Basic Digital Marketing

Almost seven years ago, Google introduce two-step authentication to Gmail accounts. Acclaimed at the time as being a necessary step towards increased email security, today’s statistics reveal something startling.

According to the most recent data, less than 10 percent of active Gmail accounts have adopted two-factor authentication. The same study, shared at the Usenix Enigma security conference in early 2018, revealed that it is estimated less than 12 percent of Gmail’s American users employ password managers to protect their accounts. From what can be gathered from these two bullet points is that perhaps email security is not as high a priority to users as the industry originally thought.

Prior to Google’s two-factor email authentication practice seven years ago, email security was notoriously exposed. In large part, guessing a password is all it took to get into an account and from there, seemingly endless damage could be done. Though Google has encouraged more of its users to select two-factor authentication, evidently most have rejected the idea. As it pertains to suggestions of making two-factor authentication mandatory, Google has made statements communicating uncertainty regarding how many users they may lose if additional security steps were put into play across all accounts.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to take precautions to ensuring any and all private date you put online is being protected to the utmost degree. If you have not enabled two-factor authentication on your Gmail account yet, please do so. The two-step process is very simple, requiring a user to put in a password and also, gain authorization on another device such as a smartphone. This way, if someone does get hold of your password, they won’t be able to get anywhere with it sans stealing your selected device as well. Though it is unfortunate having to be put through more than one security step, the increasing number of hacks on some of the world’s biggest corporations means it’s getting near a necessity.

Site pages each have elements designed to perform specific functions. The most effective page systems are those where elements seamlessly interact with one another while successfully directing a user to a call-to-action button. Intuitive navigation forms a large part of the foundation in creating a web page where the CTA button is appropriately highlighted.

Keep in mind, there are many components to a great website. However, one element that you can almost guarantee to find on all the best sites out there is a CTA button. ‘Call-to-actions’ do exactly that. They are designed to provoke an action from a user and are used to identify conversions, sometimes in the form of purchases, contact requests, or subscriptions. CTA buttons should be easily noticed and featured in a way where users feel compelled to click. In the past and present, it’s common to see CTA buttons with bold text with literal call-to-actions of ‘Buy now’, ‘Learn more’, or ‘Subscribe’.

If lead generation and conversion are a high priority – as they should be for any website – creating the ultimate call-to-action button is a necessity. A compelling, attention-seeking design is sometimes hard to come by. When done correctly though, it leads a user down the sales funnel, qualifying more of their interest at each step. By building a site without CTA buttons strategically placed throughout, users are more likely to scan, read some, and leave. That’s the last thing anyone wants.

There are many ways to design a call-to-action button. There are some designers who praise big, bold, and bright as a means of getting attention. An effective CTA button does not necessarily need to adhere to these rules however.

When small businesses and websites think of branding, they often refer to visual cues, such as logo development, typography and font, colour, and photography and graphic selections. In the digital marketing and website development space, many may think branding to include additional aspects of design such as header styles and the way elements on the page interact. The more that tech has developed though, the more we realize how branding goes beyond the visual.

For websites heading into the next decade, branding is also going to lean on aspects of accessibility, responsiveness, and visually invisible voice-enabled interfaces. As screens have already begun to disappear, consumers are gravitating towards voice-enabled interactions. This has challenged brands, particularly those in small business, to go beyond a graphic design.

To begin with, as it pertains to voice, branding choices exist in selecting the right tone of voice, speech cadence, and more. In the same way that brands today choose between logo styles and graphic colors, similar decisions will have to be made pertaining to voice. More importantly, the decisions made on voice will be required to line up and complement those made on visual channels.

In a sense, the personality of a brand is also going to count for a lot more in the years ahead. Think of how so many corporations are using chatbots and similar text-based AIs. The words chosen and the personalities provided have an influence over brand perception. Everything from the sense of humour, language, and emojis used are going to play a role in establishing a ‘brand personality’, which is something that every business should be thinking about.

Email marketing campaigns are an ideal opportunity to re-ignite the interest of subscribers and see more revenues. There are many aspects to building a high-performing email marketing campaign though. Here’s where we recommend starting.

