Fun facts aside, this projection isn’t really surprising (at least not to us). Not only are consumer eyeballs migrating away from cable TV to digital mediums like smartphones, streaming services, and social media networks, but television cannot compete with digital ads in multiple categories.

Let’s not jump ahead, though.

Exults Projections About TV Advertising

Diving more into expectations regarding future TV advertising, the following are 5 predictions you should know about.

Industries Matter

The top industries advertising on national U.S. broadcast and cable TV:

• Consumer Packaged Goods
• Pharmaceuticals (the United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow this type of advertising)
• Media and Entertainment
• Insurance
• Technology

The top industries advertising locally on broadcast and cable TV:

• Automotive
• Communications
• Legal Services

If your business falls under any one of these categories, you may want to consider whether TV advertising can help your business scale up.

Streaming Platforms Will Grow

Ad spending on streaming platforms is projected to jump to $40.9 billion by 2027, a 63% increase from 2023. Most live TV viewers are 65 years or older. This is largely because younger demographics don’t pay for cable TV services. Instead, they rely on streaming services for their TV entertainment.

Storytelling Wins

Traditional TV has the most success with storytelling ads. For large and small companies, storytelling is a vital advertising tool. This type of ad resonates with viewers because it helps them connect with a particular brand on a human level, increasing trust. The more an audience trusts a brand, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Political Ads Will Dominate

Political ad spending is expected to reach $15.9 billion in 2024. Most businesses want to stay out of politics. However, as the U.S. approaches another political campaign season, it’s important to plan your digital marketing strategies with those ads in mind. This is especially true if your business is heavily impacted by global and/or national events.  

If you’re in construction, for example, your business may feel the ups and downs due to an increase in international taxes and fees for foreign materials like aluminum and steel. If these are materials you use every day that are essential to your business, it’s important to consider what it means by asking questions like…

Do I need to adjust my brand’s main messaging, tone, and voice for future ads?

Should I use more left or right-wing channels to reach my ideal audience?

How will others view my business if I were to advertise during campaign season?

Is now the time to use TV advertising to stand out from the noise? 

Regardless of what you choose, remember that there will be more content published for politically charged ads, meaning more competition to reach the top of search results.

Unsure about how any of this applies to your business? Talk to Exults about the best digital marketing strategy for your business. 

Overview Of TV Advertising For Businesses

TV advertising (like print) isn’t completely dead. And if you use it the right way, it can result in a good number of customer conversions. For this blog, we define “TV advertising” as promoting a product or service through commercials or sponsored content on cable, satellite, or streaming services. 

TV Advertising Costs

The cost of TV advertising varies depending on whether you’re thinking local or national. On the local level, cost will also depend on the exact area you are hoping to target. Overall, you’re looking at spending a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per local ad. Nationally, you can expect to spend about $350,000 for a 30-second spot, and primetime slots can reach up to the millions.

Pros Of TV Advertising

While digital advertising is huge for marketing strategies, television ads do have their perks.

Reach A Broad Audience 

In addition to digital marketing, TV advertising can help you reach an older audience who may not be on social media or streaming services. This can be especially helpful to know if your target audience leans on the more mature side – a solid strategy for advertising packaged goods, insurance, legal services, and pharmaceuticals.

Increase Brand Authority

Look, you’re on TV! Now, people can not only recognize you when your brand appears in front of them, but it can build your credibility as a business. This is an essential part of the marketing process to keep your consumers engaged and looking up to you as an authority figure in your respected industry.

Spread Brand Awareness

As your business and brand become more recognizable, you’re able to build an authority-type relationship with your audience. Again, this is hugely important for businesses wanting to establish a trusting relationship with their ideal customer. Remain consistent with your messaging to ensure your marketing efforts stick.

Want to include TV advertising in your marketing strategy? Call Exults today.

Projections About Digital Ads

5 predictions about digital advertising you should know more about.

Intent Is Key

46% of Google searches have local intent. We’ve discussed the importance of using local SEO to attract more customers and scale your business. And, until words and phrases like “near me” or “nearby” remain popular, local SEO isn’t going anywhere. When improving your business’s online visibility, local SEO needs to be part of your digital marketing plans.

Ad Budgets Will Be Spent Here

Nearly 70% of global advertising revenue goes to digital platforms. In conjunction with fewer people using cable, most searches are conducted online through mobile devices. Now more than ever before, people expect to be able to find answers and solutions instantly when searching online. If you’ve fallen behind in growing your digital presence, partner with a digital marketing agency to get your SEO back on track.

Social Media Advertising Will Grow

40% of young people prefer to use TikTok and Instagram for search rather than Google. If you haven’t started building a social media strategy for your business, you must consider digital marketing’s ever-shifting landscape. Optimizing your content for Google is one strategy. Optimizing content for emerging markets and social media platforms is another. Either way, tailoring your content to the platforms your audience is on most is essential for online marketing growth.

Talk to Exults today about SEO, social media marketing, and other digital marketing solutions.

Consider Voice-Enabled Search

50% of the U.S. population uses voice-enabled search each day. As technology improves, other features like AI, photo search, and voice-enabled searches are also becoming common practices among younger generations. As voice-to-text searches increase, they may influence keywords and search terms, search volume, and local SEO results.

Digital Advertising Summary

The problem for TV though is that digital ads have all those same perks, plus wayyyy more. First, we’ll review the cost of digital advertising.

The Cost Of Digital Ads

Because digital advertising spans multiple platforms and channels, it’s tough to determine a reasonable price range for them. However, they’re almost always a more cost-effective way to market your business.

A Cost-Effective Solution

When you’re focused on spreading the word of your business’s message far and wide, having more budget-friendly advertising options helps. This is where digital advertising rules. According to WebFX, the average cost of a digital marketing campaign is between $1,250 to $10,000 per month. Sure, it’s a wide range but you can do much more than you may think when you prioritize your digital marketing goals.

Precise Targeting

There are all sorts of potential customers online. Which makes reaching them feel challenging. But with digital advertising, you have access (with user permission) to regularly tracked data that can pinpoint who engages with your brand the most. This data can also reveal a ton of other valuable insights like age range, political views, occupation, and beyond. You can then use this information to refine your ad targeting and focus on the customers you want to acquire most.

Enhanced Accessibility

Just about everyone is online. Long gone are the days of entire families sharing a single PC in a designated room in their house. From tablets and smartphones to high-tech watches and more, accessing the internet is easier now than ever. You can even watch a movie on your phone while you’re in the shower! Because online use is so common, digital advertising is increasingly available to both large and small businesses.

The Preciseness Of Digital Ads

What’s amazing about the technology is you are now able to dial in your advertising to be precise, targeted, and efficient. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of how you can use digital ads to reach your target audience.

How Targeted Facebook Ads Can Be

Facebook or Meta is a great tool to use to laser-focus on a specific goal. Let’s pretend you sell baby products. You want to reach pregnant women, new moms, and expectant parents. You have $1,000 to spend on an ad. You could run a TV ad and hope that the viewers fit your target demo. Or you can launch a Facebook Ad that precisely targets only that target demographic. 

According to the mothership (see screenshot below), a Facebook Ad that targets your exact target demo for $1,000 is projected to get anywhere from 380,000 to 1,000,000 impressions on Facebook, plus another 81,000 to 210,000 impressions on Instagram. 

Worst case scenario, you get a total of 461,000 impressions at $2.17 per 1,000 impressions (CPM). In the best-case scenario, you get a total of 1.2 million impressions at $1.21 CPM. 

Those Facebook ads targeting options aren’t blind guesses – Facebook knows that level of detail about their users. Good luck finding that price on an effective TV ad!

Remarketing With Digital Ads

This refers to targeting internet users who’ve visited your website (AKA retargeting). Businesses can reconnect or target people who have already shown interest in your products either by engaging with you digitally, visiting your physical location, or navigating through your website. You can run website remarketing on many digital ad platforms including (but not limited to):

• Google AdWords
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Bing

Here’s an example of an AdWords remarketing ad…

I was recently looking for a new TV, so I visited Best Buy on my cellphone and desktop. I didn’t buy it on my first visit, but I’m still thinking about it and have a few models in mind. These ads showed up while I was looking for a good blueberry muffin recipe….

In addition to website retargeting, you can also target audiences that have engaged with you on social media, watched one of your videos, or signed up to be on your email list. Again, these are audiences that are proven to be interested in your products.

