8 Ways to Extract Value from Customer Data

When you have more data than you know what to do with, finding effective ways to do something with that data can be a challenge.

For example, with more and more people using desktop, laptop, and mobile computing devices, all of which are generating more information, it makes sense that 90% of the world’s data has been created just in the last three years alone. And that’s not just a result of people creating data; it is because of algorithms and other software that track user behaviour and generate its own data about it.

In fact, on a daily basis, global computer usage now generates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, and that figure is only going to grow thanks to the proliferation of the Internet of Things devices. It’s a massive, almost incomprehensible amount of information. And only some of it is useful to your specific, relevant business interests.

So how does a business wade through the mountain of data gathered daily and find information that is actually useful in improving performance, profit, sales, or other operational factors?

These eight ways are a few of the things that a business can do to sift through the information and find what makes sense and is useful.

1. Accept That Big Data Is Here to Stay

Big data, looked at without refinement, can appear to be a huge, unwieldy mess of random information. And taken in that context, there’s a real temptation to simply ignore it. However, ignoring big data is ignoring a key opportunity. Data science, for example, is a growing profession because of the value that comes from being able to screen, filter, and interpret what is useful in big data.

People who choose to ignore big data because of its volume do so at the peril of their own business. The first step to extracting valuable customer data is to acknowledge that good data is “in there somewhere” and to have a willingness to mine through it.

2. Invest in Analytics

The key factor to making use of big data, once you acknowledge its potential, is to have the right tools and talent to wade into the sea of information and come back with data that makes the most sense to you.

You should seriously consider allocating some operational budget to analytics. Bigger companies may have entire departments dedicated to this job, but while that scale gets results, that’s not the only way to achieve useful analytics. Even small to medium enterprises can find an analytics solution, whether personnel or software, that works for their size and budgetary requirements.

3. Use Historical Data

People often think of data as a way to help predict the future, but some of the most important lessons that data teaches us have come from the past. A good long-term plan to use data from customer information is analysing historical data.

Businesses should always be aware that some of the best data available are the sets that are gathered over time. For example, you should not be ignoring sales data from the last 5 to 10 years, even if it’s not part of your current digital infrastructure.

Use document management systems and archive this data if you must, but analytics put to the task of discerning past customer sales data can reveal incredibly useful information about customer behaviour and buying patterns. If you have existing data, even if it’s not digital, digitise it and make sure your software can use it. Under the right circumstances, it may be far more helpful than you imagine.

4. Apply Customer Data To Operations

Extracting data from customer behaviour and other datasets can obviously help to increase sales, but don’t forget that another way to make more money is to spend less. In addition to increasing sales, the right type of customer data can also help to increase efficiency and reduce waste, both of which can increase your revenue.

For example, your customer data is showing that more and more of your marketing response is coming from YouTube and Instagram, and less of it is coming from Facebook. This may be an indicator that for your product and target market, you can spend less—or cut down entirely—on your Facebook spending and devote more effort to the platforms that are getting good results. Let customer behaviour data help to streamline the way you run your business.

5. Analyze Client Churn

“Client churn” is a term used to describe the turnover rate of customers or clients from being regular purchasers to taking their business elsewhere. It is another area where big data, combined with analytics, can make a big difference.

This process is about looking at your user data and arriving at conclusions that help explain why some customers remain loyal, and others support your business for a specific period and then leave. You may find relationships between drops in customer retention and when you stop supplying certain products. Alternatively, you may find certain sales or times of the year give you a big spike in customers, but they don’t stick around afterwards.

Analytics focused on the specifics of your client churn can help you understand how to retain more customers and thus enjoy more consistent profits.

6. Social Media Is Data Too

Up to 80% of the data generated today is video, documents, and images, much of which is posted on social media. Analyzing social media and using the unfiltered, unsorted data that appears there can be enormously helpful not just in finding out where your market is, but also in what a market wants or is looking for.

It’s important to recognise that content that appears on social media can be symptomatic indicators of other trends and factors to capitalise on, for the businesses that are paying attention. So, don’t just view social media as a channel to reach out to your market, understand that it can also be a window into what that market may be looking for, and you can get ahead of the curve to provide it for them. Do not ignore trends, take advantage of them.

7. Data Should Be Accessible

Data access should be shared across your company. While it is understood that knowing something your competitors don’t can be a valuable edge, this does not apply within your business itself. If you know something about a customer’s needs or behavior, but someone who could actually use that data does not have access to the same information, that hurts your company.

You should always ensure that digital data is shared and accessible for those who need it. Someone who handles customer support, for example, should be able to share a customer’s complaint and specific problem with any department that might actually be able to help solve the problem or provide deeper insight into the issue.

Information is only useful when people who know what to do with it can get to it. If your finance department is locked out of certain financial data, that’s a layer of interference making things less efficient.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Automate

Contrary to popular fear-mongering, automation does not automatically mean that a human’s job is on the line and that someone is about to get laid off. Automation is not just applied to physical, mechanical activities, but it can also be applied to data analytics.

Some of the most useful insights you can get about customers will not come from doing a line-by-line analysis of each bit of incoming data, but instead from trusting software and algorithms to sift through the data and find only what is relevant to you and your needs.

Automation can even be used to free up your human resources for more analytical activities that are better suited to their talents. Processing payments, for example, is largely a rote, mechanical process that software can assist with. With fewer routine operations to deal with during the day, your human staff can concentrate on more ambitious, innovative activities.

Conclusion

More data is being generated on a daily basis than any human or group of humans can feasibly keep track of. However, there is also a wealth of useful, actionable insight hidden in the depths of that data. It is only through strategy and sensibility when choosing the right data, analysing it, and putting it to the correct use that a business can improve its revenue.

Learn how to choose, analyse and put the correct use of big data for your business by join our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

Top 8 Social Media Statistics Every Marketer Should Know

Social media has, over the last ten years, become an integral part of the lifestyles of Hong Kongers as well as an essential touchstone for communication, news dissemination, and even marketing.

Between the relationships established on Facebook and the captivating quality of photos on Instagram and Pinterest, there is a wide range of interests and features across the channels. Just about every demographic has somewhere to share and browse their interests on one platform or another.

Now that another year is coming to a close, digital marketers should review what happened in 2019 with their social media efforts and also look ahead at what 2020 might have in store. Let's take a look at some of the numbers—and trends—that has defined social media in the past, and give us a glimpse into the future.

1. Usage Continues to Rise

The continued success of social media shouldn't be a surprise to anyone considering the rapid adoption rate of any convenient or useful technology. And social media has taken the world by storm, and the increasing usage is a testament to both of those factors. But precisely what kind of usage increase are we talking about?

Social media itself has seen a 13% global increase in usage in 2017. Breaking down those numbers, that means roughly 415 million new users started using social media in 2018, bringing the grand total up to 3.196 billion users across the planet that are now engaged in some kind of social media. That's a lot of users and a lot of marketing potential. Of course, this number is projected to only keep growing as technology becomes more accessible in more countries.

2. Mobile Continues to Play a Role

While it’s true that social media is definitely on the rise, one thing that can’t be ignored are the devices used to access it. While plenty of people are still engaging in social media at work or at home on desktop computers, there are billions of people all around the world, on the go, using social media on their phones or tablets.

In fact, 2.958 billion people access social media on mobile platforms. That's a penetration rate of about 39%. So for any business that is looking at social media marketing, it is critical to think not just about social media itself, but whether or not the approach is optimized for engagement on smartphones and other portable devices.

3. Facebook & YouTube Are Doing the Best

The two big winners for most popular social media platforms are Facebook and YouTube. Facebook, of course, isn't really a surprise to anyone, as it's one of the older and most dominant platforms, especially among older users of tech. In fact, statistics in America from the Pew Research indicate that 68% of adult Americans use Facebook, while 73% use YouTube.

