The Basics of Digital MarketingDigital Marketing is promoting your company or your companies goods and services online or through mobile data channels. Like traditional marketing when done correctly it involves much testing and documentation to find what is truly working. Unlike traditional marketing digital marketing generally is much easier to track and easier to change and modify “on the fly” in reaction to feedback and tracking results.
Digital Marketing tends to be focused on a narrowly targeted audience more so than traditional marketing channels which tended to broadcast a message repeatedly over a broad audience.
Primary types of digital marketing are: Owned outlets such as a company’s website, Facebook page or other social media channels; paid ads such as Google Adwords or Facebook paid advertising; and earned media outlets such as a blog following, Facebook followers and other social media accounts. Obviously the digital owned and earned categories can overlap.
One of the first things a company must establish is the specific objective of their digital efforts. In a typical B2B (business to business) campaign the objective may be to generate high quality leads for a professional sales force to follow up with. In B2C (business to consumer) the main objective may be increased brand reach, build an email list of quality prospects, or a customer call to a brick and mortar location.
Some types of digital marketing can be quite inexpensive to begin with. For example an email campaign or publishing extremely engaging content on a blog post that gains an audience and is shared around the internet. Other options can start rather inexpensively and then be tweaked and optimized before scaling up into higher budgets. These options make digital marketing a much lower barrier to entry than traditional marketing. All of this is to say that small and medium sized companies have a much better chance at success and for that reason alone every business needs to have a well defined digital marketing plan and budget.
Why Should a Business Focus on Their Online Presence?
It is a well established fact that the internet has changed the world. Today the printed Yellow Pages are not much more than a paper weight, (pun intended). Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are down significantly across the country. Network TV viewership is declining year over year. All of these “old-world” media outlets are succumbing to the digital “new reality.” The vast majority of people search online to find the local goods and services that they require. If a business wants to grow it must be found online, and it must have multiple outlets online.
Therefore, it is a simple fact that a business must have a digital strategy to grow their customer base, brand, and sales.
It Starts With a Plan
Just like traditional marketing a business must have a specific plan for their digital marketing. Marketing is a strategy that a business implements to reach out to their ideal prospects to inform them and get them to know, like and trust the business. Strategy is the big picture plan. Tactics are the HOW of execution of the plan.
The marketing plan does not need to be dozens of pages of complex technical jargon, charts and formula’s. In fact it can be quite simple. Read The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib. You need to laser focus on:
The entire focus of your advertising is to let your prospects know, like and trust you. There are many was to accomplish this in digital marketing. Publishing lots of interesting and informative content serves to make you the expert in the field. Information that is free and useful builds trust. Your company could utilize blog posts, publish an ebook , create an engaging infographic or host a webinar.
It Takes A Touch, (or Five)
Marketing can be compared to dating. It takes time and multiple interactions to build the know, like and trust. A business relationship is a relationship after all. Your marketing campaigns need to focus on the process. This is sometimes described as an inverted funnel. At the top of the funnel are the “raw” prospects that may encounter you via your advertising. As you engage more with them, inform them and help them with your content they begin to trust you. Those that are interested in your business or your offer move farther down the funnel, while some prospects will drop out. Your campaign needs to focus on building the relationship with those moving through your funnel, and how to interact and continue to reach out to those that have not responded and moved further down the funnel. Those that “drop out” may not be gone forever. After all, how many guys hit it off perfectly with their wife right from the beginning. It is expected that the relationship may take time and work.
Another advantage to digital marketing is the ease of which a business can establish multiple touch points with potential customers. Once they have entered your funnel and identified themselves it is possible to reach out to them via Facebook, email, text message, Google Ads or other social media outlets. Sales experts tell us that it takes between 5-7 touches before most prospects become customers. Your digital marketing plan should include multiple touches to prospects as well as re-targeting prospects that have not moved along in your funnel.
Your Website:
For most companies the best starting place to a digital marketing plan is to establish a website. It is extremely important to insure that your website is mobile friendly, loads fast and that all the elements of the site load properly on all types of mobile devices.
