users, social media will guarantee you of high-level activity. People will be constantly viewing, reading, engaging, sharing, and liking content.

However, not all posts will be viewed, read, engaged on, shared or liked. Some will receive more attention than others. Not all content that is posted on social media will be liked or shared.

If your social media posts seem largely ignored, don’t throw in the towel! Keep in mind that social media networks are communities made up of people with individual behavioral attributes.

People react to posts differently. They may click on your content and read it but they don’t have to like it or share it. That does not mean they didn’t enjoy your content. In fact, they might follow your page after reading your content.

The best way to make heads or tails of how your social media efforts are performing is to use social media analytics. It analyzes data-driven metrics to track and measure the results of your various social media activities.

The Importance Of Setting Goals In Social Media: Types Of Social Media Goals

What drives you to create content for social media? What do you want to accomplish? What are your expectations?

In short, what are your goals for your social media marketing campaign?

Creativity may be the key attribute behind the content marketing process, but you need to channel that creativity toward a specific purpose. While creativity is more of a function of artistic expression, you need data to give your content strategy direction.

Therefore, the first step in designing a social media marketing campaign is to establish your goals.

We noticed during our preliminary meetings with digital marketing clients that they are unsure of their social media marketing goals. There is a common belief that in social media marketing, the goal is all about getting likes, shares, and comments.

While getting a like on your post or having it shared is certainly a great feeling of accomplishment, the result should keep you aligned toward accomplishing your goal.

Here is a rundown of the 5 basic goals that you could have for your social media marketing campaign:

1. Increase Traffic – If you are having trouble increasing traffic to your website, social media marketing is a proven way of driving more site visits.

2. Increase the Number of Followers – Social media is an effective platform to enhance your reputation as an expert. If people find your content a valuable resource or a reliable and consistent source of information, they will not hesitate to follow you.

3. Maximize the Level of Engagement – Your posts will truly become social when someone engages with it. Engagement is interaction and can come in the form of a like, share, or a comment.

This creates an opportunity for you to establish a connection and potentially build on it and gain some future value.

4. Maximize Your Reach and Total Number of Impressions – This is what we were referring to earlier. It does not matter if no one liked your post.

If some people took the time to click on it and read its contents, then you have successfully maximized your reach and number of impressions.

In social media, getting visibility for your content is likewise important. That is why posting frequently is a key strategy.

5. Increase the Rate of Sales Conversions – Ultimately, what you would want to do is to convert interest into sales. You want your website visitor to become a paying customer.

Social media marketing is an organic approach to digital marketing. Unlike paid advertising which is more direct, it may take longer to accomplish your goals but at the same time, a successful social media marketing campaign can create positive residual and sustainable results.

Before coming up with your social media marketing goals, you should make sure these goals are aligned with your business goals.

For example, a startup will have a different social media marketing goal compared to a business that is trying to expand its services.

A startup’s content line up should include the following:

  • Feature on the company; its business, founders, management and staff, the office premises, factory, and operating procedures.
  • Advantages of using the company’s products and services.
  • “How To” and List-Type articles that explain how the company’s business can help its audience find solutions.
  • Product reviews.

An established business that is in the process of scaling its operations can have a content line-up covering the following areas:

  • History of the company’s growth and achievements over the years.
  • Current development plans of the company.
  • An in-depth analysis of trends in the industry.
  • Articles on the company’s socio-civic activities.
  • Client testimonials.

Glossary Of Popular Terms In Social Media Analytics

In order to have an easier time understanding social media analytics and how it can benefit your business, it pays to know some of its most popularly used terms.

  • Actions on Page – This term refers to the number of clicks received by your Call-To-Action (CTA) button and Contact Information.
  • Engagement – Engagement is one of the most important metrics in social media analytics. It measures the number of times someone has interacted with your social media post.
  • Impressions – The number of people who saw or viewed your social media post.
  • Engagement Rate – This is measured by dividing Engagement with the number of impressions.
  • Followers – The term refers to the number of people who have seen your post on their timeline.
  • Page Likes – Refers to the total number of people who have seen and liked your page.
  • Page Previews – Refers to the number of people who have gone over your profile and page name in order to view your content.
  • Page Views – The number of times people have visited and viewed your social media profile page.
  • Post Clicks – Tracks the number of times people have clicked on your post.
  • Post Reach – This metric tracks down and records the number of people who have seen your posts on their screen. Post Reach is measured and categorized as total, promotions, and organic.

How To Use Social Media Analytics

You don’t need to open a business page on every social media network on the Internet. A social media platform is its own community with their own strengths and purposes.

A good point of comparison would be Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook is the largest social media network on the Internet with more than 2 billion users. In comparison, LinkedIn only has 575 million users.

However, the organic reach of Facebook has been declining since 2014. This means fewer people are interacting with published content. One reason for this is Facebook’s decision to transition to an ad agency. There are more ads and marketing content appearing on the news feed and this is turning off many users.

Facebook is a popular source for news and entertainment content. When someone logs into Facebook he/she wants to relax and stay updated on his/her network. Ads are seen as distractions much as they would on regular television.

LinkedIn is primarily a networking platform. People who want to look for jobs, clients, and expand their network of contacts have LinkedIn as their social media platform of choice.

Thus, if you want to use Facebook as the vehicle for your content, post articles that are meant to entertain, provide useful information, and presented in a less formal tone.

In LinkedIn, opinion posts carry more value. For example, if you are in the real estate business, share your opinions on property price trends and the direction of the prime lending rate.

