google-analytics
google-analytics

www.vicimediainc.com

As a business owner, you’ve probably heard of a little thing called Google Analytics. Google Analytics (or GA) collects data such as referral traffic, paid search traffic, social traffic, and more to help you track where your visitors are coming from and what they’re doing. But these default reports just barely scratch the surface of what Google Analytics has to offer.

In fact, if you just use the defaults and regular configurations, you’re only utilizing 30% of what Google Analytics has to offer.

Let’s talk about the other 70%: Google Analytics Custom Reports.

Like its name, a custom GA report is one that you create and customize based on the information you need. You can create your own report or you can utilize the reports from the Google Solutions Gallery – which allows you to access to custom reports created by others.

Here are five GA custom reports created by the experts that you can either import into your own account or re-create to customize further.

Site Speed Metrics by Browser & Browser Version

This site performance custom reports allows you to identify browsers or versions of browsers that have slow load times. You’ll want to keep a close eye on how long before the page is actually usable, known as the average document interactive time. Make sure your site is loading quickly to keep your bounce rate low – especially since slow sites are a conversion killer.

Metrics by Day of Week Name & Name

This custom report is great for finding out when an online store or site is most active. This is especially helpful if you’re planning to run a promotion or flash sale. It’ll show you the day of the week and even hour of the day when your customers are most active on your site.

Paid vs. Organic Search Performance

If you’re running a paid advertisement, this custom report is a must-have. It allows you to take a peek into the user experience of both paid ads and organic search. You will be able to see the behavioral differences between the two and learn ways to improve user experience.

All Campaigns: Cost Analysis

This custom report allows you to see how much you spent on an ad, how often it appeared, how many people clicked on it, the per session value, the cost per click, and more.

PPC Keyword/Matched Query Report

If you’re looking to find out which queries are being matched to your ad, this report will do the trick. It’ll give you an understanding of what PPC type – exact, phrase, broad – you should use in order to keep your ads relevant.

Whether you plan on creating your own custom Google Analytics report or using one of the above ones, you’ll gain insight into your customers behavior so you can take your business to the next level.

In need of some marketing help? Let Retaliate1st help. We offer services such as search engine optimization, content marketing, and social media. Learn more about our services here.

marketing-ahead-of-curve-1
marketing-ahead-of-curve-1

businessmarketingworld.com

Marketing is ever-changing. But one thing will never change, we live in a customer-based world. Consumers have their choice and it’s up to brands to ensure their business stays ahead of the curve. Successful brands are those that tailor to their customers – and one way to do that is by utilizing marketing strategies that keep you ahead of the game. Here are five of them.

Keep it Personalized and Look at the Data

With all the competition out there, brands need a way to stay out. Since customers want to know you actually care about them, creating a personalized experience can help you stand out. In fact, personalized calls to action convert 42 percent more than non-personalized ones.

Gathering and studying data is a great way to find topics that matter to your audience. You can track their spending habits, follow their journey, and learn their general interests. Utilize personal data to see how they enter your site, where they go after your site, and when they actually become a customer.

Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Agents

Technological and customer demands are quickly outperforming human marketers. The amount of data may reach 40,000 exabytes by 2020 but the human brain can only hold about 1 million gigabytes. Today’s technology can help uncover information about user behavior but the key to using that information will be artificial intelligence.

Although AI can never take the place of marketers – and their human creativity – it can help optimize and streamline the process. AI will make it easier for brands to create digital strategies and analyzing data.

Find areas where AI can help – like triggering e-mail campaigns – but don’t use it too much or it will turn customers off.

SEO and Content Convergence

Content and SEO go hand in hand. They need to work together in order to boost rankings and be seen. To utilize this to get you ahead of the curve, make sure to remember that customers recall experiences more than words. Use specific SEO insights – like trending topics or keywords – to find relevant topics. Then, create amazing content based around that.

Analyze your customers and watch how they interact with your material, including what they read it on. And, be consistent! Regularly posting outstanding SEO content will help your brand stand out.

Utilize Native Advertisements

Native advertising is already extremely popular and it’s not slowing down. Native advertising fits better into the user experience. Rather than customers having to respond to pop-ups or other ads, they’re able to see ads specifically tailored to them. And, these ads are often seamlessly integrated into their social feeds.

