Basic Digital Marketing

3 Reasons your eCommerce Site absolutely Needs to be Mobile Responsive

3 Reasons your eCommerce Site absolutely Needs to be Mobile ResponsiveeCommerce sites that have made the switch to no-mobile to mobile responsiveness have seen sometimes massive increases in revenues. Why this is the case is because you’ve got to go where the audience is. There’s more smartphone and tablet eCommerce shoppers today than ever before. If you want to reach consumers through mobile mediums, you’ve got to take control of the opportunity. The most successful eCommerce sites have already gone mobile. Any site looking to take on the competition, interacting on smartphones, tablets, and digital devices are where it’s at.

 

Extended reach

 

There are more eCommerce search activity on smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices than there are on desktop platforms. If your eCommerce site is not already mobile responsive, it 100% needs to be. Consumers have smartphones on their person wherever they go. By having a mobile responsive eCommerce design, you ensure someone can shop and buy product on the bus, waiting for a doctor’s appointment, sitting on the couch, or wherever they happen to be. Instantly extend your reach to smartphone users you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

 

These on-page SEO Strategies Don’t Work Anymore

  Try These 7 SEO Strategies to elevate your Brand’s Digital Marketing Campaign

Search engine optimization is in a state of perpetual evolution. Algorithms and consumer behaviours are constantly changing. Adapting to these changes are a challenge every SEO specialist and digital marketing agency has to face. In this spirit, many of the strategies that worked years ago just don’t work anymore. In some cases, this is from being outdated. In other examples, strategies have become black-hat SEO which evidently opens up a website to being penalized by search engines like Google. Needless to say, never use the following on-page SEO strategies. Using them could be a waste of time, effort, and money, and puts your website at risk of penalty.

 

Small Businesses succeed when they have a Digital Marketing Agency to Support Them

 Small Businesses succeed when they have a Digital Marketing Agency to Support Them

For a small business just to exist does not guarantee it any success. In fact, digital marketing plays a key role in small businesses looking for big gains in the marketplace. Driving long-term business growth and achieving impressive short-term returns, it’s hard to overlook digital marketing in its effectiveness. If you’re a small business ready to take things to the next level, build for yourself a partnership with an experienced digital marketing agency who knows what they’re doing.

 

Digital marketing strategies are all based around growth. For any business, ‘growth’ may be a little different. For some, it’s all about increasing revenues. For others, growth will be about growing social media shares, likes, and follows. Then, for others, they’ll have more specific conversion-related goals. There are many opportunities out there to grow. An experienced digital marketer knows how to find those opportunities, exploit them, and maximize your marketing channel. Social media, eCommerce, email marketing, AI, VR, and PPC campaigns are just a few of the examples where a small business website may find exceptional growth.

 

Is your SEO Company not performing to your standard – well, it might be time to let them go!

Is your SEO Company not performing to your standard – well, it might be time to let them go!

 

SEO is one of the places new websites like to start when seeking to gain an audience. In fact, ninety-three percent of digital marketing experiences for new sites begins with targeting search engines. Those who have tapped into search engine optimization strategies have reaped the rewards, driving sales, retaining audiences, and re-engaging past customers.

 

Despite the high rewards, SEO is a long-term game. Any day, a site can drop from page 1 to page 5 and with no visible explanation. As you’re jockeying for top position so are the majority of your competitors. Considering more than 75 percent of users will never scroll past the first page of search results, getting on that first page is high priority for any SEO company. As a site owner yourself, if you’re beginning to lose traction on search engines, maybe it’s time to question if the SEO company you’ve hired is doing its job.

 

4 Things you May be doing to Sabotage your Web Design

 

 4 Things you May be doing to Sabotage your Web Design

Web design is all about enticing the visitor, building and retaining interest, and ultimately, producing a conversion. Thousands of dollars can be spent on digital marketing and social media however if the nuts and bolts of your web design aren’t in place, don’t expect to get anywhere. To maximize results of any marketing or money spent, it all begins with getting your web design right. These are some of the more general guidelines to amazing web design you may want to check on.

 

How can Marijuana Successfully and Safely Market in Canada with so much opposition – here’s some answers!

 How can Marijuana Successfully and Safely Market in Canada with so much opposition – here’s some answers!

As cannabis is in process of being legalized in Canada, it remains unclear what the rules are relating to how to successfully and safely market marijuana. There are extreme concerns about marketing to children and for those opposing legalization, they don’t support seeing cannabis marketing to begin with. To this point, is it even ethical or “right” to market marijuana with so much dispute regarding its effects being positive or negative – in this article, we hope to provide some answers.

