Do you have a business blog?

Are you happy with the marketing role your blog plays?

Many businesses consider blogs “a cost of doing business,” or code for “We’re not sure what it does but we’re afraid to stop doing it.”

In this article I will explore why and how to make your blog the hub of your content marketing plan?

Why make your blog your content marketing hub?

To put a slightly different spin on what Chris Brogan says, blogs are your home base; they are at the center of your content marketing system.

Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 100 company, blogs should be at the heart of your content marketing because blogs fuel social media, search optimization and the sales process.

The top five reasons to use a blog as your content hub are:

Blogs are owned media. Your blog content is yours. You’re not at the whim of changes in the rules of third-party platforms, such as the recent changes to LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. A blog has the added bonus of providing an always-on crisis management channel to get your message out 24/7.

Blogs are a form of social media. Through social sharing, comments and guest posts, blogs provide the basis for building a targeted community. In fact, HubSpot‘s research showed that blogs top other forms of social media for effectiveness.

Blogs support search optimization. Because of their structure, blogs are search-friendly. You can enhance this by focusing each article on a specific keyword phrase and link to internal and external content.

Blogs drive sales. To support sales, write blog posts about how to use your products and show them in context to provide prospects and customers with product information they need. Then link to your specific product pages to support the sales process.

Blogs incorporate a streamlined CMS (content management system). At its core, blogs are an easy-to-use, low-cost content system.

7 Tips to Make Your Blog Your Content Marketing Hub

To make your blog an accountable aspect of your content marketing plan, here are seven steps to get on track.

#1: Build a Strong Blogging Foundation to Support Your Content Marketing

In order for your blog to be the center of a strong content marketing plan, you’ll need to make sure you build your blog on a strong foundation.

One of your first decisions is how to set up your blog. Make sure you use your own URL. The best option is to use a self-hosted WordPress blog. Don’t use a free hosting option such as Blogger or WordPress

Even better, incorporate your blog into your overall business website. 

You’ll need to get technology resources to support your blogging efforts. Blogging should be integrated into your website. For most businesses, this translates to ongoing technology support, rather than a few minutes of someone’s time when they’re available

These are essential to a strong foundation.

#2: Know Your Audience

Before you begin blogging, you’ll need to know whom you’re writing for and what they’re interested in reading. One way to find out more about your audience is to use marketing personas.

Create a set of marketing personas to clarify and give a personality to the people you’re trying to reach. It’s easier to write for someone you know than a faceless mass. Incorporate their content consumption habits and their social media proclivities.

Marketing personas are important for your blog, as well as other forms of content. If you’ve got distinctly different audiences you’re trying to reach, consider creating more than one blog and related content marketing denver

#3: Develop Your Content Marketing Plan

Several components come into making a good content marketing plan. Here’s what you’ll want to include in your content marketing plan.

Map out your promotional calendar

Start by planning your organization’s marketing events for the year and use public holidays where appropriate. The objective is to create hooks around which to develop your content.

In addition to seasons and holidays, consider annual events that apply to your product offering. Include relevant tradeshows and conferences, as well as social media participation.

Outline your major content offerings

Based on the events selected in your promotional calendar, decide what major content offerings you’ll create such as conference talks, ebooks and webinars.

Plan ongoing columns and related communications

Think like a magazine and brainstorm regular offerings such as news roundups, customer of the week and interviews. Develop a set of columns to offer either weekly or every other week. This provides the basic structure for your blog’s editorial calendar. Include themes such as research. Consider how you’ll offer this content to other segments of your audience such as in your regular emails.

Create an editorial calendar

Integrate your events, major pieces of content and regular content offerings into one calendar so you can manage the creation process. It helps to make this part of someone’s job description.

Plan extended content usage

Once you’ve integrated your planned content, assess where you can extend, create or reuse content from your major content marketing offerings on your blog and vice versa.

For example, to promote Content Marketing World, Lee Odden put together an ebook, 29 Content Marketing Secrets and the Secret Agents Who Shared Them. He used the information from the ebook to write 11 separate blog posts and an overview post. In addition, he posted the ebook on SlideShare and encouraged participants to share the content.

Blogging and content marketing – when compared many people will think they’re one and the same because aren’t they both just about creating content for a website? While in a sense that may be true, blogging only scratches the surface of content creation. enterprise seo agency goes much deeper than this and should drive all of your digital marketing efforts so that you’re delivering content that is not only well-thought-out, but valuable to your audience.

In this blog, we delve into the differences between blogging and content marketing so you can get an understanding of how they work with each other, and how they fit into your marketing strategy.

Originating in the mid-90s, the first blog to be created is widely considered to be links.net – a website created by college student Justin Hall where he could share web links and photos he found interesting.¹ Fun fact; if you google links.net you’ll find that the site is still active!

From then on many other blogs started to appear and as websites like WordPress and TypePad were created, the popularity of blogging grew. Nowadays blogging is still a popular medium for many people to publish their content, whether it be personal or professional – but what exactly is blogging?

HubSpot defines a blog as:

A section of your business's website but, unlike the rest of your website, you need to update the blog section frequently by adding new posts. Additionally, your blog is a tool that allows you to engage more with an audience, either by analysing how many readers share your blog posts on social or by allowing readers to comment on your individual posts. In this way, a blog is more like a two-way conversation than the rest of your website. However, a blog can also be an entire website, and often is, if the blog is for personal use alone – for instance, a travel blog.²

A blog or ‘blogging’ is a great way to connect more with your target audience and provide them with the information they’re searching for whether that be in answer to a question they have, or additional information on their topic of interest.

Content Marketing

sticky_notesContent marketing has been around since the mid-80s with the launch of John Deere’s agricultural specific magazine ‘The Furrow’ – you can read more about this here. Since then many brands and businesses alike have gotten on board with content marketing and see the value that it delivers to their marketing strategies.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of images, videos, blogs that are informational in nature and garner interest in a product or service without being salesy.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.³

Content marketing is all about a focussed approach to marketing and centres on creating content that will attract the right type of audience for your business or brand, and ultimately drive them to take the desired action. Content marketing consists of many different forms of marketing and can include blogging. Other types of content marketing include:

Case studies

Project features

How-to videos

Infographics

Guides

Whitepapers/studies

What does this mean for your marketing strategy?

Now that we know the difference between blogging and content marketing denver, how does this affect your marketing strategy and the activities you choose to do? Blogging is a great way of getting your message across however it shouldn’t be your sole method of marketing – it should fit into your overall content marketing strategy.

Understand your buyer’s journey

When you start looking at a content strategy for your business it’s important to first consider your buyer’s journey.

The buyer’s journey consists of a three-step process:

Awareness Stage: The buyer realises they have a problem.

Consideration Stage: The buyer defines their problem and researches options to solve it.

Decision Stage: The buyer chooses a solution.⁴

Everyday the SEO field is becoming more and more competitive, So the results of this study well give us a more clear idea of which strategies are working well for enterprise-level SEO teams, which ones are failing and how companies are preparing for mobile-first search.

The spending budget on SEO

a monthly budget for SEO activity

The figure above shows how much companies spend on SEO. Here are some surprising finds on the enterprise level:

11% of enterprise SEOs had a monthly SEO budget of less than $1,000

20% of enterprise SEOs had a budget of $5,000 to $10,000 per month

45% of enterprise SEOs had a budget of $20K+

Most important activities for enterprise seo company

A chart of the most important SEO activities companies focuses on.

Companies are mainly focusing on these four categories:

Technical SEO – Back-end optimization, including DNS settings, structure, indexability, processing speed, caching, site security, and mobile functionality.