To use native advertisements successfully, make sure to research your audience and target site’s content to select the platform that best aligns with your target audience. Make sure you create content that attracts readers and makes a strong impression. Since you have a better ability to target a particular audience, you’re able to not only track what content works best but also what platform works best.

Connected Devices: The New King

It’s no secret mobile is dominating search. And while many brands have already optimized everything for mobile, there are new devices on the rise, like fitness trackers and smart watches. Customers use these to get information – often on the go – so brands need to make sure their content is optimized for those devices.

Although digital marketing is constantly changing, use these tips to help you get stay ahead of the curve and gain an edge over the competition.

Get ahead of the marketing game even quicker with Retaliate1st. We are a full service marketing team that specializes in everything from content marketing to social media to search engine optimization. Learn more about our services here.

marketing-ahead-of-curve
marketing-ahead-of-curve

thebalance.com

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that email marketing is a necessity when it comes to connecting with your audience and keeping them in the loop. But not all businesses are successful when it comes to email marketing. So, we’ve rounded up seven tips to help you make the most of your email marketing.

Treat Your Customers Like Friends

How do you greet your friends and family in an e-mail? You probably personally acknowledge them or give them a warm greeting. Well, why not treat your customers like that? Customers don’t want to be just another face in the crowd – they want to be seen as human beings. Simply including personalization in your e-mails – and rather than send out one mass e-mail, set up segments based on feedback or customer preferences.

Follow Their Journey

Similar to segmenting based on customer preferences, following their journey is just as important. Customer’s behavior will tell you what they’re looking for. For example, do they open particular e-mails more than others? Do they click through to your website on certain e-mails? Combine this with demographics and you can customize a sales funnel based on your customer type.

Always Optimize

Never let your e-mail campaigns get stagnant. Always split test your campaigns to see how efficiently they’re running and what you can do better. You can constantly tweak and refine future campaigns to ensure they are working for your business, not against it.

Give Them Space

While it’s true that if customers sign up for your e-mail list they probably want to hear from you – but that doesn’t necessarily mean all the time. Just because you ran a successful campaign doesn’t mean you should immediate follow with another campaign. Allow time between campaigns to give your customers a break. They don’t want to be hounded by promotional e-mails all the time.

Based on customer feedback, define a schedule and stick to it. If you said you’ll only e-mail your customers once a week, don’t e-mail them four times a week or you’ll risk losing subscribers.

Keep An Eye On Automation

Although email automation is essential for an effective email campaign, it shouldn’t be relied on. Use it to eliminate tedious processes but it shouldn’t replace you.

Offer ‘Opt Down’ Not ‘Opt Out’

It’s becoming increasingly easier to opt out of email campaigns. Rather than only offer an unsubscribe option why not offer them a “break”. Offer an ‘opt down’ option as a way for customers to choose to receive fewer e-mails from you. That way, they’re still your subscribers, they just won’t receives as many e-mails.

Get Mobile Ready

Now more than ever customers are using their mobiles for, well, everything. Making sure your e-mails are mobile friendly will go a long way when it comes to click-through rates and engagement.

Though not necessarily “groundbreaking”, these tips will help you create – and keep – and effective email marketing campaign.

And if you’re feeling stuck, let Retailiate1st help. We’re a full service marketing team that offer services such as business strategy, performance marketing, social media, and more. Learn more about our services here.

why-brands-need-youtube
why-brands-need-youtube

marketwatch.com

Have you ever caught yourself on a YouTube binge? They’re similar to Netflix binges, but instead of watching the same series for hours, you hop on YouTube to look up one thing and end up somewhere completely different. While personal binges can be a sign of procrastination, those binges can be an instrumental marketing tool for your business.

If your business isn’t on YouTube or if you simply aren’t utilizing the platform, it’s time to start. Here’s why your business needs a YouTube channel.

