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10 Ways To Simplify Your Local Marketing Strategy In 2016

10 Ways To Simplify Your Local Marketing Strategy In 2016

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As I scoured articles proclaiming the top trends in marketing for 2016, one thing that struck me was how many new technologies and new products were being pushed out, all in the name of bigger and better. It was a bit overwhelming.

For the local business owner, marketing has become so complicated. Audiences are fragmented over hundreds of different media outlets, apps, platforms, search engines, social media sites and business listing products.

Yet technology is constantly evolving the way media is accessed and consumed, and it remains critical for businesses to use technology to stay competitive. Large businesses have the resources to utilize every new martech innovation and reach out through every available social media channel.

For the local business, instead of being a jack of all trades, doing a few things well may be more productive. For many, simplifying their marketing strategy may make it possible to take advantage of effective new technologies in manageable, bite-sized pieces.

Here are 10 strategies that will help you simplify and focus your search and marketing practices and make them more effective.

1. Use Social Media For Engagement Only… Or Not At All

Extensive use of social media, with its free access and huge audience, can be tempting. But social media has yet to prove its worth in the search space in helping consumers find new local businesses.

Facebook is trying to change that with the launch of a new local search site, but it is still in beta mode, and the functionality of searching for local businesses on its current platform via Places is limited.

The exceptions may be Pinterest and Instagram, graphically oriented social platforms that are conducive to discovery of new retail products and food. In fact, Pinterest recently announced that it was only providing full customer support for businesses in the Retail and Consumer Goods sectors.

Otherwise, social media is effective at engaging with existing customers, keeping them updated on what’s going on, and reaching out to them with deals and offers. Engagement keeps your business top of mind and helps with retention and as a surrogate for branding.

It does take time to do it right, and time is a commodity many SMBs do not have. According to the Local Search Association (LSA) and Thrive Analytics‘ 2015 Local Marketing Outlook for Home and Auto Emergency Related services, 64 percent of SMBs said the biggest challenge with digital marketing is time and knowledge to engage in effective marketing. In fact, 60 percent of SMBs that manage their own social media reported their content was updated only every six months or more.

Outdated or inaccurate information risks losing customers and is a poor reflection on the business. In that case, it may be better not to have a social media presence.

A study by Google demonstrated there was no real correlation between media usage and influence. In other words, just because a lot of people use Facebook or click on your business site, it doesn’t mean they will buy from you. What matters is the consumer experience and matching content with what consumers want or need.

Alternately, use your social media pages like an enhanced listing and redirect any traffic towards one place that is updated, such as your website, where the consumer experience matches the experience you’d want them to have in your store.

2. Consider Mobile-Only Website Designs

Mobile has already overtaken desktop in both local search and Google search. Instead of investing in responsive sites or multiple sites for different screens, simplify and design a site just for mobile devices.

Mobile sites are still accessible on desktops — they might have more white space than a regular website, but they function fine on a desktop. Low-res graphics meant for smaller screens may appear grainy, such as this one on American Airlines’ mobile site, but uploading higher resolution images will solve that. Macy’s mobile site looks good on a desktop but would function better with vertical scrolling only.

For those who plan to use their mobile site for all screens, these are easy adjustments to make. The design will satisfy Google’s algorithm for mobile search rank and the 67 percent of consumers who demand mobile-optimized sites. And it will simplify not just your strategy, but your customers’ experience, as well.

This strategy can be extended to other marketing formats such as emails, paid search ads, display ads and listings.

3. Don’t Be A TMI Marketer

We all have friends who share TMI (too much information). Don’t make the same mistake in your marketing. I recently heard a radio ad that sounded like they hired a speed reader to read the script. The messaging was lost, and the call to action was rushed.

Consumers today are faced with information overload that clutters decision making. Here are some ideas for simplifying your customer experience that will help drive consumer action towards the path to purchase:

  • Use single calls to action in ads to drive action. If your best leads are calls, use call-extension-only ads where clicks go not to a landing page but dial a phone number. Use text to describe the action that needs to be taken, such as “make a reservation,” and have the click go directly to the e-commerce reservation interface.
  • Provide simple choices in enhanced listings, with the most requested actions and information only, and provide extensions to allow people to act immediately — including directions/maps, phone numbers, online ordering/reservations and hours of operation. A link to your website will help those who need more detailed information.
  • Highlight the most requested information prominently above the fold on your website, so it is easy to find and easy to access.

Simplifying your customer experience simplifies and focuses your marketing, as well.

4. Funnel Everything To Your Top 20 Percent

How does simplifying your marketing world by 80 percent sound? Based on the 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, 80 percent of your results are driven by 20 percent of your marketing, including search visits from keywords, calls from call extensions in ads, and ultimately, sales from advertising.

Thus, it makes sense to identify and invest in that Top 20 Percent. If you do nothing else, at least test the rule and see where the cutoff for your best-performing marketing assets lies.

Many of these tips are derivative of this idea. But there’s a second lesson here. The fact that this principle isn’t cited more often is a testament to the volume of distractions we constantly face.

