by DG | Jan 3, 2019 | Content Marketing, Business, Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media
When you’re creating an online business, you hear, over and over, that you need to be a master of content marketing to build your online brand. But how do you create the content marketing strategy that works? How do you turn your business into a lean, mean, content creation machine?
Define Your Purpose
So you’ve decided to start a website/blog. What are you going to talk about? Are you going to relay and interpret industry news? Talk about your products? Talk about the customers who are satisfied with your services?
Educate your customers on how your products can make a difference in their lives? All of these topic areas can make great content blogs, and the best ones combine many of these elements to blend into a multidimensional whole.
To make sure that your business isn’t just recreating the content of your competition, it’s worth surveying the other blogs in your niche that exist. Find out what space others are occupying so that you can make a space for yourself.
Do Your Research
Beyond finding out what your competition is doing, also do research on keywords, popular searches, and common questions in your industry. After all, if your blog is going to become a destination, you need to create a roadmap for your audience.
Answering their questions, catching their interest, and advertising yourself through social media and search engine results is the first step toward making yourself visible to them.
Make a list of topic keywords that can be headlines as well as phrases that you can use periodically throughout your content posts to attract attention from search engines. Use the brainstorming tab in our Free Content Marketing Planner.
If you need help coming up with ideas for your posts, checkout Neil Patel’s great post called How to Come Up with 93 Blog Ideas in 10 Minutes.
Create an Editorial Calendar
One of the most frustrating things to see as a consumer of content is that businesses and bloggers often fail to pace themselves with blog creation. They post several topics all at once in the first few days, and then forget to post for days and weeks on end.
This doesn’t work for multiple reasons. First, to keep your readers coming back, you need to be continuously creating new and useful content. Regular refreshment tells your site visitors that your website is up to date, which helps the page to climb the rankings. Second, your customers need reminders to come back and find your fresh content.
The proliferation of social media has pushed the now into our minds; we are less concerned with what happened yesterday, and what to know what’s going on right now. You need fresh links to draw in fresh audiences to share on fresh timelines. To get that, you need to create regular content.
Before you start blogging, decide how often you want to post – once a week is a bare minimum, but more than once a day is usually overkill – and make sure you have a month worth of topics ready to go.
Keep yourself several days ahead with blogs scheduled to post to your site and share themselves to social media at appropriate times. By automating everything, you maximize exposure.
When you’re tired and not sure what to say, have a stable of ideas to go back to; it helps you keep your content flowing.
For in depth knowledge about blogging, Ryan Robinsons website is one of the best resources you will find.
DOWNLOAD Our Free Content Marketing Planner (In Google Sheets, click FILE > make copy). It has a daily, monthly and archive view as well as a brainstorming tab.
Getting Exposure for Your Content using Social Media
Naturally you you want to make sure people see all this great content you have put all this effort into creating it. There are many ways to promote your content. We won’t cover the topic of promotion in depth here but we will talk about social media. It’s a big one.
After each piece of content you create, you should immediately share it on all your chosen Social Media platforms. Most companies use at least Facebook, Twitter and Google My Business.
Others like Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are chosen depending on the industry you are in as some are more visual than others. For example, Fashion and Beauty type businesses will definitely want to be on Instagram and Pinterest while an accounting firm probably won’t.
If you really want to benefit from Social Media you need to post a lot. Like several times a day. You may be thinking, how are we ever going to produce enough content?
This is where content curation comes in. You don’t need to be the author of everything you share on Social Media. In fact it’s a good idea to share other people’s content as long as it’s relevant and useful to your audience.
Social Sharing
When it comes to social sharing you need to get the balance right, A common strategy is the 5:3:2 rule.
So for every ten posts:
5 should be content from other sources that are relevant to your audience, (curated content). Keep in mind what your reader would be interested in and it will keep them more engaged. There’s a ton of these types of posts that can curated and shared. Sign up with a service like Feedly, choose relevant topics and you will see then in you account every day. Then simply choose the ones you want to share by copying the URL and pasting into the scheduling app of your chosen sharing app (see below) .
