1. You won’t get out of your own head

Everyone is different. Not everyone thinks like you, acts like you, or values the same things as you. Remember, your opinion is not the only one and other people may find value where you don’t.

The second I find myself in “total disbelief” while performing research and analysis, I need to step outside or get a cup of coffee. I have a hard time believing people think differently than I do—it’s one of my biggest obstacles during strategy meetings.

2. You forget not everyone works in your industry

Remember the whole world doesn’t work in your industry every day. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of your business like you do.

Take the time to stop, smell the roses, and find little details that potential customers and clients might really enjoy. One great example of this would be how MillerCoors claims that “Coors Light’s unique frost-brewing process locks in a taste as cold as the Rockies.” Now, you might like to know that all lagers are conditioned at near-freezing temperatures, and cold filtering is a popular alternative to pasteurization, because it’s FASTER AND CHEAPER. Not only does MillerCoors recognize that not everyone is a brew boss, but they are leveraging that ignorance in a very creative way.

3. You don’t invest in tools

Working for an internet marketing agency has provided me the opportunity to work with some crazy cool SEO tools. The amount of free software out there is amazing and it is changing the digital marketing landscape for the better. But! Keep in mind the paid version of a certain software is probably WAAAY better than the free version.

Don’t be afraid to invest in software. If you know what you’re doing, these tools can be invaluable.

4. You try to do it all

Yes, you are the greatest most capable person you have ever met… now hire someone and pay them what they are worth.

People go to college to get degrees in creative writing, technical writing, graphic design, and web development. Knowing your own limitations and knowing when to cut your loses and pay a professional can be the best solution sometimes. Taking time and money to go back and fix something that was never right in the beginning is usually a slow, painful, and expensive endeavor.

5. You don’t like talking about yourself

If you and your business are genuinely outstanding and your customers are satisfied, it’s not cheesy to ask for an online review.

There is no shame in promoting the genuinely outstanding qualities of your business. Finding a balance between commercial confidence and humility is key.

6. You don’t measure up

Compare yourself to the competition.

This is very simple, but most people find it difficult to actually do. Every consumer and/or client out there is comparing you to another vendor, manufacturer, or service provider. Don’t be afraid to do some (persuasive) comparison for them – and get creative! A simple graphic of a checklist with tally marks is boring.

7. You don’t ask for advice

Ask your customers and clients how you are doing and how you can improve. After all, no one knows your target market better than YOUR TARGET MARKET!

Simply following up with clients over the phone or via automated email follow ups can yield priceless information.

8. You don’t know where you belong

Take the time to think about where you belong in the digital realm and who you are trying to reach – this is a simple case of demographics.

If you can’t figure out where you belong or you don’t know how to reach your target market – revisit point #7 and #3.

9. You go through the motions

Banging out content for the sake of “fresh content” and posting inspirational quotes to social media for the sake of a daily post is probably hurting you more than it is helping. Users are people, and the people of 2015 have no time for lame content. You need a real content strategy.

10. You don’t leave your desk

Get out there and meet the people working in your industry!

Just because you run an online store or you run a hyper-local service based company does not mean you can’t get active in your niche. I got my start in digital marketing through the use of online niche forums. Join a community, go to webinars, share content, take someone to coffee, or become an active member of a meetup.com group.

11. You look down on social media

Remaining ignorant to the fact that social media is now a part of life will not help you grow a business in 2015.

“Social media” is not just Facebook and Twitter. Wikipedia lists nearly 200 different social media platforms and that doesn’t count the endless niche forums and enthusiast websites. There is nearly a limitless amount of avenues for you to share, debate, educate, and learn from. Take advantage of the beauty that is the internet.

12. You are “all business all the time”

Link equity and traffic signals brought about from lighthearted click bait has it’s place in the world.

A well-balanced content strategy that addresses every stage of the sales funnel needs to contain content more suitable for the general public. Now, I’m not saying put your logo in cat videos, but I am saying people are not all business 24/7, and your content strategy shouldn’t be either.