Much of this position among the social media ranks has to do with age. Older computer-literate users are more comfortable with the older Facebook platform, as the same Pew Research indicates 41% of total Facebook users being 65 years or older. YouTube, on the other hand, managed an astounding 94% of its total user population occupying the 18-24 age demographic according to the same data, so this will be an interesting trend to watch. If things continue in this way, Facebook may lose users or see less growth due to "aging out," as younger users continue to ignore it and move on to other platforms.

4. People Are Watching

When it comes to social media, one of the most important things you can in managing an account is to strictly monitor your behavior. While there's a pretty broad range of interpretation for what constitutes "irritating," 51% of social media users will unfollow a social media marketing account if they feel they see "irritating" behavior.

Among the things that people respond positively to, responsiveness is high on the list of keeping users engaged and willing to follow an account. If they feel a company they are interested in is positively interacting with them in a timely fashion, they’re more likely to be receptive. Ignoring interactions, and, worse yet, belittling interactions or even picking fights are fast ways to lose that engagement and get unfollowed.

5. Chatbot Usage Is Increasing

“Bots" on social media are responsible for inaccurately conflating user numbers or interactions and are often cited as the chief tools of political or propaganda wars on social media. However, when used honestly and ethically, they provide significant value to businesses.

The "chatbot", in 2016 alone, had a population of 33,000 on Facebook and continues to grow legitimately. The critical thing to keep in mind with legitimate chatbots is that these are not weaponised pieces of software trying to fool people into thinking they are human users. Chatbots are software that is designed to interact with people in a customer service role, assisting with cooking tips, helping to facilitate financial transactions for banks, or even coordinating a timetable for public transport like buses and trains. These bots are just software, not attempting to hide its true nature or intent, but providing a familiar, easy interface to help people achieve their goals.

6. Instagram Is a Rising Star

Facebook is the old foundation of social media, but there are plenty of contenders for the thrown. Fortunately, for Facebook, the biggest threat to its dominance isn't a threat at all, since Facebook already owns the up-and-comer. Instagram passed one billion users in 2018 and continues to grow at 5% every quarter, beating even Facebook's own growth for the year.

Much of this growth is fueled by the younger demographics that flock to the image-based social media platform, even as older demographics continue to ignore it.

7. Facebook May Be in Decline

While Facebook is still the undisputed king, there's a question of whether or not the king may be dying. 2018 hasn’t been kind to the reputation of Facebook, between data breaches that have compromised user information, the proliferation of bots as a tool of propaganda, and the increasing reliance on political partisans to use Facebook as a vehicle for recruitment and enticement. Users' view of the social network has changed since Facebook moved away from being a venue for social interaction amongst friends.

In fact, 42% of respondents in a 2018 survey indicate they are “taking a break” from Facebook, while 26% say they have deleted the app entirely and no longer use it. In addition, 54% of Facebook users have now adjusted their privacy settings, so there’s a general feeling of distrust growing around the social media giant. Facebook is definitely going through some changes, so in addition to an "age problem," it may be suffering from a reputation problem as well.

8. Video Is Where the Money Is Going

Thanks to Facebook, YouTube, and even Instagram with IGTV, video is one of the most popular forms of marketing in social media today. Of course, there are plenty of good reasons for this. Video consumption is easy, regardless of the age demographic.

More importantly for marketing, you can see where the money is going, and how it is being spent. Traditional metrics for the success of film, television, and commercials apply to video marketing. However, they have the added bonus of more accurate user data, since digital technology more accurately measures usage and engagement and preserves this data for analysis. It's much easier to allocate a budget for video production since the parameters for a good product are well established.

There is no denying that social media will continue to be one of the most important marketing tools - which is why it is more important than ever to have a strong social branding, and to know your customers well enough to produce relevant and engaging content. If you are interested in finding out how you can use social media to your advantage, join our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts to learn the how-tos!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

How SMEs Can Leverage the Power of Digital to Engage and Influence Customers

Regardless of your sector or industry, you will no doubt be aware that the competition in your space is fierce. But, while getting ahead of the pack can seem like an uphill struggle, by leveraging the power of digital the right way, you'll be able to cut through the noise and grow your business, one initiative at a time.

Most of SME owners are responsible for personally overseeing three or more areas of their organisation's activities, including marketing. And, of course, marketing is one of the cornerstones of sustainable success in the age of digital.

As digital technologies continue to evolve, there are more platforms, mediums, and touchpoints than ever, opportunities to connect your target audience on a deeply personal level.

By developing initiatives around even a portion of these touchpoints, you stand to boost brand awareness while accelerating your business’s growth.

Here we look at ways ambitious SME leaders, like you, can harness the all-encompassing power of digital to engage and influence customers.

Focus your Marketing Efforts

When you're in the midst of operating a busy SME, time is always of the essence. That said, the foundations of your digital marketing success will lie in your ability to select the marketing channels that are likely to make the most impact.

For instance, in addition to your website - which is essentially your business’s HQ - you might decide to drill down into your email marketing communications and your Instagram channel, as opposed to spreading your efforts across several social media platforms, third-party eCommerce sites and landing pages.

Naturally, digital never remains static so these choices may change over time and as your business scales, so will your scope to broaden your marketing efforts. But, initially, by forming initiatives around two to three core marketing channels, you’ll be able to generate a focused buzz, potentially enticing droves of new prospects to your brand.

Building on this notion, now we’re going to explore four key areas you can leverage to your SME’s advantage - starting with social media.

Go Social

95% of adults aged 18 to 34 years old are likely to follow and engage with a brand through social media. Moreover, 73% of marketers state that social media marketing has been either a somewhat or incredibly effective part of their business strategy.

But, despite this clear cut for social media, around half of today’s SMEs aren’t using this proven marketing medium to their advantage.

As mentioned, to squeeze optimum value from your business’s social media marketing efforts, you should take ample time to decide on one platform on which to focus the majority of your efforts.

Depending on the nature and mission of your business, different platforms will appeal to different audiences.

Facebook is still a tried and tested market leader and Instagram is enjoying exponential growth, with its visual nature appealing to younger generations. And, then there’s Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, as well as dark social outlets such as WhatsApp, and the list goes on.

Take the time to conduct your research, creating buyer personas to understand your audience on a deeper level. Study your competitors’ social media efforts to see what resonates with their audience the most and you be able to make an informed decision on your business’s primary social media platform.

Once you’ve set up or optimised your social media accounts (selected striking profile images, checked that all links are working, produced relevant, punchy bio copy, etc.), you should start building awareness by ‘listening’ to your target audiences conversations through social media, tapping into dialogues where appropriate and using this data as a means of producing engaging relevant content that will strike a chord with your consumers.

For inspiration, explore how you can improve your social branding.

Optimise your Email Marketing Efforts

While many regard email marketing as somewhat of a lost art, it couldn't be further from the truth. A golden asset to any budding SME, email, if used effectively, has the power to engage and influence consumers in a big way.

In fact, 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses through email. Plus, 99% of people check their email every single day. That said, there’s plenty of scope for connecting with your audience with email communications.

To build a successful email marketing strategy for your business, you will need to consider the following elements:

• Understand your audience.

• Plan your goals and campaigns.

• Choose the right email marketing tools and software.

• Create engaging, relevant and value-driven content for your audience.

• Monitor, track and measure your results.

Circling back to content: your email marketing copy will often make or break the success of your campaigns, so getting it just right is critical.

To ensure you engage and influence your customers on a meaningful level that is likely to result in a conversion, you should aim to be personal and focus on telling your customers an authentic story with your content.

