12 top-rated tools that SEO experts use

The following tools are all well-established and trial-tested by SEO specialists. They are the absolute best examples of how a piece of software can make your optimization efforts a whole lot easier.

#1: Google Search Console

As the most obvious choice among SEO tools, the Search Console by Google grants you access to stats and the state of your presence in Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page). What makes it even more practical for use is the simple fact that it is free for anyone with a website. So, how does it work?

• You need to verify your website – either by indexing it through Google Analytics or by adding some code to it.
• Even without having an actual account, you can control which of your site pages get indexed and which parts of it search engine bots see.
• As an added benefit, the Search Console as an SEO checker tool can help you to better grasp how Google and its users view your website. As a result of that data, you can further optimize and improve your website, both for users and search engines.

#2: Ahrefs

As a top contender among SEO keyword tools, Ahrefs is only second to Google when it comes to website crawling capabilities. As a top-rated SEO analysis tool currently available, you will find that a large number of SEO experts rely on Ahref’s Site Audit feature. It can easily red-flag the parts of your website you need to resolve to gain a higher ranking on search results. Additionally, the reason why this is on our list of top-rated tools that SEO experts are the competitive edge it gives. You can use it to explore the backlink profile of your competitors and the most popular content in your niche.

#3: SEMRush

When talking about the SEO community favourites among tools, we can’t skip SEMRush. One of the features you need to try out is the Domain vs Domain analysis – a feature that can cross-compare your rankings with that of your top competitors. Of course, the easy access to rankings and any immediate changes only adds to the usefulness of SEMRush. With the analytics reports this on-page SEO checker tool offers, you can easily explore any of the following information:

• Your website’s search data
• Amount of traffic on your web pages
• Competitor SEO efforts and tactics
• Keywords and domains comparison, etc.

Using SEMRush is an established practice in the digital marketing world, especially when you’re searching for ways to boost your online presence. It is excellent for planning out new directions in which to take your business, developing strategies for practically any niche you can think of. One of the examples would be the relocation and logistics industry, where it has proven to be crucial in developing marketing activities for moving companies.

#4: KWFinder

Are you searching for quality long-tail keywords to target without having to battle too much competition for them? If so, then an SEO keyword tool like KWFinder might be the perfect fit for your company. The Rank Tracker tool it uses enables a quick way to pinpoint your rankings based on a single key metric. Plus, a completely new range of keyword ideas will open up to you.

#5: Moz

The continuous up-to-date status and chat option are just two of the most notable reasons why people include Moz among the top-rated tools SEO experts actually use. Moz is a full-service piece of SEO software, with an ocean of useful information, whether you are looking for a site crawl or keyword recommendations.

#6: Majestic

As far as experts in the SEO and marketing industries are concerned, Majestic definitely takes the cake as a marketing SEO tool. With features such as The Majestic Million (ranking of top million websites) and The Site Explorer (overview of your online store and backlinks profile), it offers great insights. Additionally, it functions as an SEO keyword tool. And you can use it to find the best keywords for your particular business to rank for.

#7: Google Trends

Despite begin around for decades, Google Trends is an SEO checker tool that has always been underutilized. However, it can be detrimental in the business growth of any company, no matter the stage. How? Simple – it offers detailed insight into current trends circling around any particular topic that comes to mind. With it, you can get top queries, rising queries, interest over time, and the interest-based on geo-location.

#8: SEOQuake

Are you just starting out your business and don’t really have the funds to invest in the top-rated tools SEO experts actually use? No worries. That’s why there are tools like SEOQuake – rated best among the free SEO tools out there! As an extension of Google Chrome, this tool is phenomenal when it comes to on-page audits, assessing internal & external links, as well as analyzing the competition. Other features:

• Keyword density analysis
• Easy-to-read SEO dashboard
• Export data

#9: Screaming Frog

If you are on the lookout for an SEO tool to help you save time, look into the potential that Screaming Frog offers. When it comes to speed of analyzing websites, there are but a few other tools that can really compare to this one. It is faster than most other solutions out there, making it the obvious choice among top-rated tools that SEO experts actually use. Other data that it offers include duplicate content, errors to fix, bad redirections, and areas of improvement for link building.

#10: CORA

CORA is a preferred choice for those looking for a more advanced-level SEO tool. As far as tools are concerned, it’s definitely not among the cheapest ones out there, but it is all-inclusive. So, you will definitely be getting your money’s worth by opting for using it. In fact, according to current trends and comments, a high number of medium-large businesses tend to use it to discover all the weaknesses and potential improvements for their websites.

#11: Serpstat

There are always those searching for all-in-one tools that can help their businesses grow online. If that is your goal as well, then you should definitely look into the opportunities that Serpstat offers to users. SEO, PPC, or content marketing – this growth-hacking platform manages it all. Simple to use, it offers you an optimal way to:

• resolve SEO tasks;
• analyze competitors;
• manage your team.

When it comes to SEO in particular, Serpstat has proven outstanding for keywords and competition analysis. Among its many features, Missing Keywords is the most popular one. It identifies the keywords your competitors rank for in the top-10 search results and you don’t.

#12: Woorank

A generally fantastic solution for tracking and reporting on marketing data, Woorank comes both in free and paid versions. From discovering the keywords your competitors are targeting to reporting on how certain keywords perform during the course of time, this tool really does live up to its place on this list. And in addition to it all, it helps identify potential issues with your website the likes of duplicate content, downtime, and security issues. And, more importantly, it provides clear guidelines on how to fix them.

Other worthy mentions when it comes to top-rated tools that SEO experts actually use:

• Ubersuggest – keyword tracking tool
• Answer The Public – free SEO tool
• SpyFu – free SEO tool
• Siteliner – SEO analysis tool
• Fat Rank – SEO analysis tool
• Keywords Everywhere – SEO keyword tool

A word to the wise…

Having an extensive list of top-rate tools that SEO experts actually use is great but it is far from a slam dunk. In fact, it is only the first step to crossing a long bridge before actually reaching that place where your business prospers into something lasting. So, you need to consider that next step carefully. Whether you decide to start learning on your own, hire an in-house SEO specialist or an entire SEO agency – the choice falls on you.