13. Communication breakdown

Web developers, SEOs, social media strategists, PPC strategists, PR strategists, and everyone else involved in marketing your company needs to be aware of your digital strategy—all the time.

Nothing makes you or your business look less capable than having conflicting marketing messages, outdated marketing materials, or a convoluted brand image. All team members/marketing avenues need to be marching to the same beat to be as effective as possible.

14. You don’t set goals

How do you know if you are making reasonable progress if you don’t set any goals? Set goals! Any goals! Then, once you have reached your initial goal, do better the next time. If you start losing steam and can’t make new progress, reread this list.

 Conclusion

If your online marketing strategies have lost their steam, stepping back and reevaluating the situation is almost always the answer. Asking people to give you their honest perspective, getting honest with yourself, or sticking your neck out and taking a risk can give the stir you need.

The post 14 Reasons Why You Don’t Succeed In Digital Marketing appeared first on Clix.

This sounds simple, but sometimes it’s too easy to forget that market research should be the foundation for creating a high quality content marketing strategy. Duh.

Seriously though, investing time and energy into product research, market research, and connecting with people working and living in the area of concern is overlooked time and time again.

Rand Fishkin of Moz SEO, recently posted a great video blog  about the importance of research and analysis periods before starting a content marketing project. In his post, he says, “[People often] put something together that they hope will achieve their goal of reaching a new audience, of getting promoted, but it falls flat mostly because they had the idea before they talked to anyone else. Before they realized whether anyone else was interested, they went and built it…That’s actually kind of a terrible idea.”

Here is 5 ways to create better – more strategy driven content based off of some of the ideas Rand outlines in his recent post.

1. Learn about the industry you plan to work in.

Rand says, “This is going to be dozens of hours of research to understand the niche before you can effectively create content for it. That’s something where it isn’t just an on demand kind of thing.”

2. Learn about the community you plan to work with.

This is going to consist of many hours browsing through topic forums, YouTube channels, blogs, and magazines getting to know the people using and buying certain products or services. The one not so exhausting characteristic about this step is all of the aforementioned resources are easy to find and free or cheap.

3. Before you create any content, know that it would be unique and others would actually share it.

This is where having connections and being able to reach out and shake a hand come into play. Simply asking for an insider’s opinion sounds to easy, but it’s commonly overlooked. Also, if you’ve been doing your research, you should have an idea of what your audience is needing and wanting.

4. Visual and/or interactive content is going to perform a lot better than text.

Images are memorable.

5. Cater to an audience that will help you reach your business goals.

Creating content for the purpose of driving leads and closing deals involves a completely different strategy than creating content that drives traffic and builds brand recognition. The easiest way to explain this is: content that go viral usually don’t end with “sign up today.” Viral content is usually short, simple, universally understood, and instills strong emotions. Content that that drives leads is mostly analytical and logical.

In conclusion, if you’re going to do it, do it right the first time. Investing in research periods may be costly, but a content strategy that falls flat is always a waste.

If you need help developing and implementing a high quality content strategy, contact Clix. We’d be happy to help!

The post Simple Sharable Content Is Hard to Make appeared first on Clix.

1. When Making Major Changes To Your Site

Search Engine Optimization strategy should always be taken into consideration when adding, changing, or removing anything from your website. Even if you are just doing some basic URL changes or a CMS change, you can severely damage your rankings and cut off traffic to your site.

Neil Patel, the co-founder of KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg and Quick Sprout, recommends hiring an SEO expert when doing any of the following tasks:

• Crawling your site
• Provide SEO recommendations on early-stage design mockups or wireframes
• Conduct development site reviews
• Consult with developers on the use of Java
• Conduct an inbound link analysis
• Create a 301 redirect map
• Provide page title recommendations
• Provide H1 recommendations
• Perform a content audit
• Monitor response codes post launch

2. When Working Through A Penalty

Google is still slamming people with manual and algorithmic penalties – probably hundreds of people a day. Since Google still rules the search world, sites must adapt to its demands.
If and when a manual penalty comes down the pipe, the damage can be devastating. Depending on what got you into the penalty box, Google can and will completely remove your site from some – or even all search results.