3 answers to make or break your email marketing

Before getting started, determine what users are coming to your website for, what problems they are aiming to solve, and how you intend to capture these leads and convert them into revenue. If you don’t already have these answers, the information you want may be located in what keywords are driving traffic, product and/or service reviews, and what pages are the most viewed.

Lead magnets that don’t quit

Lead magnets might include a how-to guide, a webinar or free course, a free consultation, a free trial, or a demo. Lead magnets like these provide a high amount of value and give preview into what you can offer your audience. A good practice is to work backwards from the product or service you are advertising and ensure that the interest your lead magnet generates corresponds to it.

The idea of not using social media for some businesses, they would consider it a death blow. Think of all the interest you’d leave on the table by not tapping into the masses on social media. Despite the risk, some business owners choose to go without social media.

Most marketers won’t hesitate to advise a small business to never abandon their social media accounts. There is certainly a lot of merit in this recommendation. After all, there are literally billions of accounts out there and seemingly endless reach. Many small businesses, entrepreneurs, and products have built their entire revenues off of what they’ve done with social media. That said, there are still some times when business owners feel the need to walk away.

Naturally, if one does leave social media, their world is not going to come crashing down around them. Their client list is not going to abandon them, their business website is still up and running, and other components of their online marketing campaigns are likely to remain in full swing. Let us be clear in stating that it is fully possible for a small business to be run without the use of social media in their promotion strategy. There are several channels that one may tap into when it comes to online marketing. At times, social media may not be a path you wish to go down. If this is the case, we recommend holding onto one’s accounts and checking in with email updates or any other pressing concerns that may come from social channels such as Facebook. Beyond that, taking time away is not a bad thing.

Despite Facebook generating more than 8 billion video views every day, approximately 85 percent of these videos are consumed without ever turning on the sound. For those with a keen interest in Facebook marketing, this may be somewhat difficult news to handle. I mean, imagine all that time poured in to crafting the perfect Facebook video and then, come to find out, users aren’t even listening to the content. This just highlights the importance of building content unique to Facebook’s platform and/or adaptable across multiple social media channels. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Creating the perfect Facebook Video

In developing a user-friendly platform, Facebook has implemented its own way of delivering video content and evidently, volume does not always play a functional part. Thereby, to create effective Facebook video, one must expect the user not to turn up the volume. This is why when a user examines their newsfeed, they see videos with text captions narrating what’s on screen. This is not to say ignore the audio component of a video but rather, provide the option for someone to consume video content sans listening. By presenting the information in an easy to digest format specifically tailored to Facebook, you increase the likelihood of consumption.

To be a successful blogger, it takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and luck. Before you quit your day job and decide to become a blogger, there are 12 key differences we would like to point out between blogs that succeed and those that fail. By knowing these, you just might be able to become a successful blogger yourself!

A blog is a business

The bloggers who succeed in turning their blog into part-time or full-time income are those who treat it like a business. Identify what you want from your blog, and invest the time and financial investment in growing it. The most successful bloggers in the world took it seriously from the get-go and were willing to make the necessary investments to get them to the next level.

Listen to the audience

Identify the target market and go after it relentlessly. Provide the target audience with the content they want, products they need, and services in line with their interests. At every opportunity, read their comments and deliver on expectation.

Running an online business and website is time-consuming work. Though priorities add up fast, forgetting about social media reach is not an option. Thankfully, there are many ways to automate social media engagement, ensuring posts are turned out regularly on selected platforms. By automating aspects of one’s social media campaigns, this helps to keep things moving through the busier times of year while simultaneously ensuring your attentions are properly allocated. 

Take a look through your last few weeks of social media use. Analyze how much engagement posts have inspired and how you’ve juggled the different components of managing one’s social media. While, yes, we do support automating some tasks, there are other aspects of social media brand management that can be done by you. Fortunately, putting in the extra effort can win big points from followers and help keep the community engaged.

Responding to comments creates a dialogue

For any person who takes the time to leave a comment on your page, whether it’s positive or negative, that’s a big deal. By engaging with them and addressing their insights can be a fun way to reward their engagement. It also builds brand loyalty and helps provide a genuine human connection to those who have taken the time to like, subscribe, and/or become a fan.