For more interesting information and news about the world of SEO and digital marketing, explore our blog further. And if you have any additional questions, we are here to answer them.

The post Top Rated SEO Tools For Experts in 2020 appeared first on SEMA.

The basics and definition

Marketing is a business concept completely driven by the needs of the consumer. Its whole purpose is to analyse and define the needs of the consumer in order to try and satisfy those needs in a superior way than the competition does. Doing business in such a way, if you are successful, will lead to a high level of satisfaction, trust, and loyalty from a customer which will result in a long-term relationship that leads to profitability in the long run and continual consumer satisfaction. However, marketing is not only the prerogative of large companies but it is also extremely important to small/local companies. To achieve this, as a company, we need to:

• analyse and define the market and its needs
• segment it and choose the right target market
• adapt the 4P elements to suit market needs
• analyse the satisfaction of customers and adapt accordingly

An adequate marketing strategy cannot be created without full knowledge of the market and its needs. The market is also a collection of different customer preferences and desires and a successful company needs to identify the group of customers (target market) that it can try to satisfy through its marketing activities. So, the marketing concept requires extensive market research, data analysis and rational market segmentation that must lead to the creation of an offer tailor-made for the target market. This offer comprises of 4 basic elements that we call marketing mix.

The elements of the marketing mix

Elements of the Marketing mix are the core offer of a company to the customer/consumer on the market. These four elements (4Ps) are combined, moulded and adapted to each market segment to suit the customer and their needs to the highest possible degree.

Product (service) is the core value we provide, the offer to the customer. It can be a service or a physical object that has certain characteristics that satisfy a consumer need. The product is not static, it is always a subject of development and change aimed at its adaptation to the changing needs of the market.

Price is the amount of money paid for the product. The price should be linked and determined by the value of the product but it is also influenced by the market (competitors’ prices), costs, expenses, and discounts.

Placement represents the distribution network of our product. These networks today encompass social networks and digital markets as well as traditional networks (small and large market store chains)

Promotion is PR, advertising, and the complete promotional strategy of the company. It ties in and balances all other elements to create and present and offer tailor-made for the target market.

Marketing is digital

The whole world and all of our customers are digitalising their life and the way they are doing business. Habits and the way of communicating are changing. Internet, Web sites, social networks, blogs, influencers, etc. have all made it very easy to communicate with a customer and also made communication a two-way street. Traditional ways of communicating do not appeal to customers anymore. Consumers tend to react and respond to the Brands they can communicate with directly, passive marketing based on billboards and flyers does not allow that. Using digital marketing made it possible for companies to communicate with the market and monitor its response at the same time, which allowed them to adapt to the observed trends of the markets. It also allowed them to try, to a certain degree, to create, control and lead trends on the market.

Social networks, in particular, have allowed companies to efficiently use digital marketing to raise brand awareness, promote new content, products, and services, develop trust with consumers, maintain an existing client base and expand it, and also to research, analyse, and monitor the markets to adapt to its needs even better.

When we consider that digital marketing can be up to 60% cheaper and up to 3 times more efficient than traditional marketing, it is clear why digital marketing is developing fast.

Website basics

The web site has been a starting point for digital marketing development and has so far proven to be the basic content source when building brand awareness. It is the starting point of every brand in the digital world. Combined with Google Analytics, AdWords, etc it is the basic digital marketing element today. These tools allow companies to track, monitor, and analyse consumer interest when visiting a web site, check who the buyers are and why visitors left without buying. In this way, they are a source of information for changing, correcting and innovating marketing strategies and tactics in the digital world.

Social media

Today, social media is the most powerful platform for building marketing campaigns and creating and developing brands. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn with their following count in the billions, represent an endless field for marketing experimentation and development. These are the networks that can be used to develop a personal relationship with a consumer and to invoke an emotional response, engaging a customer in the marketing activity of a company.

Blog, Bloggers, and Influencers

In today’s marketing and digital world, the customer tends to believe what others are saying about the company rather than what the company is saying about itself. In these conditions, companies are inclined to use other means of communicating with their target audience. Using blogs or bloggers and influencers has come to be a way of creating an image of a company and Brand promotion to the public we want to communicate with (customers and potential customers) Experienced bloggers and influencers that communicate with our target audience can be beneficial in raising brand awareness and realising planned marketing strategies.

These communication lines are also connected to new innovative and interactive marketing tools that are very beneficial to companies using them.

These aspects of digital marketing are also closely tied to Search Engine Optimisation which is one of the most important elements of marketing online. SEO is the process of optimising the content of a website, blog, or social media post by adding elements relevant to search engines to increase the rank of a web page and generate a high rate of traffic.

Marketing has evolved from its beginning and changed to adapt to the fluctuating markets, technologies, and habits of the consumers. As a term, marketing is often not completely understood and it is important to research it and study it further. In light of its continual development, we have pointed at some of the topics for study and analysis. However, in order to create and implement an effective marketing strategy, it is important to know that the market for marketing professionals and companies is very well developed.

The market has a veritable sea of knowledge and experience, so hiring a professional might be a good starting point when drawing up your marketing strategy.

The post Marketing Basics – The What, The How And The Why!? appeared first on SEMA.

Picture this: you’ve been working hard on creating the perfect marketing campaign for your brand, you’ve come up with all the details, everything was organized perfectly, and the campaign was seemingly successfully launched. Instead of acquiring you many new customers, however, the campaign has resulted in public outrage and the loss of, up until then, many loyal customers. It is a sad fact that these kinds of grossly insensitive campaigns happen all too often.

Some recover from it, some don’t. To be on the safe side as much as it is possible, it’s useful (and fun) to learn about unsuccessful marketing campaigns, so that you can be prepared when it’s time to launch your own campaign.