Your choice of social media platforms should have the community, the culture, and the ideal conditions to support your overall social media marketing goals.

There are many social media analytics tools that you can use to measure the performance of your posts. In addition, every social media network has its own built-in analytics. You can use these analytics tools to assess the performance of your posts.

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Here is a summary of the key metrics that you should look into when using any of the following popular social media analytics tools for each network:

1. Facebook

  • Likes – A “like” can be as good as a comment. Take note of the use of emoticons.
  • Comments – Negative comments can give you clues on what to improve on your content.
  • Shares – The higher the number of shares the greater the probability of your content going viral.
  • Referral Traffic – If more people are visiting your website because of your Facebook content, it means you are considered a valuable or credible source of information.
  • Page Views – More page views mean higher exposure for your brand.
  • Engagement Rate – A high engagement rate means more people are interested in your content.
  • Video Metrics – Measures how long people watch your posted video-based content.
  • Page Fan Growth – Focus on your page’s organic growth. The number of followers reflects your status as an authority figure in the industry.
  • Conversions – Measures the level of the persuasiveness of your copy. If your Facebook post leads to a web page with conversion intent, use Google Analytics to monitor the rate of conversions.

2. Twitter

  • Retweets – The higher the number of retweets the greater the opportunity for your tweet to build a larger audience.
  • Replies – Signifies level of engagement; it will let you know if your tweet has resonated with other people in your community.
  • Tweets Linking to You – Measures the number of people talking about your tweet and sharing it with their community.
  • Tweet Likes – Shows you how many people appreciate your content.
  • Tweet Impressions – In a high activity network like Twitter, visibility is very important. The more views, the better for your content and brand building goal.
  • Profile Visits – Gives you an idea of how many people are becoming interested in your business, products, and services.

3. LinkedIn

  • Impressions – Measures how many community members have seen your content.
  • Clicks – The higher the number of clicks, the greater the probability of driving traffic to your website.
  • Interactions – Indicates the level of interest in your content.
  • Engagement Rate – Gives you an idea of the value of your content to its viewers.
  • Visitor Demographics – Gives you an idea of the demographics of the people viewing your content.

4. Instagram

  • Likes – In Instagram, getting a “like” carries more weight compared to Facebook or any other social media network because there are very few data points available in this platform.
  • Comments – Positive comments help your brand became more influential.
  • Engagement Rate – The higher the number, the greater the level of interest in your content.
  • Total Followers – More followers mean greater opportunities to increase the visibility of your brand.

Conclusion

By having a better understanding of your social media data, you will be able to spot trends, identify the posts that are performing very well, and pinpoint flaws in your campaign.

Without analytics, you will miss out on potential opportunities to improve your audience’s overall experience in your social media platforms. You might not be able to catch red flags that could greatly compromise your digital marketing objectives.

It takes tremendous time, effort, and resources to create social media content. For example, a well-researched 2,400-word blog will take around 4 hours to write.

Social media analytics will give your content creation process direction and strategy. It will ensure that your efforts will yield ROI by guiding you to create content that produces the intended results.

Did you enjoy our article? If you have ideas and suggestions on how to effectively use social media analytics, please feel free to share them in our comments section.

If you’re interested in implementing digital marketing strategies for your business, give us a call. We’ll gladly give you a free 30-minute consultation and let you know how our expertise and experience in digital marketing can help take your business to the next level.

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How To Read Your Google Analytics

Google analytics is an online tool that we always tell our clients to have on their website. It is that important! Analytics is perhaps the biggest reason why digital marketing is more effective than traditional marketing methods. It gives you real time and highly-accurate data on your website’s performance. Analytics will track and measure the performance of your digital marketing campaign:

  • Which digital marketing strategies are working?
  • If so, which processes are generating the highest ROI?
  • Where are my site visitors coming from?
  • Which online channels do they frequently use to access my website?
  • How long do they stay on my website?
  • Which types of content interest my site visitors the most?
  • How often do site visitors abandon the transaction at the checkout counter? (For e-commerce businesses)

The answers to these questions will give you valuable insights about your audience. Analytics provides you with hard data that will describe the online behavior of the people who visit your website.

In so doing, you will have empirical basis for improving the performance of your digital marketing campaign. You will know how to make your content better and the most effective channels for distribution. Likewise, you will have the necessary information to fine-tune your digital marketing budget.

There are a number of analytics tools available on the Internet. However, let us save you the time and effort. Just set up Google Analytics for your website. It is quite simply, the best.

What Is Google Analytics?

When our clients hear the word, “Analytics”, they shake their heads.

“We’re not techies. We’re just entrepreneurs. We can’t make heads or tails of all those numbers.”

That’s exactly why we always recommend Google Analytics for our clients. It is easy to set up and simple to use. Best of all, it is free!

Google Analytics is an online tool that collects and generates accurate statistics on website activity. Every time someone visits your website, Google Analytics stores first party cookies on his/her computer. These cookies allow Google to aggregate visitor information in your account.

How does Google Analytics do its job?

It is connected to your website through the use of a tracking code made from Javascript. Google Analytics should be installed on every page of your website that you want to monitor.

Is Google Analytics the preferred analytics tool of businesses? Here are some of the data that was revealed in a study by MarketingLand.com:

The methods for evaluating Google Analytics usage may differ but the conclusion is the same.

Google Analytics is the most popular online analytics tool for businesses.

How To Read Your Google Analytics

We mentioned earlier that Google Analytics is easy and simple to use. Please allow us to clarify our statement. It is easy and simple to use.  However, like all first experiences understanding Google Analytics will take some time and regular use in order to develop proficiency.

