Month: December 2018

Categories
Content Marketing

Are E-Commerce Platforms Really Worth It?

E-commerce platforms are constantly evolving. What started as a method for listing products on HTML sites back in the ‘90s has now become a highly-technical industry full of some of the most advanced, automated tools in marketing.

It’s no secret that modern e-commerce platforms can make it a heck of a lot easier to market your products and services. You don’t need to be a web design expert (or even know much about marketing) to get in on the game anymore, if you use the right tools. But it isn’t advisable to jump in and take a shot with the first platform you find. Online retail takes a lot of work, and even if you’re using a great platform, you may find yourself faced with unique challenges and disadvantages.

To answer the question in the title of this article: yes, e-commerce platforms are really worth it. But there’s a catch – you need to choose the right platform to fit your goals. In today’s post, I’ll talk a bit about e-commerce as a whole, how these services work, and how you can make sure you find the right fit.

What Exactly is E-Commerce?

What the heck is e-commerce, anyway? Basically, it’s defined as the buying or selling of goods on the internet. That’s it; it’s really just that simple.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a physical product or service; your sale is qualified as e-commerce if there is an online financial transaction. Most e-commerce transactions are Business-to-Consumer (B2C). This is reflected by the fact that B2C makes up a significant chunk of the market. You’ll find some businesses that have storefronts and a web presence, and others which have opted for a digital presence alone.

There are other forms of e-commerce out there too. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is one of the fastest-growing market segments. It’s becoming more and more popular among people who shop on the go. It’s especially useful for businesses making money selling movie, sports, or concert tickets. F-commerce involves only marketing that takes place on Facebook, while Business-to-Business (B2B) involves direct business-to-business transactions. There is also Customer-to-Customer (C2C) transactions; this is when the general public sells among itself, similar to what you see in yard sale groups or on the Facebook Marketplace. All have an important role to play in the e-commerce industry as a whole.

Advantages of E-Commerce

E-commerce comes with several distinct advantages. Online sales allow business owners to reach regional, national, and even global audiences they wouldn’t be able to reach from a local brick-and-mortar store. E-commerce retailers had a revenue total of over $322 billion in 2016; that number is expected to soar to a staggering $4 trillion by 2020. That type of opportunity for reach (and growth) is nothing to sneeze at.

E-commerce startup costs are traditionally a lot lower than they are with storefronts. This can be beneficial for business owners in many ways. For example, lowering the need for upfront capital (rent, security deposits, signage, internal design, point-of-sale systems, etc.) leaves more opportunity for initial growth.

But that doesn’t mean e-commerce is free, either. The biggest starting costs come from the cost of running a platform itself. This includes finding an e-commerce host or having a website built from scratch (even customization comes at a small price). However, it’s still typically far less expensive as a startup to go e-commerce than brick and mortar.

Then, there’s the issue of where to store your goods. You may or may not need a place to stockpile your inventory, but that depends on what you are selling and whether you have product in hand. If you’re drop-shipping, you may not even need to consider storage space.

Working from an e-commerce platform unlocks new possibilities of customer communication as well as flexibility in marketing techniques. Customers who walk into a store rarely give away their email addresses, especially if they browse without buying. With an online store, you can utilize retargeting and remarketing practices, keeping your product in the spotlight even after a potential customer navigates away.

Disadvantages of E-Commerce

Of course, e-commerce isn’t all sunshine and roses. You are at the mercy of your website and hosting provider, so if your website crashes, you won’t make any sales. Long downtimes can be crippling for online businesses.

E-commerce is also incredibly competitive. What does this mean for you, the retailer? Essentially, you need to have a strong niche and/or a very strong search engine optimization team at the ready. Without those strategies, your site won’t rank, and your products may never sell.

Additionally, there are some items people can’t or won’t buy online. Some people refuse to buy clothing they can’t try on, while others won’t buy makeup they can’t sample or see. You need to have a very clear idea of how your target consumer thinks and shops to be profitable in e-commerce.

Platforms to Consider

You made it this far; now, you’re sure you want to go the e-commerce route. The good news is you’ll find an endless number of options out there. The bad news? Few are actually worth their salt and some may even be outright scams.

The most important initial consideration is hosting. Some e-commerce platforms offer free hosting on their own servers; others allow you to integrate platforms and tools on your own domain.

