Every marketing team knows that videos are a powerful experiential asset. When users see a video on a site, in a blog, or on social media, they are more likely to stop and pay attention. Videos create a story, a journey, and a visual experience that users enjoy and often sticks in the mind more effectively than a pithy phrase or even a compelling still image. Despite the power of video when you’ve already got a user’s eye, video is also notoriously poor on the single most important aspect of modern marketing: SEO.
Web-crawlers and search engines can’t listen through the audio to know what your video is about or all the cool details you cover in your videos. Search engines can’t help users looking for an awesome animation of an apple on fire of a product demonstration even if that’s exactly what is in your video. But you can make it happen.
That library of videos you’ve been building can actually be SEO assets, but only if you know what to do. Today, we’re here to share this comprehensive guide on ten different ways to use both old and new videos to boost your SEO and help search engines know the real value that your videos have to offer.
Developing and releasing a new product is an exciting time for any business. Naturally, you’re eager to see your product in the hands of customers to start getting that enthusiasm back ten-fold. Of course, releasing a new product also means collecting and converting new leads. The audience for your latest release may not be exactly the same as those for your previous products. Not to mention your desire to grow your audience by expanding your offerings.
One of the best places to look for new lead generation for a new product is your channel marketing partners. Why? Because channel marketing is all about expansion. When you reach out to other businesses for whom you are part of their supply chain, you also potentially reach their network of customers and business partners. By using the creative outreach process of channel marketing, you can kick-start lead generation for a new product as well.
Let’s dive right into the five ways that channel marketing can put your new product lead generation into high-gear.
1) Channel Business Partners Have Their Own Clients With a Market for Your Products
Often, channel marketing involves selling to companies that either sell your product directly as retail partners or those who use your product as part of their production or packaging process. What makes it channel marketing is that you are selling to and partnering with other businesses instead of just trying to reach consumer-level buyers.
The primary benefit of channel marketing in this way is that you gain access not just to your direct buyers, but to the clients and audiences of your channel partners as well. In fact, your channel partners have every reason to hype your new product to their audience in order to promote how your product upgrades their own products.
Example: You sell bicycle accessories and have just released a new advanced safety bicycle light. Your channel partner sells assembled bicycles and will be proud to feature your new light as an upgrade to their products
2) Channel Partners Have a Unique Perspective on Marketing Your Products
Channel partners also have a completely different perspective on how to market your products and reach new demographics. Because they have their own client base and a completely different business model from your own, they have the advantage of a third-party viewpoint not only on your potential buyers, but on the value of the new product itself.
Consulting with your channel marketing partners is a great way to expand your campaigns and your targeting capabilities for the potential buyers of your new product. Your channel partners can point out that your new product is more versatile than you realize, or even point you toward new channel marketing leads who have a different use for your product than you initially imagined.
Example: Your bicycle-selling channel lead also sells scooters and mopeds. They point out that your light is equally ideal for these personal vehicles and then point out that the senior-scooter market would also be a great channel for your new bike light.
3) Channel Partners Want to Be on the Cutting-Edge of Their Industries
In fact, your channel partners are often your best allies when it comes to both developing and marketing new products because they want to be on the cutting edge. They have partnered with you for a reason and enjoy the value you add through your channel marketing campaigns. Each time you update your products and services, they benefit by staying on the cutting-edge, ahead of their competition.
Your channel partners not only want you to develop new products, but they want to be the ones to innovate the latest-and-greatest way to put those products to use. An enthusiastic channel marketing partner is one of your best possible lead-generating assets when they are as eager as you are to get the word out. The upgrade will have their customers clamoring for their new products that incorporate your products as well as creating interest for your stand-alone product for other uses.
Example: Your bicycle partner is not just offering new bikes and scooters with your light, they’re also offering to refit their own older products with a new light while simultaneously marketing your light as the cutting-edge of personal vehicle technology that they have special early access to.
4) Channel Partners May Refer Interested Partners of Their Own
Your channel partners may also be interested in introducing your new product to their own business partners. To do this without adding to their own logistical overhead, they may recommend you to their manufacturers, their retailers, or their shipping partners. These referrals are to streamline their own services while also, incidentally, expanding your channel marketing leads.
Channel partners may be primarily interested in boosting their own success, but the synergy you’ve already worked hard to create with value-added channel marketing can really pay off. Especially when you have a new product that your channel partners realize would be more efficient to send straight to their partners to streamline the production process.
Example: Your new bicycle light can be bolted to the handlebars with the wires threaded through a hollow bike frame rather than creating a catch-hazard by clipping to the outside. So your Bike-assembly channel partner hooks you up with their manufacturer to install the lights directly instead of threading the wires after the bikes are assembled.
5) Finding New Channels for New Products
Finally, there is the pure benefit of channel marketing, even without relying on existing partners. Perhaps your product is outside the purview of your previous channels, or you are just now getting into channel marketing for the first time. When you develop a new product, this opens doors to new potential channel partners.