After all, Google Analytics is a skill. To learn a skill, you must constantly work on it. Eventually, with time and enough repetitions under your belt, you will become more comfortable with Google Analytics. Going through its reports will just be second nature.

The first step in learning how to read your Google Analytics is to understand some of its terminologies:

  • Visits – Measures the total number of visits to your website by a user during a specific reporting period.
  • Unique Visitors – A unique visitor is a person who visits your website for the first time during a specific reporting period. Successive visits in the same period will be considered “additional visits”.
  • Pageviews – Tracks the total number of pages that were viewed on your website.
  • Pages/Visit – Measures the average number of pages that were viewed by the user.
  • Average Visit Duration – Gives you data on the amount of time spent by users every time they visit your website.
  • Bounce Rate – Measures the number of times a user visits one page then clicks out of your website.
  • New Visitor vs. Returning Visitor – Allows you to compare and analyze the ratio or new visitors to returning visitors to your website.
  • City – Identifies the top 10 cities where your visitors come from.
  • Page Title – Google Analytics will list the pages viewed by site visitors from highest to lowest.
  • Average Time on Page – Measures the amount of time a visitor spent on a specific page that is on the list.
  • Entrances – Enumerates the number of times a specific page in the list was visited first by site users during the period of reporting.
  • % Exit – Identifies the number of times a specific page in the list was the last page visited by the user before leaving your website.
  • Page Value – Used exclusively by those with an e-commerce website in determining transaction values.
  • Source – Identifies which channels are referring sources to your website during the reporting period.
  • Visits – Measures the total number of visits that were sent to your website from the each respective source.
  • % New Visits – The percentage of visits that originated from the respective source identified in the list during the period of reporting.

Once your account has been set up, you will start receiving data from Google Analytics. When you log-in to your account, the first stop will be the Audience Overview report.

Just to pre-empt your surprise, Google Analytics can provide you with more than 50 types of reports. It can get overwhelming especially for first-timers. If you want to open the other reports, you can do so by simply clicking on the “Reporting” link that is located at the top of the page.

We will not have the space to discuss all 50 reports from Google Analytics. However, we can go through 3 types of reports that every first- time user of Google Analytics should get familiar with right away.

Audience Reports

If you want to get a detailed report on your website visitors, the Audience Report feature of Google Analytics will tell you everything you need to know. It will provide you key analytics data on specific characteristics of your site visitor. This data includes the following information:

  • Demographics – Population characteristics such as age and gender.
  • General Interests – What hobbies or interests your visitors are preoccupied with.
  • Location – Where your site visitors come from.
  • Language – The breakdown on languages that your site visitors speak or are proficient at.
  • Behavior – How often visitors go to your website
  • Technology – How your visitors access your website.

Acquisition Reports

As a business owner, it is important for you to know how your visitors came to be at your website. More specifically, you should know what made them want to click onto your website link.

Google Analytics’ Acquisition Reports feature will tell you everything you need to know about your website’s traffic. You will find out where your traffic is coming from. From here, you will be able to pinpoint which online channels are most effective in generating traffic.

This is particularly important if you have a varied Digital Marketing strategy that uses social media marketing, PPC or Pay- Per- Click advertising, and content marketing.

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Behavior Reports

If you want to know how your site visitors respond or react about the content that you have published, use Google Analytics’ Behavior Reports. You will get hard data on the following key pieces of information:

  • The volume of traffic your website receives.
  • How visitors navigate your website upon entry; where do they land and which pages they explore next.
  • Your top performing content in terms of the amount of revenue it has generated.
  • The top entry points of your website; which pages are most often used by visitors to enter your website.
  • The last page users visit in your website before they click out; the data presented here will help you come up with ways to keep your visitors in your site much longer.
  • The loading time of your website. You will know if you need to increase site speed or not. Generally, a fast-loading website is better than one that is slow-loading.
  • The keywords used by site visitors to find your website.

The data provided by the Behavior Reports are crucial in helping you fine-tune the types of content that should be published in your website and social media accounts.

Again, keep in mind that Google Analytics has a large volume of reports to choose from. Other reports that you may wish to access include the following:

  • Mobile Report – Provides key data that lets you know how well your website is optimized for mobile devices. Why is this important? For the reason that mobile now accounts for more than 65% of online traffic, you should be sure that your website is fully mobile-responsive.
  • Traffic Acquisition Report – This report will give you hard data on how your digital marketing strategies are performing. You will see if the blog you spent 7 hours researching, writing, and editing is bringing in enough traffic to your website. If you have invested in PPC ads, you will know which ones are being clicked on by viewers.
  • Content Efficiency Report – How big is content marketing today? Google Analytics has its Content Efficiency Report to give you more data on how your content is performing. You will know which type of content is generating the highest levels of engagement. You will also find out which of your content is being shared more often by your followers.
  • Keyword Analysis Report – Keywords are a key component for content optimization. The Keyword Analysis Report will let you know the most popular keywords used by visitors to access your website.
  • New vs. Returning Visitors Report – Knowing that you have returning visitors is great for any business. It means they enjoyed the initial experience and are back for more. How important is this data? Returning visitors will tend to stay longer on your site thereby lowering your bounce rate.

Conclusion – What Are The Benefits Of Having Google Analytics?

Despite the overwhelming number of websites that use Google Analytics, as website developers, we find it incredulous that there are still websites that do not use Google Analytics.