Content Development – Ensuring that the site has an abundance of unique, easy-to-navigate information that is rich in keywords and is refreshed on a regular basis.

Traffic Analysis – Examining search traffic, site performance relative to competitors, search intent, visitors per keyword, time on site, bounce rate, and other usage patterns.

Link-building – Earning off-page backlinks, social media traction, and brand mentions from influencers and authoritative sites.

The survey question asked respondents to rank the four categories in order of priority, from 1 (most important) to 4 (least important). Although the weighted responses were consistent across all business sizes, looking at the actual answers reveals that there is still some disagreement among our SEO specialists. For instance, although they were the minority, 10.6% of the respondents ranked link-building highest.

The most critical issues facing enterprise SEOs

A chart of issues enterprise SEOs face

According to the data, it seems like developing content was the top issue since nearly 40% of all responses chose that. However, enterprise-level companies are less concerned with outreach and link-building than small and medium sized businesses. For enterprise-level SEOs, mobile responsiveness and user experience are more urgent.

However, that does not mean link-building is not an issue to enterprise-level companies; all of the SEOs are feeling the same pain when it comes to link-building. When asked which strategy is most difficult to execute, each group chose getting high-quality links by a substantial margin.

So what is the most successful strategy? All of our respondents agreed that technical onsite optimization was their most successful SEO strategy over the past 12 months. However, after that, small and large businesses had very different experiences. Enterprise SEOs found focusing on user experience and evergreen content to be most effective. Small businesses got bigger boosts from blogging and link-building.

The latest available figures have estimated that about 4.54 billion people were active internet users as of January this year, which represented 59 per cent of the total global population. In the coming years, as technologies continue to evolve, the numbers are expected to grow at a rapid pace, as people turn to the virtual world to aid them in their daily tasks, access all forms of information, connect with anyone from around the world, and look for entertainment, among others. Having gadgets such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets are now a common sight in a connected world where technology is almost at the center of everything we do.

Given this trend, it is not a surprise that enterprise seo company and communications specialists have turned to the virtual world and optimize all kinds of digital platforms as an innovative avenue to raise brand awareness and grow businesses. denver digital marketing agency has not only emerged, but it has long gained traction in today’s day and age.

The benefits of digital marketing are simply immense. This cost-effective tool provides convenience and accurate demographic targeting, enables faster and easier result measurement and tracking, allows for an effective collection of relevant data, widens market reach, and other advantages.

Digital marketing revolves around these 5Ds: digital devices, digital platforms, digital media, digital data, and digital technology. The 5Ds facilitate efficient interaction between the brand and its target audience as well as provide insights into market behavior for better business strategy formulation and implementation.

The first of the 5Ds refers to digital devices. It mainly focuses on the target audience’s interaction and engagement on websites and mobile applications using a combination of connected devices. These devices may include smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, TVs, and gaming devices.

Digital platforms are another component that involves the analysis of the preferred platforms or services of the target audience. Most engagements occur using popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn.

Digital media refers to paid, owned, and earned communications channels utilized to build engagement with the target market through several ways such as advertising e-mails, messaging, search engines, and social networks.

Digital data normally consists of audience profiles and engagement patterns with businesses, while digital technology focuses on building interactive experiences across a wide range of platforms, from your websites and mobile apps to your in-store kiosks.

All 5Ds are essential to gaining an unparalleled edge in digital marketing campaigns. From traditional marketing, they have effectively transformed the industry in order to bring to the table more effective means to increase brand awareness and thrive in a highly competitive, technology-centric era.

In the GCC, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, digital marketing continues to gain momentum amid increased internet penetration rate in the region. The UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain, along with Iceland, were jointly ranked first in the list of countries with the highest percentage of internet users as of January 2020. Each country recorded a 99 per cent penetration rate.

In Saudi Arabia alone, there are 23 million active social media users out of the Kingdom’s total inhabitants of 33.85 million. Further, a report issued by Hootsuite showed that the number of internet users in the Kingdom in 2019 reached 30.26 million people, or 89 per cent of the population. These figures have made the role of digital marketing even more significant, especially for businesses wanting to reach as many people as possible. The emergence of digital marketing as a communication tool for businesses is the natural progression following the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030 supervised by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The long-term Vision 2030 serves as the socio-economic framework designed to catapult the Kingdom into the ranks of the world’s best nations. Within this framework, several giga-projects have been launched to provide inspiration and discovery and flourish fruitful engagements for the millennial generation.

The scenario in the UAE is no different. Hootsuite has estimated in a published research that the country has a remarkable 8.80 million active mobile internet users. While the estimated number of internet users in the country now stands at 9.52 million, or 99 per cent of the population. Other reports have noted the UAE’s big lead in the region’s digitalization race, with 91 per cent of its population are mobile internet users.

Utilizing the powerful digital tools to achieve your marketing objectives is a practical route to take in the 21st century. This keeps you align with the digital transformation initiatives happening across the GCC region. Optimizing the benefits and becoming an expert in the 5Ds of digital marketing are considered a step in the right direction in today’s highly competitive era.

People often ask me what’s the difference between e-commerce and digital marketing. I’m always stunned by this question. To me, the answer has always seemed obvious and intuitive. Until I actually thought about it.

When I got my marketer’s cap off and looked at ecommerce agency denver and digital marketing side by side, I understood why they may be confusing to people.

All the misinformation on the topic flowing around the Web doesn’t help, either. Today, I’m here to set the record straight. Let us begin.

What is e-commerce?

Back in the day, you had to go to an actual store to buy something. Especially around the holidays, this meant epic Lord-of-the-Rings-style battles. All tightly packed around the aisles of consumer goods as people fought their way through waves of fellow shoppers to reach their new deep fryer at 25% off. It was a brutal and merciless experience where only the strong prevailed.

Those who survived the onslaught claimed the ultimate prize of waiting in line to part ways with their hard earned cash. The entire endeavor culminating in coming home and realizing they didn’t like what they bought, anyway.

To many, shopping was a freaking chore. A proper nightmare for introverts.

But then everything changed when e-commerce entered the scene. It was a shopping renaissance. It introduced the romantic notion of shopping without leaving the comfort of your own home. And it was glorious.

Today, instead of going to the store to get your new electric toothbrush with three power settings, you can get it delivered directly to your doorstep. Without so much as talking to an actual human being.

E-commerce, as the name implies, took commerce into the brave new digital world.

In layman’s terms, it’s simply commerce through electronic devices. Everything you buy on a website, order via email, or another form of electronic communication falls within the realm of e-commerce.

In many ways, it’s quicker, easier, and more enjoyable than traditional shopping. It doesn’t require you to go anywhere. It takes the load off arranging transportation if you don’t have a car. And it’s far more efficient.

Online retailers offer many benefits over their brick-and-mortar counterpart. Which isn’t to say e-commerce not without its faults. You have to wait for delivery. You can’t examine the goods before you buy them. The process of returning something is arduous. But overall, retail websites offer a better experience, especially to younger people.

Benefits of e-commerce

According to Statista, millennials are the biggest group of online shoppers. As Gen Z begin entering the workforce, this trend is likely to continue.

After all, as I established earlier, e-commerce offers lots of benefits:

Retail websites are open 24/7. Some even offer 24/7 customer support.

You can save money. Running an e-commerce website is substantially cheaper than having a brick-and-mortar store. This reduces prices.

Easy retail comparisons. Because all the other retail websites are just a few clicks away, it’s easy to make comparisons. Brands, quality, reviews, prices – you name it. Getting the best bang for your buck.