“Make your customer the hero of your stories.” - Ann Handley, author and digital marketing pioneer

Strong narratives grab readers on a deeply personal level and as such, if you tell a story with your emails, you’re more likely to attract customers to your brand.

Take ethical cosmetics brand Lush, for instance. To communicate its core brand values with new subscribers, Lush uses a seamless mix of visual content and well-crafted narrative based on its passion for environmental issues - emails based on the storytelling featured on its website.

Lush’s inspiring email marketing campaigns, coupled with its strong brand storytelling capabilities, have served to catalyse the company’s growth in recent years, with an incredible level of year on year growth.

As a testament to the power of email marketing - and engaging content to match.

Target Small-Scale Influencers

For SMEs in particular, influencer marketing is an effective means of expanding your commercial reach and growing your audience. And, typically, this is achieved through the mediums of blogs and social media.

While attracting internally-renowned celebrities for marketing campaigns or initiatives is a relatively straightforward task for big-budget brands or organidations, for an SME, this task can prove a little more challenging.

But, for SMEs, concerning influencer marketing, the real value lies in sourcing small-scale influencers in your industry or niche.

At present, 94% of marketers believe that transparency and authenticity are key factors of influencer marketing success.

That said, by working to forge relationships with smaller-scale digital influencers in your niche, you stand to cut through the noise and connect with prospects that are likely to be highly engaged in what you have to offer or what you have to say.

While this is could perhaps be considered a large-scale influencer marketing campaign, SMBs can learn a lot from National Geographic & Microsoft’s ‘Make What’s Next’ campaign.

Launched on International Women’s Day, this influencer campaign aimed to encourage talented young women to start careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and saw the two brands posting images of relevant influencers across five of its most engaged social media accounts.

This innovative, emotive and incredibly niche influencer marketing strategy earned over 67 million social impressions, over 3.5 million ‘likes’ and an excess of 1,000 pieces of content generated via Instagram using the hashtag, #MakeWhatsNext. An incredible result for an exemplary digital marketing initiative.

Embrace Paid Advertising

Another business-boosting avenue you can take as an SME is paid-advertising. By embracing the potential of pay-per-click (PPC) though outlets including Google, Facebook and the recently regenerated, Amazon Ads platform, you’ll be able to connect with a wider online audience.

Studies suggest that 75% of people that click on paid ads say confirm that search ads make it easier to find relevant information. Based on that notion, a well-targeted paid ad has the power to encourage a healthy level of conversions.

Concerning paid advertising, there are a host of options but perhaps the most effective for boosting your presence on search engines is Google’s paid advertising platform.

To help you start embracing this platform and yield positive results, here’s our beginner’s guide to Google PPC advertising.

Final Thoughts

The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne, Founder of Marketoonist

In the digital age, the possibilities for creating engaging, inspiring marketing campaigns are endless. By taking the time to connect with your prospects on a deeply personal level, focusing your efforts and taking a strategic approach to your activities, you will set yourself apart from the pack, cementing your success for many years to come.

Hungry for more? Join our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts, to know how to use the knowledge to advance your Internet marketing efforts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

10 Trends in Digital Marketing in 2020

It doesn’t matter what your industry is, or what products and services you offer - digital marketing trends cannot be ignored. Not so long ago, companies needed little more than a website and a Facebook page, but now, the digital landscape is evolving so quickly that it’s hard to keep up.

By now, there aren’t too many successful businesses that don’t have an online presence. In 2020, new technologies and tools will come to the fore, forcing marketers to adapt in order to keep their organisations at the top.

After all, Digital Darwinism is an unforgiving reality. If you don’t adapt, you’ll surely be left behind. Read on to discover the digital marketing trends to be ready for in 2020.

1. Facebook May Be Peaking. Really.

Facebook is no longer the kingpin in the social media world. According to Forbes, 41% of its users are over the age of 65. While it is by no means struggling, it’s clear that Facebook is losing ground with the younger demographics, who tend to prefer the more visual, interactive experiences offered by Instagram, Snapchat, and the rising star, TikTok.

After the data breach scandal in 2018, Facebook has lost significant credibility, with many people growing frustrated and resentful with the platform's proliferation of fake news, political propaganda, and cyberbullying. The once-dominant force is continuing to drop in popularity with younger demographics, with TechCrunch speculating that Facebook may be dead to Gen Z.

It's essential for future digital marketers to really look at who their target market may be because Facebook may be very unsuitable for some campaigns, especially as it continues to trend downwards with younger people. Facebook is still massive, and many Americans continue to check in on it. Still, marketers should be more cautious with who they are trying to connect with and make sure their target audience is still on Facebook. If not, you could be wasting your marketing budget, targeting the wrong social media platform.

2. Instagram is a Hit with the Kids

Instagram’s meteoric rise has already seen it pass one billion users, an impressive achievement. That means it's one of the most rapidly growing social media platforms and, perhaps more importantly, much of its user base is the coveted younger demographic, especially under 30. Facebook is losing much of that cohort, due to its reputation as the social media platform for "old people."

One potential problem that marketers should keep in mind is that Instagram recently decided to remove the likes feature from the platform. Many influencers have voiced concerns about this move, and therefore, companies should keep a close eye on the impact this will have in 2020. While it could lead to an uptick in content quality, many users may drift away from the platform in search of vanity metrics elsewhere.

3. Chatbots Will Dominate Customer Service

Chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI) software that acts as a virtual "concierge," communicating with users and assisting them in completing their goals. Chatbots interact with humans in a natural way, primarily through the use of text chat windows, but verbal interactions are also possible. Over time, as the system collects more data insights, the AI learns more about the customers, making it possible to offer a continuously-improving service.

Throughout 2018 and 2019, chatbots carved out a regular role on Facebook, by the tens of thousands, for different tasks. Everything from providing weather reports to automating some basic customer support functions can be easily handled by sophisticated software. Bots allow users to get personalized, focused interactions without pulling too much from limited human resources.

80% of businesses claim they want to start using chatbots this year. When you consider the benefits, it’s easy to understand why:

• 24-hour service

• Instant responses to customer queries

• No need for breaks, vacations, or overtime pay

Tidio research from January 2020 found that 43% of consumers prefer to message an online chatbot rather than to phone customer service centers when communicating with a brand. So, with businesses and customers keen for more involvement with chatbots, this is sure to be one of the fastest-growing digital marketing trends in 2020, or at least, one that you can make good use of to understand your customers better.

4. Video is No Longer an Option

If your business isn’t already using video marketing, you should get on board this year. Text-based content simply can’t compete with the power of video, especially when it comes to trying to sell products and services online.

In a mobile-mad world, people are watching more video than ever before, using smartphones to watch and share videos about everything, learning more about brands, and what they have to offer. Think about these stats from ImpactBND:

• 70% of consumers have shared a brand’s video.

• 52% of consumers claim that watching product videos makes them more confident and guides their online purchasing decisions.

• 72% of businesses believe video content has improved their conversion rates.

Video marketing is highly-engaging, especially if it's live video. Live streaming is a powerful method of digital marketing when combined with influencer marketing. Whether it's the new generation of social media influencers or traditional sources, such as celebrities, athletes, and musicians, having a live stream with an influencer who is interacting directly with comments is a huge draw for an audience.

Twitch has over 15 million daily active users, most of whom tune in just to watch live streaming videos from influencers like Ninja. Arguably the world's most popular gaming influencer, Ninja, recently signed an exclusive deal with Mixer, which was a power play by the Microsoft-company in recognition of the expected value of live video streaming in the year ahead.

5. Good Content Still Matters (and Now Context Matters More!)

Content marketing continues to be an essential component of digital marketing, although there's an increasing emphasis on nuance in content. The quality is always going to matter, but now there's more emphasis on the context and targeting. Google is developing a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of online content, and so, marketers must think carefully about their target market and how they can tailor content more precisely in 2020.

