understanding online marketing basics and fundamentals

It's. Pretty easy to see the importance, in the value of building out your online presence with the majority of online marketing being self-service. It's easy to dive right in and honestly many, businesses, are in such a rush to take advantage, of the opportunity, that they fail to build out a proper strategy being. Digital for the sake of just having a presence in these channels is not the answer the key is to build out a dedicated, strategy, that results in a strong return on investment, without, investing, time in a strategy you're not only going to miss great opportunities, but you may find your business left behind because. Online marketing, is so broad it's easier to look at your strategy, as three distinct strategies that all share a common goal these, strategies cover, your business, your, customer, and your marketing now, I'll dig deeper into each of these in the next few movies and my goal is to help you develop a cohesive online, marketing strategy, and to do that you'll need to understand the plan for your business at a high level how you intend to be perceived by your market who, that market actually is how, your customers are using digital technology, and what channels you'll build into having. A clear and well thought out strategy keeps, you focused and, it serves as your roadmap as you explore new marketing, channels now, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Here every, business needs to create its own strategy and that makes sense if you're selling custom t-shirts, to sports fans online your plan will bear little resemblance to, a local restaurant your, strategy, will vary but the focus is always to create shared value and shared, value is when the goals of your customer, overlap, with the goals of your business, your entire marketing strategy, should be built with shared value in mind forget, for a moment that you're selling a product or a service and instead, adopt the mindset that your marketing and experience, so, as we look at our three distinct strategies I want you to focus on building each of them out with the idea that at the end of the day you, want to have a shared value experience and that experience will bring you positive, ROI. The. First of our three strategies, is your business strategy, and here, we want to identify the mission statement objectives. Your value proposition and the elevator pitch these, four elements help to focus our attention and they'll make it easier as we look at our customers and marketing, strategies but, before we get there we need to cross the basics off the list and these are is your business digital do, you have the right structure in place will, your online marketing efforts fit into your existing process.

And Do you have the time necessary, to maintain your strategy, we'll talk about the minimum effort required in each channel but you'll still need to know that you can maintain the day-to-day one. Of the big challenges of online marketing is keeping things up to date you. Can only plan an effective strategy if you have a clear understanding of your business from the start you need a big-picture view to determine which route makes the most sense and when you hit a hurdle you'll, need that big-picture view to, pick a new route that gets you to your destination so. Let's get back to building our business strategy, over, time you can refine your strategy, to find a way to hit the bullseye so. As I mentioned earlier we're, going to identify the mission, statement objectives. Your value proposition and, the elevator pitch okay. So we need to start by defining our, mission statement this one sentence, should summarize what we're trying to do it, can be vague but it should be able to stand up on its own you'll use your mission statement to keep everything, else in check, next. We should define at least three organizational. Objectives, and you can have more if you're so inclined these, should be the pieces, that are necessary, to keep the business running and to maintain your brand identity it can be anything from selling, product, to increasing, signups next. Identify, the value, proposition, of those objectives, why, do you stand out what, makes you unique why. Would someone choose you over your competitor, ideally. You'll select one or two value propositions, for each of your objectives, finally. Add your elevator, pitch your, pitch helps you think concisely online. Marketing has many channels that limit the amount of information you can communicate, so this is a great opportunity to practice thinking, in a concise manner so, pick and choose the elements that are specific, to your business going. Through this process will help you understand, who your business is and where, you want your online marketing efforts, to take you next. We'll be looking at how to add to the strategy with, our customer strata gee. So. At this point we've got a good understanding of our business but now we need to understand, who our customer is and where we'll find them with, our customer strategy, we're trying to do three things the, first is to reach the correct audience it would be a waste of time and advertising, spend to pursue the wrong audience the right audience will have the best return on investment, the, second, is to understand.

That Audience what it is that motivates them as it relates to our objectives, and finally. We want to understand, where we'll find that audience more specifically, what marketing channel we can leverage to connect them with now. When we talk about our online marketing audience we aren't referring to some special class of consumer, the, truth is the customers, that shop at a brick-and-mortar are the same people who will order from an online store the, major difference, however is that the digital customer, is in control they're, able to drill into a landscape, that is more niche and personalized, than ever before, this, means that when you go to identify, this audience you're blessed and cursed, at the same time you, have to be specific with, who you're targeting there's no street traffic to market broadly - each. View costs you time and money but because your audience expects niche you're, able to seek this ultra fine customer, out with ease unlike, marketing efforts of the past next. We need to put ourselves in, the mind of the target audience what are their goals what, are they looking to accomplish list. Each goal for that audience below it here, you want to identify what mediums, this audience is using is it, social, if so, what network is it, a blog are. They likely to be searching on Google or visiting, a particular, website from. Here we need to drill in and understand, our goals for each audience I'll be referring to these as our customer, segment so, we'll end up creating a new table to explore these segments, in detail for, each segment we need to understand four things first. What, is our business goal for this segment these, goals are likely a more granular version, of our overall business objective, second. What, is the shared value for this segment if you recall shared. Value is when the goals of your customer, overlap with the goals of your business next. We'll look at the key performance indicators, these, will be what you're measuring it could be how many units you'll sell or how many people visit your website last. We want to create a target, and this, target will be directly related to our key performance. Next. What we need to identify is, how our business goals line up with the goals of our consumer, so under each goal list, why the customer, is likely to see shared value, finally. Let's, create a target what are you trying to achieve your target, is directly, related to your KPI, so. Take your time and think through your core demographic the goals for each and what your final target is in the next video we'll take that information and, build a marketing strategy around it. Now. That we understand, our business and our customer, it's time to identify how, we're going to go about our online marketing each, strategy, builds, on the strategy, that precedes it and each time we get even more specific our. Marketing, strategy, will actually, be many individual, plans each, tailored, to one goal for an audience segment we specified, from, here we're going to look at the channels, we intend to market on and then develop a marketing idea for each of those marketing media's available, to us paid. Earned, and owned. Now. At this point you might not have a sense of all the channels available to you and that's okay take, an educated guess for now and then refine this plan as you continue through the course next, do, the same for your earned media because. This is our organic effort, we're really identifying, what we'd like to see happen we, might need to leverage the efforts in paid and owned to influence, our earned media finally. Make, note of what you can do with your own media as it relates to each channel this, might be as simple as posting on Facebook, or it might involve a complex, email campaign, remember. Online, marketing is an iterative process and you'll work to continuously, approve upon these ideas as you, build out a new audience new objectives, and new channels, you'll want to make sure you have your coverage, with your marketing strategy, it's, important, to be flexible as you, collect more and more data you'll be able to get closer and closer to your real targets you may also learn that your plan was too aggressive or, maybe it's even too conservative, there's, a lot to think about when you build your marketing strategy spend, time doing research to further understand, your business your, customer, and the marketing channels available to you you may choose to implement all of the strategies, available to you or you may choose to ignore a few both, are valid options, depending on what you're setting out to do all, in all your, marketing strategy, is the final piece of the puzzle build, it last and revisit, it often.