 

Cannabis has been marketed in Canada for a long, long time under the radar and not in mainstream, commercial markets. Marijuana marketing has typically taken the form of word-of-mouth, incognito referencing in media, and using influencer marketing in some instances to connect the target audience with new product. These marketing strategies have been very successful keeping the underground marijuana industry going. Creating demand with small budgets and no mainstream ad buys is something to admire.

 

Fake Social Media Accounts are nothing to Mess With and have Severe Consequences

 Fake Social Media Accounts are nothing to Mess With and have Severe Consequences

Companies new to the social media world may have come across the possibility of buying followers and likes. At first, it might seem like an amazing idea. After all, you’re buying all these followers and likes on the cheap, getting eyes on your brand and generating momentum within the social media algorithms that dominate sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others – well, not actually. Beware of any site selling fake followers and likes. Fake social media accounts are something brands – especially new brands – want to stay far, far away from.

 

As a digital marketing agency, when we oversee a brand’s social media development, we rely on analytics to determine whether a given strategy is successful. When fake social media accounts are plugged in, it distorts those analytics. Just like they do to the average social user, these accounts make your brand seem more popular than it really is. That does your brand no favors. Firstly, buying fake social activity is not sustainable because it relies on you constantly pumping money in with no real return on investment. Secondly, when your account is found out to be a hub of fake accounts, it’ll be deleted and you’ll lose everything you’ve worked for.

Succeed in Digital Marketing by focusing on Local, Social, and Mobile

 Succeed in Digital Marketing by focusing on Local, Social, and Mobile

The value of promoting on local, social, and mobile is high in 2018. Brands who dominate these arenas are those who pull ahead beyond their competitors. Reliable audiences built in local regions, across social media, and on mobile responsive platforms are a focal point to many digital marketing campaigns. To succeed in this space, here’s how to maximize these opportunities.

 

Learn How to use Web Design to make your Company look Bigger and more Professional

 Learn How to use Web Design to make your Company look Bigger and more Professional

Small business website design that delivers big business results are the effect any web design professional should be going for. There are numerous benefits to having a website for small business owners. A properly formatted website authenticates and establishes a business in their local marketplace, helps brands reach whole new audiences of people, and can make a small business feel more successful or bigger than it actually is. For new businesses looking to maximize their success, there’s no question a website needs to be a part of their strategy.

 

To accomplish everything that’s possible with a big, professional website, a few things need to happen. To begin with, having a website puts a company on the same level as any other in their field. That means you’ll be compared with every brand from the worst of the worst to the best of the best. Take a look at some of the websites of your competitors. While you don’t necessarily want to imitate a competitor’s design, functionality, or content, this exercise can give insight into what will be expected of your website. By partnering with an experienced digital marketing company, they can assist in identifying the positive qualities of competitor’s websites and the opportunities there are to exploit underserved markets.

 

The worst thing that can happen with a small business website is that it becomes an ineffective tool at generating customers for your own company while subsequently generating leads for a competitor. Surprisingly, this happens a lot. Customers take a quick glance on a site, see they can’t find the information they’re looking for, become frustrated or annoyed, and move on to a competitor’s site. Due to risks of this happening, it’s integral for your small business website to present the right information in the right way. Customers who arrive at your site should see the ambition, the authority, and the scale of your operations. There are also additional strategies that can be used to help make a company’s website look extremely professional.

 

Do you Know how to use Images for SEO – a quick Guide

Do you Know how to use Images for SEO – a quick Guide 

Image use in SEO is important, for many reasons. Using images specifically for search engine optimization is something that needs to be done strategically. As top Toronto digital marketing and SEO specialists, we hope to provide some insights here in how to use images for SEO.

 

Images are great for readers and website visitors. Images can help to break up the monotony of paragraph after paragraph of text. They are also easier to create and produce than video. Be it photography or graphic work, images play a key role in keeping audiences engaged. Now, in SEO terms, images must conveniently fit into the page. Assessing page layout and structure, images should be placed in a natural way. In addition to ensuring images have natural placement, alt-tags and description keywords can also be used to direct search engines as to what an image contains. For any website that wants images to play a role in their search ranking, these are the sorts of things one must be expected to adhere to.

 

5 Commonly Asked Questions about SEO you will Want to know the Answer to

 5 Commonly Asked Questions about SEO you will Want to know the Answer to

The world of search engines, social media, and digital marketing is a complicated place. As wonderful as search engines are, they make for a very competitive place for small businesses looking to rank. These are five commonly asked questions about SEO we hear regularly from new customers.

 

Why all SEO companies are not the same

 

SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes. There are some who are just a single expert and others who employ upwards of a dozen or more employees. There are those who specialize in social media marketing, eCommerce marketing, digital marketing, and more. Discuss with your SEO specialist their field of expertise and ensure it aligns with your vision.

