Best 6 tools for SEO Purpose

In this series of blog posts, I’ve enjoyed shedding some light onto how we approach marketing at The Next Web through Web analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), social media and more. This piece focuses on what tools we use in the marketing team, why we use them and what kind of feedback they give us.

Almost daily I get pitches from companies that would like me to show me a tool they’re working on or a hot startup that has seen a break through in a relevant area of marketing. GREAT! Keep it coming, we embrace the need to innovate. We’re constantly trying to make our process more efficient and new tools can help us to do that.

But on the other side we’re also not scared at all to built a lot of tools ourselves when needed. One of the other things we believe in is open source and so we’re committed to providing access to the things we’ve built.

What are we looking for in a toolFor The Next Web, there are a few requirements we have when making a decision about the tools we might be able to use and the ones that we don’t want. What are they?

• API: We love data at The Next Web and so we make sure we can access it from other places to combine it with our own data sets. If your application is generating data that might be useful for traffic analysis or to our users, make sure there is an API that we can use to pull the data into our platform. It’s 2016 and data wants to be free!
• Speed/ Reliability: For the tools that require a JavaScript implementation, make sure that it’s as fast as possible. We don’t want to slow your servers down and we don’t want ours to be slowed up because your snippets are too slow to load. In addition, make sure you can handle a lot of traffic. We’ve worked with tools before that couldn’t handle the amount that is coming to The Next Web, even these days when you’re load balancing and running your applications in the cloud.
• Team collaboration: If your tool is providing us with new ways to work together, make sure we can add unlimited accounts and that we get to see the data. Most applications are unable to handle the number of accounts we need. We also like to make sure that certain users only have access to certain projects so we don’t bother them with seeing information meant for a colleague.
• Cheap ;-): no further explanation needed, I guess?

What tools do we use?A couple of months ago I started putting together an overview of the tools that we’re using and the subscriptions that we have in order to get some insight into the amount we spend on these kinds of tools. This revealed that we use a rather impressive 30-plus different services, which can be broken down into a number of categories, including:

• Web Analytics: 
  • Google Analytics (Premium): This is one of the most used tools in the marketing team for a reason. We’re very data-driven and like to make sure we’re tracking everything our users do (in a non-creepy way!). Google Analytics Premium provides us with all the reporting and data we need to make good decisions.
  • Parsely: This covers real-time analytics, the only thing that Google Analytics isn’t very good at.
• Social Media:
  • SocialFlow: Every article that we publish is automatically sent to SocialFlow, making it easier for the team to work out when to schedule their posts to ensure they get the most reach on social media.
  • Coschedule: For the occasional tweet we need to schedule.
  • Buffer: We use this to control our key social accounts to optimize the sharing of specific posts.
• Data: 
  • Google Tag Manager: Not sure if it belongs to this category but Google Tag Manager enables us to push all of our data into one place through our DataLayer and then use it with multiple tools at the same time.
  • Segment v.s. Keen.io: For Index.co, TNW’s big company data platform, we push a whole load of data from our back-end looking at what kind of actions our users perform. How do we save it? We push it through Segment to Keen.io.
• SEO:
  • Screaming Frog: Obviously. We wrote a blog post about why we love it so much.
  • SEMRush: You want more data on why certain keywords have so much volume and how you can work with this? SEMRush provides you with this data.
  • Majestic SEO: How fast are we growing, where do we get more links from and what are the opportunities for certain projects or articles? This tool can tell you.
  • Buzzstream: You want to keep track of your outreach + contacts. Best tool out there!
• Others:
  • MailChimp: We love email!
  • Dribbble: We love showing off the design work we’ve been doing.
  • SurveyGizmo: To get more insights in what our users would like us to work on and what they’re up to.
  • BananaSplash: Want to test great things on mobile? Go with them!

So what tools might we start using in the future?We’re always looking for better tools and better integrations with the tools we’re already using. Chances are we’ll actually start using fewer tools and focus more on the ones that can provide additional benefits.

5 Ways Social Media & SEO Work Together to Improve Site Ranking

Typically social media promotion and SEO promotion seem like polar opposites, with one focusing on newsworthy content and the other relying on long tail evergreen posts.

