Bring Customers to Your Door Using Google My Business

How Using Google My Business Can Help Grow Your Business.

Google My Business is the free upgrade to the services from Google previously covered by both Google Places for Business, and Google+ Pages Dashboard. Both of the previous services were also free, and were a way for businesses to manage their information online. Google My Business combines the best of those services, while adding better functionality.

It might be natural for some business owners to think that if they already have a well-built, comprehensive website that ranks well for its main keywords, then they really have no need for something like Google My Business. This is a short-sighted view, as the free Google service is an excellent complement to a company website. It provides your business with a unique presence on the world’s most influential online company, and it costs nothing, apart from the simple task of gathering the necessary company information together.

Google My Business works primarily at a local level. It’s about connecting with potential customers and getting relevant leads from them. If you are to take full advantage of this service, you need to start by filling out your business information as fully as possible. Make the page that people land on a rich information-packed place where people can find what they need, and go on to make contact with you.

TIP: Make sure your business name, address, and phone (NAP) are used consistently throughout all online directories, and especially Google My Business. It should be an exact match to the NAP info found on your website. This ensures your message is consistent for potential customers who may try to locate your business, and is beneficial to the health of your website in regards to SEO.

Google My Business is designed to include a wealth of different, highly-relevant information, so make full use of it. The greater the detail on your Google My Business page, the higher it will rank, and more people will come across it in their searches.

Features of Google My Business

The features of the service are impressive. You're provided with a dashboard that is virtually a backroom CRM where you can control everything and view traffic stats. You're not limited to just having text on your Google My Business page either. You can, and should, add photos, video or podcast audio – or better yet, all three.

Google My Business gives you direct access to your Google+ account, Reviews, Insights, Analytics, AdWords, Hangouts and YouTube, all from a single dashboard. Properly set up and managed, this free service is really all you need to successfully bring crowds of willing customers straight to your door.

Need assistance? CC Communications will ensure your business is claimed and optimized to provide you with the full benefits of the Google My Business tool. Contact our team at marketing@cccom.com to learn more.

Stay Connected to Your Customers

How Retargeting Reinforces Your Advertising Efforts 

Retargeting, sometimes also known as remarketing, is a method of focusing your marketing efforts on those who have already shown an interest in your product or service. At a simple level this can be someone who has downloaded free information from your website, for example, or signed up to receive further information about a product, but failed to make a purchase.

A more sophisticated form of retargeting is through cookies. These are small pieces of code placed in a person’s browser when they visit your website. This code can then be used to trigger the placement of specific ads on certain websites that display advertising. To make this happen it's necessary to utilize an ad network such as AdWords.

You may have experienced this type of marketing yourself. If, for example, you spent some time looking for a particular product in various retail websites, you may have noticed immediately after seeing an advert for that product, or a similar product, popping up on a number of other websites or social media sites you subsequently visited. This is retargeting in action.

Retargeting helps remind a potential customer of your product or service by keeping it top of mind. This type of follow up, if done correctly, is subtle, but very persuasive. You know they're interested in the product, but not quite convinced to make a purchase. Retargeting keeps the idea of purchasing gently simmering, until they make the decision to buy.

The benefits of retargeting are many. They include, maximizing the customer’s lifetime value, increasing the conversion rate, increasing your marketing reach, enabling a high degree of precision targeting, keeping marketing costs down to a minimum, and promoting brand awareness.

Do you need assistance establishing a retargeting campaign? We help clients navigate the online marketing landscape to get their messages seen by a highly relevant and interested audience. We can do the same for you! Contact us today to learn more.

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Do Something! Boost Customer Engagement Through Effective Calls-to-Action

If you haven’t given marketing too much thought, it may seem logical that all you need to do is present your audience with a compelling offer in order to get sales. That might work to a certain extent, but it’s a simple fact that you need to tell them what to do in order to get the sale. You need to provide a clear and effective call-to-action (CTA) that entices customers to click that “Buy” button and make the order, for if you don’t, you may not maximize your potential sales.

A CTA should only be used when it’s obvious to the visitor that they’re reading a sales letter, or promotional piece. A white paper, for example, is primarily for educational purposes, and a strong CTA inserted at the end of the paper would only serve to erode trust. To a large extent, the same goes for most social media platforms where a CTA could be seen as intrusive.

In order to boost customer engagement through an effective call-to-action, a strategy is required. Here are some rules to follow when incorporating CTA's into your marketing message.

Always be visible and obvious

On a website sales page, a yellow, or yellow/orange, rectangular button saying something like “Buy Now” works well. It is highly visible and obvious, and when placed near the end of the sales page, it becomes the culmination of the promotional piece; the call-to-action. An alternative could be the use of larger bold text in a different color that stands out and clearly delivers a simple action message.

Use simple words that clearly express action

The words used in your call-to-action should be kept simple and should inspire the reader to take action. Words like, “Click Here”, “Buy Now” and “Call Today” convey a clear intent and will not confuse your visitor. Words like “Submit” are impersonal and clinical and should be avoided.