 

4 Ways to make your Company’s Website, Products, and Brand go Viral

 4 Ways to make your Company’s Website, Products, and Brand go Viral

Viral marketing is something many brands aspire to yet so few achieve it. It’s not easy. Imagine creating and releasing a single piece of contact – image, video, blog, or graphic – that nets a huge return of tremendous volume in a single day.

 

‘Going viral’ is not something anyone can promise or even predict. Some brands have made attempts and succeeded, others have had viral marketing campaigns backfire and spur a negative effect, and then, there are some who have had expensive campaigns fall entirely on deaf ears. If you want to give viral marketing your absolute best, here are 4 ways you can.

 

4 Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns to use as Templates

 4 Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns to use as Templates

The rise of influencer marketing has been inspiring for marketers like us because it gives us the chance to get creative. Influencer marketing succeeds based off of creativity, relevancy of choice, and execution. If you’ve never done influencer marketing before and are looking for some examples of influencer marketing, read below to get a sense of what works.

 

Giveaways with Marshalls

 

The combination of giveaways and influencer marketing can be a unique way to get conversation going about your brand. Marshalls recently connected with YouTube influencers, providing some of their loyal followers with custom-designed complimentary giveaway boxes. These complimentary boxes were put together using Pinterest posts from followers. The reactions of opening these boxes were filmed and posted to YouTube, generating more than 475 million social media impressions. Not only is this a great example of using influencer marketing and tapping into their audiences, but it’s also an excellent way to make use of social media.

4 Reasons why your Website is not generating Leads and Boosting Conversions

 4 Reasons why your Website is not generating Leads and Boosting Conversions

You’ve done everything right. You’ve invested time, effort, and money in all the right places. Your website looks great, is mobile responsive, and has all its CTAs properly distributed. Yet, even so, it’s not generating leads.

 

Sadly, a well-designed website does not mean the leads are automatically going to start rolling in. There are several things that could get in the way, unintentionally sabotaging your efforts. If you’re not getting leads and/or are still struggling with a low conversion rate, here are 4 reasons why you may be stuck.

 

Why we Should all Monitor Backlinks and how this Affects Site Authority

Why we Should all Monitor Backlinks and how this Affects Site Authority 

Links to your website have important influence on aspects of site authority and thereby, SEO. By recommendation, links like these immediately associate your site to that which is providing the link. The more backlinks you have, the more indicative it is to search engines that your site has important information on it worth consuming. When this happens, search engines are more likely to rank your site higher which should ultimately provide you with more views.

 

Despite the benefits of backlinks, there is a dark side to them as well. If websites less popular than yours are referencing your website, this can have a negative effect. There’s also anti-marketing techniques out there that competing websites could employ to use backlinks to decrease the popularity of your website to search engines. For this reason, we recommend monitoring backlinks and checking in regularly. This way, if there’s any suspicious activity going on, you should spot it early enough to be able to stop it.

 

Which Digital Marketing Channel comes with the Most Value and Highest ROI – a Discussion

Which Digital Marketing Channel comes with the Most Value and Highest ROI – a Discussion Digital marketing channels are plentiful. Knowing which rabbit hole to go down is sometimes unclear for brands and websites. If you’re looking to pursue the channel with the highest ROI, there’s a lot to consider.

 

Depending on financial resources, the target audience, the products and services being sold, and more, how one leverages their digital marketing may be different from how others do the same.

 

Large corporations and small businesses alike tap into digital marketing strategies across different channels. Those that are successful learn how to maximize sales and generate leads on the channels most appropriate for them.

 

Is LinkedIn a Digital Marketing Tool you should use for your Business – we say Yes!

Is LinkedIn a Digital Marketing Tool you should use for your Business – we say Yes!Marketing to different industries and professionals might mean tapping into LinkedIn. With a user base of more than 500 million users, building a LinkedIn blog and using LinkedIn as a social media marketing tool has its advantages.

 

As a brand, if you’re going to use LinkedIn to communicate with an audience, it all starts with optimizing one’s profile. Be sure to complete every field, as appropriate, of your profile and to include professional photos. Particularly as it applies to a professional photo, studies have shown that content with a headshot or headshot-similar image generates 7 times more views on average.

 

IKEA is Increasing its Investment in Digital Marketing and why you should too

IKEA is Increasing its Investment in Digital Marketing and why you should tooIKEA made some big news earlier this month when it announced it was changing its approach to marketing. IKEA is looking to do more in the digital marketing arena and to invest in more experiential marketing, reducing the investment in print catalogs.