It Establishes Authority

Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine? If you’re not using this social channel, you’re missing out on gaining viewers and followers. When used efficiently, video marketing helps build trust and establish authority. Consumers are bored with static or physical ads – they want more. Uploading video content – like tips and tricks or strategies specific to your industry or brand – builds authority and trust with your audience. How-tos and quick tips are the perfect way to help your brand be seen as an expert on the topic.

It’s More Engaging

If the popularity of Netflix binges is any indication, people love watching videos now more than ever. Videos are a way to provide a more personal feel than traditional print marketing. Like other social channels, YouTube lets users comment on videos, allowing them to communicate directly with the brand or company. Businesses are then able to reply to comments, ask questions, and generally engage with their consumers.

YouTube essentially humanizes a business and makes them more approachable and helpful.

It Builds Trust and Credibility

Trust is absolutely everything when it comes to gaining – and keeping – customers. Customers that don’t trust you won’t buy from you. Uploading quality content to YouTube helps build a relationship with your customer and allows them to visually see your product or services. Even a simple 30 second video can be more engaging than a full sales page.

One way to build credibility and trust is to upload videos of reviews or actual customers. Consumers trust reviews and showing how your product or service worked for someone else can certainly help. Other types of videos you can upload to gain trust and credibility are how-tos, behind-the-scenes, personal stories (such as why you started your business), and more. Try out a few different types and see which one works best with your customers.

You may be thinking YouTube videos are hard to make, but they’re actually relatively simple. There are several different types of video editing software available that make video editing a breeze. And don’t get intimidated! Start with short, small videos – you can even take them on your smartphone – and build from there. You’ll be a YouTube pro in no time.

Still feeling lost when it comes to YouTube marketing – or just marketing in general? Let Retaliate1st help. We’re a full-service marketing team here to help you grow your business in whatever area you need – from social media to website and mobile development. Learn more about our services here.

snapchat-marketing-guide
snapchat-marketing-guide

news.softpedia.com

Snapchat is currently all the rage and there is no sign of it slowing down. While many people use it for personal purposes, there is a huge opportunity for businesses who use this platform to connect with their audience. Since it can be intimidating and confusing to some marketers, we’re here to help!

Why You Should Market On Snapchat

Snapchat is very valuable to businesses – for those who use it right. Let’s look at some of the statistics. There are an estimated 200 million monthly users on the platform who send at least 700 million photos or videos every day. There are nearly 100 daily users and Snapchat reaches over 10% of the United States digital population.

It has more users than Twitter and to top it all off – over 75% of its users are online shoppers.

Furthermore, Snapchat has less competition than other social platforms. While every brand has a presence on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, Snapchat still has relatively low competition. It’s different than other platforms – it allows you to reach your audience in a new, more authentic way with a new type of content. And, it allows you to connect to new audiences – especially if your product caters to the younger demographic – especially millennials.

How To Market On Snapchat

Snapchat has a lot of fun features – photos, videos, and stories – along with editing options like drawing tools, emojis, and texts. While Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook allow users to like and comment on posts – Snapchat allows you connect with your audience on a more personal level. You can show them behind the scenes videos, snaps of new products, and bring a more “real-life” aspect to your brand.

Some tips for effectively marketing on Snapchat is offering coupon codes to your followers. You can either offer a simple coupon code or have more fun with it by asking users to snap pictures of themselves with your product in exchange for a discount code.

Connecting with influencers is another way to effectively market on this platform. Teaming up with an influential brand or person can connect you with users you may not have otherwise. And, since influencer marketing can be highly effective, it can help increase engagement with your current followers.

You can even build anticipation by doing “countdowns” to new products or an event. Always leave them wanting more, though, so they stay engaged – use phrases like “stay tuned” or “we’ve got a surprise coming.”

Use a mix of images and videos to keep your followers engaged. After all, seeing one image after another is not as fun as watching a mixture of images and videos. Also, try telling a story on your Snapchat. Everyone loves a story and users are more inclined to keep opening your Snaps if you’re telling an interesting story.

How To Promote Your Snapchat

One downside to Snapchat is that it makes it harder to connect with users. You can’t see if someone follows someone else on Snapchat so the best way to promote your own is by sharing it on your other social sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can even promote it on your blog or to your e-mail subscribers.

