Digital Marketing

Since the introduction of the concept of social media back in 1978, there have been different platforms that have come and gone.  Social media will forever be evolving, which means new platforms will continually be developed.  The year 2023 will be no different.  There are many platforms that have carried over from previous years and some that are in their infancy.  Three social media platforms to be on the lookout for in 2023 include: BeReal BeReal is an app that focuses on the creation “new and unique ways to discover who your friends really are.”  With this idea, the app chooses random times of the day that its time to be real.  The app requires the user snap a photo of whatever it is you happen to be doing, but it requires you to do so within the 2 minutes time slot after it informs you.  The photo you take actually uses both your front and rear cameras on your phone.  So ultimately, it is taking two pictures at once to show others what you are currently doing.  In 2022, usage of the BeReal app jumped up by 312% with downloads being up 1000% from 2021.  Needless to say, BeReal is on the uprise. Clubhouse Clubhouse is an audio app that has the feature of chat rooms.  Users of the app have the opportunity to drop into live chat conversations and listen in to what is being discussed. Clubhouse took off in March 2020 and grew until about February 2021.  It became so popular that the likes of Oprah Winfrey was hosting chats on the platform.  However, soon after that, the popularity started to dwindle as the app fell by 60%. However, Clubhouse is still staying alive by offering new features and partnering with the likes of TED.  The conversations on the platform are primarily in the STEM space now.  Instagram Reels Instagram Reels is a new feature put out by the already established social media platform Instagram.  The Reels option was launched in 2020 in response to the attention gaining from TikTok.  Reels took the video option already on the Instagram platform and gave it more options with creation.  The Reels are 90 seconds of video that can be edited right inside the Instagram app.  Because of the craze currently for short video, Instagram Reels has seen a growing interest over time. If you seen the benefits of social media for your branding or marketing strategy but not sure how to incorporate it, please get in touch with me so I can discuss how I can help you. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

Image size for your website’s SEO matters.  According to 2018 data, 20% of all U.S. website searches happen on Google Images.  SEO developers understand the importance of optimizing images for your website and worth the time to do so.  Whether you optimize the size and quality of the image or utilize alt tags or other SEO tricks, your efforts might be what is needed to get your image shown in search results. Image Size Affects Website SEO Image optimization creates a host of advantages for the user as well as the website owner.  For the user, optimization gives them a better experience with the image and faster page load time.  For the website owner, optimization gives additional ranking opportunities and improved authority for SEO purposes. Here are some recommendations to consider when choosing your images for your website: Format There are a substantial amount of image formats currently in the marketplace.  With that said, the PNG and JPEG formats are the most common for the internet.  PNG – this format produces better quality images, but comes with a larger file size. JPEG – this format has less quality, but the quality level can be adjusted to find a balance. WEBP – this format is the only image format supported by Chrome and Firefox. Image Compression As mentioned in a previous article, mobile is now king and anything that slows the load time becomes your enemy.  According to HTTP Archive, “images makeup on average 21% of a total webpage’s weight.”  This is the very reason why its recommended to compress images before they are uploaded to a website.  This can be accomplished by using an application like Photoshop or a plugin like TinyPNG or WP Smush. Whatever plugin or application is used, make sure the compression happens on an external server so that the weight isn’t put on your website’s server. Unique Images The goal with images is to get attention.  However, those images might lose their purpose if they are obtained from stock image databases.  By creating your own unique images, you establish a special feel and presence on your website.  You make it more personal for the visitor.  Even if you are able to optimize your images perfectly in regards to SEO results, it will still lose luster with the visitor if it’s a stock style image.  The more original your images are, the better experience it’ll be for the user. Copyright for Images The U.S. Copyright Act defines images as “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.”  It defines these works to include “two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, globes, charts, diagrams, models, and technical drawings, including architectural plans.” So regardless of the image files you choose to use, it’s important that there’s no copyright conflicts.  There are images out there that are for reuse and others for a fee.  However, by creating your own images that your customers will like better anyway, is the best route to take. Use SEO-Friendly Alt Text Alt tags on your images are text alternatives to your images when a browser can’t properly render them.  The alt tag is used to describe the image file to give meaning to what the image portrays.  Adding Alt tags is also a great way to enhance your SEO results.  It ensures that all components of a website have meaning whether they are viewable or not. Images to add life to your website and marketing materials.  However, they can detract too if effort isn’t put into personalizing it and connecting the image to the content being presented.  If you need assistance with your imagery on your website or with your marketing materials, please get in touch with me and I would be pleased to assist you. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

Social Media Helps SEO Although social media does not hold a ranking factor, it does help with SEO.  However, there are benefits that your social media efforts can indirectly feed into your SEO results. Social media helps SEO through these methods: Boost Your Content Social media is a place where people hangout and spend their time.  By creating your own presence on a platform, you begin gaining the attention of those people interested in what you are sharing.  This content can be your personal interests or that of a company.  When you create content on your website, you are at the mercy of waiting for someone to find it through a search engine.  To help speed up the process of bringing in visitors to that content, it is advisable to share it on your social media profiles.  This will gain attention quicker and bring traffic to your website sooner. Gain Backlinks  With using your social profiles to bring in traffic to your website, more eyes will see your content.  With more eyes seeing your content, you enhance the chances of someone linking to it.  Backlinks are an integral part of SEO.  They show search engines that people like your content and see it as valuable.  Because of that liking, your content can get ranked higher in search results.  By showcasing the content on your social profile, it could lead to a sharing of it.  That sharing could leads to others that begins the snowball of people finding out more about your offer. Bring More Traffic The goal of SEO is to increase visibility of your website and bring in visitors.  By creating an active presence on social media, you open the door to a whole new audience.  With over 4.9 billion people accessing social media worldwide as of 2023, you can be assured your target audience is there somewhere.  Some of these people might only run across your products or service through social media.  Therefore, putting work into this aspect of digital marketing becomes vitally important. Social Profiles Build Trust An important reason for investing in SEO is that it helps build trust in your brand.  There are many companies and offers out in the marketplace today. This makes it harder for prospects to decide on which brand to buy from.  Because billions of people are on social media today, they use it as a starting point to find the brands they choose to buy from.  It a brand has a poor or nonexistent social media presence; it serves as a red flag to the customer that it might not be the best option.  Likewise, a strong social media presence with relative content can be anattractive piece for bringing in new clients.  Everything you do to build your business online should work synergistically for the same purpose.  SEO and social media both have their own benefits for your business.  It becomes your job to make sure they cohesively work together to support one another to help expand your brand awareness.  If you need help with your social media strategy or SEO, get in touch with me and I would be pleased to assist you along this path. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