Three platforms stand out as the most “popular” across all platforms:

  • Shopify — This is a great platform for both physical and digital products. Shopify will even take care of the drop-shipping if you are partnering with another big brand, making it easier to get started without a warehouse.
  • Volusion — The dashboard here is simple and the step-by-step wizard is also helpful. It walks you through the set-up process, making it ideal for newcomers.
  • BigCommerce — This is another popular and affordable option. BigCommerce’s number one claim to fame is its clean, easy-to-use dashboard. It’s intuitive and straightforward, making this another great choice for newbies. 

Each of the platforms here come with a range of product options, storage capacities, and payment processing gateways. Most also provide tools for marketing, analyzing abandoned carts, and even creating newsletter integrations, but that doesn’t necessarily make them the “right” choice. It’s important to dig deep and get to know their nuances before you settle on what you think works best. Don’t be afraid to ask companies for a demo; most are more than happy to indulge.

SEO for E-Commerce

As an e-commerce beginner, you need to incorporate both paid strategies and organic SEO efforts to get your new site off the ground. Your goal is to rank as close to the number one result as possible, for as many of your site’s main keywords as you can.

According to Search Engine Watch, a 2011 Optify study showed that sites ranking number one for their chosen keywords saw a click-through rate (CTR) of approximately 36.4 percent. Sites in the #2 position saw a dramatic drop to a CTR of only 12 percent, while those in the #3 spot dropped as low as 9 percent. In short, you need to get yourself to that top spot.

But how? Approach e-commerce SEO as you would any other website — with careful planning and execution.

Try these strategies:

  • Conduct careful keyword research on your products. Which keywords match them best, and how can you diversify with semantics?
  • Do some competitor research. Who are your competitors, and what are they ranking for in terms of keywords? Use backlinks tools to figure out who’s linking to them and why – then, target those sites yourself.
  • Detect and correct website development and speed errors ASAP. This tip is critical because Google penalizes slow, buggy sites.
  • Make sure each page is properly optimized with the right keywords, internal links, meta data, and URL structures. Use internal and external linking to draw attention from bots where it makes sense.
  • Make sure your website is responsive, or mobile-friendly. This is no longer optional; it’s a must. As with slowness, Google actively penalizes sites that aren’t optimized, too.

It takes time for new e-commerce sites to rank and make money – and that’s usually because organic, lasting SEO results take time, too. This is what makes it so important to budget well for paid campaigns while you work to grow your organic reach. If you don’t see results within a week (or even a month), don’t panic. Give it some time, then monitor and tweak until you get it right. You can always reach out to me for consultation if you need more help, too.

Categories
Social Media

From Zero to Hero: Building a New Social Media Strategy

It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a brand new business or if it just never seemed like social media would be a great fit for your marketing strategy. It’s never too late to get started. More importantly, it’s a heck of a lot easier than you think to build a social strategy from the ground up. We’ll walk you through how to start fresh by setting some simple goals, making a plan, and moving forward one step at a time.

Develop SMART Goals

I’ve talked about SMART goals in the past – goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant,and Time-bound. Setting your goals with the SMART strategy ensures you’re getting results from your social strategy, whether that’s engagement or sales. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for adjustments within the SMART philosophy, either. Goals for each platform can be slightly different, as long as they all feed positively into your overall marketing plan.

Create Audience Avatars

Audience avatars (personas) are as important for social media as they are for any other aspect of marketing. Take some of the data you’ve already gathered and think about what it says about your potential social audience. What type of content is that audience most likely to comment on or otherwise engage with? Should you be focused on written blogs or shorter pieces of visual content?

Make sure you’re comparing your existing marketing data with available data for social platforms. For example, some gurus claim Facebook is great for the older generations, and that Millennials are shopping elsewhere, but the reality is that there are more Millennials on the platform than there are people in other generations. This is especially important information to have when you begin to develop paid ad strategies. Splitting creatives to target each of your customer personas is very effective.

Slow Your Roll

You don’t need to build a presence on every single social platform at the same time. You do want to be present on at least a few (eventually), but it’s smarter to start with the platform where your biggest target audience is already actively participating.

Take your time to set up your profiles, fill in all of the details, upload your branded logos and banners, and start creating quality, platform-specific content. Once you’re comfortable operating within your first platform, go ahead and add your second to the mix. Track, measure, and investigate what works as you go – don’t rush it.

About Those Profiles

Your social media profiles aren’t really about you (shocking, I know). They’re all about showing your audience what you can do for them – or how you can make their lives easier in some clear, distinct way. This means using clean and simple language that caters to your audience, as opposed to people who understand your niche. Be personable and relatable. Also, check back every couple of months or so to make sure your profiles are still relevant.

