by Charles River Interactive | October 25, 2016 | Industry Trends
You follow the top marketing blogs. You’re on top of the latest digital trends. You work tirelessly on your brand’s marketing initiatives, and yet you’re still not getting the results you want.
What are you doing wrong? We’ve compiled the top 5 easy mistakes even experienced marketers make that could be holding you back.
5 Common Digital Strategy Mistakes
Confusing tactics with marketing strategy:
As a marketer, you may manage social media channels and post blogs, invest in paid search, optimize your website or launch brand awareness campaigns. These are all incredibly important, but none of them is your strategy. They are tactics that execute your strategy.
Still confused? Here’s an example: When Facebook announced it would become a mobile-first company, that was the strategy. All of the social giant’s activities that support that goal – including, most recently, telling advertisers Facebook will favor faster-loading ads – are the tactics.
Even nationally known thought leaders often refer to tactics as strategies, so it’s no wonder so many marketers follow their example. If you’re guilty as charged, it’s never too late to define clear business objectives to guide your strategy.
Executing without clear goals:
Your digital strategy marries two elements – your marketing goals and business objectives – to create a clear game plan. You need both. Don’t be tempted to jump on the latest marketing fads and trends without a solid reason why they benefit your brand. Remember: You want to act, but always with intention.
A good example of a clear marketing goal is increasing traffic to your blog by 10,000 visitors in one year. This goal is stronger when it also supports a business objective. If your brand’s goal is simply to increase sales, you need to prove how investing money and manpower into more blog traffic will help.
Making decisions without data:
At Charles River Interactive, this is one of the most important beliefs we hold dear: You must base your decisions on real, hard, up-to-date data. The best results come from combining out-of-the-box creative thinking with the power of data-driven decisions. Understanding your web analytics is the key to making smarter decisions that reach the right people.
For example, before you decide to re-write even one webpage, you should be able to answer questions such as:
- How many users visited this page over the previous six months? (traffic)
- How much time did they spend on the page? (bounce rate)
- How did they find this content?
The answers tell you what to change about the page and inform why and even how you should do it.
Implementing best practices without a plan:
So you’re following best practices for SEO and implemented title tags, Meta descriptions, and H1s to improve on-page optimization. But you’re still not getting the results you want. Success in the organic results is no longer about implementing best practices; instead it’s about the overarching strategy behind it. Take the time to think about what content will resonate with your target audience and build your on-page elements around those. We work with many clients to develop on-page optimization efforts based around a strategic plan.
Basing audience on assumptions:
One of the most important questions we ask clients is, Who is your target audience? If you don’t know – or if your answer isn’t specific enough – it can delay or derail successful marketing initiatives. If you’re speaking to a general audience, or even targeting a pool that’s too small, it may be time to invest in marketing research to understand your key demographic.
Why is this important? It saves you from investing in Twitter campaigns or Facebook ads only to find out your core consumers aren’t heavy users of these platforms. Knowing your target audience helps you reach the right people, where they are, with the right message.
Interested in learning more about marketing trends? Check out Charles River Interactive’s blog View from the Charles:
Mobile First Strategy: What You Need to Know
7 Email Marketing Best Practices
Why Brand Advocacy Matters
Want more information? Get more details on Charles River Interactive’s SEO and PPC service offerings or contact us today.
by Charles River Interactive | October 11, 2016 | Industry Trends
Is your brand’s digital strategy truly “mobile first?” This term has led discussions around the future of digital marketing for the past five years, but it easily confuses even savvy marketers who make a common mistake: They confuse mobile friendly with mobile first.
There’s no better time than now to understand the important distinction between the two – and evaluate your brand’s strategy to make sure your organization is poised for success.
Facebook, Google and Mobile First Thinking
Recently, Facebook joined Google in telling advertisers they need to make their ads load faster. Consider this compelling stat from Facebook: 40 percent of users click away if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Facebook is so determined to improve its users’ experiences with ads that it has decided to factor page loading speed into its delivery system. In other words, if your ads are too slow and not optimized for mobile, your ad may not even show up.
Loading time is already one of the biggest concerns in mobile advertising. But it would be shortsighted to think about this problem in a digital vacuum. It’s only the latest example of web giants like Facebook and Google signaling to us that our strategies must prioritize the needs of mobile users. That’s the essence of mobile first.
