5 Habits of Successful Online Marketers

Why is it that some online marketers continually raise the bar while others continually fall short? What is it that the best online marketers do in terms of driving more traffic to their website and converting more website visitors into customers? Answering both of these aforementioned questions comes down to understanding the five habits of successful online marketers, ones who know how to reach their target audience, know how to produce engaging content and know how to move prospects forward.

1. Engaging Content

Success isn’t just about the written word. It’s not just about writing endless paragraphs and inundating users with redundant information. Instead, it’s about combining well-written content with engaging videos and imagery. The best online marketers combine well-placed images alongside infographics, graphs and or excel tables. They combine multiple mediums in order to deliver a clear and concise message.

2. Consistent Content Production

The best online marketers are consistent in how they engage their audience. They make it a point to produce content on a daily basis and they continually raise the bar on how that content is produced. Ultimately, it’s a question of knowing what their customers want and giving them exactly that and more. All of that information comes from taking the time to analyze the website’s analytics. The best online marketers identify what their website visitors and customers want and then they give it to them time and again.

3. A/B Split Testing (Website Visitors, Online Advertising and Email Campaigns)

Those who excel at online marketing don’t merely rely upon assumptions. Instead, they use a systematic approach to maximizing their website’s layout, in addition to making sure they continually increase their click-through rates (CTR) on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns and email marketing newsletters. Success typically involves split testing viewership. This means that the most tech-savvy online marketers will test one website or blog layout with one set of customers, and they’ll test a completely different layout with another set of customers. The goal is to find the optimized layout with the highest conversion rate.

4. Networking

Are you looking to be seen as a market guru? Do you want to be known as a relevant source of timely information? If so, then networking with your market’s biggest players is vital to keeping your company at the forefront of your market. Today’s online marketing professionals must build a substantial network of high-value contacts in order to make sure their company is readily available. Whether it’s from doing guest blog posts, videos, and or participating in podcasts, the best online marketers ensure that their company is always engaging its target audience.

5. Clear Call to Action

Finally, the best marketers know that their call to action must be clear and concise. There is no room for ambiguity. The company must clearly define its intentions, outline its value proposition and give potential customers a reason to act. A clear call to action does exactly that. Make sure your call to action gives your viewers a reason to move forward.

Miami website design firms must incorporate all of these aforementioned habits. Ultimately, you need to work alongside a design firm that can redesign your website while also putting together a content development strategy that reaches your target audience and incentivizes them to move forward.

Victor Gonzalez5 Habits of Successful Online Marketers
read more

3 Questions to Consider Before Giving Your Logo a “Google” Redesign

Google isn’t the first major multinational corporation to alter its well-established brand. Do you remember the “New Coke” catastrophe? What about the Gap logo debacle or Hersey’s “kiss” logo oversight? The consumer backlash from such bold attempts can be brutal. In general, people do not like change and consumers can become really worked up when a company changes its brand, especially when the consumers feel blindsided by the change. If you are planning to make changes to your brand, here are three questions you should answer before you begin reworking your company’s logo design.

Can you afford to throw away your brand equity?

If your customers associate positive characteristics with your logo and branding initiatives, the last thing you want to do is make your logo so different that consumers no longer relate to it. Big companies like Google and Coca-Cola can afford such risks and consequences. However, the average small business cannot. When it comes to logos, changes that seem insignificant, such as color, font or positioning, matter to your customers. Your brand represents your customers’ expectation of the product and/or service you provide. To keep your customers happy, make sure that your redesign retains the elements your customers appreciate most about your brand. If you don’t know what those elements are, you should consult marketing professionals to help you find out.

Have you done your research?

As times change, it seems natural that a company’s logo should change too. However, before you make assumptions, you should consider consulting a logo designer in Miami to help you survey your customer base. Despite what some organization leaders think, a company cannot create a great brand without the consideration of its target audience. Branding success is the result of strong data derived from your target demographic in the form of focus groups, surveys, polls, etc. It is wise to find out first how your customers interpret your current brand, then make your changes accordingly. To avoid alienating your customer base, make sure that any and every change to your logo resonates with your target audience.

Is this brand change consumer-driven or company-driven?