A website remains static unless it is acted upon by online processes that drive traffic to it. This is why if you have a website, you should promote your business with Digital Marketing tools, techniques, and processes. You should be creating content via blogs, articles, videos, and product reviews that meet the interest of your target audience.

Google Analytics is an online tool that can help sharpen your Digital Marketing strategy. It will point out its strengths and iron out its flaws. If you own a website, you should install Google Analytics. Remember, it is for free!

As easy as it is to install, we will be more than happy to help you set up your own Google Analytics account. We will also take the time to get you through the process of understanding the different analytics reports and how you can apply them to your business.

Simply give us a call or drop us an email and we will have your Google Analytics account set up in no time at all!

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5 Signs Your Digital Marketing Agency is Ripping You Off

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Digital Marketing is an effective way to promote your business. It is definitely a smart move to outsource your digital marketing to an agency. Even if you have the experience and expertise, your time is best allocated to managing key business functions. Digital marketing agencies not only have the experience and the expertise. They also have the right people to get the job done right. However, the industry is not insured against scammers. How do you know if you are getting ripped off by your Digital Marketing agency?

If you keep buying new hardware from the computer technician and your PC still does not run well, chances you are getting scammed. If your car continues to break down one week after getting it back from the shop, the car repairman could be milking you of your month’s salary. Other than the cost, getting ripped off by supposed “professional” service providers can be a very infuriating experience.

All you want to do is earn an honest living. You put in the time at work so you can generate enough money to pay off your bills, support your family, and live a comfortable life. Sadly, there are people whose business it is to live off your hard work.

They pass themselves off as honest, working-class people; proprietors of an honest business just like you. However, what we don’t see behind the beautiful website home page, the office signages, and the welcome, “sunshine smile” is the ulterior motive.

These are scammers; people who want to make as much money off you through deceptive business practices.

Scammers lurk in every industry, including digital marketing. The people who do this are not beginners. Most of them have been doing this all their lives. How else could they pull it off without remorse or guilt?

They know how to scope out their victims. Just like a shark that nudges its prey before devouring it, these scammers have ways to find out if you are ready for the taking.

If you are not careful, you could end up becoming a statistic. You may become the new notch on their belt and several thousand dollars poorer.

5 Signs Your Digital Marketing Agency Is Ripping You Off

Marketing is an essential component of a business development strategy. This is particularly true for startups. You cannot expect your business to gain traction if you do not promote it through multiple channels.

The process of marketing does not end once the cash registers start ringing. On the contrary, you will have to step it up. Now, you are part of the industry-wide race for customers.

However, you must be smart about your approach to Digital Marketing. Success isn’t contingent on the size of your marketing budget. It comes down to designing strategy, implementing it, and making sure there are contingencies in place to keep the campaign on the right track.

The fact of the matter is, you are at the mercy of your Digital Marketing agency. They are the experts. They have the experience, the knowledge, and the manpower to manage an effective Digital Marketing campaign.

The harsh reality is not every Digital Marketing agency can be trusted. This is a burgeoning industry that creates opportunities for growth for both the client and the service provider. If you are not careful, the success of the Digital Marketing agency will come at your expense.

Here are 5 signs that you are getting ripped off by your digital marketing agency:

1. No Numbers To Support Digital Marketing Campaign’s Performance

In view of all of its advantages over traditional marketing, there is one benefit of Digital Marketing that stands out above the rest. This is Digital Marketing’s ability to track the campaign’s performance and provide you with accurate numbers in real time.

Having numbers allows you to monitor which strategies are working; which ones are contributing to your targeted goal and generating ROI. Real-time data also gives you a better idea of your audience demographics and their online behavioral patterns.

Who are reading the blogs? Where do they come from? How do they access your content? Which time of day and night are they most active? How many of my targeted audience has pushed through with my Call-to-Action?

The Digital Marketing agency should provide you with numbers as the basis for assessing the performance of the campaign. A reputable agency is one that is willing to take you through the entire process. And part of the process is realizing that results take time to achieve.

An honest Digital Marketing agency is not afraid to show you that every campaign goes through growth stages. That even the best agencies in the business make mistakes.

However, the advantage of Digital Marketing is that the availability of analytics; these numbers being presented to you, makes it possible for the agency to implement changes in the campaign.

Remember the old saying in business development, “Strategy follows numbers; not the other way around.”

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2. The Digital Marketing Agency Does Not Discuss Worst-Case Scenarios

Who wouldn’t want to have a Digital Marketing campaign that generates thousands of dollars from the get-go? However, the harsh reality is that like all ventures, Digital Marketing is a process and all processes take time to bear fruit.

Spurious Digital Marketing agencies will prey on your natural tendency to view only the rosy picture. As a matter of fact, you should be able to spot them as early as the initial presentation.

They probably used a lot of flash and fluff in their PowerPoint; presented big, extravagant keywords and industry buzzwords to convince you that success is guaranteed.

Agencies that focus only on the upsides of the campaign during their project presentation without mentioning the downsides are probably out to scam you.

There is no such thing as the “Perfect Plan”. Especially not in this age of the Internet where every consumer has immediate access to information. People’s tastes and preferences can change without warning. The demographics that were used to create your Buyer’s Persona could change during the campaign.

A trustworthy Digital Marketing agency will discuss the risks in the campaign. They will not paint a rosy picture but instead, they will present a real picture of what you should expect or anticipate. Instead of hyping up results, they want to moderate expectations.