It is a simple matter to find companies that will build a website. However, most website builders are not capable of writing the content. They don’t know your business, your Unique Selling Proposition, and frankly are not copy writers. You need your website to compel prospects to investigate your business further. You need content that engages them, answers their questions and concerns and builds rapport. If you are not confident in your own writing skills your website is one place that an investment in a very competent copy writer is an excellent investment.
Keywords:
You will need to research the major keywords and keyword phrases that prospects will use to search for your goods or services. This may not be as hard as many make it out to be. Begin with your own experience. What words and phrases would you use for your business and services and your location. Type these into a Google search. As the pages come up notice how well the businesses displayed match what you were searching for. Notice as you begin to type your search Google will offer some search suggestions. Write these down. Go to the bottom of the search page and also write down the phrases that google gives as search suggestions. Do this for every keyword and keyword phrase that you can think of, then search the best of the Google search suggestions that you wrote down. Again, on all the searches go to the bottom of the page and find the best of the suggestions.
Website Content:
When you are writing (or having written) your website pages make sure that the best of the best of the keywords and keyword phrases are included in your content. This is how Google and the other search engines determine what your page is about and when you should appear in a customer search.
Website Tracking:
Much of the ins and outs of building a website are beyond the scope of this article. However, do make sure that Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Facebook pixels are set up and working on your site. These tools will provide you with a means to analyze traffic to your site down to individual pages and will allow you to track visitors to your site so they can be re-targeted as we mentioned above in the discussion of funnels.
Most website owners fail to use the data that Google provides FREE. With Google Analytics and Google Search Console you can track all the traffic to each page of your website. You can discover where the traffic came from, (did they find you through your listing on Yelp or your Google My Business listing or general search). If from general search what keywords are working best for you? What pages on your site do they visit? How much time do visitors spend on each page? Time on site and “bounce” rate are measures that Google will use to evaluate the quality of your web pages and it will effect your ranking in Google. But more important, these types of data will let you know what your visitors think of your site and your content.
Getting to know the Terminology of Digital Marketing:
Every business or niche has it’s own language and key terms associated with it. Let’s review a few of the key terms used in digital marketing.
Social Media Marketing:
An astute business knows they want to be found everywhere that their potential clients are found. Today that means having a presence on social media. Every business need not be found on every social media outlet, but it is critical to find out where your customers spend time and be certain to be found there. A rough generalization of a few of the most popular social media platforms follows:
Facebook is one of the largest with billions of users. Hundreds of million people sign on to the platform each day. A general age range would be 25-55 years old. Facebook has an incredible data base of their users. A business that wishes to advertise on Facebook has a much better opportunity to narrow in on a very focused audience with Facebook’s user data. However, the advertiser must bear in mind that people do not go to Facebook to shop. They are looking for entertainment and social interaction. Your advertising must fit right in with the flow to be effective. A hard core sales pitch will not be effective.
Twitter has about a 20% market exposure online. Users tend to be younger than Facebook. More in the 18-29 age range. Communication on Twitter is brief and abbreviated. Ad costs run a little high so getting the hang of Twitter as an ad platform takes expertise.
LinkenIn is more effective as a B2B platform, but it is clearly the best option in that category. It is designed for an older more business professional. Having said that, it host about 1-billion users. In the B2B space it is well worth learning how to use effectively.
Pinterest is a very visual platform which has a higher female demographic. If a business has a product or service that lends its self to those factors Pinterest is a viable advertising platform.
Video Marketing;
Most businesses have not even begun to tap into the power of video marketing. YouTube is the number two search engine by volume, in the world. People respond to visual stimulus much more than the written word. Video is becoming more and more popular on all of the social media platforms. In short video is the best untapped resource for local businesses to engage with their best prospects.
Video is perfect for short clips that fit in well with the flow of social media sites. A business owner can highlight a special service, show off their business location, or provide an “explainer” video to help customers understand the benefits of their product.
