Tag Archive for: Digital Advertising

5 Key Elements for Local Digital Marketing Success

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Small businesses can face many growth challenges, such as limited resources, budget constraints, competition, staffing challenges, etc. It can be tough to figure out ways to set yourself apart from other businesses and achieving overall success. Executing a full range of local digital marketing techniques can be a game changer for many companies. Local digital marketing helps connect businesses where customers reside and interact. The opportunity to compete and provide outstanding customer service, are reachable through digital marketing strategies. 

We’re going to discuss the 5 key campaign elements that can deliver an effective local marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes. 

1. Manage All Online Listings 

Clean data and accurate listings are essential for overall digital marketing success. Every mention of your business on the internet is a ‘citation.’ You want to make sure all of this information is accurate. Otherwise you run the risk of not being able to be found easily. Even minor discrepancies you might not think of can have an impact on your results. You can prevent discrepancies by claiming every local listing and providing accurate information to search engines and online directories. Specifically Google, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps and Bing. 

You should include as much information in your listings as possible, such as product descriptions, services, hours of operation, deals, promotions, accepted payment types, photos, etc. Accurate and consistent data helps drive search engine rankings, making it that much easier for prospects to find your business. 

2. Local SEO 

Local SEO is fairly similar to listing management. Complete, accurate and consistent updates to listings are critical for high search engine rankings. Algorithms continue to drive more relevant results based on user location. Meaning it’s even more crucial to optimize local landing pages with location information. 

You can locally optimize your landing pages by:

  • Localizing title tags to include city and state names.
  • Optimize meta descriptions to include product categories. 
  • Implement localized schema markup for your business name, number and address.
  • Localize URL structures to include street names and product categories. 
  • Include hours, directions and local descriptions in on-page business content. 

3. Reputation Management

It stays true that people trust people. Ratings and reviews have a significant impact on potential buyers. On average, consumers read up to 10 reviews before fully trusting a business. The most effective way to increase your reviews is by simply asking your customers to write them. You can make this easy for them by including a button that offers one-click access to writing a review. It’s common to offer incentives or contests for those that leave reviews, but you have to be careful when doing so. Google and Yelp prohibit businesses from offering money, products or services for writing reviews. It’s important that the reviews are authentic, as consumers can be skeptical. Meaning when a negative review comes through, it should be managed but not deleted. Best practice includes replying to their comment and apologizing that they did not have a positive experience and ask them to contact you privately to resolve any further issues. This way other people see that you’re not ignoring them, but you don’t want to continue the conversation in public. 

4. Paid Search and Social 

In any digital marketing strategy, incorporating paid efforts is essential. This becomes even more important when it comes to local campaigns. Customize your messages based on the location of your ads to become personally relevant to those that will see them. Local search and social can be used to capitalize on regions where business is strongest or become a lever that can supplement marketing in underperforming regions to increase awareness and improve sales. For more tips on successfully taking your paid digital marketing strategy local, click here. 

5. Specialized Landing Pages

Along with customizing ads for certain locations, the landing pages they’re attached to should also be customized and optimized for mobile. Most often, consumers are on the go and looking for local solutions. Local landing pages should be simple yet comprehensive, including your business name, address, phone number, hours, products, services, etc. Effective landing pages have a responsive design with title tags and descriptive schema to send information to search engines. For further tips on creating a high converting landing page, click here. 

More from Onimod Global

Needing some assistance in any area of digital marketing?  Contact us! We are experts in all things digital marketing including SEM, Web Dev, Automation, Analytics, and much more. Learn more about what we do here, or keep up to date with all things digital marketing on our news page. 

7 Marketing Metrics to Focus on for the Rest of 2020

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Tracking key metrics is crucial for any successful marketing campaign. There are countless KPI’s you could be tracking, but not all are essential. While it does vary from campaign to campaign, we’ve narrowed it down to 7 critical metrics that must be tracked to get a solid understanding of your campaign, to better identify where you should be spending your ad dollar. 

1. Qualified Leads 

Generating leads is one of the first and most difficult steps of a marketing campaign, but getting qualified leads is even more important. Qualified leads are leads that you’ve seen some level of engagement from, and have a high chance of making a purchase decision. You can calculate the rate of your qualified leads by using this formula: (Qualified leads / Total leads) x 100 = Qualified lead rate. That will help you get a better understanding of the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. A few tips for gaining qualified leads include: 

  • Creating more personalized messages. Giving leads personal attention makes them feel more important and much more likely to continue down the sales funnel. 
  • Putting greater effort into finding them. Instead of cold-calling or sending out bulk email blasts, go through your lists to identify those that have a higher chance of converting. 