Have you ever been restricted to only giving one of your social media links in a URL field – if so, check out this newly launched app. Before Linkkle, you had to choose whether you wanted to give your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Now, you don’t have to. Linkkle acts as your own unique page of social media links, providing the opportunity to submit a link to visit all of your social media accounts alongside some basic profile info. 

At times when you are searching for work and you want to give over some social media info, listing all of your accounts may not be most appropriate. Let’s face it. We all have our preferences as to what platform and interface we prefer best. By employing Linkkle in these situations, a user can refer their would-be employer or contractor to all of their social media links, networking them to where they need to be.

Let’s say you’re a budding influencer who is growing their audience across multiple platforms. No biography is going to let you share a bunch of links and even if they did, it might not be the best idea to provide a ton of links shortened up in the same place. Linkkle has a unique interface that makes it a little easier to navigate to different profiles and it gets all your information in one place. There’s no need to fatigue yourself with endless promotion for each social media channel when all you have to do is give over your Linkkle account. A user can browse for themselves.

There is unlimited commercial marketing potential in the use of drone software and technology. In marketing, where only the most creative and efficient campaigns survive, drones attract attention and, for many consumers, are seen as responsible for some truly mesmerizing visual displays. 

Needless to say, drones are everywhere today, such as weddings, environmental clean-ups, vacations, and light shows. They’ve made a huge impact on how to successfully market a product, service, and/or company. Marketers seeking cost-effective ways to promote a business have turned to drones to capture video footage that one would otherwise have to spend thousands of dollars to obtain. Even if, as a small business owner or marketer, you don’t have an interest in operating a drone yourself, there are more local companies arriving every day providing services in drone filming.

Lowering cart abandonment rates and successfully increasing profits in the ecommerce space involves utilizing numerous strategies to do so. Fast shipping, low shipping rates, and good packaging are all enticing but there’s more to it than just these bullet points. If you’ve been having trouble reaching your full ecommerce sales potential, look at the mistakes that other businesses have made and save yourself the hassle. 

Providing multiple shipping options for customers

Customers like to have choices. By not providing them shipping options, you run an increase in risk of cart abandonment. Customers with cost preferences or arrival time requirements should have the option. If cart abandonment is a big issue on your ecommerce platform, considering free shipping may be an ideal way to increase sales conversions.

Don’t ignore customer reviews

Customer reviews have the potential to permanently wreck the reputation of an online store. Customer reviews are where prospective customers get their info from. If there are complaints about delivery delays or damaged product, this amounts to a big problem that should be addressed immediately.

Drone tech has hit the mainstream in a big way, being featured on everything from personal YouTube videos, to Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show, to major Hollywood film marketing including recently for Wonder Woman. The advancements made in drone tech and its subsequent popularity among general consumers is hard to deny. Any marketer seeking to find ways to incorporate drone technology into their marketing plan, consider these four ways to do so. 

Capturing perspective from a drone camera

Drones are a cost-effective marketing tool, able to provide perspectives that would not otherwise be possible without big budgets. No longer does a marketer need a helicopter or a crane to capture exquisite aerial shots of a construction project, a real estate property, or event promotions. As long as you use a drone, a marketer has the opportunity to acquire high-definition video of their products and/or services that can then be shared online. The impressive video quality for most of these drone cameras make it an opportunity that many can’t pass up.

In-the-moment marketing pushes

Part of drone’s appeal is their ease of use. By reading the manufacturer’s instructions and browsing a few quick tutorials, anyone can get a drone up, flying and controlling it at will. For a small business, having a drone can mean an easy way to provide an in-the-moment marketing push that only requires a few minutes to get the drone camera up and the footage captured. Record and create content in real-time, and then send it out to followers. Fast, effective marketing has never been this easy.

We have several parents on our team at Unlimited Exposure and we understand the value in ensuring that our children are making smart decisions online. As sons and daughters continue to explore and learn about the internet, it’s important for the experience to be a positive one. To make the most out of one’s time on the internet, there are a number of things to keep in mind and to discuss with one’s child. 