3. Contingency Plans Are Not Discussed

In line with discussing with you the downsides or risks of the campaign are the contingency plans. These are the alternative courses of action that you can take should the initial plan’s performance turn contrary to expectations.

The best way to counter unpredictable markets is to adopt flexible business strategies. This applies to marketing as well. Rigid or highly-structured, tightly-organized strategies will not give you the mobility needed to change course.

Honest Digital Marketing agencies know the importance of having flexible marketing strategies in place. They have prepared contingency plans that can be implemented at any time during the campaign.

If worst-case scenarios were discussed beforehand, the contingency plans are there to assure you the Digital Marketing team will know what to do should any of the undesirable scenarios take place.

4. Digital Marketing Agency Pushes You To “Go Big” Right Off The Bat

If a Digital Marketing agency tells you to “Go big or go home”, or passes this line by you, “Digital marketing is an investment; the larger the investment, the higher the return”, terminate the meeting right away and tell the ad agency to go home.

Another great thing about Digital Marketing is that it is scalable. You can easily add new processes to its framework once analytics validate that results are becoming more consistent. Likewise, you can remove processes that are not generating significant ROI.

A Digital Marketing agency that pushes you to do a massive, ambitious campaign right away with all the bells and whistles, is only thinking about their company’s interests.

There is a direct relationship between the size of your campaign and the needed investment. Put simply, you will need a larger budget to pull off an ambitious campaign.

Every process that is added unto the initial Digital Marketing framework only guarantees one party in the agreement of sure-fire earnings: The agency. You will be footing their bill while the fate of your campaign remains shrouded in uncertainty.

The truth is you don’t have to go big with Digital Marketing right away.

Social media marketing is one of the cornerstones of a sound Digital Marketing strategy. At Mountaintop, we advise our Digital Marketing to choose only 2 to 3 social media marketing platforms to start out with.

Having only 2 to 3 social media platforms to monitor makes it easier to track performance. We also lessen the client’s exposure to risk. With regular analytics and campaign benchmarking, we can determine with greater certainty if we should add or remove processes to the campaign.

5. Your Approval Is Sought On Every Decision

As the client, it is within reason for the agency to discuss any change in plans with you. That is, after all, professional courtesy. However, be wary if your Digital Marketing agency always seeks your stamp of approval in every decision.

Isn’t the Digital Marketing agency the expert in this arrangement? Even if the client funds the campaign, he/she will not be in the best position to give the right call every time.

When the agency seeks your go-signal before implementing a plan or course of action, it may only be doing so to pass accountability to you. If something goes wrong, the agency can just tell you, “Well, you approved it.” On the other hand, if the plan is a success, the agency will bask in the glory and take credit for it.

The keyword in Digital Marketing is collaboration. The agency is the architect of the campaign. The client trusts that his/her best interests will be served by the agency.

The agency should exhibit transparency even before the campaign gets rolling. While no one can predict the outcomes of a Digital Marketing strategy, the agency is responsible for setting expectations. This includes discussing scenarios that run adverse to the campaign and the alternative courses of action.

Conclusion

Because of the popularity of the Internet, mobile technology, and the influence of social media, digital marketing has assumed a more prominent role in the advertising budget. Companies spend millions; even billions, to run the best digital marketing campaigns through the Internet.

A successful digital marketing campaign will give you significant returns on your investment. In contrast, a poorly managed one will result in huge monetary losses.

It can happen to anyone. Even major companies like Procter & Gamble which in 2017 terminated more than $100 Million in ad agreements with agencies that needlessly wasted the company’s money.

For a company like Procter and Gamble which makes $16 Billion in a quarter, $100 Million must feel like a drop in the bucket. The same cannot be said for small to medium- sized businesses that go through unpredictable streams of income and have limited access to capital.

Digital marketing provides small and medium- sized businesses the most cost-efficient marketing option to promote their products and services.

Content such as blogs and videos can be distributed through social media and other Internet-based channels which can reach a wider audience at minimal cost. Pay-per-click (PPC) digital ads target a specific audience. You will only pay for the ad whenever someone clicks on them.

Likewise, content is reusable and therefore, sustainable. The content that you post today can be published 6 months later and still elicit positive results.

For the reason that small and medium scale businesses have limited capital, they should be more careful when dealing with digital marketing agencies. Not only will they fail to achieve their marketing goals, but they will be ripped off and lose hard-earned money.

Have you ever experienced being ripped off by your Digital Marketing agency? Please feel free to share your thoughts on the comments section provided below.

If you want to know more about our Digital Marketing services, please give us a call or drop us an email.

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How to Set Up a Low Budget but Highly Effective Digital Marketing Campaign

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If you own a startup that secured venture capital in the hundreds of thousands or perhaps in the millions, then congratulations are in order. The truth is many startups and small businesses operate on a shoestring budget. As a consequence, key business strategies such as Digital Marketing are either placed on the wayside or allocated with barely enough resources to get it running effectively. According to data collected by Small Business Trends, 82% of startups are self-funded or secure capital from personal savings or family and friends.

With limited access to capital, the small business owner becomes limited to what he/she can do to support revenue generation strategies. In this day and age where 50% of the world’s population is online everyday, it becomes more imperative for businesses to embark on a Digital Marketing campaign.

But the cost of digital marketing has been rising. Adobe Digital’s 2017 Digital Advertising Report showed that the cost of digital marketing has been increasing at a rate that is five times faster than U.S. inflation and 71% faster than the cost of television ads.

And as competition in the digital landscape continues to get tighter, expect marketing costs to climb higher.

