Digital Marketing During Covid: 3 Marketing Tactics That Thrived

When coronavirus struck, the marketing sphere was greatly impacted. Physical interactions were restricted, most brick and mortar shops closed down, and foot traffic fell significantly. CMOs were also faced with the difficult task of finding effective ways to reach their customers without going over budget.

Brands have been marketing their products for ages, so how hard can it be? Well, consumer behavior was greatly altered, and internet usage increased by a whopping 70%. The truth is, people were bored at home, so they turned to the internet for information and entertainment. This was the Hail Mary that marketers needed; they could easily market to their audiences on online platforms, at their desired budget. 3 platforms, in particular, experienced a boom during the pandemic; Facebook, Search ads, and YouTube.

1. Facebook Advertising

The most newsworthy internet usage was social media and, specifically, Facebook. As social distancing and remote working increased, Facebook use exploded, making it far easier to reach both consumers and business professionals. People moved to the platform to share news, stay in touch with their friends & family, and as a source of interaction. In fact, when the virus was declared a global pandemic, Facebook usage rose by 50% in the most affected countries.

Why Did Most Marketers Favor Facebook Ads?

Brands using social media have the unique advantage of interacting with their target audiences on a personal level. It is their opportunity to create lasting connections without coming off as too promotional. Most importantly, social platforms are great for selling items that can be bought on impulse. Here’s why Facebook ads boomed;

Budget Control: you are in charge of your marketing budget and can easily adjust it based on how the ad is performing. At a time when most companies had to slash their marketing budget, this aspect was vital.
Goal flexibility: do you want to increase brand awareness, drive people to your website, or generate new leads? You can easily set these goals with Facebook! You just have to find a way of keeping your audience engaged and making your ads click-worthy.
Remarketing: it’s possible to target people that have interacted with your brand in the past using Facebook. These people are more likely to convert since they already have a relationship with your brand.
Targeting options: Facebook has great targeting options that make it easy for marketers to define their audiences based on various criteria, e.g., age, gender, interests, geographical locations, etc.

Facebook was also a great platform for B2B companies to interact with their target customers by sharing relevant blogs, company information, and live webinars.

2. Paid Search Ads

Paid search has always been a strong marketing tool because you are in a position to reach a local market at “the moment of intent” when they are searching for the products and services you sell. During the coronavirus pandemic, marketers had to revisit their PPC strategy because search trends changed considerably. Few consumers were searching for products & services, and most keywords were health-related.

However, now that people were stuck in their homes, search ads became more important. Customers couldn’t visit physical shops and had to look for alternative ways of shopping. All markets had to do was assess their ads to make sure they reflected the current times.

Tricks Marketers Used For Search Ads

Promotion of Products in demand: brands had to evaluate the products they were promoting earlier to those that were in demand. How did they know which products to promote? They based their decision around; social distancing, essential products, entertainment, homeschooling, etc.
Messaging that accommodated the tough times: the ad copy had to reflect the restrictions of the pandemic and call to actions changed; ‘visit store’ was replaced with ‘shop now.’
Communication of value using ad extensions: ad copies had to relay information that shoppers now considered essential, e.g., turnaround time, free shipping, fast delivery, etc.
Use of negative keywords: to avoid getting irrelevant traffic, markets leveraged negative keywords to ensure the ads were only shown to people who were likely to convert. This, in turn, increased ad efficiency and budget allocation.

3. YouTube Advertising

Many more people turned to YouTube during the pandemic, relying on this media for entertainment. This, along with YouTube’s ability to target by search history and retargeting previous website visitors, made it a super-strong platform for; building brands, driving website visitors, and generating leads and sales.

YouTube Marketing During the Pandemic

Video ads are a great way of increasing brand awareness and audience engagement, especially when on a low budget. Here are some tricks marketers used for YouTube advertising:

Tailoring video ads for passive listening: yes, YouTube ads have always been visual, but there has been a fundamental shift. People working from home used the platform for passive listening, so advertisers made their ads more ‘listenable;
Quality video content: competition was fierce, and companies had to find a way to stand out. The video ads had to be creative and unique, content that will keep the user glued to their screen.
Webinars: now that companies couldn’t attend events and seminars, the only best option was to hold webinars to interact with their potential customers. YouTube videos also provided brands with a great way of sharing company information and relating knowledge interactively.

Even though YouTube isn’t effective for maximum conversions, it was perfect for brands looking to create a rapport with their audiences and then convert them later. Some of the calls to actions that were used include; stay safe, we’ll help, free tips, view more, etc.

Marketing Your Business During the Pandemic

The coronavirus fundamentally changed how businesses interacted with their customers. Foot traffic was low, so they had to revisit the most basic marketing rule: the best way to interact with your customers is by doing so in the platforms they are most active on. Since people were stuck in their homes, the only way to market to them was through digital marketing, most specifically Facebook, search ads, and YouTube advertising. Even though the economy is slowly opening up, digital marketing is here to stay!