Videos that connect with an audience will be “liked” and “shared” across the internet. That kind of free exposure is the dream of every business owner. Video’s do not always have to be large, professional productions. Many video clips shot with a cell phone have gone viral on the internet. The real key is producing content that connects with your target audience.
Email Marketing:
Another untapped resource for many local businesses in today’s digital marketing landscape is email marketing. Building an email list of satisfied prior customers and then keeping quality content and compelling offers in front of that established audience is just good business. Email marketing can be quite inexpensive and very effective. It is however, important for the business owner to keep value in mind. It is not prudent to just continually pitch to that audience. That is the quickest route to a mass unsubscribe. The business needs to provide true value and engaging content that keeps their client list opening and responding to the emails.
The Bottom Line:
The bottom line is that virtually every business can benefit and grow with a solid digital marketing plan. The marketing plan does not need to be overly complex but it does need to be well thought out and implemented. Digital marketing today offers a wide spectrum of platforms to reach out and engage with prospects. The wise business will work through multiple channels to reach their targeted audience and build rapport.
Digital marketing lends its self to a small or medium size business on a budget. Some of the opportunities are free to begin with. Paid advertising online has excellent opportunities to track performance and makes it easy to test and modify a campaign early on before serious money is consumed.
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-basics-of-digital-marketing.html
0 Comments
You appreciate your business' reputation. You understand that consumers use the internet to search for the goods and services that they require, and you understand that reading online reviews is a major factor in the option that they make in what organization to call or go to. You likewise understand that collecting online reviews needs to be a significant focus on any local company. So how should you respond to the reviews that your service receives, specifically the unfavorable reviews? Firstly, make it a practice to respond to every review that you receive online. That is simply good manors. Consumers that read and study reviews regularly state that they read the supplier reactions and that they are more positive toward business that respond to reviews. It is inevitable that an organization will receive an unfavorable review at some point in time. Customers comprehend that this will occur. The essential thing is how business reacts. Here are a couple of ideas in managing an unfavorable review. 1. Be gracious. Thank the reviewer for their business and putting in the time to write a review. 2. If at all possible invite some restitution or resolution on your part. 3. If you have facts that are contrary to the emotion in the review state the facts of the case. 4. Constantly be professional and above the feeling. Do not participate in tit for tat. 5. Keep in mind that lot of times a complaint appropriately managed can end up being a very positive experience for the customer
Gideon Marketing
4200 McClelland Blvd
Joplin, MO 64804
417-385-3537
https://m566.info/j08kjuo
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/03/handling-online-reviews-as-local.html Significance of Online Reviews
Every business recognizes that their track record with clients is very crucial. In the past a company might be worried that a single discontented customer might share their experience with 8-10 other consumers and a single bad experience would be increased several times.
Fast forward to today with the internet info highway. A single bad review left on a review site might be seen by actually a few hundred prospective customers as they are investigating an organisation to call or check out. It is more crucial than ever before for a local business to track their online reputation and cultivate as many positive reviews from pleased customers as possible. Business reviews are becoming more popular and are being read by more consumers every year. Additionally, online reviews are more important to customers year over year. Approximately 91% of customers trust a review as much as a personal recommendation. It is an inescapable reality that favorable reviews grow a local business. At Gideon Marketing we have an easy and efficient method for a business to gather more and better reviews from pleased customers. We not only assist our clients gather positive reviews, we also assist them by monitoring their online reputation across multiple review websites to guarantee that their reputation is secured across the internet. Call Gideon Marketing today and let us help you dominate your competitors in great reviews and increased
Gideon Marketing
4200 McClelland Blvd
Joplin, MO 64804
417-385-3537
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/significance-of-online-reviews-every.html Gideon Marketing Offers Its Google Maps Listing Services to Help Businesses
Friday, February 22nd 2019, 12:18 PM CST
Gideon Marketing proudly brings its Google Maps Listing services to help business owners succeed in their specific industry. A top listing in Google 3 Pack (Maps) can be the most valuable real estate in the online world. The service is perfect for local service, as well as other businesses.