Search With Digital Ads

AdWords works so well because your ad only shows up when someone is looking for your product (assuming you have a good AdWords setup).

You’re looking to buy a new car. You’ve done your research, and you know you want a Honda Civic. You live in Fort Lauderdale. Here’s a search you might do: “honda dealerships in fort lauderdale”

That form of targeting is powerful because everyone who searches “honda dealerships in fort lauderdale” is approaching the bottom of the sales funnel. They’re close to purchasing a vehicle.

Needless to say, you can’t do these things with a TV ad.

Digital Ad Features

So what features does a digital ad boast?

Action-Oriented

You might run a brick-and-mortar, but you also have a presence online. Maybe you sell your products online. Maybe you just have key information on your website that leads to a sale. Regardless, your website or other online channels are more important than ever for growing your customer base.

Which ad seems more effective?

1. A TV commercial that quickly relays information about your business or promotion, and flashes your website URL and/or phone number for 5 seconds
2. A YouTube Ad that has a clickable link to your website or promotion, and can be re-watched or paused if needed

Yeah, #2 is going to be a lot more effective.

Highly Flexible & Adjustable

A television ad lives in just one place – the television. It requires you to be actively watching your stationary TV.

On the flip side, a digital ad lives everywhere. It lives on your smartphone, your apps, your email inbox, your games, and yes, even your TV via tech like Roku, Apple TV, or Chromecast.

Also, you can run your ad on countless ad networks including (but definitely not limited to):

• Google
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, etc
• Google Maps
• Content networks (look up Outbrain and Taboola)
• Amazon
• Apple store

And (not to rub it in), a digital ad can also be dynamic. It can automatically change according to a consumer’s interest. Someone who visits Amazon to look at soy candles will see a different ad than someone who visits Amazon to look at toolboxes.

Digital Versus Television Advertising FAQs

Have questions? We thought you might. Find the answers to common questions asked about digital versus television advertising.

How Do You Measure ROI On Digital Versus Television Advertising?

There are many ways to measure and track your advertising ROI. Both digital and television ads can benefit from A/B testing and using a dedicated phone number or website to see how many users take action to call or shop.

If you’re tracking your television advertising, you will want to pay attention to data regarding your commercials:

• Reach
• Conversion rate
• Customer acquisition cost
• Customer lifetime value

When analyzing digital advertising, you will want to explore the data behind your business’s:

• Click-through rate
• Cost per click
• Conversion rate
• Cost per lead

Need guidance? Call the digital marketing experts at Exults today.

What’s A Good Cost Per Click On Digital Ads? 

According to a Wordstream report on Google Ad benchmarks, the average cost per click is $4.22. 

Overall, there is no one true answer to this question as the results of a digital ad depend on your initial target ROI and several other factors. You should also find your cost-per-click (CPC) rate, which measures how much you pay each time a user clicks on your ad.

Do I Need An Ads Specialist To Help Me With My Digital Ads?

It is possible to create and monitor your own digital ads, but you should know that it takes a good amount of time to track and understand the results. If you don’t have time to spend on your digital marketing efforts, you should consider hiring an experienced digital marketing agency.

What Should My Advertising Budget Be?

A recent survey suggests that businesses spend 9.1% of their total company revenue on marketing. Allocating those funds further takes strategy with help from an advertising agency familiar with the metrics behind your business.

Wrapping Up Digital Versus Television Advertising For Businesses

There will always be a place for TV ads in a robust advertising strategy, especially for big brands with deep pockets. We just wanted to highlight that TV ads are becoming (and should be) a smaller percentage of advertising budgets. If you want to remain competitive going forward, you need to increase your digital ad budget and stop wasting dollars on television.

We’d be glad to offer you some advice. Give us a call at (866) 283-6027 or reach out to speak with one of our digital marketing specialists.

The post Digital Versus Television Advertising appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

AI may be all the buzz right now, but it’s nothing new. 

For instance, have you ever communicated with a chatbot? Taken advantage of your email suggesting the first sentence or subject line? Used editing software to help improve your writing skills? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you have experienced the power of AI – whether you realized it or not.

The truth is, AI comes in many forms and has been changing the way businesses work for a while now – especially when it comes to driving meaningful results for your marketing. 

ChatGPT Is Leading The Technical Revolution

Taking the business world by storm one prompt at a time, ChatGPT is changing the inner operations of businesses across the globe with digital marketing at the forefront.

Integrate marketing campaigns that bring results. Reach out to Exults today for a custom quote.

The Evolution Of ChatGPT 

Whether or not you believe it’s been a game changer, ChatGPT has certainly made a name for itself. After previous versions meant for applications such as video games, OpenAI released a new version built on top of the former with a language model chatbot included. 

The results have been met with awe. The first takeaway is the AI’s ability to perform infinite demands with a prompt command. With a little further utilization, users have been continuously wowed by the AI’s ability to follow along and adjust its outputs based on conversation history. 

While it does not currently perform the conversational functions that chatbot-specific AIs have excelled in, it doesn’t mean that won’t be happening soon. However, conversational functions or not, ChatGPT is making strides in the marketing industry – especially in social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO).

Curious about how ChatGPT can optimize your business? Contact Exults for a custom quote today!

Why So Many Companies Are Using ChatGPT In Their Marketing

Technical advances are constantly changing the digital marketing landscape. From automation and optimizations to augmented realities and a reduction of human labor hours, the technical revolution can’t be ignored. 

With so many advances, why is ChatGPT creating a bigger buzz than the rest? Simply, it’s streamlining the existing functions in a way that’s never been seen before.

The amount of work ChatGPT can help with would have been unfathomable only a few years ago. These days, AI users can explore the intricacies of ChatGPT without sign-up fees or restrictions. Meaning, digital marketers have seen the results and it comes down to the detailed input. Overall, the more detailed the prompt, the more detailed the response. 

Market Research Analysis

Need to see how your brand is stacking up against the competition? What used to be a job role in its own right can now be completed with a well-thought-out ChatGPT input. 

To perform your own market research analysis, ask ChatGPT to create an assessment of the similarities and differences between competitors and your own business. Include parameters such as branding, messaging, pricing, and marketing positioning. Furthermore, ask ChatGPT to provide a detailed report that includes charts, graphs, and tables. And ask, “What actionable steps can my brand take to improve and be better than the competition?” 

From the results, you will not only have a clear understanding of your brand’s current standing, but you’ll also have visual representations to present to your business partners and investors. 

Content Creation

How do you stay relevant in today’s world? Many businesses are finding success through social media. But the caveat is you have to consistently create and post across your social media platforms. 

Finding the time to do this has held many businesses back…until now.

With ChatGPT, you can fill in the social media section of your editorial calendar with specific prompts. To do this, tell ChatGPT to create social media captions for the platforms you use. Then include in your input to focus on unique, eye-catching, on-brand, witty, and aesthetically pleasing copy. 

Take it further by telling ChatGPT that the goal is to capture the attention of your current audience and any potential new followers with hashtags for the most visibility. Add that you want it to continue this process and create a content calendar with the same parameters for 3 posts a week for a month – or however many posts per week you need. Finally, tell ChatGPT that all posts should utilize varying verticals for this content creation.  

The ChatGPT response will lay out a social media content calendar that would take a person hours to complete. 

Email Responses

How do you focus on tasks when the emails just keep rolling in? 

It can be time-consuming and distracting to shift gears to respond to emails. But now with ChatGPT, you can have AI draft these responses for you.

Write a prompt demand telling ChatGPT to respond to the following email. Include any parameters necessary. This may include the tone, whether you want to agree or disagree with any questions, and so on. Then, copy and paste the sender’s email under your prompt. 

Capabilities like these allow ChatGPT to work in the background while you work in the foreground. Like having a personal assistant without the added expense, ChatGPT is giving businesses more multitasking power than ever before. 

What To Expect From ChatGPT Moving Forward

Nothing breeds innovation like competition. With that in mind, we expect OpenAI to continue releasing improved versions of ChatGPT. 

It will not be a surprise to see new functions that were once primarily known to be specific to other AI platforms. For example, ChatGPT may hone in on focused conversational abilities to offer more abilities to OpenAI users. 

Overall, expect ChatGPT (and other AI platforms) to introduce new versions that pull from each other’s capabilities. 