The repeated call to return “back to the basics” demonstrates a need to be reminded, again and again, to reset and look at what has worked in the past. It’s just become too easy to be caught up in always looking ahead.

5. Get Specific On Your Target Audience

Targeting simplifies your message and matches your marketing with those most likely to respond. But not all targeting is created equal.

Marketers today think they are doing a pretty good job at targeting. But according to Forrester, however, while 66 percent of marketers feel they are doing an excellent or very good job at personalizing advertising and marketing; only 31 percent of consumers agree.

One problem is that not enough data points are being used to drive relevant search ads to the right audience. A study by VentureBeat found that the amount of data being used for targeting varied widely among those using email marketing, a digital channel that is highly amenable to personalization.

About 50 percent of marketers used 10 or fewer profile segments for targeting, while the other half used up to 100 segments, including 10 percent that personalized on an individual basis.

While collecting more data points may seem counter to simplifying, doing this work up front will streamline the entire process to cut out unnecessary and wasteful efforts. It simplifies the choices you make in reaching that audience.

In today’s data-driven world, very detailed profiles can be created and targeted. The more you know about your ideal customer, the better you can deliver relevant search results and advertising.

That means when paid search ads are delivered, they are not driven just by keywords, but by many other factors such as geography, demographics, past search history and other profile-specific information of the user.

6. Consolidate Your Targeting Data

Putting all your data in one place not only simplifies analyzing and managing it, but it makes your data much more effective to use. Gathering a lot of specific information for targeting isn’t effective if only bits and pieces are used at any given time.

Yet Forrester found that marketers average 15 separate systems to store customer data. Even if cumulatively those 15 systems contained 50 different customer data points, having the data spread out renders on average just over three data points that can be used together.

Only 22 percent of marketers used a single database allowing them to use all of the data together to build a full customer profile. Seventy percent of those expressed that the data was very useful in creating individual customer profiles, compared to 52 percent of those without a single database.

7. Use Programmatic Buying To Narrowly Fulfill Your Ads

Programmatic buying puts all that rich data to good use and automatically matches precise, high conversion leads with your business. It also makes managing your ad buying much simpler with a single, or just a few, interfaces to work with.

Not manually managing individual placement doesn’t mean ads shouldn’t be tested and the criteria shouldn’t be tweaked. But programmatic buying can help place ads on multiple platforms across a multitude of media outlets.

In other words, you get a wide breadth of coverage across media, but only those customers who are most valuable to your business see the ads. Use the time saved to create better content.

Concerns about the cost of highly targeted marketing largely focus on those targeted keywords that receive significant traffic. But that isn’t necessarily what you are looking for. Instead, focus on “long-tail keywords,” more specific keywords that together more accurately describe the user’s intent and match your targeted customer profile.

8. Measure Meaningful Numbers

Our big data economy gives rise to more ways, more programs and more services that help you analyze the data. It’s easy, however, to get caught up in the metrics that everyone else measures or that marketers cite as proof that ads are working. Sometimes those numbers are in conflict with one another.

For example, a study by xAd revealed that the almost universally tracked measurement, CTR, negatively affects secondary actions such as phone calls. Optimizing ads for CTR increased the rate by 38 percent but caused the secondary action rate to fall by 69 percent — not a good result if your best leads come from phone calls.

Focusing on the numbers that matter to your business helps cut through the clutter of analytics and will sharpen your ability to make good business decisions.

9. Embrace E-commerce

The benefits of automated tools and e-commerce seem obvious. Yet SMBs are slow to adapt — for example, only five percent of restaurants have adopted automated tools such as online orders or reservations.

The barrier for local businesses is likely the time and adjustment it takes to overhaul the current system and the fear of disruption due to change.

Get past that fear by thinking of it like cleaning out your closet. You’ve got to empty it out, and the rest of your room might look like a disaster until you purge, organize and put things back. But the investment in automated tools will pay dividends quickly and for a long time.

Using e-commerce platforms means leads are captured 24/7, orders are taken and filled automatically, reminders are emailed, fewer cancelations result, fewer errors are made and customers are happier.

Integration with back-end systems improves reporting and increases ROI. While it does take some front-end work to transition, the end result will be more efficiency and simpler operations.

10. Reuse Your Content Across All Platforms And Media

Larger businesses might employ staff for each form of media, or even each media channel that allows them to create unique content for emails, search campaigns, display ads, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ to take advantage of the nuances of each interface and general audience. Small businesses likely can’t afford that luxury.

SMBs may be better off creating one high-quality piece of content they can share across all media channels, rather than customizing content for each channel that suffers from inattention.

Note that this is not the opposite of targeting your customers with relevant information as discussed above. Rather, targeting focuses on which users of media see your content. Reusing your content across media channels reaches those same customers across platforms but with the same targeted message.

Conclusion

If marketing is overwhelming you, implementing even some of these strategies might help save some time and effort to free you up to do a better job at those more important tasks or allow you to put in the upfront work to adapt technologies for the long term.