Throughout. This course I'll be using terminology, specific. To online marketing I'll review these terms and their definitions with, you now let's. Start with one of the most important, pieces of online marketing your call to action this, is an instruction, provided, to your audience as a way to provoke, a response calls. To action typically use a verb such as save now or by today you'll, find them in banner ads on website, landing pages and in social media posts, to name a few as you. Drive traffic to your site you'll encounter what's called the bounce rate and this is when a visitor arrives, to your website but leaves after visiting only one page they're. Said to have bounced and your, bounce rate is the percentage of these visitors and a bounce rate can apply to an entire web site or a single page now. The traffic that bounced had to come from somewhere, whether it was an advertisement, or an email you'll, want to be measuring your click-through rate as marketers. Will often, measure performance, by how many clicks an ad receives every. Time an advertisement. Is shown it counts, as an impression, and the, click-through rate is how many clicks were received in relation. To the amount of impressions, so. Let's shift gears now and look at the term abandonment. And this, is when a user does not complete, the goal you've intended, for them so, a user is following a particular path say to checkout from an ecommerce store or to complete an online form, for more information, and then they leave the process early in marketing. We aim to reduce that and that's what we call abandonment. As you. Begin to scale up your marketing efforts you'll encounter paid, advertising, and the term ad impression, each, time your advertisement. Is displayed, to a user it counts, as an impression, and impressions. Are often tied to frequency, frequency. Is the amount of time a single, user will see your advertisement, so if you had 10 impressions, of an ad with, a frequency of 2 then, 5 individual. People will have seen that advertisement, when. A user completes your goal whether, it's buying a product or downloading. An application they're, said to have converted, your, conversion, rate is the percentage of visitors who entered, into this experience and actually, completed the goal to. Understand, how a user converted, or when, we, need to use what's called a tracking, pixel and these, are tiny 1x1. Pixel images, that are installed on your website to track conversions website. Visits and add views, now advertising, only makes sense if it brings you a positive, return on investment, to discover that we'll look at our cost per acquisition you, may also hear this referred to as CPA or in some cases cost, per action this, is how much it costs you per goal completion, so, if you ran an advertisement, with the goal of getting an application, download and that ad cost you $100, then, if one person downloaded the app despite, the hundreds that clicked on it the cost per acquisition for, that single user would be $100.

That, CPA, will then be compared, to your lifetime, value, or LTV. Every. Customer has a value some, will buy once and never return others, will become repeat, buyers your. Lifetime, value, is a prediction, of the net profit attributed, to that relationship, typically. With paid advertisements. You want your cost per acquisition to, be lower than your lifetime value now, later we're going to talk more about banner, advertisements. And display, ads and here, I'll be referring to visual, images either static, or animated that. Are used to generate brand awareness or entice a user to click most. Banner or display advertisements, will contain a call to action now. When you've run these advertisements, or share an offer it's important, that the user arrives on a page that is specific, to your promotion, if you don't use one it's unlikely, they'll convert this, page they first arrive on is called the landing page and finally. Let's look at an organic result when. You conduct a search on say Google you have two types of results paid, results which, are typically the first couple, of links and a handful of links on the right sidebar and organic. Listings which are not paid and instead, achieve their rank through search engine optimization. Year. Over year more, and more marketing, opportunities, present themselves online, and this is because people are creating, and adopting new technologies and, exploring, new ideas the. Amount of options available to you as a marketer are almost, overwhelming. In this course we're going to explore the main components, of digital marketing but the concepts will scale to other areas it's. Important to keep in mind that your strategy does not need to include every available marketing, channel you may end up using a handful of the ones we discussed or you may find success in leveraging, other avenues, that are not part of these core components with. Such a wide array of choices it, is important, to evaluate which, channels make the most sense if you're, operating with limited resources you may need to prioritize, which channels you want to start with and on, the same vein if you're exploring a new channel it's a good idea to explore how it will impact your day to day so. To do that I like to evaluate each based on the effort required to build out the channel and the, value in doing so and from, there we can plot them on a matrix so, to show you what I mean let's, look at four areas, of our online marketing strategy, SEO, search. Marketing, social, media and video, so. The first thing we need to do is figure out what channel we're using for these areas so for SEO we're going to focus on Google for search, marketing, we'll use Google Adwords and with social media I'm going to start with Facebook and then for video we'll, use YouTube, so. Let's drop these four into a table next. We need to score the effort on a scale of 1 to 6 6, being the most amount of effort and 1 the least will, also score the value so which of these are likely to have the biggest return on investment, now, these scores are specific, to your business so, I'm going to just assign some numbers here as an example, now. That we have our scores let's, visualize how, we can spend our time and to, do that we'll create a 6 by 6 grid with, one axis for effort and one, for value since. We're using a scale of 1 to 6 we'll, mark each row and column with, a corresponding, number now. If we break these into 4 separate sections what, we have is a visualization. Of effort, versus value the, top left is low value low effort and the bottom right is high value high, effort taking. Our scores from the previous table we, can plot exactly, where these marketing channels land so, since I scored Google, a 5 for value and a 4 for F I'll place, that in the correct section I'll repeat. This process for Adwords, YouTube. And Facebook. With. The complete matrix it's easier, to decide how we'll spend our time start with things in the high-value high effort section and work, your way back around the matrix keep. In mind that just because something is high effort and low value, doesn't, mean it's not worth exploring. We're simply scoring these in relation to one another low, value could still mean a significant. Return on investment, it's just not as significant, as something, in the high value section. First. Of all search, is the number one source currently, used when making a decision to, purchase something this, comes from consumers, all the way up to high level business decision makers your, website's, visibility and search is likely the most valuable, real estate online.