Gideon Marketing offers the “Maps Three Pack” wherein the customers can expect that their site and business will be given the best exposure to reach their potential clients. The Google Local 3 Pack – (Maps) Listing service of Gideon Marketing will ensure that their clients can have an effective marketing tool to increase their brand reputation.
An estimated 93 % of consumers are browsing online reviews. With this, Gideon Marketing has decided to offer their Google Maps Listing services to help businesses to promote their products and services in the best possible way. The best feature of this service is that the companies have the chance to appear on the top 3 of the Maps Pack for their main search terms.
The customers can receive the best results for the service because Gideon Marketing specializes in putting local companies in the 3-pack for their basic search terms. While the google paid advertisements may appear on the top of the search page. The Maps 3-Pack is the most popular feature of the page. Here, Google will choose three local businesses to feature on their page. It will also display the business’ star rating and google review. The Maps 3 Pack has the highest engagement and click through rate of any of the listings on page one of the search results page.
Gideon Marketing offers their premium Maps 3 Pack listing service because the listing offers clients the biggest bang for their marketing dollar spend. It is quicker to gain a Maps Listing in most markets and provides better ROI than an organic spot on page one below the Maps 3 Pack.
Gideon Marketing offers customized services to meet the standards and expectations of their clients. Some of their services offered include the following:
Gideon Marketing features
Gideon Marketing offers quality services. They specialize in Google Maps Listing and always aim to produce the best results for the success of their clients.
Gideon Marketing is composed of a competent team dedicated to serving their customers with effective marketing strategies. They never fail to meet the needs of their clients when it comes to Google Maps Listing services. With their expert team, the clients have the assurance that the time and money they invest always produce a positive return on investment, (ROI).
Gideon Marketing is a reliable company that can provide their customers with the best Google Maps Listing services. They are a licensed marketing company. Clients will not suffer from scam, fraud, forgery as well as other fake transactions.
The team of Gideon Marketing provides their clients with the best customer support that they need. Their Google Maps Listing is done carefully to assure that the clients can receive the best marketing strategy to promote their business effectively.
The Google Maps Listing offered by Gideon Marketing is a great alternative for costly and time-consuming marketing strategies. It is also effective for busy business owners to promote their business without spending more of their time and money. The Google Maps Listing by Gideon Marketing is a practical way of promoting businesses through online media.
For more information about Gideon Marketing and their services, visit their site at https://gideonmarketing.com/ or email them at [email protected]
Media Contact Company Name: Gideon Marketing Contact Person: Alan Snider Email: [email protected] Phone: (417) 385 3537 Address:4200 McClelland Blvd. City: Joplin State: Missouri 64804 Country: United States Website: https://gideonmarketing.business.site from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/gideon-marketing-offers-its-google-maps.html How To Optimize Your (GMB) Listing As soon as you've confirmed your GMB business listing, it's important to take the time to completely complete your profile. Go to the Google My Business dashboard, click your company listing, select "Info," and after that complete each area as totally as possible. Include as much info and media as you can, consisting of a business profile photo, the location you serve, your hours, amenities (i.e. "wheelchair accessible," "complimentary wifi"), year opened, and website URL. Google My Business Images According to Google, companies with pictures experience a 35% higher click through rate and 42% greater requests for driving instructions in Google Maps. Images need to be at least 720 pixels width by 720 pixels high and JPG or PNG files. Here are a few images that you will absolutely want to include: Cover photo Your GMB cover picture is undoubtedly important, as it appears plainly on your listing. Profile image Your profile picture is what appears when you publish new images, videos, or review actions. Together with your profile and cover pictures, you must upload other pictures to make your listing more informative and engaging. Google provides you numerous tips as to classification of images that you may wish to add. More is certainly much better. Google My Business Videos You can also add videos. Videos need to be: • 30 seconds or shorter • 100 MB or smaller sized • 720p resolution or greater For help getting you GMB listing optimized and getting your company in the top of the Google Local 3 Pack for your search terms, call Gideon Marketing.