Simplifying your marketing strategy doesn’t always mean it takes less time or work. But it does mean less confusion and clearer goals that allow your marketing to be more focused and more effective.

 

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link : http://searchengineland.com/10-ways-simplify-local-marketing-strategy-2016-239204

How Effective is Your Current Online Marketing Strategy

How Effective is Your Current Online Marketing Strategy

The first step to a successful online marketing strategy is looking closely into the overall requirements of your company. More often than not, however, the effectiveness of a marketing strategy is offset by the inability to measure up what is really required. In some cases, it might even be counterproductive: which is why it is the CMO’s job to tackle efficiency questions for the best results. In this article, let us explore some of the yardsticks by which to measure the effectiveness of your current online strategy.

What kind of campaigns are you running?

Different kinds of campaigns have different rates of success, depending on the nature of the company, product, targeted customer and various other factors. You may have email marketing campaigns, newsletter marketing campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, online advertising campaigns running parallel to each other, but it is important to ask a few questions about your campaign before continuing in the same old direction.

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How to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns?

In the long run, the goal of a successful marketing campaign is to make it entirely self-sustaining. Without a proper digital marketing tactic, you potentially stand to lose out on online market shares, online value propositions, online customers, resources such as time and money. You also stand to lose out on optimization opportunities and opportunities for improvement. Consequently, you should try to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns against certain fixed goals and achievements. You could, for instance, see how you stack up against your competitors and evaluate your rate of growth accordingly. Ask yourself, and answer, some questions about the brand’s value proposition, goals and strategies of growth, marketing channels that are currently under-utilized by your company. Check which of these fits best with your profile and requirements.

What are the tools that are used to measure the ROI of campaigns?

ROI is often taken as the proof of an effective marketing plan, and it can be measured quite easily with a few effective tools. Metrics that can help measure ROI from social media and elsewhere include:

  • Goals for conversion: This is the first step where you need to define targets for online purchases, contact forms, newsletters, time spent on a page, interaction on social media, etc.
  • Reach: Track reach to see how it improves over time.
  • Traffic: Measure referral sources to check which strategies work more through Google Analytics.
  • Leads: Keep track of traffic from blogs and websites that are converted to leads. It is important to focus on a) bounce rate, b) average page views per visit and c) average time on site.
  • Customers: Check leads to also keep track of customer conversions. The popularity and effectiveness of a strategy should also take into account rate of returning visitors to a site.
  • Costs: Cost per lead/cost to acquire customers is also an important factor. It is measured by dividing marketing + advertising costs by number of new, paying customers within that period.
  • Rates of Conversion: Keep an account of the visit-to-lead conversions i.e. online traffic percentage from leads. Note: Top 10% of the AdWords advertisers had 11.45% conversion rates or higher.
  • Audits: Social media audits can be especially helpful, but you can use emails, contact forms, etc. too
  • A/B tests: Discussed below in greater detail.

How to run A/B tests to identify the effectiveness of campaigns.

A/B tests are one of the best processes for measuring campaign effectiveness. Apparently, only 28% marketers are satisfied with their current conversion rates. Naturally, A/B testing is a great way of testing out the kinks of marketing. To do so, you have to decide what to test, select treatment and control mechanisms, and create a test, promote it, gather data, and then analyze it: or simply use one of the pre-existing ones.

Simple Steps for Effective online marketing strategies

Targets

As stated before, the very first step of the process is identifying key targets. In this, you should generally set two primarily goals as well as two other secondary ones. These goals must be ethical, easy to attain, specific to your company and comply with the needs of the hour.

Objectives

Setting select marketing objects is a way of honing down on goals. By defining certain metrics of measurement, you can keep better track of goals and accomplishments. For instance, if one of the objectives is to increase sales, you need a rubric that defines a successful target. The objectives can be defined under time, relevancy, and measurability indexes for best results.

Identification

Beyond identification of goals and objectives, it is essential to know a target consumer group’s demographics and other profiles. For instance, a youth-oriented program might work better with social network advertising, whereas a mature population can be reached through email marketing strategies. The identity of the target customer profile is essential for creating an optimal online marketing strategy.

Market Identifiers

One of the main problems with most online marketing strategies is that they fall short of their competitors’. In general, it is regarded as a good practice to stay on top of a competitor’s strategic positions, and counter if required. Amazon, for instance, may be conducting extensive email marketing through the holiday season: a good competitor would know about it, and conduct their own so as to not be overshadowed.

Platforms

Here’s a simple example: LinkedIn is for professionals, Academia.edu is for researchers and professorial candidates. Your social media platform of choice is something similar. Consider your target group, and choose whether you want to advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Time is also important: e.g. Facebook users have 32% more engagement on social media on Sundays over any other day, with the best time for posts being between 12 and 1 pm.

Content Strategies

Alongside a competent marketing strategy you also require a good content strategy. The three important ideas behind it are: content type, the time of day, and the number of posts per day/week. Research shows how certain times of the day are more favorable for social media posts, for example.