What is Mobile First?
If you spend 8-plus hours at work typing and browsing on a desktop or laptop computer, it is easy to forget how dominant mobile usage is outside your office.
Two-thirds of all Americans own a smartphone, according to the latest mobile use stats from the Pew Research Center. That figure is significant because it almost doubled in only four years – from 35 percent in 2011 to 64 percent in 2015. People use their phones – and even their watches – to get directions, stream TV shows and movies, do online shopping, browse social sites and read the news.
Increasingly, people rely on mobile devices to run their daily lives – at home, at work and on the go. Their ability to quickly access and easily digest online content on a small screen can make or break a site’s success. (Read Google’s take on how important these so-called micro-moments are to the mobile consumer experience.)
That’s where mobile first thinking comes in. It’s not just about decreasing loading times, launching a mobile-friendly design or offering mobile apps. It’s about doing all of these things and more to create a comprehensive mobile strategy that – yes – puts the needs of mobile users before anyone else.
Elements of Mobile First Strategy
At Charles River Interactive, mobile is always present in our thinking and incorporated into our recommendations.
Starting in 2015, Google changed its algorithm to boost rankings for mobile-friendly sites. As a digital marketing firm that specializes in SEO, understanding these changes is core to our approach.
We believe a strong mobile first strategy should incorporate the following:
- Mobile SEO solutions: Coding is very important here. We look at factors like site configuration and dynamic serving. Our team knows how to optimize page titles, URLs and meta descriptions for optimal performance. For clients who depend on reaching a local audience, we take into account local search intent when formatting meta data.
- Mobile friendly content: The way you write your content significantly improves the mobile user experience. Read our 5 Tips for Mobile Content to learn more about how we recommend keeping users engaged.
- Responsive design: The days of creating a mobile version of websites are quickly fading away. We recommend clients consider a responsive design, which responds to users’ behavior based on what device they are using. For example, if you swap from a desktop to a smartphone, the site automatically adjusts for resolution, screen size, etc.
- Loading times: It’s true that incorporating graphic design elements and video on your pages can increase user engagement and boost rankings. But if they take too long to load, your business is in danger of losing potential customers who won’t wait around for the content they wanted. The key is working with an expert team to help you find the right balance.
Interested in learning more about improving your mobile website? Check out Charles River Interactive’s blog View from the Charles:
The 2nd Phase of Google’s “Mobilegeddon” Has Been Officially Released
Mobile Search Updates: Why You Need a Mobile Website
5 Tips for Writing for Mobile
Want more information? Get more details on Charles River Interactive’s SEO and PPC service offerings or contact us today.
by Charles River Interactive | June 13, 2016 | Industry Trends, Uncategorized
What is Google Alerts?
Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service, offered by the search engine company Google. The service sends emails to the user when it finds new results—such as web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, or scientific research—that match the user’s search term(s). It’s a really powerful tool to keep track of trends, interesting topics, or anything really new that appears on the web.
What Triggers a Google Alert?
A google alert is triggered when something is indexed by Google on a given subject or topic. Here are a few ways that happens:
- New blog posts are published.
- Significant content changes are made on a website and are detected and re-indexed in Google.
- A notable outside website publishes a blog post, writes a review or mentions the topic in an article.
- Press Release issued.
How can Google Alerts Help Your Business?
- Find Out Who’s Talking About Your Company. One of the best uses for Google Alerts is to keep track of how often people are talking about your Company on the web and what they’re saying.
- Track your products. Set Google Alerts to gather information on your products to stay informed on how your product is perceive in the marketplace. See who is reading and sharing your information.
- Stay ahead of your competition. Set alerts for businesses that have similar offerings. It’s good to know what is happening in the industry so you can stay fresh and current.
- Timely Client Research. Track activity for your top ten or twenty existing clients. This can give you valuable insight into what they’re up to, and also provide you with reasons to contact them.
- Follow a Trending Story, or Get a Snapshot of Events On Your Own Time Google Alerts lets you take control of the news stream and get up to speed on a specific topic when you’re ready. Tweak the search terms for the issue you’re following, and change the “How Often” to once a day for a simple digest.