Using a QR Code

QR codes are one of the most effective ways to connect with new users on Snapchat. These machine-readable codes allow users to scan your unique QR code and immediately follow you. Sharing your code across other social platforms is a great way to get the word out.

Tracking Results

Unlike Facebook or Pinterest, Snapchat doesn’t have an analytics tool, nor does it have a third party analytics tool. However, there are ways to track results. For example, you can see who viewed your snap, who responded to it, or who is engaging with you via chat.

You can also see how many people viewed your story and how many screenshots were taken. The number by the eye is how many people viewed your story while the number by the arrow-like image is how many screenshots were taken.

To determine a campaigns effectiveness, you can divide the number of snaps opened by the amount of snaps sent.

Don’t let Snapchat marketing overwhelm you! Use this guide to help create a successful – and fun – campaign.

If you’re looking for some help with social media, why not let Retaliate1st help you? We offer services in social media, content marketing, business strategy, and much more. Learn more about our services here.

what-do-know-rebrand
what-do-know-rebrand

nonprofitmarketingguide.com

Are you feeling like it’s time to rebrand? Maybe your current brand isn’t bringing in the results you’d like or you just think it’s time for a revamp. Either way, rebranding is not easy. Here are some tips and tricks for launching a success one.

A New Name Doesn’t Fix Everything

Changing the name of your business doesn’t mean everything will automatically be fixed – it’s only one component. You don’t necessarily need to change your business name to rebrand, but if you do, be prepared for an initial loss in customers and organic traffic.

Make sure you know your overall rebranding strategy inside and out – use customer insight along with concrete data. Redefine your target audience and find a look and feel of a website that fits that consumer. It may take longer than expected, but it’ll worth it.

Make Sure Your Team Has As Much Information As Possible

When you are ready to share the news with your team, arm them with as much as information as you can. Make sure they know why you are rebranding – and the sooner the better. You’ll want to make sure everyone is prepared!

You’ll Never Be 100 Percent Ready

As with most things in life, nothing is ever 100 percent ready – or perfect. There will always be new bumps in the road and constant need for improvements and changes. But don’t let that stop you and don’t let it drag out your rebrand. You can even try setting a firm date to launch by – even if you aren’t 100 percent ready.

Consider Partnering Up With Someone Recognizable

If you are planning to hire a creative director or brand strategist, partnering with someone of influence can help establish brand recognition. It’s beneficial to both you and the person you are working with. They’ll be able to say they helped you rebrand and in turn, people will trust you.

Less Can Be More

Some brand owners have to tendency to think more is better when it comes to be rebranding, but that often isn’t true. Sometimes less is more, especially when it comes to websites and logos.

Let It Take You In Unexpected Directions

Brands often get an idea of what they think the rebrand should look like, but it’s important to be open to other concepts. For example, you may want a bright, vibrant logo but your target audience prefers clean and simple. A creative director or branding firm can help by providing different options you might otherwise not have expected.

And Finally – Celebrate!

Once you finally rebranded, it’s time to celebrate! Rebranding is no easy task and it is not a quick fix. It takes time, a ton of strategy, and a lot of trial and errors – so when that time comes, celebrate it! Celebrate as a team and publicly and take pride in the fact that you just rebranded!

Looking to revamp and rebrand? Why not Retaliate1st help? We offer services such as business strategy, performance marketing, social media, website & mobile development, content marketing and more. Check out our full list of services here.

micro-moments-one
micro-moments-one

huffingtonpost.com

Where’s your phone? If you’re like most people, it’s probably already in your hand or sitting right next to you. Now more than ever, people rely on their smartphone for just about everything – from checking social sites to asking Google where the nearest gas station is. And Google has a name for those moments: “micro-moments.”

Micro-moments are “split seconds of time where consumers use their devices to act on a need.”

And these moments can be huge for your brand.

Seventy percent of mobile searches lead to instant action. If you make sure your content is easily found, relevant, and accessible, your brand can capitalize immensely on the micro-moments. Here are four ways to do so.

Understand The Customer

As with any content campaign, you have to really understand who your customer is – what do they like to do? What do they look like? What are their habits? Getting a good sense of who your customer is will help you attract the right ones.