With that in mind, here are some of the major marketing fails of 2018/19.

#01 Heineken’s Bar Commercial

The first fail that we’ll discuss happened to Heineken back in March 2018, when this company’s marketing division envisioned a commercial that had many viewers accusing it of being racist. Namely, the commercial takes place in a bar. The bartender notices a beautiful white woman entering. In an effort to woo this woman, the bartender opens a bottle of Heineken and slides it down the bar toward the woman.

Nothing wrong with that, right? Sure, except one little detail that made this commercial one of the major marketing fails of 2018. Namely, as the bottle slides along the bar, it passes right by no less than three people of colour and no people of other ethnicities! Soon after the commercial was originally broadcast, there was a reaction on social media, notably by Chance the Rapper, who called the commercial “terribly racist”. With many other people thinking the same, Heineken’s commercial was a spectacular failure.

#02 Dolce & Gabbana’s Chinese Controversy

Then, there’s Dolce & Gabbana’s campaign that backfired and caused a lot of bad publicity for this fashion giant. In the commercial for this campaign, a Chinese woman is shown trying to eat Italian food with chopsticks. While trying to do so, this woman constantly fails, resulting in humorous attempts to finally sate her hunger.

This only goes to show that even humorous (probably good-natured) attempts at marketing can lead to major marketing fails due to marketers’ ignorance. While the people working for Dolce & Gabbana have thought that this would be a hopefully fun and light commercial, in reality, it portrayed Chinese people as so culturally backward that they can’t even use a knife and fork. Even worse, inappropriate comments made by Stefano Gabbana on Instagram surfaced soon after, further damaging the company’s image. Of course, one of the rules of a solid social media strategy is – don’t slam the people of other nationalities (in this case Chinese) on social media if you don’t want your business to suffer because of it (or in any other case, for that matter).

#03 Estee Lauder’s Racist Line of Foundation

The next fail involves products in the line whose full name is Double Wear Nude Water Fresh Makeup SPF25. This is a line of foundation made by Estee Lauder. When a company releases 30 different versions of their product, one would expect that all women will be able to find something for themselves. Unfortunately for Estee Lauder and some of their customers, more than 15 of these versions were aimed at white women, specifically, the ones with very pale skin.

In the eyes of the buyers, when a company unnecessarily designs and markets their product in such a way, it clearly shows a backward way of thinking. It goes to show that they’re aiming their product specifically at white women (and very pale ones), while disregarding other ethnicities. And in 2018 (and 2019 as well), that way of thinking should have been discarded a long time ago.

#04 Dove’s “Unreal Beauty” Disaster

One of Dove’s more important missions, as seen in their marketing campaigns, is to present and reinforce the image of a woman as a beautiful human being. For ages, women have been taught how they should look. From successful models and actresses to other celebrities, women in media are skinny and extremely beautiful, painting the picture that this is how a woman should look if she wants to enjoy having a sense of self-worth. Diets, makeup, even plastic surgery – women have been taught that this is what they need if they want to keep their confidence intact.

With its long-running campaign entitled “Real Beauty”, Dove has been successfully fighting this damaging cultural stance. Up until 2018, that is, when their attempt to empower women turned into one of the major marketing fails of 2018. What happened is that Dove released their clothing in seven shapes, each shape in a packaging with a very abstract form that resembled soap bottles. Instead of promoting diversity, Dove accidentally made women more self-conscious about their bodies, as they were made to choose between one of the seven shapes that best matched the appropriate soap bottle.

#05 H&M’s Jungle Fail

In this case of digital marketing gone wrong, the people from H&M posted a highly controversial picture on this company’s official website. Similarly to some other fails on our list, this picture was also deemed to be racist. Namely, two kids were shown on the picture, both wearing H&M-designer sweatshirts. One kid (caucasian) wore a sweatshirt with the phrase “survival expert” written on it. The other one (black) wore a similar sweatshirt, but with the phrase “coolest monkey in the jungle”.

How could H&M’s marketers think that this was a good idea is beyond us. While there’s nothing wrong with jungle-themed marketing, calling a white person a “jungle survival expert”, while a black person is a monkey in that same jungle is obviously wrong and racist (no matter how cool the monkey is).

What Can We Learn From These Major Marketing Fails?

As you can see, major marketing fails to happen most often due to ignorance on part of the marketing dept. Of course, creating a strong online presence is important, but doing so with the help of qualified professionals who can help you avoid all the potential pitfalls is equally important. For example, if you were looking to make your moving company visible online, you’d need to do it with the assistance of experienced experts. The same goes for any other business.

However, while experts can help you, the trick perhaps is not so much in consciously trying to avoid marketing pitfalls, but rather in respecting all people no matter the race, gender, or sexual orientation. Many people believe that they do respect all people, but their actions (and thoughts) still may be offensive without them realizing it. Apart from avoiding major marketing fails, questioning your beliefs and making sure that your way of thinking isn’t harming other people will also make you a better human being. Win-win.

The post The Biggest Marketing Fails In Recent Years appeared first on SEMA.

Long gone are the more romantic times before computers became an essential part of our everyday lives. Before the internet first appeared, art lovers would sometimes have to go to great lengths to find information about their favourite artists. Of course, this never stopped the entertainment industry from making billions and billions of dollars (Australian or otherwise). Still, the internet has brought much easier access to information on anything you’re interested in.

With the general change in the way that information is distributed and acquired, the marketing techniques have evolved, too. So, if you’re an artist, you better learn how to market your art on social media, as services such as Facebook and Twitter can make or break an artist’s financial stability.

Let your followers get to know the artist behind the art

Obviously, after opening your account on social media, the first thing to do is to provide the basic information – what do you do, what are your artistic products, and how can people buy them? After describing the essentials, it’s time to work on your marketing. An age-old question among the art academics and fans alike, that’s still discussed today, is: “Can you separate the artist from their art?” This question is now more relevant than ever, as artists are frequently banned from the entertainment industry due to their behaviour. Is it possible to like a film made by a person you know has committed despicable crimes?