Recovering from a penalty can be a hugely daunting task for someone has has never been there before. Although it is possible to get a manual penalty lifted while working from your kitchen table, your efforts may either take forever, or be totally ineffective. In the end, you might save more time and money by actually hiring a professional to get your business… back in business.

3. When Starting A Digital Marketing Campaign

Leveraging a website as a part of a digital marketing campaign is not as simple as “if you build it, they will come.” There needs to be more than just four walls and a roof. Like a house, a website built for conversions is made up of many small and very important pieces. A house is not a home without a staircase to the second floor, a hot water heater, or light switches. To keep with the same line of thinking, a website is not an effective marketing tool without an SEO’s tasklist, and they can be completely foreign to business owners and even some web-developers.

4. When You’re a Local Business

Without local listings – you don’t exist.

There are plenty of statistics out there proving that local listings and Local SEO are well worth the investment. BUT, according to Neil Patel, “Few local business owners, especially small business owners, have the time to implement all the local SEO best practices on their own. To do it [themselves], and do it right, requires a level of time and effort that few business owners can afford.” These are a few small details that under certain circumstances can quickly squash Local SEO mojo:

• Variations in abbreviations of punctuations
• Changing your phone number
• Any inconsistencies across profiles
• Failing to classify your business correctly

Conclusion

I think it’s fair to say that you wouldn’t hire the guy down the street to build a house for your family and you wouldn’t pay someone you found on craigslist for business advice.

Don’t do the same for your digital marketing strategy. Just winging it, or giving the keys to all your digital assets to a novice is a sure fire way to destroy an online business. If you are looking for online marketing advice, contact Clix. We like tough questions!

The post When Do You Need an SEO Pro? appeared first on Clix.

Content becomes the link connecting businesses to customers. Storytelling sets the tone for their engagement. Blogs, social networks and video-sharing sites inform, entertain and empower your best prospects and clients. – Trond Lyngbø

Content Marketing can address every stage of the sale funnel.

Well planned Content Strategies should have a piece of content for everyone at every stage of the sales cycle. This includes everyone from the general public all the way to yesterdays customers.

First, by creating easily shareable content for the general public or even people just beyond the upper limits of your sales funnel, you can actually help your entire site gain domain authority by attracting more monthly visits, acquiring more backlinks, and increasing activity on social media channels.

Secondly, by raising awareness, answering questions, and addressing concerns Content Marketing can aid prospects through each and every phase of the sales cycle.

Lastly, just because a person has already purchased your product or service doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be addressed in your marketing plans. Content can be produced to keep people coming back again and again. Pieces centered around continuing education, product updates, or even company updates, can help ensure customers will recommend your business to their friends and family.

Content Marketing not only informs people, it can convert prospects.

In reference to my previous point, Content Marketing can help prospects build so much trust and confidence in your business’ product or service, they will be ready to purchase by the time they call in or visit a location.

The idea behind this concept is that your high quality content will qualify a prospect by clearly explaining every reason someone should buy your product or service. The content you’ve produced will in turn, nurture the prospect by addressing all of their concerns and answering their questions. Lastly, prospects will be ready to purchase because they will be well informed, know what they want, know why they want it, and now trust your brand.

Content Marketing helps you find out what is important to your market.

I know it’s a passive approach, but it still has value. Pieces of content can be used to gauge market interest. The more activity an article generates – the more your audience is concerned with that topic.

Be sure to remember, content can always be repurposed. Meaning, if you write an article that sparks a large amount of activity, host a webinar on that topic, create an infographic, or create a video blog. The main goal is to keep the ball rolling, generate even more exposure, and dig deeper into the market.

Content Marketing lets you tell your story.

This is something that Joe Corporate needs to understand. The internet has made finding and sharing sensitive information with the world incredibly easy. Using Content Marketing to inform people about your business, its morals, its agendas, and even its hiring practices can help everyone – including the general public – build trust, create understanding, and develop confidence in your company.

The post Why You Should Be Using Content Marketing appeared first on Clix.

What is it?

