Archives for January 2018

You have created the perfect search engine optimization for your website. You have done everything right, everything you were supposed to do. But why are you not seeing any new traffic?

On average it takes between 6-9 months for SEO to begin to become effective. But you don’t have to just sit around and wait during that time, you can use Google Adwords!

1.Google Adwords

Skip the wait, Google Adwords will allow you to see a rise in the traffic on your site within one or two days! You will need to create a strong copy, a target audience, the correct bid, and proper optimization. Then you will be able to watch your targeted customers build up the traffic on your site.

Having a Facebook page is a great step for your business, but it can also take a year or even longer to build a strong presence on the social media site. Even after you build a following it can still be hard to reach new customers, unless you are using Facebook Ads!

2. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads not only allow you to become more visible, they allow you to be seen by your target audience. You get to choose your audience by location, age, gender, and interest. With these highly specific targeting tools, you no longer waste your advertising spending on people outside of your target audience. You can even send viewers straight to your website from the ad.

For more information on getting new traffic today visit us at http://icumarketplace.com

Are your competitors way ahead of you when it comes to getting leads? Ever wondered how they do that? How come their website ranks so high? Why do you keep seeing their ads at the top of the page? It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

There is something that you can do about it.

Interested?

What if I told you that you can find out what their keyword strategy is and simply adapting their techniques for your business?

Just think, you can then add their effective keywords to your existing keywords without doing any exhausting, time-consuming research. Easy!

It’s easy if you know where to look. Click on these links to start immediately:

https://www.spyfu.com/
https://semrush.com
https://keywordspy.com
http://keywordeye.co.uk

Contact us to learn more: johnny@johnnymurray.com

If you own a website, or even several websites, it’s a good idea you know and understand the design changes that have been happening over the last couple of years.

We’re talking about how a change in technology, and change in how people use your website, are directly affecting shifts in design.

Website design as it was a few years ago, has changed to meet a whole new type of user, mostly the mobile device user. In fact, mobile devices have changed the way many big company websites are designed, such as Apple and Microsoft, who made it far easier for their customers to navigate and find what they are looking for.

Many design changes seem to have been driven by mobile devices. In other words, these changes had to take place for mobile users to be able to navigate websites on small screens. If you want to see what we mean, find an old online website that isn’t designed for mobile use, and try to navigate it. If it has lots of menu items, and even menu dropdowns, you will find it unfriendly as you try to see those tiny buttons and find what you are looking for.

The changes that do make it easier, and give a great experience are things like; better use of negative space, using bold and expressive typography instead of heavy loading images that eat up bandwidth for the user, using cinemagraphs instead of static images or full blown videos.

There are some other cutting-edge design tricks like scroll triggered animation such as the new Mac Pro on Apple’s website.

Another thing you can do is create a website application hybrid. A good example for this would be Pinterest. When going to the Pinterest website, users are asked if they want to download the application because ‘Pinterest is best viewed with our application’. And applications are amazing because they can learn and react to each user’s preferences and styles. And of course, Facebook is also another example of taking the desktop website and converting it to an interactive application.

Other things like Intelligent Conversation Bots who can answer questions like: what your store hours are, or what your prices are. You would simply type in the URL where you want to go, and then have a conversation with a virtual helper on that website. It’s fairly high tech stuff that you will likely see more of soon. You will want to take advantage of these new design changes because they will ultimately drive more conversions, and you will have happier customers.

Want us to take a look at your website to see if it’s optimized for a great user experience no matter what device your visitors are using?

Contact us now at johnny@johnnymurray.com for an evaluation, and get your website fully optimized.

Make your business visible online, and you will get a larger share of customers.

Operating a small and local business doesn’t mean you cannot increase your customers and scale.

Get a Website. Don’t you have a website yet? Where have you been all this time? From plumbers to dentists, the local handyman to big engineering firms – they have websites. Your website will be your 24/7 storefront.

Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. You are increasingly using your mobile phone when searching for a product or service, right?

Get some Traffic with SEO. Many of your potential customers probably do not know that your business exists. However, when they go to Google searching for a product or service they need, which you offer, and finds you because you’re doing SEO — then bingo!

