Basic Digital Marketing

There are nine key pillars to a strong performing SEO marketing campaign that any brand should remember. SEO has wonderful ways of generating leads, improving search engine rankings, improving targeted traffic strategies, and ultimately, driving sales. If you’re interested in learning more about how to maximize search engines’ algorithms from an experienced digital marketing company, please allow us to share some of our insights.

Aligning your SEO needs to your company goals

Building a successful SEO strategy begins by setting the goals you want to achieve, your target audience, and your competitors. Getting a clear understanding of your brand in relation to these three points is a necessity.

Keyword research is crucial to success in digital marketing across search engines and social media. By narrowing down which keywords you wish to focus on in your content marketing, you can begin guiding the conversation about your business. How to do keyword research and to get the best set of keywords at any given time, it requires some heavy lifting. Determining what your audience wants, thinks, and feels is not always clear. The businesses that know their audience well though are sure to succeed in the digital marketing field.

From small businesses to the largest corporations, digital marketing investments continue to increase. According to recent reports, more than 99 percent of businesses in North America are planning to increase their digital marketing spending in 2019.

Why this is the case is for many reasons. Digital marketing touches upon all aspects of marketing in the online world, including email, social media, video, eCommerce, and more. Almost 41 percent of all businesses in North America with more than 100 employees invest more than $500,000 in digital marketing every year. Alongside these investments comes an opportunity to maximize one’s marketing dollar. Unlike offline marketing, in the digital space, there’s a lot of tools one can use to monitor whether a strategy is working or not. And, if/when it’s not, an experienced marketer knows what to do to change it or to get it working.

Evaluating the different digital marketing channels, brands are sometimes pointed toward email marketing or social media as a ‘golden egg’. Analyzing the returns generated across both channels, it can be tough to know which one is the better investment for your brand. Though social media pulls in strong numbers, email marketing maintains somewhat stronger short-term returns.

Why email marketing outperforms social media is simple. When you’re engaged in social media marketing, one is relying on algorithms to determine success. Be it through paid ads or organic strategies, one relies on the platform to deliver the results. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so many others take the same approach. Comparatively, email marketing is direct-to-consumer, initiating a conversation between your brand and the consumer with no middle man. All email marketing requires is for one to build their email list and then, learning how to capitalize on it at the right time to drive sales, generate revenues, and sign more people up.

For the best business results, online and offline marketing messaging should be consistent and integrative. Though online and offline are two very different worlds, to succeed locally and globally, small businesses need to create a seamless transition for prospective customers. No matter which collection of marketing you favor, both are integral to contemporary business success.

As a digital marketing company, we are evidently very much supporters of going after online markets rather than offline. After all, the digital space is where a lot of the audience growth is and it’s where consumers are at. If you want to build a brand successfully, online is absolutely where one needs to pay attention to.

So much of digital marketing is wrapped up in improving brand visibility online. To do this, sometimes social media is used. At other times, it might be SEO strategizing, email, eCommerce promotions, and/or other digital channels. For any business, managing one’s different online profiles can be the key to maximizing every opportunity to reach new customers. Consistent, accurate representation online is key to asserting authority and building a following.

Asking for digital marketing help can be hard. Believe us when we say it though, in the long-term, it’s well worth it. Sometimes, a website will reach the limits of its usefulness sans agency, unable to generate further results. An experienced digital marketing agency can help make new customers, generate referrals, and build powerful momentum to get your site visible to your target audience. If you’re thinking about hiring a digital marketing company, see if you fit any of these 3 comments.

If you are thinking about starting an SEO campaign, fortunately, this is where long-term returns may be highest. The thought of investing in digital marketing can be scary. After all, returns are not guaranteed. When it comes to SEO though, here are five ways it works.

A few years ago, Google switched aspects of its search engine optimization (SEO) algorithms to emphasize the importance of mobile responsiveness. Today, any website that is not mobile responsive takes a huge hit in their search engine rank. It’s almost a necessity for a site to be mobile-friendly, both from an SEO standpoint and from the perspective of the user experience. If a user visits your website from a smartphone and it’s not mobile responsive, it could show up broken, incomplete, difficult to read, or impossible to browse. Evidently, as the number of smartphone and mobile device users rise with every year, this is a huge problem.