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads or RLSA for short, is essentially search network remarketing. Utilizing your remarketing audience, you are able to identify return searchers who have already visited your website and remarket to them within the search network to potentially boost your ROI.

RLSA lets you target returning searchers in a way that is unique to them, segmenting this group from other searchers in order to display special messaging, different landing pages, increased ad position, etc. Targeting searchers as they move along through the purchase funnel from awareness to action is beneficial for any PPC campaign, especially since sales cycles can span days and weeks—if not months.

Requirements

– Remarketing tag placed on landing pages

– At least 1,000 cookies

– Remarketing audience list (must create)

Once the requirements are in place, you can target your search network campaign (or create a new one) towards your new remarketing audience list. Utilize a stronger call to action, boost your bids to ensure top positioning, or take shopping cart abandoners to a specific promotions page in an effort to increase your sales or goals.

Special Considerations

Traffic volume in RLSA campaigns is typically low since you are segmenting a specific audience. Also, remember that if you duplicate a campaign to use for RLSA, add the RLSA audience as a negative to the original campaign.

New features and strategies can seem daunting to take on, but always keep in mind that testing new products allows you to discover untapped opportunities for new traffic, potential leads or sales.

Learn more from Google here on Remarketing Lists for Search Ads.

The post PPC Spotlight: Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) appeared first on Clix.

I recently read his article and pulled a few of the tips I think would be the most effective use of someone’s time. As I have never been one to appreciate even the slightest of spammy sales techniques, you might notice the 15 tips I chose to highlight all have a humanistic touch to them. I think one thing digital marketers often forget, is sometimes it’s a good idea to simply be human.

The following 15 tips are from Justin McGill’s article “An Epic List of 100 Growth Hacks for Startups.”

Amazon Book Reviewing and Commenting

If there are books published in your niche on Amazon and you’ve read them, start reviewing them. If there aren’t any books…well then, write one!

Discounts to Influencers

Find influencers in your niche and offer them heavy discounts (or even a free account) in exchange for some promotion.

Upload Training Videos to Lynda

Upload your training videos to Lynda.com, an online collections of training videos.

(I would also suggest starting a Vimeo account and adding these training videos to your own resource page)

HARO

Use helpareporter.com for press opportunities.

(HARO – Help a Reporter Out – is designed to enable journalists to connect with people who have expertise or experience in particular issues, so that journalists can obtain valuable advice and quotes for stories they are covering.)

Here is a detailed article that explains How to Use HARO to earn Earn Valuable Mentions and Links

Discounts for Beta Testers

Give half off or some other deep lifetime discount to beta testers who helped you validate your model.

Handwritten Notes

Send handwritten letters to key accounts / influencers. Actual handwritten letters are extremely rare these days so you will stand out.

If you spend time reading blogs in your niche (you should!), leave thoughtful/relevant blog comments.

Use the website/url field to link to your app.

Bonus tip: In the “Name” field use ‘your name @ company’ for more brand awareness for those that don’t click the link.

Utilize an FAQ Page

Create a separate page on your website specifically for FAQ’s.

• Position questions around your key selling points.

• Monitor search queries to your site and build content specific to those queries.

• Make note of actual issues or questions your customers are having and address them to lessen support requests.

Ask Users to Take Pics w/Your Product

If you have some enthusiastic customers, ask them to take pictures with your product and have them share it on their social feeds.

You can then use this social proof on your website!

Make Signing Up Easy

Just require an email (that will be their username) and one password input initially. Don’t have them confirm the password, don’t ask for an email AND a username (email can be the username).  Make it as quick and painless as possible.

Tweet or Mention New Users

Tag new users (or one’s with the biggest following if there are lots) in

Double Loop Referral Program

Dropbox made this technique popular by rewarding you with more storage when you refer someone, while at the same time giving that new referred user more storage as well.

tweets and on Google+ after they sign up and thank them for the signup.

In-App Sharing

Allow users to share milestone achievements or something they can be proud of and will want to share.

Downsell at Cancellation

When a user goes to cancel, offer to keep/store data or push them toward a lower tier instead.