Because, Searchers, are expressing intent and are of Anish they're an ideal target paid. Search is a key piece of today's digital landscape and the current leader to buy ads from is Google AdWords now, email was once the marketers dream a quality. Email list was extremely, valuable in the early 2000s, now it's still effective, but it has to be mobile almost, 50% of all emails are open on a mobile device so, the landscape has definitely, shifted with, mobile email the digital marketplace demands, a mobile website we're. Seeing a huge trend in marketing automation as, well these, concepts, involve automated, bidding based on results automatically. Remarketing, to people who visited your site and even, creating custom advertisements. Specific, to what a user was searching for automation. Will continue, to evolve or the next couple of years and it's likely going to stay a key component to the marketers toolkit, social. Media is still proving to be valuable for many brands there's been some pushback from the consumer, as it relates to advertisements. In social but this marketing style is still relatively, young and has room for improvement we'll, likely see social, advertising remain, very popular in today's landscape and finally. We're, in a mature stage of content marketing building. High-value content for audiences, is proving, to generate significant, ROI is for those doing it well users. Report interesting, content, as being one of the top three reasons they follow a brand now. Content, marketing might actually be in the early stages of reforming, more, and more consumers are becoming weary of sensational, headlines and may be responding, less effectively, to previously common techniques, such as top 10 lists and weird tricks to solve a certain problem now. It's important to stay in tune with the online marketing, landscape I recommend. That as new trends emerge test them out and see how they perform for your brand. Your. Website is an important piece of your digital marketing strategy, it may serve as a gateway to gather information or, the actual destination where, a sale takes place it's, an opportunity, for a visitor to discover what makes your brand unique to, find the information they're looking for and to guide them in their decision to buy you, may have all sorts of marketing campaigns running, ads on Google post on Facebook, blog, articles, all of it is bringing in new customers that, eventually end up on your website all of that attention on your website makes it one of the most valuable, pieces of digital real estate you own the, better your marketing the more visibility your website has online.

Consumers, Of today are fickle and that's because digital interactions, are so commonplace, so, users are spoiled, by companies, that are doing it well they're, used to things just working, and they expect that the information, they want will be available, and accurate when it's not they're disappointed, and credibility, is lost for whatever brand they're interacting, with the. Truth is if your website isn't good you're going to fall further and further behind as the landscape evolves and if your website doesn't work on mobile you're, already behind, chances. Are there's a competitor, with a better online experience, and your customers will seek them out if they're fumbling with yours so, let's talk about how to make sure that your experience is good enough it doesn't, need to be perfect it just has to be successful, an effective. Website is simple well-thought-out. And highly, functional it should, be intuitive and eliminate any and all barriers so your visitor can accomplish their goals effortlessly, in our, marketing strategy we're aiming for shared value, it's, the same with your website your, business goals and the needs of your target market should overlap and while, we're drawing similarities, to our marketing strategy I'll also point out that your website, only needs to appeal to your target market so spend your effort designing, it to work for that audience as you, evaluate your current website take some time to ask yourself the following questions. 1, is it, mobile-friendly, the, amount of people using, their mobile devices to browse the web is staggering, so design with mobile in mind now, later in this chapter we're going to talk about something called responsive, design and that will help give you some more ideas around, the topic of being mobile-friendly, now. The next question is does it load properly, in all modern web browsers, if your site looks one way on Safari, for Mac and another, way on Chrome for, see you're, not really controlling, the experience, test, it out on all of the modern browsers I recommend, browser staff calm as a way to quickly test your site across platforms, does. It answer all the questions my users have or may have now, a good practice, is to write down things your customers ask for via phone email or, even in your place of business you, can check to see if those answers are easily found on your website and if they're not then you should put that information, online, next. Is the site reflective, of my brand within, the first couple of seconds a user is going to decide how the site feels to them you, need to make sure your brand is carried through luxury. Brands need to feel elegant, whereas discount, sites can focus more on the current sales make, sure your logo, tagline. And the color scheme all reflect, your brand you definitely want things to be consistent, is it. Up-to-date nothing. Is worse than information, that's, out of date it, creates concern with users so be sure to keep information current, if you have a blog you should be using it weekly are. All of your services, and products. Easy to find because. Online marketing is so niche you're targeting audience, is likely looking for something specific can, they find it on your website if they, can't find it and they call and you say it's a service or product you do offer then, it needs to be on your site are all. Of your policies, easy to find that, is to say if you ship or handle returns can, a user understand, the process clearly will, they know how long shipping takes when. They can expect to call back or a product to arrive you, want to provide ample feedback, so a user knows where they stand in the process and finally. One, of the best criteria, for your site is how, does it compare to your competitor, are you proud or jealous, if you're jealous it's probably, time to seriously, consider whether, or not you need to patch up your website, leverage. Your relationships, with existing customers, and colleagues as a way to get feedback on your site ask them what they like what. They don't like and for any ideas, as you, go about creating an effective website I also recommend, hearing, from someone outside your circle check, out peak usertesting.com. For, no charge they'll have a real person spend five minutes on your site and give you honest and unbiased feedback, as I, said earlier your, website is possibly, the most valuable, piece of your digital marketing strategy, take your time and conduct an honest about you Asian. Having. The right domain name is essential, your, domain name is how your visitors find your website it appears on your print materials, and it's also shared both online and offline as your, brand recognition increases, a poorly.