SEO practitioners have to frequently revise optimization strategies while writers have to produce relevant, engaging and usable content for their audience on a consistent basis.   

When digital marketing costs rise, so does the pressure of generating an ROI for your efforts.

Given the capital constraints on small business owners, is it still possible for them to set up a digital marketing campaign?

5 Tips on How to Develop a Low Budget but High Performing Digital Marketing Campaign

The answer is “Yes”! The key is to set up your Digital Marketing campaign on these five principles:

1. Learn What You Can About Digital Marketing

Like what we discussed in our article, “How People Get Ripped Off by Digital Marketing Agencies”, in order to reduce the risk of catastrophic digital marketing experience, you have to learn everything you can about it. You don’t have to be an expert.

You don’t have to get certified in SEO, SEM or Social Media Marketing. All you need is to have a firm understanding of the process and how all its component parts work together to create a successful digital marketing campaign.

2. Keep it Simple

A digital marketing strategy can consist of a combination of different tools and techniques. But you don’t have to use every Internet- based platform to ensure an effective digital marketing strategy.

If you have limited funds, it only makes sense to allocate your capital to a few processes so you can maximize the return. Another benefit of small scale digital marketing is that it is easier to track performance.

3. Manage Your Time Wisely

Accounting is an important function for every business. But it is not just money that you should keep track of. You should also account for how you budget your time.

The saying is true, “Time is money”. The more efficient you are with time, the more productive you can be. As a business owner, the bulk of your waking hours should be devoted to running the core functions of your business; the activities that translate to dollars and cents in your bank account.

Digital marketing is not a discipline you can learn from YouTube or self-help books. You need more than technical and fundamental competence. You need experience. Instead of doing digital marketing yourself, outsource it to experienced third party service providers.

A digital marketing agency has the advantage of having web designers, content writers, graphic designers and specialists in SEO, SEM and SMM. Many agencies also have flexible payment options so you can stretch out your budget.

4. Be Consistent

Even if you decided to outsource your digital marketing campaign to a third party service provider, be involved by staying consistent with the strategy.

In most, if not all cases, the success of a digital marketing campaign rests on your ability to deliver results or what has been promised in your content.

If you want your audience to know that your company consistently addresses all issues and concerns, then make sure your customer service channels are on the ball at all times.

If you want your end users to remain confident on the quality of your goods and services, take the necessary steps to ensure that there is no compromise on craftsmanship or detail from day one.

Before embarking on a digital marketing campaign make sure you are committed to meet the expectations of your target audience.

5. Track Your Performance

The knock on marketing before 2004 was that it was difficult to track performance. We are referring to traditional marketing methods.

All of that went out the window when the Internet became accessible to almost everyone on the planet in 2000 and broadband technology took off in 2004.

With digital marketing you can track the performance of your campaign through web analytics. Get real time data and find empirical bases for your decision-making.

Again, this is where contracting the services of a digital marketing agency is a big advantage.

They have web development experts who can analyze data from your website and give you an orientation on how the campaign has been playing out.

They can provide you with weekly or monthly reports that you can study and use as reference for any changes in strategy. In time and with consistency, you will also become proficient in web analytics.

Now that you have the foundation of your digital marketing strategy setup, it’s time to look at the processes and techniques you can use to run your simple but effective campaign:

1. Invest in a Mobile Responsive Website

It will be difficult; almost impossible to run a successful digital marketing campaign without a website.

Even if you came up with highly-visible social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, where will the engagements terminate?

Your website is the centerpiece in the digital marketing campaign because it represents your business on the Internet. The website is the terminating point for all the inbound traffic that we hope to create through digital marketing.

But it is not enough to just have a website. It must be mobile responsive or have the ability to accommodate devices with varying screen sizes. If you want to learn more about mobile responsive design, check out our article, “Why Your Website Needs Mobile Responsive Design”.

Keep in mind that 75% of all online traffic today originates from mobile devices. If your website cannot be accessed by a smartphone or a tablet, you will potentially lose business as well as industry credibility.

2. Focus on Organic SEO

Search Engine Optimization sounds so technical, most businesses think it is expensive. That may be true when it comes to paid search. But if you focus only on organic SEO, you can help your website move up the search rankings with only a few simple steps:

  • Open a Google Webmaster Account – All you need to do is register and verify your domain name. Google will point out what you need to do to boost your site’s rankings.
  • Use Keywords Judiciously and Strategically – Keywords are the words and phrases that are popularly used to launch a search query. Google prefers long tail keywords which are more descriptive. But don’t overstuff your content with keywords. The accepted ratio is 2% for every 1,000 words.
  • Write Long Form Blogs – Google rewards websites that feature long form blogs or those that average 1,500 to 2,400 words. The advantage of long form blogs is that as a longer read, your visitor would spend more time in your site. Second, if your content is informative and usable, it establishes your site as a valuable reference.

3. Build Up and Leverage Your Content

Content is the cornerstone of digital marketing. People will continue to consume more content in the coming years as they become more dependent on the Internet. Therefore you should likewise focus on building a content creation strategy.

Content isn’t just blogging or article writing. Videos are a big part of a content-based strategy.

As we wrote about in our article, “How to Use Video Content in Marketing”, the use of videos can significantly enhance your online marketing strategy. You can also leverage your content in a number of ways:

  • Share your blog on social media and link it back to your website.
  • Create an infographic or video that presents your content in a visual medium.
  • Create tiles or graphics filled with powerful quotes from your blog and share it on Pinterest.

