Practical Marketing Tips by PMI

What Is Local SEO: A Beginner's Guide To Boosting Your Business Online

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 18:40:06 GMT

Around 97% of people who use online search do so to look for local businesses. If that isn’t enough to convince you of the power of local SEO, we’re not sure what will.

For businesses with a local angle, embracing local SEO is no longer a ‘nice to have,’ but a necessity. Local SEO can help improve your online visibility, putting you at the top of the list and ensuring customers know where to find you.

But what does it take to master local SEO? Take a look at our beginner’s guide to boosting your business online.

What is Local SEO? Local SEO Basics

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO), is a digital marketing strategy that helps businesses optimize their online presence to attract more local customers. By optimizing your content, you can help your business appear further up the search engine results pages, helping users find you when they’re looking for products and services in your local area.

Some of the main components of local SEO include:

Google My Business (GMB)

Whether they’re searching at home, on their phones or in their cars, people will turn to search engines to look for local products and services. Having and optimizing a Google My Business listing can boost your local visibility, providing customers with the information they need. From providing business information such as address, website and phone number to opening times, all of your key information must be included here.

Local keywords

Incorporating relevant local keywords into your website content, your metadata and headings can help search engines recognize your relevance to local searches, prioritizing your business over other, less-relevant results.

NAP consistency

It’s important that your basic business information such as your name, address and phone number (NAP), are consistent across different platforms to help build trust with both search engines and users.

Local citations

Having your business mentioned in online directories can help give your business further credibility, and also provides the backlinks that can improve your local search engine rankings.

Mastering Local SEO

Local SEO sounds like a simple way to help drive more traffic to your business. So why are so many businesses failing to use it correctly? Mastering local SEO involves a combination of technical knowledge, content optimization and strategic marketing. Whether you take this on yourself or use a professional local SEO agency, you can make your business more visible to potential customers when they search for businesses like yours.

With 46% of all Google searches related to local information , now is the time to take the opportunity to improve your local SEO.

How to Boost Local SEO Rankings

There are three key steps you can take to implement local SEO:

1. Optimize your website

Optimizing your website can make it more appealing to search engines, while also providing a better user experience. Mobile optimization, quick loading speeds and using relevant keywords within your content can all help optimize your website for better search engine performance.

2. Encourage positive reviews

Encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on websites such as Google My Business, Trip Advisor and Trustpilot can help influence your search engine rankings and provide useful information to customers.

3. Create local content

Creating local content that is tailored to your local audience’s needs and interests can help provide them with more valuable content, but also adds to your search engine visibility.

Local SEO Strategies

Once you’ve optimized your website, there are some local SEO strategies you can undertake to help improve your rankings further, helping to outshine your competition.

Local link building

Seek link-building opportunities from local websites, blogs and directories to help improve your website’s authority, allowing you to move up the local search engine rankings.

Local schema makeup

Schema markup can help provide search engines with vital information that will be useful to web searches, including business hours, reviews, location details and more. The more relevant information you can provide about your business, the better it will feature in search engine rankings.

Geotargeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns

PPC campaigns targeting your local service area can help advertise your website to local customers searching for your products and services, and can be an affordable way to advertise your business.

Local SEO Marketing Tips

Want to know some additional best practice SEO marketing tips? The following could make a big difference to your online visibility:

1. Stay consistent

Maintain consistency across all of your online platforms to help build trust and credibility. If something changes about your business, such as your opening hours, make sure you update your online information.

2. Monitor performance

Track your SEO performance using tools such as Google Analytics to help understand what’s working effectively, and areas for improvement.

3. Engage with the local community

Develop a marketing strategy that can help you engage with your local community. From sponsorships and events to working with influencers, you could help enhance your brand’s visibility and reputation at a local level.

4. Optimize for voice search

Voice assistants, such Alexa, Siri and Cortana, are used by 62% of Americans . Optimizing your content for local search, such as using natural language and long-tail keywords, can help provide relevant searches to those using these assistants to find local products and services.

5. Make the most of social media

Use your social media platforms to help engage with a local audience. Share local events, promotions, and testimonials and connect with your followers to help build relationships and improve your local presence. Using geotags and location-based hashtags can help boost your visibility among local social media users.

Get Better Local SEO Results With Help From PMI

Local SEO can open a lot of doors for local businesses, and with the right strategy in place, you can expect to see results quickly.

At PMI, we provide a range of services that can improve your local SEO performance, ensuring your business is ready and waiting when people turn to their search engines for information. Contact us to learn more about our SEO services and to give your business the local boost it needs to succeed!

Advertising vs Marketing: Understanding the Key Differences

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 22:00:00 GMT

The Advertising and marketing may seem interchangeable to the untrained eye, but there are significant differences between the two — and knowing what they are can help you put together strategic campaigns that yield exceptional results.

While you’ll often see people discussing both within an advertising vs marketing context, the truth is that they’re both on the same team and work towards the same goals. It’s just that how they reach those results differs slightly. The bottom line is that both should form part of your brand, and if you get them right, then you can expect a boost in sales.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at advertising versus marketing, discuss the form and function of each, and how to decide which one is right for you.

Marketing vs Advertising: Understanding the Key Differences

As we said above, marketing and advertising are similar, but there are differences. So what is the difference between marketing and advertising? Mostly it comes down to scope, focus, and the period in which you’d use them.

Let’s focus first on marketing. This is much broader than advertising and can include a wide range of actions pre-, during, and post-launch. For example, the design of the packaging would fall into the scope of marketing, since it influences the buyer’s decision. Even market research, an essential step in the early days of a business, falls under marketing since it helps brands to better communicate with potential customers.

Advertising is more direct and deals exclusively with the promotion of a product or service. While marketing can be free or inexpensive, there’s nearly always a cost element to advertising. For example, having your brand’s advert appear on the top of Google’s search engine results.

So the answer to the question ‘what is the difference between advertising and marketing?’ is really the when and what of each. Marketing takes place all year round and can include broadly promotional marketing materials such as blogs, social media posts, or online customer support — anything that engages customers, essentially. Advertising takes place at specific times and is designed to promote a specific product or service. It’s a shout into the wild, hoping to instantly entice a customer to make a purchase.

Marketing vs Advertising: Which One is Right for Your Business?

As we said earlier, it’s not right to think in terms of marketing versus advertising. In reality, all brands will need to invest in both if they’re going to attract and retain customers.

If you’re wondering which one deserves your attention right now, then that depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you want to increase sales of a product, then putting together an advertising campaign will be the way to go. If you want to build awareness of your brand and enjoy long-term sales growth, then a comprehensive marketing strategy can help you do so.

Need Marketing or Advertising Help?

Do you need help with any aspect of your brand’s digital marketing or advertising? Then don’t hesitate to contact us at Power Marketing International by clicking below. We look forward to working with you!

4 Creative Advertising Ideas to Boost Your Marketing Strategy

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:29:30 GMT

Wouldn't it be nice if launching an advertising campaign would automatically lead to outstanding marketing results?

The reality is that achieving great results depends on the quality of the advertising and the strategy behind it. Businesses that have innovative, creative advertising will find it much easier to engage with their target audience and, in the process, increase the likelihood of making a sale.

Even in a crowded digital space, good advertising ideas stand out from the crowd. If you’re looking to elevate your business’s marketing strategy, then check out some of the latest, effective small business advertising ideas outlined below.

Unique Advertising Ideas

The best business advertising ideas are ones that are innovative, engaging, and different from the standard advertising ideas that you see time and time again. In the modern, digital age, it’s easier than ever for businesses to use technology as a foundational component of their creative advertising ideas.

Some modern-yet-accessible advertising ideas for small businesses include:

● Launching a User-Generated Content (UGC) campaign. For instance, having customers post videos using your product.

● Utilizing augmented reality (AR) to present products or services in new ways.

● Utilizing AI to make unique advertising videos for use around the web.

Budget-Friendly Strategies

The best business advertising ideas don’t have to cost the earth. With a little creative thinking and a few core foundational principles, even businesses with modest marketing budgets can experience great results.

Social media, content creation, and email marketing are some of the most effective budget-friendly strategies. While you should invest in all three of these areas, pay particular attention to email advertising, which offers a highly impressive ROI of $45 for every $1 spent .

Innovative Marketing Approaches

Looking to boost your marketing results? Then look to modern marketing approaches, which are often inherently creative and innovative — and impactful. Some of the most effective ways to elevate your marketing results include:

● Rebranding: If it’s been some time since your last branding update, rebranding can help market your brand to a fresh target audience.

● Market to Existing Customers : While pursuing new customers is valuable, it’s often easier — and much cheaper — to market to existing customers, who already have a verified interest in your brand.

● Become a Thought Leader: By posting educational, expert blogs and social media posts, brands can position themselves as leaders in their industry.

When to Hire an Agency

All businesses want a unique, creative, and effective marketing strategy. But not all businesses have the resources required to make it a reality. If you’re struggling with any phase of your marketing strategy, be it the conceptual stage or implementation, then look at hiring a marketing agency to do the job for you. Marketing agencies draw upon a wide array of tools, skills, and experience to craft marketing campaigns that are true to your brand and get results, allowing you to focus your businesses’ core operations, all the while enjoying all the benefits of having a comprehensive marketing strategy in place.

We Can Help!

Do you need help putting together a marketing and advertising plan for your small or medium-sized business? Then reach out to our team at Power Marketing International by clicking below.

We look forward to working with you to create a unique plan to set you apart from the competition and grow your business!

What Makes For a Great Website?

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:00:50 GMT

In today's digital age, having a strong online presence is not just a nice to have, but is vital for businesses of all sizes who want to remain competitive. Your website serves as the digital storefront for your brand, often making the first impression on potential customers, and should be one of the main tools to market and grow your business. Done right, it has the potential to deliver an incredible number of new leads and customers on a regular basis.

But what exactly makes for a great website design? Let’s explore the key elements that can contribute to your website’s success and how you can ensure your online presence outperforms your competition.

1. Clear and Intuitive Navigation

Easy-to-use navigation menus help visitors find what they're looking for quickly and easily. Don’t make them guess – make it super easy to find what they’re after!

Organize your website's pages logically and use descriptive labels for menu items.
Implement breadcrumb navigation to provide users with a clear path back to previous pages. This is especially important for complex websites with many pages.

2. Engaging Content

Compelling written content is essential for informing and engaging visitors.

Use clear and concise language to communicate your message effectively.
Incorporate multimedia content, such as blog posts, videos, and infographics, to keep visitors entertained and informed.
Be sure to add new content to your website on a regular basis – at least monthly (the more the better).

3. Strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Implementing SEO best practices helps your website rank higher in search engine results and attract more organic traffic.

Optimize your website's meta tags, headings, and content for relevant keywords.
Build high-quality backlinks from relevant, high traffic external websites.
Create valuable, shareable content, including blog posts , on a consistent basis to improve your site's authority and search engine visibility.

4. Responsive Design

A responsive website design ensures your site looks good and functions seamlessly across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

Mobile-friendly design is crucial, as more users are accessing the internet from mobile devices than ever before.
Test your website on various devices and screen sizes to ensure optimal performance.

5. Compelling Visuals

High-quality photos, graphics, and videos can captivate visitors and convey your brand's message effectively.

Use professional photography or carefully selected stock images to enhance your website's visual appeal.
Incorporate visual elements that align with your brand identity and resonate with your target audience.
Align your website’s color scheme with your logo’s color scheme.

6. Strong Calls to Action

Clearly defined calls to action prompt visitors to take the next steps, whether it's making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting your business.

Use persuasive language and visually appealing buttons to encourage action.
Place calls to action strategically throughout your website to maximize conversion opportunities.
Consider adding motion to your calls to action.

7. Fast Loading Speed

A fast-loading website is crucial for providing a positive user experience, reducing bounce rates, and achieving strong search engine results.

Optimize images and multimedia files (i.e., reduce the file size) to minimize load times.
Use caching and compression techniques to speed up your website's performance.
Monitor your website page load speed using Google’s Search Console or other tools.

8. Secure and Trustworthy

It’s important to create a sense that your website is trustworthy, secure, and authoritative , because if your viewer has any doubts then they may move on rather than continue exploring your pages.

Ensure your website is secure by using HTTPS encryption and installing an SSL certificate. This is also important for SEO purposes.
Display trust signals, such as customer testimonials, security badges, and privacy policies, to instill confidence in visitors.
Regularly update your website's software and plugins to protect against security vulnerabilities.
Prove your expertise by adding relevant blog posts related to your products and services on a regular basis. Add blog feeds to your home page and to your main service or product category pages.

9. Analytics and Tracking

Utilize web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to track visitor behavior and gather valuable insights into your website's performance.

Monitor key metrics, such as traffic sources, bounce rates, and conversion rates, to identify areas for improvement.
Use data-driven insights to refine your website and optimize its effectiveness over time.

10. Continuous Improvement

Regularly review and update your website to ensure it remains relevant and effective.
Create new blog posts on a regular basis.
Solicit feedback from visitors and stakeholders to identify areas for improvement.
Stay informed about emerging web design trends and technology advancements to keep your website ahead of the curve.

Again, a great website is more than just a digital brochure – it's a powerful tool for attracting, engaging, and converting visitors into leads and customers. By including these 10 elements into your website design and strategy, you can create a compelling online presence that drives increasingly greater results for your business month after month, and year after year!

Let’s Create Your Perfect Website. Contact Us Today!

If you're ready to grow your business by building a new website or redesigning your existing site to include these best practices, we're here to help make it happen.

Contact us to learn more about our web design services and take the first step towards creating a website that puts you head and shoulders above your competition!

How Does Blogging Help SEO: A Beginner's Guide

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 16:42:25 GMT

Do you want to boost your website up the search rankings and drive more targeted traffic that can be converted into strong leads? An important part of our advanced search engine optimization service includes creating engaging content for your website via blogs. It’s a proven method that gets results, but how does blogging help SEO?

In the following guide, we explore the benefits of blogging for SEO and how to optimize blog posts for SEO purposes. Read on to learn more!

The Advantages of Blogging for SEO

From an SEO standpoint, blogging carries a host of advantages. Most business or website owners don’t fully appreciate the benefits of creating an on-site blog, so let’s go through them all:

Constantly Provides New Content

Since a 2011 algorithm update , Google has prioritized new content on its search pages. In other words, it wants users to see the most up-to-date information. Blogging provides your site with a constant stream of new and fresh content, so it’s more likely to be picked up and ranked highly by Google.

Improves Your Site Structure

Having a solid website structure is critical for good SEO. Internally linking your pages together makes it easier for search engines to “crawl” the site and understand what it’s about. Blog posts provide many opportunities to link to your other pages, and your pages can likewise link to your blog posts for related deep content, so your website can be more structured and optimized for search engines.

Gives Ample Opportunity For Backlinks

Link building is a crucial off-page SEO process that involves getting other websites to link back to yours. A site with lots of backlinks looks good to search engines as it tells them that this site is a good resource. Other websites trust it, so the search engine ranks it higher. When your blog contains valuable content that others can reference, you’ll start earning high-value backlinks .

It Lets You Include Target Keywords

Keywords are the backbone of an SEO strategy; if you’re not using the right keywords (I.e., search phrases), you won’t appear in searches for your products or services. How does blogging help SEO from a keyword standpoint? It lets you write articles targeting specific keywords and also to link them to your pages. This makes it more likely that your site will appear in the relevant searches for these keywords, driving more traffic to your pages!

Blog SEO Best Practices

Setting up a blog on your site won’t automatically help you see improvements in search engine optimization. In fact, if you do things the wrong way, you may see the opposite effect. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Avoid keyword stuffing (using the same keyword many times in a given post) as Google flags this and penalizes you.
Ensure you don’t have broken link s within your blog content.
Write about topics that are relevant to your site - if your site is about HVAC services, write about things related to heating, cooling, etc.
Stick to a regular blog schedule to keep producing new content, between 2-4 per month is a good start.
Keep the word count to 500 words or more . Generally speaking, higher word counts produce better results, but only if you can keep your post engaging and on point.
Only write original content ; don’t copy things from other sites and pose it as yours, or you will be penalized.
Conduct keyword research to target the right keywords for your posts. For best results use a keyword research tool.
Focus on quality content - your blogs must provide the reader with something valuable. For example, they could answer key questions or provide tips and information on certain topics.

How To Optimize Blog Posts for SEO

You know the benefits of blogging for SEO and some of the best practices to follow, but how do you optimize blog posts for search engines? We’ve got a few tips that’ll come in handy and help your blog posts rank better:

Strategically Place Your Keywords

Conduct keyword research to know your main keywords and then understand where to place them. You should always have the main keyword in the blog title, as well as the meta description . Then, use other important keywords in your subtitles as this makes them easier for search engines to spot. Sprinkle a few others throughout the content but avoid stuffing!

Create A Structure For Your Blog Posts

Your posts need a structure that search engines can easily analyze to figure out how to rank them. All posts should have clear H1, H2, and H3 headings. Bullet points also help make content stand out and be found by search engines.

Link Internally & Externally

We mentioned the value of internal links from a site structure standpoint, but linking to trusted external sources can also help. They add value and credibility to your posts, showing that your points are backed up by independent authoritative sources. It also indicates to Google and other search engines that your posts relate to third party content, which helps your rankings.

Make Your Posts Readable On All Devices

Finally, make your posts easy to read on all devices. Adjust the format so mobile readers will easily scroll through and take everything in without being overwhelmed. Focus on image optimization here so that your posts load quickly, which is an increasingly important ranking factor.

Contact PMI For Help With All Your SEO Needs

If you want help in creating optimized blog posts for SEO and gain the benefits of blogging, then contact us today. We offer a full range of SEO services designed to attract valuable traffic to your website, helping your business get to the next level!

How To Get on the First Page of Google: A Step-by-Step Guide

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 15:30:02 GMT

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Over 90% of Google traffic comes from page-one placements! Page two gets 5% and page 3 only 1% on average.

That means you need to be on page 1 on Google if you want to find new customers through search in order to promote your products or services online. The good news is there are a range of things you can do to help maximize your chances of achieving a page 1 ranking. For starters, you can check your SEO rankings for free here , and then continue reading to find out how to improve them.

On-Page SEO Strategies

On-page strategies to help your website achieve Google first page rankings include any changes you make to optimize your website, so it ranks higher on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). We’ve broadly grouped these into content strategies and technical strategies .

Content Strategies:

Keyword research

An optimized on-page SEO strategy to help your site appear on Google's first page requires a foundation built on keyword research and keyword-optimized page content. That means not only well-written and insightful content, but also content that contains the right keywords (popular search terms) that will allow you to be found by the right people (those who are most likely to be interested in your service or product, aka your target market).

Identifying the right keywords can be a complicated process, however. First, you will need to sign up for a monthly SEO tool software license and use it to discover the popular search terms (keywords) related to your products and services. You’ll then need to analyze those results in terms of the keyword volume, keyword difficulty, and the intention of the user. It's only by identifying the right combination of these factors that you can properly choose the keywords you will use in your content.

Keyword-optimized blog posts

Use your keyword research to improve the SEO impact of your page content and technical content. Using the right keywords will dramatically improve the opportunities for your pages to be found in search. However, do not overlook the incredible power of keyword-optimized blog post to multiply the ways to be found. Each new post should focus on a different set of keywords. Be sure to add blog feeds to your key service or product category pages. Those feeds should display only the posts that relate to that particular service or product category.

Technical Strategies:

Site speed

One simple, practical on-page strategy that can help get you on the first page of Google is to increase your site’s loading speed. This is because it positively impacts the user experience, and this is something that Google favors highly when ranking your site.

Mobile optimization

Similarly, making sure your site is optimized for mobile use is critical. This is because 60% of internet users access it via mobile devices. Therefore if your site is not optimized for mobile you’ll not only annoy the majority of your users, but Google can't give you credit for a positive user experience either.

Meta title and meta description

There are the structural actions you can take to improve your SEO results. The first of these is to add a proper meta title. The meta title is the blue link appearing on the search engine results page (SERP). This should be a very short phrase summarizing the type of information that a user will find on a particular page on your site. Ideally the meta title should include keywords from your keyword research.

Next, the meta description is the sentence or short paragraph that appears right under the meta title in the search results page. This should also include keywords from your research. While not taken officially by Google into consideration, good meta titles and descriptions will encourage more people to click your link and so increase both visitors to your site and your rankings over time, potentially improving your conversions / sales.

Proper use of H1-H4 headers

You can see that this post is structurally split into different sections using headers ranging from H1 to H4. Similar to an outline, using headers in this way is an important on-page strategy for two reasons. First, they make it easier for the reader to identify the information they need by easily skimming the post titles and subtitles. They also help the search engine understand the structure of the page content, which in turn can help improve the page’s search ranking.

Off-Page SEO Strategies

Backlinks

Off-page strategies refer to anything you do outside of your website that helps you appear on the first page on Google. An off-page strategy that is particularly powerful is to obtain high-quality backlinks. Backlinks are links to your site from another website. Google loves high-quality links (i.e., links from high traffic “high authority” pages that connect to relevant content on your website). Google treats them as references for your site, thereby validating your website’s authenticity and usefulness.

Fortunately, there are several strategies you can use to secure high-quality backlinks to your site. The first is to consistently produce high-quality, accurate, and engaging content, as this will encourage high DA sites to link to your website. Secondly, working with influencers can also get you some great backlinks, as well as direct plenty of additional people to your site which will also help boost your off-page SEO.

Anchor text

Once you have secured backlinks to boost your off-page SEO it's also a good idea to audit the text of those links (known as anchor text). The text in those links should be directly related to the content on the pages on your site that they link to. Good anchor links help demonstrate that your website is trustworthy and authoritative. Auditing can be done by using a backlinks SEO tool and then contacting sites that are linking to you one by one and asking them to change their anchor text.