But really, Search Engine Optimization and social media promotion work together, and it’s important you understand how in order to get the most traffic to your website as possible.

Emphasis on social media

With so many social media platforms available, there are even more avenues open for you to attract more prospective clients online. In 2010 Facebook had 100 million users, in 2015 it reached 1 billion and now Instagram is at the 100 million mark. The audience is there, it’s just a matter of targeting them.

With social media platforms for just about everything, this means you have a lot of work to do. If you want your social media channels to support your SEO efforts, there are a few steps to take first.

1. Create content to share on social media.
2. Generate a following on social media.

How does social media help SEO?

You may assume that social media promotion and search engine optimization have nothing to do with each other when it comes to ranking your website. This cannot be farther from the truth. Social media will help your SEO activities by:

1. Building your following

When Google is determining domain authority, it considers the following that you have on social platforms. A following of 20,000 rather than 200 will help your site rank, considerably.

2. Earn shares and become popular

When you post viral content on your social networks you can become popular on search engines as well. That’s because when you post awesome content that builds your following you get attention from the search engines like Google and your content will rank well for associated search queries.

3. Optimize posts for search

Google and Twitter recently became partners, which there is a possibility that your tweets will show up in Google searches. Simply put, it does pay to optimize your twitter posts for search. Even if a tweet doesn’t show up on the results’ pages of Google when you optimize it using brand-relevant keywords, at least you should be able to cement your reputation as a thought leader on social in that particular area.

4. Principle of reciprocity

Engaging with other businesses online is really good for the health of your website. In the event that you are looking forward to optimizing your site for local searches, you can try to engage with other businesses that are similar to yours. One of the rules of social media is the old adage: do unto others as you would like them to do to you. Therefore, when you share the other businesses’ content and comment on their profiles then they should do the same for you. This helps to grow your audience. Even the search engines learn to associate you with those other brands that you engage with most frequently.

5. Let people know what you are up to

The best way for your website to rank is to be active. Share content on social media regularly and let people know what is happening on your website, including new blog posts or deals. And it is not enough to share the content just once. Depending on your posting schedule, you can share the link on social media several times – perhaps three times a day on Twitter and several times on Facebook. The more actively you produce content, and share it on social, the better your chances of ranking on search.

Final word

The relationship between SEO and social media is important, and a good and active social media account typically means an improvement in SEO rankings.

6 Skills That Make You a Successful Online Marketer

In today’s totally digital and instant-information world, businesses who do not have a successful online marketing strategy are going to be completely left behind. With Google processing 40,000 searches every second, which translates to 3.5 billion searches every day, or 1.2 trillion search every year, and conducting 70 percent all online searches, businesses need to be on board — and that’s why businesses from pharmacies and retail stores to scientific research and development companies need online marketers.
Many companies have already recognized the importance of online marketing in their overall promotional strategy. Companies that are making plans to follow suit will be looking for the following skills and abilities in the online marketer they’re looking to hire.

Web Design

Many companies will be looking for someone who knows how to design websites, install widgets, update content and layout, and make sure their website is mobile friendly, easy to navigate and professionally represents the company to the Internet world. With all the competition inherent to being on the Internet, you need to be able to help set the company that hires you ahead of everyone else. This can be done through using video marketing, graphics and other content, and making sure that their website does precisely what it and its customers need it to do.

Social Media Management (Twitter, Facebook, G+, Linkedin)

Social media management is hugely important. Not only is it the best way to get your new employer noticed on the “Innerwebs” for the positive, an effective online marketer must also be on the lookout for and even know how to stave off the effects of negative press from taking hold. An effective online marketer needs to be up on the strategies that will help his/her company make the most of the online opportunities. You will also need to know which social media platforms will work best for your company, and how to use the best parts of those platforms.

Data Analysis

One aspect of online management that can’t be neglected is data analysis. Companies need online marketers who know how to use data analysis (eg: Google Analytics, Woopra and others), to track who is visiting the site when, from where, and how they interact with the site. You need to be able to understand and follow click throughs from your social media efforts. Data analysis will not only help you keep tabs on how your company’s site and social media efforts are working, but also help you target other markets or demographics that you may not have seen before, or other marketing angles you may need to take advantage of.