Marketing Techniques

This is one of the most underrated aspects of online marketing strategies, despite its immense benefits. Without tracking measures, an online strategy can often come short of its potentials. On the other hand, through tracking measures, improvements can be brought about in segments that require them. In the next section, we shall explore this in greater detail.

How to track marketing techniques

By doing this, you open up potential communication links with your customers and stand a better chance of retention. For instance, a feedback form can be an essential part of tracking the efficacy of a marketing strategy. Here are some other options:

  • Send emails with forms, thanking visitors for stopping by and then asking for a few non-mandatory answers. Keep a filing system for noting any responses.
  • Use comment forms on website to create opportunities for client feedback. This is great as a tracking technique.
  • Enable actionable metrics and track conversions. There are some tools that can help in performance indication.

A successful marketing strategy is based upon various metrics including target group, medium of advertising, and consequent testing mechanisms. The process is constantly growing and changing with time, making it essential to adapt as days go by. However, keeping these pointers in mind, any CMO or marketing consultant can identify the ways of tracking online marketing strategy effectiveness. Consequently, they can also discover parameters on which to align business goals and help their businesses grow furthermore.

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link : http://positionly.com/blog/inbound-marketing/online-marketing-strategy

15 of the Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples You’ve Ever Seen

15 of the Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples You’ve Ever Seen

 

At one point or another, we all need inspiration to do our jobs better. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a marketing veteran who has navigated through years of changing technology or a newbie fresh out of college — we all need examples of outstanding content. It helps us get through creative ruts, make the case to our boss for experimentation, and improve our own marketing.

Most of the time, inspiration is easy to find because most marketing content is publicly available. You can scour the internet or go on your favorite social network to see what your connections are talking about.

But there’s one marketing channel that is really, really hard to find good examples of unless you’re already in the know: email. There’s nothing casual about it — you usually need to be subscribed to an email list to find great examples of emails. And even if you’re subscribed to good emails, they are often bombarding you day after day, so it’s hard to notice the gems.

Because it’s so difficult to find good email marketing examples, we decided to do the scouring and compiling for you. Read on to discover some great emails and get the lowdown on what makes them great — or just keep on scrolling to get a general feel for each. However you like to be inspired is fine by us!

15 Examples of Effective Email Marketing

1) charity: water

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When people talk about email marketing, lots of them forget to mention transactional emails. These are the automated emails you get in your inbox after taking a certain action on a website. This could be anything from filling out a form to purchasing a product to updating you on the progress of your order. Often, these are plain text emails that email marketers set and forget.

Well, charity: water took an alternate route. Once someone donates to a charity: water projects, their money takes a long journey. Most charities don’t tell you about that journey at all — charity: water uses automated emails to show donors how their money is making an impact over time. With the project timeline and accompanying table, you don’t even really need to read the email — you know immediately where you are in the whole process so you can move on to other things in your inbox.

2) BuzzFeed

I already have a soft spot for BuzzFeed content (21 Puppies so Cute You Will Literally Gasp and Then Probably Cry, anyone?), but that isn’t the only reason I fell in love with its emails.

First of all, BuzzFeed has awesome subject lines and preview text. They are always short and punchy — which fits in perfectly with the rest of BuzzFeed’s content. I especially love how the preview text will accompany the subject line. For example, if the subject line is a question, the preview text is the answer. Or if the subject line is a command (like the one below), the preview text seems like the next logical thought right after it:

Once you open up an email from them, the copy is equally awesome. Just take a look at that glorious alt text action happening where the images should be. The email still conveys what it is supposed to convey — and looks great — whether you use an image or not. That’s definitely something to admire.

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Without images:

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With images:

3) Uber

The beauty of Uber‘s emails is in their simplicity. They let their email subscribers know about deals and promotions by sending an email like the one you see below. We love how brief the initial description is, paired with a very clear call-to-action — which is perfect for subscribers who are quickly skimming the email. For the people who want to learn more, these are followed by a more detailed (but still pleasingly simple), step-by-step explanation of how the deal works.

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We also love how consistent the design of their emails is with their brand. Like their app, website, social media photos, and other parts of their visual brand, their emails are represented by bright colors and geometric patterns. All of their communications and marketing assets tell their brand’s story — and brand consistency is one tactic Uber’s nailed in order to gain brand loyalty.

4) TheSkimm

We’ve written about TheSkimm’s daily newsletter before — especially its clean design and its short, punchy paragraphs. But newsletters aren’t TheSkimm’s only strength when it comes to email. Check out their subscriber engagement email below, which rewarded my colleague Ginny Mineo for being subscribed for two years.

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Emails triggered by milestones like anniversary emails and birthday emails are fun to get — who doesn’t like to celebrate a special occasion? The beauty of anniversary emails in particular is that they don’t require subscribers to input any extra data, and they can work for a variety of senders and the timeframe can be modified based on the business model.

Here, the folks at TheSkimm took it a step further by asking her if she’d like to earn the title of brand ambassador as a loyal subscriber — which would require her to share the link with ten friends, of course.