For the sake of Google’s algorithm and the users that are coming to your site from a range of sources, use a mobile-friendly layout. When you have a mobile-responsive site, it means that it adapts according to screen size. This makes it easier to navigate, read, and understand. Be it on a mobile device or on a desktop format, this can help in keeping things pleasing to the eye. At the other end of the argument, sites not mobile responsive lose a lot and they will continue to struggle with capturing users’ attention in the years to come. As well-intentioned as your site may be, it’s unlike to be enjoyed on a mobile device if it’s not already mobile-responsive.

Social media videos are an important piece of the puzzle, pushing brands forward in 2018 and beyond. As video consumption has risen on social media platforms, it’s no secret that Internet users love video over text and images. In response, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have launched video-specific digital channels opening the door for brands to invest in video-first campaigns. The most successful social media videos make customers feel more deeply connected to one’s business. If you know how to successfully work a social media-based video marketing campaign, there’s no telling what you can do getting customers to your website.

There are 5 stages of the digital marketing sales funnel where video marketing can serve a purpose. The first stage of the funnel is in the initial introduction of a stranger who has never encountered your brand before to your website. Targeting this group, one may want to develop video content that communicates the general feeling and lifestyle of the brand. For this, short videos of two minutes or less are a great way to accomplish this. Then, the second stage is visitors who are beginning to check out your brand but who are not necessarily committed to making any purchase. At this stage, any marketing and/or targeting you do should be to convert them into qualified leads. For this set of social media videos, you may want to emphasize the advantages of shopping with your brand, highlighting specific sales of products or services, and to give visitors a reason to get interested!

Looking across the City of Toronto, we see restaurants move in and move out every year. What makes a restaurant successful over others is up for debate. Many would agree that digital marketing plays a huge role. Vital to success across different industries, digital marketing helps to make the most from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Considering how eighty-three percent of smartphone users rely on their smartphones to make decisions on where to eat, having control of the online reputation of a business has value. Consumers are constantly checking Google reviews, doing Google searches, and surveying social media. According to recent statistics, digital marketing is said to be responsible for nearly 1,000 million restaurant visits every year. Take advantage of digital marketing today for these reasons.

Creating compelling, high-performance email marketing messaging in financial services is important. A company never wants to intimidate or overwhelm their target audience with information and offers. The key is to move the focus away from the stresses of finance to the success and happiness associated with good financial health. Amazingly effective email marketing campaigns have been built from this standpoint. Every day, here are five email marketing strategies used in the financial services sector.

Content marketing has the potential to drive sales and marketing in some big ways. By knowing your audience, knowing what to write about, when to post, and how to promote, these are important pieces of the puzzle to providing something of value to your audience. Persuasive, contagious content is at the centre of any successful content marketing campaign. Here are five techniques that can be used to develop the perfect sequence of blogs and articles for your website.

So you’ve come up with a great business idea, tagged with a business plan, a marketing plan, and a targeted market. Let’s say, you’ve created an amazing line of products and services, and you’re ready to take it to the next level.

Deciding between whether to hire a digital marketing agency or to pursue your endeavors with an in-house digital marketing effort is not easy. Yes, for some small businesses, using one’s own experience and time to enact their marketing strategies can work. That said, this can oftentimes come with unnecessary mistakes being made, time wasted, and sometimes, money wasted on ineffective strategies. If you’re looking to break through to the next level, in many cases, hiring a digital marketing agency may be an inevitably.

In today’s business world, having a well-functioning website is a necessary component to a brand’s online-offline marketing approach. It’s crucial to assist in marketing to local demographics, developing new leads, and ultimately, bringing in above-average revenues.

Even on a limited budget, small businesses must find a way to create and maintain a website. Unfortunately, without it, exposure can be limited and brand visibility can be stigmatized, perceived as unprofessional.

Small business owners sometimes use templates and similar static designs for their sites. This is not recommended. The last thing you want to come across as is boring and design elements, color, imagery, video, and digital marketing matter. The following are 8 elements of a high quality small business website you want to have in place.

Despite being the second biggest, the Google-owned YouTube is an underrated search engine that many brands forget. Despite that, by optimizing your YouTube SEO strategies, you’ll ensure your video is seen by relevant queries and even under YouTube’s recommendations. Those “YouTube recommendations” referrals are important as they drive more than 70 percent of total daily watch time on the platform. If you don’t know where to start in building a YouTube SEO campaign, here’s a few guiding principles to take into account.