Much of this boils down to the BERT update, released on Google in November 2019. The new algorithm helps the search engine giant get a better understanding of the natural language in user search queries. Advice from Google is that “rather than chase the latest SEO trends, it’s more important to ensure a site has fast speeds, useful links, and well-written content.”

Make no mistake:

Content marketing is going nowhere.

That being said, Google is getting smarter, and it gives preference to in-depth, accurate, current content that is closely aligned with user intent. Companies must keep this in mind as they create new content in 2020.

6. Email is Getting More Personalised

Email continues to be a major channel of communication, with billions still using it for personal, commercial, industrial, legal, scientific, and academic purposes. In other words, email is here to stay, and email marketing itself continues to be important.

However, email marketing is evolving, and generic marketing emails aren't as effective as they once were. It is now a combination of automation and, more importantly, personalisation that makes email marketing important for 2020.

When you can trigger your email marketing to something specific, such as a user browsing a particular product, and then follow up with a promotional price or demo video in a personalized email, this can be very effective. Email is often the final trigger to motivate an action, especially when combined with your remarketing techniques.

That leads us to one of the most exciting digital marketing trends in recent times…

7. Interactive Content Will Become Mainstream

Interactive content is anything that people can click on, swipe, or interact with online.  According to Outgrow, 93% marketers rate interactive content as highly effective at educating the buyer.

In 2020, more companies will experiment with interactive content types, such as:

• Quizzes and polls

• Augmented reality ads

• 360-degree videos

These formats leverage cutting-edge marketing technology, such as augmented reality and video content, to offer people a more immersive, engaging experience. Nowadays, consumers want this type of memorable, fun content from brands, as it helps them feel more connected to the company.

8. Voice Interaction Continues Upward

Thanks to Siri, Google, Alexa, and a host of other ‘smart’ devices, verbal interaction with devices is continuing to rise. The real lesson for us is that people like to talk and that is a preferred way of interacting. And now, machines are finally catching up to the way people want to search, shop and discover new things.

However, this presents some interesting challenges. Conducting a voice search, for example, is very different from typing a query, particularly in the results. When a person performs a text-based search, the screen displays the results one page at a time. But when someone asks a device to conduct a search and the device replies verbally, it may only give a few choices at most, and frequently supplies just one choice.

Marketers targeting voice search users should remember to write in a conversational tone, using keywords that people will speak rather than type. Doing this will help you get the coveted position zero or featured snippets on Google.

9. Marketing in Messaging Apps Will Level-Up

Social messaging apps aren't just for staying in touch with friends and family. Businesses in all industries have taken a significant interest in apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in recent times, and it's no surprise when you consider the opportunities:

• 1.3 billion monthly users are active on Facebook Messenger, sending more than 10 billion messages every month.

• WhatsApp has 1.6 billion active users, sending over 55 billion messages every day.

While traditional channels like email and social media are far from dead, there’s no denying that people are more active on instant messaging apps. In the next 5-7 years, messenger marketing is expected to be the number one marketing channel in the world. Therefore, it’s a logical step for brands to start connecting with people on these platforms. Marketing through Facebook Messenger generates 10 to 80 times more engagement than organic posts on the Facebook News Feed.

Messaging apps allow companies to reach a broad audience with short, personalized texts. 63% of online consumers are more likely to return to a company website if it has a live chat option, hammering home the need for companies to take this channel seriously.

In 2020, you can expect to see much more marketing in messaging apps, with many companies, including video and interactive content to engage users.

10. Omnichannel Marketing is Now Vital

Omnichannel marketing is the practice of marketing across multiple platforms, including email, apps, social media, and your website blog. This approach enables businesses to connect with customers on more digital touchpoints, effectively offering a better user experience.

By delivering a seamless, consistent voice and cohesive brand message across all channels, you can generate much better results. ClickZ reports that omnichannel marketing drives over three times as much engagement than a single-channel approach. Better yet, customer retention, average order value, and purchase frequency are all higher when you have multiple channels.

As AI technology improves, companies can leverage data insights and machine learning to get a better understanding of customer behaviors, and then personalize it at the highest-level. Ultimately, a focus on omnichannel marketing is the road to an enhanced customer journey that keeps people coming back for more.

Get Involved, or Get Left Behind

So, as you can see, things are moving fast in the digital marketing world. In 2020, AI technology, video, voice search, and interactive content will be among the most prominent trends. This is no time for a business to stand still, as the younger demographics and more tech-savvy consumers of today want brands to connect with them in new and exciting ways that make the customer journey easier and more enjoyable.

It’s time to dive in. Which of these digital marketing trends will you try first? Hone your skills to better take advantage of the trends by joining our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

3 Ways to Incorporate SEO into Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

SEO, or ‘search engine optimisation,' is a term bandied around by many in the marketing world. It’s the process of getting ‘free’ traffic from search engines and is also referred to as ‘organic’ search because companies don’t have to pay to be shown in the results.

It’s an important part of any inbound marketing plan because it helps people find (then share) content. We've detailed some of the key tactics involved in integrating SEO into your inbound marketing strategy from the start.

1. Blogging for SEO

One of the first active sections any company should have on its website is a blog. In addition to providing insights and keeping customers and prospects interested in what they have to say, a blog can also seriously boost your SEO prowess.

Here are six practical steps marketers can take to ensure their blogs are doing SEO work for them:

1. Write for humans first. Think before writing, and don’t write solely based on keywords.

2. Prioritise headings. They’re important to help clue readers in on what’s coming next, but they also aid search engines in which words and phrases are prioritised. Try to use keywords in headings when it makes sense.

3. Answer questions. What questions do customers and prospects have? The answer to that question will often let businesses know which keywords and phrases they should research.

4. Invest in a good plug-in. Blog plug-ins such as Yoast take the guesswork out of SEO and help organisations remember to do all of the little things, like including keywords in metadata, texts adding alt tags to images and including keywords/phrases in URLs and titles.

5. Update often. It’s best practice that businesses give their audiences blog content at the same time each day or week. How often an organisation posts often depends on internal resources, but providing Google with a wealth of new, optimised content on a regular basis is imperative.

6. Longer is better. The days of the 500-word blog post are gone. According to a recent study from QuickSprout, longer blogs (above 1,500 words) perform much better than their shorter counterparts.

2. SEO Battleground: Intent vs. Keyword Optimisation

These days, there’s no competition between optimizing for search in the original sense (i.e. placing keywords in strategic places throughout content) and answering the questions the audience is asking. The latter will win almost every time.

While the Google bots are still working on refining their understanding of each and every user, intent has come a long way in a few short years. SEO elements that were considered an imperative in the past (e.g. keyword density) don’t have the same power that they once did. Instead, user behavior is guiding the SERPs (search engine ranking pages) ship.

Before building a content strategy around keywords only, marketers must take a step back and also focus on customer personas and intent. To do this, they must ask their audiences the following questions:

• What products or services do they currently use or have they used in the past?

• What are their pain points?

• Which topics do they want to know about?

• What questions are they asking?

Marketers can also use Google Trends and Google Analytics to explore search trends, queries and site flow to better understand intent. The graph below from Neil Patel is an example of how users navigate through a website after ‘asking’ Google something. What insights could you gather from these events?

Users are asking questions when they use Google or their preferred search engine. Companies need to be there to answer those questions, whether it’s in content on their homepage, product pages, resources section or blog. It’s all about providing the most value to the audience.

Semantic SEO or basing search engine results on relevancy, is the path Google continues to travel. Before writing a single piece of content for a new website, marketers should create a simple spreadsheet outlining their topics, concepts and keywords.

