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Successful Marketing

Successful Marketing is a Mindset, Not a Formula

Successful Marketing

tablet next to laptop

I am sure you have all heard the term “bean counter” or the phrase “it looked good on paper”. They aren’t just funny comparisons; both have a lot of meaning and truth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a numbers person at heart. Heck, I even have an Accounting degree, so I guess, technically, I’m a bean counter. I love a good Excel spreadsheet because they can tell a great story about a business and how they are doing. Speaking of a spreadsheet, successful marketing is more than just a formula and analytical analysis. Yes, you need all of these tools to know how successful a campaign is, but it’s easy to get wrapped up in the numbers and forget that they actually represent a real human being. This is an especially easy mindset to fall into when you don’t have a brick and mortar store and sell almost exclusively online.

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Facebook Live

Facebook Live and Your Business

Facebook Live

Facebook Live is relatively new as it has only been around since 2015, but has recently become one of the best ways to engage with clients and a target audience. There are many ways to utilize this amazing marketing tool. You can encourage people to get involved in the community and come together, show them how to do something, offer clients a questions and answers session, give the audience a unique perspective behind the scenes and create an engaging series.

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AI Marketing

Artificial Intelligence and Marketing

AI Marketing

When you hear artificial intelligence marketing, you may think that is something for large companies with big budgets or some kind of term used in the movies, but it’s really something every business owner can utilize. Think about your daily life, we benefit from artificial intelligence every day—Amazon and Netflix use artificial intelligence to recommend products or television shows based on what we search or watch.

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What's Your Story?

Social Media Stories

What's Your Story?

instagram stories screenshot

Who is guilty of being sucked into someone’s story on social media? I’ll admit it…me! It never fails I’m just going to take a quick scroll through Facebook or Instagram and BAM the next thing I know; I’m engrossed in a story. There is something about quick little snippets that can hypnotize us, particularly for me, if it is someone or a business that is continually offering tips and advice on something I am interested in.

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Voice Search Optimization

Voice Search Optimization

Voice Search Optimization

woman looking at phone

“Hey, Siri! Find nearby gas stations.” How many of you have asked Siri a similar question when you’re out and about? I bet a lot of you depend on Alexa and Google Home devices to help you accomplish many of your daily tasks from setting alarms to reminding you to pick up flowers at a nearby florist. Voice search is growing at a rapid pace and gaining ground on traditional search applications. According to a business study conducted by Bright Local in 2018, 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the prior 12 months and 46% of voice search users look for a local business on a daily basis. Did you hear that…local and daily! That’s you!

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Micro-Moments

Creating Micro-Moments

Micro-Moments

Back in 2015, Think with Google published an article about how micro-moments are changing consumer behavior forever. Maybe you have heard the term, maybe not, but I’m certain you’ve participated in a micro-moment or two or million. Google defines micro-moments as “moments when we turn to a device—often a smartphone—to take action on whatever we need or want right now.” In marketing terms, they are moments that allow you to target a consumer seeking quick, practically instantaneous, answers or solutions to their problems. Think of your business as being there in your consumer’s time of need. This can be a fantastic opportunity, if you are ready, willing and waiting.

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Website Issues

Using Google Analytics to Ferret Out Website Issues

Website Issues

Google Analytics is one of the most insightful ways to see how people are using your site, but it is perhaps one of the most underused. This powerful tool not only allows you to gain important information about how your customers are viewing your website, how long they are staying on pages, how they are getting there, but it is incredibly useful for identifying problems that your users are encountering while they are using your site. Not identifying and correcting these problems leads to lost revenues. Some very important problems that Google Analytics can help you identify are site speed, sudden traffic drops and look for 404-page sessions. Let us take a quick look at them in detail:

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Bad Review

How to Handle a Bad Review

Bad Review

 

You have worked hard for your business’s reputation, but lo and behold, you received a bad online review. It happens. In fact, it happens to the best of businesses. You will never make everyone happy no matter what you do. My grandma used to say, “If you gave some people a bag full of money, they would complain about the bag it came in.” It is hard to accept as a business owner that we couldn’t make a customer happy, but sometimes it just isn’t going to happen. Have you ever had the general rule of thumb that if a customer is happy with your business they will tell one to three people, but if they are not they will tell 10? These days that 10 turns into 10,000 in about one minute flat. Reviews are a powerful tool for consumers. I use them often to determine if I am going to purchase a product, stay at a certain hotel or do business in general with a company. I also read more than one, and I try to weigh the negative and the positive reviews to see if the one or two negatives are those people that wouldn’t be happy anyway. Unfortunately, many consumers see a bad review and take it at face value. In addition, reviews are a part of Google’s search algorithm and it pulls not just Google reviews, but also Facebook, Yelp, and others. Therefore, depending on how many reviews you have, one bad review could cause your ratings to plummet. That is why it is imperative to continually ask good customers to review you online. Think of it like this, you have four great reviews and get one bad, the one bad equals 20% of your reviews. Now, if you have 99 great reviews and get one bad review that is only equal to 1%.

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