Are you looking to create a winning digital marketing strategy? Contact us today for a free consultation!

An SEO Audit For Any Brand

By using free tools like SEOptimer, you can get a quick, top-level audit of your website’s SEO performance. It will tell you if there are broken links and certain ways you can improve your site. There are a bunch of SEO tools that show what is wrong with a site, but how about some constructive criticism? The AdEdge Team uses some of these tools but focuses on implementing actionable items, following up on them, and increasing ROI, for instance.

The crawl will generate a page like the one displayed below once complete. Notice that even Chipotle.com needs some improvements. By the end of this guide, you will be able to say that you have a better SEO rating than Chipotle.com.

Have A Purpose

First, consider the purpose of each page of the website. How do customers use it? What information do you want available on this page and what action do you want users to take on the page? Identify what the ideal call to action (CTA) would be for the page.

Keywords That Bring The Right Crowd

Hooray! You defined the purpose of the webpage, next identify a ‘Target Keyword’ for the page. Target Keywords directly affect your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), or how a webpage appears in search engines like Google. If the page includes information about ordering burritos, the keyword should be something like ‘order burritos online.’

Meta Descriptions That Convert

Next, check your meta description. Your Keyword is highlighted in bold and accompanied by a straightforward CTA. Chiptole wants to convince users to click and order now.

Optimized Headlines

The next step in your SEO Audit is to focus on headlines. Also known as an H1, this is one of the first things search engines look at when crawling a site. Update headings in the text field of your Content Management System or an SEO plugin like Yoast. Be sure to include your Keyword within your H1 to reinforce that the page is about a certain topic.

Now how do you implement these changes? Updating your website can be done in the text field of your Content Management System or through an SEO plugin like Yoast. Below are all free tools that will give you more insight throughout your SEO Audit.

(Free) Tools Of The (SEO) Trade

Google Search Console identifies broken links and other technical site issues. Use Google Analytics to take a deep dive into where the traffic on your site is coming from and going. Google PageSpeed Insights analyzes the load time of a webpage, if it’s slow Google will not prioritize the webpage. Google Structured Data Testing Tool reveals another layer of information when analyzing websites that is useful. Analyze structured data for interactive tools, graphs, charts, or images and whether the data is clean and working properly. it acknowledges. SERP Simulator will give you a preview of how a webpage will appear in search engines.

In conclusion, generate business from your Search Engine Optimization effort by showing up in the Search Engine Results Page when prospects search for products or services and building a great reputation in the form of positive reviews and ratings. If you have any questions about your online reputation or need some words of advice, feel free to give us a call at 203-836-8390 or shoot us a note. If you’re not a client yet, feel free to schedule a 15-minute demo of our affordable and highly effective AdEdge Reputation Builder service. And do sign up for our newsletter to get monthly digital marketing tips delivered straight to your inbox.

Creating Your Social Media Strategy

It is important to create a social media strategy before jumping into the weeds of engaging prospects on social media. Create a social media strategy that works best for your brand, cultivates new followers, and converts customers into brand advocates. Understand the audience you are trying to reach and what interests them. Do they respond best to images, videos, or longer written posts? Establishing a tone, style, and cadence when posting as your brand should all be laid out prior to launching your social media profiles. Understand how your brand’s audience consumes content. Do they like in-depth long white papers or memes? Social media audience information will help you focus on the types of content that will lead to the best results. The AdEdge Team previously wrote about how to Manage Your Professional Brand On LinkedIn, but what about a social media strategy for your business?

Creating Social Media Business Profiles

The next step is to set up business profiles on the social media platforms that matter most to your business. Don’t spread yourself thin. Simply being on a social platform doesn’t mean that it will help your business image. It may even hurt your brand if a profile lays vacant and inactive.

In addition to a personal profile, creating a business page lets you connect with people who want to know more about your work. You can share updates, progress reports, and ideas with a wide range of folks who may not visit your website on a regular basis. Take a look at some quick tips to get your business profile started.

Get To Know Each Social Media Platform

On LinkedIn, you can create a company page and build an online community around it, getting customers and potential customers to follow you. To learn more about LinkedIn for business, see its official guide.

Twitter

Twitter’s ad platform allows you to target particular audiences and reach them so they learn about your business and have an opportunity to become followers and engage with you. Take a look at its official guide to see how it can be part of your online business efforts.

Facebook

For a business to succeed on Facebook, it’s about connecting with a community that engages with your content. If your product, service or idea is something people like and want to connect with, they will want to do the same on Facebook. To learn more about using Facebook for business, take a look at its official guide. When content is posted to your business page, the number of people that see it is called Reach. Increase your content reach with a few helpful tactics.

