Regardless of what business you’re in, or how long you’ve been doing it, the greatest marketing challenge is as old as time: reaching your audience. As self-serve advertising becomes more commonplace, competitive saturation is increasingly problematic. Your customers are inundated with ads, offers, and promotional messaging everywhere they turn—and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Today, we’re going to discuss the concept of audience engagement in a very literal sense. This isn’t another article about where to advertise, but instead, how to advertise your business. The idea of Marketing Personalization applies to virtually all outbound platforms from email to PPC.
What is Marketing Personalization?
It’s no coincidence that this once ambiguous buzzword has recently become more prevalent than ever—because now it’s more possible than ever. Marketing Personalization is rising in popularity simply because businesses of all sizes are realizing the value of collecting information about their customers. The more data you have about someone, the more personalized your advertising can be. Let’s illustrate this concept with an example:
You sell baby clothes online from your Shopify store. In December, Mary Smith purchased a pink floral dress in a 3-month size. From the order receipt alone, you now know this person’s name, location, date of purchase, what they purchased, and email their address. You can also safely surmise there is a 3-month old girl in her life who she is happy to buy clothes for. Now, you could add the buyer to your monthly newsletter and you may get another sale in the future from them. However, delivering personalized content that pertains to them, specifically, sounds a lot more effective (and it is). At the very least, you should now address Mary by name in all email marketing. It’s a nice touch that goes a long way. Take it one step further and highlight products relevant to that baby girl. In January, Mary is likely going to be in need of a coat for a 4-month old and, in February, a onesie for a 5-month old. Don’t forget, you know the city this item was shipped to. You can easily factor in weather and seasonality as well. The more personalized the campaign, the more conversions one can expect.
This is, of course, just one isolated scenario but Marketing Personalization can be employed for almost any business, online or offline, in any industry.
Beyond the Inbox
There is no doubt that personalization is most easily achievable via email marketing. The idea, however, can (and should) be applied to any form of customer engagement. Surely, you’ve seen banner ads for the exact outdoor sofa you were browsing last week on Wayfair or Amazon. Retargeting is Marketing Personalization at work. Instead of a generic graphic featuring kitchen blenders, towels, and coat racks, you are seeing relevant products—which you are far more likely to buy.
This concept also works with direct mail campaigns. Again, using the information known about your customers, you can custom-tailor the messaging to them. For example, if you operate a handyman service, you might send carpentry and fixture replacement postcards to homeowners, but not apartment renters. This not only saves you money, but increases your conversion rate.
Renowned media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, famously said, “the medium is the message.” If you are placing an ad in Golf Digest and Better Homes & Gardens, your messaging should be unique and relevant to that particular publication. You may not have specific data on the readers, but you do know their interests and can speak their language. Personalization is your path to profit, no matter where you advertise.
Personalization Meets Automation
Whether you collect customer information at point-of-sale, via surveys, or telepathy, it’s not always easy to know what to do with it. We recently helped a client with over 20 years of customer activity stored in their CRM strategize and implement a personalized marketing plan. Some pieces of this process, especially in the beginning, are inevitably manual. This includes merging all of your subscriber and customer data into a streamlined, unified format. Luckily, there are several email platforms like MailChimp that make segmenting and targeting within your lists a breeze. You can setup specific messages triggered by certain activities, behaviors, or user attributes. Aside from email, major Pay-Per-Click networks like Google, Bing, and Facebook offer the ability to retarget your site’s visitors with pertinent products, categories, and offerings. Once established, these systems run effortlessly in the background and work for your business around the clock.
The best way to stand out in a sea of promotional noise is relevance. Buying roller skates doesn’t mean I want to hear about your sale on scuba gear, but I certainly might be interested in elbow pads. Take the time to tailor your marketing efforts to people and you will surely be rewarded with growth.
Local Marketing 2020 Series: Social Media, Reviews and SEM
You may not think a carpet cleaning service needs a Facebook page. Who would follow it and why? Now is the time to cast aside your notions of social media and embrace its local power.
First, search engines tend to (unofficially) appreciate businesses that are active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram. It never hurts to appease the Google Gods.
Secondly, potential customers who are researching your products or services online are likely to stumble upon your social accounts. When they do, are they going to see one lonely post from two years ago? Or would you rather a vibrant, active feed of fresh content, testimonials, photos, videos and more?