Evidently, the biggest difference between the internet when we were growing up compared to the internet today is that children have it at their fingertips on a multitude of different devices. There’s the potential for influence, positive and negative. When online, children need to be encouraged to continue being as smart and kind as they are offline. A large part of learning about appropriate behaviour online has leaned on industry leaders to provide protection, encouragement, and assistance. Recently, Google launched its Be Internet Awesome initiative, encouraging digital safety and citizenship among all users of the internet.

Be Internet Awesome is divided into five key lessons that are designed to help kids navigate the internet safely and efficiently – ‘Be Internet Smart; share with care’, ‘Be Internet Alert; don’t fall for fake’, ‘Be Internet Strong; secure your secrets’, ‘Be Internet Kind; it’s cool to be kind’, and ‘Be Internet Brave; when in doubt, talk about it’.

This past Black Friday, the Chinese shoe company Kaiwei Ni launched a rather unusual Instagram marketing ad. The company created an advertising image with a fake strand of hair embedded into it so that every time a user viewed the ad, it would appear as if a strand of hair was on their screen. To get rid of the strand of hair, most people swiped the ad which, in turn, opened it. 

This strategy has received much criticism from marketers and simultaneously, props from many Instagram users. Admittedly, it is a bit clever. That said, it’s also a little low. Tricking someone into visiting your website is not recommended and here’s why. This type of strategy does not even remotely qualify the consumer. In this example, they ended of swiping to get rid of a strand of hair on their smartphones and ended up on a site with discounted shoes for sale. While it’s unclear how many sales were actually generated from this, we would guess not too many.

So is it smart to use these type of techniques to reach consumers and generate buzz – to put it succinctly, no it’s not. The buzz that a company assumes it will generate only ends up resulting in articles like these, using this Kaiwei Ni ad as a terrible example of growth hacking and marketing. As creative as this may be, it’s dishonest marketing. After the ad had been brought to Instagram’s attention, they removed it immediately and banned the official company account, ensuring that permission was revoked from allowing them to continue posting on the site.

If you’ve never hired a digital marketing agency before, there’s some basic questions that you will want answered before making any financial commitment. Digital marketing takes a lot of work and with so many different approaches out there, not every agency works the same. By deciding to outsource to an agency, ideally, you want to find the one that is best for your category of the marketplace and who are able to provide the right answers to your questions. 

How they approach digital marketing and what their process is

This is the first answer you want to get from a digital marketing agency. Find out how they work, see how they approach specific aspects of digital marketing (i.e. social media), and how they intend to generate leads. This is their opportunity to sell themselves on why they’re the right fit for your brand.

Knowing who on their team would be assigned to you

When it comes to digital marketing agencies, knowing that you’re working with a team of individuals with specialized skillsets can be very attractive. By knowing what specialists would be assigned to your case, you know where priorities will like. Get a sense of who will oversee what and inquire about their experience in the area where you hope to grow.

The rise of voice interfaces in business environments is happening as more companies are seeing the value in it. Devices such as the Amazon Echo and others have the potential to support executives sitting in on business meetings, to procure relevant data in real-time on demand, and to provide a direct connection with a multitude of different analytics. 

Interacting with a computer’s voice is something not all consumers are yet adjusted to but it is happening. As the minds of everyday consumers change, the business community does follow. Decades ago, one couldn’t imagine operating in a business setting without a mouse or keyboard to draw from. Now we do it every day as we gather data and communicate with our smartphones. Behaviours have changed and voice interfaces, in a decade’s time or likely less, are going see huge integration into our lives.

Amazon is introducing Alexa for Business which is a slightly modified voice interface designed to be used specifically in business environments. This cloud service uses voice to navigate its contents. This is among the first products Amazon has released in this category specifically targeting businesses and there may be more in the pipeline in the years to come. There are already companies who have independently integrated Amazon Echo into different tools.

Imagine the year is 2020. The ways in which marketing has evolved by this year are uniquely impressive. Key technologies that were just bubbling under the radar years earlier have come out in full force and consumer trends have overtaken the industry.

Between today and 2020, a lot is expected to happen in the marketing world. Though unexpected developments are sure to arise, we’re pretty confident in making at least a few predictions. For example, the upward trend of mobile is expected to continue. Today it makes up more than 50 percent of all web traffic and by 2020, that percentage may have soared to break the 60 percent threshold. Though there are other technology trends that will see their fair share of publicity leading into 2020, mobile is still expected to be the dominant trend. To a lesser degree, expect ongoing trends such as VR/AR, wearable tech, smart virtual assistants such as Google Home, and block chain technologies to all have grown in their corner of the marketplace. How much growth actually exists in these areas between now and then however is unclear.