The topic is the broad category a business would cover; concepts are based on their customers’ pain points and keywords are the questions their customers ask. Free tools such as LSI Graph can help savvy marketers research these keywords and phrases, while tools like SEMRush help verify the amount of traffic and suggest related options. Once these keywords are established, all of the “old” rules apply. Keywords/phrases should be included in titles, body content, meta descriptions, URLs and alt tags.

3. Social Media: A Hidden SEO Treasure Trove

Both SEO and social media are inbound strategies, and their similarities don’t end there. Both also rely on great content to fuel their popularity. And while most marketers agree that social has an impact on their SEO success, many leave out the specific details. Here are three of the top ways companies can see their social profiles influence SEO:

1. Expand external links. When companies share great content, other people share it too. And when they link back to the content on a company’s site, that company gets a shiny new external link-of which Google is quite fond. Hashtags and tagging influencers are two ways to get the most eyes on social content.

2. Grow follower counts. If a user is searching for a particular topic and one Twitter account has 100 followers, while another has 10,000, the one with the most followers will always find its way higher in the SERPs. Organisations must share useful content, start conversations and follow others to organically grow their follower bases.

3. Get local. Google’s recommendations are heavily based on locality, and social media provides the perfect place for businesses to get active in their local communities. Companies can update their location, post about local events and follow other local businesses to earn SEO authority.

Google is still in the early stages of understanding social signals and searching social websites, but it’s quickly evolving. And while social media alone won’t help anyone reach the top of the SERPs, sharing optimised, useful content on social media certainly won’t hurt to get the word out.

For a detailed study of social media and how it fits within a great inbound marketing strategy, Join our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts, to know how to use the knowledge to advance your Internet marketing efforts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

Mobile-First Indexing: What Does it Mean for SEO?

We live in an interconnected world where it feels that smartphones are everywhere; with people engrossed in their screens at every turn.

In the USA, UK, and Canada, to name a few, mobile devices amount for over 60% of total internet traffic; in fact, mobile internet usage surpassed desktop usage back in 2014. With these statistics in mind, it’s no surprise that Google is moving to mobile-first indexing.

Now, you might be asking yourself: what is mobile-first indexing?

It is simply the way that Google’s indexing bots, also known as spiders, crawl the web. So far, the emphasis was on desktop internet usage, which meant that these bots gave priority to desktop versions of web pages. Now, they will prioritise mobile optimised content while crawling the web.

Will the change impact page ranking and SEO?

Possibly. If you are using a responsive site, or if you have a properly optimised mobile version, you should see little change, if any.

Google announced its plans for mobile-first indexing back in November 2016 and they will be implementing it gradually across 2017. Testing is currently being carried out to ensure that the quality of user experience and search results are not affected due to this indexing change. As Doantam Phanof of the Google webmaster blog said:

“We understand this is an important shift in our indexing and it’s one we take seriously. We’ll continue to carefully experiment over the coming months on a small scale and we’ll ramp up this change when we’re confident that we have a great user experience.”

While it might seem simple on the surface, the key issue with the move to mobile-first indexing is that desktop sites have been around for so much longer than mobile sites, and the amount of metadata for mobile is not as abundant. In other words, mobile web has much less content and links due to the head start that desktop has had.

In essence, Google has to develop new signals and metrics that are going to fill in this gap in order for the change to be seamless. A good example of this is the new page speed measurement process that is planned for mobile sites – the desktop page speed is not relevant to mobile.

How should I prepare for mobile-first indexing?

First of all, Google has already focused on mobile-friendly search engine updates, so this move just makes it more official. If you haven’t optimised your blogs and sites for mobile so far, your site performance is already suffering.

Now, regarding the solution, the first and most obvious answer is to optimise for mobile. There are a number of steps you can take to do this. The simplest way to improve your website and its functionality is to use a responsive design – a dynamic approach to the way your website looks, depending on the screen size, resolution, and operating system.

This isn’t a new development, and most CMS platforms offer responsive themes and layouts. In addition, you have simple tools at your disposal to establish if your site is mobile-friendly.

Of course, you can still use separate versions of your website or even keep on using a desktop only site, since the new algorithm will index it just fine, but it could potentially be marked down in SERPs due to poor mobile performance.

So, other than major design changes, what else can you do to improve your ranking and SEO?

Use Structured Data

Structured data is on-page mark-up that allows crawlers to fully understand what your website is about. It also enables search engines to produce rich snippets in search results and potentially push your website higher up in SERP results. The Structured Data Testing Tool is a free tool from Google that allows you to validate and test structured data in websites.

Although it is important, this structured data can be removed from the mobile version of your site to increase site speed and adhere to mobile-first indexing.

If your site has only a desktop version verified in the search console, make sure to also add and verify your mobile site. It’s also recommended to use a robots.txt testing tool to see if your mobile site looks healthy to a Googlebot (Google indexer, or spider).

Content

While this is a major change, standard practice still applies to producing SEO-friendly content.

There are a few little tweaks that you can make to your content that could improve your mobile performance, from the point of user experience. For the most part it isn’t about any particular technique, but how you think about your content.

One of the first questions you should ask yourself is this: is browsing your website on a mobile device a good experience?

Sure, long and informative articles are important, but that 5000-word article can look really intimidating on a smartphone. Using short paragraphs with a lot of white space will make your content easier to read when it’s scaled down for smaller screen sizes.

You should also consider breaking up your copy with images and infographics. Video and audio content also work great on mobile, as impatient browsers won’t stick around to read a swathe of text. By varying the content on a webpage, whether it’s video or audio, you’ll appeal to more users as well as encouraging spiders to crawl your site.

What does the future hold?

To anyone following SEO trends, mobile-first indexing is not really news. Google has been focusing on increasing and improving the mobile experience for years now.

Mobile-specific updates are slowly changing the online landscape; the introduction of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) allows users to access your content at greatly improved speeds and app streaming allows you to use apps without actually downloading it to your device.

Luckily, improving your website for mobile-first indexing isn't complicated for the average Digital Marketer. Simply focus on creating great content and keep user experience at the centre of all changes you make to your desktop and mobile sites.

Ultimately, optimizing your website for mobile is a matter of common sense as most of your audience is slowly migrating there, and there is a clear shift in marketing trends in the past few years.

Learn more about Internet marketing by joining our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts, to know how to use the knowledge to advance your Internet marketing efforts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

7 Tips on Getting to Know Your Customers Better

If you don’t make the effort to know your customers on a personal level, your digital marketing efforts are likely to become flatter than a glass of week-old coca cola from a children’ party. 

If you fail to reach out to your customers with personalised messaging and tailored experiences, your brand credibility will quickly diminish, as will your audience.

The one-size-fits-all promotional approach of yester-decade will not do—and while this may appear obvious, as marketers we could all do with a little reminder of this from time to time. Speaking of reminders...

Why you should get to know your customers

When you’re creating content marketing strategies or campaigns to promote your brand, it’s easy to get carried away with creative elements, forgetting the specific needs, desires, and preferences in the process. 

But, consumers are the lifeblood of your business and getting under their skin is the only way to engage, inspire, and connect in a way that is both meaningful and valuable in equal measures.

Here’s why…

• 96% of consumers state that customer service is an integral factor in their loyalty choices towards brands and businesses. (Link to PDF here)

• Businesses that lead in their customer experience efforts outperform laggards by almost 80%.

• 90% of leading CEOs feel that the customer has the most significant impact on their business.

• 91% of today's consumers, particularly digital natives, are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations.

Know your Customers: 7 Essential Ideas

We’ve refreshed ourselves in the power of understanding your audience. Here we explore ways you can get under the skin of your consumers and enjoy increased marketing success.