5) Mom and Dad Money

Think you know all about the people who are reading your marketing emails? How much of what you “know” about them is based on assumptions? The strongest buyer personas are based on insights you gather from your actual readership, through surveys, interviews, and so on, in addition to the market research. That’s exactly what Matt Becker of Mom and Dad Money does — and he does it very, very well.

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Here’s an example of an email I got in my inbox a few weeks ago. Design-wise, it’s nothing special — but that’s the point. It reads just like an email from a friend or colleague asking for a quick favor.

Not only was this initial email great, but his response to my answers was even better: Within a few days of responding to the questionnaire, I received a long and detailed personal email from Matt thanking me for filling out the questionnaire and offering a ton of helpful advice and links to resources specifically catered to my answers. I was very impressed by his business acumen, communication skills, and obvious dedication to his readers.

6) Poncho

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Some of the best emails out there pair super simple design with brief, clever copy. When it comes down to it, my daily emails from Poncho, which sends me customizable weather forecasts each morning, takes the cake. They’re colorful, use delightful images and GIFs, and very easy to scan. The copy is brief but clever — some great puns in there — and aligns perfectly with the brand. Check out the copy near the bottom asking to “hang out outside of email.” Hats off to Poncho for using design to better communicate its message.

7) Birchbox

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The subject line of this email from beauty product subscription service Birchbox got my colleague Pam Vaughan clicking. It read: “We Forgot Something in Your February Box!” Of course, if you read the email copy below, they didn’t actually forget to put that discount code in her box — but it was certainly a clever way to get her attention.

And the discount code for Rent the Runway, a dress rental company that likely fits the interest profile of most Birchbox customers, certainly didn’t disappoint. That’s a great co-marketing partnership right there.

8) Postmates

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I’ve gotta say, I’m a sucker for GIFs. They’re easy to consume, they catch your eye, and they have an emotional impact — like the fun GIF in one of Postmates‘ emails that’s not only delightful to watch, but also makes you crave some delicious Chipotle.

You too can use animated GIFs in your marketing to show a fun header, to draw people’s eye to a certain part of the email, or to display your products and services in action.

9) Dropbox

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You might think it’d be hard to love an email from a company whose product you haven’t been using. But Dropbox found a way to make their “come back to us!” email cute and funny, thanks to a pair of whimsical cartoons and an emoticon.

Plus, they kept the email short and sweet to emphasize the message that they don’t want to intrude, they just want to remind the recipient that they exist and why they could be helpful. When sending these types of email, you might include an incentive for recipients to come back to using your service, like a limited-time coupon.

10) InVision App

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Every week, the folks at InVision send a roundup of their best blog content, their favorite design links from the week, and a new opportunity to win a free t-shirt. (Seriously. They give away a new design every week.) They also sometimes have fun survey questions where they crowdsource for their blog. This week’s, for example, asked subscribers what they would do if the internet didn’t exist.

Not only is their newsletter a great mix of content, but I also love the nice balance between images and text, making it really easy to read and mobile-friendly — which is especially important because their newsletters are so long. We like the clever copy on their call-to-action buttons, too.

11) Warby Parker

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What goes better with a new prescription than a new pair of glasses? The folks at Warby Parker made that connection very clear in their email to a friend of mine back in 2014. It’s an older email, but it’s such a good example of personalized email marketing that I had to include it in here.

The subject line was: “Uh-oh, your prescription is expiring.” What a clever email trigger. And you’ve gotta love ’em for reminding you your prescription needs updating.

Speaking of which … check out the clever co-marketing at the bottom of the email: If you don’t know where to go to renew your subscription, the information for an optometrist is right in the email. Now there’s no excuse not to shop for new glasses!

12) Cook Smarts

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I’ve been a huge fan of Cook Smarts‘ “Weekly Eats” newsletter for a while. The company sends yummy recipes in meal plan form to my inbox every week. But I didn’t just include it because of its delicious recipes … I’m truly a fan of its emails. I love the layout: Each email features three distinct sections (one for the menu, one for kitchen how-to’s, and one for the tips). This means you don’t have to go hunting to find the most interesting part of its blog posts — you know exactly where to look after an email or two.

I also love Cook Smarts’ “Forward to a Friend” call-to-action in the top-right of the email. Emails are super shareable on — you guessed it — email, so you should also think about reminding your subscribers to forward your emails to friends, coworkers, or heck, even family.

13) HireVue

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“Saying goodbye is never easy to do… So, we thought we’d give you a chance to rethink things”. That was the subject of this automated unsubscribe email from HireVue. We love the simple, guilt-free messaging here, from the funny header images to the great call-to-action button copy.

Not only are the design and copy here top-notch, but we applaud the folks at HireVue for sending automated unsubscribe emails in the first place. It’s smart to purge your subscriber lists of folks who aren’t opening your email lists because low open rates can seriously hurt email deliverability. We sent out a similar email in December 2015 when we automatically unsubscribed people once they became unengaged.