Chosen Domain name will have a widespread, negative, impact on your online and offline efforts, a good, domain name is relevant, memorable. And usable, so, let's talk about relevant, your, domain name should be relevant, to your business typically. It'll be your business name but in some situations it can be a bit more broad if your, business name is too long you may need to creatively, shorten, it while still remaining on brand the. More relevant your domain name the better even, for SEO so, stick with what makes sense to your target market next. Make it memorable and you'll do that by keeping it short using simple terms and by selecting the most common, suffix now, what I'm talking about suffixes, I'm referring to com net, org. And today.com. Is, still King and most people instinctually, type, com, even, if you listed net, or org, it's. Ideal to always, have com, now some countries have specific, suffixes, such as MX, or Co, UK. Use, the one that is most widespread, in your region if you, have a difficult to spell or pronounce business, name you'll end up with a less than memorable, domain name instead. You'll want to try an alternative, domain name that still maintains, the feel of your brand and finally. The domain should be usable, if you're, adding in hyphens, or leveraging, prefixes, other than www. You might be hampering of visitors ability, to arrive at your website the, best domain names are short and free of special characters so, after, you select your domain name I recommend. Buying multiple. Variations and, suffixes, to prevent others from registering, them also if you're using a number in your domain it's not a bad idea to buy the version, with the numbers spelled out to, avoid any complications when, sharing a domain name through word-of-mouth if. Your domain name is unavailable, it might be worth contacting, a current owner to inquire about the cost of purchasing it if you, can't find their contact information, on their website you, can try denta fiying them by running what's called a who is this, will query the registered owner you'll, find the tools to do this at Whois net, or who dot is it's. Hard to change a domain name once you've got your marketing underway so evaluate, your options and make the best choice for your business. If. You're, not doing the work yourself or if you don't have the luxury of an in-house web team you'll want to bring in a professional to, help you build your site you might need a designer a developer, or even, both the, truth is there's an endless amount of options out there and it can be challenging to find the right fit the, number one complaint I hear from small businesses, is their inability to find designers, and developers that get the work done I'd, like to provide you with some ideas on how you can refine the list of potential resources to something manageable let's. Start by talking about graphic, designers not, all graphic designers, are web designers, and not all web designers have the skills necessary to, build something that meets your requirements as, you, look for a designer I would start by reviewing their website how does it look is it appealing to you you, are the target audience so if you find a designer that feels too edgy they're likely not going to produce the right result you, want a website that achieves, its goal if they've got an eye for good marketing it's a step in the right direction next. Look at their portfolio if, they don't have a portfolio that's. A red flag make. Note of the sites they worked on read through their comments, and then visit each of those sites and explore them I like to double-check the footer of each website to see if there's an attribution Lee more. Often than not I'll see, a link attributing, a different design firm and that raises a red flag as well I would. Also check out the recency of their portfolio, if you, visit a website in their portfolio, and it's completely redesigned, it could raise some questions now some, designers, aren't in a hurry to keep their portfolios, up to date so they could have conducted the redesign it's, good to see relevant, designs however the, more up-to-date the portfolio, the more likely that designer, is to be staying current with the latest trends, and techniques now.

Once You have a shortlist I'd review any online reviews you, can find and then reach out to the designer and ask if you can talk to a few of their current or former clients, talk, with your designer and ask them if they're familiar with responsive, design what, software they use to design their sites and ask if you can see some of the process, behind their current designs it's, really helpful to see a designer's thought process, if they're creating wireframes and, mock-ups, you'll have some assurance that you'll be part of an iterative process if. They seem hesitant they, could be buying prefabricated. Templates and not, putting much thought into it now not to say templates are bad they, can be very useful for low cost projects and as a way to build an initial foundation. Finally. Ask them to review your project and provide you with a quote and a timeline a short, turnaround and a low-cost bid might seem alluring but, I'd be weary get, a couple of proposals and compare, them good, designers, aren't inexpensive, the truth of the matter is good talent usually, knows what they're worth but, your website is so important, so it's worth a sizable investment you. Can take a look at behance comm dribble, calm and Elance calm for designers share, their portfolios, with your friends and colleagues to get a second opinion now. Looking for a developer can be an even bigger challenge the. Way your site is built will impact everything, from your usability to your SEO skimp. On development, and you're going to find yourself with costly, problems, in the long run it's. Usually easy to get a sense of what you like in a designer but, if you're not familiar with programming it can feel impossible, to really vet them out start. The same way as you did with the designer take, a look at the projects they've worked on interact, with the websites check the sites on mobile, and in various browsers, you're looking to see if the experience is fluid and smooth, review. The websites to see if they comply with web standards and you can conduct a search for that at validator. W3.org. You're. Looking for a low number of errors a few is fine but a handful, might indicate some problems, some, developers, might have a handful of errors because their clients are using old frameworks, or they're not interested, in paying for fixes, in that case check the website of the developer, it should, be a solid representation, of their talent next. I like to run the site's through Google PageSpeed insights. You're, looking for scores at least in the high 70s if you see something low make, note and use, that as a conversation. Point with the developer ask them if they know why one of the sites in their portfolio, is poorly optimized, and get a sense of how they might approach the problem, it's. Also a great idea to, ask the developer, if they're contributing in any public repositories.

