online marketing | Advertising Is Simple Delaware

Top 7 SEO Tips for Local Business

April 19, 2021 by Paulina Cruz

Have you heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and know that it can be beneficial for your business, but just don’t know where to start? Here is a checklist of our top 7 SEO tips to show you what areas you should focus on, what needs to be optimized, and what you need to do to fix any problems you may encounter to best position yourself for local search traffic and business.

1. Start with a comprehensive audit

When you create a complete snapshot of your current SEO efforts, along with an understanding of your competition, you’re able to curate a plan that is going to be more effective and sustainable. We recommend that you conduct regular SEO audits and maintain an organized worksheet to record and track your progress.

2. Optimize your Website & Landing Page

When it comes to organic and local search, having a properly optimized site is more important than ever before. Organic signals are now tied into the local algorithm and having a properly optimized website will help you outrank your competition.

3. Correct Basic Location Information

Correct all discrepancies and inconsistencies in your business Name, Address, Phone number (NAP) and other related information. Also, ask questions about previous business names or previous experience with SEO or SEO penalties.

4. Seek Reviews & Reputation Management

Reviews have a direct impact on local search rankings. They can make or break a local business regardless of how well their keywords can rank. So, you’ll want to spend some time acquiring them in a manner consistent with the directory or service, such as Google, Facebook, or Yelp. For any directory, we strongly discourage paying for reviews.

5. Analyze and Maintain “Google My Business” Page

Find the proper Google My Business (GMB) URL and record it in your Local SEO Audit Spreadsheet. Follow Google’s guidelines to assure your business NAP, category, and subcategories, and other items are represented properly on your Google My Business listing.

6. Create Organic Link Building & Avoid Penalties

You need to keep the site out of a penalty short term and long term. You need to identify any potential problems and prepare yourself to make effective business decisions. Google penalties can be brutal, and recovery is not a walk in the park.

7. Analyze your Social Profiles

Review your profiles – Facebook, Google My Business, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Instagram, etc.- and verify they have consistent branding, NAP consistency, high-quality photos, a business description, positive reviews, effective geo-targeting, and other elements in accordance with the guidelines of the platform. It’s very important that you post regularly to these platforms for them to be useful in your SEO efforts.

At Advertising is Simple, we consistently stay up-to-date on the most effective methods of SEO, that’s why we call it Adaptive SEO. What works today, may not work a few months down the road. We monitor your advertising results through A/B testing and in-depth analytics to get you the highest rate of return on your advertising dollars.

We believe local SEO plays a big part in the digital marketing arena and we have no doubts it will remain for many marketing light years to come! If you have any questions or would like to find out more about how Advertising Is Simple can help you compete in the Digital Marketplace while managing your online presence, get in touch!

Advertising Is Simple | 302.407.0431 | info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

8 Social Media Marketing Trends that Are Worth Adapting in 2021

January 14, 2021 by Paulina Cruz

Social media is always evolving and shifting. Your challenge as a business owner is to adapt to these changes, so your brand messaging continues to resonate and drive meaningful results.

In order to make the most of social media marketing, first you need to understand which emerging (or already existing trends) are worth adapting this year.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to having success across social media, it’s still worth implementing techniques that lead to building stronger relationships with your customers, while improving their impact on your bottom line.

8 Social Media Marketing Trends that Are Worth Adapting in 2021

1. Integrate Social Media Across Your Departments

If you want your brand to solve problems for people, then social media is going to tell you exactly what problems people have. By integrating social media across your departments, it ensures that important messages reach the most relevant people in the company. This will help you to build a business your customers and audience will care about.

2. Embrace Short- and Long-Form Video

Video usually works best for companies when it conveys a personalized message to their target audience with an educational, entertaining, or value-based perspective.

The ability to produce a video and then adapt it into different versions to promote your messaging across social media channels is one of the most effective ways to earn more viewership. Lengthier video isn’t necessarily better, but certain subjects, especially those with complexity, are more accurately communicated in depth. And after you’ve created longer video resources, think about the ways it can be broken down into shorter videos for sharing elsewhere later.