1. Get analytical across touchpoints

In the digital age, we are literally swimming in data. Naturally, consumer metrics and insights are gold dust to brands looking to understand their customer base in a way that is deep and meaningful. But, are you utilising your data to its maximum capacity?

While Google Analytics is integral to extracting value from your various demographic insights, drilling down into additional data sources across touchpoints will give you a panoramic insight into your customers’ habits, preferences, and behaviors.

By using a mix of social media analytics tools as well as mobile data platforms to capture a host of in-depth insights across your primary consumer touchpoints, you’ll be able to build profiles or personas that improve your marketing communications exponentially.

2. Spark up a dialogue

Without a doubt, one of the most direct and priceless ways of getting to know your customers is by starting a conversation with them.

By meeting your consumers where they are, you will be able to understand how they connect with their peers while asking them valuable questions in a way that is organic rather than intrusive. And, when you ask the right questions, you will get the right answers—the kind that will help you improve your brand experience significantly.

From surveys and polls to social listening, there are many ways to engage with your customers where they’re most comfortable—and get to know them. But, perhaps one of the most powerful ways of sparking meaningful consumer dialogues and speaking your customers’ language, is with user-generated content (UGC).

85% of consumers find visual UGC more influential than branded photos or videos. Moreover, 90% of consumers believe that authenticity is important when deciding which brands to support.

User-generated content builds credibility and trust while offering a deeper insight into the minds of your customers. That said, it’s worth your time and investment, particularly if you’re looking to appeal to the Gen Z population.

3. Respond to positive and negative reviews. Personally.

Expanding on the previous point: concerning customer reviews, it always pays to respond to both positive and negative testimonials in a productive, timely fashion.

Regardless of where they’re posted, you should remain dedicated to providing personal responses to customer reviews in the public domain. Doing so will humanise your brand, showcase your commitment to the customer experience, and provide you with even more conversational insights.

90% of consumers confirm that online reviews have a direct impact on their buying decisions. As such an integral trust signal, providing consistent responses is essential—and doing so will open you up to a wealth of fresh customer insight.

4. Host an event or an experience

In terms of knowing your customers, experiential marketing is a very rewarding pursuit—if you get it right.

Research suggests that Millennials value experiences over material possessions. And, while Generation Z lean a little more towards innovative gadgets and cool products in terms of their consumer philosophy, this ‘woke’ cohort cares about rewarding brand experiences.

If you hold a brand event or create a tangible experience (physical or virtual), you will essentially build a platform to share your brand value with your customers using a personal approach. You will also be able to understand segments of your audience in a way that goes beyond digital stats and metrics alone.

A brand dedicated to driving innovation, Volkswagen has delivered many experiential campaigns in recent years⁠—and its `Piano Staircase` initiative is no exception. 

Placing its customers at the heart of the campaign, VW transformed a Stockholm subway station staircase into a life-sized pressure-activated piano. 

Based on the VW’s ‘Fun Theory’, the campaign is based on the concept that if something’s fun, people are more likely to engage with it.

As the video suggests, 66% more people tried the stairs rather than taking the escalator. Moreover, the video alone has earned over 1.2 million YouTube views to date.

While this particular campaign is over a decade old, it’s worth mentioning due to its enduring relevance—a testament to the power of the experience. 

With cohesive messaging, solid brand placement, and immersive innovation, it’s possible to demonstrate your brand values, gather invaluable consumer information, while connecting with a wider, more engaged audience. 

5. Tailor your deals, discounts, and incentives

Circling back to the importance of personalisation for a moment: if you offer your customers tailored deals and discounts, you’re likely to foster brand loyalty which, in turn, will give you the opportunity to get to know them better.

The vast majority of today’s consumers—72% to be exact—will only interact with personalized offers, deals, discounts or incentives. 

What choice do you have? Get personal with your deals and discounts (they may just be the window to your customers’ souls).

6. Start a mobile loyalty scheme

Speaking of fostering trust and building long-term relationships, creating a customer loyalty scheme will not only boost your consumer retention rates but you will also open up a continual portal of communication between your brand and your audience.

83% of customers state that loyalty programs make them more likely to keep engaging with particular brands. The likes of Amazon, Starbucks, and TOMS have all earned a great deal of success through their innovative loyalty programs—gathering a wealth priceless consumer insights in the process.

7. Host a ‘day in the life’ contest

Last but certainly not least, we offer another swift nod to user-generated content.

Showing active appreciation to your customers will encourage trust and loyalty which, in turn, will make your customers more likely to engage with your brand across touchpoints. And, hosting a ‘day in the life’ contest is an effective way to do so.

This is a path that isn’t particularly well trodden, but by being bold and becoming an early adopter, you stand to turn heads while gaining plenty of social media traction. 

By creating a carefully-crafted hashtag, choosing a social media platform to host the competition, and offering your customers an incentive to share a day in their life, you will gain a wealth of insight into your prospects, giving your brand awareness a boost in the process. Give it a try.

Think you know your customers well enough? Join our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts, to know how to use the knowledge to advance your Internet marketing efforts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

10 Keys Attributes of Viral Videos

Viral videos are a marketer’s dream. Whether you get lucky and create something for free that spreads across social media channels or invest some serious cash to get the results you want, a viral video is marketing gold.

So, what does it take to go viral? In some cases, it might just be dumb luck, but truth be told, you have to give it your best effort to create something unusual to get people to hit that share button. Here are 10 key attributes that can help your videos go viral.

1. Astounding Personality

If you are using a speaker, they have to be astounding.

Memorable speakers have the same effect as the world’s best stand-up comedian or the emotional pull of Martin Luther King Jr. Astounding speakers can even be downright annoying or controversial to get your video to go viral. They have to generate intentional or unintentional laughs, move people to tears, get people riled up, or make people feel good. These are all the things that will trigger the need to share your videos.

Just remember that if you are going the controversial route, you could get more bad press than good. A good speaker doesn’t have to be someone famous. You might have a hidden talent in your office. That guy who has people dying of laughter at the water cooler, although a tad disruptive to productivity, might be just what you need to create an online persona people will love.

2. Instant Attention Grabber

We all know that today’s consumer has an attention span of about eight seconds. That means you’ve got to grab their attention almost instantly. It starts with a thought-provoking headline that will capture attention in the endless scroll of titles.

Use humour, a question, intrigue, or “wackiness” to get people to click on your video.

Next, make sure that the thumbnail you choose for your video is not something horrific such as the speaker in mid speech with an out of focus and scary face. Instead, choose an actual thumbnail specifically for the purposes of appearing clickable alongside that awe-inspiring headline.

Finally, a viral video captures the viewer’s attention within seconds of hitting play. That means avoiding intros and build-ups that will have people clicking away rather than clicking the share icon. Video is designed to entertain, even if your goal is to inform.

3. Story Time

Regardless of what you are trying to sell, your video has to tell a story. In other words, have a point. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering either.

More than anything, it just has to be relatable to people who would use your product or service. And it doesn’t even necessarily have to be directly selling your brand. It just has to make a logical connection between what your story has to say and what your followers will react to emotionally.

An excellent storytelling example is American Greetings' promotion for Mother's Day. They used a clever job interview format that outlines an impossible position. It turns out at the end that they are interviewing for a mum. It makes a poignant point without ever mentioning their product. Instead, it gets across the importance of mums and how you should always let her know how grateful you are.

4. Short But Sweet

This one ties back to attention span. If your video is going to go on and on, you will lose people. Most people don't have the time to sit and watch an endless video. They are saving that time for binge-watching their favourite television shows. According to the New York Times, you’ve got about 60-seconds to tell your story.

Make sure you’ve scripted for around the one-minute mark if you want to keep people interested. Just keep in mind that the NYT article mentioned this was for 44% of those surveyed. If you have something really good and entertaining, you might get away with more seconds.