You Can ask to see their bitbucket, account and review their activity, someone, who is leveraging, the latest technology, and using repositories. Might be a step ahead of the others and just, as you did with your designer check reviews you, can look at sites like oDesk and Elance for programmers but, know that a good review doesn't, necessarily equate to good code there, are many agencies overseas. That can crank out great customer, service and a functional, product but leave a tangled, mess of code that just becomes difficult to deal with later again. Ask, your developer for a quote and a timeline and shop around a mid-range. Web developer, will likely cost you between 40, to 80 dollars an hour with, high-end development agencies charging in the range of a hundred to, $150, an hour I can't. Stress the importance of having good development talent working on your project I locate. Plenty of time for your website project the best results come with the ability to review things conduct, research and work, alongside the team building your digital real estate. Every. Website has a goal it could be to distribute information capture. An email address or sell a product, there's a reason you're putting an effort into online marketing your, goal is for your visitor to take some sort of action after they land on your website now. Depending on your audience you'll have between 2 and 6 seconds to convince them to stay once they've arrived what, happens is these visitors will click take, a glance and then bounce from your site if they're not interested, so ideally. You're driving, this traffic to a specific, landing page having. Specific destinations. Allows you to reinforce, the decision to click provide, an attention-grabbing, visual, or headline and frame, the information, in a way that helps you achieve your goal now, some new visitors will inevitably arrive, on your homepage and that's ok but, it's important, to avoid campaigns, that drive visitors directly, to your homepage it's, the least conversion, friendly page on your website since it tends to be fairly broad the. Key to making your website convert, is to build goal specific, landing pages these, landing pages come in a few varieties but I'm going to focus on the four most common types teaser. Pages, squeeze, pages, infomercials. And viral, pages these, are all ones you've likely encountered, as you've browsed the web the. First is a teaser page the, objective, of a teaser page is to give your visitor just enough, information to, get them to click through to the next step of your process teaser. Pages are useful for products, that are nearing launch by, creating anticipation, and excitement you. Can convince the visitor to take an action such as providing an email address or even pre-ordering. You. Can also use these pages to tease out any unqualified. Leads if you have a special product for a select audience you, can leverage teaser pages, to ask them questions one step at a time slowly, revealing, more about your product or offering, depending, on the answers next. We have the squeeze page the. Goal of the squeeze page is to capture content and qualifying. Lead information, typically. A visitor exchanges, their contact, information for, something of moderate value say a webinar ebook. Or an exclusive, discount the. Lead information, can be as simple as an email or as complex, as four or five pre qualifying, questions a good. Squeeze page keeps the message above the fold stays on target and has a strong enough value to be effective. Let's move on to the viral landing page the. Goal of this page is to invite your customers, to enlist their friends, you might have a reward, that is earned through a number of shares for, example for each friend who signs up you'll get a $5 credit your.

Viral Landing page might include a funny video or an infographic, now. Finally, we have the infomercial. Page these, are typically designed in the same style as an infomercial you'd see on TV the, idea is one page typically, a long page and you'll share all the information about the product what it is how, it works its benefits, testimonials, and a special offer if you buy it today. Infomercial. Pages are effective, at driving sales, for certain products and are typically used by affiliate, marketers when running large campaigns, to. Build your landing page select, the right type and then focus on these five things you, want to define the goal what needs to happen what. Information, from the user do you need to accomplish that goal their email phone, number credit, card, outline. What the user needs to do do, they need to fill out a form invite, a friend and so, on what. Information, does the user need to be convinced, what, is of shared value to them and finally. How, will you track the results it's. Important, to make sure your landing page has your logo an, explanation of the offer a very, compelling headline related. Testimonials, and links to reviews along, with a strong call-to-action. After. You build your landing page or if you already have pages, on your site executing, these goals it's, important, to continuously, improve them, when. Someone starts by clicking on your link maybe fills out the first page but then never enters their credit card they've abandoned, you, want to fix abandonment, by finding, the pain point and we'll talk more on this later when we get into conversion funnels but here's why this is important if you, fix conversions, you can increase your revenue, without having to increase your traffic so. 10,000, visitors at a 1 percent conversion rate would, equal 100, sales and 10,000. Visitors at a 3 percent conversion rate well that's 300 sales so, focus, on keeping your landing pages concise, just, the right amount of information necessary to, get the job done make, sure you add confidence. To your visitors by linking to your email policy having, a valid SSL certificate, and including, your contact, information directly. On the page there. Are many other ways to improve the conversion, on your website obviously, not every page can be a landing page but landing pages allow you to build isolated, tests and you can then apply those learnings to the rest of your website. Here's. The reality, people just don't read on the internet they scan they'll, jump from a headline to an image and then scan a few bullet points this. Means when it comes to the copy on your website less, is more and with, less words to work with it's important that you make each one count will. Call all the text on your website copy, now I'm not going to be discussing blog articles, that's, a whole different beast for now we're going to focus on your web copy, writing. Engaging web copy starts, with knowing your audience your, writing specifically, for them and no one else you, need to deliver your information, in a way that meets their needs and you have to be mindful of the fact that for whatever reason they're, likely in a hurry to find that information the.