Once you do start to collect some local followers, social media is a good way to promote offers, specials, announcements and events. These networks are also great customer service platforms, offering several alternative forms of interaction between you and the local community. Sites like Facebook will continue to change and evolve its algorithm, but one truth will always remain: your social media efforts will not go to waste.
Remember that consumer decisions are being made online. A satisfied customer who walks out your door is an excellent opportunity for a good review. Encourage patrons to leave a review for your business on Google, Facebook or Yelp. Don’t be pushy — but don’t be shy either. Instead, subtly suggest the notion while conveying your appreciation. This request can be delivered via point-of-sale signage, receipt verbiage, post-sale email or by asking the good old-fashioned way. Of course, not every person will follow through, but you will surely see an uptick in social proof over time. Companies that take pride in their customer experience, and have the ratings to back it up, are rewarded with more clicks, more calls, more business (and more praise).
Another avenue is online paid local marketing. It almost seems like cheating to advise you to spend money on pay-per-click advertising, or search engine marketing, in a local marketing blog post. The concept may not seem very creative or too cost-prohibitive — but if done correctly, it works.
Most of the major PPC platforms, such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads and Bing Ads, allow you to concentrate your campaign on hyper-local regions. This means your marketing dollars won’t go to waste on curious clicks from other states (or countries). Additionally, the ability to display ads to individuals with highly specific interests and demographics further increases your chances of making every click count.
Here’s an advanced tip. Take advantage of geo customizers to customize your ad copy to dynamically insert a local town name, suburb or zip code specific to a user’s IP address. Upload a CSV file to the business data section of AdWords that tells the platform, “IF a user is in Chicago, IL…serve them Headline 1 saying ‘Attention Chicago Businesses.’ ” This will increase your CTR and personalize all messaging.
Since most search and social ad platforms price clicks and impressions on a bidding system, you will be less likely to compete with big businesses’ national campaigns, thus saving even more money. The best part? No budget is too small. Spend a few bucks a day to put yourself where your customers are looking.
There’s no denying it. With more than 3 billion active users, social media is no longer a matter of choice if you want your business to succeed.
Look for our next Local Marketing Series blog, where you’ll learn more about email marketing and how it can help increase revenue and facilitate growth.
Local Marketing 2020 Series: Search Engine Optimization and Local SEO
Right after the Big Game and all the hype around the national campaigns, we promised you we’d delve into local marketing and strategies you can use. We start with search engine optimization and how to use it to your advantage in your local market.
This isn’t the time nor place for a crash course in SEO. However, this post is the perfect forum to discuss the astounding potential of organic local traffic. The truth is, the small business world is a bit behind on the digital revolution. You still see a good portion of coffee shops and dry cleaners with non-responsive websites, no social media presence and the list of offenses goes on. Use this to your advantage! You can make a big impact on your business online with relatively low effort and basic search engine optimization practices.
Start with a blog and maybe consider some keyword-rich landing pages as well. Make sure your site adapts to all devices, includes enticing META descriptions, has the proper title and heading formats, and plenty of unique, valuable content.
One important trend to watch in SEO is the emergence of high volume “near me” terms. If your business supplies services or products in a certain area, begin optimizing your site around [geo+service] keywords. This strategy will lessen the competitiveness of the market. So instead of optimizing your site around “Chinese Restaurant” that will compete nationally, optimize it around “Top Charleston Chinese Restaurant” and watch it rank well over time.
Local SEO will help your business go even further. When the search engines look at your business name, address, phone number and URL across the web, the more consistent it is, the more authority is given. Make sure you not only claim but optimize as many directory and business profile listings as you can find. At minimum, open accounts on the following top business profile sites.
Many business owners allow their preconceived notions about sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Foursquare to prevent them from taking advantage of what they have to offer. Whether it’s a few nasty reviews, unflattering photos, unsolicited feedback or just a general lack of understanding, your reasons for complicity are not worth the negative impact. It’s time to adjust your perspective.