A few of the specific AI benefits that we can expect to further improve include:

• Expedited content creation
• Reduced human labor hours
• Improved automation and optimization

When used in digital marketing, professionals are already able to exceed what was once the standard. When treated as the tools they are, it’s an exciting time to see how AI continues to positively impact the businesses that utilize the platforms to optimize their marketing. 

Exults’ Take On The AI Platforms

As a digital marketing agency that truly drives results, the Exults team doesn’t back away from innovative tools that improve our processes and increase productivity. 

For over 5 years, we have utilized AI in various ways to help our clients reach their goals. With that being said, when there are tools available to you, such as ChatGPT, use them!

By optimizing our process with automation and more, we are able to support our client’s growth goals. Because when it comes to improving your business through digital marketing – you need a team willing to go the distance and use the best tools available.

Ready to boost your efficiency with a team that can support your growth goals? Contact Exults for a custom quote today!

The post ChatGPT: How AI Can Drive Meaningful Results For Your Marketing appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Rebranding doesn’t have to be a daunting task for your business. Even something as simple as a digital logo redesign can overhaul your company’s identity and completely reshape the impressions made on both your potential and existing customers. 

It is important to recognize that as businesses continue to thrive and expand into online channels such as eCommerce, classic branding that may have worked effectively years ago communicates a more “tired” message to the modern consumer. Businesses with loyal or elderly audiences may benefit from this familiarity, but for those seeking to remain active and involved with younger target markets, a digital logo redesign is necessary for crafting a stronger brand identity.

Recently, many companies have found that adapting and updating their logo can better position their brand for present and future endeavors, such as expanding into new categories. The challenge digital branding for logo imprint imposes is that icons need to be able to stand alone to concisely represent a brand, whereas in the past logos had a luxury of space.  

This remains especially true for social media platforms given the high degree of layout variance across different desktop and mobile sites. For instance, Instagram cuts off content that exceeds a certain size threshold. This means having a logo that is reasonably sized and easily replicable is crucial for consistent digital branding.

What’s in a great logo? Put simply, it has to illustrate the best parts of your business in a clear and concise manner. Impressions happen easily, but are just as easily forgotten if the brand fails to resonate with its intended audience early on and consistently into the future.

At Exults, we could write entire volumes about this subject, but a picture’s worth a thousand words when discussing visuals. With that in mind, here are five companies in recent years that each pulled off a digital logo redesign using unique approaches towards their rebrand:

Mozilla

When organizations begin a rebranding process, they often keep development of new branding materials away from the public view, sometimes for over a year or even longer. Mozilla took the complete opposite approach when redesigning their logo, opting to share each stage of the development process with their audience in order to generate constructive feedback.

This resulted in one of the most strikingly creative logo redesigns a major company has undergone in recent years. Not only did this build public interest in the rebranding process itself, but it also emphasized Mozilla’s commitment to Internet services that prioritize user experience. 

The Firefox provider cleverly working part of the hypertext transfer protocol secure element of a URL into its name (i.e. https://) helps it stand out among other technology companies. It also remains one of the rare modern logos that succeeds without the use of color. 

Slack

Slack’s original logo materialized before the launch of the company itself. While it illustrated the fun atmosphere the brand intended to bring to internal business communications, it also was incredibly difficult to reproduce across platforms. The hashtag/pound symbol used 11 different colors and required rotation at precisely 18 degrees to remain consistent with the original logo.

For a brand that prioritizes cohesion, this inability to apply consistency when implementing the logo elsewhere presented a big problem. To correct this, Slack adopted a logo with simpler colors, sharper text, and a more easily replicable symbol that still invoked familiarity with the original branding.

Now, rather than having to constantly adjust shades and angles when developing content and materials, Slack has an identity that brings excitement and simplicity to its potential audience and existing users.

Android

Making adjustments to a massive corporate brand never comes easily, but this is especially true when the consumer base consists of roughly 2.5 billion active devices around the world. 

Last year, when Google opted to give Android’s branding a facelift for the first time in over half a decade, they sought to achieve many of the same goals as Slack did above. But how does a company improve on branding that has already worked so effectively for so many years in the modern era?

Seeking simple replication without sacrificing resonance, Google opted to keep the bugdroid mascot but stripped away its entire body in favor of retaining the head. Additionally, they updated the color pallet to a more distinctive tint of green while also making their name more legible by changing the font and color. With these two crucial elements now optimized for reproduction across multiple mediums, Google decided to make the “Android” name a permanent fixture alongside the logo, dramatically improving brand consistency. 

Popeye’s

Popeyes had a wild end to 2019, sparking a chicken sandwich war in the fast food industry after their highly-anticipated offering sold out nationally within days. Entering 2020, the company had to drastically adjust to the sudden windfall of customers, and this included the need for a rebrand to keep up with the times.

Not much required change, but again, the need for easy replication while retaining familiarity was clear. As such, Popeye’s stripped their color palette down to one hue of orange, placed a chicken prominently in the center of their logo, and kept a similar font for their name while straightening it out for legibility purposes. In addition, they kept the “Louisiana Kitchen” phrase while removing the redundant fleur-de-lis in favor of the company’s founding year.

Popeye’s will likely claim one of the most successful digital logo redesigns of 2020. The company has clearly had no problems reproducing its new branding across online marketing or its packaging materials, as evidenced by the company’s rapidly rising same-store sales quarter over quarter.

Mall of America

Mall of America’s rebrand represents perhaps the most dramatic change out of those on this list. At a glance, it stands in stark contrast to the one taken by Slack given the abundance of color in the current logo. 

Though Mall of America’s previous identity above displays in black and white, it’s important to note that the traditional branding utilized a red, white and blue format consistent with the American flag. While this worked well in the early years of the mall’s inception during the ‘90s, it left the brand feeling tired by the time the mall hit its 20th anniversary.

As diversity became an increasingly important component of American culture during the 2010 decade, Mall of America sought to create a logo that represented this shift while retaining its distinct American identity. By retaining the star at the center but giving it a profound facelift with respect to color, Mall of America firmly illustrated its place as the intersection of “fashion, entertainment, cuisine, thrills, and community” to local Minnesotans and audiences across the United States.

Eight years later, it remains an extremely effective example of how prioritizing intricacy over simplicity can actually improve a company’s image.

What a Digital Logo Redesign Can Do for Your Company

What do all of these rebranding efforts have in common? They all sought to implicitly reposition the ways in which new and existing customers interact with a company’s brand. Though the approaches vary across industries, the goals remain the same, and the success remains consistent.

Whether subtle changes for replication purposes or dramatic transformations to completely overhaul identity, a digital logo redesign can positively reshape your company’s perception among your target audience. In doing so, you’ll ensure that your branding remains both consistent and dynamic for keeping up with the ever-changing trends of the modern business world.

At Exults, we already offer effective digital marketing solutions ranging from web design to social media management, and so our understanding of what goes into great digital branding comes built-in. Rest assured that as an agency with a full suite of Internet marketing services, we can help you craft a new brand identity that thrives across the digital landscape.

If you’re interested in seeing what Exults can do for your company and its brand, give us a call at 866-999-4736 or request a quote today.

The post Five Great Digital Logo Redesigns, and Why Your Business Should Get One appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

When it comes to prepping for a natural disaster, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Evacuate and/or load up on water, batteries, canned food, gas, and sand bags… ASAP.

Hurricane hack: assuming you don’t wait too long, order emergency supplies (including water) on Amazon Prime. 

But you’re not here to read about prepping your house for a hurricane from an internet marketing company blog. There are plenty of thorough blog posts on the topic.

You’re here because you already prepped your house and want to know about how to pivot your digital marketing for a natural disaster.

If your target audience happens to be in an affected area, you need to…

Audience Engagement

Keep your social media accounts active so your consumers and audience know what’s happening at your company:

• Share a useful article about how to prepare for the storm
• Share a link where you can donate to help those affected
• Share updated weather forecasts
• Post something that reflects that you’re hoping/praying for those in the midst of the disaster

Find ways to help the relief efforts

You’re asking for a negative backlash if you begin sharing promo codes or sales that try to piggyback off a natural disaster. Again, it’s just not nice and shows zero empathy for your target consumer.

