Archives for February 2020

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

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

If you’re among the business owners who are posting and sharing content through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, then you’re off to a good start.

But if you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, chances are that’s because your social media isn’t actually very social. Posting and sharing content just isn’t enough!

However, how do you put the ‘social’ back in social media and take your social media marketing game to the next level? By creating opportunities for your customers to get involved in the conversation and get to know you and your brand.

1. Post conversational status messages.

This will humanize your brand. Remind people that your business is run by individuals who care about their products and their customers, not by some faceless corporate machine. Allow your customers to connect with you on a human level.

2. Post videos of yourself talking to your target customers.

As a business owner, showing your face builds trust and, again, humanizes your brand.

3. Ask questions. Hear their story.

Ask about their needs and get feedback on your products or services. The exchange will benefit both you and your customers. You’ll be helping your customers feel like they are a valued part of your business, and as a business owner, you will gain valuable insight about your target customers.

4. Respond to comments.

Being social means engaging in a two-way conversation. When your customers reach out to you, make them feel heard and keep them engaged by responding thoughtfully to their comments.

Do these things, and your business will not only have gone social, but it will start taking off.

Need help? Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com

Promote your brand along with its good reputation on social media and other platforms. However, things get a bit complicated when you have to deal with bad reviews.

First, keep a good reputation by being honest, transparent, setting clear expectations for your customer, and by being in business because you genuinely want to help people around you. It goes without saying that shady practices are a no-no.

Second, you have to prevent any dissatisfaction by a customer from escalating by addressing every complaint you get. It has to be fixed at this level immediately while the customer is still trying to reach out to you. Because once they have felt frustrated and think they have to warn others about your practice, things can get messy.

Nonetheless, you have to set your radar for negative reviews. One good way to do this is to set up Google alerts for your brand terms and name.

What else can you do to safeguard your brand?

Claim your brand name
Build a consistent identity

Whether your brand is your name itself, your business name or your product name, you need to make sure that no one else can misrepresent you online by owning a piece of your brand. Make sure that you own domain names and usernames associated with your brand.

Suggested tools:

KnowEm.com
NameChk.com

Build a consistent identity on major channels:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google+
YouTube
Pinterest
Tumblr
Quora

Publish content regularly:

The content you publish will define and reinforce who you are, what you stand for, and what your business is all about. This will make up the values associated with your brand. Anything inconsistent with these values will not be immediately convincing to your customers who know you.

Let me know if you need more information. We’d be glad to help.

Johnny Murray
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

What is it? Remarketing is a type of online advertising that allows you to recapture the interest of a customer who has previously visited your website.

After someone visits your website, remarketing allows you to follow them around as they continue to browse and then position your ads right in front of them! That’s a very effective marketing technique!

Five Benefits of Remarketing:

1. It provides a high return on investment. Costs for remarketing have reduced considerably in the last few years.
2. It is a very efficient and cost-effective method for small businesses with a tighter budget.
3. It continually reinforces your service or product to a likely buyer you know is interested.
4. It is a brand awareness tool as it keeps your brand in front of a potential buyer’s mind.
5. You can measure the effectiveness of your remarketing, so there are no surprises. You will receive reports on how your campaigns are performing, where your ads are popping up and what price you are paying.

Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com if you want to learn more about Remarketing.
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453998?hl=en

Are you new to PPC (Pay-Per-Click) digital advertising campaigns? Or, maybe the time and money you’ve invested in your PPC campaigns haven’t been paying off?

At ICU Marketing Associates, we have run hundreds of successful PPC campaigns. Take our advice: Here are the top 5 PPC campaign mistakes we see all the time that you and your business should avoid at all costs:

Launching a Campaign Without a Clear Strategy

It’s impossible to measure success without defining clear goals. Ask yourself these two questions: What is your primary goal for this campaign? Who is your target market to reach that goal? Then set up an action plan of specific tasks that will help you reach success.