Don't be ambiguous or have more than one action listed

A single CTA always works best. When you say something like, “Click the buy button now, or call our number, or alternatively fill out our contact form,” a potential customer will become confused and unsure of which action they should take. The result will often be that they take no action at all.

Inspire a feeling of urgency

You need to instill a sense of urgency into the call-to-action. You don’t want the visitor to think they can always come back and do it later. They probably won’t. Use words like, “Now” and “Today” to create a feeling of immediacy. You could also say that the offer will only be available for a short time before the price rises.

Lead to a short and simple engagement path for the customer

Provide an engagement path for your customer that is short and easy to follow. If they call a number and are then presented with 10 menu options to navigate, they will probably give up. If they have to fill in a form with their name, email and home address after clicking a button, they will probably give up. Keep the engagement path simple and easy.

Incorporate A/B testing

This can be achieved by changing only a single element of the CTA (button color, action word, etc) and then compare the results against the previous version. Improved results should be kept and any decrease in results should be rejected.

Do you need help developing marketing strategies to boost your online sales? Contact CC Communications today to learn how we can put our 22+ years of experience to work for your business. 

How to Incorporate Video into Your Online Strategy

Anyone old enough to remember trying to stream a video clip from a website back in the days of dial-up before broadband was common would have been forgiven for thinking it would never catch on. Fast forward to the present and we have Forbes magazine, as well as many others, telling us, “2016 is the long-anticipated year of video marketing.”

You might be wondering if video marketing really works, and that’s a fair point. Well, consider these statistics from the Online Publishers Association:

• 80% of Internet users watched a video ad in the past month, and of that 80%
• 26% searched for more information about the subject matter
• 22% went to the website mentioned in the ad
• 15% checked out the company behind the ad
• 12% bought the product being promoted in the ad

The great thing about using video to promote your product or service is that you are not limited to only having a video on your website. In fact, you should be spreading your video around as much as possible. Social media now give greater weight in their algorithms to video placement, making it easier than ever to market effectively.

YouTube is certainly the granddaddy of video sites, but Facebook has recently overtaken YouTube in terms of daily video minutes watched – some 4 billion videos watched worldwide per day – and Twitter and Snapchat are also catching up fast. These numbers are only going to grow as people are showing an ever-increasing voracious appetite for video.

Producing Video on a Shoestring Budget

Creating your own promotional video can be fairly easy, even if you are on a tight budget. One of the easiest and most effective ways is to create a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint. You first need to write and record a script, but it doesn’t need to be long, about one minute to 90 seconds of talking time works well.  You can then create your presentation using suitable images and text. Time each slide length according to the relevant part of the script. You can then choose File, Export, and Create a Video to create the video in the WMF video file format. After choosing the video quality setting, you can choose, Use Recorded Timings and Narrations to add the script you recorded earlier.

Consider recording a video blog, with the presenter/host simply appearing on-camera.  Video blogs can be fun, informal, informative and powerful.  The audio and video recording capability found on most modern mobile phones is usually sufficient to produce an effective message, as long as you have access to a quality microphone and have good lighting.

Best Practices and Tips 

• Avoid incorporating 3^rd party logos or images copied online within your video presentation.
• Remember to respect all common trademark and copyright ownership laws and adhere to restrictions. 
• If you buy images, fonts or soundtrack content for inclusion into your video, then make certain you follow the usage terms and conditions associated with your purchase. 
• Don’t forget to post and promote your video on YouTube.com, as well as embedded it within a page on your own website.
• Include a link in your video description leading back to your designated landing page for more formation and lead capturing.

Want some extra help? 

CC Communications and our affiliate partners offer a wide range of very cost efficient web video production options and services, with some support packages starting as low as $899. Once your video is produced, CC Communications can also help you successfully post and promote the program online, as well as setup an effective landing page that connects to your presentation with a clear “call-to-action” response. At CC Communications we have a highly experienced team of industry experts who can help with all of your online marketing needs, including video. For the best video production and marketing advice or assistance, call us today on 704‑543‑1171, or contact us online. We’d love to hear from you!

What's Missing? Four Things Every B2B Website Must Have

When consulting with a new B2B client, we often begin the process by reviewing their existing website for the things that are missing - those website components necessary to turn a cookie-cutter website into a robust lead generator. If you're a B2B marketer looking for ways to enhance your online presence and positively impact your key performance indicators, then make sure you have these four elements in place.

Strong Calls to Action
When visitors land on your site, you need to provide clear direction on what you want them to do. Is your goal to get more contact forms completed? Do you want them to download your free e-book? No matter what your primary objective may be, you need to place your call to action (CTA) in a prominent location (above the scroll line) on your page.

When writing your CTA keep it around five to six words, and focus on conveying a sense value and urgency. For example, "Schedule my free consultation now!"


Testimonials

The power of social influence cannot be denied, and nothing gives you online cred like a testimonial from a past or present client. Make it a habit of always asking your clients to put in a good word. If your position isn't client-facing, then reach out to someone on your team who is, and ask them to make the request.