If a user has been a customer for X number of months, offer a big discount (50% or so) to stay on their current plan. Make sure it’s understood this is a one-time offer and only because they met certain criteria.

Exit Survey

Make money from website visitors who leave by knowing why they left.

• Ask why they weren’t interested and what they were looking for.

• Use this data to improve your marketing and/or your app with the feedback.

• Let them know you can follow up with them in the future as the product evolves to meet their needs.

Annual Payments

Give customers the option to pay with annual payments. Reward them with X% off or # of months free. This gives you a large sum of cash upfront which can be put back into marketing.

If you think your startup could use some more help with digital marketing, contact The Clix Group.

The post 15 Digital Marketing Tips for Startups appeared first on Clix.

Online Reviews Affect SEO

Google and other search engines are taking online reviews very seriously these days. The people over at MOZ have reason to believe that online review information now makes up about 10% of Google’s recipe for search rankings. Also, Moz claims that quantity of reviews is the 9th most relevant piece of information when Google is formulating search results. Moz actually ranks “Quantity of Native Google Maps Reviews”  over “Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain” and “Page Authority of Landing Page URL”.

Consumers Want Online Reviews

Meanwhile, in the real world, a recent survey found that only 10% of consumers don’t consult online reviews prior to purchasing services or products. This means 90% of consumers are utilizing online reviews to guide them through their purchasing process. In fact, Brightlocal found that 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

I should also mention, Chuck Cohen, CEO of Varsity Tutors, says:

“Collecting customer feedback is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to determine both the strengths and weaknesses of their product or service.”

Reviews Contain Valuable Information

Forget about rankings and CTRs for a second. Consumers see your business in a different light than any owner or employee ever will. Their fresh perspective can provide you invaluable information. When reflecting on the topic of customer feedback, Chuck Cohen went on to state:

“When my company discovered that nearly every client’s favorite aspect of our business was the extent to which the service was individualized to their specific needs, we developed new ways to further customize the experience we offered. Without this detailed feedback, we might have focused on completely unrelated product enhancements that our customers wouldn’t have appreciated as much.”

At the end of the day, Google is displaying more and more local listings within SERPs, more people are looking to review information as a resource than ever, and online reviews are free! It’s a No-Brainer! Your businesses’ rankings, reputation, and bottom line can all be improved by simply asking for your client’s opinion.

The post Why Collecting Online Reviews Is Crucial appeared first on Clix.

It’s pretty obvious that the first tip would be to delete the photos right away, but if you plan on keeping them for a while, make sure your phone has a secure password set. Remember to make sure it is a password your friends can’t easily guess (e.g., “1234” or your birthday). Most of us definitely want to keep those photos as private as possible, so please, people—use a password!

Next, download a password-protected photo gallery mobile application. These private photo vaults allow you to import the photos you’ve taken on your phone into private albums and hide them. The only way to access those photos once they are imported is with a pin number YOU choose when creating the album. No one would ever know that album exists.

Here are a few FREE password-protected mobile applications:

• – Private Photo Vault
• – Secure Photo Storage w/ Dropbox
• – Pic Lock 3 Ultimate
• – PicSecret

Of course there are others but the applications listed above were the top rated amongst iOS users.

Did You Know?…

…The most recent iOS update (iOS 8) allows iPhone users to hide photos in a hidden album? While it isn’t the most secure way to hide your private photos, it is a great way to get them out of the general album you use on a more recent basis. But if you’re utilizing the lock screen password as recommended in tip one, you should be fine.

Adding Photos to the Hidden Album

Adding photos to the hidden album is easy. Simply press your finger down on the photo you wish to hide and select “hide” from the pop-up. Once you have opted to hide the selected photo, you can visit your albums where you will see anew album called “hidden”. (NOTE: Unlike other created albums, you cannot rename the hidden album.)

Don’t Forget About SnapChat

In recent news, a handful of SnapChat users had their account hacked and an immense amount of photos were shared throughout the web. Just because your photos “disappear” from your photo after 10 seconds doesn’t mean they are actually non-existent from the web somewhere.

Finally, the Ultimate Safeguard

If you don’t want to chance it, don’t take private photos in the first place.