3. Invest in Dynamic Ads

Dynamic social ads feature products personalized to a person based on their shopping behaviors and other data points. They’re often more successful because they’re aligned to each specific shopper’s preferences by showing each individual items and messaging catered to them. Each is an opportunity to upsell and cross-sell customers, as well as reaching potential customers for the very first time.

4. Provide Social Shopping Opportunities

The ability to make a purchase directly from social media is becoming more widely available. If you limit the number of steps a person has to go through to make a purchase, you can increase conversions because the process is simpler and created to match the network’s design.

Begin by identifying what social shopping options are available (check out Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping or Pinterest Shop), and understand the associated costs. Once you’ve set up an integration, it’s important to promote that you’re using the feature so your followers know it’s an option.

5. Use Stories to Engage with Your Audience

Businesses that use stories successfully are able to send a highly effective series of messages that are relatively affordable to create, and easy for audiences to view. Plus, they present an opportunity to showcase the people behind their brand, as well as a less produced, more authentic perspective of an organization.

Before you dive into stories, remember to begin where you’re already active, showcase both produced and impromptu content, and use the unique story features to your advantage.

6. Use YouTube to Build Deeper Connections

YouTube visitors spend over 11 minutes per day on average on the platform, since it’s the second most preferred platform for TV viewers 18 to 34 years old. Plus, YouTube is accessible for brands of all sizes as survey respondents shared that choosing a video based on their interest is more important than video’s production value.

Start by determining who exactly your audience is, and identify what their interests, challenges, and passions are. The goal here isn’t to convert customers with every video, but instead to build a positive association with your organization that lasts for the long term.

7. Create Series to Build Audience

Consider using social media to help your company build an audience for your series that lives on your own properties as well. To make a lasting impression with your social media, commit to a series to regularly reach your audience on an important theme they’ll associate with your organization for the future.

8. Feature Your Employees

People connect most with other people. Therefore, featuring the people behind your brand will help humanize your organization and form deeper connections with customers. Showcasing employees prominently on social media is important as it’s one of the best ways to build trust with consumers and familiarity with the purpose behind your organization.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about how Advertising Is Simple can help with social media marketing, get in touch!

Advertising Is Simple | 302.407.0431 | info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

Benefits of CRM and Marketing Automation for Your Business

October 6, 2020 by Paulina Cruz

Managing databases and nurturing your leads are important components of running a successful business. If you want to save time and money, the best way to do it is to invest in a software that handles both CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and marketing automation.

Want to learn about all of the benefits of CRM and marketing automation? Keep reading!

Benefits of CRM

1. Improves Sales Performance – Collecting accurate data on your leads and customers will give your sales staff a better understanding of where each lead is in the sales process.

2. Improves Customer Satisfaction and Retention – Consumers tend to spend more money with a company of a positive customer experience. Make sure all of your customer data is stored in one place so all of your team members can access it to better serve your clients.

3. Increased Efficiency – Thanks to a CRM platform, you can automate many everyday tasks such as creating forms, tracking every domain and its renewal time, and generating reports.

4. Better Internal Communication – When all of your team members are on the same page while interacting with customer data in one system, employee satisfaction increases. It’s all about clear communication between your departments!

5. Stronger Data Security – Housing your data in one system (instead of your employee’s desktop) means greater security.

Benefits of Marketing Automation

1. Time Savings – Marketing automation manages many of the repetitive, daily tasks that take up time from your marketing team.

2. Better Data – The right marketing automation platform will help your business with collecting and using data to make good business decisions. Not only will you be able to better understand your stored data, but you could also predict some customer behavior in the future.

3. Enables Segmentation and Personalization – With improved knowledge of your prospective customers, you can create targeted messages and automatically segment your data based on the profile, interests, and demographics.

4. Creates Brand Consistency – It’s important to create consistent, creative and well-branded messages to support strong branding in every touch point of the customer journey.