3 should be original content such as blog posts or videos, that would be interesting to your audience. It can also be about Product promotions, Product information etc.
2 could be about your staff so your audience gets to know your company which helps build a relationship and builds trust. These post could also be Customer stories or case study in nature.
Also at any time you could announce special offers, trade show events or any other special announcements.
Schedule your social posts with an app.
Your social posts could be planned in a Google Sheet like the one above but in reality we find it more practical to use a web application like Buffer, Later, or Hootsuite. Lately we have been liking Later. These apps save a few steps in the workflow and it’s much easier for everyone to contribute. These all have a free tier entry level.
Accept Feedback from Your Clients
When you create a blog, make sure you have a way for your clients and customers to reach out to you with questions. They might be simple – how do I use this product to accomplish this task – or more complex – what position does your company take on this situation? Some of the best articles are those where a company responds to customer questions and concerns. They show that you’re listening and you respond to your audience, which does more to further your brand than almost anything else can.
This is easy to implement if you have a website built with WordPress. If you need help with WordPress, this is and area of expertise for us. In fact we are recognized as a top WordPress Website Design Company on DesignRush.
When you create content, you’re furthering your company’s brand, building your sales funnel, and developing tools that increase your company’s position and discoverability. Treat your content marketing just like any other aspect of your business; proceed with a plan, create regular deadlines that you can meet, and take it seriously. By doing these things, you’ll make sure that your content drives your business forward and creates a responsible relationship with your customers.
by DG | Oct 30, 2018 | Digital Marketing, Business, Online Marketing, SEO
Being online is critical for getting local business. Most people think the internet is just a way to target worldwide customers, but it can also be used effectively for local business.
So how do you generate area specific customers from using the net? There are a few methods that work. Here are three of the best:
#1) Google local
Local.google.com is essentially an “area specific” search engine. When somebody uses it, they just type in the business you are looking for, such as “general contractors.” Then the map will pinpoint the general contractors in their area.
You don’t even need a website to appear here. As long as Google knows about your business, you will appear on the map. Google will also list your address and phone number.
How many people use Google local?
More than fifty million people do so every month. Therefore, it’s easy to see why this would be a good place to target.
The smaller search engines like Bing and Yahoo have their own version as well. It would be a good idea to get listed with them as well. However, Google is the most important, because the vast majority of people use it for local searches.
#2) SEO
Despite the fact that Google local is so popular, tons of people continue using Google.com for their local searches. For this reason, you will want to do an SEO campaign as well, targeting only area specific keywords. For instance, if you are a carpenter living in Toronto, you would probably want to rank #1 for “Toronto carpenters”.
How do you get to the #1 spot?
You will need links pointing to you website. The more links you have, the better. Not all links are created equal.
There are basically two kinds of links: one way and reciprocal. Reciprocal links are where you agree with somebody else to link to their site, as long as they link to yours. This used to be very effective, but that is no longer the case.
Why are one way links the best?
This is because Google knows if another website links to yours without getting anything in return, your site must be quality.
Where should you get one way links?
Guest posts, directory, forum and blog links are among the best out there. For many terms, focusing exclusively on these sites will get you ranked. Reaching out to other relevant website and asking for a backlink is timing consuming but well worth it when you succeed at it.
#3) PPC advertising
Pay per click campaigns allow you to geo-target you campaigns. This allows you to specify which locations you want to show up for.
For instance, if you target the geo-target the keyword “home renovations” to only Richmond Hill, you will only appear when people in Richmond Hill search for that term. If somebody from Windsor types in the same keyword, you won’t appear in their search results. In other words, even though it doesn’t have the word “Windsor” in the keyword, you will still only appear when local people search for it.