Traditional marketing strategies are not as effective in reaching target audiences as are the consumer-centered approaches used by modern marketers. Before you change any element of your brand, the change has to have a significant benefit to your current and perspective customer base. The impulse to change to your logo as directed by internal influences or company-centered rationales may seem like a good idea on paper, but could have a devastating impact on profitability if your customers are not pleased with the results. Circumvent this by including your customers in the branding evaluation process. Give your loyal customers a chance to provide feedback and ask questions. In the end, your customers will appreciate your attentiveness and provide your company with invaluable input to help point you in the right direction.

When it comes to branding, not every small business can afford to consult with the top New York logo design firm. However, no business can afford to gamble when changing something as important as its logo. The jury is still out as to whether Google’s recent logo redesign will be a success or serve as another cautionary tale. However, if the assessment of their new logo included any of the elements provided in this article, users will quickly come to appreciate Google’s latest branding even more than the last.

Victor Gonzalez3 Questions to Consider Before Giving Your Logo a “Google” Redesign
read more

6 Online Marketing Strategies for Local Miami Businesses

Local businesses can benefit greatly from online marketing strategies that help to drive traffic through their doors. However, it has to be done with that aim in mind from the start. Many of the technologies necessary to bring foot traffic from an online presence have to be targeted for a local audience, from the search engine keywords to potential mobile customers. Here are a six ways to fine tune your online marketing strategy for local Miami businesses:

1. Target Local Keywords – Every online business must do a bit of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to stand out in their particular niche, but those that want local traffic must also include local SEO terms and keywords in their content. It’s not just enough just to combine a keyword with the name of a city, you also have to get into the mind of local customers who may be adding neighborhoods, beaches, or attractions to their query when they look for the best pizza place near Midtown or a tourist spot.

2. Make Sure You Use Responsive Web Design – Miami website design agencies know that the future is in mobile advertising, particularly for local traffic. Someone searching for an establishment while they’re out and about are usually doing it via a smartphone. If your web design is not responsive, it can be make it more difficult for users of these mobile devices. Plus, the Google is now downgrading sites that are not mobile-friendly as they also understand the ramifications of mobile technology.

3. Get the Word Out with Social Networking – If you don’t understand how people in a local area get information via popular social networking sites to make buying decisions, then hire a Miami digital marketing agency to manage your social networking profiles for you. They can reach a wider audience of people within your local area and provide the type of exposure and referrals to your site that can increase your conversions using this strategy. In a way, social networks is an online way for people to find out about local places that please people and many even provide a way to rate local establishments.

4. Facilitate Transactions with Local Strategies – Whether you’re a realtor looking to provide downloadable information for an open house with a QR code or a restaurant making it easy to get repeat customers with an online loyalty program, enabled via smartphones at the time of the purchase, you will have a way to give people reasons to remember you and hopefully visit and purchase again.

5. Publish Content with Local Interest – To make your site more popular with the local crowd, include topics in your blog of items of local interest. This will help to drive people to your site when they are looking up what to do around the area. If you can be a sponsor at some of these local events or spots, you can also tie in your online marketing to it by advertising your URL or including QR codes in your advertising offline.

6. Use Paid Advertising Campaigns to Target Local Areas – You can limit your Google Adwords campaigns to local areas instead of the entire state. You can also create a local business profile for Google Plus for businesses. Or, pay to add your business to Google Maps.

Don’t forget to include your own location information for those looking for nearby businesses. This is normally referred to as your NAP (name, address, phone number). Make it visible on all pages of your site via a footer or header and you will be well on your way to getting local attention.

Victor Gonzalez6 Online Marketing Strategies for Local Miami Businesses
read more

7 Reasons Your Website Redesign Should be Responsive

The rise of powerful mobile devices and smartphones has increased the need for responsive design. This allows a website to adapt to nearly any device so that it can be clearly seen and used. Unfortunately, not all sites are embracing responsive design. There are seven reasons your website redesign should be responsive.