Although digital marketing and digital branding have different approaches, there is overlap between the two that complements each other and help progress a company.   Digital marketing is the vehicle for creating and maintaining a company’s digital brand.  It connects the brand and products/services to establish the brand identity and values.  Through the uses of social media, online advertising, and a company’s website, it can get this messaging out to prospects. However, for digital marketing to be effective, a digital brand needs to be established first.  Digital branding gives a company it’s face and identity.  It allows your customers to see the bigger picture than just what is shown in an ad for a product or service.   Digital marketing gets a customer’s attention with the offer, but the digital branding ties it with the overall focus and goal for the brand.  It establishes a deeper connection between the brand and the customer.  It shows it’s not just about making a sale but it has a bigger purpose. Sometimes digital marketing complements digital branding so well that they appear as one.  However, each plays an important role in specifying certain targets to collectively grow the company.  If you need assistance with your marketing or branding, get in touch with me and I would be pleased to assist you along this path. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences. Let’s connect!

Content marketing is the creation and promotion of content assets.  The intent is to create brand awareness, enhance traffic, establish leads, and expand a customer base. Below are some options that content marketers use in their marketing strategy: Blog posts.  Blog posts are very influential with helping enhance your expertise in your niche.  By regularly writing and publishing new articles to your company’s website, you generate organic search traffic for your business.  These new visitors become new leads to convert into customers. E-books and whitepapers.  E-books, whitepapers, and other long-form content can be used to extend the education of your website visitors.  Offering these forms can also be used as a means to gather the reader’s contact information.  This in turn will establish more leads and ultimately new customers. Infographics.  Some readers prefer to be shown information as opposed to you telling them.  Infographics and other visual forms of content is an excellent way to present your concepts to them.  Audio & Video Content.  Our history shows that people like to obtain audio content through television and over the radio.  With the enhancements of technology today, each of us has the opportunity to provide audio and video content through online sources.  Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is actually a marketing tool more-so than a form of digital marketing. Google defines it as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” SEO is a science as it requires you to weigh different factors to obtain the highest possible ranking for your website. Today, the most important elements to consider when optimizing a web page include: With SEO, there’s no consistent rule to help get your ranking high. Google changes its algorithm consistently. Therefore, it becomes impossible to make qualified predictions. What you can do, however, is closely monitor your website’s performance and make adjustments as needed. Content Marketing According to Forbes Magazine, content marketing is a “marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” The goal of content marketing is to attract prospects that ultimately convert into customers. It does this differently than traditional advertising. Instead of enticing prospects with a product or service, it offers value for free in the form of written or visual material. Not sure if you buy into the value of content marketing? Here are some facts that might help change your mind: Content marketing can be tricky however. Content writers need write engaging material while also ranking high in search engine results. When the content is relevant, it can establish strong relationships with customers. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing engages people through online discussions. This helps drive traffic to the content while building brand awareness at the same time. The most popular platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. Pay-Per-Click Marketing Pay-per-click (PPC) is posting an ad on a platform and paying every time someone clicks on it. Each PPC ad has 1 or more target actions that viewers are meant to complete after clicking an ad. These actions are known as conversions, and they can be transactional or non-transactional. Making a purchase is a conversion, but so is a newsletter signup or a call made to your home office. Whatever you choose as your target conversions, you can track them to see how your campaign is doing. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing lets a person make some money by promoting another person’s business or brand. It uses a revenue sharing model to provide for the payment. As the affiliate, you get a commission every time someone purchases the item that you promote. Some affiliate marketers choose to review the products of just 1 company while others choose from multiple merchants. Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the other party. Many affiliate marketers choose to become affiliates with brands they use and trust themselves. However, this is not a necessity. If you need assistance with implementing any of these digital marketing options, please click here. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!

Digital Marketing Digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices which utilize some form of a computer. It is sometimes referred to as online marketing. This can include email, social media, web-based advertising, and text and multimedia messages. Basically, if a marketing campaign involves communications digitally, it’s digital marketing. Unlike traditional marketing, which is static and often referred to as “one-way” communication, this marketing is an ever-changing, dynamic process. It provides an avenue for two-way communication between a business and its actual or prospective customers. In our world today, screen time is at an all-time high for many people. It helps take advantage of this reality by promoting business products and services across the internet. In this way, businesses ensure that their marketing efforts are more likely to reach customers. To be successful, the marketing strategy generally involves a combination of various methods. These can include online advertising, search engine optimization, social media content creation, and others.  Because of the frequency that the general public is in front of screens today, utilizing digital marketing in all businesses has proven to be successful. If you need help with this, check this out. Got a Project in Mind? GET IN TOUCH I collaborate with innovative brands to create cutting-edge digital experiences.Let’s connect!