Content marketers swear by documented strategies to help them work more efficiently and deliver effective campaign performances. By documenting your content marketing strategy, it puts stakeholders at ease and clearly defines where things need to be took next. Creating documented content marketing also addresses the challenges at play, and the solutions that will be required to overcome them. 

Defining KPIs

No documented content marketing strategy works without first defining the objectives and KPIs. To anyone you show your content marketing plan to, expect them to ask about objectives. Address the problems your campaign will solve, what success is to this project, and ensure that stakeholders agree on this point of view.

Addressing the Target Audience

Compile relevant information that defines your target audience, including keywords, demographic data, and consumer behaviours. Thoroughly examine and acquire the necessary insights to plan for how to appeal to the intended group. Every target audience has a uniqueness to it. By addressing the challenges and goals that face those you are trying to market to, you can better create content that provides them with value.

As voice-controlled home devices such as Amazon’s Alexa have been on the rise, content marketers have long predicted a dynamic shift in the industry. As customers and marketers have now been interjected into a new arena to connect in, users are almost begging for interactive, entertaining ways to connect with their favourite brands. 

There are some companies who have already adopted voice-enabled content marketing strategies to take advantage of tech like Alexa. It’s by their example that we highlight the future – and, actually the present – of content marketing, at least according to how smart home devices are guiding things.

Marketing School

Neil Patel and Eric Siu have teamed up for one of the first marketing strategies specifically targeting Alexa. Every day, the team releases to its subscriber base roughly ten minutes of marketing tips, tricks, and advice, almost like a personalized mini podcast of sorts. By having an established brand and speaking on subjects that their subscribers care about, this type of strategy which has been aptly named “daily briefing” is working!

There’s been mass interest in artificial intelligence (AI) with companies such as Google investing billions of dollars annually in developing different AI-related technologies. The rate of expansion for AI is unlike anything we’ve seen before with healthcare, education, and finance each putting forth big investments. Mobile app developers have taken notice of the ongoing developments in AI, beginning to incorporate them into app personalization. The result – significant improvements in user satisfaction and retention. 

Within a mobile context, there are few restrictions to how AI can be used. Currently, AI has taken the form of chatbots and context-aware sensors though there are endless uses for the growing body of tech. Some of the world’s biggest companies have been paying attention. It is estimated that more than 200 of the world’s largest companies will accommodate AI into enterprise mobile applications by the end of the year.

At the centre of the rise of AI in mobile applications are user preferences and consumer trends. Putting it simply, users want to have personalized experiences with their apps. The expectation is increasingly predictive mobile applications and in order to deliver a strong performance, artificial intelligence is almost a requirement. There are numerous applications who use AI to fulfill a range of requests including food orders, such as with Taco Bell’s TacoBot and Starbucks’ My Starbucks Barista. These are early examples of how applications are going ‘smart’ with AI in large part to thank. Smartphones are ideal devices to use for AI-infused apps as they provide location information and have the potential to access microphone or camera with consumer permission. The latest release of smartphones even have face recognition AI tech embedded into the devices. Through features like these, it becomes easier than ever before to create customized consumer experiences that are accurately contextualized to a consumer’s behaviour and preferences.

There’s a lot to be learned about how to manage a company’s professional reputation from some of the world’s biggest corporations. By learning how to combat challenges, those that overcome succeed towards the future while those that struggle with PR nightmares see major losses. For businesses of any size, it doesn’t hurt to take a read-through of these reputation management lessons that can make the world of difference in your credibility and competence.

#1 – Be Proactive, not Reactive

Managing a business online means staying ahead of any negative comments that could be affecting your company. Keep ahead on Google reviews, blogs, and review forums (including Facebook). Some of the world’s biggest companies have entire departments tasked with handling negative remarks online. Though you may not need a whole department to keep up, invest in techniques such as setting up a Google Alert, an account at Mention.com, and/or regularly checking review sites online.