You save time. Buying whatever you want with a few clicks is quick and easy. It sure beats driving to the store, picking what you want, standing in line at the checkout counter, and driving back.

It’s much easier to find what you want. Type the name of the item in a search engine. You get the top retail websites that sell it. It’s that simple. You can even order internationally.

It’s super convenient. Especially when the retailer offers free shipping.

This isn’t to say brick-and-mortar stores are without benefits. You can physically examine the goods before purchase. You don’t have to wait for shipping. And some people genuinely enjoy the experience of shopping at a physical location. So it’s a matter of preference. But all in all, many prefer e-commerce, which is why it’s a rapidly growing industry.

What is digital marketing?

The question of the hour. Is it a form of marketing specifically tailored for e-commerce? A blend of dark magic powered by student loan debt? Does it even exist? Does it matter?

Digital marketing took marketing into the world of electronics. In the same way as e-commerce did it for commerce (which is the first common thread between the two). Digital marketing has the same goals and objectives as traditional marketing. But it uses different methods to achieve those goals.

If you’re marketing using a website, PPC ads, email, or any other form of electronic communication, you are employing digital marketing.

Examples of digital marketing

Here are some more examples of digital marketing:

SEO – search engine optimization. It’s a method of optimizing your content so people can find it through it search engines. Using this method is organic, meaning you don’t have to pay for each visit on your site.

PPC – pay-per-click ads. As the name suggests, you pay search engines to show your content to people. As long as you pay, your content appears on the results page.

SMM – social media marketing. The act of promoting your business on the relevant social media channels. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter – whatever seems relevant to your brand.

Email – email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing. It seems to have lost some steam over the past several years, since every marketer and their dog are using it (almost all unsuccessfully). But it still works and it’s still pretty good (given you can string more than two words together in a coherent manner).

Affiliate marketing – promoting other companies’ products and services on your platform. The pay you receive is proportional to the traffic you send the receiver’s way. It works if your website is performing well.

These are just some of the examples, but you get the gist. You can use digital marketing for both traditional retail and e-commerce.

Digital marketing benefits

Digital marketing offers some benefits over traditional marketing. Some of the tools and tactics you can use are like sniper rifle fire as opposed to shotgun blasts:

Lower cost – digital marketing offers you a great bang for your buck. If you know what you’re doing, you can do a lot with very little resources.

Measurability – this has always been a thorn in the side of marketers. How do you measure the effect of a billboard? By jumping through a lot of hoops, that’s how. You have to be creative and slick. You need to outsmart the system. Measuring the performance of a website? There’s a few different ways to go about it, and none of them take more than 60 seconds.

Personalisation – if you’re selling running shoes, you want to target people who are interested in running. With social media and content marketing, you can easily do that. Instead of burning through your marketing budget and never hitting the mark.

Higher ROI – because of the points above, you get a better return on investment through digital marketing.

This doesn’t mean digital marketing is without its cons. The low cost of doing it means you have a lot of competition. So you need to do it better than everyone else (I can help you with that). You need better e-commerce strategies than your competition. It takes time, effort, dedication.

And because it’s cheaper than traditional marketing, people don’t trust it as easily.

Finally, it looks easy but it isn’t. Underestimate digital marketing and you can waste a lot of time and money.

Where does the confusion between digital marketing and e-commerce come from?

The confusion comes from the fact that digital marketing and e-commerce share many of the same tools. The way they use these tools is very different, but it’s enough of a similarity to breed confusion.

Here’s an example. Your website can be both a tool for digital marketing and e-commerce. Same goes for email – you can use email for marketing or direct sales. You can even use social media to sell products.

So where’s the difference? The way you use these tools is very different.

Let’s say you have a breathtaking and technically brilliant e-commerce website. This entails web design, front-end development, kickass copy, excellent images. You have systems for checkout and payment methods. Where does the digital marketing end and e-commerce begin?

It’s simple. E-commerce is your sales process. That’s it. Anything you do beyond the sales process is marketing.

In other words, when I order a pair of running shoes from your store, the process of ordering and delivery is e-commerce. However, the way you get me to your website and the way you get me to trust your brand, that’s digital marketing.

Why is it important to know the difference between e-commerce and digital marketing?

E-commerce and digital marketing work together to breathe life into your business. They are complementary processes. Digital marketing brings attention to your brand. E-commerce allows you to actually sell.

The distinction between the two is important because being good at one does not necessarily mean you’re good at the other. You may be great at digital marketing and bringing a ton of visitors to your website. But if you can’t sell your goods to save your life, what good is that?

At the same time, you may have a nearly flawless sales process, but if 3 people a month visit your site, that wouldn’t make you fat stacks of cash, would it?

Balance between the two is important. You need to pay attention to both and knowing the difference allows you to pinpoint problems.

Imagine you brought a thousand people to your site this week. And no one bought anything. Where’s the problem? Digital marketing or e-commerce? Turns out your checkout button is broken and no one can buy anything. Clearly, it’s an e-commerce problem. One you need to fix immediately.

Conclusion

E-commerce and digital marketing are related processes. E-commerce usually begins where digital marketing ends. It’s important to understand the difference between the two so you can properly focus your resources and fix problems should they arise.

Many businesses debate hiring an in-house marketing employee with hiring an external agency. Although there is definite value in adding internal staff, we find that hiring an external partner provides more return for a smaller annual investment. For example, let's look at the breakdown below:

1 Year Expenses

Internal Marketing Employee

SKILLS & BANDWIDTH

Companies typically have two options when hiring internal employees: specialists or generalists. Specialists provide value because they have a high level of understanding about a specific area. However, their bandwidth to perform tasks outside of this area. will be lower and require additional training.

By contrast, generalists are able to perform many different kinds of tasks at a lower level. This can help businesses accomplish more, but generalists lack refined skill sets that can help them move the needle.

f:id:clictadigital:20201125031320p:plain

FINANCIALS

Estimated Average Annual Salary: $ 70,000

Estimated Average Annual Benefits: $ 14,000

Estimated Average Annual Training, On-boarding and Equipment: $ 5,000

Total: $ 89,000

ecommerce agency denver

SKILLS & BANDWIDTH

With an agency, you gain access to an entire team of highly skilled specialists. As a result, this unrivaled expertise can help your business grow with a smaller investment. With an inbound marketing retainer at Groove Commerce, you' ll gain access to the following:

Digital Strategists

Interactive Designers

Front-End and Back-End Developers

Dedicated Account Managers

FINANCIALS

Estimated Total Annual Marketing Retainer: $ 84,000

Full-service administrative are cost effective because you don't have to worry about extra expenses, which also gives you more control over your budget.

Granted, both scenarios can go up or down depending on your needs and investment. However, we find that intervention are able to provide more value for the investment than in-house employees.

Choosing an ecommerce agency for your business is not an easy task. There are already thousands of active ecommerce marketing agencies working online. When it comes to choosing the one that fits your business needs, you will have to research a lot. Most of these agencies are fake and not quite interested in providing quality assistance or work to you. In fact, most of these agencies will get the project from you and outsource the work to some other agency at an even lower cost.

Beware! There is a catch-22. How do you find the best ecommerce agency that honestly works on your projects? Here’s how.

Table of Content

Things to Consider While Choosing an Ecommerce Agency

Experience & Clients

Location

Budget

Reviews

Work

Approach

Awards

Our Recommendation: Top Ecommerce Agencies

Marketing & Development Agencies

Magento Agencies

WooCommerce Agencies

PrestaShop Agencies

We have done the heavy work for you. Check out the list of the important factors you need to consider while finding the right agency for your ecommerce store.