More information on how to set up Google Alerts can be found here: https://support.google.com/alerts
Hopefully you find these tips useful so you can begin to fully leverage this amazing resource as another tool in your company’s marketing toolbox.
Want more information? Get more details on Charles River Interactive’s SEO and PPC service offerings or contact us today.
by Charles River Interactive | June 1, 2016 | Industry Trends, Uncategorized
As the digital landscape continues to develop into 2017, expectations of brand communications has evolved beyond single channels of discovery and consumption. Digital marketers are constantly seeking ways to optimize content, digital ads, and media channels to cut through the clutter, generate buzz, drive engagement, and influence actions. In fact, one-time viral marketing campaigns are quickly losing efficacy due to short-term engagement and lack of depth for ongoing social evolution. To survive in an era where the customer is king, brands must go beyond counting video views and focus on a much more important goal: turning customers into brand advocates.
What is a brand advocate?
Brand advocates are satisfied customers who believe in a brand’s products and services so much that they promote it to friends, colleagues, and peers. The also share brand content on social networks and protect brand reputations with positive perceptions. That’s not to mention they do it for free. A recent study by Influitive and Heinz Marketing suggests that:
- 84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral
- 82% of sales leaders say referrals are key to sales success
- 78% of marketers said that referrals have a higher conversion rate compared to any other type of lead.
Buyers trust recommendations from people they know, and in the digital age, word of mouth interactions are readily available through email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, and review forums. A strong referral program that builds emotional and behavioral connections with customers will not only help increase profit for brands, but will also drive higher customer lifetime value.
How can businesses leverage brand advocacy?
Businesses that develop strong brand advocacy or referral programs, spend less on advertising and create higher engagement through user-generated content. To be effective, brands should identify the specific reasons behind why people share content and then amplify them. For instance, Jonah Berger, an expert on word of mouth and social influence, recommends crafting content that makes consumers feel like exclusive insiders and in-the-know. In other words, consumers like to share information that makes them look good. Another way to motivate people to talk about a brand is creating memorable, immersive experiences for consumers. When interactivity is executed well, immersive experiences tap into consumer emotions, resulting in a stronger opportunity to connect in a meaningful way. After all, emotions drive people to take action. Lastly, businesses should promote and celebrate their brand advocates to show they are valued and appreciated. When consumers know they are valued, they become attached to the brand through trust.
Want more information? Get more details on Charles River Interactive’s SEO and PPC service offerings or contact us today.
by Charles River Interactive | May 18, 2016 | Industry Trends, Organic Search, Uncategorized
A recent study by Opinion Lab, highlights the following impact of consumers using their mobile devices to search for businesses and make purchases:
- Mobile impacted $1 trillion in retail sales in 2015.
- In the US, more than 30% of sales will have a mobile cross-channel component.
- 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a brick-and-mortar location within a day
- 82% of shoppers say they consult their phones on purchases they’re about to make when in a brick-and-mortar location
Google’s response
In the quest to make the web more mobile-friendly, Google rolled out their second algorithm update on May 2, 2016. This update is designed to benefit mobile-friendly websites in Google search results. The results increase the effect of the ranking signal to help users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile-friendly.
According to Google, a website is mobile-friendly if it meets the following conditions:
- Does not use software that is unusual for smartphones, such as Flash.
- Text is readable without zooming.
- Content fits on the screen completely, without the need for the visitor to scroll horizontally.
- Buttons and links are far enough apart, so that a finger can easily click the correct one.
Testing a Website for Mobile Friendliness
If you are unsure if your website is mobile-friendly or not, then you should use an official Mobile-Friendly testing tool such as the following:
The testing tools also have suggestions for next steps based on the results of the mobile friendliness test.
Questions Regarding Google’s “Mobile Friendly” Algorithm Changes
If you are like every other business owner or website administrator, then you have questions. On April 21, 2016, previous to Google’s 2nd algorithm rollout, Google published a post, FAQs about April 21st mobile friendly update. This article answers the top 13 questions site administrators, SEO’s and business owners have about the latest mobile-friendly algorithm update.
We selected a few of the questions and answers from the April 21st post:
Will desktop and/or tablet ranking also be affected by this change? No, this update has no effect on searches from tablets or desktops. It affects searches from mobile devices across all languages and locations.