The bottom line is, if you aren’t using the internet to generate local sales, you could be losing a lot of money. Hopefully these three tips will help you get started.
If you need help with this, contact us and we’ll setup a time to discuss it.
by DG | Aug 9, 2020 | Content Marketing, Business, Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, Web Design
Every online business should develop lead generation strategies to move prospects into their sales funnel. While some visitors will be willing to make an immediate purchase, the vast majority will need to warm up to a product or service. Part of the reason for the success of big brands is the fact they have invested in growing their recognition and trust. When people visit a site from a recognized brand, they are already primed to purchase. Most small businesses do not have this brand recognition, but using the following strategies on a consistent basis will be enough to move a high percentage of visitors into your sales funnel.
Analyze the Competition
Many different tools let you find out the strategies your competitors use. From individual advertisements to landing pages, you can study the sales funnels of successful businesses. Look at the top performing sites and find ways you can tweak them to get some quick improvements. Useful Tools: SEMrush
Study Popular Content
It is also possible to look at the results of any blog and social media content. You can see how many likes, shares, and reposts a piece of material received, enabling you to craft videos and articles you can be confident will find an audience. Useful Tools: buzzsumo
Try something new – View this article as a Google Web Story:
Use Social Media Efficiently
Social media is essential for generating leads, but it is reliant on your ability to develop a system. Influencer marketing is currently working well, allowing you to tap into existing audiences. It is also vital that you adapt social content to suit individual sites, thinking about the reasons viewers are using the particular social network. Useful Tools: musefind • Intellifluence
Targeted Ads
Paid advertising can send you leads quickly, but they may convert at a low rate. Instead, focus on researching your audience first, understanding the demographics and interests of your ideal buyers. You can then target your ads to the perfect audience and stand a higher chance of being profitable. Useful Tools: Google ads, Facebook Ads
Develop a Podcast
Podcasts are still reaching large audiences, with listeners eager to find content in their favorite niches. A podcast might take time to grow, but you can build a following of targeted and motivated people. Many of your listeners will also promote you to friends, helping to increase your leads organically. Useful Tools: How to start a podcast
Build Relationships
Trying to build an online business alone is difficult. When you can develop tactical partnerships, though, it is possible for all parties to grow. Most industries have various sub-niches that you may not directly target. However, audiences will have overlapping interests, so a small number of businesses could promote each other without losing their audience. Useful Tools: Join Facebook Groups
Focus on Video Marketing
Integrating video into your content planning is essential. Sites like YouTube and Facebook have vast numbers of users willing to watch video content. Creating short videos allows you to offer value to your viewers, before asking them to subscribe or go to a particular page to enter your sales funnel. Useful Tools: 10 Top Tools for Creating Short Videos That ROCK
Create a Contest
Contests work well on social media and blogs. Asking someone to give you their email address requires trust, but the barriers get lowered when there is an enticing prize available. While you can use tools to create contests easily, it is important that the award is relevant if you want to reduce freebie seekers. While there are many ways to launch a contest, we think Facebook is the best place to run a contest. Useful Tools: How to Create a Facebook Contest that Actually Works
Find Industry Forums and Groups
While strategies like paid advertising can bring vast numbers of visitors, there are alternative methods that will provide smaller numbers of targeted leads. Industry forums, Facebook groups, and Q&A sites can all bring consistent leads that will convert at a high rate. Useful Tools: Google Search “Your Topic” + forums and in Face book search “Your Topic” + groups,
Optimize Your Squeeze Pages
Squeeze pages are highly effective ways of securing leads as they limit the numbers of options on a page. Testing different elements on your squeeze pages will lead to varying results, but you should eventually develop an optimized property. Testing headlines, text and video combinations, call-to-action buttons, and incentives can all play a part in the optimization process. Useful Tools: How to Create a Squeeze Page That Converts at 21.7% (Case Study)
Understanding Your Potential Customers
While it is possible to make an immediate impact with some visitors, most prospects need time before they will make a purchase. Relying on quick sales won’t help to build an enduring business, with the cost to find a customer typically being high.