2. Customer Acquisition Costs 

Customer acquisition costs (CAC) looks at how much, on average, it takes to convert a lead into a customer. You can find it by calculating: Amount spent on lead generation / Number of new customers as a result of lead generation = Cost of customer acquisition. It’s a metric that can help you avoid wasting resources on programs and campaigns that aren’t delivering. It should not be relied on alone, though, as there are number caveats. A company’s CAC can be poor if they’re expanding into a new area, are in early stages of SEO work, the company is undergoing reorganization, etc. CAC should be viewed in comparison with the company’s overall strategy. 

3. Referrals 

Referrals are something that often get overlooked by companies, but this is an important metric, especially in digital marketing. There are a lot of ways to track referrals. Traditionally, they can be tracked using referral or coupon cards. However, they’re often run and tracked online. The most commonly used program involves a customer signing up online, then inviting their friends via a unique code/link. To track this an excel or spreadsheet is easiest to use. You can calculate your rate of referrals with: Total number of customers / Number of referrals = Referral rate.

4. Customer Lifetime Value 

Customer lifetime value refers to how much revenue the typical customer will bring into your business over the course of their lifetime. The simplest formula to measure CLV is the following: Customer revenue per year x Duration of the relationship in years – Total costs of acquiring and serving the customer = SLV. This shows how many customers you need to break even and make a profit. 

5. Time Spent on Site and Bounce Rate 

Time spent on site is a good indicator of whether or not people are interested in what you have to offer. If they’re spending a significant time on your site, as well as browsing to other pages, it’s likely they’ve found a good amount of value in your brand. Bounce rate is related to time spent on page, but refers to someone who made it to your homepage, but immediately leaves. If you have a high bounce rate, this is a big indication that either your home page is poorly designed or you are focusing your digital marketing on the wrong people and need a shift in strategy. Both of these metrics can be tracked with tools like Google Analytics or Clicky. 

6. ROI 

Return on investment is one of the most important metrics to track for a business overall. It allows you to identify which tactics are generating revenue and which are poorly performing. You can then adjust budgets and strategies as necessary. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t immediately quit a marketing strategy if it has a poor ROI right off the bat. You should take some time to think if there’s anything you can do to adjust to make it more successful. 

7. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate tracks the percentage of people that make it to your landing page and turn into a real customer. A low conversion rate is bad for obvious reasons; your landing page isn’t working and you’re not making a profit. It’s important to A/B test multiple landing pages, because you never know what people are going to like best. Sometimes it can just be a small tweak to turn a poor performing landing page into a high performing one. Try different colors, fonts, images, etc. Other things that may cause a low conversion rate is if your ask is too large. It’s best to start with something small, such as a subscription or sign up, then move those customers to bigger purchase asks. 

Final Thoughts

Like previously mentioned, all strategies and campaigns are different. But one thing all marketing programs have in common is their metrics need to be tracked and adjusted based on the data that’s found. If you need assistance in any area of digital marketing, our team at Onimod Global is here to help. We’re experts in SEM, SEO, analytics, social media marketing, and more. Learn more about what we do and contact us today. 

Social Media Marketing: Should Your Business be on TikTok?

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TikTok is the fastest growing social media network in the world right now, with the app having been downloaded over 1.5 billion times in the App Store and Google Play. If you’re not already there, you’re probably wondering, should my business be on TikTok? We’re going to help you answer that question. Let’s discuss the app, its audience, and what kind of business can benefit from adding TikTok to their social media marketing strategy. 

What is TikTok? 

For those unfamiliar, TikTok is an app that allows users to create and post videos within a news feed. Users are allowed to create clips 3-15 seconds long and compile clips into a video up to a minute in length. Users can add music or sounds to the videos that are available within the app. Most of the content is comedic or dance oriented, but the variety of content is growing. For example, we are starting to see videos featuring creators using or reviewing their favorite products. 

Who is on TikTok?

Just a few years ago, the majority of TikTok users were around the age of 13. Today, 60% of the app’s monthly active users in the U.S. are 16-24 year old. Another notable demographic is that 55.6% of users are male and 44.4% are female. This is an appreciable difference compared to other social platforms that show a female-favorable user base, such as Instagram with a 65%-35% sway. It’s also worth noting that 43% of users are in India. No one is certain why this is, but 40% of new downloads are based out of India. All in all, the largest number of users come out of the U.S, India, and Douyin, China. 

How Can Brands Use TikTok? 

There are four main ways brands can utilize TikTok:

  1. Directly: You can create your own channel and upload relevant videos through the channel.
  2. Influencers: Influencer marketing is growing in popularity on TikTok. Major brands like Google, Coca-Cola, Universal Pictures, and Sony have worked with popular users to raise brand awareness and extend reach of their recent promotions. 
  3. Paid Advertisements: There are three main types of paid ads brands have to choose from on TikTok as of now: 
    1. Launch Screen Ads: These appear when a user initially opens the app. Users can tap on the ad to get sent to an external webpage or participate in a hashtag challenge. 
    2. Video Ads: In-feed videos are also offered as a native way to advertise content on the app. You can pay to have your content promoted on the “For You” page.  
    3. Branded AR: Brands also have the ability to create branded lenses, filters, and stickers, which are similar to Snapchat. 
  4. Hashtag Challenge Plus: While this is still a paid feature, it is strictly e-commerce focused. Brands can sponsor a hashtag or a theme that creates a challenge for users to create videos participating in the challenge. Users can then browse products associated with the brand. 

