by Marelise da Silva | Mar 10, 2016 | Online Marketing, Website Content, Website Optimization
As website technology evolves (daily, it seems), so does the need to update your website. Most websites need updating every few years, sometimes more often, depending on your content. As one of your most valuable marketing tools, the need for a website that is up to date and user-friendly couldn’t be more important.
Here are six compelling reasons to update your website, sooner rather than later:
- Make your site more responsive and adaptive
If your website started as an online brochure, it’s unlikely to have the embedded tools needed to capture information from site visits. Online forms, Calls to Action and special offers can help to get your website visitors’ information that can convert into a sale.
With mobile internet traffic on the rise (up to 40% of all traffic), it’s critically important to have Responsive Website Design, to ensure your site works on any size screen, or you will lose out to those competitors that do have it.
- Speed up your site
Web surfers are notoriously impatient, so the time it takes for your site to load can be the difference between good steady traffic and a high bounce rate. Google will rank a faster loading website higher than a slow one. Get rid of old or unused content, reduce the file size of images or install some speed booster plugins.
- Increase security
Moving from an HTTP site to a HTTPS is not just a Google ranking signal, it’s a way of ensuring that your website data is encrypted. E-commerce sites need to check their security every month, since hackers make it their mission in life to get into your site and muck it up. A hacked site could become infected with viruses, which you’ll then spread to your customers, or be blocked by search engines and browsers. It’s a hard place to come back from.
- Get rid of old or irrelevant content
Check that your site does not contain broken links or outdated content. Blogs written several years back may not only be relics from the past, but downright embarrassing. A spring clean is an excellent opportunity to update client lists and testimonials, rewrite title and meta descriptions and make your site more SEO friendly.
- Rebrand and reposition
Keeping up with your competition is vital, so a fresh look can go a long way. If you designed your website yourself the first time round, it may be time to get professional help with copywriting or design and photography. Your business strategy may also have evolved since you created your website and it’s important that your site is a good reflection of your company culture.
- Get more social
Social media activity needs to be properly integrated with your website. Good use of social media can keep your website fresh, improve your SEO and get your existing and potential clients talking.
In short, updating your website is essential if you want to stay relevant, competitive and ahead of the pack. For advice on updating your website, contact us. We can also assist with content, design and social selling.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 20, 2016 | Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
For older folks it was just another fad, a passing cloud that would scud away and give way for more formal means of socialisation, but years down the line, social media simply can’t be wished away. For starters, a Pew Research Centre report says 65% of adults are now using social media and as a business owner, you need to leverage these numbers in digital marketing.
It is true younger users still dominate the social media platforms, but numbers from this study show a paradigm shift among senior citizens. According to the same study, while there was a 15% increase in social media usage among users aged 18 to 29 years old, there was a corresponding 218% increase in social media participation amongst users aged 65 years and above.
This changes your approach to mobile marketing, because your content now has to target a broader market. At the same time, it increases opportunities in B2B marketing as social media marketing can now form part of your broad marketing techniques. You will have to optimise your content to suit a broader spectrum of users thus making your business even more noticeable online.
Another key change in this phenomenon is the fact that male and female participation on social media has almost levelled out, with 68% of women and 63% of men using these platforms. Across the education divide, participation has increased both amongst school dropouts and those with college degrees. The adoption rate is higher among those with college education at 76% while for dropouts, the adoption rates are lower at 54%.
Well, there are myriad social media platforms and for your online marketing campaign to catch on, you need to know which ones to target. These include:
- Facebook: It is the ultimate social media platform and is ideal both for brand and product marketing. With over 968 million active users, it is ideal for customer-oriented products.
- Twitter: It is ideal to reach out to the millennial and Gen X crowd, as 23% of adults are on this platform and with the right strategy, it is a great way to earn visibility.
- Pinterest: 28% of adults use this platform especially women and it is ideal for businesses that lend themselves to images.
- LinkedIn: This is the most professional social media platform and can be used to recruit, reach out to the industry, generate consumer leads and generally build invaluable networks.
- YouTube: With over a billion users, it is the second most popular search engine in the world. The fact it is owned by Google means any content related to your keyword ranks highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). It is time to create that corporate video, isn’t it?
Whether you are formulating an email marketing campaign or mobile promotions, social media is the future of marketing. Welcome to the future.
Get in touch with us today for more details.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 13, 2016 | Online Marketing
The amount and nature of dialogue you have with potential or existing customers will determine the success of your digital marketing efforts and business in general. You need to lay down strategies which help you to hold effective dialogue with them. These can help advance your social media marketing goals.
Here are some strategies to help you with that:
- Identify the core issues
You need to invest enough resources to engage your users in constructive dialogue about your company, products and services. Whether it is investing money and/or time, you need to keep introducing new and innovative techniques of engaging them, in order to get feedback, for instance, giving free products if people participate in surveys.
You need to identify the most important things which will be pursued through the dialogue. For instance, get to know from customers, the most important acquisition channels, clarity of your value proposition, frequency of use of the product/service and if they are recommending your products to other people.
During the interviews, administer some credibility tests about the issues you are talking about with the targets. For instance, if you are building a solution for TV fans, ask for a list of shows they view throughout the week. You need to understand that the purpose of administering questions in short interview sessions is to understand people better and not make them assume a product designer’s role.
- Establish points of interactions
Mixpanel, Hotjar and Google Analytics are some of the tools which can help to establish the kind of customers you have; the loyal ones and those who drop the product at a certain point. Identify your power users and forge a critical relationship with them.
Through tools such as Rapportive – a browser extension – you can discover the profession, position and location of your contacts, which helps build a more reliable customer profile about them.
