PW Media Blog

Holiday Marketing 101: Tips for Small Business Owners

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:05:24 GMT

PW Media | Jun 08, 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Drive sales this holiday season! Our guide provides expert strategies & practical tips to elevate your holiday marketing for maximum impact.

Whether you’re an established business or a fresh startup, the holiday season offers an incredible opportunity to increase sales and connect with your customers on a deeper level. Standing out in this busy time can be challenging, but it’s also essential. With so many brands competing for consumer attention, how can you make yours the one they remember? It’s about creating a unique and memorable experience that speaks to the holiday spirit while showcasing what makes your brand special.

The answer is a strategic and creative approach to your holiday marketing strategy .

Understanding the Dynamics of Holiday Shopping
Key Holiday Shopping Trends
Crafting Your Holiday Marketing Blueprint
Seasonal Branding and Visuals
Personalized Holiday Promotions
Holiday-Themed Content Marketing
Holiday-Themed Paid Media Campaigns
The Power of Retargeting for Holiday Shoppers
Why Partnering With a Marketing Agency Matters
Conclusion

Understanding the Dynamics of Holiday Shopping

Did you know that consumer behavior changes dramatically during the holiday season? With online searches of “gifts” and “holiday deals” peaking in November and December, it is no secret that consumer activity takes a major holiday shift.

This heightened interest often drives consumers to explore new brands—research shows that 30% of holiday shoppers are open to trying a new product if they offer a competitive promotion or a unique gift option. Driving additional engagement has also been proven by offering enticing promotions through different social media campaigns. Discover Global Network’s 2024 Holiday Shopping Trends report states that holiday shoppers are highly influenced by discounts and promotions, with around 44% waiting for sales before making a purchase.

This is the perfect time to take advantage of flash sales, holiday-exclusive discounts, and buy-one-get-one deals that are particularly effective during this time of year. Shoppers are motivated by the urgency to secure great deals before the season ends.

Now, let's look at some noteworthy trends shaping holiday shopping:

Key Holiday Shopping Trends

Not only are shoppers starting earlier to secure the best deals, but also to avoid potential shipping delays. As chain supply issues have become more regular, consumers try to beat the stress by starting their shopping earlier each year. The convenience of online shopping has solidified its dominance, with mobile purchases making it even easier for people to shop on the go.

This season, we’re also seeing a shift from material gifts to experiences, as more consumers opt for gift cards or experiential packages over traditional presents. This shift reflects a growing preference for meaningful adventures that create lasting memories, whether it’s a cooking class, a concert, or a weekend getaway.

Crafting Your Holiday Marketing Blueprint

Successful holiday marketing campaigns involve a multi-faceted strategy to reach your audience at multiple touchpoints. Here's a step-by-step breakdown:

Seasonal Branding and Visuals

Infuse a Festive Spirit: Inject holiday cheer by incorporating seasonal themes into your brand's visuals on social media. For example, update your profile picture with a holiday twist, or add festive elements like snowflakes, twinkling lights, or holiday colors to your posts. Even subtle touches, like adding a holiday-themed banner or using holiday emojis, can help your audience get into the spirit.

Create Eye-Catching Social Media Graphics: Develop captivating visuals specifically for holiday social media posts. You could design countdown graphics to build excitement for special holiday sales or create carousel posts featuring your top holiday picks for gift ideas.

Holiday-Themed Packaging: Elevate the customer experience with festive packaging. Consider using themed wrapping paper, holiday-colored ribbons, or even personalized thank-you notes with a holiday message. Adding a small extra, like a candy cane or holiday sticker, can leave a lasting impression that customers will remember.

Personalized Holiday Promotions

Embrace Audience Segmentation: Tailor holiday offers based on purchase history and preferences. Personalized emails resonate more effectively—for instance, a customer who recently bought a cozy sweater might receive an email featuring matching scarves or hats to complete their winter wardrobe.
Limited-Time Offers Create Urgency: Use techniques like flash sales (Black Friday and Cyber Monday come to mind) to encourage quicker buying decisions during the holidays. Don't forget to use discount codes and promote these deals on social media.

Holiday-Themed Content Marketing

Tapping into the holiday spirit is key to providing value and attracting your target customers. For holiday marketing campaigns, tailor your content to match the spirit:

Holiday Gift Guides: Develop comprehensive gift guides targeting various demographics and interests, such as “Gifts for Girls Under 10” or “Top Ten Trendy Gifts for Teens”. Provide suggestions to make holiday shopping less stressful.
Blog Posts with a Holiday Spin: Create engaging content about holiday recipes, DIY decoration ideas, or festive party-planning tips. This allows you to seamlessly integrate your products or services.
Interactive Content Increases Engagement: Launch a holiday-themed social media contest, quiz, or giveaway to encourage audience interaction.
Video Content Dominates: Develop captivating videos showcasing your products or services. Using trending holiday sounds/songs on social media can be a great way to hook an audience (Mariah Carey is warming up “All I Want for Christmas” as we speak).

Holiday-Themed Paid Media Campaigns

Targeted ad campaigns play a crucial role in amplifying your reach and driving conversions:

Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns for Holiday Keywords: Integrate relevant holiday keywords, such as "Christmas gifts for him" or “ Ideas for Thanksgiving Decor ” into your campaigns.
Google Shopping Campaigns: Drive traffic to product pages, showcase festive deals and highlight promotions with Google Shopping campaigns.
YouTube's Power for Holiday Marketing: Create compelling holiday video ads that engage viewers emotionally and make a lasting impression.

The Power of Retargeting for Holiday Shoppers

Bring back those who showed initial interest but haven’t converted yet. Especially during a season filled with distractions, retargeting can be a powerful tool:

Implement Retargeting Strategies: Show targeted ads to individuals who have previously interacted with your website or social media.
Utilize Dynamic Retargeting Ads: Feature products or services a visitor has previously viewed, personalizing their experience and prompting a return.
Leverage Abandoned Cart Reminders: Send gentle email reminders to customers who left items in their cart without completing the purchase.

Why Partnering With a Marketing Agency Matters

Navigating holiday marketing while managing your core business can be overwhelming, but don’t worry! Partnering with a digital marketing agency experienced in strategizing, implementing and managing holiday marketing campaigns allows you to tap into their expertise and can alleviate the stress of it all.

When you entrust your holiday season marketing to professionals, you’re gaining access to their expertise and experience, which can make all the difference. Digital marketing agencies are equipped with proven techniques that deliver measurable results, allowing you to reach your goals more effectively. They also utilize data-driven strategies, so your campaigns are fine-tuned to target the right customers at just the right time. Beyond that, agencies ensure seamless execution and measurement, taking the stress off your shoulders by managing the entire process—from launching the campaign to monitoring its progress and providing detailed reports.

Conclusion

Effective holiday marketing is a combination of creativity, strategic planning, and meticulous execution. Embrace these strategies, stay attuned to your audience’s evolving needs, and never hesitate to infuse elements of joy, gratitude, and generosity in your brand’s messaging throughout this holiday season.

If you want to know how PW Media can help harness the holiday spirit in your marketing strategies, contact us today!

The Power of Reviews: Leveraging User-Generated Content to Build Trust and Credibility

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 15:33:10 GMT

PW Media | Jun 08, 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Discover how user-generated content can transform your marketing strategy.

User-generated content (UGC) is revolutionizing how brands connect with their audiences. It’s not just a buzzword; it's a powerful digital marketing strategy that's transforming how businesses build trust, boost engagement, and drive sales. As a marketing expert, we've seen firsthand how consumer-generated content can take a brand from obscurity to industry leader.

But what exactly is user-generated content, and why should you care? Simply put, it's any content your customers or fans create rather than your brand. This could be product reviews, social media posts, photos, videos, or even blog posts.

Think about it. When was the last time you made a purchase without checking reviews first or booked a hotel without scrolling through traveler photos? That's the power of UGC at work – authentic, relatable, and incredibly persuasive.

The Rise of User-Generated Content in Marketing

User generated content isn’t new, but its importance in content marketing strategies has skyrocketed in recent years. Why? Because consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising.

They crave authenticity and trust the opinions of their peers more than polished brand messages. Creating a solid content marketing strategy that incorporates user-generated content can be a game-changer for your brand. It's like having an army of brand advocates tirelessly working to promote your products or services.

But don't take our word for it. Let's dive into some compelling statistics:

92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, and 70% trust online consumer opinions.
User-generated content is 35% more memorable than other media.
Websites featuring user-generated content see a 20% increase in return visitors and up to a 90% increase in time spent on the site.

These numbers speak volumes about the impact of UGC on consumer behavior and brand perception. It's a testament to the power of authentic voices in today's digital landscape.

Types of User-Generated Content

User-generated content comes in many forms, each with unique benefits. Let's explore some of the most effective types:

Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Reviews are the backbone of user-generated content. They provide social proof and can significantly influence purchasing decisions. Encourage customers to leave reviews on your website, Google Business Profile , or industry-specific platforms.

Social Media Posts

From Instagram posts to Twitter mentions, social media is a goldmine for user-generated content. Encourage customers to share their experiences with your brand on social platforms using a branded hashtag. Social media channels can be a great way to increase brand visibility and reach a wider audience, and engaging with your followers in your comments and DMs can be invaluable in building connections.

User-Submitted Photos and Videos

Visual content is incredibly engaging. Unboxing videos, product demonstrations, and customer selfies with your products can be powerful marketing tools. Encourage your audience to get creative and create videos with your products.

Blog Posts and Articles

Some of your most passionate customers might be willing to write in-depth content about their experiences with your brand. This type of UGC can be particularly valuable for B2B companies looking to establish thought leadership and build trust within their industry. Influencers can also help promote your business by writing about you in their own blogs or social media by exposing you to their audiences.

The Benefits of User-Generated Content

Incorporating UGC into your marketing strategy offers numerous advantages. Here are some of the key benefits:

Builds Trust and Credibility

User-generated content serves as social proof, showing potential customers that real people are using and enjoying your products or services. This authenticity builds trust far more effectively than traditional advertising, as it allows potential customers to see how others have benefited from your offerings.

Increases Engagement

When customers see their content featured by a brand, they feel valued and are more likely to engage further. This can lead to increased brand awareness, loyalty, and repeat purchases, as customers feel a stronger connection to brands that recognize and appreciate their contributions.

Provides Valuable Insights

User-generated content can offer valuable insights into how customers use your products, what they love about them, and areas for improvement. It's like having a constant stream of customer feedback, allowing you to understand your audience better and tailor your offerings to their needs.

Cost-Effective Marketing

Encouraging and leveraging UGC (User Generated Content) is often more cost-effective than creating all your marketing materials in-house. It's a win-win: customers feel valued, and you get authentic content without breaking the bank. This allows you to allocate your marketing budget more efficiently and focus on other aspects of your strategy.

How to Encourage User-Generated Content

Now that we've covered the 'why' of UGC, let's talk about the 'how.' Here are some strategies to encourage your customers to create content:

Create a branded hashtag and promote it across all your social media and marketing channels. This provides a central location for all user-generated content related to your brand, making it easy for you to find and share.
Run contests or challenges that encourage customers to share photos or videos of your products. This can incentivize content creation and generate excitement around your brand. Offer attractive prizes that align with your target audience's interests.
Feature UGC prominently on your website and social media profiles. This shows potential customers that you value their contributions and encourages others to join the conversation. Create dedicated sections or highlight user-generated content regularly.
Reach out to customers who've had positive experiences and ask if they'd be willing to share their story. This could involve writing a testimonial, participating in a case study, or simply sharing their experience on social media. Offer incentives if appropriate.
Make it easy for customers to leave reviews by sending follow-up emails after purchases. Provide clear instructions on how to leave a review and highlight the benefits of doing so, such as helping other customers make informed decisions.
Remember, the key is to make content creation fun and rewarding for your customers. Building brand loyalty through UGC campaigns can lead to long-term success by fostering a sense of community and appreciation among your customer base.

Leveraging User-Generated Content Effectively

Once you've started collecting UGC, it's crucial to use it effectively. Here are some tips:

Curate Carefully

Not all UGC is created equal. Choose high-quality content that aligns with your brand values and messaging. Ensure that the content you select is engaging, visually appealing, and relevant to your target audience for your social media

Get Permission

Always ask for permission before using someone's content in your marketing materials. This protects you legally and shows respect for your customers. Clearly communicate how you plan to use their content and obtain their consent in writing.

Integrate Across Channels

Don't limit user-generated content to social media. Integrate it into your website, email marketing, and print materials for maximum impact. This ensures that your UGC reaches a wider audience and reinforces your brand messaging across different touchpoints.

Respond and Engage

When customers create content about your brand, engage with them. Thank them, answer questions, and show that you value their input. This helps build stronger relationships with your customers and encourages continued engagement.

Conclusion

User-generated content (UGC) isn't just a trend—it's a powerful tool for building trust, engaging customers, and growing your business. But leveraging UGC effectively requires more than just hoping your customers will leave reviews or share social media posts. That’s where PW Media comes in.

At PW Media, we specialize in helping businesses like yours harness the full potential of UGC to build credibility and connect with your audience. Whether you need help managing Google reviews, curating impactful social media content, crafting engaging blog posts, or optimizing your local listings, our team has the expertise to elevate your brand.

Ready to see how UGC can transform your business? Let’s work together to create a strategy that not only showcases your customers’ love for your brand but also drives results.

Valentine's Day Marketing Ideas for Brands: Spreading Love and Engaging Audiences

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 15:10:12 GMT

PW Media | Jun 08, 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Discover creative Valentine's Day marketing ideas for businesses to engage audiences and spread love. Explore easy-to-implement strategies tailored for business owners.

Valentine's Day is not just about hearts and flowers; it's a golden opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience on a personal level. As a business owner, you can leverage the spirit of love to create engaging marketing campaigns that not only resonate with your audience but also subtly showcase your brand's personality. In this article, we'll explore creative Valentine's Day marketing ideas that are easy to implement in a short span, allowing you to spread love and connect with your customers.

Valentine's Day provides a unique opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience in a meaningful way. By implementing these creative and easy-to-execute marketing strategies, you can spread love, engage your customers, and subtly showcase the personality of your brand. If you’re interested in learning about how PW Media can help you execute these campaigns, visit our “What We Do” page for more information!

Are You Ready to Navigate the Dynamic World of Social Media Advertising in 2024?

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 15:22:18 GMT

PW Media | Jun 08, 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Explore the latest trends and strategies in social media advertising for 2024. Learn platform-specific insights, emerging trends, and best practices for effective campaigns.

In the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, social media advertising continues to be a pivotal strategy for brands looking to engage with their audience effectively. As we step into 2024, it's crucial for businesses to stay updated on the latest trends and best practices across various platforms. Let's delve into the evolving world of social media advertising, exploring platform-specific strategies and emerging trends to help navigate this dynamic landscape.

Platform-Specific Strategies

Facebook: Despite changes in algorithms and privacy concerns, Facebook remains a powerhouse for advertising. Utilize detailed audience targeting, leverage video content, and explore the potential of Facebook Groups for community engagement.
I nstagram: As visuals dominate social media, leverage Instagram's immersive experience. Embrace ephemeral content through Stories, capitalize on influencer partnerships, and experiment with shoppable posts to drive sales.
Twitter: With its real-time nature, Twitter thrives on engagement. Leverage hashtags, participate in trending conversations, and craft concise yet impactful ad copy to capture audience attention.
LinkedIn: Target professionals and B2B audiences on LinkedIn. Utilize sponsored content, tap into the power of LinkedIn Groups, and leverage the platform's robust targeting options for lead generation and brand awareness.

Emerging Trends in Social Media Advertising

Short-Form Video Dominance: The popularity of short-form videos continues to soar. Platforms like TikTok and Reels on Instagram offer immense potential for creative, attention-grabbing ads.
E-commerce Integration: Social commerce is booming. Platforms are integrating seamless shopping experiences, allowing users to purchase products without leaving the app. Incorporating this into advertising can drive direct sales.
AI-Powered Personalization: AI and machine learning are revolutionizing ad targeting and personalization. Utilize AI-powered tools to analyze data, optimize ad performance, and deliver hyper-personalized content to specific audience segments.
Inclusive and Purpose-Driven Campaigns: Brands are increasingly focusing on inclusivity and social causes. Aligning your advertising with purpose-driven messaging can resonate deeply with audiences and build brand loyalty.

Best Practices for Successful Social Media Advertising

Audience Understanding: Deeply understand your target audience to craft tailored content that resonates with their interests, behaviors, and preferences.
Consistent Branding: Maintain a consistent brand voice, aesthetic, and messaging across all platforms to build brand recognition and trust.
A/B Testing: Continuously experiment and A/B test different ad formats, visuals, copy, and targeting parameters to optimize campaign performance.
Data Analysis and Optimization: Regularly analyze campaign metrics and adjust strategies accordingly. Optimization is key to maximizing ROI in social media advertising.
Compliance and Adaptability: Stay updated with platform policies and trends. Being adaptable and compliant with evolving regulations ensures the longevity and success of your campaigns.

Navigating social media advertising in 2024 requires a blend of creativity, strategic targeting, and adaptability. By understanding platform-specific strategies, embracing emerging trends, and implementing best practices, businesses can leverage the power of social media advertising to reach and engage their target audience effectively in the digital age.

Understanding Google Ads Verification

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 16:31:43 GMT

PW Media | Jun 08, 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Building trust and maximizing advertising potential through Google

In the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape, Google Ads has established itself as a powerful platform for businesses to reach their target audiences effectively. To ensure the integrity and authenticity of advertising on their platform, Google has introduced a verification process. In this blog article, we will delve into the concept of Google Ads verification, explore the reasons behind its implementation, discuss the verification process, and highlight the benefits it brings to advertisers and users.

What is Google Ads Verification?

Google Ads verification is a process designed to authenticate the identity and legitimacy of advertisers on the Google Ads platform. Through this verification, Google aims to create a safer advertising ecosystem, enhancing transparency and trust for users and businesses alike. By establishing the authenticity of advertisers, Google ensures that ads are displayed to users from credible sources, thereby fostering a more reliable advertising experience.

Why Is Google Implementing Verification?

The implementation of Google Ads verification is driven by a two-fold objective: enhancing user experience and combating ad fraud. Firstly, Google is committed to providing users with relevant and reliable information by ensuring that the displayed ads originate from trustworthy sources. Secondly, by combating ad fraud, Google aims to protect advertisers' investments, maintain the integrity of its ad ecosystem, and minimize the potential negative impact of fraudulent practices.

The Verification Process:

The Google Ads verification process involves a series of steps to confirm an advertiser's identity and legitimacy. The exact requirements may vary depending on the advertiser's location, industry, and advertising history. Here's an overview of the typical verification process:

Identity Verification: Advertisers must provide accurate information regarding their legal identity, business entity, and contact details. This information helps Google establish the advertiser's legitimacy. This documentation may change based on your location .
Business Operations Verification: Google may request additional information to validate the nature of the advertiser's business, including ownership details, licensing information, and any relevant certifications or accreditations.
Geographical Verification: For advertisers targeting specific regions, Google may require proof of a valid local presence or operational setup for advertisers targeting specific regions to ensure compliance with regional regulations.
Ad Content Compliance: Advertisers must adhere to Google's policies regarding ad content, ensuring that their ads meet the platform's standards and guidelines. Google reviews the content to prevent the dissemination of misleading or harmful information.

Google Ads verification is a significant step toward fostering transparency, credibility, and user trust in the digital advertising realm. By implementing a robust verification process, Google aims to protect both users and advertisers from fraudulent practices, ensuring that ads are displayed from legitimate sources. Advertisers should embrace this verification as an opportunity to build a solid foundation for their advertising efforts, establishing credibility and maximizing their advertising potential on the Google Ads platform. Through this collaborative effort between Google and advertisers, the digital advertising landscape becomes a more reliable and secure environment for all.

Do You Have a Marketing Firm? Lean on Them To Make Things Easier

One of the biggest criticisms of Google’s Advertising Verification is the stringent requirements and documentation may pose challenges for smaller businesses with limited resources, potentially limiting their access to the platform and hindering their advertising opportunities. Delays and processing bottlenecks can also be frustrating for small businesses undergoing verification, impacting their ability to launch timely advertising campaigns and suffering setbacks to their workflow and bottom line.

Having a marketing firm for your business can potentially make the Google Ads verification process easier. Here’s why:

Expert Guidance: Marketing firms are experienced in navigating digital advertising platforms and their requirements. They can provide valuable guidance on the verification process, ensuring that you understand the criteria, documentation, and steps involved. Their expertise can help streamline the process and minimize any potential roadblocks.
Documentation Preparation: Marketing firms can assist in gathering and preparing the necessary documentation required for verification. They have experience compiling and organizing relevant information, ensuring it meets the platform's requirements and standards.
Compliance Assurance: Following Google's policies and guidelines is crucial for successful verification. A marketing firm can help review and optimize your ad content, ensuring it aligns with the platform's standards and reduces the risk of potential issues or delays in the verification process.
Efficient Communication: Marketing firms often have established relationships and direct channels of communication with Google or its representatives. This can expedite the process by allowing for direct inquiries, clarifications, or the resolution of any potential issues that may arise during the verification process.
Ongoing Support: Beyond the initial verification, marketing firms can provide ongoing support to ensure your advertising campaigns remain compliant and optimized. They stay updated with platform changes and policies, helping you navigate any future updates or requirements.

While a marketing firm can provide valuable assistance during the verification process, choosing a reputable and knowledgeable firm that understands your business goals and aligns with your values is important. Collaboration with a marketing firm can streamline the process and increase the likelihood of a successful verification faster, allowing you to focus on maximizing the impact of your Google Ads campaigns.

Fostering Security and Trust in Digital Advertising

Google Ads verification is an essential measure in today's digital advertising ecosystem. By prioritizing transparency and trust, Google is revolutionizing the advertising experience, empowering businesses to reach their target audiences more effectively. Embracing this verification process can provide advertisers with a competitive advantage, ensuring their ads are displayed to relevant users while fostering credibility in the eyes of potential customers. Let us embrace this opportunity to build a more secure and trustworthy digital advertising environment together.

Google Ads verification can be a complex process. If you're seeking expert guidance and support to navigate the verification requirements, consider partnering with PW Media . With our in-depth knowledge and experience, we can streamline the verification process, ensure compliance, and maximize the potential of your Google Ads campaigns. We also can help with PPC , social media , SEO , Google Business Profile , and more. Take the next step in securing your advertising success by contacting PW Media today.

Predictions Turned Trends: Social Media Marketing Strategies in 2023

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 15:27:47 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

What does the world of social media have in store for the rest of 2023? We explore some of the hottest trends you need to know to take your marketing to the next level.

In this fast-paced digital world, social media is a vital tool for businesses of every size. From solopreneurs to global corporations, an online presence is crucial in helping to increase reach, boost brand awareness, and maximize sales. However, social media is constantly evolving, and what was popular 12 months ago might not work as effectively today.

To ensure you can keep your business ahead of your competitors, this blog explores our top social media predictions turned trends for this year.

1) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more important

One of the biggest predictions for social media in 2023 is the importance of Artificial Intelligence. AI has been rapidly growing in recent years and has been playing an increasingly more prominent role in how social media users see content.

In 2023, that is going to become even more visible, with Instagram expected to double the amount of AI-recommended content by the end of the year. This means that businesses are going to have a greater chance of appearing in the newsfeeds of their potential audience.