Another important aspect of your profile and account in general is the voice and tone you’ll be using. Instead of thinking about your customer personas, consider what your business persona would be if it were human. Would it have a personality? Would it be a friend, coach, or advisor? Would your customers trust your business?

Use all of this information to create a profile or persona. Then, re-ask these questions at regular intervals and update as your audience adjusts along the way.

Remember the 80/20 Rule

One big mistake businesses make when building a new social strategy is posting all promotional content, all the time. No one following your pages wants to see commercial after commercial; they’re already over-saturated with advertising every single time they hop online. You need to break through that wall by being useful, engaging, and better than the other guy. The type of content you create and distribute will have a huge impact on your overall success.

Design a Posting Strategy

How often will you post on your social platforms? Once per day, three times per week, or several times per day? What time of day is best for your audience to read what you post? While there are a lot of articles out there about the best day and time for posting, the truth is that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. You need to experiment to find out what will work best for your business and your audience.

Offer content your followers can use. Tips, tricks, memes, and even motivational quotes (especially if they are related to your industry) all do well on social media. Post one sales post for every four non-sales posts. Mix it up by sharing blog posts, video content, and photos. Those should be real photos showcasing your shop, staff, or special events. Show your fans the human side of your business.

Engagement is Critical

The point of social media is to be social, right? This means you will need to spend a little bit of time engaging with your followers. But hold on before you jump in feet-first; there is a fine line between managing your social platforms and allowing them to suck you in and eat up your time.

To make this work in a positive way, set aside 15-minute windows, a few times per day, to check for messages and comments that need replies or to scroll your Twitter feed looking for relevant content to comment on. Your social media audiences want to feel like you genuinely care about communicating with them.

Analyze Your Response

Nothing you do will matter if you’re not hitting targets for engagement, followers, leads, or any of your other SMART goals. Take a look at each platform’s insights and watch how they change over time. You should be able to get a bird’s eye view of what’s working and what’s not. Use what you find to keep testing and adjusting your strategies.

Did you get a consistently better response on a certain day of the week or a certain time of day? Maybe a particular content format, like a video or a photo, does better than all of your other content types. Create similar pieces of content and post them at the times of day that seemed to work best for you. This doesn’t mean you need to ditch all of your other content styles or posting times, but it should definitely tell you when and where your most valuable pieces should be published.

Keep your business content and strategy genuine. Social media users appreciate honest, authentic personalities and consistent, timely communication. The world of social media can be fast-paced (and sometimes a little cruel), but with consistent effort you can use your business’s presence to make an impact.

Categories
SEO

Local SEO vs. Enterprise SEO: What Are the Differences?

 

SEO is SEO, right? Well, not exactly…

Search engine optimization has been around for decades – it’s as old as the search engines themselves. But it hasn’t always been as highly specialized. This is especially true for businesses who use SEO to get noticed or to market products.

If you’re running a business, you’ve most likely heard the terms “local SEO” and “enterprise SEO” tossed around quite often. That’s because both stand to benefit your business in very similar ways, assuming you use each approach in the right way.

But “similar” does not mean identical; in fact, each of these approaches is unique in everything from overall goal and purpose all the way to implementation. To help you better understand these concepts, I’ll break them down into plain English below.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO (also known as local search) is a form of search optimization that specifically targets a unique geographical area. For example, if you optimized only for visitors from your city, that would be a form of local SEO.

This type of approach is popular among small business owners with a limited reach, extending only to their geographic location and surrounding zones. These businesses have a specialized service or product offered only to the local area, not to the rest of the country or the rest of the world.

Need a few examples? We’re talking local restaurants, mom and pop gift shops, small grocery stores or chains, landscaping services, plumbers, and doctors — anyone who is limited to a specific area.

Local SEO campaigns don’t necessarily need to be limited to a city or town. They can be expanded to almost any definable location. Campaign boundaries for local SEO can be defined by county, state, or even geographic region (e.g., the northwestern United States).

Larger national and international companies can (and do) use local SEO, but their approach is much different from that of a small business. Instead of focusing on one specific city or town, they use local optimization within larger campaigns that serve unique demographic groups limited to specific areas. This helps to improve targeting and prevents the corporation from wide-casting blanket messages to the global market (that might not work for every location).

What Is Enterprise SEO?

Enterprise SEO applies to larger brands — these are usually large corporations that have very well known brand names.

They’re visible. You know who they are. They’re so big, in fact, you almost never need to do a search for their products online.

