Archives for June 2019

SEO is the process of improving the visibility (ranking) of a website on Google using Google-friendly elements and techniques.

Consider these facts:

1. Ninety-nine percent of customers looking for your services never scroll past the first page of search results. That means your business goal should be to appear on page one of the search results. That’s the aim of SEO.

2. Click-throughs to your business following natural searches (SEO) have a 14.6% buy rate vs. direct mail or print advertising which have a 1.7% close rate. You may wish to consider switching your spending!

3. Ninety-one percent of internet users who are looking for services to buy use natural search results. SEO!

4. Seventy-two percent of customers who did a local search for a business visited a store within 5 miles of their home. Do local customers see your business when they are looking for your service?

5. By the way… Google accounts for over 76% of all worldwide searches. So you have to be seen on Google!

Here’s more:

6. 58% of customers search for local businesses every day.

7. 89% search for local business at least once a week or more. Is your business address appearing in front of your local customers?

8. 86% of local customers look up a local business on Google maps. Are you listed there?

9. 76% of local searches result in a phone call.

10. A massive 72% of customers who did a local search for a business visited a store within 5 miles of their home.

If you are not using SEO and would like to learn more… feel free to contact us: johnny@johnnymurray.com.

How Better Business Bureau Accreditation Builds Consumer Confidence

The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit accrediting organization that gives its stamp of approval when a business meets high standards of quality, responsibility, and trustworthiness.

So why is this BBB logo so important? Recent studies have shown that 8 out of 10 consumers recognize the BBB seal, and when they see it displayed on a website or business, it instills confidence and trust.

And those consumers are likely to purchase based on this. Reviews are important online, but 90% of consumers don’t bother hunting for a lot of reviews and will read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion.

Most of those consumers are going to go right to the Better Business Bureau first. And sometimes that one review is enough to make their decision. But what if your business is not accredited? This could actually hurt your business as becoming accredited shows that you’re a company that is accountable and can be trusted.

And a company that is trusted, makes more profit.

If you would like to learn more about Better Business Bureau accreditation, then contact us today and we will get you started in the right direction, and show you what you need to become accredited.

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

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.

Here at ICU Marketing Associates, we want to make sure your business looks irresistible online. Our experts have compiled a list of 4 warning signs that your website might need a total redesign.

1. Your site takes more than 3 seconds to load

If your site takes longer than two seconds to load, you can not expect people to sit around and wait for the content to show up. According to a survey from Akamai, 49-percent of consumers expect a site to load in two seconds or less. Testing the speed of your website is easy. Open your website on multiple devices such as phones, tablets, and desktop computers to check the speed.

2. Some of the features or content do not display properly

Check your website regularly to make sure logos, photos, and outside links are working properly.

3. Your site is difficult to view and navigate on mobile

Check to make sure your website is usable on a wide range of mobile devices. The last thing you want is to lose a potential customer because your website is not responsive.

4. You’re Not Seeing Any Business Results.

Is your website bringing in leads and sales? If not, then it is definitely time to consider a redesign.

If one or more of these 4 warning signs apply to your website, give us a call today and let our experts help you create the best version of your website.

908-375-3030
johnny@johnnymurray.com

So, you’re excited to get your business back into the SEO arena… that’s great! However, don’t let that excitement make you miss a crucial step before launching an SEO campaign — complete an SEO Audit first.

Forty-seven percent said in a survey that a full SEO audit should be conducted every six months. How often do you have an SEO audit done?

It is of extreme importance for you to gain an understanding of your SEO performance through an independent, objective, and unbiased SEO Audit.

Is your SEO performing well or not? Were benchmarks and goals set before the SEO campaign started?

Without an SEO Audit, you will not have a sound SEO strategy. Without a sound strategy, your SEO campaign will likely fall through, resulting in a complete waste of money.

ICU Marketing Associates puts focus on finding problematic SEO areas and establishing SEO baselines, benchmarks, and goals for a successful SEO campaign.

Here’s some helpful information to give you an idea about the process and points that should be covered in an SEO Audit:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-ultimate-seo-audit-checklist/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-site-audit-technical/

Are you lost in the jargon? Confused by how technical an SEO Audit is? You’re not alone. Call us at 908-375-3030 and we’ll help you get an SEO Audit done.