Local SEO Strategies

At the core of local SEO strategy is getting your business, product, or service to rank highly in the SERPs when a user searches your location using a city, town, or “near me” in the search. The most effective way of doing this is to create content to publish on your site that includes or mentions local places, history, and events. This location-based information will help boost your local SEO results.

Additionally, to improve your local SEO you can make sure your company details such as address are consistent on your website and everywhere your business appears. Be sure to fully complete and optimize your Google Business Listing. Submitting your business to multiple business directories using the exact same company name, address, and product or service information that appears in your Google Business Listing can also help. Consistency is key. Finally, be sure to optimize your meta descriptions, headers, title tags, and URLs to include local keywords where appropriate.

Need Help? Choose PMI for All Your SEO Needs!

As you can see, there are many things you can do to optimize your website to help you achieve that all-important page 1 search ranking. However, the work required can be complex and time-consuming.

If you need help, then contact our SEO and marketing experts today. We’ll do the hard work and heavy lifting needed to get your products or services to achieve that first-page position and all the benefits that come with it, so you can focus on running your business.

Contact our SEO team today by calling 484-297-6395 or contact us online.

Branding vs Marketing: Understanding the Key Differences

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:43:03 GMT

Branding and marketing are NOT the same!

In this post, we’ll define branding and marketing, describe the advantages of effective branding, examine how to use marketing to improve your business, and discuss how to make sure your branding and marketing are aligned. Let’s get started…

The Difference Between Branding and Marketing

Often confused, branding and marketing are not the same thing. Your brand represents the core identity of your business, what you do, how you do it, and who you are. Marketing is the process of informing people about your brand and your brand’s related products and services.

Branding is defined by things like company/ brand values , your story, and your mission statement - the reason your business exists and the problems that it solves for your customers.

Marketing is used to communicate the identity of your brand to the people that are most likely to be interested in it (your target audience). The strategies that a business will use to market its brand will change according to what is most effective for various target audiences, while the brand itself will remain relatively static (aside from occasional re-branding efforts).

The Power of Branding

Consider the benefits of doing your branding well. There are a wide range of advantages to successfully branding your business. Strong branding results in higher profits because strong brands encourage repeat purchases, a sales tactic that is well-known to be easier and cheaper than sourcing new customers.

Customers favor strong brands; deciding to buy a product becomes an easier decision when buyers recognize and trust the brand.

Unlocking the Potential of Marketing

Next, let’s take a look at ways to use marketing to make sure the right people know about your brand.

First, to ensure a marketing strategy is properly focused we’ll need to define your target audience (the people who you are looking to attract). Then, tailor your tactics, images, text, tone, marketing channels, and the marketing tools you use to reach those people. That may include a combination of traditional/offline (TV, print, radio) and digital marketing tactics like content marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and social media marketing.

Digital marketing techniques such as SEO (Search engine optimization) PPC (pay-per-click advertising) content marketing, and social media marketing are very popular. That’s because they tend to be cheaper and more flexible than more traditional forms of marketing, and they can reach a large volume of a highly targeted audience, often achieving an excellent return on investment when promoting your brand.

Aligning Branding and Marketing Strategies

Again, creating an effective marketing strategy includes first establishing your brand and then aligning the marketing with your brand identity. Remember, it is through marketing that you promote your brand which represents the identity of your business, one that can keep customers coming back to you if done well (think of Apple products).

There are multiple strategies you can use to align your marketing with your brand. The first is to develop brand guidelines for your company as explained here . Brand guidelines document the rules for communicating the look and feel of your brand, both visually and through text, including slogans and tag lines. These guidelines should be shared across your internal marketing staff and with your external marketers and advertisers to ensure consistency across design, visuals, text, and tone.

Another great way to make sure your brand and your marketing strategies are aligned is to leverage your brand story and mission statement in your marketing materials. By telling your story you can not only raise awareness of your brand but help humanize it and make it more memorable, while encouraging potential customers to connect with your values and mission.

Need Help?
Contact Us for All Your Branding and Marketing Needs!

Whether you are looking to rebrand an existing business, or develop branding for a new business, or launch a new marketing program, we can help! This will allow you to free yourself to focus on what you do best - running your business. You’ll also have the peace of mind of knowing your marketing and branding is being done right and delivered on time.

What is a CTA? A Guide to Call-to-Action in Marketing

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 20:33:01 GMT

In the world of digital marketing , there is one key thing that will engage your audience unlike anything else. The Call To Action, commonly abbreviated to CTA, is one of the most important things that will drive results. Let's show you everything you need to know.

What is a CTA?

A Call to Action is, very simple; it’s a concise and compelling prompt. It should encourage your audience to take a specific action, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource, sharing content on social media, or making a purchase. A CTA is a pivotal bridge between your marketing message and the desired outcome.

Why Are CTAs So Important?

When we define a Call to Action, we also need to look at why CTAs are such a critical catalyst that can transform a passive viewer idly scrolling on a website into an active participant. Why are CTAs so important?

They Guide the User

ACTA will guide the user on what steps they should take next. A CTA should be the stepping stone that helps visitors navigate the website or content effectively to the next stage.

They Drive Engagement

A CTA is designed to encourage users to engage with your content and your brand, such as interacting, sharing, commenting, or participating. A CTA is not just about encouraging someone to buy something, but it's to get them into the community of the organization.

Boosts Conversion Rates

An effective CTA is critical to boosting conversion rates. During the sales funnel , a website visitor can become a lead with a well-crafted CTA. The Call To Action should provide a definite ending to what the visitor has just gone through and doesn't implore or force them, but encourages them to take the next step.

Enhances User Experience

A CTA can offer relevant content or actions at a pivotal moment. When done with personalization, and links inherently with the brand and/or product the content was discussing, this personal touch can increase satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Measures Success

A CTA will provide insight to gauge how successful your marketing efforts are. A CTA can link to purchases and forms. Tracking the clicks from the CTA to a form or product can ensure you understand if there is a mismatch between the CTA and the content itself.

What Types of CTAs Are There?

A CTA comes in many different formats. Some of the most common types include:

Text-based CTAs , which use short, simple, and compelling phrases that encourage specific actions. For example, "Sign up today," "Subscribe now," or "Learn more."
Button CTAs , which are distinct and eye-catching components typically at the bottom of the page. For example, a button at the bottom of your content saying "Request a quote," "Buy now," or "Learn more."
Image CTAs , which entice users with eye-catching visuals and are commonplace in social media marketing and email campaigns. An image of a product or service with a "Buy now" or "Learn more" overlay is a very common usage.
Form CTAs , which encourage users to fill out a form to access content or subscribe to an email newsletter. Get your free trial, request a demo, or download your eBook, our common CTAs associated with filling out a form.
Hover CTAs , which will appear when a user's mouse cursor hovers over a specific type of content. It can provide additional information or options without cluttering the website content.
Social sharing CTAs , which is a type of CTA that will encourage users to share content on a social media platform. A written example would be something like "Share this post," but at the bottom of blogs, you will often see the icons of the corresponding social media platform, such as an "X" for X (formerly known as Twitter), the "F" for Facebook, and so forth.

How Do You Create Effective Calls to Action?

When creating a CTA, you need to consider some of the following factors:

Action-oriented language, such as "Start your free trial," "Buy now," or "Try it out today," which all implore a consumer to take some form of action.
Clarity and conciseness. A reader should understand what is expected of them and nothing more.
Highlight the benefits and explain what users will get by clicking, such as "Save 60% today" or "Unlock your exclusive content now."
Visibility is crucial because a CTA should have contrasting colors, button styles, or fonts to stand out.
The right placement is also important because it should be in a place where users are most likely to take action, for example, at the end of a page or above the fold, which is the upper half of the webpage. The right layout is critical for every aspect of your website, especially your CTAs.

What Can You Do to Make CTAs More Compelling?

If we want to persuade our customers to engage with our brand further, we should consider the following concepts:

Curiosity with CTAs , such as "Discover the secrets," which can pique users' curiosity.
Trust signals , such as “Checkout Securely”, can ease many customers’ concerns, especially when engaging with new businesses.
Social proof , which is a phenomenon where people follow and copy the actions of others. A CTA such as "1,000 customers can't be wrong!" can be very useful.
Leverage FOMO , the fear of missing out, by highlighting exclusive content or offers that you can only get by clicking on the CTA.
Create urgency by using limited time offers to encourage instant action.

A CTA seems so simple, but it can be a complex part of marketing. Knowing what a Call to Action is and using it properly can help persuade your customers to take that next step in the conversion process.

We Can Help with CTAs and All Your Digital Marketing Needs:

With so many different aspects of marketing to understand, the right resources can be invaluable. At PMI, we are in the business of helping you harness the power of online marketing.

Contact us today to learn more about CTAs and other aspects of digital marketing that can move you ahead of the competition!

Landing Page vs Website: Which is Better for Your Online Presence?

Fri, 20 Oct 2023 19:22:08 GMT

It has never been more important to establish a strong online presence for your business. When it comes to engaging with customers, an understanding of the fundamental differences between a website and a landing page is a critical web design decision. Each option has its own unique advantages and is best suited in specific circumstances. Let's show you everything you need to know and whether one reigns supreme in the landing page vs website debate.

The Characteristics of a Landing Page

A landing page is a single web page that has an objective in mind. It is typically the entry point for visitors and focuses on a call to action (CTA). Landing page objectives can vary, whether it's capturing a lead, encouraging registration for an event, or promoting a product. A landing page should have some of the following characteristics:

Focused Content

Content on any landing page is short and to the point, and should relate to the offer or the CTA.

Limited Navigation

Unlike a website, a landing page will have limited options. Because the visitor is supposed to be guided towards specific actions, such as the CTA , we need to keep their attention and reduce their chances of exploring other parts of the website.

Simplicity

A landing page needs to be uncluttered and minimize distractions because it needs to direct visitors to the desired action at the end (or the start).

A Clear Call to Action

A compelling call to action, whether it's to “Sign Up,” “Download,” “Subscribe,” or “Buy now,” is the focus of a landing page, and we should never veer off course.

What Are the Characteristics of a Website?

A website is a collection of web pages. It is the key platform for your organization or business. A website is a versatile entity and covers a wide range of characteristics, typically consisting of the following:

A Wide Variety of Content

From blogs, videos, images, articles, podcasts, and so much more, the diversity of the content available should be inherently linked with the brand and the target audience. A website will provide flexibility in how the information is presented.

Contact Information

Contact details such as About Us pages and a grander view of the goals of the business are a key part of the website.

Navigation Menus

Websites need to allow users to explore different sections and pages. This boils down to web design and user experience. When a website is easy to navigate, this results in less complexity, further enhancing the visitor who will potentially turn into a customer.

E-commerce Functions

Product listings, payment processing, and other facets of online shopping are other aspects of a website selling a product or a service.

Search Functionality

A larger website needs to make it easier for visitors to find specific content and improve the overall user experience.

When Would You Use a Landing Page?

A landing page is different from a website in terms of eliciting a specific response. There are a number of situations where it is more beneficial to use a landing page, which includes the following:

● Product launches , as a dedicated landing page can drive excitement, which will translate to immediate conversions.

● Lead generation , for example, email subscribers or product downloads. Alanding page combined with an enticing call to action will be an effective function of your landing page.

● Limited-time offers and other promotions and discounts can emphasize the urgency of an offer, and as a landing page is designed to be less functional with fewer buttons, this makes it easier to take advantage of the offers.

When is a Website Better?

As a website can provide great diversity in a number of various functions and purposes, there will be times when a website is a far more effective choice for building customer engagement, including the following:

When Providing a Wide Range of Information

A website is a collection of interconnected web pages that can help you tell the story of your brand alongside your services, products, and associated content.

Content Publication

Whether it's articles, blogs, videos, or other content marketing strategies. The structure of a website ensures that you can publish and display content appropriately to increase customer engagement and drive people towards associated services and products.

Establishing a Brand Identity

As a website can incorporate details, and information such as About Us pages, client testimonials, contact information, and the associated aesthetics or iconography that tell the story of your business.

Customized Functionality

Common examples include forums, user registration, or user-generated content, which is not always essential but having a website can ensure easy access all under one web address.

When Selling Products or Services

Services such as e-commerce can allow for product listings, shopping carts, secure payment processing, and other customizable functions to keep your leads engaged and go through the buyer's journey .

The Pros and Cons of a Landing Page

Because every web page or landing page is designed for a specific function, there can be limitations to both:

Pros

● High conversion rate , as landing pages are designed for a specific goal.

● A focused message that guides visitors toward a single action.

● The simplicity , as a landing page is quicker and more straightforward than creating a whole website.

● Reduces distractions , as a landing page provides a streamlined journey toward the call to action, increasing the conversion possibilities.

Cons

● Because of the simplistic nature of a landing page, it may provide limited information about the business or brand.

● Landing pages don't provide ongoing user engagement. When a customer has landed on the landing page and has gone through the call to action, the landing page has served its function, which is where the website and additional engagement strategies need to come in.

The Pros and Cons of a Website

A website is a key part of any business and brand, but there can be a number of downsides too:

Pros

● A wide variety of content . The diversity of content, from podcasting to blogs, can help businesses build upon their brand and storytelling capabilities.

● A website can provide ample opportunity to reinforce brand identity .

● Websites are better for long-term content marketing strategies , such as Search Engine Optimization. The longer a website is in existence, the greater the relationship you can build through on-page SEO approaches. Being host to a number of resources that encompass the appropriate keywords, as well as other types of content like blogs, could all contribute to a stronger approach to promoting your business.

Cons

● A website can be a complex and time-consuming task. There are many resources that can ensure you design your website effortlessly . However, if you are looking to do it yourself, you need to have the skills and the abilities to build and maintain the website.

● A lot of information could be distracting for visitors, which may result in reduced conversion rates. If a customer is taken to a landing page, there is minimal need for distraction; however, landing on a website with dozens or hundreds of types of content and products can be overwhelming.

When Should You Choose One Over the Other?

Choosing between a website and a landing page will depend on your goals and the needs of your business in relation to your online presence.

You could choose a landing page if you have some of the following goals or constraints:

● A limited budget or timeline where you need a quick and focused approach to getting leads.

● You are running a time-sensitive campaign , for example, a limited-time offer, or you have a specific goal, for example, promoting a product or generating a lead.

You should choose a website in some of the following circumstances:

● You need a comprehensive online presence .

● You need to push your storytelling capabilities as part of your strategy, such as content and SEO.

● You are seeking long-term user engagement.

While you may decide one is better than the other, in fact, landing pages and websites can be complementary to each other . You can use landing pages for focused campaigns that direct visitors to your website for more information but also embed landing page forms on your website so you can capture leads and data while also prioritizing the user experience.

You can also use your website for content-driven marketing and employ landing pages when you are looking to generate leads and convert leads into customers. You can also create landing pages within the website structure, and this will help with specific promotions and campaigns.

Conclusion

Choosing between a landing page and a website is a critical decision, and while landing pages are about capturing immediate attention and are invaluable for focused campaigns, websites are versatile and can provide a wealth of information to reinforce your brand identity.

Do You Need Help Designing Your Website or Landing Page?

When you are looking for the best of both worlds, in fact, the fight between a landing page vs website doesn't have to be taxing. With the right resources, you can harness the power of both. At PMI, we can provide the solution you need for long and short-term engagement.

We serve clients in the greater Reading, Allentown, Malvern, and Philadelphia region from our local offices, and the rest of Pennsylvania, the US, and other countries remotely.

5 Tips to Increase Sales With Brand Loyalty

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 14:15:00 GMT

Recently we discussed a crucial part of any online marketing strategy – creating a brand for your business to help differentiate your business, make your business recognizable, and build customer loyalty. Now that you have a brand, let's discuss building brand loyalty to grow your business.

What is Brand Loyalty?

You'll find many definitions for brand loyalty, but I think Wikipedia hit the nail on the head with this def inition, "Brand loyalty describes a consumer's positive feelings towards a brand, and their dedication to purchasing the brand's products and/or services repeatedly, regardless of deficiencies, a competitor's actions, or changes in the environment. It can also be demonstrated with other behaviors such as positive word-of-mouth advocacy." A vital part of that definition is "…regardless of deficiencies, a competitor's actions, or changes in the environment."

While customer Loyalty is loyalty to a product (typically based on pricing, discounts, quality of product, and customer service), the golden ticket for any business is brand loyalty - loyalty to a brand (based on feelings/emotions) .

Apple is an excellent example of a company that has created brand loyalty. The company has consistently maintained its brand since its inception fifty years ago. You probably know someone who would never think of buying a PC instead of a Mac or an android phone instead of an iPhone (regardless of price or functions). "By creating an emotional connection with its customers, Apple has done the near-impossible – it has acquired a loyal following," Forbes states. "Brand loyalty has played a huge part in its global success. There's no doubt about that."

How Do You Build Brand Loyalty?

#1. Create a Great Brand

The first step to building brand loyalty is to create a great brand . Here's how:

Create a buyer persona – a detailed description of someone representing your target audience.
Develop a value proposition that tells prospects why they should do business with you rather than your competitors and makes the benefits of your products or services crystal clear from the outset.
Create a mission statement that explains the purpose of your organization.
Create a vision statement that describes where you want your business to be in five, ten, or twenty years and helps keep you focused on the long-term plan.
Determine your brand personality
Create brand assets and integrate them into all your marketing efforts.

#2. Build Relationships

"As a small business owner, you have an advantage when it comes to building customer rapport," Entrepreneur states. "The size of your company allows you to reach people at a more personal level than big businesses, which turns into stronger relationships with customers."

Here's how to build strong customer relationships:

Communicate – Don't just tell your customers about your business, have conversations with them. Discover their needs by listening to them and show how your product or service can accommodate those needs or solve their problem.
Exceed Expectations – Under promise and over-deliver.
Ask for Feedback – the good, the bad, and the ugly. You need to understand your customers' needs. Therefore, it's essential to know what you're doing right, so you can continue doing it and what you're doing wrong to change it.
Show Appreciation – Reward loyal customers with rewards or a loyalty program because 75% of consumers say they favor companies that offer rewards .

#3. Build a Community

Building a community takes building relationships to the next level by allowing your loyal customers to feel as if they are part of an exclusive community.

Here's how to build a community:

Respond to messages on social media
Encourage engagement on social media
Create an e-newsletter
Create a private group on social media
Start a blog

#4. Personalize

"Consumers have come to expect that same level of personalization from companies of all sizes," Forbes reports. "Investing in personalization efforts to build relationships and create better experiences can pay off with serious rewards for brands."

Here are a few reasons why:

91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and relevant recommendations.
72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging.
80% of frequent shoppers only shop with brands that personalize the experience.

There are many ways to personalize your marketing, such as using marketing automation tools, segmenting your email contact list, using your customers' names in emails, and creating targeted landing pages.

#5: Work With an Experienced Marketing Company

Simply running a business takes lots of time, and many small to medium-sized companies find they don't have time to market their business as they should, which is where PMI comes in. Our mission is to help you grow your business, and we do that by helping you get found, impress your viewers, engage your leads, and convert them to customers.

Give us a call at 484-297-6395 , or contact us online for a FREE consultation.

5 Mistakes That Could Be Derailing Your Facebook Ads

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 13:20:16 GMT

Many marketers utilize Facebook advertising as part of their Internet Marketing strategy, especially since the pandemic lockdowns created a surge in e-commerce that continues post-pandemic.

Hootsuite reported that the 2022 cost-per-click was up 13% from 2021. This means it’s more important than ever that you make the most of your Facebook ads. If you aren’t seeing the results you want with Facebook ads, you may be making one (or more) of these five common mistakes.

#1. Not Thinking Strategically

It is relatively easy to go onto Facebook and create an ad, which is why many busy business owners and managers jump into Facebook advertising without putting much thought into it. The result? Disappointing outcomes.

Before you begin your first (or next) Facebook advertising campaign, answer the following questions:

Who is your target audience – demographically, geographically, where they are in the sales funnel, etc.?
What is the goal of your Facebook ad – build awareness, drive traffic to your website, create leads, etc.?
What is your long-term plan? Of course, everyone wants to get to the sale, but sometimes you need to nurture your audience through the sales funnel before that can happen.
What story are you telling to build a stronger connection with your target audience?

#2 Picking the Wrong Facebook Objective

Facebook offers six advertising objectives to choose from, and many are similar. However, you must choose the right objective to get the desired results:

Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
Leads
App promotion
Sales

To pick the right objective, you need to consider your goal and where your target audience is in the sales funnel. Facebook offers these guidelines .

#3. Too Many Calls to Action

Y ou want to get the most bang for your buck with all of your marketing efforts, which is why it’s often tempting to include more than one call to action (CTA). A CTA tells your audience what you want them to do when they see your ad. Common examples of CTAs include “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” and “Register Today.”

Your CTA should be based on your audience (such as where they are in the sales funnel) and your goal or objective. Having more than one CTA in an ad may confuse your audience and not achieve the desired result. Instead, determine ONE CTA for each campaign and use it in your ad copy, button, etc.

If you can’t choose just one CTA, create a single ad set with multiple ads with a different CTA in each ad (but still just one CTA per ad).

#4. Linking to the Wrong Destination

Your CTA should include a link to a landing page or in-app destination. For example, when someone clicks on the “Buy Now” button, you should take them to a page where they can actually buy something. Likewise, if your CTA is meant to encourage people to register for an event, your CTA button should send them to the page where they can register for the event.

Like the CTA, your CTA button should send them to a specific landing page based on your goal and audience. Rarely should they be sent to your home page, which is too general.