A good rule of thumb to follow is not to create a dedicated page for testimonials on your site. More times than not these pages will be passed over. You're better off sprinkling them across your website for a stronger impact.

Blog
Your website needs a fresh, steady stream of content. Otherwise all you have to offer is a glorified e-brochure. A blog provides a platform to showcase your expertise, it helps position your organization as a thought leader in your industry, it gives your website an SEO boost, and provides new ways for your business to be discovered online. Sure, it will take some resources to produce the content, but either you take center stage online or your competitors will.

Tracking

Data is the key to understanding your customers journey through your website. Google Analytics is an in-depth platform often overlooked as the valuable resource it is. The data is provides helps you learn what content resonates most for your site visitors, and which areas need improvement.

Aside from the top level metrics this tool provides, you can set up conversion goals to measure the success of online campaigns, see which social media outlets are providing the most referral traffic to your site, and discover where people are dropping off in the sales purchase funnel.

Get Help with Google Analytics.

Need assistance with strategic planning for your website? CC Communications has over 22 years of experience in the industry and we're ready to help you take your B2B website to the next level. Contact us today to learn more.

Corrupted Data: How to Detect and Remove Referral Spam

There's a rampant issue impacting the Google Analytics account of nearly every business. It's called referral spam (a.k.a. ghost spam) and any marketer tasked with reporting online metrics should know how to detect and remove it from their data. Using Google Analytics to make data-driven decisions is important for any small business, but if you're only looking at the top level metrics, then you may not be getting an accurate picture of how your website is truly performing. 

What is referral spam?

Referral spam is a black hat SEO tactic, in which bots are used to send send multiple fake visits to your website. These visits are recorded in your data and falsely inflate your site session metric. What do spammers get out of this? Extra visits to their website. Every curious data collector who clicks on a link automatically provides traffic to the offending site. Sometime this means they can charge more for advertising on their site due to the falsely inflated site visitation, and other times they can serve up Malware so be cautious about clicking on unfamiliar links in your data!

How to spot referral spam?

The majority of these top 10 referral sources are spam. 

1. Login to your Google analytics account and navigate to the reporting tab.

2. On the left hand menu click on Acquisition.

3. Then select All Traffic.

4. In the dropdown select Referrals. Here you'll see a list of any site that has sent traffic to your website during the time period selected. 

What to look for:

- Visits with a 100% bounce rate.

- Sites with an average session duration under 1 second.

- Unfamiliar URLs, often worded to entice a click. 

What's a small business marketer to do?

Google is well aware of the issue and has been silent on any pending solutions. There are some great blogs that discuss advanced solutions for creating valid hostname and spam crawler filters. These strategies are a bit complex for the average marketer with no coding experience, but they are helpful in preventing spammer data from invading your metrics. Essentially you tell Analytics what constitutes a real referral for your site, and which ones should be blocked. This is a solid option for larger sites managing a ton of data. Need help setting it up? CC Communications has experience so contact us to learn how we can assist.

If your site only receives a modest amount of traffic each month, then it may be easier to filter the data and do the math yourself. It's a manual process, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to do this rather quickly. Here are the steps:

1. In the referral section of analytics make note of the total number of session being reported.

2. Above the data and to the right is the word advanced. Click that and a new filter section appears.

3. Select the following criteria.

- In the first dropdown choose Exclude.

- In the second dropdown choose Site Usage and then Average Session Duration.

- In the third dropdown select Less Than.

- In the field next to that type 1 (one). 

It should now look like this:

This filters out any site visits that were less than one second and provides you with a cleaner list to review. Keep in mind that this scrubs a lot of the spam, but not everything.

4. Next go through and identify which referrals are real. Add those session numbers together to get your actual number of legitimate referrals and then adjust your overall website session metric accordingly.

Hopefully this type of data corruption will soon be eradicated, but until it is, marketers must remain diligent to ensure accurate data is being reported. If you have any questions or need assistance contact our team at marketing@cccom.com.

Regional YMCA website gets a fresh, mobile-ready start

Project Spotlight: Cleveland County Family YMCA 

CC Communications recently designed and launched a new website for the Cleveland County YMCA, a health and wellness center with five branch locations around the community. When redesigning this website, CC Communications implemented an events calendar, streamlined navigation, and a strategic content structure to showcase member stories throughout the site. This layout provides an enhanced, user-friendly experience and assists site visitors in quickly finding important information, no matter which branch location they plan to visit.

CC Communications made several other improvements to the website including enhanced content for each branch location and a unique graphic design treatment customized for the Cleveland County YMCA, while adhering to the national YMCA brand standards. The site also utilizes the latest in responsive design technology to ensure a seamless experience for all mobile and tablet users.

The website was built using DotNetNuke (DNN), a robust and secure Content Management System providing businesses with an easier way to manage their online assets. CC Communications is also providing hosting services to maintain security and consistency of the new website.

Is your website overdue for an upgrade? Contact us today and get a complimentary site audit.