4. Utilize the Power of Social Media

Of the 3.8 Million people on the Internet everyday, 3.03 Billion or 79% of them are on social media. While experience is necessary to be able to harness social media’s power, you can generate traction for your efforts by implementing a few simple strategies:

  • Choose no more than 2 to 3 social media platforms to start out with. These networks do not function or cater to the same audience. Focus on the platforms that are more appropriate for your business. For example, if you sell merchandise, a more visual platform like Instagram or Pinterest would offer more benefits for your business.
  • Use the analytics tool that come with the platform to track the performance of your social media efforts. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have built-in analytics.
  • Find key influencers and engage with them. Influencers have tons of followers in your industry. They present a great avenue to enhance your online presence as well as leverage your content. Share their content whenever you can and engage them as often as possible so you can establish a good relationship.

5. Engage Your Audience

When you publish content online, be prepared to receive a wide range of comments some of which may be unflattering. But in marketing, there in no such thing as negative publicity. You can still extract long term benefits from unfavourable comments through smart engagement strategies.

First, regardless of how the comment was phrased, remain professional at all times. Just tell yourself the commenter took the time to read through your content. The least you could do is be courteous and respectful.

Second, encourage the commenter to follow your page and remind him/her that all comments are welcome and appreciated. It is through engagement that you will be able to establish relationships and followers. From there you can build email lists and new social communities.

Conclusion

We only presented five strategies you can use for your low cost, high performance digital marketing campaign. The truth is there are other processes and techniques that you can use which won’t cost you much money. These include using PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising, co-hosting an online event and investing in social networking ads.

But as we mentioned earlier, if you’re getting your feet wet in digital marketing, it is always better to start out small and keep things simple. Once you’ve added years of experience on your belt, you can branch out and incorporate other methods of digital marketing.

If you’re interested in getting your digital marketing campaign rolling, give us a call or drop us an email. We have very talented people onboard our digital marketing team: web designers, graphic artists, social media experts, content writers and professionals in the fields of SEO and SEM.

By having Mountaintop manage your digital marketing campaign, you can focus 100% of your time on your business. We will keep you in the loop by providing you with regular reports and schedule time to discuss the current performance of your campaign.

We will be more than happy to guide you through the process and answer other questions and concerns you might have about digital marketing.

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How To Launch A $100 Digital Marketing Campaign

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If you’re planning to start a business, digital marketing should be included in your budget. It is the best way to promote your products and services to your target market. However, digital marketing costs money. If like most entrepreneurs, you have limited capital, don’t worry. In this article, we will show you how to launch a digital marketing campaign for $100!

According to reports compiled from Forrester and eMarketer by Web Strategies, in 2018 businesses will allocate around 11% of their budgets to marketing. 45% will be dedicated to online marketing strategies.

But what if all you can afford is $100? Can you still run a campaign and get 100% results?

The answer to the first part of the question is “Yes”.

One of the benefits of digital marketing is flexibility. As we will discuss later in this article, it has the advantage of having onsite analytics which you can use to track the performance of your campaign in real time.

Analytics allows you to see which strategies are generating good Return on Investment (ROI) and which ones are not.

As for the second part, even if your budget runs in the millions of dollars, there are no guarantees in marketing.

Success in digital marketing will depend on the effort you put in. With such a tight budget, your margins for error will be quite small. You will have to be more strategic and purposeful in your approach.

Always keep your budget in mind. Don’t get swayed by the latest email marketing software or pushed to purchase the most expensive keyword phrases. Digital marketing opens up a treasure chest of tools and techniques. Some of them won’t even cost you a cent.

Now let’s get started!

1. No Website? No Problem!

The website is an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. It is basically your office address on the Internet; the place where potential customers click on to learn more about your products and services.

We discussed the advantages of having a website in our article, “What Type of Website Does Your Business Need?”. Building a website will certainly entail an investment.

But even if you don’t have enough capital to fund a website at this point, you should still buy a domain. A domain is simply the name of your website. The costs of registering a domain name can vary. You can acquire one for as little as $10 per year.

Once your domain name has been registered, you can use it as your professional email address and have it indicated on your calling card. The domain can also forward to your social media accounts until such time that you have the resources to set up your website.

2. Promote Your Business Via Social Media

With more than 3 billion users per day, social media has become a very powerful driver of business. Social media marketing can help you generate leads, improve sales conversions and enhance your credibility in the industry.

There are a number of social media networks to choose from. The most popular platforms and their community sizes are as follows:

  • Facebook – 2.061 Billion
  • YouTube – 1.5 Billion
  • Instagram – 800 Million
  • Twitter – 330 Million
  • Reddit – 250 Million
  • Pinterest – 200 Million

Looking at the list, it may seem that the wise move would be to set up accounts with the largest networks. But when it comes to social media marketing, size does not always matter.

You should select the social media networks that have the features to support your marketing objectives and that match the platform used by your target audience.

For example:

  • Facebook, Twitter – If your goal is to build brand awareness and distribute content.
  • YouTube, Instagram – If you plan to integrate video and picture content in your marketing campaign.
  • Instagram, Pinterest – If your business deals with visual-heavy merchandise such as fashion apparel, jewelry and health supplements.
  • Facebook, LinkedIn – If you want to connect with influencers in your industry.

It will not cost you a cent to open a social media account. But you need to invest time and effort managing the accounts especially when it comes to creating content and engaging with followers.

3. Register Your Business In An Online Directory

When an Internet user wants to look for a specific product or service, the search will begin with an online query.

By registering your business in an online directory, its name could come up in the search engine’s “map pack”.