However, these AI models are based on engagement and user interaction. If you want to take full advantage of this 2023 social media trend, you must create content that entices users to like and comment on your posts.

2) Focus on user-generated content

Speaking of content, another social media prediction for this year is the rise of user-generated content. As timelines become increasingly swamped with brands vying for the attention of consumers, the slick, aspirational videos are quickly becoming tiresome, and users are engaging far more with content produced by real, everyday people.

That is why the most successful brands are going to be those that blend more traditional content with user-generated content. This helps to give your brand a more personal touch and is a great way to showcase your existing customers and build social proof.

For the best results, it is important that you work with partners related to your brand and industry. The content itself must also be organic and not like an advert; otherwise, users will quickly see through it and seek alternative brands.

3) Short-form video remains king

Video has been the key to successful social media campaigns for years. However, while it was once those slick, feature-length adverts and videos that reigned supreme, social media in 2023 is a very different landscape.

That is why another crucial social media prediction turned trend in 2023 is the use of short-form videos. TikTok, Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, and YouTube Shorts are transforming the way users consume content. That is why you should be rethinking how you create content, focusing instead on quick, snappy content that has been shot in a vertical format.

4) Be Authentic

Social media is awash with people showcasing their ideal vision of their life, but users are quickly becoming tired of those perfect feeds which do not depict reality and can have damaging psychological effects , especially on youth. The rise of new platforms such as BeReal has further cemented the fact that people are looking for authentic and real content from their friends, family, and brands that they follow.

One social media prediction for 2023 is that this need for authenticity is only going to grow more important over the next 12 months. This will be particularly true amongst younger generations, such as Gen Z, who have spent their entire lives online and are looking for more “ touch grass ” or real-life experiences.

That is why you should focus on generating unedited and unfiltered content, giving your followers an insight into your brand and products from a real-life perspective.

5) Focus on Your Community

Far too many brands have replaced the term “social networking” with “social media”, making their digital presence a one-way street where they feed followers with content but rarely interact with them.

Your social platforms should be interactive and engaging. That is why another social media prediction for 2023 is that those brands which focus on building a community are the ones who will succeed. You want to ensure that you connect with your followers, respond to their questions, find customers who are talking about your brand, and engage in your community.

Building that connection and developing a community helps build trust in your brand and showcases to potential customers that you care about your customers. This will help you to win more people over and maximize your sales.

6) Think About the Hook

While there is a range of new technology destined for social media, things such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and the Metaverse are still a long way from becoming mainstream. Long-term social media predictions anticipate that these will become part of the social media role eventually, but at the moment, the average user is still engaging with traditional formats such as images, video, and text.

For 2023, your social strategy should focus on these core basics if you want to engage with your audience. However, when creating this content, you need to ensure that you are always focusing on the hook. You need to be able to grab the attention of your followers within the first few seconds if you want them to keep watching and engaging with your brand.

A great example of someone who understands the importance of a hook is YouTube star, Mr. Beast . He’s established himself as the largest channel on the video platform by immediately drawing viewers into his videos within the first few seconds.

7) Embracing TikTok

Many social media managers dismissed TikTok as a platform for silly dance trends, but many brands are now discovering that it is a valuable tool in their marketing campaigns. The algorithm rewards exciting content with a reach far beyond what Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide.

The platform is also showing no signs of slowing down, with 2023 set to be its biggest-ever year in terms of growth. Its audience is primarily Gen Z, who are prioritizing the platform over the more traditional options such as Facebook.

That is why if your brand is targeting younger customers, you need to make sure that you are focusing on growing your TikTok presence over the coming 12 months.

Need Help Growing Your Digital Presence?

These are just seven social media predictions for 2023, but the world of digital is constantly evolving, and trying to stay on top of the latest trends can be a time-consuming and complex task.

PW Media knows how difficult it can be trying to juggle social media and run your business. That is why our highly experienced team of marketers is on hand to help you develop a killer social media presence that keeps your audience engaged and using your brand. We know what it takes to stand out from the crowd, so if you want to learn more about how we can help you, get in touch with our team today!

Why Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Should Be Top of Mind in 2023

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 14:25:21 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

A Google Business Profile is the number one way to maximize your local online presence and should be a central part of your 2023 SEO strategy.

One of the biggest SEO trends to look for in 2023 is location. There has been a 136% increase in "near me" searches over the past year, with over 95% of internet users searching online for local businesses. This is all excellent news for small, local businesses.

However, this means that now more than ever, small businesses must not only have an online presence but must command one.

So how do you boost your online presence? With an 84% market share in the search engine industry , Google is the best place to be discovered. With a solid Google Business Profile (GBP), your business will soon be profiting from the billions of local searches performed on Google every day.

What is a Google Business Profile?

At its core, a Google Business Profile ( formerly known as Google My Business ) is an online business profile that syncs your business information across different Google platforms. However, it is much more than just a business listing .

GBP allows business owners to manage how they show up in local online searches and is a tool to distinguish your business in a saturated marketplace. All from one place, a business can provide and update contact information, add product photos, manage reviews, and much more without spending a penny. This free service is Google’s way of helping local businesses grow their online presence and get discovered more easily.

The Benefits of a Google Business Profile

There are many benefits of having a Google Business Profile. When managed correctly and consistently, it can have a huge impact on the success of your business.

Appear in Google Maps

One of the most important benefits of GBP is the listing in Google Maps. When a customer makes a “near me” search on Google, they are almost always looking for a local business nearby that they then plan to visit using the address, or even the route, provided on Google Maps. In fact, 88% of people who conduct a local search end up visiting a store related to their search within a week.

Increase Local SEO

A fully optimized Google Business Profile improves your local SEO , making your business more likely to rank high in search results based on location keywords. If you want customers to find you and come to you, a GBP will help you become more visible in those “near me” searches, a big win for local businesses.

Build Trust through Customer Reviews

Customers can leave valuable feedback via customer reviews on your Google Business Profile, but that’s not all reviews do. They are believed to have about a 10% influence on search engine rankings, and customers are more likely to purchase from a business with reviews. In fact, 95% of consumers will read multiple reviews before making a purchase.

Free Advertising

With GBP being a free platform for any business, you can display your business, products, and information without spending anything! Throw in an optimized local SEO strategy, and your business will sit at the top of search results.

A free for all: Having a tool as versatile as Google Business Profle available at no cost is definitely something to dance about.

Powerful Insights

A Google Business Profile gives you insights to help you build a better strategy. You can see which photos and posts are getting noticed, the keywords used to find your business, and how consumers interact with your profile. Plus, you’ll get an overview of the kinds of people looking for your business and how often people click on your website link. Understanding your customer base, or particular customer profiles, is essential to a successful local SEO strategy.

Search intent refers to the purpose of a user’s search query - what type of content or information are they looking for? By understanding local search intent, a business can better customize its content to the needs and interests of potential customers. This helps them create more targeted, relevant experiences that resonate with their audiences while increasing visibility in local searches.

How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile in 2023

In the era of instant gratification, your business’s top goal for local SEO strategy must include optimizing your Google Business Profile. Why? To get your business in the Google Local Pack, or Google Three-Pack, where the top three businesses appear in a local search as a part of Google Maps. These prominently placed businesses are the ones most searchers click on first.

For your business to make it into the all-powerful Google Local Pack, your 2023 Google Business Profile needs to be set up and fine-tuned. Optimize your GBP with these tips:

Claim your business
First, you must claim your business on Google and begin setting up its GBP. Anyone can report a business at a specific location on Google, but you’ll want to make sure that you are in control of your business’s information that is represented on Google. You can claim your business directly from Google Search or Google Maps — just search your business!
Verify your business’s location
Verified businesses usually rank higher in local searches. You can verify your business while you set up your GBP. After you claim your business, you’ll be taken to the verification step, which can be completed through a mailed postcard, email, phone, search console, or video recording. It may take a couple of weeks for Google to get your information displayed across all its platforms, so the sooner you do this, the better.
Add images and videos
Images and videos on your Google Business Profile will showcase your products or services visually appealing way while also providing potential customers with additional information about what you have to offer and what they can expect when visiting your business. Visuals draw attention to your profile when users search for related businesses on Google Maps and other search engines. Additionally, these assets allow people to become familiar with your brand and easily recognize it among competitors that may also appear on results pages.

GBPs with photos are more likely to get requests for directions and clicks through to their websites than those without them.
Include keywords
Finding the right keywords and using them in your Google Business Profile will increase your relevance score, which is one of the critical factors for search engine ranking. Find out what words consumers use to search for your business and similar ones, and implement them in your GBP. Avoid bad practices like keyword stuffing , which can make your profile feel unnatural and hurt your ranking.
Keep contact info updated
Make sure all your contact information and any other information about your business is current and up to date. Nothing is more frustrating to the consumer than inaccurate hours listed on Google. Update your hours to reflect seasons and holidays to keep customers returning to your profile.
Add special features and Call to Actions (CTAs)
Something that has developed on GBP over the years has been all the “extras” that you can add to your profile to make it more relevant and easy to use. Enhance your consumer experience by adding simple and effective call-to-action buttons such as "Order Delivery" and "Book Reservation." You can also add attributes like “free Wi-Fi” or “outdoor seating” to give customers a better idea of the experience at your business.
Add products
If you are a storefront that sells physical products, you can add and update your products directly to your GBP to make the consumer experience more seamless. An updated inventory also helps your GBP stay relevant for various search queries and adds your business to Google Shopping listings!
Get reviews from customers
Reviews provide social proof that aids Google and other search engines in determining where you will appear in searches based on what you offer. Getting more reviews can significantly help your local SEO by showing positive customer experiences with your business, which boosts its reputation and, subsequently, its chances of appearing higher up in the rankings. A good strategy is to actively encourage customers to leave reviews or ratings after using your services. Having more reviews also helps build trust with potential customers who may be hesitant about using your products and services without knowing what kind of experience others have had. Of course, not all reviews are good, so it's important to know how to respond to negative reviews , too.

You Need a Google Business Profile in 2023

With all the clear benefits and no monetary cost, creating and managing a GBP is a no-brainer. As local searches continue to increase, it only makes sense to boost your chances of being discovered online, and the best way to do it is to build a solid Google Business Profile.

Start Building Your Online Presence Today!

Despite its necessity, it takes time and effort to manage your online presence. Social media, SEO, and other digital marketing tactics can feel overwhelming. PW Media can help you manage your online presence so you can focus on the other essential aspects of your business, like products, services, and growth. Our team will work with you to build a solid Google Business Profile and sound SEO strategy so you can head into 2023 feeling confident in the trajectory of your business in the digital space.

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:34:38 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Start the year right by incorporating these trending marketing practices into your strategy.

The marketing industry is constantly changing, and it has been changing faster than ever since digital technology began playing a role. It’s not always easy to keep up, but a few practices will remain constant throughout 2023, and these will be the ones your small business will want to invest in to stay relevant to your audience. Consider these ten small business marketing trends as you prepare your business’s strategy for 2023.

1. Personalization

Most consumers have come to expect personalized experiences with any company or brand they interact with online. From related product suggestions to personalized offers delivered directly to their inbox, personalization has only grown as a necessity in marketing strategies for any business, particularly for small businesses.

With markets becoming more saturated and competitive, one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is to provide consumers with an individualized experience. Consumers are more likely to stick with businesses that treat them as individuals versus just another customer profile.

2. Marketing Automation

Not only do consumers want more personalized customer experiences, but they also want faster ones. With the internet putting everything at their fingertips on demand, people expect fast, if not immediate, responses. That’s where chatbots come in. Your customers will get a quicker, more streamlined answer to whatever questions they seek when they engage with a chatbot. Plus, it frees your time to focus on your products or other aspects of your marketing strategy.

AI isn’t just for chatbots, though. AI is at the algorithmic core of digital marketing, from search engines to social media. Finding ways to leverage these algorithms, like hyper-targeting audiences or extracting valuable data, will make your marketing strategy that much stronger.

3. Localization

Similar to personalization, localization requires businesses to get to know their customers and cater to who they are. The difference, however, is that localization focuses on segmenting their markets based on location, and then catering to each local market. This means adapting your business, or its product or service, based on the culture of consumers in a specific area. For example, if you sold winter boots, you might run a year-round campaign in Alaska but only a winter season campaign in the Midwest.

Localization has always been an important part of marketing, even before the digital age. Focusing on localization shows that your business respects the differences of consumers between each area.

4. Customer Experience

Consumers expect a positive experience throughout their journey as a customer of your business. This means creating positive encounters when a consumer becomes aware of your business through social media, word of mouth, or any other kind of marketing.

Your marketing strategy needs to have customer experience at the forefront. Consider what customers need and want as they go through their journey, and tailor to that. You can also develop a positive customer experience by creating educational content, responding to customer reviews, building loyalty on social media, and keeping your marketing messages clear, concise, and consistent.

5. Video Marketing

Our society is increasingly becoming visual-oriented, which means there is no end to video marketing in sight. Videos are a must for every marketing strategy, as it’s the main way most consumers like to be communicated to.

A big up-and-coming player in the video marketing scene is the live stream. Live streams have changed the game in marketing, allowing businesses to be more authentic and interactive with their customers in real time. You can create incentives or special offers for live stream attendees or generate buzz for a new product. The best part? It’s free!

6. Metrics/Analytics

To get the most out of your marketing budget, you need robust data and analytics to tell you where your audience is and how they are engaging with your content. You don’t want to be spending money on a campaign that doesn’t reach your targeted consumers; you want as close to a surefire way to engage your audience as possible, and that is through data-driven metrics. Armed with this information, you can optimize your marketing strategy in the most efficient, effective, and profitable way.

Data will always be a huge part of the marketing industry, if not one of its key drivers. And, as analytic tools keep improving, so will the data they provide, which will help you continue to make even better decisions for your business’s marketing strategy.

7. Social Media Marketing

Social media is never going away, so if you haven’t already embraced it, 2023 is the year to do so. With a number of different platforms serving different purposes, from generating leads to building brand loyalty, social media marketing needs to be in your strategy.

A big trend right now within social media marketing is the use of content creators and social media influencers to help generate buzz for your business and its products or services. In fact, according to a 2020 study from Matter Communications , 61% of consumers trust influencers for product and service recommendations.

Yes, Please: Primary Clothing utilizes customer-generated images with the hashtag #yesprimary on their Instagram account.

Another trend is the use of user-generated content in social media marketing. While it is similar to influencer marketing, the big plus of user-generated content is that it’s free. This content is created by everyday customers of your product or service. This content can often feel more authentic to prospective consumers, making it more appealing. Although you do not pay for or solicit this content, you can use it in a few ways, such as encouraging customers to share their experiences on social media and then resharing their posts on your own social networks.

8. Content Marketing

It’s not enough to create social media content. To really enhance your small business marketing strategy, you might also consider creating other online content such as blogs, podcasts, e-newsletters, or videos. You want to be able to reach consumers anywhere, and the best way to do that is to have different kinds of accessible content for them to consume.

Things like blogs and podcasts, when done right, will bring in consumers looking for an answer, but then intrigue them enough to stay and get to know your business a little more. If the content is good enough, they might make a purchase right then and there, and even tell their friends and family about it. Good content is great for lead generation and boosting your company’s online visibility.

9. Email Marketing

Despite email being one of the oldest digital marketing tactics, it is still largely relevant in 2023. This is because email is still one of the best ways to target a particular group of people. You can get in touch with current, prospective, and even past customers, as long as you still have their email addresses. You can deliver exclusive deals and offers and point your customers toward other marketing channels like social media to help build brand loyalty. As long as each email you send has a purpose and a call to action for the recipients, email marketing will remain an effective part of your 2023 marketing strategy.

10. Strategic Partnerships

Good, old-fashioned word of mouth is always in style when it comes to marketing trends. A great way to take advantage of this tactic is to build strategic partnerships with content creators, influencers, and even other brands. Find individuals and businesses that align with what your company stands for and relate to what your company sells. Connect and network with these people to work together to promote each other. Sometimes, getting the word out means sharing a space with others by building each other up. It’s a give and take, but these alliances can often help your business reach new heights.

Develop Your Personalized Strategy Today!

Every business operates differently, and you need a strategy that will work for you and your audience. PW Media can help you get the most out of your digital presence by leveraging its technology, data-driven insights, and creative services. With the help of this team of experts, you can be sure that you’re reaching the right customers with the best message to maximize your business's potential.

Don’t Be Fooled! The 4 Biggest SEO Myths to Avoid

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 18:03:40 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Make informed decisions about your SEO strategy based on facts, not myths.

There has been a significant shift in how businesses market themselves in recent years. More and more companies are converting to digital marketing for better ROI, targeted reach, and flexible customization. One of the biggest drivers behind successful online marketing is understanding SEO.

There's no denying that SEO can be confusing, which can help myths get started. SEO is constantly changing as Google and other search engines update their algorithms for matching search queries to the most relevant websites. What worked last year might not work this year, so it's hard to keep up with the latest best practices.

In this article, we'll dispel the four most common myths about SEO so you can focus on creating quality content that appeals to your target audience.

What SEO Is

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an organic marketing strategy that ranks a blog, website, or webpage.

SEO primarily functions to increase website traffic, ultimately capturing new leads and building a larger audience through targeted keywords. The result is an improved SEO score, allowing your website to show higher on a search engine’s search results.

SEO can be implemented across several platforms and search engines. Two of the biggest that capture the largest audiences are Google and YouTube. Google comprises over 90% of all online search queries.

So, how does it work? Therein lies the rub.

The quote , “ It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma ,” may seem appropriate here since SEO is a bit like a black box. Search engine algorithms are in constant flux. Hundreds of updates are performed yearly to better determine a website’s relevance and value to users seeking reliable information. The complex formulas used for algorithms are proprietary to the search engines that create them, and trying to figure them out can be difficult.

However, you can implement tried-and-true strategies to optimize your SEO efforts to increase visibility and authority in the algorithmic eyes of search engines like Google and Bing.

Some of the most common and effective SEO strategies include:

Publishing relevant, high-quality content
Using relevant keywords (and avoiding keyword stuffing)
Optimizing your Google Business Profile
Garnering customer reviews
Blogging
Local citation management
Link building
Utilizing local SEO

The Birth of SEO Myths

So, where do these myths come from? In some cases, they’re simply the result of outdated information that doesn’t reflect changes in how SEO works. In other cases, they may be intentional misinformation spread by companies who want to sell you something (such as an “SEO-optimized” website template).

Following SEO myths and bad advice can seriously hurt your rankings.

Some SEO myths are more enduring than others. Know your facts and base your strategy on SEO tactics that are proven to work.

Top 4 SEO Myths to Avoid

It’s imperative that you remain up to date with the latest SEO best practices, ensuring that you don’t proceed with outdated, untrue, or largely ineffective SEO tactics.

Don’t waste time and money on preventable mistakes! Below are the top four SEO myths you’ll want to avoid.

1. Google Will Penalize You for Any Duplicate Content on Your Website

Duplicate content is one of the most widely discussed topics in SEO circles. The idea that Google penalizes websites for it is a pervasive myth— which Google plainly states . Duplicate copy does not mean Google will punish you.

In search results, Google's algorithm prioritizes original content over duplicate copy. However, it is possible to lose ranking positions or even be removed from search engine results pages (SERPs) if identical content is published across multiple sites. Google doesn't want its SERPs to be cluttered with duplicate information. It wants the user experience to be tailored and unique so users get value from clicking on each result.

2. Don’t Bother with Link-Building

Whoa. Hard stop here.

Link building is an integral part of any SEO strategy because it helps to improve your website's visibility and organic traffic.

Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own. The value of these links lies in the fact that they are an important ranking factor for search engines. A website with more links is seen as more authoritative and trustworthy and will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Various techniques can be used to build links, such as guest posting, promoting your content on social media, online directory submissions , broken link building, and resource page link building.

However, not all links are created equal. For a link to be valuable, it needs to come from a high-quality website relevant to your own.

3. Keyword Research is a Waste of Time

Uh, say again?

Keyword research is the staple of any good SEO strategy. But with the rise of voice search and other changes in how people use the internet, some believe that keyword research is no longer relevant. Here’s why they’re wrong – keyword research is still essential to a successful SEO strategy.

One of the main reasons keyword research is still necessary is because it helps you understand what potential customers are searching for. Understanding what keywords people use to find products or services like yours can ensure your website and content are optimized for those keywords. This will help you attract more visitors to your site and improve your chances of converting them into customers.

Identifying high-ranking, niche, high-volume, and long-tail vs. short-tail keywords will help attract the most relevant traffic you’re seeking to target.

4. SEO Is a One-Time Thing

SEO is not a "one-time" thing. This is among the biggest myths about SEO. The reality is that SEO is a marketing strategy that requires ongoing effort and process .

The landscape of SEO is constantly changing. Search engines make algorithm updates regularly based on user needs and behaviors, which can impact your ranking. So you need to be prepared to adjust your strategy as needed.

Achieving a high ranking is great, but staying on top depends on keeping up with your SEO strategy and maintenance. Your competitors are also trying to improve their ranking, so you must remain vigilant to outrank them.

Make Better Decisions by Knowing the Facts

Understanding the difference between SEO myths and facts is critical to developing an effective digital marketing strategy. With the ever-changing landscape of the internet, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends and best practices. However, staying informed and understanding SEO basics can boost your digital marketing efforts and produce results.

If you are looking for a digital marketing company to help you increase your online visibility while saving you time and money, then PW Media can help. We have the experience and expertise to create a customized plan to help you boost rankings and reach your target audience. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you grow your business.

Getting More Robocalls Than Customer Calls? Here’s What To Do

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 15:16:35 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Keeping your business free of spam and robocalls.

Have you been receiving strange, unwanted calls from unknown callers? These calls are called robocalls or spam calls, and they can be a major problem for small businesses, wasting time and resources and potentially damaging your reputation.

According to YouMail’s data , an estimated 52 billion robocalls were made in the United States in 2022. This number is expected to increase in 2023. In addition to being a nuisance, these unwanted calls can waste valuable time and resources, damage a business’s reputation, and even have a financial impact.

Just one spammer can cause considerable damage to a company’s reputation and operations, as in the case of Adrian Abramovich , who sent out 97 million malicious robocalls over three months, impacting Trip Advisor's reputation. These robocalls also affected Spōk, a medical paging service in Virginia, whose system was so disrupted by these robocalls that its medical emergency service network was substantially slowed, which could have had catastrophic consequences.

Given the prevalence of spam and robocalls, it’s important for small business owners to take steps to protect themselves. In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive overview of the problem of robocalls and spam calls, including their impact on small businesses, and offer tips and strategies for protecting against them. By taking these precautions, small business owners can minimize the impact of these nuisance calls and focus on the calls that matter.

What’s the Difference Between Spam and Robocalls?

Spam calls are unsolicited calls, typically to sell a product or service. Humans or automated systems can make these calls, often using deceptive tactics to get you to answer or give out personal information. Robocalls, on the other hand, are automated calls that use prerecorded messages. These calls can be made for telemarketing purposes, customer reminders, political campaigns, or scams.

Impact of Spam and Robocalls on Businesses

Spam and robocalls can have several negative impacts on small businesses. Here are the top three:

1. Drains time and resources

These nuisance calls can waste valuable time and resources, as small business owners often feel pressure to answer every call since it could be a potential lead. According to a survey by the National Consumer League, the average small business owner spends over two hours per week dealing with unwanted calls, and that time could be better spent on other tasks.

