Digital Marketing – The Business Place

Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Running Google Ads

No business that lasts for some time has ever got there without its owner or management making some mistakes. Making mistakes is how we learn, and you can be certain if any of the mistakes made within a business cost it money or reduced its profit, it is a mistake that will not be made again.

Online advertising is where countless mistakes are made, and that certainly applies to Google Ads. Whilst at face value Google Ads is an extremely simple concept (bid the highest on a keyword and your ad appears) being able to get all the moving parts in line, can be far from simple. At least it will be if you continue to make certain mistakes.

To help you we have outlined some of the core mistakes that are made within a Google Ad campaign, and which mean the results that are achieved are poorer than were expected. This means that a business might spend more on ads than it needs to, or get fewer clicks than it should. Here are five of the mistakes we are referring to.

Not Planning Or Running The Numbers

One of the key elements of a successful Google Ads campaign is planning and knowing all the applicable metrics, beforehand. Tasks like checking average CPC for your target keywords, calculating what your maximum bid is and even checking your competitors’ ads for ad copy ideas are but a few of the many ways you can help plan for a successful Google Ads campaign.

10 Of The Best Local Marketing Software And Tools

It is often overlooked that there are far more small to medium local companies who operate within a specific geographical area than there are international or purely online companies whose audience is worldwide. The significance of this plays into many areas of business, and one of those is local marketing.

Local digital marketing experts Tribeca Media say that the way local marketing is planned and implemented may have some generic crossover principles with global marketing but the actions and tools which are used to manage local marketing is going to be different. In particular, how marketing software and tools can help local businesses maximise the ROI of their marketing has many differences. For a start local marketing falls under 5 banners which are:

Social Media
Public Relations
SEO
Online Paid Advertising
Citation Management

Within each of these, there are software and tools which can help local businesses manage and optimise campaigns so let us look at some of the top candidates.

Using Email Marketing To Promote Your Property Marketing Business

In order for any business to be successful, it needs a means of connecting with its prospective audience and alerting that audience to what products or services the business has which will be of benefit to them. That applies as much to your property marketing business as it does any, and the advice of digital marketing professionals is that within any marketing strategy you have should have email as a core component.

The use of email for marketing has been around since the earliest days of the internet, but it does often get knocked, mostly due to the millions of spam emails that get sent every day. However, that should not deflect you from knowing how effective email can be in promoting your company, your brand, and the services which you sell. Below, We have outlined 7 advantages of using email to promote your property marketing business.

Extremely Easy To Use

The fact that you were able to click through to read this, means you have all the technical skills you need to use email marketing. Without a doubt, email is one of the easiest marketing tools you could wish for, and it can be set up and executed with minimal technical knowledge compared to many other marketing methods.

Helps Build Relations And Trust With Your Audience

By sending a sufficient number of emails that seek to help and inform your subscribers, your emails are more likely to be read, and that means that with each one a subscriber is growing to like you more, recognize your brand more, and trusts you more, which is a triple crown when it comes to customer relations.

What Is SEO Management?

The importance of organic traffic is high, especially when research shows that over half of all the traffic websites receive is likely to come from search engines. The websites that are going to receive the bulk of that traffic are those which are ranked the highest, and that applies most to Google which accounts for over 90% of all search engine generated traffic. This means if you want to benefit from organic traffic you need to be near the top of Google’s search results.

The question is how do you get to be one of the top results when a search is entered in Google? The answer is search engine optimisation or SEO as it is more commonly referred to. SEO covers a wide-ranging number of actions and techniques, which have the cumulative effect of improving how Google views your website, which results in improved rankings. If we continue to apply the SEO tactics which are working, then the ultimate result is appearing in the #1 position for a search term.

The simple reason why many businesses fail to take advantage of these facts is that they do not know how to research, plan, and execute an SEO strategy. They could try, but the risks involved in trying to implement SEO when you do not know what you are doing can include your website being removed from Google’s pages, which effectively means it disappears altogether from their search results.

What Is an SEO Company?

The reply to this question is not going to be a quick one or two-line answer. While that might be the case if you asked what a dairy farm (produces milk), or dressmaking company (makes dresses) does, what an SEO company does is going to take a few paragraphs to explain.

The reason for that isn’t that it is too hard to explain what an SEO company is, it’s that each SEO company is unique. It is unique in many ways such as the types of services it offers, the number of services it offers, its size, number of employees, and in the exact way in which it achieves its results.

To help us answer the question, ‘What is a SEO company?‘, it will help us if we define what the goal of most SEO companies is. That goal is ‘to help businesses grow’. At first, it might seem to you to be a very simplistic answer, however, if we were to consider every SEO company’s list of services, they will all ultimately be leading towards that simple, but very important goal.

If we consider that further, let’s examine why a business would employ a SEO company. We can point to specific actions and objectives which might include creating better content for the company’s website, protecting online reputations with online reputation management or to improving the search engine rankings. However, these, and the many other services an SEO company might provide, are not the reason that the company has been employed.

Simply creating content, protecting a brand’s reputation and better search engine rankings, are merely a means to an end. That end, or final goal, is that the company grows thanks to the increased sales which happens as a result of the services that the SEO company has provided.

4 SEO Trends in 2018

Every successful business in the world right now is taking full advantage of good SEO strategies for their websites, blogs, and their social media profiles. If your business is not doing the same, you might as well be digging your own grave because without good SEO rankings, your business will not be able to keep up with the rest of the competition. High ranking on SEO is going to make sure that your business stays relevant by helping your customers find your products and services online with ease.