Channel marketing is all about thinking creatively about the supply chain. Your new product might be better suited to restaurants where before you catered primarily to hotels. Or you have developed a new tool for small hands and thus open the door to partnering with children’s brands or brands that cater primarily to women. Every innovation and change in a new product can allow you to seek out new channel partners who, once connected, provide all the previous benefits in terms of generating leads and expanding your potential client base.
Example: Your new bicycle light includes a GPS feature that you market directly to parental safety brands and eco-travel brands in addition to your bicycle assembly partner.
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When it comes to generating whole new audiences of leads for both existing products and your brand new releases, channel marketing cannot be beat. Once you forge relationships with other businesses that sell, manufacture, or package with your products, their customers become your customers and their partners potentially become your partners. Contact us today to find out more about how to expand your channel marketing network and your buyer audience in one graceful lead-generating campaign effort.
In the past decade, mobile phone use has increased drastically. Funnily, in 2011, more people owned phones in the world more than toothbrushes. In 2018, there were approximately 3.7 billion mobile phone users across the globe. The number is projected to increase to 4.6 billion by the end of 2019. As opposed to the past, when a phone was just a phone -a communication device- today, things are different. A phone has become a fundamental part of life used for communication, entertainment, information, and guidance.
A fast website is essential to fostering a positive user experience and achieving a favorable search engine ranking. But how do you know if your website is running slowly? And what should you do if you discover that your site is too slow? Below are five proven ways to find out if your site speed is under-performing and some simple steps you can take to speed up your site.
How can you find out if your website is running slowly?
The best way to determine if your website is performing too slowly is to run a test. And thanks to the variety of free, user-friendly tests available online, you can find out quickly whether your site is in need of a jump start. Here are five free tests you can run to determine if your website is running slowly.
Sucuri’s load time test measures two key performance indicators: the length of time it takes to connect to your site and the length of time it takes for one of your pages to fully load. Sucuri also emphasizes the “time to first byte”, which specifies the amount of time it takes for content to be sent to a browser to begin processing a page.
Pingdom is a free user-friendly testing tool that offers a performance grade along with an analysis of your page load time and the bottlenecks affecting your site’s speed. Here is a list of the current locations from which you can choose to launch your test:
UPTRENDS offers a free online platform that allows you to test your website’s performance in some of the best browsers on the market. You can choose to test your site speed from cities such as Paris, Berlin, Singapore, Beijing, Amsterdam, and others. You can conduct testing from your desktop or favorite mobile device and manually select whether you wish to use Chrome, IE, or Firefox.
Google’s site speed testing tool evaluates your website and assigns a score using a scale of 1 to 100. Any score above 85 suggests that your website is performing well in terms of speed. The tool offers reports for mobile and desktop versions of your website and offers specific suggestions designed to improve your site’s time to fully load a page and time to display above-the-fold content by the browser.
GTMetrix has analyzed hundreds of millions of pages in an effort to detect slow performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Their free tool enables you to test your page on a real Android device or a variety of simulated device options. You will be able to see how fast your site operates from seven different locations across the globe.
What can you do to speed up your website?
If you run one or more of the tests above and receive the news that your site speed is below average, it is time to swing into action. Fortunately, there are some straightforward steps you can take to address the problems above. From optimizing your files to removing “bad” plugins, you can provide a more enjoyable experience for customers who visit your website. Here are five things you can do to speed up your website:
1) Remove unnecessary plugins
A large number of plugins can really bog down your page loading time. Carve out some time to review your plugins and remove those that are not absolutely necessary. You can also examine your remaining plugins to see how they are impacting page load time by using Google Chrome’s “Inspect” feature to access the plugin developer’s tool panel. By clicking on the “Network” tab and reloading your website, you can view how long it takes for loading to occur.
2) Explore compression
Compression can help you reduce your page size and minimize the need for visitors to download data. Because compression is a setting on your server, the way that you implement it will hinge on the type of web server you have. If you hit any roadblocks with compression, your hosting company should be able to provide guidance.
3) Use a browser-friendly image format
In general, larger file sizes require more time to load in a browser. If you are using heavy formats like BMP or TIFF, you could be hindering your load time. Take some time to review your images and consider switching over to JPG, PNG, or GIF if you discover any heavy formats.
4) Consider a new web hosting service
Sometimes a poor quality web hosting service is responsible for your slow site. If you use a free web hosting service or a service that fails to deliver proper support, you should consider exploring a new web hosting service that is known for delivering stellar support and resources.
5) Identify and repair broken links
Broken links drain your bandwidth, which can cause your site to operate more slowly. They also cause frustration among visitors, which can cause people to abandon your site. Make sure you periodically screen your site for broken links and either remove them or replace them with valid links to help speed up your site.
What is the single best step you can take to maintain a fast website?