The answer varies from person to person, however, you will be able to market your art on social media much better if potential customers and fans get to know you online. If they like your personality, they’ll translate those feelings to your art as well. Not only will they buy your art, but they’ll approach it in a more favourable way. That means that they’ll enjoy your art more, meaning they’ll buy more of it. So, instead of only posting updates on whatever piece of art you’re currently working on, try to show your personality as well.

Connecting with your followers will bring substantial benefits.

How can potential customers get to know you on social media? The answer is obvious. Simply use social media, frequently post updates on all sorts of things you like or dislike, and don’t forget to reply to the comments you receive. Alternatively, you can create a profile that exhibits aesthetic sensibilities that are in line with your art. If you’re writing poetry on the beauty of nature, then post beautiful pictures of nature that you’ve found somewhere or taken yourself. If you’re a writer focusing on social troubles, post relevant news stories. The possibilities are endless.

Post consistently 

The more high-quality posts you publish – the better. However, social media algorithms (especially the ones that Facebook uses) usually provide a lower rank to pages that post inconsistently. What’s more, customers themselves don’t like that either. This means that it is better to post once every day than to distribute 10 posts over a period of two days and then not post anything for the remainder of the week.

Facebook algorithms react more favourably to pages that post consistently.

So, determine how much you will be posting, and then stick to the schedule! Unfortunately, life can get in the way of regular posting. Maybe, you have issues with your health or (to be more optimistic) you’re going away on holiday? Whatever the reason, the solution is in preparing posts in advance. You’ll have to work harder, but don’t be lazy, as preparing in advance can save you lots of trouble later. What’s more, there are plenty of social media management tools that can automatize the process while you’re away (and help you in other ways, too).

Analyse, analyse, analyse! 

Before posting anything, though, you’ll need to come up with your marketing strategy. And to do that properly, you’ll need to know exactly what your goals are at the moment. Are you looking to increase exposure and gain more fans? Or, if you’re satisfied with the number of customers you currently have, your objective could be to increase the number of artistic products that you sell to them. Knowing your objectives is essential because all the tactics you use will need to have a purpose, to work toward achieving those objectives.

Being analytical is very important when you’re determining both your goals and your tactics. Some important factors that will influence your overall strategy include:

• The time of day when your (potential) customers are most often found online. This piece of information will allow you to publish the most important posts at the busiest time of day. Save less important posts, that aren’t as relevant to your current objective, for hours when your customers are not so active.
• Which country do most of your followers come from? Once you’ve determined the country, you can modify your posting strategy accordingly.
• Similarly, what languages do your followers speak? If you’re not from Australia (or some other country where English is the native tongue), and you have fans from all over the world, it’s best to use English instead of your mother tongue.
• Compare the popularity of different posts. That way, you’ll determine what your followers like, and what they don’t like. Knowing this, you’ll be able to market your art much better by giving your audience what they want (the customer is always right, right?).

Connect with fellow artists

Social media allows you to connect with other artists and their art. This can be very useful, and not only because you’ll get to (virtually or otherwise) meet interesting individuals and enjoy their art. Namely, you can find out about their own marketing strategies and learn from them. Sharing practical tips can be very beneficial, as artists (creative as they are) can come up with plenty of original ideas on how to market their art. Furthermore, if you like their art, you can promote them through your account, and vice versa.

Finally, connecting with other artists who’ll tell you what they did when their marketing strategy wasn’t going so well can have a great impact on your morale. The strength is in numbers, and having fellow artists who can give you practical advice on how to overcome harsh times, and simply knowing that you’re not alone, can prove to be of invaluable assistance. Of course, social media marketing is an area where creativity and new ideas can easily flourish. Perhaps you will be the one who’ll share original marketing ideas with other artists who will be listening eagerly?

The post Are You An Artist? Here’s How To Market Your Work On Social Media appeared first on SEMA.

As more and more people are using the internet for shopping, finding different businesses and products, and for generally interacting with various brands through their websites and social media, online marketing is becoming more refined by the day. Improved marketing software, better algorithms, data collection – everything is growing more mature as businesses and brands try to attract new customers and keep the old ones. In order to do so, they need to devise new, effective strategies. And that’s when the benefits of interactive content marketing become apparent.

What Is Interactive Content Marketing?

Basically, interactive content marketing is a type of marketing that entails a real-time reaction to the actions of the consumer. Thus, more personal experience is made possible for the customer. In a way, this type of marketing bears a resemblance to the kind of marketing that’s done live, when a customer visits a store. Even though users are not interacting with another human being, this type of marketing provides them with a somewhat similar, almost tactile experience.

Some of the more popular examples of interactive content marketing include:

• Polls, surveys, and quizzes. Not only will they provide you with useful information, but they can also be used to prevent the customers from becoming bored.
• Contests. People are usually competitive and they love getting things for free. Through contests, they’ll become more interested in your brand and there’s a good chance that they’ll want to see what it’s all about.
• Messenger bots. Thanks to these bots, your customers become more engaged. Messenger bots provide the user with a conversational experience, without you actually having to train a human customer service representative.
• Interactive Infographics. Adding some moving graphics and animations, activated by one press of the button, will make most buyers more focused.
• E-mail marketing and videos. These are great for answering questions and helping your customers understand just what the buying process entails.

Alt text: A messenger bot appearing next to someone’s phone, on which a chat window is open.

The Benefits of Interactive Content Marketing

So, what are the exact benefits of interactive content marketing? Actually, there are quite a few of them.

#01 Customers Become Actively Engaged

First of all, when this type of marketing is used, users generally become more engaged with your brand. By this, we mean that the customers are actively engaging with your content, rather than just minimally participating by reading or watching a video. Active engagement, in fact, is actually more important than the number of visits your site has received or the time someone has spent on it.
By actively interacting, customers form a deeper relationship with your brand. And that, in turn, not only leads them to buy your products or hiring your services, but they are also more likely to stay loyal to your brand. What’s more, interactive content marketing also makes your brand stand out, as most businesses are not employing these marketing techniques. And this further deepens the relationship that customers have with your brand.