14) Paperless Post

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When you think of “holiday email marketing,” your mind might jump straight to Christmas, but there are other holidays sprinkled throughout the rest of the year that you can create campaigns around.

Take the email below from Paperless Post, for example. I love the header of this email: It provides a clear call-to-action that includes a sense of urgency. Then, the subheader asks a question that forces recipients to think to themselves, “Wait, when is Mother’s Day again? Did I buy Mom a card?” Below this copy, the simple grid design is both easy to scan and is quite visually appealing. Each card picture is a CTA in and of itself — click on any one of them and you will be taken to a purchase page.

15) Stitcher

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Humans crave personalized experiences. It’s science. When emails appear to be created especially for you, you feel special — you’re not just getting what everyone else is getting. You might even feel like the company sending you the email knows you in some way, and that they care about your preferences and making you happy.

That’s why I love on-demand podcast/radio show app Stitcher‘s “Recommended For You” email. I tend to listen to episodes from the same podcast instead of branching out to new ones. But Stitcher wants me to discover (and subscribe to) all the other awesome content they have — and I probably wouldn’t without their encouragement.

I think this email is also quite a brilliant use of responsive design. The colors are bright, and it’s not too hard to scroll and click — notice the CTAs are large enough for me to hit with my thumbs. Also, the mobile email actually has features that make sense for recipients who are on their mobile device. Check out the CTA at the bottom of the email, for example: The “Open Stitcher Radio” button prompts the app to open on your phone.

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-examples-list

What The Highest Converting Websites Do Differently

What The Highest Converting Websites Do Differently

Did you know that companies that take on a structured approach towards conversion optimization are twice as likely to see a large increase in sales?

Given this, you’d think more companies would test and run experiments. Yet 61% of companies do less than 5 tests per month.

My gut tells me the reason for this is MOST companies are too caught up in the “business as usual syndrome”, and they rarely take a second to stop and think about really focusing on conversion optimization.

In this post we’re going to go over what the highest converting websites do differently. But before we get into the details, we want to highlight a few points to get you thinking first:

  • You have 0-8 seconds to make a compelling headline and landing page. After 8 seconds, the majority of visitors leave.
  • Approximately 96% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy.
  • The more landing pages you have, the more leads you are likely to get.
  • Product videos can increase purchases of the product by 144%.
  • A 1 second delay in your site speed can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
  • A/B testing is becoming the preferred method that has brought a lot of the companies the most success.

Got that? Ok, let’s get into what the best do differently….

1. They Make Their Unique Value Proposition(s) Clear

Visitors should clearly see on your homepage or landing page why they should do business with you and the benefit of it.

A great example of this is MailChimp:
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There are plenty of email service providers out there, so for a company like MailChimp it’s quite difficult to differentiate yourself from the pack. MailChimp made themselves different by focusing on making email campaigns easy.

If you think about it, whose usually tasked with sending out the email newsletter? It’s usually someone who’s specialty is not marketing, who’s not technical, and has a never ending “to-do” list. Making it easy is really important!

And by looking at their home page, they make this very clear:

Not to mention, if you have ever used their service – everything from campaign creation to sending out your emails is really simple and clear.

Another example is Helzberg Diamonds. They are a little more subtle about their USP, but they definitely address “Why you should buy from them”.

For example they state free shipping on orders over $149:

Scroll down the page a little bit, and you’ll see some reassurances:

Certainly having 12,266 fans on Facebook doesn’t hurt their conversion rate, either.

What are the reasons customers should buy from you? Is it a money back guarantee? Free shipping? Find what yours are and make it clear.

2. They Test Their Calls-to-Actions

Hubspot featured a company on their blog that increased their conversions 105.9% by having a clear call-to-action that leads to a whitepaper. In this whitepaper, the company informs the visitor about the company & what they offer.

The company also made a more effective headline and used meaningful graphics to help guide the user.  Just these three changes led to more than doubling their conversion rate.

Mozilla increased downloads of their popular Firefox browser by having a stronger call-to-action. “Download Now – Free” performed better than “Try Firefox 3”. They made it clear that Firefox was free and called the viewer to download the program.

Proflowers is a site known for high conversion rates, with some estimates being around 40%. They make it really easy for customers who are in a hurry to buy flowers – they can start by simply picking a day they need the flowers by:
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ProFlowers eliminates any initial questions that the prospect may have. The prospect knows right away the answer to the question “can you get this to me by __?”  They’re helping to overcome any obstacles to a purchase. See if you can do something like Proflowers has done—answer one of your most popular questions in a clear, above the fold headline. If some obstacles to prospects purchasing from you are:

“I don’t feel comfortable purchasing from a small company like yours” – then some ideas to help overcome this fear could be:

  • Include a behind the scenes video of your company and how your operations work.
  • Include a banner at the top with customer testimonials, each one showing for a few seconds.
  • Give your unique value proposition right at the top. Tell how long you’ve been in business, how many orders you’ve shipped, customer satisfaction rate, etc.

How do you find out what questions your customers have?