#5. Picking the Wrong Facebook Budget Option

Facebook offers Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) to simplify campaigns for busy business owners and managers. “Instead of setting individual ad set budgets, you set one overarching campaign budget,” Facebook states. “This budget has flexibility to spend more on ad sets with the best opportunities, and less on underperforming ad sets.”

However, if your campaign includes several ad sets with varying audience sizes, CBO may result in spending too much on large ad sets, ignoring smaller ad sets. This could result in some audiences rarely seeing your ads. In this situation, you would be better off turning CBO off and setting your own budget for each ad set.

How to Get More From Your Internet Marketing

PMI’s mission is to help you grow your business! How? We help you get found, impress your viewers, engage your leads, and convert them into customers. If this sounds good to you, give us a call at 484-297-6395 , or contact us online for a free consultation.

The Ultimate Guide to Leveraging Google Reviews for Your Business

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 20:19:12 GMT

The Importance of Google Reviews

One of the most important aspects of a business's online presence is its reputation, and Google Reviews play a critical role in shaping it. Google Reviews give potential customers an idea of what they can expect when they engage with a business. Positive reviews can boost a business's credibility, while negative reviews can harm its reputation.

According to a survey by BrightLocal, 91% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase or visiting a business – and you likely do the same. Furthermore, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends and family. These statistics highlight the importance of Google Reviews for businesses looking to attract and retain customers.

To create a system of capturing more Google reviews, follow these simple steps:

1. Set Up and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

2. Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

3. Respond to Reviews

See below for details on each of the above steps.

How to Set Up and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

To start leveraging Google Reviews for your business, the first step is to create and optimize your Google Business Profile (formerly referred to as a Google My Business, or GMB, account). You can create a free Google Business Profile by following the prompts at https://www.google.com/business/ .

Once your account is set up, you can manage your business's online presence on Google, including your reviews, contact information, hours of operation, services offered, and more.

It's important to optimize it by completing all the required fields and adding high-quality photos of your business. This will help your business appear higher in Google's search results and make it more attractive to potential customers.

How to Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

Once your Google Business Listing account is set up and optimized, the next step is to encourage your customers to leave reviews. The easiest way to do this is to simply ask them. You can include a request for a review in your follow-up emails, on your website, or even in-person.

It's important to make leaving a review as easy as possible for your customers. Provide them with a direct link to your Google Business Listing page and give them clear instructions on how to leave a review. You can also offer incentives such as discounts or freebies to customers who leave a review.

▸ How to Quickly Get More Reviews with Less Effort

If you want to get reviews faster and easier than using a manual process, then you can use a reputation management system like the one offered by PMI to automatically request reviews using a list of names and email addresses you load into your own dashboard. PMI’s system also automatically follows up on unanswered review requests. For more information click here: https://www.powermarketinginternational.com/reputation-management-services .

How to Respond to Reviews

Responding to reviews is a crucial part of leveraging Google Reviews for your business. Responding to positive reviews can help build customer loyalty and strengthen your business's reputation, while responding to negative reviews can show that you value customer feedback and are willing to address any issues.

When responding to reviews, it's important to be professional and courteous. Thank customers for their feedback, whether it's positive or negative, and address any specific concerns they may have raised. If possible, offer a solution to any negative feedback and invite the customer to continue the conversation offline.

How to Use Reviews to Improve Your Business

Finally, it's important to use Google Reviews to improve your business. Analyze your reviews to identify common themes or issues that customers have raised and to use this feedback to make improvements to your products, services, or customer experience. By addressing customer feedback, you can improve your business's reputation and attract more customers in the future.

In conclusion, leveraging Google Reviews is a crucial part of building and maintaining a strong online reputation for your business. By setting up and optimizing your Google Business Listing account, encouraging customers to leave reviews, responding to reviews professionally, and using reviews to make improvements, you can build a strong online presence that will attract and retain customers.

Need Help Getting More Reviews?

Our Reputation Management System takes the drudgery out of requesting reviews and following up on unanswered requests. Request a free demo to see it in action, or click below for a quick overview.

Improve Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Ranking With On-Page SEO

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 19:53:27 GMT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial element of any online marketing strategy . If people can’t find your website, they won’t discover how awesome your product or service is or even realize that your business exists. On-page SEO drives relevant potential and existing customers to your website.

Too busy to read this post? Check out the abbreviated video below ...

What is SEO?

The goal of SEO is to get your website to rank well (show up near the top of a search engine results page) when people search for something relevant to your product or service. Higher ranking results in more people visiting your website. According to a recent Search Engine Journal study , “over a quarter [28.5%] of Google searchers click on the first organic result.” In comparison, the tenth position in Google has a 2.5% click-through rate.

These “unpaid” search results from SEO can drive a free, continuous stream of traffic to your website. Unlike online advertising, SEO has no associated cost when a searcher clicks your link on the search engine results page (SERP).

There are two types of SEO - off-page and on-page. Off-page SEO is what you do to make your website look more authoritative - one of the criteria search engines like Google use to rank your website on SERPs. Off-page strategies include obtaining quality inbound links, adding your website links to trusted directories, creating press releases, etc.

On-page SEO is what you do within your website, and that is our focus today.

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4 On-Page SEO Tips

1. Conduct an SEO audit of your website

If you have an existing website, you need to find out how SEO-friendly it is so you can make changes where needed. PMI offers a FREE SEO report detailing how your website ranks for multiple SEO factors and any technical issues requiring attention. You can use this report as a handy guide for improving your organic search results.

2. Find your target keywords

Google is constantly updating its algorithms, which are “designed to sort through hundreds of billions of webpages in [Google’s] search index to find the most relevant, useful results in a fraction of a second, and present them in a way that helps you find what you’re looking for.” Therefore, if you want Google to include your website in SERPs, you need to understand which keywords and phrases will result in relevant traffic to your website.

Hubspot offers four steps:

1. Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.

2. Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.

3. Understand how intent affects keyword research and analyze accordingly.

4. Research-related search terms.

3. Add target keywords

Understanding which keywords and phrases are relevant to your business is crucial, but knowing where to put them for the most significant impact is essential too. Here are some key locations to place keywords for optimal performance:

Titles – A description of the topic that shows up on the search engine results page (see below). Titles should be kept under 70 characters and include at least one of your target keywords or phrases.
Meta Descriptions – Meta descriptions also appear on the search engine results page (see below). Try to use at least one of your target keywords in your meta description.
Headings – People tend to scan pages, so headings help them consume information more quickly, and including your target keywords and phrases helps SEO.
Content – Use keywords and phrases NATURALLY throughout your text. Don’t force it.
Image Titles – Image titles appear on some browsers when you hover the mouse over an image. The title can provide additional information about the image, positively impacting SEO performance.
Image Alt Text – Image alt text lets search engines know what the image is about. Including relevant keywords in the image alt text can help SEO.
URLs – Including keywords in the URL helps readers know what they will find when they click on the URL and help SEO. This is especially true of blogs

4. Avoid sketchy SEO practices

Remember, the intent of Google’s algorithm is to help people find relevant information as quickly as possible. Therefore, Google frowns on certain practices that can defeat this purpose and may penalize your website for it. Here are a few things to avoid:

Don’t hide keywords by using the same color text and background or hiding them behind images.
Don’t stuff keywords by repeating keywords over and over again
Don’t force keywords by using those words where they don’t belong. Not only can forcing keywords hurt SEO, but it can also create content that doesn’t make sense to readers.

How To Simplify SEO

In most cases, it takes considerable time and effort to earn search rankings at or near the top of page one. However, if you want to drive more traffic to your website and enjoy more well-qualified leads for your growing business, SEO should be a crucial part of your internet marketing strategy. Power Marketing International can help.

Get More Customer Reviews to Grow Your Business

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:59:14 GMT

Customer reviews are at the heart of any successful reputation management strategy . Think about what you did the last time you purchased a product or service. The chances are good that one of your first steps was to go to Google. You probably compared the number of ratings and the number of stars each product or business received. And you probably read a couple of online reviews to see what other people thought about the product or service.

How Can Customer Reviews Help You Grow Your Business?

It's How Today's Consumer Shops - According to Entrepreneur , 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. Why? Because reviews provide credibility to your company and your product or service. In fact, 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a business more, and 88% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. And trust/credibility translates to more sales. 72% of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review, and they are likely to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews.
Reviews Improve Ranking – Reviews have become one of the most important factors that Google looks at when ranking your page. Reviews on your website also add valuable text and keywords that can improve your page's ranking. Furthermore, customer reviews on Google, social media, and other websites typically generate inbound links (aka backlinks) to your website – another factor Google looks at regarding a page's ranking.

How do You Get More Customer Reviews?

Ask Your Customers – A recent survey found that about one in three people surveyed left a review of an experience they've had with a business. Increase that number by simply asking your customers for reviews in email campaigns, in person, etc. According to that same survey, "12% of consumers say they left a review every time a business prompted them to do so in the last 12 months. 35% of consumers say they left a review at least half of the times they were prompted to do so by a business in the last 12 months."
Get bloggers to review your products – Bloggers may be willing to review your product and will most likely include a link back to your website. To get more blogger reviews, you may want to create an affiliate or associate program – an arrangement "in which an online merchant Web site pays affiliate Web sites a commission to send them traffic. These affiliate Web sites post links to the merchant site and are paid according to a particular agreement."
Optimize your website for reviews – Make it easy for customers to leave and find reviews on your website. Make sure your website is mobile optimized. Publish both good and bad reviews (see below).
Utilize PMI's reputation management system - PMI's reputation management system makes it easy to request and respond to reviews and minimize the impact of the occasional poor review! In addition, we provide a way to automatically display reviews on your website, so your website is constantly updated with fresh information, which is great for improving your search results / SEO! Our reputation management system is super easy to use! Here's how it works.

What Should You Do With Negative Reviews?

The fear of negative reviews is a roadblock for many businesses. And with good reason, because a bunch of bad reviews can affect sales. However, Oberlo reports that 62% of consumers say they will not buy from brands that censor online reviews, and Search Engine Land found that nine in ten customers are more likely to overlook a negative review if the business responds adequately.

So here is what you need to do when you see a negative review:

Take it seriously
Respond quickly
Answer Thoughtfully and honestly
Be kind and keep it appropriate
Customize each response
Never get personal
Take it offline when possible
Be thankful and appreciative
Go the extra mile when possible
Take the proper action to correct the issue
Use what you learn to improve your product or service

The Easy Way to Get Quality Reviews on Google, Facebook, and Other Social Media Platforms

Getting quality reviews on your website, Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms doesn't have to be like pulling teeth! PMI's reputation management system can automate and simplify the process!

7 Tips to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate (CRO)

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 19:00:02 GMT

An essential part of digital marketing strategy is driving traffic to your website; however, stopping at getting the traffic without focusing on converting those visitors into paying customers is a mistake many inexperienced marketers make.

Seeing an increase in visitors to your website is exciting, but that excitement quickly fades if those visits don’t lead to additional leads and sales. That is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) comes into play.

What is Website Conversion Rate?

Your website conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website who complete a specific action. Many people think of conversion rate as simply how many visitors are converted into paying customers. However, not every visitor is ready to buy the first time they visit your website. Therefore, that specific action could be joining your mailing list, downloading an e-book, viewing a pricing page, etc.

Calculating your conversion rate is pretty simple:

Conversion Rate = number of people who joined your mailing list/total visitors x 100

For example, let’s say you have three people join your mailing list out of 120 people who visited your website. You divide 120 by three, which is .025. Multiply .025 by 100, and you get a conversion rate is 2.5%. CAUTION: Only count the number of visitors to the page(s) that offer an opportunity to join your mailing list instead of ALL visitors to your website (unless the option is on every page).

At this point, you may be wondering, “What is a good conversion rate?” Unfortunately, there is no magic number. It depends on your industry, product price, desired action, etc. However, statistically, the average website conversion rate is somewhere around 2.5 and 3%.

Your conversion rate shows how well you’re moving visitors to your website through the sales funnel and turning them into paying customers. Higher conversion rates mean increased revenue. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of improving your website to increase conversion rates.

7 Tips to Improve Conversion Rates

CRO can occur anywhere on your website – homepage, blog, landing pages, formatting, etc. – through various methods. Here are ten tips to improve conversion rates on your website.

1. Create Compelling Calls to Action (CTAs) – A call-to-action tells visitors the specific action you want them to take. While we’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, there is a phenomenon called “ banner blindness ,”- “a form of selective attention, in which web visitors ignore information presented in banners.” Therefore, it’s good to mix it up, creating CTAs in banners, images, and text. Check out these tips to create more compelling text CTAs.

2. Shorten Forms – In an ideal world, you would want to collect as much information as possible from website visitors; however, people don’t have time to complete lengthy forms. Plus, many people have become mistrustful. Keeping your forms short – collecting only crucial information - allows visitors to complete the process more quickly and build trust with you.

3. Provide Social Proof – “In today’s ‘fake news’ culture, consumers are having more and more trouble identifying who or what to trust,” Trustpilot reports. “This year [2020], we observed an 11% decline in trust globally, with only 71% of people admitting they trust consumer brands.” So how do you build trust that encourages people to take a specific action on your website? One way is with social proof – comments, reviews, etc., about your business or product. According to Trustpilot, “89% of global consumers check online reviews as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences.”

4. Add Live Chat – Perhaps someone isn’t making a purchase because they have more questions. Live chat allows them to get the support, guidance, and answers they need in real-time, making them more likely to take the desired action.

5. Retarget and Re-engage – While a good website is the cornerstone of any online marketing effort, many other tools, such as social media and Google ads, are available to you. Retarget by tracking visitors and providing online ads as they visit other sites on the web.

6. Create Abandoned Cart Email Campaigns – “An abandoned cart email is an email sent to customers who almost made a purchase to encourage them to complete their transaction,” Hubspot explains. “Abandoned cart emails are one way to convert lost business and turn a lost prospect into a brand enthusiast.” Research shows that “Half of Frequent Cart Abandoners Will Purchase When Remarketed.”

7. Test, Test, and Test – Not every first effort will be a home run. Test and analyze everything you do – copy, headlines, CTA’s, offers, etc. – to know what is and is not working, and adjust accordingly.

Start Conversion Rate Optimization Today

Don’t have time for CRO? PMI specializes in first driving traffic to your website (Search Engine Optimization) and then converting visitors into paying customers (Conversion Rate Optimization). So give us a call at 484-297-6395 , or contact us online to get started today!

Why is Branding Essential to Business Success?

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 21:51:29 GMT

Branding is essential to the success of any business. The more you get a clear and compelling brand in front of your business stakeholders, and the more consistently you present it across your marketing and advertising, the quicker people will recognize it and become more likely to choose your brand over others.

Bottom Line: A great brand can multiply the results of your marketing efforts.

What is Branding?

Branding is often misunderstood and over-simplified. Often, business owners and managers think of branding as simply the visual aspect of a business, such as a logo, colors, and font, but there is so much more to effective branding.

"On the outside, your brand may seem like it consists only of elements such as logos and colors, but your brand is actually the entire identity of your business. Your brand gives your personality," As Forbes states. "With the right branding, you have the chance to get some control over how people perceive your business, so you don't want to overlook this."

Brandingmag provides a great definition: "Branding is the perpetual process of identifying, creating, and managing the cumulative assets and actions that shape the perception of a brand in stakeholders' minds."

Branding should make your business memorable, show what your company stands for, let customers know what to expect from your business, distinguish your business from your competitors, and communicate what makes your brand a better choice.

So, you can see why effective branding must include much more than just the visual aspect of your business. A logo can't accomplish all that. Several elements, including advertising, visuals, customer service, reputation, and social responsibility, must work together to create a unique brand all your own. In addition, all stakeholders – potential and existing clients, employees, business partners, vendors, etc. – must have a clear perception of your brand.

It's also important to remember that things change – businesses, industries, advertising, etc. Heraclitus said, "The only constant in life is change." Ben Franklin said, "When you are finished changing, you are finished." Therefore, effective branding needs to be consistent but, at the same time, flexible.

Why is Branding Essential to Your Business Success?

Once you understand branding, you can begin to see why it is essential to your business's success. Here are just a few benefits of effective branding:

Helps people recognize your brand – If people positively remember your brand, they're more likely to turn to your business when purchasing your product or service.

Builds trust – People buy from businesses they trust, and if you create a brand that resonates with them AND delivers on its promise, you build trust.

Increases business value – It may be hard to quantify the value of a brand, but a good solid brand does increase the value of your business. A good brand gives you more leverage in your industry, makes investing in your business more attractive, and increases the overall value of your business.

Creates referral business – A strong brand that generates a positive impression encourages referral business because people like doing business with companies they are familiar with and consider dependable and trustworthy. And they like sharing that business with friends and family. Creates loyal customers – Branding helps give your business a human side that customers can relate to and want to do business with. "In many ways, you can appeal to people's emotions through branding and make them feel more connected to your company," Forbes states. "Branding allows you to build relationships with your audience, which can eventually turn them into loyal customers. You can create a brand that people actually care about and put yourself ahead of businesses that aren't using this to their advantage."

Attracts better employees – Creating a positive brand helps attract and retain better employees. Forbes states, "A company with great branding will have an easier time getting employees to feel involved with something more than just a job."

Start Growing Your Business With a Great Brand!

If you want to increase sales and grow your business by going beyond visual branding, PMI can help. Call us today at 484-297-6395 , or contact us online for a free branding consultation.

5 Steps to Brand Your Business and Increase Sales

Wed, 11 May 2022 15:08:10 GMT

Branding is a key ingredient in any successful digital marketing effort. The more you can create a clear and compelling brand image, and the more consistently you present it across your marketing and advertising channels, the faster you will increase sales and grow your business.

And branding isn't just for big companies; even small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can set themselves apart with branding. Fortunately, today's marketing tools – websites, social media, etc. – make it easier than ever for SMBs to properly brand themselves.

What is Branding?

Branding is not an easy concept to understand. Many think it's just visual identity, such as a logo and packaging design, but there is much more. Branding Magazine provides this definition: "Branding is the perpetual process of identifying, creating, and managing the cumulative assets and actions that shape the perception of a brand in stakeholders' minds."

When thinking about your brand, you should consider the following:

Logo
Tag line
Color palette
Fonts
Imagery
Tone of voice
Brand promise
Values
Positioning

Why is Branding Important?

People are bombarded with marketing messages every day. Forbes reports that Americans are exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 ads every day.… Please read that again… 4-10,000 ads EVERY day! Branding is key to helping people see your business and keeping it relevant despite all that noise.

Branding helps you …

Differentiate your business from your competitors
Make your business recognizable
Build customer loyalty

An additional benefit of branding that many businesses overlook is how it can help attract more qualified employees . According to LinkedIn , "There's ample evidence that a great employer brand makes it easier to recruit, and it also impacts the business' bottom line in more than one way." That impact includes the following:

28 % reduction in the organization's turnover
50% cost-per-hire reduction
50 % more qualified applicants
1-2 times faster time to hire

A great brand can multiply the results of your marketing efforts while building brand recognition and loyalty. The more you create a clear and compelling brand image, and the more consistently you present it across your marketing and advertising channels, the quicker people will recognize it and become more likely to choose your brand.

How Do I Brand My Business?

Branding is an ongoing process, but here are five steps to get you started:

1.Understand Your Audience

You need to know as much as you can about your target audience. Start with your existing customers. What are their pain points? What do they like about your product or service? What would they want to see in your brand? Then do market research to discover trends, opportunities, what people are saying about your brand and your competitors' brand, etc.

Once you have all this information, create a buyer persona – a detailed description of someone who represents your target audience. Your buyer persona should include as much information as possible, including demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and geographic information. This is who you should think of as you continue through the process of creating a brand.

2. Develop your value proposition

WordStream explains, "A value proposition tells prospects why they should do business with you rather than your competitors, and makes the benefits of your products or services crystal clear from the outset." This value proposition should be included in your marketing materials and website.

Here are a few examples of value propositions:

Uber – The smartest way to get around.
Digit – Save money without thinking about it.
iPhone – The experience IS the product.

3. Create Your Mission and Vision Statement

HubSpot describes a mission statement as "an action-oriented statement declaring the purpose an organization serves to its audience." Your mission is your business's "why." Why does it exist? Once you understand your mission, everything you do should tie to that mission.

Here are two examples of short, easily-understood missions:

Southwest Airlines - "The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit."
Tesla - "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

Your vision statement describes what you want your business to be in five, ten, or twenty years and helps keep you focused on the long-term plan. Here are two vision statement examples:

Amazon - "Our vision is to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices."
IKEA - "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

4. Determine Your Brand Personality

Like people, brands have personalities, and those personalities impact how others see and interact with your business. For example, do you want your business to be seen as sophisticated, professional, sincere, fun, innovative, etc.? Once you've answered that, then you are ready to create one or more buyer personas designed to effectively communicate with your target audience.

5. Create Brand Assets and Integrate Them into Your Marketing Efforts

Once you thoroughly understand your branding goals, it's time to create your brand assets - logo, tagline, packaging, colors, fonts, etc. – to reflect your brand. Then, you need to consistently integrate them into all of your marketing efforts, such as your website, email marketing, social media channels, etc.

The Next Step?

It isn't always easy to put into words who you are, what you value, etc., and create brand assets that convey that information. PMI can help – from walking you through these five steps to developing and integrating brand assets that build brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, and increase sales.

Power Marketing International has been selected among the top 10 Digital Marketing Companies in Pennsylvania by DesignRush.

Harness the Power of Internet Marketing to Grow Your Business

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 13:58:02 GMT

We're happy to introduce our series of blogs to help you grow your business with online marketing . The series will begin with several blogs focusing on the hub of any online marketing strategy – your website. We'll start by discussing what makes an effective website, then focus on how to drive current and potential customers to your website, and finally, how to convert visitors into paying customers.