Gideon Marketing
4200 McClelland Blvd
Joplin, MO 64804
417-385-3537
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-optimize-your-gmb-listing-as.html Gideon Marketing specializes in getting local businesses in the top three listings of the Google Local Three Pack. This is the most valuable real estate on the web for a local business. The 3 Pack gives page one exposure, "above the fold" and prominantly displays the businesses Google reviews. It is a fact that most consumers now look at the business reviews and use them in their determination of which local business they will call or visit. The combination of top of the page exposure and good reviews allows a local business to dominate the click through rate and signaficantly increase the volume of leads to their business. For more information click the "Learn More" button below and call Gideon Marketing to get your listing in the top 3 of the Google Local 3 Pack. Gideon Marketing 4200 McClelland Blvd Joplin, MO 64804 417-385-3537 https://gideonmarketing.com from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-most-valuable-real-estate-on.html Optimize Your Google My Business Listing When you have actually validated your GMB business listing, it's vital to take the time to totally fill out your profile. Go to the Google My Business control panel, click your organisation listing, select "Info," and after that fill in each area as totally as possible. Add as much info and media as you can, consisting of a business profile picture, the area you serve, your hours, amenities (i.e. "wheelchair accessible," "free wifi"), year opened, and website URL. Google My Business Images According to Google, companies with photos experience a 35% higher click through rate and 42% greater inquiries for driving directions in Google Maps. Pictures must be at least 720 pixels wide by 720 pixels high and JPG or PNG files. Here are a few images that you will definitely want to add: Cover photo Your GMB cover photo is certainly crucial, as it shows up plainly on your listing. Profile picture Your profile picture is what appears when you publish new images, videos, or review reactions. In addition to your profile and cover photos, you must submit other photos to make your listing more helpful and interesting. Google gives you a number of tips as to classification of images that you may wish to include. More is definitely much better. Google My Business Videos You can likewise include videos. Videos should be: • 30 seconds or shorter • 100 MB or smaller sized • 720p resolution or greater Videos are more appealing and will certainly have higher engagement Gideon Marketing 4200 McClelland Blvd Joplin, MO 64804 417-385-3537 from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/be-sure-to-optimize-your-gmb.html Value of A Google My Business Listing It is a reality that the majority of customers now utilize the internet to find the local items and services that they require, (97%). It is more important than ever for organizations to be easily found online and that they have the ability to quickly capture the attention of the customer when they are found. Given that most of searches nowadays are done from mobile devises customers tend to scroll quickly past any result that does not capture their attention. Knowing that this is a truth in today's economy a business absolutely MUST be discovered online. Among their finest opportunities considering that most of searchers use Google is to have a total Google My Business (GMB) listing completed. The GMB listing displays images of their company, (even better video), organisation phone, a short organisation description, website link and a lot more. A GMB that is complete can assist the local organisation rank greater in the Google 3 pack on page among the search results page. The Google 3 Pack is featured on page one, above the fold, and prominently shows the business' google reviews along with contact number. Searchers on a mobile devise can click the phone icon and dial business straight from the listing. Most of consumer clicks on page one now go to the three services included at the top of the Google 3 Pack. Gideon Marketing is a specialists at getting local organizations listed in the top of the 3 Pack for their significant
Gideon Marketing
4200 McClelland Blvd
Joplin, MO 64804
417-385-3537
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/value-of-google-my-business-listing-it.html Do I Need SEO? Local search is a powerful tool for local businesses. Consumer surveys prove that 97% of consumers use the internet to find local goods and services that they require. Every year more businesses are found online than by any other marketing channel. So yes, a local business must be found online and SEO is the proven method to move one business listing higher in the rankings than another. The important question is who can you trust to handle all the intricacies of the various search engines? At Gideon Marketing we have a team of proven experts that keep up on all the proven methods to not only move your website up in the rankings but to assist in higher customer engagement and conversions for your website. We focus on results, more traffic, more leads, more customers in the door. Gideon Marketing 4200 McClelland Blvd Joplin, MO 64804 417-385-3537 https://gideonmarketing.com Posted via https://search.google.com/local/posts?q=Gideon+Marketing+4200+McClelland+Blvd&ludocid=8679208039738281081#lkt=LocalPoiPosts&lpstate=pid:4868973284383569348&trex=m_t:lcl_akp,rc_f:nav,rc_ludocids:8679208039738281081 from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/do-i-need-seo.html SEO vs PPC Which Should I Focus On?