Mobile Commerce Is Growing Fast

The first and most important reason is that mobile commerce is growing fast. Consumers today are now using mobile devices to buy items and services quickly. If your website is not accessible through a mobile device, then you will lose out completely on that market segment of consumers. You need a new website with a responsive design so that consumers anywhere using any type of device will be able to buy products from you.

Improved User Experience

The reality is that a website with a static design or one that uses absolute positioning is not going to be very user-friendly. Anyone without a very specific resolution might have to scroll around just to see an entire page. A user with a high-resolution screen might have images and text so small that it is uncomfortable to look at. A bad user experience means that people are likely to leave your site and go elsewhere fast. Responsive design allows you to improve the user experience. The design makes it possible for all the necessary components and images to be seen at once regardless of the screen size.

Making Changes Is Easier

Trying to create a complex layout without using responsive design practices can be a real mess. You might be left with a website filled with overly complicated formatting and pages of indecipherable scripting. This means changing even the smallest things on the website will become a monumental task. Allowing a Miami digital marketing agency to redesign your website so that it is responsive will make changing things much easier. You can insert new text or change pictures simply without breaking the entire layout. The fluid layout will just adapt to the changes in most cases.

Professional Appearance

You want your business website to be taken seriously by consumers, vendors and partners. If you are not using responsive design by this point, then it could hurt your image and brand. Your site might be seen as behind the times or ineffective. If you have a responsive website, then you are taking advantage of the latest technology to create an attractive and functional online presence. This can greatly improve the professionalism and brand of your business.

Search Engines Want It

How search engines see your website can directly contribute to the popularity or anonymity of your business. A low search engine ranking means that your site will be invisible to anyone casually searching for what you are selling. An important factor about responsive design is that search engines want it. A skilled Miami web design firm can create an optimized and responsive site that could easily outperform and outrank lesser sites. This can help to drive more traffic to your website.

Increased Conversions

Something interesting is that the ability to access a website through a mobile device appears to increase conversions. Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of the purchasing process. They help people to make decisions about what to buy. Moving to a responsive design means that you could start to see a larger number of conversion at a faster rate. This can potentially improve your revenue each year.

Be Prepared For the Future

A final reason your website redesign should be responsive is so that you are prepared for the future. New devices and technologies are appearing every year. If you have a professionally designed responsive website, then there is every chance that you will be able to take advantage of those new devices with few to no changes. This will keep your company competitive even as things change.

Victor Gonzalez7 Reasons Your Website Redesign Should be Responsive
read more

Inbound Marketing Success for Bookkeepers: Three Tips To Grow Your Bookkeeping Business

Among the various business service providers who use the Internet as a platform for marketing and advertising, bookkeepers stand to benefit the most. Unfortunately, few bookkeepers actually take advantage of the full potential that the Internet offers in terms of getting new prospects and keeping their existing clients engaged.

The following three tips can greatly help small business bookkeepers boost their online presence for the purpose of attracting more prospects and staying in touch with their clientele:

Put Real Effort Into Your Website

Unfortunately, many bookkeepers think that a simple template with their contact information and some placeholder text is all it takes to establish their presence on the Web. If anything, prospects who see a very generic website are not going to be very interested in that bookkeeper, and existing clients will not have a reason to return to that site other than perhaps looking up a telephone number.

An ideal website for a bookkeeper should include attractive design, a summary of professional affiliations and major achievements, an engaging blog, and testimonials if they are available.

Use Social Media Accordingly

Some small business owners who are attuned to the world of online social networking skip the website portion of their online presence and choose to run their business from a Facebook or Twitter profile. This is not recommended for bookkeepers; however, being active on social media can go a long way to boost your online reputation.

A good social media practice consists of building a Twitter audience by searching for open questions about bookkeeping topics. For example, searching for the term “single entry” followed by a “?” question mark will return conversations about that topic. If the original question has not been answered, that’s an opportunity to introduce yourself, be of service, link to your website, and gain a new Twitter follower. The best social network for bookkeepers, however, is LinkedIn.

Don’t Forget About Email Marketing

For all the talk about how social media is becoming the Internet as we know it, millions of people still use email daily, particularly for business purposes. Building an email list can be as easy as offering a monthly newsletter that features content that your prospects and clients will not find in your blog or elsewhere.