Instagram

You should also explore Instagram’s advertising options and see how they fit in with your overall strategy. Instagram is all about getting existing and potential customers excited about what you do, so be sure to explore it. To learn about its business potential, take a look at its official guide.

There may be other social media platforms that your customers spend the majority of their time on – dive into where your audience is and adjust accordingly. Note: AdEdge team will continually update this blog with new and relevant social media platform information to best inform your business decisions.

Expanding Your Brand Via Social Media

After determining where your target audience is and spends the most time, you can start pumping out useful content that your following will love. If you haven’t already, find out how to create content your audience will want to share. Each platform has a different algorithm that it uses to release content, expand your brand with a unique approach for each of your social media business accounts.

Smart, relevant, timely posts can help you build a better company profile, especially when you use hashtags in a professional manner. Participating in popular hashtags when they are relevant to you works well. This should be a prioritized element of your social media strategy, while occasionally using hashtags around your products or services.

Features like Instagram Stories, which allow you to update your audience using multiple photos and videos, are ways to use Instagram in a business environment. These stories last for 24 hours, which could be time-consuming to produce when considering the limited time it is available to your audience. Most of the time, you are better off creating visuals and graphics you can use on multiple platforms that will also have a longer shelf life.

Advertising Is Different For Each Social Media Platform

Learning how Facebook ads work is essential for your digital marketing plans. You may find yourself under pressure to pay to boost your posts. However, organic growth models on social media almost always work better than paid acquisition. Instagram ads are often (but not always) created in conjunction with any Facebook campaign that is being launched. Their ad platforms are unified because Instagram is owned by Facebook. There is also a lot of cross over between campaign metrics and options for visual elements.

As with the other platforms, you should see if LinkedIn advertising features make sense for you. LinkedIn notoriously has higher costs per action than other social media platforms. But is that worth it when dealing directly with your target audience. CEOs or Product Managers from specific companies can be targeted for instance. Looking for a place to start? The AdEdge Team wrote about the costs and benefits to using LinkedIn or Facebook.

While creating a social media strategy may seem complex at first, these tactics are fairly simple to implement. More importantly, a good social media plan can build a community around your brand and be highly cost-effective. Want to learn more about social media strategy? Contact an AdEdge Specialist at 203-682-4585 or info@adedgemarketing.com. If you’d like to keep up with the latest and greatest digital marketing tactics, sign up for our once-monthly newsletter.

What Is Retargeting And Should You Be Using It?

Retargeting is a way of reaching people who have previously interacted with your website. It works by presenting this audience with digital display ads created specifically for them. Have you ever visited a website and seen ads about their products or services soon afterward? Congratulations – you’ve been retargeted! Retargeting is an extremely effective conversion tool …but it’s also a great retention tool. You can use it to reach past customers, keep your brand on top, and upsell or cross-sell new products. Retargeting has become an essential tool for online e-commerce businesses.

Why is it so important to reach those people who did not make a purchase? On average, only 4% of purchases are made by first-time website visitors. Depending on your industry, buyers may take weeks, or even months to make a decision. This is especially true with higher-end, complex, or more expensive products or services. It’s vital that you stay top of mind while your prospects are considering all of their options.

Retargeting Helps Your Sales Funnel

In digital marketing, the “sales funnel” is the process that moves prospects to leads to customers. Like an actual funnel, a business initially captures a wide net of people and as they move toward making a purchasing decision, this group of prospects narrows down to leads and eventually purchases. The funnel starts with awareness, then moves to interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and finally, a purchase.

Retargeting makes it possible to re-engage with those customers who are further down the funnel but have not yet decided to purchase. You can set your focus on those very close to purchasing, by targeting only “cart abandoners” if you have a limited budget. You can also set your efforts to reach all website visitors if you have a high lead time that involves a lot of evaluation by your audience. Examples of highly evaluated products are cars, legal services, higher education, or any product or service that requires a significant investment in time or money from the buyer.

The great thing about retargeting is that you can give each type of customer the attention that they need in the manner that they need it. It gives you a second chance to advertise, an opportunity to cross-sell, up-sell, or nurture your audience with your content marketing efforts. You can now engage with visitors even when they leave your website, encouraging them to convert at their own pace.

Why Should You Try Retargeting?

As we already mentioned, since only 4% of first-time visitors purchase, that leaves 96% of your website visitors potentially lost if you don’t continue to engage with them. Over 63% of digital marketing campaigns on Google and Facebook do not use retargeting tactics. This represents a huge opportunity for those who do to strengthen their brand and improve their conversion rates. In a world with increasing distractions and competition, reminding your “online window shoppers” why your brand is important to them is crucial. 79% of people abandon their shopping carts on average. You can reach those people with retargeting.