 

Whether your company is brand new or has been around for twenty-five years, digital marketing is a space that every brand is focusing on. It’s one of the most effective marketing channels with higher returns than traditional, offline methods. Combine the digital with the experiential, and that’s a combination that is going to lead a lot of people to success in the present and future.

 

How much does SEO Cost, what is White Hat v. Black Hat, and other Common Questions

How much does SEO Cost, what is White Hat v. Black Hat, and other Common Questions SEO is getting started on a journey that goes beyond simply writing blog after blog, re-coding a website, or embedding certain strategies on a web page. SEO comes with many questions and as a bit of an introduction to the subject, we hope to address some of them here.

 

What is SEO

 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is about designing and marketing a website with the focus of getting its pages ranked on search engines like Google, Bing, and others. When a site’s pages rank high on Google, it usually equates to more visitors. Whenever someone searches for a keyword related to the information on your site, they will see your brand, click it, and with that comes the opportunity to inform, sell, promote, and share what you have to offer.

 

Boost Conversions by Knowing the Key Differences between a Home Page and a Landing Page

 Boost Conversions by Knowing the Key Differences between a Home Page and a Landing PageAnalyzing page views for any website with healthy flows of traffic will reveal that some visitors will arrive to your page beginning at your home page while others will find you through a landing page. There are some differences to both that are worth noting for web designers, digital marketers, and small business owners. By knowing how to maximize the potential of these differences, you help to boost conversions, get a higher return, and produce a better result.

 

Every digital marketing campaign should come with a landing page. This page’s only goal is to convert a user from ‘visitor’ to ‘customer’. A landing page does this by incorporating actionable buttons and keeping the focus on conversion. A landing page lives and dies by its conversion rate. Images, text, and structure is all based around this. Think a captivating headline, a high resolution image, a list of advantages or benefits to your offer, and a highlighted call to action. This is the basic anatomy of a landing page. When done correctly, you should see that needle move.

 

SEO is not about low quality, Keyword Blogs; it’s about High Quality Content!

SEO is not about low quality, Keyword Blogs; it’s about High Quality Content! The #1 factor that determines the success of an SEO marketing campaign is content. With this in mind, the days of low-rent, keyword-rich content are long gone. To be successful within the SEO game, a site’s content marketing strategy needs to be focused on quality above all else.

 

Search engines have changed algorithms a lot in the past decade and they will continue to for the foreseeable future. Content quality is one of the only factors that has remained consistent throughout all of these changes.

 

See Little Known Google Tools to help Grow you Business’ Website

See Little Known Google Tools to help Grow you Business’ WebsiteGoogle has done great at providing to web designers an arsenal of business-friendly digital marketing tools. Though Google Analytics is highly recommended, it’s also one of the obvious ones. If you want to go beyond Google Analytics and see what else Google has to offer, consider any of the following tools to help craft the perfect digital marketing strategy for your website.

Google Correlate

Correlate tracks search trends over an extended period of time. See how keywords interact with one another during certain events, track keywords over time, and/or identify keyword opportunities during certain times of year. Correlate also allows a user to build charts and graphs related to keyword trends which is quite useful for those needing to make a digital marketing presentation to stakeholders.

In Email Marketing, there’s a Real Opportunity for AI to Optimize Performance

In Email Marketing, there’s a Real Opportunity for AI to Optimize Performance Artificial intelligence (AI) has a lot of potential in application across various digital marketing channels. When it comes to email marketing, AI has the potential to release more relevant content, to target one’s email offers better, to trigger optimized email releases. There are already different applications that can take over these components of email marketing. For entrepreneurs, small business website owners, and email marketing enthusiasts, getting in on AI early may help in achieve more success.

How SEO contributes to the advertising of eCommerce Sales, Discounts, and Promotions

How SEO contributes to the advertising of eCommerce Sales, Discounts, and PromotionsSEO strategies pumped up in time for eCommerce sales days can generate big ROI. The most successful of these campaigns are known to increase revenues before and after sales events as well.

For some, more than 50 percent of a company’s annual revenues can be generated from specific sales days and events throughout the year. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two shining examples of sales days that generate millions of dollars for key brands.

Do you Need to use Video Marketing when reaching out to Baby Boomers – we say Yes!

Do you Need to use Video Marketing when reaching out to Baby Boomers – we say Yes! Today’s social media crowd is a more diverse bunch age-wise than ever. If you don’t think baby boomers are heavily involved in social media platforms like Facebook, you’re wrong. Despite the fact that so much of the advertising and marketing on video sites like YouTube target younger people, the older crowd is there with money to spend and time on their hands. For brands targeting older audiences, using video marketing is a recommended move in 2018.