#02 Data Collection Is Made Easier

Interactive content marketing also helps with data collection. Obviously, data is very important to marketers, as it allows them to more accurately assess what their customers need. People today have grown accustomed to receiving personalized marketing, which seems tailor-made just for them.
By using tools such as surveys and quizzes, one can collect data in a way that is engaging for the customers. This data will later be essential in improving your services and products so that they are a better fit for your customers. If you use interactive marketing, there’s a greater chance that your customers will bother to provide you with important feedback, that you’ll be able to see it in real-time and change your marketing strategy more quickly and efficiently.

#03 Search Engine Optimization Is Improved

This type of marketing also improves your SEO. Interactive content will have a better chance of being shared and a better chance of attracting more links. And more shares and links mean a better SEO ranking. Interactive content can also be embedded on other websites. High-quality content in the form of an interactive infographic, contest, or quiz, is likely to be embedded somewhere, earning you plenty of SEO points.

Alt text: Someone looking at their online marketing plans, including SEO.

As we said, interactive content marketing makes customers more engaged, meaning that they’re likely to spend more time on your website than if you’ve only used static content. And the more time the users spend on your website, the better will your search engine visibility be.

#04 You Can Effectively Educate the Potential Customers

Before buying your products or choosing your services, most consumers like to get educated first. They’re looking to learn something before making a purchase. Sometimes, they’re just looking for information that will help them decide whether they really need your product and whether it will be the best choice for them.

So, when your content seems more like a pitch, rather than an honest explanation on what your customers can expect, they are likely not to be satisfied.

That’s when interactive content comes in! Infographics and interactive videos can be especially useful in educating the potential customers, rather than straight up pitching them your products and/or services. Consumers usually love to conduct research before buying, and allowing them to do that easily can only be beneficial for your business.

Alt text: A man conducting research online.

#05 Interactive Content Helps You Find Qualified Leads

Interactive content will allow you to more easily find qualified leads. By using carefully created quizzes and questionnaires, you’ll be able to more easily discern whether a user is a low-quality prospect or if there’s a significant chance of converting him or her to becoming your new customer. The key is in asking for small snippets of data that will allow you to determine if a user is serious enough or not.

In comparison to static content, interactive content marketing does a much better job of keeping the users’ interest while they’re answering your questions. Instead of giving up as the questions begin to pile up, they are more likely to stay with your questionnaire until the end and provide you with all the important information you need.

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10 key benefits of video marketing for your business

Although you will find divided perspectives when it comes to the use of video marketing, nobody can dismiss the potential it has. Especially when you examine past marketing campaigns that brought so much success to countless companies. According to a study by Wyzowl, the average attention span is slowly shrinking. As a result, people find it difficult to focus on anything for more than 8.25 seconds, which is less than a goldfish (9 seconds).

This being said, you can see how video marketing fits into the equation. However, even videos are not as they once were. Today, you need to make shorter videos in order to keep your potential clients interested. And even in spite of all this, you will find that there are countless benefits of video marketing campaigns. Here are some of the more important ones to toy with:

Start a conversation

Starting any conversation can be difficult, let alone one that involves selling products or services. And this is all the more challenging when you have a brand new company and nobody knows about you. However, video marketing is definitely something that can make a difference in such cases. Furthermore, studies show that a professionally shot and executed video clip can often turn even the biggest of sceptics into potential clients.

Video marketing is one of the best brand development tools

Most people nowadays are concerned with the influence of VR and AI on modern business and brand development. What many fail to comprehend is the importance of video promotions in all that. Start from yourself – how difficult would it be for you to trust a certain company by only reading about them or their content? Then think how faster the entire process would be if you had a visual aid such as a video telling a story about that company.

The fact is that videos put a human face and emotion on your brand. With videos, you can communicate with your target customers on a personal level, thereby making your brand more accessible to them. You have examples of companies such as Moving of America – NJ Movers, that use video reviews to strengthen their brand.

Everything revolves around mobile users today

People today spend hours and hours on YouTube and social media platforms, watching short videos and GIFs. However, they do all this through the use of their mobile phones, while commuting, having their morning coffee, getting ready for bed, etc. So, it’s only logical to presume that the same principle applies when it comes to shopping for products or services.

Research shows that over 90 per cent of people today will watch videos on mobile phones before making a purchase. It’s the next evolutionary stage of TV viewers.

Videos help you capture the attention of Google’s web crawlers

Given the simple fact that YouTube is the property of Google, marketers can only benefit from using it to further their promotional goals. Although studies and opinions vary, most claim that websites embedded with videos can receive up to 50 times more exposure. Of course, these are not simple videos. You still need to arm them with SEO friendly titles and descriptions to make the biggest impact.

Video marketing enables trust building with clients

Using plain marketing to sell your services or products is a long and tedious road to take. With videos on your side, you can drive conversions, in addition to building trust and long-term relationships with clients. All it takes is a minute-long video that tells the story of your company and its humble beginnings. As long as you are able to elicit emotions from viewers, there is no reason for your company not to rank high on the list within your industry.

It helps you appeal to lazy buyers

With the overwhelming amount of companies and ads that you come across today, consumers don’t have as much time to go through long promotional posts. Even worse are the lazy buyers, which expect you to do everything for them. However, videos give you the opportunity to shorten the time clients need to experience what you’re selling. So, it’s a great way to market to lazy buyers that need a short-burst motivation to make a purchase.

Stay one step ahead of the competition

As mentioned above, there are a lot of companies that disagree with the appeal and benefits of video marketing. Whether it’s the additional cost of it or the time and energy it demands, they are still reluctant to use it. That gives your business the perfect chance to come out on top and overcome your competitors.