The remainder of the series will focus on other internet marketing tools, such as reviews, social media, emails, and PPC to attract new customers, build more loyal customers, and of-course increase sales and improve your bottom line.

You can think of this as a mini digital marketing course that takes you step-by-step from creating to executing an internet marketing plan. Each blog will include:

· Important Definitions

· Relevant Statistics

· Lots of Tips

· Helpful Resources

· And More

An Effective Online Marketing Plan

Let's discuss what an effective online marketing plan (part of your overall business plan) looks like. Throwing mud on the wall to see what sticks is not a plan. It's a waste of time and money. One survey found that a business plan doubles your chances of success.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a marketing plan as "[describing] the actions you'll take to persuade potential customers to buy your products or services." Without an effective marketing strategy, your business can fall victim to slow growth and inadequate revenue as your business gets left in the dust. Conversely, a top-notch marketing plan can be the key to more revenue.

At PMI, we sum up our high-level online marketing goals in four simple steps:

1. Get found

2. Impress

3. Engage

4. Convert

The challenge is to employ the best strategy for each phase and do it within a reasonable budget. The most affordable, measurable, and scalable path to success involves Internet Marketing (Aka Online or Digital Marketing).

7 Elements of an Internet Marketing Plan:

1. Website Design or Redesign - Your website should be the central hub that connects, unifies, and amplifies all your online marketing and advertising activities. Most of your online campaigns will link to landing pages on your website.

2. Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Optimization is the art and science of designing your website content and acquiring inbound links in such a way as to rank high in search engine inquiries, separately from any search engine ads you may be running.

3. Search Engine Advertising - For most businesses, highly targeted search engine ads that link to persuasive website landing pages can rapidly build website traffic that converts into new leads and sales.

4. Social Media Marketing Advertising - Social media offers the unique ability to target your advertising and marketing efforts based on the detailed demographic criteria that social media outlets collect.

5. Content Marketing - Content marketing comes in several forms and can be a key element in attracting interest in your products and services.

6. Email Marketing - When properly utilized, email marketing can be a very low-cost way to promote your business.

7. Reputation Management - Receiving lots of reviews on Google and Social Media doesn't have to be a chore.

It's critical to develop a strategy that utilizes a combination of marketing channels and techniques in a cohesive manner, rather than stumbling along with a wasteful, slow, piecemeal approach.

Get Started NOW

To begin growing your business with online marketing, click here to receive the first blog in the series as soon as it's published. Don't have time? Want to see quicker results? Let the experts at PMI help. Whether you're looking for a comprehensive marketing plan or simply a website redesign, we can get you up and running fast. So give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

How To Drive Website Traffic With Blogs

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 14:55:06 GMT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential part of any effective online marketing strategy . SEO helps your website show up more frequently and higher up on the search engine results page (SERP) when someone searches for something related to your product or service. The goal is to drive more traffic to your website. Business blogging is one SEO technique that is particularly effective at driving RELEVANT traffic to your website.

What is Business Blogging?

Blogging offers many benefits :

Drives relevant organic traffic to your website (people who actually have an interest in your product or service).
Helps build website authority (Aka Domain Authority), a metric that predicts how likely your website is to appear on the SERPs.
Helps create authority in your field, build trust, and generate leads. By sharing relevant, helpful, humorous, etc., information related to your product or service, people can see that you know what you’re talking about and begin to trust you more, which may make them more likely to purchase your product or service.

Research supports these claims:

34% of buyers will make an unplanned purchase after reading quality content.
46% of people take recommendations from bloggers/vloggers into account.
Bloggers who utilize blogging for marketing purposes see 13 times the ROI of businesses that don’t.
On average, companies who blog produce 67% more leads per month.
Updating blog posts can increase traffic by 106%.

10 Blogging Tips to Drive Relevant Website Traffic

Write For Your Target Audience

First, you need to know and understand your target audience. You need to understand:

What are they interested in?
What do they want to read about?
What are their pain points?
Where do they spend their time online?

Then, keep them in mind constantly as you strategize and write your content.

Write Great Content

What constitutes great content depends – in part – on who your target market is. However, there are a few tips that generally work on most blogs.

Write like you talk
Don’t try to impress with big words or jargon
Hook readers with a great opening line
Include the most critical information at the top – especially if it’s a long blog
Make it scannable by using shorter paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points. 43% of people admit to skimming blog posts.
Include a compelling call to action (CTA) to let them know what they should do next (i.e., Subscribe, call you, make a purchase, etc.)
Pay attention to grammar to make it easier for people to read and understand. Grammarly is a great app to use.
Do your research and be accurate

Write Compelling Titles

Some experts believe the title you chose is more important than the actual content. Titles help people decide if they’re going to click on your blog or not, so you need to compel or entice them with promises or solutions. You may want to try different titles for the same blog to see what gets the most engagement. Hubspot offers tips for creating catchy headlines .

Include Images

They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Humans are visual creatures, and more than half of us are visual learners. You can take advantage of that information by including images (photos, infographics, etc.) in your blog. Plus, Optinmonster reports:

Articles with images get 94% more views than those with no visuals.
Using photos of real people instead of stock photos can result in a 35% conversion increase.

Add Video

HubSpot ’s State of Video Marketing report tells it all:

“People are watching more video online than ever before – in fact, the amount of online video they watch has almost doubled since 2018.”
“Marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding.”
“Consumers continue to use video as an integral part of their journey with brands and are excited to see even more video content in the year ahead.”

Here are some video marketing tips to Generate Leads, Increase Conversions, and More.

Incorporate Keywords

Keywords are still a vital part of any SEO strategy. Determine what keywords resonate with your target audience and use them in strategic places. Keyword stuffing is a big no-no, so you want to incorporate keywords naturally into your content. Try to use keywords or phrases in the following places when it makes sense:

Meta Page Title
Article Title
Headings and Subheadings
In your Introduction
Throughout the Article
Meta Description
Image file names
Alt Text

Include Links

You’ll see a lot of links in this blog. If I quote a statistic or provide information found on another website, I include a link to that website. They’re called backlinks or inbound links, and they can help your website rank higher on SERPs. The more authority a webpage that you are linking to, the better.

Add Social Sharing Buttons

If someone likes what they’ve read and wants to share it with their friends, make it easy for them by including social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your blog posts.

Promote Your Blog

You need to let people know that your blog exists. Do this by sharing posts on your social media platforms, emailing posts to your contact list, and including a link to your blog in your email signature. You may even want to consider investing a few dollars in paid advertising to get the word out there.

Write Guest Posts

If you write blog posts for other websites with a substantial audience within your target market, you can reach a much wider audience. And, if readers like your post, they may subscribe to your blog. If you’re posting on well-respected websites, guest blogging can also build trust and showcase you as an authority in your field. Include a link back to your blog so that they can engage directly with you.

Where to Start With SEO

If you want to get found, impress, engage, and convert, blogging (a type of content marketing) should be an important component of your SEO strategy.

Unfortunately, many small to medium-sized businesses don’t have the resources or expertise to develop and execute a comprehensive SEO strategy.

PMI can help with all of your digital marketing needs – strategy, web design, SEO, social media, paid advertising, email marketing, branding, and content marketing. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 , or contact us online .

5 Link Building Strategies That Work

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 22:45:37 GMT

Link building - the process of getting other websites to link back to your website (called backlinks) - is an essential part of any successful Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. However, link building isn’t a quick and easy process. It takes careful planning, and it takes time.

In fact, HubSpot reports that “41% of SEO experts consider link building to be the most difficult part of search optimization” and “51% of marketers say it takes one to three months to see the impact of link-building efforts.”

But the effort is well worth it because backlinks increase traffic to your website, increase your website authority, and help improve your search rankings. The bottom line: if you want to drive people who are very likely to have an interest in your product or service to your website, taking the time to obtain quality (NOT quantity) links is essential.

5 Link Building Strategies That Work

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging (Aka guest posting) is when you publish articles on a website other than your own. One way to create quality backlinks is to post blogs that provide actual value on authority websites relevant to your product or service. Authority websites are sites that are trusted by users, industry experts, other websites, and search engines.

Infographics

An infographic - a visual representation of data, a story, or principle - provides a quick way for people to scan and consume information. Well-designed infographics can generate high-quality backlinks. Here’s why. Studies show:

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
People remember 65% of the information they see visually, as opposed to 10% of the information they hear.
Infographics are thirty times more likely to be read in their entirety than blog posts or news articles.

Broken Link Building

If you don’t have the resources to create a lot of content, broken link building is a tactic you can try. With Broken Link Building, you search relevant websites for broken links – hyperlinks that link to a blank or non-existent external website .

You can then contact the webmaster offering to replace the broken link with an existing page on your website (or one that you specifically created as a replacement). This helps web admins clean up their website and provides links to your website. It’s a win-win situation!

Analysis of Competitors’ Best-Performing Links

A competitive analysis is typically a part of any business plan. And you can analyze your competitors’ websites to create a more efficient link-building strategy. Find a competitor’s website with a higher ranking than your website, and see what is working for them. What keywords are ranking, and where are the links coming from? Here are some resources to help you.

Content Pillars

Good content is key to a successful website. Unfortunately, the internet has created a world of information overload, which is where pillar blog posts can help. A pillar blog post is a long – 1,500-4,000 words – blog post. This type of blog goes in-depth about all aspects of a specific topic related to your business. The information is useful and actionable . Typically, a pillar blog post also includes relevant images, videos, etc., to support your text. Pillar blogs can help build your website’s authority, drive more traffic to your website, increase the number of backlinks to your website, and deliver a long-lasting ROI.

Don’t Have Time For SEO?

Link building takes time and effort that many small to medium-sized businesses don’t have. PMI can help with all your search engine optimization needs! We know how to drive more relevant traffic to your website. So, don't wait - give us a call at 484-297-6395 or click below to contact us online.

10 Elements For an Effective Website

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 21:09:23 GMT

The cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy is an effective, hard working website. Unfortunately, with over 127 million websites in play, it can be challenging to create a site that stands out from the crowd, and one that potential customers can easily find when doing a search. However, if you want to grow your business, it is definitely worth the effort. Lets face it - the amount of time your customers spend online is growing by the year.

From 2000 to 2020, internet usage increased by 1,266% , and today 90.3% of North Americans use the internet daily. Furthermore, Forbes reports that “62% of U.S. shoppers say they shop more online now than they did before the pandemic.”

What is an Effective Website?

An effective website can be FOUND by potential and existing customers, and IMPRESSES and ENGAGES viewers, and CONVERTS them into paying customers. It helps your business find new customers, create more loyal customers, and increase sales.

We've compiled a short list below of the most important elements needed for a highly effective website. We encourage you to use this list to see how your site stacks up, and to make improvements where needed.

10 Elements of an Effective Website

User-Focused

When developing your website, you should keep your target audience in mind at all times. What design will appeal to them? What questions will they have? What are their pain points? Where do they spend their time online? For help in improving user focus, see our post: Six ways to improve website usability and generate more sales.

Consistency

Keep everything on your website consistent – backgrounds, colors, font, text tone, and overall look and feel. Consistency provides a better user experience and helps brand your business.

Pleasing Aesthetics

We know the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by the cover,” but that doesn’t apply to web design. Research confirms that 94% of users’ first impressions relate to a site’s web design and 75% of website credibility comes from design. But what makes pleasing aesthetics?

A color scheme that is pleasing and suits your brand
Fonts that are easy to read
Content that is easy to read, skim, and understand
White space to provide breaks between text and other elements
High-quality image s that engage and inform
Compelling Graphics
Consistency in design

Great Content

Visitors are coming to your website for helpful information. Great content helps deliver on that promise. It allows visitors to skim your page, quickly find whatever they are looking for, and clearly understand the next step. Here are some tips for writing great content:

Keep your target market in mind
Use powerful words
Be Concise
Write Like You Talk
Keep it simple
Don’t try to impress with big words or technical jargon
Write to inform
Put the most critical information at the top
Use keywords, headings, bullet points, and shorter paragraphs

Easy to Navigate

When you’ve finally succeeded in getting someone to your website, you need to make it quick and easy for them to find what they’re looking for. If you don’t, they will move on to a competitor.

Include a "sticky" navigation bar at the top of your website that continues to be visible as viewers scroll down the page. Include links within your text that clearly indicate where those links go. Be consistent by using the same terminology, location, and colors for navigation.

Clear Calls to Action

A clear Call to Action (CTA) lets visitors know what step they should take next. Depending on your product or service and where the visitor is in the sales funnel, that step could be to sign up for emails, schedule an appointment, start a free trial, learn more, make a purchase, etc. Your CTA should be front and center and show visitors why they should take that action.

Responsive

Responsive web design adjusts content according to the users’ needs. Images and text automatically resize and move to fit whatever device a visitor is using. In 2021, according to Statcounter , 55.04% of website traffic came from mobile devices, and 2.48% came from tablets. And 54% of Americans shop on their mobile phones .

According to Hubspot , “73.1% of web designers believe that a non-responsive design is a top reason why visitors leave a website.” Therefore, your website should look just as good and be as easy to use on cellphones and tablets as on desktops.

Credible

Pretty much everyone is aware of the multitude of dishonest people and scams on the internet, so if you want visitors to take the next step – give you a call or make a purchase – your website should convey credibility and trustworthiness. Some ways to do that include:

List a physical address
Keep your contact information prominent
Include testimonials and/or reviews
Publish privacy policy and terms of use
List professional memberships and affiliations
Use a design that looks professional
Provide well-written and easy-to-understand content
Put a face to your business with an About page
Use a custom domain
Be sure any email addresses listed use the same domain as the website

SEO Strategy

If you build it, they will come is not the best strategy for a business website. Instead, you need to have a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy that drives people to your website. SEO strategies can be divided into two main categories – on-page SEO (aka on-site) and off-page (aka off-site) SEO.

On-page SEO is built into your website, and uses keyword optimized content in these elements:

Headings and Subtitles
Page text
Meta Descriptions and Meta Titles
Alt Text
File names

Off-page SEO is determined primarily by other websites that connect to your website, known as inbound links. An inbound link (aka backlink) is a link connecting to your website from another website. Inbound links from high quality, highly ranked websites are the key. Low quality, spam links will do much more harm than good -- avoid them at all costs.

Engagement

Wikipedia states, “Engagement measures the extent to which a consumer has a meaningful brand experience.” You’ll know your website is engaging if visitors spend time on your website pages, click on links, and respond to your CTAs.

Higher engagement translates to more conversions and increased sales. You can use Google Analytics to view the average amount of time viewers spend on each page of your website. Pages with a low average view time are prime candidates for improvement.

If you focus on improving the elements we’ve discussed you should see higher engagement.

The Easy Way to a Better Website

There is a lot of information in this blog post that you can use to create an effective website, but is that is the best use of your time? Would your time be better spent focusing on running your business?

If you'd like help with redesigning your website then call PMI at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to discuss a highly effective website for your business!

Social Media Marketing Tip: Ride the Coattails of Popular Bloggers

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

An Inbound Marketing / Social Media Marketing Parable

Imagine you are visiting a county fair in the heat of the summer.

Walking with your refreshing cup of lemonade, you hear someone talking over the loudspeaker. You take a look and there is a crowd gathered around a stage, listening to someone speaking.

Now, imagine every one of the people in the crowd is someone in your target market. You would love to have the same kind of attention from these people that the speaker is enjoying.

What is the logical question that comes to mind?

What is this person saying that has this crowd so interested?

You would be foolish not to walk over and join the assembly to hear what the speaker is talking about. It is a tremendous opportunity to strike up a conversation with individuals in the crowd. Create a conversation around the speaker’s message and add your own insights. Tell them how you can help them, and invite them to stop by your office. This is also a wonderful opportunity to answer questions posed by the speaker, thereby revealing your expertise to the crowd.

What’s the Lesson for Your Social Media Strategy?

If this is true in our little parable, it can also be applied to our inbound marketing and social media marketing strategy. There are bloggers in your industry who your customers and potential customers are following and reading. How can you ride their coattails to a more successul marketing strategy?

Increase Your Social Media Marketing Effectiveness by Learning and Applying the Following:

Who are the popular bloggers in your industry?
What are their website addresses?
What are they writing about? What topics are they not writing about?
How often do they publish?
How many fans or followers do they have?
How frequently do people comment on their articles?
What do the comments reveal about the concerns and knowledge of the readers of the blog?
Are any of the bloggers local? (Is there an opportunity for you to become the local expert?)
How can you add comments to the blog posts in a way that enhances your reputation?
Can you contact the blogger and recommend a mutually beneficial connection?
Does the blogger have more expertise and experience than you? How can you strengthen your knowledge and expertise?
Are you a fan of the blogger’s social media pages? Did you subscribe to his or her blog so you know when new content has been posted?

Visit Google and take a few minutes to search for blogs in your industry. Answer the questions above and identify new opportunities to reach out to potential customers in your target market.

What's Your Online Marketing Plan?

Do you have a solid marketing plan for your business? One that combines the best traditional and online marketing techniques to form a smart, cohesive marketing strategy? Contact us to learn how we can help with our unique approach to gaining more leads and more customers for your business.

Contact us today.

This post was originally published in 2013 and has been revised.

6 Ways to Improve Website Usability to Generate More Sales

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 22:21:34 GMT

A big part of any internet marketing strategy is driving traffic to your website using Digital Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), etc., but the experience those visitors have once they get to your website is equally important . Therefore, if you want your website to provide leads, convert visitors, and help you accomplish your goals, you need to design your website with usability in mind.

What is Website Usability?

Website usability describes how easy (or difficult) it is for visitors to use your website. For example, how “user-friendly” is your website on multiple devices – tablets, mobile phones, laptops, etc.? Can visitors quickly find what they are looking for? How effectively are visitors using your site? Is your website helping you achieve your goals?

Why Does Website Usability Matter?

As we said earlier , if you want your website to provide leads, convert visitors, and help you accomplish your goals , website usability is critical. Here’s why…

57% of people say they won’t recommend a business if they have a poorly designed website on a mobile device.
If images don’t load (or take too long), 39% of people will stop engaging with a website.
If a website’s content or layout is unattractive, 38% of people will stop engaging with it.
88% of online consumers said they were less likely to return to a website if they’ve had a bad experience with it.

What Makes a Website Useable?

A useable website is intuitive. It understands how visitors will use your website and makes it easy to do so. A useable website is also pleasing aesthetically - on any device. A useable website is engaging, enhances customer satisfaction, increases conversions, and improves SEO rankings.

Visitors aren’t going to take a lot of time trying to find what they are looking for on your website. They need to find the information in as few clicks as possible, or they’ll move on to your competitor’s website. A useable website helps keep visitors on your website longer.

6 Tips for Designing a Useable Website

Quality links

If you’re linking to pages outside of your website, make sure that you are sending people to reputable websites that provide truly helpful information. Make sure that hyperlinks – the word, phrase, or image they can click on – provide a clear idea of where you are sending them. Regularly check your links to make sure they still work.

Consistency

Keep colors, fonts, information, and graphics consistent across your website pages. It makes each page recognizable to your visitors. If you change it up too much, they may think they’ve left your site. Plus, consistency is key to building brand awareness.

Easy to Navigate

Your website needs to be easy to navigate. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your website looks or how many bells and whistles it has; if visitors can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll move on.

Navigation links should not be ambiguous or confusing; they should be easy to find and lead visitors to the destination they describe. With few exceptions, your contact information should be on every page. If you are a brick & mortar store, your address should also be on every page.

Readability

Visitors to your website need to be able to consume your content quickly and easily. Therefore, choose clean, legible fonts (Sans Serif is always a safe choice) and make them big enough to be easily read on any device.

The font and background color should never compete, making it difficult to read (for example, a blue font on a red background is always a bad choice). Also, be sure to provide ample “whitespace” between sections of text.

Your text should be concise and well-written, using shorter sentences and paragraphs. Use bolding or italics for emphasis (underlining typically indicates a link). Include bullet points and subheadings to make your pages easier to scan. Put the most important information near the beginning.

Convenience and Speed

Your website pages should load quickly, broken links should be fixed, and the design should work well on any device, especially smartphones. A useable website allows visitors to find what they’re looking for quickly - requiring as few links as possible. A FAQ page is a great way to address customers’ concerns quickly.

Credibility

People need to trust your business before they ultimately purchase your product or service. You can increase trust by following these guidelines:

Include testimonials and 5-star reviews from local business directory sites.
Put a face to your organization by using your own photos (as opposed to stock photos) whenever possible, including pictures of you and/or your team.
Include professional affiliations or memberships, such as the local chamber of commerce.
Highlight articles you’ve written that have been published, or articles written about your business.
Add a privacy policy and terms of use.
Keep your website fresh by posting updates on a regular basis.

Create an Effective Online Marketing Strategy!

Your website should be the hub that connects and unifies all your online marketing and advertising activities.

PMI can take the guesswork out of the ever-evolving world of online marketing by designing a website that provides leads, converts visitors, generates sales, and helps you accomplish your goals.

Give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

Speed Up Your Web Pages to Increase Conversions and Sales

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:27:48 GMT

A large piece of any internet marketing strategy is search engine optimization ( SEO ), and optimizing your web pages’ load time is a key component of SEO. How quickly your page loads so that visitors can see your content affects both Google rankings and user experience (which affects sales and conversion rates). And when it comes to the internet, even a few seconds can have a huge impact.

In May 2021, Google launched a “Google Page Experience” update, which includes metrics in Google’s Web Vitals related to a site’s loading speed. Google – the most widely used search engine – states, “Speed is now a landing page factor for Google Search and Ads.” Therefore, if you want to rank high on Google’s search engine results page (SERP), your pages need to load quickly.