Things to Consider While Choosing an Agency

i. Experience & Clients

How much experience and credibility does the digital agency have? If the agency has some renowned clients, you can rest assured that the agency provides quality work.

Let’s say you searched on Google for an ‘Ecommerce agency in your area’ and you received many search results. Now, how will you find out which of these is the best one for your business?

Navigate to each agency’s website and check its portfolio and clients’ list. Almost all agencies have a portfolio page where they list the clients they have worked with, and the projects they did for them. This can give you a comprehensive  information about the type of agency you will be working with, and the quality it produces.

agency’s portfolio page

Screen grab of one agency’s portfolio page – Source: Stryde

ii. Location

It is important to find an ecommerce agency that is within your city. If this is not the case, it will be really difficult for you to get in touch with them physically. Most of the time, you can’t simply make them understand what your project is all about. Therefore, you must visit the agency office physically and make the developers understand your concept.

Some ecommerce store owners are fine working with agencies that are not within the same city. This is normal, especially if the agency has won the trust. However, if it is new – and your project is worth thousands of dollars – then it is better to find the one that is within your city so as to help you visit their premises and see the work it has to offer.

iii. Budget

Before you delve into searching for an ecommerce agency for your needs, make sure you have a set budget. With an optimum budget, you will be in a better position to negotiate the services that agency has to offer. In fact, most digital agencies have a budget calculator that will give you a better estimate of the project that you want the agency to complete.

Budget Calculator for  ecommerce agency denver

The above image is of a budget calculation form of an ecommerce agency called Hook Agency. You can see that it asks users their requirements and then provides them with a figure – all done automatically – saving both parties’ time and money.

If you own or manage an ecommerce company, you're probably aware that the competition is pretty fierce, which is why strategic and aggressive marketing is crucial to stay afloat. Unfortunately, most of the basic ecommerce marketing tactics take a lot of time to learn and perfect. And when you have other essential duties to manage, dedicating the right amount of effort to your ecommerce marketing may not be possible.

But don’t bury your head in the sand just yet. There is a way to kick your marketing into high gear without you having to drain all your own time: hire an ecommerce marketing agency.

Now, you might be thinking, “Hiring an agency is too expensive.” But that’s just not true. Any ecommerce marketing agency worth its salt will be able to pay for itself and then some by reaping untapped revenue from PPC campaigns, SEO, email marketing campaigns, and more.

In this post, we'll outline some of the best reasons to partner with an ecommerce marketing agency, including making more money than you spend.

Top 7 Reasons to Hire an Ecommerce Marketing Agency

1. PPC Management Experience

Without prior experience, the mere idea of setting up and managing paid campaigns can be a scary notion. After all, it's more than just writing some copy and handing your credit card over to Google. In reality, a successful PPC campaign requires lots of thought and scrutiny—even after the ads are set up.

Hiring an ecommerce marketing agency to handle your PPC campaigns will save you a lot of time and agony (not to mention money). This is because they have already managed thousands of campaigns just like yours, and they know how to set up, adjust, and budget your ads so that they bring in the most bang for your buck.

However, it's important to note the distinction between an ecommerce marketing agency and just any old marketing agency. If the agency you're interested in has no prior experience working with ecommerce companies, it may be a red flag. Even if they've helped dozens of tech companies achieve their goals, that's a whole different beast. For example, an agency without ecommerce experience might know how to setup and manage Google Shopping campaigns correctly.

You need an agency that has already worked with other ecommerce clients so that you don’t have to be the guinea pig. In addition to the ability to write compelling copy that entices users to click on your ad when they see it in search results, the agency should also be able to create a high-quality landing page that matches your ad. Be sure to ask for testimonials or case studies from their other ecommerce company success stories.

Ecommerce Marketing Agency - PPC Management

2. An Understanding of Creative Design

Another perk of hiring an ecommerce marketing agency is that they often have a team of designers that can work with you to create custom creatives that match your brand theme and standards. High-quality design is the key to making your company stand out and look good to consumers—especially if they’ve never heard of your brand before. Plus, an experienced designer will know which types of creatives work and don’t work, saving you from cumbersome redesigns.

For example, if you were running an ad on Facebook, you’d want to use bright colors that attract people’s attention. While a simple, black and white ad may look sophisticated, people will most likely scroll right by it without even realizing it’s there. A good ecommerce marketing agency will be able to showcase your products in a well-designed, alluring creative that attracts new business and brand followers.

An ecommerce agency denver will also be familiar with a variety of design types and formats. For example:

Retargeting Ads: These types of ads can be used on various ad platforms. They are displayed to consumers who have already shown an interest in your product, which should be reflected in the copy and design. Retargeting ads should introduce a sense of urgency and convince people to follow through with their purchases before they miss out.

Display Ads: Display ads are banner ads that are shown on the display network of the advertising platform you use. For example, the Google Display Network. Because consumers often ignore these types of ads, it's important that they use click-worthy images and copy to attract attention.

Facebook Ads:

Carousel: Similar to a gallery, these ads are made up of up to 10 slides with separate copy and images or video. These types of ads are ideal for showcasing multiple products or different versions of the same product.

Single Image: These 1200x628 pixel ads are the probably the ones with which you're most familiar. They use just one image, which should be both click-worthy and capture the essence of your offer.

Video: Video ads are known for their ability to drive engagement. Videos can be up to 120 minutes—though videos under one minute perform best.

Slideshow: Unlike carousel ads where users click through the images on their own, slideshow ads play more like video.

Canvas: Canvas ads are immersive video or image ads that display in full-screen. These ads are only for mobile devices.

Ecommerce Marketing Agency -  Canvas ads

Aside from the visual aspect of your creatives, it’s also important to have well-written copy. While the image is what gets people to stop and take notice, the copy is what convinces them to click through to your website and make a purchase. Be sure to hire an agency with a content team that writes concise, engaging copy that also clearly defines the product you’re selling.

In 2020, digital marketing agencies faced many challenges in their business as do most of the industries. However, they came up with solutions that made the digital transformation possible.

When 2020 is about to end, it is obvious that digitization became a lot more crucial this year which creates lots of new opportunities for digital agencies and marketers.

With the advantage of working from home, locations don’t matter that much and digital tools help us to partner with third parties anywhere in the world. Being global made us all connected to each other even when we are only able to communicate through online platforms.

In this article, we have shared the improvement of the digital world and how digital trends and strategies have changed.

WFH – What Has Changed in the Agency Environment?

Also, in our daily lives when we were used to creating face-to-face dialogues, we began to communicate through video call tools. Those helped us generate our weekly or daily workloads, see our loved ones, and even create ad campaigns.

Furthermore, the tools developed by both big tech companies and new startups helped us more than ever.

Also, remote working has had a great place in the lives of ecommerce agency denver

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The Good Marketer

The Good Marketer announces incredible expansion and successes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company says that they doubled their human resources, successfully recruiting and taking on new talent during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Luminary

To celebrate their 21st year, the agency Luminary has traded canapés for a campaign to support its charity clients.

Uplers

Uplers managed to turn obstacles into opportunities by elevating their business with offshore remote teams model during the pandemic. This is also a result of the rise of digital transformation that has globally imposed an unprecedented and en masse switch to remote work.

Your ecommerce agency should provide you with the information you need to evaluate their capabilities. You’ll want to ask for this information upfront.  

A proven track record: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, references, case studies, and reviews to document their performance. If you found your agency through SEO, it’s a good indication that they understand SEO, and they’re capable of producing results for your business. 