2. Damages a business’s reputation

In addition to wasting time, spam and robocalls can also damage a business’s reputation. If customers cannot reach a business due to a constant stream of spam calls, they may become frustrated and choose to do business with a competitor. In addition, if a customer receives a call from what appears to be a business they know and trust—and are then scammed—that complaints and lawsuits could severely damage a business’s reputation.

3. Hurts your bottom line

Spam and robocalls can have a financial impact on small businesses. Scammers may try to trick small business owners into paying for a product or service, or they may try to steal personal information to commit fraud. Small businesses may incur costs for tools or services that block or filter spam and robocalls. While these costs may be necessary to protect a business, they can still add up and impact its bottom line.

Ways To Protect Against Spam And Robocalls

So, what can you do to protect your business from spam and robocalls? Here are some tips and strategies to consider:

Use caller ID blocking: Many phone providers offer caller ID blocking to protect against spam and robocalls. This feature allows you to block calls from specific or unknown numbers.

Use a call blocker: Various apps and devices are available to help you filter out unwanted calls. These tools can be programmed to block specific numbers or calls that meet certain criteria (e.g., calls from unfamiliar area codes).

Use the National Do Not Call Registry: The National Do Not Call Registry is a free service that allows you to opt-out of most telemarketing calls. You can register your business phone numbers on the website or by calling 1-888-382-1222. However, this will only decrease calls from reputable businesses that cold call, not companies with the intent to scam.

Get caller identification: Various caller identification services can help you identify unknown callers. This can be especially useful if you’re unsure whether a call is legitimate.

Conclusion

Small businesses need to take steps to protect themselves from spam and robocalls, both for the sake of their employees and customers, and to protect the business itself.

If you're a small business owner fed up with the constant stream of robocalls and spam calls interrupting your work day, take action now. Don't let these annoying and potentially harmful calls continue to disrupt your business.

How To Recession-Proof Your Digital Marketing

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 17:44:56 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Here’s how to ensure you make good digital marketing choices during an economic downturn.

There can be no denying that the world is facing a range of complex issues. From rising energy bills to an increasing cost of living, businesses are under tremendous pressure, and with a possible recession on the way , what can you do to protect your brand?

While it might be tempting to start cutting costs wherever possible, recession digital marketing is essential to ensuring your business remains ahead of competitors and can ride out the storm.

Why is Recession Digital Marketing So Important?

Marketing is all about ensuring your small business is reaching your target audience. However, it can also be a significant investment, so when brands begin to feel the squeeze of a recession, many begin to cut back on their marketing and advertising .

Although this might initially provide some immediate relief on your monthly bills, it can significantly set your business back over the medium and long term. Instead, focusing on recession digital marketing can help you increase your reach and maximize your sales. Countless examples date back to over 100 years of recessions that show that those businesses that bucked the trend and continued with their marketing were able to secure a more significant market share and increase profits.

Cutting back on your digital marketing during a recession can negatively impact your small business in multiple ways, including:

Decreased market share
One of the highest costs of cutting back on recession digital marketing is that you will be losing your market share and ability to share your voice. As other businesses cut back on their marketing, focusing on yours will allow you to take your brand to the next level.

Reduced reach
As a recession takes hold, customers are far more likely to shop around to look for the best deal possible. Not marketing your brand during this time will mean you are missing out on capturing new customers and expanding your reach.

Lagging behind competitors
While cutting back on digital marketing during a recession could help you save on immediate costs, it can harm your business down the line. Focusing on your marketing during an economic downturn will help you gain a competitive advantage that will ensure you remain ahead of your competitors when things begin to look up.

How Recessions Change Consumer Behavior

When it comes to recession digital marketing, it is essential to remember that consumer behavior does change during this period. That means traditional marketing methods might be less effective, and you will need to adapt your approach to ensure you can enjoy the best results possible.

Previous recessions have shown that the most significant change in consumer behavior is a switch to more affordable products and services. If a recession is long enough or particularly steep, consumers are likely to slow down their purchasing frequency.

Although consumer trends do change, brands that focus on these changes in their recession digital marketing can seize the opportunity.

Top Tips to Maximize Your Recession Digital Marketing

While there can be no denying the benefits of focusing on recession digital marketing, what exactly should you focus on? We decided to take a closer look at some top tips to help maximize your results:

1. Review your existing performance

When it comes to recession digital marketing, the first thing you should do is review your current marketing performance. This means examining whether your social channels and current campaigns meet customers' changing requirements.

When reviewing your channels and activities, consider their overall performance and whether you regularly meet your set KPIs. This will allow you to establish which areas to optimize and focus on and which to eliminate.

2. Adapt to consumer spending

Once you know which channels and marketing strategies you should focus on, the next step is to adapt your messaging to meet changes in consumer spending. While it is only sometimes possible to reduce your prices, compelling copywriting and marketing strategies can help capture consumers' attention.

If you are finding that your customers are changing their purchasing habits to buy your lower-priced products or services, then consider making them more prominent on your website to drive more sales.

3. Existing customers are your foundation

One of the most powerful and cost-effective strategies for recession digital marketing is to focus on your existing customers. These individuals already know your brand and trust your products and services.

For small businesses, these customers are the bread and butter of your brand during a downturn and are a great way to upsell your products. Reach out to your customers who connected with your brand through purchases and social engagement over the last 12 months and inform them of your latest offers or promotions.

4. Focus on local SEO

Another top tip for recession digital marketing is to focus on your local SEO . Research has shown that 78% of consumers search for local businesses at least once a week, so concentrating on reaching those consumers can transform your success and help you to maximize your sales.

There are many ways to do this, but the first thing that you should do is to set up your Google Business Profile and complete it to ensure that it lists your company name, address, and contact details. You should then upload photos and videos that accurately portray your business.

5. Focus on analytics

Analytics are always important when it comes to marketing, but especially when it comes to marketing during a recession. Make sure that you are conducting thorough research into not only your business and marketing performance but also the industry as a whole.

The more you learn about your customers and the strategies that work, the quicker you can adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

Need Help with Your Recession Digital Marketing?

Although it might be tempting to start cutting back on marketing when a recession looms, it can harm your business more. So, if you are looking for help with your recession digital marketing, PW Media is on hand to help you every step of the way with its highly trained team of experts and years of experience.

We know the importance of capturing the attention of a new audience and retaining existing customers. That is why we will work with you to develop robust strategies that will give you the tools needed to strengthen your brand as the recession hits.

Want to find out more? Get in touch with our team today!

Don’t Leave Your Holiday Marketing Strategy Stranded in the Cold

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 13:53:54 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

End the year merry and bright for your small business by capitalizing on the holiday season.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner and Christmas not far behind, the season of giving is at hand, which means consumers are looking for goods and services to share with those they care about. The holiday season is the most crucial season for most businesses as it averages about 19% of their revenue .

With that kind of consumer behavior, small businesses need a winter holiday marketing plan to capitalize on this powerful season and find a competitive edge over larger-scale companies.

The Importance of Winter Holiday Marketing

As shown earlier, consumer behavior trends tend to see a significant uptick in activity during the holiday season, precisely the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. With proper strategic planning and the right tools, holiday marketing can increase customer engagement, boost sales, and raise brand awareness.

The holiday season is a gold mine for marketing opportunities because it is consistently one of the year's largest (if not the largest) consumer events. According to the National Retail Federation , the winter holidays are second in average spend per person only to back-to-college events. This surge in demand is due to consumers not only buying for themselves but also for others.

What’s more, 84% of consumers said they plan to “shop local” or do their holiday shopping with small businesses. This creates an even bigger opportunity for small businesses to grow during the winter holidays. By reaching these shoppers with a strategic holiday marketing campaign, you can easily convert them from online window shoppers to loyal customers.

The Benefits of Effective Holiday Marketing

When winter holiday marketing is done right, it can have numerous benefits for your business, aside from reaping the rewards of increased sales

Better engagement - Holiday marketing allows you to get creative with your marketing strategies in ways you might not typically think to try. Holidays come with many unique phrases and imagery that can only be used this time of year. You can have some fun coming up with personable and relatable content that engages consumers and converts them from leads to customers.

Increased sales - The winter holidays are one of the best times to launch a new product, service, or promotion. You can create products catered around a holiday theme or use the holidays to get the word out about something new you plan to offer all year round.

Boost brand awareness & relevancy - The holiday season provides the perfect atmosphere to build awareness for your brand. With consumers actively looking for different and unique gift ideas, this is your time to show them what you have to offer through engaging marketing campaigns and content, driving them to become consistent customers and regular members of your audience.

Madness Rushes In: Be prepared for the winter holiday crush by having a well-planned strategy that optimizes all your marketing channels for maximum visibility and year end sales.

Building a Strong Winter Holiday Marketing Strategy in 2022

When constructing your holiday marketing strategy, consider these top tips to stand out and take your business to the next level.

Take Stock of Your Inventory and Audience

Look at your inventory of goods and services and see how you can bundle them or offer a unique promotion. Do you have any products that fit into a holiday theme? Could you add anything to your offerings? Also, consider your primary target audience and what they are looking for during this holiday season. Do your research.

Keep Up with Social Media

Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram , Twitter, and your Google Business Profile (GBP) are a great way to keep your brand top of mind and engagement strong during the holiday season. Contests, giveaways, exclusive offers, FAQS, and updates on holiday hours and inventory are all things that will bring brand awareness, promote customer loyalty, and boost sales before the New Year.

Get the Timing Right (Hint: Start Early!)

Due to inflation and economic concerns, holiday consumers are starting their shopping much earlier this year and plan to be done much more quickly. According to the 2022 Deloitte Holiday survey , the shopping duration for the holiday season is projected to last 5.8 weeks this year versus 6.4 weeks. This survey also showed that about 23% of holiday budgets will already be spent by the end of October. This means it’s time to kick holiday marketing strategies into high gear to ensure you can maximize your profits and growth this season.

Common Holiday Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

As important as winter holiday marketing is, keep in mind that there are tactics that should stay out of your arsenal as you prepare your strategy for the holiday season.

Don’t limit yourself – As a small business, you may feel like you can only do some much. However, look into multiple tactics you can use to reach different customer bases. There are plenty of ways to get more consumers without breaking the bank or overexerting yourself.
Don’t lag behind – Once you develop an overall strategy, set small goals throughout the campaign-building process to ensure you can launch on time with little to no hiccups.
Don’t send bulk emails – Email is oversaturated with marketing content. Don’t fall into the trap of bombarding potential customers with deal after deal in their inbox. Find other unique ways to get the word out. Be purposeful with your email marketing.

Get Started on Your Winter Holiday Marketing Strategy Today!

As you develop your holiday marketing strategies this year, remember these tips to make it your best holiday season yet! Need additional help? PW Media is a digital marketing agency that can help you create a personalized holiday marketing plan for your business. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take full advantage of consumer trends over the winter holidays.

How Can Landing Pages Boost Your Marketing Strategy?

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 13:21:29 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Organic and paid marketing are two popular methods for promoting a business. Both have their benefits and drawbacks, so it's important to choose the right one for your needs.

A well-crafted landing page can be a powerful marketing tool. A landing page isn’t an ordinary webpage; it’s one that you can use to gather more information about your website visitors and convert them into paying customers more quickly and easily.

What Is a Landing Page?

In the most basic sense, a landing page is a distinct webpage that is hyper-focused with one goal or call-to-action (CTA) for the consumer. They are often used for lead generation—the next step in converting a visitor to your website into a consumer of your goods or services via a contact form or a detailed product page. Landing pages are usually linked to a pay-per-click ad or in the CTA of a blog post, but they should also be searchable.

Landing Page vs. Homepage

Unlike your homepage or any other web page, a landing page directs a visitor to a specific page with a particular goal. Your homepage is a general place for visitors to browse all their options. However, when you target a specific group of people looking for a specific item or service, a landing page gets them to where they want to go much faster and without extra distractions, making them more likely to convert as customers.

Landing Pages and Digital Marketing

Landing pages have proven time and time again their effectiveness when it comes to digital marketing, and research shows that the more targeted the page, the more likely site visitors are to convert. A recent survey found that pages with just one CTA link had a 13.5% conversion rate, whereas those with five or more only had a 10.5% conversion rate.

What makes hyper-focused landing pages so effective? It’s because humans are easily distracted. The more links on a landing page, the more chances your visitor could fall off course. If your landing page has one goal, the visitor has no choice but to pay attention to that CTA.

Marketers usually use two different CTAs for their strategy around landing pages: click-through and lead generation.

Click-through landing page
Click-through pages serve as a middleman between your content and your product for the customer. These pages describe a product or service in more detail and offer only one link that will take the visitor directly to the eCommerce site where they can purchase the item.
Lead generation landing page
Lead generation pages are different in that they contain a form for the visitor to fill out with contact information, usually in exchange for an offer, discount, or free service. This allows you to gain information to better target a potential customer in the future.

– Freshly

Example of a Lead Generation Landing Page

Benefits of Landing Pages

If it isn’t clear yet how landing pages can boost your marketing strategy, here is a quick guide to all the benefits landing pages can bring you.

Lead generation has never been easier. With landing pages, you can target specific audience segments and get their information for your sales team to follow up with.
Marketing offers need a home, too. If you were planning to give consumers a special offer, why not have them “pay” you with contact information that you can use for lead generation?
Demographics of your consumers will be at your fingertips. As you gather contact info, you can also learn more about who is visiting your site and for what reason. This will help you build a more robust targeted strategy for these populations.
Your audience’s engagement activity is more accessible. With a landing page, you’ll see which visitors are most engaged with your content and coming back for more.
Other marketing channels will benefit. Landing pages can be shared in various ways, including social media, email campaigns, and PPC ads.
Your marketing offers can be analyzed. When you track and analyze the metrics for your landing pages, you’ll see which marketing offers do better or worse, providing you with data that can help you improve your overall strategy.

– Purple Carrot

Example of a Click-Through Landing Page

How to Create a Successful Landing Page

Like any other part of your marketing strategy, landing pages must be strategically designed to promote the highest conversion rate. There are several items that every landing page needs to be successful.

Headline — Headlines should be clear and to the point about what your visitor will receive if converted.
Copy — Any additional text on the page should give a more thorough explanation of the offer, but don’t write a book; keep it short and easy to read. Bullet points are your friends.
Keywords — Like any other content, ensure your page is optimized for search engines.
Hidden navigation — Don’t distract your readers with additional places to click. Hidden navigation reduces the landing page’s bounce rate.
Lead-capture/conversion form — The primary purpose of your landing page is to draw out your visitors’ information in exchange for an offer. Have a contact form or link to the product on your eCommerce site to convert your visitors.
Image — An image or two will make your landing page more visually appealing and give your visitors a better idea of what you are offering.
Thank you page — Following a conversion, a great landing page will have a thank you page that would offer next steps for the visitor to receive what was promised in exchange for your information.

Bonus tip: Have multiple landing pages

Multiple landing pages allow you to target specific customers for each product or service you offer. The more pages you have, the better.

Level Up Your Strategy By Creating an Optimized Landing Page!

If you’re ready to see how landing pages will fit into your strategy, work with our top-notch marketing professionals and website developers at PW Media . Our team will research your market, provide you with strategies and best practices specific to your needs, and can even help you design and implement landing pages that will generate leads in no time. Contact us today!

Organic Vs. Paid Marketing: What's the Difference?

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:10:53 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Organic and paid marketing are two popular methods for promoting a business. Both have their benefits and drawbacks, so it's important to choose the right one for your needs.

Marketing your business is about getting your products or services in front of people who benefit from them. In other words, it's all about reaching your target market.

Two main marketing approaches are used to achieve this reach: organic marketing and paid marketing.

Both have their strengths, weaknesses, and use cases. Your job is determining which approach (or combination of approaches) best suits your business goals.

But don't worry—we're here to help! This guide will explain everything you need about organic and paid marketing .

What is Organic Marketing?

Organic marketing is a marketing approach that drives traffic to your website without relying on paid advertising.

Instead, organic marketing efforts focus on improving your website's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through search engine optimization (SEO) techniques like:

keyword research
email marketing
social media
local SEO
link building
content creation
citation building

The central tenant of SEO is simple: pages that rank higher earn more traffic. Research consistently shows that the 1st ranked result earns a 39.6% share of web traffic, while the 5th ranked result earns a 7.4% share—that's a big difference!

So, if you can create content and web pages that rank highly for relevant keywords and search terms, you can earn traffic without paying for it directly.

What Is Paid Marketing?

Paid marketing, usually called search engine marketing (SEM), is an approach that drives traffic to your website by paying for ad space. Several paid marketing channels are available, each with strengths and weaknesses.

The most common are:

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: You bid an amount of money to show up in SERPs for a given keyword. You then pay the amount of your bid every time someone clicks on one of your ads. Google Ads is the most popular PPC platform.
Display Advertising: You pay to have your ad displayed on websites and apps relevant to your target market. Ad space is usually sold on a cost-per-impression (CPM) basis, meaning you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown.
Social Media Advertising: You pay to have your ads displayed on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Paid marketing can effectively reach your target market—especially if you're targeting people who don't use search engines often or are already familiar with your brand.

That said, it's important to remember that paid marketing is just that: paid. You're essentially buying ad space from a website or platform, which means it can become quite costly over time.

There’s a big difference: Organic (SEO) and paid (SEM) advertising are separate marketing approaches that can be used alone or together depending on factors like time, budget, and goals.

Organic Marketing vs. Paid Marketing: Which Is Better?

Now that we've gone over the basics of organic and paid marketing, it's time to answer the big question: which is better?

The answer is that they're both effective marketing tools depending on your business goals. That said, we can help you make a more informed decision by comparing both approaches from a few different angles:

Upfront Costs Vs. Potential for Return on Investment (ROI)

When done correctly, both organic and paid marketing can be potent drivers of traffic and conversions. But each approach has a massive difference in terms of potential return.

Why?

Paid marketing ROIs are always linear, but organic marketing ROIs are potentially exponential.

Suppose you spend $200 on a paid marketing campaign targeting a keyword that costs you $2 per click. It doesn't matter how amazing your ad is, you're only going to generate 100 clicks (unless you raise your budget).

Now, let's say you spend $700 on a blog post that ranks 1st for a keyword. Depending on the number of people searching for the keyword, your post might get 50, 5,000, 500,000—even 5,000,000 clicks. The point is there's no limit to the amount of traffic you can generate.

So, if you're looking for huge potential ROI, deploy organic marketing.

Time Commitment

That exponential ROI comes at a cost, though. Organic marketing isn’t a one-and-done task. It takes much more time, effort, and maintenance than paid marketing. It's essentially the difference between long-term planning and short-term gains.

To rank in SERPs, you need to create high-quality content optimized for search engines and users. This means keyword research, understanding search terms, link building, audience segmentation, and more. All of this takes knowledge of how SEO works and how to make it more effective—usually 3-6 months to start seeing results, though it can take longer. For organic marketing, time and patience are key factors to success.

Paid marketing, on the other hand, can provide results much more quickly. You can create an ad campaign, tweak it as needed, and start seeing results almost immediately.

So, if you're looking for a quick fix or want to test a new marketing strategy, go with paid marketing.

Risk

Of course, nothing in life is free—and that includes marketing.

Organic marketing requires time and effort, but it can be a risk-free approach to marketing your products and services. Many tools for organic marketing are free: adding a blog to your website, creating a Google Business Profile , or signing up with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram , Twitter, Youtube, or TikTok.

Paid marketing always comes with a certain amount of risk. You're gambling your money on an ad campaign, and there's no guarantee you'll see any return on your investment. If your ad points to a shoddy landing page with a low conversion rate, it could be an inefficient way to allocate ad spend.

So, if you're looking for a low-risk, budget-friendly marketing strategy and have the time and patience for it, go with organic marketing.

Cost

Organic marketing can be free in the same way that it can be risk-free—but you must understand how SEO works and what to do to make it more effective. you can focus on optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) , blog, post on social media, and do other things to improve your SEO without spending a dime. That said, many business owners choose to hire marketing agencies due to the work, time, and expertise required.

That outsourcing usually comes at a considerable upfront cost—a single, high-quality blog post might cost you a bit of money, especially if the writer understands SEO. Paying up to $750 is not out of the realm for this type of content development. However, the ROI on these articles can be exponential, so they may eventually pay for themselves.

Paid marketing requires an upfront cost as well, but it's usually much smaller than organic marketing. For example, a $200 Facebook ad campaign is within the realm of possibility for most businesses.

So, where does that leave us? Well, DIY organic marketing is free if you have the time and expertise. If you don't, it's going to cost you. Paid marketing is also going to cost you, but the barrier to entry is much lower.

Summary

Using paid or organic marketing comes down to your needs as a business owner. While it’s best to blend these strategies in ways that reflect your goals and budget, sometimes you have to choose between one over the other.

If you're looking for a huge potential ROI in the long run and have more time than money, go with organic marketing. Unlike paid advertising, organic marketing is there for the long haul and doesn’t stop working just because you stop paying money.

If you need quick results for short-term goals, such as trying to get sales during the last two weeks before a big holiday, go with paid marketing. It reaches your target audience faster, quickly increases traffic, and helps boost conversion.

Decisions, Decisions…

Still trying to decide which approach is right for you? Feel free to reach out and we'll be happy to chat about your options. When it comes to paid advertising, our experienced team will work with you to create ad campaigns that are targeted and effective. We also have in-depth experience with organic marketing and can help you grow your online presence through SEO and content marketing. No matter what your needs are, we will work with you to create a customized plan that fits your budget and objectives. Contact PW Media today!

7 Ways to Boost Your Holiday Marketing Starting This Fall

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 14:49:38 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

How to grab attention at the start of the increasingly busy holiday season and sustain momentum throughout it.

The holiday season is crucial for businesses and organizations that rely on consumer spending and giving. Consumers are spending more on themselves and others. They are also looking for unique ways to get involved and give back to their community.

With so much money up for grabs, it’s no wonder companies start planning their holiday marketing campaigns months in advance. But with the competition only getting tougher, how can you make sure your business stands out from the rest?

With the right strategy, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are successful not only in the months leading up to the holiday season but also long after it’s over.

Here are 7 ways to boost your marketing during the holiday season—and beyond:

1. Strategize Early

The most successful companies start planning their holiday marketing campaigns well in advance. By starting to think about your strategy early on, you’ll be able to take advantage of seasonal trends and make the most of any holiday-related news (such as a new product launch).

While some companies will start their holiday-season marketing strategies early in the year, starting now won't leave you at a disadvantage. In fact, beginning your planning in the fall leaves you more time to focus on execution and less time worrying about the details.

Early autumn is a great time to begin your marketing strategy for the coming months to make something good into something great.

2. Know Your Holiday Calendar

Not all holidays are created equal regarding marketing. Black Friday and Cyber Monday may get all the attention, but there are several other days throughout October, November, and December that can be just as important for your business.

— www.instagram.com/noelleearrings

Using platforms like Instagram that celebrate great photography and design are essential components to gear up your wares for the holiday season.

For example, Small Business Saturday is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses, making it the perfect time to promote any holiday deals or specials you may be offering. And don’t forget about New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, which can be great days for sales and marketing campaigns focusing on resolutions (such as getting healthy or organized).

A few other holidays worth mentioning:

Halloween
Super Saturday
New Year’s Eve

Also, look through other fun or awareness-oriented holidays like National Coffee Day or Mental Illness Awareness Week that can help with content creation calendar and connect you with viewers.