Maintaining a fast website is vital to helping your business attract customers and keep them happy. By following the tips above, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your site speed and prevent a poor customer experience with your site. But the single best way to speed up your website and keep it running fast is to seek the services of a trusted web development expert.
For over 18 years, Bash Foo has delivered fast, responsive web design services to thousands of customers. Our skilled web design specialists have the tools and expertise to keep your site running fast. We invite you to contact us at Bash Foo today to discover how we help customers increase sales by 40 percent. We look forward to helping your business thrive!
Google Maps is undoubtedly among the most valuable tools the tech-giant Google has offered the world. When traveling to an unfamiliar place, you don’t have to resort of paper maps or ask people for directions. You simply open your Google Maps, indicate your destination, and you are good to go.
Google Maps is the most-used navigation app by mobile users. It ranks first in the US among the most popular mapping apps. In April 2018, Google Maps record 154.4 million unique users. Google Maps ranks fourth after YouTube, Facebook, and Google Search in the list of leading smartphone apps in the US. In May 2019, an estimate of 64.5% of mobile users in the US accessed Google Maps.
Google Maps is not just a navigation app; it is great for locating businesses. For instance, using Google Maps, you can find a business like a car wash, plumber, barber, or restaurant near you. As a business, Google Maps have numerous benefits for your business. You can use Google Maps advertising in your digital marketing strategy to help customers locate your business.
What is Google Maps Advertising?
Google Maps advertising refers to harnessing the power and functionality of Google Maps to make your business easier to locate. It is useful for not only large organizations but also small businesses. Today, using Google Maps will spice your marketing strategy and give you results, because nearly every person looking for services locally needs the help of Google Maps.
Benefits of Google Maps for Businesses
As the owner of your business owner, you can enlist your enterprise to be added to Google’s platform so that it is located on Google Maps. It is an easy process because you only need to provide your business details on Google My Business. This way, people searching for the name of your business or the services you offer can easily locate you. Also, your business location is mapped for easy access. Among the benefits of Google Maps include;
Improve business visibility: customers can locate your business and even get directions to get there. Increased exposure for an enterprise means more revenue for the business. For instance, when a user searches for a restaurant near them, and your restaurant appears in the search results, the user visiting your restaurant increases sales.
Offers an online presence: Google Maps provides an excellent way for your business to get an online presence. Even if your small business lacks a website, Google Maps lets people know you and where you are located.
Ranking well for SEO: listing on Google Maps helps your business to rank well for SEO. It increases the likelihood of your business getting a first-page ranking on search results. Google Maps are essential in local SEO.
Increase competitiveness: Google Maps helps your business to stay competitive because it maps your business for all to see it.
Changes in Google Maps
Google is committed to continuous improvements of Google Maps to enhance its users’ experience. The tech giant spends much time and effort refining and improving the app to make it better. Advertising agencies recognize the importance of you getting your business found. Any feature and change that encourage people to use Google Maps are good for business because they promote brand discovery. Here are some prominent changes to Google Maps and how they help your small business.
1. Explore Feature
Although this is not a new feature on Google Maps, an updated Explore tab will improve this feature while presenting more top options. The Explore tab allows users to search for nearby restaurants, ATMs, barbershops, and pharmacies quickly and conveniently. The restaurant, pharmacy or grocery users are looking for maybe your business.
2. Voice actions
This is an effort to make the user interface easier to navigate. For instance, a customer can find out how long it will take to get to a business or the current traffic situation without using controls. This feature is great when customers are driving to your business because it increases their safety.
Unlike in the past, where customer experience started when a customer walks in your store, currently, things are different. Customer experience begins when a customer searches for your business and the process of getting to it. The seamless the journey to your business, the better the experience you deliver.
3. Proximity-based Google Maps Results
Google allows for proximity-based Google maps results whereby results depend on your location. For example, if you are in Denver, Colorado and search for a plumber, you will get results of plumbers in or near Denver. The plumbers will be organized into positions based on your location. The closest to you will be given the first position. You don’t get one result of plumbers but several so that you have numerous options. If your business is listed on Google Maps and a customer near you searches for your services or products, you are given priority. Such a customer is a qualified lead who has a high likelihood of converting.
4. Google lens, Street view Integration, and AI technology
Google lens and street view use the power of AI technology to help users get directions on where to go and decrease the probability of getting lost. AI technology guides the user on their destination and assists in choosing the best routes. Google Lens allows a user to identify street signs and landmarks.
5. Alternative-method travelers
Not all customers will drive to your store, others will use alternative methods like cycling. Google Maps has made several changes that benefit bikers. It has elevation data for bicycle routes and bikers can compare different routes. Also, Google Maps allows your customers to connect with private drivers like Uber and Lyft. All these alternative travel methods are valuable for modern travelers.
You may be nostalgic about the old-fashioned paper maps, but they were never as useful for businesses as Google Maps today. Businesses should capitalize on the changes that Google Maps make to improve user experience and make a company’s information accurate and accessible. Importantly, enhancing your business visibility and advertising on Google Maps takes time and effort. Google Maps don’t give you the quick fix to your marketing woes but is a long term strategy that bears fruits. You must be patient if you want to reap the rewards. Contact us to learn more about digital marketing ideas that work.