Remarketing vs Retargeting

Retargeting is the process of targeting users that have visited your site with ads. There are many ways that you can retarget your audience but it falls under the umbrella of Remarketing. Remarketing entails how you are targeting your audience in terms of which channels to use, what audience to target, and what message the ad should contain. This whole process is Remarketing. Some still say Remarketing is only focused on emails but that theory is outdated with all the new ways that you can re-engage with your audience today.

How Do You Deploy A Retargeting Strategy?

A “pixel” or “cookie” is placed on a website to traffic users. The pixel is a piece of JavaScript code that is stored on computers of people who visit your site. The pixel identifies website visitors, enabling you to serve ads when the time is right. After they leave your site and continue to surf the web, you can show them ads to convert them from leads to customers, cross-sell, or up-sell based on what they viewed on your website.

Initially, you may find that remarketing volume is relatively small, simply because there are a few pixels placed at first. But as the number of people who capture your pixel grows, your remarketing audience grows, exponentially improving the effectiveness. For smaller organizations, retargeting may not be the best fit for your marketing strategy. A 30-day window to build an audience could be too small to reach the Google Ads minimum of 1,000 users.

Retargeting By The Rules

Utilizing email lists retained from customers by using “Customer match” in Google Ads enables you to engage with existing customers. This tactic allows you to reach those on your CRM list or another external list with banner ads. We’ll dive into that tactic in another blog.

Prior to implementation, notify your website visitors that you will be using cookies to track them for advertising purposes. Update this on your website’s privacy policy page. It is also necessary if you service anyone adhering to GDPR rules and guidelines.

While Remarketing and Retargeting may seem complex at first, these tactics are fairly simple once you dive in. More importantly, a good remarketing plan can beat your competition to the punch and be highly cost-effective. If you would like to learn more about how remarketing may benefit your industry and company specifically, and how it fits in with your overall digital marketing strategy, feel free to contact us at AdEdge at 203-682-4585 or info@adedgemarketing.com. If you’d like to keep up with the latest and greatest digital marketing tactics, sign up for our once-monthly newsletter.

How To Choose A Marketing Agency

Choosing the right marketing agency can be difficult. There are so many specialties when it comes to marketing that the choice can get overwhelming. However, learning more about the types of agencies can help you make informed decisions on what firm you may need to hire to accomplish your goals. Maybe you need multiple agencies, which is not uncommon, to execute a full marketing strategy for your brand.

How To Choose A Marketing Agency

How to choose the right marketing agency is less about what you think you need, but more about educating yourself on what options are available. If you ask your agency how media buying can fit into your creative strategy and the answer is ‘we don’t do media buying and that doesn’t fit with your marketing strategy’ that’s a big red flag. Your agency or consultant should educate you as to what media buying is and what abilities it can bring to the table. Education is the key to making informed decisions.

Here is an outline to learn more about different types of agencies and how to choose the right marketing agency for your company.

7 Types Of Marketing Agencies

Full-Service Agency

A full-service advertising agency offers a comprehensive range of marketing and advertising services for any business. This typically includes strategic planning, content creation, web design and development, SEO, social media management, TV and radio ads, and paid search ads. A full-service agency is a one-stop-shop for all your marketing and advertising needs. The value of working with a full-service agency is that it limits the needs for coordinating between partners and vendors. Because full-service agencies do it all, they could make your choice of marketing agency very simple. However, hiring a full-service agency that does everything may rob you of a skillset a specialist may bring to the table. Interview a few agencies, gather some information and vet your current agency to see if they are offering you the best strategy.

Digital Agency

A digital advertising agency specializes in online campaigns. Execution of a digital-first marketing strategy will most definitely include SEO, social media marketing, website design and development, lead generation, email marketing, and marketing automation. Digital agencies generate more leads for clients through their website and create more awareness online.

Social Media Agency

A social media agency focuses solely on social media. However, content creation for specific audiences can be a very in-depth process of coordinating video production, copywriting, and photographers. Once curated content is chosen for an ad campaign, it must be optimized. These teams create targeted ad campaigns behind social content will be a large part of their process. They will typically charge a budget for ad spend on top of a retainer. Social media agencies are a good fit for companies that sell specific product lines, such as headphones.

Public Relations (PR) Agency

Public relations, or PR, agencies improve and manage the public image of a company and its employees. Often used by enterprise companies and CEOs, PR agencies get their clients featured in the news, on industry websites, and talked about in the community. Their efforts are typically broken down into paid and earned media. Paid media is buying air time, sponsored content opportunities, or ad placement. Earned media is thought leadership, SEO, social media, and bolsters online reputation. PR agencies are best for companies or individuals that want to improve their public image.