3. Create Compelling Content

One of the best ways to grab attention during the holiday season is to create compelling content that speaks to your target audience. This could be anything from blog posts and infographics to ever more popular holiday-themed videos and social media posts.

When creating your content, focus on topics relevant to your business and the products or services you offer. For example, if you’re a health and fitness company, you could write a blog post about staying healthy during the holidays or create an infographic with tips for staying active during the colder months.

Storytelling is an excellent way to draw in viewers during a season of giving and charity. Audiences are naturally curious. They like the what, when, where, and how of things. Why do you do what you do? What is your philosophy? Where is your business located, and how does that affect the products you sell? Who is your community? Your brand story is important, and so is explaining its impact on our world and future.

— Big Spoon Roasters

Telling your brand story can help market your products effectively by allowing your audience to understand your business and its values better.

4. Offer New Seasonal Products and Discounts with Targeted Landing Pages

Everyone loves a good deal or new product, so offering exclusive deals and discounts is a great way to attract attention during the holiday season. And with conversion-driven landing pages, you can ensure that your deals are seen by the people most likely to take advantage of them.

— Mulberry

The vivid colors and concise, distraction-free layout on Mulberry’s landing page direct viewers to the next step with a simple CTA.

When creating your landing pages, be sure to include relevant keywords and phrases, as well as a solid call to action. You should also use holiday-themed images and graphics to grab attention.

Consider creating unique landing pages with designs centered around a specific brand campaign to give your fall and pre-holiday deals a real supercharge. These can be especially effective if you’re running multiple campaigns at once.

5. Branch Out with Multi-Channel Marketing

With so much noise during the holiday season, it can be tough to get your message heard. That’s why it’s essential to branch out with your marketing and use multiple channels to reach your target audience.

In addition to your website and blog, make sure to also have a strong presence on social media. This is a great way to connect with potential and current customers through storytelling and video on platforms like Instagram and promote any holiday deals or specials you may be offering.

You should also consider using email marketing to reach your target audience. This can be a great way to stay top of mind during the holidays and ensure that your customers know any special offers you may be running.

6. Get Personal with Your Marketing

The holidays are about spending time with loved ones, so why not get personal with your marketing? This can be a great way to connect with your customers more emotionally and grab their attention.

One way to do this is to use customer testimonials in your marketing materials. This could be anything from a short video testimonial to a written review on your website or blog.

Another great way to get personal with your marketing is to partner with local charities or organizations that focus on giving back. This is a great way to show your customers that you care about more than just making a sale.

— www.instagram.com/dcluckydog

Storytelling on browsing channels such as Instagram and Facebook is a powerful way to focus attention on your mission and motivate an audience to action. In the example above, DC Lucky Dogs Animal Rescue traveled to Puerto Rico to help dogs and cats after Hurricane Fiona in September 2022.

7. Keep Your Marketing Going All Year Long

Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean your marketing has to end. Too many companies and organizations put all of their "marketing eggs" in the holiday season basket —and forget to keep the momentum going throughout the year.

To succeed, you must keep your marketing going all year long. This doesn’t mean that you have to spend a lot of money—it just means that you need to be consistent with your efforts. Consider taking some high-level marketing strategy pieces from your holiday campaigns and repurposing them for use throughout the year.

Social media is an easy, low-cost way to keep your audience informed and engaged. Updating your Google Business Profile is another way to help engagement throughout the year.

Some strategies could be risky but effective at particular times of the year, such as targeting competitors' keywords in your marketing campaigns.

Following these tips ensures that your company is prepared for the holiday season—and beyond!

Plan Now for Holiday Marketing Success

Now that you have a few ideas on how to boost your marketing during the holiday season, it’s time to get started! These tips should help you create a plan of action that will help you reach your target audience and increase sales. And don’t forget - these tips can be used all year long, not just during the holiday season. So get started today and see the results for yourself!

Need Some Help During This Hectic Time?

If you want to get a leg up on your holiday marketing, you may want to consider working with a digital marketing company. PW Media can help you with all aspects of your holiday marketing, from planning and strategy to execution and analysis. We have a team of experienced professionals who will work with you to create a custom holiday marketing plan that fits your needs and budget. Contact us today!

How to Make Instagram Work for Your Business

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 17:56:04 GMT

PW Media | Sep 28, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Instagram is a powerful tool for your small business, but without goals and a strategy, you won’t benefit from it. Here’s how the platform can boost your business.

As the world of social media continues to grow, so do the opportunities for small businesses to connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, and boost sales. Using social media platforms, such as Instagram, can help with these goals.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly users. 70% of shoppers look on Instagram for their next purchase, and 50% of users report being interested in a business when they see ads for it. Instagram offers businesses a unique way to reach out to customers and create a connection.

What Content Is Best on Instagram?

The answer to this question will be the content that gets you the most engagement for your business—depending on your audience and goals. However, you first need to publish content to understand what works best. Here are a few recommendations:

Fresh, Relevant, & Scheduled Content

While you may have to experiment a little to see what type of content works, fresh content routinely published is key. Here are a few quick overviews to get started:

Memes and inspirational quotes: Any type of quote or meme that can evoke emotion—a giggle, surprised gasp, or warm fuzzies—tend to get people coming back for more.
Good photography: Instagram is more than just filters and selfies, but if it’s a good photo, people will look. Whether it’s a human face, delectable food, a baby animal, or a breathtaking landscape, our eyes are attracted to bright colors, pretty things, and exciting patterns.

Behind-the-scenes / How-to videos: People love seeing the process of something being created, transformed, or fixed. People are naturally curious, so using Instagram as a keyhole they can peek into to see the process of something usually garners attention and engagement.
Scheduled, themed content: A predictably published series, such as a Tuesday’s trivia question or a Monday’s minute video, can be habit-forming to users.

Use Video to Boost Your Engagement

Video catches the user's attention for longer than a static image, so ensure you’re capitalizing on this for your strategy.

For your Instagram campaigns, try Stories, Reels, and even IGTV for longer videos to see which form of video works best for your viewership. Compared to carousel and image posts, video posts generate more comments—almost double, in fact, and receive more likes. Your business may not consider likes and comments as a goal versus conversions from a paying customer, but this type of engagement is important for growing your brand awareness on the platform.

Instagram is a great way to wow and engage with your audience through exciting videos and visuals.

Here are some more specific Instagram video tools to boost your engagement:

Create How-To Videos
If your business sells products, show your audience how to use them or the best ways to utilize them. Users want to feel informed about their potential purchases, and watching informative videos about using products is one way to achieve this. You may notice an increase in engagement and conversions due to video content.

Utilize All Video Formats
Stories are a great way to add video content to your business account quickly, but they only last 24 hours for your audience to catch them and are visible mainly to your current following. Therefore, be sure to create and publish your video content in all formats: Stories, Reels, and IGTV to ensure you’re not limiting your reach to just your followers but are also reaching a larger audience with longer-lasting content.

Jump on Instagram Live
The concept might sound nerve-wracking, but Instagram Live is an excellent way for your audience to catch your video content as it’s happening. When you go live, your account will show at the front of the Stories bar on your followers’ feeds, which means you’re the first account they can watch. Live videos are a great format for hosting workshops online, interviews with key stakeholders in your business, and even launching new products or services. Get as creative as you wish.

Grow Your Instagram Following Through Hashtags

You can create an Instagram campaign dedicated to growing your following through building brand awareness. However, you can follow other best practices to grow your audience, too.

Leverage hashtags to reach new audiences. Adding relevant hashtags closely related to your business and the products or services you offer can better reach your target audience. Trending hashtags are another way to grow your following, but always ensure they’re relevant to avoid confusing your audience.

Post consistently. Accounts with little activity won’t attract more followers. Audiences respond to updated and relevant content that holds value to them.

Engage with your audience. Respond to comments to show potential new followers you like interacting with your audience. Comment on other people’s posts to get your account and business name out there. By doing this, some users will hop from one post to your account to check you out and follow you if they like what they see.

How to Measure a Successful Instagram Campaign

Every business wants to run a successful campaign, but what makes an Instagram campaign successful? Consider metrics such as:

Likes
Comments
Mentions
Followers

It’s important to look at these combined metrics for each piece of media you post. Did one post get lots of likes but little to no comments? If so, consider this a visually successful post that requires improvements to make it more engaging to grow your comments. For example, could improvements be made to your call-to-action (CTA) in your caption? Are your hashtags relevant and helpful for finding this post?

Also, consider the timing of your posts. Are you posting at 9 a.m. daily because it’s convenient? Try different times of day to understand which time performs best. Your audience could be more active on Instagram at a time that you’re not, so finding out which time this is and scheduling posts for then is crucial to the success of your content.

Build Your Presence & Community

Using Instagram for your business is important because it is a platform with high engagement and strong visual communication and is where your customers are. With over 1 billion monthly users, Instagram is a powerful tool businesses should utilize to reach their target audiences. Take advantage of the opportunity to connect with your customers on this popular and effective social media platform.

Want to get started building your social media campaigns? PW Media can help. If you are looking for a reliable and effective digital marketing company, we have a proven track record of success and a team of experienced professionals passionate about helping our clients reach their goals. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you bolster your online presence through social media and much more! Contact us today !

A Quick Guide to Planning Your Website Redesign

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 13:07:43 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Updating your website is one of the best ways to stay ahead of your competition, so we’ve put together a quick guide to help with your next website makeover!

In today’s digital world, a functional and relevant website isn’t an option—it’s essential to running any successful business. However, the work isn’t over when your website is finished. To stay competitive, you should always look for ways to improve your current designs, accessibility, and user experience.

Updating your website can keep you ahead of the competition by improving user experience, boosting your audience, and staying relevant to current and future customers.

Why It’s Important To Update Your Website

As trends and societal norms and trends change over the years, so do search engines like Google. Their algorithms change according to user behaviors. Adaptation to user needs and expectations is a requirement for website development and maintenance. Keeping your website design fresh and engaging benefits your brand and bottom line, whether it’s a few tweaks to the aesthetics or an overhaul in templates and interface.

Another vital component of website redesign is website accessibility. Companies have a social responsibility to create an inclusive space for their customers. There shouldn’t be any barriers preventing customers from accessing your website, regardless of socio-economic restrictions, situational disabilities, or physical disabilities. You should always have someone monitoring your website accessibility to ensure optimal efficiency.

The Benefits of a Website Update

Updating your web design has several benefits. Not only will you have something that feels new and fresh for the user, but you’ll have a better understanding of where your business stands with its customers—making it easier to set goals and plan for the future.

Improve the user experience

No matter how beautiful a website is, it isn’t worth anything if the user experience is poor. Chances are you’ve heard of UX/UI design, which stands for user experience and user interface . Every step a customer takes on your website comes down to UX design. When you redesign your website, you can change anything that prevents your customer from having a positive experience.

Increase your web traffic

Updating your website is the best time to evaluate your current analytics. Figure out where customers are losing interest and make changes as needed. When you focus on what will drive more web traffic, you’ll find it easier to convert more sales, drive growth, and gain a larger audience.

Strengthen your brand

Today’s competitive marketplace requires strong branding and clear company goals. To stand out, create something your audience will recognize and associate with your brand. When you revamp your website, it’s the perfect opportunity to update your branding and create a more cohesive experience for the customer.

Top 3 tips for updating your website

There are several best practices to keep in mind while working on your website redesign. As mentioned above, everything comes down to the overall user experience. However, it takes a little planning and know-how to get it where it needs to be.

1) Work out your strategy

Before you even consider making changes to your website, have a plan. This process takes time and money, so preparation is key. First, look at your current website and note anything obvious that needs to be adjusted. Are images fuzzy? Is the font size too small or hard to read? Is your messaging clear? Do all the links work?

Next, take a moment to write down your goals for the website. Check out the competition and take note of anything they’re doing that you might not be. Make a list of things essential to your website and things you’d like to include if they can be efficiently worked into the design. Set realistic expectations and stay on track by setting yourself a timeframe for this undertaking.

2) Design with the user in mind

Great web design always focuses on the user. When you consider how important customer loyalty is to a thriving business, it makes sense to judge your website based on the user's perspective.

Think about how easy you make it for someone to place an order. Think about how you want a customer to go through the purchasing process on your website. What is your ideal customer journey? If it seems like getting to a specific page takes too many clicks, or some pages load too slowly and analytics show people abandoning their cart—these are things to address.

3) Clean up SEO and increase accessibility

If you want a high-performing website, you need to evaluate it for search engine optimization (SEO) and accessibility. SEO is an incredible way to build new web traffic and garner the attention of an audience you might not reach elsewhere. You want to be sure that you’re using the best keywords on your landing pages, product descriptions, and metadata elements like title and meta descriptions.

When you make accessibility a priority, you can guarantee an increase in visitors. Not only that, but your reputation stands to improve as people notice that you value an inclusive space and take the time to create one for your customers.

Signs of a Successful Website

Once you make changes to your website, you might be wondering how to tell if they’ve made a difference.

Quick loading speeds —check the load time of your homepage and any pages rich with content and media.
Increased web traffic —if there’s a significant difference in the visitors you receive since updating your website, you can guarantee your changes made a difference.
Mobile-friendly —Full optimization for mobile devices will significantly increase your reach.
Positive analytics —check to see if there’s been a change in bounce rate and other analytics.
Improved SEO performance —SEO takes time, but continuing to update your website with current, valuable content and media will help boost its ranking on search engines.

Start Planning Your Website Revamp Today

If you’re ready to take it up a notch, you need to work with web designers who understand each component of a successful website. Our team at PW Media will not only reinforce your brand identity but provide a thoughtful balance of design and accessibility.

When you work with PW Media , we’ll help you with all facets of website development, from conversion-driven landing pages to intricate web-based applications. Additionally, our dedicated team can help you connect with your target audience through specialized social media and search engine marketing tactics. Contact us today!

How Does the Rise of Voice Search Impact Your Business?

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 15:36:47 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Voice search has some major benefits over traditional search methods. Here’s how the rise of voice search impacts your business.

In recent years, technology has transformed the world in which we live. From smartphones to smartwatches, we have never been more connected with friends, family, and the businesses we know. Voice search has been one of the most popular features in recent years, with research estimating that 40.2% of Americans now use it regularly.

What exactly is voice search, and how can you use it to elevate your business? This blog will look at some of the biggest benefits voice search can offer your brand.

What is Voice Search?

Before we look at how voice search can positively impact your business, it is first important to understand precisely what it is.

As the name suggests, voice search is a way to search the internet through speech. Artificial Intelligence (AI) recognizes your voice and uses the words you say to provide the search results through your smartphone, smartwatch, or computer.

Voice recognition software is not new and dates back to the 1950s . However, using it to search the internet is far more recent and began around 2011.

That initial software was quite cumbersome and not particularly user-friendly. Fast forward to today, and things have changed drastically. Everything from Apple’s Siri to Amazon’s Echo now incorporates some form of voice search, and asking questions aloud to our devices has become the norm for countless homes across the globe.

What Is the Impact of Voice Search on Small Businesses?

As the popularity of voice search continues to rise, it’s clear that businesses of all sizes need to consider its impact. There are many ways that it can affect your company, but some of the most significant include:

1) SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most significant areas that voice search impacts. Verbal queries require a simple answer to a who, what, where, or how question, which means your keywords will need to become more conversational, and long-tail keywords will become more important.

2) Reach

Research has shown that the average voice search results are 52% faster than traditional written queries. This means the more optimized your site is for voice search, the higher the visibility of your business and the more hits you’ll receive. With more visitors, you will likely see an increase in sales.

3) Customer experience

With voice search becoming increasingly popular and convenient, customer expectations are changing. Focusing on voice search is no longer just a nice additional feature; it is quickly becoming an essential requirement for small businesses looking to give consumers the very best experience.

Studies have shown that 22% of voice searches are for local information, which is a great way to build a closer connection with customers in your community.

4) Competitive edge

Finally, focusing on voice search is also essential if you want to remain ahead of your competitors. Voice-based ad revenue is expected to reach $19 billion by the end of this year. f you want to continue to expand and drive sales, you will need to ensure you are optimized—no matter the size of your brand, i.

How Can You Optimize Your Content for Voice Search?

There is no denying the impact voice search has on small businesses now and in the coming years. However, how do you optimize your content to ensure it maximizes your results? Here are some tips:

Focus on local SEO

Local searches are one of the most popular reasons for voice search, so ensuring that your website and online content are optimized for local SEO is crucial.

46% of all Google searches are now from users looking for local products and services, so your business showing up on page one is critical.

Local SEO follows many of the same principles as standard SEO but also requires:

Fully optimized and managed Google Business Profile
Local citations
Reviews from customers

Be conversational

The days of stuffing your website with relevant keywords are thankfully long gone. To succeed with your SEO strategy, be as authentic and natural as possible. Search engines want to give their users the best experience possible, so being as human as possible with your text is vital.

Voice search takes this even further, as people talk in a far more natural and relaxed way than they do when typing a query. That is why your website needs to be engaging with users in a light and conversational manner.

Be structured with your data

Voice searches are designed to answer straightforward questions. That is why search engines now examine a wide range of factors when deciding where to display a website in the results, and schema markup is one such area.

Schema data is your site's metadata that a search engine scans. It helps to ensure a search engine can quickly identify what each page of your website is about and whether it answers a user’s query.

Ensure your website is optimized for mobile

Smartphones are now part of our everyday lives, and in 2021 there were over 4.32 billion searches made using a phone—that’s over 90% of all internet users! The vast majority of voice searches are made via a mobile device, so you need to ensure your website is optimized for smartphones to show up when users are making queries.

This is not just an essential part of optimizing your site for voice searches but a crucial aspect of any SEO strategy.

Develop an FAQ section

Finally, another top tip is to have an area on your website dedicated to the most commonly asked customer questions. Voice searches typically begin with a who, what, where, when, how, or why . Creating responses that answer these questions will help your website climb the search rankings.

The clearer and more precise you are with your answers, the easier it is for search engines to understand, and the higher up you will appear.

Need Help Optimizing Your Site?

As the popularity of voice search continues to accelerate in the coming years, your small business must be prepared. If you want to stay ahead of your competitors and boost your reach, you want to ensure that your website is fully optimized for vocal queries.

However, we know how tough it can be here at PW Media . That is why our highly experienced team is here to help you. For over two decades, we have been providing cutting-edge internet strategies for businesses just like yours, helping to increase visibility and maximize conversions.

To learn more about how we can help you, get in touch today!

5 Steps to Level Up Your Email Marketing Campaign

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 14:11:23 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Get more clicks, opens, and conversions with these email marketing tips.

Think email is dead? Think again. Email is more popular than ever, and a successful email marketing campaign can help your business get noticed and stay relevant. But it’s not easy. With the number of emails consumers receive— hundreds of billions of emails are sent and received daily—deploying smart strategies ensures customers open and interact with your email.

Follow these steps to ensure that your email marketing campaign stands out and doesn’t go straight to spam.

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools for getting direct messaging to your customers.

What Is Email Marketing?

To harness the power of a successful email campaign, you must first understand the basics of email marketing and what makes it an effective business practice.

Email marketing is the act of sending an email to a targeted group of consumers to promote the business, generate sales, and keep customers engaged with a brand. Marketers use this in their strategy because email is still the most effective marketing approach to consumer engagement—despite it being one of the older digital communication tools. No wonder the email marketing industry is worth $9.62 billion , and its revenue is estimated to reach $11 billion by the end of the year.

The Benefits of Email Marketing

When done correctly, email marketing can make a huge impact in building your business. Here are a few of the top reasons email marketing is the best digital marketing tool:

Get the best ROI

Email marketing drives an average ROI of $36 for every dollar spent. This is higher than other digital marketing strategies: SEO has an average ROI of $22 for $1 spent while social media seems to average about $3 per $1 spent.

Generate synergy among other platforms

With an average open rate of around 22%, you can use emails to send consumers to other marketing channels like social media, blogs, or in-person events. By building a relationship among other platforms, you can increase the memorability of your brand and keep your customers engaged.

Drive website traffic

One of the most important benefits of email marketing is sending your potential customers straight to your website's landing pages or sales pages.It’s also great at drawing attention to specific products or add calls-to-action (CTAs) to get subscribers interested in purchasing your product or service.

Collect valuable customer data and performance

Use your email to collect insights and track analytics on your target audience to improve your business, products, and services.

5 Steps to Launching a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

1) Figure out your goal

There are different types of email marketing campaigns that you can use depending on what your goal is. Examine the various benefits of email marketing to decide which are most important to your current strategy and lean on that for building the campaign. You might do a newsletter to provide company news to build brand awareness or a cart abandonment campaign to remind your customer to finish their order.

2) Understand and build your target audience

Decide what demographics you would like to target with this campaign and learn about their wants and needs to create a meaningful email they want to open. Consider even segmenting your campaign by age, gender, or interests to make the emails more personalized, giving subscribers a better reason to open it.

3) Craft the content

The content of your email might be the most important part since that’s what you want your subscribers to read and, ultimately, drive them to your website. The copy will need a hook at the beginning to draw your customer in. Overall, you’ll want to keep it short, but don’t introduce your offer too early. Let your customer get comfortable, and make the email as personalized as possible for the best results.

4) Design the email

Once you’ve got your message written, plug it into the design. The design can make or break your email’s success. It needs some images and graphics to break up the text, but it shouldn’t be overloaded with them. Also, make sure that your images have alt text to make them accessible for those who are disabled.

5) Pay attention to details

Before you send out the real thing, make sure to do a few things first:

Send tests:

Send a few tests to yourself and your team: Check that all links work, images show up, and there are no errors in the content. Typos and broken images make you look unprofessional and cause recipients to lose interest fast.

View on different formats: Test the email for mobile and desktop to confirm that both layouts look appealing and work correctly on each format. Pro tip: Check your email on dark screen mode.

A/B test: This practice can better optimize your conversion rates. A/B testing compares two versions of an email to determine which one performs better. It can be a simple process, such as sending different subject lines to subset groups of email recipients, or more complex, such as changing the template and messaging. The goal of A/B testing is to improve the performance of the email campaigns, so it better achieves end goals. Once this testing is done, the winning email can be sent to a larger audience.

Measuring the Metrics for Your Campaign

The work isn’t over once you’ve launched your email marketing campaign. Throughout its duration, you will want to keep track of the metrics and status of those emails to see your ROI working in real time and learn what you can improve upon for your next campaign.

Three main metrics help tell the story of your email campaign:

Open Rate — The percentage of subscribers who open the email.
Response Rate — The percentage of subscribers who respond to the email.
Conversion Rate — The percentage of responding subscribers who then buy.

The metric you most want to focus on is the conversion rate. While increasing the open and response rate is important, the conversion rate is where the revenue comes in. Just because a subscriber opens an email doesn’t mean they like what’s on the inside. For this reason, avoid clickbait-y and trick headlines. It’s a surefire way to send your email straight to spam. Use the metrics you garner from your campaign to inform your next one.

Let’s Get Started!

At PW Media , we can help you leverage all these tactics to make your email marketing campaign a success. Whether you’re just beginning to learn the basics or are a veteran needing a new perspective, we can give you personalized solutions to help your brand grow its presence on the web by building up your email marketing game and blending it with other digital marketing strategies. Contact us today to begin working toward a successful campaign that will maximize your ROI.

Best Local Online Directories to List Your Business

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 15:30:44 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Everything you need to know about the top online directories that help produce high-quality local citations and maximum exposure for your business.