Clear expertise: Your agency should be able to provide you with samples, case studies, and a proven track record,  showing that they have the knowledge and experience needed to sell your products well.

Clear milestones showing progress: You should be given a clear timeline, showing you how to approach your campaign, how long it will take to get everything done, and when they expect that you’ll start seeing results.

A list of their credentials: Ask your ecommerce agency denver for a list of certifications or credentials that communicate expertise, if they have any. This will verify their experience and knowledge in several areas. For example, if they’re a Premier Google Partner, you know that they have a specific amount of clients, revenue, and some financial stability. 

Agency people and procedures: Your agency needs to show you how they plan on approaching your campaign or project. Ask them to outline their process, show how they’ll manage your budgets, and how they’ll manage their people. You should know who’s assigned to your account and their backgrounds. 

Communication guidelines: When and how will their team communicate with you. Who will be your point-of-contact? Are you free to call your point of contact whenever you need help, or is there a specific time they’re available? Is support included (it should be). 

Your agency should provide you with detailed specifics for each of these points. If you have more questions or concerns, you’ll want to bring those up with your agency. 

While choosing the right ecommerce agency denver isn’t rocket science, it does require the right information and a bit of discipline. If you know what you’re looking for, it’s easier to screen for it. 

1. Experience and knowledge of your business

Your industry has its own ethnographics —  its own culture, unique jargon, and problems. Your agency should have the industry experience you need to work with your customers, your business, and the industry successfully. 

If your product lines are broad or you have a lot of products that you offer, you may be able to work with agencies with a broad or generalized skill set. If you’re a specialist or your industry is highly technical, it’s really important that you choose an agency with subject-matter experts who understand your business well.

If your agency has this know-how, they’ll have what they need to promote your business effectively. They’ll know which images work best; their writers will understand the tone and voice they should use in your content. They’ll have a pretty good idea of the promotions your customers will respond to.

2. They put customers first

Your agency should treat your customers as the priority. They obviously mean that they work to get to know your customers as well as you do. This isn’t just an understanding of the things your customers want and need. It’s an understanding of the way you work with your customers. 

This is important because your agency needs to be able to say no if they see something that could affect customers negatively.

This is essential because it means you can trust your agency to always do what’s best for your customers and your business. This also means your agency will be focused on managing your budget well, so they’re able to generate results for you. 

For example, if your agency knows your breakeven cost, and they understand your margins, they’ll avoid creating ads with offers that create a financial loss. If your margins are tight, they should avoid customer discounts, choosing to focus on backend incentives (e.g., low price guarantees, bonuses, and warranties) to attract more customers. 

3. They prioritize revenue and returns

Everything your agency does should lead to revenue. Their work should generate leads, sales, and revenue consistently for your business. Your agency should help you find ways to cut costs, specifically in high-cost areas like shipping or returns. 

They should be able to show you a process they can follow to increase your return on marketing investment and lower advertising costs. This sounds like it’s pretty obvious advice, but you’d be surprised at the number of agencies that ignore this. Some agencies prefer to be vague about things like revenue and returns so it’s easy to collect their monthly fee. 

4. Focus on the right metrics and KPIs

There are lots of ecommerce metrics you can track, your agency should be able to identify the core metrics you need to grow your ecommerce business. If you decide that you need more data, you can always add more metrics on an as-needed basis. 

Core metrics your agency needs to focus on: 

Website traffic rates: You’ll want to identify the traffic sources that make you money, sources that cost you money, and the sources that lead to increased conversion rates over time. If the traffic you receive generates interest from qualified customers, your source is good. If your agency continues to use CRO procedures, you should be able to increase your traffic at a lower cost over time.  

Email opt-ins: Email marketing is still one of the most valuable marketing channels you can use, producing an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent.  Building an email list means you’re converting paid or earned media to owned media. Your agency should be focused on building email as a marketing channel, using it to stabilize your cash flow and revenue. 

Sales conversion rates: The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2 to 4.9 percent in the United States. Your agency, with consistent testing, should be able to increase your conversion rates year-over-year. Your agency should also be tracking both micro and macro conversion rates. 

Average order values: This tracks the dollar amount spent by your customers each time an order is placed on your website. Your agency should be able to provide you with concrete steps you can take to increase your average order values (and customer lifetime values) over time. They should help you create upsell, down-sell, and cross-sell opportunities. You should always have a list of tactics you can use to increase your average order values. 

Return rates: Returns cost ecommerce companies more than $550 billion. While brick and mortar return rates average around 8 to 10 percent, ecommerce return rates are more than double at 20 percent or more. Your agency should be able to help you lower your return rates. This is tough to do because 41 percent of customers buy products with the intention of returning some or all of their items. 

Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures customer attrition; this is a problem for ecommerce. How do you measure churn rates if your customer never cancels? Your agency should be able to use metrics like repeat purchase rate or time between orders to calculate your churn rate and provide you with a plan to reduce churn in the future. 

The ecommerce agency you choose should be able to provide you with clear answers about each of these. It should be clear that they have these characteristics and the ability to produce the results you need. 

As an industry, ecommerce is expected to grow at a minimum of 6.3 percent per year. According to Statista, user penetration will be 82.2 percent by 2024, up from 77.3 percent in 2020. The retail apocalypse and a worldwide pandemic have boosted ecommerce growth. 

This is good news for ecommerce companies; it’s great news for ecommerce companies with an agency that’s ready to take advantage of this growth. 

Here’s what you need to choose the right ecommerce agency. 

Know Your Goals and Desired Outcomes

With ecommerce, the goals and desired outcomes are pretty straightforward. You need to sell products to make money. Your agency’s approach should be geared toward direct response marketing. You send customers a relevant message that’s designed to get them to do something — learn, subscribe, follow, or buy.

Here are a few simple goals you can use as a starting point with your ecommerce agency denver

Increase qualified website traffic

Increase time on site

Add more subscribers to your email list

Add followers to your social media accounts 

Increase sales

Increase upsells

Increase average order values

Decrease expenses and marketing costs

Improve customer retention

These goals should be oriented around specific outcomes, regardless of the goals you choose. Examples of outcomes include: 

Increasing return on ad spend by 13 percent

Boosting website traffic by 26 percent

Increasing year-over-year sales by 30 percent

2x product upsells

Add 125K more subscribers in 18 months

Each of these examples should be focused on producing a specific result or outcome for your business. If you provide your agency with specific goals, they should be able to provide you with a plan to achieve those goals. 

People use the internet to satisfy various personal needs, be if to find specific, topical information, communicate with near and dear ones, shop, etc. and if your website does not live up to their expectations, you will quickly lose your top search ranking spot on Google SERP (search engine results page). What this means is that guiding people to your website from Google’s search results page will be in vain if they are unhappy with the experience you provide on your website. While good content forms the very foundation of a lucrative business, free seo audit  is a critical component of content marketing. If you are in it for the long haul and want to build a good online reputation for yourself, you cannot afford to ignore on-page SEO.    

