Author: Juan Vasquez

How to Pick the Right Digital Marketing Agency

Hiring a digital marketing agency can be a smart business decision, but only if you choose the right one. It’s important to research your options thoroughly and think about your specific needs before you make your decision. After all, most agencies aren’t cheap – but if you make a good choice, your investment will repay you many times over. Here are some things you should take into consideration before you hire an agency.

How does the agency market itself?

You can get a sneak preview of how an agency will handle your marketing by looking at how they market themselves. Check out their website, blog, and social media accounts. Is their marketing style creative and fresh? Do their blog, video production style, and social media accounts make them seem professional and knowledgeable? If you’re looking for SEO services, you should also Google the agency and see where they rank in the search engine results.

Who has the agency worked with?

In the world of digital marketing, niche matters a lot. Look for an ad agency that’s handled marketing for other businesses that are similar to yours. The more experience they have, the more effectively they will probably be able to market your business. It’s also a good sign if an agency has worked with large, easily recognizable brands.

You should always ask for references before you hire an agency. An agency might be able to achieve stellar results, but if they’re a nightmare to work with, it may still be a better idea to hire somebody else. Talking to an agency’s former clients will help give you an idea of what you can expect if you work with them.

What kind of results has the agency achieved for clients like you?

The single most important factor you should consider when you research an ad agency is what kind of results they’ve gotten for their other clients. Things like famous clients, a great website, and years of experience are nice, but if an agency doesn’t reliably get good results, you shouldn’t work with them. Search the agency’s website for statistics on their work or success stories. For more information, contact the agency and ask them for some examples of results they’ve achieved recently.

Does the agency specialize in anything?

Make sure any agencies you’re considering can do what you need them to do. If you need help with video production for your ad campaigns, for example, you wouldn’t want to hire an agency that specializes in local SEO, no matter how creative and appealing they might be otherwise. Figure out exactly what you need, and then look at the agency’s track record to see if they can deliver it.

Hiring a digital marketing agency is a big decision. It’s important to take your time and do your homework before you part with your money. Keep these questions in mind as you research the agencies you’re interested in, and you’ll have a better chance of hiring a company that will get your business the results you want.

We Can Help You

If you’re interested in a free consultation, or exploring your options, please feel free to call 305-593-7488 or contact us here.

June 29, 2017
Why SEO Alone Isn’t Enough

Website traffic is incredibly important to any company. Since almost all consumers conduct some amount of online research when looking for businesses, an increase in website traffic should almost always correspond with an influx of new customers.

Faced with the need to acquire as much website traffic as possible, it’s likely that you’ve focused much of your digital marketing energy on search engine optimization. SEO, after all, is what brings people to your website. The problem with on-page SEO, though, is that too many business owners focus exclusively on it. Have you ever paused to think about how well your website serves the traffic that it receives? Have you ever considered the fact that building a better relationship with your website’s visitors is actually an SEO skill in itself?

It’s time to become a more complete online marketer. Search engine optimization alone isn’t enough to make a website successful. We’re going to explain why.

The User Experience

When you construct pages on your website, it’s likely that you spend a fair bit of time on aspects that users don’t specifically notice — items such as meta and alt tags, keyword density and PageRank sculpting. However, none of those items contribute directly to the experience that a user has when visiting your website. People visit your website because they want information that only someone with your expertise can provide. If you want your content to lead to the acquisition of new customers, you need to focus on providing a great user experience. In doing so, you’ll also contribute to your website’s search engine ranking. Inbound links factor greatly into a website’s search engine rankings, and few website owners willingly link to mediocre content.

Addressing Social Media

While it’s fine to focus your digital marketing energy primarily on your own website, it’s unwise to ignore social media because social network profiles often rank prominently for branded search terms. Google knows that visiting a company’s social network profiles is an important part of the process for many people who research businesses online. Having several active pages on social networks can actually strengthen the search engine ranking of your official website because it tells Google that you are serious about your brand’s identity. Promoting your content on social networks is also an excellent way to increase the content’s reach.

Conversions Drive Profits

Search engine optimization helps your website attract traffic, but it doesn’t do anything to help you earn money from that traffic. Even great content doesn’t necessarily help your bottom line. Content engages visitors and establishes your authority and expertise, but content doesn’t drive sales. Building a sales funnel — and encouraging website visitors to enter the funnel — is what ultimately makes your optimization efforts worthwhile. Whether you want website visitors to enter your sales funnel by buying a product immediately, signing up for your mailing list or filling out a form to request an appointment, each piece of content that you publish should include a strong call to action telling the visitor what to do next.