Consider offering a portion of your profits to natural disaster relief. Here are some other things you can do:

• Donate a lump sum to a non-profit that helps with disaster relief
• Get your staff to volunteer with storm relief efforts
• Donate your products (if it makes sense) to relief efforts
• Utilize your extra space or equipment to relief efforts

A good example of the latter is what the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Cartersville, Georgia did after Harvey. They paused beer production so that they could produce 50,000 cans of emergency water to send to the Red Cross.

Create useful content (emphasis on ‘useful’)

Need an example of (hopefully) useful content related to a natural disaster? You’re reading one now.

We’re pretty good at digital marketing (patting ourselves on the back), and we just happen to be headquartered in hurricane territory (South Florida). Our target audience (you) is interested in digital marketing resources and is likely also in a natural disaster-prone area.

Mark yourself safe on Facebook

The team at Facebook has done a great job of adding features to the social network that aid natural disaster relief efforts, namely their improved donation features and the Safety Check.

The Safety Check allows you to publicly mark yourself safe after a disaster. After a natural disaster strikes, it’s important to let your family, friends, and staff know that you’re safe.

Be safe

If you’re facing a hurricane or other natural disaster, please please please be safe. If you have any questions about preparing your digital marketing for natural disasters, feel free to comment below or reach out.

To learn more about how Exults can help adapt your business’s marketing strategies during a pandemic, such as COVID-19, please read our How to Adapt Your Business and Digital Marketing Presence During a Disaster or Pandemic blog.

The post How to Adapt Your Digital Marketing During a Natural Disaster appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

You’re here because you want to know about how to pivot your digital marketing for a natural disaster or pandemic.

So, let’s get started!

If your target audience happens to be in an affected area, here are helpful tips you should follow!

Pandemic Tips for Team Success

Make the Switch to Work Remotely

In the case of a natural disaster or pandemic, it may be difficult or even unsafe to keep your employees working on site, which means you’ll have to shift to working remotely.

Fortunately, with the help of technology, this can be an easy move! There are team integration tools that enable you to have virtual meetings or consultations through including:

• Facetime and Zoom
• Meetings through Zoom or GoToMeeting which can include audio, video and screen shares
• Platforms to promote group or direct communication through messaging like Slack or Microsoft Teams
• Remote desktop access programs like GoToMyPC, so your staff can access their work computers right from their current location

There are also lots of other free tools you should take advantage of, too, like the Google Suite of office products like Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Drive.  Microsoft does have their own version of sharing and collaboration for the Microsoft Office Suite, but we have found the Google Suite offering to be a lot more efficient for collaboration efficiency and purposes. This will allow your team to continue to collaborate on the same projects together even though they’re physically separated.

Encourage Team Engagement

Worried about team engagement falling behind? Channel your creativity. You can encourage and foster team engagement by offering fun incentives like contests for cash or gift cards, such as a funny picture or best joke contests or hold conference video or audio calls. Some are even having virtual Happy Hours to keep the vibe alive amongst the team.  Staying indoors isolated from the rest of the world can be stressful and boring. Scheduling contests or sending funny memes to the group chat can help brighten up the day.

Virtual Transactions

Then there’s the question of how you’ll continue to process payments and orders and how long this pandemic will last. You can always switch to online transactions through online merchant processing with your current merchant processing vendor. If that may not be available to your business, there are simpler solutions like PayPal and Square to gain access to getting immediate payments efficiently.

It’s important to remember, this pandemic isn’t going to last forever. It may feel like it while in the thick of a situation such as this pandemic situation as a result of COVID-19, but this crisis will pass. Make sure to remind yourself and your coworkers that normalcy is on the horizon. While these types of things seem to have a lasting impact on how consumers engage, adjusting your digital marketing for now will help shape your business’s image and can also make a huge impact on consumers now, and in the future.

Pandemic Tips for Your Digital Marketing Strategies

Find Ways to Help the Relief Efforts

Consider giving back toward disaster relief and develop empathy with your audience. Here are some simple (but positive) things you can do:

• Donate to a non-profit organization that helps with disaster relief
• Get your staff to volunteer with relief efforts
• Donate your products (if it makes sense) to relief efforts
• Utilize your extra space or equipment to relief efforts

Audience Engagement 

Make sure your consumers and audience know what is happening at your company:

• Add a website pop-up or banner at top of page letting them know how you are operating
  • Website pop-up or banner onsite to alert your clients. For example, “COVID-19 Update: We remain fully operational. For more information about store hours and services, please contact info@assitance.com.”
• Blog about operations
• Pin a post on Facebook letting them know updates
• Share the services you’re offering to the community to help
• Social media allows us all to have constant communication, utilize this to your advance
• Update your Google My Business store hours and services

Create Useful Content

Need an example of (hopefully) useful content related to a difficult time? Well, you’re reading one right now.

We’re pretty good at digital marketing and are very familiar with the best marketing strategies to use before, during, and after a crisis. Our target audience (you) is interested in digital marketing resources.

At Exults, our mission is simple. We want to help and thought these strategies could be useful to share with our clients and potential clients.

Finally, Be Safe

Your safety comes first! So, please always be safe! Whether you’re prepping for a hurricane or currently struggling with the economic devastation caused by COVID-19, which is sweeping our nation, just know that we’ll all get through this together. Remember, while COVID-19 is temporary, it will forever change our marketing mindset and consumer engagement, so you must adjust your current digital marketing now to stay well positioned for the post-event consumer behavior.

Have questions about altering your digital marketing during this pandemic caused by COVID-19? Please reach out to the Exults team, just as you are there for your customers, we are here for YOU!

The post How to Adapt Your Business and Digital Marketing Presence During a Disaster or Pandemic appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Don’t Discount The Power Of Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most important business strategies to reaching a wide audience. In addition to social media and web marketing, email marketing reaches a huge audience of potential customers. To learn how important email marketing is to your business, read these 8 reasons below:

1. Email Gets Attention

While social media is important, don’t discount the attention that emails receive. Email marketing allows you to reach each individual’s personal inbox and stay there until they choose an action. The next important step is making sure that the action includes reading what you have to say with engaging material.

2. Massive Audience Numbers

There are around 3 billion email user accounts. That number shadows both Facebook and Twitter users three times over and also topples personal connections by thousands. There is a time and place for every kind of marketing, so keep in mind that the largest audience may be reachable via email campaign.

3. Email Is Personal

While face-to-face interactions and social media may feel more personal with pictures and opinions floating around free in cyberspace, email marketing can actually create a personal connection between your business and the consumer. Drawing a direct line from your website to their inbox creates a personal business relationship that can’t be attained via other mediums.

4. Deals And Information Are Expected

Email marketing is just playing into the scheme that’s already been created. When individual’s sign up for marketing emails and listservs, there is an expectation of sale offers and marketing info. Your audience literally opens up the platform expecting to receive sales pitches and to be entertained, informed and persuaded to buy what you’re selling.

5. It’s Cost-Effective

If you’re trying to stretch a small advertising budget as far as possible, some methods won’t get you very far at all. In contrast, email marketing is incredibly cost-effective, as you can connect directly with your target audience for just a few cents per message.

6. Customization Is a Breeze

The days of personalizing email marketing messages with a first name may not be long gone, but today, email marketers have many more options for customization. Many platforms offer marketing automation, which enables you to segment your audience for better targeting and more leads.

7. It’s Easy to Share

Email marketing messages may originate in the inbox, but they don’t have to stay there. Most platforms make it easy for subscribers to share messages with friends and family, and they’re also easy to reshare on social media. Both routes offer ample opportunities for your business to get its message out there.

8. Email and Mobile Are a Winning Combination

If your business is like most, you’ve probably noticed that an increasing percentage of your audience uses a mobile device to interact with your brand. Email marketing pairs seamlessly with mobile, as it enables businesses to get subscribers’ attention almost instantly. Since conversions from marketing emails opened on mobile devices appear to be on the upswing, this is a trend most brands can’t afford to ignore.

3 Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Email marketing is an extremely important element in small business campaigns. When sending emails from your business, make sure to avoid these common email marketing mistakes.

1. Using Poor Subject Lines

In today’s society, so many emails are sent and received that it is easy to click ignore if the subject line is blank or has a poor catch phrase. Utilize the subject line to target your audience and get them excited about what you have to say in your email.

2. Spamming

Emailing individuals who didn’t sign up for your newsletter or email listserv can feel like an invasion of privacy and can sever your potential relationship with that client permanently. Use an opt-in form on your website or attract them to the sign-up sheet via social media links to avoid spamming individuals.