These methods are all based on building your company’s authority and building trust with new prospective customers.
Even when using paid ads, start with getting engagement and provide useful information. Then retarget with sales oriented ads to people who have engaged with that content and create lookalike audiences of those people. This will increase you conversion rate.
By implementing these lead generation strategies into your business, you should have no trouble developing a consistent flow of new customers.
We hope you find these DIY tips for lead generation strategies useful. If you are having difficulty finding the time to execute these methods we can help with any of these strategies. Just contact us for a free consultation.
OCEANONE is voted one of the top Web Design Companies in the designrush agency listings.
by DG | Oct 18, 2018 | Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Branding, Business, Online Marketing
Today’s advertising mediums include more digital channels than ever before. Factors such as faster reach capabilities, lower advertising costs, and global branding opportunities make digital marketing a viable avenue for building awareness. When creating a digital marketing strategy, it’s imperative to plan out each messaging deliverable, communication channel, and content strategy so that you don’t lose yourself in a whirlwind of social media accounts and content deadlines.
Approaching your strategy means taking initial steps to determine what your end goals are and then devising a practical plan to bring them to fruition. Here’s a 4-step process for creating a solid digital marketing strategy.
- Create A Finish Line
Know what your goals are before you embark on your strategy. Create a list of measurable short and long-term goals. For example, are you looking to increase sales? If so, by how much exactly? Are you looking to increase your social media followers? If so, by how many exactly? And on what platforms? Don’t rely on vague goals that can’t be measured.
Put numbers to your goals. For instance, we want to generate 800 leads in one month, Increase sales by $5,000 this month or gain 1000 Twitter Followers in one week. Whatever it is you want to achieve, make it a number and then you can figure out a way to get there. Then you can track and measure your results to see whether you were successful or not in achieving the goal.
If you achieve your goal successfully, great. If not, look at what worked and what didn’t make some adjustments and try again. Try different messaging or images or maybe it was just not enough budget. If you’re tracking everything you should be able to figure out how to improve your results. Expect that there will be some trial and error.
Setting realistic goals gives you accountability and allows you to forecast things such as cost, time, and resource allocation. You don’t want to have to guess what your marketing budget is, and you certainly don’t want to assume which team members can complete certain tasks. Create realistic goals and milestones.
- List Your Mediums
What digital marketing channels do you plan on using to get your message to your audience? Are you planning to focus on one main channel or a combination of three or more? Consider making a list of 10-15 potential marketing channels and then narrow it down to your top five. Next, find out which platforms work best for your target audience based on their demographic and online behaviour and then decide which ones work best for your plans. Laser focus in on your main channel to help you get the initial traction that you need when you first begin your campaigns.
- Plan Out Your Content
Knowing what type of content you’ll create and how often it’ll be delivered is crucial to your digital strategy. Whether it’s article writing, social media posting, or video production, there should always be content that’s being created behind the scenes. Find out which types of content work best for your products and your audience and then create a calendar to keep a steady messaging stream flowing your audience’s way. Content calendars are essential to digital marketing, as they help you avoid the headaches and confusion that can come with last-minute content development.
- Implement, Monitor, and Measure
Once you’ve outlined your digital strategy it’s go-time. Make sure that you have all of the resources you need. Make sure that all of your team members know their deliverables and when they’re due. And most importantly, make sure that you’re monitoring and tracking your progress throughout the entire time. Know what metrics will be used to track each goal, and if you fall short of meeting a goal, use it as a lesson for your next project and campaign. The more you monitor and track your activities, the better insight you’ll have on what types of content your audience responds to best.