These aggregate sites can also be your best friend — if you embrace their local marketing power. Play the game. Claim your listing, update your details, correct your categories, upload some images, double-check your hours and address. If they ask you to pay for a premium service, do it. Your customers are going to these third-party services before (or in lieu of) your own website. Take advantage of what little control you are given and ensure the best representation of your business. Platforms such as Yext and Moz Local provide an efficient means of managing the growing number of directories people use to discover products and services in your city.
Be sure to check out our next Local Marketing Series blog where we look at how to use social media to its fullest.
Enough about the big game. Let’s talk about YOUR business!
If you spent last night on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the next commercial break, we can relate. Sure, the big game was one for the books—but for us, it’s all about the ads. Hollywood-grade budgets, celebrity cameos, immersive dialogue, fully-licensed pop music, and focus group-approved comedic timing all added up to an epic viewing experience for us and a major win for the sponsors! Here we are now, 219 days away from the next pro football game, wondering what’s next. At ACS Creative, we feel it’s time for local businesses to take the stage!
National advertisements like those seen during the big game are just one approach that a company can take. But, is it necessary for you? Figuring out the best local marketing tactics and strategy for your business can be a complicated business in itself. What matters to your company and the targeted audience you want to reach? How do you want to accomplish this from a marketing standpoint and still stay within your budget? ACS Creative can help answer these questions with you.
In 2018, we posted a helpful list of local marketing ideas, but a lot has changed since then. Some of the items have stayed the same, and some new trends have emerged. As awesome as marketing may be, it’s often easy for local businesses to feel left out of the excitement. We’ve put together a list of proven local marketing tactics for all the mom and pop, brick and mortar, Main Street proprietors out there.
Even if you’re only trying to capture the attention of your neighborhood, community, or city, there is still plenty of opportunity to grow online. Over the next few weeks, we are going to take a look at some local marketing ideas that will accelerate your business in 2020, and take your brand into the end zone.
Look for our first blog on local marketing tactics, Search Engine Optimization, coming next week.
3 Key Web Design Elements that Improve User Experience
All business owners want their website to look good. But what does that mean for the site’s visitors? A good user experience means that they will be engaged on your site and ultimately supply their email address, sign up for your newsletter, pick up the phone to call you, or whatever outcome you are hoping for. And, there are some key web design elements that will help improve user experience.
First is typography. This includes all facets of the words on a page, not just the primary font. It also includes the font family usage, sizes of letters and words, line spacing, color of the text and the contrast on the page. All of these factors need to work together on the webpage — while staying on brand — to make your information easy to read or consume.
How the text is displayed is critical. If someone is trying to learn about your business, your message has to be clear, and clearly readable. Most web users today are quite savvy. They know when the content is well-done, but they also know that when it’s bad, it’s bad. If the content doesn’t look good, the user will most likely click away.
The second key web design element is consistent use of a call to action (CTA). Like I’ve already mentioned, you want your website to encourage potential customers or clients to perform a certain action. How are they going to sign up for your seminar, order a product or reserve a table? The CTA buttons need to be obvious and consistent from page to page to move visitors through the intended journey you want them to take.
Calls to action do vary from site to site and business to business. The point is to make sure that whatever your CTA is, it needs to be apparent on each webpage and have clear direction.
Lastly, the third is video. You may not think of it as a design element, but video is important to the overall look of your web page. A video that’s not well-placed on a site or a page or is hard to find probably won’t make the impact you’d like.
And, visitors like videos because they are easy to digest. They can entertain or be informative, but no matter the tone, videos will engage and keep a user’s attention. This captured attention is marketing gold.
Incorporating these three web design elements is sure to improve the user experience for people visiting your website — and keep them coming back.
Steps to Build Your Brand… With Purpose
Building a strong brand that means something about you, but also resonates with your customers, is easier said than done. Companies can spend years, even decades, building then rebuilding their brands to make them stand out. For both new and established businesses, creating and maintaining a brand takes care and consideration. Let’s start with two key steps to build your brand.
First, you need to decide who you are as a company. What type of personality should your brand reflect? Finding this identity requires looking inward. Is your company lighthearted and fun? Or corporate and serious? Have you been around for decades or just a few months? What’s your story? The answers to these questions will help you delve deeper into the type of personality your company has or the one you want it to have.
And, you may not get it right the first time. It’s not uncommon to experiment with different “personalities” if you’re not quite sure where you fit in. There are no set-in-stone rules. You can try something and gauge if your customers are responsive or not.