The key to produce a successful email marketing newsletter is to pick one or two great topics that you know your audience can use and enjoy. For example, one article can be about bank reconciliation, which is not the most entertaining topic to read; however, this is an article that can be made friendlier if it mentions how a celebrity actor or athlete went broke because of poor accounting practices.

Victor GonzalezInbound Marketing Success for Bookkeepers: Three Tips To Grow Your Bookkeeping Business
read more

5 Things You Need to Know About Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update

The number of mobile devices capable of surfing the Internet is rapidly increasing. There may soon come a day when the number of mobile devices that can browse video, post to Facebook, and check email may outnumber the number of laptop and desktop computers that consumers use.

In an attempt to prepare for this change, Google is taking one big step towards incentivizing websites to become more mobile friendly with this latest update to the Google search algorithm.

Let’s examine the things you need to know about this mobile-friendly update to Google’s search algorithms.

Google Will Add a New Bot

In response to the popularity that mobile devices have enjoyed and their future prospects, Google’s update will likely bring about the addition of a new spider.

While there are no details about it yet, it’s likely that this spider will utilize an Android user-agent. This will allow it to crawl links that not only exist on standard websites, but also those found within mobile apps and single-page websites.

This new spider will likely give bonuses to websites that are mobile friendly.

Mobile-Friendly Won’t Affect Desktop Rankings, Yet

Google stated that mobile and desktop rankings will remain mostly separate. While this means you won’t see a drop in your desktop rankings, you can expect that your mobile traffic might drop completely if you don’t optimize your website for mobile viewers.

Another point to acknowledge is that this separation between desktop and mobile rankings may not last forever.

This Change is Big

With regards to mobile rankings, it has been stated that this update will change rankings significantly more than Panda or Penguin ever did. Considering that these updates were the reasons countless websites dropped in ranking while others rose to the top, it’s a sure thing that this update will bring dramatic changes.

As history tends to repeat itself, this may be your opportunity to take advantage of mobile traffic to get ahead of the competition or to fall behind it.

Responsive Designs Surpass Other Mobile Alternatives

Alternatives for mobile-friendly designs do exist. The most prominent of these alternatives, and likely the least involved for businesses, is to utilize a mobile subdomain.

The problem is that these alternatives will bring numerous difficulties. They may produce duplicate content penalties while requiring another webmaster to oversee that these mobile subdomains stay updated.

Responsive web design offers an amazingly simple answer. By altering the way a website appears based on the device that is used to view it and the resolution of that device, the same content can be delivered in a form optimized for the device being used.

In other words, imagine having a website that changes in response to the needs of your visitors. You can ensure that the same information gets displayed in a format that doesn’t detract and one that search engines like Google will value.

You’re Going to Need a New Layout

The bottom line concerning this mobile-friendly change to Google’s search engine is that you’re going to need to retool your current web design. Your website needs to adapt to the present needs of your consumers and the future demands that they may have.

Responsive web design offers the best solution for the many challenges that your company will face with regards to the Internet. It provides a sleek, elegant solution that doesn’t require any extra work than your current website does.

By investing in a response design, you’re preparing for the future and ensuring that your business caters to your customers. This will enable your website to pull ahead of the competition both in terms of search engine rankings and customers.

Contact us to learn more about what responsive is and how it will benefit your business as more mobile devices become accessible to consumers.

Victor Gonzalez5 Things You Need to Know About Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update
read more

Elements Your Website Must Have

Coming up with a website might seem like a piece of cake. Because our lives revolve around the Internet, a website’s layout seems like something we could design in our sleep. We all have a sense of what’s aesthetically pleasing and is also functional. However, some businesses miss these two essential aspects. In the past or maybe even just earlier today, you might have forgotten about the websites you quickly exited out of – the ones where you couldn’t find what you were looking for, the ones that took too long to load, and the ones that just hurt your eyes to look at.

A basic website design needs a few elements to ensure it successfully conveys your business to customers and keeps their clicks (and money!) coming in.