Is it Right for Your Business? 

To answer this question, you need to ask yourself as a marketer or business owner a number of other questions. Will you be able to create original content that promotes your brand? Do you understand the style of content on TikTok? And most importantly, what is your target audience? If you’re looking to target Gen Z or Millennials, TikTok is a great way to gain mass exposure. Additionally, it’s a great way for brands that have a corporate tone to create a more youthful and fun feel for themselves. If your brand strictly targets an older demographic, it may not be worth the investment just yet, but it may be in the near future. 

More from Onimod Global 

At Onimod Global we are experts in social media marketing. We know which platforms are best for brands, and create visibility for brands where customers are searching, interacting, and ultimately converting. Find out more about what we do, or contact us today!

 

E-Commerce Marketing Strategy: Where to Start

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With the recent lift of the nation-wide shut down, the country is slowly opening up on a state by state basis, but the majority of businesses still remain physically closed. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the situation, you may be considering, or have already entered into the e-commerce space.

There is an increasing number of people online and numbers will most likely continue to grow as the year goes on. In light of this growing audience, many businesses are boosting digital ad spend and their online presence in general. Making the e-commerce space even more crowded than before. This can be intimidating for those just getting started, which is why Onimod Global is here with helpful tips for getting your e-commerce marketing strategy started. 

Step 1: Choose Your E-Commerce Software 

There are endless e-commerce platforms out there to choose from. When you’re comparing software, it can be hard to tell how seemingly minor differences in features can have a major impact on overall performance, but they can. When it comes down to it, what’s best for you will depend on a variety of factors, such as the industry you’re in, the size of your inventory, etc. We’re going to talk about the three most popular e-commerce software platforms and give pros and cons to each, but there are many online articles that discuss others and go into greater detail on each. 

BigCommerce: Ideal for larger retail brands. Also a good choice for those who have a brick and mortar store and are looking to expand operations. The interface is user-friendly and allows you to customize your shop without having to know code by using templates in design your store. 

Pros:

  • Excels with multi-channel selling
  • User-friendly 
  • Scalable 
  • Variety of quality themes 
  • Comprehensive abandoned cart feature 

Cons: 

  • Can get pricey 
  • No 1-click selling/up-sells 
  • Cart abandonment feature isn’t included in entry plan

Shopify: If you plan to drop ship, rely on Facebook Ads, or Instagram marketing, this may be the best choice. Two big downsides are weak SEO and rigid URL structure, meaning it’s not as user-friendly. You can change some sections of it, but not others. 

Pros:

  • Quick load time
  • Easy set up
  • Many certified partners 
  • 1-click selling 
  • Allow multiple channel and social selling 

Cons:

  • Poor SEO 
  • Unable to customize checkout process
  • Apps can get costly
  • A developer is needed for advanced features 

3dcart: Has many practical features, such as unlimited storage, no transaction fees, and advanced shipping solutions. The main downside is it’s not for beginners. Set up and customization takes a lot of time to understand and get used to. 

Pros:

  • A nice blog feature 
  • Supports any integrations you would need 
  • Good business user management tools (email, QuickBooks, inventory_

Cons:

  • Dated templates 
  • Lacks customer support 
  • Not beginner-friendly

Step 2: Optimize Your Site for Search and Mobile

Online shoppers are constantly bombarded with advertisements, promotions, product options, etc. This means when they do make it to a site, they’re not going to wait around for a slow performing site because they can easily go somewhere else.  46% of shoppers have said they’ll never return to a slow website. Going even further, Google reported that for every one second delay in page load time, conversions can fall up to 20%. While there can be many causes of a slow site, these are the most common: 

  1. Heavy Page Image: Optimizing images will allow the pages on your website to receive bytes faster, and this makes your page more efficient with a faster load time.
  2. Large Files: We highly recommend a JavaScript compression or a minimization tool to help decrease your download size.
  3. Plug-Ins: Enabling caching with a plug-in allows pages on your site significantly faster. This saves you copies of pages with the same request, which allows your server load in a much more efficient manner.

It may be beneficial to get a professional digital audit done to identify any areas your site might be lacking and to get help with finding the right solution. 

Step 3: Identify Your Niche 

E-commerce sites with hundreds of products, dozens of categories, and no real focus rarely find success, at least not when they’re just starting out. Unless you have a massive budget, you have to find a niche to be profitable. Choosing your niche is one of, if not the most important step of starting your online store. You can start this process by researching different niches and identifying successful companies in that space. You don’t want to pick an overly crowded area, but you don’t want to pick a space with no competition either. This can indicate there’s no market there. The more specific you get, the less competition you’re likely to face and also gives the benefit of having shoulder niches. These are spaces that are similar to you, but not identical. This gives you the opportunity to work with other businesses in those niches to cross-promote, become an affiliate, and grow your customer base. 