#2 – Innovation makes a Company the Authority on a given subject

When you innovate, it puts you at the forefront. For example, Apple has dominated the conversation in several product categories throughout the past two decades because of their long-term commitment and financial investments to innovation. Take a look at your competitors and see where you can improve upon the gaps in their products or services. Browse online reviews for ideas. When you have a key piece of innovation developed and ready to execute, promote it.

It is unfortunately way too common in content marketing to settle into a single approach that may work well initially but, over time, may stifle growth. Always, content marketing should be evaluated to see where there are opportunities to potentially evolve the way content is being created and released. 

Quantity or Quality; there are Arguments for both

Among the most common questions clients have about content marketing is how often to release content. The answer begins with consistency. Whether content is being released once a week, monthly, or quarterly, the most successful content marketers adhere to a consistent schedule. Secondly, it is important not to saturate the content market so ideally a release schedule should have dates spread out appropriately. Thirdly, it is true that less is more – usually. Instead of writing and releasing fifty average-sounding blog articles, focus on five or ten unique and exceptional pieces that will attract views. To this point, finding niches that resonate with your audience can help in elevating the quality of pieces and in finding readers on social media.

Investing in inbound marketing efforts can lead to high costs that customers may not always understand. Where all that inbound marketing money is going is no trade secret. It’s usually based off of one of two models – cost plus or value-based. In terms of inbound marketing agency pricing standards, you likely fall under one of the two. In this article, we hope to outline a little bit about how each model uses its resources and to define what exactly it is that you are paying for. 

Cost-Plus Inbound Marketing

The cost-plus model is built off of overall costs including a mark-up which may range from thirty-five percent to 100 percent or more depending on the digital marketing agency you selected. The costs paid on a cost-plus model are going towards the oversight required to complete a project, in addition to overhead and the general costs of doing business.

No two agencies divide their costs the same, sometimes making it difficult for the consumer to choose the right one for their needs. For example, one agency may pay $20/hour for a service that another agency pays three or four times the same rate. Also, if one were to compare two agencies offering a $3,500 monthly fee, it does not necessarily mean you will be getting the same services from both. Thereby, cost-plus hinges on knowing what services you are being provided with and what costs make the most sense for your business.

It’s been well publicized how social media platforms are constantly evolving. In turn, social media marketing has been subject to major changes throughout the past year. In the year to come, as we look ahead to how to promote on social media, these social media marketing trends are set to re-define how we do business in 2018. 

#1 – The growing platform of Pinterest

Pinterest is somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to social media marketing. As Pinterest continues to make itself more advertiser-friendly, expect better keyword search to take hold this year. The platform has already committed to delivering better ad targeting. The rise of Pinterest’s video feature is also expected to continue to gain acceptance among users.

#2 – Choosing YouTube for Lead Generation

Ad costs are rising across the board. In an effort to generate leads for free, YouTube may be your best bet. Though largely untapped, YouTube provides the opportunity to reach consumers with attractive, informative videos that provide real-time value. Think of all the times we type in something to search on YouTube, whether it be instructional videos, news reports, music, video games, or whatever the case. YouTube is a hotbed of qualified leads that are there for the picking.

Digital marketing agencies sometimes come with a price tag that not every client is willing to accept. In an effort to save money, some go the route of hiring a digital marketing consultant instead. Though hiring a freelancer instead of an agency has its benefits, there are many reasons not to consider it. 

To begin with, hiring a freelance digital marketing consultant online does not guarantee you will find someone from Canada or the United States. In many cases, small businesses may find themselves challenged by international off-shore marketing consultants who lack quality and experience, unable to deliver the results you desire. In the short-term, they may be cheaper but no one wants their business to be represented by a consultant who does not understand your business or how to do the agreed-upon work.

The nature of freelance digital marketing also means that you’re investing a lot of time and money into one specific person. Your business will suffer if this one person ever unexpectedly gets sick, is in a car accident, or simply disappears. Sure, you can always hire another but then you have to re-educate a new consultant on your business. Why not to hire a digital marketing consultant boils down to the fact that the risks outweigh the costs. As a short-term fix, there’s not enough value in it to seriously consider anything less than some form of an agency.