As a solopreneur, you’ve got work up to your ears and the pressure is high because you’re doing everything alone. From generating leads to retargeting, you find it hard to keep up.
To keep your solo business afloat, you must multitask and do more than one job all at once. With just one person (you) doing the marketing for your business, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and maybe even a little unmotivated. That’s why it’s so important to take advantage of the many marketing tools available so that you can save time and reduce the headache from running your business alone.
A SOLORPENEUR’S MARKETING TOOLKIT FOR INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
There are so many things that come with running a business without the help of others. Marketing is only one of them. Allotting so much of your time to marketing can take away from the valuable moments you can be spending on other important tasks. With the below tools, you’ll not only become more organized, you’ll also be able to focus more on creativity and growth.
As a business owner who wants to convert as many leads to customers as possible, you likely spend lots of time sending emails. With Reply, you can email hundreds of people in the time it usually takes you to email just a few people. This means that you can really maximize your time and take on other marketing tasks you wouldn’t normally get to in that amount of time.
Below are just a few of the features Reply has to offer:
Send tailored, personalized emails and follow-ups
Send an onboarding series to introduce new subscribers to your business
Re-engage inactive subscribers
Get stats on your email campaign performance such as deliveries, opens, and clicks
Get early-stage product feedback from potential customers and influencers
Google AdWords is a really powerful tool to launch you right into page one search results without waiting for your site to rank. But it’s super complicated for the solopreneur. As Bash Foo only takes clients who can budget $1,500 or more on ad campaigns per month, what about the solopreneur that can only budget say $200 a month? Adwords Express makes getting new leads easier and more affordable, without requiring you to study up on how to create a killer ad. It’s a smarter, automatic version of AdWords.
With AdWords Express, you just choose the category of your ad by entering a general keyword and Google automatically creates a keyword campaign based on search trends related to that category. This allows your ads to automatically show for up to thousands of keywords related to the one you entered.
Let’s say that you’re a plumber and your keyword is “emergency plumbing services”. Your ad will still show up if someone uses a related keyword such as “emergency plumber near me” or “24/7 plumber”. This gives you great flexibility with gaining exposure to your business. Once you’ve chosen a business category, written an ad, and set your budget, AdWords Express will automatically manage where and when your ads will appear.
Every solopreneur needs a social media management system. Because you have little to no help marketing your business, your valuable time is likely taken up with so many marketing tasks, including managing your company’s social media accounts. That’s where Hootsuite gets its value, by keeping track of and managing various social media channels.
Using Hootsuite, you can monitor multiple social media networks in one place. They include:
You can even add more than one of the same network. For example, if you have more than one Facebook page or have multiple Twitter channels, you can manage them within Hootsuite. Plus, you can post on multiple channels at a time. So if you create a post and you want that post to be on other channels, you can use Hootsuite to publish them all at once. This can be very useful if you’re in a rush and need to get things done more quickly and efficiently.
Another one of Hootsuite’s many features is the weekly Social Analytics Report that contains a summary and statistics on your social campaigns. With the report, you gain insights into the number of daily clicks, geographic location of users that click through, your top referrers, and most popular links.
Overall, this tool has perennially appeared on our list of “must have’s” for those who want to monitor and keep track of their social presence, as well as schedule posts daily/weekly/monthly with finesse.
Finding the email addresses of the right prospects can be a difficult and time-consuming task to undertake on your own. Interseller is a smart email outreach tool that allows you to reach out to candidates without needing to use multiple tools at once. Switching from one tool to the next to find and manage email contacts can take up a considerable amount of time all on its own.
Using Interseller, with just one click, you can find anyone’s email address and automatically send them initial emails and follow-ups all within one platform. This can help simplify the sales process and save you lots of time.
Interseller is our favorite cold outreach tool. The Chrome add-in integrates directly with LinkedIn so that you can run a prospect search there, select the contacts you find to be most “interesting” and then add them to a list of contacts you want to either call or send one of your cold “welcome” email sequences to. It’s by far our favorite way of selecting our next client.
Taking advantage of this marketing toolkit is marketing made easier for the solopreneur. For more information, don’t hesitate to contact us today.
Geofencing is a buzzy mobile app capability that’s been around for at least a decade; however, developers are only now seeing the full potential of geofencing for building a great user-first experience. While geofencing received some attention in relation to user privacy, new tools are considering how geofencing can better surprise and delight customers – and in the future, radically change the way companies deliver location-based experiences.
From sending a tailored promotion when a customer enters a retail store to powering order-ahead food delivery, geofencing plays a key role in making mobile apps contextually aware. How does geofencing work, and how can mobile app developers better deploy this technology? Here’s what you need to know about geofencing.
Geofencing: What is it?