Step 4: Utilize Social and Content Marketing

As we mentioned before, people are online now more than ever. Not only are they shopping, but they’re also spending time on social platforms. If you haven’t read last week’s blog, we go into greater detail on social media strategy, but for now we’ll just go over some general tips: 

  • Not every social network is the right one. E-commerce sites are highly visual, so choose social platforms that are image focused and give you the opportunity to show off your products, such as Instagram and Facebook. 
  • Be helpful. Give customers credible, detailed information about the things they need. Make it clear you’re there to help them. 
  • Be active. It’s important to let customers know solutions are available whenever, wherever, even if that means in the late evening or early morning. 

As far as content marketing goes, some might think it’s not needed if you’re just selling products online. Actually, content is extremely valuable for e-commerce sites. Content is one of the number one contributions of SEO, and when your business is strictly digital, SEO is essential. Here are some tips for using content to market your store: 

  • Write relevant blogs. 
  • Create guest posts for external websites. 
  • Publish product-related videos on YouTube. 
  • Include a keyword-driven FAQ section. 
  • Optimize product page copy. 

Final Thoughts

Even if you’re only shifting to e-commerce due to the pandemic, it can have great benefits for your overall business long after it’s over. E-commerce businesses have several marketing tools at their disposal. Using digital and inbound marketing just the right way, you can create campaigns that are designed to help your online store attract customers and grow better.

If you find yourself struggling with marketing in any area, you may want to consider outsourcing for your digital marketing needs. At Onimod Global we are experts in everything from SEM, social media marketing, Google shopping advertising, and more.

Learn more about what we do, take a look at how we’ve helped other brands, and become a client today!

Common Facebook Ads Mistakes and How to Fix Them

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The benefits of advertising your business on Facebook are endless. With over a billion active users, cutting edge features, and detailed targeting ability, why wouldn’t you market yourself there? Despite all its advantages, many businesses still struggle to gain qualified leads from Facebook Ads. 

Advertising on Facebook isn’t as easy as everyone believes it to be, but it can be worth it. If you don’t put in proper time and effort into your ads, it could result in the waste of a lot of budget. Here are the most common Facebook Ads mistakes made by marketers and how to fix them. 

Audience Selection is too Narrow or too Broad 

Facebook provides extremely detailed targeting capabilities. Most people believe that the more specific you get with your targeting, the more effective it will be. This, however, could actually be your downfall. When your audience selection is too narrow you risk exhausting the segment too quickly, driving up your cost per click. The other issue that can result from overly-specific targeting is lack of responses. No matter how pin-pointed your audience is, only a small percentage will respond. When it comes to upper funnel advertising, numbers are the most important, and if your audience is too niche, the numbers are not on your side. 

On the other hand if your audience is too broad, you risk serving your ad to people who aren’t interested in your offer. Again, you could drive up the cost per click because of a poor audience-message match, or you risk paying for clicks that won’t convert to leads or customers.

Wrong Bid Strategy 

Oftentimes marketers just go with the default option when it comes to bid strategy. This is fine in some cases, but if the automatic option for lowest cost isn’t delivering results, it might be time to rethink. Here are the the other available bid strategies and what they’re best used for:

  • Bid Cap: Best for when you want to set a max bid across auctions to control cost and reach as many users as possible at that bid. 
  • Cost Cap: Best for when you want to maximize cost-efficiency or you need to keep cost within a specific threshold. 
  • Target Cost: Best for maintaining a consistent cost. 
  • Value Optimization within Min ROAS: Best if ROAS is the primary measure of success and you’re able to pass back transaction values to our platform. 
  • Highest Value: Best for getting the highest ROAS, want to spend full budget and when unsure of min ROAS/bid amount.

Too Large of an Ask 

Facebook users don’t have the same intent as those on search engines. If you’re asking for a large commitment from someone that has just been exposed to your brand for the first time, you’ll likely get poor results. When you’re still at the top of the funnel, you should be focusing on smaller asks, such as newsletter sign-ups, likes, comments, shares, etc. Once they have had more engagement, you can begin pushing larger asks, such as purchases, event sign-ups, etc.

Failing to Test Your Campaigns 

Launching ads on Facebook is easy. Finding a successful strategy, however, is not. The only real way to know what works and what doesn’t is by testing it. This sounds like more work, but Facebook actually makes A/B testing simple. A/B testing lets you change variables, such as your ad creative, audience or placement, to determine which strategy performs best and improve future campaigns. An A/B test lets you quickly compare both strategies to see which one performs best. After choosing which variable you want to test, Facebook divides your budget to equally and randomly split exposure between each version of your creative, audience, or placement. A/B testing can then measure the performance of each strategy on a cost per result basis or cost per conversion lift basis with a holdout. If you don’t test your way to success from the beginning, you may never figure out how to make Facebook Ads work for your business.