Improve retention

With the endless pool of information that the Internet presents, it becomes increasingly difficult to win the attention of others. Videos help you overcome this obstacle with the long-term sub-conscious effect they can have on people. It is no secret that we tend to remember what we saw for far longer than what we discussed or read.

Target multiple demographics

Videos appeal to everyone, basically. Despite this not being the truth 10 years ago, today we all respond to what we watch. Although certain age groups are more drawn towards social media platforms without video content, they are still the minority.

Improve your social media presence

To end this list of video marketing advantages, we turn towards social media sharing. Yet another logical and realistic statistic – drastically more people share videos rather than written posts. So, smart marketers that turn towards video will always make sure to leave a Share button below. And once you do that, all it takes is a little patience and voila – your video can go viral! So, go out there is start investing your efforts into video marketing campaigns.

The post 10 Tips for a Successful Video Marketing Campaign in 2019 appeared first on SEMA.

How often should you revisit your social media strategy and why is it important?

The answer to the first question is simple: you should do it frequently. As to why your social media strategy needs to be revisited, here is a brief summary:

1. To better reflect the data you are collecting from your use of different platforms.
2. Because of the ever-changing nature of the social media platforms themselves.
3. New social media platforms are constantly emerging.
4. Because the attention span of an internet audience is short, always looking for the shiny new thing.
5. Your competition might be doing it better.

Alt. text: A tabletop with a laptop and folders and a woman’s hands holding a cup of coffee and a phone.

Revisit social media marketing strategies in response to past performance

Analyzing the data and feedback you gather from different platforms can be of great help when revisiting your strategy. Looking at the posts that fared best engagement-wise can point you in the right direction. A careful analysis of the content that didn’t do as well can help even more in adjusting your plan. What you should also take into account is the way in which the different algorithms deliver content. Algorithms differ slightly across platforms and this can inform any future posts you plan to make. In addition to this, you should also pay close attention to the makeup of your audience. Making sure your message is formed in the right way to reach your target audience is the key to a successful social media strategy.

The digital landscape is forever changing…

Here is another reason why your social media strategy needs to be revisited often. The platforms you use are always adding new options and changing the way they function in order to stay relevant. Not all of the new features digital platforms add to their repertoire will fit in with what you are trying to say. However, it is important to still find a way to tap into their potential. Of course, you should avoid using anything just because it is new and trendy. Particularly if it doesn’t fit into your overall message and tone. On the other hand, you should follow these new developments carefully. They are bound to come out with something that will surely be useable at some point. At the end of the day, these platforms are trying to cater to you as well. How well you can use them makes all the difference.

Best practice is to make sure you’re always up to date!

As with the new features of the platforms you are using, you should keep a close eye on the new digital platforms that are gaining traction online. Again, the point is not to just jump onto any new thing that appears. However, being present and finding a way to use these new platforms so it makes sense for your business can boost your overall visibility. Sometimes, it will seem impossible to do it right away. That said, they are bound to come up with some feature that will make it easier to make them a part of a typical social media strategy sooner or later.

Grab your audience’s attention!

This is one of the biggest reasons why a reevaluation of your social media strategy is important. The topic itself seeps into other areas we’ve already mentioned. Knowing who your audience is and who you are trying to reach is very important when crafting your message and creating your content. Hopefully, you are always managing to reach new people with your posts, but it is also important to be able to keep your core audience engaged with your posts.

Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. In order to keep your audience’s eye on you, you need to take that into account. The algorithms make this even more difficult. In most cases, they require you to keep a constant presence on the platforms and to be very engaging. Analyzing your past content but also vigilantly taking note of how your new content is doing is the best way to know what works for your business as well as your audience.

The competition

Taking a peek into what the businesses you are in competition with are doing can’t hurt. Quite to the contrary, it can actually make your own marketing plan better. Obviously, you should steer clear of copying anything someone else does, but taking a look into what other similar businesses with a similar audience are doing can inspire you. Whether it’s the tone of their copy, or what visuals they are using, or how they are framing their content, it may help you in your own game.

Why revisit your social media strategy?

As you can see, reevaluating what you’re doing on different platforms can help you do it even more efficiently and effectively in the future. The reasons are numerous but they all point to the same conclusion. Taking into account all the variables of maintaining an effective presence on social media and revisiting what you are doing from time to time will make planning your marketing strategy easier and your content more potent with time.

The post Time To Update Your Social Media Marketing Strategy? appeared first on SEMA.

Making a business stand out is not as hard as it used to be. With the help of some digital marketing experts, everyone can rely on the benefits of social media networking. Making a perfect social media strategy will depend on the nature of your business and many other factors. Take a look at why building a solid social media strategy is important for promoting your business.

What makes an effective strategy?

Boosting your company’s profit and making people hear about your work is easier today than it was 20 years ago. With so many social networks available, it’s no wonder most companies use them for advertisement purposes. A social media strategy is making a marketing plan that is directly related to social networks. Building one is what’s going to help your company reach more clients, connect with business partners and discover your target audience. Basically, social media strategy will define how your company will be seen and heard of on social media platforms.

Having a social media strategy is what’s going to help your company reach more clients.

However, not every social media strategy works for every business. Depending on your field of work, you should make sure your social media strategy has specific goals. Creating a social media plan can be complicated, especially if you are running a corporate or an international company. Luckily, there are always reliable experts for digital marketing who could help you make a perfect social media strategy. Investing in a solid digital marketing service can be the best decision you make.

How to make a solid social media strategy?

The first thing you’ll need to do to make a solid social media strategy is to set the goals. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, you could get involved in social media marketing more or less. Keep in mind that your competitors are already working to boost their company’s reputation online, so you should get to work and start making your plan one step at a time. There are some essential questions you should consider before making a social media strategy:

If you know the audience you’re targeting, you will know how to promote your business most efficiently.

• What do you want to achieve?
• Who are the people you are trying to reach?
• Who are your competitors and what are they working with?
• What social media strategy will work for your business?

After answering these questions, you should be able to make a basic sketch of your social media strategy.