Elevate Your SEO with Us

Are you ready to bring your digital marketing skills to the next level? Contact us now for help with search engine optimization, social media promotion, conversion rate optimization or any other form of online marketing.

June 22, 2017
Importance of Professional Web Design for Your Business

The emergence of free content management systems such as WordPress has greatly benefited website owners around the world. There’s no longer any need to pay for web development services because absolutely anyone can download WordPress, install a free theme and have a working website.

There’s a very large problem with using a free content management system and free design template, though: Your website will look exactly the same as thousands of others. For a business that needs to project a professional image and build a brand identity, having a website that looks like everyone else’s is exactly what you don’t want. Do you think that there isn’t enough room in your digital marketing budget for professional web design? It may actually turn out that you can’t afford not to have a professional website design. Here’s why.

Customers Make Snap Judgments

A user will form his or her first impression of a website in just 50 milliseconds. That’s not enough time to read even a single word of text. In fact, 94 percent of the people who visit your website will base their initial opinions solely on the way that your website looks. Since first impressions are notoriously difficult to change, having a website that looks unprofessional in a potential customer’s opinion will probably prevent you from ever having a chance to earn that person’s business.

Customers Care About Appearance

Having a website that projects a professional image doesn’t only help with creating a good first impression — it also improves the overall perception of your brand. In a survey about business website design, 94 percent of respondents reported that an unprofessional website design was reason enough not to trust a business. If a website’s design is unappealing, 38 percent of visitors will leave without engaging with the website’s content. Most importantly, 75 percent of consumers will judge the apparent credibility of a business solely on the basis of the appearance of the business’s website. If you have a great looking website, people will trust your brand and investigate further. If your website looks unprofessional, people will assume that your business is unprofessional and shop elsewhere.

Customers Expect Websites to Work

Professional web design doesn’t just affect the way a website looks; it also helps to ensure that everything works as it should. A website needs to load quickly — especially for customers who use mobile devices. Reducing page loading times by as little as one second can increase a business’s sales to mobile customers by 27 percent. It is also important for a website to be free of technical problems. If the images on a website fail to load, for example, up to 39 percent of visitors will leave the website immediately.

Free Consultation

It’s time for a professional web design that gives your business’s online presence the level of professionalism it deserves. Email us for web development and all other digital marketing services.

June 13, 2017
17 Hotel Marketing Trends for 2017

The hotel marketing landscape is geared for growth in 2017, with an increase in mobile marketing opportunities. There are also multiple new advertising channels available thanks to emerging technology and social media.

So what are some of the hottest hotel marketing trends to look out for in 2017?

1. Mobile is King

The IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking Report notes that mobile traffic has overtaken desktop traffic. Google’s upcoming mobile-first web index will ensure marketers who prioritize optimizing their content for mobile users reap big in 2017.

2. Mobile Conversions Increasing

Payments using mobile platforms such as Paypal and Apple Way are making it easier for customers to book hotels online. Judging by increased mobile traffic, mobile payments will outdo credit card payments in 2017.

3. Tablet Use Declining

Improved mobile phone and laptop designs are causing a decline in tablet usage for hotel searches.

4. Changing Paid Search Strategies

Hotel competitors such as Airbnb and Google’s new extended text ads are causing a shift in paid search trends in the industry.

5. Innovative New Channels

Hoteliers are embracing new channels such as Airbnb to sell rooms, even with its unique set of challenges.

6. Peer Advocacy for Loyalty

Hotels are adding a personal touch to their social media efforts with tools such as flip.to that reward peer advocacy. Such tools provide social proof and promote brand loyalty.

7. SEO for Voice Search

Increasing voice search is transforming hotel SEO efforts. Content containing long-tail keywords is set to increase in 2017.

8. Search Algorithm Changes

Hotel marketers must be keen on their analytics this year. Google and Bing are set to make many changes to their search algorithms that will affect hotel searches.

9. Instagram E-commerce

Instagram is currently piloting an e-commerce feature to allow shopping on Instagram within the next 2-4years.

10. Snapchat Advertisements

Millenials are loving this highly visual social media platform. Snapchat Ads are therefore a winning formula for hotels in 2017.

11. Facebook Advertising for Mobile

95% of Facebook ads are being viewed on mobile, 85% of them with no volume. This means ads must be optimized for mobile and make sense even without the sound.

12. Preference for Video

Video budgets will increase in 2017 with an increasing demand for video content over text.