Branding Agency

Usually, these teams conduct thorough market research and analysis to better understand company positioning, branding agencies offer a range of services including logo design, brand name development, creative production, and signage. Because of their ability to differentiate brands consider branding agencies when rebranding your company. Branding agency teams develop how a current brand is perceived in the market and provide the research your team needs to make informed business decisions.

Creative Agency

Creative agencies develop the design, graphics, and copywriting of a brand. They specialize in logo design, print marketing, letterheads, billboards, and business cards. These types of agencies make companies look a specific way and stand out in the marketplace. If you hire a creative agency it should never be short on new ideas and ways to promote your service or product.

Media buying agency

Media buying agencies focus on media planning and media buying, typically focusing on specific channels. Developing target audiences over time, media buying agencies hone in on specific customers by using targeting capabilities. The targeting criteria varies per platform and are provided by third-party websites such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Although these agencies are effective on their own, they deliver the most positive results when paired with creative agencies.

How To Choose The Right Marketing Agency

Choose the right one, or combination of marketing agencies to generate leads and influence how your brand is perceived. Marketing changes fast, make sure the firm you hire isn’t stuck in a mindset of the past. Test them to ensure they are familiar enough with today’s evolving marketing landscape.

Transparency is key. It is your right as a client to demand accurate and up to date reporting. These numbers will give you an accurate depiction of how your campaigns are performing.

A Marketing Consultant can create a stellar marketing strategy, tie all of these offerings together, bringing in appropriate specialists where needed. Coordinating between trusted agencies is ultimately a job for a trusted member of your team.

What Is Display Advertising?

Display advertising is a type of paid online advertising that consists of text, image, video, audio, and motion ads. These ads display on websites, apps, and social media platforms, in several different sizes.

To start, all display ads go through a display ad network to reach customers. The top display ad networks are Google, Facebook, and Twitter. You choose what demographics or other targeting criteria you want your audience to consist of and they take it from there. They serve your ads to users who fit that description. Those users can then click on your ad and (hopefully) convert into a paying customer.

Types Of Display Advertising

There are several types of display ads, however static, rich media, video, and interstitial ads are predominantly used by marketers.

Static – Static ads are hyperlinked, image-based ads that clearly stand out on any webpage. Often called banner ads, this format is a good place to start for branding and product placement.

Rich Media – Rich media is one type of display ad that involves using interactive elements such as video, audio, and clickable elements to make the advertisement more engaging.

Video – When comparing cost, video ads are slightly more expensive but provide a whole different experience that can definitely be worth the additional ad spend. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram have made it extremely convenient for marketers to deliver video ads and attract a lot of attention to their products or services.

Interstitial – Interstitial ads load as a separate webpage or window before you are directed to the original page you wanted to visit. They take up the entire screen and often require being closed by the users in order to continue.

Your company can take advantage of these display ad types and see which works best for your product or service with display advertising. If you came to this page for a definition then you can stop reading, but if you want to know how to start using display advertising for your company, that’s what this entire page is for.

How To Create Display Ads That Convert

If you’re beyond definitions and want to dive right in and start designing your display ads, start with these steps:

Follow Best Practices For Landing Pages

Yes, the first thing to focus on is not the ad itself. Make sure your landing page is optimized for conversion. The landing page should be where you drive traffic from an ad, and please don’t make it the homepage! A landing page should be specific to your product and offer an easy way for people to convert. Have a clear call to action (CTA) and follow these best practices:

Build a responsive and mobile-friendly page
Keep it simple, anything that is too intricate will be distracting
Make sure it includes company branding
Include company awards, certifications, testimonials or other signals that encourage trust in your brand
Use a CTA that stands out on the page

By following the best practices, you will have an attractive and optimized landing page for your audience.

Use A Compelling Design

Just like your landing page, using a simple and attractive design for your display ads should be a focus for your ad campaign. Too much information can be overwhelming too. Keeping it simple with some clear copy and basic visuals can effectively tell the customer what you sell and why they should be interested.

Create A Clear Message And Offer

Honing a clear message and attractive offer for your audience should be identifiable in about 3-seconds. A glance. If you don’t grab someone’s attention within that time frame you run the risk of losing their interest. Brainstorm various options before deciding on your messaging and offer. Most times, creating multiple ad variants and testing which is best creates the best ads.

Use Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising can help your business advertise to the people that matter most to your company. Programmatic offers immediate value for any display ad strategy because it utilizes user data like demographics, topics of interest, and age to deliver relevant ads.

Creating ads for display is one thing, but the experimenting and careful planning behind successful campaigns takes time. If you want to learn more about the process reach out to an AdEdge Team member today at info@adedgemarketing.com.

How To Measure Display Advertising Performance

The story is always in the numbers. No matter what kind of campaign you decide to run, continuing to do so will be determined by its performance. When you take a proactive approach to campaign monitoring, you can improve your strategy on an ongoing basis.