While you are out to understand their problems, ensure you deal with various friction points such as sending them a link for additional information about payment procedures. In addition, ensure to use as many communication channels as possible, especially because different people pay attention to different channels at different times. Although many people do not like displaying phone numbers on their websites, you can display it to serve emergency needs.
- Collect, manage and interprete data
One of the most important issues in understanding and managing client communication is collecting and interpreting data. Use platforms and tools such as Evernote and Typeform that not only allow you to record data, but also to share it on the Cloud and on many other platforms. Besides, you can record conversations such as calls and messages for business use. Recordit, for instance, is another tool which can help record the screen during conversations and help you to either share it or save it for future reference and interpretation.
We will be glad to hear from you. Contact us now for more information.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 11, 2016 | Digital Media Marketing, Online Marketing
As a business owner, you need to reconsider your digital marketing strategy every once in a while. The New Year is the perfect time to do this. Sticking to the same campaigns and strategies that worked a few years ago (or even last year) won’t keep you on the cutting edge of digital marketing. Here are a few ways to rethink your digital marketing strategy this year:
Analyse your website statistics
Instead of just looking at the number of website visits and drop-off rates, make time to analyse your website statistics and reports so you can get a better understanding of your target audience. Not only will you be able to gain more insights into their preferences and interests, but you will also be able to pick up on seasonal trends which you can capitalise on in future. Partner with an experienced digital marketing consultant for the best results.
Consider niche social media networks
Facebook and Twitter are great, but have you taken the time to consider more niche platforms such as Periscope and Instagram? New social media networks enter the market all the time and some of these networks could be particularly relevant for your target audience. Make sure you or your marketing people are on top of new social media trends in your industry.
Find out where you can automate certain marketing efforts
Creating content, social media and email marketing all takes a considerable amount of effort, but there are many opportunities to automate certain processes. Take a look at your sales funnel, how your sales people do business and how your marketing teams nurture leads to see where you can automate certain processes.
Need help rethinking your digital marketing strategy this year? Then contact us today.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 9, 2015 | Facebook, Online Marketing
When putting together your online marketing strategy, using social media channels such as Facebook is absolutely crucial. Using social media in digital marketing isn’t an exact science, but there are tricks of the trade which have proven to be successful time and time again. One of these tricks is the use of Facebook custom audiences. Here is everything you need to know.
What is a Facebook custom audience?
A custom audience on Facebook is a new phenomenon which will soon become a very important arrow in the digital market’s quiver. By using your existing email list, you can create a list on Facebook that is a very specific audience, targeting them with relevant information. This tool has a lot of potential to be very powerful in online marketing.
How to set up a custom audience
By using Facebook’s ad manager, you can quickly and easily start creating custom audiences. There are three types of audiences you can set up, namely:
- List-based audiences
These are created by using email addresses, Facebook user IDs, or phone numbers.
- App-activity audiences
These are especially nifty, generating a list of people based on the activity they have done within a Facebook app. This could be something such as a list of people who have reached a certain level in a game.
- Web traffic-based audiences
This matches website visitors to Facebook IDs and then generates a list of those people.
When in the ads manager, the first thing you need to do is create an objective, for example, Boost your posts. Click “Create custom audience,” then a window will pop up with the options listed above. By using Customer List as your option, you can upload your list of email addresses as a .csv file or even .txt. This is easy to do from Excel.
Tips and tricks
- Always make sure your list of addresses or phone numbers is from people actually opting-in to receive communication from you and not scraped from other sites.
- Ensure your emails are in the correct format i.e. someone@something.co.
- Make sure there are no spaces or hyphens in your phone numbers.
With Facebook custom audiences, a whole new world has been opened up in online marketing. If you’re ready to jump right in and take advantage of the amazing potential of the Internet to advertise your brand, get in touch with us at WSI OMS. With services such as content marketing, social media marketing and much more, we know the digital space. Contact us today.
by Marelise da Silva | Nov 12, 2015 | Online Marketing, Pinterest, Website Optimization
Many people mistakenly believe that involving themselves in random pinning on Pinterest will do wonders for their social media marketing campaigns success. Unfortunately there’s a bit more effort required to get your Pinterest account working for you and earning new followers for your brand. You need to learn how to build a strong presence on Pinterest that offers your followers and potential followers an attractive and engaging visual experience.
Keep in mind that most browsers use Pinterest as a source of inspiration and as such you need to cater to this particular need that your browsers have. If you want to reach your target audience, keep your social media campaign’s visual portfolios or pin boards interesting, positive and inspirational. You will need to share who you are, build your expertise, share your passions and interests with others as well as entertain and inspire others.
Below are a few tips to using Pinterest effectively to grow your business brand’s following:
- Make your pins as appealing as you possibly can with intriguing images, clear text and detailed descriptions.
- Don’t forget to use a variety of keywords in your image’s names and descriptions. This helps browsers find your particular type of pin in their feed discovery search.
- Add branding to your pin with your company website address and of course your logo. Don’t let this overwhelm the image though.
- If you want to ensure that your pin does well in Pinterest’s Smart Feed, avoid the use of hashtags.
- Always post pins at peak times on Pinterest and make sure that you are pinning a few times a day. This will also help you to ascertain when the best times to pin are.
- Re-pin and share other related pins or those of your target audience. This will gain you some added exposure and start to create an online relationship with your customer base.
Online Marketing Strategies Professionally Crafted by WSI
At WSI we offer social media marketing tips and advice as well as professional online marketing strategies and services to help you grow your brand’s following. With our assistance you can boost your online presence and reach your target audience with greater ease.
If you would like to learn more about effective online marketing strategies and how to boost your presence on Pinterest and other social media platforms, WSI can assist. For more information and advice, contact us at WSI today.