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You should always be asking your customers questions to get their feedback. Understanding your customer’s pain points, confusion and what they are really looking for can help you design a site that converts higher. KISSinsights is a tool that allows you to do just that:

3. They Test Their Headlines

The headline can make or break your website, and possibly a sale. As mentioned in the intro, the first impression is formed quickly, and the headline is a big part of that impression. It’s important to test and see what resonates most with your visitors. There is no magic formula, but there are some good guidelines that you can follow.

37signals improved conversions of their Highrise product by 30% by having the headline “30-day Free Trial on All Accounts”. Their worst headline was “Start a HighRise Account”.

The key lesson from this is that it’s important to have a clear headline with a unique value proposition. “Start a HighRise Account” doesn’t tell of any benefit. They don’t give a reason why they should sign up now. Consider having adding free trial in your headline or try “Save __% and start [enter the benefit of your product here]”. The important thing is to test to see what works.

CityCliq improved their conversions by making a clear headline that tells the user what they’ll get. First, the tested headlines:

The winner:
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This is the best headline because it’s clear and avoids any language that you may find in your spam folder. Be creative with your headlines and inform the visitor of what you do or the benefits of your product.

One more tip: having a headline that addresses a pain point has in one case, increased conversions by 32%.

4. They Tend To Have Short Forms

Conversion expert Tim Ash recommends keeping forms to only the essentials. How many times have you been ready to sign up for something, continue and see 25+ fields that you have to fill in? I have many times and I’ll often just leave the site. It’s important to respect the users time. If you’ve gotten the user as far as wanting to sign up, it’s pivotal that you don’t let them drop off because your form is too long.

Take a look at Dropbox’s signup form:
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Dropbox is only asking for what they need. No username, no security questions, no birth date, no verification code, no re-enter password field, nothing unneeded.

For Proflowers, they don’t force you to signup before you order. If you’re a first time buyer, they’re not interrupting your buying process at all. You don’t have to create a new account; you have the option to do that after you make your purchase. Proflowers is removing any obstacles to ordering.

Building more concise forms is important.

Test the number of form fields!

Most conversion experts will agree that simplifying forms and making them clearer should be the direction you want to aim for when you ready to start iterating.
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Sometimes, having more fields can improve your form conversion rate. However, in general, fewer fields tend to produce better conversions (it depends on what your form is for). The point is: Don’t look for rules of thumb, test and find out for yourself!

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/what-converting-websites-do/

7 Content Marketing Strategies That Inspire Trust and Shares

7 Content Marketing Strategies That Inspire Trust and Shares

Some content tends to perform better than others, winning more shares and more conversions. Some content gets visited and shared over and over, bringing more and new people to your brand. In general, these are the pieces that convince people that your brand has worthwhile things to say and messages that they would like to share. How can you cultivate an online presence that reflects the values that win consumer confidence? Remember these guidelines when you are crafting your content marketing strategy:

  1. Demonstrate Your Expertise

One of the best ways to win potential customers’ trust is to show that, if they choose you, they will be in capable hands. Create content that shows that you are intimately familiar with your industry. Write posts about the latest best practices. Explain why one methodology is superior to another. Create a list article showcasing common mistakes and how to avoid them. These sorts of pieces show your prospects that you know what you are talking about and that you can be trusted to do well for them.

  1. Create Content That Answers Readers’ Needs

When people start looking through the content on your site, it is usually because they have a specific question that they want to be answered. Create content that can answer your prospects’ questions and can help them determine how to solve their dilemmas. For instance, it is likely that someone who is experiencing issues with her air conditioning is more likely to read up on common reasons for an air conditioner to stop blowing cool air before she starts trying to choose the HVAC company to come out and service her system. By being the one to answer her question, you have shown your expertise and willingness to help her with her issue.

People are more likely to trust a brand that offers answers to common questions in a straightforward and helpful way, without making the individual scroll through tons of content to find just the bit that they need. By giving your customers what they come to your site to find, you can make it more likely that, should they need a product or service, yours will be the one that they choose.

  1. Don’t Just Tell Them; Show Them

Make sure that you can back up any claims that you make. For instance, do not just say that you have the most competitive rates in your area. Create a chart or infographic that compares your rates to your competitors’. Back up claims of high customer satisfaction with quotes from testimonials from happy customers. An empty claim without anything to back it is likely to be ignored or, worse, to make the reader feel suspicious. If you are able to support every claim that you make with evidence, it shows that you are honest and that you are worthy of their trust and their business.

  1. Show Readers That You Are Listening

Online media is social in nature. We all have our soapboxes, whether our audience is a group of thousands or a small circle of family and friends. When you post online, you are engaging in a conversation. Show your prospects and customers that you listen as well as you speak.

Monitor your social channels for mentions of your brand. Read comments on your blogs. See what people are happy about and, more importantly, what they are not. When it is appropriate to do so, address customer concerns on your blog or your social networking channels. When people see that a brand is responsive, they are more likely to feel safe entrusting that brand with their business.