What your business does.
Have you ever gone to a website in hopes of finding out answers and only left with more questions? Ensure your website provides clear information, easy-to-understand content, and error-free copy to create an enjoyable, informational experience for customers. A good way to answer the question “What does your business do?” is an About Us page. Providing simple and accurate product and service descriptions, including pricing, measurements, and features, avoids customers from plaguing your inbox with easily avoidable questions.

Contact Information.
It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how hard it can be to get in touch with a business. Your website should feature easy-to-find contact information on every page to avoid angering customers who may already be frustrated. A reputable web design agency will know to incorporate a “Contact Us” link into the footer of your website so an obvious go-to spot to reach you will be on every page of your site without interrupting each page’s content.

Quick load time.
We’re going to bet that you’ve exited a website because it took so much time to load, and we’re also going to bet that you can’t remember every single website you’ve exited because of this problem. In today’s fast-paced society, your business’s site needs to load quickly to make a great first impression. Talk to your design agency’s developers to ensure that customers won’t be watching the clock tick away the seconds while they wait to see what products or services you offer.

Responsive design.
There are few things more annoying than having to screen-pinch a website in the hopes of resizing it to fit your phone’s display. With so many different ways to get online, you need to be assured by your development agency that your site will always be presented in the best possible format, no matter what the technology it’s pulled up on. Luckily, web designers and developers are now able to program your site to be responsive for any screen size, so you’ll be able to show off your business no matter if it’s being viewed on a smartphone, tablet, or compute

NSchoultzElements Your Website Must Have
read more

The Importance of Establishing a Web Presence

As today’s businesses are able to significantly strive toward attaining more leads through online marketing/advertising, they are provided with an opportunity to market themselves without much effort or cost. Past generations of businesses were required to invest in advertisement placements through newspapers, radio ads, television ads, magazines, brochures, fliers, and simply “word of mouth”. Today’s generation is provided with a platform of marketing that requires minimal expenditures in the advertising department. The world wide web has certainly made a difference in regards to how businesses can expose their products and services for the entire world to see. Why should they resort to anything else when they can simply reach out to millions of people worldwide from their very own location?

The minimal effort that is required for marketing through online platforms is truly remarkable. If businesses were to reach out to millions of people worldwide in the past, they would have to set up appointments to actually travel to those areas or much more. Now, a company can simply set up a website for the whole world to see.

Although businesses are provided with a platform that enables them to reach out to millions of people, there are still some challenges and obstacles for them to overcome. There is quite a bit of competition among businesses on the web. Therefore, it is an imperative necessity for a business to implement the best strategies of advertising in their operations.

A Miami web design specialist can create a set of webpages that truly exemplify perfection for a company. A proficient web developer is really all a company needs to have their company come out on top. As there are a multitude of routes a company can take in regards to their marketing strategies, a digital marketing agency that has a good grasp on knowledge in the field of web development can assist a company towards outshining their competitors.

NSchoultzThe Importance of Establishing a Web Presence
read more

2015 Website Design Trends

This year is playing host to some huge changes in web design. If you are trying to choose a Miami digital marketing agency, you should pick the company that can perform all of the following things for you.Big Card Backgrounds
Massive background images will serve as the backdrop for many of your favorite websites in 2015, along with subtle parallax effects (made popular by an iPhone software update) and rich topography. This technique has already been used by Google Nexus and Apple, who are definitely tastemakers in the field.

Card-based Design
With a continued shift to the mobile platform, a web developer must understand how to make content fit on different types and sizes of screens. Card-based design is a proven way to make content look good on a laptop screen, as well as on a smartphone and a tablet.

Scaled Logos
Because many companies will be adopting a digital first branding strategy, logos will need to be more responsive to fit mobile platforms. This will result in scaled logo sizes, so expect to see some fluctuating in your favorite brand’s sizing as they figure out what works best.Responsive Design
This may seem like a no-brainer based upon the changes above, but responsive design’s impact goes deeper than you may think. Many of the top designers in the world believe that the website design industry will move toward a structure that is fully customized for different devices, so a simpler layout that fits on all platforms is necessary for any site.

Increased Privacy
In 2015, websites will be designed to maintain the privacy of its user base. Expect to see changes from its policy and terms of service to the way that these crucial legalities are presented to an audience.