While you may already be familiar with what is SEO, we are here to talk about one of the types of SEO which is On-Page SEO. On-Page SEO is one the most important factor to rank your domain higher on search engines. This post will help you understand what is On-Page SEO, Importance of On-Page SEO & On-free seo audit  Techniques.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is a method to optimize your webpages adhering to google guidelines to get better rankings on search engines. This in turn will draw more quality web traffic your way and help you get the conversion you so desire, be it letting people know about your business/brand, having them sign up for email updates, enticing them into buying your products/services, etc. On-page SEO techniques must be executed together with technical SEO and off-page SEO tactics for the best, most long-lasting results. Some of the well known On-Page SEO techniques include URLs, Internal linking, title & meta tags, content updation. Let us understand some more pointers which would help you to rank better on Google SERPs in 2020

Duplicate site content is a big no-no when it comes to maintaining good site hygiene. A canonical URL signals to Google which version of a web-page it must crawl and index. Simply using a rel=”canonical” command in your page code will help you achieve this. It is recommended that you specify a preferred canonical URL for all the pages of your site. You can also prevent your CMS (content management system like WordPress) from publishing many versions of the same content to ensure there is no duplication in the first place. Here is the what Google’s Matt Cutts has to say about free seo audit 

Canonical URL

Read more about Duplicate content

Name your preferred domain

A site can be accessed by typing in either https://www.abc.com or https://abc.com (sans the www). While users may do this on a whim, without giving it much thought, it might confuse search engines and lead to indexing and page rank issues. Hence, you must indicate to Google the version you prefer. Note that there is no advantage of choosing one over the other but once you make a decision about your preferred domain name, you must stick to it, else there will be problems during site migration using a 301 redirect. To set a preferred domain name with Google, register with Google Webmaster Tools, validate all versions of your site and then set the preferred one under ‘Site Settings’.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a special, bare-bones version of HTML used to boost the speed and functionality of a mobile website. AMP works by deactivating scripts, forms, comments and the likes. If used correctly, AMP can inflate your CTR (click-through rate) and the number of back-links to your site. Google even displays AMP pages in important search result carousels, leading to increased user attention. However, remember that AMP is not a substitute for a mobile-friendly site.

• Avoid 404 Pages

If a page does not exist anymore or if a URL was modified by you, a 404 status code is your best bet. If you are using WordPress or a similar content publishing platform, ensure that your 404 page is search engine optimised by having a structure similar to your site, giving users options of other similar pages they can visit instead, and making it easy to navigate back to where they came from, etc. This way, you will make it easier for a free seo audit  to index and crawl your site while moving through it minus the confusion. 

The mobile app industry is the fastest-growing industry in today’s tech world. With the growing use of smartphones, the use of mobile apps has also increased tremendously.  

Whether for work or play, people spend several hours a day navigating through multiple applications. Today, virtually every type of app imaginable is available, with uses ranging from gaming and entertainment to educational and official.

Think about your daily smartphone use. Now, think about how much of it is occupied by apps. This should give you a good idea of the importance of applications in your day-to-day life.

eMarketer predicted that in 2020, adult smartphone users will spend about four hours per day using mobile internet. It also predicted that 88 percent of that time would be spent on a mobile app rather than a browser. This survey shows the growing usage of mobile apps and also speaks to how important it is for companies to create mobile apps to become more scalable. In June 2020, there were 2.96 million apps published in the Google Play Store. The competition is getting fiercer with each passing day. 

In business, mobile applications act as a representation of a company, and they play an increasingly important role in expanding a company. Well-built apps enable companies to interact with their users at any time of the day and effortlessly integrate into their lives.

But, today’s world is very fast and extremely competitive, with new innovations constantly cropping up. It’s no secret that you have to be well-equipped to be at the top. In the app industry,  developers are continuously trying to increase the visibility of their creations.

Your efforts, after all, are in vain if your work is not noticed. So, it’s equally important to pay attention to the search engine optimization (SEO) of an application. 

Top SEO Tips to Get Mobile Apps Ranked in SERPs

A seemingly endless supply of mobile applications is available on the Play Store, with new ones added each day. Evidently, social media app development is a trend.

It’s both tedious and tricky to make your app rank among millions vying for that same spot. A survey says that it says that nearly 27 percent of internet users find out about various apps while browsing the internet using their mobile phones. For this reason, the need for the advertisement and promotion of applications has increased.

Here are a few tips that will help you to make your app rank at the top of search engine results pages, commonly referred to as SERPs:

1. Define App Packs

Developing a robust app, spending a lot on its advertising but failing to follow SEO tips significantly reduces an app’s visibility. An App Pack helps Google distinguish between mobile searched apps and web searched apps. App Packs show up in the SERPs in groups of three or six (an expansion arrow reveals additional apps in the pack) when Google’s algorithm determines there is a high chance the user is searching for an app.

App developers are required to follow the new Google algorithm and all future updates, using denver seo company to develop a high-performing app with the potential to show up in an App Pack. When a keyword related to the app title is searched, all the apps recommended are from a particular App Pack. Your Google rankings matter when it comes to being part of an App Pack. 

2. Link Your Mobile App

Linking an application wherever possible is the best way to rank on SERPs. The link should be added to appropriate places in the content. Your aim should be to drive users without annoying them.

You can add a link to your app to every possible location, such as loading pages, images, web pages, email campaigns, influential videos and many more. Instead of interrupting the users’ flow, the key is to find a user-experience-friendly, organized way to mention the link. 

For example, you can place an HTML banner on the most eye-catching or prime location of your web page. This will attract the attention of a user without interrupting them in the midst of the content.

3. Keyword Optimization is a Must

You’ve likely put all your efforts into developing your app, but have you put as much effort into looking for the right keywords? No? Well, your efforts are in vain if your target audience cannot find your application easily.

Keyword optimization is a must for applications as well as websites. Select a keyword or keywords that depict value and information about the app. A keyword planner will be helpful in this process. The keyword that you selected should be used throughout the content in an appropriate frequency. You can use it in headings, subheadings and paragraphs.

Keywords will also help you to know where your audience hangs out. Before trying to hit almost all users, be as specific as possible. Try to reach users who want that special feature your app provides.

Go for the keywords that have less competition in the beginning. (To have a strong connection, it is recommended that you use the most powerful keyword in the app title.) Use the additional keywords in your description of the application in the Google Play Store. This will help with better indexing.

4. Optimize Click-Through Rates

Click-through rate (CTR) helps to increase the number of downloads and installations of an app. You can improve your CTR by writing engaging content on your app and including a powerful call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the content. 

CTR works as a medium to tell the app engine about the relevancy and the importance of the app. To optimize your CTR, your product page should be attractive and engaging, and the content should be of top quality, highlighting the important features in short, easy-to-read paragraphs. 

Boost your CTR by improving the quality of images, the quality of the content that pushes for a CTA as well as your CTA buttons themselves.

5. Positive Reviews Help Rankings

Reviews and ratings by customers are the most critical and transparent way to measure the quality of an application. In fact, it is the most important criterion taken into account by Google: The more positive reviews are added in the comment section, the better your rankings will be. To encourage positive reviews, have a look at the feedback of the application. Respond to positive feedback and work on any issues brought up in negative feedback. 

Google uses these ratings and reviews as a medium to rank an app. A company can improve its app according to its ratings, and to get a good ranking, your app should deliver the promised result in the most efficient way. Are you thinking of getting a customized application? You could get in touch with a custom web development company that can do the work for you.

A consistent positive rating works as a strong signal for search engines. Initially, the first hundred reviews will be quite tough to accumulate, but once you reach this milestone your app will be visible to users on search engines and your reviews will increase exponentially. An ever-evolving, ever-changing application is always appreciated by users. Your work should be of the topmost quality to get better reviews and ratings.

Keep encouraging users to leave positive reviews. In the beginning, you can promote your app on application product listing websites where users try new apps that are introduced in the market.

6. Regular Updates Are Mandatory

To get mobile apps ranked in SERPs it is recommended to update them from time to time. Updates add new features to apps and make them fresh. 