13. Facebook and Instagram Live Streaming

Sharing of real-time video on Facebook and Instagram Live will add a personal touch to your hotel’s online presence and promote social proof.

14. Metasearch is Essential

Adding metasearch to the marketing mix could prove to be a successful channel with the correct rate strategies.

15. Analytics Tools

There’s an increasing depth of analytics tools on all platforms to give you accurate information on demographics of your users and their behavior.

16. The Rise of Bing

Bing has experienced an increase in market share attributed to the launch of Windows 10.

17. Intelligent Databases in Mainstream Channels

Google Analytics, Facebook, and Google Adwords are providing a useful basis for targeted marketing campaigns.

We’re Only a Call or Click Away

For more hotel marketing or mobile marketing insights or queries, please shoot us an email for more info.

June 1, 2017
Social Media Tactics to Improve Conversions

Whether you fix computers or deliver Thai food, social media is one of the best tools of 2017 to boost your business. However, just what does it take to specifically improve conversions? Your business depends on not only driving traffic to your website but also on turning those visitors into customers. This article introduces 3 of the best tactics for improving time spent on social media.

Engagement Is Key

As helpful as it is to have plenty of views on your content, the most important part of marketing is engagement. You want your customers to actively comment and participate in what you’re posting. You’ll form a real, emotional connection, rather than create something that viewers forget about within 10 seconds.

So, what do you do to increase comments and get your viewers interested? YouTubers typically use “Like, comment and subscribe!” as their most common call-to-action. That’s one great way to boost engagement and encourage regular visits to your channel. Additionally, plenty of professionals using social media will end their content with a question to get the comments flowing. Whether asking about your audience’s favorite brand of acrylic paint or starting a discussion about dog breeds, it’s always possible to encourage engagement with questions that relate to your brand and business.

Overall, encourage people to participate in your posts and discuss your content, and you’re more likely to see sales and business growth.

Value

As a business owner engaged in internet marketing, you shouldn’t just focus on sales numbers. Instead, you want to consider the content you’re putting out online and think about how it provides value to the viewer. Are you showing a low-res screenshot of a page from your coloring book, or are you sharing helpful coloring techniques and even a free, downloadable coloring page? Be generous with your information and the sales will follow.

The reason you want to provide value to increase conversions is that it will help your content spread across the internet. People are far less likely to share a simple advertisement than a useful tutorial that relates to your product. When focusing on value and specific customer needs, you’re sure to boost those sales.

Get Prepared

All of this can sound overwhelming if you’re new to the internet marketing game. That’s why it pays to use affordable tools like Hootsuite and Everypost. In the world of online marketing, it’s vital to post consistently and often. The aforementioned tools help you create and plan your marketing efforts in advance and even manage posts on multiple platforms.

Additionally, you’ll want to use a tool like HelloBar or Sumo to increase conversions once potential customers actually get to your website. The goal is to keep visitors on your website for as long as possible, with informational pop-ups and other marketing strategies. All in all, tools like these make your marketing journey much more organized and manageable.

Get Started

If you’d like to take these internet marketing lessons even further, we’re here to help. Contact us if you need marketing guidance, help with maximizing your ROI, or even just an informed, professional opinion.

May 22, 2017
How to Succeed with AdWords
Google AdWords is one of the most popular digital advertising platforms on the planet. It shouldn’t come as a surprise considering there are over 1.2 trillion Google searches per year (3.5 billion per day), and over $50 billion in annual revenue from Google ads.

Running a successful AdWords campaign can be a challenge for sure. It’s easy to blow through money quicker than a gambling addict at the track. But if you follow these simple steps, we guarantee you’ll see amazing results.

Conversion Optimized Landing Pages

A high monthly budget, good keywords, and well-written ads with strong headlines isn’t enough. If your ads links to landing pages with a poor user experience, that don’t have a contact form, “buy now” option, or other call-to-action (CTA), we promise you won’t make any progress. Think about it: if you see an ad, click on it, and then you can’t figure out the next step in the sales funnel won’t you probably leave the site?