5. Make ‘Em Laugh

You can never go wrong with humour. That tends to lead to more social sharing. Just make sure you don’t get too caught up in laughs that no one will get other than your marketing team. You’ve got to go for the universal laughs that are more likely to hit the funny bone of most of your audience.

Humour is uplifting and can also provide some insight into how well you know your audience. When people feel you get them, they are more inclined to want to use your product. Also, people want to be the one in their group of friends who finds the funniest things to share.

An example of how you can use humour to create viral videos is a video called "The Process" by Aviation Gin. On this video, Ryan Renolds mocks the clichéd ads used by its competitors. It's a creative and humorous video where Reynolds relays in excruciating but hilarious detail all the thought and care that goes into the gin-making process.

6. Other Emotions

Happiness is not the only emotion that can cause a video to go viral. Creating an emotional response in any form of advertising has a powerful and long-lasting effect. Emotion encourages sharing. A touching story that makes people sad or angry will do wonders for your brand. It shows you care as well. According to a Nielson report, emotional ads lead to 23% more in sales lifts.

As well, emotional ads also remain in our memories longer. The key is to choose the right emotion for your brand. When triggering negative emotions, you have to be sure your brand can resolve that negativity in some way.

7. Get Inspiration from Pop Culture

Using something in the news that might hit notes with your customers can work well. It can be touchy, so be careful. As long as it is widespread, and people will recognise what you are doing, parodying a common news story can work well because it is trending and also funny. You’ll kill two birds with one stone.

Along the lines of using news for ideas, pop culture can work very well. You can get inspiration from a popular or annoying song or play off of something incredibly popular like Game of Thrones. It can tie into a recent movie or favorite pop culture character. The options are endless.

8. Don’t Forget Your Brand

Using everything in your power to connect with people through viral videos doesn’t mean you should go so far off the rails that people can’t make the connection to your brand. Make sure no matter what approach you choose, you stay on brand.

Going viral to the world might sound fantastic, but if no one knows what it has to do with your brand, it will not get the results you want, which is to raise brand awareness and gain some sales.

9. User-Generated Content

This free ride can really work well. No one knows your brand better than your customers. Their stories will touch people in a different way than your internally generated content. It is cost effective as well.

You can even start a competition amongst followers who are anxious to get their videos shared. Throw a content contest, and you will have instant access to some interesting videos that are ready to share.

An excellent example is GoPro, which took a unique approach to content by using videos created by customers. The user is a fireman, and his story is intriguing without ever mentioning GoPro. Instead, it is the video he took that tells the story of how he used his GoPro. It works on a number of levels most of which are emotional.

10. Reality Check

Use real situations to help promote a sense of awareness. Your videos have to be authentic and not come across as staged or overly construed.

Real conversations, real footage of people participating in real situations, and even hidden-camera situations (with permission granted by participants after the recording) are all ways to use reality to reach your audience.

Add Video to your Digital Marketing Efforts

There are many methods you can use to create a viral video. Whether you choose laughter or tears, reality or farce, your own talent or the talent of your customers, adding video to your digital marketing efforts is one of the best ways to get noticed online.

Learn how to start adding videos to your digital marketing efforts and make them viral with a globally recognised Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing, taught by the local experts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

Photo by Douglas Bagg on Unsplash

5 Ways to Identify & Fix Keyword Cannibalisation

These days, when people want to find something, whether it’s a product or a service, the first thing they reach for is a device connected to the internet so that they can conduct a search.

While it means that people can find what you are offering much more easily; however, with the ease of putting things online comes a new hazard: your content getting lost in an ocean of information.

Search engines can be fast and precise for users who know exactly what they’re looking for, but when it comes to a general search, narrowing down candidates to a smaller, more-manageable pool becomes more complicated.

As a local business owner or manager, you likely offer your goods or services to a local market, but you could potentially serve the entire world, reaching a global market. In turn, of course, the entire world also becomes your competition. So, it’s more important than ever, for ease of use and high search rankings, that you correctly use keywords.

Keywords 101

First, let’s look at the basics. The keyword is one of the most important elements of an online search. When people refer to a search engine to find something, the first thing they do is either type a series of words relevant to their interest, or, with speech recognition software and virtual assistants, ask a question. The search engine uses those same words to scan the entire internet.

When it discovers content that matches the keyword criteria, it then presents the search results and ranks them according to different criteria, such as usefulness and popularity, in addition to the presence of proper keywords.

But it all starts with keywords. For example, if you sell dog care products and food, you should be using keywords like dog, dog food, dog care, or pet care on your website. If your website contains no mention of dogs, a search engine would not recognise your website as being about dogs or dog care products. Obviously, you wouldn’t reach your target market.

There is, however, such a thing as overdoing it, and this is where keyword cannibalisation comes in.

Too Much of a Good Thing

In the past, search engines like Google were much simpler. They conducted searches and assigned rankings based on very simple criteria. This eventually led to rampant abuse of the search engines as techniques like “keyword stuffing” became widespread.

Google used to think that the content on a web page might be relevant if it used a keyword often, so unscrupulous content producers would simply include the same word hundreds–or even thousands–of times to boost search rankings.

Today, keyword stuffing is one of the worst things you can do, and it will hurt your search rankings. Modern algorithms react harshly to deliberate keyword stuffing, and keyword cannibalisation is an occasional side-effect of this effort to punish keyword stuffing with lower search rankings.

Keyword cannibalisation occurs when you have too many identical or similar keywords spread throughout the content on your website. As a result, a search engine like Google can't discern which content to rank higher. This means that sometimes it will give a higher ranking to the web page you don't mean to prioritize. It may also lower the rank of all the pages that share these keywords.

So what can you do to avoid this?

Identifying Keyword Cannibalisation

It’s actually quite easy to identify possible keyword cannibalisation problems on your website. Usually, conducting a search along the lines of “Domain + keywords” will provide you with the information you’re looking for.

For example, if your dog care business has the website name, “DogCare.Com,” and you wanted to look for keyword cannibalisation for dog food, you would search for DogCare.Com,dog food, and similar variations.

You’ll get a list of results, but are they the ones you want? Is the dog food blog post you wrote two years ago somehow ranking higher than your most recent and more important one? If so, this would be a perfect example of keyword cannibalisation. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to put a stop to this.

5 Ways to Prevent Keyword Cannibalisation

Merge Content

If you have two web pages that are doing similar things, such as a web page recommending good dog food and a page that lists bad dog food, you may want to take all this content and put it on a single page.

This solution won’t necessarily work for every situation, but, quite often, merging content will both simplify and increase your website’s search engine optimization.

Delete Content

It’s extreme, but you may want to consider entirely deleting problem web content–especially if it is no longer relevant to your website. If your business has grown, and somehow that older, less professional, personal blog post using certain keywords is still ranking higher than your desired web content, then delete the content. If the content no longer exists, then neither does the problem.

Remove Keywords

If you want to maintain some specific content for other reasons and the presence of a keyword isn’t critical, then removing it is always an option. This may be a slower, more tedious way of doing things—manual solutions usually are—but it has the virtue of being very simple and easy to implement.

Alter Your Internal Linking

If you have web content that links to other content on your website, then the links themselves may be elements that you can improve. For search engines like Google, links establish importance, so if you include a link to another piece of content or web page, a search engine might rank the linked content higher.

Try adding or changing the internal linking of your website so that less important content links to the content you want to highlight and prioritise. By doing this, you send a signal to the search engine results page, (SERP) that the linked content is the one that should be prioritised. Doing well on SERP is still very important.

Change Inbound Link Requests

This will be one of the harder forms of cannibalisation to address, but it can be very important. Another factor that SEO considers when ranking search results are how many other people have linked back to your content. After doing a search on your website, you may find that one of the reasons why less important content is still ranking higher than your newer, more relevant content is that other websites are creating those links.