Top-performing applications keep evolving and changing by integrating new features. To have a strong online presence, you need to pay good attention to search engine guidelines and tips. You should make an effort to skyrocket the visibility of your mobile app on SERPs. Mobile apps are considered one of the best approaches to give a personalized and customized experience to existing or prospective customers.

The app industry is an incredibly dynamic field. Every new technology that is introduced in the market aims to make the life of its users simpler and more organized. This raises the bar of developing an application: If your app is still stuck on the features that were introduced years ago, users will not like it. They demand apps that are integrated with advanced features – apps that perform well and earn excellent reviews.

It is generally recommended that you update your app every 20-30 days and mention its new updates on all of your platforms.

7. Earn Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are considered a vital element for SEO ranking. Any page that has a link that directs to your app list or downloading your app is a great boost for ranking in SERPs. You can mention the link of your application on your website as well as on all your social media accounts. 

To improve the ranking of the app, you also need to work on the metadata. Keywords play an important role in this. You should use highly efficient keyword tools. Look for the keywords that are most searched and have a maximum probability to attract traffic. Try to include as many relatable backlinks as you can. 

Finally, make good use of social media platforms. Talk about your app on multiple social media platforms and mention the link that redirects to the app’s downloading page.

Running a business requires a lot of research and study. You’ve got to learn about your market, understand your customers’ needs and continuously update your knowledge on your niche.

With all that work to do, it’s understandable that companies might consider cutting corners in some areas – search engine optimization (SEO) research included.

While you might think the only rankings you need to know about are your own website’s, that’s not true.

As well as reviewing your own website’s rankings, you also need to check out your competitors’ SEO and the strategies they’re using to boost their position.

Understanding your competitors’ SEO – including where they’re ranking, the keywords they’re targeting and more – can help you to improve your strategy and increase your chance of beating your competitors to the coveted top spots on search engine results pages (SERPs).

If you’re still unconvinced about the need to assess your competitors’ SEO, read on for an explanation of why it’s so essential. 

It’s Easier Than You Think

Assessing your competitors’ SEO might seem like an arduous task, but it’s easier than you think. Your business already has to research competitors to fine-tune your products or services, right? SEO research is hardly any different. Plus, you can utilize the tools you use to assess your own site’s SEO to review theirs. 

Many SEO tools offer SEO audits that give you an overview of your website’s position as well as your competitors’. You can use these solutions to understand some of the tactics they use and emulate them. 

If you’re working with an outsourced marketing agency, they might offer you some assistance with competitor research as part of their service offering. They not only source the data for you but also interpret it to help you improve your strategy.

Alternatively, if you’re doing your denver seo company and digital marketing in-house, you can integrate it into your competitor research. While you might need new tools, you can often find free or reasonably priced solutions that will allow you to assess your competitors’ SEO without a huge outlay.

Your Site’s Rankings Depend on Your Competitors’ Strategies

There are many different factors that influence your website’s search rankings, including your budget, the time and resources you allocate to SEO and many more.

One crucial factor is the competitiveness of the keywords you’re targeting and what your competitors are doing with their SEO.

If they are working hard to achieve top rankings and using a variety of strategies, you need to be doing the same. However, if they are overlooking certain keywords or only focusing on SEO periodically, you have an opportunity to overtake them quickly.

The first step towards overtaking your competitors online is to know what they’re doing. You need to research their SEO strategies and keep an eye on what they do online to understand how you can overtake them.

Emulating Your Competitors Can Save You Time

SEO is time-consuming and costly, as it requires a lot of skill and resources to get right. While researching and emulating your competitors won’t completely eliminate the cost, it will reduce it significantly.

By checking what the top-ranking companies in your niche are doing, you can create your own SEO strategy quickly and easily. You will know what is an essential approach and what isn’t.

For example, if your competitors are focusing on certain keywords but overlooking others, you can concentrate on the others to boost your rankings on those pages without spending lots of time and money competing.

Additionally, you can use their strategy to understand which approaches and platforms are worth your while and which aren’t. SEO involves a lot of trial and error, but if you spend time researching your competitors’ past and present strategies, you can use the lessons they’ve learned to influence your business.

One example of this is social media. New platforms are launched regularly, but it can be hard to know which ones are worth your time and energy. If your competitors have created profiles on several new platforms and received limited engagement from their audience despite putting in a lot of effort, you can avoid these platforms and use this information to inspire your strategy. 

It’s Surprising Who You’re Competing Against 

You might think you know who your competitors are, but online they could be different. In addition to eCommerce companies and businesses in your niche, you might also be competing against blogs and news sites in your industry for that coveted spot at the top of certain results pages. 

As such, you need to research who is at the top of your target results pages and what websites you’re competing against for your target keywords. With this information, you’ll have a complete view of your competitors and the online landscape of your industry. 

If you just assume you’re only competing with businesses in your industry for keywords, you could inadvertently overlook key competitors. 

The concept of copywriting today is understood too broadly to refer to something specific. “Copywriting” includes writing the text for email marketing and long-form articles, sales text for chatbots and much more. For this reason, copywriting and text tools are also inseparable from marketing trends in general.

Usually, a copywriter has tasks and requirements based on new trends, updated algorithms or popular topics. The applications, tools and competencies, especially in the realm of search engine optimization (SEO), are ever-changing – we can see this in action with online courses, which frequently develop new programs and lesson plans.

The idea that “content is king” still rings true today, and the demand for an “SEO copywriter” has grown. If you want to know more about SEO copywriting from the point of view of experts and how to write great content in 2020, read on for some essential tips.

Rule 1: Creative Copywriting Changes But Some Things Stay the Same 

The skill to write interesting, easy-to-read and well-structured content will never become obsolete, so it’s worth producing this type of content regardless of trends – especially if you are a startup owner who wants to attract an audience for your business and gain loyal followers.

Let’s talk about specific rules in copywriting. First of all, you need to remember that creative copywriting must follow up-to-date requirements. SEO copywriting is a trend in itself, and you have to learn how to write well according to the modern rules.

In general, business owners and entrepreneurs will be in need of content writers to promote their projects, services or business value. They will hire an SEO website content writer to create texts for emails, blogs and ads – these texts are largely how brands maintain awareness in 2020.

Knowing how to write in general, how to write for websites and understanding the art of brand storytelling will always be necessary to write for SEO. There’s always more to good copy than SEO techniques – audiences have to want to read the marketing content being produced, and quality content is the only way to do it.

Rule 2: Understand SEO Techniques and How to Communicate With Clients

As we live in an era of written communications, you need to use your words wisely to appeal to your audience. Spend time selecting the right words, whether for correspondence by mail, in chat rooms or to communicate your brand message to users and readers. 

Today, access to the audience is absolutely everything, and we’ve never been closer to the audience than we are right now. Since the invention of printing, there have always been many barriers between the author and the reader, from the publisher who made the decision to publish to the person who delivered the newspapers to the reader. And between them, there were editors, proofreaders, layout designers, typesetters and a half dozen other people who could change the main message and bring another point of written communication.

Today, thanks to social networks, any of us can become a published author in minutes – not only publishing a text but getting an audience. This is a new and wonderful world. However, to find the audience and to make your content and message visible, you have to use SEO. Here’s how to go about it:

Learn the SEO basics then follow new trends and learn other expert techniques.

Conduct keyword research and find the best matches.

Be relevant and communicate the correct message to your audience.

 Avoid keywords stuffing and other SEO crimes.

Analyze featured snippets and write according to topics and questions that interest your target audience.

Choose the correct titles and header.

Focus on the meta-tags: You have to optimize them.

Provide a unique text with valuable information.

