Archives for January 2020

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.

On the internet, standing out poses a daunting challenge, and at the same time, the best opportunity for creativity and bringing some attention to your site. Adding the extra “POW” to your content will pique a customer’s’ curiosity, build their interest, and over the course of a few transactions, earn their loyalty.

This is achieved through web content that goes far beyond ordinary but without all of the sensory overload. Each aspect of your site should have its own purpose—from the background to the logo to the informative blog. Every part is a solid brick in the foundation of your establishment’s site.

Here are some possible “add-ons” to consider to make your site stand out:

– Demo/explainer videos
– Client testimonials
– A page for reviews
– Informational text that actually informs—as opposed to simply luring the client
– Interactive questionnaire
– Easy-to-follow graphics
– A healthy combination and balance of “all-the-above”
– The compelling story of your business began and most importantly, where it’s going

And don’t forget a user-friendly “contact us” page or even an option for a live Chat with a knowledgeable representative from your company? You’re only limited to your own and your team’s imagination.

So the time has come to set that staff meeting and do a plus/delta on your site’s current features. What’s working and drawing in an audience, and what’s not working? What is the purpose of each and every feature of your site? What are some viable changes that can be made? Who is your target audience? How can you make your site not only engaging but also user-friendly?

As you can tell, some guidance from an experienced digital marketing consultant should come in handy. You are the experts in your product or service; so allow some room for the marketing experts to help.

Essential Questions to ask about Customer Experience

User experience with your site can make or break your business. Think about it. A slow interface, a shopping cart that’s difficult to navigate, or even one small glitch can drive traffic away and steer potential customers toward the next result that showed up on the list of search results. So how do you keep this from happening?

Working with a knowledgeable and experienced team of designers and developers can make quite a difference in creating the best customer experience possible. When searching for such a team, you might need to keep a few ideas in mind such as

– Can they reduce my site’s loading time?
– Can they create engaging content that includes images?
– Can they strike a balance between SEO and treating my audience like “real people”?
– Can they build a user-friendly check-out?
– Can they build a user-friendly customer service Chat and/or Email page?

Thus, looking at these many aspects related to a customer’s experience is as vital to us as it is to you. Helping your business to thrive is our ultimate goal and mission.

By joining forces with your team, we can assist you in improving the customer’s experience.
What if you’re just barely getting started? We can build on that foundation as well. Either way, we’ll explore several options, analyze data, and minimize as much trial-and-error as possible to get your site running as quickly and smoothly as possible.

So don’t worry about a design that’s full of bells and whistles as opposed to substantial, engaging content and usability. Your clients are the bosses, and we’ll consider both their needs and your expectations of what makes a great, user-friendly site. Therefore, there’ll be no more worries about dead links or useless features. Would you like to find out more about what we can design for you?

Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com to learn more or visit our website.

When you are running ads on Facebook, AdWords, or LinkedIn your copy needs to be able to stand out among all of the competition that is surrounding it.

We at ICU Marketing Associates want to help you make your ads grab your target’s attention and get you as many clicks as possible!

Here are a few of the tactics that we use to increase click through rates:

Offer Promotions and Incentives in the Headline

Grab attention right away by showing the potential customer exactly what you are offering them. Set yourself apart from the start by showing that your business is the best value.

Use Deadlines for Your Offers

Create a sense of urgency for your targets by showing that they have a limited amount of time to click on your page and take part in that offer. Using AdWords you can even set up a countdown within your ad, which will motivate your potential customer to click so that they don’t miss out!

Include Keywords in your Ad Copy

It makes your ad look more relevant to the viewer at a glance and it also gives you another line of valuable text in your ad copy.

Use Emotional Triggers

Connect with your potential customers on an emotional level, don’t just throw out technical jargon about what your business does. Say something personal about what your business can offer that will connect to them on an emotional level.

Use a Call To Action

Make your viewer curious about what you are offering with a call to action. Asking them to click to “find out more…” or “To learn more about this offer…” will force their mind to wonder what more you are offering and will make clicking on your ad more enticing.

If you need any help with reviewing your ads and making them as successful as possible, please visit us at http://icumarketplace.com

Do you have a set rule for marketing budget allotment?

Or do you just place funds in marketing whatever is left after all of the projected business expenses for the year have been set?

USBA suggests 7% to 8% for small businesses. However, you can shoot for up to 20% if you really want to smash it hard in the marketplace.

A survey from the CMO Council, on the other hand, comes with similar results with 74% percent of marketers allocating 4% to 6% of their annual gross revenue to marketing, while only 2% apportion more than 20%.

The size of your marketing budget will fuel your marketing efforts, and so if you’re in a very competitive industry, and most especially if you’re in the early stages of your business, then you should really have a strong budget.

How do you structure your marketing budget?

Reach out to us and get some advice.

As business owners, we must ensure that our marketing efforts are worthwhile.

We need to make sure that our website’s design and structure is at optimal levels to maximize our marketing campaigns.

Having someone on your team that can analyze your website traffic data will help ensure that your efforts are worth every little bit of time and money you spend on marketing.