If you have the means and the time, and especially if those links are with very influential websites, you can use software to track backlinks and then contact the webmasters to request that they change or delete the links. In the ideal situation, they will exchange the old links you don’t want with the new ones that you’re seeking to prioritise, and you can actually strengthen your SEO ranking as a result.

Conclusion

Current search algorithms are far more sophisticated and discerning when it comes to assigning search ranks.

Good content is always going to be the most important factor in getting a good ranking, and ensuring you don’t keyword cannibalise will help you better spotlight your intended content and get the attention it deserves.

Want to know and learn more? Luckily for you, no further searching is required - just learn how to use keywords correctly by joining our globally recognised certificate course today - taught by the industry experts!

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

The Beginners Guide to Google Ads

Competing online to gain new customers is a tricky prospect. There are a lot of savvy marketers out there who know all the ins and outs of internet marketing, making it a lot easier for them to gain that market share you have been struggling to capture; and in a small city like Hong Kong, it can be especially a tougher challenge.

You can get in on the action if you can learn to use the same tricks as the pros do. One of those tricks is learning how to use Google Ads to effectively engage customers and get them thinking about your company.

Here are some tips on how you can take advantage of Google AdWords and get it working in your favour.

Google Paid Ad Campaigns

The PPC world is very confusing and highly competitive. It's like eBay on steroids with everyone volleying for the same thing: market share. Your Google ad campaigns will allow you to zero-in on your ideal customers combining geo-targeting, keywords, basic demographics, and audience behaviour to sell your brand, services, and products.

The beauty of the whole idea is that with the PPC model you only pay when you get the result you want, which is a click on your ad. Google Ads let you "cheat" your way to the search rankings, but without being unethical.

The only difference between your ranking and the ones just below you is that yours is not "organic."

Organic Versus Paid

That brings us to a critical ranking 101 lesson, which is the difference between an organic ranking and a paid ranking. To reach the top of an organic ranking, you have to be diligent in building your content.

It is a lot of work and requires quite a bit of time invested in coming up with ideas for blogs and fresh content.

Organic growth is also highly competitive and takes a lot of knowledge on how Google search engines work in hand with the dreaded challenges of SEO (search engine optimisation). On the flip side is the far easier approach, which is paying for Google ads.

That allows you to appear just above the highest organic ranking. However, you will still have to gain some knowledge on the best strategy to become an effective bidder, so you can take full advantage of your marketing dollars and reach the most people.

The AdWords Auction

Just as the name indicates, Google AdWords is set up much like a bidding site that forces advertisers to bid for the position and audience they want to reach. You can set the number of dollars you are willing to pay for your bids and the price for each click you receive.

If you turn out to be the highest bidder for that target and position, then your ad will be shown when someone does a search using your keywords. Google will always go for the highest bidder, and if your budget isn't so hot, it can prove challenging to get ranked.

However, there's an additional factor that gives you another in: Google is all about quality even when it comes to paying for rankings. As well, if you are the highest bidder, but the next highest bidder is lower than your maximum PPC, you will only be charged the price the second highest bidder was willing to pay.

It sounds confusing, and frankly, it can be, but it does work in your favour when this happens. A lot can happen in the bidding process but, put plainly, you need to have the highest bid and the best quality ad to get to the position you want.

The Metrics of Quality

Since Google is not just interested in finding the highest bidder, you also have to consider the quality of the information you are going to provide to the consumer once they choose to click on your ad/link. That means thought has to be put into your landing page.

Google wants to see information relevant to your keywords because this keeps their customers happy. You will also see more conversions if you are sending your clicks to a page that will make the visit worth their while.

You can take advantage of every click by providing a special offer, free sign up for a newsletter, or a specially coded offer they can use. A conversion doesn't have to be a sale; it just has to get them to follow your call to action and do what it is you want them to do.

The Best ROI

Your Google Ads Strategy should have some form of payback, or else it might not be worth your investment. Keep in mind that the ads will start to cost you, and the more successful your ad, the more it will cost.

Therefore, it makes good sense to have some form of an offer that will be an incentive for people to make a purchase. That way, you will see the best possible return on investment (ROI) for your ad dollars.

The good news is you can also set a daily budget that allows you to control your spending.

To create Google Ads that get the best ROI, you will need to plan the following:

• Budget

• Keywords

• Research on your competitors

• An effective landing page

• Your campaign

• Your ad

Planning Your Budget

This allowance doesn't differ much from setting any other budget. You can determine how much you are willing to bid for each click as well as how much you are willing to spend each day. That helps you control your budget and avoid overspending.

If you find you are not getting the results you want, you can reconsider your top bid, or you can revisit your keywords and look for options that are less competitive.

Keywords

One of the best features of Google Adwords is their free Google keyword planner. It is an easy tool to use, especially if you know your customers well. Start by using the products and services you offer and fine tune using product categories if that works for your business.

As your results come in, you can look for ways to reduce competition while keeping an eye on how frequently those keywords are searched for monthly. The trick is to find the lowest average bid, with the highest monthly searches.

Competition

It’s only logical to be curious about what keywords the competition is using to get them to the top of the rankings. You can use websites such as SEMrush as well as Spyfu.com. They will provide you with information about the keywords you want to use and how many other companies are using them. On Spyfu you will be able to find the following:

• How many fellow Adwords clients are using those keywords

• Other ideas for keywords that perform well in your niche

• A history of the advertisers and samples of their ads

• You can explore the SERPS people are using as well on SEMrush

Landing Page

Once you get people to click, you don’t want to disappoint. That’s why your landing page has to be worth it. There are two reasons you want to convert people who reach your landing page. The first is obvious, as it helps increase sales.

The second is not as obvious, and that is that Google likes conversions too. So, if you are converting a lot of people who click your ads, Google remembers this. In turn, it can help increase your ranking position.

You can use these tips to improve your landing pages:

• Simple designs work best. They are easier to read, and they load faster.

• Create a compelling headline that gets a reaction.

• State the facts to be as transparent as possible.

• Use bullet points for an easier read.

• Choose an image that is eye-catching and adds to your message.

Here are two link examples of ads done right:

1. Lyft

2. Codecademy

You can also get some in-depth advice here.

Your AdWords Campaign

AdWords works by setting up campaigns (which are different from the other digital marketing campaigns that you do). Each campaign allows you to target based on location, the keywords you have chosen, your products, and targets. You should take advantage of the following features to boost your PPC campaign:

• Demographic targeting: The more finite your target, the better your chances of conversions. Adwords allows you to target income, parental status, gender, and age.

• Click-to-call: Click-to-call takes some time to set up, but it allows you to add call extensions so that people can engage with someone at your company right away.

Optimised ad rotation: Ad rotation allows you to test various ads in order to find the best one for your audience and KPIs. Google will do this for you automatically, which helps you create a range of ads. You can look back and determine which ones work best and improve your future performance

Your Ad

Creating your ad uses the same premise as your landing pages. Simple is best. These are even shorter and sweeter because there is less space to communicate your message.

Things to focus on would include your unique value proposition (UVP), so customers get your benefits in a quick dose. In other words, what do you do better than your competition? Using your keywords in your ad works as well.

After all, that's what got people here in the first place. You aren't trying to win awards for creativity. You just want conversions. A simple call to action “click here” is the final step in getting them to your landing page.

With PPC models taking over the online marketing game, this guide will help you get tech-savvy quick. If you would like to falling website traffic, we also have something for you. Looking for a boost in SEO? No problem. Better yet, sign up for our certificate course, which is recognised globally and taught by the local industry experts.

Source: Digital Marketing Institute