Rule 3: Put in the Time to Find the Right Words

You have to write content according to your specific genre and style and keep the voice of your company. It’s not only about keywords and technical aspects; your work should also be unique and interesting, bringing real value to readers.

Learning to work with the text is vital. If you work in a software niche with an intellectual product that can neither be felt nor tested, the challenge lies in using the correct words to describe your product in the simplest way while simultaneously applying SEO techniques. You can find experts who natively know how to talk about your business niche and can write this type of content in the best way, taking into account modern SEO trends.

Rule 4: Follow the Marketing Trends

Marketing is the closest friend of SEO. Users trust in advertising and content, so you need to keep up with the latest industry trends and news. Every year the online audience is growing, and more people are starting to use marketing techniques. The last thing you want is to be left behind.

Rule 5: Look Into the Future

Sales-focused copywriting is changing all the time. For example, writing a simple and succinct script for a chatbot, with an in-depth understanding of the client’s pain points, would not have been a task for an denver seo company and marketing copywriter a few years ago.

Web copywriting in 2020 has been moving in a very particular direction. Expensive advertising campaigns and sales channels have been introducing more complex technologies, like auto-funnels with notifications and retargeting, auto-workshops, chatbots and ringing. Of course, copywriters are needed to write message chains, create texts for signatures and product pages, write webinar scripts and even call and message scripts for sales managers.

These methods, though increasingly popular, are complicated and costly, and it is already difficult for micro-businesses to afford it. A truly automatic funnel with all the bells and whistles is a major cost.

Rule 6: Write Long-Form Content for SEO

Tough sales methods require lots of text, especially with buyers growing rapidly. Each potential buyer needs to understand a company and its brand, how reliable it is and if there is a community of “fans” around it.

You need to connect with your audience – write cleverly, build relationships with readers and potential clients and turn them into regular customers rather than one-time buyers. And here, too, there is work for copywriters: They will need to write live posts and long-read articles, use storytelling and tactics of lively persuasion in texts, draw up a funnel for warming up and send out newsletters.

Rule 7: Do Not Forget About Voice Search

With the widespread use of virtual assistants in smartphones, more and more requests will be made through voice search. Already, there is a trend towards adopting SEO copywriting for voice query language. Voice search scripts are a whole new ballgame when it comes to SEO copywriting, but it will likely become increasingly popular.

Rule 8: Figure Out Your SEO Content Strategy

Content for articles and sites in 2020 should be exclusive and produced by many experts, writers, SEO specialists and marketing professionals. You should provide complete information and comprehensive answers to users’ requests. Your content has to have a strategy too. It is easier to produce text if you assemble a team of quality authors and occupy a specific niche with a strategy.

Rule 9:  Always Provide Useful and Reliable Information

Today, search engine robots have learned to rank content by benefit. Poor-quality content is already being ignored – not only by search engines but by users. According to SEO experts, robots will learn how to determine the rewrites of the first page of results, and low-quality articles will not be indexed and ranked by search engines like Google. 

In many ways, Google’s featured snippets are the holy grail – at least as far as positioning on the search engine results pages (SERPs) is concerned. Landing content here is better than first prize: Many SEO experts go so far as to call the featured snippet box “position zero” because it appears above the number-one spot.

Up until now, the challenge of optimizing for featured snippets has been something of a mystery. But thanks to a recent study by SEMrush and Brado, that’s all about to change. Over several years, they analyzed the featured snippets of 1 million random SERPs to find correlations between pages that earned this top spot. Well, the results are in, and they’re eye-opening:

Nineteen percent of all SERPs have a featured snippet.

A featured snippet covers 50 percent of a mobile screen.

At 70 percent, paragraphs are by far the most common snippet type, followed by lists (19.1 percent) and tables (6.3 percent).

Seventy percent of articles in featured snippets were published no later than three years ago.

All content picked for featured snippets averages 14.5 headlines and eight images with alt tags.

The study also found that the industries with the highest volume of featured snippets are travel, computer and electronics, art and entertainment and science.

This information is invaluable because the new data makes it possible to optimize specifically for featured snippets. A few simple things you can do right now to create content that’s more likely to feature in a snippet include:

Answer questions with your content. Of search queries that start with “why,” 77.6 percent return a featured snippet, while “can” queries yield the second-largest percentage at 72.4.

Date all content. Although many websites omit dates for the sake of seeming relevant, dated content regularly shows up in featured snippets. The snippet content is usually current, but older articles will still be featured if they provide the best answer.

Leverage long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords with a specific search intent most frequently yield a featured snippet result: Out of 10-word queries, more than 55 percent have a featured snippet compared to 4.3 percent of single keyword searches.

Don’t overdo it with subfolders. Google seems to like a subfolder architecture that’s short and sweet: URLs with 1-3 subfolders perform the best.

These concrete, data-driven tips and insights are an SEO game-changer, and make reaching the promised land of the featured snippet box an actionable exercise for the first time. 

More SEO News You Can Use

Now is a Good Time to Check the Settings on Your Auto Applied Recommendations Dashboard: Back in early 2019, Google announced its Ads reps would make changes to advertiser accounts if advertisers didn’t opt-out. In a recent blog post, denver seo company Lior Krolewicz wrote about finding unfamiliar keywords causing gross overspending in a client’s campaign. Krolewicz realized the client account had opted into the “Maximum Impact” setting on their Auto Applied Recommendations dashboard, and that as a result, Google had added several keywords. Worse still, auto-applied changes like these don’t show up in Google Ads change history logs, so if you’re an advertiser or agency owner, it’s a good idea to double-check your settings and make sure a Google rep isn’t running your campaign.

Instagram Has Made It Possible to Search by Keyword: Hashtags no more! For the first time, Instagram is letting users find content using keywords. There are still many questions yet to be answered: Can the algorithm understand synonyms, or is it an exercise in exact-match? Does it include image recognition? And how much machine learning is involved? We don’t know much right now, but this news is still incredibly exciting for marketers because it’s looking like this new algorithm will bring about the potential for Instagram SEO. The social media app could soon have its own set of ranking factors – and that will change the Instagram marketing game completely.

Martin Splitt Has Fully Unpacked Passage Ranking: If you were worried about the impact passage ranking will have on your website, you’ll be relieved to know that a business-as-usual approach is highly recommended. Splitt, who was adamant that “passage indexing” should instead be referred to as “passage ranking,” said in a webinar with Cindy Krum, Bartosz Góralewicz and Tomek Rudzki that the change is purely internal. Web owners don’t need to make changes to any pages to prepare. He added that there are no specific guidelines for the length of a text to be considered a “passage.” The full video is almost an hour long, and it’s well worth a watch to get fully to grips with passage ranking.

Google’s Disavow Link Tool Has Moved: Alert! Alert! Google announced that it has migrated the disavow links tool from the old Search Console to the new Search Console. But it’s more than just a move – it’s also undergone a bit of a refresh. The interface has been updated, disavow files can be downloaded as text files and error reports for uploaded files are no longer limited to 10 errors. The disavow tool has been popular among SEOs since its introduction to Search Console in 2012, so keeping up with these small changes is vital.

It Looks Like Google’s Testing Subcategories in Search Results: With a new announcement virtually every day, Google has been extremely busy lately and seems to have some big plans for the SERPs 2021. Aside from passage ranking, mobile-first indexing and a Page Experience update, it’s very possible Google is also testing new subcategory tabs. This was first picked up by SEMrush, who posted a screenshot on Twitter of what looked suspiciously like a SERP test. SEOs agree this is something not seen before, but whether or not they like it is a different story.