Tried-and-True Methods

These approaches to AdWords landing pages have been tested time and time again, and provide great results:
- Strong imagery: People love photos, so it makes sense to use good images on your landing page
- Call-to-Action: What’s the next step? Make a purchase? Sign-up for a webinar? Request more information? Either way, there needs to be a clear action for the user to take.
- Appropriate amount of information: Don’t over do it! People don’t want to read a novel! Include the basic info such as product features, unique selling proposition, and cost/price. Just think about what people need to know in order to convert e.g. fill out the contact form or make a purchase.
- Squeeze page: Unlike a traditional landing page, this is a page which doesn’t have links to other parts of your website. And it’s very effective because it forces the user to take the desired action you have created for them
Mobile-Friendliness

If your landing page isn’t mobile-friendly, you would be better off not even creating it. Some of our clients receive as much as 70% of their paid traffic (AdWords) from a mobile device. That’s why it’s crucial to design a landing page that works well and looks good on a smartphone. While consumers overwhelmingly complete purchases or inquires on a desktop computer (between 45% and 60%), their initial contact with the product/service is generally via a smartphone (47% to 65%).

Look around you, right now. How many people are using a cellphone? Those are your customers and target audience. And you have to be prepared to gain their attention online.

Setting a Budget

Money is power. The larger your budget the more potential clicks you can get. But realistically there are limitations. Try and maximize your budget. The AdWords budget planner will give you a fairly accurate idea of how many clicks and impressions you can expect based on your budget and keywords. If you’re targeting expensive keywords, a smaller budget may not work. You have to try and choose keywords that make sense for your ads. Consider what people will search if they’re seeking out your product or service.

Take a Deep Breath

You can make this work! Just be planful and strategic. But don’t be afraid to fail. There’s a bit of trial and error involved. Just remember: the above tips will always provide the best results.

Not Sure How to Get Started?

If you feel like you need some assistance with your AdWords campaign, click here for more information. We would be happy to help.
May 15, 2017
Google Algorithm Update Fights Fake News

Google announced yesterday that it will fight the spread of “fake news” and conspiracy theories via new user-generated reporting methods. Per Google’s blog, the search giant has “…adjusted our signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content, so that issues similar to the Holocaust denial results that we saw back in December are less likely to appear.”

The issue they reference was when a neo-Nazi white supremacist website was ranking in the top of the search results for related queries. This sort of hate speech needs to be stopped for a variety of reasons.

Autocomplete Results

Google has also had issues with its autocomplete function in the search bar which shows suggested or related searches based on the first few words typed. Recently, misleading and/or violent content was being shown.

One way Google is stopping the spread of these misleading news articles, is by creating a reporting feature which will be available in the featured snippets section. This is the “answer box” which appears for queries like “how do you make apple pie?” In the screenshot above, you’ll see step-by-step instructions pulled from Pillsbury website. The idea being for users to see a rich preview of the page results before clicking over to it.

Social Responsibility

Google feels it has a responsibility to combat people who try to “game the system” and make sure that “fake news” isn’t spread. And Google is using this algorithm to combat this huge issue which is a relatively recent phenomenon. After all, there are trillions of searches performed in Google annually. And 15% of searches seen daily are new ones.

Similarly. Facebook released a fact-checking tool for news articles posted on its social network last month.

Ranking Changes

Ranking changes may occur as a result of this update. Per their blog, they “combine hundreds of signals to determine which results we show for a given query—from the freshness of the content, to the number of times your search queries appear on the page.” What this means is that if your content is strong, accurate, and well-positioned you are poised to rank better than your competitors.

Read more here.

April 26, 2017
Marketing Tip of the Month: How to Grow Offline Sales

In a digital world, offline sales is still crucial for business development. As a business, you can’t rely on web leads exclusively. You need to go out into the community, network, and build relationships. But there are so many opportunities and avenues to explore. So where to start?

Join a Networking Group

There are several networking groups and events such as Meetup and local chapters of BNI. These are great opportunities to rub elbows with other business owners, prospect for potential leads, and do some word-of-mouth marketing. As with anything else, you only get out of it what you put into it. If you’re not committed to regular attendance of meetings and events, it will be a wasted effort.

Join a Local Chamber of Commerce

Pretty much every city in Miami-Dade and Broward County have local chambers of commerce. We’re here in Coconut Grove, so that chamber would be the most convenient for us. But you should consider joining the chamber most convenient for you.

What’s the benefit? Again, other business people are members of these organizations, they often list your business in their membership directory, and they host regular events for their members.

Schedule Meetings with Potential Clients

Even if you might not get a new account from this effort immediately, it could pay off in the long term. For the travel industry, for example, you might schedule meetings with local hotels to see their property, and learn more about how they do sales and marketing. This is an opportunity to potentially gain new business, and also to earn referrals.

Business Cards

Every time you meet someone new, one of the first questions they ask is what you do for a living. This is a great opportunity to hand out your business card. It’s a good idea to always keep a few on you. In a pinch, you can always ask for theirs. You would be surprised how often people save these cards in their car, in a drawer, or on their desk, and end up calling you in the future. And with so many inexpensive printing options, there’s really no reason NOT to have cards.