Second, you need to establish your target audience. These consumers, clients or customers can help guide your brand. Who are these people? What’s their motivation? How do they see your business or industry? Check out the competition and see who they’re targeting. You may even discover a niche market they’ve overlooked.
Analyze your products or services and their benefits. What customer base uses or needs these products or services? What are their demographics? If you’re not sure who your target audience is, you may need to conduct a more thorough market research survey.
Once you’ve identified these two key elements, you’ll be able to implement them into the brand guidelines and design for your company. This includes all of your brand elements, like your company color scheme, typography usage, logo, tagline and website design.
It’s time to let your brand’s personality shine.
How Does SEO Benefit Web Design?
SEO and web design have a thought-provoking relationship. Depending on who you talk to, you could hear a good argument on why one is more important than the other. But, when it comes down to it, SEO and web design are equally essential. It’s the balancing act of giving them both their fair share that leads to a successful web site.
Yet, with the goal of not sacrificing one over the other, your creative agency has gotta start somewhere. For our purposes, we’ll start with web design as it relates to SEO.
A designer must create a user-friendly, well-branded experience when creating a website. It needs to reflect design trends and best practices while following modern SEO standards. A solid web design takes a holistic view of all of the page elements around the content as well as the text as its own entity. That’s a driving factor for SEO — content. Without meaningful content on a web page, SEO will not be as effective. The site has to be sound from a design, content and user experience standpoint before it’s launched.
Now, let’s flip the script. How does SEO benefit web design?
Interestingly, Search Engine Optimization can steer web design. We’ve already touched on content, which is what most people think of when SEO comes up. But, with relation to design, SEO also involves user experience. Search engines are getting more sophisticated, and are looking beyond keywords and code to assess value. They’re now watching indicators like bounce rate and time on a site, which can affect SEO. Those factors are inherently design-driven. Basically, the more your users like your website, the more the search engines will.
Adding to the functionality of your web design, search engines will favor things like low load times, mobile page speeds, compressed design elements and image files, and simplification. When a crawler looks over your site, it will take all these things into consideration. When working through a web design project, make sure your chosen agency is aware or the impacts specific to SEO efforts.
Diving further into some technical SEO items that could be associated with a web design projects, make sure the following items are addressed that will heavily affect your organic rankings:
A website that serves both the user and the search engines is all about balance. Those can be achieved by a blend of effective web design matched with SEO.
Graphic Designers vs Web Designers: What’s the Difference?
When it comes to graphic designers and web designers, there’s more to the names than just a job title. Once graphic artists who handled it all, designers nowadays are segmented into more focused specialties as digital and web work continues to evolve.
Graphic designers and web designers specialize in different aspects of the creative world. Can their skill sets overlap? Of course. But, when you’re working with a creative agency, it’s good to know who the experts are for your project. Let’s explore…
The Similarities
Graphic designers and web designers are creative and artistic professionals who, at their core, share many skills and interests. Both types of designers have an eye for design and visual communications. Each understands how to present information in an attractive and efficient way. They use layouts, graphics, typography, charts and images to convey ideas. They are well-versed in the importance of branding and brand consistency and the visual aspects of marketing. The most effective creative professionals, whether they specialize in web or graphic design, are passionate about learning, evolving, and keeping up with modern trends.
The Differences
Graphic designers offer a diverse scope of skills. They are adept at producing a number of different projects for both print and digital applications. They can design an advertisement for one client, then switch gears to create a logo for another. Many of their graphics can be for print work or used on a website. Their wheelhouse can encompass different types of finished deliverables with concrete specifications. Basically, once a design is approved, it’s finalized, sent to print, and put to bed. That definitive endpoint makes graphic design a bit different from web design.
Web designers are more specialized. They design website-related work ranging from landing pages to complete sites. They focus on both the design of the website and the functional, intuitive user experience. Not only is their objective to create a visually attractive site, but also ensure that it performs well and adheres to proven information architecture and U/X principles. This often includes optimizing page load times and file sizes. A web designer may dabble in SEO and content, but they are not web “developers” who specialize in coding and programming. Websites go through changes as company brands change. New content needs to be added for SEO or navigation needs to be tweaked to increase conversions. So, technically, a web designer’s job is never done.