Knowing How to Use Google AdWords

Online marketing can’t always be done for free. For some companies, knowing how to effectively use keyword strategies and pay-per-click opportunities can generate a revenue stream that is often underestimated to start. An effective online marketer will understand the value of Google AdWords and others, and how such things fit into his/her company’s website overall advertising strategy.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization isn’t just about using keywords and phrases a hundred times in a page. A successful online marketer knows how to effectively use keywords and phrases to attract search engine crawlers, but also new strategies such as relevant content, backlinking, videos and graphics, and mobile friendliness.
It’s not just about what you say anymore. Search engines are looking for so many things now to rank sites, it’s crucial that online marketers know these new trends and stay on top of them to give their company a decided online advantage over their competition.

Effective Content Marketing

Effective content marketing means not only understanding new search engine optimization strategies, but also how to write effective content for the website and blog. Keeping your company’s website current and active is part of an effective overall online marketing strategy. One of the challenges is balancing the need to satisfy the search engines and drawing people to your site, and satisfying clients with the right content and the right style of content once those potential clients reach your company’s site.
Online marketing is here to stay, with companies expected to spend more on such strategies than in past years. This is where a successful online marketer will be able to help generate revenue with the power of the Internet. With these six skills you will bring value to your company and have the satisfaction of seeing your hard work pay off with increased web traffic and increased sales.

How to Blog to Improve Your SEO

I’ve written several blogs about the importance of fresh, relevant content as part of your overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Integrating this content properly within your website is critical to maximizing your efforts. One of the absolute best ways to do this is through the use of a “Blog” or “Latest News” section on your site.
While this can be successful, it’s not enough to just add new posts. The content you integrate should be part of an overall strategy to optimize your search results in the desired interest segments. To get the most out of your SEO efforts, here are four things to pay attention to as you begin creating content.

1. Make Sure it’s Registering

In order for search engines to see and utilize the content you’re creating, they must be able to see it. Work with your web design company to make sure that the section created to host this information is structured so that the content is seen easily by the search engines. Your web designers will know how to do that.

2. Target Prospects Properly

Each of your posts should have an intended audience made up of potential prospects. You want to integrate words and phrases in the content that align with search terms those prospects would use. If you integrate the wrong keywords that cause you to come up in the wrong search results, you may drive up website traffic, but you won’t drive up sales.

3. Pay Attention to Details

As Google and other search engines begin to pay more attention to content, the quality of that content is becoming more important. It has been reported that things like spelling errors and bad grammar can actually hurt your search results. As a result, make sure you take the time to proof-read the content before you post it on your site.

4. Spread the Word

Once the content is created, targeted and proofed, it’s time to share it. The best way to do this is by posting it on multiple social media platforms. If you company has a Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn page, you should absolutely be sharing this content on those channels. In addition, begin to share these posts on secondary sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg and others. Take the time to post on these platforms and integrate the proper keywords on your posts. This will also create inbound links to those blog pages on your site, which will help build the authority of your website.
I hope this helps you understand not only the importance of creating new content for your site, but also gives you a better understanding of the importance of how your create and share it. Adding properly-created content consistently to your website is one of the best things you can be doing to improve your search rankings in a sustainable way for the future.

Local Marketing Services: Why Online Reviews Matter

Local marketing services can help small and medium businesses attract new customers and build loyalty with their current ones. For some businesses, online interaction is the last in a long list of pressing items.  For others, reviews are like heading to the dentist for a root canal: You’re filled with dread when you think of them. Whatever the reason, what you don’t know will kill you, so start with a quick, do-it-yourself audit.  First, ask yourself where you would search if you were looking for your product. Check the usual search engines, blogs, online review and industry-specific sites. Remember: Losing revenue, customers, or even your business is much worse than the pain of reading negative commentary. In this blog, we’ll talk about the importance of customer reviews and the impact they have on your online marketing efforts.