Google business listings, Yelp, local classifieds, and other websites are great ways to connect businesses to local areas. Let’s say, you are a digital marketing company in Toronto. When we build out a local digital marketing strategy for a website like this, we want to ensure we are targeting an audience in Toronto. Unlimited Exposure takes the same approach for any company we work with. Success in the local marketplace is most achievable when a local-first marketing approach is taken. Listing websites like Yelp play a huge role in connecting your brand with a location. Then, when someone Googles your brand, they’ll find street and city. Subsequently, if one puts in a localized query, it’s more likely your site’s name will pop up.

User-powered sites like Yelp can have a negative impact though. If you’re not monitoring your digital presence, the possibility of negative reviews could sink your brand very quickly. Yelp specifically has more than eighty million visitors every month. There’s a lot at stake. That said, for local businesses, you’re missing out if your business is not registered here. According to a study published by Harvard Business, every Yelp star on your listing has the potential to increase revenues for the average business by up to eight percent. Thereby, it’s important to ensure you’re registered on these listings with the correct information and link back to your website. Also, keep a monitor on your listings to ensure any negative reviews can be addressed and to get a gauge on what consumers are saying about your business in the local marketplace.

Improve your SEO today with these 7 tips to get your brand’s digital marketing search engine rankings higher than ever. See web traffic numbers increase off of sustainable organic growth covering the long-term. Though you can always go the PPC route, there’s arguably more customers in the pipeline by pursuing an organic traffic generating strategy.

Local search optimization has helped elevate countless small businesses to success across Canada. Especially for start-ups, entrepreneurs, and new companies, establishing momentum in the local market is important. Though some get lucky, it can be a lot of hard work. Thankfully, to find out how to optimize your marketing strategies to your region, you’ve come to the right place.

Analytics tools are key to measuring a variety of metrics on website visits, digital marketing strategies, and social media postings. By embedding Google Analytics and registering your site with Google Tools, there’s a lot of information you can gather together about who’s visiting your site, how they’re arriving at you’re site, what they’re looking at, and more.

Examining the world’s most popular sites, they all have analytics software of some kind included in. Even though a site may resemble successful, it does not necessarily mean that it is. To accurately manage a website, you need to know what’s going on with how consumers are interpreting it. There may be huge opportunities to develop its performance into something more. For any small business owner looking to do right by their website, implementing and regularly checking analytics software is key.

Apple’s new operating system is giving users more power and digital marketing agencies more opportunities to maximize their investment. As marketing professionals ourselves, we’re seeing Apple’s iOS 12 as providing new ways to connect with users.

September 17 is going to be a big day for Apple smartphone users. Among the biggest changes will be an update to the ‘notifications’ feature. Users will have more functionality in opting in or opting out of notifications, allowing them more control over managing their time online. Notifications will begin to be grouped by app rather than displayed chronologically. Users will also get to select how they want their notifications to be displayed, such as prominently or quietly. Digital marketers may consider offering trials of quiet notifications as a means to get Apple users to opt-in. Through unique, relevant, and compelling content, it may be possible for marketers to shift to something bigger.

Collecting client reviews is important to businesses selling online. Whether you are full-blown eCommerce brand, are selling only a few products or services online, or are a contractor building a brand reputation, reviews matter. If you find you’re not collecting very many product reviews, testimonials, or client ratings, here are a few ways to upgrade your digital marketing efforts.

Build a reviews/testimonials section

External reviews are intensely important to building one’s online reputation. That said, creating your own reviews section hosted direct on your website also helps a great deal. In all likelihood, more customers are going to see your website than they are to see your social media. Provide an area where customers can share their interaction with your brand. That way, when a lead comes your way that wants to see prior customer experiences, it’ll all be there for them to explore.

Content marketing is the act of using articles, blogs, and written content to bring traffic to your website. Curating, creating, and providing unique high quality content relevant to your target audience is key. Thankfully, there are several online resources that can be used to achieve content marketing objectives and assist with article creation. If you are unfamiliar with content marketing but are still looking for an edge up, these tools are a great place to start.

Digital marketing for business succeeds when it targets landing page conversions as its highest priority. After all, depending on how you’re measuring conversions, it’s this number that will determine whether a digital marketing strategy is success or failure.

The unfortunate truth is that few digital marketers look at and optimize a site’s landing pages. These are five guiding tips on how to build a landing page that converts and maximizes off-page marketing efforts.

The faster a website recognizes its SEO strategy is not working, the quicker a resolution can be found. Even if you’re with an experienced SEO digital marketing agency that you trust, it’s important to measure and acknowledge when a strategy is underperforming. There are no guarantees when it comes to SEO and sometimes, failure happens. Here are some ways to gauge if there are issues ongoing with the agreed-upon strategy.