Archives for February 2019

Online reviews are crucial to managing your reputation, gaining trust and building confidence. Trust is a key element to gaining and maintaining customers.

Do you remember asking for a friend’s opinion about a product before deciding to buy? Didn’t you become more excited after hearing encouraging feedback?

That’s exactly how online reviews work.

Let’s take a look at these statistics from BrightLocal:

• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation
• 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they’re asked to
• 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business
• 54% of people will visit the website after reading positive reviews
• 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months are no longer relevant
• 74% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
• 58% of consumers say that the star rating of a business is most important

Your potential customers are now checking what others say about your products or services before buying!

So you need to always provide a good experience, earn those positive reviews, get them published, and see more repeat and new sales coming to your business.

There are additional benefits to getting positive reviews and 5-star ratings:

Improved Organic and Local Rankings
Google gives priority to businesses with stellar reviews on rankings.

Increased Click-through Rate
Consumers will most likely click on a business with impressive reviews in the search results.

Create Consumer Loyalty
Your customers who take the time to leave a 5-star rating are far more likely to feel a certain bond with your business.

Let your Customers Do Your Marketing for You
Even just a handful of positive online business reviews are worth a great deal and can attract new customers to our business.

Contact us at johnny@johnnymurray.com to learn more about boosting your revenue with reviews.

You do your best to give your customers great service, but does everyone else know that? Keeping up your business’ good reputation online is just as important as its credibility offline.

Here’s some things you can do to make sure the first thing customers see when they look up your business is a business worth visiting:

Make sure your business is listed – Whether it be on niche review sites like Angie’s List, CitySearch, or MerchantCircle, make sure your business is listed on easily accessible and popular review sites to make sure that your satisfied customers have a place to leave great reviews. Don’t miss out on a 5-star review just because your business wasn’t listed!

Ask for positive reviews – If you know you have satisfied customers on your hands point them to ways they can express that satisfaction. So earn those stars and raving reviews. Collect them and make sure that they’re published!

Google your business regularly – Do a regular google search of your business to get a sense of what customers see when they look you up. Do positive reviews show up first? Or does that one bad review from years ago dominate the results? Make sure to regularly keep up with your online reputation so you can quickly and effectively address any reviews that could potentially hurt your business.

Want to learn more about how to maintain your positive online reputation? Contact us.

So you are a new business gone online, or you are a business that has decided to step up your marketing campaign by having a new website built, and you have created some pages on social network sites like Facebook or Instagram.

Maybe you have a blog out there as well, and you have started creating content for all of your online sites.

But if you are a new to online business, and digital marketing, and you are just getting started, you might be wondering where all your customers are.

You may be seeing little to no traffic at all for your efforts. It’s not that you are doing anything wrong. And unless you are a business with an entirely new product or service that has never been offered before, you are likely to have some tough competition who have already been marketing for years.

So how do you compete?

The answer is Pay-per-click Advertising using PPC platforms such as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads.

But getting into Pay-per-click Advertising or ‘PPC’ needs a solid strategy.

There are many things you need to have knowledge of. This include but not limited to having a starting PPC budget, a good traffic conversion tracking system for your ads, and having different landing pages that can be cycled to allow for split-testing. You should also have good ad copy with solid calls-to-action that get your targeted audience to go to your website and buy the service or product you are selling.

Any business that wants to get started in Pay-per-click Advertising should have expert knowledge on getting started, including proficiency on the tools you need to create and track successful PPC advertising campaigns.

If you want to get started in Pay-per-click Advertising which can bring you instant traffic, clients, and customers, then contact us now and we will help you get started with the right arsenal of tools and show you how to create profitable campaigns from day one.

johnny@johnnymurray.com
Johnny Murray

Social media is not a place that people go so that they can view advertisements, browse through all of the business pages, or read long technical updates about a company. Social media is a place to be social! This means that people want to be engaging in conversations and making their voice heard.

We at ICU Marketing Associates want to share with you some of our tactics to making sure that your followers stay engaged with your business and ultimately become your customers.

1. Initiate Conversation with your Social Media Followers

If you are at a social event and you want someone to talk to you, how do you do it? You have to talk to them first! Show them that you care about what they have to say by making the first move.

2.Ask For Feedback

Let your followers know that you value their opinion and that you want your products and services to be at their best.

3. Do Surveys and Polls

People love sharing their thoughts and opinions on the internet. The surveys can be things directly related to your business, or just fun questions to get the conversations rolling.

4. Organize Giveaways, Contests, and Promotions

This will get people excited about visiting your page! You can even gain more followers and recognition by having the contest entry include sharing the post or tagging a friend. Even for those who do not win, the excitement for the contest will now be associated with your business.

5. Live Q & A Sessions

Live sessions show your followers that you actually want to hear from them. It also gives you the opportunity to tell your audience the things that they actually want to know about your business instead of just guessing what questions they may be having.

