Posts

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.

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.

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.

Top 3 Tasks to Outsource for Your Small Business

Retaliate1st grew through hard work both internally and externally. We spent most of our first year using freelancers and a team we had to outsource to. We wanted to share some of the critical elements we chose to outsource.

Bookkeeping and Invoicing

Nothing can eat up the time of a small business owner quite like keeping the books, crunching the numbers, and invoicing.

Chances are you started your business because you had a talent or passion for your product or service. Unless that passion was accounting, hand the books to someone else.

As you grow, keeping the books will only become more complicated and time consuming. Instead of letting record keeping eat up a huge percentage of the time you could be putting into pulling the big levers on your business, outsource the task to a CPA. If you need help with the day-to-day numbers, tracking, and invoicing, you can easily find and train an employee or intern to do this for you.

Graphic Design and Your Website

If there’s one area where small business and solo entrepreneurs make a huge mistake it’s in doing their own graphic design and website building.

  • Learning a “little about SEO and websites” will give your business a site that looks terrible, is extremely time consuming to build, generates no sales, and projects a very unprofessional image.
  • Free site creators give you a website that looks like it was made for free.

Doing your own HTML or CSS usually looks like an amateur did the site… at best. Remember that designers and developers go to college for 4+ years to learn coding. This is not something you can become an expert in by reading a For Dummies book over the weekend.

outsource

Doing your own graphic design in Photoshop or Paint will take time and give your ads, brochures, and other marketing materials an unpolished, unprofessional look.

We’ve all seen these pieces. Someone is trying to sell us a high-end product (like a new car) and their flyer features a blurry, askew image, hovering above a mass of text set in huge block letters in all caps (and in multiple colors).

  • Do you want your clients and customers to see your business as being a two-bit amateur operation? If you sell services or quality products, hire someone to do your site and your graphic design.

Don’t Outsource To Family

And no, getting your nephew who “knows all that computer stuff” to do your site is not the answer.

Your business website is part of your physical business. It’s no different than building a brick-and-mortar property. Would you hire someone to build a structure simply because they know how to use a shovel?

  • You can find amazingly high quality designers overseas through outsource sites like Upwork and Elance. They work cheap, they’re fast, they’re incredibly effective.

And, using their services allows you to keep a designer “on staff” without having to pay a full-time employee.

You’ll need to do some research and try different designers before bringing one on to do a big project like your website.

  • Ask for their portfolio and references
  • Give them a small task to start (a logo, label for a new product, a one-sheet flyer)
  • Then, find a back-up designer. Having two designers at your disposal is always a good idea for emergency situations (you have to present something to a new client by tomorrow morning and you just found out about it). If one isn’t available, you have your back up read to roll.

Reception and Appointment Setting

IF you are selling products, you may be able to hire a virtual assistant to hire your phone calls and email responses.

Same goes for appointment setting.

Do you want to have to find the leads, set them yourself, then go sell them?

Do you want to be on the phone all day because your customer’s delivery arrived at 5:15pm when the tracking told them it’d get there at 5:00?

If you’re uncomfortable going virtual, hire someone to do this for you. You may even be ablet o score an intern. There are a lot of talented people looking for work. Put in some effort to find someone competent to handle your appointments, customer service calls, and general reception. This will not only free you up to do more important tasks, but it projects a highly professional image for your business.

Facebook is the great advertising platform of our time. Were once television ads and billboard ads were the go to platforms for advertisers, they have now lost ground to Facebook ads. Retaliate1st discuss the reasons why you should focus on this platform for your advertising.

Customers Can Buy from You Without Leaving Facebook

This is huge for both your business, where can sell directly to a warm audience that you’ve built a strong relationship with, and for Facebook, which can help businesses sell more products, buy more ads, and have the whole thing take place on Facebook’s platform, without having users click away from the social media giant.

facebook-3

It works by giving your customers the option to buy products in Facebook messenger. If they’ve already filled in their Name, address, phone number, etc. for their profile, all they have to do is click “pay.” If not, they can do so at point of purchase.

Payments will go through PayPal or Stripe. At this point, these are the only two usable payment platforms, and you can only sell in the U.S. However, both of these rules will likely change as the program grows.

Facebook ads

If you’ve ever fretted about the transition your customers make between Facebook and your landing or sales pages, now you don’t have to worry. If you crafted a great ad or promoted post, your customer can now buy with one click.

How to Sell In Messenger

This will take some finesse. Facebook is allowing click from ads in the newsfeed to be sent directly to messenger now. This is a slow roll-out, but it will take off soon enough. Obviously, some customers will be put off by having their messenger blow up with ads, but it seems Facebook will allow consumers the ability to choose who they receive ad messages from.