Geofencing is a location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location, known as a geofence.
What does it mean in practice? Think about it like this: geo-fencing is like an electric fence for your dog but in the real world. Geo-fencing allows for the setup of virtual fences or areas, wherein the entering and exiting through the areas triggers a response or action by the individual or company monitoring the geo-fence. So, instead of alerting a pet owner when Fluffy wanders into the neighbor’s yard, geofencing triggers alerts for a business owner when key things happen: a customer visits a store, for example, or the store of a competitor.
How does it work?
To make use of geofencing, an administrator or developer must first establish a virtual boundary around a specified location in GPS- or RFID-enabled software, which can be as simple as a circle drawn 100 feet around a location on Google Maps. This virtual geofence will then trigger a response when an authorized device enters or exits that area, as specified by the administrator or developer. Put simply, picture virtually unfolding a paper map, taking a virtual pencil, and then drawing a virtual circle around a desired part of the map. Then, whenever someone or something enters or exits that area, you are alerted.
What is it used for?
Early geofencing projects revolved around using GPS to track herds of livestock or using ankle monitors to keep an eye on criminal offenders. This tracking then developed into keeping track of truck drivers on their routes as well as using “smart cards” to track employee movements in a building.
Today’s use of geofencing has evolved beyond simply tracking where a target customer (or a herd of sheep) is at any given time. With privacy concerns challenging companies to rethink their use of geofencing, companies like Radar are leading the way in innovating how geofences can improve the user experience.
Take, for example, Burger King’s Whopper Detour Campaign. Burger King ran a promotion to sell Whopper burgers for $0.01 – but only to customers within a 600-foot radius of a McDonald’s. Customers could download the Burger King app and head to their nearest McDonald’s. When they were within the geofence, the app would redirect them to their nearest Burger King to redeem the promo.
This is just one way brands are thinking creatively of how to use geofencing to surprise and delight customers – without invading their privacy.
Geofencing: A Matter of Privacy
As expected, not all individuals are comfortable having their location data shared via geofencing. In fact, in 2017, Massachusetts was one of the first states to enact a consumer protection law that objected to the use of location-based advertising. The Attorney General blocked an ad campaign from Copley Advertising, which was hired by a Christian organization to set up a geofence around women’s health clinics that would target women in the waiting room or nearby with anti-abortion ads.
While many ad-tech companies use geofencing to collect data on customers, new pioneers in the geofencing space, like Radar, are careful to put the user experience at the forefront of innovation. In a space dominated by ad tech and data monetization companies, Radar’s privacy-first approach means they do not sell any data they collect, nor do they share location data across customers.
Geofencing: 2019 and Beyond
The geofencing industry is expected to grow over 27% by 2022, citing “technological advancements in the use of spatial data and increasing applications in numerous industry verticals.”
While retail and travel are two industries already invested in geofencing, there’s a lot of potential for this technology to grow to government, healthcare, and more. Surprising and delighting customers is just the first step to integrating geofencing more thoughtfully in nearly every aspect of life. Over time, users will come to expect, rather than be surprised by, the way companies use geofencing. We expect to see companies use geofencing more strategically to send contextually relevant messages, build contextual experiences, and understand location data more thoughtfully.
One of the trickiest parts of Search Engine Optimization has always been having a physical domicile in a state, or region of the US where you choose to do business.
Google REQUIRES you to have a brick and mortar where you operate, and it cannot be a USPS Post Office box.
BUT…
It can be an address at the Bash Foo Entrepreneur Center! You can use our address here in Tipp City, Ohio to register your business or the location of your business. All it takes is completing USPS Form 1583 and presenting a valid form of ID to get started! We’ve partnered with Anytime Mailbox to provide you with a mobile app where you can review the mail that has been delivered for your business, set the disposition of your mail and notify you when important mail arrives.
Mailbox Packages
Silver Package – $19.99/mos
Our Silver package provides the same level of service as Bronze, however, you get to receive up to 60 mail pieces per month with no additional charge.
Gold Package – $29.99/mos
Our Gold package provides the same level of service as Bronze and Silver, however, you get to receive up to 125 mail pieces per month with no additional charge.
Silver Package – $69.99/mos
Our Unlimited package provides the same level of service as Bronze, Silver, and Gold, however, you get to receive unlimited mail pieces per month with no additional charge.
Annual discounts are provided for each package.
Contact us today if you’d need additional office services, reception, shipping/receiving, etc.
When you invest your advertising and marketing dollars, it’s important to focus on specificity. You want to make those dollars go as far as they can. That means looking for innovative ways to streamline and spread your message with a targeted group of individuals whom you know need the products or services you’re offering. One way to do that is through geofencing. Geofencing is a creative, geospatial marketing strategy; it takes advantage of new technologies to get your message in front of the right people.