What types of questions are they asking before purchasing a service or product? By creating content with the answers to those questions, consumers are more likely to turn to you during those micro-moments.

Make Sure You’re Relevant

Although following best search-engine optimization practices will help your brand stay relevant, content is still king when it comes to relevancy. Your brand not only needs to answer the right questions through your content, it also needs to be easily readable and digestible. Consumers shouldn’t have to go searching for answers. Making sure your content is educational and not overly promotional will also help.

If you can’t provide the answers our customers are looking for, they’ll have no problem turning to another brand. Fifty-one percent of smartphone users actually purchased from a different brand or company they intended to because the competitor’s information was more relevant and useful.

Distribution is also important when it comes to content. You could create the most beautiful piece of content but if no one can find it, it’s utterly useless. Make sure you share your content on all the appropriate channels.

Anticipate The Micro-Moments

Companies that anticipate micro-moments have a higher ROI in mobile and marketing investment. To be micro-moment-ready, understand the when, where, and why of the moments and how your brand fits into that.

The anticipation correlates to the questions consumers ask prior to making a purchase. If a customer is searching for the best sushi restaurant in Los Angeles, sushi restaurants located in that area need to be ready to make sure customers choose their restaurant.

Create An Experience

Creating relevant and useful content is, of course, necessary but creating an experience is just as important. Focus on creating and implementing a positive experience with your brand to ensure the customer keeps coming back to you – even after those micro-moments.

Eliminate any unnecessary steps or filler to help make the experience as smooth as possible. If they have to fill out long forms to get what they want, they’ll lose interest pretty quickly and move right over to your competitor.

With a little preparation and some killer content, you’ll be micro-moment ready in no time.

If you’re looking for help creating an effective content campaign, let Retaliate 1st help you. We offer everything from help with content marketing to social media to business strategy. Learn more about our services here.

Retaining existing customers is almost always more profitable for a business than acquiring a new one. This is because the efforts and costs involved in gaining new clients is exponentially greater than retaining the existing one. Enter the need for a CRM.

If you want to retain more of your current customers, you should invest in a  Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).

A CRM system is a valuable asset for your business because it keeps control of all your customers and contacts; and is an effective way to build and maintain good business relationships with all your existing and potential customers.

bluetooth

Why Invest in a CRM?

  1. A CRM helps you track your customers’ needs, questions, complaints, issues and interactions in a simple way. This helps your customer service team deal with problems (and potential cross-sales, upsells, and referrals) fast, and without complicated spreadsheets or multiple mailing lists. Responding to customer queries quickly helps your customers bond with you, which increases your customer retention rate.

2. A good CRM system will also analyze your customers’ behaviors and help the sales team to find out customers’ needs. These needs can then be converted into business leads and sales opportunities because these provide excellent data and market research. And, satisfying your customers’ wants is going to lead to in increase in referrals. Similarly, historic data of purchases can be used to predict customers’ behaviors or purchasing patterns.

3. A CRM allows you to collaborate with your team, and your customers using a single tool. The days of maintaining customer lists in notebooks, excel sheets, and word documents, then mass emailing your client list are over. You can manage and reach everyone with one tool, from one place, and any of your employees can join the effort even if they’re out of the office.

stats

4. Because the workflow is automated through a CRM system, it helps in reducing the operational cost, which increases your company’s profits. And, through analysis of current customer behavior data, you can make forecasts for future profitability.

5. It retains your most valuable data in one safe, secure location. You can choose which employees have access to this data. This prevents lead theft and client poaching by employees that leave your company. Simply alter the password, and their access is cut off.

bounce rate

Your business devotes a good chunk of your advertising budget to pay per click ads. You put in a ton of effort on your site’s SEO.

Don’t waste time and money by losing visitors after they hit your site. If your bounce rate is high, you could be throwing money away.

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of single visits where your potential customer leaves your webpage without navigating further. Search engines like Google calculate and report the bounce rate of your website under Audience overview tab of Google analytics section. You can check on your site’s stats there.

According to a study published by Rocketfuel, bounce rate for most of the websites ranges between 26% to 70%.

If you fall in this range, it’s time to lower your bounce rate.