3. Overusing Email For Irrelevant Messaging

Sending multiple emails a day can get tedious and annoying to customers, no matter how good the deals are or how interesting the material. It is important to limit email blasts and newsletters to an appropriate timeline depending on the number of followers and brand loyalty of your customers. Also, making the emails worth reading is extremely important. If the material is boring or irrelevant, you will find that many people unsubscribe or fail to read the content.

To learn more about email marketing, call Exults today at 866-999-4736.

The post Email Marketing 101 appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

If your business doesn’t have a handle on brand management yet, now is the ideal time to start. Learn the basics of brand management and find out how it can keep your business ahead of the game.

What Brand Management Involves

Brand management essentially involves manipulating each aspect of your business’s branding to create a cohesive personality. Brand management ensures that all aspects unite to enhance brand identity. This means creating a cohesive experience for each user using an undivided theme of tangible and intangible elements:

• Logo
• Website design
• Associated Colors
• Marketing
• Advertising
• Placement
• Distribution

How Brand Management Impacts Customer Perception

One of the most important parts of brand management is understanding how customers perceive your company’s brand. No matter what type of brand identity you want to convey, you’ll need to know where it stands in the market and whether customers are making the desired connection with your products and services. As you develop a strong brand identity, you can also enhance customer trust.

How Brand Management Affects Value

Strong brand identity and positive brand perception can build the brand equity, or value, of your company’s products and services. Basically, the brand equity is generated by making products and services memorable, recognizable and a valuable investment. By creating a cohesive brand experience and trust, you have the potential to boost your bottom line substantially because you have a trusted brand personality that people can form loyalties to.

Why Is Personal Brand So Important for Your Company?

Historically, branding was only for businesses. Not so, today, when your personal brand speaks volumes about you and your expertise. From skills to experience, your brand tells prospective clients who you are and allows you to build the bridges to long term business relationships.

It doesn’t matter if you are the sole member of the business or if you are a valued team member, personal branding speaks volumes in today’s world. Why? Surveys continue to indicate the ever-increasing use of social media by potential employers regarding job candidates, current employers checking on the activities of their team members, and prospective and existing customers verifying the trustworthiness of you and your company.

So ask yourself, is your personal brand making a good impression for you and your company? Is it consistent?

Developing Your Personal Brand to Work Effectively for You and Your Company

Developing an effective and strong personal brand is good for your career and good for business. You represent your company everywhere you go – from events to conferences – and every place in between. Your personal brand means greater exposure for you and your company.

The personal brand you promote for all to see works to gain new customers as well as retain current customers. Your personal brand builds trust between you and your customers in addition to you and your employees. It allows you to communicate who you are, what you stand for, and your personal mission. Without it, you take the chance of losing customers as well as opportunities to accomplish your goals.

Building your personal brand requires focus, diligence, and consistency. Hiring an experienced digital marketing agency can take care of all your business’s personal brand needs. With experts in custom web development, search engine marketing, SEO, and social media marketing, Exults can help you surpass marketing goals.

Personal brand development requires you to claim your online presence, and build on it, positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Personal branding means making connections in the industry, answering questions from potential customers, posting frequently, and sharing your expertise across all the channels available to you – posts, tweets, stories, live feeds, and more.

Personal branding doesn’t happen overnight. It requires continual development of your brand, genuine, authentic crafting which sets you apart, what makes you unique and in turn, what sets your company apart from the competition.

Personal branding allows you to show your unique value – ability, interest, connections, experience, and skills – building not only your visibility but helping you know yourself and achieve your goals. Plus, a solid personal brand works toward your personal growth and advancement while creating increased exposure for your company.

How to Build a Strong Brand Identity for Your Company

Emotions make our decisions. 95% of purchasing decisions are decided by our subconscious mind. So why focus entirely on the concrete benefits our companies offer when it’s the intangible things that push sales? This is the power of creating a brand identity.

In every market, there is a leading brand. They have competitors with nearly identical products or services. Still, more customers will pay up to 8x’s more for the brand they trust.

How can you establish a company brand that will let you demand more for the value you give? Here is a brief primer for corporate brand design.

Define Your Brand Identity

Before you create any logos or make any decisions on what you look like or sound like, you must define who you are.

Audience

Your audience will shape your brand. Who are they? Who are they not? The more targeted and clear you are, the stronger your brand will be.

Goals

What are your company’s biggest goals? Your brand will be a tool to help you grow. Define how you want to grow. Think about the emotional benefits you are selling. Is it trust, security, novelty, simplicity? Decide on what psychological triggers you want to hone in on and how they will help you meet your goal.

Brand Persona

Create a Brand Persona. This is a collection of values, personality traits and attitudes your brand would have if it were a person.

Key Messages

Establish your Key Messages. These messages are the main things your audience should take away from everything you put out into the world.

Positioning

To stand apart from the competition, you need to make it clear why you are different. The factors that will position your brand are:

• Who do you serve?
• Why are you different?
• What is the brand story?
• What is the brand promise?
• What are your unique selling propositions?

You must spell out why you are the better option.

“People don’t buy the what; they buy the why.” – Simon Sinek

Now that you’ve established what your brand will be, it’s time to put the pieces together.

Brand Voice

Your brand voice is the tone of voice and language you use. It needs to be Authentic and true to your company values. Remember that you are using this voice to build relationships.

Fonts

Choose fonts that will be used across all your marketing. This serves to establish consistency. Usually, a header font and a body font are enough.

Visual Branding

Now we get to the stuff many people think about when we say “branding”. It’s the stuff you see.

How would you describe the Nike logo? If you said “swoosh”, what is that anyway? It’s Nike. A swoosh exists no place else. That brings us to the logo.

Logo

A great Logo will be distinct, memorable, scalable, and easy to apply across different mediums.
Imagery

You also must decide what type of images to use. They must show your type of customer and express the attitudes of your brand persona.

Colors

Lastly, pick your colors. 85% of shoppers say that color is the main reason why they buy a product. What can colors express? A lot. Here are just a few examples of how you can use color with your brand.

• Red: defiance, power
• Blue: intelligence, calmness
• Yellow: optimism, creativity
• Green: harmony, truth
• Orange: warmth, abundance
• Black: sophistication, glamour
• White: clarity, efficiency
• Brown: reliability, security

When you manage your brand’s visual identity you will create trust and familiarity over time. Apply these elements to every touch point people have with your brand and you will steadily build a strong brand image.

How to Monitor Your Brand’s Online Reputation

Consumers are relying more than ever on online reviews, product write-ups, and star ratings from their peers. That’s why it’s crucial that you’re constantly monitoring your brand’s reputation online, good or bad.

If the customer was happy, make sure you show them you appreciate the kind words by engaging with the post. This goes a long way with instilling brand loyalty, and showing consumers that you’re grateful for their business.

If the customer was not happy, it’s a little trickier. It’s vital that you publicly acknowledge the customer’s concerns, and try to move the discussion to a private channel like email or direct message. This shows potential buyers that you care about your customers and that you’re open to negative feedback. By taking the conversation to a private channel, you avoid publicly revealing a potentially messy situation or revealing what you’re willing to do for an unhappy customer (ex: deep discount, refund, free product, etc).

That’s all well and good, but…

How do I monitor my brand’s online reputation?

There’s no shortage of paid tools you can use to stay on top of your brand’s online chatter (more on that later), but the majority of you reading this can get away with utilizing a few free tools that you might already be familiar with.

1) Google search

The first place you should check is the Google search results because it’ll give you the best overall view of your online sentiment. For instance, here’s a random search for a popular diner in San Francisco…

That’s just Page 1 of the search results, and you can already see the plethora of places where potential customers are forming an opinion about you. Keep clicking to Page 2, 3, and 4 to perform a thorough search.

You shouldn’t just stop at searching your brand name, though. Make sure to also search…

• Common misspellings
• Nicknames
• Social handles
• Related searches
• Autocompleted searches

Here are examples of the latter two:

Related Search (found on the bottom of the search results page)

Autocomplete searches

These types of searches not only give you an overview of your online reputation, they also unveil possible issues or discussions about your brand that you might not have known about.

PS: If you’re unhappy with what you see on Google, don’t hesitate to contact us about our SEO services.