The right digital marketing consultant will be able to incorporate all of these into your marketing plan so that you can see your followers begin to engage with your business.

Do you have a system to track your Digital Marketing ROI?

Do you have a way to quantify how your digital marketing efforts contribute to the bottom line?

MarketingProfs reported that 71% of marketing leaders and providers say attributing social and content to revenue is a top challenge to showing ROI.

49% say that aligning KPIs with overall business goals ranks as the next biggest hurdle, followed by 47% fail to track leads to revenue.

The figures above also suggest that 29%, 51%, and 53% respectively don’t have that problem.

So the top 3 problems are:

Attributing social and content to revenue.
Aligning KPIs to revenue.
Tracking leads to revenue

Are you having the same challenges?

Do you find a compelling reason to learn more about this?

Contact us and get advice.
johnny@johnnymurray.com

There are many benefits to doing online advertising over the traditional model. One of those is the cost between the two. Traditional advertising, such as billboards or television spots (commercials) can cost quite a bit of money for a single 30-second spot.

Online advertising uses a platform where you are charged by how many times an ad is clicked. This is called Pay-per-click or ‘PPC’ advertising. It’s not nearly as expensive with an average cost per click of 0.60 cents.

With online advertising, you’re getting instant traffic. You could run traditional advertising and online advertising in a race side by side, and you’ll get online customers a lot quicker than traditional.

However, the biggest benefit is that with online advertising is that you can get detailed data on everyone that sees your ads.

You can also split test ads for the same cost, find out who interacted with your ads, where they were from, which ad they liked better, and what converts and what doesn’t. You can then optimize your ads with the data you collected.

Let’s say you ran an ad and 100 people clicked it, but no one bought anything, then you would know there is a problem somewhere and be able to fix it and optimize each ad.

Once you spend money on a television ad, that’s it. No way to optimize it. Having control over your online ads such as when they are shown, and how much money you are spending is crucial for success, while not breaking the bank on ads that aren’t converting.

But running a successful online advertising campaign can be tricky. It takes some knowledge and learning how to setup everything properly to run highly successful campaigns.

There is a lot of competition, and you need every bit of experience you can get on your side.

If you would like to learn more about setting up a successful online advertising campaign, then contact us, and we’ll help you get started today.

johnny@johnnymurray.com

What makes an effective web design?

Is it the visual elements, or is it the functionality?

Truth be told it is a combination of both. As Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Websites with great usability and function tend to perform better on Google than those just with beautiful design. We want to show you 10 ways to improve your existing website to ensure you are getting the most bang for your buck.

Purpose and Function

An exceptional website has a clear purpose, and the function is evident and intuitive. The design of every element and how they come together as a whole should be derived from the purpose and function of the website.

Communication and Interaction

Internet users want information quickly. To ensure you are providing lightning-fast information, you should be clear and concise, using headlines, and subtitles to provide valuable information. Links to the email address or contact form, live chat, and feedback form should also be easily accessible.

Intuitive Navigation

Navigation is a core element in which your website is built upon. The navigation should make sense to your visitors whatever path they wish to take. Navigating from point A to C based on the customer’s journey should flow smoothly without any barriers or friction. Ensure your customers can find the information they are looking for within 3 clicks or less.

Design Consistency

Each design element should match throughout the entire website. This means your headlines, colors, and so forth should all have the same look and feel. Take the time to plan out every detail to ensure your message is consistent throughout.

F-Pattern design & Grid-Based Layout

Ensure your page elements are arranged in a way that is natural for the eye. Studies have shown that people view pages in an “F” shaped pattern. Arrange your content based on a grid to create content that is both aligned and balanced.

Typography and Readability

The text is one of the most vital elements to a website, providing users with necessary information, and providing content for SEO. Create visually engaging type by using attractive and readable typefaces.

Color palette and imagery

Use a well thought out color pallet to enhance your user’s experience. Use contrasting colors for the background and text, while implementing vibrant colors for buttons and headlines to draw the user’s attention.

Mobile-friendliness

The number of devices that users are viewing websites from has increased dramatically over the past few years. Ensure your website is built with a responsive layout.

Loading speed

Take the time to ensure your website is loading at lightning speed. User’s hate when it takes more than just a few seconds to load a page.

Learn more by contacting us at johnny@johnnymurray.com.

A Harvard Business Review Survey found that only 36% of organizations use some advanced tools and practices, but they are mostly underutilized or disconnected.

And that only 15% of companies use advanced marketing tools, analytics, and practices widely for more effective marketing and sales efforts.

Are you in the 15%, or are you having trouble integrating advanced marketing tools and practices to your business?

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, at what extent do you use advanced tools to maximize your marketing?

Let us know. Shoot us an email johnny@johnnymurray.com.