A robust online presence is as essential for small businesses as it is for massive corporations. It doesn't matter what product or service you offer—potential customers are looking for you on the internet, and if they can't find you, they're likely to go with one of your competitors.

One of the critical components of a solid online presence is getting local citations listed in online directories. Learn why getting these local citations are so crucial for your digital visibility.

Ready? Let's dive in!

What Are Competitor Branded Terms?

Let's quickly review what branded terms are in online marketing. Branded terms are words or phrases that refer to specific businesses, brands, or products. Generally, there are three kinds of branded terms:

a business name
a product name
a business tagline

For example, the name “Nike” and the tagline “Just Do It” are branded terms associated with Nike, Inc. Targeting these branded terms with ads is an integral part of Nike's search strategy because it leads to a higher click-through rate (CTR) than targeting general search terms (such as “athletic sneakers” or “running shoes”) and improves the ROI of their search campaigns.

What Are Local Citations?

Local citations are mentions of your business name, address, and contact information (i.e., email and phone number) online. It's important to note that local citations don't necessarily have to include a link to your website—but it should if that's an option.

Citations can take many forms—and come from many sources, including:

online directory listings
business listings
local news articles
social media profiles

This article will focus on the best online directories for racking up local citations. But the question remains, why should you bother?

Why Should You Care About Local Citations (and Online Directories)?

There are two key reasons you should aim to get more local citations for your business:

They help customers discover your business.
They help your business rank higher for local searches.

Let's quickly unpack these points.

1. They help customers discover your business.

Potential customers are increasingly looking for businesses online. In fact, 78% of shoppers use the web to find new businesses in their area.

If you're not listed in any citations in online directories (or you don't have a solid online presence in general), you're making it needlessly difficult for potential customers to find you. Online directories (and the citations they give you) offer tons of visibility-boosting benefits, including:

mobile optimization
inbound links
social media integration

All of which makes it easier for customers to find your business online—and give you a leg up on the competition.

Listing your business in trusted online directories has many benefits, such as helping you rank higher in local searches.

2. They help your business rank higher for local searches.

In addition to helping customers find your business, local citations can also help with your local SEO , so you rank higher in local search engine results pages (SERPs). That's because search engines use these citations as a key signal when determining which results to display for a given query.

The logic goes like this: if a search engine sees that your business information is frequently mentioned online (i.e., you have a lot of local citations), they can be reasonably confident that your business exists. As a result, they'll be more likely to rank you more highly for local searches.

We can't tell you how much more confident—search engines keep the exact numbers under lock and key—but we can tell you that local citations are an important ranking factor for local Google searches, according to one study by Moz.

Prospective customers are rarely as self-motivated as Liam Neeson in “Taken,” which is why local citations and business directories are so crucial to online visibility.

What Makes an Online Directory Good for Local Citations?

Not all online directories are equal in the eyes of search engines.

To reap the rewards of a strong citation profile, you need to focus your efforts on directories that search engines trust. Luckily, there's a metric you can use to determine which directories have the most “authority” in Google's eyes—domain authority (DA).

Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that describes its relevance to its subject area or industry. Or, to generalize, how likely it is to rank well in SERPs. Usually, the higher the DA, the higher the rank.

DA scores range from 0-100, with higher scores representing greater authority. The generally accepted benchmarks are:

Average: 40-50
Good: 50-60
Excellent: 60+

Regarding local citations, you should aim for directories with DA scores of 60 or higher. These directories will give your business the biggest boost in SERPs.

Now that you understand the selection process, let's look at some of the top online directories.

10 Top Online Directories to List Your Business for Free

1) Google Business Profile (DA: 100)

Remember Google My Business (GMB) ? Well, it’s now Google Business Profile (GBP) . This is the single most important directory for your business. Why? Because it’s provided by Google, the biggest and most influential search engine in the world. Creating a business profile on Google is quick, easy, and free. Plus, it gives you the chance to show up in Google Maps results, which is extremely valuable real estate.

2) Apple Maps (DA: 100)

Apple Maps might not be quite as popular as Google's alternative, but millions of people still use it daily. Apple is also much more likely to feature businesses with complete and accurate listings in its Maps app. So if you want your business to stand out, it's worth taking the time to create a listing.

3) LinkedIn (DA: 99)

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking platform in the world, with over 500 million active users. It's an especially valuable platform for businesses that sell products or services to other businesses (B2B), as it allows you to connect with your target market directly.

4) Facebook Pages (DA: 98)

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Creating a business page on Facebook is also quick, easy, and free. Plus, it allows you to take advantage of Facebook's massive reach and suite of business tools to promote your business to a large audience.

5) TripAdvisor (DA: 94)

With over 500 million monthly visitors, TripAdvisor is one of the world's largest travel review and booking websites. If you own a hotel, restaurant, or other business in the travel industry, TripAdvisor is an essential platform for promoting your business.

6) Instagram for Business (DA: 93)

Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world, and it's a great platform for businesses in visual industries like fashion, food, and travel. If you're not already using Instagram to promote your business, you're missing out on a huge opportunity.

7) Yelp (DA: 93)

Yelp is a top-rated source for local business reviews, with over 140 million monthly visitors. It's especially valuable for businesses in the hospitality and service industries, as customers often use Yelp to find new places to eat, drink, and shop.

8) Bing Places (DA: 93)

Bing gets a lot of hate. And that leads some people to believe that no one uses it. Well, today, we're dispelling that myth. Bing has around 126 million active users and fields an average of 3.5 billion searches every day. It's worth your time to list your business on this search platform.

9) Glassdoor (DA: 91)

Glassdoor is a website where employees can anonymously review their employers. It's also a great platform for promoting your business to job seekers with top talent. And even if you aren't, you can still benefit from its excellent DA!

10) Yellow Pages (DA: 83)

When you think of the Yellow Pages, you're probably picturing the phone book that used to be delivered to your door every year. But the Yellow Pages is much more than that—it's now an online directory with over 20 million monthly visitors.

5 Top Online Paid Directories to List Your Business

1) FourSquare (DA: 92)

FourSquare is a popular location-based app that helps people find businesses near them. It has over 50 million monthly active users. It's a fantastic platform for retail, hospitality, and service businesses.

2) The Business Journals (DA: 92)

The Business Journals is a popular website for business news and information, with over 45 million monthly visitors. It's a solid platform for businesses in any industry, but it's especially valuable for businesses that sell products or services to other businesses (B2B).

3) Better Business Bureau (DA: 91)

The Better Business Bureau is a well-known platform where people can find businesses they can trust. It's been around since 1912 and has an excellent reputation. This platform is especially valuable for businesses selling consumer products or services.

4) Houzz (DA: 90)

Houzz is a popular platform for home improvement and design, with over 40 million monthly active users. It serves businesses in the home improvement, design, and construction industries.

5) Angi (DA: 77)

Angi (formerly Angie's List) is a popular website where people can find and review local businesses, with over 3 million paying members. It's good for home improvement, health and wellness, and automotive companies.

Your Online Directory Listing Checklist

So, there you have it, 15 great options to kick-start your citation-building campaign. To finish up, we will be sharing a checklist you can run through when creating business listings to ensure that they're as effective as possible.

Here's what to include in each listing:

NAP (Name, Address, Phone number)
Business category
Business description
Website address
Products/Services
Business Logo
Hours of operation
Payment methods
Photos
Videos
Reviews and testimonials
Social media links
Keywords

Start Boosting Your Visibility with Online Directories!

We hope that this article has given you some valuable insights into the world of online directories and how you can use them to better promote your business. If you're looking for more ways to improve your visibility and attract new customers, contact PW Media today!

Are Competitors Worth Targeting in Your Search Strategy?

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 13:04:34 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

The benefits and risks of incorporating branded competitor keywords into your advertising strategies including proper techniques for doing so.

When maximizing your small business' exposure online, there's certainly no shortage of strategies to choose from regarding PPC, SEO, and other digital marketing channels. One strategy we get asked about often is whether you should target your competitor’s branded terms (a.k.a keywords).

In this post, we'll break down everything you need to know about targeting competitor branded keywords, including the pros and cons of using them and the best practices for incorporating them into your search strategy.

So let's get started!

What Are Competitor Branded Terms?

a business name
a product name
a business tagline

But would it make sense for a competitor (say, Adidas) to target these branded terms with ads? That's the question we'll be answering today!

What Does “Target Competitor Branded Terms” Mean?

Here’s the short answer: it means creating ads that specifically target your competitor's branded terms or keywords.

Look at the example in the image below. A user types into Google “SendInblue” (referring to the email marketing tool). The first thing you'd expect to see for a specific branded term is an ad for Sendinblue. And…nope. The first ad you see is for another email marketing tool called “Campaigner,” with compelling ad copy and well-utilized ad extensions that take up a third of the page.

This ad targets people who have searched for “Sendinblue” specifically. While you might think that this would be a wasted ad spend (after all, wouldn't these searchers just click on the Sendinblue result?), targeting competitor branded terms can be an effective way to reach new customers, especially if your ad, landing page, or website comes up before theirs!

What Are the Benefits of Competitor Keyword Targeting?

1) Growing Brand Awareness

Targeting competitor branded terms can help you effectively reach new customers who might not have heard of your business before or may not be entirely sold on the company they’re looking for. Showing up before your competitor in search can make potential customers take note and look into your brand further. If your ad provides an appealing alternative to the competitor's product, you could win over a new customer.

2) Less Competition for Cheaper Bids

Brand keywords are cheaper to bid on for Google search and display advertising, whether they are your own or those of a competitor.

3) Finding the Right Audience Fast

Finding qualified leads can be challenging. Piggybacking off a competitor's brand name with similar products and services can attract the exact audience with the intent to buy that you want to convert. Suppose you’re a new company in the digital realm. In that case, it’s much easier to be seen and remembered when you appear in search right below or above a more established company that’s done the heavy lifting in terms of online brand awareness and reputation.

What Are the Disadvantages of Competitor Brand Keyword Targeting?

Some search strategies are riskier than others. Sometimes significant risks can result in big results, sometimes not. Here are a few reasons to be cautious when implementing competitors' keywords into your search strategy.

1) It Can Get Expensive

While bidding on a competitor’s brand terms is completely fair game, it’s also completely fair game for them to bid on your brand terms. Two possible consequences can result: 1) Potential customers are steered away from your business toward your competitor, and 2) it may become more expensive to bid on their brand terms—and yours. Bidding on your own brand terms is usually a beneficial practice, so driving up the bidding cost of your brand terms and your competitor’s can be a lose-lose situation.

2) Low Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

You may get your ad in front of the audience you want, but that doesn’t mean they’ll click. A customer’s intent may not just be to buy those particular products, but they may only intend to buy them from that business. It is hard to convince brand fans to break with the business they like and trust. While it may seem like you’re saving money by planting that seed of recognition without having to pay for clicks, low CTR can damage your quality score. This may not be a great tradeoff if you are on a tight ad budget.

Pro Tip: Doing the math is key: If customers click on your ad 1 out of 10 times, is that lead worth the amount you paid for 10 clicks? Depending on the price of the product you’re selling, it may well be worth it.

3) Wasted Ad Spend

A customer searching for a competitor's brand name may already be working with that competitor and calling to follow up. If they click on your ad, there is very little likelihood that they will translate into a legitimate lead.

Best Practices for Targeting Competitor Branded Terms

Not knowing how to target your competitors’ branded terms can result in paying for disappointment, wasted ad spend, Google’s wrath, or even legal troubles. Here are some top tips for doing it right.

1) Know Who Your Competitors Are

Choose your enemies and battles carefully. If you’re a Japanese restaurant, there’s no need to target the Italian restaurant down the road. You want to target businesses of similar size with similar services and products that are taking business away from you. You may also want to rethink going against Goliath in the form of a large chain store like Home Depot or McDonald’s.

2) Be Careful with Your Ad Copy

Using competitor trademark keywords in your ad copy is a hard no. It’s terrible form and reflects poorly on your brand. Google will block ads that have trademarked terms in them. Competitors can also make a trademark complaint against you to have your ads removed from Google—or, worse yet, get a lawyer. There are exceptions, such as in the case of resellers, informational sites, or authorized advertisers. You can learn more about Google’s trademark ad policies here .

Pro Tip: Always trademark the name of your business. If you don’t, anyone can use your business’s brand terms in their advertising.

3) Ask Google To Block Certain Terms

When you're targeting competitor branded terms, you'll want to ensure you're not wasting money on irrelevant clicks. You can specify to Google which words or phrases you don't want your ad to show up for. For example, if you're a plumber targeting the branded keyword “Joe's Plumbing,” you might want to add “coupons” as a keyword to ignore. That way, you won't waste money on people who are looking for a “Joe's Plumbing” coupon who are not actually interested in your business.

4) Write Great Ad Copy Around Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Before targeting competitor branded terms, it's important to identify your unique selling proposition (USP). This is the thing that makes your business different from and better than your competitors.

This competitive advantage will be different depending on your industry and target market. However, some examples of USPs include being cheaper, faster, or higher quality than the competition.

Once you've identified your USP, incorporate it into your ad copy to help you stand out from your competitors and convince searchers to click on your ad.

For example, if you're targeting the keyword Fred’s Plumbing and your USP is that you're cheaper, you might write an ad that says, “Expert Plumbing Repairs for Any Budget – Save 15% on Your First Service!”

The Takeaway

Targeting competitor keywords may help improve your SEO efforts —and can even lead to improved search engine rankings. Additionally, it can be an effective strategy in paid search, as long as you implement best practices. However, it's important to remember that finding and implementing competitor keywords is only one part of the puzzle and may not be the right strategy for every business.

Following these tips can help you target competitor branded terms with your ads and search strategy. Doing so will allow you to reach out to potential customers who might be interested in your business.

Contact Us!

If you're looking for help with your digital marketing strategy, PW Media can help! Our services include Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and more! Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you beat the competition through keyword research and competitor analysis. If you find that competitors are targeting you in their search strategy, we can help with that, too!

Free SEO Audits: Scam or Legit?

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 15:41:15 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Everything you need to know about free SEO audits! What they are, what they include, and how you can evaluate them.

You know the saying, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”? It's a sound piece of wisdom that encourages us to be cautious when someone seems to be offering us the world—or, to introduce today's topic, a free SEO audit.

Recently, one of our clients received an email offering a free SEO audit for their website. They went ahead with it, finding that their website scored incredibly poorly. This news would concern any business owner who relies on organic traffic to generate leads—but can these results be trusted?

In this article, we'll answer that question and more.

Let's get started!

What Is an SEO Audit?

An SEO audit analyzes your website to identify areas where improvement is needed to achieve better search engine ranking.

In many ways, an SEO audit is similar to editing a piece of writing. You start with a rough draft and then go through it line by line (or, in this case, element by element) to ensure everything is in order.

As you (or the marketing agency performing the audit) go through your website, the goal is to identify issues that could potentially be holding back your ranking. Generally, these issues fall into one of three categories:

Technical Issues: Anything that could be preventing search engine bots from crawling and indexing your site (e.g., a broken sitemap, duplicate content, etc.).
On-Page Issues: Any problems with your actual website content that could be affecting your ranking (e.g., keyword stuffing, thin content, etc.).
Off-Page Issues: Any issues with your website's link profile that could negatively affect your ranking (e.g., low-quality links, link spam, etc.).

All told, there are hundreds of issues that an in-depth SEO audit will check for. Once an issue has been identified, it can be fixed to help improve the ranking of your website. That's how a professional SEO audit works, but what about “free” SEO audits?

What Are “Free” SEO Audits?

At face value, a free SEO audit is just that—an SEO audit that doesn't require you to pay any money.

In reality, free SEO audits are either:

Not really SEO audits (i.e., scams)
Not really free (i.e., marketing ploys)

As described in the sections below, there is an important distinction between these two kinds of free SEO audits. However, both can safely be described as deceptive at best and downright harmful at worst.

Scams

Let's start with the more harmful of the two: free SEO audits that are nothing more than scams.

These “audits”—like many online scams—are designed to capitalize on a lack of technical knowledge and digital literacy. Luckily, you can usually recognize them by looking for the following traits:

doesn't contain information about the SEO agency (e.g., website link, phone number, logo, etc.)
sent from a generic domain (e.g., gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.)
filled with out-of-context SEO buzzwords and typos
doesn't contain information specific to your website

What makes these scams so dangerous is that they often target small businesses that don't have the time or resources to properly vet an SEO agency or audit. As a result, they end up paying for subpar (or nonexistent) services, and their ranking doesn’t improve.

Marketing Ploys

The other kind of free SEO audit is offered by an agency as a way to drum up business.

In most cases, these “free audits” are sent in phishing emails from SEO agencies that provide genuine—and sometimes even high-quality—SEO services. So, what's the problem?

In our experience, there are usually two:

The first problem is that these SEO audits are often misleading. They tend to be filled with inaccurate information and designed to instill a sense of fear about the health of your website.

The second problem is that even if these audits are accurate, they're always incomplete. They might use an auditing tool like SEMrush Site Audit to quickly identify some of the issues affecting your ranking, but they won't provide any information about how to fix them. This leaves you with a list of problems but no clear solution, which—surprise, surprise—is when these agencies hope you'll turn to them for help.

Are “Free” SEO Audits Worth It?

The answer to this question is simple: no!

The process of auditing a website for SEO is time-consuming, and the process of actually addressing issues can be complicated, especially on the backend. It's unrealistic to think that a legitimate agency or expert would perform either of these services for free.

With that in mind, it's best to avoid free SEO audits in favor of legitimate and genuinely useful alternatives like hiring a vetted marketing agency or learning the basics of SEO yourself .

How To Vet an SEO Agency Before Hiring

If you're going to hire an SEO agency, it's essential to do your due diligence first. This means taking the time to vet the agency in question to ensure they're legitimate, qualified, and—perhaps most importantly—suitable for you.

When vetting an SEO agency, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

1) Make sure they're transparent about their services

Any reputable SEO agency should be upfront about the services they offer, as well as their pricing. If an agency is vague about what they do or how much they charge, that's a red flag.

2) Ask for referrals

If you know someone who has used an SEO agency in the past, ask for a referral. This can give you some insight into what it's like to work with the agency and whether or not they're a good fit for you.

3) Check their website

A reputable SEO agency will have a well-designed website with helpful information about its services. If the agency's website is poorly designed or doesn't contain much information, that's a bad sign.

4) Ask questions about the services they provide

When you're talking to an SEO agency, make sure to ask questions about the services they provide. This will help you better understand what they offer and whether or not their services are right for you.

Some things you should ask include:

“How do you measure campaign success?”
“Can I see the results of past clients?”
“What's included in your monthly fee?”
“What kinds of strategies do you implement for clients?”
“How will my feedback and concerns be addressed?”

5) Read online reviews

Finally, read online reviews of the SEO agency in question. This can give you some insight into their reputation and whether or not they're likely to provide high-quality services.

How To Tell If Your SEO Strategy Is Working

Before finishing up this article, it's important that we cover how to tell if your SEO strategy is working. After all, even the best SEO strategies won't do you any good if you cannot track their success.

Here are a few things you should keep an eye on to gauge the success of your SEO strategy:

1) Website traffic

Increased website traffic is one of the most apparent indicators of a successful SEO strategy. If you're seeing more visitors to your site, that's a good sign that your SEO efforts are paying off.

2) Keyword rankings

Another thing you should track is your keyword rankings. If you're seeing your keywords moving up in the search results, your SEO strategy is working.

3) Conversions

Of course, website traffic and keyword rankings are critical, but they don't mean much if they don't lead to conversions. Make sure to track your conversion rate to see if your SEO strategy is driving results.

4) ROI

Finally, calculate your return on investment (ROI) to see if your SEO strategy is profitable. If your SEO efforts are costing you more money than they're making you, then it's time to make some changes.

The Bottom Line

If you take anything away from this article, it should be that there's no substitute for a results-driven marketing agency regarding SEO.

If you want your website to rank higher in the search results, you need to work with an agency that knows what they're doing—and these agencies aren't sending out misleading website “audits.”

As with any partnership, it's essential to do your due diligence to make sure you're working with an agency that's reputable, transparent, and—most importantly—right for you!

Let Us Help!

PW Media is a digital marketing agency specializing in SEO to help businesses of all sizes create an online presence. From website creation and management to full-scale SEO services, PW Media can help you get your business online and find new customers. Our expert team has years of experience, and we use the latest techniques to help your business succeed. Contact us today!

How to Get More Customer Reviews for Your Business

Tue, 17 May 2022 14:50:50 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

It's not always easy to get online reviews for your business. But with these tips, you'll be on your way to getting the reviews you need.

As a small business owner, you know that reviews are important. They can make or break your business. And getting more of them is vital to your success. But how do you go about getting more reviews?

Why Put the Effort In Getting Reviews?

Reviews and testimonials are essential for businesses of all sizes, but they're especially important for small businesses. If a large retail store gets a negative Google review, there aren't any consequences. If the local coffee shop gets one, the consequences can be far more impactful to their bottom line.

88% of people check and trust online reviews before buying any product or service.

Consumer trust isn't the only reason you should care about getting as many good reviews as possible. Google reviews also play an important role in local SEO . Many studies have found that reviews containing search terms related to your business are the second most influential factor in Google’s Local Pack ranking.

You can see this played out in the example above with the search “diner near me.” When Google's algorithm pulls together the Local Pack, it prioritizes results that contain some or all of the search terms, among other ranking factors.

So, to summarize, reviews can be valuable for small businesses. So, how can you increase the chances of getting positive reviews?

Let's discuss!

1. Focus on customer service that goes above and beyond.

The most reliable way to prompt positive reviews is by creating these seriously positive, memorable experiences for your customers. The example below illustrates how excellent customer service can prompt a 5-star review.

2. Incentivize customers to leave reviews.

While you should never pay for reviews, there's nothing wrong with giving customers an incentive to leave one.

Many businesses already do this without realizing it. For example, many restaurants will automatically enter diners into a raffle if they fill out a customer satisfaction survey. And that's just one way to incentivize positive reviews; here are a few more ideas:

Give customers a discount on their next purchase
Enter customers into a contest for a chance to win a prize
Offer freebies (like stickers or keychains)

If you decide to go with a strategy like this, don't try to influence the content of the reviews. People will be able to tell if you're trying to make up for the lack of service by soliciting positive reviews.

3. Make it easy for customers to leave reviews.

The easier you make it for customers to leave a review, the more likely they are to do it.

There are two main ways you can do this:

Include links to your business' review profiles in your email signature, on your website, and on social media.
Make sure your business is (accurately) listed on all major review platforms (Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, etc.)
Post a QR code that links to your Google Business Profile at checkout

When customers have to go out of their way to leave a review, many of them simply won't bother. If you make it as easy as possible, you'll see a significant increase in the number of people leaving reviews.

4. Ask for customer feedback.

This next tip is similar to the last one, but it goes a step further. In addition to making it easy for customers to leave reviews, you can gently remind them to do so.

There are a few different ways you can do this:

Send follow-up emails after purchase or service
Include review cards in packaging that direct customers to your Google Business Profile (GBP)
Place signs near exits, checkouts, or tables (e.g., “While you're waiting, why not leave us a Google review!”)

This straightforward approach is surprisingly effective. When businesses ask for reviews, the average rating is 4.34/5 . When they don't, that average rating falls to 3.89/5 . On top of this, asking for reviews has been shown to significantly increase the number of reviews a business gets!