Instead, you seek out the website, visit their social platforms, or head right to the correct aisle in your local store.

The problem with organizations like these is that at some point their marketing efforts will plateau. As their brands have gained momentum and built a steady traction, sales may ebb and flow. But new promotions just bring them back up to the same level over and over again. They can’t seem to get any higher.

Why?

They’re basically neglecting their online marketing efforts. They don’t rank well for their target keywords, sometimes even finding themselves outranked by very small, local competitors.

Somebody got lazy. Instead of capitalizing on previous momentum, the business opted to coast along and do “just okay” instead.

The good news is that in most of these cases, you can make a few simple changes to the website and content strategy and make significant gains.

Wait…What about Enterprise Local SEO?

Yes, this is a thing, too. Enterprise local SEO is for huge businesses with recognized brands that have locations spread across the country or globe (think Walmart, Kroger, or Trader Joe’s). These entities need to bridge the gap between serving local areas and serving the nation, and that’s not always an easy ask.

Enterprise local SEO experts often have to come up with hundreds or thousands of micro-campaigns to correct enterprise local SEO issues. At the same time, they may be battling data distribution issues, unruly franchise contacts, and how to scale all the listings and projects so that everyone benefits – all at the same time.

Whew!

How to Improve Local SEO

So now we’re back to the original question — SEO is SEO, right? Nope. You can’t apply the same tactics to both local and enterprise campaigns. Instead, you need to narrow it down and get a bit more specific. Here are some tips to get you started!

  • In local SEO, it is sometimes recommended that all the website URLs you put on your third-party business listings direct to your website’s home page. The homepage is often considered more important in terms of ranking, so sending all visitors to the same starting point isn’t unreasonable. They shouldn’t have a hard time clicking from there to the right landing page.
  • Make sure you claim all your local listings. If they don’t exist, create them. You should have control of any listing with your business name on it to ensure your business details are updated throughout the year. While they aren’t as heavily weighted as they once were, each listing counts as a citation when Google crawls for mentions of your website.
  • Double-check to make sure you have claimed your Google Places for Business listing (and not just an old Google+ page). A lot of businesses had Google+ pages before Google Business listings became popular. Google is phasing out the + program, so now is the right time to claim your true listing and finish the postcard verification.
  • Ask your customers for reviews — real reviews, never fake. Ask them to leave an honest review on whatever platform they are comfortable using. It’s okay if they aren’t all 5 stars; as long as the majority are positive, you’re in good shape. Make sure they know they should only write one review (not multiple), and it doesn’t have to be long. Also, don’t encourage them to cut/paste reviews all over the web.

How to Improve Enterprise SEO

Some of the same concepts that apply to local SEO also apply to enterprise SEO, but it’s not that simple or clear-cut. In some cases, you can use similar methods or strategies, but the execution needs to be completely different to work for the target audience.

  • The directory listings suggestion from above doesn’t apply well to major brands. People who find the listing for the location closest to their home don’t want to sort through a million listings to get the information they need. If you’re an enterprise brand, each directory should link directly to that location’s unique landing page.
  • Enterprise brand websites tend to have a ton of content. Backlinking to every single page isn’t necessary because the pages will naturally rank higher. Focus on getting a few pages to the front page of Google before moving on to the next set.
  • Make sure your website’s templates are up-to-date with the proper ALT tags, correct design code, and accurate data. This includes categories and subcategories that make it easy to find your dynamic content.
  • Incorporate your chosen keywords into your site’s navigation. For example, your cell phone provider might use several subcategories before you finally land on a specific product page, making for a long but successfully-optimized URL. Consider com/mobile/shop/device/galaxy-s8-plus-samsung as an example of a well-optimized URL. The company effectively incorporated terms like mobile, device, galaxy, s8, and samsung into one URL.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve both local and enterprise SEO – often at the same time and within the same campaign. The key is to remember they are completely different slices of a much larger pie. Efforts should be integrative, not singular, whenever possible.

If you’re struggling with either of these concepts, you aren’t alone. Even the experts sometimes struggle with finding the perfect balance. Partnering with someone who knows both concepts well is the best way to make progress.

Categories
SEO

Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Your SEO

Understanding SEO is one thing, but setting actual goals beyond “organic traffic” is another. They key is to make sure you are setting S.M.A.R.T. goals – goals that are realistic and purposeful. Making sure your goals are properly focused will ensure your company vision meshes well and is incorporated into your overall marketing strategy.