Final Thoughts 

The Facebook Ads platform is simple, but getting quality conversions can be difficult, which is why many businesses struggle with it. Luckily, these common issues are easy to resolve. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to campaign optimization. The best strategy for you ultimately depends on your products, website, customer lifecycle, objectives, and intended user experience. 

At Onimod Global we are experts in SEM and social media marketing. We know which platforms are best for brands, and create visibility for brands where customers are searching, interacting, and ultimately converting. Find out more about we do, or contact us today!

Tips for Making Your Content Stand Out

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Right now, everyone is shifting the focus of their content to COVID-19. Rightfully so, as it’s impacting everyone and everything around the world. People are looking for answers and businesses feel compelled to respond. This creates a new dilemma, however. The “market” of coronavirus content is now heavily saturated. Consumers are constantly being bombarded with new articles and updates around the situation everyday. From this arises the question for many marketers: Should I continue to create content around the same thing everyone else is?

This is a difficult issue and there’s no simple, one-size-fits-all answer. We do know that content is still essential for long-term SEO success and in a time like this, you don’t want to fall silent. The key is finding a balance between creating relevant content but also standing out among the masses. Here are some tips for doing that: 

1. Focus on your audience’s current and most pressing needs. 

Content marketing is really just about helping your audience solve their problems. Currently, everyone is facing unprecedented challenges. There are no pre-existing rules or guidelines for businesses in this situation, so we have all been continually adapting and shifting our strategies accordingly. Marketers need to closely monitor their audience members, what they’re asking, and what they need. 

Your main focus should ultimately be creating content that helps your current and potential customers. Every time you publish a piece of content, ask yourself “is this helping my customers?” If the answer is no, and you’re just putting out content for the purpose of putting out content, it’s not worth it. 

2. Incorporate reliable research and accurate data. 

There is always massive amounts of inaccurate information circulating around the internet. When sharing or creating content, make sure it’s based on real research. Users want science and data to help them make the best decision, especially during times like these. Having solid evidence that supports your claim is extremely important. 

3. Don’t ask for anything in return. 

The biggest mistake a brand can make right now is appearing like they are trying to capitalize on the pandemic. Strive to deliver value without asking for anything in return. Instead of focusing on promoting your products or services, your main priority should be bringing value to users. 

4. Continue to publish regular content. 

Businesses are concerned that posting regular content will make them come across as insensitive or tone-deaf. While you should be careful with what you’re posting, continuing with regularly scheduled content is important for multiple reasons. The first is that, during this stressful and chaotic time, it’s nice to have tid bits of normalcy or light-heartedness. As long as the content is still sensitive to the current situation, it’s more than ok if it’s not addressing or focusing on the pandemic. The second reason being that SEO is still extremely important, and content is key for SEO success. If you delay or stop altogether publishing content, you’re only hurting yourself. 

Final Thoughts 

Right now, times are strange. Everyone is constantly searching for answers, but comfort as well. Making yourself stand out in an extremely saturated market is difficult, but not impossible. The key is finding balance between relevancy and uniqueness, while still providing value to users. Accomplishing this isn’t easy, but we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in social media, SEO, and content marketing. We help brands connect with their customers where and when they need them the most. Take a look at how we’ve helped other companies, and learn more about what we can do for you. 

Improving Your SEO Strategy During COVID-19

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A recent survey by Conductor revealed that due to COVID-19 and the extension of the social distancing guidelines, many marketers anticipate a decrease in their annual marketing budget, but still expect goals to remain the same. How are they expecting to reach their goals with a smaller budget? Shifting their focus to SEO. 

Regardless of the status of the economy, people are still going to be making purchases, and more people are shopping online than ever before. Why wouldn’t you want your brand top of mind when users are making buying decisions? 

Here are 4 tips to improve your SEO strategy during this uncertain time. 

1. Build Trust with Your Content 

Many brands are offering deals and promotions to customers once the pandemic has passed and the world starts to go back to normal. Forrester released a report that found that consumers are doubtful that companies will follow through on the promises they make during this time. In a time of crisis, trust is more important than ever. With so much false information and uncertainty circulating, it’s essential to separate yourself as a brand that’s reputable. 

Another Conductor study reported that consumers find brands that deliver educational content are much more trustworthy than those that don’t. Right now, consumers are looking for answers to their questions from brands they trust. This isn’t the time for salesy content. Focus on creating content that brings real value to your audience. 

2. Make Necessary Changes to Current Campaigns 

If you had any campaigns active before the situation of the world changed, make sure to perform an audit on it and make any necessary changes. Be sure to review any social posts or content pieces you had scheduled out ahead of time as well. You don’t want to come across as insensitive or tone-deaf to the situation. 