2) Google Alerts

This is a free tool provided by Google, that allows you to set up alerts that notify you whenever your business name pops up on the search engine. This is valuable because it allows you to react quickly to online feedback about your brand.

To set it up, head to google.com/alerts and hit “Create Alert”. It’s pretty straightforward.
Make sure to be thorough when you create alerts for your brand name. Again, don’t forget about common misspellings, nicknames, old names, shortened names, etc.

When you click on the pencil icon, you’ll have these options…

Side note: you can use Google Alerts for all kinds of searches, including the names of your main competitors. This allows you to spy on your competition without them knowing.

3) Yelp, Google Reviews, Facebook Reviews, Tripadvisor, etc

Over 90% of consumers are using online reviews to make a purchasing decision. Star ratings are the top factor that consumers consider when deciding to buy (stats courtesy of Vendasta).

You NEED to be monitoring the obvious sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, and industry-specific review websites. You NEED to be engaging with these reviews to show that you’re listening.

You can do this manually or you can use a paid tool (a quick Google search will give you plenty of options for paid tools). Just make sure you’re doing it.

Again, when you’re responding to negative feedback, MAKE SURE to acknowledge the problem publicly, but try to provide a solution privately.

Check out why customer reviews are important?.

4) Social listening

It goes without saying, you need to respond to people on social media when they message you directly. If you’re not responding to users on social media, it’s like you’re not answering the phone when someone calls your business.

That’s not enough, though.

You also need to be paying close attention to conversations about your brand on social media, where you aren’t directly tagged or mentioned. This is a lot easier than it sounds.

Here’s an example of social listening on Twitter…

You should be engaging with those tweets, even though they didn’t mention you directly or use your hashtag.

Here’s an example of social listening on Instagram, searching Places…

These screenshotted results are people that checked into the nursery but maybe didn’t tag the nursery’s Instagram profile. You’ll want to engage with these posts from your business’ Instagram handle.

Make sure to go through all your active social media accounts, and perform searches related to your brand name to uncover these kinds of results.

5) Paid tools

As previously mentioned, there’s no shortage of paid tools out there. They range from very affordable to very pricey. Here’s just a few of the more prominent options:

• Brand24
• Hootsuite
• Yext
• Mention
• BrandWatch
• BrandYourself
• ReviewPush
• Moz Local

If you’re open to paying for a tool, make sure to do your research because there’s a wide array of prices and functionality to consider.

Managing Your Brand Reputation Online

Despite the cliche, not all press is good press. This is especially true when the bad press becomes the first impression for a potential customer, i.e. when the bad press lands on the first page of a Google search for your business.

For example: BP’s catastrophic oil spill was really (really really really) bad press. For a while, and maybe even still, people associated BP with oil spills — not good, obviously. When you searched Google for “BP gas,” articles about the oil spill would dominate the search results, which obviously doesn’t help the brand’s image. BP needed a major PR push to change the conversation. 

“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” – Don Draper, Mad Men

BP decided to change the conversation and began to flood the internet with positive stories. This included a lot stories about their environmental efforts and community work.

Now when you Google “BP gas,” the oil spill gets buried (with the exception of that terrible Marky Mark movie Deepwater Horizon that re-surfaced the oil spill conversation). Now people associate BP less with the oil spill than they did 5 years ago.

More on how BP cleaned up their Google results later (keep scrolling)

Don’t underestimate the power of your Google search results. Many times, people will form an opinion about your business based on what they find on Google, fair or unfair. 

So, how do ensure that positive stories overpower the negative ones on your Google search results…

Step 1: Do good

How can you create a positive story about the work your company did in the community if you didn’t actually do good work in the community? Find an initiative that you want to support, and actually do it.

Step 2: Make sure people know you did something good

While it’s intrinsically worthwhile for you to get involved with good causes, it doesn’t help your online image if there isn’t any written proof of what you did.

When your company does something good, make sure you write about it. Don’t stop there though — make sure someone else writes about it. Make sure people read it and share it. Make sure it’s optimized for the search engines. Make sure the story not only lives your website, but on other relevant websites as well. Rinse and repeat.

Another tactic: optimize your off-site channels

A lot of times, your Facebook page, LinkedIn Company page, Yelp page, TripAdvisor profile, etc. will show up on the first page of search results. There’s only so many slots on the first page of Google search results, so these kinds of off-site channels (assuming they’re not littered with negative reviews) will help bury your negative search results.

Use a site like Namechk to ensure that you’ve secured your company name on all major off-site channels.

Back to BP… how did BP bury their negative search results?

This is what shows up (and why) when you search common brand searches for BP.

When you search “BP gas”…

Their website surfaces at the top of search results in almost every brand related search. This is a benefit of great website SEO work. You want your website to show up first– it’s an online channel that you have full control over.

The local search results are important because they take over most of the first page for this particular search. This is a benefit to great local SEO– making sure your brand’s geo-specific locations show up during relevant searches. I performed that search from Fort Lauderdale, and lo-and-behold, all the nearest BP gas stations in the area showed up.

When you search “BP gasoline”, this is what populates…

Notice the top result is a BP-controlled microsite. This microsite was created to educate consumers about the perks of BP gas. It also helps bury search results that BP doesn’t control.

The spill happened in 2010, this microsite was built in 2011. Coincidence? I think not.

When you search “British Petroleum”…

Notice the first result is a Google Ad. Notice the second result is their official website. Why “waste” money by bidding on your own name, you ask?

It’s all about controlling what you can control on Google search. BP didn’t want another company to poach that top slot, so they took it.

You see the same ad when you search “BP oil”. 

When you search just “BP,” this box pops up in the right column…

You don’t just control your own websites. You also control things like your social media profiles, which usually populate the first page of results.

Also, notice their stock price is shown. This is just another example of content that can help bury negative search results.

On the same search, you’ll also see their international sites and their Wikipedia page…

If you’re an international company, you need to treat your international sites with the same level of SEO that you would your US site. Why? Because they can be easy ways to fill out the first page of search results.

If you’re big enough to have your own Wikipedia page, make sure the information is up-to-date and accurate. You don’t want an internet troll to input fake information on your Wikipedia page– people look at Wikipedia pages as fact (for better or worse).

Summary

BP did a lot of things to improve their image on Google. There’s not a single pill you can take to fix negative search results, so you need to try a few tactics to see which ones stick. BP did, and it seems to be paying dividends for them.

Exults Drives Results

Your personal brand is key in today’s global business environment. Personal branding is crucial and requires a fully focused and continuous commitment. At Exults, we are ready to help you develop your personal brand and make the connections your company needs to succeed. Contact us today and let’s get started!

The post Brand Management: How to Keep Your Business Ahead of the Game appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

That, however, means that you need to remain relevant in your advertising, especially regarding internet advertising and website landing pages. And that begins with a tried and true SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. The success or failure of your SEO strategy requires some keyword research – determining which keywords will be used in your campaign. This begs the question(s): 

What is the difference between long tail vs short tail keywords in SEO? 

Which should you focus on first: short tail vs long tail keywords? 

And how do you even find the right keywords to rank for? 

Discover that inside this guide. 

Contact your SEO experts at Exults to start generating organic traffic to your website.

What’s The Difference Between Long Tail vs Short Tail Keywords In SEO?

If you’re new to the world of SEO and how search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, and Yahoo)  work, you may have heard the terms “long tail” and “short tail” keywords thrown around. Essentially, short tail keywords are shorter phrases that are more general in nature, while long tail keywords are longer phrases that are more specific and targeted.

Both are important to include in your overall SEO strategy. But what’s the difference between long tail vs short tail keywords in SEO? And which should you focus on first?

What Are Short Tail Keywords In SEO?

Before deciding on which to use for your advertising campaign, it is important to understand the difference. Short tail keywords are a maximum of three words

Here are a few examples of short tail keywords:

• Birthday cake
• Pineapple necklace
• 1939 food prices

Also known as “head terms” in SEO, these are the first words that come to mind when deciding where to eat “sushi” or “gluten-free pizza”, finding a birthday gift for grandma (“bracelet charms” or “petite women’s apparel”), or where to take your furry friends on a walk (“dog parks” or “dog-friendly hikes”). Short tail keywords are broad in scope and return large amounts of traffic – often way more than you need to target to reach your SEO goals.

What Are Long Tail Keywords In SEO?

