Basic Digital Marketing

 Email marketing lists make for a valuable database that can help with many things. If you’re looking to launch a new product or service, generate momentum for your brand, promote an update, or announce a promotion, email marketing has a place.

An incredible asset, not many businesses make the most of their email lists. In fact, some brands aren’t even focused on building their email list. The belief that email is somehow dated or unfashionable is mistaken. Emails are used every day by consumers far and wide, on their computers, smartphones, tablets, and more. Emails are a great way to reach clientele.

Small businesses who can’t give their sales pitch in ten seconds or less are at a significant disadvantage. That’s because speed of presentation delivery is important. The same philosophy is applied on website design. If you don’t explain quickly what your site is about to a visitor, your risk losing them to a competitor. In addition to the physical presentation of elements, navigation is also very important.

If a visitor does not find it easy to browse your site, they will leave. Plain and simple. Even if you have the most amazing product, it doesn’t matter if your navigation is crap. To complicate things, there are customers visiting your site from desktop and mobile platforms alike. Thankfully, there’s a way to un-complicate this. A ‘mobile responsive’ website is one that adapts its look according to the screen dynamics, meaning no matter what size the screen is, your navigation can still be simple and easy. Therefore, a mobile responsive design is absolutely necessary to any site’s navigation.

You can instantly maximize your business website’s visibility with high quality backlinks from reputable sources. From small businesses to the largest corporations, they all make use of backlinks as a strategy to gain more attention on their brands. Be it a new website or an existing one, if you’re having trouble getting eyes on your product, a better backlinks profile might be what’s missing.

Link building is simple. If another website appreciates what is featured on your website, they may choose to add a link to your content in theirs. That immediately puts your website in front of a relevant, new audience. Though discussion to increase site visibility usually focus on things like social media marketing, digital marketing, PPC campaigns, and SEO, link building is an undervalued strategy that can work just as well and sometimes, better.

Mobile platforms are the most effective in digital marketing. Smartphones, tablets, and digital device traffic has taken over from desktops. If you are looking to appeal to the widest possible audience, if you haven’t already, it’s time to switch to a mobile-first digital marketing strategy.

As a digital marketing company, a common mistake we see in building a small business website is the writing of a single ‘Services’ page. As prominent and clearly marked as a ‘Services’ page can appear, and as amazing as the content may be, if it’s just one page, you might be making a huge fumble. If you’re finding your SEO efforts are not resulting in a strong performance and/or if your website’s conversion rate is not acceptable, mistakes like these that might be why.

Drive traffic, build brand awareness, and establish a highly profitable website with a long-term SEO-driven content marketing strategy. Content marketing applies to any media you create and release, be it written, image-based, infographics, or video.

Curating relevant content marketing is an effective strategy at attaining higher domain authority, better search engine rankings, and the possibility of increased lead conversion. Though content marketing is challenging, its high rewards are worth chasing. As a digital marketing company, here are 6 common questions about SEO and content marketing we hear frequently from our clients.

No website should deliver no results. Just having something online is not good enough. A website should be providing support and results across lead generation, sales, and revenues. If you feel as if your website is not working, know that this is not an uncommon worry. A lot of small business owners wonder how they can improve the results of their website. Note, why a local website is not working at delivering real business results can be attributed to any of several things.

Search engine optimization (SEO) environments are highly competitive and always changing. Shifting algorithms and the new challenges that come with it mean it’s important to keep an ear to the ground, to always be evolving, and to continue bettering your marketing.

Mastering SEO strategies is something we, as a premiere Toronto digital marketing company, know very well. It’s not always easy keeping ahead of the curve and modifying strategies in accordance with what the algorithms are saying at any given time. Experimenting with new strategies and noting which techniques are driving results is important. When we’re hired, we know we’re being hired to deliver results. If those results don’t come, that’s on us. As hard as it is, the science of SEO involves identifying what’s not working, making corrections, implementing successful strategies, and continuing to drive the ship towards long-term success.

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.