SEO is much more than just technical efforts, and this is one of them. You want to be the voice of different customers across the organization. During times like these marketers need to have a heightened awareness of customer sensitivity. Even though it’s difficult to suspend a campaign that a lot of time and resources went into creating, it could be more harmful to your brand in the long run if you keep it running. For example, Corona received harsh backlash via social media when they went through with launching their Coming Ashore Soon campaign for its new seltzer line. 

3. Constantly Manage Your Reputation 

Managing your web presence during times of crisis is another crucial element of gaining and maintaining the trust of customers. Dated or inaccurate information can confuse or even hurt your audience, making you look bad in the process. Here are some tips for managing your online reputation during this time: 

 

  • Update any online listings or hours. Review your listings on all search engines, social media, review sites, and any other platform you may be on. Make sure your listings are updated with any changed hours, service suspensions, or revised contact information for any departments or location.
  • Monitor the status of COVID-19 and respond with empathy. Even in times of crisis, consumers are talking about business online. If you don’t already have one in place, it’s crucial to implement a comprehensive review and response strategy. Adjust your response technique as needed, remembering to be as sensitive and transparent as possible during this time. Ignoring comments and reviews puts your credibility and brand trust at great risk during a time of crisis.
  • Engage with customers across all platforms. Businesses are receiving an influx of questions on all levels across all platforms. Prepare to answer these questions on Google My Business, social, and any other platform with timely and accurate information. You might even want to consider setting up a FAQ on your website or third-party directories if you’re getting many similar inquiries. 
  • Monitor the Google Search Console. Web traffic, especially organic, is a big indicator of where demand for your product or services has shifted. Spikes or declines in traffic may show you what information is most important to your audience and help you decide your response strategy. 

 

Improve Your Security Efforts 

Hackers are trying to take advantage of the current situation and those that are in need. Many are using malicious malware to promote discounts, giveaways, etc. Some hackers are even using branding of trusted companies for phishing attacks, including the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now that many people are working from home, the threat becomes even greater. From a business perspective, here’s what you can do to ensure your website’s security: 

  • Monitor log files for crawl errors. 
  • Implement Single Sign On. 
  • Implement HTTPS. 
  • Update any plugins or apps being used. 

Final Thoughts 

Everyone is looking for answers right now. If you can position yourself at the top of a Google SERP with credible information, it can have endless benefits, even after the pandemic is over. Trust is what consumers want and need right now. SEO is a needed investment to build that trust. 

At Onimod Global we understand how vital SEO can be. Search engine optimization is our core attribute and a pillar of our strategy. We develop  organic search engine optimization campaigns that deliver increases in organic traffic through an increase in natural rankings on major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. We are a trusted Google Partner and continually excel with their products. If you need assistance with SEO, or in any area of digital marketing, contact us today. 

How to Develop a Social Media Content Calendar

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Many marketers swear by the use of monthly content calendars. While there are real benefits of using content calendars, they still have their pitfalls. They require a lot of time and effort, and sometimes those things can’t easily be spared. Not only that, but working strictly off a set calendar isn’t always the solution for everyone. 

Whether or not you need a content calendar depends on a variety of factors, but if you discover a way to develop one that allows for flexibility and creativity, the benefits can be endless. 

The Pros of Using Content Calendars

Consisting Posting 

Planning your posts ahead of time ensures new content gets pushed out regularly. Having your topics picked out ahead of time saves time and allows for more than one person to manage social platforms. Regular content dispersion is important because it means you avoid the typical ups and downs in traffic and audience that come from inconsistent posting. Through a content schedule, you spread out your content throughout the month, setting yourself up as a resource to be trusted.

Diverse Content 

When you come up with content topics everyday, it’s only a matter of time before they get repetitive. You’ll most likely revert to the same topics and posting style when you’re struggling to come up with something. When you lay all content out for a month, you’ll be able to better spread out certain topics, preventing you from becoming predictable and boring. 

Better Teamwork 

If more than one person works on a blog or controls a social media account, having a content schedule is key. Assigning topics will become much easier, and you’ll be able to do it much further in advance. It will also prevent any overlap in content and make sure everyone’s on the same page. 

The Cons of Using Content Calendars

Can Restrict Creativity and Flexibility

While careful planning and deadlines are what makes content calendars work, too many restrictions can stifle creativity and eliminate flexibility. Sometimes planning your blog content ahead of time can turn out to be counterproductive when your company’s goals change, roles shift, or strategies get re-imagined. It can discourage your team to think outside of the box. It may also prevent from responding to timely or relevant topics, which can make your brand seem out-of-the-loop. 

Can Seem Disingenuous 

Along with the inability to respond to relevant topics, scheduled content may also come across as disingenuous. For example, you might have scheduled a tweet about nice weather, just as a natural disaster hits your community. So while automated posts save time, they can come across as stale because they’re written days or weeks before it’s actually published. 