In this post, we’ll examine what geofencing is and all the ways it can help you take your digital marketing to the next level.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing is the use of global positioning or radio frequency identification to identify a virtual, geographic area. Once you have identified this area, you can establish a system that sends notifications when a mobile device enters or leaves the area inside that defined boundary.
Forget Marketing to “Everyone.” Market to People at a Specific Location
Geofencing allows you to target a specific area. This level of specificity helps you streamline your message to the right audience.
From a marketing perspective, geofencing allows you to drill down to target people who are in your defined geographic location. Rather than marketing to “everyone,” you’re now marketing to people who have literally come to you. They’ll find your message useful and are therefore much likely to accept any call to action because of that.
One-Up Your Competition
Imagine a technology that allows you to speak directly to the customers of your competitor. Think about being able to highlight your product’s features, benefits, and advantages over your competition. To take it a step further, imagine highlighting all these great advantages of doing business with you while the user is in your competitor’s building.
With geofencing, you can make this a reality. Geofencing enables you to target your competition’s customers, sending a direct comparison to their mobile devices about how superior your product and services are.
Rather than run general ads talking about how you have an edge over the “leading brand,” you can attack your competition’s base on their home turf. You can speak directly to people who need your services; give them a reason to switch to a better brand – namely, yours.
Geofencing Helps You Retarget
Spreading your message to the mobile devices of anyone who walks through your building is a powerful capability. It gives you the ability to share your pitch with people who you know will be interested in your services. It’s not necessarily comprehensive, however. While you can attract lots of customers this way, you won’t necessarily get all of them on the first round. Some customers may leave without a sale.
Geofencing gives you the ability to retarget these customers. You can establish a preselected time frame – say, for example, 30 days – and retarget potential customers who walked through your doors with additional messages.
This reinforces your initial value proposition. You give your prospect time to consider your offer and follow up with an additional offer which solidifies the value you can provide the customer with.
Retargeting users allows you to cast a wide net and ensure that no potential customer falls through the cracks. It gives the ability to send a second wave of marketing materials towards customers you know are interested in your product or services.
Geofencing Gives You Access to Additional Data and Apps
Individuals walking through your predefined location may be in possession of numerous apps on their device with loads of data. If they enter your fence, you can use this to your advantage.
Geofencing lets you explore additional data you may have access to on a customer’s devices. You can use probabilistic or deterministic technologies to gain access to additional apps the user has. This could potentially give you access to more of the user’s data, depending on the device in question.
Target Multiple Devices
Geofencing allows you to target multiple devices your intended audience may be using within the boundary. Smart phones, laptops, tablets and any other type of mobile device can all assist.
As one device enters your boundary, you’ll now have the ability to access the user’s other devices to serve ads. This creates redundancies that increase the likelihood the user will see and process your ad’s message.
Conclusion
Geofencing is a versatile tool in your digital marketing toolbox. It allows you to spread your message far and wide with individual users over multiple devices and apps. It also helps you gain a substantial leg-up on your competition, allowing you to speak to their customer base directly.
Bash Foo is a digital marketing agency that builds the online reputations of small business in affordable and inspiring ways. We use cutting-edge technology to offer innovative solutions. For more on how we can help you revolutionize the way you do digital marketing, contact us today!
Taking the road not taken: When the crowd wants to zig, you move to zag. Driving in the empty lane. Better yet, driving off-road. You are always swimming upstream. Running into the wind. That’s what taking the road not taken means.
In the advertising world the river is flowing a certain direction in 2019. According to Ad Age, GroupM, one of the major ad forecasters, is predicting slower advertising growth in 2019, and has reduced its projection from 3.9 to 3.6 percent. There are a number of factors involved in the slowing growth; but with the decrease in the growth rate of overall spending money for advertising, there is also a golden opportunity for contrarian companies to seize the initiative. This could be your chance to zig when other advertising companies zag. To stick your foot in new doors. Here are 5 digital marketing ideas for the year 2019.
Online Video Ads
This is a hot trend right now, and will only get hotter. Targeting your consumer base through online video ads can be a slick way to drive home your brand message without a lot of wasted energy or resources. In fact, search engines love videos as much as consumers do, and adding video content to your site can potentially boost your SERP ranking considerably.
Furthermore, videos play on consumer psychology by engaging the viewer’s emotions more effectively than the printed word. And even more awesome: videos are highly shareable.
Personalization
Right now web design is all about UX; and what better way to add value to your consumer’s experience than by personalizing your brand message on a microcosmic level?
The great thing is, it doesn’t have to be big or flashy. For example, some companies have designed their landing pages to ID the user’s location, and then offer a customized greeting with the name of his city or town inserted in. It’s a little flourish that adds unique value, and can positively shape your customer’s perception from the beginning of the interaction.
Pay Per Click
This is the digital marketing equivalent of plucking that low-hanging fruit, and then plucking some more, and more, and more… PPC marketing can be an effective strategy in itself, but as a supplemental initiative it can do wonders for your company’s market presence. After all, why spend all your time guessing which websites are suitable magnets for potential customers, when you can go further down the funnel, and cherry pick your leads from the narrow end? This is a strategy that can, in effect, turn Google into your ally and business partner; and who wouldn’t want that?