The first reason online reviews are so important is the effect they have on your brand. Customers today are quicker to read online reviews than they are to consult a friend or family member, so having a few positive reviews can play a big role in your sales.

The second reason online reviews matter is because they factor into your search engine optimization (SEO). Like prospective customers, Google also cares about what users think about your company.

“It is believed that Google largely takes into consideration reviews when getting ranked high. You should know that reviews serve as a direct platform for customers to get easy information on products and services. The reviews are for Google users who find your business on SERP. One of the best ways to get easy reviews is by adding a button on your webpage itself.”

Not many customers will go out of their way to say nice things about your business, so it helps to make things easy for them. By adding an option to leave a review on your website or in marketing emails, you’ll remove the biggest hurdle.

Whether online or offline, you will get customer feedback–and hopefully, you also want it, because you know it’s an opportunity to strengthen your business. Just keep in mind that when someone comes into your store to complain, there might be a handful of other customers present. But online, consumers have an endless platform for airing grievances and a steady stream of people who will draw their own conclusions.

Just one final note: it’s important that you never solicit reviews under any circumstances. If you start telling customers what to say on Yelp and other social media sites, you’ll eventually get hit with a penalty for suspicious behavior. This will negate any progress you might have made by receiving good reviews.

So engage early and often. You will help balance the scales in the eyes of potential customers, rectify situations, whether perceived or real, and keep your fingers on the pulse of customer satisfaction.

4 Super Easy Ways To Optimize Your Blog Posts For Search

As a blogger, you put a lot of energy into ensuring that your content is great and will keep people’s attention. But how much time do you spend making sure your posts are optimized for search engines?
You’ve probably heard a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO refers to the steps website owners (and bloggers) can take to increase the likelihood that their pages will be found via searches.
SEO is a very broad topic and there are countless “experts” out there who claim to know it all. Fully covering SEO would require several posts. Here, we’re going to cover a few things you can do for each blog post you write to help get discovered via search.
Key Terms
Back in the day, “keywords” were considered the backbone to ranking. Too often, people would merely stuff the keywords they wanted to be found for in the “Meta” section of their page.
Over time, Google changed their algorithm to focus less on what was behind the scenes of a page and more on what was on the page itself. Key terms are still important, but these days it’s all about how they are used on a blog post (or web page).

1. Title

Before you start writing any blog post, think of the key terms you’ll want that post to be found for in a search. Let’s say you were writing a blog post about the benefits of using a stand-up desk. The key term would be “stand-up desk.”
You’ll want to include your key term in your title. The rule of thumb is that it should be at the beginning of your title. Here are some examples of how to structure your title:

• Stand-up desks: The Benefits to your body and wallet
• Stand-up desks. Are they worth the money?
• Stand-up desks and the reason they’re so popular

2. The URL

Just as you did with the title, you’ll want to include your key term in the URL of your blog post. The best practice with a URL is to separate your words with a dash and not an underscore. You can also ignore any of the common words like “a,” “the,” “and” and so on.
Let’s say your title was, “Stand-up desks: The Benefits to your body and wallet.” Your URL should look something like this:
www.yourwebsite.com/blog/stand-up-desks-benefits-your-body-wallet

3. Image Names and Alt tags

When including images in your blog posts, be sure to name them something that is both descriptive and includes your key terms. If you’ve bought a stock photo of a man using a stand-up desk, don’t just leave the file name as stockphotoag109587.jpg. That doesn’t mean anything to Google’s crawlers.
Instead, rename the file something like, man-using-stand-up-desk.jpg. Again, use dashes between your words and use your key terms.
Whenever you use an image, be sure to update the “Alt” information. In WordPress, select the option to edit a picture after you’ve uploaded it. Then, look for the “Alternative Text” field and enter your descriptive text. This is another opportunity to use your key terms.
For the image of a man using a stand-up desk, your alt description could be, “A man using a stand-up desk at work.”