In comparison, long tail keywords are more than three words, considerably more targeted and specific. Although they typically won’t return as much organic traffic, they will attract more of the traffic you need to target. Examples include:

• 80th birthday bracelet charms
• Gluten-free make your own pizza
• Easy dog-friendly hikes near me

For marketing and advertising, long tail keywords are often the most favorable – but both have positive and negative attributes.

The Pros and Cons Of Long Tail Vs Short Tail Keywords

When you want to make a big impression on the first search engine results page (SERP), both long tail and short tail keywords can work to your advantage. Many long tail keywords used together in a campaign can mean substantial volume while generic short tail head terms will drive loads of search traffic to your site.

Pros Of Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords have a higher click-through rate (CTR) generally because of less competition or fewer search returns. In turn, this means lower cost per click (CPC) as low-bidders mean lower prices, plus long tail keyword search queries result in higher positions. Long tail keywords often result in a higher conversion rate simply because you are attracting more of your targeted audience with more specific head terms. You engage them in their searching often when they are already in a decision-making mode and ready to make a purchase.

Cons Of Long Tail Keywords

But what about the bottom line or return on investment (ROI)? 

Regarding website content, you will need to create more original content intended to connect with your target audience – no matter how narrow. While the long tail keywords will come naturally as part of the conversation, it may require you to produce more content than you originally intended. 

Pros Of Short Tail Keywords

Short tail keywords are easy to develop for your content strategy, but you need to ensure these short tail keywords flow easily, not awkwardly, into the subject matter. Having keywords that fit naturally, will increase your quality score as well as your relevance among your audience members.

Cons Of Short Tail Keywords

Because short tail keywords are broader in general, you will also see a higher CPC per term. Additionally, your ads may show up for users who are not your target audience or even in a position to engage with your brand on some level. 

How To Find The Right Keywords For SEO Success

Doing your research and knowing your target audience will aid you in the selection of the best long tail and short tail keywords for your business. Should you need assistance, please contact us to optimize your next campaign for success.

Make A List Of Topics 

In order for you to find the right keywords for your business, you need to think of the overarching topics you are known for. Not only are topics like these typically easy for clients to discuss and offer valuable information for, but they also often use the same keywords or phrases as your target audience – so it’s a win-win.

For an estate planning law firm, their topics may be wills, estate plans, and probate. Then a family law and child custody law firm’s topics could include custody, divorce, adoption, and child support. From the general services your business offers, you should be able to have those general topics to start thinking about the rest of your digital marketing plans. Again, these are broad topics that will help you with the next step in finding the right keyword for your SEO success.

Strategize With Marketing Professionals

If you don’t have any marketing experience or professionals directly on your team, using a digital marketing agency can give you the insight you need to make informed decisions about your campaigns. 

If you’re going the strategic route without a digital marketing expert in your corner, you can do some light keyword strategy on your own. There are paid and free digital tools available to you like Google’s Keyword Planner (check out this quick how to) and Semrush. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that without knowing in-depth where your business stands regarding keywords, the data you see may not be that helpful for long-term results. You might find yourself running into extremely general keywords and phrases or ones that are not relevant to your business at all. An SEO expert will have the knowledge needed to guide your optimization strategy, integrate it with your additional assets, and identify the long tail vs short tail keywords that may perform best for your business.

Don’t sleep on using digital marketing professionals for your business. Give Exults a call and experience the difference.

Record & Maintain Your Findings

Whether you’re a firm believer in spreadsheets and Word documents or laptop notes and a mood board, ensure you’re recording your findings as you research various digital marketing topics and ideas like finding the difference between long and short tail keywords and how it applies to your business.

See a topic you could talk about for days on end that would be better to bring up at a certain time? Save that topic to fill out content ideas for future months. Every time you think of a topic you want to cover, jot it down so it doesn’t get lost.

On the other hand, simply jotting down your ideas may not be enough to give you the strategy you need for your desired SEO results. This is why Exults’ team of digital marketing experts works well for business owners across all industries. Because you’re able to leave your digital marketing in the hands of someone else, you also save yourself the time it would take to conduct regular keyword research sessions.

Think of digital marketing management for content and blogs as the gift that keeps on giving. Remember, having a routinely updated topic list allows you to plan and reuse other assets like videos and downloadable guides. Nailing this part of your strategy also keeps your entire team organized and on the same page about month-to-month goals. It’s time-consuming work, but it’s the best way to track those keywords and bring your brand in front of a wider audience. 

Fill Those Topic Categories With Keywords 

Now that you have your topics, write keywords down that fit into those categories. Use the following questions to help you brainstorm:

• What is my target audience searching for? 
• What questions does my target audience ask frequently? 
• Is there anything I wish my target audience knew about this topic?
• Are there any interchangeable terms I should alert my audience about?
• Would it help my audience to have a glossary available with common industry words and phrases broken down?
• What are the myths people believe most about my business?

When you spend adequate time strategizing, recording, and maintaining these keywords in your various topics, you are in a much better position to keep your entire team – both internal and external – on a streamlined track to success. Plus, you’ll be able to better track your best-performing keywords. 

Use Your Google Search Console To Find Keywords 

Then log onto your Google Search Console for additional keyword inspiration. Search under queries.

Write down the keywords that you already rank for. Find different ways to communicate those terms. 

You can also find keywords that have a lot of impressions but aren’t ranked. That indicates a good traffic opportunity for your business. 

Determine Intent Behind Keywords

Some keywords you may have listed or come up on search engines for may be all good, but the intent behind those keywords may not drive the right traffic to your website. 

What’s the easiest way to determine the intent behind keywords? Search the term. The results in the paid ads and organic results sections of the SERP should be along the same lines as your intent. If it’s not, then you may need to look at a different keyphrase. Remember, just because it’s what you would search for doesn’t mean that’s what your target audience is plugging into the search engines.

You can also use this strategy to promote job openings and related opportunities. If you’re not familiar with how keywords work for your career-based tasks, think about what potential employees would search for if they wanted a job like the roles you’re offering. Depending on your industry and the roles available, a few common keywords might include:

• Companies hiring near me
• Job openings near me
• Upcoming job fairs
• Accounting jobs around me
• LinkedIn job search

If you’re in a specific industry, that’s okay. Keywords can range from broad searches to search terms that are quite detailed like:

• Entry level dental assistant job openings near me
• Senior CPA job opening in oil and gas industry
• Operations management roles in health and medical field
• Entry level accounting role in financial equity firm
• Paralegal job at family law firm for divorce attorneys 

Use Google’s Autocompletion, Related Search, & People Also Ask For Inspiration

If all else fails, use Google’s Autocompletion, Related Search, and People Also Ask for inspiration for your keywords. While originally these features were produced to make their user experience better for searchers, they can be used to boost your keyword planning. These tools will be able to help you build long tail vs short tail keywords to start optimizing. 

Autocompletion

When you search for a term in Google, they will automatically spit out other prospective keywords for you to try out. Google originally intended this to help users find the information they are searching for quickly. But as a business, you can use it as preliminary keyword research. 

Related Search

Similarly to Autocompletion, the Related Search feature helps users find the information they are searching for quickly rather than forcing them to click through pages of search results.

People Also Ask

Lastly, the “People Also Ask” feature helps prompt potential results for users to click through. Oftentimes, the best SEO pages start with a question as Google can scrap that information and quickly provide an answer to their users. 

Now that you have a list of keywords, you need to create content around those terms. Don’t go about it alone! Start the conversation with Exults today.

SEO Keyword Frequently Asked Questions

There is a lot of noise surrounding SEO keywords. That’s why we’ve compiled the SEO keyword frequently asked questions to help guide you in your SEO efforts. 

What Is An SEO Expert? 

An SEO expert or specialist is someone who understands how search engines work and more importantly, how to rank websites on those popular search engines. They may focus on 1 of 3 areas, but they should have a basic understanding of all 3. 

What are the 3 areas?

1. On-Page SEO
2. Off-Page SEO
3. Technical SEO

On-page SEO usually refers to the optimization of the words and keywords written on each page throughout a website. In addition, it includes adjusting the title tags, crosslinking, meta descriptions, and URLs. They’ve developed a process that allows Google (and other search engines) to see their content as valuable and on topic. 

Off-page SEO refers to any optimization that occurs outside the website itself. That includes backlinks most commonly, public relations (PR), and social media. 