Goal Is to write great copy not just content it's different so, as you approach your project, start by getting rid of any long introductions, and word heavy descriptions, stick, to clear concise, and punctual, copy use, clever headings, to your advantage and break up your text with bullet points building, on topic, and relevant content will not only help your users but it'll help you out as you work to rank in the search engines as well one. Thing I see often is pages, that put their headline as about us or contact us for the page you're on now, those are helpful in the title or the breadcrumb, but save that heading space for something captivating. And attention-grabbing. Especially. On your landing pages as you. Move into the content, deliver, the most important, points of your story first and then, add the supporting details as you go this, way if the user stops reading early they've got a gist of what you're trying to say now. Before, you get started look at each page of your website and answer these questions, who, will read this copy. Why. Are they reading this. What. Should they feel when they read this page. What. Am I trying to accomplish with this copy and, what. Benefit, and feature do I need them to really understand. Use. These answers to build your first draft save, it and then write it again with half as many words compare. The two and only, add back in what you need to reinforce the points that are lacking now. At some point you might decide it's a good idea to hire a professional copywriter I can't, stress the importance of good copy enough this, is a worthwhile investment if, you aren't able to spend the time to, refine your own copywriting, skills when. You look for a copywriter, read through their work copywriters. Often, write in specific, niches and while they're happy to adjust their tone and style for your needs it's, often better to find someone who understands, your audience a, copywriter. Should be invited into the project at the beginning this. Way they can gather all the facts understand. The challenges ahead and build, you exactly, what you need you, can utilize a copywriter, to write slogans add ideas, entire, websites, or focused, landing page copy most. Work on a daily or half daily rate and expect, to pay anywhere from 600. To 800 dollars per day right, with the approach of connecting, your audience to your business convincing, them to take the next step and affirming, their conversion. Over. The past few years we've seen impressive, growth of tablets, and smartphones all coming, with different screen sizes it, would be an incredible amount of effort to build the design for each screen size and then try to keep up with new devices on top of it that's, where responsive, web design comes, in this, approach allows your site to be adaptive, the page responds, automatically, based on the screen size and even, the orientation, a user is viewing it in it, works because a responsive, website is designed around building, blocks these blocks can break and collapse, under one another stretch, and shrink and even, adjust the font sizes and image sizes based on the available screen real estate what's, great is that the same code is served to all the devices you won't need to build multiple code bases, you'll instead rely on your style sheets to handle the scaling, advanced. Responsive, design can even adjust elements, on the page adding, an additional content, or removing, it based on the view you'll. Have to decide if responsive, design makes sense for your business personally. I'd lean heavily towards making the investment, in this style of web development it's, almost a necessity if you want to compete in today's digital marketplace. It'll. Help future-proof your brand and it'll give you amazing flexibility. As you expand your marketing and improve your customers experience, as they, interact with your site from various devices, now. Responsive, design sounds, relatively simple but it's a fairly complex, endeavor if you've, built your website on a framework or a paid template, you might be able to find an update that includes, responsive, elements if you, have a more complex project, including, say ecommerce, websites, it's, probably, best to enlist the help of a professional use. Responsive, design as a tool not a cure-all fix, you'll still need to take usability, into consideration, and that might mean changing, certain interactions, on your website to accommodate, a responsive, experience. The. Data you collect on your website your campaigns, and your social media efforts will determine the overall health of your digital marketing the, data is your map without, it you're flying blind you'll.

Be Using your data to improve your experience listen. For untapped opportunities. And pull, the plug if you have to on any failing, ideas the, amazing thing with digital marketing is we can track just about every, action a user takes there, are a number of tools available that, help marketers understand, both the qualitative, and the quantitative. We, can track what's happening now and even, model, what is likely to happen in the future let's. Dig a little deeper, into measuring, data by, looking at how we can capture data within our three media's paid, owned, and earn so. The easiest place to start is with your own website, here, you can track how many visitors where they're coming from what pages they're visiting how long they've stayed and even. What page they left from by. Reviewing your analytics, you'll get a sense of how your users found your site if they're finding what they want and if you're advertising objectives. Are driving, a meaningful amount of traffic with. A resource like Google Analytics you'll install a tracking code on every page on your website from, there you'll have a goldmine, of data to leverage segment, and correlate, for, example if you made a change to your website design and noticed, on that day web traffic dropped dramatically, you'll, have a sense of where to start looking for the problem if, you roll out a new landing page you might see an increase in conversions, resulting, from that specific page or you, may see a sudden spike in traffic and by drilling into it you can identify the source say a social media post or a mention, or even an online blog now. You're paid analytics, are typically, tied to a reporting platform provided. By the tool you're using to, run those ads this, data is extremely useful as it can give you granular, details, on which ads are working what, targeting, makes sense and more however. You'll want to track as much data as you can in another tracking, tool independent. Of that provider this, way you can check the accuracy and evaluate, things from different perspectives, this, is important, because more, often than not the, way your platform, will report conversions, is different, than how you report, them and this, works by installing a small pixel, on your conversion page which, informs, the platform, that a sale happen, so if you have an advertisement, on Facebook for example driving, traffic to your landing page, you'll, want to use campaign, tracking tags or goal, tracking in Google Analytics and the, Facebook advertising dashboard, simultaneously.

This. Way you can compare the data identify. Any discrepancies and test, if your conversion, pixel is actually, working now. The final part of our measurement, will come from earned media and, this one is typically the most difficult, here, your outcomes, aren't necessarily, determined, by spend but, how interesting, people think your product and services are here. You're tracking things like your social media fanbase mentions. And interactions, on tweets and video, views on YouTube, you, may have many dashboards, that you collect this data in and you'll want to look at it alongside all your other advertising, metrics, the, best way to measure results, with earned media is to have your own goals and objectives, that you can measure against, so if for example you decide that 10,000. Facebook fans would, increase your revenue potential by $1,000, then, you can track how you're trending towards that goal and the, effort you're investing, there's, an endless amount of data providers, out there investigate. Them against your needs and keep a system in place that provides, you with the necessary checks, and balances. I. Find. Interpreting, your data becomes easier and more meaningful if you understand, the pieces that make data collection, possible, every. Action you take on the web is tracked one way or another the, pages you view the files you download, and even demographic, and interest data can be recorded and this, data is captured through, the use of what are called cookies, and pixels. A cookie. Is a small file that a website stores, on your computer this, file might contain the pages, you visited and when a unique, identifier, and even, if you're authorized, to view certain logged in content, typically. A cookie doesn't have much identifying, information, the website itself will store its own corresponding. File and match, your cookie ID to, the records on the server and this, is useful for knowing whether a visitor is returning, for the second time how, long between visits and even, what advertisements. They've clicked into speaking. Of advertising, ad platforms. Such as Facebook Atlas or Google Adsense use, cookies to identify, the same user as they browse the web so, you might see an ad from Google on the New York Times and then another ad from them while you're browsing a food blog as you. Continue to browse the web and load advertisements. From the same publisher they'll, see a list of the type of sites you visit and how you interact with these ads this, information, can then be used to sell ads that you're likely to engage with so.