Perhaps even more important is how a slow website affects customers’ experience and reaction to that experience. According to HubSpot …

The first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.
Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time (between seconds 0-5).
Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.
As page load time goes from one second to ten seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases 123%.
The likelihood of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from one second to three seconds.

Here are six tips to help improve your website's speed:

Optimize Images

Good images help improve the quality of your website, but they’re also a factor in how long it takes a page to load. If you want your pages to load quickly, you should compress images to be no larger than what is needed. You should also use a suitable format. Typically, PNGs are best for graphics with fewer than 16 colors, and JPEGs are best for photographs. Google offers tips for optimizing the most common formats - GIF, PNG, and JPEG.

Eliminate Unnecessary Plugins

A plugin is software that adds additional features or increases the functionality of an existing application. Popular plugins include Yoast, Google Analytics, and Contact Form 7. These plugins can enhance your website users’ experience, but too many plugins, outdated plugins, or plugins that aren’t maintained can slow page speed (and cause security threats).

Enable GZIP Compression

GZIP is the standard file compression software for the web. It compresses files so that data can transfer more quickly over the internet. Google states, “Enabling gzip compression can reduce the size of the transferred response by up to 90%, which can significantly reduce the amount of time to download the resource, reduce data usage for the client, and improve the time to first render of your pages.”

Remove Render-Blocking Java Script

JavaScript – used on most websites - is a piece of code on your website that allows you to control multimedia, animate images, and more. Unfortunately, render-blocking resources are part of that code that prevent a web page from quickly loading. HubSpot offers these suggestions for removing render-blocking code from your website.

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Minifying means optimizing your code by removing unnecessary spaces, commas, characters, and other unnecessary elements to reduce file size. Google offers recommended resources to minify your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Minimize URL Redirects

A redirect causes a browser to move from one URL to another, and too many can increase loading times. Each additional redirect in a URL makes your page load more slowly, forcing your visitor to spend time waiting for the redirect to be completed.

Does Your Website Increase Leads, Conversions, and Sales?

To compete in today’s fast-paced online world, you need to do more than design a pretty website. If you want more leads, conversions, and sales, you need a website based on a well-crafted online marketing strategy, backed by smart SEO. THAT is precisely what PMI does!

✔︎ Contact us today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to learn more about our marketing-driven web design strategy!

Short vs. Long-Tail Keywords: Which Drives More Website Traffic?

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:00:03 GMT

Driving prospects to your website is a critical element of digital marketing . A key way to do that is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which involves convincing search engines - such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo - to show your content to their users when they search for something relevant to your product or service.

Technically, how that works is that these search engines have search robots – or bots - that crawl through trillions of pages on the internet, collecting and indexing information. Each search engine uses that information in a series of algorithms to decide what someone sees when they type in a search. Unlike paid search ads, you can’t pay search engines to rank your content higher. Instead, you need to understand what those search engines are looking for.

SEO experts use various strategies to help websites rank higher in search results, and one of the most important strategies is the use of keywords.

Keywords are the words or phrases within your content that help your website appear near the top of the list after someone has typed in a search. They are one of the things those bots are looking for.

There are many different types of keywords, but we’re here to talk about two very common types – short-tail keywords (Aka head, broad, seed, focus, or generic keywords) and long-tail keywords.

Short-Tail Keywords vs. Long-Tail Keywords

An Easy Way to Find the Right Keywords

Both short-tail and long-tail keywords have a place in search engine optimization. The key is understanding the difference.

Short-Tail Keywords are typically made up of no more than three or four words. These keywords are very general and are used more often in searches than long-tail keywords. Typically, the goal of a person using a short-tail keyword is to find general information. They probably aren’t exactly sure what they’re looking for yet. Examples of short-tail keywords are “buy new TV,” “moisturizer,” or “electric bikes.”

The most significant advantage of short-tail keywords is they are the most commonly used words in search engines, which means a higher volume of search results. For example, when you type “moisturizer” into the Google search, you get about 219,000,000 result s (keep that number in mind when we discuss short-tail keywords).

However, there is a lot of competition for short-tail keywords, making it harder for small to medium-sized businesses to rank high. Another disadvantage of short-tail keywords is a lower conversion rate. Because these queries are so general, you’ll get more people to your website whose intent may not have been related to your product or service.

Long-tail keywords are three words or more and are much more specific. Someone using a long-tail keyword probably has a very specific goal. Examples of long-tail keywords include…

The best 4K, 65”, curved, LED, LCD TV
facial moisturizer for acne-prone skin
Why should I buy an electric bike?

Long-tail keywords typically result in fewer results. For example, when I type in “the best facial moisturizer for acne-prone skin” into Google search, I get 4,980,000 results (as compared to 219,000,000 results for just “moisturizer”). Although long-tail keyword searches result in fewer results, they’re also less competitive and more targeted. People who search using long-tail keywords typically have a particular goal in mind, which usually results in higher conversion rates than short-tail keywords.

As we said, both short-tail and long-tail keywords have a place in just about any SEO strategy, but how to choose the right keywords can be more challenging. Finding the keywords that drive more targeted traffic to your website at a lower cost requires an analysis of statistics, understanding what search engines are looking for, and a little bit of gut instinct. You could say that it’s part science and part art.

For years, PMI has been helping small to medium-sized businesses find the right keywords to drive targeted traffic to their website, and providing SEO programs to fit most any budget.

So, give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

4 Social Sharing Tips to Grow Your Business

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 15:00:03 GMT

Social media marketing is a crucial component of any internet marketing strategy. After all, Statista reports that in 2020 there were more than 3.6 billion social media users in the world, and that number is expected to grow to nearly 4.41 billion by 2025! But how do you reach more people among the cacophony of noise on most social media platforms? One way is through social sharing.

What is Social Sharing?

Dictionary.com defines social sharing as “the activity of sharing photos, videos, links, etc., on a social-media website, within an interactive application, or through other online channels.” Social sharing is similar to that 80s shampoo commercial that states, “I told two friends about it. And they told two friends… and so on and so on and so on.” Social sharing is a way to utilize current followers to reach even more people.

But getting people to share your content can be a real challenge. Hootsuite reports that the average social media user only shares one post every month. So how do you help ensure that it’s one of your posts that is getting shared? Here are four tips to increase your chances.

Create Compelling Shareable Content

The first step to getting more shares is to create compelling, eye-catching content that people want to share. Here are a few tips:

Mobile-Friendly – One study found 99% of social media users access networks using mobile devices, and 78% use their mobile phones exclusively to access networks (while only 1.32% use a desktop exclusively). So, if you don’t want to lose your audience, make sure your posts are mobile-friendly. Social media platforms do a lot of the work for you, but you can take additional steps such as making certain graphics are legible and that you include line breaks and punctuation in your captions.
Format – Consider what formats your audience wants to see and which are shared most often. For example, one report found that videos on Twitter are six times more likely to be retweeted than Tweets with images and three times more likely to be retweeted than Tweets with GIFs. And Tweets with static images get shared 150% more than text-only Tweets.
Captions – One way to grab attention is with a catchy caption. And once you have their attention, encourage sharing with hashtags and a strong call-to-action.
Trending Topics – If people are already talking about something, why not join the conversation if it makes sense for your business. There’s even a term for it – trendjacking. One caveat – know your target audience and use humor cautiously.
Encourage a Response – You want to engage your audience and start a conversation with social media. Questions or polls provide followers an opportunity to bring new people into the conversation.

Include Social Sharing in Your Marketing Emails

Social media and email marketing work incredibly well together. You can use your emails to attract additional social media followers and use social media to increase the size of your email marketing contact list. If they’ve given you their email address, they have some interest in your product or service and are more likely to follow you on social media.

Include links in your emails encouraging them to follow you and include links that make it easy to share your content on their social media pages.

Give Your Audience a Reason to Share your Content

Most people want something in return for their efforts, so if you want them to share your posts, give them a reason to do so. “Back in the day” the way to encourage people to share your content was with contests. If they liked and/or shared your post, they would be entered to win a prize.

Today’s technology allows businesses to reward everyone for sharing. For example, there are apps that will enable you to upload a guide that people can download and share.

Look at What is Working (and What Isn’t)

Most social media platforms provide analytics that help you get to know your audience so that you can provide better content at just the right time. For example, Facebook Insights show audience demographics and key metrics, such as which posts get the most likes, comments, and shares and when most of your audience is active on Facebook.

How to Simplify Social Media Marketing

Many business owners find it challenging to follow social media trends and regularly post relevant, shareable posts.

PMI can help simplify the process with a social media dashboard system that provides access to all your social media accounts in one place, creating engaging and sharable content, and much more.

Give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

What is an Email Drip Campaign, and How Can it Increase Sales?

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:00:02 GMT

The goal of any marketing effort – including online marketing – is to reach a targeted group of people, provide them with relevant information at the perfect time (when they need more info, are ready to make a purchase, etc.), and get them to take a specific action (buy something, join something, register for something, etc.) Drip campaigns do just that. And a bonus… you can automate them.

What is a Drip Campaign?

A drip campaign – AKA automated email, autoresponders, etc. - is a series of communications sent to prospects or customers over time. It is a great way to stay in touch, engage, nurture, and convert prospects.

Email marketing is the most common tool used for drip campaigns. The number of emails and the timing of each email can vary. Today’s technology allows businesses to set it up, so the series is triggered by several actions or based on segmented lists. All of the content, scheduling, triggers, and segmenting can be set up in advance.

As with any type of email marketing , you don’t want to overdo it, and the more specific or targeting you can get, the better results you’ll see.

Do Drip Campaigns Work?

Here are five statistics to help you decide:

1. Businesses that do drip campaigns well generate 80% more sales at nearly one-third of the cost.

2. Businesses have reported seeing a 20% increase in sales after sending a series of emails designed to nurture leads.

3. The open rate for drip campaigns is about 80% higher than for single send emails.

4. Drip campaigns can generate 50% more sales-ready leads.

5. Emails sent through drip campaigns can produce 18 times more revenue than a single send email.

5 Types of Drip Campaigns

There are many types of drip campaigns you can create based on your audience and your goals. Here are five examples.

Nurturing Leads

Most people don’t make a purchase the first time they visit your website. They usually need to be “nurtured,” which can take many forms – educating, free trials, etc. According to Online Marketing Institute , nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

Here is an example of nurturing a lead through a drip campaign:

A bicycle shop offers a list of bicycle safety tips on their website to anyone who gives them their email address. As soon as someone provides their contact info, the safety tips are immediately sent via email. One week later, another email goes out describing safety features available on bicycles. A week after that, an email goes out with a 10% off coupon.

Welcome

If you only do only one type of automated email, this is one you definitely need to do. According to Campaign Monitor , welcome emails have an open rate four times higher than a standard email and a click-through rate five times higher than a standard email.

Here is an example of a Welcome drip campaign:

When someone joins a florist’s contact list, they immediately receive an email thanking them for joining. A few days later, they receive an email with a discount code on their first order. A week after that, they receive an email with tips about how to make cut flowers last longer. Two weeks later, they receive an email offering alternatives to cut flowers, such as plants or fruit baskets (which the florist also sells).

Renewals

You have most likely received one of these emails at least once – maybe from your insurance provider or your gym. It’s an email reminding you to renew your membership or a notice that your membership is about to be renewed.

People today are busy and often need multiple reminders. Therefore, a gym may initiate a series of emails, starting with the message that membership is about to expire. Then follow it up a few days later with a reminder of the benefits of exercise. And finally, an email a day before membership is due to expire communicating the urgency of renewing today. Each email should include a link to renew membership.

Abandoned Shopping Carts

According to Shopify , 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned. If someone has taken the time to go onto your website and choose something to put into their cart, it means they have a genuine interest in your product. But maybe they got distracted, need more information about your product, or they just aren’t ready to buy. A drip campaign can help reengage them and close the sale.

Hubspot provides some great examples of successful abandoned cart emails to win back customers.

TouchPoints

“Touchpoints” are some type of contact between your business and a prospect. A touchpoint can be an email, a social media post, a voicemail, etc. It takes more than one touchpoint to convert a prospect into a paying customer. Just how many is up for debate. I’ve seen anywhere from five to twenty, with many saying eight. A drip campaign provides several touchpoints – and it’s all done automatically.

For example, a pet groomer might initiate a drip campaign for someone who clicked on their website. The first one could include an introduction to each of the groomers – a photo, experience, and why they love what they do. A few weeks later, they could send an email with a few before and after photos. A week later, the groomer could send an email listing all of their services. A week after that, they could offer a special discount.

If that groomer can further segment dog and cat owners, the emails can be even more targeted and relevant.

How to Create a Successful Drip Campaign

PMI (Power Marketing International) can create a comprehensive email marketing strategy that helps you achieve your goals at a fraction of the cost of a big agency. So give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

On-Page and Off-Page SEO Strategies Increase Traffic to Your Website

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:00:03 GMT

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy . SEO is a strategy designed to improve a website’s ranking in organic search results - the unpaid listings on a search engine results page (SERP). According to Search Engine Journal , more than half of all trackable website traffic comes from organic search, which is why SEO is key to online marketing success.

SEO strategies can be divided into two main categories – on-page SEO (aka on-site) and off-page (aka off-site) SEO. On-page SEO is what you do within your website – keywords, content, page experience, etc. - to rank higher in SERPs and earn more relevant traffic. Off-page SEO is what you do to make your website look more authoritative, one of the criteria search engines like Google use to rank your website on SERPs.

Both have a place in online marketing and SEO strategies.

On-Page SEO Strategies

Headings – Include target keywords in the headings on each page of your website. You should only have one H1 heading per page, with the rest being H2 and H3.
Title Tags – Include target keywords in the title tag of each page. Title tags should be 55-60 characters and if possible, use the keywords near the beginning of the title. NEVER stuff keywords because it can lower your ranking on SERPs.
Meta Descriptions – While meta descriptions don’t directly affect SEO, a compelling meta description (which is displayed on the SERP) can increase your click-through rate, which is linked to SEO and rankings.
Alt Text – All images on your website should include alt text and contain relevant keywords. Alt Text should be 8-10 words that describe the image.
Mobile Responsive – Statista reports that in the first quarter of 2021, mobile devices generated 54.8% of website traffic worldwide. With more than half of the people using a mobile device to find your website, you want them to have a good experience when they come to your website. Plus, Google now prioritizes mobile responsive websites. There are many ways to make your website mobile responsive, such as using a fluid grid and appropriate image sizes.
Good Content – Make sure your content is useful and well-written. Try for at least 500 words per page, make each page’s text unique, and put keywords near the front when possible.
Internal Links – Including relevant internal links – links to other pages on your website – can be helpful to visitors and create more engaged visitors. Make sure the anchor text –visible, clickable text that is usually a different color - is relevant to the page you’re linking to.
Good User Experience (UX)– If your website isn’t intuitive and easy to navigate or pages don’t upload quickly, visitors will go elsewhere. Research shows, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the layout or content is not attractive.
Social Tags – If people share your content on social media sites like Facebook, Google will look at your website as relevant, and something people want to see. So, make it easy for visitors to share your content on social media with social sharing buttons, a “Click to Tweet” button, etc.

Off- Page SEO Strategies

Inbound Links are the best way to utilize off-page SEO. An inbound link (aka backlink) is a link coming to your website from another website. For example, if you were to click the “stuff keywords” link above, you would be taken to Google. So that would be an inbound link for Google.

The number and - more importantly - the quality of backlinks you can get to your site is the number one off-page SEO factor. At its simplest, a quality link is a link from an authoritative website . Here are fourteen tips for building inbound links to your website:

Create great content that people find valuable and want to share
Guest blog on sites related to your industry
Become a source for reporters and bloggers
Consistently publish great blogs on your website
Link to other blogs on your blog – called outbound or external links
Comment on other blogs
Participate in forums
Reply to questions on Q&A websites
Participate in video and podcast interviews
Ask for links from your suppliers
Ask for reviews
Add an RSS feed subscription to your blog
Publish Google posts
Reach out to well-known entities (businesses, associations, people, etc.) and ask them to share your content if they think it adds value to their content

Improve Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO - the cornerstone of any successful long-term online strategy – is filled with many nuances and combines both art and science. PMI understands this and can help your business get found online, so give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

5 Tips to Generate Leads on Your Website

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:00:02 GMT

With any type of marketing – including online marketing – it takes on average of eight “touches” to turn a prospect into a paying customer. A good website is a great place to start – even if you don’t sell a product or service online because one survey found that 74% of in-store buyers searched online for something in-store-related before making an in-store purchase.

However, 96% of website visitors aren’t ready to make a purchasing decision . So… you need a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy to get the right prospects to your website and a good lead generation website to convert those prospects into paying customers.

What is a Lead Generation Website?

A lead generation website is more than a brochure that focuses on your business. It should not only educate visitors on what you offer and how your product or service can help them or solve their problem, but it should also provide opportunities for you to collect leads that you can nurture and guide through the sales funnel.

A lead generation website is customer-focused, easy to navigate, and includes obvious calls to action (CTA). A CTA leads visitors and tells them exactly what step you want them to take next. Common CTAs include “call now,” or “schedule an appointment,” or “download this information.”

Here are five tips to generate leads on your website:

Blogging

According to OptinMonster , “57% of marketers say they’ve gained customers specifically through blogging,” and “B2B marketers who have blogs get 67% more leads than those who don’t.”

Consistently publishing blogs about your business, industry, product, or service on your website drives more traffic to that website, “Websites that also have a blog are shown to have 434% more indexed pages and a 97% increase in indexed links,” according to HubSpot . Each time you publish a blog, a new URL is added to your website, giving search engines like Google new information and an additional reason to include your website on its Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when someone searches that topic.

AND the traffic generated by blogs is likely to be from people interested in your product or service because they searched for related information. You can turn that traffic into leads with lead-generating calls-to-action, such as asking them to provide their email to receive your blogs as soon as they are published.

eBooks

eBooks help show your expertise in specific topics and allow your business to become a trusted source of information. Ask website visitors to provide their email address so you can send them an eBook about a topic related to your product or service. After they receive the eBook, you can continue to nurture those leads with targeted emails.

Videos

Everyone loves to watch videos! According to Statista , in 2020, there were 239 million U.S. digital video viewers with an 83.8% digital video penetration. Provide videos that demo your product, provide tips, include customer testimonials, answer FAQs, explain how to solve a problem, etc., to drive traffic to your website and generate and nurture leads.

Email Marketing

Despite what you may have heard, email marketing is not dead. Forbes stated, “Email marketing still promises to deliver the highest ROI of all marketing channels—$42 back for every dollar you spend.“ Constant Contact reports that 60% of consumers state that they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email.

Email marketing can be a great way to nurture new leads and develop more loyal customers. Offer visitors to your website a discount or a checklist in exchange for their email address, and then begin a series of emails that take them through the sales funnel.

Social Media

According to Pew Research , approximately seven-in-ten Americans use social media (up from just 5% in 2005). It’s where many people spend their time, making it a great lead generation tool that can be used to nurture and convert leads. You can use several strategies to generate leads, such as targeted ads, contests, select calls-to-action, and gated content (content accessed by providing contact information).

You probably already use social media to raise brand awareness, but did you know that you can also retarget social media ads to people who visit your website .

How to Create a Lead-Generating Website

Your website should be the central hub that connects, unifies, and amplifies all your online marketing and advertising activities – including lead generation. PMI designs marketing-driven websites that deliver incredible results! Learn more by giving us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

Boost Your SEO With a Pillar Blog Post

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:07:44 GMT

Content Marketing h elps you connect with customers and potential customers. It helps you find leads, build trust, and nurture relationships. It improves conversations and answers your customers’ questions.

As far back as 1732, Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack to promote his printing business. So while content marketing has been around for a long time, it has changed with the advent of digital marketing. One of the most effective types of content marketing today is the business blog post.

It is estimated that more than 75% of internet users read and interact with blogs, and according to SCORE , customers who read your blog are 97% more likely to click on your website.

In addition to building trust, nurturing relationships, and all the other benefits associated with content marketing, blogs also help drive traffic to your website.

The biggest challenge with blogging is that there are more than 31 billion active bloggers online, and not all of those blogs are helpful or well-written. So how do you get your blog to stand out? Provide relevant, well-written “Pillar Blog Posts.”

What are Pillar Blogs?

A pillar blog post is a long – 1,500-4,000 words – blog post that is posted on your business website. This type of blog goes in-depth about all aspects of a specific topic related to your business. The information is useful and actionable. The blog post is well-written and engaging. Typically, a pillar blog post also includes relevant images, videos, etc., to support your text.

It is called a “pillar” blog post because – like the columns or pillars in ancient Roman temples - these posts can be the pillars that hold up all of your content marketing efforts. Create a pillar blog post once, and you can reuse it for many years.

What are the Benefits of Pillar Blogs?

As we mentioned earlier, a pillar blog post helps set your blog apart, but it brings many additional benefits:

Provides better SEO
Helps build your authority and your brand
Pre-sells your readers on the value of your product or service
Delivers a long-lasting return on investment

Steps to Creating a Pillar Blog Post

Choose a topic

First and foremost, your topic has to be relevant to your product or service and resonate with your customers and prospects. Try to put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What do your customers want?
What questions do your customers have about your product or service? What are the frequently asked questions?
What are your customers’ pain points? What are their problems in relation to your product or service?
What are their objections? What is keeping them from purchasing your product or service?
What information can you provide to help overcome those objections?
What are your customers researching before they purchase your product or service?

Not sure? Ask your customers and prospects. Send existing customers a survey or interview a few of your best customers. Check out forums, groups, associations, etc., that are related to your product or service. Listen to what people are saying. Then, provide the answers to their questions and eliminate their objections with a pillar blog post.