Make sure that your SEO is well-planned with a comprehensive blueprint to ensure ROI.

Get on Social Media. Many more of your potential customers may find you in social media. When a recent customer following you in social media likes or shares an article, a photo, or a video you posted, then that post will be visible to their friends – who might as well try out your product or service.

Become active on at least 4 social media channels. Your potential customers are actively using more than one.

Capture and Nurture. Capture your leads through an opt-in form on your website and nurture them through email marketing.

Be on top of mind all the time to your potential customers by constantly communicating with them through email. Once they need something you offer, boom, you got a customer.

There you have it. 4 simple steps.

Follow me, and we’ll guide you along the way. Contact Johnny Murray at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

Most small businesses and companies don’t think about online reviews and the impact they can have both positively and negatively on your business.

Some business owners are afraid to find no reviews, and some are afraid of finding bad reviews. These are definitely not reasons to ignore the power of review sites.

Business reviews are more important now than ever for several reasons. It might come as a surprise to find out that business reviews for some sites now show up in the top search engine results for that company.

For example, try doing a search such as reviews for ‘company name’ and look at the results. Review sites such Angie’s List, Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, and Better Business Bureau are going to show up at the top of the list due to the ranking power of a website that gets thousands of visitors leaving comments about ‘x-brand’ company.

Moreover, it’s clear that business reviews aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they are becoming more and more popular.

That is why it’s more important now than ever to get involved and build a presence in the online review community. These types of reviews are invaluable to any business for many different reasons. If you get good reviews, then you can look at those and see what you are doing right that makes your customers happy.

On the other hand, negative reviews can show you where you need to improve, and you can either defend yourself online if you’ve done nothing wrong, or you can make things right with an unhappy customer — which shows that you are accountable and genuine.

This builds trust and authority for your small business and also confidence in any future customers that might be looking at how you handle complaints.

The one thing that you don’t want is to have unmanaged online negative reviews without taking the necessary action. This will hurt your business.

Anyone knows that having a good reputation can drive conversions. And with so many businesses out there competing for business, it’s a good idea to manage your online reviews.

If you would like to know how to take control of your online reviews, and how to get started building your businesses trust and authority, then contact us and we’ll help get you started.

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

Are you getting a return on investment (ROI) on your search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns? You’re not alone if you’re not sure how to answer that question. Indeed, 40% of marketers say proving the ROI of their marketing activities is their biggest marketing challenge according to HubSpot.

But measuring the ROI of your SEO efforts is possible, and we’re here to help you do just that.

Here are 3 things that need to be in place in order to calculate ROI:

1. The right attribution model. Attribution models are the basis for allocating credit to each marketing channel. There is no right or wrong attribution model. Each one is different and comes with its own strengths. We’ll help you find the model that’s the best fit for your business.

2. Google Search Console and Google Analytics. You may already have these tools in place for your website(s), and if so, that’s a great start. GSC is a key SEO tool for capturing and understanding website metrics. And the data from Google Analytics (GA) or a comparable website analytics package is crucial for understanding ROI.

3. Marketing automation and CRM. These tools supplement website analytics data by providing data on individual buyers. This helps you ascertain the lifetime value of individual customers, which in turn help you determine the lifetime value of a particular marketing channel.

At ICU Marketing Associates, we understand that business owners like you don’t have the time to do all of this. We can help you get these important tracking tools in place.

Contact us today at johnny@johnnymurray.com to get started.

Anyone in business knows that positive reviews, whether by word-of-mouth or in the online world can be just as good if not at times a better way to get customers in the door than any marketing campaign.

Sometimes it may seem impossible to get the elusive 5-star review, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as it may seem. Here are 5 things you can do to make sure customers leave satisfied and more than happy to write a good review.

Manage expectations – Don’t take on more than you can handle, or you’ll have customers leaving disappointed. It’s okay to tell customers exactly what is within your means. Once they’re in the door, meet their expectations and then go above and beyond!