Don’t Try too Hard

Don’t always be selling. Listen to people, and ask questions. Find out how you can help them. Anecdotally, just the other day, I was having lunch near the office, ran into a friend of mine, and through conversation found out he needed some design work. It was too late to help at that time, but if he had known about Figment sooner, maybe he would have hired us.

Bottom Line

Digital marketing is very important to growing your business. But don’t discount offline marketing as well. Make sure to get out there and make yourself known in the community. It might just pay off.

April 18, 2017
Social Media Case Study: Coconut Bay

What could be better than a premium, all-inclusive vacation in St. Lucia? Sandy beaches, cocktails with little umbrellas, cool and refreshing pools, and gourmet food. It all sounds amazing, but how do you communicate it online? People can’t feel, touch, or taste anything at resort without being there. That was the challenge we had when promoting Coconut Bay on social media.

Tremendous Social Media Growth

Under our strategic direction, Coconut Bay’s Facebook page likes have grown over 36% in the last 12 months; and Instagram followers have grown over 55% in the same time period. This huge growth took time, money, and of course planning. It’s important to consider your target audience and how to best engage them.

Push vs. Pull Strategy

Not every post can be a sales post. In the example here, Coconut Bay promotes “National Beer Day” with a photo of Piton Beer. It’s important to share fun and interesting posts with your followers.

Social Media doesn’t have to be all serious, all the time. Don’t be afraid to make jokes (within reason), and to be silly too. People will respond well to humor.

Measure & Report

There’s no point in running social media campaigns if you aren’t measuring the results (and reporting it too). Using services such as Hootsuite or Buffer, it’s easy to track post likes, shares, clicks and overall engagement.

Social analytics serves two purposes: first, it measures results; and two, it allows for constant improvement. A lot of social media marketing is trial and error. We can’t always know what will work, and what won’t. That’s why it’s important to test various posts, and see what’s successful and what isn’t. It’s the only way to course correct your socials strategy as needed.

Ask for Help

If you’re overwhelmed by social media marketing, don’t be afraid to ask for help. We’re here to assist you however we can. Learn more about the social media services that we offer.

April 11, 2017
Our New Website
Development

Not unlike other agencies, we prioritize client projects — website redesigns, promotional videos, banner ads, etc. — over internal ones. There are deadlines, copy changes, last-minute requests, and many other tasks that pop up. As a result, our website was put on the back burner, and was overdue for a redesign. A site should be updated every two to three years, and we were well past that time period. With that in mind, we set out to refine, condense, and streamline the content of our website.

Read on to learn more about our process and journey from concept to launch.

Design and Production

The first step was to choose a theme, or the overall look of the site. This includes the homepage, sub or interior pages, contact forms, color scheme, and other components. Our talented creative team kept those things in mind while considering UX and UI. We also needed to account for SEO and mobile/tablet friendliness.

We build all of our websites in WordPress, as for the most part, it meet the overall needs of business websites. From functionality to user friendliness, WordPress is unmatched by any other CMS (content management system).

Launch

Before and after launch, the new site went through a rigorous QA process to ensure there were no errors such as 404 errors (broken pages), missing meta data (bad for SEO), usability issues on tablet or mobile, contact forms were functioning, and that the site worked properly in general.

There’s nothing worse than launching a new website only to learn there are issues with it. Even minor things like social links working (and opening in a new tab), external links functioning, etc., are important. To avoid those situations, we take pre-launch and post launch quality control measures very seriously.

Do You Need a New Site?

Are you due for a new site? If you look at website, and the impression you get is that it’s a bit dated, or doesn’t work so well, then the answer is yes.

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Does my site look good and work well on a smartphone or tablet?
2. Is my site easy to use and navigate?
3. If I was a client, and needed a quote, or other information, could I find it?
4. Does my site look as good or better than my competitors?
5. Do I receive as many leads as I would like?
6. Does my site have good content?
If you answered “no” to at least one or two of these questions, you might be due for a new website. And it doesn’t have to be a protracted and costly endeavor. We do our best to produce quality results in a timely manner at an affordable price.

Get Started Today

We have over 23 years’ experience in all things marketing, and would be happy to provide you with a FREE evaluation and consultation. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At a minimum, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how you can improve your website and drum up new business.

Please contact us by calling 305-593-7488 or shooting us an email.
April 4, 2017