Decide What Type of Post

There are many different types of blog posts – lists, how-to guides, checklists, interviews, latest news, etc. You need to decide what type of blog posts makes sense for your topic. The two types of posts that typically make sense for a pillar blog post are lists or how-to guides.

A list blog includes… you guessed it… a list of something. It could be a list of books, resources, tools, etc. Anything that your customers and prospects would find helpful. And remember, when we’re talking about a Pillar Blog post, that list needs to be extensive. The “top ten” won’t cut it.

A how-to post explains how to do something. For a Pillar Blog post, this means going into great detail about every step in the process and including images, videos, infographics, etc., that support the text.

Find an Angle

I remember one of my professors in college saying that every story has already been told - even classics like Bleak House and Hamlet. The difference is how the story is told. The same can be said of blogs.

Probably any topic you can think of has already been blogged about, so if you want your blog to stand out, you need to find an angle for it. Here are some tips:

Make it personal - Do you have a personal experience related to the topic you can include in the post that will make it uniquely your own? For example, if you’re writing about how to train for a 5K and you’ve run a 5K, share some of your experiences. Never ran a 5K? Share one of your customer’s experience.
Present something new - Is there some new piece of technology that you’ve discovered, new research, etc.?
Focus on a very specific problem? For example, if you’re writing a blog about losing weight, your angle could be how to lose weight during the holidays.
Leverage the authority of someone Else - For example, if you’re talking about how to roast a turkey, can you talk about how Julia Child roasted a turkey.

OR you can combine one or two of these angles to help make your pillar blog post unique.

Don't Have Time to Write a Pillar Blog?

Give Power Marketing International a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . We have experienced, professional writers who can create a pillar blog post – or any content marketing – for you.

How to Use Video Marketing to Generate Leads, Increase Conversions, and More

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:16:09 GMT

People love watching videos. It’s a fact! And smart digital marketers are taking advantage of this fact.

According to Statista , there were 239 million digital video viewers in 2020, and that number is projected to reach more than 3 billion by 2023. Pew Research reports that 81% of U.S. adults have said they have used YouTube – the most popular video-sharing website. 54% of U.S. adults say they use YouTube daily, making it the second most widely used social media platform (just behind Facebook).

Okay… so people love watching videos, but you may be wondering, “Can video marketing really improve my company’s bottom line?”

According to Oberlo …

87% of marketing professionals use videos as a marketing tool.
88% of video marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts on social media.
Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year.
Eight out of ten people say they have purchased software or an app after watching the brand’s video.
According to Campaign Monitor , “Video can increase [email] open rates by 19% and click rates by 65% while reducing unsubscribe rates by 26%.”

So, yeah, we’d say that video marketing can help improve your company’s bottom line.

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing uses videos to market or promote your product, service, or brand and increase engagement. You can post your marketing videos on your website, landing pages, blog, social media channels, email marketing campaigns, etc.

There are several types of marketing videos, including the following:

Demo Videos
How-To Videos
Event Videos
Interviews
Testimonials

Some of the benefits of video marketing include…

Generates leads
Increases conversations
Increases your website’s search rankings
Increases your marketing email open and click-through rates
Helps tell your business’s story
Improves understanding of your product, service, or brand
Allows you to be on the second largest search engine – YouTube

However, as with any marketing, video marketing must be done correctly to see a good return on investment. Here are three tips to help you create effective marketing videos.

A Video Marketing Strategy

If you want to see results, you need to have a plan. You need to…

Establish your goals for each video. Are you trying to build awareness, attract new customers, engage existing customers, or something else entirely?
Find your target audience – You need to determine who your target audience is and where you can reach them.
Determine your CTA - Just about any type of online marketing needs to have a call to action to be effective, whether it’s email marketing, social media marketing, or video marketing. A call to action should align with your goals and tell the viewer what you want them to do next. A call to action could be “Download,” “Subscribe,” “Buy Now,” “Share with a Friend,” etc.

Optimize Your Videos for Search Engines

If you want your marketing video to be effective, you need to get it in front of viewers, and a big part of that is SEO ( search engine optimization ). Here are some tips to optimize your videos for search engines:

Choose the right video hosting platform
Include a keyword-rich transcript
Use an engaging thumbnail
Create an engaging title and description
Add relevant tags

Make Your Videos Mobile Friendly

More than half of all videos are viewed on a mobile device. Here are a few tips to optimize your videos for mobile devices:

Ensure the video player is responsive – that the size of the video adjusts to fit the size of the screen.
Ensure fast loading times
Include readable captions
Keep it short - The best video length varies depending on where you are sharing it, but for mobile users, shorter than two minutes is a good rule of thumb.

Better Marketing Strategies, Better Marketing Results!

If you want to see really impressive results, you need a comprehensive online marketing strategy. Should that strategy include video marketing? Probably. As specialists in online marketing for small and mid-sized businesses, PMI can help you develop a customized online strategy to help you get the results you’re looking for.

→Give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

4 Logo Formats to Help Build Your Brand

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 16:02:52 GMT

A logo is a crucial part of business branding . It visualizes your brand identity and communicates your purpose, mission, vision, and core values. It’s a way for prospects and customers to recognize and remember your brand and build brand loyalty. A good logo tells people who you are and what you can do for them and helps differentiate you from other businesses.

That’s a lot to ask of a small graphic with perhaps a little bit of text; however, a good designer can make it happen. On the other hand, a logo that looks unprofessional can turn people away and make them question what you do or stand for and whether or not you can deliver your product or service.

You will use your logo everywhere – on signs, business cards, email marketing, your website… everywhere; therefore, it’s vital that you have a logo that you like, that looks professional, and communicates your brand identity. And sometimes, you need more than one format because what makes sense in one place (i.e., your website) may not make sense someplace else (i.e., your advertising).

But remember: brand consistency is key. According to Lucidpress , consistent presentation of a brand can increase revenue by 33%, so colors, fonts, style, etc., should be consistent across all logo formats.

Here are four types of logo formats you may need to brand your business.

Wordmark Logos

Sometimes called logotypes, wordmark logos are font-based logos that focus on your brand name. Wordmark logos help build very clear brand recognition but can be a challenge for businesses with long names. You’ve probably seen this type of logo for Jeep, Google, and Coca-Cola. Each has its own specific font, colors, spacing, etc., that help conveys its brand identity.

A wordmark is suitable for….

New businesses that need to get their name out there.
Businesses with distinct names that are catchy and easily remembered.

Brandmark Logos

While wordmark logos focus on the text, brandmark logos focus on the graphics. Brandmark logos – also called logomarks, logo symbols, pictorial marks, or iconic logos – are often used by very well-known brands. People see the graphic and immediately know what the brand is without seeing the name. Examples include the red and white bulls-eye that Target uses or the apple with a bite in it that Apple uses. This type of logo can be a challenge for businesses that aren’t well-known yet but can be used when space is limited.

Lettermark Logos

Lettermark logos consist of just initials. Sports teams and universities often use this type of logo. Think of the PSU logo for Pennsylvania State University or the G on the Green Bay Packers helmets. The PMI logo we use on our website is another great example. Power Marketing International is quite a mouthful and can take up quite a bit of real estate.

Fun note: Many people don’t know that HBO stands for Home Box Office because the company typically uses its lettermark logo.

Combination Mark

The combination mark – aka logo lockup - is the most common type of logo. A combination mark is a logo that combines text and graphics to create a unique logo that represents your brand. It helps people associate your name with your graphic. The graphic and text can be stacked on top of each other, integrated into each other (think of the Burger King logo where the name is the “meat” of the sandwich), or even side-by-side.

What Logo Format Do You Need?

How the logo will be used is what determines the appropriate type of logo. First, ask yourself where you will use your logo – on a sticker, a billboard, a social media campaign, etc. That will help you determine the best format. Whatever format is used, it should look professional and be consistent with your brand.

How to Brand Your Business

A clear and compelling brand image used consistently across all of your marketing channels helps prospects and customers recognize and remember your business… and make them more likely to choose your product or service when they’re ready to buy. PMI helps businesses create a brand identity through logos, taglines, and more.

So, give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

Top 10 Tips to Get the Most out of Your PPC Advertising Campaigns

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 21:00:37 GMT

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a technique many internet marketing services use. It can be a great way to attract new customers, guide people through the sales funnel and even create more loyal customers. But as with any type of internet marketing, it takes some effort to attain the results most businesses are looking for. You can’t just throw an ad together and hope it will accomplish your goals.

What is Pay-Per-Click Marketing?

Pay-Per-Click or PPC is a type of internet marketing where you create an ad and then pay a fee each time someone clicks on it. When someone clicks on your ad, they’re sent to your website or special landing page. Unlike organic marketing - such as content marketing and search engine optimization – PPC requires that you pay for traffic to your website.

Several platforms offer PPC marketing. While Google Ads is the most commonly used platform for PPC, social networks, such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, and Pinterest, also offer PPC opportunities.

10 PPC Tips (With a focus on Google Ads)

Focus on Your Target Audience

To ensure that you get your ad in front of the right people (people who are interested in your product or service), you need to know your target audience and how you can appeal to those interests. With Google Ads, you can target by demographics, interests, reading/shopping/browsing habits, and more. Not only do you want to do what you can to make sure your target audience sees your ad, but you also want to design those ads in a way that will appeal to them.

Determine Your PPC Ad Budget

With PPC, your advertising costs only accrue after a prospect has clicked on your ad. Fortunately, you are able to put a limit on how much you want to spend on PPC advertising. There are several ways to determine your PPC ad budget , such as establishing a profitability goal, identifying keyword themes by intent, and analyzing past performance.

Choose the Right Keywords

The keywords you choose help determine who sees your ads, and the right keywords can make a huge difference in the success of your PPC campaign. Quality over quantity is a good mantra in this case because the more keywords you choose, the greater chance that your ads will end up in front of the wrong people. As a result, you’ll end up paying more and receiving poorer results than if you use a few very-well-chosen keywords.

Choose the Right Destination

Every time someone clicks on your PPC ad, you pay, so you want to make sure that when they do click on the ad, they’re sent someplace that will help you achieve your goals. Typically, sending them to your homepage is not the best choice. Instead, you want to send them to a page that helps them find what they’re looking for based on your ad.

Use the Right Campaign Type

Google offers several types of PPC Campaigns:

· App Campaigns

· Display Campaigns

· Local Campaigns

· Search Campaigns

· Shopping Campaigns

· Smart Campaigns

· Video Campaigns

Your marketing goals, brand strategy, and budget will help you determine the best campaign type for your ad.

Consider Retargeting

Did you know that you can target people who have visited your site or a competitor’s site or people who have bought from you or had some kind of interaction with your business? Most people don’t make a purchase the first time they visit a website. Retargeting can help remind them what your business can do for them.

Use Automation

The use of automation is one advantage of digital marketing, and PPC advertising is no exception. Google Ads offers several automation options, such as a scheduling feature, auto-pausing keywords that aren’t working, and more. Use these automation tools to set it and forget it, so you can focus on running your business.

Understand Search Intent

Search intent is a term used to describe the intention – or purpose – of an online search. Why is someone searching for something online? What are they really looking for? What do they mean to say with the words they type into the search? Google has focused a lot of effort on understanding search intent and has designed its algorithms with the hope of providing search results that better meet users’ needs.

Be Aware of PPC Trends

Online marketing is constantly evolving. Algorithms change. New tools are released. If you want your PPC advertising to be effective, you need to be aware of recent PPC trends. For example, more people are using voice search to find what they’re looking for, and visual searches appear to be a future trend. You need to adjust your PPC ads as trends change.

Analyze Your Results to Improve PPC Effectiveness

The ability to see what people are doing online is one of the most significant advantages of online marketing. Don’t waste this advantage by not looking at the analytics Google, Facebook, etc., are providing. Look at which ads, graphics, keywords, etc., are getting the most clicks and which are providing the most conversions.

Don’t have time for PPC?

Don’t think you have time for PPC? You may want to reconsider because research shows that paid advertising delivers a 200% ROI ($2 for every $1 spent) and website traffic generated by PPC ads provides 50% more conversions than organic advertising.

If your time is better spent running your business than researching the latest marketing trends and keywords, creating ads, and analyzing results, contact Power Marketing International (PMI) today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . We can get your message in front of your target market and convert them from prospects to paying customers.

Are Keywords Still Relevant to SEO?

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 14:30:52 GMT

As an internet marketing agency focusing on SEO, we often hear comments like this: "I hear keywords aren't that relevant to SEO any longer." Sometimes we even hear something like this: "I’ve heard that Google frowns on the use of keywords, and focusing on them can actually hurt our website’s ranking.” These concerns are valid; however, keywords are still a vital part of any SEO strategy.

It is true that Google – the most popular search engine in the world - has changed its algorithm over the years, creating a need for SEO strategies beyond keywords, and stuffing your website with keywords will hurt your website’s ranking. However, understanding what words or phrases your target market uses to search for your product or service and using those words and phrases correctly helps improve your website’s ranking, increase website traffic, and improve conversion rates.

What are Keywords?

Keywords are the words or phrases people type into search engines, such as Google, to find what they’re looking for. For example, if you’re looking for homeowner’s insurance, you might type in something like “homeowners’ insurance.” Someone else might type in “cheap homeowners’ insurance” or even “What type of insurance pays to replace my stuff if it is stolen?” or any number of words or phrases that make sense to the person searching.

There are two primary types of keywords:

Short-Tail Keywords - also known as head terms – are shorter search queries (typically less than three words) that cover broader topics. An example of a short-tail keyword is “Buy plants.” They are general inquires that don’t contain a lot of specific details about what you are searching for. This type of keyword tends to get a lot of search traffic but also delivers a lower conversion rate.
Long-Tail Keyword s are longer search queries that contain more details about what you are looking for. An example of a long-tail keyword would be “buy plants that do well in the shade.” This type of keyword typically gets less search traffic but also provides higher conversion rates.

What Makes a Good Keyword?

So, how do you determine what words people are typing into search engines to find your product or service? The answer: common sense and keyword research. First, think about words and phrases you would use to find your product or service.

Then use keyword research tools to add additional keywords to your list and determine which keywords or phrases will help improve your website’s ranking the best.

You should consider three things when doing keyword research:

How relevant the words and phrases are to your product or service
How often people are using those words and phrases to search (search volume)
How much competition is there for those words and phrases (keyword difficulty)

Ideally, you want to find keywords or phrases that people frequently use to search for your product or service. But the tricky part is that established or popular sites will also be using some of those exact keywords or phrases to rank well in search engines, lowering your chance of ranking high with those keywords or phrases. It is definitely a balancing act.

Once you know what keywords people are using and which will help your website’s ranking, you can include them on your website.

How to Optimize Keywords

Understanding which keywords and phrases to use is just the first step. You also need to optimize those keywords for SEO.

Here are a few tips:

Run an SEO audit on your website
Include keywords in the URL, titles, title tags, descriptions, headings throughout the text, image titles, and alt texts.
Don’t force keywords – use them where they make sense within the text (see “What is Keyword Stuffing?” below)
Create a good user experience – the content should be relevant and easy to read, your website should be easy to navigate, and pages should load quickly
Consider search intent, which is the purpose of an online search. Google has made it a priority to improve its algorithm to help determine people’s search intent and will rank pages higher that fit the search intent behind the search query.

Do Not Use Keyword Stuffing

Google defines keyword stuffing as “the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results.” Keyword stuffing creates a bad user experience and can lower your website’s ranking.

Examples of keyword stuffing include:

Lists of phone numbers that don’t add value
Blocks of text listing cities or states the webpage is trying to target
Repeating the same keyword or phrase within the text so that it becomes unnatural

The best way to avoid keyword stuffing is to create valuable and informative text that uses keywords and phrases appropriately – where they make sense within the text.

Keywords and an Online Marketing Strategy

Keywords are only a tiny part of an Online Marketing Strategy. Give Power Marketing International a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . We can help with keyword research, website design or redesign, additional SEO strategies, search engine advertising, social media marketing and advertising, content marketing, and email marketing.

10 Content Marketing Tips That Work

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 12:59:52 GMT

You are probably using content marketing to market your business, even if you don't realize it. For example, have you ever posted a photo to your business Facebook page? Uploaded a video about your product to your website? Sent a marketing email? These – and many more - are all examples of content marketing.

With 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide –nearly 60% of the global population – a business would be crazy not to use the power of the internet, including social media and their website, to find and convert leads, build brand awareness, develop loyal customers, and increase sales. And how do you do that? With content marketing.

Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as "a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."

Done correctly, content marketing is effective, but "done correctly" is an essential part of that sentence. To be truly effective, you need to be strategic with your content marketing as with any marketing.

Here are 10 content marketing tips that work:

Determine Business Goals

American poet, writer, and historian, Bill Copeland, said, "The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score." The same is true of content marketing. You should have a goal for every piece of content you create, or you'll end up running around posting content without achieving whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish.

Your end goal will almost always be to generate revenue, but often, there are steps you need to take before you can accomplish that goal. An old marketing principle called "The Rule of 7" states that, on average, it takes seven touches or exposures to your marketing message before a prospect will make a purchase. Content marketing can help you achieve those seven touches.

Here are five examples of content marketing goals:

Generate Leads
Engage Users
Build trust
Improve SEO
Encourage Repeat Business

Focus on User Experience

Users will quickly abandon your website if it loads slowly, is hard to navigate, or isn't optimized for mobile, so make sure there is a good user experience when someone comes to your website. Also, make the content easy to consume by using an easy-to-read font, including headings, and using bullet points and visuals where appropriate.

Otherwise, regardless of how compelling or well-written your content is, no one will ever read it.

Know Your Target Audience

Content marketing can help you attract your target audience – people interested in purchasing your product or service. First, however, you need to know who your target audience is, where they spend their time, what their problems are, etc. Then you can create content that speaks to them specifically.

Solve Your Readers' Problems

Use content to solve your readers' problems by answering questions and offering valuable resources or tips. This will demonstrate your expertise, help them get to know your business and what it can do for them, and build trust.

Understand Your Buyers' Journey

You need to understand your buyers' journey (also referred to as a sales funnel) and then create content for every stage in that journey – from grabbing strangers' attention to compelling customers to make repeat purchases. Content marketing can help take your buyers through that journey.

Personalize User Experience

One advantage of digital marketing is the ability to personalize your users' experience. According to one study, 91 percent of consumers are more likely to shop with businesses that provide relevant offers and recommendations." Forbes offers ten great examples of personalized marketing strategies.

Use Statistics

We use many statistics on this blog, including this post, because it helps strengthen our point, shows that we did our research, and builds trust. When using statistics, use a reliable source, cite your source, and use the most recent statistics you can find.

Vary Formats

While written content is a great way to convey a lot of information, you can use many other formats – images, videos, infographics, etc. The advantage of mixing up formats is that it can save you time and appeal to a broader audience.

People today love videos. According to Statista , there were 239 million U.S. Digital video viewers in 2020, and that number is expected to continue to increase.

Be Consistent Across Platforms

What do you think of when you see a red and white bullseye or "the" golden arches? Probably Target and McDonald's. These companies have spent billions of dollars to make sure consumers recognize their brand with just a logo. It's called branding.

Small businesses don't typically have billions of dollars. Still, there are ways you can brand your business – use the same colors and fonts, the same tone of voice, the same messaging across all platforms – social media, website, email marketing, etc., and people will begin to recognize your brand.

Track Performance

Being able to see what prospects and customers are doing with your content is one of the greatest advantages of digital marketing, including content marketing. What posts are and aren't getting attention? What subject lines are getting your emails opened? Use this information to make better decisions and adjust your strategy as needed.

The Easy Way to Ramp Up Your Content Marketing

Content marketing can be highly effective, but it does take time. If that's something you don't have, Power Marketing International can help. PMI can develop quality content for your business and post and connect it to an online marketing ecosystem that cross-links your website, social media, and other digital assets. So, give us a call at 484-297-6395, or contact us online .

7 E-Commerce Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 18:38:50 GMT

In the world of digital marketing , there’s been a significant increase in e-commerce over the past few years, especially during the pandemic, when e-commerce became a lifeline for many small to medium-sized businesses. According to Statista , “In 2020, over two billion people purchased goods or services online, and during the same year, e-retail sales surpassed 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide.”

Many consumers today have come to expect the option of ordering products online. “E-commerce is here to stay,” Forbes said. “Customers who weren’t already regularly shopping online have had more than a year to familiarize themselves with e-commerce, realize its convenience, and form habits around it.”

If you aren’t utilizing e-commerce for your business, you could be missing out, so here are seven marketing strategies you can use to increase your e-commerce sales. The first three strategies help get prospective customers to your website, and the last four help convert those visitors into paying customers.

Optimize Your Shopping Pages

You need to get people to your website before they can buy something from your e-commerce store, so you need to optimize your shopping pages for search engines like Google. First, do keyword research to find out what words and phrases your target market is using to find your product or service and then use those words strategically – in product titles, product descriptions, etc.

Advertise Online

Another way to get people to your website is with paid search, such as Google shopping ads, Facebook ads, and Instagram ads. This type of advertising provides some serious targeting options, such as frequent online shoppers, retargeting audiences, lookalike audiences, and more. Done correctly, online advertising can be an affordable and effective way to drive a lot of new traffic to your website.

Utilize Content Marketing

Content marketing has been around forever, but as traditional marketing becomes less effective, content marketing becomes even more critical to drive prospects to your website and build relationships with existing customers.

Examples of content marketing include educational articles, blogs, webinars, videos, etc., shared on websites, social media, email marketing, etc.

Create a Website Designed to Convert

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. The same can be said for websites. You can optimize it for SEO, advertise, and take all kinds of other steps to get people to your website, but if they aren’t converting to paying customers, what’s the point? Here are five tips for designing a website that converts visitors into customers.