Installing Google Analytics makes acquiring this information easier than ever. Understanding this information will help you strategize and improve your marketing efforts.

Here are 8 simple ways to use Google Analytics to advance your business to next level:

1. Identify the Sources of Your Traffic

Use analytics to track the traffic on your website. This will help you understand what sources send the most traffic to your business.

2. Determine the Path that Leads to Conversions

Determine what pages are driving conversions for your business. Conversions could be making a sale, the download of a white paper, a filled out contact form on your website or one of many other actions that positively impact your business.

The quality of your traffic relies on if you’re bringing the right buyer personas to your website who are genuinely interested in your company’s offerings.

3. Understand Which Relevant Keywords Drive Traffic

Analytics informs you how your business is ranking for key search queries.

Ranking highly for the most important long-tail keyword phrases related to your business can drive quality visitors to your website on a regular basis, which is why marketing around these search phrases is essential for your business.

4. Understand Time on Site

Start by understanding how engaged your visitors are by using the engagement report to better understand their time on site.

The reason why this is so important is that the longer someone is on your website, the more likely they’ll perform an action with your business whether that’s a download, completing a transaction, etc.

5. View Multi-Channel Funnels to Locate Understand a Visitor’s Path

The multi-channel funnels report in Google Analytics is one of the most important to monitor. It provides an overview of the most common paths to conversions. Take a look at which funnels are driving the most activity for your business and try to spur more movement across these channels.

6. Know Which Device Users Drive Results

Improve the quality of your ongoing traffic by analyzing and catering to where your traffic is coming from –desktop, mobile or tablet devices.

7. New vs. Returning Visitors

This report is important to monitor regularly to see if your existing audience is continually returning to your website, while also informing your business of your audience growth over time as seen through new visitors.

Ideally, there should be a healthy balance of both new visitors and returning visitors to inform the quality of your website.

8. Manage Your Backlinks

This can help your business understand what websites are linking to your site, which is a major factor that Google and the other search engines take into consideration when ranking your website and driving traffic to your business.

Your backlink profile is a crucial factor to help ensure that only quality websites are linking to your business and that you’re building trust with your customers and the search engines.

Need to learn more about how to use Google Analytics to improve your website and your business?

Contact us today!

ICU Marketing Associates 908-375-3030 johnny@johnnymurray.com http://icumarketplace.com

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

Keyword Research allows you to gain intelligence on the actual queries of your potential customers are using and how big the monthly search volume is for those terms. Through this research, it is easy to determine the keywords for your SEO campaign.

More than 80% of buyers research online before making a big purchase. If you have no idea what search terms they are using, then you don’t know what keywords to optimize for.

Keyword Research is a crucial process for any successful SEO campaign. Connect with us to learn more.

On the internet, standing out poses a daunting challenge, and at the same time, the best opportunity for creativity and bringing some attention to your site. Adding the extra “POW” to your content will pique a customer’s’ curiosity, build their interest, and over the course of a few transactions, earn their loyalty.

This is achieved through web content that goes far beyond ordinary but without all of the sensory overload. Each aspect of your site should have its own purpose—from the background to the logo to the informative blog. Every part is a solid brick in the foundation of your establishment’s site.

Here are some possible “add-ons” to consider to make your site stand out:

– Demo/explainer videos
– Client testimonials
– A page for reviews
– Informational text that actually informs—as opposed to simply luring the client
– Interactive questionnaire
– Easy-to-follow graphics
– A healthy combination and balance of “all-the-above”
– The compelling story of your business began and most importantly, where it’s going

And don’t forget a user-friendly “contact us” page or even an option for a live Chat with a knowledgeable representative from your company? You’re only limited to your own and your team’s imagination.

So the time has come to set that staff meeting and do a plus/delta on your site’s current features. What’s working and drawing in an audience, and what’s not working? What is the purpose of each and every feature of your site? What are some viable changes that can be made? Who is your target audience? How can you make your site not only engaging but also user-friendly?

As you can tell, some guidance from an experienced digital marketing consultant should come in handy. You are the experts in your product or service; so allow some room for the marketing experts to help.

Essential Questions to ask about Customer Experience

User experience with your site can make or break your business. Think about it. A slow interface, a shopping cart that’s difficult to navigate, or even one small glitch can drive traffic away and steer potential customers toward the next result that showed up on the list of search results. So how do you keep this from happening?

Working with a knowledgeable and experienced team of designers and developers can make quite a difference in creating the best customer experience possible. When searching for such a team, you might need to keep a few ideas in mind such as

– Can they reduce my site’s loading time?
– Can they create engaging content that includes images?
– Can they strike a balance between SEO and treating my audience like “real people”?
– Can they build a user-friendly check-out?
– Can they build a user-friendly customer service Chat and/or Email page?

Thus, looking at these many aspects related to a customer’s experience is as vital to us as it is to you. Helping your business to thrive is our ultimate goal and mission.

By joining forces with your team, we can assist you in improving the customer’s experience.
What if you’re just barely getting started? We can build on that foundation as well. Either way, we’ll explore several options, analyze data, and minimize as much trial-and-error as possible to get your site running as quickly and smoothly as possible.