Finally, technical SEO refers to the backend of the website, including tasks like:

• Creating and submitting the sitemap to search engines
• Optimizing the site structure to make it easy to navigate
• Increasing site speed
• Designing the site to be mobile-friendly
• Removing any duplicate content found on the site

How Would Hiring An SEO Agency Benefit My Business? 

There are several reasons why you should hire an SEO agency and how it would benefit your business.

First, they can help you save time so you can offload SEO tasks to a full team of experts and focus on what you do best. You’ll also skip the learning curve required to optimize your site for search engines. This alone will help you better manage your time. 

Then, it will save you both time and resources as an agency can be more cost-effective than hiring an in-house SEO specialist. Plus, you now have access to a full team for the same price. As a result of them analyzing data from multiple industries and businesses, they can provide advanced suggestions to bring you further than your competitors.

And because you have your time back and costs optimized, you can improve your productivity and results in other areas of your business. Working with an SEO agency is the start of taking on more market share. 

Want to partner with an SEO agency that has your business’s best interests in mind? Partner with Exults.

Which Type Of Keywords Should I Use For My Business?

The type of SEO head terms you should use for your business depends on a variety of factors, including your target audience, industry, and business goals. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to focus on long tail keywords that are specific to your products or services that have a lower search volume and low competition.

If you are struggling to find long tail keywords that work for your business, start with identifying overarching topics and short tail keywords. Then use that as a point to differentiate into a variety of terms. 

For example, a Home Services company may offer HVAC, roofing, and plumbing services under the same brand. Because those services are so different from one another, start with one and identify 3-5 topics per service. 

• Roofing
  • Roofing Materials
    • Metal roofs vs architectural shingles
    • What is the best roofing material in Florida? 
    • Hurricane-proof roofing materials 
  • Roofing Maintenance 
  • Roofing Replacement 

At the end of the day, the head terms you should use are the ones your target audience is searching for. 

Which Is Better Long Tail Or Short Tail Keywords?

If you’re looking to cast a wide net and attract a large audience, short tail keywords may be the way to go. Because of the high competition, you’ll need to put in a lot of work to see any of those short tail head terms rank. 

If you’re looking to target a specific niche or audience with highly relevant content, long tail keywords may be a better fit. Using long tail head terms makes it easier for a given page to rank on search engines in comparison to its short tail counterparts. 

Ultimately, it’s important to research your audience and competition and choose the keywords that will best help you reach your goals.

How Do You Come Up With Long Tail Keywords For Your Website?

To come up with long tail keywords for your website, start by brainstorming words and phrases that are related to your business or industry. Consider using keyword research tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify relevant keyword suggestions and their search volume. Think about user intent when searchers look up your focus key phrases.

Why It Is Important For A Company To Use Long Tail Keywords In An SEO Optimization Strategy?

Relying solely on short tail keywords for your SEO strategy lends itself to lower conversion rates and increased traffic – creating a sense of frustration for business owners. 

When a company uses long tail keywords in its SEO optimization strategy, it may see lower traffic. However, that traffic is going to be higher quality leads that in turn produce a higher conversion rate. All of your marketing efforts will be much more fruitful as a result. 

What’s The Difference Between Keyword And Keyphrase?

Although we used the word “keyword” throughout this blog, the term keyword indicates a one-word term someone would search for. For example, it could be “lawyer”. The word “keyphrase”, on the other hand, indicates more than one word. This could look like “divorce lawyer in miami florida”. 

Leave Your Short Tail vs Long Tail Keywords & Other SEO Worries At Exults’ Door 

The layers involved with a successful digital marketing campaign are extensive and require specialized attention. Partnering with Exults gives you the freedom to focus on what you do best while your digital marketing continues to grow, adjust, and thrive.

Have an idea of what your upcoming goals are to further support your online presence? From long tail vs short tail keywords and paid advertising to social media and website updates, Exults does it all. 

Give us a call at 877-355-9269 today to get started.

The post Learn the Difference Between Long Tail and Short Tail Keywords appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Simply put, programmatic direct advertising works like this: if you’re an advertiser (a buyer), you need ads. You buy them from a publisher (the seller) who creates the kind of content your consumers would find attractive. The system worked well in the early days of the Internet, but then there was more demand than supply, and more publishers than advertisers. To ramp up and meet publishers’ needs, ad networks formed and increased the number of available ad placements and formats.

After ad networks formed and began selling premium ads in batches, real-time bidding started. RTBs can be effective because they target a specific audience, such as only Gen Z students who are enrolled in college or moms with at least two children under the age of five. A publisher can set a predetermined price and bid on ads being auctioned off.

Programmatic advertising has become an integral part of the advertising landscape. After all, what publisher wants to pay for ads that aren’t relevant to consumers? The challenge with programmatic is that with so many sources, it has become difficult to assign value to the ads-until now.

Google Ad Manager changes the game

Google Ad Manager will offer a unified first price auction. The auction is intended to level the playing field for buyers and advertisers. Google Ads will not share bids or reset prices until an auction is won. At that time, the buyers pay the price bid for the ads. Ad Manager’s goal is to make the impression process simpler while offering more value.

According to Google Ad Manager, you can count on:

• First price auctions in simplified programmatics. Simplicity rules in selling and purchasing ads.
• Custom creatives. You still have creative control over your ads. In fact, management tools and formats can be customized more than ever.
• Native style suggestions. No advertiser wants ad copy that looks out of place. Google will recommend styles that complement websites. This feature is now live.
• What the change means

The first auction simplification of the digital advertising market will have deep ramifications for buy-side players who have relied on second auction pricing bids and sales. The good news is Google’s newest position in programmatic landscape means that ads will have an assigned value and cannot be overvalued or lowballed.

As a result, many sellers will have to put pencils to paper as they recalculate their pricing structures and strategies for selling digital ads in a fluid market. It will take a while for the dust to settle as players learn the new rules for engagement. Google Ad Manager will continue to send out updates, and the transition will be completed by the end of the year.

Until then, digital marketing agencies will be helping buyers and sellers regain a position of advantage on the playing field.

The post Google’s Ad Manager Moves to First-Price Auction appeared first on Exults Digital Marketing Agency.

Imagine being able to take the best of the shopping experiences found in Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram, and then creating a spectacular mashup that resonates with consumers and encourages them to make purchases with a quick click. In essence, that’s what Google Images has done.

Where once items were displayed in isolation, they now are placed and photographed in the environment in which you would use them. Rather than look at a picture of a cup or plate against a bland, white background, you can see the place setting as it would be used: on a table. It’s a more authentic and engaging way to market products and services.

Shoppers can view multiple ads with different place settings ranging from informal to formal. The ad helps them visualize the product in their own home. With shoppable ads in Google Images, it’s all about the experience.

Shoppable ads

Shoppers turn to images first, and pictures sell products. With shoppable ads, advertisers can create a staged scenario that features several products in a single picture. The picture should suggest a lifestyle that the consumer would find appealing, and as he or she scrolls across the image, the prices appear on any of the items being offered for sale.

For now, shoppable ads are in testing mode with furniture retailers and art dealers who provide a picture of a room staged with their products. Imagine taking shoppable ads a step further.

Advertisers will be able to sell a complete experience by promoting a scenario. On a beach stands a colorful umbrella, and next to it, a few folding chairs. The children are tossing a beach ball, and a surfer is riding in to shore. As the shopper scrolls over each image in the picture, a brand and price appear. The result is a richer experience that is more likely to result in a sale.

Shoppable ads in Google Images allow consumers to identify, save and collect the images on boards they can refer to later. Suddenly, furnishing a room or even an entire home has never been easier because everything you need is right there, curated in the shoppable ads.

Showcase shopping ads

Some advertisers want to take the shopping experience to the next level, and for them, Google has created showcase ads. These ads offer multi-image formats that create a series of thumbnails you can enlarge and view full screen. The idea is to funnel sponsored content to interested consumers, encouraging them to become paying customers. The video format offers a richer context and more immersive experience for previewing a product. Through sponsorship, these showcase ads appear at the top of product keyword searches.

Shopping insights

Merging shoppable ads with Google Images makes sense. We’ve known for a long time that a picture is worth a thousand words, so it’s logical that pictures make the sale. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase after seeing an item rather than reading or hearing about it.
Most shoppers in the United States turn first to Google when making a purchase. You’ve done it, too. Now you can be there waiting for them with an immersive experience they’ll love.

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