  1. Introduce Social Proof

When we see that others, whether they are people we personally know or not, have had a good experience with a brand, we are more likely to trust their words than the claims of the brand itself. Encourage users to leave reviews and quote these in your content when it is appropriate. These comments from real customers can make others feel more comfortable taking the plunge and doing business with your brand.

  1. Evoke Emotion

BuzzSumo analyzed 2015’s most viral posts on networks that included Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And, some of the most popular were those that contained some emotional element. People reacted positively to posts that involved heartwarming and positive stories about people. They also were likely to share stories that were controversial or shocking in some way.

When creating content for your business, think about the way a particular offering may make your readers feel. Are they likely to be intrigued or amused? Will they identify with people in a story? These sorts of reactions make your content offerings feel more relevant and personal. These are the types of stories that are likely to get comments and shares.

  1. Make It Personal

Does your brand work with individual consumers or small businesses? Are there any customers who say that your products or services have been beneficial to them in a major way? Do you have customers who are extraordinary in their own right? Consider creating video or blog content about those customers’ stories. Focusing on an individual gives people someone to relate to. They won’t necessarily see your product in your lives if you just give them a list of features. By showing how it has helped or enhanced someone’s day to day activities, you can help your customers see how your product can be of benefit to them.

When your content gets shared, you get your brand in front of potential customers who may not otherwise have seen it. And, you get the social proof that comes from a personal recommendation. Most people are extremely discerning when it comes to the content that they share. After all, that share is an implicit endorsement of what your content contains. By creating content that evokes interest and emotion while showing that your brand is worthy of their attention and their trust, you can increase your shares, build strong relationships and see the benefit of content that converts.

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: https://marketingtechblog.com/inspire-trust-sharing-content/

How to Stay Up-To-Date With the Latest Social Media Changes

How to Stay Up-To-Date With the Latest Social Media Changes

Do you struggle to keep up with the fast pace of social media? Are you often the last one in your team to find out about an important social media update or development?

Reading books on social media is a great way to develop your knowledge and skills, but with social media changing at warp speed, it’s perhaps not the best way to stay on top of all the latest news.

Trawling through the web to find out more is one option, but when there are 1000’s of sites to choose from and 100’s of other tasks on your to-do list, this isn’t necessarily the most practical use of your time.

In this post, we’ll look at 6 useful methods you should try to help keep up-to-date with all of the latest social media changes:

1. Check key social media sites

Create a list of key social media sites. You can develop this list over time by adding additional sources, or removing publications that are no longer valuable. Save each website on your list as a bookmark, so they’re even easier to access when you have a few minutes to spare.

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2. Set up Google Alerts

Instead of manually visiting sites, let the news come directly into your inbox with the help of Google Alerts.

Alerts are easy to set up – simply visit their site, sign in, enter your search term (e.g. social media), select the type of results you want to receive and the frequency with which you want to receive them, and how you want them to be delivered to you.

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3. Use a news aggregator tool

An even easier way to get updates is to use a news aggregator such as Feedly. Feedly enables you to get all of your industry news in one clear and simple tool.

Start by copying in the RSS feed URL of your favorite social media site. Once you’ve set this up, each new article from that publisher will appear in your Feedly dashboard. You can even set up your Google Alerts so that they go directly into Feedly too. Plus, you can read all of your content from your desktop, but also whilst you’re on the go via Feedly’s handy mobile app.

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4. Create a Twitter stream

Twitter’s a good way to find out the most up-to-date information. Search for keywords like ‘social media’ or ‘#socialmedia’ to find relevant results.

To make it even easier to check these keywords every day or every week, you can save your searches.

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Simply search for your chosen keywords, click on ‘More Options’ and ‘Save this search’. Next time you visit Twitter, click in the search bar and all of your saved searches will appear.

5. Build a Twitter list

Another way to use Twitter to stay up-to-date is by finding social media influencers and then adding them to a list.

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Each day or week, simply open the Twitter list and see what people have been saying.

6. Listen to a Podcast

Podcasts are another convenient way to stay up-to-date, and they’re becoming increasingly popular, with more and more people creating them.

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Find a good quality podcast and listen to it on a regular basis – programs like “The #AskGaryVee Show” are good. You can easily listen to them whilst on the go, such as during your daily commute or at the gym, which can also help save you time.

 

To provide the best possible result oriented solutions available we have created the following websites and divisions to work in unision and under the umbrella of RCS Technology Soltutions, LLC : RCS Online Solutions , RCS Digital Marketing, RCS SEO Solutions , RCS Website Solutions , The Best Website Company  , The Best Internet Marketing Company , RCS Managed IT Services, RCS Computer Solutions  Besides that we have dedicated services for Boston, Massachusetts as well including The Best Website Company Boston  & The Best SEO Company Boston . RCS Technology Solutions, LLC is powered by Digital Marketing and Website Expert Ronald Couming who has been  providing expert solutions for more than a decade. Please contact us with any questions or help regarding our services fees  at 001-978-606-5432 or email at info@rcstechnologysolutions.com

Author Link: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-stay-date-latest-social-media-changes