Beyond Cookies we have the tracking pixel and a, tracking pixel stores, information, on your web server not, your computer a pixel. Is really just a 1 by 1 transparent image. And they're often used to see if users convert after visiting a particular ad here's. How they work the server, stores a small file call, it pixel gif and every. Time the server asks for the file it's going to log that request now, instead of just asking for pixel gif will, instead add custom, variables, to the requests a pixel, gif question mark ID equals, one two three and so on and so forth, the, server will be successful. In delivering the image because all that extra text is irrelevant so the user won't see any issues but, it does keep a log of that unique URL and it, can use those variables to then match that transaction. Back to a particular user or advertising. Event to, put this another way let's say you click on an ad to buy movie tickets as soon, as you click you're going to receive a cookie the. Cookie will include in formation on the time where, you clicked what banner was clicked and so on now. At this point the advertising, platform knows that the ad received, an impression, and a click but it has no record of the sale so, now let's say you continue, on and buy those tickets on the confirmation. Page the website is going to read the cookie on your computer, pull, the information from it and send, it back to the server through the conversion pixel and, now the advertising, platform will, connect the dots and indicate. A sale for that ad we'll, talk more about how these sales are attributed later there's, some other factors such as how long it's been since the click if the, click came directly from the last click or maybe if a user saw an advertisement. And purchase, without actually clicking but, again more on that later I could. Go deeper and deeper into the technical aspects, of how cookies and pixels work but the truth of the matter is you, really don't need to know all the nuances with. This high level overview you'll be able to make sure yours are set up properly and tracking, the right information. Conversion. Funnels helped us see the sales process or the specific, route a user takes to arrive at a sale they're, a visual, representation, of, each step of the process and they can be fairly generic referencing. Sales in general it's, white at the top because that's where most of our users are in the process and narrow, at the bottom because we lose people at each step in the process which, is shown through the use of the arrows on the edges of the funnel funnels. Actually come in all shapes and sizes a perfect. 100 percent conversion funnel would look like a straight cylinder a typical. Funnel is really wide at the top and very narrow at the bottom a well. Optimized, funnel has a more gradual, shape suggesting. Very limited, abandonment, and poorly. Optimized funnels might have bulges, or aggressive, drop-off indicating, an issue your. Online marketing funnel will be specific, so we wouldn't track things so broadly instead. Our funnel for a shopping, cart might be product, page at the top payment. Form in the middle and completion. As the last step there. We could track how many visitors saw our product page versus, how many completed, the sale in this, example a visualized, funnel will show what steps might cause problems if people, aren't reaching the payment page or if we have high abandonment, right before checkout we have a problem you'll. Use your funnel to test page variations, the copy and language use and even, identified bugs or browser issues with. Google Analytics we can create our own visual, funnels now, once there's data in this section you'll, be able to see how many people come in how. Many people exit, on this particular step, and how, many move on to. The next step in the flow this. Helps you identify where issues exist if we notice that a lot of people are making it to the payment page but, then abandoning, we'd, know that we need to optimize the, payment page perhaps, there's an issue with that page the way that we're asking for data maybe, the page itself is broken maybe we don't have a security certificate maybe people are concerned about their information but we'd identify, that something is happening that prevents, people from finalizing.

That Goal now. Keep in mind Google, Analytics, doesn't calculate funnels. Retroactive, Lee so you need to set them up from the start and the, data will then start collecting, into, that funnel moving, forward. Your. Analytics, will have all the information of what's going on across your marketing channels but, your KPIs will refine that information, to give you a clearer view of how you're performing the. KPIs, will help tell the story of how your online marketing is doing at a glance if, you don't have them you'll be overwhelmed with the amount of data available to you by, monitoring your KPIs you'll see what's working what's, not and what is impacting, something else when. You go about creating your KPIs make, sure they are aligned to your business goals they need to be measurable and easy to understand so good KPI might be increased, traffic five percent month-over-month. Whereas, a bad KPI, would be increased, traffic each month, if. You don't have a quantifiable, goal it's not easy to interpret the results sure. You might be satisfied, with growing traffic but, if you're only growing by a few visits per month you've got a problem and that problem wouldn't, be visible if your KP I got a checkmark because, it was simply to increase traffic you. Want your KPIs to be tied to your marketing objectives because, then they are influenced, by your effort they'll, let you know when to celebrate, and when to make something better so, for example if you're, running an advertisement. As a test to see if you can get acquisition. Costs, at an acceptable level you, might want a KPI that says achieve. A $40, CPA if you, went with achieve, a hundred sales you'll, be focusing on measuring something you're not actually trying to achieve you could succeed at that $40, CPA and then scale your KPI to be generate 100, sales per month at a $40 cost per acquisition to. Help get you started here's, some items to consider creating a KPI around for. Online sales look at your conversion, rate and the cost per acquisition for. Broader marketing objectives, set a KPI for total revenue and even, the ratio of new to returning visitors if you're, using a landing page set, a bounce rate KPI this. Way you can identify if, your inbound traffic isn't targeted, enough as you. Consider your KPIs do yourself a favor and avoid worrying, about things that aren't impacting, your bottom line pageviews. Might be impressive, but only if they're actually, driving revenue I track. Business and marketing KPIs, with an Excel spreadsheet but, you can also look at software from Geckoboard calm, or safecom. To, build out KPI, dashboards, giving you at a glance information. Take your time and pick the metrics that are relevant to you and organize, them in a way that makes sense for your business. A, lot. Of online marketing, revolves, around encouraging, a direct response from a prospective customer will, show them an advertisement. A tweet or a special offer via email and measure, success based on the click and subsequent, conversion this. Is what is referred to as last click attribution the. Entire value, of the customers conversion, is placed on the marketing channel or campaign, that delivered the customer last. Click attribution is, easy to measure because it involves a very clear, process the user takes however. This is a really flawed method, we, know that customers take a much larger journey they might see an email then read through a few brand tweets check reviews online and, compare, prices prior, to purchasing add offline. Influences, and second, screen interactions, on mobile or tablet devices, and you, can see how attributing, all the value to a single source isn't, going to cover it so. What do we do from here truthfully. It's an iterative process unique. To each brand so, you start with your last click wins and then, apply some weight to your other attributions. Your view-through conversions a view. Through can be measured when an advertising, platform places, a cookie, when a user receives your ad impression, now, if they don't click but, later come to your site and buy your product then it'll be tracked as a view through but. Not all ad impressions, are single-handedly delivering. Sales again, there might be social media or search playing a role as well but. Applying some weight to view-through, conversions will, help balance the attribution, model even further with. Your paid advertising, you, might adjust the view through conversion by reducing, the window of time that you'll accept the sale as being attributed to an ad impression, some, brands might be willing to accept the idea that a 30-day, window is reasonable, while others might prefer a much shorter time period be, sure to review your cookie durations, with any paid advertising that you're conducting as with.