Taking a “Do-it-all” Approach

As you may already know, PPC marketing is much more complex than it seems. You need to make sure that you have access to a digital marketing consultant.

Effective campaigns address the 3 basic types of PPC traffic separately: search traffic, display traffic, and social traffic. Delivering different ad experiences to each type of traffic increases your odds of success.

Failure to Identify a Realistic Budget

Think of your first few campaigns as tests. They may not be profitable, because you don’t know what will work and what won’t. Your budget shouldn’t be too low or too high. Your budget should be enough to test your campaign for future optimization.

Having Unrealistic Expectations

You may expect to see immediate results from your PPC ad campaign, especially if your website is optimized for SEO. Be patient for the first few weeks of your new campaign.

Not Testing Your Conversion Funnel

Make sure everything is working correctly by using test users. Have them experiment, use the site to perform tasks, and don’t forget to have them test the site from a variety of devices!

Need help from the experts? Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

Just about everyone has some sort of mobile device, be it a tablet, smartphone or laptop.These people are also searching for a business that offers your services. If your site does not function properly on their variety of devices, they won’t waste time trying to make it work.

Test your web pages for mobile-friendliness here: https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly

A mobile website is one that has been designed to be responsive. This means the site can detect what kind of mobile device it is being viewed on. It then adapts itself to fit and function properly on the device.

Here are 5 reasons why you should have a mobile site:

1. Social media shares are huge on mobile devices because they are so easy to do. Your content, pictures, and videos will get shared more often because your website is readily accessible on mobile devices.

2. Google favors mobile-friendly sites in the search engines. That means they rank mobile-friendly sites higher.

3. A mobile-friendly site means more opportunity for sales. If the visitor’s experience on your site is fast and straightforward and NOT clumsy and difficult, of course, you will have a better chance of a sale.

4. Users on mobile are bigger buyers! Why? Because more often than not they quickly browse for what they want, checking for info before buying.

5. And finally, the most important reason is that most people now have a mobile device or two. Why ignore the majority of your customers?

Reach out to us if your website has mobile issues. Visit our website: http://icumarketplace.com.

Many businesses seem not to be taking advantage of online word-of-mouth marketing.

In fact, some businesses don’t understand how it can be leveraged so that they can take advantage of the huge rewards it brings.

One thing to remember when it comes to word-of-mouth is that friends and family will believe what they hear from each other over any other form of advertising. Word-of-Mouth has moved to the digital realm.

Online review sites exist for a few reasons, but one of the most popular reasons is that these reviews attract a lot of attention to businesses they are written for, and people love to read reviews.

They especially like to find reviews on a business they are thinking about doing business with. And some businesses have taken advantage of this situation like Zappos.com.

Zappos decided to do something different than other big companies and instead of spending tons of money on advertising, they invested that money into creating an exceptional customer experience by having the best customer service they could offer.

The result has been nothing short of amazing as Zappos is well known for providing the best in customer service. The reviews they get drive their bottom line because those happy customers leave reviews, and those reviews get read by other prospects. Not to mention that this form of promotion costs less to manage than other forms of advertising.

If you want to learn how to take advantage of Digital Word-of-Mouth marketing, then contact ICU Marketing Associates at johnny@johnnymurray.com and we will show you how to get started building your company reputation in 5 easy steps.

Does SEO Confuse You?

You are not alone.

SEO is a complex process, indeed. Google has over 200 ranking factors!

Plenty of research is being conducted quarterly and yearly by different organizations to understand Google’s ranking factors. Here are some of the findings from a recent study:

– Between the top 3rd and 20th position in Google search results, there is a 45% difference in content length.
– Between the 1st and 10th positions, there is a 10,000 difference in referring domains.

Content and backlinks are extremely important in SEO.

Reach out to me if you need SEO explained to you from a perspective that you care about without the technobabble. That is, how it will affect your bottom line.