What is a map pack? This is the list of establishments or businesses that are included in the results page provided by the search engine.

For example, if an Internet user does a search for personal fitness trainers in Cardiff, Google would produce a map pack that looks like this:

(Image courtesy of https://www.totalcoaching.com/blog/seo-guide-personal-trainers)

As Google is the largest search engine on the Internet. It makes perfect sense to sign your business up with Google’s online directory.

This is very easy to do and signing up is for free. All you need is to register your business at GoogleMyBusiness.

When registering your business, make sure you are providing accurate and updated contact information:

  • Business Name
  • Business Address
  • Business Phone Number
  • Website Link
  • Email Address
  • Categories
  • Business Description

Google will send you a validation code via postal mail to confirm your business address.  

4. Identify Your Target Market

Content creation is a very important component of an effective digital marketing strategy. There are many types of content. You can produce blogs, videos and even podcasts.

But the first thing you need to do is identify the target market for your content. You have to create a buyer’s profile. This is the segment of your market with the highest probability of being converted from followers to paying customers.

Assuming you don’t have a website, here are 4 ways to pinpoint the buying characteristics of your target market:

  • Review your current level of content in your social media accounts. Determine which posts have generated the highest levels of engagement, likes and shares.
  • Check out the social media accounts of your most active followers and observe the types of content they post. Instagram and Facebook are great sources for identifying customer online behavioral patterns.
  • Visit the social media pages of your closest competitors. Take note of the topics they frequently post or blog about. Find out the types of content that generate the highest amount of engagement, likes and shares from their followers.
  • Conduct a survey within your community. Ask them about the topics they would want you to cover in your blogs and articles.

These strategies will not cost you anything because you can conduct them through social media or email.

5. Sharpen Your Writing Skills

Blogging is widely regarded as the cornerstone in the content marketing process. A well-crafted blog that is informative, relevant and usable to the audience will surely help enhance your reputation as an expert in your industry. Blogs are proven drivers of inbound traffic.

But many entrepreneurs are hesitant to blog because they don’t believe they have the writing skills. The truth is everyone has the ability to write a great blog. All you need is practice!

Writing is a learned skill. Like shooting a basketball, hitting a golf ball or hitting a backhand return in tennis, you simply have to keep practicing in order to get better. The more you write, the better you will get:

  • Set a specific time in the day for writing; 60 to 90 minutes a day of uninterrupted writing should suffice.
  • Choose a topic that you are familiar with and related to your business. It should be relevant to your buyer’s profile.
  • Establish a structure for writing. For example, create an outline first. Then research for reference links.
  • Learn to write for your audience; this means avoid using technical jargon. Remember, you should assume that you are the expert and your readers want to learn from you. Write in a language they can understand.
  • Review your work and watch out for grammatical and spelling errors.
  • Ask 2 to 3 of your most trusted friends or family to comment on your writing.

The other aspects of content writing such as the use of keywords can be learned at another time. For now, focus on developing basic writing skills.

Once you have become more confident with your writing skills, start a blogging schedule:

Blogging takes time and effort. You have to do accurate research to make sure you are sharing facts that are well supported by reliable evidence. You also have to focus on writing original content. This means avoiding the risk of copying another writer’s content.

If you don’t have a website yet, you can use the blogging platform provided by LinkedIn then share it to your other social media accounts.

6. Track Your Performance Using Analytics

As we mentioned earlier in this article, digital marketing has the advantage of web analytics to help you track the performance of your campaign.

Web analytics are programs used to collect valuable data from your website or social media accounts. The collected data will help you better understand how your website is performing by answering these questions:

  • Where is the bulk of my traffic coming from?
  • Which pages have the highest visits?
  • What types of content are being read more often?

Analytics can identify potential problems that are hindering the campaign’s progress. It will tell you which techniques are working and which ones aren’t. This way you have solid bases for realigning your digital marketing budget. You can put more resources on strategies that result in higher ROI.

Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have built-in analytics. You can also download offsite analytics tools free of charge.

It may seem complicated at first but in time and with consistency, you will get better at evaluating analytics.

7. Expand Your Network

Networking is a proven way of building your business by connecting with key people in your industry. One of the most effective social networking sites is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is the preferred social network of professionals. There are a number of ways you can build your business through this platform:

  • LinkedIn has a blogging feature which allows you to post blogs and share it with those in your community.
  • You can customize the parameters of your search so you can connect with community members who fit your buyer’s profile, target demographic or those who hold influential positions in the industry.
  • Sign up and engage regularly with community focus groups that are directly involved with your industry.
  • Post relevant content at least once a day in order to stay top-of-mind with your community.

Although signing up for LinkedIn is for free, its features for customizing search parameters will require a monthly subscription fee that ranges from $29.99 to $79.99.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are other effective social media networks you can use to connect with key influencers and expand your community.

Conclusion

Digital marketing gives you the most efficient way of reaching your target market by capitalizing on the power of the Internet. Because digital marketing primarily uses Internet-based tools to run its campaigns, it will be easier on your budget as most of these processes are free.

Finally, the benefit of having web analytics allows you to identify weak points in your campaign so you can further streamline your budget.

The biggest investment you will make in running a digital marketing campaign is time. You will have to spend time to become a more proficient writer. As your campaign gains traction, you will have to double up on your efforts.

If you want to learn more about running an effective but low budget digital marketing program, please give us a call or drop us an email.

We will gladly take you through the process of planning a well-thought out and highly efficient digital marketing campaign.

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