Setting up Google Analytics is the most important step to track all your results. There are many online tools out there to help you track all of you digital marketing activities and choosing the right one depends on the depth of your campaign. If you are only using Google ads, then tracking through your Google Analytics and Google Ads control panel are probably sufficient. However if you ad Facebook Ads or any other advertising channel to the mix, there is a lot more to track and you’ll want those reports to be side by side for easy evaluation and comparison. As I mentioned, there are a ton of tools out there price according to their level of capabilities. We have a free tool that is great for tracking your Facebook and Google Ad campaigns. It’s called Advertising Intelligence and you can read more about it on our pricing page.
A well-planned digital marketing strategy will ease the confusion that can come with setting up marketing campaigns. Once you have your content and channels figured out, it’s just a matter of setting up the right goals and metrics.
This sounds simple but it can be overwhelming without some guidance. We would be glad to help you with a Free Marketing Strategy Consultation where we will discuss your goals and we can provide you with solid advise to start building your successful Marketing Strategy!
This is a high level view of what is involved in building a digital marketing strategy. For a more detailed deep-dive, check out this post: Execute a Powerful Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business
by DG | Oct 19, 2018 | SEO, Digital Marketing, Online Marketing
You should always think local when starting a Search Engine Optimization strategy. It’s much easier to rank for longtail keywords that have less competition. The name of your city or neighbourhood added to those keywords can be an easy win so you can rank quickly. That’s the best strategy to get started so let’s dig into Local SEO.
Key factors
First things first. Be sure to sign up on Google My Business (GMB). This will be the centre of your local strategy for getting rankings on Google. There may be a listing for your business there already so you’ll need to claim it. Do a Google search for your company name and you may see a listing for your business on the right side hand side in the search results. If you have not claimed it already you will see a “Claim this listing” button that will allow you to do so. Once you have access to your listing you will be able to add all kinds of information about your business and this will get him placed on Google maps as well. Be sure to upload lots of pleasing, relevant images for your business. You can great insights about your business listing in there like how many people viewed you listing and took action etc.
Writing Posts on Google My Business
We highly recommend that you create a post on your GMB listing everyday for at least 2 months. I know this sounds like a lot of work but it’s worth it and they only allow 300 words and you can back it off after your see your listing get into the top 3 local results for your keywords. Don’t stop completely though or competitors will eventually catch up. Try to keep posting at least once a week. This of course depends on how competitive your category is so you may need to adjust accordingly.
Add local content to your website
Blogging is the most effective way to help your rankings in search engine results. Write some blog posts that are unique to your local area and align with your local business. Doing some good keyword research prior to writing is articles will go along way. By doing so you can find out what people actually search for when they’re looking for your type of business in your area. For instance if you are a roofing company people might search for “toronto roofing company” (720 searches per month) but there are more searches for “toronto roofers” (1900 searches per month) so you should definitely have the data beforehand so that you can get the most out of your efforts. You can use Google Keyword Planner to get this data. Another new favourite free tool for keyword research is Ubersuggest from SEO expert Neil Patel.
Get listed on directories
Leveraging online directories is an excellent way to improve your online visibility. Claim any listings you can on sites like Yelp and Yellow Pages and other similar ones. Make sure all your profiles have the exact same contact information about your business. This is very important. You’ll also have to monitor these listings as many of them except reviews about your business. You need to stay on top of this and respond to reviews good or bad. Your online reputation is really important so I need to take this seriously.
We have a great tool to help you monitor this – checkout the OCEANONE Reputation Manager. And, if you don’t have the time we also provide a fully managed Reputation Management Service.
Here’s an excellent video on how to respond to reviews…
SEO Best Practices
Finally, be sure that you are using SEO best practices throughout your website. Things like properly formatted URLs and keyword rich descriptive title tags as well as descriptive metadata are important to make sure that Google’s algorithms pick up the best possible information about your page. Of course, make sure that your contact information on the website matches exactly what you added to all those directories you just listed on.