Again, you don't want to be too pushy about this—just a gentle reminder will do. If you're too forceful, people will be turned off and less likely to leave a review.

5. Respond to all reviews—especially negative ones.

If you're only going to take one thing away from this article, let it be this: Responding to customer feedback—both positive and negative—is absolutely essential.

This shows that you care about your customers' experiences, and it helps to build trust. Research has shown that businesses that respond to reviews are more likely to earn customer trust and improve their reputation.

A simple “Thank you!” and a short response will suffice when responding to positive reviews. But when responding to negative reviews , you'll need to do a bit more work.

First, take the time to read through the review and understand the customer's perspective. Then, reach out to them via a response or private message to resolve the issue. If the customer is happy with your response, they may update their review.

Final Thoughts

Customer reviews are essential for small businesses. Not only do they help to build trust with potential customers, but they also provide valuable feedback that can improve the customer experience.

Follow the tips outlined in this guide, and you'll see a significant increase in the number of positive reviews your business receives

Ramp Up Your Reviews

If you're looking to get more online reviews for your business, PW Media can help! Our reputation and local citation management services are designed to help you get more positive reviews from happy customers. We'll help you create campaigns tailored to your specific business and provide you with the tools and resources you need to get more reviews. Our team is always available to help you manage and respond to reviews. Contact us today to get started!

2022 Summer Marketing Guide

Tue, 03 May 2022 14:53:08 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Sweating summertime sales? COVID-19 restrictions are lifting and people are getting back out in the world. Boost your customer engagement potential this summer with these seven summer marketing tips!

As the weather brightens and the days get longer, small businesses are looking for effective and creative ways to market during the summer months.

The past two years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have left many owners scrambling to keep their businesses afloat. Still, as states begin to lift restrictions on business operations, customers are starting to come back.

And while it may seem like a daunting task to market during the summer – with so many competing businesses and customers who may be more focused on vacation than shopping – some strategies can help your business stand out.

If you are looking for some inspiration on how to market your business this summer, this article will help get you started.

Why Customer Service Still Matters

As customers return to businesses after months of stay-at-home orders, they will be looking for the same things they always have: quality products or services at a fair price, with good customer service.

62% of consumers are willing to spend more if their shopping experience is customized to their interests. Clearly, meeting customers' needs is essential for any business that wants to stay competitive.

Similarly, an InMomoment study found that nearly 50% of customers identified as "loyal to a company or brand" admitted to being willing to leave for a competitor if the results were "more relevant and better satisfy their needs."

As you can see, customer service is more important than ever for small businesses. If you want to keep your customers coming back, you need to focus on providing an exceptional customer experience.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways to improve your customer service, even if you have a limited budget.

Strategy #1: Focus On Your Customer

The past few years have been tumultuous for businesses as customers dried up, and physical locations were forced to close their doors.

But as we enter a new summer season, it’s time to refocus on the customer and what they want and need from your business. Remember that you are looking o connect with your customers and create a lasting relationship – not just make a quick sale to recoup your potential COVID losses.

In fact, Hubspot Research found that 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with small businesses that focus on providing excellent customer service.

Some ways to focus on your customer this summer include:

Offering discounts or coupons to loyalty members or first-time customers
Making it easy for customers to shop your business online or in-store
Creating a “Summer Survival” package for customers that includes your most popular products or services
Creating a loyalty or rewards program to encourage repeat business
Asking customers for their feedback on your products or services

Caring for your customers and ensuring a great buying experience drives longer-term loyalty and sales.

Strategy #2: Get Involved in Your Community

The summer is a great time to get involved in your community, whether through sponsoring a local event, volunteering your time, or simply showing your support for a cause that’s important to you.

When customers see that you are invested in making your community a better place, they are more likely to support your business. And as a bonus, community involvement can also help you attract new customers.

Simply being an involved business is a fantastic way to boost your marketing without breaking the bank. Plus, nothing beats the feeling of giving back to your community.

Here are a few ideas to spark your community involvement:

Sponsor a local sports team or youth league
Volunteer your time or products/services to a local nonprofit organization
Participate in a charity walk/run or other fundraising events
Display a customized “We Support Our Community” sign at your business

Strategy #3: Make the Most of Your Online Presence

If you haven’t already, now is the time to make sure your online presence is up to par. Customers expect businesses to have an active and informative website and a solid social media presence in today's digital world.

If you are not sure where to start, here are a few tips:

Update and maintain your Google Business Profile for local SEO
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate
Update your website content regularly with new blog posts, product information, etc.
Make sure your social media profiles are active and engaging
Post regular updates on your social media channels, and don’t forget to use relevant hashtags
Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google Business listing, Yelp page, etc.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your small business is visible and accessible to potential customers this summer – and all year round!

Strategy #4: Create Campaigns Around Summer Holidays

Summer is full of holidays that provide the perfect opportunity to launch marketing campaigns that resonate with your customers.

Whether you decide to run a Fourth of July sale or a “Back-to-School” promotion, make sure your campaigns are creative and align with the holiday and your brand.

Offering discounts on merchandise or gift cards, providing free shipping, or waiving delivery fees can help boost sales across the board.

Some other summer holiday campaigns could include these popular holidays:

Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
Memorial Day
Labor Day

However, avoid utilizing holidays with significance to simply boost your sales. Holidays such as Juneteenth (June 19th) should not be used as opportunities to market discounts or your business, but rather respected for their historical and cultural significance.

Strategy #5: Make the Most of Your Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and promote your business, especially during the summer months when people are more likely to be on vacation.

This summer, you can create successful email marketing campaigns to engage and convert your customers.

Here are a few tips for email marketing success:

Is your email list up to date? You don’t want to send emails to people who are no longer interested in hearing from you.
Personalize your customer emails to create a more intimate connection.
Keep your subject lines short and sweet – customers are more likely to open an email with a clear, attention-grabbing subject line.
Include a call-to-action in your emails, such as “Click here to learn more!” or “Visit our website to take advantage of our summer sale!”
Track your email open and click-through rates to gauge the success of your campaigns.

Strategy #6: Stay Strategic on Social Media

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for businesses of all sizes.

In addition to providing a platform for advertising sales and promotions, you can also use social media to deliver informational messages, engage with customers, and signal company values.

For example, many businesses use social media to support veterans, nonprofits with missions they care about, and minority-owned businesses in their communities.

Don’t forget that social media is great for giveaways and running unique business-focused contests. There are great ways to increase customer engagement and loyalty.

Here are a few ideas for social media posts that your small business can use this summer:

Highlight a different employee each week and share their story.
Share tips on beating the heat (e.g., staying hydrated, wearing sunscreen, etc.) in partnership with local organizations.
Run a contest or giveaway and promote it across all of your social media channels.
Post videos or blogs about how your business is giving back to the community.

By staying active on social media and posting engaging content, you can reach new customers and keep existing ones engaged with your brand this summer.

Strategy #7: Invest in Local SEO

Local SEO is a great way to rank higher in search engine results for local searches. This type of SEO is important because it allows you to target customers in your geographic area.

There are several things you can do to optimize your website for local SEO, including:

Create or update your Google Business Profile and ensure all of your information is accurate and up-to-date.
Include your city and state in your website title and meta descriptions
Generate local citations by listing your business in online directories
Optimize your website for mobile devices.

By investing in local SEO, you can make it easier for customers to find your business online and increase your chances of driving foot traffic to your store this summer.

Reach Customers This Summer with Strategic Marketing

Small businesses have taken quite a hit since the pandemic began. But things are starting to get back to normal. As a small business owner, it’s essential to be strategic about your summer marketing.

By focusing on customer experience, staying active on social media, and investing in local SEO, you can reach new customers and keep existing ones engaged with your brand.

You can create a successful marketing campaign that will help your small business thrive this summer by following these tips.

We Can Help Put the Sizzle in Your Summer Sales

Summertime is an excellent opportunity to boost sales for businesses of all sizes. With effective and practical online marketing tools and strategies, PW Media can help you make the most of this sunny season. Our team has years of experience creating successful seasonal marketing campaigns that get results. We’ll work with you to identify your target audience and create a strategy that reaches them where they are spending their time online. Our many services include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, and social media marketing. Let us help you make this summer your most successful yet!

Google My Business (GMB) Becomes Google Business Profile (GBP)

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 17:14:09 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google is rebranding its business listings to Google Business Profile (GBP). Here’s what you need to know.

Google My Business Is Now Google Business Profile

Google recently announced that their business listings are now called Google Business Profile. This change comes as part of a more extensive update that includes rebranding and simplified profile management through Google Search and Maps.

Did you really think Google wouldn’t make you learn more acronyms? Wake UP!

How is Google Business Profile different from Google My Business?

So, is this just a simple name change?

No, it’s not. While the purpose of the product remains the same—a free tool for businesses to manage customer-facing business information, create visibility through Google search, and interact with customers—this relaunch is part of Google’s business listing management overhaul. Google Business Profile aims to streamline and simplify the editing and curation of a user’s business profile.

Here are the two biggest changes with the rebrand that will impact small businesses most:

1. You can make profile changes and view analytics directly through Google Search and Maps

Google now directs businesses to view analytics and conduct changes to their business information through either the web or mobile versions of Search and Maps. You will no longer need to visit a separate app or website to edit your profile. Overall, this will allow faster access and simple management of your listing.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

Google Business Profile: Customer Section Options

2. Say goodbye to the Google My Business mobile app

Because business profiles management is now through Search and Maps, Google has decided to pull the plug on the GMB app, which will be permanently retired later this year.

Google Maps

In addition to being managed directly through Google Search, you can manage your Google Business Profile through the Google Maps and Google Maps mobile app for Android or Apple phones.

Do I need to do anything?

If an agency or other 3rd party manages your Google business listing, you don’t need to do anything.

However, if you manage your own Google Business Profile, Google created a handy dandy one-minute video to show you how to get started with GBP. If you want to read more about managing your Google Business Profile directly through Google Search and Maps, you can go straight to the source .

What if I have or manage multiple business locations?

If you have more than one business listing, you are eligible to create a Google Business Group to manage multi-location, non-enterprise businesses.

Where is the Google My Business dashboard going?

Google's long-term goal is to repackage its dedicated business management dashboard as the Business Profile Manager. It’s available only to agencies as a tool to manage 100+ locations for enterprise-level businesses.

We know that change is hard, but it can also be good. The new Google Business Profile simplifies accessing and managing your business listing.

Get Started Today!

As Google grows and evolves, we can expect to see more changes with Google listings. PW Media is here to ease the transition and answer any questions you may have. As always, stay flexible and always prepare for the unexpected!

How‌ ‌to‌ ‌Respond‌ ‌to‌ ‌Bad‌ ‌Online‌ ‌Reviews‌ ‌

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:35:05 GMT

PW Media | Jan 24, 2022

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Turn negative reviews into positive experiences by knowing best practices and a simple 5-step response process.

Why Responding to Negative Online Reviews Is Important

All online businesses are subject to negative reviews. Although your customer service, product offering, or service may be exceptional, a negative review is unavoidable. They are just as important to respond to as they are inevitable to happen.

Why? Because it is an essential part of your business’ reputation management.

According to online review statistics , a business risks losing up to 22% of its customers from one negative review. However, by responding promptly and openly to your negative online reviews, you’re showing consumers a few crucial things about your business, including prioritizing customer experience, service, and satisfaction:

Respect: Responding to all customers’ reviews—good or bad
Accountability: Acknowledging and learning from a customer’s bad experience
Professionalism: Willingness to be accountable, problem-solve, and seek a resolution

Responding to a bad review lessens its impact on your business’s reputation. More importantly, knowing how to respond to a negative review is a skill that takes careful application. Let’s go over some best practices to ensure your response produces good outcomes.

Seeing a bad review can be understandably frustrating, but keeping your calm and knowing how to respond is essential to your business’s reputation.

How Not to Respond to Bad Online Reviews:

Getting defensive: It’s essential not to take the reviews personally, which usually results in a response that can appear unprofessional to the customer and others reading the response.
Not responding: You’re doing more harm than good by not answering, so ensure your team is regularly checking reviews and responding to them promptly.
Making excuses or overexplaining: Overexplaining why a situation occurred can appear as though you’re making excuses. A customer wants solutions, not lengthy explanations.
Advertising other resources: Don’t attempt to improve someone’s negative experience by promoting additional services or products. It’s terrible form and will only cause customers to think that shameless self-promotion comes before customer satisfaction.
Not resolving their issue: Simply responding with, “Thank you for your review, let us know if there is anything we can do to help,” isn’t resolving the consumer’s issue. If they’ve complained about a specific issue, address the complaint through an apology and solution.
Not being accountable: Be aware that the customer may have caught you or a team member on a bad day, or perhaps a team member was not fully trained to handle a particular request or situation. If you disregard a customer’s experience by blaming them, they will not only never return—but also likely share their experience with others.

Feel like hiding from a bad review? Don’t. Not responding to a negative review can do more harm than good regarding how current and prospective customers view your business.

5 Steps to Respond to Negative Online Reviews

Remember: When you respond to a disgruntled customer, you’re not just responding to them—you’re responding to thousands of people. These thousands are looking at your reviews and responses to gauge whether it’s worth doing business with you.

Here’s what to do to ensure your responses elicit confidence in your organization.

Acknowledge the review
Your silence to a review worsens its impact. It signals to the consumer you don’t wish to acknowledge their negative experience and work with them to correct it. This silence may make future customers lose trust in you.
Respond quickly, respectfully, and authentically
53% of consumers expect you to respond to their negative reviews within one week. Therefore, it’s essential to have a team member regularly check all reviews and reply immediately. Beware of generic, cookie-cutter responses. While they can save time, they can feel insulting to customers. Kind and thoughtful responses can help upset customers feel valued and heard.

Prompt replies to negative reviews also help reassure consumers who see these reviews that issues are noted and resolved quickly.
Always apologize
It’s important not to shy away from ensuring every consumer has a positive experience, even if it means apologizing for their negative experience. Doing so shows empathy and respect. Here’s an example of a decent response: “We’re sorry to hear your experience did not meet your expectations. We want to ensure every customer is happy when shopping with us, so we apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue.”
Take action
Acknowledging a bad online review is a significant first step, but showing you’re taking action is critical. You can move a complaint towards a resolution by responding with something like, “We want to make things right. Can you please send an email to our customer care team so we can follow up with you directly?”

You can also add some personalization by signing off your responses with your name or the team you work in. One such response could be, “I look forward to speaking to you soon. Best wishes, Jessica from Customer Service.”

If they have a specific complaint about customer service, respond publicly by telling them you’re implementing particular rules and protocols to help prevent that experience from happening again.

By addressing issues quickly and taking immediate action, you show other customers reading reviews that customer service and satisfaction are important to you.
Follow up
Once the problem is resolved, a quick follow-up such as a phone call, text, or email from you or a trusted team member can do wonders for customer loyalty and your business’s reputation.

In Conclusion

Negative reviews don’t need to be frustrating or embarrassing. Instead, they can be excellent opportunities to showcase your business’s professionalism, customer service, and problem-solving skills to prospective consumers. Proving that you highly value customer experience through honest and engaged responses to reviews can build trust and grow your business.

Happy Customers Make Better Business

Need assistance with your reputation management or any other area of online marketing? PW Media can help you define a solid strategy to ensure your business excels in today’s digital marketing landscape. Contact us today!

5 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid This Holiday Season

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:50:38 GMT

PW Media | Dec 14, 2021

5 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid This Holiday Season

Know the best tips and tricks for making your holiday marketing count!

The holiday season is here! As a small business owner, it’s time to strategize your marketing efforts for the holiday season to prepare for the uptick in consumer spending.

As you continue to build out your holiday digital marketing strategy, let’s talk about common holiday marketing mistakes and how best to avoid them.

Five Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

This time of year can be stressful to anticipate and prepare for. Not only does it come with the expectation that it will likely be your largest quarter of earnings all year, but it’s also accompanied by an abundance of pressure to prepare, perform, and profit.

As a small business owner, that can be a lot to live up to.

However, by identifying your goals and objectives, performing the necessary preparation, and becoming aware of common failures and mistakes many small businesses make during the holiday season, you can set yourself up for the ultimate holiday success story.

Below are the three (3) most common digital marketing mistakes during the holiday season:

1) Failure to Adjust Your Marketing Strategy for the Holidays

Small businesses need a cohesive and effective digital marketing strategy in place that creates an expanding roadmap for success. This strategy typically consists of SEO, content marketing, social media, paid advertising, website development, and more.

However, many small businesses fail to adjust their digital marketing strategy leading up to the holidays. Instead, they choose to stick to the status quo of their general marketing strategy. Such a decision is a gigantic no-no. The most effective marketing content and campaigns are catered to particular seasons and holidays and distributed across multiple channels.

Combat this error by creating a holiday calendar for particular weeks and months as part of your overall marketing plan. Choose the most effective marketing channels that will benefit your business’s holiday objectives for your specific audience.

Here are some great starting points for devising your holiday-specific digital marketing strategy:

Create seasonal content both for your social media and website

Know how different marketing channels can cater to different audiences
Introduce creatively relevant promotions for the holidays
Schedule profitable events for major holidays

2) Not Effectively Leveraging Social Media

Eager to continue on a growth trajectory and find innovative ways to serve your customers? The question to ask yourself is, “How can I use social media to help my small business better serve my customers and my bottom line?”

Here are a few practical ways to leverage social media during the holiday season:

Add location to post
Get creative with your photo captions
Implement hashtag campaigns effectively
Utilizing call-to-actions within a post
Create holiday-related content
Launch holiday-relevant promotions
Upsell or cross-promote products & services

Social media is a powerful tool to amplify your brand’s message and create stronger loyalty through customer engagement.

Your marketing strategy may hit a serious snag if you haven’t planned for the holiday season

3) Not Investing in a Chatbot

‘Tis the season of impatient crowds, long lines, and even longer wait times on the phone. One way to alleviate stress and frustration for both staff and customers is to add a chatbot to your team . These interactive agents have tremendous advantages in delivering consistent and valuable customer care during some of the busiest times of the year.

Need an extra hand—or ten? Chatbots can engage any volume of customers any time of day (or night!) and provide immediate and consistent responses to FAQs, scheduling options, and service and product offerings. They can increase qualified leads and decrease time and money spent finding those leads.

Chatbots are becoming ubiquitous as an effective and affordable customer experience enhancement across the marketing landscape. These AI assistants bring enormous value to your customer experience at a fraction of the cost compared to a new hire. If you’re interested in creating a chatbot for your business, we have one that can help you !

4) Ignoring the Power of Local SEO

Want an easy local SEO win? Prioritize the update to your Google My Business (GMB) profile.

Google My Business is an essential tool consumers use to discover basic and necessary information about your business. It’s also a highly versatile tool that helps give businesses a competitive edge in their local market.

Here are some essential GMB optimizations and updates to execute during the holiday season:

Update special holiday hours of operation
Upgrade imagery and photos
Respond to Q&As and messages from customers and prospective buyers
Create a holiday-themed Q&A for your business
Use the “Updates” section as a way to advertise services, coupons, and discounts

Not only will this boost your SEO score, but it will increase traffic, boost conversion rates, and ultimately improve your customers’ satisfaction.

5) Not Creating Seasonal or Holiday Landing Pages

Bringing temporary, seasonal flavor to your website through fresh content and design is always a smart marketing move, but creating seasonal landing pages for specific services, merchandise, or discounts is smarter.

A landing page is a lean, mean, conversion machine. Unlike business homepages that allow viewers to browse and explore, landing pages are highly optimized, campaign-specific webpages that convince visitors to take only one action. That action can be anything from buying a specific product or service to filling out a form for more information. Landing pages increase conversion rates because they are hyper-focused and don’t allow any distractions, such as additional links or navigation bars.

Once the user clicks on an offer or fills out a form, they have officially become a lead, and your business can nurture that lead through additional marketing.

In Summary

The winter holiday season is arguably a business’s annual revenue peak due to increased consumer spending. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales during November and December alone can reach as high as 25% of annual sales for many businesses.

It’s worth noting that these percentages are much the same for online eCommerce businesses, as well.

Digital marketing efforts are crucial for all large and small businesses, allowing them to increase sales and profits, acquire new customers, keep their brand top of mind, and even clear out excess inventory to make room for the new year.

Help Your Business Shine This Season

If you need a little extra help bringing some holiday cheer to your digital marketing strategies and campaigns, we’re always here to lend a helping hand. We serve SMBs of all verticals, franchises, and large organizations. Our customized solutions help promote your business any time of the year by amplifying your online marketing and maximizing conversions. Contact us today!

Thanksgiving & Afterward: November Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 16:19:15 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Don’t miss out on the chance to reach even more customers this holiday shopping season. Read on for PW Media’s top tips to boost your November marketing to better engage customers and enhance your bottom line.

November marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Consumers are looking for holiday shopping deals and steals to stretch their budget and make the most of the giving season. That’s why it’s the perfect time for small businesses to connect with customers through a tailored digital marketing campaign aimed at snapping open the eyes of eager holiday shoppers.

Why November Digital Marketing Matters

Thanksgiving isn’t just one of the biggest holidays for food; it’s also one of the biggest holidays for online shopping. November presents a terrific opportunity for the beginning of a sustained campaign that extends from November till the end of December to build brand awareness, bring value to customers, and improve sales.

If your business isn't taking advantage of November digital marketing, you're missing out on some of the biggest days of the year for holiday shopping. Optimizing your business listings, reconfiguring your SEO with new keywords, creating targeted seasonal messaging and paid advertising campaigns can help escalate your end-of-year profits.

Think Beyond Thanksgiving (but not too far)

Yep, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s are all coming up, but don’t forget the shopping day trifecta that drives sales and revenue immediately following Thanksgiving. Let’s hear it for the Big Three:

Black Friday
Small Business Saturday
Cyber Monday

More and more people, however, begin their holiday shopping hunt on Thanksgiving Day.

These five days spanning from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday are huge moneymakers for small and large businesses alike because consumers are primed and ready to buy.

Set your November marketing up for success by taking full advantage of this short but powerful shopping surge. Learn the easiest ways to make an impact this holiday season with these smart and easy-to-implement marketing tips.

1. Optimize Your Business Listings, Social Media, and Website for November

Who said local SEO gets to take a holiday break? SEO is an ongoing process, and the Thanksgiving holiday and shopping bonanza afterward are no exception, especially for ensuring you stay at the top of your game in search results.

Update Your Hours for Thanksgiving and Holiday Shopping Days
Before you begin more involved marketing, start simple. Make sure your customers know of any extended or limited hours for November by updating them on Google My Business, your website, and any other popular listing sites your audience may check, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. This is always important to do, but even more so during some of the busiest shopping days of the year!
Utilize Holiday Themes in Your Seasonal Content and Graphics
Add high-quality seasonal photos, graphics, and consistent updates to your Google My Business profile. Your website should also reflect the feel of the season (think autumn, sweaters, adorable woodland critters, families connecting). Prepare coupons and announcements for current and upcoming sales and promotions (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday) and advertise them throughout your digital marketing channels.

Update Keywords for Holidays
Use related keywords in your seasonal messages to drive traffic to your website. Utilize Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to find the best keywords.
Participate in Customer Q&A
Another opportunity to engage customers is to answer any questions they may have about your hours, products, promotions, or parking on busy shopping days. The more frictionless you make their shopping experience, the more chance of conversions.