4. Body of your Post

Some people will argue that there is a set percentage you should strive for when including your key terms on a page. From what I’ve read, it seems to be more about using your key terms in a natural way. For example, you wouldn’t use the term “stand-up desks” in every single sentence. It wouldn’t read very well.
My advice would be to forget about trying to use it “x” number of times. Instead, think of including it in a way that benefits the sentence. Both your readers and search engines will appreciate it.
Tools
SEO can feel like a taunting topic to wrap your head around. Luckily, there is an abundance of tools to help you get up-to-speed.
Here are 3 you can start using right away to help evaluate your posts:

• Yoast SEO – This is a free plugin you can use on your website. You can enter your key terms in the required fields and as you write your post, the “Yoast” section on your page will rate your page based on whether you’ve used the key term in your title, URL, etc.
• SEO Site Checkup – Once your blog post is live, enter its full URL in the SEO Site Checkup tool. It will then scan your post and provide you with a score, as well as suggestions on things you can improve.
• SEOWorkers Analysis Tool – This is another post-publishing tool. I like it because it provides clear explanations about your site’s issues are so you can really build up your SEO knowledge.

How do you optimize your blog posts for search? Let us know below!

3 Digital Marketing Strategies Every B2B Company Should Adopt

Change is the only constant in the digital marketing landscape. To stay abreast, businesses have to pay complete and dedicated attention to the evolution and various developments that are happening in the digital marketing technology space. Especially for B2B companies, it is important to take note of the specific digital trends that could up the chances of business success.

Here are some strategies that can help you stay ahead of the curve:

1. Content Marketing

More than any other channel, content marketing is steadily gaining popularity among B2B companies. More than half of the B2B players feel that content marketing will emerge as the primary form of digital marketing within the next year and a half.

Content marketing has also gained significance in the area of lead generation, with over 90 percent of B2B companies devoting significant resources to track the success of content marketing initiatives and engagements in order to increase revenue. For these companies, a comprehensive set of content marketing tools usually include whitepapers, webinars, and blogging.

Blogging has rapidly emerged as the primary force that drives and enhances inbound marketing for many companies. On the contrary, whitepapers and webinars usually include a sign up process, which helps businesses grow their prospective database. These help in establishing a company’s credibility in the long run.

Significant investment and strategic planning can help ensure that a content marketing strategy is successful over a longer period of time.

2.Marketing Automation

The rise of marketing automation platforms has greatly simplified digital marketing for B2B companies, due to the fact that they can efficiently systematize repetitive tasks across channels like social media and email. Organizations have tried and tested resources like Marketo and Hubspot at their disposal to systematically organize their digital marketing undertakings. This digital marketing trend is most likely to deliver quick and measureable ROI.

In addition, these platforms are advantageous to marketers in several ways. Firstly, they allow companies to see the correlation between lead generation and digital investments; secondly, they come with trigger-based communication systems that facilitate regular contact with leads; and finally, sales personnel are alerted when a customer is interested in making a purchase.

Initially, these technologies were expensive with only big budget companies having access to them. However, over time, they have become affordable and scalable as well.

3.Search Engine Optimization

Amongst all the viable digital marketing strategies, search engine optimization (SEO) has retained its significance. A large number of B2B companies swear by its strategic importance.

However, SEO techniques have undergone significant changes over time and even though they feature heavily in any online marketing mix, they are usually used in consonance with other marketing activities such as content management.

Like content management, SEO has come to play an important part in inbound marketing, with key words being used to target potential leads and draw them in, rather than just defining Meta tags on a website. As a result, back linking and link building have also gained importance.

In conclusion, marketing automation and content management have become important for companies to become successful in the digital marketing sphere. Further, with the rise of predictive analytics, which is a step in the direction of ‘artificial intelligence’, digital marketing is all set to evolve even more, transforming the entire landscape for the B2B players.

4 Reasons Why SEO May Be Key to Your CU’s Survival

Here’s a deep thought for ya: If your credit union exists on the fourth page of a Google search, does it really exist at all?

Well, sure, it technically exists, but does it exist in the minds of consumers and potential new members? Probably not.

The key to capturing your online audience is through a strong SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. According to Forbes magazine, SEO “remains one of the single-most important components of any organization’s branding efforts and online presence.” Still not convinced an SEO strategy is for your credit union? Well, let’s look at some important reasons why you should invest in SEO.