Setting social media marketing goals

It’s not easy to predict your social media success, especially not in the long run. However, the marketing experts you hire could help you set the right goals.

Get to know your audience

If you know the audience you’re targeting, you will know how to promote your business most efficiently. Experts for digital marketing say that calculating statistics and making the right online connections are keys to having a solid social media strategy.

Get to know your competitors

Before making a good plan for advertising on social media, you should make sure to know who you are competing against. Take a look at the similar businesses around your city and see how they present themselves. Researching competitors will help you make the best social media plan you can.

Learn what works for your business

Not just any social media connections will work for every business. Make sure you know what works for your company and what doesn’t. Take a closer look at the type of clients who wish to connect with you online. Also, you should know which social media networks your clients are using. Knowing more about your audience and your competitors will help you gain an advantage.

The key to success in online marketing is having a good social media plan. Without it, posting just anything online at the wrong time will not bring you any results. This is why you should know in advance what your goals are and who the people you are trying to reach are. No matter how involved in social media you are, there are many reasons for making a good social media strategy.

• Everything’s happening online. Since so many people are active on social media, it’ impossible to stay away from it. If you want to be heard of, online social networks are the best way to do it. Besides, using mobile devices instead of desktop computers is getting more popular every year. If your company can be seen from anywhere in the world, why not do it?
• Social networks grow real fast. Depending on how you engage in your social media networks, you can boost the number of your customers incredibly fast! Not to mention that most millennials these days are highly involved in social networking and purchase online daily.
• Efficient audience targeting. You can’t ever know for sure who the people who see your advertisement are. Luckily, with a solid social media strategy, you can choose who your audience can be. Choose the age, interests, purchasing habits and other relevant information regarding the people you want to target.
• Eliminating the competitors and boosting your company’s reputation. By knowing how competitors organize their posting schedule, you will make a better plan and reduce the chances for mistakes. Every single review on social media counts. More positive reviews and comments about your company should be a part of your social media strategy.

If you want to be heard of, online social networks are the best way to do it.

The rules of social media advertisement are simple – all you have to do is stand out! By offering your customers something different, you will make sure your social media accounts matter and reach way more people. For example, by using software for business growth, you will ease the way you communicate with your clients and appear way more professional. Besides, making a perfect social media plan is impossible without great communication with your team and digital marketing experts. Good luck with making your company stand out and reaching more clients!

The post How Important Is A Solid Social Media Strategy? appeared first on SEMA.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a simple yet detailed guide on how to create high-converting CTAs in, let’s say, 15 steps?

Well, here it is! 15 tips on how to create high-converting CTAs:

Finding the perfect combination of elements and putting it all into a single Call to Action might seem simple, but it is far from it. This is one of those game-changing details that can determine whether or not your marketing campaign will succeed.

• Are you familiar with your target base?
• Do you understand your clients?
• Which colours should you use?
• Which combination of words drives people to take action today?

These are all questions that you need to be able to answer before you hope to create high-converting CTAs for your marketing efforts. It is my hope that you will be able to do just that, after these 15 steps.

1: Choose the right colour for your CTAs

Colour can speak volumes to your clients, no matter how small the section or button. This is why you should take the time to consider the colour you want your CTA in. Make it easy on yourself with this quick colour-choice checklist – it needs to:

• Be a colour.
• Stand out from the background.
• Not clash with the background.
• Grab your attention.

Colour plays an important role in CTAs.

One way to test this it to try with your company colours first, and then do a trial run with other colours. This way, you will be able to determine which colour works best for your niche.

2: Don’t over-complicate the design

Yes, if you want to create high-converting CTAs, they should stand out. However, this doesn’t mean that you should go to Las Vegas with your design. Sometimes, less is more, and the same can be said for a good call to action. Keep font colour limited to black or white, while changing the background colour of the button.

3: Size does matter – keep it sensible

Despite what people might have you believe, bigger is not always better. With CTAs, you have to make sure that the button is sensibly sized. Here, you need to consider both desktop and mobile device users. If a button is too, small, people might have a hard time clicking on it. And if you make the button too big, mobile device users will find it overwhelming and annoying. So, balance is key here.

You have to consider mobile devices and how your CTAs will fit in there.

4: Choices are always good to have, as long as you limit them

People love to think they are in control. This is why we love having choices when faced with a decision to buy something. However, you can’t give people too much space for thinking and establishing control. So, if you do decide to give people a choice between different CTAs, limit it to a maximum of 2 choices.

To create high-converting CTAs, you have to limit your options.

5: Make sure the design is inviting and clickable

As obvious as it is, people need to know that the CTA is clickable. What this means for the buttons is that they should have:

• A rectangular shape
• Clear boundaries or borders
• White space surrounding them.
• A contrasting colour

By following these criteria, you will make the buttons more clickable. Combine that with action words and you get the result you’re looking for.

6: Create high-converting CTAs in such a way that they are the next logical step

“Okay, now I need to click on the button and proceed”. This should be the thought that comes to the mind of online visitors once they reach the call to action. That button should be the final, and culminating part of the process. You can usually find examples like these when you have a company that is presenting a product. In the image below, Movers Development presents a moving quote calculator through a video. They then ask potential clients to apply for a demonstration of the product right next to it, in plain view – the next logical step.

Always have everything in plain sight when you aim to create high-converting CTAs.

7: Quality of wording over quantity

When you aim to create high-converting CTAs, you need to focus on maximum impact with minimal wording. The button has to be a knockout that will be direct and to-the-point. Glance-click-done.

8: Aim to make an impact

The Call to Action button is one of the most important page elements. This is why the content has to be nothing short of perfect. However, this varies from campaign to campaign and company to company. So, there are several tactics that you can combine:

• Use action words (get, try, use, read, see etc.)
• Use timing words (today, now, ASAP etc.) to create high-converting CTAs
• Keep it positive – including positive encouragement.
• Stick to obvious nouns (checkout, course, deal etc.)
• Spice it up with value – using “free” or “no charge” etc.
• Keep it consistent – always think about what you’re offering.