2. The Gratitude Attitude

November is about thankfulness. Take the time to share your appreciation of customers, staff, and the support of your local community on your social media channels and website. Know a business owner holding a food drive or a staff member running a race for charity? Give them a quick shoutout on social media. Tell our customers how much you appreciate them through social media posts and associated loyalty coupons and discounts. These small gestures of acknowledgment and appreciation can go a long way.

Holiday insanity is about to begin—make sure your marketing plans don’t miss the mark on some of the biggest shopping days of the year.

3. Early Bird Coupons and Promotions

While Thanksgiving Day is about football, food, and family, showcasing Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts and coupons early—even before Thanksgiving—allows consumers looking for deals and steals to get a jumpstart on Black Friday shopping. The holidays are stressful, and many people begin shopping on the one day they have off before the holiday crush truly begins: Thanksgiving Day.

These pre-season offers and incentives can be distributed throughout your marketing channels:

Post deals on social media to gain awareness and engagement
Run a paid ad campaign on Facebook (er, we mean Meta), Google, or LinkedIn
Send out a newsletter to customers detailing exclusive discounts with coupon codes not found elsewhere

4. Paid Digital Advertising

Another smart marketing strategy is to budget for paid advertising campaigns. This is a great way to gain attention quickly at one of the most active—and competitive—buying times of the year.

Facebook and Google Ads are excellent places to utilize paid advertising campaigns. These companies are gravity centers of data and audiences; they can get your ads in front of the right audience at the right time to increase conversion and improve end-of-year profits. Additionally, these platforms allow you to easily track and analyze your campaign’s performance, providing powerful insights into target audiences for the management and success of future campaigns.

Keep Your Marketing On Track This Season

Your November digital marketing efforts can help increase your brand’s awareness, supercharge your website traffic, and improve your local SEO. If you need a little help adding some sugar and spice to your marketing, PW Media is here to make everything nice for the holiday season. Contact us today !

Lost in the Crowd? Optimizing Google Business Profile to Gain Online Visibility

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 20:15:44 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Lost in the Crowd? Optimizing Google Business Profile to Gain Online Visibility

Learn the benefits of claiming, optimizing, and managing your Google Business Profile to move the needle on your local SEO strategy.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (GBP) is a business listing provided by Google that functions as a multifaceted marketing tool for small businesses.

In its simplest form, Google Business Profile provides potential customers with at-a-glance business information; when properly utilized, it is a powerful local SEO marketing tool that helps you gain an edge against local competitors.

Why is Google Business Profile (GBP) Important to Small Businesses?

Optimizing your GBP provides an instant opportunity for your products or services to be featured in local searches. When 46% of Google searches are for local businesses, and 80% of those local searches lead to a sale, making the most of your business listing can create immediate increases in revenue.

The best part? Unlike pay-per-click campaigns, you can enjoy the benefits of this tool without paying a penny.

Google Business Profile allows small businesses to do four key things:

Achieve higher ranking in local SEO
Maintain accurate business and contact information
Shape brand and reputation
Better understand customers to build trust, loyalty, and engagement

While having a solid social media presence and user-friendly website are significant steps in laying the groundwork for online visibility, one marketing strategy should always be at the forefront: Optimizing your Google Business Profile to get into the Google Local Pack .

What Is the Google Local Pack?

When a user jumps onto their phone or desktop browser to search for a business on Google, Google’s advanced search algorithm quickly scans, retrieves, and displays relevant results at the top of the SERP based on their location. These results originate from Google’s own business directory, Google Business Profile.

At the top of the search results page, Google displays a set number of businesses in the local area—complete with a map, hours of operation, contact information, and direct links to contact each company. The results are usually limited to three organic search results. This box is also referred to as the Google Map Pack or Google Local 3-Pack . If your business is listed in one of these three coveted spots, you significantly increase your business’s visibility to a target audience.

How to Make a Strong Showing in the Google Local Pack

If your business isn’t working on a solid local SEO strategy that includes taking advantage of the Google Local Pack, you will miss out on precious opportunities for customer discovery and increased business.

Boosting your online presence helps ensure that your business has the best chance to reach those coveted top spots in the Map Pack. Optimizing your Google Business Profile is the first step to accomplishing this.

Here are the top six actions you can take right now to increase your chances of appearing at the top of the Google Local Pack:

1. Claim Your Google Business Profile

The first step is the easiest to complete! Many businesses have a Google Business Profile listing in Google whether or not they have claimed their profile. So why bother claiming it if it already exists? Aside from the fact that it’s both free and easy to do, claiming your business allows you to:

Edit and manage your account. This includes posting images and updates that are social media-like in nature, editing and curating information about your services, hours of operation, and address, and responding to reviews.

Prevent access to your profile from competitors and scammers. Anyone can update an unverified profile with misleading or inaccurate information—and even claim it for themselves.

2. Complete Your Business Information

Maximizing your Google Business Profile is critical to being front and center in local search results. Make sure you have all the necessary business information fields accurately completed.

Additionally, your Google Business Profile info (particularly your name, address, and phone number) should be consistent throughout the web. It should match the information in online directories and other references. The ongoing editing and correction of your business’s digital information is part of a process called local citation management . This alignment across the web helps Google connect the dots on the backend and increases your chances of reaching the local pack.

3. Utilize Keywords & Categories

Did you know that 84% of views that come to a business profile online result from what is known as a “discovery search?” This type of search means that users aren’t looking for your business directly but instead are relying on keywords and categories to find companies that offer what they need.

Ensure your small business is included in that number by having the right search keywords and categories within your Google Business Profile account. These elements are the bread and butter of successful SEO, as they help valuable users find your business when they head online to find products or services near them.

Your GBP account should include the most specific and highly searched keywords that pertain to your business. Also, update your categories to the closest description of what you truly offer.

4. Build Those Online Reviews!

Google Business Profile also allows your customers to communicate with you (and anyone else who might discover your profile) through reviews. Reviews are essential to your GBP profile and can make or break your business’s local SEO effort.

Google’s Local Pack loves to highlight businesses that have high engagement with consumers. Ask customers to submit reviews to your GBP listing—and engage with those reviews—to help boost your Google results fast. Encourage customers to include descriptive words and photos to make your results even more effective. By getting consistent, positive feedback and responding to any negative feedback, you’ll ensure that your site has the best chance possible of being discovered through local searches.

Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews. Over 60% of customers surveyed said that they fill out reviews if a business owner asks them!

5. Treat Google Business Profile Like Social Media

Did you know that you can create and post content in your Google Business Profile account? High-quality, eye-catching pictures and videos are essential. These assets are a great way to give your customers updates on business offerings, specials, and any changes in hours/operation. You can also use this outlet as another excellent marketing tool to boost engagement.

6. Take Advantage of Google Business Profile Marketing Experts

Your Google Business Profile account should be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy to target local customers and grow viewership. Save time and energy by partnering with a marketing agency experienced in Google Business Profile solutions and performance. Handing the reins over to professionals allows you to spend less time bogged down with marketing maintenance and more time on your core business and future goals.

If your mouth is agape to learn that a free tool can help you achieve local SEO success, you’re not alone!

Does Google Business Profile Really Matter to My SMB?

Yes! As a small business, you need every advantage possible to compete with larger companies. Local SEO is one of the most effective tools in your digital marketing toolbox.

By building your larger online marketing strategy on this foundation, you’ll increase your odds of getting found through a local search. And as we’ve already noted, local searches result in a sales conversion 80% of the time.

If you’re ready to experience those statistics for yourself, then it’s time to get your Google Business Profile established and up-to-date.

Contact Us!

PW Media can help you get the most out of your local SEO strategy by building a solid local SEO strategy with your Google Business Profile at its center. Contact us today!

Why Google Business Profile Is More Than Just a Business Listing

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 13:44:08 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Why Google My Business Is More Than Just a Business Listing

Utilizing your Google Business Profile can increase your company’s local reach and help you keep ahead of the competition—without spending a dime.

What Is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (GBP) is a business profile for businesses of any size. It is provided by the most widely used search platform in the world—Google—and acts as a powerful and dynamic marketing tool. This product is impossible to pass up. Here’s why:

Free
Easy to create, edit, and manage your business information
Improves local SEO
Helps gain an edge over competitors

How GBP Works

When someone types in search terms for a particular product or service, the most relevant results populate Google’s search. From operating hours to reviews, Google Business Profile reaches into local businesses’ profiles and pulls the relevant information into their search system for instant user access nearby.

Consider an example: You’re a local coffee shop. A customer types into their Google Maps search the name of your shop. The results showcase your shop’s name and image with hours, menus, updates, ratings, and directions. But your shop may also show up if someone types in, “coffee shop near me.”

With hyperlocal service recommendations, you can ensure that your coffee shop reaches your community before competitors do.

Oh Hai: Google Business Profile may seem small, but it’s a mighty part of your local marketing strategy.

3 Reasons Google Business Profile Can Help Take Your Local Brand To a New Level

Most business owners don’t know that Google Business Profile’s capabilities extend far beyond merely putting hours and directions in front of searching customers. If you take steps to optimize your listing properly, Google Business Profile can help you generate higher traffic, convert searches into sales, and boost your revenue.

Wondering how Google Business Profile can bring immediate benefits to your brand right now? Take a look at these three top reasons you should be using Google Business Profile to get seen by potential customers directly.

1. Boosts Your Local Reach

The real magic of Google searching is found in the hyper-local search results that Google offers based on user location and stored cache information. When a user in your company’s region hops online to look for a service or product you provide, Google will run through its listed local business directories using Google Business Profile to pull the closest and most relevant offerings nearest that user.

Google uses its search algorithm to quickly offer searchers three local options based on specific keywords and locality at the top of the page. Have you ever searched for a restaurant online and promptly found three local listings at the top of the results page?

This top group is called the Local 3-pack , and it's the crown jewel of any business’s local SEO efforts. With a fully developed and optimized Google Business Profile account, you can help increase the likelihood that your company will appear in this Local 3-pack whenever buyers on the hunt use relevant keywords and “near me” searches.

Remember that 80% of searches start on Google. If your company isn’t connected to Google’s system, your information won’t appear on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Pages), and you will lose valuable customer potential. You don’t exist to consumers if you aren’t showing up.

To ensure that your company exists in Google’s search algorithms and receives a boost over your local competitors, a robust Google Business Profile account will get you that leg up. Google boosts local results through the following three markers:

Proximity: Is your business in the location of the individual searching for this product or service?
Prominence: Does your company have an SEO-optimized web presence that features updated information and content?
Relevance: Does your company offer the credentials, recognition, and reviews necessary to be “trusted” as an expert provider in this area?

Updating your Google Business Profile account to include important information and relevant keywords (such as specific products and services) in each of these areas helps ensure that the SERP will pull your brand to the top of the list.

2. Grow Your Brand Reputation and Credibility

One of the most significant ways to grow your business is through positive online ratings and reviews. Not only that, reviews and ratings are known to be SEO ranking factors in Google. Unfortunately, disgruntled customers can be among the loudest in the reviews section; learning how to address negative reviews and low ratings with a delicate hand is a skill worth investing in. Customers use reviews as one of the most prominent markers of a business’s trustworthiness when researching, so having top ratings, stellar reviews, and mindful, engaged responses can allow your business to rise above the rest, generating leads and sales.

3. Get to Know Your Audience

While the main goal is to have your GBP listing show prominently in local searches, it can double as a data analytics tool to help you learn about your target audience. Google compiles and sorts customer search data to answer questions like:

How many people viewed my listing?
How and where did customers find my listing?
What further actions did customers take once they found my listing?

These metrics can give you a broad overview of how your listing performs over time or give you a granular snapshot of particular customer behaviors.

Trust Your Google Business Profile Optimization to the Experts

Utilizing a powerful Google Business Profile presence can help your brand reach new levels of relevancy and accessibility in your local market, as well as boost your earning potential with customers across the web. So how can you begin taking advantage of your Google Business Profile presence?

While there are plenty of resources on the internet that can help guide you through setting up and maintaining your Google Business Profile, the importance of its strategic development and professional curation is vital. If you are ready to take advantage of Google Business Profile’s capabilities, you may benefit from expert advice and support.

By hiring an experienced digital marketing agency’s talents, you can ensure your Google Business Profile is utilized to its full potential within your larger marketing strategy. Not only can an improperly maintained Google Business Profile cause hiccups in your company’s ability to reach potential leads, but incorrect or outdated information can negatively impact your brand and SEO ranking.

Right the First Time

Do you want your Google Business Profile account set up correctly with quality content and complete optimization? PW Media is happy to walk you through the process. With personalized development and implementation strategies at your disposal, you can rest easy knowing that your Google Business Profile account is boosting your SEO potential and helping you reach high-impact customers.

How Investing in SEO Helps Your Business’s Long-Term Success

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 19:40:43 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

So, what exactly is SEO? How does it work, and why is it important? That’s what we are here to answer for you.

Search engine optimization — better known as SEO — is an organic search tactic used by businesses with a digital presence to increase brand awareness online and boost quality website traffic. Ultimately, SEO helps convert web traffic into sales. While it’s not the only thing that will make your business a success, this type of online optimization is imperative for building your online visibility.

What is SEO?

While SEO is often used as a marketing tactic, it is not necessarily a tactic only used by marketers. According to Ten Ton , a blog designed to educate entrepreneurs in web design, SEO is “the active practice of optimizing a website to become a recognized authority for a specific topic.”

Using different SEO best practices to develop your website gives you a better chance to reach the top of the SERP , or search engine results page . The higher you rank on Google or other popular search engines, the more likely potential customers will click on your website link. Your SEO goal is to show search engines why you should show up first for key search terms related to your business or service. The more relevant and reputable your website’s content is, the more likely people searching will choose you from their results. The best way to achieve this is through SEO.

How SEO Works

Search engines use bots that crawl through an extraordinary number of pages, collecting and indexing data. A series of complex algorithms then analyze the collected data based on thousands of different ranking factors. From there, it is sorted and ranked into results pages for any given search.

The exact algorithms used to determine this ranking aren’t released, and search giants like Google go to extreme lengths to protect them. However, Google has released various best practices that boost your rankings and SEO strategy. After all, Google and other search engines want to ensure internet users get to the places they want to go.

Why Is SEO Good for My Business?

Prospective buyers turn to the internet first when learning about a local small business, and most never check beyond the first page of results. So, good SEO — and especially local SEO — is crucial to your web presence. SEO makes getting your website, blog, videos, and related marketing content to the top results an achievable reality when done right. It has many benefits, especially for small and local businesses:

Lead generation
The main goal of SEO is to drive more traffic to your website. But not just any traffic; well-qualified leads that translate into conversions. Paid advertising can certainly target users more effectively, but only for a finite amount of time at a considerable cost. SEO is a cheaper, long-term strategy where its impact can last for years , not weeks.

Build brand awareness
Through SEO, your website becomes more accessible to people searching for answers on a search engine. The more you show up and the more organic traffic (traffic to your site via the search engines) you get, the more people will recognize your business and keep coming back.

Level the playing field
Searches that include “near me” have vastly increased in the past few years, which means people are looking for what’s local as a key factor. This is how you can get an edge on your competition. You'll show up next to them in the search results and have the opportunity to steal away customers who might not otherwise know you were there.

Great ROI
SEO techniques require no money if done independently and can have a lasting impact over several years. In fact, 60% of the pages that rank in the top 10 Google results are 3 or more years old . Building a strong SEO foundation will get people to your website, and a robust user experience will convert those visitors into repeat customers. Organic search has one the highest ROI of any marketing channel today.

Yes! Yes! Different SEO practices will help build your web presence and boost your website to the top of the SERP.

SEO Tips and Tricks

As you work on constructing or redesigning your website for the best optimization, keep these beginner pointers in mind:

User-friendly website
This is a relatively recent trend in SEO best practices. Google measures the user experience (UX) on a website based on how much “pogo-sticking” occurs, which is where a user searches for something, clicks a link, goes back to the results page, and then clicks a different link. This behavior may indicate dissatisfaction with the search results. Search engines take note of this and may reduce a website’s ranking. To help your website rank at the top, make sure your site is loading fast, mobile-friendly, all your clickables work correctly, and your content is helpful and accurate to users.

Keywords
Think like a consumer. What would you type into a search engine if you were looking for a business that sold your products or services? Try out various search queries and see what gets similar businesses or websites to pop up. Then make sure to use those keywords in your page metadata descriptions, headers, and body content.

Consistent content
Having a consistent content publishing schedule for your site helps prove your authority in your area of expertise. It also shows Google and other search engines that you are the real deal and share the most up-to-date information with your website visitors.

Backlinks
Backlinks are other places on the web that link back to your website. This also shows your authority because other people or websites trust the content you are providing. Try reaching out to local directories or see where competitors are being backlinked, and then try to gain a link from those places.

Get Your SEO Game On

Now that you know what SEO is, how it works, and why it’s important, you can immediately implement this knowledge into your business’s digital marketing strategy. The long-term success and ROI are well worth the effort.

Contact Us!

PW Media is a complete digital marketing solution for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Our services include branding, website design, app development, SEO, local SEO, paid search, and more with proven results to energize your marketing efforts at any time.

Achieve your business goals by contacting us today!

Bot Revolution: Why Chatbots Are the Future Now

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:01:29 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Chatbots are becoming a favorite way for businesses to engage with customers quickly. Should your company make the jump and invest in a chatbot?

As the business world grows increasingly digital, brands are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to make a splash with customers. One way that companies are offering unique value through their brand is with intelligent and engaging chatbots.

You’ve likely encountered chatbots at some point in your online wanderings. Varying in their design and implementation, chatbots can deliver you the weather forecast each morning in smart and humorous ways (R.I.P . Poncho the Weather Cat) or quickly provide health information to medical professionals and the public. Notably, chatbots offer a quick and easy way to stay in constant contact with consumers, even after regular business hours.

The Rise of the Chatbot

While chatbots have become the buzz of branding trends lately, they have actually been around for many decades .

So what made these bots suddenly so popular? One reason may be the growing public use of messenger applications. Since 2016, messenger apps have surpassed social media in terms of users. Now people have become more reliant on these applications to communicate with each other than any other medium.

As messenger application use rises, so do user expectations for communicating with brands through these same channels. Innovative businesses have noticed this desire from their customers and quickly began developing and launching their own chatbots to provide faster and better customer service to users.

Is a Chatbot the Right Choice for Your Business?

In short, maybe. While the versatility of a chatbot can make it an excellent fit for most businesses, there are factors you should consider when deciding if it will fit your business needs. We will dive into the benefits of utilizing a chatbot, as well as mention particular challenges and risks below. Knowing the pros and cons of using a chatbot can help manage expectations if you add one to your customer service experience.

What Are the Benefits of a Chatbot?

Chatbots can be most helpful in streamlining and automating customer service processes to improve your bottom line. The popularity of these bots has led to many companies rushing to take advantage of the various benefits they provide.

Help Increase Conversion Rates
A chatbot uses algorithmic AI to estimate the exact right time to engage with a customer: when they’re on your website. By delivering relevant information and helpful suggestions, chatbots can guide customers to the next sales funnel step.
Around the Clock Availability
While your staff may need to sleep at night, chatbots never rest. Chatbots are available 24/7 to answer inquiries from customers with no competing demands for their attention and time, allowing them to entirely focus on each customer’s needs — day or night.
Immediate Response Time
Responsiveness and consistency is the key to a happy customer. Being put on hold or filling out a form only to wait for a return call or email can be detrimental for a customer looking for quick answers during the sales process.

Similarly, having to sift through a website that you’re not familiar with to find an answer to a basic question can be frustrating. Chatbots deliver quick and direct communication with users for a positive and successful customer service experience.
Saves Time and Money
Automating any repetitive, predictable process — such as answering simple or frequently asked questions — can save hours of human labor in terms of energy and cost. Eliminating mundane, tedious tasks allows businesses to allocate resources toward more pressing needs and challenges.
Manages Any Request Volume
Unlike humans, chatbots can handle multiple customers at once, never missing a beat or having to put someone on hold. This can help reduce wait times and increase customer satisfaction.
Increases Engagement with Your Website
A chatbot can be the deciding factor for a customer to remain engaged with your business website, make that phone call, purchase your product, or come into your business. Think of it like another touchpoint to keep the customer browsing your website and learning more about your business. The longer the engagement on your website, the more likely it can lead to a conversion, whether it's done in or outside of the chatbot itself.
Plays to Communication Preference
An increasing number of consumers prefer digital communication methods over traditional phone calls. Some people just don’t like engaging over the phone or even in person, but a digital conversation method bridges the gap. Plus, phone calls can create an interruption to a potential customer’s day. With a chatbot feature, you can capture their attention by limiting the potential barriers that prevent connecting with your business.

What Are Some Challenges of a Chatbot?

The benefits seem great, right? However, since chatbots are part of the relationship-building process with clients, using them can sometimes be risky. It all depends on how they’re built and implemented. Here are some common concerns associated with chatbot implementation:

Unsophisticated Chatbots Can Make You Lose Business — Fast
A chatbot’s “smarts” are paramount to its success or failure within a business. If a chatbot has such a set of limited responses that customers quickly grow frustrated with and leave the conversation, you could lose a sale — and customers may be less likely to return.

A (Real) Human Touch May Still Be Needed
Not everyone is ready to talk to a machine, no matter how helpful, cute, or friendly. Sometimes nothing beats having a human being on the other end of a conversation to build the trust and confidence needed for customer satisfaction and loyalty. Having empathy, understanding context, and just being, well, human, is still often necessary at some point within the customer service process.

Data Storage Security Should Not Be Taken Lightly
Giving personal and sometimes sensitive information to a chatbot can be risky for customers. Not all chatbots have suitable security measures in place based on what kind of data they are collecting. Using encryption and having a transparent process for customer data handling and storage is key to protecting your business and customers.

Hire a Chatbot to Be a Member of Your Team

Chatbots can help you to streamline and automate the customer acquisition process and further improve your bottom line. If the pros outweigh any of the potential cons for you, then a chatbot feature could be a great decision for your business.

If you are interested in bringing a chatbot into your digital marketing solution, consider PW Media’s chatbot — MyTechBot — that is now available for use at a special introductory rate.

8 Small Business Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2022 (Part 2)

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:26:17 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Discover four more small business marketing trends you won’t want to miss for 2022.

Small business owners and operators have experienced a year (or two) like no other. The realities of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to the massive marketplace and economic shifts that have left many reeling — and wondering what the future of business will look like.

As businesses rely on online marketing and shifting consumer behavior, it is vital that trends are monitored and new practices adopted to stay competitive and relevant. In the first article from our two-part series , we looked closely at four trends that businesses must understand and begin to pivot their operations to meet head-on:

The Fast Rise of AI and Chatbot-led Marketing
The End of Cookies and FLoC
SEO Practices Still Lead the Way
Bigger and Better Content is King

In part two, we will look at four more market trends that will help you make 2022 your best business year yet:

The shift from brick-and-mortar businesses to e-commerce has changed the marketing landscape in a big way. Even small, local businesses need to market their products or services online and utilize new marketing methods to stay competitive in the modern marketplace.

It may seem like a daunting task, but learning how to market your business online is an essential skill for any entrepreneur.

In our first part of this 2-part series, we will take a closer look at four trends that you should be aware of as businesses adapt and change to local and global market realities:

1. Brand Alignment with Inclusivity & Diversity

Brands focused on providing good to their community are going to be more successful. Promoting diversity and inclusivity to build a better and healthier company with increased brand loyalty is not a trend—it’s imperative.