Social Media Marketing
This can be the means to engage your consumer base at the most visceral level. People want to hear stories; and they want to be able to put a “face” to the faceless corporation. When your employees share their personal tales, their triumphs and heartaches, and then connect their stories back to the bigger narrative of the brand, then you will be able to drive customer engagement and loyalty like never before.
Social media is, by definition, a shareable commodity; so your stories will germinate and spread across the market. And the topping on the cake is how easily this can be a low-cost solution to some of the tougher advertising challenges out there. You can target specific subgroups, and yet enjoy wide exposure at the same time.
Leveraging Mobile Apps
With so many more users engaging via mobile technology (well over half, and perhaps as much as 2/3 of US-based Internet traffic is coming from mobile devices) it is critical to leverage mobile apps as at least one channel of your advertising campaigns.
Of course, there is a right way and a wrong way to market via mobile devices. Formatting differences are important to consider when designing advertisements for smartphones and tablets. Content should generally be simplified, and calls to action kept to a minimum. However, initiatives such as promoting your company’s app, or targeting apps that are used by your desired demographic for focused advertising campaigns, can open up doors to a consumer base that is growing broader and more diverse by the month.
Sticking to the Road
Back in the day, Google took the road not taken. “Stickiness” was supposed to be the be-all end-all metric of online search engines; users were supposed to stay a while on the page. Google was too fast, too good. Its users found what they needed and left too quickly.
Google stuck with the road not taken… and the rest is history.
If you’d like a boost on your journey through the world of digital marketing, or maybe a tip on that back road that will shave 5 minutes off of your trip, check us out at Bash Foo. We are the Creative Brand Provocateur for our clients; we can push you along that road not taken, and get you to your destination.
Whenever the topic of website system integration (SI) comes up, many CTO’s will reach for the Pepto Bismol. Just the thought of the subject stirs thoughts of their venerable site strewn in pieces on the ground like a plane wreck. Yet, the truth is if your site is not fully integrated, you may be siphoning profits from your bottom line. A truly integrated website lets the left hand know what the right hand is doing. The result is fewer snafus in inter-departmental communications, a more cohesive portal that disseminates information in a user-friendly environment, and fewer lost opportunities.
Integration Complexity is Determined by the Number of Disparate Systems
An integrated website need not be tantamount to open-heart surgery. It could be as simple as exporting data from one place and importing it somewhere else. Simply put, integration builds a conduit that funnels the disconnected components into a system that will function as one. An example of this kind of re-engineered platform is a system that permits the marketing department to access information located in the sales department. This kind of cross-reference capability reveals opportunities that may otherwise get lost in a non-integrated system. Another example of a malfunctioning system is shipping product on an online web store that cannot communicate with the inventory application. This type of disconnected database creates lost opportunities and unsatisfactory customer experiences.
The level of complexity in web integration is largely determined by the level of flexibility one wishes to convey into the system. The greater the number of disparate subsystems involved determines the complexity of the project. A more complex integration may require customized architecture along with updated hardware and software. Specific chores may involve a myriad number of services including project management, the use of application programming, and web services. One of the biggest challenges is found in the need to establish interoperability between two stand-alone systems. This may require cooperation between separate entities such as the sales office of one company connecting to the product distributor platform of another.
A Happy Customer is a Loyal Customer
A major advantage of integration is a vastly improved customer satisfaction score. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications thrive in an eco-friendly environment. By employing a more user-friendly system. Cross-departmental access to data collected from disparate systems is the gold standard for analyzing customer behavior and anticipating future needs. Information funneled from CRM pipelines provide a road map for ways to attain growth and enrich the company’s coffers.
Integration tools have proliferated throughout the digital landscape as of late as companies realize the benefits of incorporating their platforms into a more unified data system. The phenomenal growth of the cloud has contributed to the popularity of data integration solutions. Automated data integration tools have become a growing resource for companies wishing to update their often fractured platforms. Open source data integration tools are now available for companies that desire to avoid more costly proprietary systems enterprise solutions. Open source also has the advantage of maintaining complete control of data in-house.
The Cloud Proliferates Integrated Systems
The data integration platform market is growing by around 10% per year. Providers that offer integration platforms include Informatica, Information Builders, Microsoft, and Oracle. However, the big dog in this market segment is none other than IBM. The best integration platforms as an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) software includes A variety of data integration platforms are available, but the market is led by IBM, Informatica, Information Builders, Microsoft, and Oracle. Other vendors that dominate market share includes Pentaho, SAP, SAS, and Talend. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) have dramatically dummy downed the build and use of integration platforms.