9: Focus on first-person CTAs to generate conversions

Speaking to the needs of your clients is one of the best things you can do when calling them to take action. Rather than using “we” or “our” and drawing their focus away, target it with 1^st person CTAs – “my” or “I” etc.

10: Apply pressure with a sense of urgency

We all know that if given too many options and space to think, people tend to prolong making a decision. This is why you have to implement that sense of “limited time” urgency into your CTAs. Today, you have to push clients in the right direction to get the desired effect.

11: Explore the aspect of “lazy” CTAs

Not everyone is willing to take a short time and little effort it takes to get through your perfect landing page and click to proceed. However, this is where “lazy” CTAs can come in handy. Usually, you would use these when asking for credit card or address information, to make it as simple as possible for people to proceed to the next step.

This might be too demanding for people looking for a quick fix.

12: Make the white space work for you

The International Design Foundation claims that “Macro white space” acts as a container for your design, and can be incredibly calming to your user. So, why not use this to your advantage. Leaving adequate white space around your Call to Action button sends a clear message to visitors. However, this does not necessarily need to be limited to white space – sometimes a non-intrusive photo can fill the role of “white background space” and focus people on the CTA.

13: High-converting CTAs should be optimized location-wise

Just like all the elements we mentioned up to this point, the location of the CTA plays a key role as well. You have the popular opinion that the solution to create high-converting CTAs is to put it at the end. However, according to research done by Hubspot, only 6% of conversions come from CTAs at the ends of posts. So, you have to carefully consider where you position your CTAs.

14: Keep it specific for effect

People today are used to seeing ads and marketing campaigns. So, offering them products or services through universal terminology won’t make an impact. The more specific you are in what you’re offering, the easier it will be to create high-converting CTAs. One idea is to personalize deals or promotions with number or brand names etc.

15: Be prepared to get into some A/B testing

At the end of the day, none of the previous 14 steps we mentioned will matter unless you test and measure the results. Testing is that constant factor that plays a crucial role in finding your perfect and high-converting CTAs. So, test, test, and then test again. It might take time, but you will get there eventually. And once you do, it will only be a matter of putting it all together.

The post How To Create High-Converting CTAs In 15 Steps appeared first on SEMA.

So, what is it that makes for a winning landing page and how can you ensure that your landing page fits into that mould?

The 5 elements of a winning landing page

You might think it difficult and complex to create the ideal landing page for your company. However, the truth is far from this, especially when you have the right support through it all. So, all you really need are the right team of a marketing specialist to back you up, with some additional support from a team of web developers. Once you ensure those two pillars, it’s just a matter of coordination and time before you get to an efficient promotional page. But, to give you a better idea of just what it takes, we’ll focus on the top five tips to making a winning landing page:

The construction of a winning landing page depends on 5 essential elements.

#1: You need a landing page with strong and high-converting content

You can hardly have a winning landing page without the right content to make it all work. This is the link that will bind all the elements that we will get to later on.

So, what’s the goal – you have to provide online visitors with content that is not only natural and easily readable but also useful to them. But, no worries, we won’t leave you high and dry. Here are some pointers you might wish to focus on:

1. Headlines with a clear message. You need to offer online visitors a clear topic of what it is that you are offering them with your winning landing page.
2. A clear menu of services or products. People prefer simplicity when it comes to landing pages. This means a clear and well-designed layout of what you offer as a company.
3. As few blank spaces as possible. This is not a novel – you need to pique the interest of online visitors as much as possible. This means as fewer blanks in design and content as possible.

Content plays an essential role in creating a winning landing page.

#2: Make sure your customers know what you’re selling!

That first tagline is what most online visitors will have the opportunity to see and read. This is why it is all the more important that it makes the right impression. You never know how much time someone will spend on your website, so you have to do all you can to ensure they have a reason to stay. This is an important step if you want to make your website visible online.

#3: Good optics are key!

You can hardly imagine reading the perfect content without a design to go alongside it. Professional digital marketing companies will always put a high price on the combination of content and design. So, take the time to consider just how you would like others to see your company. Consider the implementation of the following visual elements:

• Images of your business and what it offers
• Company logo
• The core values of your company

Poorly chosen or low-quality images can distract visitors from the message you wish to convey, whereas authentic images can add value to your winning landing page. So, make sure to explore competitive websites and well-designed landing pages in general before launching your own.

#4: Call to action (CTA) wherever possible!

A winning landing page is only as good as the traffic and revenue it brings. And you will hardly be able to accomplish that unless you have the right call to action. The CTA is an essential touch on a landing page, as it inspires your online visitors to act on the offer you are making. So, it is important to get it just right in terms of both length and wording.

You need to understand this – 20-30 seconds is the average time people tend to spend on a landing page. So, a CTA that is too complex or confusing will only dismay leads from converting. Another point to make here is the overall design of the contact form and the CTA itself. It needs to be just the right amount of direct, but not cross any borders or make customers lose focus. This is where a combination of a good background image and a well-chosen colour schematic does the trick.

#5: Trust is more important than ever!

Trust elements are the visual aids to help online visitors comprehend the foundation of your company from scrolling down a single page. The focus here is diversity, and it usually comes in the form of:

1. Company core values
2. Testimonials or user reviews
3. Customer logos
4. Affiliations and acknowledgments

You need to make sure that all trust elements are present.

A good example of this can be found with Movers Development. As a company dedicated to the digital development of the moving industry, the trust elements it presents readers with relates directly to moving companies and businesses. You have the professional affiliations, the objectives of their services, the portfolio to present their past projects, and the testimonials to provide proof of customer satisfaction. The important thing to remember with trust elements is to keep them up-to-date.

Conclusion

And there you have it – all the making of a winning landing page summed together into 5 steps. There are, of course, endless tips and tricks to experimenting with landing pages, most of which you will come across along the way. But this should cover you in terms of the basics and give your business space to grow from.

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