But hold on – how exactly do you do that? The answer to this question isn’t exactly straightforward. At least, not until you break it down like we did right here in this post.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

Let’s start with what S.M.A.R.T. goals actually are. S.M.A.R.T. is the acronym used to define the elements that make up each of your goals.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • S is for Specific. Vague goals will never get you anywhere. How many new email subscribers do you want to earn this month or year? How many app downloads do you want to see? What is your goal for the number of qualified leads you’d like to contact? How many actual sales do you want to make? Assign real numbers to your goals.
  • M is for Measurable. Goals don’t mean much if there is no way to measure your progression. Your website’s analytics should be able to show you a month-over-month and year-to-year comparison of whether you’ve hit your visitor goals. Your newsletter subscription numbers will clearly show you how many new subscribers you gain. Order histories detail whether or not you’ve sold enough of your target product. Goals like “visibility” aren’t measurable and don’t mean anything to your bottom line.
  • A is for Achievable. Having specific and measurable goals are great, but only if you are able to act upon them. For example, wanting to rank for one of the most competitive keywords in your niche may be specific and measurable, but it isn’t an actionable goal if you don’t have the budget necessary to compete for that term. Finding that your goal isn’t achievable isn’t a failure; it’s simply a sign you need to make adjustments.
  • R is for Realistic. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to have a million new email subscribers in the last quarter of the year – a pretty lofty goal for a three-month period. Can it be done? Maybe. Do you have the resources to get the job done? Probably not. Is it a realistic number compared to other quarters, or is it a number someone pulled from the air? Likely the latter unless you’re a celebrity, Apple, Google, or some other large-scale corporation. A 20 percent increase over the previous quarter’s new enrollments is much more attainable.
  • T is for Timely. Your goals need to be achievable within a specific amount of time. Wanting to rank on the first page for a certain keyword “someday” is not timely. Wanting to rank organically within six months is more realistic. It’s tough to set specific timelines for SEO, but having a starting point on your calendar will help you to make the adjustments necessary as you move along, whether that means altering the goal or extending the timeline.

Keeping S.M.A.R.T. SEO in Mind

You can apply S.M.A.R.T. principles to just about any area of your business. Using this formula to come up with SEO goals not only gives you a set of metrics to work with, but can also help you to better compare your organic SEO, paid digital marketing, and offline marketing goals to ensure they all remain aligned with your organization’s core values and overall strategy.

Think of it like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid rests the company’s general goals and desires for collecting leads or making new sales. The marketing team then creates a strategy for meeting those goals in the form of an email campaign, social media campaign, television commercials, radio spots, or straight-up ads. Marketing is responsible for creating the artistic vision that points everyone in the right direction.

SEO sits at the bottom of the pyramid, creating a solid foundation for everything else. It’s a support structure. Your SEO strategies create the foundation of your business’s website while also supporting your marketing team’s goals. The organic SEO work you do takes time, so it may not always be tied directly into short-term campaigns, but the way you choose the keywords you target will have an impact on the bottom line. For example, broader keyword targeting may get you initial visitors; narrow-targeting often shows gains in return traffic instead.

Measuring S.M.A.R.T. SEO Goals

So how do you actually measure your specific SEO goals? Your website’s rankings matter differently depending on your business type. A small local business might focus on local rankings alone, but a local business looking to start shipping product needs to expand from local rankings to include national keyword targets. A larger brand may even want to go global. Where are you starting and where do you want to end up in terms of your chosen keywords and their visibility?

Ranking and organic traffic often go hand in hand, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule and you should never assume it’s always the case. Ultimately, the true answer depends on whether or not you are ranking for popular keywords. Ranking for a great term that doesn’t receive as many searches will produce results – sort of.

The problem with low-competition terms is this: you’ll show up higher in the search engines for the term, but just won’t get as much traffic. Organic traffic is a measurable number and is impacted by the type of keyword you’re targeting for rank.

Link metrics are also measurable. It’s easy to run reports to find out how many root and deep links point back to your website. Keep track of this number and the ratio of strong authority links pointing at your content versus spam links that could be holding you back. We probably don’t need to tell you that you should aim for more strong links than weak links!

SERP statistics, search volume, branded keywords, and even referral traffic all make up the kaleidoscope of factors agencies consider in every SEO strategy. Take the time to stop and look up the funnel at your company’s overall goals. The more in tune you are with the big picture, the easier it will be for you to drill down into the specific components of your SEO strategy to create a strong and supportive strategy.

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