Is it a page-level or site-level mobile ranking boost? It’s a page-level change. For instance, if ten of your site’s pages are mobile-friendly, but the rest of your pages aren’t, only the ten mobile-friendly pages can be positively impacted.
Will my site / page disappear on mobile search results if it’s not mobile-friendly? While the mobile-friendly change is important, we still use a variety of signals to rank search results. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal — so even if a page with high quality content is not mobile-friendly, it could still rank high if it has great content for the query.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, the number of visitors coming in from Google will only keep decreasing. This was the case after the first phase of Mobilegeddon, and will only become more evident following their latest algorithm update.
Interested in learning more about mobile trends? Read more from our blog, View from the Charles:
Mobile Search Updates: Why You Need a Mobile Website
5 Tips for Writing for Mobile
Want more information? Get more details on Charles River Interactive’s SEO and PPC service offerings or contact us today.
by Charles River Interactive | May 2, 2016 | Content Marketing, Industry Trends
You already know that hyperlinks and call-to-action links are an important part of the content strategy formula. But it’s not enough to simply insert as many as you can, with the hopes of scoring SEO points and potentially overwhelming people reading your content. A linking strategy should define where you place them, which words you hyperlink and which pages you link to.
Why are Hyperlinks Important?
Let’s pretend you’re not a marketing manager, but the owner of a small shop that relies on street traffic. Your first priority is getting shoppers in the door. (You could compare your window display and signage to the type of SEO work we do to attract organic traffic to your site.)
Once inside, you want them to explore past the first rack, to browse your shelves, examine items of interest and even step into a dressing room. Your ultimate goal – your call to action – is for them to make a purchase.
In this hypothetical store, the details matter: how you arrange your shelves, where top-selling merchandise goes and where you post eye-catching ‘clearance’ signs.
Web content works the same way. Strategic linking assures users don’t stop at the front door (your homepage). Instead, they click further into your site, visiting multiple pages to browse, and interacting with your content (sign up for newsletters, request an appointment, follow you on social media, etc.)
One of the key ways we can facilitate this user journey is how we utilize hyperlinks.
Hyperlink vs. Call to Action Link
There are two ways to include links in your content. Both have a place, but there are key differences:
- A hyperlink is more passive: Waltham-based Charles River Interactive is a full-service digital marketing firm.
- The call to action link – or CTA – invites the user to take action and keep reading: Waltham-based CRI is a full-service digital marketing firm. Learn more about Charles River Interactive.
Which strategy do you think would get more clicks?
With a passive hyperlink, the link to the company website is there as a ‘soft sell,’ much like the end cap in your store. If this sentence appeared in the content at a place where you definitely want interested users to visit this page, you want to use a call to action link instead.
Web Writing Best Practices for Hyperlinks
- Formatting: It may sound like common sense, but make sure your links appear with unique formatting: a different color is typical, but you may also bold or underline linked text.
- Internal vs. external links: Use links that take users away from your site as little as possible. Why send away your traffic? If it’s necessary, make sure these links open in a new tab.
- Never, ever say ‘click here’: Make it your golden rule. Yes, the goal of a call to action link is to encourage the user to take action. But think about it as being helpful, not demanding. Phrases like ‘Read more about …’ or ‘Learn more about …” let the user feel like they have more control, and as a result, they are more effective.
- Anticipate action: Web users hate surprises – especially when pages and files pop open unexpectedly. Don’t risk visitors closing out your site. Just be courteous and help them understand what happens if they click a link: ‘Download our information packet’ or ‘Watch our how-to video’ tells the user that a file will open and a video clip is about to play.
- Match pages with links: The hyperlinked text should match the page title – or H1 – of the page to which you are linking. Don’t just link random text and expect users to know where it goes; they are unlikely to take that leap of faith, and may be confused when they arrive there.
- Put a CTA on every page: Don’t get stuck with a ‘dead-end page’ that leaves users with nowhere to go. Every single page on your site should include a call to action link, and be rich with hyperlinks. This even includes your 404 redirect page. Remember: When you stop giving users something to do, they stop interacting with your site.
Interested in learning more about content development? Read more from our blog, View from the Charles:
5 Tips for Writing for Mobile
10 Tips for Effective Content Marketing on Twitter