Impressions – An Impression is the number of times an ad is served to a user during its placement. Every time an ad is loaded and displayed on a webpage or mobile app, it counts as an impression. This metric is important when analyzing your campaign metrics. If your impressions are very high or increasing and your conversion rate is low or decreasing, you may want to reconsider your display ad management plan.

Click Through Rate – Click Through Rate is a crucial indicator of engagement as it indicates the number of people who have clicked on your ad. It is the ratio of impressions to clicks. If your ad receives 1,000 impressions and 200 clicks, the click-through rate is 10%.

Conversion Rate – A conversion is the most important metric because a conversion is the main objective of running ads. A conversion takes place when a person clicks through to your landing page and performs a definitive action such as downloading your app, signing up for a newsletter, or buying a product.

These key performance metrics are generated by the ad you choose and your target audience.

How To Choose A Display Advertising Target Audience

There are many elements to the best targeting audience for your ads. Getting there is a process. But it can be so worth it. Perfecting a targeting audience takes time and careful planning.

Define Your Demographic – Segmenting audiences based on information like age, gender, or interests can benefit any campaign.

Identify Target Keywords – Reaching the target demographic based on selected keywords that relate to your product or service. The display ad network will match the keywords you choose with words/phrases present on the sites where your ad will be displayed.

Double-Down On Topic – Choosing a group of websites that fit a specific category will greatly focus your ads towards people within that niche. Sometimes display ad networks provide categories broken down by business type or you can upload custom audiences.

Develop The Ideal Placement – Choosing the best placement is a process that always evolves. But you should be asking the question – where would the most influential place be to see my ad? If you’re targeting customers of a specific vacuum brand, you can display the ads on articles related to that model, or even on a product review page.

Ads Based On Interest – Google collects data on its users’ behavior, and depending on what users are searching for, you can run display ads that resonate with specific interest groups. For instance, a grill enthusiast may be researching spatulas, grill baskets, etc. Interest-based display ad targeting will place your ad on all of these relevant web pages.

Retarget Based On Past Behavior – Also referred to as retargeting, this display ad targeting feature lets you target users who have already visited your website. This process reinforces brand impact and recall.

AdEdge’s Strategies Incorporate Display Advertising

If you have struggled with where to start or with other elements of an effective display advertising strategy, our team of experts is working on more content for you! Reach out to ask any additional questions at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com. Have you found other best practices that were not mentioned work well for you? Let us know!

The Best SEO Practices To Start With

Understanding the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and best practices can be challenging for people who aren’t specialists. Defining what best practices are can be an illusory and frustrating pursuit. Google is constantly updating its indexing policies and ranking scheme for search results. It can seem like a daunting task.

SEO Starts With On-Site Optimization

Before we hop right into some best practices, the better place to start is in website infrastructure. Some of you might cringe and think about complex coding. Nope.

When building a house, do you start with the roof or the windows because they look good? No, you start with the foundation. Building a website that is an effective marketing machine starts with the infrastructure.

Having a blog is vital to a successful SEO strategy. It contains content that can be created easily and often. It is also one of the most effective SEO best practices. Blog posts allow you to share your knowledge not just with your industry but the entire online world. Finding inspiration on how to create content specifically for your audience can be difficult without a solid strategy – so we created an SEO guide for you. Ultimately, your content should position your brand as an expert in your industry.

Another element of your site should be an area on your website for resources. Long-form content (white papers, webinars, ebooks, guides, etc.) lives here. This content is your main source of conversions. You should feel comfortable in asking visitors to these pages for an email address. That also means that the content should be exceptionally helpful. Including promotional materials or news about yourself in this area is bad form – steer away from that. Including educational, non-promotional content is the way to go.

Here Are Best Practices For Any SEO Strategy

1. Keep Your Titles Under 60 Characters

Keeping your blog post titles short will ensure the entire title appears in search results.

SEO Best Practices For Title Descriptions

2. Add Compelling Meta Description (Under 160 Characters)

The description under the clickable title is called the meta description or page description. These descriptions directly influence your click-through rate. Since it’s the second thing people will be reading, consider meta descriptions a broader description of what the content has to offer.

3. Identify Relevant Keywords For Your Company

Your prospects are looking for solutions to problems they are having with their business. Helping them often comes in the form of education and more specifically being there when they ask questions. Most of the time, people type their questions into search engines. So be sure to learn how to do keyword research.

Sharing A Blog For The Best Results

Ensuring that your blog can be shared will help your marketing efforts. This will help create backlinks. A backlink is an incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website.

If you share your blog and others find it useful enough to link to it on their blog this increases your ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). A SERP is basically what shows up when you ask a search engine something.