It’s important to differentiate enterprise application integration which has a focus on supply chain management, logistics, and distribution. Data Integration involves the building of data-sharing among application platforms in a seamless platform that permits data-sharing capabilities. There are methods that can be deployed to detect weakness in your current system. For example, when a timely business opportunity may weigh on an unopened email, the moment may be lost. The ideal integration system is robust enough to avoid such an unforeseen event.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, on the other hand, functions as a business process management software that provides an integrated approach that automates many back office functions such as technology, services, and human resources. ERP software interconnects diverse applications to one unifying platform that replace dated legacy systems into a single source of enterprise applications. If your business scales smaller, there are integration solutions that serve small and medium-size businesses as well.
Naturally, digital agencies vary in the scope and complexity of Integration services. When selecting an Integration Specialist, be sure to determine their ability to best serve your integration needs. Bash Foo exemplifies the high standard of expertise required to successfully integrate your disparate digital compartments into a well-oiled, seamless communications powerhouse. Bash Foo takes a holistic approach in all of your digital needs. Services include marketing plans, web design, integration infrastructure, email campaigns, graphic design, social media, and PPC ad placement. Bash Foo’s seasoned staff is ready to increase your footprint in today’s highly competitive digital landscape. For more information on how Bash Foo can revitalize your business, contact us.
How WordPress Gutenberg will Impact Websites and Design Expectations
WordPress’s first-year anniversary of the Gutenberg CMS editor is here and reviews are a mixed bag. The release has been greeted with great fanfare as the first significant addition to WordPress’s quiver in more than a decade. However, it’s reception has been met by many WordPress purists with dismay. After all, in some circles, changes to the venerable open-source platform is tantamount to sacrilege. Many are concerned that if Gutenberg becomes ingrained into its ecosystem, the new editor will be incompatible to existing WordPress websites.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that the editor is still very much in beta and will evolve over time. Never-the-less, Gutenberg’s roll-out will dramatically impact on how the back-end functions. The new editor will be wrapped up in the new WordPress 5.0 version. A number of early adopters have argued for it to remain as a plugin. The Gutenberg editor has thus far logged more than 200,000 downloads and has been installed on about 10,000 sites. That’s enough to garner some feedback as to its popularity and performance.
Although it would be a misnomer to describe Gutenberg as simply a page creator, the new editor has a feel similar to the WordPress-centric DIVI. That popular theme platform by Elegant Themes employs the intuitive front-end editor that has impacted how many websites are created. DIVI has been used by developers and designers who need to build a website fast. I’d estimate that 60% of DIVI is incorporated into the new editor. As is with Gutenberg, DIVI is capable of making changes instantly. There is no waiting to find out how the content looks. It happens instantly right in front of your eyes! The challenge for DIVI users trying out Gutenberg will be that “all the functions aren’t where they are supposed to be”. Many new Gutenberg users have reported it to be non-intuitive.
The moniker “Gutenberg” was not lost on the developers. The famous inventor brought the movable type printing press to fruition more than 500 years ago and the invention is a precursor to the digital landscape we enjoy today. The Gutenberg label acts as a metaphor for the new technology that the editor represents. The first change you’ll notice is the older, recognizable interface is history. In its place is a clean writing environment populated by great typography and plenty of space in which to showcase your content. At first, its unfamiliarity embraces you like a cold shower. Once that phase passes, take a breath and give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed in the absence of custom post types, embeds, widgets, and their weird interfaces.
Using the Gutenberg Press simile, traditional content blocks have no purpose once they are used, much like the movable type blocks employed more than five centuries ago. The Gutenberg blocks have the capacity to revitalize themselves permitting the adjustments and changes to be made with the “movable type” needed for a reprint. Gutenberg’s primary objective is to simplify the website-building process by eliminating the shortcodes and HTML currently required in the open-source web-building universe. The goal is to make the technology available to everyone, regardless of skill levels. The heart of Gutenberg is composed of reusable blocks that allow you to focus on content rather than being weighed down by a myriad number of configuration options. The project is in its first of the three-stage reveal. It begins with the redeveloped editor, followed by page templates development and, the final stage as a fully developed customizer.
Before Gutenberg, the content existed in one massive HTML file. Now Gutenberg allows for content to be created from one source. Detailed instructions are derived from three concise documents: the “Developer and Designer Handbook”, the “Gutenberg Handbook”, and “The Language of Gutenberg”. The new editor imbues the user with each block articulating its own layout and settings. With WordPress 5.0, the user has full control over all individual blocks. Developers are biting at the bit to take advantage of these great features rather than be enslaved by many of the editors currently out on the market. Gutenberg will supplant TinyMCE as the default content editor. WordPress will have succeeded if it makes adding rich content an enjoyable experience.
The new release will move the needle in making WordPress a true visual editor. Additionally, downloading the WordPress editor is not deleterious to your site’s health and well-being. The special HTML comments are stored in the content permitting you to reactivate Gutenberg without sacrificing previously arranged blocks.
One of the trickiest parts of Search Engine Optimization has always been having a physical domicile in a state, or region of the US where you choose to do business.