Grab more market share
It’s estimated that somewhere between 80-90% of customers go to the Internet prior to making most purchases. It won’t be long before everyone is searching for products, services and businesses online. Do you want these eager consumers to be able to find your CU, or not? Without an SEO strategy in place, people will have a difficult time finding you and will instead find your competitions.

One of the best ROI’s
SEO will reward your credit union’s bottom line at a higher rate than most traditional forms of offline advertising. SEO is an inbound marketing strategy, which allows you to market to people who are looking for the services your credit union provides. You won’t be interrupting their favorite TV show. You won’t take up unnecessary space on a page where they’re reading a news article. Your CU will simply show up when potential members are looking for businesses like yours. With SEO, half the battle is won before it even starts.

It provides credibility
In the minds of consumers, your search engine ranking is a vote of confidence. It may sound a little ridiculous, but if you think back to the golden age of the yellow pages, when you were searching for a business, were you more confident in calling the business on the sixth page of the listings or did you start from the first page and work your way through? Even though consumers may not admit it, a higher search ranking equates to more credibility, which often leads to a sale.

Your competitors are doing it
Jason Bayless, owner of BestSeoCompanies.com says, “Remember, SEO is a never-ending process. If you’re not moving forward and improving your position, you’re losing ground to a competitor who is. That’s a simple fact of how the process works.” If you want to stand out online, don’t allow your competitors to out-maneuver you by ignoring the importance of SEO.

Investing in an SEO strategy is becoming more important now than ever before. In this case, it’s OK to give in to the peer pressure. Everyone is already working on establishing an SEO strategy, and your credit union should be, too, so that it doesn’t end up on page four.

The fundamentals of search engine optimization technique

In recent years SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has gone through many turbulent changes. The implementation of social metrics is just one of many. It is pretty obvious that SEO ranking factors don’t stay stagnant and it can all be frustrating for the entrepreneur. If you are confused and frantic trying to keep up with the latest metrics, you will be happy to know the underlying fundamentals of SEO haven’t changed. The four cornerstone concepts haven’t only remained the same since the early days of the internet, they are more important now as search engines have gotten smarter. These are the four stable fundamentals of SEO.

Content is king. Google’s goal from the beginning has been to return the best possible content when someone conducts a search. As Google improves and refines how it does this, it will get better and smarter. Because of this trying to play the system is not a sustainable strategy. The extremely talented hackers, like Kevin Poulson, are rare. Most entrepreneurs are not able to play the search engines for any real length of time. For us average people, the best way to get ranked and stay near the top of search engine results is to provide quality content that people genuinely like and share. This creates organic backlinks, which Google loves.

Think long term. Entrepreneurs who aspire to get ranked in weeks rather than years inevitably use Black Hat techniques and inevitably get burned.
“In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, black hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search engines and not a human audience, and usually don’t obey search engines guidelines.” ~Source

You should be thinking in long term goals. These would mean six months to a year. The methods you use when you think long term are very different from the short term methods. Using long term SEO strategies will result in a solid foundation for your SEO. Short term SEO methods include keyword stuffing, invisible text, adding unrelated keywords to the page content and page swapping (changing the webpage entirely after it has been ranked by search engines). Lont term SEO methods include using keywords, keyword analysis, back linking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers.

Entrepreneurs can really get confused and sucked into the quicksand of on-page SEO. You will do well to remember the 80/20 rule. It is 20% of your work will give you 80% desired results. Entrepreneurs often get fixated on many of the little things on their website. What meta tags are best? Should you use bold or strong tags? How much effort do you need to put into your alt tags? The list goes on and on. If you are not techy it can seem overwhelming.

However, realistically, there are only a few on-page factors that have a significant impact with the search engines. The 20% consists of your keyword selection, your title tag, your H1 and H2 tags and your internal linking structures. When you understand the best practices for these four things and implement them, you will take care of 80% of your on-page SEO.