We wrote another blog post about how to optimize your LinkedIn Profile. One part of improving your profile is to publish content. By identifying relevant groups and sharing your content there, you are releasing your content to a much larger audience (than just the followers of your company page).

Guest blogging can also improve your searchability and relevancy in the topics you cover. However, you will do yourself a disservice if you post your guest blog on low-quality or irrelevant blogs. Your domain and page authority will plummet. Keep it relevant. Keep it genuine.

Pitching well-known publishers in your industry is a great way to enhance the reach of the content you create. Go for it!

SEO Best Practices For The Long Term

Too often, firms abandon their strategies for various reasons. Adjust along the way. Alter what or how you deliver content. But please don’t completely abandon your strategy.

Come to grips with the fact you may not see the immediate results you expect from an SEO project. That’s OK. Just change elements of the strategy and keep moving. As your strategy evolves so will your SEO best practices. We created an SEO To-Do List adhering to best practice guidelines.

If you have struggled with where to start or with other elements of an effective SEO strategy, we wrote the blog for you! Reach out to ask any additional questions at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com. Have you found that other best practices work well for you?

Manage Your Professional Brand On LinkedIn

Manage your professional brand – Whether you have your own business or work at a firm, you want to present yourself and your brand in the right light. Are you an expert in your field? Does your company provide useful information on LinkedIn? The answers to these questions are vital to increasing your LinkedIn profile strength and actively manage your professional brand on LinkedIn. You can define and develop how other members view your professional experience and qualifications. And in improving your own brand, you also improve your company’s brand as well.

You can use the profile strength meter to determine whether you’ve provided enough information and the right kind. In fact, check the meter sporadically throughout updating your profile to be sure.

Optimizing LinkedIn Search Results

Always keep Search Engine Optimization top of mind when editing your profile. You should update this information as soon as possible, but if that isn’t enough convincing here’s one of our earlier posts on How To Leverage SEO During A Crisis. To start, you are not a number. Having a LinkedIn profile URL that is something like https://www.linkedin.com/in/989898989/ does not help you or your brand in search. When actively managing your professional brand on LinkedIn, creating a personal profile URL is a highly effective way to help search engines pick up your profile easily.

Claim A Unique URL For Your LinkedIn Profile

Make sure your profile shows up the right way and your personal brand is positioned well online. ‘Marketing Manager’ can be a pretty broad job title. Are you a Content Creator, Brand Strategist, and Operations Manager as well? You can use this opportunity to put those in your headline.

Update Your LinkedIn Headline With The Text Box Editor

Double-check the effectiveness of when you make changes to your profile when comparing against what search terms you are showing up for. If you are showing up for something irrelevant, try changing your summary or headline information.

Summarize Your Strengths With Skills

When trying to improve your LinkedIn profile strength, don’t forget about writing a succinct and to the point summary about yourself. LinkedIn published some that really stand out and we like them, too. A list of relevant skills on your profile helps you showcase your abilities to other members, like your colleagues and recruiters. It helps others understand your strengths. Once you add your skills, your connections can endorse them. If someone endorses your skills, it will increase the likelihood of you and your brand being discovered.

Not all skills are considered equally, though. There is a feature to show your expertise in a skill by passing an assessment. Some folks may say that they can do something on LinkedIn, but how qualified are they? Pass these assessments to position yourself as an expert in your field.

Don’t shy away from asking for recommendations. It can build not only your personal reputation but even the reputation of your team and company as a whole.

Manage Your Profile Privacy Settings

Lastly, to effectively manage your professional brand on LinkedIn you can use the same editing process to change information on your profile, upload portfolio projects, and request/give recommendations. Editing your privacy settings gives you full control over your LinkedIn account. Make sure your account is discoverable in search. Your customized profile will help members on LinkedIn understand your professional personality.

In the coming weeks, the AdEdge Team will be releasing our findings on a wide array of marketing topics and answering many more of your questions. If you have any questions or want to learn more about our process reach out to info@adedgemarketing.com.

How to Create Content Your Audience Wants to Share

Digital marketing has made a major turn during the last few months as the Coronavirus affected business. During this time, your content marketing has probably been altered. Don’t let that stop you from creating content that users want to read. After all, we all need to prepare for this next week and the slow transition back to a somewhat normal life. Not even sure we can say normal because things won’t be completely normal for some time. However, let’s build on what we know and keep up ways to prepare for this time. So, I want you to ask yourself these five questions when developing your content over the next few months.

Is my content relevant?

Your audience wants to relate to the content you share. Whether they are social media posts, blogs, or video segments on Youtube, they want specific content to share to their platforms. Being able to evoke the “I feel the same way,” or “This is so me,” emotions in your posts will get those clicks and share. The more content that is relevant not only to your audience but to your brand will help them identify the two together. Your main goal with content is to obtain a type of feeling, provide them with a solution, or inspire them. You got this!