Once there, your customer can chat with a “sales bot” or they can buy direct. And, in a further move toward utilizing similar buy-sharing options as Amazon, Facebook will allow your customer to send the ad copy to their friends if they need help deciding between multiple products. So, if your customer can’t decide between the wing-tips and the quarter-brogues, they can now share it with their friends.

facebook-button

This helps them take the plunge and make the purchase, and it exposed your products to an even larger pool of warm prospects.

Growing your business is hard and it is expensive. Sometimes hiring staff can be a huge expense. This is why many start-ups begin to hire the best freelancers for roles, to get the work done. Freelancers allow for talent to perform tasks at a low cost and with a minimal commitment. Here the team at Retaliate1st lay out our tips for hiring the best freelancers.

3 Tips for Hiring the Best Freelancers

  1. Shop Around

The reality is that no matter how good a freelancer looks on paper, you won’t know how good they are until they do work for you.

When you find potential candidates, start them off with small tasks with a clear deadline and expectations. Handing them the responsibility of redesigning the company website without having seen how they handle instructions, time-pressures, or setbacks is asking for disaster.

freelancers

  1. Learn to Communicate Your Needs

Most freelancers are honest, hardworking people eager to do great work for your business. But, if you are incapable of communicating what you want, in exact terms, frustration will strike.

Remember that not all freelancers are native English speakers. Until you can ascertain their fluency, keep sentences short, use bullet points, and avoid idiomatic language.

Do you want 3 three article so a few?

freelancers-3

Do you want the graphic to be 650 x 350 pixels, or around the size of a 5×7 picture?

Language concerns aside, being clear cuts down on the time you spend managing freelancers. Tell them what to do, on the first try, and you’ll have less back-and-forth. Remember, you’re hiring them to cut down on your workload by assigning them tasks that free you up to do more important things.

Freelancer Payments

  1. Split Payment

This is just good business. Pay half up front, half upon completion. If you find freelancers willing to work for a smaller percentage up front, that’s even more ideal.

concept of the coworking center, business meeting

Again, most freelancers are honest, but there are crooks and scammers in every field. Losing fifty bucks on a starter payment is a lot more manageable than losing five thousand by paying upfront.

  1. Find People Who Are Better Than You

This is the old Henry Ford philosophy. No matter what you sell or which services you offer, chances are you’re the best at one or two things. Trying to do everything is going to lead to frustration and lack of profits. This problem hits very small businesses and solo-preneurs the hardest.

If you are a baker, stop trying to design your website. Web design takes thousands of hours to master. Doing it yourself in order to save a few bucks will cost you thousands. That’s time you could be making cakes, learning new techniques, or working with a marketer to develop your brand and get your name out into the community. Those things put money in the till. Sitting hunched over your laptop at 3am with an HTML for Dummies book splayed-out in your lap costs you money.

Finding the best people takes time, and effort, to get started. But, once you get your team established, it’ll pay off many times over in bigger profits, and more free time for you.

If you’ve tried Facebook ads before, but got very little results, you’re not alone. The early versions of Facebooks pay per click platform was stiff, counter-intuitive, and downright maddening. But, the improvements that’ve made has turned the once-frustrating marketing platform into a gold mine for business owners.

  1. Learn to Use Both Ads and Boosted Posts

If you are a small to medium sized business owner, don’t overlook the power of boosted posts. While pay per click ads are still more popular, the changes to the “boost” platform has made it a powerful way to reach potential customers.

  • Boosted posts allow you to promote content on your site, other social media accounts, or on your Facebook page
  • Boosted posts reach a large, very specific audience, instantly
  • Boosting posts is a great way to promote sales and events quickly, without wasting money

    Facebook 2

  1. Define Your Audience

Google’s PPC platform is enormous, much larger than Facebook’s. However, Facebook blows away Google when it comes to the ability to create hyper-targeted ads.

If Google is throwing a huge net into the sea, pulling in any fish that swim by, Facebook ads are like putting your lines in specific sections of the water, with a specific bait, catching just the right fish to satisfy your hunger.

With Facebook you can target:

  • Gender, age, education, income level, location, family status, language, ethnicity, home ownership status, and much more
  • Interests, hobbies, recreational activities, where your customers shop, which brand of credit cards they hold, as well as where they shop, which gyms they go to, and their political leanings
  • Connections: those that have already liked your page and their friends, those who like pages or businesses similar to yours, those who attend events related to your business, and more

Facebook

Facebook Lookalike Audiences

Facebook also allows you to develop, and market to, “lookalike audiences.” You take your current customer information from your database, then upload it to Facebook, which will help filter it further (using a third-party data broker), delivering you a new subset of audience based on those who’ve purchased from you previously. This method is a bit advanced, and is best viewed as a way to extend your best audience, giving your ads extra mileage. But, save this for after you’ve become a fantastic Facebook ad creator and can craft killer boosted posts.

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