No photos, no problems.

The post Keeping Private Photos Private appeared first on Clix.

1. Optimize Your Pinterest Profile

Social media profiles are like all your other business profiles, so do it right!  Your username, account name, and business name should all be consistent. Provide a URL to your site too!

For example, searching “Donuts” in Pinterest’s “pinners” section, it provides a nearly endless list of users that all have practically the same name. It’s for this reason Social Media Managers need to keep account information organized, clean, and compatible across all platforms.

2. Verify Your Pinterest Account

Verified Pinterest accounts have more authority in searches. Here is a link to instructions on how to verify a Pinterest account. (Social Media Managers need to verify any and all accounts whenever possible.)

3. Write Solid Descriptions

Write descriptions for humans, not robots. People want the name of a product, where to learn more/purchase, and any specifics like size or color. (Pinners rarely rewrite descriptions, so make it count!)

4. Use Rich Pins

Rich Pins are similar to Twitter Cards in that they pull structured data from your site and display it on Pinterest. Depending on what type of Rich Pin you use, they can show price, availability, and even ingredients. The work managers put into this now will payoff in the future with less time spent on writing descriptions and higher click through rates.

5. Think Long Term

This is where a Social Media Manager can be a bit of an SEO. Make sure you stay on top of 404 errors and out of stock items. If for whatever reason an item/page on your home site is no longer available, redirect or re-work that page. Don’t have old pins sending new visitors to broken or out-of-date pages. This traffic is not only going to leave frustrated, but your bounce rate will rise too!!

6. Start a New Category

If you have a niche product or you simply can’t find a mainstream way to tag your products, create your own categories. Look for a category with a high search volume and a small amount of content. Or, tag your weird product or new design with old familiar tags that are more likely to be searched. On the other hand, DO NOT put all sorts of unrelated tags on every pin you create. This is the best way to scare off users.

7. Stay Organized

Just like SEOs tend to a website, Social Media Managers need to keep pins and boards organized as well. If you want to be a real champ, create a system of organization that is a reflection of your website. This way, Pinterest referral traffic will already have a feel for your site’s content.

Want to know what a real life Social Media Manager thinks? Contact The Clix Group.

The post 7 Tips For A Pinterest Manager appeared first on Clix.

“Page speed plays a very important role in online business. It can increase or decrease the revenue of your online business, depending on how much time your site takes to load. There is a shocking relation between site speed and conversation rate, which is particularly true for e-commerce sites.” – Search Engine Journal

There are more than a few reasons to increase page speed, the two most obvious reasons are search rankings and user experience.

Improve Search Rankings with Faster Page Speed

Google Webmaster Central posted a blog post on April 09, 2014 stating, ”Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there.” Since Google’s bread-n-butter is delivering a user experience, you can best believe Google puts emphasis on page speed when determining ranking factors. It should also be noted, mobile sites are penalized for loading slowly.

Improve User Experience (UX) with Faster Page Speed

KISSMetrics reported that 47 percent of users expect a page to load within two seconds. So, if your site takes more than two seconds to load, there is a good chance users won’t be sticking around long. Remember, people are ACTIVELY searching the web. When people are actively shopping or actively researching , they don’t want something as simple as page speed becoming yet another obstacle.

Ways to Check Page Speed

WEBPAGETEST

Webpagetest.org allows users to run free page speed testing and compiles results into waterfall charts that break down content, check for possible optimizations, and make suggestions for general improvements after receiving a page speed score out of 100.

PAGE SPEED INSIGHTS

Page Speed Insights generates page speed scores out of 100 while providing analysis of both the desktop and mobile versions of your site.

LOAD IMPACT

Unlike the tools listed above, Load Impact simulates a scenario where your page is flooded with users. This simulation will determine the areas where your site cracks, as well as how to fix any problems before they happen.

In Conclusion

Remember page speed is just one of about 200+ factors Google takes into consideration when organizing results pages. Use your time and resources wisely!
If you have general questions about Google rankings, or you would like a website evaluation, contact The Clix Group. If you want 5 ways to increase your page speed, click here!

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