Adaptive Design
Adaptive design takes responsive design one step further. Adaptive design gives the user the ability to create an on-demand look for a web design by uploading preferences to a web designer’s layout and receiving those preferences back in real time. Essentially, adaptive design helps take out the middleman when it comes to updating a website.

NSchoultz2015 Website Design Trends
read more

How To Do WordPress SEO Like a Boss

If you make SEO mistakes on your WordPress site, you could be seriously limiting your search engine ranking. Search engines don’t care about how pretty your website is or the cleverness of your blog design. Learn how to properly optimize your WordPress website or blog with the following tips.

Install SEO WordPress Plugin

Install a WordPress plugin, even if you’ve optimized your site as much as possible without the plugin. Adding a plugin that’s specifically for WordPress SEO will help optimization even more. There are a lot to choose from (Yoast, All-in-One, and SEO Ultimate, to name a few) so weigh the pros and cons of each and make sure to read user reviews.

Optimize Permalink Structure

The URL for each page should contain keywords, not numbers. For example, if you have a page about SEO tips, the page name should be mywebsite.com/seo-tips, not mywebsite.com/?878787. Using understandable permalinks will also help you build trust with your social media audience – nobody wants to click a link that they don’t understand.

Add XML Sitemap

There are a ton of WordPress SEO plugins available. When deciding which one is right for you, make sure it has a function that auto-generates XML sitemaps. Since organization is so important when it comes to SEO, an XML sitemap is a necessity. Also, the plugin should update the sitemap every time you update the website and auto-submit the updated sitemaps to search engines.

Include Meta Titles & Descriptions

Add a custom meta header and description, which is different from the header that your visitors will see. Meta titles and descriptions are just for SEO purposes and search engines. Make sure to use the right keywords; cleverness should take a backseat to search effectiveness when it comes to the meta sections.

Link Internally

Link to other posts within a post. Let’s say you’re writing about SEO tips on your blog. If you’ve already written other related blog posts, link to those posts within the current post. Getting links to your content is a big part of SEO and ranking – one of the easiest ways to increase inbound linking is to do it from your own posts. Just make sure that you’re linking to relevant content. If you have a blog post about traveling to San Francisco, you don’t want to link to a blog post about training a new puppy just for the sake of getting more backlinks.

Noindex the Right Pages

While you should index relevant pages, avoid indexing every single page on your website. Certain pages shouldn’t be indexed – anything that doesn’t provide value to a regular reader or that might be considered duplicate content (e.g., landing pages for pay-per-click campaigns) should be left out. An other example, you probably have a “Thank You” page for new e-mail subscribers – this is the type of page that doesn’t need to be indexed.

Write Great Content

If you run a business writing company and your main priority is finding new clients who need press releases, you may want a blog post or a page about “Why You Need a Professional to Write Your Press Release.” You’ll add important keywords and try to drive traffic to this page. However, if the writing and the content is low quality, you won’t get much attention, which means you’ve wasted a lot of effort. Search engines favor high quality content that a lot of people want to visit – make sure your content is great from the beginning.

Natural Keywords

When it comes to writing that great content, using keywords is important, but having high quality content is even more important. The secret is that if you’re sticking to the topic at hand, most of the necessary keywords will get in there naturally. If necessary, hire a professional writer. You can have the best SEO plugins in the world and master all of the tricks, but you’ll get nowhere if you don’t have excellent copy.

SEO for Images

Whenever you use an image on your website, come up with a good, keyword rich file name. Google uses images when calculating ranking. Instead of File879.jpg, rename your image something like SEO-Tips-2015.jpg.

Choose the Right Theme

Pick a WordPress theme that’s SEO optimized. Certain themes use a ton of code for the design and layout. When Google has to get through all of that code to find the actual content, it’s more difficult to rank your website. More code means less keyword density and content. Pick a theme that performs quickly and that’s highly compatible with SEO.

When it comes to implementing SEO on your WordPress site, you can read all of the up-to-date articles on the topic and learn the ropes yourself. If you don’t have time to do it right, though, consider hiring a professional to handle it for you or using plugins that walk you through every important step.

Victor GonzalezHow To Do WordPress SEO Like a Boss
read more