Archives for January 2019

Today’s customers are not only sticking with one social media site. Your target audience is active on many different sites every single day. Actually here are some statistics from a recent study that show just that:

– 28% are on 1 site
– 24% are on 2 sites
– 16% are on 3 sites
– 8% are on 4 sites
– 4% are on 5 sites

Now that you know that your potential new customer is constantly using multiple social media channels, what does that mean for you?

It means that you also need to be visible to them on multiple social media websites! But how are you supposed to know which channel is right for you?

Here is a breakdown of who is using each of the top social media channels according to Pew Internet Research:

Facebook:

– 82% of online adults between 18-29
– 72% of all adult internet users
– 62% of the whole adult population
– Especially popular with women

LinkedIn:

– 25% of adult internet users
– 46% of online adults who are college graduates use LinkedIn
– Popular with those with high household incomes

Twitter:

– 23% of all internet users
– 30% of online adults under 50
– Most common in urban areas

These statistics show that you could have access to many new customers by simply expanding your social media presence to other networks. We strongly urge you to add your business to more social media sites so that you can begin reaching more of your target audience today!

If you have any questions or want more information on social media marketing visit http://icumarketplace.com or reach out to us at 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.

It seems that in social media lists, LinkedIn is always thrown at the end as another, lesser, option to the bigger sites.

However, if you are looking to make B2B connections and grow your leads there is no more effective social media platform than LinkedIn!

Unlike the other social media channels out there, LinkedIn was specifically designed for business leaders to share ideas and make connections.

Studies have shown:

1) 92% of B2B Marketers leverage LinkedIn over all other social platforms.
2) 79% of B2B Marketers view LinkedIn as an effective source for generating B2B leads.
3) 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
4) 43% of marketers say that they have sourced a customer from LinkedIn.

So hopefully those statistics have pointed out to you why using LinkedIn is an effective choice for your business. Now, let’s focus on how you can best utilize the site.

Just showing up to the party isn’t enough, you are going to have to enter the conversation. In order to do that your company needs to begin posting engaging content for your target decision makers to read and share. Here are three points for you to think about regarding LinkedIn content:

1) 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content

Businesses are sharing tons information with one another and making connections. It is time for you to join in and boost your visibility by posting useful content for your future customers.

2) 10 pieces of content are consumed before a purchasing decision is made.

People are constantly taking in information and researching before buying, especially on LinkedIn. Now through the content you post, your business has a direct way to speak into their decision-making process.

3. LinkedIn SlideShare reaches 70M unique visitors a month.

The site is now among the top 100 most-visited websites in the world. The audience is already right there for you to reach out to!

We are ready and willing to help you create and post content that is going to make valuable connections and grow your business!

Contact us today at johnny@johnnymurray.com

Your social media marketing initiatives must be built on building a dialogue, where YOU speak and listen to your audience and responding to their wants and needs.

Get them to talk. Then so can you listen and respond.

Is your brand into monologues in social media?

It should NOT be that way. You should take the time to listen and respond to your audience. A two-way conversation helps you connect your brand with potential and existing customers on a human level.

Conversations give your brand a personality attracting more potential customers.

Much like in real-world social interactions, a conversation on social media must be two-way. Don’t you agree?

Here are a few tips:

Ask questions. Be genuine about wanting to learn more about them.

Ask about their accomplishments
Ask about their challenges
Ask about their ideal customer
Ask how you could help them

When they respond:

Ask more questions
Answer their questions
Respond to comments
Give compliments
Acknowledge compliments
Address complaints

If you’re not doing this yet, don’t you think it’s worth a try?

Johnny Murray
johnny@johnnymurray.com

There are many things you can do to get more traffic to your door.

One of the things that are surprising is that many local physical businesses don’t have, or don’t think they need local SEO, such as getting listed on major local business listings.

Not having some type of online presence is a big mistake for companies. Take into consideration that more people are closely connected to their mobile devices more than ever.

People use their smartphones to do everything from ordering pizza, to finding out who has the best price on the car part they suddenly need. And while this is just a small example, you may or may not be surprised that many people go online to check to see if a business has what they need, what the prices are, if they are currently open.

They do these things before deciding to drop by a store!

There are many things that a local physical business can start doing besides having a website online so that they can be found easily by new prospective customers. Getting yourself listed on Google My Business is free, and the page is likely to get indexed very quickly since it is Google.

The next best thing to do is get listed on local directories and review sites. Many people are using these sites to check business reviews and will be able to find your business quickly.

Some other things that you want to be sure to do are building links from local news sources, establishing partnerships with other businesses and of course, utilizing search engine optimization using locally targeted keywords which very well could be easy to rank for.

If all this sounds great to you, and you need more information on how to get started, then contact us now, and we can help you get your business in the important places that matter most and help increase your foot traffic.