You need to have a scheduled link-building plan. Just like you stress with your content marketing program, you must be consistent with your link-building. Make a plan and stick to it religiously. It doesn’t have to take a huge amount of your time and can be integrated into other areas of your marketing plan. The goal is to keep your link-building program running at all times so it looks organic. This will lead to results quickly. Create a weekly action plan, use the plan even when you have other things going on. Learn more about creating a link-building plan here.

These are the four fundamentals of SEO. Follow these fundamentals and you stand a strong chance of winning the search engine contest in the long run.

Six marketing tips every business owner should know in 2016

As technology speeds up, it seems like the rest of the world speeds up with it. You have to stay on your toes in 2016 as a business owner, so it’s always good to read up on tips and tricks for the business world. Marketing, for example, has always been an incredibly useful tool for business owners. As the years progress, marketing becomes more necessary to help a business full thrive. Here are a few helpful marketing tips that every business owner should know going into 2016.

1. Everything is digital

Digital marketing is in — with no signs of going away any time soon. When you utilize digital marketing, you get access to social media marketing, email marketing, Internet marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and much more. It’s now considered routine and expected for just about any establishment to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account. By diving into the world of digital marketing, you open the gate for far more opportunities. What many businesses fail to take advantage of is each individual aspect of digital marketing. Instead of just making a Facebook page or a newsletter, optimize your business’ potential by incorporating all digital marketing themes possible.

2. Post a video or two

There are countless business videos and commercials that go viral just because it has something that everyone loves at that one moment in time. Take advantage of the video craze by utilizing video marketing. Go even further by incorporating SEO into video marketing using a closed captioning company. While many think that closed captioning is only useful for subtitles, it also boosts your search engine optimization by giving more frames on the video captions.

3. Embrace quality content

Content marketing can be cheap, easy, and more efficient than any other form of marketing. The era of ad block is already here, which is where content marketing comes in handy. By tailoring content to customers for your specific brand or business, you’re able to optimize the potential of them making a purchase through you. Instead of bombarding them with advertisements that hurt the eyes and make them stray from the page, it’s easier to provide them with an article they’re going to enjoy reading or something informational that will engage them. Providing useful, high-quality content is the best way to engage readers and get new customers.

4. Know the tiny tricks

There are fine details that you could be adding to your regular marketing routine to fully optimize the potential for your business. For example, if you’re already utilizing email marketing, a web-based digital assessment showed that adding a social sharing button to emails increased the click-through rate by 158%.

5. Stay ahead of the game

Social media marketing budgets are expected to double within the next five years. By staying prepared and ahead of the rest of business leaders in your area, you can take full advantage of that knowledge and increase your budget ahead of time accordingly. When you stay ahead of the rest of the pack, you’re the one who begins to set the standards for similar businesses.

6. Let customers come to you

While cold-calling and outbound marketing can seem like a great approach, it’s also generic and typical. You can take advantage of certain outbound marketing tactics and strategies, but statistics indicate that there are 54 per cent more leads with inbound marketing as opposed to outbound marketing. It’s as easy as switching to marketing tactics after helping someone with a different issue. Letting the customers come to you is the best way to optimize a business.
With any business, change is of course a necessity. Some aspects may stay the same, but marketing strategies will always fluctuate and change accordingly with what the customer wants and the way it’s delivered to them through technology. These marketing tips will allow you to stay informed going into 2016 about what can be expected and what changes need to be made.

5 Fast Ways To Step Up Your Marketing Game

In the cloud era, you need increased focus on new-customer acquisition. And that means stepping up your marketing game to build brand equity, raise awareness and drive leads.
Here are five marketing tips that can help:
1. Know your audience: The IT decision-maker role is evolving. According to Avanade’s Global Survey, 90 percent of companies have non-IT business units that are partially or wholly responsible for technology decisions. On top of that, non-IT departments now control 37 percent of technology spending. We expect budgets to shift even more in the coming years, so it’s important to tailor your message so that it resonates with those who hold the purchasing power. Don’t assume that your audience knows the problem that your solution is solving. If your marketing messaging focuses on speeds and feeds, your message will likely fall on deaf ears. Lead with the business problem, and then present a solution.