These are just a few things you can do to improve your visibility for local searches but they are the most important. Make sure these on-page improvements are done before taking any other steps. Depending on how competitive your category is, this might be all that you need to do to get the results you want. Start there and see how goes. If it’s not enough to get you in the top three local results there are other strategies. It’s not that complicated but it can be very time consuming.
If you don’t have the time, we can help. We have a Free listing builder app to get you started with getting your listing synced up on Google My Business, Facebook and Twitter. Once you have that set up you can easily add one of our paid packages that make it very easy to get listed on the sites we have discussed here. Learn more about it it out here.
Download our list of “Top 100 Sites To Be Listed On“. Our Listing Distribution add-on lets you build accurate business listings on the four major data aggregators—Factual, Acxiom, Infogroup, and Neustar Localeze. These aggregators are referenced by over 300 websites.
When multiple sources have consistent business data, two outcomes occur:
- Google’s WebCrawler finds the same information in multiple places and adds more confidence to their business data
- Good backlinks are created with more referring sources to the business’ website creating better SEO.
Here’s an excellent video on the importance of have accurate listings online…
Also check out our recent post “Online Reputation Management Tips for Boosting your Local SEO” .
If you already have listing and you have experienced Fake Reviews you’ll want to check out “How to remove “Google reviews when you know they are fake“.
It’s also important to get as many backlinks as you can in order to generate organic traffic. If you need help with that or any other SEO tasks, checkout our SEO services page.
by DG | Nov 12, 2021 | Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO
Updated: Nov, 12, 2021
You are likely well aware of the concept of content marketing by now. It’s a tactic that helps you engage and attract customers and prospects by delivering quality content that provides value for everyone who visits your site. And the strategy has a lot of staying power.
Here are just a few areas in which content marketing can help you.
Driving Conversion
A great benefit of content marketing is that it helps your company drive more conversions over time. Research shows that companies that create consistent marketing content experience conversion rates almost six times higher than their competitors.
Increasing Traffic and Brand Awareness
Publishing consistent blog posts that engage audiences will help you bring in more traffic to your site over time. According to HubSpot, companies that published more than 16 blog posts per month got almost three and a half times more traffic than those that only published fewer than four posts.
It also helps educate people about your brand and raises the level of brand awareness that is otherwise not there when you don’t publish blog posts outlining what your company does or sells.
Check out our Pro Blogging Packages
Building trust and Fostering Relationships
You can build real relationships with your customers through content driven marketing. It allows customers to really absorb your philosophy and thinking patterns and associate themselves with your values. This allows them to take a peek in to the way that your company does business. It’s a lot more personal and less presumptuous than an advertisement.
Building Credibility and Expertise
Well written and polished content automatically comes across as professional and authoritative. It allows people to see your company as an expert or an authority on the subject of your business. It also allows you to be seen as a major player in the industry.
Cost Effectiveness and SEO Visibility
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing even though it generates three times as many leads. It also helps your company and topics trend better in search engines, specifically Google. Allowing your content to trend well allows for greater visibility.
Targeting Specific Audiences
It’s important to know exactly who you’re selling to when you’re selling a product or a service. For this reason, content driven marketing is useful to get your message across to your target demographic. It sounds extremely cold and calculating, but it’s useful without a doubt.
Engaging Content Makes a Personal Connection
As outlined above, it’s more engaging and personal than an advertisement. The written word, when written well has a much better connection with your readers and customers than an ad ever can, hence, the emphasis on content driven marketing.
Can bring you Unexpected Customers
It’s incredible that content marketing can bring you customers from so many different places that are not your target demographic. You can use trends and current hot topics to market your products or services to people that won’t normally look twice in your direction.
Do you need great content for your website? As on of the top small business branding agencies, we have great writers standing by that can produce excellent, affordable content on any topic. Check out our packages.
It’s also important to get as many backlinks as you can in order to generate organic traffic. If you need help with that or any other SEO tasks, checkout our SEO services page.