Do I have a call to action?

For emails, social posts, blogs and videos, give them a reason to want to know more information about your business. Some of the best content can miss a share if the user doesn’t think about clicking the button. Encouraging your audience to share your content by commenting with a tag of a persons’ name on social, sharing your video because it relates, or giving them a way to email or call from a blog. Although it may seem redundant and simple, this is how leads are generated. Keep that in mind!

Is my content original?

Authenticity is what sets us apart from our competition. After all, what’s the fun in having 50+ businesses with the same content? BORING. While sharing popular, trending memes to boost engagement, there are other ways. Creating content that is specific to your brand requires being innovative and creative. Why do you think some advertisements begin trending online? They are original and people want to support and be a part of that. Having an active online presence raises your brand visibility, and can directly impact retaining customers. When your audience can recognize and relate to you, they will want to share your content on their own page.

If I were scrolling through social media, would I want to click?

Knowing what to post, at what time and on what platform can be difficult to figure out. The main thing to always remember is…KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. This goes hand-in-hand with knowing your platform. Visual content seems to respond best for engagement, which makes sense. Most people see videos and photos first before reading the caption. Keep in mind that just because you received 100 likes on Instagram does not mean the same will happen on our Facebook page. You have to adapt your content to make it platform friendly. Also, a major thing to never forget when doing so – follow the guidelines for video and photo sizing.

What are the current trends, and how can I keep up?

Standing out from your competition with being original is very important, but knowing trends is also important. Taking those trending topics and making them your own is another way to create content. You can visualize new ideas and adopt the trending topics on your own terms. Having a reliable audience already that supports your content helps as well.

Ask yourself these questions to better identify your content marketing efforts and if they are headed in the right direction. Keep your brand in mind when adjusting your content strategy, even if it is temporary. Content is constantly changing and it is our job to keep up with it as digital marketers.

If you’d like to learn more about how digital marketing can help build your brand and drive a new source of business your way, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.

Online Activity Has Increased During the Coronavirus – How is Your Digital Marketing?

We know there is a lot to see on social media about COVID-19 and how you can avoid or prevent it. However, most companies need to refrain from pulling back their marketing entirely. Here’s why. Most of our population is working remote, or have reduced hours due to the Coronavirus. What’s the result of this, you ask? Consumers and business owners are now online more than ever. They’re conducting more searches and scrolling through social media. Do you know what that means? I am glad you asked. Here are 5 tips on how to keep your digital marketing efforts going.

Content is Important

Understand what works for your business. Look for to develop a new content strategy around the Coronavirus and creating a safe place online for your clients, partners, etc. As most people have put a hold on their plans for the beginning of 2020, content is also a good way to keep them engaged. So, after you have addressed the Coronavirus and made your statement online, take that time to ramp your content for the long haul. Maybe your sales are down, or clients have cut their costs. However, this is now in your favor. Customers can read, research and consume this engaging content now. Build your brand reputation through engaging blogs, social posts, and email newsletters because they’re stuck at home. Keep in touch with them. And while building that content, make sure it is still relevant to your target audience.

Your Target Audience is Online Now More

Have you thought about better ways to connect with your target audience? You most likely already have this defined since your business hasn’t changed in that aspect. However, understanding what they want to read during this time of reduced spending is key. How can you capitalize on the research, discovery and awareness stages to convince them, when they are financially ready to buy again.

Make it Easy for Customers

I’m sure it probably sounds easy to you, but conversion rate still has an entire industry dedicated to it. Being able to drive users is partial art and partial science. Now is the time to take a deeper look into your website and identify ways to better optimize for conversion. A website audit could be beneficial during this time.

Keep an Eye on Your PPC

Many industry leaders have reported that ad spend has increased due to customers shifting to online shipping. Overall, it seems the click-through rates are dropping especially for industries like auto, retail, home improvement and real estate. Even with revenue falling during the Coronavirus crisis, marketing and advertising spend is essential to stay in front of your consumers. Keep an eye on your PPC and adjust your spending and strategy.

Local Search Still Works

Local search is still important even though everyone is staying home to quarantine. Communicating through Google My Business listings is the best way to gain traffic during this time. Google has also instituted changes in local listings that include new reviews, review replies and Q&As. Freezing reviews is a smart way to protect businesses from frustrated customers during this time while businesses are limited. So, double-check your Google My Business listings to make sure it’s accurate.

Are you keeping up with your digital marketing efforts during this time? We want you to prepare your business for what’s to come after this passes and how your business can stay in business during, and after.

If you’d like a learn more about how social media marketing and advertising can help build your brand and drive a new source of targeted prospects to your website, feel free to contact us here at AdEdge at (203) 682-4585 or email us at info@adedgemarketing.com.