Make sure that you are creating an inclusive workplace where everyone is represented and treated with respect.

Use tools like surveys or focus groups to collect feedback from current and former customers. Make changes to your programs based on what they tell you about how you can improve diversity and inclusion efforts in 2022.

2. The Use of Online and Hybrid Events

In 2022, more events will be integrated with online elements. More conferences and webinars will be available for free online so that businesses can easily participate without traveling to an expensive live event. Hybrid events can include:

Online information and registration
Live information sessions from key speakers at a conference or webinar
Live networking events with face-to-face interaction opportunities between presenters
Online tools, contests, and rewards to increase audience engagement

While bad customer service makes for great comedy, it makes for bad business in real life. Negative reviews based on subpar customer service and experience can damage a business’s reputation and bottom line.

3. Continued Focus on Customer Service

The success of businesses in 2022 will depend on how effectively they deliver customer service. What does this mean? Transparency and engagement.

Customer sentiment continues to gain importance in the digital advertising space. Reviews and feedback are vital to your businesses' Google ranking. If customers have a negative view of your business, you will want to address their issues or concerns, as feedback can mean the difference between a bad review and a good review.

4. A Focus on Customer Experience

Make sure that your website is designed for ease of use so customers can get the information they need quickly and efficiently. Things like difficult navigation, dark contrast, and autoplay features are just some pitfalls in faulty UX.

Don't make your users work for your content by having to search for it. A good user experience design is essential to build trust with new visitors who aren't familiar with your business. Don't forget to include frequent call-to-action (CTA) linking!

Inspire Your Business Strategy with the Newest Trends

The trend of online shopping has made marketing for small businesses much harder. Experts recommend that brands maintain their focus on the trends emerging with today's modern consumers to stay competitive.

As a resource to return to in your yearly planning, here are the top eight marketing trends to follow for 2022:

The Rise in Chatbots and AI Marketing
Death of Third Party Cookies and the Rise of FLoC
Local Marketing Through Best SEO Practices
Content Marketing for the Win
Brand Alignment and Inclusivity/Diversity
The Use of Online and Hybrid Events
Continued Focus on Customer Service
A Focus on Customer Experience

You will notice that one idea exists in all eight trends in this series: loyalty to your current customers is still essential . If you have methods and programs in place to show that you appreciate your customers, then those customers will reward your engagement with their loyalty.

Make 2022 Your Best

A solid and consistent marketing plan will pay off for small businesses in 2022. The brands that grow their audiences through content marketing and branding campaigns will connect with their current and potential customers for longer-lasting relationships and a better bottom line.

Ready to include the current business trends and best digital marketing practices into a transformative business strategy for 2022? Let PW Media help you. Contact us today!

8 Small Business Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2022 (Part 1)

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 16:18:58 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Are you a small business owner? Don’t miss these opportunities to maximize your potential in 2022.

It may seem like a daunting task, but learning how to market your business online is an essential skill for any entrepreneur.

In our first part of this 2-part series, we will take a closer look at four trends that you should be aware of as businesses adapt and change to local and global market realities:

1. The Rise in Chatbots and AI Marketing

Artificial intelligence is going to be a big part of marketing for small businesses in 2022. If you aren’t dipping your toes in the AI world for your marketing, you are risking more than you may know .

Businesses that invest in chatbots, a website tool designed to interact with people through natural language processing technology, will likely see rewards like increased sales and targeted advertising.

2. Death of Third Party Cookies and the Rise of FLoC

With the increases in privacy awareness, third-party cookies are going to be a thing of the past.

Google has recently released the Google Privacy Sandbox as a method to test the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) among online businesses. We recommend business owners do more research to get familiar with the changes coming in 2023. Google’s major switch in data tracking can impact your business leads and targeted advertising. You don't want to miss out on potential leads and engagement. Staying ahead of the curve in the digital landscape can mean all the difference.

3. Local Marketing Through Best SEO Practices

By 2022, local businesses will be optimizing their websites for Local SEO . This is the practice of using search engine optimization techniques to get ranked on the first page of locally relevant searches. Businesses that want to attract customers in a local area must ensure they have a professional website with fresh content and a good link structure.

4. Content Marketing for the Win

Content marketing is nothing new, but in 2022, the variety of your content marketing will be essential. Here are just a few of the areas you will need to make sure you are creating and promoting content regularly:

Blogs
Video
Social Media
Email Marketing and Newsletters

One of the significant changes in content marketing is moving from "hard sell" content to authority content. Authority content focuses on credibility and engagement. In 2022, content creators will be challenged to show their expertise in their specific fields.

Authoritative content attracts high-quality links to your website. To do this, you must consistently write and publish content showing the audience valuable and insightful information about your respective industry.

Customers drive your business. Not listening to their shifting priorities and needs can diminish your ability to adapt and stay relevant in a constantly evolving marketing landscape.

Investing in the Future

As a business owner and entrepreneur, it can feel overwhelming to try and stay ahead of the latest trends — especially as the world begins to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, there are many opportunities ahead for those who are willing to adapt their marketing strategies and techniques in the next few years. With the right information and plan, you can help avoid some struggles that other businesses may face.

Ahead of the Game

If you want to ensure that you’re on top of the newest marketing shifts of 2022 and beyond, PW Media is here to help create a trend-infused marketing strategy to help you achieve your business potential. Contact us today!

Want to See More? Check Out Part 2 of This Series!

Click here to read Part 2 of our 8 Small Business Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2022 . In it, we will look at four more market trends to end 2021 with a flourish and help make your business its best and brightest in 2022.

Hiding In Plain Sight: Why Your Business Needs Local SEO To Make An Impact

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 14:56:06 GMT

PW Media | Feb 23, 2021

What Is Local Citation Management and Why Is It Important for My Business?

How having a local SEO strategy can help you get the traffic and sales you want from customers near you.

As a local business, the ability to reach potential clients and customers with your company’s products and services is essential in today’s digital-first marketplace.

A vital method for helping potential customers discover your brand is through SEO. By ensuring that online consumers can locate your company with a single click, you can boost your brand reputation, recognition, and revenue. However, with so many companies vying for valuable online space, how can you ensure that quality customers in your area find you? The key is to utilize powerful local SEO .

What Is SEO?

The secret sauce to successful digital marketing is powerful search engine optimization or SEO . By optimizing your brand’s website and digital marketing content to be easily discovered by search engines, you can ensure that online consumers will quickly find your company when searching on many of today’s most popular search engines.

The more you invest in a robust SEO strategy, the higher your website and social presence will climb on search engine results ladders. This results-driven presence is essential to ensuring success for your business in a digital-first world.

However, simply being visible on search engine results may not guarantee that quality customers see your brand. If you genuinely want to take advantage of SEO’s potential to drive your sales and online traffic, you must optimize your local SEO in particular.

Having trouble being seen? Local SEO helps your business stand out in local search results on Google and other search engines.

Understanding Local SEO

Rather than focusing on being seen by anyone on the web, local SEO helps brands reach those most likely to make purchases who live and work in the area a business is located. The key is to understand the intent of a search.

Moz argues that local SEO helps companies increase their search visibility for strategic face-to-face interactions in their community.

For example, It’s far easier to get highly ranked for “lawn care services in Marietta, GA” than it is to reach that first page of search results for the generic search, “lawn care services.” When you make your location a focus for SEO, you’ll automatically develop a deeper marketing niche that’s more likely to lead to conversions.

What Can Local SEO Offer My Business?

Based on the keywords you are utilizing, there is a chance that you have built a local SEO strategy and not have been aware of it. “Near me” searches have been on the rise for years, especially on smartphones , for local customers using their digital devices to find information about companies near them. Ensuring you show up fast in search engine results is vital.

One key to boosting your local SEO is by taking advantage of services such as Google Business Profile. By creating and optimizing your Google Business Profile account with updated and accurate information, you can help your company’s information pop up the moment a local customer searches a keyword tied to your products or services. With nearly 50% of online searches leading to a local business visit within the first 24 hours of a click, making sure you show up in these local SEO methods is essential.

A further step to creating a robust local SEO strategy is registering your company’s information with online directories and local review sites such as Yelp, Facebook, Angie’s List, Thumbtack, and other locations where reviews, photos, and contact information is stored. This process is part of a more considerable effort called citation management . By taking steps to make sure your brand is present — and accurate — across the web, you can help customers in your backyard find you first.

Boost Your Local SEO with Expert Help

Understanding the difference between traditional SEO and hyper-localized SEO will help you take your business’s presence to higher levels than you ever expected. However, fully understanding the process of SEO setup and maintenance can be confusing and complicated due to the nuances of algorithms and strategy.

Contact Us!

If you are ready to take advantage of local SEO, PW Media is an experienced digital marketing agency. We understand how to help companies reach customers in their area. With a fully implemented online marketing plan, your company’s products and services will reach high-value consumers in your local area. Achieve your business goals by contacting us today!

What Is Local Citation Management and Why Is It Important for My Business?

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 13:39:00 GMT

PW Media | Feb 23, 2021

What Is Local Citation Management and Why Is It Important for My Business?

What are local citations, and how can small businesses begin to use them to their full advantage? This article will break down local citations, their purpose, and how your business can take advantage of these potent marketing tools.

As a small business, you understand how vital it is that customers can locate and access your company’s information. Whether your business’s name, the products and services you sell, or your location, having accurate and up-to-date information available and easily accessible online is essential to success.

In today’s digital-first world, one of the best ways to help potential customers and clients find your business is through local citations .

What Is A Local Citation?

In short, a local citation is any instance of a business’s information publicly listed on the internet. Local citations will often include NAP — also known as a business’s Name, Address, and Phone Number.

NAP is vital to ensuring that local citations boost your business’s online SEO and increases the chance that potential customers and clients will see your company when searching for your products or services. The better your local citations, the higher your business’s information will rank in local search results.

Why Are Local Citations Essential to Success?

As you are developing a digital marketing strategy, local citations are essential to your business’s success in reaching potential clients.

Supercharge Your SEO

One of the most critical elements of your business’s digital marketing strategy should be robust SEO. Shorthand for search engine optimization, SEO is an overall digital marketing strategy that allows your business to rank higher in search engine results when someone searches for your business, products, or services without using paid advertising.

SEO also includes local SEO , which allows local customers, who are most likely to use your services or purchase your products, to find your business. Local citations are invaluable for these efforts. Recent studies have shown that searches for businesses “near me” have increased exponentially over the past few years. Whether linked or plain text, every citation will lend your business credibility and increase the level of trust search engines have for it. And while this is important for all businesses, it’s even more so for competitive local niches like lawn care, restaurants, and the skilled trades that depend on local patronage for sustainability and success.

Boost Traffic And Leads

Local citations are one of the best ways to boost traffic to your business online and in-person. If your local citations are listed in various places, you can bet that potential customers and clients will make their way to your site and brick-and-mortar location.

Drive Your Reputation

By ensuring that your NAP exists in as many quality locations as possible across the web, you can take control of your business’s brand reputation and recognition online. This includes both accurate and complete local citations in leading directories, as well as review sites.

When you have eyes on your local citations, you can also take advantage of engaging with reviews on popular review sites. This will help build your brand reputation as a business that is engaged with customers and has taken an interest in building relationships and rapport.

Types of Citations

When it comes to local citations, there are two types that users will utilize. Knowing the difference between structured and unstructured citations can help ensure that you use citations to their full potential.

Structured Citations

The more formal of the two citation styles, structured citations will always include a business’s complete NAP information and are typically utilized by online directories that point visitors to location information. Structured citations are used in online directories such as the Better Business Bureau and Facebook and review sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google Business Profile, etc.

Unstructured Citations

As opposed to formal, structured citations, the other style of citation is unstructured. Unstructured citations will often appear on third-party websites that are not business directories, such as blogs, review sites, or news sites.

While they may include NAP, unstructured citations may also have bits and pieces of referential information to your business. While structured citations are the gold standard for ensuring your business information is available to users on the web, unstructured citations offer a broader opportunity for reach through small, one-off instances of your data being pasted across the internet for consumers to find.

A note of caution: the more unstructured citations you have out on the internet, the more likely you may run into a citation with outdated and incorrect information that you may not have easy access to correct. It is essential to keep a working list of unstructured citations that your company has across the internet. You’ll thank yourself if the time comes for updates.

A Checklist for Building and Maintaining Local Citations

If you are ready to get serious about ensuring that your local citations are working for you rather than against you, don’t skip any steps along the way. Here is a helpful checklist for consistently building and maintaining your local citations.

Use resources such as the USPS to ensure that you have the exact NAP information for your business, including the proper address fields and complete ZIP code. Once you have this, place this information in a safe and secure place so that you have access to it for copy/paste citation creation and updating.
Before creating new citations, find where your current citations are located on the web by searching for instances of your business through popular search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
If you discover any local citations that are outdated or incorrect, make sure they are quickly corrected.
Utilize local citation data aggregators (e.g., Data Axle, FourSquare, Localeze, Factual) to locate all possible locations where your business currently exists, and online directories where your citations should exist.
To better optimize your listings, make sure that your citations include photos, relevant information, and respond to all reviews your business receives.
Create a system for tracking your local citations as you discover and build them. If your NAP changes or a mistake is found, you will need to ensure that all local citations are fixed and updated to match current information.

What You Risk If You Don’t Take an Active Approach with Your Local Citations

While we have focused on the benefits of local citations, it can be beneficial to considerin persons involved with not taking advantage of this business tool. If you aren’t taking an active role in local citation development and maintenance, you give up control of your business’s information, accessibility, and, ultimately, your reputation. The key to using local citations is to take an active role in local citation development and maintenance.

Without taking the proper steps to ensure that your local citations are updated, maintained, and kept accurate across the web, you may miss out on valuable business traffic online and in person. If potential clients or customers cannot locate your business’s NAP online, they may simply move on to the next best option.

Worse yet, incorrect and outdated information can spread from one site to the next. Discrepancies will cause customer frustration or confusion — ultimately reducing your brand’s reputation and integrity.

Managing Local Citations For Your Small Business

Without the practice and experience in using citations, the process can be overwhelming and time-consuming. For businesses getting their feet wet in local citations, partnering with a local citation expert can be the key to success.

With a trained and experienced local citation manager for small businesses, you can work in tandem to develop citations based on guidance or allow the team to automate the process for you. According to local citation manager Moz , an average enterprise’s local listings can have duplicates across the web, ranging from 3,500–10,000. You can spend countless hours working through those citations — or you can trust local citation management experts to handle the process for you.

Contact Us!

Ready to take advantage of the benefits of local citations, but not sure where to begin? PW Media can help. Contact us today to develop and implement a comprehensive and consistent strategy that can increase traffic and conversions while reducing the amount of money you spend on paid advertising.

3 Reasons Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency Benefits Small Businesses

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 19:51:43 GMT

PW Media | Apr 09, 2021

3 Reasons Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency Benefits Small Businesses

Hiring a digital marketing agency can be a necessary — and exciting — step to accelerate your business’s growth.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important for Small Businesses (especially now!)

Having a digital marketing strategy is one of the most important things you can do to support and secure your business’s future. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to invest in digital marketing for businesses to connect with customers, especially during times of unexpected and rapid change. Having a digital presence will help your business maximize its flexibility to adapt to dynamic customer behaviors and evolving situations.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the art of bringing awareness of a particular business to the public by attracting and engaging customers to maintain and grow its brand and reputation.

Effective digital marketing helps a business succeed by letting potential customers know that they exist, where to find them, and what services and products they offer. This is particularly true online, where most consumers conduct research and find local businesses with the services and products they need. Without an online presence, customers can’t discover a business, which significantly impacts its ability to build a customer base and compete successfully in the marketplace.

3 Online Marketing Obstacles Small Businesses Struggle with Most

There are many unique challenges that smaller businesses face, but digital marketing woes tend to be at the forefront. Here are the top three:

Actionable marketing strategy
Time constraints
Limited budget

Benefits of Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency

Entering into a partnership with a digital marketing agency can alleviate the pain points above quickly. Here are the main benefits of hiring marketing agency talent versus building an in-house marketing team.

Expertise at a Fraction of the Cost

A marketing agency is essentially a hive-mind of top marketing and creative professionals. They are the experts in their field, and they’ve had the experience of working across numerous platforms and industries. Small to medium-sized businesses (a.k.a SMBs) are usually growing a business for the first time, so defining new roles and building new teams can be challenging. You may make mistakes; you may hire for a position that doesn’t move the needle for you or realize you need another supporting role. When you work with a marketing agency, they’ll talk about your goals and supply you with the talent necessary to achieve those goals; no hiring or firing is needed.

Cost can be a significant factor for any small business. Deciding whether or not to start working with a marketing agency may seem like a big decision, particularly on a limited budget. Besides the ease of hiring a marketing agency over a new team member, it’s also easy to know exactly what your marketing is costing you and what your ROI is. You simply pay your bill and move on — you don’t need to worry about the additional support that additional in-house marketers will need in the form of HR, payroll, benefits, and admin.

Flexible Budgeting

When you work with a digital marketing agency, you aren’t making the same commitment as hiring an in-house team. You have the flexibility to cut back on services if something changes and your budget tightens, and you have the freedom to add new services or increase your budget if things are going well.

One of the best things about marketing, especially advertising, is its scalability. In many cases, when you see success, you can increase your budget and see the same increase in results. Working with a marketing agency allows you to act quickly. If you need additional expertise, services or are ready to scale, your marketing agency can react promptly and supply you with what you need.

Freedom to Focus on Long-Term Growth

No matter the type of industry - from retail to service providers, your business needs two things: customers and the ability to wow those customers with your services and products. Do you struggle with getting or maintaining leads? One major problem for SMBs is getting that steady flow of traffic. All forms of marketing require constant and ongoing maintenance to keep pace with the evolving market conditions. Unless marketing is your area of expertise or you have the time to focus on it consistently, your efforts may be more valuable elsewhere. As a growing business, customer satisfaction and customer retention are best left to the owner and staff. Lead generation, advertising, SEO, and other forms of marketing can be outsourced.

An effective interactive marketing agency will create a solid marketing strategy for you and execute it. Depending on the type of agency you work with, you can either be involved in the execution or be completely hands-free, simply reading a report at the end of each month and discussing your future campaigns.

Effective web marketing strategies employed with consistent dedication and execution are the major perks of working with a marketing agency. These alone can help you accelerate your business’s growth without breaking the bank. With professionally managed marketing, you can focus your energy on growing the other essential parts of your business for future success. In short, a marketing agency is a powerful tool for generating revenue long-term and is well worth the investment.

Contact Us!

PW Media is a complete digital marketing solution for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Our services include branding, website design, app development, SEO, paid search, and more with proven results to jumpstart or improve your existing marketing efforts.

Achieve your business goals by contacting us today! We would love to hear from you!

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 15:08:39 GMT

PW Media | Mar 11, 2021

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Here is the most recent Google third-party cookies announcement and what's coming next for targeted marketing.

What’s New

Last week, Google made a few announcements in the form of a blog post about how it plans to move toward a more privacy-driven analysis of consumer browsing behaviors for targeted advertising purposes.

In it, they stated:

Google will not sell ads that rely on a person’s identifiable, individual web browsing history.
Google won’t use or build additional tools to track a person’s identifiable data across its products ( sorry, Trade Desk! ).

Google announced over a year ago its move away from third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by 2022 as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative. The tech and advertising community has been abuzz ever since about what this means for Google’s core business model (monetizing people’s browsing data) and how these changes affect the ad tech industry.

While Apple’s Safari browser and Mozilla’s Firefox browser already blocked third-party cookies years ago, Google’s announcement made headlines because Google is the search heavyweight champion, representing about 2/3 of the browser market share.

From Stalking to Segmentation

Moving forward, they plan to use more privacy-based strategies, such as Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). Instead of stalking and recording someone’s personal browsing habits online as they journey from one website to the next, the user is anonymized, grouped, and placed into a bucket (called a “cohort’) with others who have similar browsing behaviors and habits. Advertisers can then target those groups rather than an individual person.

In other words, your general browsing behavior is still being tracked and sold to advertisers for targeted marketing — it’s just in a more anonymized and aggregated way. They are now targeting the collective you, not you specifically . This practice isn’t new: Facebook profiles its users in a similar way for advertising purposes.

Why Now?

For years, Google has seen the writing on the wall: Europe considers privacy a fundamental human right and enacted considerable laws and regulations in 2018 to crack down on large corporations, including Google , that don’t follow customer privacy laws. By making attempts to police itself , Google may be trying to mitigate future large-scale legislation passed in the U.S. ( California and Virginia have already begun this process).

What Does This Mean?

It's too early to tell how Google's newest announcement will alter campaign strategies for marketing agencies. We'll keep you updated as we learn more in the coming months.

PW Media Blog

Holiday Marketing 101: Tips for Small Business Owners

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

Table of Contents:

Understanding the Dynamics of Holiday Shopping

Key Holiday Shopping Trends

Crafting Your Holiday Marketing Blueprint ﻿

Seasonal Branding and Visuals

Personalized Holiday Promotions

Holiday-Themed Content Marketing ﻿

Holiday-Themed Paid Media Campaigns

The Power of Retargeting for Holiday Shoppers

Why Partnering With a Marketing Agency Matters

Conclusion

The Power of Reviews: Leveraging User-Generated Content to Build Trust and Credibility

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

The Rise of User-Generated Content in Marketing

Types of User-Generated Content

Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Social Media Posts

User-Submitted Photos and Videos

Blog Posts and Articles

The Benefits of User-Generated Content

Builds Trust and Credibility

Increases Engagement

Provides Valuable Insights

Cost-Effective Marketing

How to Encourage User-Generated Content

Leveraging User-Generated Content Effectively

Curate Carefully

Get Permission

Integrate Across Channels

Respond and Engage

Conclusion

Valentine's Day Marketing Ideas for Brands: Spreading Love and Engaging Audiences

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

Are You Ready to Navigate the Dynamic World of Social Media Advertising in 2024?

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

Platform-Specific Strategies

Emerging Trends in Social Media Advertising

Best Practices for Successful Social Media Advertising

Understanding Google Ads Verification

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

What is Google Ads Verification?

Why Is Google Implementing Verification?

The Verification Process:

Do You Have a Marketing Firm? Lean on Them To Make Things Easier

Fostering Security and Trust in Digital Advertising

Predictions Turned Trends: Social Media Marketing Strategies in 2023

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

1) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more important

2) Focus on user-generated content

3) Short-form video remains king

4) Be Authentic

5) Focus on Your Community

6) Think About the Hook

7) Embracing TikTok

Need Help Growing Your Digital Presence?

Why Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Should Be Top of Mind in 2023

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

What is a Google Business Profile?

The Benefits of a Google Business Profile

Appear in Google Maps

Increase Local SEO

Build Trust through Customer Reviews

Free Advertising

Powerful Insights

How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile in 2023

You Need a Google Business Profile in 2023

Start Building Your Online Presence Today!

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

﻿ Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023 ﻿

1. Personalization

2. Marketing Automation

3. Localization

4. Customer Experience

5. Video Marketing

6. Metrics/Analytics

7. Social Media Marketing

8. Content Marketing

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Crafting Your Holiday Marketing Blueprint

Holiday-Themed Content Marketing

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Top 10 Marketing Trends for Small Businesses in 2023

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy

Google’s Latest Move for User Privacy