More Demanding 

Content calendars are only successful if the whole marketing team is on board and uses it. All the time you spend carefully planning out when, where and what to post ends up being a waste of time, if no one is actually sticking to the schedule. A way to combat this is by making sure that the calendar is easily accessible to all team members and easy to use. Also make adhering to the calendar a priority for your marketing team and hold people accountable for the content they are responsible for.

As we said before, content calendars are not for everyone. If you have a small team or don’t publish content that often, they may be more work than they’re worth. However, they can be very beneficial to many marketing teams. 

Creating content calendars can seem daunting, but they don’t have to be. If you’ve established that this is something that would be helpful for your business, here is a process that allows you to quickly and effectively produce weekly content, that allows for flexibility and creativity. 

How to Develop a Content Calendar that Allows for Creativity

(via Marketing Land)

Identify Key Audiences 

Think of four different customers that serve as examples of types of customers that serve as examples of the types of customers you’d like to land for your company moving forward. Pinpoint each customer’s unique challenges, emotions and values, as you’ll want the content to speak to those needs.

Identify Solutions

After identifying four key audiences, think of three solutions your business can offer to these four audiences. This could include different services, products, or value propositions. Then match up each of your three solutions with each of your four audiences. 

  • Solution A for Audience 1
  • Solution B for Audience 1
  • Solution C for Audience 1
  • Solution A for Audience 2
  • And so on until you have twelve broad topics to explore

Identify Categories 

The final step is to come up with a list of four content strategies that will allow you to approach each solution/customer pairing from a variety of perspectives. Some examples include:

  • Expert Q&As
  • Step-by-step Guides
  • Industry News
  • Listicles
  • Case Studies

Combine this list of categories with your 12 solutions pairings to generate 48 unique topics for a full year of content. The first example could be: Expert Q&A that addresses Audience 1’s challenges from the perspective of what Solution A offers. Try to address each audience in one post per month. That way, each month, you will address and provide content for all four audiences. 

Marketing Land advises to keep in mind that content isn’t just supposed to be brand promotions. Your content is supposed to provide value to readers. 

Final Thoughts 

Today, almost all businesses release some form of digital content. While calendars may not be worth it for everyone, they can be very beneficial for those that need them. If you think your company could benefit from a content calendar, but don’t know where to start, consider outsourcing a digital marketing company.

At Onimod Global we create monthly content calendars for our clients. As experts in social media marketing we know how to create visibility for companies in places their customers are searching, interacting, and engaging. . Take a look at how we’ve helped others, and learn more about what we can do for you.

Tips on How to Be Productive While Working from Home

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As a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, many companies are transitioning to working remote. While working from home is a dream for many, there are many challenges that can come with it. We don’t know how long this situation will last, so it’s important to learn how to be as productive as possible while working from home. 

If you’re new to the WFH life, here are some tips on how to do it successfully. 

Create a schedule. 

Working from home presents a different set of challenges than working in an office. It’s much easier to get distracted and feel restless with having nowhere to go. Establishing a routine that replicates a normal work day, and sticking to it, can be very beneficial. Set goals for the day. What tasks do you need to complete? What needs to get started? It’s also helpful to set aside specific hours for answering emails, making calls, taking lunch, coffee breaks etc. When you have a full to-do list and stay productive, it will make the day go by much faster. The next thing you know it’s 5pm and the work day is over. 

Have a designated workspace. 

If you don’t have a home office already, try as much as possible to create a separated and designated workspace. When it comes to working at home, you want to create a boundary between work and leisure. You don’t want to turn your bed or couch into the office. It could be as simple as moving a nightstand and upright chair to the corner of a room. This can also help to create boundaries with others in your home. Whether it be roommates, partners, or children, having a designated workspace signals to others you’re ‘at work.’ This all helps you to stay concentrated and productive. 

Communicate, communicate, communicate. 

Whether temporary or permanent, the keys to successfully working from home is clear communication with your boss and colleagues, and being aware of what’s expected from you. When you’re used to being in close proximity with your manager, communication is effortless. If you’re new to working remotely, this is now very different. Your boss might not be used to managing people virtually, so you need to find ways to break down that new communication barrier. Suggest starting the day with a phone call just so everyone is on the same page and knows what their expectations are. This doesn’t just have to be with your supervisor, either. If you’re working closely with another colleague on something make sure you both consistently communicate with one another. Whether this be done via email, phone call, or video chat, it’s important to stay in contact. 

Beware of feeling isolated. 

Loneliness can be a huge and serious issue, especially when you’re so used to talking face-to-face with a number of people a day. With the current situation, we don’t know how long companies will have to stay remote, which presents many additional problems. Usually remote workers still have the opportunity to go to public places or attend social events. Restaurants, cafes, bars etc. are open, which allows those remote workers to still have face-to-face interactions. With the COVID-19 outbreak, these opportunities aren’t there. Prolonged isolation could potentially start to impact morale and productivity. Those remote worker experts suggest trying to sustain a semblance of normalcy in unconventional ways. Consider having a virtual happy hour or dinner party. It can help everyone feel that they’re in this together and lift spirits during this difficult time. 