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

When it comes to remarketing, some businesses have no idea what it means, or the benefits that it can bring by getting visitors (who left your website empty-handed) back to your website and purchasing what they were looking for.

It is important for a business to take every advantage that there is to convert a potential customer or client into a happy and satisfied customer. But this isn’t the only benefit of remarketing.

In fact, you can get some pretty interesting data by showing different ads to a customer who leaves your website and goes to another website.

This type of remarketing can serve to the visitor a reminder that they are looking for a certain product or service, and if they are moving around the web looking for this product or service from someone else, there is a good chance they might see your ad and return to convert. For example, you could show a different ad group to visitors that leave your website with a discount if they return to get what they were looking for. This strategy works so well that you are likely to see a 2-3 times increase in click-through-rates for these ad groups.

It might sound like a complicated process, but if you are already using Google AdWords, then you can take advantage of Google Ad Retargeting. These ads will be shown on other websites through the Google Content Network which are amazingly effective.

The benefits of a solid remarketing campaign strategy, and having Google Retargeting setup correctly are huge. The benefits range from having your ads in front of people when they are finally ready to buy, a much larger scale reach as these ads are shown on over 2 million websites, and much more efficient pricing, easier ad creation, and so on.

And there are many different ways to remarket with Google Adwords besides this. There is video remarketing, remarketing for mobile applications, having remarketing lists for search ads, and email-list remarketing which works by uploading your list of email addresses you have collected from your visitors.

When anyone on this list are signed into YouTube, Google Search, or Gmail, they will see your ads.

If ad targeting or remarketing is something you haven’t been doing, then don’t wait a minute longer to get started.

If you need some help and expert advice on creating effective and successful ad retargeting campaigns, then shoot me an email to get started today!

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

An optimized website means that it is structured, coded, designed, and has content published in a way that will allow Google to rank it.

Why is this important? Well, if Google can read your website correctly and interpret your content then it will understand the product or service that you are selling and so present it to your potential customers searching on the Web.

So, how do you ensure your website is optimized? Certain basics need completing such as keyword research, great content, and some technical criteria that a consultant can help you with such as tags, architecture, crawlability, among many other things.

Every worthwhile endeavor takes some amount of effort. Such is the case with optimizing your website to gain more visibility and traffic.

Think about your own experience when searching for information or a particular product. You will most likely click on the top results on the first page never bothering to check the second page when a list of results appears on the screen that “matches” what you’re looking for.

In today’s fast-paced world, customers have access to more information than ever, and they want results quickly. This means that they will choose from the top of the list, which is where you want your site to be.

Optimizing your site can get you there. This ongoing process requires regular maintenance and changes.

SEO rapidly evolves. So keeping up with the changes with your SEO consultant will give you an edge over your competitors.

Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com to learn more.

Your Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC is the total cost spent on acquiring new customers (marketing/sales expense) divided by the number of new customers acquired during that particular period.

If you invested $1000 in marketing/sales in a one month period and acquired 10 new customers as a direct result of that marketing and promotion, then your acquisition cost is $100 per new client.

All successful businesses measure their acquisition costs. Luckily, promotional activity on the web can be measured very accurately.

Make sure that the pricing of your products and services cover you CAC.
If you would like to know more in detail, contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

It is recommended that you invest about 15% to 20% of your monthly profit into online marketing. Internet marketing agency pricing varies, as does the online marketing cost for different strategies and packages.

Why do companies engage in digital marketing? Companies invest a lot in online marketing, mainly because it is effective in more ways than one. It leads to better and faster return on investment, enhances the company’s overall image, and increases your customer base on the Web.

Your budget will depend on my factors:

– What you are selling
– How intense the competition is
– How easy or difficult it is to find potential customers
– How important brand exposure is to you
– Your business type
– Your profit margin
– Your growth plans

It will take much testing to determine an optimum online marketing cost, and it is best to consult an expert. However, spending less than 10% of your available monthly profit is not going to make much of an impact on your competition. This is especially true if your business is in its growth stage when you need to invest heavily in the strategy and tools that will promote, sell and create revenue.

How much of your available profit do you re-invest in digital marketing? Shoot me an email at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

Do you think your PPC campaigns aren’t optimized to the fullest? How much is your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)? What is your CTR (Click-through Rate)? What’s your Cost per Acquisition? What’s your Abandonment Rate?

We will perform the evaluation, identify the problems and recommend the next steps to take.

Your PPC campaigns should be getting an unprecedented boost under capable hands now that Google Optimize and Google Surveys 360 work with Google AdWords!

Google Optimize facilitates the A/B testing of your AdWords PPC landing pages and landing page elements and shows you which site experiences engage and delight your customers. It will also give you the solutions you need to deliver them. Google Surveys 360, on the other hand, enables you to directly ask questions to your remarketing lists to help you understand what worked best for them and what didn’t.

You’ll get richer insights from your AdWords to take action on with Google Optimize and Google Surveys 360.