Provide a solution for your customers’ pain
Use quality headlines
Create powerful Calls to Action
Make your website user friendly
Make filling out forms and checkout easy

Use Good Photos

People want to see what they’re buying, so make sure you have a good photo for every product you’re selling on your website. Here are six tips for good product photos:

Don’t have a busy background that distracts from the product
Light your product evenly and without shadows
Some products need multiple angles to show different details
Make sure your images are clear and not blurry
Edit but don’t over-edit
Make sure your images reflect what your product actually looks like

Share Product Videos

People love to watch videos. According to Statista , there were 239 million digital video viewers in 2020, and that number is projected to reach more than 3 billion by 2023. You can use videos to show how your product works and what value it brings to your customers.

Utilize and Email Opt-In Form

Some people won’t be ready to purchase your product or service the first time they visit your website. However, if you collect their email address when they visit your site, you can nurture them with email marketing and convert them into paying customers.

But remember that email addresses are valuable. First, you have to give them a good reason to join your mailing list – to receive information, discounts, updates, etc. Exchanging something of value in return for their email address - such as a discount, a checklist, an e-book, etc. - is a great way to collect email addresses from people interested in your product or service.

Learn More About E-Commerce

Want to learn more about e-commerce? Give Power Marketing International a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . We can help you get found, engage your prospects, and convert them into paying customers.

You Could Try Marketing Your Business on Your Own, But Should You?

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:30:02 GMT

In a DIY world where you can create your own website, design your own logo, and manage your own social media platforms, why would you hire a digital marketing agency? Well… ask yourself this, would you try to rebuild your car's engine if you had no automotive training or experience? Probably not, so the real question is, "Why would you try to market your own business?"

We can think of two huge reasons why a DIY approach to marketing just won't cut it if your goal is to grow (or even maintain) your business:
1) Getting RESULTS in the ever-changing world of marketing strategy
2) the value of your time.

#1 - The Ever-Changing World of Marketing Strategy

How We Purchase
How customers purchase products and services has changed quite a bit over the past ten to twenty years and continues to evolve as new technologies become available. "Back in the day," if someone were looking for a hairdresser, they'd search the Yellow Pages, or if they were looking for a new car, they might find it in the local newspaper. Today, more consumers are looking at their mobile devices and computers to make buying decisions.

According to Statista , the number of digital buyers increased from 1.32 billion in 2014 to 2.05 billion in 2020, and it's estimated that by 2024, the e-commerce share of total global retail sales will be 21.8%.

Purchasing Begins Online
But even if you don't sell your product or service online, having an online presence is crucial to reaching today's consumers because, according to Oberlo , 63% of shopping occasions begin online. In other words, whether the consumer eventually purchases the product or service online or in a brick-and-mortar store, more than half of those purchases started online.

Don't Sell Me
Another shift in marketing is that consumers today don't want to be sold to. They expect companies to provide valuable content and experiences that help them solve a problem. This requires marketers to make a shift from outbound marketing strategies to inbound marketing strategies.

Outbound marketing is "a traditional method of marketing seeking to push messaging out to potential customers." Newspaper, radio, and TV ads are a few examples of outbound marketing. Whereas, Inbound marketing is "a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them." With outbound marketing, you're interrupting your audience (which may or may not be your target audience) with content (that audience may or may not be interested in). With inbound marketing, you're making connections with an audience that is already looking for help to solve a problem they already have.

New Technologies
And finally, as new technologies emerge and consumers become more technologically savvy, they expect a great online experience from your business. If they don't find it, they will look elsewhere. Today's strategies may not work tomorrow, so successful marketers need to keep up with new technologies and new trends.

This leads us right into our second reason a DIY approach to marketing just won't cut it for most businesses.

#2 - The Value of Your Time

Your Time is More Valuable Than You May Realize
You can't underestimate the value of your time. Even Benjamin Franklin understood when he said, "Time is money." You could spend your time researching the latest marketing trends and figuring out how to drive traffic to your website or which social media platforms are best for your business… and still not see the results you want.

Proven Track Record = RESULTS
Or you can hire an experienced online marketing agency with a proven track record of achieving results, and you can spend more time running your business. Power Marketing International provides up-to-date online marketing strategies – including website development, SEO, SEM, social media marketing, etc. The result is more leads and more leads that convert to customers.

Need Help?
Give us a call today at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to discover how we can help you achieve your business goals.

Which Will Help You Achieve Your Business Goals - SEO or SEM?

Tue, 18 May 2021 15:26:49 GMT

A question we frequently get about online marketing or internet marketing is, “Which will help me achieve my business goals – SEO or SEM?” The answer is it varies for every business. The goal of both is to increase your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), such as Google, and drive more traffic to your website.

Each strategy has its advantages, which are essential to understand to determine which – SEO or SEM (or a combination of both) – will help you achieve your goals.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a process intended to increase your website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) ORGANICALLY, meaning without advertising . That is done by creating a website that appears near the top of the SERP when someone searches for your product or service online. Typical SEO strategies include improving your website user experience, designing for mobile, using the right keywords in the right places, link building, etc.

What is SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, or Paid Search Engine Marketing. With SEM, you pay search engines, such as Google, to increase your website’s visibility on SERPs. You can target your ads based on criteria such as keywords, geographic location, time of day, day of the week, etc.

The most significant difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO is organic, and SEM is paid, but that still doesn’t tell you which will help you reach your goals.

SEO vs. SEM

Location on SERP: Paid ads can appear above or below organic listings on a SERP. They are identified as ads, with the word “Ad.” Organic listings are located below paid listings and tend to take up more space than paid ads.

Search Criteria: As we said earlier, with paid ads, you can use several things to target your audience – keywords, geographic location, etc. With SEO, the leading search criteria are keywords, which makes keyword research even more crucial. For SEO to be successful, you need to study your niche, look at what keywords your competitors are using, identify long-tail keywords, consider search intent, etc.

ROI : It’s an old analogy, but it works… If SEM is a sprint, SEO is a marathon. Once you start using SEM tactics, you should see almost immediate results. It will take longer – probably months – to see results with SEO. On the other hand, once you stop paying for ads, you will immediately stop seeing results with SEM. In contrast, the results of SEO tend to increase over time.

Click-Through-Rate: The Click-Through-Rate (CTR) is the number of people clicking on your link -whether it’s paid or organic. According to SmartInsights , the median CTR for paid Google ads was 1.55% in the first quarter of 2020. The average CTR for organic results on SERP is as high as 34.2% for the top organic result, and even the tenth organic result enjoys a 2.6% average CTR.

Interesting Note – as of this writing:

Average CTR in Facebook newsfeed ad is 1.11%

Average CTR for an Instagram or LinkedIn ad is .22%

Average CTR for Twitter ad is .86%

Which is Better for Your Business – SEO or SEM?

Whenever possible, we recommend combining the two tactics – SEM and SEO – but if that isn’t in your budget, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

Do I need immediate results ?
Do I have money to spend on advertising ?
Is my buying cycle short or long?
What is my website’s domain authority (a search engine ranking score predicting your website’s ability to rank high on SERPs)?

If you still aren’t sure which will help you achieve your goals, an experienced digital marketing agency like PMI can help you determine the best internet marketing strategy for your business needs and resources. And we can help you execute that strategy with web design, content marketing, SEO, SEM services, and more. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

Repurposing Saves Time & Increases Impact of Content Marketing

Tue, 04 May 2021 15:00:02 GMT

Many businesses realize the benefits – from branding to improving SEO – of Content Marketing. Companies – both large and small – are using content marketing to find new customers and build stronger relationships with existing customers. The challenge for many is finding time to create engaging content.

Repurposing content saves time (a limited resource for most businesses), helps reach new audiences, and makes your content more impactful.

What is Content Repurposing?

Let’s start with what content repurposing is NOT. It is not taking an existing blog and posting it as-is on your Facebook page, and it is not taking someone else’s content and using it as your own.

Repurposing content is taking your existing high-performing content and giving it new life by reworking it and sharing it in a different format or on a new channel to provide more value to more people.

Repurposing content allows you to reach a wider audience because while one person may prefer reading a blog, another person would rather watch a video. One person may be on Facebook all the time; whereas, another person may hate social media but regularly check their email. Repurposing content makes sure that your content is in a format everyone in your audience prefers and on the channels they frequent.

How to Repurpose Content

If you’re new to content marketing, consider how you might be able to repurpose any content you create for online marketing – whether it’s a blog post, a social media post, or a marketing email.

If you’ve been using content marketing for a while, take a look at your metrics. Which blog posts received the most comments? Which Facebook posts got the most likes? Once you know what content your audience is responding to, think about how you can repurpose that content.

Here are a few ideas:

Create a Video

“Online video consumption is one of the most popular internet activities worldwide,” according to Statista . In 2020, there were 239 million digital video viewers in the U.S., translating into an 83.8% digital video penetration.

The bottom line – a lot of people like to watch videos. In fact, did you know that just using the word “video” in an email subject line has been shown to increase open rates?

Consider taking existing text content – how-to instructions, informative blogs, customer testimonials, etc. - and turning them into short videos.

Create an Infographic

According to Inc , about 65% of people are visual learners. If you have a blog post that is heavy on statistics, create an infographic highlighting the key statistics, so your viewers can see those statistics at a glance.

Create a SlideShare

A Slideshare – converting content into a slide presentation format – is another way to present information that can be quickly and easily consumed. You may want to consider converting a portion of the PowerPoint slides from a popular webinar you presented into a SlideShare.

Create an E-Book

E-books are great for educational long-form content. If you’ve done a series of blogs about one topic, you can package the blogs together and create an e-book that provides a more in-depth presentation of a subject. E-books are great as lead generators. People give you their email address in exchange for an informative e-book.

Extract Key Content

You can extract hard-hitting text or quotes from blog posts and post them as social media posts. For example, if you interviewed a leader in your industry and turned it into a blog post, take a few key quotes and post them on Twitter or Facebook.

Create a Podcast

According to Small Biz Genius , 144 million Americans listen to podcasts. That’s 20 million more than three years ago (2018). You can develop a script from an existing blog post and create a podcast or invite a thought-leader to join you in discussing information from the blog post to create a podcast.

Create Text Transcripts

Videos and podcasts may continue to increase in popularity, but many people still prefer reading text. You can post text transcripts of existing videos or podcasts on your blog or one of your social media sites.

Update

Things change. New statistics become available, new products are developed, and new regulations are instituted. It’s easier to update a post than to start from scratch. If you have an outdated blog post, consider creating a new, updated post. If you notice that an outdated blog post is still generating a lot of engagement, don’t create a new post; edit the existing post. agraph

You Don’t Have to Go it Alone

Power Marketing International can create a comprehensive internet marketing and web design strategy to attract leads and convert those leads into paying customers with high-quality content and messaging. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

Can a Blog Help Grow my Business?

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 15:00:07 GMT

As a digital marketing agency, we often recommend our clients include a blog on their website. Unfortunately, many business owners immediately reject the idea, believing that blogs are too much work. We ask that you learn more about business blogs before instantly dismissing them.

What is Business Blog?

For many, the concept of a blog conjures up images of someone writing about travel, gardening, or their collection of widgets. That is a personal blog, not a business blog.

HubSpot defines a business blog as “a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth.”

A business blog is part of your website that provides regular posts with information about your product or service. For instance, PMI’s blog focuses on online marketing. A garden center blog will most likely concentrate on plants and gardening, and an insurance company blog on insurance topics.

What are the Benefits of Blogging?

The primary benefits of a business blog are…

driving traffic to your website
converting website traffic into leads

These two benefits alone should be incentive enough to have a blog but consider SCORE’s “reasons to keep an active business blog”:

Inform customers about the good work you do – People like doing business with companies they know give back to the community.
Share testimonials to earn the trust of new customers
Find out what your customers want
Promote a positive employer brand, so employees want to work for you
Analyze your marketing demographics so that you can target your advertising dollars effectively
Help business partners grow
Earn extra cash
Get employees involved in sharing their expertise

Tips to Create a Successful Business Blog

If you’re going to invest your time and/or money in creating a blog and regularly adding posts, you’ll want to get the biggest bang for your buck. Here are seven tips to creating a business blog that drives traffic to your website, converts traffic to leads, and provides the benefits SCORE listed.

Post Consistently – Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. Whether you’re posting once a month or once a week, consistently posting is the key to building a following. Generally, the more frequently you blog, the more traffic you’ll see. However, we often see businesses jump into blogging with weekly blog posts, then quickly fizzle out and completely stop blogging. Consider what resources you have to determine how frequently you can post in the long term.
Provide Valuable Content – Whatever you post, make sure that your customers and prospects find the information valuable. Think about their pain points, understand their resistance to purchasing your product or service, and listen to their questions to determine blog topics that will attract the readers you want.
Share Your Blog Posts – If you incorporate SEO tactics (see below), you will receive organic traffic to your blog, but you need to share them if you want to get the most out of your blog posts. Post links to your blogs on social media, newsletters, email marketing, etc.
Mix it Up – Not every post needs to be strictly text. Try mixing it up with infographics, videos, images, etc. Watch what type of posts receive the most readers, comments, shares, etc.
Make it Easy to Read – Readers will stop reading your posts if you don’t make them easy to read. Your posts should be well-written and proofread. We recommend using Grammarly – software that detects spelling, punctuation, and other common errors (free or paid versions). Plus, most people scan things online, so make it easy to scan your posts using subheadings, bullets, shorter paragraphs, etc.
Make it Easy to Subscribe – People are busy. They may not remember to check your blog each week or month for a new post. If you make it easy for them to subscribe – through an RSS feed or a post-by-email option – you’ll have more consistent readers.
Write for SEO – Don’t miss out on one of the most significant blogging benefits – driving traffic to your website – by not incorporating SEO tactics. We aren’t talking about cramming your post with keywords. Search engines have become smart enough to recognize that tactic. Instead, follow these tips:

Do some keyword research to know what words your readers are using in their searches. This can also help you determine relevant topics.
Include those keywords WHERE APPROPRIATE
Include Meta Descriptions that are about 155 characters
Use internal links
Use categories and tags to organize your content
Create compelling titles with about 70 characters
Add Alt Text to your images
Make your blog mobile responsive
Make your URLs short and descriptive
Have a link building strategy

What if You Don't Have the Time to Write Blogs?

One of PMI’s internet marketing services is blog writing and posting. We hire professional writers who create original, well-written content, and we optimize and share those blogs for you. If you want the benefits of a blog without the hassle, give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

What Customers Want from Your Website Design

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 15:00:02 GMT

The COVID pandemic was a game-changer for how many companies did business, including web design. It's no surprise that there was a significant uptick in online use during the pandemic. According to Salesforce, 61% of consumers said they plan on continuing to spend more time online after the pandemic than they did before. Salesforce also reported that 68% of consumers have higher expectations for businesses' digital capabilities.

Savvy marketers are taking advantage of this information, keeping an eye on what is happening in web design, and adjusting to meet their customers' changing wants and needs. Here are three website design trends that came to the forefront in 2020, and we expect to continue into 2021 and beyond.

User Experience (UX)

The need for a great user experience is nothing new, but as more people turned to the internet during the pandemic, it became even more crucial. According to HubSpot , 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if the images don't load or take too long to load. Furthermore, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the layout or content is not attractive.

This means – more now than ever - your website needs to be intuitive, easy to navigate, pleasant to look at, and quick to respond.

As more people are making purchases from your website, a focus on your customers' online shopping experience is crucial. Customers expect to be able to quickly search and find the products or services they are looking for and then quickly and easily find information and images about those products or services. A good photo, main selling points, a concise product description, and call-to-action (buy now or add to cart) should be above the scroll line, with additional information available with a click or as they scroll down.

Responsive Design

A responsive design goes back to providing a great user experience. There are more than five billion smartphone users globally, and more than 50% of all web traffic is from a mobile device. Statista reports, "In 2021, 53.9 percent of all retail e-commerce is expected to be generated via m-commerce."

Being mobile-friendly is no longer enough. Your website, marketing emails, etc., all need to be mobile responsive. That means the layout and content are adjusted to respond to the viewers' screen size – whether it's a desktop, a tablet, or a cell phone.

Trust

People continue to do business with companies they trust. Online, you don't have the opportunity for that face-to-face interaction, but there are other ways you can build trust on your website:

Make sure the website is HTTPS Secure
Use consistent branding and messaging
Provide customer testimonials, reviews, or ratings
Share case studies
Share certifications and awards
Educate customers
Keep the site up-to-date
Delete broken links
Make it easy for visitors to contact you
Share information about charitable or community-based activities or contributions

If you want to create loyal, repeat customers who also refer you to their friends and family, provide trust-building content on your website.

How to Pull it All Together

Your online presence is more important than ever! PMI constantly monitors new trends in web design, so you don't have to. We design marketing-driven websites that attract traffic from search engines, create a great user experience, and convert visitors to paying customers.

In fact, we can create and execute a focused online marketing strategy – including web design, social media marketing, email marketing, branding services, and more - to help you achieve your business goals. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

5 Digital Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 15:25:10 GMT

Today, it’s impossible to talk about marketing for small to medium-sized businesses without including Digital Marketing. Savvy marketers focus on connecting with customers and prospects where they spend much of their time – online, on their cell phones, etc. – by utilizing digital marketing (Aka digital advertising).

An effective digital marketing strategy should include a variety of methods. Here are five digital marketing/digital advertising strategies that you can use to grow your business.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing uses social media platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn - to connect with customers and prospects. According to Statista , 54% of people worldwide are engaged with social media, and they spend an average of 145 minutes per day on social media. With 2.74 billion monthly active users, Facebook continues to be the most popular platform, followed by YouTube with 2.29 billion users, WhatsApp with 2 billion users, and Instagram with 1.2 billion users.

You may be surprised to discover that more than 100 different social media platforms are available today, each offering different features and communication best practices. The good news is that you do not need to have a presence on all of them. You need to pick one or two that are right for your business and your customers and prospects.

By regularly posting great content, listening to and engaging with your followers, and analyzing your results, you can use social media platforms to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, and increase sales. To increase the impact of your social media efforts, you may want to consider adding social media advertising to the mix.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A Facebook page cannot replace a website. Here’s why:

· You don’t own your Facebook page.

· You don’t have complete control of your page.

· Design capabilities are limited.

· Competitors can advertise on your page.

· Not everyone is on Facebook.

· The average organic reach of a Facebook post is 6.4% of a page’s total likes.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you sell widgets, you want your website to appear near the top of the page when someone searches for widgets online. There is nothing random about how search engines – such as Google – choose which websites are listed first. If you want people to see your website when they search for a product or service that you offer, you need a website that is intestinally designed to do that. This is called Search Engine Optimization.

SEO can be complicated, and SEO best practices are constantly evolving, but here are a few SEO strategies:

· Creating a good overall user experience

· Optimizing for voice search

· Designing for mobile

· Providing quality content

· Using the right keywords in the right places

· Including relevant backlinks

Search Engine Advertising

If you want to up your game on search engines like Google, you should consider paid search engine advertising. Highly-targeted search engine ads with links to persuasive website landing pages can increase traffic to your website and convert more prospects into paying customers.

Search Engine Advertising – such as Google AdWords - is one of the fastest ways to grow your business, but it has to be done strategically. By understanding search engines and keywords, analyzing results, and continuously honing your ads over time, you will see an ever-increasing stream of new leads and new sales and an increasingly higher ROI.

Content Marketing

Content Marketing Institute defines Content marketing as “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.” Types of content marketing include blogs, videos, case studies, how-to guides, testimonials, checklists, and more.

By distributing this content on platforms such as social media, emails, websites, etc., you can build relationships and trust, increase sales, and develop more loyal customers.

Email Marketing

You may have heard that email is dead, but the truth is that email marketing enjoys one of the highest ROIs. According to Constant Contact , for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can see a return of $42.

However, purchasing a contact list and sending out email blasts to that list will not achieve that type of ROI. Instead, you need to regularly send valuable content to contacts who want to hear from you. This helps nurture relationships and build trust, which will allow you to turn many of those contacts into paying customers.

A Digital Marketing Strategy

A good digital marketing strategy combines a variety of these methods into an integrated marketing strategy. Understanding the ever-changing online marketing best practices is key to success, which is why working with an agency – like PMI – is crucial. We take the time to understand your business and goals and apply current best practices to achieve those goals. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

Why Isn't Your Website Ranking Well In Spite of Your Best SEO Efforts?

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:22:26 GMT

4 Reasons Your Site May Not Be Ranking Well With Google's SERP

You know ranking near the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) can provide more exposure for your company, establish your company as an industry leader, and of course drive more traffic to your website – all of which should help you make more money.

But what if you think you’re doing everything you can to improve your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and still aren’t reaching one of the top positions on the search engine results page?

There are many reasons this may be happening in spite of your best SEO efforts.

Here Are 4 Common Reasons Your Site May Not Be Ranking Well:

#1 - You Aren’t Patient Enough

Yes, we live in a world of instant gratification, but apparently, search engines don’t know that. It often takes four months before you begin to see results.

There are several steps you need to take to improve your website’s SEO, and many of those steps build on each other. First, you need to develop a strategy and generate awesome content. Then it takes a while for Google to notice your efforts and even longer for it to decide that you’re really providing value.

#2 - Your Competitors Are Doing More

Every savvy marketer is aware of SEO techniques, so don’t think you’re the only one using them. If you’re serious about getting your website to rank well, you have to get serious about SEO. You and your competitors are all vying for the same limited space on page 1 of the search engine results. If your page isn’t ranking well, you may have to step up your game with more link building and more blog posting for starters.