The Blend
Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for the lines to be blurred between the two areas of design work. Most designers can do both graphic and web design. Their skillsets can bleed into each other and be blended depending on the client or project. They are both creative and understand their medium — they know their stuff. Just make sure that you know who you’re working with when engaging with an agency on your next project.
Why SEO Matters to YOU
You want your website to be found… but at what price? PPC advertisements and paid keywords can cost anywhere from a few bucks to a whopping $150 per click! Those rates can be budget-blowing to any organization if a person clicks, and clicks, and clicks and then leaves your site without making a purchase or taking an action. This is why search engine optimization (or “SEO”) matters. SEO is critical for receiving those quality organic clicks — without the additional cost.
What’s the difference between organic and paid? For the most part, organic searches are closely related to a user’s query based on relevance (determined through SEO and various other factors). Compare that to search engine marketing (“SEM”), which is promotion through online advertising.
SEO helps in myriad ways. Optimizing your site’s SEO can increase your efforts to better reach your target audience. It can also help you climb above your competitors. With organic placement, you bring in customers by proving to the search engine algorithms that your site has relevant content and authority on keywords. It’s more valuable to own your destiny through SEO than relying on a third party for paid search.
Here are some interesting facts about organic searches and SEO:
Plus, SEO is an evergreen solution. Increasing organic traffic through SEO is a much more sustainable model for your strategic plan than paying for each visitor. Through optimizing SEO, you begin to speak to the visitors you’re most interested in engaging with, not the search engine bots.
New content helps accomplish this. And, not just any content, but content that is authentic to you and your business. Fresh content keeps your SEO and website relevant through blogs, new pages, white papers, videos, etc. It’s no longer acceptable to stuff content with keywords for the sake of search engines — this keyword stuffing was quite common before Google cracked down on abusers. Good SEO practice is about adding more organic search-ability with keywords significant to you.
With strategic SEO, you can tap into the perceived benefits to appearing in an organic search — especially on page one. That ranking suggests to users that you’re an authority and leader in the area. It gives you credibility. Your brand gets in front of consumers, which leads to more click-through and potentially more leads.
Everyone’s dream is to spend $0 on advertising their website. But when it comes to being found online, there needs to be a compromise. (Remember, free advertising is only a dream.) A reasonable plan includes balancing SEM spend and bringing traffic in through SEO, which is instrumental to organic searches.
Interested in SEO? Let’s chat! We offer full service of marketing solutions
Recipe for the Ideal Website
Every website has its purpose. And, whether that’s to sell a product or enhance a brand, it needs to have the right mix of components to create the ideal website. These ingredients, when combined, create a perfectly blended website. It’s much like baking a cake. If you forget the baking soda, your cake won’t rise. And nobody likes a flat cake.
So, what does it take to create those individual web pages to reach and engage your target audience? It comes down to five main ingredients that, when measured, blended and assembled just right, create an ideal website.
Ingredient #1: Engaging Design
Design of the user interface is the prime opportunity to grab the viewer’s attention. And you only have an instant to do so. On average, most people leave a web page in less than a second. Engaging design, especially above the fold, needs to capture their attention. Remember, in this one window, in that one second, the web page needs to interest users in your business, product or purpose and entice them to continue scrolling.
Ingredient #2: Meaningful Messaging
Because a visitor’s time is limited, your message needs to be front and center on the page. It needs to get to the point quickly and clearly. This is your chance to speak to visitors about their problem and get them to care about your business. Once they know you understand their pain points, you’ll have their attention. An effective way to do this is in the hero section. Your message can be within a prominent image, slider or illustration that attracts them, then encourages them to read more, scroll or click through.
Ingredient #3: Ideal Websites with a Purpose
Every page should have a purpose and the content to back it up. If not, think about opportunities to consolidate and combine with other content on your site. The average visitor will only view two to three pages on your site before leaving. So, you want robust and engaging content to make each click count.
Ingredient #4: Call to Action
Now that viewers have engaged on the website, don’t leave them hanging. Each page should have a call to action — even if it’s simply a link to your contact page for more information. An ideal website gives readers options when they reach the bottom. A call to action will help guide their journey to your desired action.