Have you ever noticed how often when you ask a seemingly simple question the answer comes back, “that depends”. Well so it is with the question should I focus on Search Engine Optimization for more traffic or Google Adwords or other paid ads. The answer to that seemingly simple question depends on several factors that we will explore in this article.
1. Do You Have a Working Marketing Plan For Your Business?
A marketing plan does not have to be a book sized document that is complicated and never used once it is written. It can be (and should be) simple, direct and functional. It can be as little as a single page. See The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib. Your marketing plan clarifies who your target audience is, what you have to offer them, why what you have to offer is their best choice, and how you will reach them with a laser focused offer that they can’t refuse. Once you are very clear on the who, what, why and how it becomes much easier to execute a plan.
2. What Are Your Short and Long Term Goals?
It is a well known fact that the internet is the leading source for finding goods and services for consumers and businesses today. You simply must have a solid presents on the web. Google is the leading search engine but Bing and Yahoo account for about 19% of the traffic and are not to be ignored. Since almost every business has a website and is vying for the top spot in the search results, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is necessary in almost every niche and market going forward.
But SEO takes time to develop and get results, 3-6 months at least. Longer term, solid SEO is very important to a business since about 80% of the search traffic does go to “organic” listings, (that is non-paid). Building a solid online presence for your business is no different than any other asset that you build or create to grow your business.
Having said that, if you need leads immediately and are on a budget that is an either or scenario then paid ads would be your best solution. However, launching into paid ads without knowing with a fairly high degree of certainty what you are doing is a recipe for destroying that budget with nothing to show for it. Paid ads are not particularly difficult to set up but they are very difficult to make profitable for the novice. If you are just starting with paid ads make sure you have the budget to get expert help.
3. The Best First Step
Almost certainly the best first step for a business is to complete their Google My Business listing. Their first goal if they are a local business is to be in the top three of the Google 3 Pack or Maps Pack that appears at the top of the search results page. Along with this, every business needs to continually accumulate great online reviews. Have an active program to collect reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and any other review site important to the niche that you operate in. At this time it is quicker to get into the 3 pack than to SEO your way to the top of page one in the organic listings. For that reason focusing on the 3 Pack is a short cut to page one.
4. Don’t Ignore Social Media
Social media sites are free to set up and posting on these high domain authority sites on a regular basis with links back to your website is a good practice to build consumer awareness, backlinks and traffic to your website and to your offers.
5. Final thoughts
The beauty of a working Marketing Plan is that you can focus your message and the medium to reach a targeted audience at an acceptable price. Having a time-frame in place helps map out an operation plan. Proper SEO is a means to a page one ranking in the search results, but on the way to that result getting in the top three of the Local 3 Pack and running an optimized Google Adwords campaign can do much to drive traffic and leads to your business. With the power of the internet most businesses will want to have maximum exposure and be found everywhere that their customers are online.
Gideon Marketing is here to help. We can assist you with your marketing plan and we can help you implement that plan to get maximum return on investment.
Call Gideon Marketing 417-385-3537
Gideon Marketing
4200 McClelland Blvd
Joplin, MO 64804
417-385-3537
from https://gideonmarketing1.blogspot.com/2019/02/seovs-ppc-which-should-i-focus-on-have.html |
Gideon Marketing
Digital Marketing Agency. Specializing in GMB local Maps listing, Reputation Management and Marketing, SEO-Search Engine Optimization, and video marketing. The persona rings can each focus on one part of the whole, i.e., video marketing, google Maps, SEO. ArchivesNo Archives Categories |