Over 2 billion people in the world are connected through social media, with 20% of the world’s internet users having an active Twitter account.

Twitter is a great platform to boost your business. We at ICU Marketing Associates are equipped with the knowledge and resources to help you reach your customers through Twitter.

Here are 12 ways to get started in promoting your business on Twitter today!

1. Implement Twitter Cards
You want every tweet to be unique and attractive, Twitter cards are a great way to do this!

2. Build Your Twitter Followers
If your Twitter followers are engaged and well targeted, increasing their number can benefit your business.

3. Identify Influencers and Engage with Them
When you engage with influencers — you’re creating the opportunity to gain more followers, more engagement, and more traffic to your website.

4. Use Twitter Lists to Manage Your Contacts
As you follow and connect with higher numbers of people, you need to organize them by categories.

5. Use Twitter Ads to Grow Your Email List
Use Twitter ads for lead generation by directing them to sign-up to your email list.

6. Use the Right Hashtags
Be careful with the hashtags you choose. It may seem that cramming as many as possible is the way to go, but studies show that posts with 1 – 2 hashtags have higher engagement than those with 3 or more.

7. Research Your Competitors’ Audiences
Find out who your competitors are interacting with.

8. Monitor Twitter for Keyword Mentions
Use tools that let users set up search columns so any mention of a particular word or phrase is immediately highlighted.

9. Setup UTM Tracking
UTM tracking adds additional info to links you share in order to track where people clicked on them and what happened after they clicked.

10. Use Your Pinned Tweet
Twitter allows you to pin one tweet at the top of your timeline. When anybody looks at their profile, they see that tweet first.

11. Use Great Headlines
Create clever headlines that stand out.

12. Use Twitter Analytics to Analyze and Optimize
Twitter Analytics let you see how many views and how much engagement your tweets get.

Want to learn more? Let us help you optimize your Twitter!

You might not know that there are many places out there where people can leave reviews telling their experience with your business.

Some businesses choose not to get involved because it might be too much work. This can be a huge business mistake that you will want to fix right away.

In a recent online poll, it was found that 84% trusted online reviews as much as they would a recommendation from a friend or family member. That’s up 4% from last year showing that more people are looking at online reviews and that you need to have reputation management in place taking care of these reviews and making sure you are getting authentic reviews.

Most businesses are starting to see the importance of managing their online reviews, and even getting customers to leave them reviews. With that being said, it is very important not to have fake reviews for your company, intended or not. And it’s always a good idea to know all the popular review sites out there so you can manage any reviews that are being left.

You should never let a bad review go unchecked. This can show people that you don’t care, and are likely guilty as charged. And some businesses have been completely destroyed by bad reviews.

Don’t let this happen to your business. Contact us now and let us help you with a solid review management strategy that will help you build trust with potential customers.

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

Digital marketing generally means getting the word out online about your brand and getting customers to see why they should buy from your business.

But in today’s hyperconnected world, your customers can also shape the reputation of your business online in (nearly) real time. This is very important as 77% of consumers read online reviews before making a decision.

While talking about how good your products and services are is of course useful and necessary, what your customers say about your company can also be used as a marketing tool. This is called Reputation Marketing. What makes this strategy different from other types is that it puts the “voice of the customer” as the central focus.

What your customers say about your business is not something you can control, buy, or make them do, but you can use the positive reviews they do leave to shape the narrative of your business’ reputation.

It’s amazing how many business owners are keen on running all sorts of online marketing campaigns, yet they don’t take the time to have their customers write a comprehensive review about their products.

Can you imagine how many of your “would-be customers” end up buying from your competitors, all because they couldn’t find any reviews about your product or service?

It’s essential for potential customers to know that others have used your business and had a good experience doing so, giving your business a reputation of trustworthiness.

Reputation marketing today is a must.

How do you get these positive reviews for your business and strengthen your reputation? There are many ways and we’d be glad to help.

Reach out to us at johnny@johnnymurray.com.
Johnny Murray
ICU Marketing Associates

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 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.