#3 - You’re Missing the Mark on Link Building

Not all link backs are created equal. If you want to get found on Google, you need to find a way to get the right links to your website. Some links don’t help your ranking and some can even hurt it. What you want is a number of links from different sources – including both follow and no-follow links, both from well-known sites and regular sites.

It's important to acquire legitimate links and avoid the ones that could harm your rankings.

#4 - Google has Issued a Manual Action Against Your Website

There are a few actions that Google really frowns upon, and if you knowingly or accidentally do any of those things (or someone else does them to your website), Google can completely remove your site from its search engine results page.

According to Google, it issues “a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google's webmaster quality guidelines. Most manual actions address attempts to manipulate our search index. Most issues reported here will result in pages or sites being ranked lower or omitted from search results without any visual indication to the user.”

Here Are Google Manual Action Triggers:

A hacked site – A third party has hacked one or more of your website pages.
User-generated spam – Spam has been submitted by site visitors usually on your forum pages, guestbook pages, or user profiles.
Spammy freehosts – A significant portion of the pages hosted on a service are spammy
Spammy structured markup – Some of the markup on your pages may be using techniques outside Google’s structured data guidelines.
Unnatural links to your site – A pattern of unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative links are pointing to your site.
Unnatural links from the site – Ditto but with outbound links.
Thin content with little or no added value – Flimsy content with little or no added value such as automatically generated content and content from other sources.
Cloaking or sneaky redirects – Not showing the same pages to both users and Google.
Pure Spam – Aggressive spam techniques include automatically generated gibberish, cloaking, and scraping content from other websites.
Cloaked images – Images that show up differently in Google’s search engine results page than seen on your website.
Hidden text and keyword stuffing – The days of using hidden text and keyword stuffing to improve ranking are gone, and Google will penalize you for it.
AMP content mismatch – The content on the AMP version is different from the canonical web page.
Sneaky mobile redirects – Pages that appear to be redirecting mobile device users to content not available to search engine crawlers.

Google tells you how to make it right in its “ Manual Actions Report ” page.

What to Do Next If Your Website Isn’t Ranking Well

If despite all your best efforts, your website still isn’t ranking well, try Power Marketing International’s free SEO report that shows how your website ranks for multiple SEO factors and any technical issues that require attention. Need more help? Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . Achieving robust search engine optimization isn’t easy, but we can help get it done right!

Content Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 16:31:58 GMT

A Marketing Strategy That Works

Do you ever feel like getting potential customers’ attention is like beating your head against the wall? You aren’t alone. Both large and small companies face this challenge. Research shows that today, 86% of people skip TV advertisements, and 44% ignore direct mail.

It’s not surprising when you consider that in 1984, a person saw an average of 2,000 ads per day and by 2014, they were seeing about 5,000 ads per day, according to Content Marketing Institute .

We aren’t saying that direct mail and TV advertising don’t have a place in your marketing strategy, but we have found that they can be cost-prohibitive for many small to medium-sized companies. Plus, increasingly tight marketing budgets mean that whatever marketing tools are used need to be extremely effective.

What if we told you there is a marketing strategy that will have potential clients seeking you out and help existing customers become loyal repeat customers? Sound too good to be true? It isn’t. That strategy is called content marketing , and it works when done right.

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” Types of content marketing include blogs, podcasts, magazines, infographics, videos, digital publications, email newsletters, and more.

Is Content Marketing Effective?

Research shows that content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates over three times as many leads. Still not convinced? Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small companies without blogs. How about this? Content marketing brings in conversion rates that are six times higher than other methods.

Here are some statistics about customer behavior that help explain why content marketing can be so effective:

60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading content about it.
70% of people would prefer learning about a company through articles rather than an advertisement
82% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content
78% perceive a relationship between themselves and a company using custom content.
90% of consumers find custom content useful.

The increased SEO brought in by content is almost like icing on the cake. Websites with blog content create 434% more search engine indexed pages than business sites that don’t publish content.

If you’re a small to medium-sized business owner, you may be thinking that’s all well and good, but we don’t have the resources or the budget to create content for blogs or magazines or other types of content marketing. You may want to examine that assumption more closely.

How to Create a Content Marketing Plan

You don’t need to dump tens of thousands of dollars into content marketing to achieve your goals, but you do need specific goals, a solid strategy, and engaging content.

Check out these 7 steps that businesses - even those on shoestring budgets - can take to use the power of content marketing to attract and develop customers that are more loyal to your brand:

Determine your objectives and create measurable goals such as building brand awareness or increasing website traffic or conversion rates.
Create a strategy based on those objectives and goals. Determine who will create the content and if it is best to outsource that task. If internal resources are limited, get a few quotes from freelancers or marketing agencies.
Understand your customers and their needs and target their pain points.
Create great content.
Distribute your content. One of the most significant benefits of content marketing like blogs is that it can improve SEO and increase traffic to your website, but you need to let people know that the content is available by posting it on social media, sending emails, etc.
Measure your return on investment. Look at what is working and what isn’t.
Rinse and repeat .

Content Marketing Tips:

Quality content is key. Even if it means posting blogs less frequently, make sure that the content you’re sharing engages, informs, and entertains your readers.
Repurpose your existing content. For example, we could take this blog post and post each one of our content marketing tips individually on our social media platforms or take some of the content and create a brief video.
Invite guest bloggers ; it’s free content. Do you have a vendor that you work with regularly? Ask them if they would consider writing a blog for your website about one of their products or services. Creating guidelines for guest bloggers can help ensure you’re getting content that meets your needs.
Become a guest blogger . If you can get published on a website with a broad audience, it improves your credibility and can drive more traffic back to your site.

The most important thing to remember about content marketing is that it takes 1) a good strategy, 2) consistency, and 3) patience.

Want Some Help With Your Content Marketing?

PMI offers a turnkey approach that includes a content marketing strategy, content creation, and posting, allowing you to focus your time on running your business, and, it's surprisingly affordable! To learn more give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

3 Key Google Ranking Factors You Need for Better SEO

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 17:47:24 GMT

Search Engine Optimization is Key to Having Your Website Rank Well on Google

If you want to use your website as a tool for finding new customers, you better know how to optimize it for Google’s Search Engine. With billions of searches every day and 89.95% of the search engine market share , it’s a pretty safe bet that most of your potential customers are using Google to search for your product or service online.

The catch is that Google has a very complicated algorithm that uses about 200 ranking signals to determine organic search page rankings, and they aren’t sharing that algorithm with anyone. So it’s up to marketers to figure out how to use search engine optimization to make sure a website shows up on Google’s search engine.

Even if we did know all 200 or so ranking signals, it would be nearly impossible to address them all, so here are three Google ranking factors that we believe are the most important if you want to optimize your website for the Google search engine.

Domain Security

If you search for Power Marketing International, you will see the URL at the top - https://www.powermarketinginternational.com/ . The HTTP at the very beginning of the URL stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol – a process that transfers information from a website to the viewer’s browser. The added “S” shows that your connection to our website is secure and encrypted, so the information between you and our site is safe.

It’s no surprise that Google prefers to see that “s” in a website URL, and many of your visitors will too. If you don’t see the “s” in your website’s URL, you should acquire an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate .

Inbound Links

Also known as backlinks or external links, inbound links are hyperlinks that are on other websites that link back to your website. In the last paragraph, you’ll notice that you can click on “SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate,” and you will be taken to HubSpot’s website. That is an inbound link for HubSpot.

The more links, and the higher the popularity and relevance of the links that connect to your website, the better your ranking will be, all else being equal. Google looks at inbound links as an important sign that your site can be trusted. By the way, internal links to other pages within your website do NOT count as inbound links.

Here are a few link building strategies:

Regularly posting great content on your blog
Writing guest blog posts
Linking to other blogs
Monitoring your competitors’ backlinks
Installing social share widgets on your website

Keep in mind that not all backlinks are created equal. Some backlinks carry more weight than others, and some backlinks can even hurt your website’s ranking. Based on our experience, a good backlink has the following qualities:

The link is relevant to your website
The link is coming from a website that is trusted by Google. Trusted websites include sites like HubSpot or Huffington.
The link is coming from a website with “Domain Authority,” which is calculated using an algorithm. There are several online tools you can use to check a website’s Domain Authority. A Domain Authority above 20 is desirable. Above 30 is strong. Above 40 is exceptional.

Keyword Intent

Well-placed keywords on your website have always been essential to Search Engine Optimization. In the early days, Google looked for the most keywords on a webpage or blog. Those keywords had to be an exact match. If you sold “organic plant fertilizer,” you would strategically place that 3-word phrase in several places throughout your page.

Today, Google is more focused on the “intention” of the searcher than it is about exact keyword matches. So it’s no longer enough to place that keyword phrase “organic plant fertilizer” throughout the page. Instead, you need to use it along with variations of the phrase, and also include words and phrases that represent the intention of the searcher. For example, by speaking about organic plant fertilizer ingredients, why they’re better than non-organic, how they help plants, where they can be purchased, etc.

This strategy has a better chance of pushing your webpage to the top of the rankings because this is what people interested in organic plant fertilizer are looking for, so it will create more engagement and more time spent on the page, which will cause Google to rank that page higher.

Why Hire an SEO Expert?

Focusing on these three key ranking factors should help improve your website’s rankings; however, if you want to so that really well, while also addressing the 197 or so additional rankings used by Google, you will need a professional marketer who is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert.

That is where Power Marketing International excels. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online and enjoy the results that an online marketing strategy built on exceptional web design and smart SEO can deliver!

3 Tips to Paid Online Advertising That Works

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 16:02:20 GMT

Effective PPC Advertising Can Improve SEO and Increase Leads

We focus a lot of effort on search engine optimization (SEO) as part of our clients' internet marketing strategies . We optimize your website copy and HTML, so your site shows up on search engine results pages (SERP), and potential customers can find you quickly and easily. There’s no doubt that SEO works, but more and more businesses understand the value of supplementing that strategy with online advertising, specifically paid search engine ads.

With paid search – also known as Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM ) – you pay to have your ad show up on the search engine results pages (SERPs). You base your ad on a particular set of keywords that people are using to search, and you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Examples of paid search platforms include Google Ads (formerly known as Adwords), Facebook, Bing Ads, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more.

In 2017, $10.1 billion was invested in PPC by seven million advertisers, according to Social Media Today with Google Ads and Facebook as the clear market leaders in PPC spending. This comes as no surprise as Google reports that on average businesses make $2 for every $1 spent on AdWords, including increasing brand awareness by as much as 80%. Unbounce reports that PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors.

So how can paid ads improve SEO? The impact of paid ads on SEO is indirect, but real. Here's how it works. Once a viewer has discovered your website through an ad, they are more likely to remember your business name and website. Therefore, the next time they search for your type of products or services, they will be more likely to click on your organic (non-paid) search listing. The more often someone clicks on your organic search listing, the more likely it is to move up in the organic rankings.

As with any type of marketing effort, you want to make sure that you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck.

Here are three strategies to save money on your pay-per-click advertising without impacting its effectiveness.

Know What Doesn’t Work for Online Advertising

With paid search, it’s just as important to know what keywords or phrases don’t work as it is to understand which ones do, so you aren’t wasting money in areas that aren’t providing a return. Some keywords or phrases could actually cause you to lose money if people are clicking on your ad (costing you money) but not resulting in a sale.

With years of experience, Power Marketing International has learned how to research and develop a list of keywords that work for virtually any industry, and how to filter out keywords that don't work. Once you know what to filter out, you can eliminate them from your campaigns, allowing you to invest more in keywords and phrases that bring in new customers.

Don’t Ignore Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

The goal of the paid search isn’t to just drive people to your website. It’s to encourage people to visit your site and take the desired action, whether that’s making a purchase, registering for an event, sharing their email address, etc. The percentage of people who go to your website and take your desired action is your conversion rate, and taking steps to increase that percentage rate is known as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

The only way you can improve your conversion rates (and thereby enjoy a higher ROI on your PPC advertising) is to track your conversion rates and take measures to improve them. Steps to improve CRO can include determining metrics, testing, and analyzing the results.

Determine a Strategy for Brand Keywords in Online Advertising

Brand and brand-plus keywords are keywords used to search for your company. For example, for our company that would include keywords like "Power Marketing International" along with "PMI" and other iterations of it, including misspellings of and common typos. Many marketers would argue that including brand keywords in your PPC ads is a waste of money.

The argument is that people using those brand keywords will find your website without using PPC, but keep in mind that your competitors are free to bid on your brand keywords to steal traffic from you.

There are other reasons that using brand keywords in PPC advertising could make sense for your business; however, if you can avoid paying for those keywords, you can spend less money or invest it in keywords that will bring you a higher return on investment.

Ready to (re)Try Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

If you want to learn more about using the power of paid online advertising to attract new prospects to your website who are interested in your products or services, give Power Marketing International a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . Whether you are new to PPC advertising, or just want to do it right, we can help!

Improve Your Content Marketing With Statistics

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 19:53:20 GMT

Build trust, be more persuasive, and get your content read.

You may have noticed that we use a fair number of statistics with links to the source of those statistics in our content marketing (including this blog), and you might assume the only reason we do that is to improve search engine optimization. You would be right to some extent – it is a part of our strategy.

After all, 2011 correlation data from Moz showed a 0.04 correlation between the number of external links on a page and higher rankings. While that may not seem like a high correlation, when looking at all of the ranking factors, it is significant.

But that isn’t the only reason we include statistics and links in our online content marketing. The use of relevant data and statistics from reliable sources helps build trust with your audience, helps persuade your audience, and even gets your audience to read your marketing content. Data weaved into a story brings perspectives from outside of the writer and can be used to support or validate your story.

Don’t take our word for it! In a recent Survey, SurveyMonkey found the following:

Three-quarters of those surveyed said that content with data is more trustworthy than content without data.
73% said content with data is more persuasive than content without data
82% said they prefer to read an article based on data than one based on the writer’s opinion
49% of people ages 18-34 and 43% of people ages 35-54 said content with data is more fun to read

The Value of Original Research in Content Marketing

Conducting your own research takes this concept to an entirely new level. From an SEO-perspective, original data and statistics can help increase b acklinks to your website. Plus, one good well-thought-out research project could supply an abundance of content marketing opportunities that drive people to your website, engage people on your social media sites, and capture leads.

Original data can be distributed in blog posts, social media posts, articles, e-guides, white papers, newsletters, videos, and webinars. The data can also be repurposed in many different formats such as text, charts, graphs, tables, grids, or infographics. If the research is detailed enough, you may even want to create a landing page on your website for the information.

The information can be gated (which will capture leads) or not (which will maximize the number of readers). According to SurveyMonkey, 87% of adults have provided their email address or joined a newsletter or blog mailing list to access content.

How to Create Data for Content Marketing

Embarking on an original research project should not be done lightly. It can be time-consuming and costly, so you want to make sure it provides data that you can use. First, identify the purpose and a goal for your research, find out if the information is readily available elsewhere, determine the questions to be asked including “why” questions, decide how you will distribute the survey, and identify who you will ask.

The data doesn’t have to be boring. It could be used to confirm something – an idea, thought, etc. - or it could be used to surprise and challenge stereotypes.

NOTE: According to SurveyMonkey, you should ensure that you survey at least 1,000 people. Their research found that 66% of people surveyed said the smallest sample size they would trust is 1,000 respondents, and 58% of people said they play close attention to how the data is collected.

Yes, sitting in front of your computer creating content that comes out of your head based on your experience, expertise, and opinion is easier than finding data online or collecting your own data. However, if you don't include some data to back up your content – either original or from another reliable source – you’re missing an opportunity to build trust and/or persuade your readers or possibly even losing readers.

Want to Improve Your Content Marketing Results?

If your content market is not producing the results you want, PMI can help by developing quality content for you, posting it, and connecting it to an online marketing ecosystem. Give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online .

8+ SEO Tips to DriveTraffic to your Website

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 20:28:59 GMT

Do you think search engine optimization (SEO) is important for your website?

Consider this…As of December 2018, there were 4.1 billion internet users in the world, and the internet influenced $2.84 trillion – trillion, not million or billion - sales in 2018, according to Hosting Facts . So do you think your website is essential to the success of your business?

It’s pretty safe to say, yes. In today’s hi-tech world, having a great website is crucial if you want to stay competitive. A great website needs to look good, be easy to use, and have compelling content. But building a great website isn’t enough.

There are millions of websites competing for attention, so if you want people to find your site, you need to optimize your website for search engines – using search engine optimization or SEO - to increase traffic to your website.

Here are 8+ SEO tips for your website:

Improve SEO With Fresh Content

Having a blog on your website not only helps SEO but also helps you engage with prospects and current customers. Regularly update your blog with informative and engaging content to encourage people to visit your blog frequently and to keep returning to your site. Be sure to include a link to the related page on your website within each post.

And don’t forget about the rest of the content on your website. Review the material regularly and keep it fresh and relevant with a smattering of relevant keywords. You can also breathe new life into old blogs by updating them to make them more relevant today.

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

In 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic was generated through mobile phones, according to Statista , and that number keeps growing. If it isn’t easy for people to navigate your website and read your content on their mobile devices, they will quickly move on.

Plus, last year, Google introduced its Mobile-First Index , which means Google now uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.

Optimize for Organic Traffic

Optimizing your website for search engines helps drive organic traffic to your site. Organic traffic starts with a search on Google, Bing, or other search engine, and results in a viewer clicking a link for your website. A lot goes into achieving strong search engine optimization (SEO), and it’s a moving target; therefore, it’s best to have someone who specializes in SEO optimize your website with keywords, fresh content, etc.

Use Social Media

Regularly post engaging content on your social media sites, include a link to your website, and give your readers a reason to visit your site, such as a “click here to learn more.”

Use Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

We’ve had a tremendous success using PPC to drive people to our clients' websites who may not have found it otherwise. One of the tricks to successful PPC advertising is knowing what keywords to use and not use. We spend considerable time analyzing the right keywords to drive website traffic, and continue to do so because it changes constantly.

Share Your Website URL Offline With Everyone, Everywhere

If you want to drive people to your website, you need to let them know it’s there and how to find it. That means including your website’s URL on every piece of promotional material you hand out including brochures and business cards.

If your employees wear branded uniforms, include the URL there. Use car wraps with your web address on your company vehicles, post your website’s URL in the window of your shop or office, put it on your receipts. Think outside the box.

Attend Trade Shows and Networking Events

Trade shows and networking events are a great way to promote your product or service and your brand, to build your network, and to find new prospects. Make sure people at these events have your website address and that it’s included on anything that you hand out.

Advertise Your Website URL Offline

If you advertise in newspapers, magazines, billboards, or anywhere else offline, make sure your URL is included.

Additional SEO Tips

Other steps you can take to drive traffic to your website include guest blogging on other sites, inviting guest blogs onto your blog, posting content on LinkedIn Pulse, publishing original research on your website, and including external links on your website.

Is Your Website Optimized for Search Engines?

PMI offers a free SEO checkup to see how well your website follows SEO guidelines. If you don’t like what you discover or if you are not experiencing the volume of website traffic you want, give us a call at 484-297-6395 or contact us online . The initial consultation is free!

Practical Marketing Tips by PMI

What Is Local SEO: A Beginner's Guide To Boosting Your Business Online

What is Local SEO? Local SEO Basics

Google My Business (GMB)

Local keywords

NAP consistency

Local citations

Mastering Local SEO

How to Boost Local SEO Rankings

1. Optimize your website

2. Encourage positive reviews

3. Create local content

Local SEO Strategies

Local link building

Local schema makeup

Geotargeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns

Local SEO Marketing Tips

1. Stay consistent

2. Monitor performance

3. Engage with the local community

4. Optimize for voice search

5. Make the most of social media

Get Better Local SEO Results With Help From PMI

Advertising vs Marketing: Understanding the Key Differences

Marketing vs Advertising: Understanding the Key Differences

Marketing vs Advertising: Which One is Right for Your Business?

Need Marketing or Advertising Help?

4 Creative Advertising Ideas to Boost Your Marketing Strategy

Unique Advertising Ideas

Budget-Friendly Strategies

Innovative Marketing Approaches

When to Hire an Agency

We Can Help!

What Makes For a Great Website?

1. Clear and Intuitive Navigation

2. Engaging Content

3. Strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

4. Responsive Design

5. Compelling Visuals

6. Strong Calls to Action

7. Fast Loading Speed

8. Secure and Trustworthy

9. Analytics and Tracking

10. Continuous Improvement

Let’s Create Your Perfect Website. Contact Us Today!

How Does Blogging Help SEO: A Beginner's Guide

The Advantages of Blogging for SEO

Constantly Provides New Content

Improves Your Site Structure

Gives Ample Opportunity For Backlinks

It Lets You Include Target Keywords

Blog SEO Best Practices

How To Optimize Blog Posts for SEO

Strategically Place Your Keywords

Create A Structure For Your Blog Posts

Link Internally & Externally

Make Your Posts Readable On All Devices

Contact PMI For Help With All Your SEO Needs

How To Get on the First Page of Google: A Step-by-Step Guide

On-Page SEO Strategies

Content Strategies:

Keyword research

Keyword-optimized blog posts

Technical Strategies:

Site speed

Mobile optimization

Meta title and meta description

Proper use of H1-H4 headers

Off-Page SEO Strategies

Backlinks

Anchor text

Local SEO Strategies

Need Help? Choose PMI for All Your SEO Needs!

Branding vs Marketing: Understanding the Key Differences

Branding and marketing are NOT the same!

The Difference Between Branding and Marketing

The Power of Branding

Unlocking the Potential of Marketing

Aligning Branding and Marketing Strategies

Need Help? Contact Us for All Your Branding and Marketing Needs!

Need Help?
Contact Us for All Your Branding and Marketing Needs!

#1. Not Thinking Strategically

#5. Picking the Wrong Facebook Budget Option