Most Everything in marketing the idea is test optimize. And test again you might notice patterns emerge where you're taking a loss on your search marketing, that is to say your, cost per acquisition on, a last click attribution is. Higher than anticipated but. If you stop your search marketing, you, can see that your display advertising, suffer, significantly, this. Might suggest people see your banner ad search, for your brand and click, on your paid result if, your banner. It was relatively, inexpensive. Your attribution. Model might allow you to share some of the costs, making both campaigns pencil, out in the green you. Can boil attribution. Models down and do a wholesome, model or a fractional, model so, in a wholesome approach you'll give all the credit to last, click or first click in a, fractional, model you'll spread that attribution, out and give credit to certain, channels that might only be assisting, on the final decision there. Are many ways to build out your attribution, models you can track the metrics individually, in Excel and make comparisons between each channel there, are also third-party attribution. Tools or if you're using Google Premium you can modify your attribution, on-the-fly now. If you're not on premium you can still get a good idea of various attribute models by using multi-channel, funnels, this way you can start seeing which channels, are actually, bringing in the most revenue and drive, your efforts, in that direction or, you, can identify which. Channels aren't driving a lot of value and see if you can work on those channels to increase their value it's. Important, to understand. How, you're attributing your sales so, don't pull the plug too early on, various marketing efforts instead use this data to see if you can identify why. Or why not various. Sources are working now your model might change so continue, to keep tabs on this data and look, to, see if any patterns, emerge. Search. Engine optimization is, all about impacting, how visible your website is in a search engines organic, results you'll, be making changes to your site's technical, setup as well as the content, on the page in an effort to improve rank to. Better understand, optimization, let's start by looking at how search engines work a company. Like Google will have a bot basically. A software program that crawls, the web it does, this by following links and, links from your site to other pages on your site and even links from one site to another the. Crawler arrives, at a page reads. The code and stores. The information, that. Stored information is, called the index and your initial goal is to get indexed, by Google if your indexed, you'll rank and you might not rank well but, you have the potential for ranking and when, I talk about rank I'm referring, to which position, you appear in for a particular search query so.

When You enter a search term Google, will do its best to provide the most important, and relevant answers, and then rank them from best to worst the. Better Google is at their job the more likely you are to use them and the more money they make so, it's in Google's best interest to deliver the best content, and because, Google drives a mind-boggling. Amount of traffic each day it's in your best interest to rank well for relevant, terms and rank. Is determined, by importance, and relevance, a, complex. Algorithm, turns, through hundreds, of variables to decide where your page lands many, of those variables, are what you're aiming to optimize these. Variables, might include the topics, you're writing about who, is linking to your page how, your website is programmed, and even, if your mobile-friendly, Google. Even evaluates, the quality of the pages that are linking to you if they're, on brand relevant, and popular it's. Going to assume you're more credible, than if off-topic unpopular. Pages are linking, to your content, variables. That you can't control might include where a user is searching from, trending, topics and any, current events that could skew results, SEO. Done well can provide an impressive, ROI done, poorly and it will negatively impact your organic search efforts, in this, chapter we'll dig into the fundamentals, of good SEO and how you can improve the chances that your page ranks well. Truthfully. SEO is an ongoing effort. There isn't one specific. Tactic you can implement at the start to succeed at the race it'll, require many factors, to be evaluated. Tweaked and then refined with, that said there's, still a handful, of variables that are absolutely, essential to your success, I'm going, to focus on these key areas for now to give you a solid foundation for, your continued effort so. First off search, engines are built around their ability to index pages so it's very important, that your site is accessible to crawlers, and that crawlers, can get to every page on your site search. Engines love text it's the easiest for them to parse if your site is built in flash you're, going to have trouble with SEO if, you're using images, in place of text you too will have a problem search. Engines also love clicking links if you've, got your links tucked into a custom, JavaScript, navigation, your, crawl ability, might be impaired so, as you look at your site make sure you have at least one regular, text-based, hyperlink, to every page on your site it's. Usually best to build a flat site hierarchy versus, a deep site hierarchy and to help understand this let's look at a flat hierarchy there. Are exceptions to every rule in some, situations, there are simply too many categories, to show them all at one level in other cases showing, specific, topics too soon will just confus

2018-09-24 14:34

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