Ingredient #5: Technical Capability
The technical side of your web page is much like the oven used to bake your cake. You don’t need to know how the oven works. You just know that if it doesn’t, there will be problems. It’s the web developer’s job to ensure functionality. He or she makes sure that each web page is optimized for things such as W3C standards and page load speed. Optimization is especially important with a mobile site, now that visits are almost equally split between desktop and mobile devices.
These five ingredients make up the basic recipe for the ideal website. From there, extra spice and zest can be added to create a unique flavor that will make your organization stand out.
Marketing Personalization (Really) Works
Regardless of what business you’re in, or how long you’ve been doing it, the greatest marketing challenge is as old as time: reaching your audience. As self-serve advertising becomes more commonplace, competitive saturation is increasingly problematic. Your customers are inundated with ads, offers, and promotional messaging everywhere they turn—and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Today, we’re going to discuss the concept of audience engagement in a very literal sense. This isn’t another article about where to advertise, but instead, how to advertise your business. The idea of Marketing Personalization applies to virtually all outbound platforms from email to PPC.
What is Marketing Personalization?
It’s no coincidence that this once ambiguous buzzword has recently become more prevalent than ever—because now it’s more possible than ever. Marketing Personalization is rising in popularity simply because businesses of all sizes are realizing the value of collecting information about their customers. The more data you have about someone, the more personalized your advertising can be. Let’s illustrate this concept with an example:
You sell baby clothes online from your Shopify store. In December, Mary Smith purchased a pink floral dress in a 3-month size. From the order receipt alone, you now know this person’s name, location, date of purchase, what they purchased, and email their address. You can also safely surmise there is a 3-month old girl in her life who she is happy to buy clothes for. Now, you could add the buyer to your monthly newsletter and you may get another sale in the future from them. However, delivering personalized content that pertains to them, specifically, sounds a lot more effective (and it is). At the very least, you should now address Mary by name in all email marketing. It’s a nice touch that goes a long way. Take it one step further and highlight products relevant to that baby girl. In January, Mary is likely going to be in need of a coat for a 4-month old and, in February, a onesie for a 5-month old. Don’t forget, you know the city this item was shipped to. You can easily factor in weather and seasonality as well. The more personalized the campaign, the more conversions one can expect.
This is, of course, just one isolated scenario but Marketing Personalization can be employed for almost any business, online or offline, in any industry.
Beyond the Inbox
There is no doubt that personalization is most easily achievable via email marketing. The idea, however, can (and should) be applied to any form of customer engagement. Surely, you’ve seen banner ads for the exact outdoor sofa you were browsing last week on Wayfair or Amazon. Retargeting is Marketing Personalization at work. Instead of a generic graphic featuring kitchen blenders, towels, and coat racks, you are seeing relevant products—which you are far more likely to buy.
This concept also works with direct mail campaigns. Again, using the information known about your customers, you can custom-tailor the messaging to them. For example, if you operate a handyman service, you might send carpentry and fixture replacement postcards to homeowners, but not apartment renters. This not only saves you money, but increases your conversion rate.
Renowned media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, famously said, “the medium is the message.” If you are placing an ad in Golf Digest and Better Homes & Gardens, your messaging should be unique and relevant to that particular publication. You may not have specific data on the readers, but you do know their interests and can speak their language. Personalization is your path to profit, no matter where you advertise.
Personalization Meets Automation
Whether you collect customer information at point-of-sale, via surveys, or telepathy, it’s not always easy to know what to do with it. We recently helped a client with over 20 years of customer activity stored in their CRM strategize and implement a personalized marketing plan. Some pieces of this process, especially in the beginning, are inevitably manual. This includes merging all of your subscriber and customer data into a streamlined, unified format. Luckily, there are several email platforms like MailChimp that make segmenting and targeting within your lists a breeze. You can setup specific messages triggered by certain activities, behaviors, or user attributes. Aside from email, major Pay-Per-Click networks like Google, Bing, and Facebook offer the ability to retarget your site’s visitors with pertinent products, categories, and offerings. Once established, these systems run effortlessly in the background and work for your business around the clock.
The best way to stand out in a sea of promotional noise is relevance. Buying roller skates doesn’t mean I want to hear about your sale on scuba gear, but I certainly might be interested in elbow pads. Take the time to tailor your marketing efforts to people and you will surely be rewarded with growth.