Take breaks. 

When you live where you work, it’s important to get out of your workspace at times during the day. You might feel pressured to overextend yourself to prove to your team you’re actually working, it’s critical to carve out break time. You’re going to get quickly burnt out if all you do is pace back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. 

Final Thoughts 

Initially, working from home can be challenging, but during this time, it’s in everyone’s best interest. Until the outbreak is under control, the benefits of working from home, outweigh the inconveniences. Remember to cut yourself some slack during this time. It’s inevitable to get distracted and off-task every once in a while. There is a lot going on and new information to take in everyday. While it is difficult, try to stay positive. We’re all in this together. 

More from Onimod Global

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Marketing and Coronavirus: 5 Tips for Travel and Hospitality Brands

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Coronavirus is something that can no longer be ignored by marketers, as much as they might want to. Industries around the globe are starting to feel the effects, but none are getting hit as hard as one in particular: the travel and hospitality industry. 

With coronavirus recently reaching a pandemic status, travel and hospitality brands have no ability to control or avoid the situation. But they do have the ability to control how they respond, which can strongly impact their losses and how well they recover after the crisis is over. 

Here are 5 marketing tips for travel and hospitality brands during the coronavirus. 

Moderately Adjust Ad Budgets 

The crisis is forcing companies to reevaluate many aspects of their financial plans, especially those operating in B2C spaces. After all, does it make sense to buy traffic if consumers aren’t going to travel? Actually, Craig Paddock, director of search and travel at MMGY Global, a travel and hospitality marketing firm, says data indicates that consumers are still buying travel. He says their clients are only moderately reducing paid search budgets, with the exception of international paid search efforts for United States-based clients. With the recent European travel ban, it only makes sense to pause international ad campaigns all together. In terms of national travel Paddock says, “If you were to read the front page of the newspaper today you would think absolutely nobody is booking hotel rooms. We are not seeing that yet.” 

It’s also important to continue to keep brand safety in mind. While marketers don’t need to pause ads completely, they should monitor ad placement. You don’t want to be spending money on ads placed on sites dealing with the outbreak. 

Implement “Staycation” Promotions 

One audience that could continue to be business opportunities for hotel marketers are those within driving distance. Flying may no longer be appealing to those looking to take a vacation, but a trip in driving range may be. Consider creating appealing offers targeting those searching for travel opportunities locally. Paddock at MMGY Global says they have been creating “staycation” landing pages for clients that didn’t already have them.  

That being said, you don’t want to go overboard with promotional marketing. Brands must be careful that they don’t push their fantastic deals too aggressively to consumers who are not interested in traveling at the current time. 

Be Proactive and Communicate Clearly About Efforts 

As we said, it has become impossible to travel without being aware of the coronavirus. Companies should communicate proactively about the situation and precautions they’re taking to protect customers and employees. Brands obviously cannot market peoples’ concerns away, but they can market on a foundation that they’re taking meaningful action. Examples include: 

  • Creating and publishing policies related to coronavirus. 
  • Implementing new cleaning and hygienic protocol. 
  • Supplying customers with supplies and information that can help them protect themselves. 
  • Suspending any flights, services, activities, etc. that may increase customer and employee health risks. 

Be Flexible and Generous 

All companies want to minimize losses, but with this being a crisis that threatens the health of customers, brands should put people before profit. This is a factor that can strongly impact how well you recover following the outbreak. If a customer had a bad experience during this time of crisis and felt that the company only cared about maintaining revenue, the likelihood of them returning is slim. On the other hand, if they had a good experience, and felt that the company genuinely cared about their wellbeing, they could become a long-term loyal customer. 

Even if not legally required, it’s in a company’s long-term best interest to be flexible and generous. Airlines, hotels, and tour operators, when reasonable, should consider allowing customers to cancel bookings and receive full refunds, even if originally they were not refundable. If issuing a full refund isn’t possible or appropriate, customers should be given the opportunity to cancel for a full service credit when the crisis is over.  

Actively Monitor the Situation and Manage Campaigns 

The status of coronavirus and the world is constantly changing, which means campaigns need to be managed accordingly. For example, if a city or country emerges as an epicenter of an outbreak or becomes subject of new travel restrictions, brands have to react immediately. If there are paid search efforts being targeted there, marketers have to appropriately modify or deactivate them. Because ultimately, there is nothing to be gained from marketing travel to areas that aren’t safe, or to audiences that no longer have the opportunity to travel. These efforts can help travel and hospitality brands minimize waste, while protecting customers and employees. 

Final Thoughts 

What’s best for your brand is ultimately up to you and your company. We have no way of controlling what happens globally, only how we respond. Not everyone sees budget-cutting as the answer, but it’s in any companies’ best interest to reconsider marketing strategies, especially those in the travel and hospitality industry. 

More From Onimod Global 

To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.