What makes people leave your site quickly?

stats

Slow Page Loading

Google wants to give a positive experience to your visitors. A slow loading page is not a positive experience. It’s frustrating and makes users reach for the BACK button quickly.

Fixing the loading speed is a continuous journey for webmasters and SEO specialists. As your site grows, it can slow down. More content = more “loading” when someone visits your page. However, you can stay on top of this by continually working to lower page load speed as your site grows.

You can review your webpage speed through different tools like Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insights & GTMetrix. These tools also provide insights specific to your page e.g. reducing third-party scripts, compressing the image size/quality, reducing browser caching etc.

Misleading Meta Description or Title Keywords

Always make sure that your website’s content is relevant (preferably it will match perfectly) to the title tag and meta description. If not, your customers will become frustrated and leave.

If you had a brick-and-mortar store and the sign outside said “Fresh Baked Bread,” but your customers walk in and see you selling T-shirts, they’ll bounce. Treat your meta descriptions and titles the same way you would a side-walk sign.

phone

A Few Bad Pages

If your site’s content, in general, has a low bounce rate, but your website is still seeing a lot of people bounce quickly, then you may have some pages which are contributing disproportionately. Check which pages aren’t pulling their weight. Either add content to them, or give them the ax.

Blank Pages

Check for any blank pages or pages with technical errors like 404 on your websites because such errors can drop your page from search engine results. You can also search for these problems from Google’s perspective by going to Crawl > Crawl Errors in Google Webmaster Tools.

Obnoxious UX and Ads

Don’t bombard your customers with Pop-ups for surveys, opt-in forms, and banner ads.

You can have an exit pop-up, and web forms in-page. But, if you are hitting your customers with “Sign Up NOW” pop-ups the second they land on the page, you can be sure that many of them are bouncing away in anger.

 

Google and Facebook pay per click have offered small businesses a method for competing with much larger competitors by allowing for sane advertising budgets with ads that are immediately trackable.

You can figure out your ROI from PPC ads pretty easily.

But, sometimes those figures can be depressing.

If your website or landing pages are not converting for you, stop wasting time trying to perfect your ads (you’re already getting traffic). Instead, use these three tricks to convert more of your visitors into leads:

analytics

Hail Mary Lead Generation

If you’re paying for traffic, you want to convert as many customers as possible. You can help your efforts by putting in some last-ditch, about-to-bounce-away lead conversion tactics.

Do this by:

  • Offering a Benefit-filled Exit Pop Up – these are annoying, but you can set them to only display one time to no annoy repeat visitors. And, if someone clicked an ad to find you and they’re about to bounce away from your site, you don’t have much to lose. Some companies convert as much as 23% more traffic by using exit pop ups.
  • Use a P.S. in any web or off-line marketing materials. Some people skip right to the P.S., so make it count. This goes for email and social media marketing as well.
  • When writing a P.S., or using an exit pop up, lead with benefits and let the customer know why they’ll be losing something if they don’t buy or submit their info.
  • Back up their fear of loss by giving them something to gain
  • Utilize Online Chat – These can be effective if you are selling a product or service that will undoubtedly lead to more questions than you can anticipate or answer in your FAQ. Use live agents because customers are frustrated by dealing with computer-based chat “agents.”

Encourage Your Potential Customer to Take a Very Low-Risk

This is key if you’re selling personal services, high-end products, or anything that costs more than a few dollars. Let your customer get something for free (eBook, white paper, tip sheet, samples) in exchange for something low-risk (their first name and email address).

computer

Further Lessen Their Risks by Being Honest

You love your product. You could talk about it all day. You have no idea why everyone in the world wouldn’t want one!

But, let’s be honest, we’re all customers. We know when we’re on fire for a product vs when we’re on the fence, or still in the research phase.

If you’re still in the info-gathering stages, what’s the last thing you want after you’ve put your info into a website’s contact form?

  • Pushy, shark-type sales people calling your house
  • Getting spammed with multiple emails

Overcome this fear by being honest in the P.S., or under your call-to-action:

  • We promise no salesmen will call your house
  • We respect your confidentiality and never sell your information
  • You will receive only one email with the information you asked for

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