Walk the extra mile – Simple gestures can go a long way. Your customer expects exceptional service, show them that you can provide that and more. Make your customer feel special, and they will, in turn, tell everyone else how special your business is.

Ask, while it’s still hot! – If you know you have satisfied customers on your hands, don’t be afraid to ask for that 5-star review. You can do this in person, or by leaving reminders where your customers can see them. Remember to make it easy for them to leave a review – online or otherwise.

Want to know more about how you can make your business 5-star review worthy? Contact us
at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

Your website is a vital piece of your business, and we want you to have the most traffic possible going through it every day. That is why we put together these “Must-Haves” that you need to be checking on a regular basis in order to ensure you are gaining the most customers possible.

While working through this list we suggest pulling your website up next to this window so that you can properly analyze your site.

First, we will take a look at whether or not the website is correctly designed

Your website…

Must be user-friendly
Must set a clear path for customers to make a purchase
Must have trust signals
Name of the Business Owner
Address, Phone
Must have security
Use HTTPS or Secure Sockets Layer
Must have customer support contact information

Now let’s take a look at the answers that the customer is looking for when they get to your website. No matter what point the customer is in the buying process, they are going to have questions and concerns.

You need to have the answers to these questions readily available to them or they will quickly move on to another site that does.

Why should they buy from you?
What benefits your product/service will give to them?
What Features does it offer?
What are the technical details and specifications?
Where are the guides and tutorials?
Do you have any testimonials from real customers?

These are all things that you need to have on your website to ensure the steady flow of customers coming through your site. Even addressing one or two issues that you noticed while reviewing this list can have a major impact on the number of customers you see moving through your website.

If you need help redesigning your site, or creating a new one contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com

Do you recognize any of the following signs?

1. You’re not visible on search engines and if you are visible, no one clicks to visit your website.
2. If visitors do click through and visit your website, they leave almost immediately.
3. You’re getting clicks, and website visitors aren’t leaving your website, but they’re not buying anything!

Sound Familiar? I’m sure you’re asking, “What can I do?”

We can show you how. It’s all about understanding who your real customers are, their search behaviors, and the digital channels they use – and having the right product.

Luckily for us, Internet Marketing allows your potential customer to be matched with your
service to ensure that your product is the perfect one for them!

Here are additional tips:

1. Make sure you are doing SEO. This includes optimizing the titles and description of every page and optimizing your content to match the intent and context of the search.

2. It’s not just about getting potential customers to visit your website. You want them to become engaged with your content.

3. Your written content (the actual words/explanation/description of the product or service) is engaging, interesting. Relevant content will build trust and increase the probability of a visitor becoming a buyer.

So, know your audience, decide on your strategy and use the correct tactics. If you are unsure, seek advice. Shoot me us an email at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

LinkedIn has many marketing tools that can be used to grow your business. Using these tools to raise awareness for your business, its credibility, and its impact will put you on the path to building your brand in an organic way. Here is a brief guide on some of these tools and how they work.

LinkedIn Company Page

Catch the eye of your prospective customers with a Company Page. It should be a place where you can engage your target audience with things relevant to them such as links to your best white papers, e-books, case studies, how-to content and thought leadership content. Your Company Page should spread your company’s overall message by publishing content you know your target audience will want to see.

Showcase Pages

You love your business and think of many different parts of it as equally important in their own ways, but does your audience know that? Showcase pages are for creating a distinct platform for each aspect of your business that has its own message to share with its own target audience. By giving each part of your business its own distinct voice, you can extend your LinkedIn presence to reach the audience it needs to reach.

Long-form Posts

Should you go long on LinkedIn? The answer is yes! Publishing long-form content can position you as an expert and thought leader on the subject, giving your business credibility and authenticity. Another benefit to writing your own posts is giving a chance for like-minded professionals to interact and contribute while simultaneously spreading your message. If your post becomes a hot topic of discussion it will be a trending topic where it can be distributed and recommended to a much broader audience, giving you even further reach than before!

These tools and more are part of a larger LinkedIn toolbox that can help your business grow in an impactful way. Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com to learn more about how to use them!

Johnny Murray
ICU Marketing Associates