SEO might seem very simple when you think about the fact that a lot of businesses are using it but it is actually quite challenging. The most difficult aspect of SEO is the fact that it is in a constant state of evolution. The “best practices” that worked last year might not even be relevant right now. This means, there is a need to keep up with the latest SEO trends if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

Here is a look at the 4 SEO trends that are tearing things up in 2018.

Secure Links
2016 saw Google make the announcement about the fact that secure links (SSL) are going to make a significant impact on the SEO ranking of websites. From being a simple announcement to becoming something that is more of a necessity, browsers like Google Chrome are now marking the websites that do not start with “https” as potentially unsafe for internet users. It’s one of the easiest ways to boost your SEO rankings and a trend that is here to stay.

Digital Marketing Strategies For Accountants

If you are an accountant, run an accountancy business, or are responsible for the marketing activities of an accountancy company, are you making the most of all the marketing strategies that are open to you?

We often find that when we consult with accountancy businesses that they may be trying one or two marketing methods but did not realize that were several more ways they could bring potential clients to their website.

The other scenario is that they knew of them, but just did not know how to take advantage of them, that is, until they asked us to do it for them.

So, if your accountancy business wants to expand, attract new clients and become the number one accountancy service in your area, here are some effective marketing strategies you should implement, and if you need any assistance in doing so, our agency is happy to help you.

Digital Marketing Strategies: Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

This is a marketing strategy that scares many accountancy businesses, and it is understandable. It is understandable because they, and we, have heard so many horror stories of companies spending and wasting thousands of dollars on paid advertising, and getting little in return.

The reason for that is that they started using PPC advertising with no prior research, planning or monitoring. That is a recipe for disaster, and it does not have to be that way. If you seek a consultant or agency who are experts in PPC, they can create a campaign for you that is going to get you results.

How To Calculate If You Can Afford To Bid On The Top Keywords On Google Ads

There are lots of businesses that could benefit enormously if they were to implement a Google Ads campaign, but many do not because of concerns they have. One of those concerns is not knowing whether or not they could afford to bid on the keywords that they wish to target. Given that within any single business niche there could be hundreds of possible keywords all with varying costs per click (CPC) then the level of uncertainty can be high.

We are not here to criticize business owners for their uncertainty over whether they can afford to bid and that stopping them from proceeding with a Google Ads campaign. After all, it would be foolish to plough ahead into the unknown in any element of your business if you were not aware of what the costs are going to be. However, what we can do is give you a simple formula that you can apply to every keyword and establish if it is affordable for you.

To begin the analysis there are 4 specific numbers or pieces of data that you need. These are:

Profit Per Sale ($) e.g. $350
Profit Margin As A Decimal e.g. 30% Profit Margin = 0.3
Website Conversion Rate As A Percentage Converted To A Decimal e.g. 1 In 100 = 1% = 0.01
Estimated Cost Per Click Of Each Target Keyword As Per Google Keyword Planner e.g. $4.75

The Risks Of Using Cheap SEO Services

Often when we sit down to write an answer to a question about SEO, we often do not fill the entire page. With the question ‘What are the risks of using cheap SEO services?’ the problem could be that we need multiple pages to answer it. The reason for that is using an SEO agency that does everything ‘on the cheap’ can create multiple issues for your website and in turn your business, many of which are irreversible.

Let’s start with a harsh truth that applies as much to the field of SEO, as they do in any industry. There will always be those who try to cut corners, use dubious tactics, employ high-risk techniques, and do it all for an easy payout. They set their prices low because that is the only way they can hope to compete with professionals in their field.

We are not to saying that all these cheap SEO agencies are dishonest or doing anything illegal, but with SEO, as with any product or service, you will ultimately only get what you pay for. If you pay bottom dollar for SEO services, then do not be surprised if, instead of being at the top of the rankings, you end up at the bottom of them.

With cheap SEO services, the research that takes place is likely to be extremely limited. Specifically, the SEO audit, if it takes place at all, will not analyse many of the most critical SEO factors that exist on your website. Thereafter, any plan which is cobbled together will be severely compromised and lacking any credible actions that are going to make a significant difference to your ranking.

What Services Does A Digital Marketing Agency Offer?

The services each individual marketing agency will offer may differ slightly from company to company but you should expect them all to offer a similar set of core services. The primary one is likely to be search engine optimisation (SEO) which involves a comprehensive strategy and several actions to try and improve the search engine rankings of the client’s company website.

Another core service will be pay per click advertising (PPC), and this is most likely going to focus on Google Ads, although there are other PPC networks. Additional services that can be employed separately, although more likely in conjunction with the above, will be content management, link building, conversion optimisation, and reputation management.

Do I need a blog?
While it is not essential, if you don’t have a blog you are missing a great opportunity to communicate with visitors to your website, create trust with them, and enhance your brand. On top of that, there is also the boost to your SEO that having excellent content on your website in the form of your blog can provide. If you are concerned that you do not have the time or would struggle to come with ideas to write about, then be assured these can both be overcome.

The easiest way to do so is to employ a third party to take care of your content management, including your blog. A digital marketing agency will have a team of writers who can produce high-quality content for your blog on a regular basis, allowing you to get on with running your business.