2. Have an up-to-date website: According to Kinesis, Web credibility research from Stanford revealed that 75 percent of users admit to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on that company’s website design. On top of that, it takes no more than 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion of your website, so looks definitely matter — especially when you’re in the technology industry. Invest the time, money and resources into giving your website that facelift; it will pay off in the long run. Furthermore, more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries, including the United States, according to Google’s own data. This means it's highly likely your website is being viewed from a mobile device, making it necessary to ensure that both your website and your marketing tactics are optimized for mobile to enhance the visitor’s experience.

3. Make sure your website can be found: A great-looking website gets you only so far. If you’re not receiving traffic to generate leads, then the effort you’ve put into building your website is wasted. According to imForza, nearly 93 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine, which is why search-engine optimization (SEO) is a critical marketing tactic. SEO is the process of increasing your website visibility in unpaid search results, a crucial move since 70 to 80 percent of users ignore paid search ads, focusing on organic results. SEO is a highly cost-effective way to drive high-quality traffic to your website. SEO-driven leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7 percent close rate.
Here are some basic tips that can help boost your SEO:

• Think local: Include your location in prominent areas of the site to improve localized search opportunities. Include your city name in the title tag, add individual pages for office locations and link to your Yelp page, as Google tailors search results based on geography.
• Optimize your “Title" and “Meta" tags: Title tags are used to describe the title of each webpage when it’s listed after a search, and meta tags are used to describe the page itself. Search engines search by these keywords and deliver search results based on them. Make sure the title tags and meta descriptions that are used on each page are unique, descriptive of the content and make use of your keywords. Most importantly, avoid using the same title tags for every page, and never leave the meta description empty.
• Make friendly URLs: URLs should describe relationships and be readable by humans. Use actual keywords in URLs vs. long strings of randomized letters and numbers.

4. Develop a referral program: Many VARs and MSPs acquire new customers via satisfied existing customers who refer business to them. This is an efficient and cost-effective way to grow almost any business. According to Implisit, B2B leads coming from referrals yield more than double the close rates compared with the next best lead source. In order to maximize your referral business, you need to put a formal program in place to encourage referral behavior from your existing customers.
Here are some important things to think about when it comes to B2B referral programs:

• Incentive options: Think about compelling incentives that reward the referring individual and company. When thinking about how much you can spend on the incentive, calculate your current customer-acquisition costs. If you’re a profitable business, then you can use your current customer-acquisition cost as the budget for your referral incentive.
• Make the process simple: Collect the minimal amount of information that you need in order to follow up on the referrer’s lead and to reward the referrer if the lead converts to a sale. The easier it is for your customers to submit a lead, the more leads you’ll get.
• Foster program awareness: Raise awareness among your customers and continue to reinforce that the program exists by encouraging your sales and support reps always to mention the program to customers who express high satisfaction with your solution. Additionally, put in place a way to cross-promote your referral program in your marketing email campaigns (via footer banners or text links, for example), as well other notifications, such as billing/invoicing, that have recipients in other functional departments. This will maximize your program awareness within each customer account.

5. Take advantage of vendor marketing tools and resources: This one may seem obvious, but it’s very important. Great vendors will do everything in their power to make their partners successful. Whether it’s a full library of marketing tools and resources to help you drive demand, hands-on sales assistance to help you seal the deal, or 24/7 technical support, your vendor should be committed to your success. As a channel partner, this aspect of the partnership should be critically important to your vendor-selection process. If your portfolio includes services from a variety of vendors, it’s unrealistic to think that you can become a marketing expert for each and every service — and you shouldn’t have to. Leverage your vendor’s marketing tools and resources to drive demand. If your vendors do not provide you with tools and resources, including a wide-range of sales collateral, product videos, marketing automation tools or self-paced training courses, then it may be time to re-think your partnership.

Make marketing your strength — not your liability. It’s important to be self-aware about your business’ strengths and weaknesses. Don’t wait until revenues slip to the point where you don’t have time to be proactive. Watch performance indicators closely and take course corrective action, where needed, as soon as you notice blips. In order to thrive as a channel partner in today’s world, investing in marketing is an absolute must.