5. Increases Revenue and Average Deal Size – Improvement to your customer data leads to more targeted and effective marketing. In result, you can expect an increase in average customer lifetime value due to delivering a positive and consistent communication.

Trust us, one of the best decisions you will ever make as a business owner is by implementing a CRM and Marketing Automation system early on. If you want to learn more about lead management, we’re here to help!

Advertising Is Simple helps small to mid-sized business owners who are too busy running their businesses to focus on their marketing and advertising efforts. We specialize in Internet, TV, and radio advertising, and are particularly vested in Search Engine Optimization, website design, mobile website design, pay-per-click campaigns, and original content management in order to help our clientele claim their share of the marketplace.

AdvertisingIsSimple.com | 302.407.0431| info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

Google Trends as a Powerful Digital Marketing Tool

September 1, 2020 by Paulina Cruz

Your digital marketing is only as effective as your efforts to find the right target audience who’s interested in what you have to say. While there are many marketing tools available to do just that, figuring out which ones can bring you the most value and return on investment is crucial. Today, let’s take a closer look at a free Google data explorer called Google Trends.

Google Trends

With Google Trends, you can not only explore what the world is searching in real time, but you can also use your findings to later target specific keywords in your marketing efforts. Such database is priceless nowadays if you take into the consideration the fact Google handles over 3.5 billion searches per day across the globe.

Having access to such a vast database (for free) can be a very powerful digital marketing tool. Knowing what’s the most popular search term is relevant to marketers finding the map to a pot of gold. While they’re not exactly digging for gold yet, at least they have a very good idea on where to start.

How to Use Google Trends

You can use Google Trends to see search interest in a topic or search term over time, where it’s being most-searched and what else people search for in connection with it. You can also compare trends against each other and look at data regionally vs all other searches. In addition, a new Google Trends update allows now filtering the trends in a real or non-real time, meaning you can access data going back as far as 2004.

Google Trends can be especially useful if your marketing focuses on content storytelling. Seeing trends in what people are searching for and how they’re responding to different moments can easily explain the magnitude of each event over time.

For more industry tips and updates on different Google tools and features, click here.

Need Help with Your Digital Marketing Efforts?

Contact Advertising Is Simple today! We help small to mid-sized business owners who are too busy running their businesses to focus on their marketing and advertising efforts. We specialize in digital marketing with a strong focus on adaptive search engine optimization, website design, video marketing, pay-per-click campaigns, and original content management.

AdvertisingIsSimple | 302.407.0431|

info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

Make Your Business Stand Out with Google Guarantee & Upgraded GMB Profile

August 4, 2020 by Paulina Cruz

Back in April 2019, Google tested a subscription-based service for a monthly fee known as Google Guarantee. Such certification means your Google My Business profile gets an upgrade, which is supposed to make it easier for customers to choose your company over others when they’re conducting an online search.

The Google Guaranteed badge is available for businesses that pass a Google screening and qualification process through Google Local Services.

If your business is backed by Google Guarantee, and your customers (who found you through Google) aren’t satisfied with work quality, Google may refund the amount paid for the service. The upper limit of lifetime coverage for claims in the United States is $2,000.

Your business can be a part of Google Guarantee if you meet these eligibility requirements including a background check. The cost of the program is $50 per month or $600 per year.

What does Google Guarantee cover?

This new Google badge covers claims up to the amount on the job invoice up to the lifetime cap for coverage. Services, however, must be booked through Google Local Services. The Google Guarantee doesn’t cover add-on or future projects, damages to property, dissatisfaction with price or provider responsiveness, or cancellations.

Whether Google Guarantee becomes successful and available to all business is still to be determined, but it’s definitely something to look out for when updating your Google My Business profile in the future. The competitive advantage may be worth this upgrade!

Advertising is Simple is in the business of making advertising simple and we begin by creating you a great website to show off your brand. We make sure that your site has all the necessary features so that you can create a lasting impression and take pride in your web presence. To view our website portfolio, click here.

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