So don’t worry about a design that’s full of bells and whistles as opposed to substantial, engaging content and usability. Your clients are the bosses, and we’ll consider both their needs and your expectations of what makes a great, user-friendly site. Therefore, there’ll be no more worries about dead links or useless features. Would you like to find out more about what we can design for you?

Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com to learn more or visit our website.

As business owners, we must ensure that our marketing efforts are worthwhile.

We need to make sure that our website’s design and structure is at optimal levels to maximize our marketing campaigns.

Having someone on your team that can analyze your website traffic data will help ensure that your efforts are worth every little bit of time and money you spend on marketing.

Installing Google Analytics makes acquiring this information easier than ever. Understanding this information will help you strategize and improve your marketing efforts.

Here are 8 simple ways to use Google Analytics to advance your business to next level:

1. Identify the Sources of Your Traffic

Use analytics to track the traffic on your website. This will help you understand what sources send the most traffic to your business.

2. Determine the Path that Leads to Conversions

Determine what pages are driving conversions for your business. Conversions could be making a sale, the download of a white paper, a filled out contact form on your website or one of many other actions that positively impact your business.

The quality of your traffic relies on if you’re bringing the right buyer personas to your website who are genuinely interested in your company’s offerings.

3. Understand Which Relevant Keywords Drive Traffic

Analytics informs you how your business is ranking for key search queries.

Ranking highly for the most important long-tail keyword phrases related to your business can drive quality visitors to your website on a regular basis, which is why marketing around these search phrases is essential for your business.

4. Understand Time on Site

Start by understanding how engaged your visitors are by using the engagement report to better understand their time on site.

The reason why this is so important is that the longer someone is on your website, the more likely they’ll perform an action with your business whether that’s a download, completing a transaction, etc.

5. View Multi-Channel Funnels to Locate Understand a Visitor’s Path

The multi-channel funnels report in Google Analytics is one of the most important to monitor. It provides an overview of the most common paths to conversions. Take a look at which funnels are driving the most activity for your business and try to spur more movement across these channels.

6. Know Which Device Users Drive Results

Improve the quality of your ongoing traffic by analyzing and catering to where your traffic is coming from –desktop, mobile or tablet devices.

7. New vs. Returning Visitors

This report is important to monitor regularly to see if your existing audience is continually returning to your website, while also informing your business of your audience growth over time as seen through new visitors.

Ideally, there should be a healthy balance of both new visitors and returning visitors to inform the quality of your website.

8. Manage Your Backlinks

This can help your business understand what websites are linking to your site, which is a major factor that Google and the other search engines take into consideration when ranking your website and driving traffic to your business.

Your backlink profile is a crucial factor to help ensure that only quality websites are linking to your business and that you’re building trust with your customers and the search engines.

Need to learn more about how to use Google Analytics to improve your website and your business?

Contact us today!

ICU Marketing Associates 908-375-3030 johnny@johnnymurray.com http://icumarketplace.com

It might surprise you to know that a lot of business owners don’t optimize their websites.

And when we talk about optimization, we are not just talking about the speed of your website, although that is a big factor when it comes to the impatience of today’s web surfer.

In fact, everything on websites and landing pages can be optimized and refined so that they will increase conversions.

Speed should be the first thing that you look at, although it is probably the easiest thing to fix if there is a problem. You’ve got 3-6 seconds before a user will think there is something wrong with the page, or maybe that the page is down. You probably understand this if you are looking for something and have landed on a slow loading page before.

The next thing to take into consideration with speed is the headline or the first thing that a visitor sees when they hit the website or landing page. Another 0-8 seconds and if you don’t have the right headline, that potential customer is gone and searching somewhere else. Split testing headlines should be on top of your list.

You should always be testing, and if you find a winner, you don’t stop there. Website owners that get twice the sales are always optimizing headlines and copy.

Other things that you can do is take a look at your copy or your sales pitch. Customizing your sales pitch can increase conversions because it gives your visitor a more personalized experience. Make sure you are offering unique value to that potential customer. Offer something of value right up front, don’t waste the visitors time. Time is valuable and many people have a shortage of time and don’t want to waste time looking for what they need.

Offering something for free is another way to optimize for conversions, especially if you are getting their email in the process. There is almost no better way to get someone interested in what they are looking for than to offer them part of the solution for free, and then ask them what email you can send their free information to. Make that offer limited so they realize it’s not going to be around forever.

Optimization could also include features such as live chat. Live chat is great because if a customer doesn’t see something, and they see a chat box, they are more likely to try and ask about what they are looking for using a chat feature.

Exit overlays should be your last ditch effort to get the customers attention. Again, by telling a potential customer something like ‘Wait, don’t leave empty-handed, let us give you ‘insert product name’ for free just for visiting. You would be surprised how many conversions this will likely bring you.

This is just a small sample of some of the things you can do to optimize your website and landing pages for increased conversions.

If you would like to learn how to increase conversions for your website or landing pages, contact me at
johnny@johnnymurray.com